by Unknown
I knew I wasn’t going to give up; I’d fight back and take back what was ours, what my friends and I had lost and what humanity had lost. We would fight back, we would come back from this and we would kill this disease once and for all.
“You OK,” Amy asked as she climbed into the cab of the truck, behind the steering wheel. “We’re heading out to find another place to spend the night before we hit the last stretch to Butch’s parents. You ready?”
“Born ready,” I said sarcastically.
Amy started the truck and backed up to go. Butch stuck his head in the window and said, “There’s a house about two miles up the road. I used to date the girl that lived there when I was in high school. It would be a good place to try.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Amy said. I just stared forward, thinking about what might be next for us. We’d only been at this for three days and I was already tired of it.
We headed down the driveway and back out to the main road. After a few minutes, we turned into a new driveway and made our way to the house. It was a standard ranch style house you would find in any small town America. There was a big Elm tree in the front with an old tire strung up as a swing, a tricycle turned on its side in the yard and the only thing that really told us we had a problem was all the blood sprayed across the front door.
“I got this,” I said as I opened the door of the truck and jumped out before Amy was fully stopped.
“Hold on!” Amy yelled. “Rule number two. You need someone to have your back.”
“Got it,” Butch said as he jumped out of the truck bed and headed after me. “Hold up there John Wayne.”
“I got this. You guys think I can’t kill, but I can and I will. I don’t need the help and I don’t expect you or Amy to help me. I can deal with this shit myself.” I headed to the door and kicked it in.
“No….rule number 5. Knock before you enter.” Butch moaned as I headed into the house.
“I got this, stay here,” I replied pointing to the front door.
I headed into the house and ran right into an infected woman. I thrust my hand into her throat wrapping my hand half way around her throat pushing her to the wall on the opposite side of the room. While I held her against the wall, I pulled one of the hunting knives from my belt jamming it into her left eye. She went limp in my hand and I let her drop to the floor. I immediately turned and headed straight into the kitchen where she had come from.
In the kitchen, I found a man on the floor, trying his best to move to the door. His legs were missing but I could see his lower body against the back door, he was having a slow go at it, but he was determined. I walked up to him and placed my foot on his neck to hold him in place. His arms were all over the place with his hands trying to grab my leg. I drove the hunting knife into the back of his head, straight thru the soft part at the base of his skull, driving the knife up into his brain. I tried to pull the knife out, but it was stuck. I had to place my foot on the back of his head and pull with all my might to get it free.
Butch crashed into the kitchen with another infected latched onto him. Butch had his forearm pushed against the guy’s neck holding his mouth just a few inches away from his face. They fell against the kitchen counter but Butch was able to stay on his feet.
I kicked the infected in his side which caused him to let go of Butch and fall to the side. I jumped on the infected as he fell and plunged the knife into his mouth, driving it through his head and into the floor underneath him causing the guy to stick to the floor. Since the knife blade didn’t penetrate the brain, the infected guy was still alive and biting against the knife blade.
I pulled Butch to his feet. “Are you ok?” I asked. “Were you bitten?”
“No, I’m fine,” He said rubbing his arms where the infected dude had held him.
“Stay here like I said. I’ll finish clearing the house.”
Chapter 19
I moved out of the kitchen and headed to the other rooms. “Stay there,” I yelled to Butch.
I headed to the back bedrooms and bathroom finding all of the rooms empty. The last room to clear was the basement, so I headed to the basement door. I didn’t knock on the door, for some reason finding the young girl in the trailer, in the condition she was in, just flipped a switch inside me. I was pissed off, angry at whatever caused this disease.
Once I had the basement door open, I was confronted with two infected waiting for me on the stairs leading down into the basement. I kicked out at the first one, hitting him in his chest and causing him to tumble backward into the guy on the stairs. They both fell back down the stairs hitting the floor in a heap. I headed down the stairs, heading towards the infected at the bottom.
Once I hit the basement floor, I forced my blade through each of the infected brains as they were trying to untangle from each other and get to their feet, one right after the other. Even before they had a chance reach out to me, they were killed. I moved to the basement to make sure it was clear. I found a set of doors that lead to the backyard of the house.
As I walked out the basement door I noticed a barn at the back of the property. I headed to it to make sure that it was clear of infected. So far, I’d found and dispatched a number of infected on the property, but I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to find more in the barn. The barn door was closed and once again, didn’t knock first. I pushed my way through the door into the barn in one fluid motion.
I stopped about halfway into the barn and looked around, I was quickly aware that I wasn’t alone. I sensed that I might have put myself into a situation I might not make it out of. Headed towards me were five infected, all decked out in overalls and baseball hats. They were the slow kind, but they were all large, farm bred boys, and had the number advantage over me. They were very eager to get to me and for the slow type; they made a good time covering the distance between the two ends of the barn. I was probably the best thing they had seen in three days.
I stepped forward and ran the blade of the hunting knife across the stomach of the first one from the front of him to the back and I pushed him to the opposite wall. His insides slid out of his body and fell to the barn floor. The infected hit the ground but immediately started to stand back up. I kicked out at the second one closest to me breaking his knee which made him hit the ground when his knee wouldn’t hold his weight. The third infected ended up on the ground when I elbowed him in the cheekbone, basically driving the bone through the brain. It was a great hit by me, but it hurt like hell and I knew right away that I’d have one hell of a bruise tomorrow.
The fourth hit me on the side and drove me to the ground. I took my leg and struck out to push the infected off of me and to the side. The fifth and last infected tripped on the fourth and now I had two of them on me. One was on top of the other and both were on top of me. I had my forearm against the neck of the one right on top of me to hold its head away from me and with my other hand, I ran the hunting knife into the head of the one on the very top of the pile and it slumped to the ground beside me.
I had lost the grip of my knife and saw it stuck in the infected head lying beside me. I pulled my knees up and stuck my feet in the infected stomach that was on top of me. Pushing with everything I had, I kicked out and watched as the infected landed against the wall a few feet away. It hit the wall and was stuck on some of the wall hooks used to hang the various harnesses and saddles used on horses. I rolled over getting up on my knees and pulled the knife out of the head of the guy on the floor.
The second infected was dragging himself towards me and had just grabbed my ankle when I stomped on his head and crushed his skull. This left the first infected with his guts lying on the floor and the infected stuck hanging on the wall. I grabbed a pitchfork off of the wall and drove it into the first infected face, pinning him to the wall. I grabbed a shovel off the same wall and beat both of their heads until they stopped moving.
When I was done, I was covered in blood, horse shit, and straw. I stood in the middle of the barn, taking deep
breaths looking at the carnage I had created. I heard a clearing of a throat and turned around. Standing in the doorway was the group staring at the dead and at me.
“Jamie and Mary take Cindy and wait in the house,” Amy said walking towards me. “Let’s get you cleaned up.”
The girls went to the house while Butch and Amy helped me get cleaned up. A change of clothes was in order, but all of the supplies were in the truck.
“Dude, you’re a killing machine,” Butch said.
“Shut up Butch.” Amy spat back. “What’s going through your mind, Matt? Why the heroics and running off on your own? You know we are better as a team when we are following a plan.”
“I just felt like I needed to do this, that I needed to prove to myself that I could handle it.”
“You handled it alright.” Butch laughed. “Let’s get inside, get something to eat, maybe have a shot of that Macallan and then get some sleep.”
“I think we should hold up in the loft in the barn,” I said. “It would be further from the road, it’s off the ground which might be safer. We might be able to have a good night’s rest.”
“Sounds like a plan. I’ll drive the truck back here and get it hidden; you guys move the bodies outside in the back.” Amy headed for the door. “I’ll grab the girls on my way.”
Butch and I dragged the five bodies out the back door of the barn and then went up to the hay loft to get it cleared out. We moved the hay around to help block the view from down below, so if someone did get inside, they wouldn’t immediately see us. We spread hay around to help make a more comfortable sleeping space. We heard the truck pull in and the girls piled out and headed up the ladder.
We made something to eat and took some time to clean and check our weapons. Cindy came up to me and said. “Thanks for helping me. I knew my mom was sick, but I didn’t know what to do.”
“No need to thank me. I’m just glad you’re safe.” I said to her with a smile. I truly was happy that she was safe. It was going to be children like her that would help to keep our race alive and fight off the infected. If we didn’t do everything we can to save every child we came across, we’d be quickly extinct and the infected would rule this land. I gave her another smile and said. “Go along and get some rest.”
After a little while, we all got comfortable in our hay bed and went to sleep. It was nice to not have to worry about surprises or someone sneaking up on us. A solid night of rest would do everyone some good.
Chapter 20- Day 4
I woke up before everyone else but laid there on the straw bed just looking up at the barn roof. The wind was blowing outside, a summer derecho, my father used to call them. The barn was heating up and being in the loft right by the roof was making it heat up even quicker. Amy was sleeping next to me, Cindy next to her. Butch and the other girls were spread out further down the loft.
“What are you thinking about?” Amy asked, startling me.
So anytime a woman asks you what you are thinking about, you have two choices; either you say you are thinking of nothing or you tell them exactly what you are thinking. The problem with Amy was that the first choice wouldn’t work; she knew me better than that and knew that I was thinking about something. On the flip side, I didn’t think she would take too kindly to what I was actually thinking.
You see, after yesterday, I was having some very strange things running through my head. If I was infected, would I be able to lock myself away or kill myself like Cindy’s mother? Would I put my friends in harm's way, make them deal with me or take care of myself?
Why did some of the infected seem like they understood what you were saying? Cindy’s mom seemed to know what I was saying to her. She calmed down, well as calm as an infected seemed to get, and paid attention to what I was saying when I was talking to her. When I said Cindy’s name, she seemed to know it, it was like a small spark that I thought I could see in her bloodshot eyes. I’d seen a couple of other infected that acted this way.
What was really driving me crazy was why some of the infected turned quicker than most and why some of the infected were faster over time instead of slowing down. They even seemed like maybe they were getting smarter. We’d only ran onto the faster ones Charleston. We hadn’t seen any outside the city, could that have something to do with why they were faster than their brethren.
“Hey, what are you thinking about?” Amy asked again, this time poking me in my arm.
“Nothing,” I said.
“Bullshit, you’re thinking about something, you have that look in your eyes.”
“It’s nothing worth talking about right now.” I rolled over and got to my knees. “We should try to get going so we can get as close to Butch’s parents as possible.”
“Don’t change the subject.” She said as she got up and stretched.
“I really don’t want to talk about it right now. We should really pack up and move out.” I said as I put on my boots on and started to head towards to the ladder. “We need to find some gas along the way.”
I lowered the ladder down to the floor as Amy gave Butch a kick in the butt and told everyone to get up.
I moved down the ladder and found a corner in the barn to relieve myself. I was standing looking out a window and noticed that there was movement at the house. There was at least ten infected wandering around the house. They were headed north so they must have come from the city. Were they migrating to finding food?
I was pretty sure they were from the city because they were decked out in business attire, suits, and dresses, which you normally wouldn’t find in the country. They looked pretty ragged, worn and dirty. Their clothes and bodies had seen better days.
I finished my business, zipped up and headed up the ladder as quietly as I could. Everyone was packing up and were talking about what our plan was today, how far we had to go and just minor talk. I quickly got their attention and used my finger to get them to be quiet. With everyone in a group huddle I whispered,
“We have company. About ten infected wondering around the house outside.”
Cindy started to tear up until Jamie pulled her to her chest and told her to shush.
“We should pack up and get out of here,” Mary said whispered.
“No, we should stay, be quiet, let them pass,” Butch responded in a low voice.
“What if there are more of them, what if these are the first of many?” Amy said.
“We could pull the ladder, draw them in the barn and then use the spears to kill them,” I said. Everyone looked at me like I was crazy. “Hey, we have the advantage of the loft, they don’t climb and we can reach them from up here.” I knew that we could do this and it would allow us to make our escape north without having to rush reducing the chances of making a mistake. “On the ground, we’re fair game.” I provided as my final push to win the discussion.
“I agree with Matt,” Butch said. “I vote we kill them and then leave.”
“We’ll need to keep Cindy safe and be careful with reaching down to them,” Amy said.
“I’ll keep Cindy in the back corner,” Jamie said holding Cindy. “She doesn’t need to see this.”
“I’ll help with the culling,” Mary said grabbing a spear from my stash.
We had parked the truck out back after unloading our supplies last night, under the hay loft access door, so that could be our way out if we needed to get ours quickly.
We moved all of the supplies closer to the access door just in case. Jamie and Cindy got settled by the supplies and the access door. When we were all ready, I climbed down the ladder and went to the front door of the barn. I had my rifle and decided the quickest way to get their attention was to shoot a few of them and that should get them moving to the barn.
I opened the barn door a crack and looked towards the house. The group of infected I had seen earlier were still hanging around the house, but the group was a little bit larger, there was maybe a total of thirteen infected now.
I took my rifle holding to my shoulde
r and took aim at the closest infected to where I was standing. With a short breath out, I pulled the trigger like my dad had taught me and watched as the bullet entered the head of a guy in a business suit. He dropped to the ground. I quickly took aim and fired another round at the first infected that turned and start heading my way. I missed its head but hit it in the hip shattering the bone and causing it to fall to the ground. It continued to crawl towards me.
The remaining infected were now on their way to the barn, some of them were faster than the others so I moved from my position and headed back into the barn.
I opened the barn door, leaving it open so the infected could get into the barn. I headed up the ladder and was two-thirds of the way up the ladder when I felt it come out from under me. I had the sensation of falling before my arms were jerked up as I hung over the infected below me.
“Just had to be the hero and shoot two of them, huh,” Butch said as he and Amy pulled me up tot eh loft and away from the infected.
We all got into position on the edge of the loft and using our spears we took care of the infected that came into the barn. We lost a few spears as they got stuck in heads or pulled from our grips by some of the most aggressive infected. We had one almost fatal fall by Mary as an infected grabbed her spear and pulled, but once again, Butch was there to save the day by grabbing her by the waist and pulling her back.
Mary didn’t make that mistake again and after five minutes of using the spears, all of the infected were on the ground except the one I had shot in the hip. It was outside moaning and slowly making its way to the barn door.