by Zuko, Joseph
Everyone was already infected with something?
How?
Why now?
Was it in the water or the atmosphere?
Where did it come from?
Did aliens drop off this disease to knock the human race off the planet so they could pillage our resources?
She could speculate for the rest of her life and never find the answer. The anxiety caused the muscles in her back to seize up and turn into knots the size of golf balls. She needed a back rub, badly or a large glass of white wine, something to calm her frayed nerves.
Karen put her phone down and rubbed at her shoulders. She needed to get up and off the bed. A walk around her bedroom to stretch her legs would help the soreness that was setting in after her death match with Steve. She laid Robin down on the bed and pulled the sheet over her little body. It was warm in the bedroom and the girl was fully clothed, but she did it out of habit. She had just made a full lap around the room when something outside caught her attention.
Someone was crying. It was faint at first, but growing. She checked the window.
Every muscle in Karen’s body twitched.
A toddler. A little girl.
Karen had seen her around the apartment and at the pool. The girl’s face was covered with snot. Her pajama bottoms soaked in blood. She called over and over again for her Mama. Her little feet shuffled across the apartment’s grounds. All of the buildings looked the same to a kid that didn’t know the alphabet. Karen scanned the area around her. It was clear of infected for the moment.
Where the hell were the girl’s parents?
Was that where the blood came from?
All she wanted to do was pick up and comfort that baby. Karen’s body was immediately covered in a layer of sweat. She was wracked with indecision. She couldn’t leave her babies. But she couldn’t watch this one suffer either. An idea formed. Robin would be asleep for a while and Valerie would probably not look up from the computer screen for a long time.
Karen stepped from the window and headed for the front door. She pulled one of her steak knives from the wall as she unlocked the door. She paused to think about this. Last time she left the apartment she almost got killed by Steve.
Could she live with herself if she let something happen to that baby?
No. She could not. Karen checked to make sure the gun was on her hip. It was locked and loaded. She opened the door. The warm spring breeze felt good on her damp skin. She locked the door and promised herself that she would only be gone a minute. She just had to grab the child and get her to her home safe and race back to her own children before they even noticed she was gone.
She stepped softly out to the edge of the building and double-checked her surroundings before stepping farther out into the parking lot. Behind her and up on the second floor Tina’s front door opened. Karen turned and saw Tina’s head popping out the door.
“Did you see the baby out there?” Tina’s voice wavered. She was as choked up as Karen about this abandoned child.
“Yes,” Karen whispered up to her neighbor. Tina was already out her door and heading down the steps before Karen finished her one word sentence. Before Karen knew it she had a fellow Mama by her side and this one was armed with a recently used butcher’s knife.
The little girl was beginning to walk away from them.
“What’s the plan?” Tina stood shoulder to shoulder with Karen. Both of them were reluctant to leave the alcove of their apartment building and venture out into the open where the monsters lay in wait. Karen saw the look of absolute focus in this woman’s eyes and that gave her confidence that they would be okay if they kept their heads about them.
“I was gonna see if I could call her over here and figure out which building she lives in, but with the two of us we could just go get her.”
“Sounds good.”
The two women raced over the asphalt. Both of them were trim, but they never worked out in the gym and they hated jogging. Twenty steps at this sprinter’s pace told them both just how out of shape they really were. Karen’s lungs burned. Her quads ached. Seeing the same pain on Tina’s face helped her not feel so bad about her conditioning.
“Sweetheart!” Karen called to the child.
The toddler spun on her heels. When she saw the two women racing towards her she let out a supersonic scream then turned back around and started running away.
“Don’t run! Come back! We won’t hurt you!” Tina cried out after the little one. The little girl had some wheels on her. She was going to be a future soccer star for sure, if she lived that long.
Karen and Tina had to turn on the jets to keep up with her. Behind one of the buildings on the far side of the property was a large, well-kept grassy field that the neighbor children would play on. The little girl sped out onto the field. She screamed at the top of her lungs the whole way.
As Tina and Karen gained on the toddler she changed direction again and headed towards a large bush that sat in a flowerbed behind the last building on the lot. She squeezed her body between the building’s wall and the bush.
Both women were out of breath and unable to string a sentence together, but they finally had the little girl cornered. Karen and Tina both clutched their knees and tried their best to catch their breath. They inched along the wall trying to reach for the child.
The little girl coughed out, “Mama, Mama, Mama!”
The thick branches of the bush kept them inches away from reaching her.
“Come on, sweetie. We won’t hurt you. We’ll get you back to your Mama,” Karen begged the child. She felt the panic building up inside herself. She didn’t mean to be this far away from her children. If they couldn’t get the child to calm down she was going to get them all killed.
Tina tucked the knife into the back of her belt so she could reach out with both arms, “Baby, come here. It’s okay,” she used her calming Mama tone.
Karen kept her head on a swivel. She looked for any movement on the horizon.
The tip of Tina’s finger brushed the child’s arm. The human contact caused the little girl to scream even louder. On the other side of the field a woman shuffled out from the tree line. Karen hoped it might be the little girl’s mother.
The woman happened to have the same colored hair as the little girl, but it was not her mother. This thing was no longer anyone’s mother. The infected woman walked with a heavy limp. Its right ankle was broken. The thing’s lips were bright red from a recent kill. It was zeroing in on the sound of the young girl’s screams.
“I almost got her,” Tina strained.
“Look! There’s one coming,” Karen got Tina’s attention.
Tina wrapped her fingers around the child’s upper arm and pulled her clear of the bush. Tina pulled the child up into her arms, secured the baby against her chest and it helped quiet her screams. Karen pulled her gun and readied her knife.
Two new sets of black eyes exited the tree line behind Karen and Tina. The two new infected creatures had fully functioning legs and they sped rapidly over the grass. One of the infected wore a pair of black gym shorts and no top. Its low body fat and sculpted muscles were impressive as it zoomed at an incredible speed after the two mothers. The third infected was dressed like a hipster. It wore a tight Atari t-shirt and skinny jeans. Its thin body floated effortlessly across the field and kept pace with the ex-jock.
“Let’s lose them around the edge of the building,” Karen said as she motioned for them to run.
Tina took the lead. The struggling child slowed her pace, “It’s okay. It’s okay.” Tina kept telling the little girl. She said it over and over trying to convince herself it was going to be okay.
Every step they took was starting to feel like a mistake. Karen looked over her shoulder and the infected were already halfway across the field. At the rate the two infected men were moving they would be on top of the Mamas in a matter of seconds.
The women rounded the corner of the building and ahead of them was a fence th
at surrounded this building’s garbage cans and recycling bins. It was the type of cyclone fence that had the hard brown plastic pieces slid diagonally throughout it.
“Head for the fence,” Karen huffed.
They entered the small fenced in area. Two large garbage bins filled most of the space. Tina ducked down between the two bins and Karen squeezed in next to her. Tina didn’t want to cover the little one’s mouth, but it was the only way to silence her cries. Two breaths later the infected blasted around the corner of the building. Karen was able to see them through tiny slits in the fence. She kept her gun up and ready for action.
Both of the infected males seemed to have lost their prey. The infected lady joined her much faster gentlemen and the three of them slowed from a full tilt sprint down to a brisk walk. They looked like they were trying to listen for the fleeing ladies. They sniffed the air, but the smell of the garbage masked Karen and Tina’s scent.
Tina noticed a metal bracelet around the two year olds wrist. It was a stainless steel chain that held a stainless steel plate. Tina looked closer and it had a name and address etched into the small steel plate.
ANITA BILLINGS
995 SE 136TH AVE APT C8
VANCOUVER WA, 98683
That was this apartment complex. It was two buildings over from where they were crouched. Every minute that passed for Karen felt like someone was punching her in the face.
What if Valerie noticed she was gone and decided to wander out to look for her Mama?
The infected moved like they were three-toed sloths. They were taking a leisurely walk in the park when they did not have a living target to slaughter. It was driving Karen crazy how slow the infected were moving.
Two or three minutes had clicked by and the three infected were still only twenty feet away. Karen did not have twenty minutes to hangout and wait for them to slowly leave the area.
She mouthed the words, “Stay here.”
Tina nodded at her. Karen inched her way around the entrance of the fence. The infected didn’t hear her moving around the outside of the fence. She crept in behind them. It was risky but she couldn’t wait any longer. Her plan boiled down to this.
Kill the two fast ones first.
It was a simple and easy plan to remember. So she felt like it should work. Karen could feel her bones shaking in her body as she moved around the last corner of the fence.
Their backs were to Karen and they stood ten yards away. At this distance she was not sure she could hit their skulls. She took a few steps closer and moved as silently as a ninja. The closer she got to them the worse the idea seemed.
The sun was directly above her in the afternoon sky and without sunglasses the glare off everything was painful on Karen’s retinas. Sweat dripped off her forehead and stung her blue eyes. Karen’s gun trembled at the end of her arm. Her nerves finally got the better of her and the gun went off before she was ready. She didn’t mean to squeeze the trigger. Her muscles were twitching all over her body. The round flew at her targets and ripped the ear off the trim ex-jock. The monsters made a one-eighty and took off in a sprint at her.
Shit balls!
In a panic she popped off four more shots. One in its neck. Second in its shoulder. Third destroyed the infected man’s nipple. Fourth got it right in the eye.
Infected bullseye!
His light switch was permanently flipped off and he dropped to the ground. The Hipster was next. His “I’m proud to be a nerd” glasses somehow still clung to his face and Karen wondered if the prescription somehow helped the dead man see her better.
It was moving too fast and Karen began to backpedal away from him. The sudden movement made it even harder to aim. Her next two shots sailed over its head.
How many shots was that?
Six or seven?
How many were left in the magazine?
Then she remembered to grip the gun with both hands. The jagged steak knife poked out the bottom of her fist as she steadied her shooting hand.
BOOM!
That one snapped its trendy glasses in half and its limp body went down for the count.
Only the lady with the broken ankle remained and she was right on top of Karen. There was no time to think. Only react. The infected woman’s hands were inches from Karen’s shoulders. Its teeth snapped together. The sound sickened Karen. She re-angled the gun and pointed it up under the infected woman’s jaw and BOOM. The top of the infected skull exploded into the air. Bone, brains and blood rained down on Karen as the body fell to her feet. She felt like every part of her was covered in bloody gunk. She needed to take a shower and clean herself with an S.O.S. pad.
“Damn, chica!”
Karen turned slowly to see Tina’s shocked face. The child in Tina’s arms pressed her own little face against the woman’s chest. She tried to hide away like a shy baby.
“That was some cold blooded Rambo shit,” Tina walked over next to Karen. “You’re loco.” She said it as a complement.
“I feel loco,” Karen spoke through her gritted teeth. Blood dripped off her lips and she didn’t want to get it in her mouth. She used the back of her hand and wiped some of the blood off her face.
“The girl’s got a bracelet with her address on it. She lives in building C,” Tina said as she began to jog towards that building. Karen followed her and fought through the urge to puke all the way.
Tina knocked at C8’s door.
“Hey, we have your kid!” Tina heard the words as she said them and it sounded like a threat. She tried it again, “I mean we found your baby. Hello!” She knocked one more time.
The door opened and a catatonic young woman stood at the doorway. Blood covered her hands. The blank features on the woman’s face didn’t change as the child reached for her mother.
Tina handed over the toddler as she asked, “Are you okay?”
“My husband tried to kill me…”
They moved closer to the front door. Blood was all over the floor behind the woman.
“Thanks for finding Anita. I thought the place seemed quiet. Okay, I have to go clean up my husband now.” Before Tina or Karen could say anything Mrs. Billings slammed the door in their faces.
“What the…?” Tina was taken back.
Karen was completely baffled and without words, but did not have time to question it. The baby was safe and she had to get home. The two women began the speed walk back to their apartments. They didn’t say a word to each other on the walk back. Neither felt the need for idle chitchat. Those five minutes of infected combat were enough to form the start of a friendship. A sisterhood of sorts. The kind of relationship that normally takes people years to manifest. It was already at the point where you no longer had to fill the void with empty conversation. They could just be in each other’s presence and say nothing. The two of them scurried across the grounds and only waved bye to each other as Tina made her assent up the steps to her place.
Karen unlocked her front door and entered. She promised herself that she would not risk her life again as she locked the door behind her. She peeked in on her girls. Robin was still sleeping on the bed and Valerie was totally digging the free reign on the computer.
Karen entered her bathroom and turned on the light. She looked like Carrie covered in pig’s blood at the prom. There was no time for a shower. She pulled a towel off the rack behind her and soaked it in the sink.
What a bullshit day!
Chapter 10
Back at the East Vancouver Retirement Community, the buck-naked infected old man stomped his way towards Cliff and Morgan. In an instant Cliff had the gun in his hand. His thumb pulled back the hammer as he raised the revolver. He had never fired a gun before. The infected walked past an open door and his body glowed from the sunlight. Its combover was a mess and it exaggerated the wideness of his forehead.
Cliff squeezed the trigger and the dead body dropped to the floor. The thrill of firing a handgun coursed through Cliff’s body. The muzzle flash. The loud smack against his e
ars. The jolt of the recoil and the smell of gunpowder in the air. Oh baby, that was so much easier than the cleaver. He tucked the gun back into his pocket. The barrel was hot and it singed his ass.
“Ouch! Damn.” He pushed at the back of her chair and lifted her left wheel off of the ground so it could clear Phil’s thick arm.
Morgan looked around the hallway and bedrooms, “This is such a mess. Who’s gonna clean this up?”
They hit the door to the stairs and he popped it open. He pivoted her around again and moved her backwards for the flight of stairs.
“Clifford Steven Morgan, if you fucking drop me I’ll bust you upside your damn head,” she said as she gripped her armrests. Cliff muscled her back to the edge of the stairs. He had toted her down some steps before but not by himself and never in near pitch-black conditions. She totaled a hundred and fifty pounds in the chair. It was not too bad weight wise. It was the stepping down into the dark oblivion that made this endeavor so terrifying. If he dropped her, those old brittle bones would snap easily. He tilted her back and slowly dropped her down the first step.
“Clifford, do you still have cable?” she turned around in her chair. He could feel her weight shift around.
“Yes, we still have cable. Stop wiggling and be quiet. Remember?” he grunted at her.
She whispered loudly, “I don’t wanna miss my Adult Swim on the Cartoon Network.”
“Shh,” he leveled her out on the landing. He flashed his light around the last eight steps. The big nurse blocked their path. Morgan looked at the corpse.
“Is that Trevor?” her voice filled with loss.
“I don’t know.” Cliff got her stable and moved down to the dead body.
“Look at the name tag,” she commanded.
He flipped the piece of plastic over.
“Yeah, it’s Trevor,” he moved the heavy body down the steps. The back of Trevor’s skull cracked on each step.