by mike Evans
Yassa walked up and patted his shoulder. He wasn’t known for being very sympathetic, but a boy losing his father was about one of the worst things he could think of. “Sorry, Allen. There isn’t a reason behind why these things do what they do. There isn’t a gene pool they go after. If they want to feed, they do, and they don’t need a reason to do it. I’ve seen these things eat more than something needs in a week, and they still run after fresh prey happily. There’s no rhyme or reason to them. They are just evil, no more, no less, kid. The sooner you figure that out, the better. There ain’t no fixing them; there’s just killing them, hiding, or being killed. Unfortunately, that went right to shit today. I know your dad is all you got. You need anything, you let me know. I’ll make sure nothing happens to you.”
Allen wiped at his tears. “I want to kill them. I want to kill all of them. You need to teach me how to kill these things. There’s no more hiding from them, damn it.”
Yassa nodded, thinking he’d do just fine with some time on his own. “You grieve, and we’ll make sure that is something we start on immediately, I promise.”
Yassa walked around the side of the truck, seeing the rest of the adults—or what was left of them. He shook his head slowly, dropping to a knee and taking a few deep breaths. He’d seen some horrible shit, but this was topping his list. Frank looked tame compared to the carnage that was on display in front of him. He knew that the bows had been a bad idea, and that this would have been an ideal time to bring out what small arsenal they had.
The teens filed out of the trailer, doing their best not to touch The Turned. Their cries filled the woods. Mike began to look around the horror scene. He’d been with them, and saw the dead on the ground. His first instinct was to rush them, but the words of Ellie rang in his head. If any scratches or bite marks happen, there is absolutely nothing that can be done. The smartest thing for them would be to put a bullet through their skulls.
He wanted to do something; anything that he could to try to save them. But nothing, absolutely nothing at all, came to mind. He didn’t know the strangers’ names that were at camp besides Ellie, and she sure as hell didn’t look like she needed to be asked to do this dirty work. Mike cleared his throat and said, “You kids, you need to get away from your parents. There’s no telling if they are going to come back. If they are going to... to... don’t make me say it, just get back on the other side of the truck. Please, I beg you, just do it.”
The kids walked slowly and Mike made eye contact with Clary, motioning for him to come over. He held out a hand. “My name's Mike. I took care of your girl, or citizen—I don’t know what you guys call yourselves.”
“Family.”
“Right, well, I don’t know if these people are out of their misery or if they are going to be coming back around. Do you have a pistol or something that I can use? Or better, that one of you can use? I’d think I’ll just miss every shot if I try to do something.”
Clary nodded, patting his pistol, and pulled out his knife instead. “I don’t have a silencer for my pistol yet. I’m going to have to take care of them the old-fashioned way. We don’t need anything else tracking through these woods. Your numbers couldn’t look worse if you tried.”
Mike nodded, watching the man that towered over him. He only lasted a moment when he saw Al screaming on the ground next to his son. “There’s something wrong with him, Mike! There’s something seriously fucking wrong. We need to get him some help. I need you to take care of my boy. Can you do that for me? Can you help my boy, please? I can’t lose Tony, I just can’t!”
Mike looked at the boy convulsing on the ground. He thought of the fifty tests he would run on him if there was a way to do it, and felt instant defeat rush throughout his body. “I don’t know what I can do for him. He doesn’t look good, though. I need to know more than what is going on the outside, damn it!”
“So, what—you aren’t even going to try? You aren’t going to do anything?” Al screamed.
“There’s nothing to do, Al. He’s dying… There’s nowhere we can take him.”
Ellie cleared her throat. “That isn’t true, Mike. We can take you somewhere, and we can bring you back after he is stabilized. I promise, no tricks, no nothing. You two come with him and we’ll take care of him. Or at least we’ll try. He’ll be able to get better care than you’ll be able to offer him here. Ace bandage isn’t going to cut it, right?”
“No, not by a long shot, Ellie. How far is this place from here? You have any idea?”
“Probably a half hour,” Greg chimed in. He pulled out his radio not thinking twice about getting the kid help. “Hey, is anyone there? Kya, Lou, Joey, it’s Greg and we need help, fucking now!”
Chapter 10
Joey sprinted to the medical facility, which was doubling as their on again, off again bunkhouse for fear of the nightmares that found them when they had tried to go back and sleep there. He practically exploded through the doors and ran down the halls like a bull in a china shop.
Lou came out of the storage closet; ever since Ellie had left he hadn’t had any regulars needing assistance. Joey had only spent a week and a half in the hospital. He’d done as instructed and within no time, was twice as good as he thought that he should have been. The kid had something special about him, and he was well aware of it.
“Hey, Joey, you doing all right? Everything okay? You came in like a bat out of hell; your side isn’t bugging you, is it?”
Joey was barely out of breath when he stopped. “Don’t say hell, Mr. Lou!” Joey clasped his hands over his own mouth.
“Seriously though, is there something wrong, Joey? I’ve got some stuff I’m trying to get rearranged.”
“But nobody is sick, Mr. Lou. Why are you doing that when everyone is healthy?”
“Right. Right now, they are, but that doesn’t mean that they will be in the future; I’d rather be ready for it than not. So again, I'm busy, Joey. What’s up, did you want to help?”
Joey shrugged and then Lou could tell he’d remembered why he came there in the first place. “I got bad news to tell you, Lou. They didn’t want me to tell you, but there’s no reason I can’t tell you and they should have to.”
Lou smiled jokingly. He wasn’t ready for any bad news, and the last one he expected to get it from was Joey. “What, did someone eat the last of your cookie stash?”
“Nah, that’s been gone for a long time now. I really miss cookies and pop.”
“All right then, what is it, Joey, no reason to keep me guessing, is there?”
“Shaun, McQuaig, and Mr. Aslin all left this morning. They was gonna try out the blood bag trick that Shaun thought was going to be the end of the dead. You know, where it goes drip into the air and then he blows their heads off?”
“Yes, did someone get hurt, Joey?”
“No, they didn’t get hurt-”
“Oh, thank God, I can’t deal with anything that heavy yet,” Lou interrupted.
“They got shot, Mr. Lou. Mr. Aslin and McQuaig, they got shot and killed.”
Lou looked at the boy, who he knew wouldn’t ever joke about something like this, but had to check his face to be absolutely certain there was nothing coming after the fact. His legs buckled momentarily, and he stumbled backwards up against the hospital wall.
“Are you sure, Joey? I mean, how do you know?”
Tears were starting to run down Joey’s cheeks. “Because Shaun radioed in to Mr. Clary, and he told him that one of the bad men from the camp we blew up—well, he had lived and he shot them both. I think Shaun killed the bad man.”
Lou leaned against the bed and finally fell down to the floor. The weight of Joey’s words were hitting him harder than he’d have expected them to. “Son of a bitch! What a waste… What a piece of shit!”
Joey patted his shoulder. “Are you okay, Mr. Lou? You want me to get you some water or a wheelchair if your legs aren’t working no more?”
“No, I just—I just need a minute, Joey. What about Shaun?
Is he all right, does he need me?”
Joey only continued to deliver the bad news. “He isn’t coming back, Mr. Lou. I don’t know everything, but Mr. Clary said something to Ellie, and she thought he died and left. She wanted to go see him. Ellie is gone and got hurt; she found some people and she’s going to wait for Mr. Clary and Greg to come and get her.”
“Wait, what do you mean? Never mind, I want to talk to Clary. He’d better have some answers for me. Like why he didn’t tell me about any of this shit. When did you guys hear about this? When did she leave?”
Joey looked at his watch and then at Lou, trying to do the math in his head. “I don’t know, about forty-two minutes ago.”
“You got a radio on you, Joey? I forgot mine in back.”
“Nope, I left it with Kya. I ran away before she could tell me not to come. I know they didn’t think I could tell you what happened. Doesn’t matter how much I do, people still forget that I can do anything I want.”
“All right, well, I guess we should find us a radio to talk to Clary on, huh? You have any idea where we might find a fresh one to get ahold of him on?”
☣ ☣ ☣
Kya and the other two were staring at each other unsure what they should do. They’d watched Joey run off, but none of them were confident enough to try to catch up to him. Each of them secretly did not want to have to tell Lou the bad news. He’d lost as much as any of them, losing his daughters Karen and Theresa, and they did not want to see the pain on his face.
Jon finally asked, “All right, so now that we know what is going on, what do you want to do? Are you cool with staying here in case they need something at all? If we leave now, Clary will shit a-”
“Hello? Come in, hello? Anyone? Anyone?” Ellie yelled.
Kya hit the transmit button. “It’s Kya, go ahead, please. What is wrong, are you okay?”
Ellie looked at the bloodied scene in front of her. “No, not really, actually. I need you to tell Lou that we found a survivor’s camp. The people here got attacked by The Turned. It’s all my fault, Kya… Those things followed me down the river. I thought that I’d lost them. We got my arm bandaged, and then it hit the fan. I don’t know what else to do for them. There’s a boy, Tony, he might not live if we can’t get a look at his head. We found a doctor, but he doesn’t have any serious medical stuff like we do on base. If we can bring the boy there, then maybe Lou and the doctor can see what is wrong with him.”
“So, you guys are coming here? When should we expect you? I’ll let Lou know what is happening, and maybe he can start getting stuff ready for you. How many people are coming? How-”
“Kya, shut up, I need your help. I need you to listen to me. We don’t have a ride, at least not one close. By the time Clary goes to get his and comes here, it might be too late. The doctor looks terrified, and I don’t think that means good things for this boy—or teenager, whatever.”
“Okay, let me tell Lou that we are leaving, and we’ll-”
“Kya, you need to bring Lou. I don’t know how much longer the boy has. This doctor needs help with him, and no one here knows anything. Go get Lou, tell him to bring the ambulance; as if I need to say it. And you guys get your asses moving! The kid’s dad is freaking out. You might want to bring a Humvee out that has some actual sitting room for the rest of the camp. This place was a bloodbath.”
“I see Lou now, I’ll talk to you soon. Stay safe. Don’t do anything stupid, will you, please?”
“With the way that today is going, I can’t really make any promises about it. But I will do my absolute best. Be prepared when you get here; it is anything but pretty.”
“Because it always is, right?” Kya said.
“See you soon, Kya.”
Lou was walking up the hill with Joey when Kya sprinted to him. “Lou, there’s been an accident!”
“Yeah, I know, Joey beat you to it. It sucks, I don’t have any words for it.”
Kya squeezed her eyes shut for a second, thinking about it. Lou had no emotional investment in these people, but still felt guilty about having to tell her bad news to him. “It was Ellie just now on the radio; so, Joey doesn’t actually know about this yet.”
“So, there is more bad news? Jesus Christ, what happened now? It wasn’t one of them that went out right?”
“No, it was the new group that she found that took care of her. I guess The Turned followed her scent, and it was massacre. They are safe for the moment. There’s a boy, Timmy or Tony, I don’t remember—anyways, he needs help. They have a doctor, but she said that he can’t do anything for them with what they have there. They want to check him out somewhere that has actual equipment.”
Lou thought of how nice it would be to have a doctor, mostly because he would happily and gratefully learn every single thing that he would be kind enough to teach him. “Who’s still here? I’m apparently out of the loop today. Do we have enough kids that we can fit them in the ambulance?”
“Ellie said that there was a massacre; that all the parents got killed trying to defend them, or something. We need to take another truck at least, so that we can give anyone who needs it a ride back. You okay with me driving, or do you want Jon to drive?”
“I kind of want you both to drive. I think that if we don’t know how many kids there are that need a ride, we might be smarter to have more space than we need. I imagine that Ellie can ride back with Clary and Greg.”
“No, they parked and walked there. They are all on foot. I don’t know if these people have got any way of getting anywhere,” Kya explained, stacking more bad news on top of the pile.
“Really thinking we just need to live on a fucking house boat. That wouldn’t be too bad, would it? Wouldn’t have to worry about too much until winter, right? I’m sure we could figure out something, we aren’t stupid people,” Lou said as he walked away.
Kya yelled after Lou as he jogged away, “What are you doing? We need to go get them!”
“I’m going to get the damn ambulance. You and Jon get something you can both drive. Aliyah ride with someone. I don’t know if you can drive or not, and I’m not taking any more chances today. Fuck!”
Joey looked at Kya, unsure what he should do. She nodded for him to follow Lou. “I think that he can use someone. I’ll be okay. We’ll follow you guys. Just make sure that he doesn’t go crazy, okay?”
Joey gave a thumbs up, running down the hill to catch up with Lou. He touched his bat to make sure that it was where it was supposed to be as he ran, and was glad to have the reassurance of it being there. When the two were at the garage for the hospital, Lou punched in a code, and they disappeared inside the garage.
Aliyah said, “You think maybe we should get moving? I don’t think that he’s going to wait around for us.”
Kya, Jon, and Aliyah sprinted to the vehicle pool and selected two Humvees. Kya secretly hoped that they wouldn’t be out of room. The last thing she could think of doing to someone would be to leave them behind because there wasn’t enough space in the vehicles. There was nothing worse than having to go somewhere new, especially when you didn’t have any idea what to expect. “I hope we have enough room for everyone.”
“I can drive, you know, Kya. I mean, I’m older than you, I bet, and I’ve been driving ever since I was able to get my permit. I know what I’m doing, seriously. If there’s more than sixteen people, you are going to have a hard time fitting them all in there. Lou isn’t going to wait around either. The minute that they try to fit all their crap in there, there won’t be any room for anyone else. You don’t want to leave people behind, right?” Aliyah said.
The words hit hard, because that was exactly what was going through her head. Jon looked and saw that the ambulance was pulling out, lights and sirens off of course. “Look girls, we need to hurry. He’s going to leave. If there’s a kid that is going to die because we are bickering about details, then we can do it over radios on the road, right?”
The three ran, each going around and making sure
there was air in the tires, and checked gauges for any errors or low gas. When everything appeared as it should, they turned them over letting them warm up. They’d been diligent about starting them in the beginning on a regular basis, but as the concern that one day they might run out of gas, they’d cut it back to once a month, making sure they were never empty, and that the batteries were recharged every so often as well. When the lights had begun to flicker, they had decided against checking batteries. The one thing they had going was a freezer, which held more meat than a small army could eat.
Aliyah hollered to Kya. “Hey, do you know where we are going?”
Kya gave a thumbs up. “Yeah, I know where to go. You follow Jon; we’ll all follow each other. Just stay close, but don’t get too close in case someone needs to stop. It shouldn’t take that long to get there, but like anything, it depends if we need to get rid of anything in our way.”