Sometimes We Ran (Book 2): Community

by Stephen Drivick

  Jenny leaned down. “Who do you work for? Who sent you?”

  The wounded boy spat blood in Jenny’s general direction. “Screw you, bitch,” he wheezed through his ruined throat.

  Jenny leaned closer, this time with her revolver in her hand. “That’s not very nice. Now, tell me. Who do you work for?”

  He didn’t answer. He only smiled. After giving us each a thousand-mile stare, his eyes rolled back in his head, and he died.

  “Damn,” Jen said under her breath. “Now we don’t know anything.” She started going through his pockets. “Ben, John…check out the truck. These guys has been eating a little too well to be some bandits on the road. Ryan…stay with me and keep an eye out for their friends.”

  Ben and I jogged to the back of the unmarked white truck, and opened the back door. Almost as soon as the door rose to its full height, a nauseating smell of dead bodies and rotting meat hit us in the face. Ben and I recoiled in horror at the smell.

  “Man, what a stink. What the hell are these guys carrying?” Ben said, holding his nose.

  We stepped back to the door, with our hands over our noses to ward off the offending odor, and looked inside. The floor and walls were slick with blood and gore. Bits of meat and fat littered the floor. The truck had been modified with racks and shelves.

  And meat hooks.

  Rows of sharp, nasty-looking hooks dangled down from metal brackets on the walls of the truck. They were big, silver, industrial-style hooks for hanging sides of beef. The truck had been converted to a slaughterhouse on wheels.

  “They must have been killing and eating deer, or maybe cows or something, right?” Ben asked. I peered into the smelly truck and saw shoes and clothes piled at the front. Unless cows and deer wore sneakers and jeans, these guys had been eating something else. My lunch from Safety One threatened to jump ship. These guys had not been slaughtering cows or deer in their truck.

  It was humans.

  “Good Lord. What the hell?” Jenny said, as she walked up. Ryan just stared at the bloody hell inside the truck.

  Ben and I were away from the door trying not to lose our lunch. “Cannibals,” I managed to say between dry heaves. The truck confirmed one rumor. Food had run low. Survivors, not just the Red-Eyes, were eating other survivors.

  Ryan and Jenny backed away from the truck. “No way,” Jenny said, as she came to my side.

  “Yeah. It has to be.” I straightened up, and tried to compose myself. “Shoes and clothes piled up in the front.”

  Jenny rubbed her eyes. “You hear about stuff like this, but now that I see it…,” she trailed off.

  I stepped further away from the slaughterhouse truck. The smell was overpowering. “It’s a real picnic out here, huh? We were just the next items for lunch.”

  Jenny looked around nervously. “Let’s get the hell out of here before more of these butchers show up.”

  We put the bodies in the truck after retrieving anything of value. They weren’t carrying much, just a few personal items. The boy’s rifle was still good, but he was out of ammo. We threw it in the backseat of our car, but we had no magazines that fit. Jenny started the truck and parked it in the accident to camouflage it from anyone coming to investigate the scene. We tried to pick up all our shell casings, then hurried back to the car.

  During the firefight, Jenny had backed the car into another sedan. Our car was slightly damaged, but it still ran okay and was mobile. It was simply stuck on the other car. As Jenny alternated between drive and reverse, Ben and Ryan jumped on the crumpled trunk to free our car. After a few minutes, it popped free, and we were on our way to find the doctor.

  We were all silent. The banter and joking was over. All of us realized how close we had come to becoming a main course.

  Chapter 13

  The Swarm

  Jenny was trying to put distance between us and the truck from hell, but our car had a different idea.

  We were getting close to the intersection and the medical building when the car decided it had enough. The unmistakable sweet smell of coolant filled the car, and the angry red “Check Coolant” light blinked on the dashboard. Something catastrophic had happened.

  “Now what?” Jenny exclaimed as she brought the car to the side of the road.

  We all got out to check the situation. A depressing hissing noise was coming from under the sedan’s hood. Jenny bent down and took a look. “It’s leaking. Looks like it might be a head gasket or the water pump.” The events of the day had taken a toll on the old sedan.

  I looked around. We had broken down in a little residential area near the center of town. The road went uphill to the clinic on the right. I could make out a few cars blocking the road, which was the usual case around hospitals and clinics. When the end came, people clogged the roads and parking areas of hospitals, firehouses, and police stations, looking for help but finding none at hand. Across from our ailing car was a nice winding street with a few small houses with overgrown yards. The other side of the road was woods. A perfect place from which zombies could strike.

  “Can it be fixed?” I asked.

  Jenny wiped some dirt from her hands. “Maybe. I don’t know. We can put some water in it and nurse it to the clinic, I guess. I have some extra coolant, but we’ll have to wait for it to cool down a little.” Jenny looked round. “Maybe we can find some other transportation.”

  Another delay. “We better keep a sharp lookout. There’s a lot of places for bad things to hide.”

  Jenny grabbed her rifle. “Yeah…lets stay near the car.”

  Ben, Ryan, and I fanned out from our car in a defensive front. Jenny went to the trunk to get the supplies to fix the car. The whole area was silent. It was so still…the world was holding its breath.

  I really didn’t like the silence.

  Ben walked over and pointed at the little houses all neatly arranged across the street. “Nice little neighborhood. Very old school.” The houses all looked like little cottages. The neighborhood was old. Probably built in the forties or fifties. All the houses had wood siding and shutters in contrasting colors.

  “Yeah. Good place to retire,” I said. That’s when I caught a scent in the air.

  The scent of death.

  I froze in place and drew my gun. It was a faint whiff of decay, barely discernible over the other smells in the area. Faint whiff or not, it was cause for alarm.

  Ben noticed my concern. “What’s up, John? You hear something?”

  “No. Little scent of death on the wind.” I pointed across the street. “Coming from over there.” I lifted my head to take a sniff. The dead body smell was still on the breeze, only a little weaker. The wind must have shifted.

  Ryan joined Ben and I. “What’s going on?”

  “John caught a scent. Something dead,” Ben answered.

  Ryan scrunched up his face as he tried to find the scent. “I don’t smell anything.”

  We stood for a while, sniffing the air. Once in a while, the wind would shift and it would get stronger for a few seconds. Something bad was watching us.

  Ryan shook his head. “I still don’t smell anything.”

  “Wait. I kind of smell it, too. Across the street,” Ben said. He took his rifle off his shoulder.

  Ryan had his doubts, but he got ready as well. “I still don’t smell anything,” he repeated.

  “Trust me.” I was trying to watch everywhere at once The Red-Eye bastards could come from anywhere. “I’ve been on the road a while. Sometimes, you smell them first when they come at you.”

  Jenny joined us. “I smell it too,” she said. “Everyone keep an eye out.” We spread out a little and went on zombie alert. The smell was getting stronger. A low moaning sound came to my ears. Something dead and walking around was nearby. Very close.

  Ben spotted her first. “Over there. On the road, coming towards us.”

  I looked to where he was pointing. A zombie woman in a white dress was shambling towards us from the houses across the street
. She limped along with a busted leg and a torn-up midsection. The dress was covered in blood. As she walked, a sorrowful moan escaped her lips. Her stalking days were over. She made it to the main road and turned towards our car. As she walked, she spotted us and began to wail non-stop. Zombie woman tried to pick up speed, but her leg kept buckling under her as she walked. Someone or something really worked her over. The skin had been removed from the lower half of her face, revealing the bones and teeth of her jaw. One of her arms was broken, and twisted as well. The zombie caught our scent and began to wave her good arm in our direction. Even though she was badly damaged, I could still see twin glowing red eyes peeking out from under her blood-matted mop of hair. Still very dangerous. We all backed up a little as she came closer.

  Except for Ryan.

  He stepped right up to the monster. “These are the Red-Eyes you’ve been going on about, John? She can barely walk.” Ryan stepped to within a few feet of the walking corpse. “Looks like a piece of cake to me.” He stepped away from her swinging arm.

  “Ryan! Be careful,” Jenny said.

  “She ain’t shit,” Ryan said. To prove his point, he pulled his handgun and pointed it at the zombie lady. I noticed that she was wearing a wedding dress.

  “Wait. Somebody’s going to hear that,” Ben said. Ryan didn’t listen, and pulled the trigger. The zombie in the wedding dress fell to the ground silent with a new hole in her head.

  Ben was right. Madame Zombie was not alone.

  A low moan began to rise from across the street. It got louder, until it became the only noise in the immediate area. Then the Red-Eyes began to come out. They oozed out of the weeds in the overgrown yards across the street. They came off their hiding places on the porches of the little houses. They materialized out of the backyards and from behind trees, small walls, and bushes. All at once, they seemed to be everywhere. They had been hiding the whole time, watching us deal with the car and the zombie in the wedding dress. A dozen or so very hungry looking Red-Eyes came out of their hiding places, and stood in the yard across the street. There were probably more, hiding and waiting to see what was going to happen.

  We had sprung a trap. It was now officially a swarm.

  I turned to Ryan. “These are the Red-Eyes I was worried about.”

  Six broke off from the group and started an attack. The others stayed back and hung around, waiting for an opportunity to jump in. We were ready, or as ready as we could be.

  As soon as they came towards us, we opened fire. Jenny was conservative, calmly picking targets. She dropped one in short order. Ryan, by contrast, was more wild. He managed to wound one in the neck. Ben took out one and wounded another. I managed to kill one with a well-placed shot from my trusty handgun when he got too close to Jenny.

  The last two zombies pulled back and joined the remaining six to reformulate another attack. They huddled together, looking a little like a football team discussing the next play. After a few moments, they spread out as we advanced slowly away from the car. Jenny and Ryan prepared to engage, when I heard a sound behind us. Two more Red-Eyes, an older male followed by a female, popped out of the woods.

  “Ben!” I called. “Behind us!”

  Ben and I swung our weapons at the new attackers. Ben got the female as she leaped off the roof of the car. I took a shot, but missed the male as he attacked. He moved closer and grabbed me. We struggled on the ground. His yellow teeth flashed by my face as he tried to take a bite. I managed to kick him off, and he landed a few feet away. The snarling zombie tried to spring back to his feet. I shot him in the face, and he fell backward, dead.

  Jenny had managed to drop two out of the group in front, but the remaining four closed to attack range. I shot one at close range in the face, and Ben took out the other with his knife. The two remaining Red-Eyes managed to separate Ryan and Jen from Ben and I and block access to the car. They each took a side to block escape, and prepared to attack. Blue-black foam dripped from their mouths as they came at Ryan. He tried to sidestep and fire his weapon at the same time, but nothing happened as he pulled the trigger. Ryan was out of ammunition.

  Ben raised his rifle, but he was going to be too late. Just as the zombies reached Ryan, Jenny ran over and pushed him. He fell to the ground, out of harm’s way. Jenny tried to raise her rifle, but the two Red-Eyes jumped on her and began to attack. I watched in horror as the two zombies began to tear Jenny apart with their teeth. She let out a wail of pain, and blood began to flow out of her neck.

  Without any regard to his own safety, Ben hurled himself toward Jenny. With great force, he jammed the butt of his rifle into the nearest undead skull. The creature screamed in agony and let go of Jenny. She fell to the ground, mortally wounded. Ben flipped his rifle around, and shot the zombie through the head as it kneeled in front of him. I got the other one as it tried to run away.

  Ben and I stood in the middle of the road, breathing heavily. The ground was covered in zombie bodies, torn clothing, spent shells, and blood. Lots of blood. Jenny’s blood. The two zombies we wounded tried to crawl away, but Ben finished the job. The road went quiet. Quiet, except for the groans of pain coming from Jenny.

  We all ran to her. Jenny was lying face-down on the asphalt. Blood ran like water out of her neck. Ben and I knelt down and carefully turned her over. One look, and we both knew Jenny’s number was up. Red streaks began to vibrate like hideous snakes in the whites of her eyes.

  The zombies had ripped a hole in her neck and shoulder. I held her head, and my hands became covered in blood. Ben pulled a handkerchief, but it would do no good. Jenny looked at both of us with a look of pain and fear as she lay dying in our arms. She reached up and with a blood-stained hand, took hold of my jacket. Her beautiful brown eyes were already turning a shade of red.

  Jenny was beginning to turn right before our eyes. There was something I had to do. I had to put Jenny down.

  “Oh, Lord. Please help us,” Ben said quietly. “She’s going to become one of those things.”

  I gently laid her head down on the ground, and she let go of my jacket. Jenny’s breathing was becoming more ragged and irregular. She began to convulse. In a few minutes, she was going to be a zombie. I drew my gun and pointed it at her head. Jenny closed her eyes, as my finger squeezed the trigger.

  Ryan pulled my hand away. “What the hell are you doing?” He pushed me heavily to the ground. He stood over me as I tried to get up.

  Ben ran over and helped me up. “Ryan! Take it easy, man. Jenny’s been bit,” he said. I got to my feet. Ryan got right in my face. He stuck his finger in my chest.

  “You can’t kill her!” He grabbed me by the jacket, and shook me violently. Ryan’s eyes flashed with hate and anger. He pushed me again, but I stayed on my feet.

  I pushed back. “Jenny died saving your ass! You wasted your goddamn ammunition, spraying it around, not hitting anything. We haven’t got time for this.” I tried to get back to taking care of Jenny before she turned, but Ryan blocked my path. We grabbed onto each other, and began to scuffle.

  Ben tried to break it up. “Guys! We’re not going to do this. Not now. We have a job to do.” He tried to pry us apart.

  Jenny, the brand-new zombie, rose from the ground behind us. She had fully turned, and was now standing a few feet away. Blood dripped from her destroyed neck. She stood, staring at us with her head slightly cocked, and her now-useless glasses sitting crooked on her face. I thought Jenny recognized us for a second. Her eyes glowed red, and a deep growl emanated from her ruined throat.

  “Jesus Christ,” Ryan whispered. He recoiled in fear at the sight of his former friend.

  We stood transfixed as Jenny came towards us. She walked stiffly. Probably still getting used to her new zombie legs. It always took a few steps for the newly turned to learn to walk. She turned toward me, and came closer. I brought my gun up, and put her forehead in my sights.

  Jenny raised her arms and opened her mouth. A ragged wail came out. The sound caused shivers up an
d down my spine. My hand started to shake, but I put a bullet in poor Jenny’s head before she could cry out again. She fell to the ground, and it all went quiet again.

  We stood over her broken body. Her eyes were turning a light pink as the spark drained from her body. There was a slight twitch in her arm, but it went away. The zombie began to look like Jenny again. I dropped my gun hand. “What have I done, Ben?” I asked.

  “It’s what she would have wanted,” he answered. “I don’t think she wanted to be one of those things.” It was the right thing to do, but it didn’t make me feel any better.

  Ryan went to his knees and stared at his dead friend on the ground. “What are going to do now?”

  We didn’t have time to bury her. The dirt was too hard. and we didn’t have any tools for digging anyway. Instead, we broke into one of the houses nearby. It was pretty one, painted a pale yellow with faded green shutters. We brought Jenny’s body into one of the bedrooms, wrapped her in a large comforter, and placed her on the double mattress. Ben found a yellow legal pad and a pen. He simply wrote the word “Jenny” on the paper, and placed it at her feet. I put her guns on the bed next to her carefully wrapped body. Jenny would have liked to be entombed with her weapons. After our tasks were complete, we stood around the bed with our thoughts.

  Ryan rubbed his eyes, trying not to cry. “Should we say something?”

  I was at a loss for words. I had only known Jenny for a couple of days, but I knew her as a brave strong lady. Ben was able to express my thoughts better. “Let’s just say she was brave, and she loved her friends.” Ben looked at me and Ryan. “Both the old and the new.”

  We exited the house, and Ben closed the door. The little yellow house had become a mausoleum, a little shrine to a great lady. We left the house behind, not looking back, and gathered at our damaged car. Jenny had started the repairs before the zombies came. None of us could seem to get the motivation to get going. Jenny’s death had put a big stop on the mission. Ryan sighed, shot me a dirty look, and without a word, he walked away.