Mad World (Book 3): Desperation

by Samaire Provost

  My chest felt warm and my heart fluttered at his words and his voice. I could tell he was getting to me. I’d never really had any crushes, except for one back when I was 13, and he’d moved away soon after. But there was just something about Zach…

  “Thank you. We may need your help,” I sat back in my seat. “Tell me about your family. What happened in that town?”

  Zach closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Tears formed in the corners of his eyes. “We were overwhelmed, all of a sudden,” he began. “A week ago, everything was normal; it was business as usual. I worked at the dairy on the outskirts of town, and my mom and dad and I lived in town with my little sister. Jenny was only seven. Then one night, we were awakened around 3 a.m. by the sound of the gas station exploding. It was five blocks away, but the blast rattled our windows. Dad went to go find out what had happened and he barely got back. Before this, we’d had a few zombie outbreaks, but nothing we couldn’t handle. All the businesses had shotguns behind the counter, and that had been enough to keep things under control. We’re so remote that we thought we were safe. I guess we let our guard down. We should have had more defenses around the town.” He took a sip of water and blew his nose, then went on. “We were overrun. There were hundreds of them. They were at the gas station, and also behind the town, in the cornfields. In fact, we think they’d been hiding in the fields, the hundreds of acres of corn completely hid them. This summer the corn was growing really well, it was up over seven feet tall.”

  “Wow,” I said.

  “Yes, wow. Exactly. They had been gathering in the cornfield for months I guess. Waiting. Just waiting,”

  I shuddered.

  “Well, they attacked finally, and it wasn’t random, it wasn’t hit and miss. They somehow knew to organize. First there was the gas station explosion, the double tanks blew sky high. The flames were huge: they must’ve been 30 feet high. Then when everyone went to go investigate, the rest of them moved in from the fields, they closed us in. We were caught unaware, we had no time to prepare, to escape. Most of the people were attacked and eaten within the first hour.”

  He shuddered, and I put my arm around his shoulder.

  “Well,” Zach said. “It was chaos. Just ... crazy. By morning, there were only a few dozen of us left, and they had chased us all into the center of town. We headed to the only defense we had. Last summer, the mayor had ordered that trench dug around the town park, with some tanks of gasoline nearby, all you had to do was pull the two switches and the gasoline poured out into the trench, then light it. Sounds good, right?" he looked up at me with tears in his eyes.

  I swallowed hard. “It didn’t work, did it?” I asked.

  “No,” Zach said, blowing his nose again. “It didn’t. We all ran there, Mom, Dad, Jenny and me. There were already several families there. We got there just as they were going to pull the switch. Well, we were all waiting there, in the bandstand, where Mr. Erickson pulled the switch and the trench was flooded with gasoline. I hadn’t realized there were so many tanks; they had rigged it so that the trench would fill at least a foot with gasoline, all around. And it did. Then they lit the thing. The zombies were already coming toward the park when they lit it. The closest one was several dozen feet away when they lit it.” Tears were running down Zach’s face as he spoke. I reached out and took his hand in mine. Looking up, I saw that DeAndre and Risa had joined us. Their faces were somber as they listened.

  “Can you go on, Zach?” I asked gently. He nodded.

  “They lit the trench and the flames roared up. We could no longer even see past the trench. It was a solid wall of flame. We thought it would stop them. It had to! Anything going into that trench would have been roasted alive! It was so hot we had to back up a dozen feet. Our faces were pink as we watched the flames.”

  Zach took a shuddering breath and continued. “We watched the trench burn, we just sat there and watched it. After about twenty minutes the flames began to die down a bit, but they were still over ten feet high. My dad and mom had sat down to talk, Jenny and I went to see what the bottom of the trench looked like. We walked closer, and I picked up some small rocks to throw across. Jenny picked up a small branch and moved closer. I guess she wanted to poke at the flames, maybe light her stick on fire. I called her back, told her to come away from there. Then I heard dad call her loudly from behind me, and it was then that Jenny turned to us.” Zach choked back a sob and fresh tears ran down his face. I squeezed his hand and murmured to him. He nodded and continued.

  “The zombie was engulfed with fire, but it didn’t slow down at all. It had climbed up to the top edge on our side, and it leapt up and grabbed her. It must have been eight to ten feet that it jumped from the edge of the trench, but it grabbed Jenny and she screamed and it bit down on her and tore half her head off ...” His voice petered off into a soft sob.

  “Jesus Christ,” Risa said, bowing her head and turning away to hide her own tears.

  DeAndre just looked incredibly sad. He had just lost his wife, and he looked numb with sadness.

  “Oh, Zach,” I said softly. “I am so sorry.” I put my arms around him, and he cried onto my shoulder. We stayed like that for maybe ten minutes, until he quieted and hiccoughed a little. He raised his head and looked at us with red-rimmed eyes, his face wet with tears. Grabbing some more tissue, he blew his nose several times.

  “I want to tell you the rest,” he said. We waited silently.

  After a few minutes, Zach took a deep breath and then continued.

  “Everyone went ballistic when Jenny was lost. Several guys started shooting, and Mom started screaming and Dad yelled like crazy. Then more of them started coming over the fire. We had thought we were being so clever and sure of our defenses with that trench. But it only stopped them for a little while, and as the flames died down and settled into burning a few feet high, they came over in droves. Like I said, there were hundreds of them, just so many. They were overwhelming us. When Dad went to go join the others at the trench, trying to shoot them while they were still down in it climbing over, my mom forced me into the shed. I thought she was going to go in with me, but she pushed me in and told me to not come out, not for anything, and not to make a sound. Then she slammed the door and I heard her lock the padlock.”

  He took another shuddering breath and then continued. “It actually took a while for it all to happen. I heard shooting, and men yelling, and the zombies were growling, and then they were kind of roaring and groaning. The town had packed lots of ammo when they retreated to the park, and so they fought for a long time, the last people standing were close by, I think. I heard shooting, fighting, yelling, and the moans and groans and roars of the creatures. I stayed quiet after that. I’m not sure if there were hardly any left after the last man fell. They overwhelmed us with numbers, but shotguns can take a lot down. I don’t know how many days passed before you found me,” he looked up at me with tears in his eyes. “If you hadn’t come ...”

  “I think we got you out of that shed just in time.” I smiled down at him with tears in my eyes. “I am so sorry about your family.” I patted his shoulder, and he was silent. We just sat there, quiet, deep in thought. Risa and DeAndre went up front to fill Dad and Jonathan in on Zach's incredible story.

  “Zach?” I asked after a minute.

  “Yes?” he said.

  “Was that your only family?”

  “As far as I know. I had an aunt and uncle in Vancouver, but we hadn’t heard from them after the last time the city was overrun, and that was over a year ago.” His voice sounded tired. “I’m the last one left.” A fresh tear slid down his cheek.

  We both dozed off as the SUV drove on into the night. Sometime later, we stopped to switch drivers and eat something. I woke up and came to sit in the front, leaving Zach asleep in the back with Jonathan, who traded places with me.

  “How’s he doing?” Dad asked, munching on an apple.

  “He’s asleep now, but he told us his story,” I said, drinking s
ome water and eating a granola bar. “Did they fill you in?”

  “Yes. It sounds like the town had quite the last stand.”

  We had heard of many similar instances, though none that had ended so badly. Most of the time a town had an escape route planned, vehicles waiting. Making a last stand holed up in a park, surrounded by a fire-filled trench that was, in turn, surrounded by zombies sounded like a nightmare. I couldn’t see how any town could survive that if there were hundreds of the infected. They must not have realized they’d be so overwhelmed.

  “Considering the town’s plan of action, I don’t think they were every expecting more than a few dozen zombies.” I swallowed some more water. “Any more, and such a retreat plan would be naturally doomed.” I shook my head.

  Underestimating your opponent was a lethal mistake, one we ourselves had made two days ago in a lone field outside of Winnipeg.

  You could never know what to expect, really. The plague was changing so much; we were fighting a completely different infection today than the one my parents had encountered 25 years ago.

  You could only try, and overprepare, if that were possible.

  We were headed toward Thunder Bay, it was around two in the morning, and we were all exhausted. Driving in such conditions was dangerous, you were just asking for a slow reaction time, which was deadly in our current world.

  “I’m going to pack us in for a few hours, until dawn at least. The last news out of Thunder Bay was promising, but that was two weeks ago and we don’t know the situation right now. I want to be able to see and be awake,” Dad said, pulling off the road onto a turnoff with bathrooms.

  We had just passed the little town of Emo (whose name always made me smile) and were not yet to La Valle, another small border town. Skirting the international border as we were, in Ontario but close to Minnesota, the temptation to slip into the U.S. was great. But then we would’ve had to go south of the Great Lakes, and close to the Minneapolis area, a known hotbed of zombie activity. You didn’t go near that big city unless you wanted a sudden and painful death. Or worse.

  “Sounds like a plan, Jake,” said DeAndre, yawning.

  We parked and then all took turns keeping watch and visiting the rest stop bathroom. Washing in a sink was better than nothing, I thought as the icy water hit my underarms. Oooh, that was cold!

  We slept for five or six hours, until dawn pinked the sky and our eyes opened to frost on the windows. Looking closer, I saw it wasn’t frost, but just the warmth from us inside condensing on the windows because of the cold morning outside. It coated every window and effectively blocked the outside from view.

  FOUR

  “Want to hit the bathroom, Luke?” whispered DeAndre. He and Zach were awake and looked ready to hop out of the SUV.

  “How are you feeling, Zach?” I asked, wiping the sleep from my eyes and stretching. I sat up straighter as D roused Risa, Jonathan and Dad.

  “Much better,” Zach said, smiling. "I think I feel good enough to conquer the world." he stretched out and bent his back and arms. I could see his biceps and deltoids straining against his T-shirt in the morning light diffused through the window. I swallowed and felt that warmth in my chest again.

  “Well, hold on there, Zach,” said Jonathan, coming up to us and yawning. “Take it easy for a while; you’re still recuperating.”

  “I know,” Zach said. “But I feel great, like I could run a marathon.”

  Laughing, Dad walked up to us, and patted Zach on the back. “I like your attitude, Zach.”

  I chuckled.

  Zach smiled at me.

  I smiled back, holding his eyes for a minute longer than usual.

  Risa jumped up, “Okay you love birds, break it up,” she said. “I need to hit the bathroom, so come on, let’s go.” She grabbed her shotgun and opened the door, looking out. “Coast is clear, come on.”

  “Love birds????” I looked back at Zach. He had ducked his head, trying to hide his smile.

  I hopped out of the SUV after Risa; DeAndre followed me, then the others. As I walked to the small building, I thought about Zach.

  I felt a hand grab mine as he hurried to catch up to me.

  “You okay?” He asked.

  “Yes. I think so,” I said. Smiling, I walked on, looking straight ahead. I don’t think I would have been able to talk if I had been looking into his eyes. “My whole life, I’ve been too busy to think of ...,” I cleared my throat. “What I mean is, the last 15 years have been filled with school, training, and practice. I’ve had time for little else.” I glanced over at him. “Being on the Sanctuary team, your days are completely filled. Training, practice, debriefing, rescues, travel.”

  I got to the door and pushed it open. Walking through, I held it for him.

  “Sounds like you’ve had a very busy life,” he said.

  I rolled my eyes. “You have no idea.”

  DeAndre, Jonathan and Dad had joined us in the bathroom and were washing up. Zach and I dawdled, talking in the corner.

  “You guys had better finish up, we should be moving out soon,” Dad said as they exited out the door.

  I turned to go into a stall.

  “Do you like to read, Zach?”

  “It’s only my favorite thing to do,” he said. I smiled.

  Exiting the stall, I walked up to a sink to wash my face. He finished up and came to stand next to me, turning on the faucet of the sink next to mine.

  We both washed in silence, each of us taking peeks at the other when we thought he wasn’t watching.

  I began brushing my teeth and looking in the mirror, I saw Zach staring back at me. His eyes squinted in a small smile as he used his finger to clean his teeth.

  After we washed up we started a water fight. At least, I did. He was pulled into it, I guess.

  “HEY!” he said as I sprayed him with icy water from the faucet. He sputtered. I had caught him right in the face. He sprayed me back, laughing.

  “AHH!”

  Laughing just as hard, I ran out the door … and straight into Dad, who was running in.

  WHAM!

  The impact nearly knocked us both down.

  Holding his head, he looked in the bathroom wildly. “Are

  you two okay? We heard yells.”

  “Yes, Dad,” I giggled, holding my own head. “Um, we were just horsing around.”

  Zach dissolved in giggles. I glared at him in mock rage, then started laughing myself.

  “Oh! You two clowns get in the SUV,” said Dad, in mock anger. “Go on, get! We gotta go.” Shaking his head and smiling, he followed us to the SUV.

  Giggling, we both had a hard time getting into the vehicle. We both tried at the same time, and that set us to giggling even harder. I felt my legs beginning to collapse under me as I laughed.

  Zach hopped in, laughing as he made his way to the back seat. I felt a hand grab the back of my jeans and hoist me up onto my feet.

  Looking up into the eyes of my father, I giggled. He grinned back, shaking his head, as I climbed into the vehicle. We all settled in for the ride into Thunder Bay.

  As Dad pulled back onto the road, Zach and I sat in the back seat, talking.

  “How long have you fought on the Sanctuary team?” Zach asked.

  “Oh, ever since I was five,” I said. “My family came from the states and found Sanctuary in Winnipeg when I was five years old.”

  “What? Oh, wow,” he said. “So you’ve had a lot of training and practice?”

  “You could say that,” I said. Then I looked at him. “You look like you could hold your own in a fight, though.”

  “I’ve been working with livestock for over a decade; that’ll put muscle on you,” he said. “But I haven’t been formally trained to fight at all. Other than a few fights in school, I wouldn’t know what to do in combat.”

  “Don’t worry,” I said. “If you want to join the Sanctuary team, they’ll train you. But you should know: it’s pretty intense. You will be very sore for the first fe
w weeks.”

  His face looked excited at the prospect. “You have no idea how eager I am to tackle some zombies,” he said fervently. “After what I saw them do to my little sister, and then having my whole family wiped out, I want nothing more than to kill zombies. I want to bring down as many as I can.”

  “Then you’ll need proper training, young man,” DeAndre said as he joined us. “Months of training. You don’t want to make a stupid mistake and get hurt because you haven’t learned to defend yourself. Trust me.”

  “He’s right,” I said solemnly. “I’ve been training for nearly 18 years, and with every practice I grow better at it. You can always improve.”

  Yeah,” said DeAndre, ruffling my hair. “Now you’re a lean, mean, fightin’ machine.” he said, laughing. I smiled at him fondly.

  Despite my great hybrid strength, DeAndre, Risa, Caitlyn, Mom, and Dad had basically taught me nearly everything I knew about fighting, about defending myself and the people around me.

  You needed specific skills when fighting alone as opposed to part of a group, and if people needed to be defended, that figured into things strongly. We learned to fight with shotguns, long knives, and sometimes with our bare hands. They had taught it all to me.

  No one else could really risk hand-to-hand combat with the zombies except for me. But they trained for it. We never knew when we’d need the skills, and as a last-ditch effort, it was important to know. Of course, for anyone else, if it got to hand-to-hand combat, the chances for infection were very high, so it was important to learn rescue techniques as well. We’d been trained in those, too. How to kick or punch or karate chop or shoot a zombie off your friend, and grab anything you could to drag them the safety.

  After a few hours of driving and talking, I took out a sketchpad and tried to do justice to the surrounding landscape. I made an attempt at drawing Zach, but it just didn’t come out right at all. He laughed when he saw it, and I stuck my tongue out at him.