Mad World (Book 3): Desperation

by Samaire Provost

  “Here, let me try,” Zach said, reaching for the pad of paper. I handed it to him, and he drew a cartoon of us all in the SUV, riding through a huge lake of zombies and shooting out the windows at them, like we were in an Old West stagecoach under siege from outlaws. It wasn’t half bad, in a corny kind of way. I told him so, and he just smiled.

  “Zach,” DeAndre said, coming back to sit with us. “Jake wants to know what you’d like to do. We’re coming up to Atikokan and, if you want, we can drop you off here and send word back home for a pickup. It might take some time: they usually average about three week turnaround for a non-emergency. Or you can continue on with us. I don’t know if Luke has gone into detail about what our trip is about …”

  “I have,” I said. “Mostly.”

  “…but I can almost guarantee you that you’ll be safer if we drop you in town here. We’re driving into some dangerous territory, and the danger is very real,” DeAndre finished. “Let us know soon. We’re coming up to the turn off for Atikokan, and after that there’s little else until Thunder Bay.” He left to go sit up front.

  I turned to Zach. “He’s right. We’re going into an area that is nearly overrun,” I said. “New England has some really bad parts that are nearly impassable, that’s one reason the two-week schedule is so tight. Those kinds of things tend to slow things down a lot.”

  Zach was undeterred. “I understand the danger. I want to help you guys, though,” he said. “I want to fight, and help you get to Boston.”

  I looked at him, deep in thought. On the one hand, we could always use an extra fighter in combat. Things could and often did get very rough, and one extra pair of hands wielding a shotgun could mean the difference between success and failure. On the other hand, I was worried about Zach’s lack of training, and his physical state.

  “How are you feeling?” I asked. “How’s your burn?” I looked down at his leg, still wrapped in a neat, white bandage.

  “Jonathan put some kind of salve on it yesterday, and put some more on today,” he said. “I think it’s healing very fast. It barely hurts anymore at all.” He patted the leg. “See? It doesn’t even bother me.” He flexed it and then stood up and bounced up and down a few times on his haunches. Looking into my eyes, he smiled. I had to hand it to him, the guy looked in top shape. His thigh muscles bulged as he bounced in another deep knee bend, and then up again. I swallowed.

  “I’m going with you,” Zach turned and called over his shoulder to the others in the front. “If it’s okay with you, Jake.”

  “It’s more than okay, son,” Dad said, looking over his shoulder at Zach. “We’re glad to have another strong soldier added to our ranks.”

  Dad turned to DeAndre and said, “Check which weapons we can arm Zach with, he’s going to need at least two firearms, and some kind of knife.” Nodding, D went to go look into the rear compartment behind us.

  I turned to Zach. “Stick near me if you can. I’ll watch your back,” I said, smiling.

  “I won’t let you down, Luke,” he said.

  Turning around to DeAndre, who was still in the rear weapons container, I asked, “D, how long till we get to Thunder Bay?”

  “It’s about 100 miles, so around 2 hours, give or take,” he said. “Barring any mishaps, of course.” He looked grim. There were times when mishaps were more the rule than the exception. Then he sat down next to Zach with an armful of different gear.

  “Okay, Zach,” DeAndre said, handing him different weapons as he spoke. “First of all we have a shotgun, this will be your main weapon.” Zach whistled as he took the heavy, black weapon.

  “Yeah. We use a different model than the general public. This is a Saiga 12-gauge combat shotgun loaded with brenneke rounds. It is lethal. It is a rotating-bolt, gas-operated gun that feeds from a box magazine.” He spent the next 20 minutes going over the weapon, showing Zach how to hold it, how to use it and instructing him on gun safety. Zach got an intense look of concentration on his face, listening intently to every word DeAndre said.

  “Okay, next we have this Smith & Wesson M&P semi-automatic pistol,” said DeAndre, displaying a lethal looking black handgun. “It’s your backup weapon. Not as lethal as the Saiga, but just as deadly when you’re fighting at close range. It will go clean through a man and hit the guy behind him. So be careful with it.” D then spent another 15 minutes on handgun instruction and safety. He took apart the pistol and showed Zach every piece, then snapped everything back together again.

  “Lastly we have your backup knife,” DeAndre said, handing Zach a huge knife, which could almost be called a short sword. “It’s our own design, and it’s mostly a ninjatō sword, but with elements of the large Bowie knife.” We each carried one of these in a sheath on our back. DeAndre took the knife from Zach and slipped it into a sheath with straps. “Luke will show you how this goes on your back. The hilt will stick up behind your head, and you can grab it,” he mimed reaching behind him and grabbing an imaginary sword. “It’s great to know it’s there, because sometimes it’s your last weapon left. It’s basically a short sword, the blade is razor sharp and nearly 20 inches long, and there’s barely any hand guard to it, so be careful.” He handed the blade to Zach, who took it and began to examine the sheath and buckles.

  “I’ll show you how to strap it on. You should keep the sheath on at all times,” I said, showing him how to put it on. “We load up with our weapons when we leave the vehicle. You never know when you might need them, so keep them close at hand inside when they’re not on you. See?” I patted my shotgun, which was beside my leg, propped up against the seat.

  Zach spent the next few hours studying the weapons, while I went up front to sit with my dad. The terrain we were covering was wilderness and wetlands, not much to see. I dozed off after a short time.

  FIVE

  We pulled in the town of Thunder Bay a little before 4 in the afternoon. Intelligence had reported no mishaps as of two weeks ago, but we knew anything could happen on a day-to-day basis, so we were cautious.

  “D, see if you can’t raise any of our operatives here; I need to know the situation,” Dad said, handing DeAndre the cellphone as he drove. Cell towers rarely worked nowadays, the zombies were constantly vandalizing them, but there was a small chance the call might go through. Like, a 1 in 1,000 chance. But the closer you were to where you were calling, the better chance you seemed to have.

  “This town looks deserted,” I said, looking out the window. “There should be a lot of people here, but…” I trailed off, knowing what it would mean if the townspeople were gone. Overrun. It was happening more and more these days, and it was usually the death of a town or city. Nearly impossible to take back, a city was overrun when the ratio of zombies to humans passed the tipping point. Until that happened, a city would experience occasional outbreaks of zombie violence that were met a by massive police response., Afterward, the tables turned, and a rapidly shrinking population of humans found themselves hunted by a huge zombie population.

  Until recently, our forces had managed to keep Thunder Bay cleared and safe. You could never keep any area 100 percent free of zombies, since the infection was so unpredictable, but, for nearly a decade now, this town had been relatively clear.

  “Nothing,” DeAndre frowned at the cell phone and put it away. They were nearly useless nowadays. “This is the only way through to Boston,” He explained to Zach, who had come up to the front to sit as we drove into the city. “The Minneapolis area is overrun, for hundreds of miles from the Twin Cities outward, and this highway is the only route east. On one side is wilderness, on the other? Lake Superior. This is our only way through.”

  “Let’s just try to get through it as fast as we can,” said Dad. “I’m not going to stop for anything, if I can help it.”

  “Sounds good, Jake,” Risa said.

  “Let’s do this,” said DeAndre.

  We drove into the outskirts of town and, stopped at an intersection and took the minute to look around.

>   “Hey, there’s a convenience store, and I saw some people go inside,” Jonathan said. “Why don’t we stop in and ask them about the town?”

  “Good idea,” said Dad. “We could use some real, up-to-date information about this area.”

  As we pulled up to park in front of the store, we saw it was packed with people, all talking among themselves, as though they had gathered for some impromptu meeting. They seemed to be whispering in one another’s ears, as though they were afraid of drawing someone’s attention. The coast outside seemed clear, so I hopped out with the others and started walking toward the door.

  I thought I saw something out of the corner of my eye, but when I looked to the side of the building where it had been, there was nothing there. Shrugging, I pushed the door open and entered, the others close behind me.

  “Zach, let’s get something to drink,” I said, gesturing to the counter where a variety of coffees and cocoas was available. “I hope they have espresso.”

  “Hmmm… I think I’ll have a cinnamon hot cocoa,” said Zach. He reached for a muffin. They looked huge and delicious.

  Dad approached a cluster of people who had been whispering among themselves. “Hello, we’re from out of town,” The people looked frightened at this. Dad continued. “We’re from the Sanctuary team, based out of Winnipeg.” Sanctuary’s efforts were well known throughout the region and beyond. Dad was trying to reassure them, and by all rights, they should have relaxed on hearing this; instead, however, they just seemed to grow more anxious. DeAndre and I leaned in to hear the conversation. I saw Risa and Jonathan draw closer, too. “What’s the infection situation in Thunder Bay?” Dad asked.

  Most of the people turned away without a word and walked off. One fellow, who seemed less nervous than the others, whispered to us.

  “Stop talking so loud. You’ll draw their attention,” he whispered, before turning halfway around to leave.

  “Wait a minute,” Dad said, touching the man’s arm. He turned back to look into Dad’s eyes. Dad lowered his voice. Whispering, he said, “We just got into town. We are part of the Sanctuary rescue force. We want to know the infection situation in town. Can you fill us in?” He held the man’s gaze and waited.

  The man, who appeared to be an average working-class fellow in a fleece-lined corduroy jacket and jeans, appeared to think things over, then said, “I can’t get into things. They are watching. I have my family to think of …” he trailed off and then turned around and walked away quickly.

  Dad turned to us with a bewildered look on his face. DeAndre headed to the cashier to question him. This was too weird, I thought. I finished getting my coffee, then selected a banana nut muffin and made my way to the front counter. Zach was right behind me with his cocoa and a blueberry scone. In fact, he was following so closely he tripped on my heel.

  I turned to him, “You okay?”

  “Yeah, it’s just… this place gives me the heebie jeebies… I’ll be happy when we’re back in the SUV,” he said. Nodding, I agreed and we went to pay. I didn’t like it either. The people had acted so… scared, but mostly nervous. It was surreal.

  “That all you need?” the clerk asked in a low voice.

  “Yes, this will be it,” I said, paying for our snacks and drinks. I waited until he bagged everything, then Zach and I went to wait by the front door for the others. Soon, we were all headed out the doors and into the cool afternoon air of Thunder Bay.

  I felt a shiver crawl up my spine and turned to look. As my eyes rose to the roof of the convenience store, I caught sight of two zombies up there. They looked to be in the advanced stages of the infection, and they were actually on the roof peering down at us, observing us.

  “What the…?” I said softly. Dad, DeAndre and Risa turned to look. A second later, Jonathan and Zach looked up as well. We all stood there, on the front sidewalk next to our vehicle, looking up at these creatures as they watched us. Then the zombies slowly melted away from the edge of the roof and slipped out of sight.

  A shiver of fear made its way slowly down my spine, and I felt the hairs on the back of my neck rise with a cold, prickly sensation. Wordlessly, we all got into our SUV and locked the doors. Starting the vehicle, Dad put it in reverse and we made our way out of the parking lot. I was looking as we pulled out. I could see a little behind the store, as could the others. There was nothing there, and yet … there was the sensation of being watched.

  As we drove on slowly down the road, Dad finally spoke. “I have never seen anything like that. It’s like they were on a recon mission to observe and report.”

  “Report to who, I wonder?” asked Risa.

  “This is really strange,” said DeAndre.

  I turned to Zach. “When you were in your town in the thick of things, did you see this kind of behavior in the zombies there?”

  “No. I didn’t. But it all started at night, and then I was locked in the shed, so I didn’t get to see much,” he said.

  This was weird. Weirder than weird. Zombies doing recon? But zombies didn’t do recon … did they? They weren’t that organized. At least, they never had been. I shivered. Over the years, we’d noticed that the zombies we’d encountered had been getting smarter and smarter. Learning and adapting. The Yersinia Pestis bacteria seemed to be evolving, and its victims were evolving right along with it. But to organize enough to do recon missions? That was taking things to a whole new level. If it were true, this could have serious consequences for the entire human race. In our fight against this plague and against the enemy it created, we’d always had one advantage: our ability to outthink the zombie hordes. Without that crucial edge, there was no way of knowing what would happen. How long could we hold out? When would the entire continent, or the whole world, reach that tipping point - that point of no return?

  The zombies’ new behavior - if it was what it appeared to be - reminded me of a pack of wolves, hunting, doing field reconnaissance. And what worried me most was that I could’ve sworn they were looking straight at me. I mean, into my eyes, focused on me.

  “I really didn’t like the looks of that,” said Risa, sitting next to me. We both looked out the window at the town as it slipped past us.

  “Those people in that store,” DeAndre said. “They were just jumpy. I would really like to know why.”

  “Well, we don’t really have the time to investigate right now,” said Dad. “There’s no time. Our first duty is to Alyssa.”

  I nodded, my thoughts turning back to my mother. Alyssa lay dying at home. I had to try and do something about it. Looking out the window, my eyes scanned the town for anything else out of the ordinary.

  We drove east through the city, skirting the most populated areas and sticking to the highway. Thunder Bay was the biggest city in the area, but it was hardly a metropolis. We were soon out of the thickest cluster of city buildings, and I saw a wide park ahead of us. Looking closer, off to the left, I saw a huge crater the size of a small lake that seemed to have swallowed a portion of the park. It partially engulfed the highway, leaving just one lane on the right hand side clear.

  “Oh my god…” Dad said, bring the vehicle to a stop about 50 feet from the edge of the crater. “What on earth?”

  It looked like a bomb had exploded in the park.

  “This is Centennial Park. But that crater, where’d it come from?” DeAndre said. “I don’t remember the recon out of this area mentioning any bombing.”

  “It didn’t,” Dad said grimly. “This is new.”

  We all looked out on the huge devastation smack in the middle of Centennial Park. Off in the distance we could see the Current River, it skirted the outside edge of the massive crater on its northeastern side.

  “I want to get a closer look,” I said, unbuckling my seatbelt and reaching for the door handle. “Hold tight, everyone.”

  “Hold on, I’m coming with you,” said Risa.

  “Me, too,” Zach said.

  “Oh hell, why don’t we all go?” Jonathan said.


  “Not sure if this is safe, guys,” DeAndre said, probably remembering the day we lost Caitlyn. It was just a few days ago, really. I reached for my shotgun.

  “I’ll take my gun and knife, don’t worry.” I patted the air behind me as I jumped down to the pavement. “The coast is clear. I’ll just have a quick look.”

  I grabbed my shotgun and was already out of the SUV with Risa hot on my heels. Walking up to the edge of the crater, I could see that it cut through the asphalt of the highway in a jagged curve, and was maybe a hundred feet deep. Risa came up and stood beside me, looking down. She had her knife on her back and her shotgun in hand.

  “You know what this looks like?” she said. “It looks for all the world like a massive sinkhole.”

  “It does, but I’ve never heard of a sinkhole this big. It’s got to be 10 football fields wide.” I looked down again. I thought I could see several cave openings at the bottom. They looked like dark holes, but it was hard to see in the dimming late afternoon light. The edge next to our feet dropped down several dozen feet in a steep cliff. Crumbling asphalt, dirt, rocks and old tree roots peppered the incline.

  “I’m going to go get the camera, be right back,” Risa said, and then started back to the vehicle. She was halfway there when I heard a yell.

  “Luke!” I heard DeAndre yell from behind me. “LUKE!!!”

  Turning quickly, I saw a sight I never wanted to be faced with. Over the far right edge of the highway, past where the lip of the crater jutted back north toward the park, were a horde of zombies. There must have been several hundred of the things, and they were moving fast. I was cut off. The others started to pile back into the SUV, all except for Risa. I saw her look at the crowd of zombies running toward me, then back to me and hesitate. In the ten seconds that had passed, Dad and DeAndre had gotten Jonathan and Zach into the SUV and had grabbed their shotguns. Racing back around to the front, they all began shooting. Risa was about twenty-five feet from the SUV, Dad and DeAndre were right up against the hood, and there I was, cut off fifty feet away from the SUV. The horde was coming fast, and they were after me, they ignored the others. Well, this was a new tactic, I thought. I leveled my shotgun at the nearest and let loose several rounds. But there were far too many of them. The blasts didn’t even make a dent in the surging wave of growling, roaring zombieflesh that might just be the end of me. Cold, icy fear crawled up my back as sweat trickled down between my shoulder blades. I backed up and hurriedly reloaded, but they were nearly upon me.