S.W. Tanpepper's GAMELAND, Season One Omnibus

by Saul Tanpepper

  The first Undead hit the hot asphalt, their bare dead feet slapping like vacationers’ sandals at the indoor mall in Hartford. Soon, the smell of burning flesh reaches my nose, stinking of singed hair and melted plastic. The corridor in front of us narrows. The corridor behind has already closed.

  Tanya is out in front, zigging and zagging like a pinball in one of the old arcade games in Reggie’s basement as she tries to keep as far away from the zombies as she possibly can. She doesn’t realize yet that her screaming is drawing even more of them to her.

  “She’s going to get us all killed,” Kelly grunts.

  “It’s not dying I’m worried about,” I answer. “It’s coming back.”

  Jake tries to catch up with her. He’s a good runner, swift and almost tireless. I remember how fast he was back in Long Island City, when he and Micah and I raced to get back to the tunnel. But the second encounter with the failsafe and the trauma of the past several days has noticeably affected him. He stumbles, yelling at Tanya to keep quiet, unaware that his own shouts are only making matters worse. Finally he manages to get a hand on her shoulder. Tanya shrieks so loudly that every zombie within a three mile radius must now be zeroing in on us. Jake tries to hold on to her, but she crumples to the hot pavement, wrapping herself up in her arms, protecting her head.

  “Get up!” he shouts, tugging on her. “Get up!” He grabs an arm and yanks her up. Her feet leave the ground. By then Reggie and Ash have reached them. Without slowing, Reggie reaches over and grabs Tanya’s other arm. Her head snaps around and she nearly flies out of her shoes. Reggie keeps running, Ash in one hand, Tanya in the other and Jake dragging along behind. He’s always had more strength than he deserves to have, but right now I’m glad for it.

  “Look out!” Kelly yells, as an arm clad in a flannel sleeve drops in front of my face. My first thought is, Who wears flannel in ninety-degree weather?

  My second thought is a bit more practical. It comes to me in my hapkido master’s voice: Use your enemy’s strength against them.

  I grab the arm at the wrist, even as it rakes down my chest and give it a twist, all without breaking stride. The zombie falls and I have to skip to avoid stepping on it and falling. There’s a sickening crunch as the IU’s head hits the pavement behind us.

  “That was close.”

  “Just keep running,” I grunt. The wrist I’d sprained a few days before now begins to throb again.

  I look over at Micah to see how he’s doing. He’s pale as a ghost and his face is scrunched up in pain. I catch Kelly’s eye. He tightens his jaw but doesn’t say anything. At this rate, Micah’s not going to last very long, and neither are we. I bow my head and force myself to push onward.

  After another couple hundred yards, the IUs begin to thin out. Thankfully, both Tanya and Jake have stopped screaming. But the reason the zoms are falling back is that we’re coming to an incline in the road and the berm on either side is growing steeper, the weeds thicker, harder to push through. A mixed blessing. We’ll have to climb the grade, too.

  I look over again and notice that Kelly’s limping has grown worse. His lurching is making it harder to carry Micah. “How are you doing?”

  “Don’t talk.”

  The fire in my side is burning hotter and breathing is becoming a lesson is pain management. My throat feels like someone shoved a hot poker into it.

  “Don’t know…” Micah pants, “…how much farther…”

  “I said don’t talk.”

  Then we start on the incline.

  The others have already reached the top and are beginning to disappear over the other side. I grit my teeth and hope they don’t come back. It would mean there’s no escape in that direction.

  We’ve opened up the gap between us and the zombies, so we slow to a brisk walk. It feels like heaven. “Fucking Reggie,” Kelly says, his voice cracking. “Couldn’t…shut up.”

  We trudge up the grade, the next step more painful than the last. My legs feel like lead. I’m dripping in sweat, but it doesn’t evaporate and cool me down. It’s just too humid. My skin burns and my head wants to explode. Finally we reach the top and get our first glimpse of the other side. The hill has helped slow the IUs chasing us but also blocked the noise we’ve made. There’s not an IU in sight down there. They’re there, though, we know they are.

  Looking off to the side, I see a half dozen Undead piling up against the eight-foot chain link fence guarding the Cross Island Expressway. It won’t hold for very long, but it will hold long enough for us to get away. Only the ones on the road behind us are an immediate threat.

  The rest of the gang are a good fifty feet ahead of us. They’ve stopped and are now standing and watching. Reggie sees us and begins to jog back. Jake follows. When they reach us, they take Micah. Kelly and I glance back one last time. The zoms marching up the road have quickened their pace, but the incline seems to have confused them. They have no sense of balance. They lean too far back and tumble over before stubbornly getting back up and trying again.

  Kelly starts laughing. “I’ve never seen anything…” He rests his hands on his knees and wheezes. I can’t help it and start laughing, too. Jake and Reggie look at us like we’re crazy, which only makes us laugh all the harder.

  We stand there and watch for a few more minutes, until it seems the Undead are getting the knack of walking up a slope. Several seem to have given up trying and have resorted to crawling up on their hands and knees. All this reminds us that they’ll never stop coming, not until they’ve lost sight and sound of us. And maybe smell. It immediately sobers us up.

  We turn and begin the painful march across the overpass and down the other side. I can feel my muscles already beginning to stiffen up. My feet are swollen inside these new shoes and it feels like I’ve got a half dozen blisters.

  Kelly points off to the right where the faded sign for a Burger King rises out of the trees about a quarter mile down the road. “That might be a good place to take a rest. If we can get there without being seen. Or making noise.” He looks at Jake and Tanya when he says this, but it’s Ashley who’s face burns with shame. She was the first to scream back there. Of course, it was Reggie’s shouting that brought them all out in the first place.

  “I doubt the drive-thru is open.”

  Kelly rolls his eyes. “Not the Burger King. I was talking about that place just past it.”

  “Sporting goods?”

  He nods. “They’re bound to have clothes and shoes and maybe even weapons, better than what we’ve got, anyway. Plus survival food. And if we can get inside without making any noise, maybe we can catch a few minutes rest.”

  “With Arc on our heels?” Ashley asks.

  Kelly grins. “They’ll first have to make it through the IUs on the highway.”

  “Kelly’s right,” I say, nodding. “We need a rest, even if it’s for a short while. Micah’s hurting.” I glance down at Kelly’s leg. The outside of his left pant leg is soaked through. “Won’t do us any good to get away if we just end up running ourselves to death.”

  “Speaking of Arc,” Jake says, stopping and looking around. “Where’s Stephen?”

  Chapter 26

  Kelly starts running back up toward the crest of the overpass. I take off after him, grabbing his arm when I catch him. His skin is slick with sweat and slips through my grip.

  “He’s gone,” I say. “Kelly, he’s gone! Leave it.”

  He makes a strangled sound in his throat, his eyes never leaving the top of the hill.

  “Even if he managed to escape the IUs, Kel, why would he stay with us?”

  He turns to me. “Because he needs us.”

  “We need him, not the other way around.”

  “Out here, we’re his best chance of survival. He won’t last very long by himself.”

  I shake my head. “You’re thinking like you, not him. It won’t take him long to get back to LaGuardia. Back to his people.”

  Kelly pants, his gaze passing from me to t
he others to the hill. Finally he shakes his head.

  “Let’s go.”

  “Kel—”

  “I said, let’s go. We have to keep going.”

  He reaches the others but doesn’t stop. They stare at his back, just like me.

  “What’ll we do now?” Ash asks in a low voice. “We don’t know where we’re going.”

  I watch Kelly limp away. “I think he does.” And I step away to follow, but Reggie grabs my arm and pulls me back.

  “What do you mean?” he asks. “How could he know?” I yank, but he holds on tight. He won’t let go. “This is bullshit, Jess. Tell us.”

  I keep pulling. “Let’s just get down there and out of the sun, okay?”

  He frowns, his eyes studying mine for a moment before he loosens his grip. I wait for him to completely let go before stepping away.

  “Damn it, Jessie!”

  “I don’t like this,” Jake mumbles to Reggie. “Since coming back it’s been all about her and Kelly. They think they’re better than the rest of us and can boss us around. Just because they’re not stuck here like we are.”

  Rage burns inside of me at these words, but I resist the urge to give in to it.

  “Get away from me, Pukeboy,” Reggie mutters.

  “I’m just say—”

  “Just shut the hell up. Okay, Jake?”

  “Hey, you were the one shooting your mouth off back there. You’re the one that caused everything to go to hell in the first place!”

  I hear feet scuffle behind me, but before I can turn, Ashley intervenes. “Reggie! Please, come on. It’s not worth it.”

  I glance back one last time and confirm everyone’s following and that the Undead haven’t breached the top of the highway.

  Kelly’s limp is noticeably more pronounced. He’s slowed a lot. It doesn’t take us long to catch up with him. Ashley asks him what happened, but he just shakes his head. His face is white, the tendons in his neck standing out with the strain of putting one foot in front of the other. Beads of sweat pour down his cheeks. I worry about him becoming dehydrated.

  “Cut his leg when he jumped off the tram,” I whisper.

  Ashley shoots me a worried look, but I give my head a quick shake. It’s not worth talking about right now. We need to get inside, out of the sun. We need to rest and drink. We need to bandage that wound.

  “Serves him right,” Jake mumbles. I turn to say something, but I catch Tanya giving him a dirty look. Only then does he shut up.

  I have mixed feelings about the way Jake has glommed onto Tanya. It’s a relief because it takes some of the pressure off of the rest of us. Jake’s feelings for me and his animosity for Kelly are totally screwing with us all. Half the time it’s like he wants to protect me, but the other half he can’t stand the sight of me. I don’t know if ignoring him is making things worse, or if trying to talk to him will help. All I know is that he needs to stop acting so emotional. He’ll just end up making someone to do something that we’ll all regret.

  Reggie moves up parallel with Kelly. I see him point off to the side where there’s a well-worn animal trail off the shoulder of the road and down to the parking lot for the sports store. The trail is a straight shot, but its narrow and thick brush lines both sides, perfect hiding places for IUs. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Kelly shaking his head.

  We keep walking, heading for what appears to be an exit at the junction with the Douglaston Parkway, but when we get there, there is no off-ramp. We either have to go further or backtrack.

  We gather in the shade of the overpass to discuss this. The Douglaston curves over our heads and back around to the right, leading straight to the sporting goods store. About twenty feet of loose brush separates us from it here, plus a chain link fence.

  “Well?”

  “I say we go back and try that path,” Reggie says.

  Ashley shakes her head. “I didn’t like the looks of it.”

  Reggie sighs, but nods in agreement.

  “We could try going through here,” Kelly says. He bends down to look beneath the brush. “It looks clear.”

  “Except for that fence,” I say.

  “There’s a gap at the bottom.” He points. We all look.

  “Looks dicey.”

  “One person holds it up while the rest squeeze through.”

  “Who’s going to hold it?”

  “Oh, for god’s sake!” Jake snaps. “I’ll hold it.”

  “Keep it down! Christ, you’ll never learn.”

  Before anyone can stop him, Jake marches through the bushes, deftly sidestepping any branches. He gets to the fence and makes an exaggerated gesture, beckoning us to him. Then he bends down and lifts the bottom. The metal links rattle against each other.

  Something flutters from the darkened rafters above our heads. My heart leaps into my throat. A pigeon erupts from the shadows, cooing and fluttering. It flies away.

  “Come on, guys!” Jake whispers. He’s starting to get nervous standing out there by himself.

  I turn to Kelly. “Take Micah. I’ll come last.”

  “But—”

  I pull out the pistol. He nods.

  After Micah squeezes through, Kelly follows. Then Ash and Tanya. Reggie looks at me. “You should go next. Once I go through, it’s just you and Jake on this side.”

  “Jake’ll be fine. So will I.”

  Reggie’s eyes grow dark. “See you on the other side.” And then he’s loping over the uneven ground. He stops when he reaches the fence. He hands Jakes his backpack, takes one look back at me, then slides underneath. Jake has to strain to hold it up high enough. It’s tight, but Reggie somehow manages to get through. He stands, dusts himself off, then waves at me to go.

  I look around at the empty space beneath the overpass, wiping my hands on my jeans. I’m just about to step out into the sunlight when a handful of pebbles showers down at me from the near the rafters. Something shuffles deep in the darkness. The skin on the back of my neck prickles. In a flash, I’m tearing along the path toward the fence, not looking back. Jake gets this surprised look on his face, then it turns to fright and for a second I’m sure he’s going to slip beneath the fence himself and leave me stranded to face whatever is behind me. But he doesn’t, he waves frantically at me, and when I reach him he wrenches the fence up as high as he can pull it. I dive underneath, then scamper to my feet. But I’m caught! Something’s holding me down, pressing on my back. I slip and fall.

  “Hold on!” Jake hisses.

  I feel him tug at my waist to unhook the wire. I lift up for a moment, then drop with a thump to the ground.

  “Go!” he says.

  Arms reach down and yank me away. I turn because someone needs to help Jake through, but Kelly’s already there, pushing the fence up, guiding Jake underneath. I raise my eyes to the path. The bushes rustle with movement.

  But it’s just the wind. There’s nothing there.

  Chapter 27

  “Man, you should’ve seen your face!”

  “It’s not funny, Reggie,” I say, swinging my pack at him. But he dodges around a light post in the nearly empty parking lot.

  “You’re right, Jess. It’s not funny. It’s fucking hilarious!” He skips away, laughter filling his eyes and tripping off his tongue.

  I give him the finger. It wouldn’t be so bad if it was just Reggie teasing me, but Ash is trying hard not to laugh. Even Kelly is grinning.

  “Shut up, you guys.”

  Kelly leans in. “Aw, come on, Jess. Lighten up. Admit it, you almost peed your pants.”

  I frown at him.

  “Not even a little leakage?” Reggie teases.

  “You’re gross.”

  “You were like, ‘Waaa! Outta my way! Coming through!’”

  “Was not.”

  “No, no,” he says, wiping the tears from his eyes. “It was actually more like, ‘Aieee!’”

  “I didn’t say that!” I nearly shout. We all stop and look nervously around for a momen
t, suddenly aware of how quiet it is and how easily sounds carry. But all that greets our ears is the low whine of the breeze through the trees and the raucous songs of the cicadas in them.

  “You guys need to shush,” Ashley urges. She gives us all a stern look, even as she tries desperately to look sympathetic. All it does is twist her face up so she looks like a total dork. Laughter bubbles out of me and everyone starts all over again, though much quieter this time around.

  “They’re jerks,” Jake says, pulling up beside me. “Don’t listen to them.”

  “Thanks, but I’m fine.”

  “No, really. I’d never laugh at you like that.”

  I’m suddenly uncomfortable with his closeness, his on-again, off-again show of sympathy. He doesn’t even try to hide the contempt he has for Kelly. I hug my pack to my chest and say, “They’re just blowing off steam. Don’t worry about it. Really.”

  He frowns. It’s not the response he was expecting. I can tell he’s trying not to look hurt. He quickly sidles away again, back to where Tanya is standing. She has a guarded look in her eyes, like she’s just not sure about the rest of us. Guilt flickers through me. We’re doing it again, excluding others because they’re not tuned into how we interact.

  But then I see the troubled look on Micah’s face and the laughter dies in my throat. There’s nothing of that old carefree Micah left. For the first time I realize we may have lost him for good.

  Kelly takes in a deep breath and tells Ashley and Reggie to settle down. “Let’s just focus, okay?”

  The front doors to the sports store are locked. Of course. Reggie wipes away some of the dust from the window and looks inside. “I see a lot of…I don’t know, uniforms and crap,” he says. He shrugs, not looking very hopeful. “All the old collectible stuff: football and hockey jerseys… Bunch of useless, illegal junk is all.”

  “Illegal or not, we all need new clothes. And they’re bound to have food and bottled water inside. Energy bars, maybe.”

  “I am so tired of packaged crap. Right now I’d love a big, fat, juicy turkey drumstick.”