Jules was sitting in the perch above the front door and saw them before either of them could see her. She waved excitedly until both Jerry and Danny waved back to her. Mia opened the door to let them in and immediately confirmed what Jerry had feared: Danielle and Betsy had not yet returned.
Jerry ordered Danny to keep watch at the lodge and join Abdul on the veranda overhead. Abdul started to come down the stairs but Jerry waved his hand. “I can’t leave them here alone. I need you to be here with them. I won’t be long.” Jerry slammed the door behind him and made his way back out into the forest in search of the three ladies.
It was starting to snow again, coming down in lazy flakes, which rested uncomfortably on the cold ground waiting for the next breath of wind to once again set them to flight. Jerry’s footsteps were enough to give them life for a few seconds, each footfall producing a snowstorm raging below his knees.
If there had been tracks to follow, those were now being covered with the fresh falling snow. With hope as his compass, Jerry trekked into the woods in search of a little girl and two women.
Chapter 65
Running into the forest without any true direction, Jerry was as likely to get lost himself as he was to find the missing ladies. He may very well have wandered off into oblivion if not for the timely pop of a gunshot not too far from his location.
He charged off toward the sound of the discharged firearm, his heart racing. With the trees streaking by in a blur, Jerry very nearly missed Danielle and Betsy lying below one of the larger trees in the area. The two women were curled up with one another and sobbing. It was the noise they made that alerted Jerry to their presence. He almost passed them without noticing them.
He stopped awkwardly in his tracks, his momentum still threatening to carry him forward. He caught Danielle’s eyes and immediately saw that they were filled with sadness. Kneeling closer to them, he asked, “Nikki?”
Danielle shook her head sadly. “We found her. Back that way a bit. One of those things... It was... it had...” She struggled for words and finally managed, “Betsy tried to pull it off of her but the thing attacked her. There was so much blood and it just wouldn’t stop. It kept biting her and biting her and...” Danielle’s words trailed off as her sorrow truly grabbed hold of her.
Lying against Danielle’s chest in a fetal position, Betsy was shivering. Danielle had wrapped a scarf around Betsy’s mangled arm, trying to cover the horrific bite wounds and stop the bleeding at the same time. Both efforts were futile. Beneath Betsy’s eyes, dark crescents had begun to form but the rest of her color in her face had faded drastically. Her already pale cheeks were quickly becoming opaque. It was obvious that her shock was contributing to her rapid decline.
Jerry saw all the signs and knew that there could be only one conclusion. He pulled off his ever-present University of Alaska Anchorage Seawolves cap, which had once been Claire’s, and ran his fingers through his thickening hair thoughtfully. They were wasting time that they didn’t have.
“Danielle, we really should be...” Jerry couldn’t finish his statement or his thought. He knew that they needed to be on their way but he couldn’t bring himself to say so. He touched Betsy’s shoulder gently and looked down at her. The older woman’s eyes fluttered and then stopped with the lids partially cracked, revealing her cloudy corneas.
In a whisper, Danielle admitted with a hint of shame in her voice, “I don’t really know her. After William brought me back here, Gordon had been over to the lodge a couple of times to borrow this or return that. He used to talk about his wife but she never really left the house. He sure loved her though. He never said a single negative word about her. He’d go on and on about her artwork...fused glass I think.” Danielle’s eyes glazed a bit as her thoughts wandered away from the forest.
He hated to do it, but Jerry was forced to interrupt her and bring her back to their present situation. He helped her up to first her knees and then her feet. Betsy’s breathing was dangerously shallow, starving her blood and brain of oxygen which enabled vital functions to be performed. She was slipping away rapidly.
“We really should be moving on,” he said gently. “Those things are everywhere in the woods all of a sudden. They must have sensed that we were over on this side of the Cove.”
“What about her? What do we do with Betsy? Carry her?” Danielle asked the questions but she could tell by Jerry’s posture his intent. She shook her head and moved herself to shield the older woman from Jerry. “We can’t.... what do you plan to do?”
“Danielle, she’s...once you’ve been bitten... I mean, there’s nothing that can be done. She probably won’t ever regain consciousness.”
Looking a little annoyed, Danielle added, “And she would just slow us down. Dead weight, right?”
Jerry looked hurt, but he didn’t deny Danielle’s line of thinking. He grabbed Danielle’s arm and tried to lift her back to her feet, but she refused to move, pulling her arm away defiantly.
The crackle pop of approaching footsteps atop the decaying ground foliage and fallen tree branches and leaves quickly shifted Jerry’s entire demeanor. His rifle was back in his hands and at the ready. He leaned back on his heels to better allow him to see his surroundings.
Jerry could see at least two more zekes, one much closer than the other but both closer than he would have liked. Danielle watched Jerry and tensed up herself. Betsy was still struggling to maintain her tenuous hold on life, but Danielle was too distracted to pay her more attention than a blind and absent-minded stroking of the older woman’s beautiful long gray hair.
Poor Betsy, quiet and unassuming and having lived a life in a shadow of her own making, was silently slipping away from both the shadow and her life. Her heart still pumped weakening jets of blood from the multiple bite wounds up and down her wiry arm. Both her lap and Danielle’s were soaking up the majority of the thick red fluid.
Jerry looked down and spotted the growing red stain on the two women when from out of the trees, another woman burst into the clearing. Running as fast as she was, the woman tripped and slid headfirst from one side of the area to the other, coming to rest against a narrow tree.
The thing was quickly onto its hands and knees, but Jerry leapt forward and pounded the butt of his rifle into the creature’s skull several times until it slumped forward motionless. When he had stopped, the back of the beast’s head was a soft, gooey morass of blood and bits of bone.
Jerry turned about slowly, his face and jacket spattered with blood, and beseeched Danielle with his eyes. He needed her to understand that they had to leave at once and that the fate awaiting Betsy was no different than that of the woman he had just dispatched. He looked down at the awful, lifeless being and then cast his eyes onto Betsy to emphasize his point.
Danielle relaxed her shoulders a bit and softened the contours of her face. She knew what had to be done and did so without another word from Jerry.
Gingerly, she eased Betsy’s head from her lap and onto the ground. Betsy scarcely registered the change in position. Danielle stood, looking down at the beautiful older woman and couldn’t see any of that former beauty. The woman’s face looked faded and drawn, as if the years to come had been leached from her over the last few minutes. Her eyes fluttered, but it was certainly not returning consciousness or lucidity. Danielle could see death’s encroachment upon the woman.
Without a word, she stepped away from Betsy and looked to Jerry for direction. She was acting against every empathetic impulse in her being by leaving suffering Betsy to face her doom alone and doing so was not something she would be able to accomplish on her own. Jerry pointed back in the direction from which he had come and Danielle trotted off in that direction.
Luckily for both of them, they weren’t that far from a main trail, which led directly back to the lodge. The movement in the trees was growing all around them, the trees themselves seemingly starting to rally against the two of them.
They could see the lodge after a few tense mome
nts of running along the worn path. Seeing it helped to restore Danielle’s flagging energy and resolve. The two ran hard, as hard as their feet would carry them.
Running, gasping for breath, fighting to control the scream that was threatening to escape from her lips, Danielle suddenly felt like they were not alone. She felt like an animal being tracked by another; she felt like prey, exposed and vulnerable.
Looking back over her shoulder, her worst fears were realized. They were being pursued by a creature whose frenetic head tics and flailing arms made it appear much larger and faster than it actually was. It felt like she was watching it on a video played in fast forward and it made her stomach turn. Even on the run as she was, Danielle could taste the bitter acid rise to the back of her throat. Through her mind replayed the violent attack on Betsy she had witnessed. It had played out in the blink of an eye and was threatening to happen again.
Finding some untapped reserves, Danielle picked up her pace and was relieved when Jerry did the same. She wasn’t going to be eaten, but she didn’t want to feel guilty about leaving someone behind to suffer the same end, especially Jerry, who had come out to find and save her. It dawned on her at that moment that he could well have left her behind but had opted to stay with her, to protect her. He could have abandoned her from the time they both had started to run, but there he was running right alongside her.
Danielle could tell that he knew they were being followed as well by his body language and facial expression. He obviously didn’t want to turn and fight for some reason so Danielle pushed herself to run harder and faster.
Seconds later, they were running on frosty, snow covered pavement. The lodge was looming directly ahead and beckoning to them. The air in their lungs was beginning to feel thin and too cold to breathe. Danielle was quickly nearing her limit but she continued to push herself. Her eyes were glossy and her mouth opened and closed again and again like a fish searching for water.
Her pace was slowing no matter how hard she tried to keep her legs going or how much she wanted to stay alive. Her hands were shaking and her eyes were beginning to cloud.
They were at the driveway and she could hear the extra set of frantic footsteps, which were getting terribly close. She couldn’t help the tears any more than she could help the fright that was building exponentially in her chest and belly.
It was about then that she heard a snap, which sliced the air near to her and was quickly followed by the undeniable crack of a firearm. From behind her, she could hear the thing stumble and then hit the ground awkwardly. She could still hear it grunting and making other noises so it obviously wasn’t dead yet.
Jerry stopped dead in his tracks, spun around, and raised his rifle all in one agile movement, sighting down the barrel. Gritting his teeth, he pulled the trigger and the demon fell silent.
“Gooooo!” he urged. “Keep goingggg! We can’t stop!”
Mia and Jules met them at the front door of the lodge and let them in, bolting the door quickly after them. Danielle fell on the floor and felt her anxiety and relief overtake her. She was weeping and trying to control a relieved laugh at the same time. She was also attempting to regain her breath despite her protesting lungs. She coughed and hacked uncontrollably while Mia and Jules attempted to soothe her.
When Danielle looked back up, she realized Jerry wasn’t there. No sooner had they made it inside than he was running up the stairs toward Danny out on the veranda. Jerry hadn’t said a thing; he had made his way to the next assignment that would keep them alive.
Once she had gathered her breath, Danielle asked Jules, “He’s taken good care of you hasn’t he?”
Surprisingly astute for a young child, Jules answered, “Jerry saved me and Danny just like he saved you today. Neil and him keep us all safe.”
Still fighting back some tears, Danielle admitted, “He makes me feel safe too.”
Chapter 66
“Got ‘im,” Danny said, peering down his barrel at the approaching target. It was the sixth one already since Jerry and Danielle got back and that wasn’t counting the one that Danny shot to help the two of them get inside. Danny had shot four of them and brought down three of those that he hit.
It felt good to finally be called upon to contribute in a meaningful way. He wasn’t doing kids’ work this time. Danny was using the rifle that Neil had given him.
With each pull of the trigger, Danny’s heart rate increased and his cheeks flushed a deeper shade of red. There was no denying his excitement.
Nikki was gone, and so was that pretty lady with the white hair. There were glimpses of emotion and something else, which nagged at him between the gunshots and the tense moments just before and after. The something else was an emotion which he associated with lying to his mother or betraying his friend. It was a needling sensation that twisted his stomach and chilled his heart. He thought that it felt like guilt, but there was something buried within the emotion that was unfamiliar. If he was able to identify it, he might recognize it as grim satisfaction. He wasn’t satisfied that either the girl or the woman had died, but he was decidedly satisfied that he had not. It was like a soldier’s guilt of having survived a battle when so many others he had known did not. It was a sour lump that burned when Danny swallowed and made his eyes feel hot from the inside. He didn’t like it one bit.
Sitting with the boy, Abdul sensed Danny’s unrest in the boy’s fidgety posture, erratic breathing, and distracted expression. Abdul had seen it many times before back in Africa on the faces of hopeless survivors of any number of catastrophes. Abdul hummed the contagious harmony from Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.” He watched the trees as intently as Danny, but he continued to hum the same refrain.
In time, Abdul would sing refrains from the song, doing his utmost to mimic Bob’s angelic voice, “...sayin’ don’t worry, ‘bout a t’ing. ‘Cause, ev’ry little t’ing’s goina’ be alright...”
Abdul sat for a while longer, singing the occasional song lyric. The man noticed the boy begin to tap his fingers on the chair’s metal frame to the time of the melody. The boy was settling back further into his chair’s cushion. His eyes were still distant and sorrowful, but the rest of his body was releasing some of the metaphysical toxins plaguing him. Danny hadn’t outwitted or outrun his demons yet, but they were giving him a little space for the moment.
When Abdul went back inside, the music in Danny’s head departed with him and all of his dark troubles rushed back. He wasn’t left alone for long though. Jerry stepped through the door and took the spot vacated by Abdul. Distracted himself, Jerry completely missed Danny’s anxiety. The two sat silent for quite some time.
Fortunately, there was ample distraction for the two of them while they watched for any more activity in front of the lodge. A steady breeze had become a determined wind, blowing free the few stubborn leaves still clinging to the trees all around them. The placement of the lodge and its angles helped to shield them from much of the wind’s wrath, but they weren’t spared completely from the cold currents. The snow had picked up as well, threatening to become a full-blown storm. Visibility was challenging despite the sun still casting a dull glow through the persistently bellicose clouds. Jerry and Danny both agreed that the coming night posed some significant challenges if any zekes decided to pay them a visit.
There was also the problem of the others having not returned. Neil, Emma, William, and Jess were still on their supply run, causing everyone to be a little jumpy and on edge. They all tried to eat, but it felt like they were all visitors eating their host’s food while he was away. It didn’t seem right to any of them.
Jerry never vacated his post and kept a watchful eye on the woods. He sent Danny back inside to get himself something to eat and to warm his young bones. Jerry thought that perhaps he needed some more time alone to digest and process all that had happened and was still threatening to happen over this long day. Jerry’s eyes never strayed from watching the trees, but he was seeing none of it. He barely noticed
when Danielle eventually brought him a plate of baked salmon and wild rice. The food was likely delicious, but Jerry could only bring himself to pick at it. He had a lot on his mind and not much of it was good.
Not even Danielle’s presence was enough to draw him away from his thoughts. He hardly acknowledged her when she delivered his meal. She had intended to thank him for saving her life, but his palpable distraction was enough to drive her away to wait for him to be more emotionally available. She could sense how distant he was, having had a lot of practice with her brother in that pursuit. If Jerry was anything like her brother, she knew that if she left him alone for a bit, he would eventually get more comfortable with his thoughts and rejoin her. The other option was that she completely invaded his space and demanded attention from him, letting her experiences with her moody brother dictate her actions. With all of that in mind, Danielle touched Jerry’s shoulder through several layers of warm clothing and coats, and decided to give him his space and his quiet by going back inside.
Jerry couldn’t deny the anxiety he was feeling, growing stronger the longer Neil and Emma were gone. He cared about both of them deeply, but it was more than that which he was considering. With the three of them together at each other’s sides, he felt like they had a fighting chance to survive. He didn’t think he could do it alone. There were too many variables and too many ways that things could go wrong, and he didn’t think he could do what Neil had done for so long.
There had been a number of times when he doubted Neil’s decisions but most of those had worked out for all of them. In fact, to Jerry’s knowledge, most of the problems they encountered had not arisen as a result of Neil’s decisions. He always did his best to get them out of every jam, whether it was of his making or someone else’s. Jerry thought back on all the times over the past few months in which it felt like all hope was lost but somehow Neil would come through for them.
Alaskan Undead Apocalypse (Book 4): Resolution Page 37