The Hike (Book 1): Survivors

by Quentin Rogers

  After a mile or so of passing open fields just waiting for someone to plant them, she saw the farm houses she was expecting up ahead. As she got closer, she realized that the houses were two houses on either side of the road, with several small buildings and barns scattered about them. Neither of the houses were extravagant or very large, but the one on the left side of the road up ahead looked like it might be a little bigger. She continued to check them out as she approached and decided to try out the house on the left first as the driveway was the first one she came to on the gravel road.

  As she turned into the driveway and slowly pedaled down the graveled way, she passed an older tin garage or shop that most likely housed tractors and such. Up ahead there was a huge cottonwood tree that dominated the front of the older white-washed two story farm house. The tree had an old tire swing hanging from the main branch that stretched out and seemed to cover the length of the open front yard. Mackenzie road her bike onto the unkempt grass and over to the large tree. She dismounted and leaned her bike against the tree while inspecting the front of the farm house. The house needed a paint job, but overall looked like it was well-maintained. The white paint on the front porch and around the windows of the second floor was flaking and peeling in several places.

  Mackenzie took the AR off from around her back and flipped the safety off. She was proud of herself coming this far without the others, but now she was getting nervous. The weight of the rifle was a little too much for her and she struggled holding it out in front of her as she walked slowly towards the front door. She walked slowly and was intently listening for any odd sounds. She could feel her heart beating faster than it should have been as she took slow steps up the front steps and onto the covered porch that ran the length of the house. When she reached the screen door, she stood there for several seconds just listening and tried to gather the courage to move forward.

  She used the barrel of the rifle to knock on the door. After listening intently and not hearing anything other than her own heartbeat, she knocked louder and hollered out “Hello!”

  After a few silent seconds, she reached out and opened the screen door that made an awful screech when it was pulled open. She hollered one more time before turning the knob on the front door and stepping inside. The windows let in plenty of light in the mid-morning sun and the scene was pretty much just as Mackenzie had pictured it. A living room with a TV and a few outdated chairs and sofa was just off the main entrance, and a set of stairs in the middle of the house prominently separated the living room from a country kitchen with plain cabinets that was in the opposite corner of the first floor. The little place was somewhat cluttered, but was relatively clean and well cared for.

  Mackenzie made her way to the kitchen and started going through the cabinets to see what food stuffs she could find. Since they had the boat now, she didn’t have to limit her search to freeze dried items. She got excited when she found a box of macaroni and cheese along with some evaporated milk. She also found some cans of various soups and even a couple of cans of ravioli’s that she was sure would bring a smile to Stuarts eyes.

  At the edge of the kitchen was a narrow door that Mackenzie opened. It led to a set of stairs with very narrow runners that went down into darkness. She started to close the door, and then remembered her Aunt Heidi’s root cellar. Her aunt lived on a small country farm in Nebraska, where Mackenzie had gone and stayed for a couple of weeks every summer. Her aunt canned every fall, and always had food stored down in the root cellar. Mackenzie dug through the backpack and found a single glow light. She snapped it, shook it up, and put the string around her neck so she could carry the rifle easier. She took a deep breath to steady her nerves, then crept down the narrow stairway towards a hope of good food. Each stair seemed to creak louder than the last one as she slowly made her way down to the bottom. She could only see a few feet in front of her, but knew that she was all the way down when she stepped on bare earth.

  This farm house had a true root cellar where the ground and walls were mainly just dirt. The room she was in, wasn’t much bigger than her bedroom back home, but the walls covered from dirt floor to rafter ceiling with cans upon cans of food. Mackenzie allowed herself to give a little fist pump before closely inspecting the mason jars for their contents. Each one had been painstakingly labeled with what was in it and the date that it was canned.

  She went through and found tomatoes, corn, pickles, jams, green beans, and anything else you could imagine canning on those shelves. Mackenzie cracked open a jar of dill pickles and ate through at least half of it as she was holding the glow light up to the shelves trying to decide what she wanted. She could tell that after only filling up the back pack half full that she wasn’t going to be able to grab as much as she had hoped because it was already almost too heavy for her to carry. She grabbed a few more jars of what she thought Stuart and her dad might like best and closed the back-pack up tight. It took several minutes for her to figure out how to lift the heavy pack and get it onto her back. She grabbed a jar of blackberry jam and the rifle, and headed up the stairs. The stairs groaned even more on her trip back up to the kitchen, but they held out just the same. Once in the kitchen, she sat the backpack down harder than she meant to and winced at the sound of the jars clanging together. She didn’t have the heart to look in it to see which jars hadn’t survived. Instead she headed to the kitchen drawers and opened a few of them until she found where the spoons were stored and grabbed one. She broke open the jar of blackberry jam and dug straight into it. She couldn’t help her eyes from rolling back into her head as the strong bitter and sweet flavors from the jam rolled around on her tongue. It was unbelievable. She would have eaten a jar of it on biscuits or toast normally, but as it was she was content to eat it straight from the jar. She had a couple more heaping spoonfuls of the nectar before being able to move about.

  She slung the rifle over her shoulder and headed up the stairs still spooning blackberry jam into her mouth as she walked. At the top of the stairs there was a hallway with several doors in it. The only open door was at the end of the hallway, and it clearly led to the largest bedroom. Mackenzie gingerly walked down the hallway and peered into the room. As she suspected, there appeared to be two bodies lying in the bed. She quietly closed the bedroom door and walked back down the hallway. She opened the next door and found what she was looking for. It was a small bathroom with a cast iron tub and a small window near the top of the ceiling just above the tub that let enough light in to see. She tried the sink faucet, but as was normal in this new world, it just let out a little water before hissing and guffing, and then finally falling silent.

  Mackenzie had an idea and sat her jar of jam down on the bathroom counter top with the end of the spoon sticking out from it. Then she left the bathroom and began skipping down the stairs. She didn’t stop in the living room and shuffled right out onto the porch. Her excitement grew as she saw the hydrant in the middle of the front yard that she had thought she remembered seeing there when she leaned her bike against the tree. She leapt off the porch and started jogging over to the middle of the yard when the screen door made a loud ‘swap’ sound behind her as it most likely had done ten thousand times before. The sound startled her and brought her back to reality just before she reached the hydrant.

  The hydrant was an old hand pump that had been painted black, and didn’t look like it had been used in quite some time. Her hopes were dashed when she reached it and tried to pull up on the handle, but it wouldn’t budge. She let out a deep breath and half-heartedly kicked the pump at its base. When the pump rocked slightly, she seen the handle move somewhat. She took the rifle from her back and laid it on the ground next to the pump. She tried lifting the handle again, except this time she put everything she had into it. The handle slowly began to raise and she heard a slight sucking sound coming out of the hydrant. Once the handle was at the top, she jumped up and put all her weight on top of the handle. She began to work the handle up and down, again and again. It sl
owly loosened up and became easier to operate. Mackenzie was hearing more and more sounds coming out of the pump that gave her hope as she began to breathe hard and felt herself sweating again. Just when the pump was getting somewhat easy to move up and down, water gushed out of the spout. She pumped it a few more times just to make sure, and clear water spewed out of the hydrant’s mouth.

  She ran to the large barn that was around the side of the house without picking the rifle back up. When she got there, she found the remains of several animals laying in the pens and around the outside of the barn. She tried to ignore the animals as she looked around for something to hold water in. She quickly spotted a large metal pail and a plastic bucket that she scooped up and jogged back to the hydrant with. It didn’t take long and she had filled both containers up and walked them into the house to fill the tub in the upstairs bathroom. After about five trips, Mackenzie was exhausted and the tub was full.

  Even though she was excited to use some of the soaps, shampoos, and scrubs that she had found in the bathroom, she almost changed her mind altogether when she stepped into the frigid water. She stood there for several seconds before she heard her teeth start to chatter.

  “This is stupid,” she said to herself and quickly sat down in the cold water. After sitting there for a few moments, she decided it wasn’t as bad as she had thought it might be and decided to stick it out. She leaned back against the tub and reached for the blackberry jam.

  Mackenzie spent the rest of the morning soaking, scrubbing, and eating the jam in the tub. Just when she was thinking that she had to get out before she was totally shriveled, she heard the screen door downstairs slam. Mackenzie’s stomach immediately jumped up into her throat and all her muscles tightened. It had made the same ‘swap’ sound as it had with every trip she had made in and out with the buckets of water.

  She looked around the room for the rifle and sheer terror filled her when she realized that she had left it on the ground next to the hydrant in the front yard. She didn’t know what to do. She just laid quietly in the tub and listened for any sound that would tell her what was going on, but she heard nothing. After a few minutes, she sat up and pulled the curtain around the tub so that she could hide behind it if anyone came up the stairs and into the bathroom.

  She continued to sit there and listen long enough that she began to doubt that she had heard the screen door slam in the first place. She decided that she couldn’t lay in the tub indefinitely, and had to get out at some point. She began to move and slowly stood up in the tub. She stood there for several seconds taking shallow breaths and listening for any sounds. She stepped out of the tub moving ever so slowly, but the floor board beneath her foot squeaked regardless. Immediately afterwards, she heard what sounded like glass breaking from somewhere on the floor below.

  She tiptoed quickly over to the bathroom door and turned the lock on the doorknob. She gathered up her clothes from the floor in one pile and stood there quietly listening. In a few moments, she heard something softly coming up the stairs. Then she heard it quietly shuffling down the hallway, getting closer to the bathroom. She just stood there in the center of the bathroom with her clothes in her hands trying not to breathe loudly or make any kind of sound.

  Whatever it was reached the bathroom door and stopped. She heard it touch the door, then heard what sounded like it was trying to smell something from around the edges. Then it put its head to the floor and was smelling underneath the door. It was becoming more excited and agitated as it continued to take in big snorts of air, trying to smell whatever it liked on Mackenzie’s side of the door.

  Mackenzie stood motionless and utterly quiet. She closed her eyes and wished for her dad. She was pushing her will out to him, begging for him to come save her from whatever creature was on the other side of that door.

  Suddenly, the smelling and snorting stopped. She didn’t dare make a sound. She continued to stand as quietly as she could in the middle of the bathroom with her now soaked clothes pressed up against her. Her breathing was so controlled and quiet that she couldn’t even hear it, but she was petrified that the creature on the other side of the door could hear her heart beating. It was pounding inside her ears and she was sure that it was loud enough for someone else to hear.

  WHAM! Whatever was outside the bathroom door had just decided that it wanted what smelled so good on the inside of the bathroom and had hit the door hard enough that it rocked on its hinges. Mackenzie let out a startled yelp after the noise, and she involuntarily lifted her hand to her open mouth to silence anything else that might try to come out.

  After another couple seconds of quiet, the creature slammed into the door again. This time it was harder than the last, and Mackenzie seen the door jamb begin to splinter where the hinges were.

  Mackenzie didn’t know what she should do, but she knew that she had to do something. She put her underwear and t-shirt on just as the thing hit the door again.

  She looked up to the small window above the tub, and even though it looked impossibly small and high for her to reach and get through; she knew she had to try. She put her feet on the sides of the wet tub and straddled it enough to reach her finger tips up to the window ledge just as the creature slammed into the door again. This time after it hit, it let out a low groan from the other side of the door that sounded like a man in pain.

  She got fingers and palms from both hands over onto the window ledge and pulled herself up high enough to see the window. The window was designed to slide sideways and there was no latch on it luckily. She let herself back down and reached up with one hand to try and open the window.

  WHAM! Mackenzie looked over her shoulder and seen that this time, the door had physically moved such that one of the top corners of the door hadn’t closed all the way back into the doorway.

  One of her nails caught on the edge of the window, and it slid open a few inches. She took a couple of deep breaths and pulled herself up with all her might. She pulled herself high enough for her to put one hand through the window and grab the outside of the house just as the creature hit the door again and let out another loud moan.

  She pulled and worked her arm through the window until it was up to her armpit. She pushed again, and with one big heave the window slid open even more. She was pushing against the wall with her feet and edged her head through the opening. The afternoon sun was bright compared to the dimly lit bathroom and it was difficult to see anything, but she was sure that there was no ledge from up here.

  She managed to get her other hand and then arm out of the window. She wriggled back and forth through the tiny opening until her waist was balancing in the open window. She wasn’t sure what to do from this position as she couldn’t turn over and there was nothing to grab a hold of on the clapboard siding. Just then, the creature hit the door again and came crashing into the room. Its momentum carried it across the room and into the tub.

  Mackenzie heard the commotion and felt something dig at her left leg that was dangling in the open window. Her fear of the creature took over her fear of falling and she tried to push herself free from the window opening. Both of her feet caught in the upstairs window as she tumbled down. She hit her left shoulder into the house on the way down before landing on her right side in the grass just next to the house.

  It took a second for the pain to hit and the cobwebs to leave her after she landed. She opened her eyes and seen the shape of a man’s head and shoulders looking out of the upstairs window. It took another second for her to realize that the creature was no longer looking out the window, and then her adrenaline kicked in. She sprung to her feet only slightly aware of the pain in her shoulder and sprinted around the side of the house. Not seeing anything as she rounded the corner, she continued to sprint towards the middle of the yard where the rifle lay on the ground next to the water hydrant.

  When she was half-way to the pump, the creature bounded out of the front door and the screen door made a loud swap again. It stopped to look around for a split second
before seeing Mackenzie darting across the grass. Its eyes locked with hers and it took off in a path that would intercept with hers just about where the rifle lay. The creature was much faster than Mackenzie and she pumped her legs as hard as they would go. The creature looked like young man, but it didn’t run or move like a human. It bounded with rolled over shoulders much like a large animal.

  Mackenzie reached the hydrant a split second before the creature, and she slid in the wet grass just like she was sliding into second base. She snagged the rifle as she slid, somewhat shouldered the stock, and pulled the trigger in three quick successive pulls. The man-creature was so close that it didn’t matter if she aimed or not, and all three shots hit him at different locations in the torso. The creature let out a loud moan, slowed, and then stood straight up. Mackenzie pulled the rifle all the way up to her shoulder and aimed at the creature’s head as her slide came to a stop.

  “Stoooop!” she screamed at the thing in front of her.

  The creature’s bewilderment at the holes in its torso quickly left when it heard Mackenzie scream, and its eyes locked back on hers and it took a step forward. Mackenzie dispatched it quickly with a round to the forehead that knocked it backwards before it crumpled.

  Mackenzie was instinctively on her feet with the rifle trained on the creature. As she looked at it she realized that it was a man. Or at least it had been. It was undoubtedly a human, although it didn’t appear to be solely human. Its flesh was almost white with a green undertone, and there were black open wounds on its face and all along its exposed parts of its arms. The wounds looked almost as if the flesh was rotting right on the body.