by Brown, TW
Swallowing hard, he raised his weapon and rushed in to help. Heads flew as he severed them from necks, or broke open as he came down with brutal overhead swings. One severed head rolled beside him, its mouth still working, eyes staring up at him. Kevin brought his booted foot down until it broke open and oozed its jelly-like contents all over the ground.
“Behind you!” Aleah screamed.
Kevin spun to find four child-zombies moving for him with arms outstretched. He hated it when he had to put down children, it always made him think of his sister. He knew his family was gone, just like millions of others, and when he thought about their likely fate, he couldn’t escape the guilt that came along with it.
The first child couldn’t have been any older than six. Her mouth was a ruined mess where the rest of her baby teeth had come out—most likely popped free when she gnawed on a bone or something—and left gaping spaces. Her lips were tattered flaps of flesh from having folded over during feeding. Kevin brought his sword across and lifted off the top third of her skull, sending the filthy mop of matted brunette hair flying.
Two of the three continued on to their doom, but the fourth stopped. It seemed to watch what happened to its cohorts and reconsider its actions. Kevin felt a chill run through him as the child-zombie cocked its head first one way and then the other. It was studying him. But that was ridiculous! Zombies don’t think …do they? He wanted to wait longer and see what this thing would eventually decide on, but he needed to get to Aleah. With one firm thrust, he drove the point of his weapon through the face of the little zombie. Did he imagine it, or was there a look of surprise or fear on its face in that last second?
Aleah was still holding her own, fighting off the crowd gathered around her, but she was looking visibly pale. The front of her jacket was slick with blood. A renewed anger welled up in Kevin and he rushed the pack, swinging wildly.
It wasn’t fair, screamed over and over in his mind. He felt tears try to well up in his eyes; whether it was anger, sorrow, or frustration made no difference. He would not allow them purchase. If he did, he might not ever stop.
One by one they fell to his sword. It didn’t seem as if he could swing hard enough or fast enough. Killing the mob gathered around Aleah brought no satisfaction. He wanted to see which of those bastards had done it…which one had just destroyed a part of his soul. He wanted to bring that one all of his pain. It didn’t matter if the thing had no concept of pain; the point was to take all of his soon-to-be loss out on that one thing that had filled him with all the hurt that seemed to strain against the confines of his skin and want to explode his body from the inside out.
The last corpse fell and Kevin forced himself to look up at Aleah. She stood on the stage, her body tilting just a bit to favor the side where the injury was a crimson beacon that he couldn’t keep his eyes away from. She sighed, her entire chest heaving with the effort. The spear-like weapon slipped from her fingers as she swayed and then crumpled.
Kevin jumped up and took her in his arms. Her eyes fluttered and then opened to slits. Already, her tears had started, making her azure eyes glitter like sapphires. A soft sob mixed with a pained moan. The sound of it wrapped around Kevin’s heart like a vice and squeezed to the point where he thought he might actually die. He’d always dismissed the phrase “broken heart” as a ridiculous metaphor created by weak-minded fools who believed in the concept of love. He’d always dismissed the concept of falling in love. Then he’d met Aleah. And now, as fate was wont to do, it was being taken from him in this overgrown back yard where he’d sent her; yet another death to be laid at his feet.
“Kevin?” Aleah whispered.
“Shhh.” He placed a finger on her lips to quiet her.
“I feel so stupid.” Aleah brushed his hand away. “I couldn’t get the latch to budge…I think it’s rusted.”
“Don’t talk, Aleah,” Kevin insisted. “You need to save your energy.”
“Is it that bad?” Aleah’s voice registered alarm.
Kevin couldn’t bring himself to say a word. Her eyes locked on his and pulled out everything he wasn’t saying.
“Did I slice my jugular or something?” she asked, a new fear creeping in to her voice.
“Your shoulder…” Kevin tried to say it, but couldn’t.
“I know,” she said. “I can’t believe how freaking clumsy I am.”
Kevin sat silently, letting her process the situation at her own pace. It wouldn’t be long before the shock wore off and her circumstances dawned. When that happened, he would hold her and give all the comfort he was capable of giving. He wouldn’t dangle the false hope of the possibility of immunity. After all, what were the odds? Heather was immune, as had been his friend Cary.
“I must have snagged myself pretty bad going over that damn fence.”
Kevin was silent for a few seconds before her statement dawned on him. He looked down at the rip right where her slender neck met her creamy, smooth shoulder. Sure enough, there was a nasty gash there. He looked closer at the injury. It was indeed an awful rip in the flesh. However, it did not have the “chunky” look of a bite; instead, it was simply a tear. It was certainly serious, but it wasn’t a—
“You thought I was bit!”
Kevin felt a relief that he would never be able to describe wash over him. Yes, he thought, the injury was serious, but it wasn’t a bite!
“Oh, you poor thing.” Aleah stroked his face with both hands.
“I-I-I…” he stammered, unable to find any words. He stared at the wound, his eyes refusing to let him see with absolute clarity that it was not a bite.
“I lost my grip climbing over and fell on the little metal prongs that stick up from those stupid fences. I bet it must look pretty nasty,” Aleah said with a scowl.
“I thought you were…”
“And just what would you have done?” Aleah ran a finger along his jaw.
“Waited.”
“Would you let me turn?”
“I couldn’t let you become one of those,” Kevin whispered.
“But you would at least wait to be sure.”
“Of course,” Kevin said. “But we can discuss this later. This really isn’t the time or place.”
“I have one little problem,” Aleah said, her face turning a light shade of pink.
“Dizzy from blood loss?” Kevin pulled his small bag from his belt and began rummaging through it.
“Okay…” she paused, “…make that two problems.” She hissed through her teeth as Kevin poured hydrogen peroxide on the open wound. It bubbled and fizzed for a second and he poured a little more before wiping it with some gauze.
“This is gonna need stitches,” Kevin said absently, now engrossed in cleaning and inspecting the wound. “I can put some gauze on it and a bandage, but you need to see Peter right away. This mission is scrapped. We can duck inside long enough for you to use the bathroom.’
“About that…” Aleah blushed an even brighter shade of red.
“Oh, babe,” Kevin said sympathetically as he glanced down and noticed the dark stain in the crotch of her jeans.
“I got scared when all those things came at me while I was trying to pick myself up off the ground,” Aleah confessed.
“Maybe we can look long enough to see if they have any clothes inside that will fit,” Kevin offered.
“You think it’s safe?”
“No worse than being out here.” Kevin pressed the bandage into place, smoothing the adhesive against Aleah’s skin.
He eased her head from his lap and stood. Helping her to her feet, Kevin slung her arm around his neck and wrapped one of his own around her waist to keep her steady. They made their way down the steps and eventually gained entry to the house through a back door that opened into an enormous kitchen.
Both of them had to stifle a gag. There were two bodies in a corner. One had a plastic bag over its head; the other still clutched the shotgun it had used to blow most of its cranium in a wide splattering arc acr
oss the wall at its back. The bad part was the fact that they obviously had done so because they did not want to face the undead child.
Standing in the center of what had once been a beautiful living room with hardwood floors and minimal furniture made from exotic wood was a child no older than five. A long gash across its bare chest indicated that at least somebody had tried to stop it at one point. A bandage was still wrapped around the left forearm where the child had presumably been bitten.
Kevin eased away from Aleah, pulled his KA-BAR Becker Combat Bowie knife, and advanced on the pitiful creature. As he took the first steps forward, he noticed the child made no move towards him. Once again he was faced with one of these things who seemed to be observing him.
Taking a quick glance back at Aleah, he decided that he could take his time with this kill. He had to know…were these things learning? Were they even capable?
He took a step closer, keeping the blade in front of him, but a bit off to the side. Not quite an arms-wide-open gesture, he made a slow approach to the undead child who still stood unmoving. Its eyes went from his knife hand to his face, almost as if it were questioning whether he would actually use it. Could that be a questioning expression, he wondered.
Bringing the knife around so that it was directly in front, he watched the eyes to see if there was any change of expression; or perhaps an indication that this thing could actually be thinking. The eyes followed the blade, and then returned to his face. Kevin stopped a few feet short and slowly slid the knife into its sheath. He brought his hands up in what he hoped would seem like a non-threatening gesture.
“What are you doing?” Aleah whispered. She had watched everything so far and could not understand why Kevin hadn’t just put that pathetic child down so it could be at peace.
“Look at it,” Kevin called over his shoulder, not daring to take his eyes from this thing for a second. No matter what he thought about the possibility of some of the zombies being able to develop a semblance of cognition, he wasn’t fool enough to turn his back on one.
“It’s a zombie!” Aleah insisted.
“It’s watching me,” Kevin said. “Pay attention to its eyes. They follow me, and I swear I see some sort of recognition in them. It is trying to figure something out.”
“Yeah,” Aleah shot back, “like how to eat you…maybe which bits might be tastier than others.”
Kevin ignored the quip and took another step closer. The child tilted its head one way then the other, very much like a dog. One foot slid forward a few inches, then the other. Kevin froze, his hand going instinctively for the knife he’d put away.
“Just kill it!” Aleah insisted.
The zombie child’s head twitched slightly. It craned its neck a little, just enough to look past Kevin. Aleah felt her flesh crawl with goose bumps. Those undead eyes looked at her in a way she’d never experienced before with a zombie. Those eyes were studying her!
“Stop screwing with that thing,” Aleah demanded.
“Then you see it, too.”
“I see a zombie that is about to take a bite out of you if you keep playing around.’
“But you agree that it seems to be studying us…trying to learn?”
“I agree that the little creep is freaking me out.”
Kevin drew his KA-BAR. The zombie launched itself at him the moment his hand touched the grip. With his free arm, he swatted the tiny creature aside. It crashed to the floor in a heap and began struggling to its feet. Thinking or not, it was no more agile than any other zombie he’d ever encountered. Before it could regain its footing, he plunged the blade into its temple. Just like that, it collapsed. In that instant, Kevin realized that he’d almost expected the thing to squirm or struggle a bit like a living person might. But no…just as every other zombie he’d ever faced, it was like pulling the plug on a radio; it just stopped like some sort of “off” switch had been thrown.
“Something strange is going on,” Kevin remarked as he wiped his blade off.
“Neat,” Aleah said, obviously not caring too much at the moment about what behaviors may or may not be starting to show up in zombies. “Can we find some clothes so I can change?”
***
“…but I swear the thing was studying me,” Kevin insisted.
“I think maybe you are just over-tired.” Heather scooped up a bowl of rice and vegetables from the large pot that hung over the fire pit they’d made in the parking lot.
“You didn’t see the way its eyes followed me.”
“You are a walking buffet,” Peter quipped. “Of course its eyes followed you. I imagine food supplies are getting slim for the zombie population. It was probably like those Bugs Bunny cartoons. The thing was probably picturing you as a giant hot dog in a bun.”
“It happened twice,” Kevin insisted. “Both times it was with children.”
“So what do you want to do about it?” Peter prodded. “You want to go out and wrangle a few child-zombies and do a study?”
Kevin was silent.
“No!” Peter exclaimed. “Absolutely not, Kevin.”
“I wouldn’t bring one inside our compound,” Kevin huffed. “I’ve seen enough in the movies to know that never works out well…except maybe for Bub.”
“This ain’t the movies!” Peter, Aleah, and Heather all sing-songed Kevin’s mantra back at him in unison.
“What happened now?” Shari Bergman strolled up to the group with a bottle of water in her hand and moved under Peter’s arm.
Shari Bergman had been a staple of tabloid fodder as a pop music star; known for her sexually charged dancing and over-processed vocals, along with what could barely qualify as lingerie as an essential component of her wardrobe—both in her videos and in public. Still, it was her baby sister, the fourteen-year-old (at the time of the discovery) Erin Bergman whose pregnancy by Shari’s thirty-five-year-old manager that had been in all the headlines just as the dead began to walk.
“Kevin says that the zombies are thinking,” Peter snapped with obvious sarcasm.
“Well if they can figure out a way to make it warmer at night in that drafty country club, I say let them in,” Shari snorted, catching on to Peter’s tone.
“Maybe if you helped with getting wood,” Aleah immediately switched over to defending Kevin, she didn’t care for the former pop star at all, “then we wouldn’t run out in the middle of the night and all be coated with frost in the morning.”
“Does that mean you and Heather are going to start helping with the baby?” Shari shot back.
“Not our baby.” Heather stepped in to the verbal fray.
“Stop it, all of you!” Kevin snapped. “We have been through all this. Taking shots at each other is a sure fire way to end up dead. We are a team and, like it or not, a family. We are all each other have.”
“I’m just saying that the princess over there needs to start getting her hands dirty with the work around here,” Aleah grumbled. “I get it that Erin has a baby to care for, but Shari is using it as an excuse not to do anything that might chip her nails.”
“That’s not fair,” Peter spoke up. “Every time she offers to help, you and Heather say you have it covered.”
“That’s because she asks right about the time we are finishing—” Heather began.
“Enough!” Kevin snapped. “I said for everybody to stop. I am going out tomorrow to try that neighborhood again. There is a lot of stuff that we can use and just a quick look around has me convinced that there will be a decent amount of supplies that we can salvage for the baby in addition to things for us.”
“I still don’t get why you didn’t bring a bunch back,” Heather said.
“With the attack, I just felt we might be in danger of getting trapped,” Kevin replied. He hadn’t said a word about Aleah’s little potty accident. “Plus, Aleah had lost a lot of blood and I was worried she might have problems.”
“Yeah,” Peter agreed, “you can’t risk infection. We need to start remembering that thing
s we never gave a second thought to can kill us these days. It is basically like being tossed back to the pioneer era.”
“Only with a bunch of zombies trying to eat us,” Aleah added with a laugh.
“Yes,” Kevin gave everybody that look he used when he was trying to let them know he was being serious, “well, be that as it may, we have some grim work ahead. The weather is turning fast. We keep getting little dustings of snow, but there won’t be any radar reports warning us when the first real storm is about to hit. We need to stick to the plan.”
“Plan, plan, plan,” Shari groaned. “Every single day that is all we hear about. Plan this, and plan that! Can’t we just take a few days and catch our breath? Peter has been building on your wall forever without even an afternoon off. He is a doctor, not a construction worker. What if he hurts his hands out there?”
“We don’t have that kind of luxury, Shari,” Kevin said, feeling like a broken record. He was beginning to wonder if maybe he was pushing everybody too hard. He just couldn’t escape the feeling that things needed to be done as quickly as possible. The weather was changing fast and it could eventually become a bigger danger than the undead.
“I’m sick of listening to you bitch,” Heather snapped. “Aleah, Kevin and I are the only ones going out on these scavenging runs. Why don’t you make the next trip and see what it’s like to actually do something for a change?”
“You don’t think I could handle myself out there?” Shari took a step towards Heather.
“No,” Heather and Aleah said in unison.
“I said ENOUGH!” Kevin yelled. “This damn fighting is not helping. So here is the deal, Heather, you are going to help Erin with the baby the next couple of days. Aleah, you will join Peter working on the wall reinforcements. Shari, you will leave with me in the morning to do a scavenger run.”
Kevin stomped away leaving the group staring at him with open mouths. He couldn’t shake the feeling that they were under a bit of a deadline. There wasn’t anything specific, just the feeling that if they didn’t get things taken care of soon, the zombies might prove to be the least of their problems.