by Brown, TW
“Kevin is certain that there is something different about the children,” Aleah called.
“Different how? Are they not zombies?”
“I can’t remember how he explained it, but yes, basically they are still zombies…just different somehow.”
“Well I ain’t waitin’ to see if they just want to say hello and be on their way.” Rose moved in and put the trio down. The last one she put down had actually turned and looked to be trying to escape by the time she got to it.
“If some of the kids are this far south…maybe—”
“Maybe you guys should try to make a little more noise and see if you can bring in a few thousand more!” a voice called from the third floor of the building that was missing all of its street-facing side.
Aleah looked up to see Catie shouldering her crossbow and pushing her way through some desks and office furniture. It looked like somebody had picked up the building and shook it like a snow globe. Catie vanished into an opening and eventually emerged from a door that sat crooked on its hinges on the ground floor.
“Where are the others?” Catie asked as she pulled out her canteen and took a drink.
“Long story,” Aleah and Rose said in unison.
And it was. Aleah and Rose took turns sharing everything. When one would drop off, the other would pick up, but it was Aleah’s recounting of what had happened to Kevin that changed Catie’s face from impassive to a dark cloud.
“So where is this place?” Catie asked after the pair had finished.
“Back that way…sort of…” Aleah’s fought off tears of frustration as she realized how little she had been paying attention while they were being marched away.
“I can show you,” Rose said as she stepped over and took Aleah’s hand.
“If we are lucky, that freakin’ huge tornado ripped a path right through those lame fucks’ territory,” Catie growled.
“But if that happened…Kevin and Heather—” Aleah started, but Catie shut her down.
“One thing at a time. We need to go get a look at that place and decide what to do.” Catie took Aleah by the arms and looked into her eyes. “But you need to be prepared for the possibility that we may have to go on without them.”
The trio started the trek back. As they walked, Rose moved up close to Catie and gave her a nudge with her elbow. “What are you doing back this way? You were adamant about moving on.”
“Deanna,” was Catie’s cryptic one word reply. But she was caught up in memories…bad ones.
***
Catie spun and shoved the blade of her knife up and under the snapping jaws of the female zombie that came within a fraction of an inch from her face as it lunged forward past the last undead attacker now sporting an axe-shaped cleave in its forehead. Kicking it away with her booted foot, she was just able to bring her spike-gloved fist into the next one; her blow landing solid and plunging the inch long spikes into both eyes and the space between them.
She heard another of the children let loose with that terrible scream of pain, but she simply had too much on her own plate to let it register. All around her was carnage. Zombies, children, and apparently a few of the people from that hospital.
Momentarily freed from the worst of the fighting, Catie searched for any of the children that might have a shot at making it out alive. Her eyes froze on a scene about fifty yards away.
Deanna was leaning away from Sean who had her by the wrist; she was trying to rush into a swarm of zombies that were tearing a few of the children apart. To his credit, Sean was obviously more level-headed and was preventing the girl from being just another casualty. However, when he yanked her back hard and punched her in the face, Catie reappraised the situation.
Unfortunately, she was in no position to help as the young man hoisted the limp figure over his shoulder and took off at a jog away from the carnage. A yank on her sleeve took her eyes away from being able to continue to track their progress. She looked down just as a young boy of about twelve dropped to his knees beside her.
His throat had been torn, but unfortunately, the carotid had only been nicked. She wished it had been severed; at least that way his suffering would have been less. As it was, he looked up at her with absolute terror in his eyes. There was nothing she could do for him. Actually…
Catie grimaced as she drove her knife into his temple. She pulled it free and looked for a way out of the chaos. If anything, more zombies had arrived, and it did not seem like there was any end of their numbers. They poured out of every street…except one!
Catie was about to make an attempt for what promised to be at least a possible escape when she spotted Rose about ten feet away. The girl was on the hood of a car fighting off a handful of zombies; a couple were sprawled at her feet already. She had seen spunk from that girl from day one.
Making her way through the carnage and shoving away a strange man who had emerged from a cluster of bodies clutching what must be his right arm in his left hand, his face showing that he was obviously in shock, Catie barley broke stride as she freed the long blade she had over left shoulder. She took the top third of the man’s head off in a fierce backhand. Her own adrenaline rush was such that she hardly felt the sting in her hands from the strike.
At last she reached Rose. The girl had just chopped down through the crown of the head of what looked like one of the kids that had come with them on this ill-fated trip. The girl, to her credit, had tears streaming down her face.
“Rose!” Catie barked.
The girl spun, arm cocked back and ready to swing. The look of relief was visible when recognition came.
“Deanna,” Rose gasped as she and Catie put down the remaining zombies that had gathered.
“I’ll do what I can, but you need to get back to Kevin and the others…warn them that this herd is bigger than anything we have ever seen. They can’t stay put…if they have to carry Kevin or…” She let the rest of the sentence go unsaid.
Rose tried to protest, but she had continued to work herself towards the one avenue of escape that she had spied a few moments earlier. By the time they got there, Catie had promised to do what she could in the matter of Deanna while Rose had agreed to go warn the others.
Catie only had the luxury to watch as the girl turned a corner a block away before having to devote all of her attention to the task at hand. She could see none of the children any longer, and it was obvious that any help from the hospital had either retreated or gone down in the onslaught.
With a sigh, Catie started down the street she had seen Sean carry Deanna. She was not surprised when she reached a spot where she could get a good look to discover that they were long gone. Whether having fallen to the hundreds of zombies mulling about, or if they’d somehow managed to pull off a miracle and escape; it would be next to impossible to find them or anybody else for that matter.
In that moment, Catie had a choice; she could strike out for South Dakota on her own; she could try to catch up with Rose and hook up with the others; or…she could simply give up. That last one vanished from her thoughts almost as soon as it came. As long as she was still alive, she would fight to the end.
While almost all of what they had managed to scavenge had obviously been lost in the attack, she had a .45 on her hip and a half dozen magazines in a belt pouch with another thousand rounds in her small travel pack.
She pushed, stabbed and chopped her way in the direction Sean and Deanna had gone. If they had not made it, she figured to come upon a cluster of zombies that would be doing a slow motion version of a shark’s feeding frenzy. However, after almost ten blocks, she had discovered nothing but the fact that the zombies were actually getting thicker.
“That couldn’t be just the leading edge,” she said out loud as she shoved aside a woman in a pair of ragged jeans and no top with a gaping hole in her midsection and shards of rib bone jutting through the gray skin of her chest.
Making her way to a five-story office complex, Catie climbed the exterior fire es
cape that sounded and felt as if it were going to rip free from its mounts at any moment. Reaching the roof, she was not surprised to find the remains of a camp. The survivors long gone, a pair of well-rotted bodies remaining still bound hand and foot hinting at a million possible stories; none of them ending well.
From the roof, she was able to see past many, but not all, of the surrounding buildings. What she saw made her blood run cold. The undead were coming in numbers she could not begin to fathom. She looked back in the direction that she knew Kevin and the others to be.
Her choice was made. She would return and join the others. They might need help with Kevin so incapacitated. Also, she had noticed a change in the man since his incident with the cat. He had almost seemed upset to discover his immunity.
Climbing down, Catie started the arduous journey back to the others. For better or worse, these people had found a place in her heart…and that really pissed her off.
***
“Figures,” Catie growled under her breath as she, Aleah, and Rose looked down on the well secured compound.
She had to give grudging respect for their fortification. The campus and its surrounding grounds were nestled in behind a barrier of literally thousands of large vehicles that had been pieced together like a Tetris puzzle on the highway roads that literally encircled the place.
From their vantage on the roof of some sort of ramshackle industrial complex that was a hodge podge of offices and warehouses, they could see the north end of the compound with its open fields and what looked like it might have once been a small baseball diamond. Everything was being converted to farmland by the inhabitants.
“What a weird place to set up house,” Catie said.
“One place is as good as the next,” Rose mumbled, scanning the walkways near one of the buildings where there looked to be a lot of activity.
“Not really,” Catie disagreed. “I am sure Kevin probably noticed, but these people are far too short-sighted. They have no real water supply. They look to be relying on rain. I give ‘em five years tops.”
Rose considered the statement. Five years seemed like a long time to her. However, she was more focused on all the activity increasing around one particular building.
“I think we have something.” She handed Catie the binoculars and pointed.
Catie took a peek. It looked like everybody was filing in to one main building that sat as a huge box set apart from the rest of the facility. However, her trained eyes saw a few things that Rose might have missed. Standing at the doors were armed guards. Also, more pairs of armed guards were around the perimeter of the building. Scanning out, she spotted an observation tower. The occupants were faced in, not out like they should be. Whatever was going on, it was obvious that whoever was in charge had some concerns about the general population. It was possible that it had something to do with Kevin and Heather, but she was only guessing. She passed the binoculars to Aleah who seemed absolutely lost at the moment. The woman had not said a word during the trek back to this place.
“So what’s the plan?” Rose asked bluntly.
“I don’t know if we have one big enough for all of that,” Catie admitted. “We may have no choice but to leave them.”
“You can’t be serious!”
“I am very serious.” Catie rolled onto her side and looked the girl in the eyes. “I have never seen so many people in one place since shortly after all of this began. There must be a few thousand. It would be like trying to take on an entire town. This is the real world, kid. And the facts are that sometimes you have to cut people loose.”
Rose had not so much as blinked while Catie spoke. She heard everything that the woman was saying, but she was also picking up on something else.
“But you aren’t ready to just give up on them.” Rose rolled onto her back and looked up at the gray sky. “If that was the case, you would have just said so. You say we may have no other choice…but you are not set on giving up yet.”
“Whatever you choose,” Aleah finally spoke up, “I won’t go. If I have to find those Guardians and bring them here myself…I won’t just leave Kevin and Heather.”
“That may not be such a bad idea on the surface,” Catie said. “Only, from what I saw, those folks are just as bat-shit crazy as these folks.” She got up and brushed herself off and motioned for the others to follow. “Nope, I think I have a plan. It is a little risky, but what isn’t these days?”
The trio headed back to the ladder they had used to climb up onto the roof. A lone zombie was standing at the bottom and examining it like he really wanted to figure out how to use the thing. Catie looked around and found a chunk of concrete that had broken away from the lip of the building and hurled it about twenty feet behind the zombie. Just as she predicted, the creature turned and began to stumble in the direction of the new sound.
The three made their way down and Catie rushed over to drop the lone walker just as it managed to turn once again to the newest sound. Heading across the mostly empty parking lot that fronted the complex they had used to scout from, they closed in on the vehicle barricade filling the roadway and encircling the compound. Catie got down on her hands and knees when she reached the first vehicle.
“Smarter than I thought,” she muttered.
“What?” Aleah came out of her reverie and looked down at the other woman with a curious expression.
“Gas tanks,” Catie grunted as she got to her feet. After checking a few more nearby vehicles, she confirmed her suspicion. “Yep…they took them off. Probably used as much as the fuel as they could.”
“So?” Rose cocked her head in confusion. “Kevin said that cars were pretty much useless anymore. Did you know that gas spoiled and went bad? I sure didn’t.”
“Yeah, well these people did. But even more, there is no way to use it against them. I was sort of hoping to start a big fire.”
“With bad gas?” Aleah asked skeptically.
“That was just Plan A…and I wasn’t really putting too much stock in it.”
“Then why bother?” Rose asked with a sarcastic lilt to her voice.
“Sort of like kicking in a door only to discover that it was unlocked.” Catie chuckled at the memory of just such a situation she’d had several months ago. “So…I guess it is Plan B.”
“Since you haven’t told us anything about what you have in mind, maybe you can take a moment.” Aleah was clearly annoyed and Rose could feel the tension between these two building once again. She’d hoped they had gotten past the petty crap. It didn’t look like that was the case as Catie’s expression darkened.
“Listen, Aleah, you have been in a freaking trance since I hooked up with you guys. I figured it would just be a waste of time to tell you anything. However, if you are done daydreaming, then I would be happy to share my plans with you.”
Rose was about to get involved when Aleah surprised her.
“You’re right, Catie. I’m sorry…it’s just that, with losing the baby, and then losing Kevin and Heather like this, I got wrapped up in myself. I know those are the ways of the Old World. I also know that is a luxury that we don’t have anymore. My head is in the game…promise.”
Catie considered the other woman’s words. She reached out a hand, but Aleah brushed it aside and hugged her. When the embrace was over, it was Catie who spoke first.
“And I am really sorry about the baby. I admit that it would have complicated things, but I don’t have to be such a heartless bitch. I am sure that it was very rough on you…physically as well as emotionally.”
“Okay…first you two want to kill each other, now you are practically kissing. Can we just get to the part where Catie tells us her plan?” Rose interrupted, standing with hands on hips and giving the two an incredulous glare.
Catie sighed and knelt down, motioning the other two to join her. She explained her plan; each time one or the other of the two tried to interrupt or protest, she cut them off with a raised hand. When she was done, despite the risk involv
ed, they all agreed that it was probably the best shot they had.
They slipped back to the complex of buildings where they had been spying on the compound. After three fallback locations had been identified, it was nearing sunset.
Catie looked at Rose and Aleah. The two did a quick rock-paper-scissors and Aleah won—or lost as she saw it. She accepted Catie’s belt knife and sheath.
“Are you absolutely sure this is the right way to go?”
Catie gave a curt nod. “From what you guys have said, this will buy me time. They will bring me in and give me the full work up.”
“But they kept me sedated. You don’t think they will do the same to you?” Aleah looked at the knife in her hand like it was a coiled snake.
“Of course they will, but that will also give them a false sense of security. They will do what they do, and on the off chance that I test positive for the immunity, they will offer me the chance to stay. If not, then I will be given the same deal as you and allowed to leave.”
Aleah flashed a look to Rose as if asking the other girl to take the knife, but all she received was a shake of the head, hands raised, and a dramatic step back.
“I thought you were some tough gangbanger type,” Aleah said with a sniff.
“Maybe I’m just going soft.” Rose took another step back.
“Just make sure you stick me right here in the meaty part of my shoulder,” Catie warned before stuffing the large rag in her mouth.
Aleah sighed and dropped her head in resignation. After a deep breath to steel herself, she focused on the spot where Catie had shown her. With a downward strike, she drove the blade home. Even with the makeshift gag, Catie’s stifled scream seemed to echo in Aleah’s ears. She yanked the blade out and cast it aside like it was burning her hand to hold it.
“Sonovabitch!” Catie hissed once she took the rag from her mouth.
“That sure don’t look like much,” Rose observed as she moved closer to take a look at Catie’s wound. Blood was seeping out slowly, but it was hard to see where this new blood began and all the stuff from before ended.