It was a short and bumpy trip to the trees. I was glad when it was over. I passed out when they pulled me out of the Jeep, but only for a moment.
The damp grass felt like heaven on my body. Dudley and Kingsley looked on in concern. I must have looked pretty bad. I could see the worry in their faces. If I had been able to think coherently, I would have been freaking out. Still, the realization that I was probably dying did not escape me.
The moment royally sucked.
“I’m not leaving him here,” said Dudley.
“I agree,” said Kingsley. “We should give him a moment and head back.”
“No.” I mumbled. “It’s safe here. Just go get the food.”
In fact, I did feel safe. I was even starting to feel a little bit more comfortable. The cool grass was a soft lullaby welcoming its brother sleep…or death.
Right now I didn’t care. I just didn’t want to move.
“We’re not leaving you,” whispered Dudley.
“I’m not asking you to. Just let me relax here for a bit while you get the supplies. It’ll be fine.”
“Let’s just give it a try,” whispered Kingsley. “He’s got his Glock if he needs it.”
I felt Dudley’s hot hand on my forehead as he looked me over.
“We’ll be back soon.”
They were gone when I next opened my eyes. I had no idea how much time had passed. I heard thunder in the distance and felt the first slight drops of rain. I closed my eyes once again, very much aware that I would be dead before Dudley and Kingsley returned with the supplies.
It turns out…I was wrong, but while I was sleeping, I had the strangest dreams I’d ever had in my life.
I woke up to the sounds of my name being whispered. At least I thought I was awake. I was pretty sure that I wasn’t dreaming their voices, but I couldn’t see anything. Great, did I somehow manage to blind myself? I couldn’t remember ever hitting my head on anything.
Dudley and Kingsley began calling my name out louder and I forced myself to answer back, not because I wanted to, (I was way too freaked out at the possibility of being blind) but because I was afraid of what they might bring down on us with their panicked calls.
“Over here,” shouted Dudley.
I felt him slide to the turf next to me and then I heard the sound of grass being ripped from the ground.
“It’s like the park is trying to swallow him or something,” whispered Dudley.
I heard gunshots, three or four of them. Then I heard and felt another hard ripping sound close by my face and I could see. I could see!
“You okay?”
“Yeah, what the hell just happened?”
“You tell me. I have no idea.”
I heard two more gunshots and looked over to see Kingsley bringing down some zombies that were running towards us. When I looked back at Dudley, I noticed my body. It was covered with grass. Not grass that someone had thrown over me, grass that had grown over me.
“What the hell is this?” I asked.
“No idea Jax. Let’s just get you out of there.” Dudley began ripping at the grass again, but he was having difficulties. It seemed as if the grass didn’t want to release me. Dudley was panting from the exertion. I wanted to help him, so I tried sitting up. The grass gave way immediately.
I climbed to my feet and joined Kingsley who was now keeping watch. The rain was coming down harder than before. The thunder was impressive in its volume. The area seemed clear of any hostiles for at least the moment.
“Did you get the supplies?”
“Oh yeah, we got lots of stuff,” answered Dudley. “Now all we have to do is make our way back. How are you feeling by the way?”
“Huh?” I didn’t even notice till he had asked, but I felt great. “Um…I feel pretty good.”
I lifted my shirt and my body told a different story. Deep, black bruises ran from my hips to my chest. It looked like I should be in the same agony I was in before the ground tried to swallow me. Yet, somehow…the pain was gone. I was just a little bit stiff.
“Dude, I was sure you broke some ribs or something,” said Kingsley.
I did in fact agree with him. I also could have sworn that I had some internal damage as well, but that didn’t seem to be the case any longer. Things were getting stranger and stranger.
“I thought so to,” I answered. “I felt like I was dying to be honest with you, but right now I’m good to go. I even feel kinda energized.”
“The ground healed him,” said Dudley in a strange voice. “There was no mistaking how bad he was. We all saw it. He was headed downhill and now, a few hours later…and…well, now he’s all better. The ground healed him. It was even protecting him. I couldn’t get him out of the grass, but the minute he wanted to sit up, the grass let him go.”
“That’s ridiculous.” I laughed. Sometimes Dudley came up with some relatively humorous ideas. He was often funny, sometimes strange, but never ever boring.
“Oh yeah,” he shouted. “That’s ridiculous, but the living dead cannibals that keep chasing after us are perfectly normal?”
He had a point. Plus…I’ve sat on the ground many times during my life and it had never before tried to swallow me.
“Wait. What do you mean you left me alone for a few hours?”
“Oh yeah,” sighed Dudley. “It sucked. Getting to the gas station was no problem. Getting inside was no problem either. I mean, we saw some zombies and everything, but they were easy enough to sneak by. Once we got in the station however, things went bad. We got spotted somehow. I managed to block the front door, but in about ten minutes we had about twenty zombies banging on the glass.”
“What did you do?” I asked.
“We went out the back, down an alley and hid inside a restaurant until the coast was clear and we were finally able to zig and zag our way back here. But there’s still a big mess of zombies somewhere in the neighborhood looking for us and the shooting Kingsley had to do once we got here might very well have given away our position.”
“Alright, let’s hop back in the Jeep and make our way home. Just avoid the gazillion zombies at the grocery store.”
“Wait a minute. What happened at the park?”
How should I know?
“But…it’s true then. You are different?”
I guess I’ll let you to figure that one out on your own. I don’t see the point in trying to prove or disprove any of those rumors about me that are out there swirling around the internet.
“Fair enough, I’ll force myself to be patient.”
Good idea.
Where was I then? Oh yeah, Kingsley was trying to figure out another way to Georgie’s house, while Dudley and I laughed at him. He’s notoriously horrible with directions, the kind of person that has to visit a place around five times before they can remember how to get there.
“Don’t worry about it,” I finally said. “We just need to go around the long way. It’s really easy.”
It was in all honesty a lot more comfortable to watch the rear of the vehicle when I wasn’t sitting atop a mound of supplies. I wasn’t complaining though. I wasn’t about to complain about anything for a good long while. I was just too happy that I wasn’t feeling horrible and intense agony from my mid-section anymore. I was also still a little freaked out by those weird ass dreams I had while I was being swallowed up by the park. Wow.
They were dreams of violence and destruction, and in them, vast amounts of people were screaming out for help. In each dream, the eras were always different. One was in medieval times, another seemed to be in the early 1800s, yet another in the 1920s. The only thing in common, was that all of the people I saw…were in fear and pain. That is until someone fought back. In every era a hero answered the call. I could see him rise out of the mounds of fallen bodies and begin to strike back at the monsters and demons that had descended upon the innocent.
“And you had no idea why you were having those dreams?”
Not then I didn’t. The
y got a lot worse before I ever learned why I was having them. That was just an easy taste of what was yet to come.
So, around we went through the creepily lit streets. The rain had slowed a bit. It was now a soft puttering from the skies. El Paso rain is like that, very inconsistent. One minute it’s raining hard and the next it’s either a drizzle or gone entirely. The lightning flashed across the skies and the thunder boomed as we made our way through the deserted neighborhoods.
We heard screams in the distance, some were from the dead and others seemed like they came from the living. Every now and then, a scream was punctuated with a gunshot. I wanted to help those people. I just didn’t think that we’d ever be able to find them and I wondered if we were the only ones stupid enough to be driving around.
The streetlights were out on a few blocks and that combined with the dark empty houses created a truly dangerous scene. It was really, truly dark on these streets and the three of us would brace ourselves for an attack that could come from any direction the second we entered one of these neighborhoods. I expected the houses to be dark. Even if there were people still alive in some of them, they wouldn’t be turning on lights that could be seen from the outside. That would be a beacon to the zombies. The streetlights however, were a different story. I had no idea why those were out.
Some of the houses made really began to make me wonder. They had boarded up windows. Someone worked on them to make them safe. Were the people that boarded them up still inside? Were they waiting for some kind of help to arrive?
A flicker of light caught my attention.
“What was that?”
“What was what?” asked Dudley in a voice that spelled out with no uncertainties that he really didn’t want to know.
“I saw a light.” I said, just as I saw it again from the corner of my eye.
Since I was facing Dudley, I missed where the source of light was coming from.
“I saw that,” said Kingsley. “Where did it come from?”
“Stop the Jeep,” I said to Dudley. “I wanna see where it’s coming from.”
He stopped, but he wasn’t happy about. Can’t say I blame him. Who knows what was gonna come charging out of the shadows at us.
We sat there quietly for a few tense moments before the light flickered once again. Kingsley and I found the source. It was three houses down and coming from an upstairs window.
Now what?
“We should check it out,” said Kingsley. “It could be another survivor.”
“Or it could be a zombie that’s playing with a light switch,” answered Dudley. “It’s too risky. Let’s get the hell out of here.”
Shit. Shit. And damn it. I really, really, really didn’t want to go into that dark house and see what kinda nasty freak was gonna run out and try to eat me. At the same time, I couldn’t just walk away and leave a possible living, breathing human in need of help.
Isn’t life wonderful?
“So what did you do?”
I played the hero. That’s what I do. I don’t always want to, but I just can’t bare the thought of not being the hero. Does that make sense? I doubt it. I don’t do it for my ego and I don’t do it for fame. I do it…because no one else can. I do it because I have to.
So yeah, we backed the Jeep through the yard of the house right up to the front door in case we had to get out of there in a hurry.
We left Dudley in the Jeep and with my Glock un-holstered; I went to the front door with Kingsley. Of course it was locked. I tried knocking just to see what would happen. Nobody answered, so I gave it a kick, but I must have thrown more power in it than I had planned because the door flew off the hinges and midway into the living room.
The house appeared to be empty. I shined a flashlight all around the room…nothing. The smell wasn’t so great though. Something had certainly been through this house. I was just hoping it wasn’t still inside.
We entered cautiously.
That’s the worst feeling ever by the way. Entering a dark, enclosed area and having no idea what’s going to come running out to rip off your face. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to do it, but I really, really hate it.
The kitchen was full. We both agreed to grab some food on our way out. The more food we could stock pile, the longer we could last.
Kingsley went to the window and looked out at the backyard. He motioned me over and pointed.
A dead man was walking in circles around the backyard. He hadn’t seen us, so he didn’t seem to pose that much of a threat, but we still watched him wander in circles for a few moments just to make sure. After we were satisfied that he wasn’t going to come charging through the windows at us, we continued our search.
We needed to be quiet.
Slowly, we searched the entire downstairs floor. There were five different rooms and zero signs of life or un-life. We found ourselves staring at the stairway that led to the upstairs floor. The beam of our light didn’t penetrate very far from our angle. It was dark, it was scary and we were going up there. Neither one of us was very happy.
Step by step we rose. I had the gun in front of me, ready to blast the shit out of anything that needed blasting.
At the top of the stairs we waited. My head was on the carpet as Kingsley kept watch. I waited for the light to flicker. I would see it under one of the doors when it did.
It happened just a moment later. In one quick flash of light, I knew where to go.
“Now what?”
“We should check the other rooms before we open that door.” I said.
“Fuck that. Let’s just open the damn door and get the hell out of here,” replied Kingsley.
As it was, I figured we were pushing our luck. If something wasn’t currently trying to bite me that probably meant it was well on its way. So, I took Kinsley’s advice.
The door was locked. I tried knocking. Of course there was no answer. I tried again with my ear pressed against the door. I heard a whimper. It was a human whimper. I heard it, I was positive.
I shouldered into the wood of the door as gently as possible. It wasn’t that quiet, but the door did open.
We went inside and turned on the light. At first glance it was empty.
We found ourselves standing in a little girls’ room with twin beds. It was all done up in pink with flowers and rainbows drawn onto the walls. There was a desk in the far corner and a closet on the left.
“You sure this is the right room?”
“Yeah,” I answered. “I saw the light under the door. Try the closet while I look under the beds.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” said Kingsley.
To be honest, I laughed at this and called him a pussy.
I went to the first bed and keeping as much distance as I could, peered underneath. Toys and dust bunnies. I was about to go to the next bed when Kingsley opened the closet door.
I jumped no less than fifteen feet when he screamed. It darted out of the closet, ran between his legs and scrambled under the second bed.
“What the hell.” I shouted as I brought my Glock up and prepared to fire through the bed.
Kingsley just about tackled my gun arm in response.
“Don’t shoot. Don’t shoot. She’s alive.”
“Are you sure?” I asked.
“Yeah, she’s just a little girl.” He answered.
Well there ya have it. I once again kept my distance and peered under the bed. She was a dirty, smudged, little girl in a blue dress. A little out of fashion I imagined, but Kingsley was right, she was alive.
“That must have been difficult for a little girl to stay alive without anyone around to help her.”
I agree. She was certainly a survivor. I’ve seen adults cower and die when things get that kinda tense. I can’t imagine what it must have been like for her, but she pulled through.
“You okay little girl,” I asked. She nodded just a tiny bit in response. Her eyes were as big as saucers. She was understandably scared to death.
“Alright honey,” I said in that weird voice that adults use for calming children down. I know you’re scared but we need to move you to a much safer place.”
“I can’t leave.” She answered. “My sister’s going to come back.”
It made sense. There were two beds in the room. The pictures on the desk showed two little girls. By the look of things, it seemed that our new found friend was part of a set.
“Part of a set, what do you mean?”
They were twins. The sad thing is, the poor kid thought her sister was going to come home and she wanted to wait for her. How the hell was I supposed to burst her bubble and tell her that her twin was probably dead? It looked like a job for Kingsley.
I laughed a little at this. It was by no means funny. In fact, it was terrible. It’s just that Jaxon has a way of speaking that both entertains and disarms. He was with me on the laugh at least. As soon as he heard me chuckle a big smile spread across his face.
You know how it goes. Some people aren’t very good at dealing with the emotions of others and some people aren’t very good at dealing with kids. I’m not very good at dealing with either of those. Kingsley on the hand had a much gentler soul than I did.
“It’s all you buddy.” I told him.
“Oh damn it.” He replied. Then, he went and sprawled out beside the bed.
“What’s your name sweetie?”
“Tamra,” she answered quietly.
“How old are you Tamra?”
“Nine.”
“Nine just happens to be the perfect age I’d reckon. I remember when I was nine. I used to play with those little green army men.”
“I like my dolls.”
“Like the ones on top of the bed?”
“Yes.”
“Well, what do you say we grab your favorite doll and drive over to a much safer place to wait for your sister?”
Ah. The chicken shit didn’t tell her. I approve. How the hell do we know what to say? We don’t. Better let someone more skilled with kids do that messy job.
“I don’t want to,” said Tamra.
El Paso Under Attack - 01 Page 5