She pointed at a low row of hedges. “They’re both…uh…busy…I think. Now’s our chance. We sneak past, get through the fence, and voila! We’re out.”
“That easy, huh?” Emily said. “Something tells me it won’t go quite so smoothly.”
Vanessa punched her on the arm. “Don’t jinx us.”
“There’s no such thing,” Emily insisted. “That’s just a superstition.”
“What do you know?” Vanessa retaliated.
“Oh, come on, guys,” Chas cried. “This is not the time. Move.”
“Fine,” Emily grumbled, shooting Vanessa a sour look that was returned in full measure.
Hunched low to the ground, the four snuck past the hedge on careful feet. As they went, the two guards could be heard complaining loudly to each other.
“What the hell, man! This isn’t cool.”
“Must be that stew. I told you it tasted funny.”
“I’m gonna kill Jenkins if I get hold of him.”
“Uh, huh. I’ll strangle him with my bare hands.”
Any further conversation came to an end as the two men were attacked with fresh cramps, their loud groans filling the air.
“Ow!”
“Uh!”
Other sounds soon followed, much to Chas’ horror. She sped up, moving as fast as she dared until they were all well out of earshot. “Finally. That was nasty.”
Emily’s eyes were wide, Vanessa suppressed a grin, but Dean giggled like a schoolgirl. “Did you hear that, guys? Did you hear them fart and squirt…”
“Ugh, stop it, Dean,” Emily said. “I hate toilet humor.”
“Oh, come on,” Dean said, laughing harder until Vanessa smothered his lips with her hand to muffle the sound.
“It’s not funny,” Emily insisted in a furious whisper, her cheeks a vibrant red.
“It was kinda funny,” Vanessa said, her giggles adding to Dean’s.
Soon, Chas was smiling as well, then chuckling, then laughing so hard behind her hands even Emily gave up the struggle and joined in. Together, the four laughed into their palms until the spasms stopped and they could breathe again, tears streaming down their cheeks.
At least, it got rid of the nervous tension that had filled them all to the brim, and Dean tackled the fence with fresh energy. The wire-clippers made short work of the barrier, and they soon slipped through the hole created.
Once through, Dean and Vanessa worked to repair the gap with the extra wire Dean had brought until it was as strong as before. They did not want to leave any weaknesses behind for possible zombies to exploit.
The entire time, Chas and Emily stood guard, pacing the small stretch of grass next to the river with impatient strides while their hands hovered over their knives. It was the only weapons they carried on them. Their guns were stashed inside their backpacks for now.
“Hurry, guys. The guards will be back any minute,” Chas said, glancing back the way they came.
“Almost there,” Dean said. “You know, you could get the raft out and ready while you’re waiting for us.”
“Good point,” Chas conceded, feeling the teeniest bit stupid.
He handed her the package, and she pulled out the air mattress. Taking turns, she and Emily blew it up until tears ran down their cheeks and their lungs burned. They’d barely finished when Dean and Vanessa announced the fence as good as new and joined them.
They slipped their backpacks into the waterproof bag along with most of their clothes, stripping down to their undies. Afterward, they sealed the bag, tied it to the mattress with the parachute chord, and prepared to launch. The only things they kept on them was their belts with their knives for protection, a single waterproof flashlight, and a small sealed bag containing cotton wool soaked in paraffin and a lighter.
“Remember what we spoke about earlier,” Emily said. “This river is deep and strong. The water will be cold. Especially with last week’s rains. We need to get out and warmed up as soon as possible.”
Chas stared at the fast-moving water, the river as black as sin. Her skin pebbled in the cool air, and her toes curled into the grass. Now that the moment had come, the whole idea seemed insane. “You guys ready for this?”
“No, are you?” Emily said, her face pale. The worst swimmer among them, Chas knew how scared she must be despite putting a brave face on it.
Neither Vanessa nor Dean looked thrilled at the idea either.
It’s up to me to motivate them. Face your fears and conquer them. Taking a deep breath, Chas moved down the bank toward the water. She dragged the mattress behind her. “Come on, guys. We can do this.”
Reluctantly, the other three followed, slithering down the steep side toward the edge. Chas stepped down the last patch of grass, and her legs plunged into the water. It was icy, and a thousand needles stabbed her skin. She gasped aloud. “Holy cow, that’s freezing.”
“Told you,” Emily said rather unnecessarily, and Chas shot her a nasty look.
The current grabbed her legs and dragged the rest of her body in as well until she was left clutching the mattress with desperate fingers. “Hurry, I’m slipping!”
Taking the plunge, Dean pushed the make-shift raft off the bank while the other two girls followed, clinging onto the sides. With a huge splash, they all landed in the water, their shocked cries attesting to the extreme cold.
The river took control, sucking the mattress with its four occupants deep into its maw. As they were swept downstream, Chas looked back for a brief moment, in time to catch a glimpse of the two guards as they returned to their stations, their lights bobbing up and down in the dark. Thankfully, they didn’t spot Chas or the group, and soon, they were out of sight as the water carried the four friends further and further away.
Chapter 6
Chas sucked in a deep breath as the cold leeched into her flesh, and she quickly wedged her hands into the cord binding their stuff to the raft. “Guys, you’d better get a good grip. In this cold, our fingers will go numb soon.”
“That’s right,” Emily agreed. “We can’t stay in the water too long, Chas. Or we’ll die of hypothermia.”
“I know, but it’s just until we’re clear of the zombies,” Chas replied, her teeth chattering like mad.
“Speaking of which, here they come. Quiet, everyone,” Vanessa said. “Not a sound.”
The four clung to the mattress as the river swept them past the barrier that stretched in a long line right up to the steep embankment. On the other side, horror awaited. Thousands upon thousands of the undead, their bodies undulating beneath the light of the moon like stalks of wheat waving in the breeze. A field of black, and gray, and silver.
A field of death.
In absolute silence, Chas stared at them, her gaze fixed on their hideous forms. Even in the poor light, certain aspects were revealed, their unnatural forms no longer human. She clenched her teeth together to keep them from making a noise. The last thing they needed was for the zombies to spot them.
Could they swim? Float? Would they even try to go into the river after food? Chas didn’t know, but she wasn’t planning on finding out either. Instead, she focussed on her breathing and keeping her head above water while not making a sound. Soon. It will be over soon.
The river kept up its breakneck pace, sweeping them past the infected until they began to thin out. As their ranks dwindled, Chas breathed easier. Now that the undead threat was fading, her attention fixed itself on their other problems. For one, she could no longer feel her fingers or much of her legs. Her entire body shook with the cold, and her jaws ached from the effort of keeping her teeth together.
“How…how m…much longer do we have, Emily?” she managed to whisper in a shaking voice.
“F…five, maybe ten minutes tops. T…too late, after that,” Emily replied.
“D…damn.”
Chas glanced back at the zombies. There was still too many. They could never land safely on that bank. That left the other side. She turned to look for a
way out of the water at the same time that Emily sneezed, loud and clear. Not once, not twice, but three times in rapid succession.
Chas froze, horror flooding her brain. Her head turned of its own volition, and she saw the first infected walk into the water after them. It had heard Emily, and the dinner bell was struck.
The infected simply fell into the raging torrent, its hands reaching for them while it moaned. More followed, splashes ringing out up and down the embankment as the zombies swarmed the river. The water seized them, dragging them into its embrace and pushing them downriver toward Chas and her group.
For several seconds, Chas could do nothing but watch, her brain stuttering in terror even as the cold slowed down her faculties. What to do? What to do?
“C..Chas? They’re coming!” Emily cried. “I’m s…so sorry! I couldn’t help it.”
Chas shook her head, more to clear it than anything else. She looked behind her. The zombies were being swept into the middle of the current, same as they’d been. The stupid things weren’t hampered by a blow-up mattress loaded with supplies either so they were fast. Too fast.
“Move, guys. Kick!” Chas screamed as panic set in. “I know it’s cold, but we’ve gotta move quicker. Aim for the opposite bank!”
Three sets of wide eyes acknowledged her as the little group began to wiggle their frozen legs, swimming across the river. Their make-shift raft sped up, and soon they were moving faster than before as their muscles warmed up with the exercise.
Chas kept shouting encouragements, egging her friends on to move, move, move. They had to. Each look over her shoulders showed her an ugly picture. The zombies were getting closer, swept along like leaves on the wind. Now up, now down, rolling and twisting. It didn’t matter to them. They didn’t need to breathe.
She dared a look at the opposite bank and hope flared in her chest. They were almost there. A turn to the left was coming up. If they could make it before the bend, they’d be pushed ashore by the current.
And what then? What about the zombies that land with you? They won’t be cold…frozen. They’ll be only too eager to latch on.
Chas evaluated the group with lightning speed. Emily was too far gone, her petite frame no defense against the cold. Vanessa wasn’t doing much better with her slim build either. That left Chas, her stockier build a decided asset now, and Dean. He was the best off of them all. “Dean!”
He turned his head. “What?”
“Start working your fingers. When we land, we’ll have to fight,” Chas shouted above the chaos of the roaring water.
He glanced over his shoulder, and his mouth dropped open. “They’re almost on us.”
“I know. Get ready!”
Chas pulled her hands free from underneath the cords where she’d wedged them, gasping when pain shot through each digit. Taking turns, she held onto the raft with one hand while flexing the fingers on the other. All while kicking like a mad thing for the opposite bank and shouting, “Go, go, go!”
Dean copied her, working the life back into his limbs while keeping an eye on the zombies behind them. Chas didn’t look anymore. She was too afraid of what she’d see.
As they neared the bend in the river, the current changed, and the raft began to spin. Round and round it twisted while Chas and the others tried to keep it on course. Impossible. The zombies in the water were now mere feet away, and Emily screamed as the spinning mattress swept her right past the nearest one.
It gurgled its delight, reaching for her pale flesh with eager fingers. “Chas, help me!”
Chas felt for her knife, unclipping the flap and gripping the handle. When the spinning raft brought here within reach of the infected, she slashed it across the face, the blade biting deep.
Then she was plucked out of reach as the bobbing raft hit an air pocket, and it was Dean’s turn to fight. Her cut had blinded the zombie but little else, and it was still on the attack. Dean ended its struggles with a lucky stab through the eye socket, the metal grating on the bone with a nerve-wracking screech.
The corpse bobbed past them on the water, but the next infected was coming toward them with the speed of a freight train. Suddenly, Chas’ feet hit gravel, followed by her legs and bum as the river dumped her onto the shore. For a second, she couldn’t believe their luck. They’d made it to the other side.
There was no time to celebrate, though. They’d made it, but so had several other zombies. These were rapidly heading their way while the rest were swept past and around the bend. A small mercy that just might save their lives.
Chas scrambled to her feet and stumbled around the mattress on unsteady legs. Water dripped down her face, and the cold cut to the bone while her knees wobbled like jello. Dean was also up, holding his knife in front of him. Chas could hardly feel the handle of her weapon, and she flexed her fingers in a desperate attempt to get the blood flowing again.
The first zombie washed onshore with a guttural growl, its milky eyes fixed on her exposed legs with hungry determination. It lurched forward on its hand and knees in a crabwalk that was both awkward and scary.
Chas gripped her knife with both hands and half-fell, half-stabbed down at its head. Her knees gave way at the last moment, and she plunged to the ground. A lucky move for the weight and momentum drove the point of her blade into the infected’s skull and speared its brain. It twitched once before lying still.
Breathing hard, Chas got up, freeing her weapon with a hard pull. Dean was on the move, hacking at the next zombie with fierce intensity until its head flopped around on its mostly severed neck.
It stumbled into the third infected, and both went down with a loud splash. Like fish out of water, they thrashed around in a tangle of limbs until Dean killed them both with a large rock, smashing their heads to a pulp.
Exhausted, Chas looked for more enemies to fight. There was only one left, milling about in the murky darkness with rasping groans. She headed toward it, but Vanessa beat her to the punch, beating its skull in with a branch she’d picked up on the shore.
Chas shot her a grateful look and slumped forward with her hands on her knees. “Thanks.”
Vanessa gave a weary nod. “Sure thing.”
“Where’s Emily?”
Vanessa pointed with a shaking finger. “Over there.”
Chas turned in that direction and gasped. Emily lay in a heap, unmoving. Her lips were purple, and she didn’t respond even when Chas slapped her on the cheeks. “She’s freezing, guys. We need to get her warmed up now.”
“We all do,” Vanessa said. “We look like death, and I feel like it too.”
Chas glanced from Emily to her and Dean, noting the pallor of their skin, the bluish tints around their mouths and the involuntary shaking that had each of them looking like a victim of palsy. The only thing that had kept them going so far was adrenalin. Once that ran out, they were in real trouble.
“We’d better hurry before we’re so far gone it’s too late,” Chas said through chattering teeth.
“It’s not safe here,” Dean warned as he helped Vanessa back onto dry land, hauling the mattress up at the same time. “More zombies could come at any moment.”
“Let’s get out of sight,” Chas agreed, looking around until she spotted a clump of trees and bushes growing next to an outcropping of rocks. “How about that?”
“Could work,” Dean grunted. “I’ll move our stuff and check it out.”
“I’ll carry Emily. Vanessa, watch our backs, please,” Chas ordered.
With Vanessa standing guard, Chas heaved the semi-conscious Emily to her feet and carried the mumbling girl toward the shelter of the trees. Dean was already there, scoping the place out.
The trees and brush formed a circle around a tiny clearing with a jumble of rocks making a wall on one side. It was empty, well-lit by the moon, and there was plenty of firewood lying around.
“Is it safe?” Chas asked, pausing with Emily in her arms.
“Looks okay,” Dean said. “There’s an overhang her
e where we can take shelter. No snakes or zombies so far.”
“That’ll have to do, I guess,” Chas said, dragging Emily to where the rocks formed a little cave. “Right. Let’s get moving while we still can, guys.”
Chapter 7
The cave was barely more than a tiny hollow, but the floor was hard-packed and dry, plus it was free of any wildlife or insects. Working as fast as her freezing limbs would allow, Chas set Emily down on the ground with her back leaning against the rock.
Dean had put the mattress down, and together they untied the bundle and grabbed their dry clothes and backpacks. Chas pulled out the towel she’d packed and dried herself with vigorous movements before pulling on her clothes.
She immediately felt warmer and set about doing the same for Emily, rubbing her skin hard with the towel to get her blood flowing once more. Vanessa jumped in to help, and together, they got the poor girl dressed and bundled up in a spare blanket. She was starting to come around, and Chas was glad to see her lips were turning rosy once more. A good sign, she hoped.
Dean had started work on a fire, collecting twigs and kindling. With the cotton wool soaked in paraffin and the lighter they’d kept sealed in a bag, he was able to get a quick blaze going. The flickering flames cast a golden glow about the small clearing, its warmth both comforting and cheery.
“Let’s get the mattress into the hollow with the fire in front of us. We can keep each other warm that way,” Vanessa suggested.
“Good idea,” Chas said, wrestling the oversized airbed into the tiny space.
Vanessa crawled in first before dragging Emily after her and snuggling close to the shivering girl. “One of us needs to keep watch, though.”
“I’ll go first,” Dean said, shaking his arms and legs next to the fire. “I’m feeling okay now.”
“Are you sure?” Chas asked.
“Positive,” he replied, patting the knife at his side before pulling his secondary weapon from his backpack, a deadly-looking machete. “I won’t let anything hurt you guys, I promise.”
Gen Z Boxed Set Page 27