by Kirk Withrow
Am I in heaven or hell? What’s the hurry?
“I thought you were one of them, Garza. I’m sorry,” the voice continued.
The sandpaper tongue and the fetid breath vanished only to be replaced by a throaty growl. He imagined that such a frightening noise could only mean that he was in hell.
The slapping continued as the voice grew increasingly frantic. “Garza, it’s me, Anthony. Please get up. They’re heading this way. We need to get out of here.”
Hearing the boy’s name brought the reality of the situation back into focus. Even in the darkness, Garza could tell it was Anthony, and he felt as though a tremendous weight had been removed from his shoulders. He sat up slowly, and the boy helped him to his feet. Charon was doing his best to stem the infected tide surging toward them. The dog lurched forward and used his front paws to knock the lead ghoul back. When another took its place, he repeated the process.
Garza’s entire body ached as he and Anthony made their way to the side exit. The sunlight threatened to burn holes in their retinas when they pushed through the door. Garza squinted and scanned the roof of the adjacent building. but Jeremy was nowhere to be seen.
Anthony turned and yelled, “Charon! Come!”
Charon sounded like a far bigger animal as he raced to join them. Seconds later the filthy dog emerged from the darkness and burst through the doorway. He immediately sidled up to Anthony as though the two hadn’t been separated at all. Not for the first time, Garza thought about how lucky the boy was to have such a fiercely loyal companion.
Turning to Garza, Anthony said, “Sorry I kicked you in the face. I thought you were one of the infected.”
Garza returned a smile but winced when the gesture caused the cut on his lip to pull apart. A rasping moan drew his attention away from the pain in his face, and he turned to see the first of the revs coming out of the hardware store. One after another they poured into the parking lot behind them. He looked up to the last place he’d seen Jeremy and cringed as a rev walked right off the edge of the building. The infected woman seemed oblivious to the effects of gravity as it plummeted to the ground. The loud crunchy snap that occurred when it slammed face-first into the asphalt was as unsettling a sound as Garza had ever heard. Its head looked like a deflated basketball when it came to rest in an unnatural position on the thing’s back.
Garza instinctively moved to shield the scene from Anthony’s view, but he was too late. The boy regarded the sight with indifference before turning away as if he hadn’t seen anything at all. Garza hated that the world had become a place where a child had to witness such horrors; he hated more that they’d become so commonplace that they barely elicited a reaction anymore.
With a sigh, he lowered his head and said, “Thanks, Jeremy. Rest easy, brother.”
21
The infected siege that had trapped Anthony in the hardware store put them significantly behind schedule, and they made it to the rendezvous point with no time to spare. The scavenging team never showed, despite Garza, Anthony and Charon waiting for a couple hours past the designated pickup window. Garza inspected the area but found no convincing evidence that the team had already passed through. He had a hard time imagining they wouldn’t have waited for them, but he knew the supplies they’d been tasked with collecting were critical to Lin’s work. That, above all, was the highest priority, so he understood if they’d gone on without them. He tried to reach General Montes on the radio but was unsuccessful. Similarly, he had no luck contacting anyone at the CDC, which led him to worry that his radio might be malfunctioning.
Prior to nearly being overrun by the revs in the hardware store, Garza had found information about the people who might be responsible for some of the activity they’d encountered in the area. Among the bedrolls and empty food containers, he’d discovered several papers with writings and drawings detailing ideas for using the infected for security and diversion. Perhaps most chilling were diagrams of several traps and holding pens under the heading “infected army.” Although he doubted anyone would be crazy enough to or capable of amassing such a horde, the events of the last year had taught him not to discount anything. The thought of such an army sent a shiver through his body. He needed to relay the information to L.T. and the others as soon as possible.
Given that he and Anthony had been travelling light, they moved quickly and quietly across the urban terrain. Approximately a mile and a half away from the CDC facility, Garza called Anthony and Charon to a halt. Ahead of their position, something looked different from what he recalled on their way out. The road seemed strangely barren; nothing moved in his field of view. That alone wasn’t surprising given that the majority of the population was either dead or infected. Still, he couldn’t shake the unsettling feeling that something was terribly wrong. He retrieved his binoculars and scanned the area in hopes of discerning what was behind his gut feeling.
Trash was brushed to the side where smeared footfalls created a vague path reminiscent of a game trail trampled through the wilderness by a herd of migrating animals. A heavy rope hanging at about waist height swayed under the force of the wind. It spanned the entrance to an alleyway located at a point where the street curved slightly, giving the impression that something had been herded past the opening. Garza knew that his perspective from the ground was different from what he’d had inside the Bearcat, but he thought there was more to it than that.
When a faint breeze blew down the street in his direction, his suspicion was confirmed. The cool air brought with it a cloying stench that was almost faint enough that it could’ve been dismissed under other circumstances. As it was, the briny, rancid odor triggered something in Garza’s brain that made him want to gag immediately. The realization of what was happening hit him like a ton of bricks.
“That’s impossible,” Garza muttered under his breath.
With everything that happened in the hardware store, Garza hadn’t had time to share what he’d found with Anthony. As such, the boy was understandably confused by his comment. The weak smile Anthony’s face bore as he rubbed Charon’s head faded when he saw the concern in Garza’s eyes.
“Garza? What is it?” Anthony asked tentatively. In his opinion, Garza was about the toughest guy he could think of. If something had him that worried, Anthony wasn’t sure he really wanted to know what it was.
Garza lowered the binoculars but kept his gaze locked in the direction of the CDC.
“I think something horrible passed through here,” Garza said flatly.
He filled Anthony in on what he’d found at the hardware store. When he finished, the boy looked like he might throw up. Part of Garza wished he could keep such things from him, but the practical side of him understood that the more Anthony knew about the dangers of the world, the safer he would be. Besides, if his suspicions were correct, Anthony was going to find out soon enough.
“There must’ve been hundreds…” Garza said as he stared at the blighted road.
What he’d seen through the binoculars looked like a dream compared to what he saw up close. The sides of the cars and buildings lining the path were smeared with a dark, briny fluid. Bile rose in his gorge when he saw something that looked and smelled like rotting meat dangling from the side mirror of an abandoned Mercedes convertible. Although he hurried past the putrid sinew, the stench clung to him, lingering in his nose long enough to make him to gag several more times.
Neither Anthony nor Garza harbored any delusions about what had carved the path through the urban landscape. They could think of only one thing capable of leaving such a swath of destruction. Still, a horde that size seemed impossible. Many questions swirled through their minds. Where had they all come from, and what had drawn them to the area in the first place? What worried them the most, however, was the fact that they saw little more than the occasional straggler as they walked toward the CDC.
If a large horde came through here, then where the hell is it now? Garza furrowed his brow as he considered the possibilities.
He got the answer to his unspoken question as soon as they crested the rise overlooking the CDC compound. The place looked like it had been swallowed by a nightmare. Even from a distance, he could see that the compound had taken considerable damage. Jagged edges protruded from a gaping hole in the outer fence, jutting out like shark teeth threatening to lacerate anyone or anything that passed through. His eyes followed the path from the breach in the fence to where it disappeared around the burned-out husk of a building that had been destroyed during the battle to hold the CDC during the early days of the outbreak. Desperately needing the rest of the answer, his mind filled in the remainder of the route likely taken by the horde. A bottomless pit opened in Garza’s stomach when he noticed the thin wisps of smoke rising in the distance.
“Lin…oh God, no…please, no…” Garza mumbled when his eyes found the smoldering building. He was moving before the words were even out of his mouth. Anthony and Charon were right on his heels.
Garza saw nothing but death and destruction as he raced toward the source of the smoke. He barely slowed when he passed the bloodstained patch of ground surrounding the skeletal remains of someone recently deceased. The AK-47 lying next to the corpse told him the person hadn’t been infected and hadn’t been someone from his group. At the moment, he honestly didn’t care who it was or how the person had died, so long as it wasn’t Lin.
A million thoughts flooded Garza’s mind at once, each cancelling the other out and leaving a gaping void in their wake. His worst fears were realized when the concrete barricade finally came into view: Building 18 had been attacked. Garza was scarcely able to breathe as he struggled to make sense of what he saw. Hundreds of revs milled around a blackened and charred section of the southern wall. At the epicenter of the damage was a break in the concrete, no more than three feet wide.
Given that there was a way to get inside, Garza wasn’t sure why any revs remained outside the wall. Knowing what he did about the revs’ behavior, he could think of only two potential explanations: either there was no room for any more infected on the other side of the barricade, or there was nothing they wanted left inside. His heart pounded in his chest as he imagined either possibility. A dark band tightened around his field of vision, and he felt as though he was going to pass out.
A glint of light near the break in the wall caught Garza’s eye, and he fumbled for his binoculars. Relief flooded his mind when he saw the smashed van wedged into the gap. Its windshield was shattered, and the bloody remains of someone unrecognizable were spread out across the top of the hood. He shuddered at the thought of anyone dying like that at the hands of the infected. He hoped that whoever it was had died during the crash.
Turning to Anthony, he said, “We need to get in there now.”
Garza’s words were laced with pleading, making them sound as much like a question as a statement. Anthony didn’t argue when he took in the man’s ashen complexion. When Garza didn’t immediately move, Anthony nodded and set off in a low crouch. Garza followed behind him, moving as though being dragged by an imaginary rope. Perhaps sensing the soldier’s distress, Charon lagged behind and brought up the rear. Anthony kept his distance as he led them around the mass of infected. Fortunately, every rev in sight seemed to have migrated toward the break in the wall, and they saw no more infected once they rounded the barricade’s southeastern corner.
Garza hadn’t made any contingency plans for gaining access to the compound, as he’d planned to be riding in the Bearcat. Standing outside the formidable barricade, he wanted to kick himself for the careless oversight. The wall was designed to be virtually impenetrable by anyone on the outside, and Garza saw the proof of that design as he stared up its smooth face. Short of explosives, he didn’t see how they could get in without being able to radio someone on the inside. Seeing no other option, they continued walking around the perimeter in hopes of finding a way into the compound.
“Anthony!”
Anthony, Garza, and Charon all swiveled their heads in search of the disembodied voice. Garza dropped to one knee, his rifle on his shoulder at the ready. The potential danger rallied his training and pulled his head back into the game.
“Garza! Up here,” the voice added.
Garza’s gaze followed the top of the barricade until he saw a frantic hand waving to them from a window set in the keep’s rear wall. He nudged Anthony and pointed in the direction of the hand. Garza held his breath as he tried to identify the person attempting to get their attention. The hope he’d been holding that it was Lin crumbled when Kate leaned out of the window. A moment later, something dropped from the opening. A slight smile appeared on Garza’s face as the rope slapped against the wall at chest height. His expression faded when he noticed Anthony’s concerned look.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” Garza asked.
Although Anthony didn’t respond, the boy’s sidelong glance toward Charon told him everything he needed to know.
“Don’t worry. We’ll get him inside, but we need to go first.”
Knowing Garza was right, Anthony nodded.
A few minutes later, Anthony and Garza crawled through the small window into the keep. No sooner had their feet touched the floor than Lin lunged forward and wrapped them both in an enormous hug.
“Oh, thank God! I was so worried. I didn’t think I’d see either of you ever again,” Lin sobbed.
“It’s okay. We’re back. Everything’s going to be fine,” Garza replied.
Part of him regretted the words as soon as they left his mouth. While he sincerely hoped that would be the case, he knew the odds of his words becoming a reality were seriously stacked against him. Garza spent the next several minutes briefing L.T. and the others on the details of their reconnaissance mission. He intentionally left out the part about Anthony becoming stranded in the hardware store. He planned to divulge those details as well, but he didn’t feel that it was the best time to share the harrowing experience with Lin.
“L.T., what’s the situation here? Where are the others?” Garza asked.
L.T.’s forlorn look made Garza almost wish he hadn’t asked the questions.
“Not good. Judge and Rooster didn’t make it. Dr. San, Maria, and Kate are here, but that chicken shit Dr. Sodecci took off when the first shot was fired. No telling where the hell he is—probably the main course for this damn infected family reunion we got going on here,” he said, waving his hand as if to indicate the rest of the compound. “Ava Wild is out there somewhere; Lydia is looking for her. Mother just came in, and he and Stack are already preparing to head out to look for them and the scavenging team. Basically, our limited assets are scattered all over the place. Whoever mounted this attack picked a hell of a time to do it.”
Garza struggled to process everything. Before finding the notes in the hardware store, he would’ve never considered the possibility of a person or group mounting such an offensive. As unnatural as the revs were, he had thought of the movement of such clusters as a “natural” phenomenon, akin to the migration of herds of other species. The idea that someone could knowingly and intentionally subject other human beings to such a gruesome attack made him sick to his stomach. Who would do such a thing?
After a pause, L.T. gave Anthony a fleeting glance before continuing, “There’s one more thing…”
22
Anthony replayed the lieutenant’s words at least a thousand times in his mind. Despite their straightforward meaning, his young brain proved incapable of reconciling the words. Every time he tried, the insight he sought seemed that much farther out of reach.
‘Annalee was bitten…’
Those three words flashed ominously like a strobe light behind Anthony’s shuttered eyelids. He wanted to open his eyes in order to escape the barrage, but he wasn’t sure he could face the reality of the world around him. There would be no hiding from this; that much he knew. At fourteen, he’d never experienced feelings for a girl like those he had for Annalee. Like most teenagers, he was ill-equipped to handle such
emotions and even more ill-equipped to deal with them being torn away so abruptly. He sat with his head cradled in his hands for what felt like an eternity.
Those who witnessed Anthony’s reaction couldn’t help but reflect on the loved ones they’d lost to the LNV pandemic. Anyone present would’ve gladly taken the boy’s pain away were such a thing possible, as it would’ve been far less painful than watching him suffer. Lt. Weaver had delivered such grave news to the loved ones of soldiers who’d died under his command on more occasions that he cared to remember. Those past experiences were of little help to him now, and he stood speechless. Garza’s thoughts drifted first to his sister who was killed before LNV surfaced, and then to Lin. Had Lin been bitten instead of Annalee, he didn’t know how he would’ve reacted. He’d witnessed Anthony’s strength on many occasions, and he knew the boy would make it through this trial as well. It would undoubtedly leave a scar on his soul that would be with him for the rest of his life, but LNV did that to everyone who dared to survive.
Lin stepped forward and placed a reassuring hand on Anthony’s slumped shoulder. He stiffened with the touch, and his back straightened ever so slightly. She recalled a previous conversation she and John had about the power of hope, and how the hope of finding Ava had kept him going. While she didn’t want to give Anthony any false hope, she knew that hope was what he desperately needed at that moment. Lin’s throat ached as she struggled to come up with words to comfort him.
“She seems to be doing okay, Anthony. She’s in shock, but I don’t see any definite signs of LNV infection. I am hopeful that Mother got to her before the infection had time to spread throughout her body.”
No one had mentioned that Mother had amputated Annalee’s left arm in the hope of preventing the spread of the virus, and she didn’t want to drop that bomb on Anthony if she didn’t have to. Mother looked nervous, and she imagined that he was thinking the same thing. Even though Lin thought the chance of Mother’s action preventing LNV infection was a long shot, it seemed scientifically feasible. When she thought about their latest efforts to find a cure for LNV, it was her turn to look nervous.