The forest grew thicker and the sounds of life became faint. His pace slowed. He was unable to move his legs any faster. The dead closed in and a single withered threw itself at Matt, missing his backside by inches. He didn’t stop to kill it. He needed to move forward. But his legs grew heavy and tired, no longer able to lift and step.
A few yards ahead sat an old hatchback Civic. The grey paint was rusted and rotted through with no windows intact. Inside were a few scraps of luggage and the weathered remains of a lone driver still sitting in the driver’s seat. In the back, an empty car seat was tipped over and unstrapped. The passenger doors hung broken and open.
Matt limped over and pulled the car seat out, bringing with it twigs from the sapling that had begun to grow through the backseat and trunk. He wrapped the baby up and placed him gently inside. He turned as another withered lunged at him.
Matt’s fatigued body collapsed backward under the force of the withered and knocked over the car seat, causing the baby to cry again. The withered turned its attention to the cries and made two feeble chomps at the noise, only to be stopped short by Matt’s fist to the side of its face.
More withered poured out in groups now. He couldn’t fight them. He grabbed the car seat and ran.
About a hundred yards ahead, a small body of water spilled down through the mountain, into the woods, and presented itself before Matt. If he could make it, he could jump in and float downstream, keeping the baby afloat and safe. He would probably die of hypothermia, but he would be able to save the child.
There weren’t words to describe the emotions a man felt when he realized his life was about to end. Fear escaped the body and mind and everything numbed, all while his perception sharpened and time slowed. He knew exactly what to do. It was a primitive instinct. It wasn’t about certainty. It was about taking action at all costs.
And when Matt was faced with the futile reality that his death was imminent, he did not hesitate to do what had to be done.
He had never heard the sounds of children playing or women and men talking. His mind had latched onto the first noise it recognized and hoped for the best. An audible mirage that sprang his life back into action as it almost quit.
Everyone was dead—except the baby with no name.
They stood silently on the water’s edge. Matt held the car seat out in front of his body and smiled.
“I think you need a name, don’t you, little guy?”
The baby cooed and fidgeted underneath the covers.
The horde called out to him from behind.
Make the sacrifice.
“I had a little brother once. His name was Michael, and I let him down. But don’t worry. I won’t do the same to you.”
Matt placed the seat in the water and let go briefly to make sure the baby wouldn’t tip over in the streams current. To his satisfaction, it floated perfectly.
“Okay, Michael. This is goodbye. I hope somebody’s downstream to catch you. But if I don’t let you go, those ugly monsters back there are going to get us both. So, I hope you can forgive me for this, but I have to let you go.”
Matt pushed Michael off into the current and watched as he floated away.
“Love you, little buddy,” he cried quietly, then turned away to face the horde. “Withered fucking zombies.”
They were close, and he was trapped, but at least they would be distracted as baby Michael floated away.
With a single heavy breath that burned and punched his insides, Matt screamed and ran into the horde.
His final sacrifice for the ones he loved.
Epilogue
A woman stood naked on the shoreline of a freshwater stream that stretched through the mountains and valleys of Colorado, shivering in the cold night’s air after bathing in the frigid mountain waters. Her skin glistened and popped with gooseflesh, but she was clean again and the brief exposure to the icy waters was worth the trouble.
In the distance, she heard screams and cries. Withered, she thought. They’re close.
She turned to put on her clothes and caught a glimpse of something bulky floating awkwardly downstream. As it bobbed by, something inside made a noise that sounded familiar.
Is that a baby?
She jumped in and swam after it, almost missing it as it floated by.
“Oh my God,” she cried out as she treaded in place.
It was a baby.
She grabbed hold of the car seat with one hand and swam back to shore. The baby cried helplessly as she pulled him along. The woman called out for help as she approached the shoreline. Two men came sprinting out from a pair of mobile homes parked nearby.
“A baby,” she said. “Quick, grab him.”
Both men jumped in and helped bring the baby to shore.
They unwrapped him from the rags he was covered in. The poor thing shivered and screamed. His lips were blue, his flesh pale.
The women grabbed her clothes and dressed before taking hold of him. Once she had him in her arms, she cradled him closely to warm him.
“Oh my gosh, you must be scared to death,” she whispered. “And hungry. Quick, one of you go get Marie. She’s nursing Gavin.”
One man ran. The other stayed.
“Where do you think he came from?” he asked in a New York accent.
“I don’t know, but I wonder if it has to do with the withered I heard in the distance. It sounds like a thousand or more, and they’re close. We can’t stay here.”
They walked away from the shore toward camp.
“Hi, little guy. What’s your name?” she asked. “Mine’s Tiffany.”
He stared back at her and smiled. She smiled back. “That’s right, little guy. You’re safe. I’ve got you, and you have nothing to worry about.”
Marie approached. She was young, in her early twenties, had short-cut black hair, thin eyebrows, and a small nose that gave her the look of a fairytale pixie. She pulled out a heavy breast ready to feed the starved child. Tiff passed the baby over and allowed him to latch on and feed. He suckled with his eyes closed and drank for only a minute or two before falling asleep.
Tiff watched as the baby took in gentle breaths of air in the arms of a woman he did not yet know. The sight of the newborn made her heart ache. She was filled with joy because there, sleeping in front of her, was a new life. A life that now had a chance. A child she could help mold and grow, and keep safe. Something she never thought imaginable. But also, there was sadness, because somewhere out there, a mother and father had died to save their baby. A baby who would never know his birth parents or how much they had surely loved him. So much, they sacrificed themselves to save him.
She also wondered about Matt. It pained her she hadn’t been able to tell him about his mother, that she had died. She only hoped he could let go of the past and move on. Let go of Michael and his losses. None of it was his fault, despite the fact he’d convinced himself it was all his fault. He would have made a good father, a good lover, had he allowed himself to be loved instead of shutting everyone out.
With the memory of Matt and the pain he had suffered through his entire life at the forefront of her thoughts, and the blessing of this new baby floating into her arms, Tiffany swore she would not let this baby suffer the way Matt had. She would do everything it took to keep him safe and feeling loved until she could no longer provide for him.
Marie pulled the baby away from her breast and handed him to Tiff. She took her jacket off the rock she had placed it on prior to her bath and wrapped him up inside. She held him close and kissed his forehead before whispering a promise in his ear.
“You are safe now, little love. Forever and ever. Mama’s got you, and I will never let you go.”
Children were the future of the world. If mankind abandoned them when they were young, they would grow up lost.
She swore there, in that moment, unafraid of what sacrifices were to come, to protect that child at all costs. Even if that cost was her life.
It was what Matt would have
done.
About the Author
David Curfiss is a veteran of the U.S. Navy. He served onboard the USS Kinkaid as a Gunners Mate before transferring to the Naval Special Warfare community as an armorer, where he had the privilege of working with the elite Navy Seals and SWCC Operators. After eight years of honorable service, David transitioned to civilian life.
Prior to his naval service, David had a passion for apocalyptic-themed stories and adventures. He spent his youth living in fictional worlds, battling zombies, vampire nuns, hostile aliens from faraway planets, and other creatures of death. It was while he was in seventh grade that he wrote his first apocalyptic story. Little did he know then, it was the spark that has led to his novel-writing path today.
Visit his website, www.davidcurfiss.com, to learn more about his work and sign up for his newsletter to receive the latest details about new books, cover reveals, and giveaways.
Also by David Curfiss
Michael’s Home: A Short Apocalyptic Horror Story
A Thousand Miles to Nowhere Page 24