by Josh Hilden
The first of the Dead that she encountered was a little girl that was so fresh she almost looked alive. She was holding onto a bloody stuffed giraffe and wearing a “Yo Gaba-Gaba” t-shirt. Jennifer hesitated, she was aware that growing in her belly was another little girl. But as the girl turned her head, she saw that her left eye was gone. She brought a baton down on her head and moved on.
The tears would have to come later.
It took 20 minutes to clear the ground floor, and to make sure that the access to the basement was sealed off. They had no need to go down there so better to barricade it. The faint sounds of rhythmic beating through the heavy steel doors were also discouraging when it came to exploring.
Once the building was pronounced clear, a radio message was sent to the people trapped in the upper floors that it was alright to come down. The west stairwell was unblocked from the inside, and a collection of terrified college students and a woman in her late forties came out. They were brandishing a collection of improvised weapons. The only true weapon was carried by Professor Kelly Hodges, she had a red painted steel fire axe clasped in her hands.
She looked from Jennifer, to Clay, and then to Liam and asked in a dry and cracked voice. “Are you real?”
Liam smiled, “Yes Professor, we are real. And we are going to get you and out of here.”
The woman sank to her knees and began to cry. Many of her students did the same thing.
In the distance Jennifer could hear people saying, “Move the truck.” And that was followed by the sounds of engines. Jennifer knew that the distraction team had returned ahead of the hordes. Jennifer hoped that they had all made it back.
3
Engineering Building
October 29, 2012 (Day Twelve)
1:00am EST
All of the runners who created the diversion filtered back as time passed, all except for one of them. One of the people who’d volunteered to draw the Dead away had not made it back. Abby Monroe was alone in the group. None of her family made it out of Sydney Ohio with her. She’d been trudging along by herself when they picked her up on a dirt road four days ago. She never spoke much, and they were all surprised when she volunteered to go run with Kyle.
When he returned, Kyle went off to find a quiet place to eat and maybe catch a couple of hours of sleep. He found an abandoned teacher’s office with a comfortable couch that would do the job.
“I think that she wanted to die, and she was just looking for an excuse.” Kyle said quietly as he picked at the crackers and Vienna sausages that he was supposed to be eating. But he wasn’t hungry after that run.
“Why do you think so?” Scarlet asked, she’d been glued to his side since his return, and followed him to the empty office.
“I looked into her eyes before they got her. She knew she was done for and she…” tears were burning his eyes, “…she looked relived.” The tears came forth and he felt stupid. He had not even known her, but still he couldn’t stop crying. “I should have at least gone back and made sure she was down for good.” Now he was bawling like a baby.
Scarlet reached across the battered leather couch and took his trembling form in her delicate arms. She pulled his head to her breast, and at first he fought against her touches, but he settled as she stroked his hair and told him that none of it was his fault. He took her comfort greedily, and she took strength and solace in being able to give it to him. She leaned back on the couch, and for a long time he lay in her arms, until all of the fear and the pain shredding his soul settled back into a dull roar that hurt but was manageable.
After what might have been hours, or maybe just a few minutes, Kyle lifted his head and looked at her. He’d never noticed how beautiful she was, her pale white skin, pink freckles, red hair, and green eyes. She’d always been ‘Little’, Jennifer’s best friend.
Of course, there’d been that one day when he’d been willing to risk a lot for her, but they’d just been kids then. They hadn’t even had a real conversation since. There’d also been the day three years ago when she’d gotten her braces and he had told her she was pretty with or without them, she’d hugged him that day.
He didn’t know why he did it, but before he realized it, he moved up and forward and pressed his lips to hers. She parted her lips and he could feel the warm wetness of her mouth and tongue. At first the kiss was sweet, almost innocent, then something changed and a fire was kindled in both of them. Heat seemed to pulsate from their bodies in waves. Kyle felt an overwhelming need to be with her. He’d never felt this way before, even in the heights of puberty when there’d been enough testosterone coursing through his veins to kill a small elephant, he had never been this aroused.
She must have felt something similar because she thrust her hands down and began to fumble with his belt at the same moment that his franticly searching fingers pulled her shirt up and slid a hand underneath. Her small breasts were hard and hot as molten steel. He rubbed the small rigid nipples through the bra and she moaned with pleasure.
She unhooked his khakis and slid them down. “Do you have anything?” She asked in a husky and throaty voice that belonged to an older woman.
It took him a moment to clear enough fog from his mind to realize that she meant, did he have a rubber? “No,” he said and he prepared for her to tell him to stop.
“Fuck it!” she growled and reached down and slid her own jeans down, and in one motion slipped his rock hard penis into herself. She drew in a hiss of breath, there was pain mixed with pleasure as Kyle began to slide in and out of her. He attempted to go slowly, but need and desire blew all thoughts away.
“Slow down,” she murmured into his ear, and to her amazement he did. He didn’t know, and she was sure nobody but Jennifer knew, that she’d never allowed another man to touch her since that horrible afternoon in the park. She’d dreamed of this moment for so long with mingled terror and lust, and so many of those dreams featured her current partner that it made her head swim.
“Scarlet, oh Scarlet,” he kept whispering into her ear as his thrusting became more frantic once again. But this time she was thrusting back almost as hard, she was so near and she could tell that he was approaching the end.
She wrapped her arms tight around his neck and her legs around his waist and screamed out, “Oh God, Kye!” The wave that ripped through her body curled her toes and made her hair ache. That was quickly followed by his own unintelligible cry of pleasure, and then a warm wet sensation between her legs.
Neither of them ever imagined that it could be like that.
4
Engineering Building
October 29, 2012 (Day Twelve)
7:00am EST
Benny didn’t even knock, he just thrust open the door to the room he thought he had seen Kyle slink off to the night before. He started talking before his mind caught up with what his eyes were showing him.
“Hey Kye, the Old Man wants…” He saw Kyle and Scarlet wrapped around each other with a thick sleeping bag over them and came to a halt. Benny was far from stupid. He’d known there was a spark between the two of them for years, but he never broached the subject. Now here they were, obviously naked under the cover and the lingering odor in the air giving testament to what had transpired.
“Umm, the General wants everyone downstairs.” He said and then turned and bolted from the room.
Kyle looked at Scarlet with her red hair tussled and she looked back at him. He waited for the awkwardness and the uncomfortable silence, but instead they both started laughing. Then Kyle leaned over and kissed her good morning.
“Hi pretty lady,” he said and brushed a lock of hair from in front of her face.
“Hello yourself,” she said.
“I thought I dreamed last night.” He said quietly.
“Me too,” she returned.
Then they laughed and kissed again. Before they could do more than kiss enough to know they wanted another hour or so alone, another head popped into the room and a stern voice was addressin
g them.
“It’s very sweet that the two of you have finally realized that you are supposed to be together, but we are having an important meeting in 10 minutes.” Jennifer said and they could both hear the implied “Now get the fuck up,” in her voice.
“Yes ma’am,” Kyle said. Then after Jennifer left they got up and dressed.
10 minutes later they were in the third floor lecture hall with the rest of their group and the students from the engineering building. Liam and the Professor were on the stage, he was leaning on his steel headed cane, and she was seated in a chair. When he saw Kyle, Liam motioned for him to join them. Kyle was taken a bit aback. Scarlet poked him in the ribs and then gave his hand a quick squeeze before he climbed the steps.
Everyone was assembled in the seats facing the stage except for Clay and the people he’d chosen to help guard the perimeter. Kyle felt his gut clench when he realized that Liam was preparing to “Address the Troops”, and that he considered Kyle one of the officers in their Quasi-Military unit.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, for those of you that do not know I am Liam Harrison,” he hesitated before adding the rest, “Brevet General. This is Professor Kelly Hodges of the University of Findlay, and this young man is Kyle Carson. He is my second.” Kyle wanted to object to the title. He had no desire to be the number two guy in the group, and Liam had no business dropping this on him. But the older man was continuing, “Our goal is to reach a United States Army research facility in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It is going to be a long and hard journey, but I believe that it is worth making.” He looked at Professor Hodges and she rose and replaced him at the lectern.
“My name is Dr. Kelly Hodges. I am an Associate Professor of Engineering here at the school. At least I was when it still was a school.” Kyle thought that she was going to begin crying, but she collected herself and continued. “My students and I are very grateful for the help that you have rendered us. I believe that the milk of human kindness has already curdled in most people, but you have proven to be the exception to the rule.”
There was open weeping in the audience. Loud ‘thank you’s’ directed to the rescuers could be heard from every corner of the spacious room. Kyle felt uncomfortable. They’d only done what needed doing. Then he wondered how many other groups heard the desperate plea for help, and then done nothing. The Professor continued after the babble died down.
“We would like to join you on this journey. We wouldn’t be a burden, these are some of the finest engineering students in the country, and we would offer our skills to your group. We have to leave one way or the other. We talked it out last night, this place is death.” The crowd had gone silent with the plea.
It dawned on Kyle that this assembly was to determine if the group would accept these newcomers. Things had been so slipshod when he and his family joined, it had never occurred to him that eventually everyone would have to have a say on who was permitted membership in their band. They were becoming something permanent.
She was still describing the value of her students and herself, when Kyle stepped up and tapped her on the shoulder. He didn’t even realize that he was going to do it until he started. She looked at him and he saw the desperation in her eyes, he smiled and stepped up to the microphone.
“Most of you know who I am,” he said and he heard his comrades erupt.
“Kyle!”
“Boss Carson!”
“Bad Mother Fucker!”
“Jenny’s Brother!”
The place erupted in laughter at that one. Kyle smiled a million watt smile he never knew was in his arsenal. At first he was terrified, but after a few words the situation fit him like a glove. He had a few things to say and then he would leave the stage, he knew things would go the way that they needed to go.
“Almost none of us knew each other 12 days ago, and if we did it wasn’t very well. But here we are. We worked as a group and we secured this building. We rescued the Professor and her students, not because we expected a reward but because it was the right thing to do.”
There were more cheers and applause. Kyle let it go on for a full half minute and then he raised his hands. He was rewarded with almost instant quiet.
“It’s a new world, and we are all just trying to make our way in it. Our destiny for the immediate future is to range ever northward up Interstate 75. We will sail the broken river of concrete and death, until we reach the Promised Land on the shores of the greatest lake. And when we are there, we will turn and we will face down whatever is following us.”
They cheered so loud at that that Kyle wondered if the Dead outside could hear them.
“But we are still Americans, and we have to do the right thing. Anyone who needs our help should get it. These aren’t just refugees. They are our brothers and our sisters, our family and our friends. I say we accept them as part of our family.”
Kyle sat down and Liam retook the podium. They would be calling a vote and Kyle was sure that the group would vote his way. It felt good to have his opinion listened to, and it felt even better that they were going to do the right thing. But when he looked into the crowd and he saw Scarlet in the front row, her eyes beaming pride in his direction, it was hard to remember that the real world existed.
5
Interstate 75
Outside Bowing Green, Ohio
November 3, 2012 (Day Seventeen)
2:00pm EST
The I-75 Rangers cruised up the center of the interstate. It’d been one of the engineering students who stuck the name on the group. Even though the leadership, Liam, Kyle, and Kelly Hodges, thought it sounded silly, it seemed to raise morale and breed a bit of unity among the survivors. One of the younger teenagers in the group who had an artistic flair designed a flag for the group while they’d been in the school. It was a skull with a 75 on the forehead on a black shield. She’d been painting it on every vehicle, even the seven motorcycles they’d acquired before leaving Findlay.
They stayed in Findlay for three days. Only going out at night and ransacking as much of the town as they could, stocking up on food and medical supplies. Some weapons had been found, but very little ammunition was to be had. They’d barely replaced what they expended defending the engineering building while they were in town. Time was taken to rest, repair their vehicles, and canvass the area for anything useful. Most of the salvaging was mediocre, but Benjamin Millette made the stay in Findlay worth all of the grief and expenditures of time.
“I have something I want you all to see.” He said at the afternoon meeting. Benny was never shy, but he was also never very serious. He was the guy who liked to crack jokes and keep everyone in a good mood when things looked grim. He was the only one that could call General Harrison “Old Man” and get away with it. But on the second night of their stay, he was very serious. They all tramped down the stairs to the courtyard. One of the engineering students started to scream when he saw the restrained dead man being held at a distance by Clay Sanford, who had a dog catcher’s pole around its neck. The thing was gnashing and reaching for Jennifer Carson.
She was standing in front of it holding some sort of pole weapon.
“This,” Jennifer said in a commanding voice, “is the enemy.” She gestured at the Dead man. “And this is our new tool to use against the enemy.” She hefted the four foot pole. On the bottom was a steel sphere the size of pool ball, and on the head was an oversized blade. The handle had a rubberized coating on its wooden surface.
“Release,” Jennifer said to Clay. The big man unhooked the pole from the Dead man’s neck. It took the corpse a second to realize that it was free, and then it promptly took after Jennifer. Several people in the assembled crowd cried out, and one of the younger women ran back to the engineering building.
“The weapon is well balanced and surprisingly light.” Jennifer said as she swung it around and around in a figure eight formation in front of her body. “The base can be used for smashing,” she swung it low and smashed it right into the corpse�
��s knee. There was a sickly popping noise and then the leg was rendered useless. The thing began to drag the lamed limb. “The head can be used for stabbing,” she jabbed it into the thing’s neck and then withdrew it. “Or it can be used for chopping,” she brought it down into the shoulder and the arm was severed. The she twirled it around and brought the butt end down on the thing’s head, ending the demonstration. Steam rose from the exposed patches of Jennifer’s skin, and her breath slowly pulsed in and out.