by Kurt Horning
Cade wandered over to his sister and sat. The words were slow to come out, “I don’t know what is happening to me.” His eyes welled up, “I think part of me enjoys this place; this anarchy.”
“The last several days have been awful Cade. Everyone we knew is dead. Just hold on a little longer and we will be safe.”
“But is Canada safe?” Cade looked at her, “What if we aren’t welcome there?”
“You said the President told everyone to go there,” said Meg.
“Yeah, we’ll see.”
Everyone remained still as they passed the welcome to Detroit sign on the highway. They had been waiting days to get to this point. As they came over a small hill on the highway the camper slammed to a halt. Hundreds or thousands of undead wandered around the highway and the city below. Dwayne now driving weaved through a barrage of zombies to the exit ramp. The camper careened through the undead throwing limbs left and right. Goo splattered the windshield, but nothing the wipers couldn’t handle.
The bottom of the ramp was another story. It was shoulder to shoulder undead with nowhere to drive. Running into them would stop the truck dead in its tracks and the group would be surrounded instantly.
Vick sized up the situation, “We go on foot now. Grab whatever you need but don’t weigh yourselves down too much.”
Everyone geared up with weapons and water, leaving behind the rest of the supplies. It was only a few miles to safety now and little was needed.
“From our spot its seven blocks this way to the Windsor Bridge and tunnel,” said Vick. “If we move back to back to back and don’t stop we should be ok.”
Gunshots rang through the air as the group started pressing eastward. Blocks ahead they could see another group on foot using firearms to move forward. The packs of zombies ignored Cade and the others and they ambled toward the sounds ahead.
“I think we lucked out,” said Trina.
“Yeah but those guys didn’t,” replied Autumn.
The group pressed on without a fight. They cut over one block to avoid the firefight. Finally the bridge and tunnel were in sight. “Let’s take the tunnel, it might be less crowded,” said Dwayne.
“It’s sure as hell darker,” replied Cade. “But we can try it.”
As they approached the tunnel entrance Cade and the others saw that it was in shambles. Cars and trucks were flipped and crushed across the lanes. Chatterers walked among the cars in the hundreds.
“There’s no way we can get through there, especially in the dark,” said Vick. “We have to make our way over the damn bridge and it won’t look any better I’d bet.”
Circling up to the bridge way they found out that Vick was correct. It looked much the same as the tunnel except that they could see. Together in a tight circle they began the trek across the Ambassador Bridge to Windsor, Ontario.
As they fought through the first onslaught of chatterers Dwayne spotted the group from before just ahead. They had climbed a ladder up the side and avoided some of the undead. As Cade eyed them he saw a familiar face, the foreman.
“Son of a bitch,” he said. “The guys ahead of us still.”
He aimed down his rifle getting a bead on the foreman. Bam! A bullet ricocheted off the car next to the man’s face. “Dammit!”
With the rival group alerted they abandoned the undead and turned to the group of airline survivors, firing all their weapons.
They dove behind cars returning fire and pushing forward whenever the shooting stopped. Every now and again some undead would get in the crossfire and get cut to ribbons.
Autumn shot three men easily and returned to cover. Trina wasn’t a good shot and succeeded in missing all her marks. Meg had only a pistol and shot undead as they crept behind her friends.
Cade had been moving forward quickly. He wanted the foreman’s blood so bad he could taste it. Vick was right behind with Dwayne, shooting four of the foreman’s men. This left only one man plus the leader in the group’s way.
As Vick popped up from behind cover to aim the last man got lucky and fired. The impact took Vick to his knees, and then fell backwards onto his back. Dwayne yelled for help and the others came as quickly as possible to see what the commotion was about.
Blood was pouring out of Vicks stomach. “God dammit we have to get across now!” yelled Cade. “Hold on man we got you.”
The women pressed on his wound with Cade’s removed shirt to ease the bleeding. “Dwayne you’re my damn cover, we’re going now.”
With that he jumped into action and sprinted towards the foreman and his man. The savage had come out again. Dwayne tried to keep up but found it impossible. Cade threw his gun down and slid over the hood of a car landing on the other man. He swiveled and kneeled cutting the man’s Achilles tendons, then behind the knees, finally twist stabbing his stomach.
Cade looked up in fury, blood covering his body at the foreman, “It’s just you and me. NOW!”
Chapter 16
"The end of the line," said the foreman.
"You killed her in cold blood, she did nothing to you," yelled Cade.
The two men stood face to face, walking a circle, sizing one another up. A happenstance meeting had turned into a blood feud with no chance of both surviving. One had lost a potential love, the other some good men.
“Are we going to fight or dance boy," chuckled the foreman.
Cade lunged in for a stomach shot but his opponent dodged swiftly like a matador facing a bull. He stumbled and turned as the foreman sliced a deep gash across his back. Blood streamed from Cade's shirt but he kept his cool.
Knives clanged together in a strange figure eight pattern. They moved so fast that one false dodge could end it. Cade kicked the knee out from under the foreman and dove onto him as he fell to the ground in a thud. His knife was at the man’s throat pushing closer and closer. The foreman gasped and grabbed gravel and soft dirt from the bridge and flung it into Cade's eyes.
Cade dropped his blade to the ground as he rubbed his eyes and face to clean it. Tiny pebbles and grains of sand had lodged in his eyes. The foreman picked up a pistol from one of his dead men and walked over to Cade. He was still rubbing his eyes and squinting his vision helplessly.
"All you had to do was piss off boy," the foreman said with anger.
"Some of us are survivors and some, well, are like you."
Cade sat on his knees in a helpless position. "Kill me then, before I kill you."
"Very well," answered the foreman.
He lowered the pistol to Cades forehead, cocked the hammer, and pulled the trigger. Click, click, and click.
The gun was empty. Hearing the empty gun Cade swept his leg around cutting the foreman off at the knees and knocking him down.
The foreman stood as Cade rushed in giving him a foot to the stomach. Both men exchanged punches' back and forth. The foreman’s left eye began to swell and Cade looked to have lost a front tooth.
Both were exhausted from the long drawn out fight. Finally the foreman had backed Cade up to the guardrail, punching him violently. Cade was then held out over the water seconds from falling to his death.
Bang!
Cade pulled himself back onto the bridge. The foreman had let go of him and looked at his chest instead, falling over the guardrail to the water far below.
Vick stood behind with a rifle smiling, then collapsed onto the pavement again. "Don't die on me buddy," yelled Cade.
"Aw hell you were taking too long sissy fighting," laughed Vick. "Remember though, bury me with the belt."
The group formed around Vicks body on the ground. He was bleeding so badly, it was hard to believe he was still alive. "Had to make sure you guys made it before I kicked the bucket."
Cade grabbed his friends hand as he took his last breaths.
Everyone cried but carried out their friend Vicks last request. They dragged him off the bridge and onto the soft ground of Canada. It took quite a while to dig a hole with no actual tools but they made due with the weapo
ns and items that were available.
They all helped lower Vick into the ground. Cade kneeled next to his friend and put the wrestling belt across his waist. Everyone did their best to bury him quickly, silently, and with dignity.
One by one Cade and the others said their goodbyes to their friend. Tears welled, the wind was horrible, and no one said a word.
With time expired Meg, Dwayne, Trina, Autumn, and Cade made their way in a hurry up to the checkpoint for Canada. There were guards posted everywhere. The grounds behind the border looked to be converted into a base. Tents were everywhere and in the middle was a large command center.
The border guards welcomed Cade and the others to Canada.
“You are only the third group of Americans to make it here,” said a guard.
“We made it,” exclaimed Autumn, “I never thought we would.”
Several guards walked over to the group. One said, “Please follow us to the decontamination room, it shouldn’t take very long.”
Just as they turned to follow the guards, the nukes all landed. The ground shook violently, the air turned dark, and several mushroom clouds could be seen to the West, in America.
“Holy shit,” said Cade “We did barely make it.”
All became tearful as they followed the guards. Cade and Autumn held hands, as did Dwayne and Trina. Meg walked farther behind with her head in her hands.
Led into a large tent that looked more like a locker room in high school than a government facility the guard said, “Everyone please get undressed and go into the room on the right.” He added, “We will burn your clothes but new ones await you as you exit the showers.
Everyone got undressed shyly, friends are friends but naked people still blush. Hot, what felt like water steamed down from the ceiling. They were instructed to turn in circles to get maximum clean.
Finally after several minutes the showers stopped. The group exited and found towels and clothing. After getting dressed they met a General outside.
“Welcome to Canada everyone.”
“Thank you for letting us come,” said Dwayne. “Otherwise we’d be dead.”
“I bet you guys had quite the adventure,” said the General.
“It was more like hell sir,” said Cade.
“Well there is more clothing and money for each of you in these bags, someone will give you a lift to Ontario where you can settle in or move on.”
“Good luck to you all, oh yes, the mess hall is over there if you’re hungry.”
They ate a quick meal together and hopped into a jeep for Ontario. The group chattered happily about life and remembering friends.
As they unloaded from the jeep the Officer said, “Welcome home.”
END
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Kurt
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