by Tim Moon
One man had scratches on both sides of his face. Ribbons of skin wiggled while he walked, swaying in the breeze that came in off the ocean.
Oliver stared at the group with a curious look on his face. Ben hoped that the boy couldn’t understand what he saw. It was not a sight for children.
The road was empty except for several cars behind a tall chain link fence. The gate to the fenced section was open. Ben realized that it’s where the group had come from.
Ben eyed the cars greedily, hoping they would find keys. If not, they would have to move closer to the airport and the multitude of aimlessly wandering infected. Clearly, they had estimated the number of surviving infected on the low end. From what Ben could see at first glance, there were close to fifty between them and the runway. There was no need to get quite that close. With that many infected in the area, any noise or movement that caught their attention would be deadly for the group.
“Okay, go slow,” Anuhea said.
Anuhea led Charlotte, Oliver, and Kathy toward the ditch. They were moving much faster. Ty groaned as they started walking. Travis hopped, they walked, and the sun roasted them all.
“Almost there,” Ben said.
Travis grinned at him.
Ty groaned again. “Can’t you hold some of your own weight?”
“I’m doing my best,” Travis said, his voice rising.
“Keep it down,” Ben said. Sweat dripped off his nose. “We’re almost there. Hold it together.”
Ben looked up, saw that the others made it to the ditch. Anuhea crouched near the edge of the road to keep a lookout. The group of infected hadn’t noticed them and were at least fifty yards away.
When they reached the ditch, Ty let go and ducked out from under Travis’ arm without warning. He dropped to the ground to sit down.
Travis lost his balance and instinctively put his foot down to catch himself, despite Ben’s best effort to hold him. All of his weight temporarily bore down on his swollen ankle and he cried out in pain. Ben barely kept them from falling over.
Travis cut off the cry, his face flushed red as he clenched his eyes shut. Fresh rivulets of sweat ran down his face. Ben had suffered a serious ankle sprain before that had put him in a cast and on crutches for eight weeks. He could empathize with the pain Travis was going through.
“What the hell, Ty?” Ben said angrily between clenched teeth. He lowered Travis to the ground.
Anuhea dropped down from her crouch into the ditch. “Shit.”
“What?” Ben asked.
“I think they heard us,” she said.
“That’s just fucking great,” Travis sneered and shot a dirty look at Ty.
“Quiet,” Ben said.
Everyone lay down on the ground. Tension filled the air. A cool breeze kicking up a bit of dust and their breathing were the only sounds. No one wanted to fight again. They were hot, tired, thirsty and just plain worn out.
Ben peered up. His eyes widened when he saw the infected had turned around and were coming towards them. Movement across the road caught his eye. Apparently, the sound had caught a lot of attention. Three made their way onto the road and stumbled around.
The area was wide open. They had nowhere to hide other than lying still on the ground. Ben willed the infected to turn away and keep moving. If the infected wandered in their direction and happened to walk off the road, they’d be right on top of the group.
Walk away, Ben repeated in his mind.
The breeze carried a fetid smell. The infected were close. Ben heard their footsteps. Anuhea lay on her back, slightly hidden behind a large rock. She looked at Ben and held a finger to her lips.
Charlotte lay on her side, shielding Oliver from seeing the torn up bodies coming their way.
Minutes crawled by, slower than maggots.
Ben slowly raised his head. The infected appeared to have stumbled past them, continuing down the street. Clearly, their senses were dull. He grunted at the thought.
Putrid odors lingered in the air, but he didn’t hear their groans or footsteps. Ben looked at Anuhea. She shook her head to indicate that nothing was nearby. They were clear.
The ditch would suffice for Travis, Kathy, Charlotte and Oliver. Once Ben, Anuhea and Ty crossed the road, it’d be easier to move around because there was cover in the form of a small building and a sprawling parking lot with maybe a hundred cars.
Charlotte sat up and leaned against the slope, with her back to the road. Oliver sprawled out in the ditch, playing with small fragments of lava rock, trying to stack them up.
Ben shook his head in amazement.
Kathy sat like Charlotte about six feet away, with Travis’ head cradled in her lap. His eyes were closed, whether from exhaustion or pain was anyone’s guess.
Ty crawled toward Ben and Anuhea.
“So, what now?” he asked.
“We’re going to find a car or truck, anything to get us the hell out of here,” Anuhea said.
“I mean what’s the plan for finding a car? How do you plan to take one? Keys in the visor only happen in the movies, right?” Ty asked with a skeptical look on his face.
“Whatever we have to do, we’re leaving in a vehicle,” Ben said. “It’s too hot and dangerous to walk. We need water and food.”
“So we dig through dead people’s pockets?” Ty asked, still skeptical.
Ben rolled his eyes and looked at Anuhea for help. “Whatever we ha-”
Kathy screamed.
All of their heads snapped in the woman’s direction. She clamped both of her hands over her mouth, realizing the horrible mistake she’d made.
One infected walked on the edge of the road just behind Kathy, it must have startled her. The overweight man turned his dark eyes and blood stained face slowly in the direction that her scream came from.
Travis cursed and began to scramble away. Kathy stifled another scream as the infected man lurched in her direction. She managed to scramble out of the ditch just as the infected lost his balance on the steep incline and fell into the space she had occupied.
Oliver hopped up and ran away, but realized Charlotte wasn’t behind him and ran back to grab her hand. “It’s the bad people,” he said, pulling her arm.
She had frozen in place, but Oliver literally dragged her out of the stupor and she scrambled up.
“Shit, more are coming,” Anuhea said.
“Back into the field,” Ben said to everyone.
“Damn it. Just when we seem to be making progress, they push us back,” Anuhea complained as she retreated into the lava field.
Everyone rushed to get away from the big man.
“Get up! Go!” Ben shouted as he pulled Travis out of the man’s reach.
Thrashing as if his life depended on it the infected man crawled forward, ignoring the rough ground. He latched onto Kathy’s ankle. She screamed again. “Oh God, no!”
“Kathy!” Travis said, twisting out of Ben’s grasp.
Ben slipped on a loose rock and fell to his knee. The joint exploded in pain from landing on sharp gravel. He clenched his jaw against the pain and forced himself to stand.
Travis had already twisted around, moving with surprising speed considering his injury. Kathy kicked her leg and managed to free it. Her shoe slipped off, but the infected man’s other hand flew forward to retrieve his prey. His fingers dug in and Ben could see where his nails tore at her skin. Kathy slipped and the big man dragged her toward his snapping maw. She groaned as she realized what was about to happen to her. The man moaned in anticipation. Travis crawled like a wild animal, getting to his knees and throwing himself at the fat guy before anyone could intervene.
Ben could see other infected closing in. They moved with intention, sensing fresh prey.
Then Kathy shouted, “He bit me! He bit me!” Her voice curled into a pitiful whine.
“No! Not my wife,” Travis shouted. He pounded on the fat man’s head, punching him repeatedly.
Ben couldn’t move. He couldn’t bel
ieve what he was seeing. It was the start of another heart-rending tragedy, like back at the Harley Davidson shop when Eric had watched the fat man bite his wife and shortly thereafter, she had bitten Eric.
Charlotte yelled Ben’s name. He slowly turned his head and squinted at her in the bright light. She yelled and pointed. He turned back to the road and saw the other infected closing in. Two slid down the hill and fell on top of each other, narrowly missing Anuhea, who had come back and was trying to pull Travis off the fat man so they could flee.
Ben cursed under his breath and ran forward. Time seemed to slow and thoughts raced through his mind like rocket ships. Kathy was done for. He knew that she would eventually turn. Travis was a lost cause too. With his injury, the man was a liability. Anuhea, on the other hand, was unbitten and uninjured. Still, he couldn’t bring himself to leave anyone.
“Anuhea, let’s go! Move your ass,” Ben shouted. He threw his arm around her waist, lifted her up and moved her. Time sped back up as soon as he picked up a bowling ball sized rock. “Travis move!”
The man looked back for a split second. Just enough to flinch back as Ben dropped the rock on the infected man’s head.
The rock tore a big chunk of scalp off, crushed his skull and pinned his body in place. Its body twitched and flailed. Kathy squirmed away and then she crawled toward Travis.
“I love you,” she said, sobbing.
Travis thrust his hand out, taking hers in his grasp. They held hands, staring at each other as the two zombies untangled themselves and fell upon the downed couple.
Ben jumped back to avoid the infected, tripping and landing hard on his ass.
“No!” Ben shouted. He rushed to stand up, but Anuhea grabbed him from behind in a surprisingly strong bear hug. “We have to help them,” he said. Even as he said it, he knew it was hopeless. He’d known it even as he fought to save them.
“They’re gone,” she said in his ear.
His head drooped and his shoulders slumped in defeat.
“Let’s go! More are coming.” Anuhea let go of him, but took his hand and pulled him back into the barren lava field.
28
Oliver kept tripping over the loose gravel and rough lava rock. Ben ran over and grabbed Oliver’s hand, keeping an eye out roving infected.
“C’mon Oliver,” said Ben. He dusted off Oliver’s back and gave him a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder.
“I’m okay,” he said despite the obvious tears in his eyes.
“Just a little further,” Ben said. He wasn’t sure that was the truth or not. How could he be sure how far they had to go? These bastards were persistent like nothing else.
Luckily the infected were finding the terrain just as treacherous as Oliver was. One stumbled and fell, tearing up its wretched, bloodstained face. Another seemed to have broken its ankle but that could have happened before.
Regardless, Ben was annoyed that they had to run yet again. He wanted to go the other way and these monsters were in their way. One of his friends, an army veteran, always used to say, “Suck it up and drive on.”
Ben figured he could keep going, but Oliver wouldn’t be able to cope as well.
“Hold up.” Ben stopped. He gave Oliver’s hand to Charlotte. “You two keep going and hide behind those rocks.” Ben gestured lazily with his hand.
“Okay, be careful.” Charlotte picked up Oliver and walked carefully over the rocks.
“Ty, Anuhea, help me,” Ben said.
Ty was the furthest away. Ben frowned at him.
How the fuck did he get so far? Ben thought.
“Why are you stopping?” Anuhea asked.
“We can’t run away. I’m sick of constantly running away,” Ben said, panting even though they’d only run about fifty yards. He jabbed a finger toward the airport’s parking lot. “Nothing has changed, we need to go that way and find transportation.”
Ty had wandered back and stood near Charlotte and Oliver, all of them panting for breath in the muggy air.
“A little risky don’t you think?” Ty asked.
Travis and Kathy’s dying screams had already faded, yet the moans of pleasure from the infected gorging on their flesh still reached their ears. It was a gut wrenching sound that would forever be seared into Ben’s memory. He worried about the affect it would have on Oliver.
“There are more of them…” Oliver said. He began to cry. “I don’t like it here. I want to go home.”
Slow, stumbling bodies had followed them out into rocky hills.
“It’ll be okay.” Charlotte knelt down and hugged him.
“I just want to go home,” he wailed.
“Shhh! Keep it down,” Ty snapped.
Ben turned and scowled at the sight of infected pursuing them. He felt the pistol in his pocket. His fist closed around it and he nearly pulled it out. Ben cursed himself for not pulling it out to save Kathy. He’d been too slow to react.
No, shooting would just draw more down on us, Ben thought.
So, beginning to realize the conundrum, he concluded that all they could do was avoid the infected, find a way to distract them, attempt to trap them, or kill them. He wanted to kill them all. Ben was fuming. He’d had enough of running and hiding. Sometimes it was the prudent move, but not right now. Not after they had lost two people so quickly.
They needed a car because running away would only make their situation worse and lower their chances of survival.
Ben looked around. In the direction of the airport, they had a total of about twenty infected to face down, between them and the parking lot. To their right was a daunting field of rock, nothing out there except maybe a wild goat or a donkey. To their left were the rental car buildings. It’d be an ideal place to steal a car since the keys were on hand. However, there were too many infected milling around in the fenced parking lots. Behind them was a long stretch of open ground that sloped up and eventually led to the main highway.
“I’m not running anymore. Not now, not this time. We need a car,” he said again, still breathing hard from adrenalin and running in the heat.
The others looked at him with questions in their eyes. Only Anuhea spoke up though. “So, what are you thinking?”
“We can kill the infected back there. They are slow and clumsy,” Ben said. “We are fast and smart. We can kill them.”
“How? If you start shooting we’ll have a hundred of them on us,” Anuhea said, shaking her head.
Ben also shook his head and turned around to face the infected following them. “Nope, no shooting.”
The three closest ones were about thirty yards away. He took a few steps toward them.
“What are you doing?” Anuhea said.
“Solving a problem.” Ben bent over a picked a good size rock. He held it like a baseball, giving a few small tosses to test its weight and feel. “How’s your arm?”
He smirked at Anuhea and caught a glimpse of Ty walking closer with a curious look on his face.
“Um…good, I guess.” Anuhea looked at Ben for a moment and then bent to find her own rock.
“That’s good enough. Let’s nail these bastards,” said Ben. “We can’t go around them, so we’ll go through them.”
She gave him a curious look.
“Try to get them on the ground. Knock them over,” he said to clarify. “Then we can smash their heads. That’s the only way to stop them.”
“Sounds pretty damn grim,” Anuhea said, scrunching up her face. “But I know it needs to be done. It’s us or them, right?”
“Exactly.” Ben nodded. Ty and Charlotte looked less convinced. “Look at the ground. We have all the ammunition we need.” Ben grinned like the Cheshire cat.
“Seems risky. We should just walk to the quarantine center,” Ty said.
“We’ll never make it in this heat. Not without water. Oliver definitely can’t make it,” Ben said. “We have to fight.”
“I’m with you,” Anuhea said with a nod.
“We do need a car, so…I�
��m in,” Charlotte said reluctantly.
Oliver said, “I can help.”
Ben looked at him.
“What are we doing?” Oliver asked, wiping sweat from his tiny nose.
Ben wasn’t sure what to say. He glanced around for help. “Umm, well-”
“Oliver can’t do that.” Charlotte said, cutting off Ben.
“He’ll have to learn eventually,” Ben said. “This is the situation we’re in.”
“I can throw far,” Oliver said. “I promise.”
“No way,” she said, crossing her arms, giving them both a stern look.
After a moment, Ben relented. She was right. “Oliver, I have a special job for you. Can you please watch out behind us? Make sure the bad people don’t sneak up on us.”
“Okay,” Oliver said. His lower lip jutted out. “But I can throw far.”
“I know you can,” Ben said with a smile. He looked at the others. “Let’s do this.”
“You have the gun,” Ty said, wiping sweat from his brow.
“No. Were you even listening? We’d have all of them on us. Here’s how we do it,” Ben said. He bent to pick up another baseball-sized rock and held it in his off hand. Repeating himself was annoying, but if that’s what survival required then he’d repeat himself all day. “We knock them to the ground and smash their heads in with rocks.”
“That’s sick,” Ty said, frowning.
“Better than getting bitten,” Ben said, gripping the porous ebony rock in his hand. He hurled it at the nearest infected. It was a man, maybe mid-40s with a bald spot and a big belly. He looked like the kind of old guy that probably wore Speedos on the beach and leered at younger women like a creeper.
Ben’s throw was good. It struck him squarely in the chest bouncing off, destabilizing him, but unfortunately, it didn’t take him down.
Charlotte stared at him, her jaw dangling open.
“What?” Ben asked her.
She shook her head and looked at Anuhea, but her friend was already scrounging around for rocks of her own. Anuhea quickly found two reasonably sized chunks to throw.