“Okay, I'm only a few yards away ,we’ve got to do this quick . . . here I come!” I said in my most fearless voice
I put the radio down on the seat, Here we go, I thought to myself.
I put the old Ford in drive and pulled forward, the engine idling loudly in my ears, his house edged into view. I will admit when I first saw the situation panic nearly overtook me. I thought my place was bad, but Rick was completely surrounded. In all our conversations his estimates were around a hundred. The reality of it was more in the neighborhood of two to three hundred. His place was completely engulfed in a sea of undead horror. How the windows and doors hadn't already given way under the enormous weight of them still remains a mystery. I pulled closer, his house now in full view. As I looked out upon row after row of the undead my hands began to shake and sweat. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath in a effort
to qualm the anxiety.
Too late to second-guess myself now, I thought.
I waited for one of them to take notice and inevitably one of them did. It only took one to sound the alert, and the others quickly followed suit. Numbers, numbers, numbers; it always comes down to numbers. These bastards weren't fast, weren't strong, smart or graceful; but for all the things they lacked they had volume on their side. Even as slow as they were, I knew I would have to plow through some of them to get to Rick and Amanda. I tensely sat in the cab of my truck and they drew closer, it seemed to take forever. They were all drawn to my scent, every single one of the mother fuckers could smell my blood and wanted to latch their teeth into me. They would get a little closer and I would inch the truck forward ever so slightly to keep them moving. They just seemed to keep coming, and before long I had attracted the attention of them all. It was coming right down to it, I had them right where I wanted them. The moment was now!
I picked up the radio, “HERE I COME!” I yelled.
I couldn't hear anything but scuttling as Rick and Amanda prepared to make their run. I slammed on the gas, the tires squealed as they spun past the growing horde. They turned and stared in dismay, not knowing what to think as the truck speed past them. I made a sharp left turn, leaving the paved road and drove through Rick's yard kicking up dirt, grass and gravel as I did so. I was tossed about as the truck bounced across the uneven terrain but somehow I managed to hold onto the wheel and keep control. I turned the corner took out another three with the grill of the truck. I felt the impact as they hit the front and fell underneath, bouncing twice as I drove over the monster’s chest.
“One down, 199 more to go....”
I came roaring up to the kitchen window and slammed on the brakes, the heavy tread of the tires digging into the dirt. Everything happened so fast, I pulled up to the window and that very second the window flew open with Rick pushing Amanda into the bed. Half a second couldn't have passed before they were out that window and into the back of the truck. Rick reached up and slammed the kitchen window back down to prevent those things from getting in. I looked in the rear view mirror; Rick was staring back at me. He was huddled down with one arm draped around Amanda who was down on her knees with her arms covering her head. He was motioning his arm and pointing forward frantically.
“Go Go Go!!!” he screamed.
I floored the accelerator, and for a moment the tires sat just spinning on the dewy grass. I lifted off the gas allowing the tires to gain traction, and off we went. I mowed down several of the creatures on the way through, the bumper and grill taking a heavy beating in the process. Thank you Henry Ford! I praised, as if he had personally had a hand in building the truck for the express purpose of surviving an undead onslaught, nonetheless I was grateful to the man
at that moment.
As we sped off I looked back at Rick's as it faded into the morning light. It all happened so fast it seemed like it barely happened at all. The creatures just stood, watching dumbfounded as we drove off. Realizing how many of them there were I knew there would be no going back to Rick's, we stood a better chance if we all stayed together.
I looked down in the bed; Rick and Amanda were huddled down with the wind blasting them in the face. Rick managed a winced look up; just enough to see me looking back and he gave a reassuring “THUMBS UP”, it gave me a great sense of relief as I realized everyone was safe and secure.
I drove down the road until we came to a clearing, not far removed from where we had run into Mrs. Martinez. Thankfully that was long ago and she was long gone, but I wasn't going to risk anything. I drove out into the middle of the barren field so we could see anything coming at us from a mile in either direction, there would be no surprises...for now.
The brakes squeaked as the truck lurched to a stop in the middle of the field. I placed it in park and resting my forehead on the steering wheel. Someone made a tap at the window, Rick and Amanda had already exited the bed.
“Hey, you okay in there?” He said with a huge smile.
I opened the door and stepped out.
“Hey there buddy, we made it! We actually made it!” He yelled, I couldn't recall ever seeing him so happy.
“Yeah, we sure did didn't we?! Who would have thought!” I said.
I looked over at Amanda, tears streaming down her cheeks. I had never been close to Amanda but she reached out and grabbed me around the shoulders and hugged me tightly, crying the whole time.
“Thank you, thank you so much . . . I didn't know what we were going to do!”, she whispered softly in my ear.
“I wouldn't let anything happen to either of you”, I said, returning the embrace.
I looked over at my buddy standing there, grinning ear to ear. I walked over to Rick and gave him a hearty hug, patting him firmly on the back.
“Well, you actually pulled it off! I can't believe it, but whew, I am sure glad you did!” He said, still smiling.
“Yeah, I almost didn't make it, it was really close” I didn't tell him anything specific, that would come out eventually.
“Man we really have a lot to talk about, so much has happened.”, he commented.
“I know, what’s it been, a month, two months?” I asked.
“Almost buddy, almost!”
I handed Amanda a towel from the truck so she could dry her eyes, “it's okay, we made I this far . . . we are going to get through this.” She looked at me and smiled.
I took a deep breath. “Rick, we can't stay here. I know we're all tired but we have to keep moving.”
“I know....” Rick paused.
“Let’s get the fuck outta here. Come on, let’s go.”
Chapter 8
The Bicyclist
We piled into the cab, I on the driver side and Rick on the passenger; with Amanda wedged in the middle. Together we rode out of the dusty field and headed into Barkley, then eventually on to towards Panatauk.
Barkley, none of us had been in town in almost two months. We hadn't heard from a soul, not from Barkley, Panatauk, or anywhere else for that matter. The only thing we did know is that things in Barkley must be in bad shape. Rick, Amanda and I had seen the plumes of smoke rising from the city; who knew what we were getting ourselves into.
We drove the remaining two miles out of Cedar Road. It would be nice to say that we didn't encounter anymore abominations along the way but unfortunately that would be a lie. It wasn't a hard guess which residences had people barricaded inside and which did not. Some homes had dozens of monsters surrounding them, while at the same time the home across the street might be completely void of activity. These creatures, these monsters, there was something about them. They knew when living people were present, a sixth sense of some sort, but as to exactly what mechanism was at work we were at a loss to understand.
Amanda just put her head down and told us to let her know when it was over.
“We don't need to go through town. We need to try and go around it...” Rick said as we approached the city limits.
I had already anticipated doing this, going through the town center would have presented t
oo much of a hazard, not knowing what condition the streets were in. I couldn't risk getting us stuck. All it would have taken was a wrong turn, a piece of broken glass, or a rusty nail to puncture a tire and leave us stranded.
We came to the intersection that joined Cedar Road and Barkley. Turning right onto the main highway, the number of homes began to increase. We drove on up the road a bit until we could divert off the main highway and onto the less-used side roads. Rick and I had grown up here and knew all the roads in the county by heart. Only now did we realize just how useful that knowledge like this was going to be.
The scene was the same everywhere we went, homes were burned or ransacked, undead aimlessly walking about. There was smoke and fire everywhere, but for all this we never saw another living soul. For once it seemed our rural, mundane existence had come in handy and we were sparred the horrific chaos that must have ensued before it all came crashing down. We drove through Barkley as best we could, there were large numbers of undead, but for the most part they didn't represent a real threat so long as we stayed in the confines of the pickup. We had avoided the congested town center, the roaming hordes we did see moved too slowly to present any real threat. It was sad to see Barkley in such condition; but at least we were alive. The back roads ended shortly and we would be forced to take the main highway in order to get out of Barkley and on our way to Panatauk. It was the same road that we had come in on and the same one that lead us past Mark's Grocery.
We were over the railroad tracks when Rick said in a very distressed voice, “Oh my god, Bruce look...”
Off to the right there was a small group of infected wandering not far from a car that had collided with a telephone pole. Among the group of corpses stumbling about was a girl that we both recognized. Wearing old tattered jeans, her shirt had been ripped to shreds and she was covered in fresh blood. Her midsection had been dissected and her intestines (what was left of them) were hanging out of her gut like gruesome tassels on a Mexican Sombrero. A portion of her skull had been torn away and a large chunk of her head was absent, no doubt devoured by those monsters. Besides the obvious damage we were still able to identify who it was and our hearts sank.
“Poor Lisa...” I said, shaking my head.
“She never had a chance, those fucking bastards.” Rick seethed under his breath.
“No...” I told him, I couldn't find the words to say anything more.
Amanda said nothing, her head resting just below the dashboard as so to avoid the sight, her hands covering the back of her head to shield her peripheral vision.
Lisa probably hadn't stood a chance, a young girl, alone, working at one of the first places those things would have been drawn to. By the time she got the word and tried to get home, it was probably already too late. She was a single mother as well; the best we could hope for was that her children were safe.
Warnings were issued again and again, but it had occurred so quickly it caught many off guard. I remember the day Rick and I heard the first emergency broadcast, we were on our way to Panatauk that very morning. The news had alerted us as it headed west to east, on the winds of the jet stream. Within hours we went from a perfect summer day to being overrun by those horrible abominations. Perhaps it was a common paranoia that Rick I shared that saved our lives; but lately it was proving quite useful. We continued on, there was no attempt to help Lisa she was lost. All that she had been was gone now. It was a horrible shame but nothing could change that. There wasn't anything that could be done for her condition; after all there was no cure for death.
There were fires all throughout town, not caused directly by the undead but more of an after-effect of unchecked utilities, electrical fires, broken gas lines, etc. Several buildings had burned down completely, leaving nothing but smoldering piles of ash and charred wood to remember them by. There were signs of rampant looting, broken glass, busted doors, and all sorts of debris scattered about local businesses. There were almost certainly other survivors but there would be no time to look for them and the risk was simply too high, as it seemed around every corner there was yet another undead thing waiting for us. There were always those creatures that walked openly on roads, in yards, but looking closer you could also see them curdled behind machinery and lying dormant in bushes, as if waiting to be activated by something.
We decided our best course of action was to get back on the road towards Panatauk with as little diversion as possible. We made our way through town with no surprises. Amanda sat snugly between me and Rick. Those monsters being drawn to towns and populated areas did us a favor in the long run for as we left town the undead hordes grew fewer and fewer and we soon found ourselves on the open road with very little standing between us and Panatauk. Occasionally we passed a boarded home. It was always easy to tell which ones had survivors inside because the creatures were only drawn to homes with people in them. The empty, abandoned homes were strangely left alone, but how exactly did they know? We also passed dozens of abandoned vehicles and we could only wonder why the occupants would leave the safety of perfectly good cars and trucks. Hopefully they made it to safety, but who knew?
We came to a long expanse of highway nearing the halfway point between Barkley and Libbetsville; it was an area that was largely unpopulated. The only structure standing for a couple miles in either direction was an old, abandoned lamp factory that had closed years
earlier. The only sound to be heard was the wind and the gentle sway of trees. For the first time in a long time we actually felt relaxed, so relaxed in fact that we dared to lower our windows and let some fresh air in. The sensation of the cool air and warm sun against our faces was a feeling that I cannot begin to describe here.
We paced ourselves; while we needed to get to Panatauk quickly we didn't want to rush ourselves into making foolish mistakes. Amanda had enough medicine to last a few more days so taking a few extra moments to enjoy our freedom wasn't going to hurt a thing. There were no appointments to keep, no schedules to maintain. The only thing we had to concern ourselves with was survival, and that depended solely on us.
A mile or two up ahead the road took a quick ascent uphill. We were still a ways off when we saw something come over the top of the hill. At first it was difficult to tell who or what it was. It was certainly too small to be a car of any sort, there was no sound to speak of so it couldn't have been a motorcycle or even a smaller gas powered vehicle.
“What the hell is that?” Rick questioned, as he strained to see further ahead.
We watched as it came over the hill, but it was Amanda who determined what it was.
“It's a.....bicycle?” She said in an excited tone.
“Damn, she's right Rick, it is!” I confirmed as the bike grew closer.
Rick remarked, “Oh, my god, what....what the hell!?”
Then Amanda couldn't help herself and began breaking out into a chuckle . . . the first time that any of us had laughed at anything in a long time.
We stopped the truck and sat as this bicycle slowly approached. It grew closer and we could make out other details. The rider was male and much older than any of us. The first details were scant, we could make out camouflage pants and flannel shirt, partially covered by a darker colored sweat jacket, and wearing a camouflage hat that matched the pants.
“What do you guys think?” I asked.
“I don't know, but we better be really careful . . . I mean, really careful!” Rick replied.
“Let’s stop and talk to him; see what we can find out,” I said.
“Okay but don't put anything past him. Watch for guns, if you get a bad feeling just get us the hell out of here,” Rick said.
Amanda sat very cautiously, fidgeting in her seat.
Rick was right; there was no way of knowing what this persons intention was, or his mental state. If he was armed he could easily take our vehicle from us, leaving us stranded, or he could simply kill us all; there was no way to tell.
The rider drew closer and we could discern other details
, he had a certain scruffiness about him and wore a straggly goatee on his chin, he was gangly to the point of being malnourished. He was traveling light, with only one back pack strapped tightly to his back; we saw no guns or knives to speak of unless he had them concealed.
I slowly pulled forward to intercept him. As we approached we rolled up the windows leaving just enough air space to carry on a conversation. The rider didn't look a threat, as under-fed as he appeared it didn't seem possible that he could fight off Amanda, much less Rick or me. It was obvious the rider had seen us too. We were the only two on the road after all, but it was strange that his pace did not quicken. Only yards away he stopped and peered at us,
looking almost jovial; but with an underlying hint of distrust in his eyes.
In an instant he pulled a large hunting knife from around his back. We got ready to floor it and speed off when we saw him gesture; placing both hands in the air, just like a criminal being placed under arrest. He stood there for a moment then he slowly bent down to his knees and placed the knife on the ground. It was a gesture of good to faith, and we took it for what it was, but we still didn't trust him. It could have been a trick, placing the knife on the ground to draw us in only pull a gun or other weapon on us.
Zombies! Rising from the Dead Page 11