Foamers

by Justin Kassab

  Kade stumbled to the stairs and took a seat. The child’s body twitched as red liquid, Kade wasn’t sure if it was blood or foam, ran from his mouth. At the infirmary, Kade had killed many foamers, but the shotgun took the closeness out of the emotion. Here he sat watching a ten-year-old’s death spasm. He knew he shouldn’t write the obituary in his head, but he couldn’t help wondering who the child had been before the vaccine.

  He brought himself back to the present by thinking about Tiny and how she was going to be pissed that he tore open his stitches. Leaving a bloody handprint on the wooden step, he staggered up the stairs.

  Turning his healthy side toward the door, he slammed his shoulder against the wood. The door pulled against the lock. It creaked with the second hit as the screws holding the slide-lock stripped from the wood. On the third hit, Kade fell into the kitchen.

  Passing through the entire house, he found no sign of the old man. Kade arrived back in the kitchen just as the whistler screamed from on top of the stove. Looking at his side, he knew the bleeding needed to be stopped. He grabbed the whistler and poured the steaming water into the sink, then tore open his shirt and took a deep breath. His knuckles curled around the handle, and he slowly moved the whistler toward his bleeding side. The heat scorched his skin as the metal approached. Biting down on his lip, he moved it closer. As the heat intensified, he pulled the whistler away.

  He told himself to stop being a pussy. He moved the whistler toward his skin again. His arm shook as his body tensed from the oncoming heat. Slamming the whistler on the table, he crashed into a chair.

  He punched the table, splintering fragments with each blow from his rubber knuckles. Each strike sent waves of pain through his body. The dog barked from outside as the sound of a rumbling engine approached the house. Kade rushed across the house to the front window, hiding in the blinds. A red pickup truck parked and shut its lights off. The old man shambled out, carrying his shotgun, and yelled at the dog to stop barking. Kade didn’t want to attack him, nor did he know if he could kill another human being; a foamer was one thing, but a person was different.

  The passenger side door opened; Tiny, wrapped in a heavy blue parka, climbed out. Kade was furious at himself for giving up the location of his friends.

  Tiny followed the old man as they approached the house. When he stepped onto the porch, he shed his frail act and stood tall as he turned around and aimed the shotgun at Tiny. She held up her hands as her eyes searched for an escape. Kade heard the mumbles of their exchange, but couldn’t make out the words.

  Any moment now, he knew she’d disarm the old man and they’d be done with the situation. Tiny was deadly and amazing. She unzipped her parka, revealing nothing but a black sports bra underneath. Tossing the parka aside, she went down on her knees. She had come here looking for Kade, and he was just gawking at her milky-white skin. He felt every inch of his body burn as his self-hate came to a boil. This was his fault. His mistake.

  Tiny curled her fingers under the elastic at the bottom of the bra. His directive was clear.

  Kill him.

  Kade swung the door open and launched himself at the old man. The old man’s brittle bones crunched against the frozen ground.

  Pinning the old man with his left hand, Kade landed the knuckles squarely into the man’s nose. Again. Each hit sent waves of rage through his body. Again. He felt the features of the man collapse under his fist. Again. He was breathing heavily. Again. He wasn’t sure whose blood was where. Again. He felt the cold around him. Again. He’d killed a man. Not a foamer, but a man. He killed him. Not just killed him, but obliterated him.

  Kade’s hand froze at the pinnacle as his eyes met Tiny’s. He stood up, stepped over the discarded shotgun, and lifted Tiny to her feet.

  His hand moved across her cheek, brushing her hair back, lost in her warm brown eyes. Their lips met as she ran her hands along his spine and he felt her heartbeat against his body. He forgot about Huntington’s, the Flu, the vaccine, the foamers, his dead friends, the old man, the Primal Age, and embraced the only woman he had ever loved—and whom he had loved, it seemed, for his entire life.

  Tiny separated from the kiss, leaning her forehead against his. “Should I put my parka back on?”

  No. “That’s probably smart.”

  “Yeah.” She curled her hand into a fist and tapped it against his chest as she squeezed her eyes shut. “Yeah.”

  Tiny pulled away from Kade, and a cold rush replaced the area she had filled. He wanted to pull her back to him as she zipped the parka shut.

  She didn’t turn around to face him. “If you wanted to go looking for Ashton, we’d have understood. You’re too smart to make dumb choices like this.”

  “Tiny,” he said. “I just had this weird feeling. I thought … then I found the house. I had to check it out.”

  “Don’t be afraid to ask for help.”

  Fenris barked in the direction of the road and pulled at the chain. Kade hurried to the anchor post and tore it from the ground. The metal jangled behind the dog as she ran for the road. Kade’s legs flexed and pumped as he fought to keep pace with the four-legged beast.

  At the road, two people rushed from the tractor to a pickup surrounded by six foamers. Kade reached the road and his stride stuttered. His little sister stood in the back of the pickup and Kade feared it was another illusion. Then he saw X, his dark form a beacon against the snow, holding his .357 by the barrel in one hand, like it was a small club, and predator knife in the other. This was real.

  “Kade!” Ashton yelled.

  He felt happiness surge through him, then a house-sized foamer barreled into him and knocked him to the ground. From the gash along the side of the foamer’s head, Kade figured it was the same big hoss Tiny had shot. The foamer stomped over him like a gorilla. The foamer’s arms were easily the size of Kade’s legs. There was a black A on the monster’s red jacket. Kade’s arms collapsed toward his body as the foamer’s weight kept him from drawing a breath.

  Kade recognized the beast as someone famous, but couldn’t remember the identity.

  Two foamers, college boys in infirmary gowns, were trying to climb opposite sides of the truck bed. Ashton popped off two shots to one foamer’s pale chest before her snub nose revolver hit an empty chamber. The foamer fell from the side of the truck.

  X uppercutted the other man in the chest with the knife. The blade made a sucking sound as he twisted free. The foamer rocked off the blade, falling to a heap.

  Fenris snarled and bit down on the huge shoulder of the foamer pinning Kade. The foamer backhanded the dog away. Kade used the opportunity to get his knee under the foamer. Tiny came to the scene and crashed the butt of the farmer’s shotgun into the foamer’s face.

  As the foamer recoiled, Tiny hooked Kade’s arm and hoisted him to his feet. Kade ignored the pain in his side as they scrambled into the bed of the truck. Tiny and Ashton stood in the middle, facing out the back, while Kade and X watched opposite sides of the truck.

  The three foamers spread out to the back and sides of the truck while Fenris barked and snarled. Tiny hit the release on the breach and checked for a cartridge.

  “Ammo?” Tiny asked.

  “Empty,” Ashton sa
id, and X shook his head.

  Kade’s side was zippered open and he was slowly getting frostbite, but he was smiling. His sister and friend were alive and well; after all he had lost, at least he had them.

  “That’s Alpha Ritchie,” X said, indicating the foamer that had pinned Kade.

  “I just wrestled one of the best MMA fighters?” Kade asked.

  “No,” X laughed. “You got your ass kicked by an MMA fighter.”

  “He does look a little out of shape.”

  Tiny closed the breach on the shotgun. “Boys, you can ask for his autograph later.”

  The two foamers with Alpha were winter-clad females in puffy coats, hats, scarves, and gloves. The brunette stepped on the tire and clambered over the rail of the truck. X grabbed her by the jacket and spun her into the center of the bed.

  “Tiny,” X said as the shotgun echoed through the night, blasting the foamer in the chest. The impact sent the body toppling over the tailgate as stuffing from the jacket floated to the ground.

  “That was our last shot,” Tiny growled.

  “I can’t hurt a girl,” X replied.

  Tiny flipped the shotgun around, holding it like a bat. “No time for chivalry. I wanted to save that shot for Alpha.”

  A foamer moved toward the truck, but Fenris blocked her path. That’s when Kade noticed the peppered pink jacket and buckshot healed into her cheek and recognized her as the foamer he had shot at in the dorm. The ingrained buckshot looked like unground pepper. In Kade’s mind, her name became Pepper. Alpha rushed to her side. Fenris lowered to her haunches but held her ground.

  Alpha wrapped a massive arm around Pepper’s waist and flung her away from the truck. She rolled across the ground, getting back onto all fours and facing Alpha. From deep in her throat, a growl emanated. Alpha huffed and nodded toward the woods. The growl subsided and the foamers galloped away from the road, alternating between two legs and all fours.

  Kade lowered the tailgate for Fenris, and noticed for the first time X and Ashton were both wearing red-and-black flannel jackets. Ashton’s hung big around her, like a little girl in her father’s coat.

  When Kade turned around, Ashton threw her arms around him, practically knocking him off the back of the truck. He squeezed her, and she squealed as the air was forced out of her. The flood of emotion threatened to overwhelm him. Between the child, old man, and now finding his sister alive his emotional intake was over flowing. He couldn’t believe he had found her.

  X tipped his hat toward Kade. “I’m thrilled to see you, but you look like hell.”

  “Thank you. I knew I could trust you to take care of Ash,” Kade said, not letting go of his little sister.

  X rubbed the back of his neck and looked at Tiny. “I’m surprised you let him out here.”

  Tiny shrugged. “I didn’t. The idiot decided to come looking for you two.”

  “What can I say? I missed you guys,” Kade said. The pain crashed into him, causing his legs to go wobbly. Ashton helped him take a seat. Fenris licked at Kade’s wounds, and he shoved the dog away.

  “For not liking dogs, you seem to be starting a collection,” Ashton said, smiling at him.

  “I found you,” Kade said as his eyes drifted shut.

  The next thing Kade was aware of was a cold breeze slicing his skin as he blinked his eyes open. His body felt weightless as he ascended toward the night sky. The stars reminded him of a Lite-Brite from his childhood.

  He dangled between the first and second floor of Lambian Hall, in a mattress that had been gutted of its springs to create a fabric pouch. The rope ran from the third floor to the fourth, where it looped over an extended metal rod, which gave the mattress enough distance to be vertically hauled without toppling the cargo.

  “Pull!” Tiny yelled from inside, where the rest had formed a line.

  Inside the room, X held the rope closest to the window, followed by Tiny, Grace, Ashton, and Mick. John sat outside the door with his feet braced against the frame and a pair of work gloves on as he anchored each pull of the rope. Argos sat beside the window, ignoring the sniffs of Fenris, who was inspecting her new companion.

  “Pull!” Tiny yelled.

  Everyone in the line gripped the rope in both hands and leaned forward, backs flexing with the rope over their shoulders. John wrapped the slack around both his hand to keep the rope taut. Tangling his hands in the rope would be unwise under most circumstances, but in this case, John would have to lose his arms to drop Kade, and he would pay any price to not let his new friends down.

  They continued the routine until Kade reached the windowsill. At that point, Ashton and Grace went to the window to pull him inside.

  “Don’t worry about being gentle. Just get his ass in here,” Tiny said, as they strained their muscles to keep the rope from letting the mattress slide.

  Ashton leaned out the window and scooped her arms around her brother. She hugged him tight and pulled his upper body to the window. While she hauled him over the sill, Grace grabbed his feet, and they gently set him on the floor.

  John wrapped the rope around the door handle; then, using the tension to help, he jumped to his feet and tied the rope around both handles in a bow line knot.

  “Boy Scout or sailor?” X asked as he dropped his hands from the rope.

  John stood straight and gave him the Boy Scout salute of three fingers. X returned the salute and raised it a wink.

  “They call me X.”

  “John. I’m—”

  “Stray, you and Grace head to guard duty,” Tiny ordered. John shut his mouth and gave her a nod from which his head never rose. He went like a broken animal to the doorway to wait for Grace.

  Grace threw her arms around Ashton, and said, “We’ll get caught up in the morning.”

  “I have so much to tell you,” Ashton said, her eyes beaming with joy.

  Grace went to John, placing her hand between her new friend’s shoulder blades as they left the room. Fenris, curious as to what else could be out there, pranced after them.

  Mick and X lifted Kade onto their shoulders. He slumped between them, struggling as best he could to support himself, but was little more than dead weight.

  “It’s good to have you back,” Mick said to X, and then added, “we could use the extra hands.”

  “Don’t get sentimental, copper,” X replied.

  * * *

  John stood in the corner of the roof, opposite Grace. He held a red-and-black, fifty-pound-pull compound bow across his hips. After he shot Kade, he decided he should stick to what he was good at, and, being an avid bow hunter from a young age, this was his specialty.

  The carbon fiber arrow he had knocked on the bowstring had a broad head tip, which was an arrow that had three razor blades that came together in a point. Unlike a bullet, it was not likely to kill an animal at the moment of impact. The animal would attempt to run with the razors slicing apart its innards, until eventually the animal would bleed to death. It would be a slow and painful way to go.

  And John would envy that animal. “Stray” this, “Stray” that; he was a person, but no one around here seemed to n
otice. He might not have been a part of the cohort from the beginning, but he was here now, and, unlike some of the others, he wasn’t going anywhere. Kade reminded him of a big brother he’d never had. Grace was truly skilled in so many ways he could never understand. Tiny, as awesomely badass as she was, was the meanest one.

  They didn’t have to give him some special New Guy award, and he knew he had to prove his worth, but a little kindness was all he wanted. He liked them, and he liked it here with them. Already they were more of a family to him than his own blood had been, even though his pride was constantly wounded by this group.

  Grace left her post and crossed to where John stood, lost in thought. The cool night air danced with thick flakes of snow, accented with a sharp wind that cut through Grace’s sweats. The gurgle of the creek could be heard clearly in the still night. Still as the night was, there were plenty of things creeping in the darkness.

  John jumped when Grace placed her hand on his back, and he dropped his arrow out of the guide. She bent down to grab it at the same moment he did, and they slammed foreheads. The impact knocked her to the floor of the roof. The bright moonlight lit her eyes like blue candlewicks in a dark room, and illuminated her sprawled-out blond hair like a halo around her head.

  “I’m so sorry. Are you okay?” John asked, offering a hand to her.

  Grace coyly smiled at him and patted the surface beside her. John set the bow on the roof and lay next to her. He put his hands behind his head as he stared at the sky. This was his favorite time of the year for stars because Orion the Hunter was visible. That was one of his favorite stories, and it had been much of his motivation for becoming excellent with a bow.