Rise

by Wood, Gareth

  They came back, and the first one squatted down near me. He was so close I could smell him, like unwashed body, sweat, and cigarettes. He leaned in close and asked me how many were inside the house.

  I told him that there were five, they were well armed, and were not likely to take their shit. I asked him who they were, but he told me to shut my fuckin’ mouth. He sounded like a bad action movie villain.

  I tried to reason with him, but he smacked me in the face with his fist then, and I stopped talking as I went over backwards. Great, a bunch of fucking thugs had caught me. I got really scared for us then. The last thing we needed here was people shooting at other people.

  They pulled me up and sat me on the log again, and I contemplated kicking the first guy in the nuts. It would be an easy shot from here. The way he was squatting there made me think he wasn’t military, but probably some asshole raider like the bastards that had torn up Westlock after the rise. The happy thought forming in my head right then was that my friends would notice I was gone before long, and then come looking for me. These three would really be no match for Eric and Kim and Jessica, especially if Jess had a line on them and was pissed off.

  He asked what kind of supplies we had in the house. I didn’t reply. I just stared at him while blood from my lip ran down my chin. My silence pissed him off. He drew the knife and waved it at me. Amateur. Honestly, though, I was more worried he’d accidentally stick me with it than intentionally.

  He said that if I told him what we had, no one would get killed. I spit blood and saliva in the snow, but otherwise just stared at him. He still tried though, I gotta give him that. He said they wouldn’t hurt anyone if I told him, and asked if we had any food, ammo or women. I guess something in my eyes must have shown, because he smiled at me, and looked up at his fellows.

  I showed him then why it was a bad idea to tie my hands in front of me. I kicked him with a pointed boot, square in the testicles. There wasn’t a lot of power behind it, but he curled up and groaned. His buddies looked like stunned deer as I jumped up and ran for the house. I heard a shot behind me, and threw myself down, thanking God they were idiots who didn’t think about giving away their position. I rolled up, and just as the second one appeared between the trees I started running again, trying to weave as much as I could. Again there was a shot from behind, and a tree beside me took the bullet, spraying bark and splintered wood. I ran, and when I got to the garage I dove around the corner yelling loudly. I ran headlong into Darren, and we both went down. Behind him, Eric was coming up, and Jess was with him. They looked surprised to see me, unarmed and tied. I yelled at them to get down, and they dropped to the ground. #2 came around the corner, and raised his gun, but Eric was far faster. A semi-auto burst caught #2 in the chest, and he fell backwards like he’d been kicked by a horse. We stayed down in case any more came around the corner, and Darren grabbed my wrists and untied me.

  Eric asked what the hell was going on, and was scanning the trees as he did so. I told him I thought it was raiders as far as I could tell. I reached back and grabbed #2’s boot, pulling him towards me. Once he was close enough I grabbed his rifle, and aimed it back the way I had come from. Nobody showed themselves, so I motioned everyone back and we retreated carefully into the house.

  Once inside we left the door open and Darren stayed put just inside to guard it. He went to close it when we came in, but I stopped him. I wanted an exit. Staying put with an unknown number of hostiles outside was pretty much suicide. The radio that had range to reach Cold Lake was outside in the SUV, and we needed to call in right away.

  Amid the clamor of questions, and my less than informative responses I told them the details of what happened out in the woods. To their credit, nobody panicked. Honestly we had been through enough with the undead sieges, constant running, and just surviving day to day that we had very little panic left in us. So now it was raiders. We knew they were out there. We’d seen the aftermath of a raider visit in Westlock, and I suspected it was raiders that had looted Wainright. I know some groups had been found by Army units, and driven farther south of us. The Army SOP for raiders was to treat them as looters. If they fired on the military though, or messed with salvage teams, all bets were off. The Army had tracked down two raider bands so far that had fired on our people, and destroyed them completely.

  None of this helped us now. While I was explaining to everyone what had happened, Eric and Jess were checking the view outside from all the windows. Jess had assembled her sniper rifle, and was loading as she checked the view out the master bedroom windows. I started grabbing the gear with Kim, throwing it all together in our packs, and Darren kept watching the door. Five minutes later we were all ready to go, and we had decided to make a try for the vehicles and the radios. We had our short range sets on our clothing, but they were only good for six or seven kilometers. Less in these hills, probably.

  I told them I’d be the one running first, to draw fire if there were raiders already outside. Then Darren, Jess, Kim, Mandy and Eric last. I went to the open door, and chanced a quick look outside. It seemed clear. I could see the vehicles in the snow, a clear line back to the road, the tracks in the driveway and the brush on the side of the overgrown lawn. No sign of the raiders, but that could change. No time like the present, I remember thinking. I ran for it.

  I made it fifteen feet, basically down the steps, onto the stepping stones, and halfway to the cars when dirt at my feet leapt up and splattered me. Where the shot came from I have no idea, because at that point I threw myself flat behind a water barrel. I heard shooting from the house, it sounded like either Darren or Eric. Probably firing at whoever was shooting at me. I leapt up and ran again, heading for the nearest SUV. I grabbed the door handle while trying to keep myself as low as possible, while bullets pinged off the hood and shattered the windows. I dimly heard Eric yelling at me, and when I looked back he waved his hands to indicate direction of hostiles. One at nine o’clock from him, two at eleven o’clock, and another at twelve o’clock. I stuck my head up for a second to check that, and nearly had it shot off. I crouched back down, and thought about what I should do. The jeep was covering me, but it was taking a pounding, and I didn’t like my chances if the shooter at twelve o’clock moved around to the lawn across the driveway. Anyone there would have a clear line on me, and I’m sure whoever it was knew that. Opening the door to get at the radio would be a risk, since I’d then have less armour between my precious body and any incoming rounds. Figuring I had no other option, I thought Aw, to hell with it, wrenched open the door and reached in for the radio.

  I grabbed the handset and pulled it towards me, then reached up with my other hand to stick the key in the ignition of the Jeep. Behind me, I could hear Eric yelling something to Darren, and more shooting. Bullets kept pinging off the metal around me, but thankfully nothing struck me. I turned the key while trying to keep my head as low as I could, and then reached for the radio power switch. Once it was on, and I saw the dim red light glowing, I closed the microphone switch and started yelling for help from Cold Lake. I can’t remember exactly what I said, but it got attention fast. Within ten seconds I was talking to a Corporal Chen, who asked me the details. I happily supplied them, and then Darren yelled a warning at me. I looked up to just see the back of a man scrambling across the driveway into cover on the far side. From there he’d have a clear shot at me if I stayed where I was. I dropped the radio, swung my rifle around and fired a short three round burst into where I’d seen him go last, and then ran like hell back towards the house. As I was running something that felt like a baseball thrown by Andre the Giant hit the back of my left calf. I crashed to the ground, and when I tried to get up searing pain dropped me again. I looked down and saw that a bullet had gone through my calf at a point just halfway between ankle and knee. I could see blood flowing out the entry and exit points. It didn’t even hurt now, but I knew it was trouble. I clamped my hands over the wounds to staunch the blood flowing, and turned to look at the others
. Darren was shooting at someone, and I heard the distinct and unmistakable sound of Jess’ rifle firing single shots. I heard four shots, and then silence. The shooters had stopped, and with the quiet my leg started to hurt. It hurt a lot!

  Eric and Darren were there suddenly, and then Jess. Kim walked past us with her pistol out, and I watched her cautiously approach the brush where the raiders had been hiding. Eric was talking to me, but I couldn’t focus on him. All my attention seemed to be limited to Kim and the bushes she was approaching. I remember being dimly aware of Eric and Jess examining the wound, and cutting away my trouser leg and pushing bandages and antiseptics onto the wounds, but it was Kim I could see clearly. She walked to where I thought the shooters had been, and I saw her looking down at something in the snow. She took a step forward and raised her Browning, and shot once more. Then she walked along to the next shooters, the two I had seen behind a fallen tree, and did the same thing again. She walked across the driveway, and looked at the last one, and she bent down and touched something I couldn’t see. Then she stood and came back again, a look of concern on her face.

  Somehow, they had stood me up. I don’t remember standing, and my vision was going grey at the edges. Eric shone a light in my eyes, and I heard him say that I was going into shock. His voice was hollow, like he was far away. They took me inside then, and I recall dim chunks of conversation that came to me in flashes.

  I heard Kim tell Jessica that two of them had been still alive. Eric said that I was still bleeding, but I wasn’t sure who he was talking to. Darren said that we should be watching for more of them, and then Eric told Kim to check the vehicles to see if they would start, and that they were going to have to get me to the hospital. Darren reported that the radio had taken a slug right through it and was fucked.

  I never completely lost awareness, though it went grey for a little bit, and I had trouble focusing on things. I was cold, and they put blankets on me. When I was able to focus again, my leg was numb, I could feel the morphine creeping through me, and there was a clean white bandage on my lower leg. Jess never moved from my side, though she had her rifle in hand, and she looked very pissed.

  Both vehicles had multiple flat tires, shattered windows, and more bullet holes than I wanted to think about. Eric took over, and he said we were leaving, vehicles or no vehicles. Since both vehicles were too damaged to drive now, we’d walk back to the abandoned SUV we’d seen and try that. He told Kim to grab a gas can and lug it along. It was several hours away now, with me limping and partially stoned. Darren grabbed a ski pole from the basement of the house for me to use as a makeshift crutch.

  Eric figured we had about half an hour or less to get clear of the area. We didn’t know where the raiders were based out here, but the shooting would surely have brought more of them, and they could even now be coming to look for us. Putting weight on my leg was painful, but numbed by the morphine I could stand it. We walked, me limping and supported by the ski pole and Jess, and Kim, Eric and Darren spread out around us. Mandy looked scared, but held up well. She hadn’t had the training the rest of us had, but she put on her brave face and walked along with us. We left easily followed footprints in the snow, so tried to walk in the tire tracks we had left there when we arrived. Not that it mattered, as only a completely blind tracker would miss us.

  My leg started to throb, but I didn’t say anything. The bandage got red with blood, slowly staining the clean white cotton. Still we walked. A little more than an hour later we paused, and I was grateful to lean against a fallen tree and sit for a minute. Jess checked the bandage, and seeing the blood all through it, replaced it. We sat in the quiet, listening to the wind, alert for sounds of pursuit or approaching undead, until I had a new bandage in place. When Jess removed the bandages I saw sutures in my leg wounds, and wondered when they had done them. I guess I might have blacked out for a few minutes after all.

  All too soon we got up again, and staggered onwards. Okay, it was just me staggering, the others were fine. About fifteen minutes later we heard a car coming up the road behind us, a thumping rhythm loud even in the distance. It was really very quiet out here with no ambient noise other than wind and the odd bird singing, so the car was audible from a long way off. We fled off the road into the shrubbery and trees, and hid as best we could. Once I lay down I took out my rifle and checked it hastily, and aimed back up towards the road. The car came into sight while we lurked in ambush, waiting to see if they spotted our tracks. It was a rusty grey Impala with snow chains on the tires, and it blew smoke out the back end in a small stinking haze. Four people were visible inside, all apparently men, all apparently armed. They drove past us without stopping, and vanished down the road.

  We spent the night of the 19th in the woods avoiding raiders. We gave up on the abandoned SUV after the first car went past us. Others followed. We struck out towards the west, across wooded hills, but with me limping along we made terrible progress. Dusk found us in a small valley with a creek, frozen and obviously being used as a game trail. Eric and Kim went out scouting the area, while Darren and Jess threw up a tent, and I rested my leg. The numbness was wearing off and it was starting to hurt again at this point, but I really didn’t want to say anything. The bandage was bloody again. Not as much as the last time, but apparently my walking around had kept it from clotting well.

  Once a tent was set up, Jess checked my leg and changed the bandage again. Eric and Kim returned, telling us the area was clear of both undead and raiders. We opted for no fire. It would be a cold night, but we’d be safer. I volunteered for first watch, but they all politely told me to stuff it. I was to rest. I didn’t argue. So it was I bedded down for the night fairly early, with some hot tea in me, cold dinner, and a few extra layers of clothes. Jess took first watch, then came and snuggled right in with me. I was asleep before she was.

  In the morning, we got moving as soon as we could. We had a map of the area, but it was a road map. It was not what I would rely on for topography or terrain details. Eric got out his compass and was able to tell us where we were headed, and we had a discussion while we packed about where to go. We decided to head west again, and try for a rural road on the other side of the hills here. From a peak we might be able to reach someone on our small radios, but the chance was slim. Better to go for a road and try to find an abandoned car that we could get working.

  We set out, my leg stiff and hurting where the bullet had torn through the muscle. I had to take another shot of morphine after about ten minutes, the pain was just too much. I don’t remember a lot about the walk, other than the dull pain in my leg. It kept me from moving fast, and I got tired easily.

  Around supper time on the 20th we hit a road. We’d crested a hill, and on the far side was a gravel road winding down out of sight amongst the trees. We followed it for a while, and I have to admit it was far easier going on a nearly level surface. We wound south through the hills, crossing a small creek again (maybe the same one?) and ended up beside a clearing where we made camp. On the morning of the 21st we found a truck, a sky blue rusty old Ford, maybe new in the late seventies. It was sitting abandoned by the side of the road, and looked like it had been there for a long while. I leaned on the tailgate while the others did a quick survey of the area, and then Eric started checking out the engine, to see if we could start it. Mandy broke out a chocolate bar she must have had for months, and gave me half of it. Oh, the sweet taste of chocolate, I had forgotten its allure. She told me she had been saving it for a special occasion.

  Ten minutes later Eric was ready to try the truck. He hotwired it, and it coughed once, but that was it. Repeated attempts failed to start it. He thought that the gas might have gone bad, or the battery was totally dead. Either way, we weren’t getting this truck going. I tried to hide my disappointment, since I really wasn’t looking forward to walking any more. We were down to the last two morphine shots, and I didn’t want them. We might need them for something else, so I refused to take them, even though my leg ached
and throbbed. It felt a little hot sometimes too, but when I had Jess look at it, it didn’t seem infected.

  We rested for half an hour, then moved on. Leaving the sky blue pick-up was something of a downer, and I sank into a mellow feeling for the rest of the day. We saw no one else until nearly three in the afternoon, and then, lucky or not, they saw us too.

  January 21 – East of Cold Lake

  It was the smell that told us what they were. We saw them on the road ahead, standing and staring at the hills and trees. One was thigh deep in snow in the shadow of a hill, and seven or eight others were standing nearby, a loose group spread out across maybe forty feet. We stopped dead in our tracks when Darren spotted them and waved us to a halt. Bad luck was with us that day though. One of them was facing us, and its eyes must have been more or less intact, because it groaned and flailed about in sudden animation, and began lurching towards us at a good pace. This naturally attracted the attention of the others, and they began pushing through the snow in an almost comical parade. One fell down, a woman with no arms, just rotted stumps, and it took her a long time to get upright again. We barely noticed. We were already screwing silencers onto our pistols, and finding places to cover each other from as the walking dead approached. A gust of breeze carried the odor to us, and we all gagged a bit. Mandy turned green and looked ready to puke, but managed to hold it in. There were nine of them, and Eric shot the first one in the face at ten yards. It toppled without a sound, and the rest kept coming. Darren shot the next one, his pistol making a soft coughing sound that didn’t carry. Jess, Mandy, and I were at the back of the group, watching behind us and around the sides, hoping there were only these, but ready if there were more. It was left to Kim, Eric and Darren to take out the nine we had met on the road, and they did it quietly and quickly. It took eleven rounds and three minutes. We inspected the dead once it was over, not touching them, and holding shirts and hands over our faces. They were a mixture of genders and ages, and they were so decayed it was hard to tell what they might have looked like in life. Now, in final death, they might get some rest. If they were original victims of the rise, they might have been walking about for eight or nine months. After a few moments we walked on.