Aaron grabs my hand and drags me away from the store, and the four of us are off, racing down the sidewalk in an attempt to reach our stranded group members. The shots get closer and closer with each step, and as we round a corner, we found ourselves at an intersection that has been overrun by zombies. There are more than thirty zombies, and they’ve got our four men surrounded in the middle of the street.
One of the soldiers is bleeding from a bite to his shoulder, and it looks like he’s struggling to keep his hand steady as he aims. Even though he’s wounded, he still manages to shoot a zombie in the head every time he pulls the trigger.
Aaron and the other two soldiers in our group take aim at the nearest zombies in an attempt to clear a path to our wounded comrades. This is my first real chance to shoot a gun outside the school, and I hope I do my teacher—Aaron—proud. I lift the gun and try to keep my hands from shaking too badly as I aim at the nearest zombie. Sensing more prey, some of the large group have turned around and are slowly advancing on us.
“Take your time, Madison!”
I take a deep breath to steady myself, and I squeeze the trigger. The bullet lodges in a zombie’s shoulder, but it doesn’t seem to notice, and it doesn’t slow down. It shuffles closer as I take another deep breath and aim again. This time, when I squeeze the trigger, the bullet zips through the zombie’s mouth, exploding part of the back of his head. It crumples to the ground and doesn’t move again.
I look around for my next target, and I spot a red abandoned car parked diagonally in the middle of the road. Sprinting for it, I leap up onto the hood of the car and then to the top, where I can get a better view of all the zombies without being in danger of getting bitten. Aaron follows suit, climbing to the top of a blue jeep with busted out windows.
Half a dozen zombies swarm my car. They press up against the sides and extend their arms toward me. Their fingers brush against the legs of my jeans in an attempt to drag me to the ground so they can dig into me, but I’m not going down without a fight. I bring my leg back and kick the nearest zombie in the head. It snaps back and the zombie falls to the ground. I point the gun down and pull the trigger. Another zombie falls away from the car with a bullet lodged in its forehead.
At this close, I can’t miss, I think as I pull the trigger one more time.
A man screams, and I look up just in time to see one of Michael’s men get swarmed. Still screaming, he disappears under a handful of zombies, and all I can see is spurting blood and handfuls of flesh being torn away from his body and thrust into the mouths of hungry zombies. In seconds the road below him is stained red, and the sight of all that blood is enough to make my stomach roll.
But I don’t have time to be sick.
A zombie’s nails tear through the fabric of my jeans, and I can feel the fleshy meat of his fingertips digging into my ankle. His fingers wrap around my leg and he yanks viciously, knocking me to my back. The air explodes from my lungs as I hit the metal roof of the car, and my legs dangle over the edge as I’m momentarily stunned. I can feel the fingers scrabbling for a place to dig in, and I lash out with my feet instinctively. My foot connects solidly with the zombie’s face, and thick, congealed blood begins to slowly ooze from the broken nose of the zombie with his hands on me.
Two decomposing women take his place, and I scream as they reach for me with their broken hands and missing fingers. An elderly woman with thin, gray hair growls at me, but as she lunges, a shotgun blast takes off half of her face, spinning her away from me and into the closest zombie, giving me time to scurry back to the roof of the car as they fall to the ground in a tangled mess.
Looking around for my rescuer, I find him standing near the trunk of the car. He’s a few years older than me, and is not quite six feet tall. His skin is a natural tan color, and he has a really thin, almost scrawny build. His shaggy black hair is greasy, and it has dark blonde roots, meaning that he’s dyed his hair in the past—probably shortly before the world ended. From my place here on the roof, I can see the chipped black nail polish on his fingers, the black eyeliner that adorns his eyes, and the silver piercing in his eyebrow.
His dark brown eyes meet mine briefly, before he turns away and fires at another zombie. Congealed blood splatters his Aerosmith concert t-shirt, and he wipes it away with a disgusted frown. Before I can shout a warning, another zombie creeps up behind him. He turns just as the zombie lunges, and it drags him down to the ground. While he struggles with his enemy, I get down on one knee, and take aim at the creature’s head.
My hands are trembling wildly, and I take a deep breath to steady myself. While my mystery savior just barely keeps his enemy from sinking its teeth into his face, I squeeze the trigger. The bullet zips into the zombie’s forehead, right between the eyes, causing it to slump forward, crushing my savior. He attempts to remove the zombie from his chest, but his arms aren’t powerful enough, and all he can do is lie there on the ground and wait for someone to rescue him.
I refuse to worry about Aaron, my savior, and the other soldiers while I take out the remaining zombies that surround the car. Worrying will only hamper my ability to hit my target, and I can’t afford to waste bullets; we don’t have the ammunition to spare. When the final zombie drops to the ground with a bullet in its head, I cautiously climb down from the roof of the car to take in the damage around me.
Blood covers every last inch of the road, some of it in puddles, some of it in smears, and some of it in gooey, brainy chunks. Reaching into my pocket, I take out my only remaining magazine—the other two are gone now—and I reload one final time, just in case we’ve missed any of the undead. Better safe than sorry, I think to myself as I tiptoe around the remains of one of Aaron’s soldiers.
His guts spill out over the road, creating a foul stench that has me bent over and retching near the back tires of my car. When I’m sure my stomach is empty, I wipe my mouth with the back of my hand, and I walk over to where my mystery savior is still lying pinned under an unmoving zombie. He looks up at me through narrowed eyes. “Are you gonna help me or not?”
Grabbing two fistfuls of the zombie’s ripped and stained shirt, I haul it off of the mystery man with a grunt of effort. I only make it a few steps before my grip falters, and the zombie crashes to the ground, thankfully clear of the mystery man. He draws in a deep lungful of air, and I wonder how hard it was for him to breathe while he was pinned down under that overweight zombie.
“Oh my god! Todd, are you okay?” A girl close to my age runs over and throws her arms around Todd’s neck, hugging him fiercely. She has long black hair, dark skin, and light brown eyes, along with an hourglass body that I would have killed for before the end of the world. She pulls away just long enough to look at him, before pulling him closer and hugging him again.
Todd gently pushes her away, but she doesn’t look worried about being rebuffed. “Yeah, I’m fine, Janelle. Thanks to her,” he says, looking over at me. “Thank you,” he says, although it sounds like it kills him to say it.
He extends his hand to me, and I grip it tightly, pleased to have contact with another survivor. “My name’s Madison Grant.”
“Todd Yates,” he says, giving my hand a firm shake. “And this is Janelle Dunn. We were just passing through, and we heard the shots. It’s been awhile since we’ve met any new survivors, and we thought it would be best to check things out. Strength in numbers and all that.”
“My group and I are always happy to find new survivors. We were actually out here to gather some supplies. We have a few women back at our little fortress that are about to give birth, so we were hoping to find some baby supplies.”
“Fortress?” Janelle’s eyes light up, almost as if I just admitted to having a cure for all of this. “You have someplace safe?”
I nod. “Yeah. We have a fortified school a ways from here. We’ve got a fence that goes all the way around, and we have guard towers around the perimeter with soldiers and snipers on lookout at all times. You’ll be welcome to come ba
ck with me and the others.” I look around for those of my group that are still alive, and come up with a grim realization.
Aaron is leaning against the passenger side door of his jeep with a forlorn expression on his face. The only other survivor from both groups is Michael, and he’s staring down at the remains of his three friends and group members with a sad expression on his face. Both he and Aaron are alive, but they look terrible. They’re covered in blood and Aaron is shaking, whether from fear, exhaustion, or anger I’m not sure, but he looks ready to snap or give up.
Five out of eight are dead. How is this going to affect the other survivors back at the school? Will we be able to recover from such devastating losses?
Aaron and Michael find their way over to us, and I perform quick introductions. “Aaron, this is Todd and Janelle—he saved my life during the attack. Todd, Janelle, this is Aaron Monroe, the leader of our small sanctuary.”
Aaron shakes hands with both Todd and Janelle, but he doesn’t look as excited to find new survivors as I am. “How have the two of you managed to survive out here on your own? The zombie population has been steadily rising over the last couple of weeks, and it’s getting more and more dangerous.”
Janelle frowns, and I can see her eyes go a little blank. “It’s only been the two of us for a couple of days. A week ago there were ten of us. We got ambushed in the night when one of our group members fell asleep while on watch duty. Of the ten of us, Todd and I were the only survivors.”
“We’re sorry for your loss,” I say, glancing at Todd. He doesn’t look nearly as sad as she does, and I wonder if he’s only with Janelle out of necessity, or if he actually enjoys her company.
“Madison told us we would be welcome to come back with you,” Janelle says, looking at Aaron with big doe eyes. “Is that alright with you?”
“It’ll be fine,” Aaron says stiffly. “We have some diapers and some food and new clothes for our people back at the school. Michael is gonna find a car that we can hotwire, we’ll load up our supplies, and then we can take you back with us. You’ll have to help out with chores like washing dirty clothes, cleaning, cooking, training, repairs, or gardening, and if you don’t have a problem with that, there will be a place for you with us.”
Janelle nods her head enthusiastically. “We don’t have a problem with chores so long as it gets us a secure place and a warm bed to sleep in, right, Todd?”
He grunts—hopefully in agreement—and before Aaron can get a straight answer from him, a nearby jeep starts up, startling us. “I didn’t know that hotwiring a vehicle was something they taught you in the military,” I say, looking up at Aaron.
He shrugs. “It’s not that hard to learn. You used to be able to look it up on the internet. Thousands of people knew how to do it.”
“You used to be able to look up anything on the internet. How to make drugs, how to make bombs, how to learn to shoot…the list goes on. Maybe I should have looked up some of that stuff; it might have come in handy, especially now.”
Before Aaron can say anything else, Michael walks over to us with a resigned expression on his face. “Well, there’s less than a quarter tank of gas, which will get us back, but probably not much further. It’ll end up out front like all the other vehicles we have that won’t be going anywhere.”
“Alright, let’s start loading up our supplies. We don’t wanna still be here when more zombies follow the sounds of all those gunshots right back to us. We won’t survive another attack like that one.”
Aaron and I throw our backpacks full of canned goods into the back of the jeep, while Michael, Todd, and Janelle load up diapers, clothing, and more food that Michael’s group managed to find. The back of the jeep is nearly full, meaning we have more new supplies than I thought we did. “Not a bad haul,” Aaron mutters for my ears only. “It’s a shame we had to lose so many good men to get it.”
I put my hand on his shoulder, giving him a gentle squeeze. “Aaron, what happened here is not your fault. Anybody in your position would have had our group split up. And you know what? I doubt many men would have gone back for them like you did. They would have left those men to their fate. And even though we couldn’t save them all, we saved Michael, and we found two new survivors that we can save. I know it’s hard to be in charge when you feel like the whole world is working against you, but you’re doing the best you possibly can.”
Aaron pulls me close and holds me tight, nearly squeezing the life from me in one giant bear hug. “Thank you, Madison.”
“For what?” I ask, bewildered at his reaction.
“For understanding. For being you. For always knowing exactly what I need to hear in order to feel better. Thank you,” he says again, letting go of me.
“You’re welcome, Aaron,” I say, giving him a small smile. “You’re very welcome.”
Michael clears his throat, looking uncomfortable at interrupting our brief moment together. “I’m sorry to intrude, but we’re all packed up and ready to go. We really shouldn’t dawdle here any longer, or we might not make it back.”
Aaron nods his head. “Alright. Let’s go. Get Todd and Janelle in the back. Michael, I want you back there so you can keep a close eye on them until we get back. We can’t be too cautious these days, and we don’t know these people. Just be careful.”
With that, the three of us pile into the car full of supplies and empty of our friends, and we ride back to the school in a miserable silence.
Chapter Four
“Madison, I want you to show Todd and Janelle to their rooms. Just find a place for them wherever there’s room—you’ll know the best place for them. Then I want you to show them both where they’ll be doing their chores. When you’re done with that, you can take them to the cafeteria for lunch. It should be starting right about then.”
“What are you gonna do?”
Aaron sighs and runs a hand nervously through his hair. “I have to gather the soldiers and tell them that I lost five of their comrades on a stupid supply run. That should be fun,” he says bitterly. “There’s nothing like telling someone their friends all died for a can of baked beans or a package of diapers!”
Aaron walks away shaking his head, and I just stand there in the doorway to the school, watching him go. I know Aaron well enough to know how deeply today’s events will weigh on his soul, and I hate seeing him like this. Surviving in this harsh new world is hard enough without the added pressure of caring for an entire group of people and having to make the tough calls—especially when those calls lead to the deaths of your men.
“He’s gonna get crucified by the others, isn’t he?” I ask Michael.
Michael sighs. “Yes, Madison, he is. The soldiers will need somebody to blame, and unfortunately it’ll be Aaron. And possibly the two of us as well. Don’t worry about it too much, though. Just know that what happened today wasn’t anybody’s fault but whoever started this infection…”
Todd’s eyes narrow as he catches the same thing I just have. “Michael, do you know how the infection got started?”
His eyes widen just a fraction. “No! Of course not. I just happen to have a guess or two, like most of the people here. I’ve heard all kinds of suggestions. Pretty much everything from viral weapons to some kind of alien invasion. A lot of it doesn’t make any sense, but a common theory is a government experiment gone wrong.”
“And what do you think?” I ask, hoping to wheedle more information out of him.
He shrugs, trying to look nonchalant about it, but I see right through his façade. “I’m not entirely sure what I think. But if I had to guess, I would bet it all started with an adverse reaction to some new kind of experimental drug or something. Something created in a hospital, maybe.”
He’s lying, I think to myself. He knows more about this infection than he’s letting on, and I’m gonna find out what he’s hiding…
He clears his throat. “Well, I should probably go make sure Aaron doesn’t have to handle this alone. I can help smooth thin
gs over with the men. Hopefully.” Michael doesn’t wait for me to say anything else, and as he quickly walks away, I get the distinct impression that he’s hoping I don’t ask him anymore questions in the future.
Janelle looks expectantly at me. “I don’t mean to sound rude, but can we get a move on? I haven’t slept in a real bed in a safe place since the world ended, and I’d really like to get settled in.”
“Oh, I’m sorry! Yeah, totally. Follow me, and I’ll show you guys to where you’ll be sleeping. You’ll have to share a room with a few other people—we all do—but it shouldn’t be a problem. Everybody mostly keeps to themselves around here.”
Todd and Janelle follow me silently through the school, and I notice they look to be in awe of all that we have. “You guys have so much…” Janelle says softly. We’re passing through the cafeteria where a few people that are done with their chores are gathering to chat until lunch begins in a little bit, and I notice that Janelle is busy watching both Levi and Lucy, who are among those waiting for lunch to be served. “You even have children, here…”
I nod. “Yeah, we’ve got a couple more kids running around. Janine and her sister, Jaclyn—who are eight and thirteen—along with a few pregnant women here that are about to give birth. It isn’t much, considering what the world used to be, but it’s a start. We’re trying to rebuild our lives, and making sure everyone here is as safe and happy as they can be given our situation is the first step.”
Janelle looks especially moved by the sight of the kids, but Todd looks mostly indifferent. I don’t necessarily blame him. It’s hard to get excited about anything these days, because every time you let yourself be happy, something horrible comes along and dashes all of your hopes and dreams, reminding you what a shit heap of a world you live in.
“Come on. You guys can talk and meet others when lunch is served. For now, let’s get you settled in and I’ll show you to your daily chores.” They follow me away from the cafeteria, and I lead them up a flight of stairs and then down a narrow hallway that used to be the math department. “This is where the guys all sleep. There are ten rooms here, and they’re mostly full at the moment, but I believe there’s a cot available in the last room in the hall.”
Zombie Country (Zombie Apocalypse #2) Page 4