by D. K Lake
I looked back at the creepy-witch-house, it was a shame we had to leave so soon, it would have been an all right place to stay for a while, cobwebs n' all.
We all split up and fought our way back through the vines until we made it out the other side. We were soon walking again... I had forgotten how boring walking was. We trekked back to the road and after one hour later of solid walking, I yawned, a little louder than I meant to, and Josh looked back at me.
“Hey, everyone, let's stop for a break,” he said.
“Already?” Luke queried, then he looked at me just as another yawn escaped my lips.
“Just five minutes, a quick drink to refuel and I'll be good to go.” I said, plopping down on the road (more like my legs caving under my weight).
Everyone gathered around but stayed in their groups.
“So... (yawn) ...tired.” I said.
Lane rubbed my shoulder and Josh dug out a protein bar for me.
“Eat this, and make sure you're drinking enough, it's easy to get dehydrated out here.”
“It's nearly lunchtime, can't we eat now?” Stacey asked.
“No, we've just stopped for a quick break, we'll stop in an hour or so for lunch.” Josh said.
“But that's not fair, she gets something to eat.” Stacey glared at me.
I was now a 'she' in Stacey's eyes. Not, Alex, just she.
“Alex isn't feeling herself, Stacey. She needs something to keep her going. But I think you'll survive, you're not exactly starved.” Josh said, looking down at Stacey's curvy hips.
She frowned and stomped off, and sat on her own away from us.
“You realize you just called her fat?” I laughed.
“She's just not used to the exercise.” Josh grinned.
“Do we really have to walk all day?” I asked Lane.
“You don't think you can manage it?” he asked concerned.
“I don't know, I already feel whacked and we haven't really traveled that far yet.”
Josh sat down with us and pulled out his water bottle. I drowned my thirst but regretted it afterward, not knowing when we would next come across another water source. I knew Josh would willingly hand over his water bottle if I asked, but I wouldn't, I would just manage with what I had and make it last until we found some more. I chewed on my protein bar, it felt more like glue in my mouth.
Maybe the next place we come across will have something more appetizing, like, a Mars bar... or a Snickers bar... Mmmmm. I temporarily got lost in my thoughts.
“Alex?” Lane snapped his fingers in front of my face.
“Huh? What?”
“Are you listening?” Lane asked.
“Listening to what?”
“Luke is going to walk ahead with Drew and check for vehicles, Evan, Lena, and Dan are going to venture into the woods a little way and see what's over there. I'm sure I saw a sign for a farm a little way back.” Lane said, trying to remember.
“You thinking about driving a tractor to Colorado?” I said.
“Smart-ass.” Lane said.
“I need to pee.” I stood up. “So what are we doing while everyone else is off doing their own thing?”
“You, Lane, Stacey and I will stay together and follow the road, but no rush, we'll just dawdle, I think I pushed you to walk too far already.” Josh said.
“Okay, Josh, I'm infected, I'm not breakable, I'm sure I've got a few more miles in me before I need to stop again.” I said, watching Evan as he raced across the road and into the trees behind us, the same trees Drew had disappeared into a minute ago.
“We need to find a town, then we can find a vehicle. She's never going to cope in the desert... if we make it that far. We need a vehicle.” Lane said.
“I know, I know, but do you see anything roadworthy around here?” Josh said, letting out a frustrated sigh, and Lane took his frustration out on an ant, stomping it into oblivion.
“Where's Luke and that map?” Lane asked.
“He's taking a whiz.” Josh said, and at the same time Evan came shooting out of the trees and whispered something to Lena and she started running toward us... and then I heard strange noises coming from the trees, like a weird humming noise... no, not humming... groaning, deadbie groans.
Chapter 8
I quickly stood up and knocked into Lane, my heart going into overdrive and my pulse racing.
“Do you hear that?” I whispered.
Lane didn't reply and instead, he picked up my bag and handed it to me.
“What's going on?” Stacey called from where she was sitting.
“Shhh.” Lena shushed Stacey as she hurried past her on her way over to us with Dan on her tail.
“Quickly! We have to leave!” she said in a hushed tone.
“Why, what's wrong?” Stacey asked, coming up behind Lena and Dan, she obviously couldn't hear them yet, or she didn't know what that sound was, but I did, I'd heard it before many times.. just not in such volume. I didn't like to think how many were headed this way.
“There's a load of dead ones heading this way.” Lena said, looking into the trees where I had just seen Evan running out from.
“How many? Can we take them?” Josh asked.
She shook her head violently. “There's too many.” she said, before running into the trees on the opposite side of the road where Evan was waiting for her.
I thought it was strange for Lena to look so frightened, her group was quite capable of taking care of a few deadbies, for her to look so scared it must be a large group. It didn't take me long to follow her. Lane and Josh looked unsure about what to do next but as soon as they saw me running they followed. As we ran into the trees we met up with Luke, casually strolling through the trees on his way back from using the toilet. He soon turned around and took off like a bullet when he saw us running toward him.
I could hardly keep up, I had stitches within minutes, was panting like a dog, and gasping for air. Stacey was a slow runner and kept falling over every five steps as she was constantly looking over her shoulder. I wanted to look but I was scared of what I might see. The last thing I wanted to see was a bunch of newbies running toward me. I could still remember with vivid detail the night Jasper got killed. I remembered the deadbies and the way they stayed in a group as if they were hunting for their next kill.
We ran for twenty minutes and my legs felt like jelly. We ran into a clearing and I slowed down.
“I can't...” I gasped. “I think I might actually die if I run anymore.” I said, collapsing to my knees.
Lane dropped to the ground next to me, and Josh quickly jogged back to me once he spotted me on the ground. Stacey took one look at me and was about to run off and leave us but Luke grabbed her and pulled her back.
“Alex, what are you doing? Get up!!” Josh said.
“Alex, we need to keep going.” Lane urged.
“I can't, just go on without me, I'll catch up.”
“Yeah right, you will.” Lane said, grabbing my arm, and pulling me to my feet.
“Why are you guys still here? You need to move!” Drew said, running up behind us. “What's wrong?” he asked, stopping to look at me.
“I can't run anymore.” I replied.
“Alex-” Lane started.
“No, Lane, I haven't got it in me, I'm exhausted, I really can't.”
“Then I'll carry you. Stacey, hold the bags.” Lane said, about to hand her his rucksack much to her dismay.
Evan, Lena, and Dan had doubled back to see what the hold up was.
“Did you see it?” Drew asked Evan.
“Yeah, man, I saw you lookin' all inquisitive-like so I followed you and then I heard the groans. We only just got across the road in time.” Evan said.
“How did you get away?” Luke asked Drew curiously.
Even I was curious, the last time I had seen Drew he was headed into the trees in the direction of the approaching deadbies.
“I'm quick, they never knew I was there. But that's the largest pack I've e
ver seen.” Drew said, and Evan nodded his head in agreement.
“You've seen this before?” I asked.
“Yeah, when we were in Seattle we saw a large group like this. They just follow each other and pick up stragglers as they go until there's one big, massive horde.”
“Can't we try and hold them off? We worked really well as a team on that bridge.” Josh said.
“No, it would be suicide, we'd be swamped. We can't stop, we need to keep movin', they're going to be here soon.” Drew said.
“Alex can't run anymore.” Lena informed Drew.
Drew furrowed his brow.
“Lena, come on,” Evan tried to pull her away.
“Wait, can't we just do what we did last time?” Lena said.
“Which was?” Josh asked.
“We camped out on top of a building until they passed.”
“Do you see any buildings around here, Lena?” Evan said angrily.
He wanted to go, and he wanted to take Lena with him, and I was holding them up.
“No, but there's trees, we could climb them if we're quick.”
“Bad idea. What if they spot us up there, we'd be surrounded and stranded.” Drew said.
“Well, it's the trees or we try to outrun them, and Alex won't last much longer if we keep running.” she motioned to me.
For a girl I hardly knew, she was doing a good job of looking out for me. Drew took one look at me and then at Lena, I think we both knew she didn't want to leave me behind.
“Get up the trees. Quickly!” Drew ordered.
“Fuck!” Evan groaned, not liking the idea.
“Evan. Tree. Come on!” Lena said, dragging him to a nearby tree with Dan's help.
I beelined for the nearest tree that looked to have numerous branches. All those months of sleeping up trees had paid off, I was still an expert climber, even with legs like jelly. I quickly found my footing on each branch, Lane was right behind me, I expected it, though, he wasn't going to abandon me anytime soon.
I spotted a set of branches that looked good and grabbed the top one and lifted myself up. I perched on the lower branch, using the top one to rest my arms on, it was sort of like a bar across the front holding me back, like they have on the small roller coaster rides. If I was going to be sitting in a tree for a while I wanted to be comfortable and not at risk of falling out. Lane copied my movements and sat on the branch next to me.
“Front row seats.” he said, glancing at me.
I had left the carrier bag with the toilet rolls inside at the bottom of the tree but had kept my messenger bag with me. I positioned my bag on my lap and leaned forward, crossing my arms on the branch in front and resting my chin on my arms, and my legs dangling below.
Lane mimicked my position.
“I hate this.” he said.
“Which part?”
“All of it. I kinda wish I had been born into a different era.”
I smiled. “I can just imagine you wearing a top hat and getting into a horse and carriage.” I said.
“I can just imagine you in one of those big-ass dresses.”
“Yeah right, you'd never catch me in a dress.”
I let my eyes drift, they landed on Luke first, he was the closest, two trees over, he could probably hear us he was so close. Stacey and Josh were in the tree opposite us, positioned either side of the tree trunk, holding on while standing on a branch below. Lena and Dan were two trees over from them, Lena was crouched close to Dan, and Dan looked like he was about to have a panic attack at any moment, he even reached into his pocket and pulled out his inhaler. He took two puffs while Lena rubbed his back with her spare hand, her other hand was holding her machete and somehow holding onto the branch above as well. Evan was up the same tree but on the other side, squatting on a branch and holding onto the one above his head with his crowbar still in his hand. I scanned the same tree for Drew, expecting him to be up there with his friends, but I couldn't see him anywhere.
“Where's Drew?” I whispered.
“No idea. That guy's like a ghost.”
“Do you think this will work?”
“If it doesn't we're screwed, and we're going to be stuck up here all day and night.”
A weird, eerie silence fell over the trees. Luke looked on edge, like he was about to throw himself out of the tree and meet his maker, but instead, he lit a cigarette which seemed to calm him down, I didn't even know he smoked. I was still searching the trees for Drew when I heard them. It was like an orchestra of heavy breathing, or more accurately deadbies trying to breathe. I imagined most of them were wasting away and the walking wasn't helping. They probably dropped like flies when their bodies were too exhausted to go on, or they passed out and took a nap to energize their already dying bodies, I was pretty sure they napped, or at least their bodies shut down at some point. I could hear some groaning and others making inhuman noises.
As the sounds grew louder, my stomach began to flip-flop. My eyes slowly drifted in the direction of the spine-chilling sounds, and I realized I had been holding my breath. One by one they started to appear, walking out from the trees. All moving in one direction, like some creepy cult, all following one another. They slowly moved through the trees and under us, like a smooth current, flowing in one direction. I hadn't realized Lane and I had been gripping each other's fingers. I still had my arms crossed, hiding half my face, just my eyes peering over the top of my arm, and Lane was holding my fingers. It was scary, I wasn't going to lie and say I wasn't scared... because I was. The scene below me was petrifying. The groans and the throaty sounds grew louder as another wave swept through the trees. There were so many it was impossible to count. I had never seen anything like it before. In my opinion, five or six was too many and slightly daunting, this was a scene from a Horror movie. I used to love Horror movies, now I hated them, I wanted to forget about bloody-horror, zombies, and gore. It all gave me the chills now.
I looked across at Stacey and Josh, he had his hand over her mouth, trying to keep her calm. Goosebumps started to spread up my arms, so I looked around at the rest of the group to distract myself from what was down below.
Dan was now leaning over a tree branch, hugging it tightly with his hands over his ears. Lena was watching with interest, looking at all the different faces. Evan looked like he was stuck in front of the TV at two in the afternoon watching reruns and might actually fall asleep he looked so bored.
“I still can't see Drew anywhere.” I whispered.
“I'm sure he's fine. What's the sudden interest with Drew?”
“What?”
“Every time the guy disappears you want to know where he is?”
I wasn't sure whether there was a hint of jealousy in his voice or whether it was just curiosity. I hadn't even realized it was an issue.
“I'm just worried about the safety of the group. Am I not allowed to ask if someone goes missing?”
“It's just you ask a lot.”
“Yeah, 'cause he disappears a lot.” I said, trying to make my point.
Had I been asking about Drew more than I should have? If I had it was only out of concern. He was so aloof to the rest of the group, there one minute then gone the next, and he rarely spoke to anyone, other than his own friends. I even noticed the way he avoided conversation with Lane, and Lane was a funny guy, everyone liked talking to Lane. Maybe it was just the way Drew was.
“Yeah, I guess.” Lane finally said, he sounded bored of the conversation already so it couldn't have been that big of a deal.
“Where do you think they're headed?” I asked, changing the subject, looking back down at the moving swarm of deadbies.
“Let's hope they're not going to Colorado.”
“We wouldn't have stood a chance if they'd found us. We're just lucky they didn't find us last night when we were camped out at the side of the road. And to think I thought the van was semi-safe.”
“I think I'm finally coming around to the idea of sleeping in a tree.” Lane said, lo
oking at me sideways and grinning.
“It only took this long.”
“There's no way I'm sleeping on the ground after this.” Lane said.
“At least now you can see the benefits of sleeping high up in a tree, not being eaten at the top of that list.” I said, realizing only afterwards my mouth-vomit had let me down once again.
Jasper was still a fresh wound for both of us.
“Sorry!” I said, looking over at him.
“It's okay, no point dwelling on it... But I am gonna miss that guy.”
“Me too.”
As the next wave passed, three newbies ran out from the trees and chased each other. If you didn't know they were deadbies, you'd think they were friends having a game of tag. The only difference was, these three friends were probably trying to eat each other, fresh meat, moving meat, sometimes they didn't care what they ate. They disappeared into the group and the last wave of stragglers started to shuffle their way through the trees, trying to keep up with the rest of the group.
“I think that's the last of them.” I said.
“How many did you count?” Lane asked.
“I wasn't counting. You counted?”
“Well, yeah, what I could see anyway, but I lost count at 92 when the next load moved through. There must have easily been two to three hundred.”
I shivered at the thought of how many were down there as I watched a straggler walking around a tree in circles, I also noticed part of its skull was missing, hence why it was walking around in circles and not following the group, it was brain damaged.
“Shit!” I heard Luke curse louder than he should have.
My eyes shot over to him to see what the problem was. He had dropped his tobacco tin and had managed to drop the thing on a deadbie underneath, and now it was clawing at the bottom of the tree below Lane and me.
“It's spotted us.” Lane said.
“No shit. If that thing starts groaning it could attract the others back.”