“Damn it!” he swore. “I think my leg is broke!”
RJ recovered with a large cut over his eye. Nick writhed on the ground in agony.
“Can you walk?” RJ asked him.
“I don’t think so,” he answered.
Leo dismissed the small amount of blood oozing from his hands and joined the others around Nick. His right leg was horribly deformed and bleeding profusely.
“We’ll have to carry him,” said Cameron.
RJ and Cameron pulled him to his feet and each cradled one of his arms around their necks.
“Back to camp. Let’s go,” ordered RJ.
An infected screamed as it fell from the window. With broken limbs, the creature still tried to pursue them.
“Go!” shouted Cameron.
More undead began to fall out of the window. Nick hissed in an attempt to avoid screaming as they went to the side of the house. Leo lead the way around the house. He could see the lights of the camp across the street.
“We’re gonna make it!” he said optimistically as he sprinted past a heating and cooling unit.
He soon discovered that the front yard was teeming with infected. Quickly, they set their attentions on him. Many of the dead had abandoned their attack on the wall to investigate the disturbance across the street.
“We’re fucked,” Cameron stated.
The boys stood motionless amongst the dead. They couldn’t all make it.
“Leave me,” said Nick.
“No,” objected his brother.
“Just shut up man and let me think,” RJ stated. “No one is getting left behind.”
Leo was doing some thinking of his own. They needed a distraction. Something to draw their attentions.
“I’ll draw them away,” he volunteered.
“What? No?” argued RJ.
“It’s the only way. Just get to the camp and I’ll run them out by the trash pit,” he explained. “Just hide right here. Send help when you get there.”
Before anyone could stop him he put his plan in motion.
“Hey! Hey over there!” he shouted as he waved his arms around.
He began to run across the overgrown yards, shouting as he went. Leo zigzagged to avoid any infected in his path. He stopped to ensure they were following him.
“Keep coming!”
After a block he looked back. He could see his friends making their way across the street.
“Good,” he thought to himself.
His shoes slapped the sidewalk as he ran. Moans echoed out of the darkness all around him. Leo emerged out onto the field.
“Crap,” he whispered.
Leo couldn’t see where the pit was. He tried to remember what it looked like during the day.
“Leo!” shouted Mikey. “Leo where are you?”
“Mikey! Mikey, what are you doing?” he searched the darkness for his little brother.
“Over here Leo!” he shouted.
Mikey was further south than him. Somewhere between them was the pit.
“Mikey, stop!” Leo shouted.
Suddenly, Mikey disappeared from view.
“NO!” screamed Leo as he ran to his brother’s aid. “Mikey!”
Leo fell. He saw stars upon impact.
“Mikey!” he yelled as he climbed to his feet.
“Leo they’re in here!” Mikey screamed.
Mikey helped Leo up. Leo pulled his brother behind him. In the darkness he could make out figures moving toward them.
“Stay behind me!” he ordered.
The first creature lunged out of the darkness at them. Leo pushed the rotted corpse to the side. More hungry growls called to them.
“Try to climb!” exclaimed Leo.
Both boys clawed at the dirt wall, but it crumbled away. Pain shot through Leo’s hands. They couldn’t get out like this.
“Look out!” Mikey yelled.
It was too late. The undead buried its teeth into Leo’s shoulder. He shrieked in pain and pulled himself free. With all his might Leo pushed it into the oncoming group. Above them the infected he’d drawn away arrived. Reanimated corpses rained down on them.
“Stay close,” said Leo.
His shoulder was on fire. He pulled his brother to the left along the wall. Leo utilized a pile of garbage to break up the undead group. Many of them followed along the wall. A few tried to navigate the pile and fell.
“Come on,” he pulled Mikey.
They weaved back and forth amongst the garbage. Leo had provided them some breathing room. Now at the opposite side of the pit they could see more undead lining up to fall in. They didn’t have long until the pit was filled with them.
“Climb onto my shoulders!” barked Leo as he knelt down.
Without argument Mikey obeyed. Clumsily he climbed up his big brother’s body. Leo fought the urge to recoil his injured shoulder as his brother stepped onto it.
“I can’t reach!” he said.
“Here,” replied Leo as he readied himself to stand. “One-two-three!”
He yelped as he stood.
“How about now?” asked Leo.
“Almost!” Mikey strained.
The dead were coming.
Leo placed his hands under his brother’s shoes and pushed him higher. Mikey’s weight became lighter as he pulled himself out of the pit. Leo kicked back his attacker.
“Leo come on,” Mikey reached down.
“It’s no use,” said Leo. “Just stay right there. Let the rest of the Zs fall into the pit, then run back home.”
“I can’t leave you!” cried Mikey.
“You have to,” he replied.
Leo kicked another infected down.
“I can’t!”
“Mikey I’m sorry,” he said calmly. “After dad died, I just wanted to be strong. I was mean to you and I shouldn’t have been.”
He paused to kick one while it was down. Then looked back up at his brother.
“Tell mom I love her, okay?”
“No!” objected Mikey.
“It’s okay. I love you Mikey,” he said. “Now move back from the edge. Don’t look down here okay?”
“Leo!”
“Get back, Mikey. Get back!” he ordered.
Mikey backed away from the edge as commanded.
“I love you. Promise me you’ll take care of mom,” he said.
“I love you too,” choked Mikey. “I promise.”
“Okay. Remember what I told you. Wait for them to all fall in then run back,” said Leo. “Don’t look.”
Leo was done fighting. He slouched against the wall and waited as the undead mob engulfed him. He surrendered to them. Mikey could hear the horrible feast begin.
“Don’t look, Mikey!” Leo shouted. “Don’t look!”
He continued to repeat himself as they sank their teeth into him. Mikey sat in the grass listening to his brother die and cried. Even after the final infected had fallen in, Mikey waited. The seconds seemed like minutes and the minutes seemed like hours. Finally, the boy climbed to his feet. Honoring his brother’s wishes, he didn’t look into the pit. Instead he went around it and began his run home. From here, he could see a set of headlights leaving the camp. Help was coming too late.
Chapter 9
EXACTLY WHAT HE DESERVED
Lauren looked out her window and wondered if this was where she’d seen the deer three and a half months ago. She thought she’d remembered every detail of that night, but nothing on this road looked familiar. She thought she’d walked only a few miles to get back. However, it was much farther. Twelve maybe fifteen miles.
“You okay?” Stacy placed her hand on Lauren’s.
Lauren looked at her. She looked concerned.
“Yeah.”
“You poor thing,” Stacy said sympathetically. “We can stay somewhere else if you’d like?”
“No,” replied Lauren. “It’s alright.”
“You sure?”
“Yes,” Lauren tried not to sound annoyed.
Everyone was still under the impression that Ben died saving her. She hadn’t told anyone that she’d shot him when he tried to rape her, or that she had left him for the dead. The whole camp thought he was a nice guy. There was no telling who would or wouldn’t believe it. What made her angry was that she’d have to pretend that he was a hero.
“Would you look at that,” said the driver as he slowed the vehicle.
The occupants crowded the passenger side windows to get a better view. A group of undead feasted on an unfortunate deer. Only a couple of them looked up with bloodied faces to watch the vehicle drive by, but returned to their meal undeterred.
“Are they going to be a problem?” asked Lauren.
“Nah,” replied the driver. “We’re still a few miles away. We can secure the post office well before they turn up. If they turn up.”
The vehicle sped up and Simon, the diver, periodically looked into the rearview mirrors. There was really no telling what the infected would do after they were finished dining.
“How bad was the post office when you left?” he asked Lauren. “If you don’t mind my asking?”
Lauren hesitated a second. She remembered pulling the barricades on the door and one of the windows down. Or had she done all the windows? Or just the door? She realized her memory couldn’t be trusted. Lauren mainly remembered the way Ben looked and the anger in his voice.
“I-I don’t remember,” she replied. “It all happened so fast.”
Stacy put her hand on top of Lauren’s in an effort to console her.
“That’s alright, dear,” she whispered.
Simon nodded his acknowledgement. Trees whipped by as they went. Many of the leaves had begun to change. Soon they were pulling into the small town. Only a couple of undead could be seen wandering its streets. There was no telling what other dangers were skulking about. The vehicle slowed again and stopped in front of the abandoned post office. The last time Lauren had seen this building infected were pushing their way past its barriers. Barriers Lauren herself had weakened to cover up what she’d done.
“Shall we?” said Simon.
The occupants of the vehicle got out and prepared to battle the dead. Lauren and Simon took care of two reanimated corpses that walked out of the post office, while the other two men dealt with the ones in the street. Stacy stayed close to the up-armored Chrysler Town and Country and watched the street in the other direction. Lauren pulled her hatchet from the woman’s face with a frustrated grunt.
“Yuck,” stated Simon. “I don’t think I’ll ever get use to doing this.
“Anyone who does isn’t normal,” Lauren smiled.
Simon bashfully smiled back. His brown hair was pushed to the side, out of his face. He had blue eyes. Something Lauren had never noticed before. Simon was shy. He didn’t really hang out with anyone, but he was always behind the wheel of something. He could operate any piece of equipment. He had a knack for those things.
“We should wait before going in,” he said. “Trick them into coming out.”
“Okay,” replied Lauren.
“Come on out!” he ordered the dead as he struck the blue post office bin with his club.
“Easy,” Stacy cautioned him jokingly. “I think that’s a federal offense.”
Simon flashed an embarrassed smile. He missed her sarcastic undertone.
“Yes ma’am,” he replied, submissively.
“She’s just joking,” Lauren assured him.
“Oh…” said Simon.
The sounds of shuffling feet and hungry moans emerged from the darkness. Three undead silhouettes appeared. The first creature snarled and lunged at them. Simon swung at the man’s head and sent him sprawling to the ground. The next undead man to step out had his skull split open by Lauren’s hatchet. An infected child was the last to walk into the light. He looked like a four foot tall mummy. Simon hesitated a second. He tightened his grip on his club before striking the child down. The creature’s small hands reached up for Simon, who struck once more. The child screeched before finally falling silent. Simon stared down, ashamed of what he’d had to do.
“You had no choice,” Stacy comforted him.
Simon nodded silently. Another moan rose from the derelict structure.
“Oh my God!” exclaimed Stacy.
Lauren and Simon looked to see what warranted that kind of response. Lauren’s heart skipped a beat, then began to pound rapidly. Ben’s bony rotted hand reached out for her. The last three months had not been pleasant to him. Somehow his face had remained intact but his body was ravaged. All that was left of him now was his torso and only one arm. The infected had stripped away his flesh exposing his rib cage. In doing so, the undead had concealed and obscured the bullet wounds.
“I’ll do it,” said Simon stepping forward.
“No!” Lauren hadn’t meant to yell.
Lauren was surprised at the wave of enjoyment this brought her seeing him like this. After everything he’d done, this was exactly what he deserved. To end this existence would be to grant him a mercy, one he didn’t deserve.
“Oh sweetie,” Stacy said empathetically.
Lauren ignored her. Ben’s corpse feebly grasped at the ground in a desperate attempt to find even the smallest amount of leverage to pull himself forward. She just wanted to savor the moment.
“Lauren—” whispered Simon.
“Just wait,” she ordered. “I’ll do it.”
She watched Ben squirm a while longer. Tears welled up in her eyes. Tears of anger. He was the reason everyone died at the storage facility. He was the reason Callum wouldn’t know his own mother. The tears of anger gave way to tears of sorrow. She pictured Callum’s sad little face. As much as she wanted to do this for herself, she had to do it for him. She had to avenge Callum’s mom.
“Julie,” she whispered.
She raised her hatchet high over her head. She was shaking. She took a deep breath and held it. Lauren brought it down onto Ben’s head with all her might. His body went limp. Lauren let the air out of her lungs with a sigh. She pried her hatchet out of the back of his skull and wiped the tears from her face. Black ooze pooled under him. Stacy hurried over and wrapped her arms around Lauren. The two men down the street hurried to see what the commotion was about.
“Holy—” one of them began. “Is that?”
The two men looked at one another then back to the body in front of them.
“Let’s get this cleaned up,” stated Simon. “Then we need to board this place up.”
“Lauren—” began Stacy.
But Lauren raised her hand to stop her and shook her head. She didn’t want to talk. Mostly, she couldn’t pretend to give a shit about that man. He was a murderer in a world of monsters, who created orphans.
“You sure?” Stacy asked sympathetically.
“I’m fine,” Lauren lied.
Simon and the others piled the bodies in the street and lit them on fire. Lauren watched them burn. A small plume of smoke rose up into the sky where it was carried off to the east by the wind. The buildings on the opposite side of the fire appeared to ripple from the heat. Content but disappointed by Ben’s demise Lauren helped the others replace the barriers. They spoke amongst themselves as they worked but none of them addressed her.
Within an hour they’d moved their camping gear in and the post office was secure once more. The ladders were set in place and Simon readied a fire for later that night.
“Have you decided what you’re going to say?” Lauren asked Stacy.
Stacy nodded.
“I’m going to explain that we don’t want to fight. And that we have safety in numbers. If we weren’t fighting one another we’d have prevented all of this,” she explained.
“How’s that?” asked Julio who was eavesdropping. “Sorry,” he said embarrassed.
“It’s okay,” she assured him. “These things sleep in the winter right?”
“Yeah,” he nodded.
“And when did this virus reach i
ts peak?” she inquired further.
Julio thought for a moment.
“Just before winter,” Simon interjected.
“Right,” replied Stacy. “But we were too busy fighting each other for shelter and supplies when we should have been regrouping. We fell apart and these things won. We shouldn’t settle for just surviving. We should be rebuilding and reconnecting.”
“Well said,” praised Alec.
“Thank you,” she smiled.
“Nervous?” asked Lauren.
“Very,” she answered.
“What’s the plan?” inquired Julio.
“Well, since we’re all settled in. I was going to say wait till tomorrow to go, but we could go today,” explained Simon.
Julio, Alec, and Stacy looked at one another to see what the consensus was. Stacy was to be escorted by the three of them to their camp, while Lauren would stay with the radio in the event things went south, Stacy would radio back if something went wrong.
“Sure,” Stacy answered reluctantly. “Can I talk to you really quick though?” she asked Simon.
“Uh…yeah,” he replied meekly.
The two of them left the group and whispered to each other in the corner. Julio gave a puzzled look to Alec who shrugged. Both of them looked at Lauren. She frowned and shook her head. Simon nodded his head and the two of them returned to the group.
“Alright, fellas,” he said. “let’s load up.”
Alec and Julio grabbed their weapons. Lauren watched as they climbed the ladder, out of the skylight, and onto the roof. Stacy went up after them.
“Thanks,” she said before disappearing from the opening.
“Yep,” replied Simon with a wave.
“Aren’t you going too?” asked Lauren confused.
“What?” he asked nervously. “No.”
Z Plan (Book 3): Homecoming Page 10