David, Destiny, and Holiday were suddenly overcome with grief at what they saw. A young woman hung from the tree by a rope around her neck. She had turned into a zombie. Her clothes were badly torn and covered in dirt; her face was missing parts of flesh and what flesh was left had sunken down next to nothing. On her chest was a baby carrier covered in blood. Thankfully there was no baby in it, but the group knew what had happened.
Holiday lowered his head with sadness which was quickly replaced with a delightful shock. At his feet was a pack of smokes, probably belonging to the woman hanging in the tree. He reached down and picked it up. Inside, to his continued surprise, was one cigarette. It seemed like it was in good shape. Thoughts raced through his mind about when he had last had a smoke- the craving had never left even after all these years. He scooped the cigarette out of the pack and stuck it in his mouth. He searched his pockets for his lighter but then remembered David last had it. He grunted with disappointment as he remembered back to when David had lit a homemade Molotov to kill the flying horrors in a tree outside of his house.
He never saw his lighter after that. “David,” Holiday said, “What ever happened to my lighter?” David and Destiny both looked at Holiday stunned. “Oh don’t give me that ‘bad for my health speech’, do you have my lighter still?”
David shook his head in disbelief that Holiday was so calm about what they all just saw. He pulled out Holiday’s lighter and threw it softly at him. “Much obliged son.” Holiday said with a smile on his face. After a few quick clicks of the lighter his cigarette was lit.
Holiday let out a harsh cough as he inhaled the smoke. Apparently it was not as good as he remembered. The cigarette was stale and who knows how long it had been there. He threw the lit smoke on the ground and stomped on it.
“What are we going to do with her?” Destiny asked David. Holiday walked up beside them still slightly coughing before answering her question for David.
“Why should we do anything?” Holiday said cold heartedly. “We can’t waste the bullet.” He continued.
Destiny, appalled by Holiday’s attitude, pulled out her combat knife and walked up to the zombie. It was still swinging its arms attempting to reach them. Destiny pushed its arms to the side and attempted to plunge the knife into its head.
She missed and the knife cut the rope holding the zombie up!
Destiny found herself suddenly trapped under the weight of the zombie. Her knife lying beside her, she was powerless to do anything but hold the zombies head up enough to keep it from biting her. It growled and snarled ferociously while snapping its jaw attempting to bite her anywhere it could. David quickly tried to control the zombie away, as he had done before, but nothing happened. After a few seconds David raised his gun to fire it but Holiday grabbed it out of his hand. David looked at him outraged
“What are you doing?!” David yelled, but Holiday ignored him. He ran to Destiny’s side and bashed the zombie with his foot sending it flying off of her into a tree. Then he threw the gun back at David speaking one word at a time so as to be completely clear while he spoke:
“Can’t. Waste. The. Bullet.” Destiny jumped up and once more attempted to drive her knife into the zombies head. This time it worked. The knife slid into the head like it was a honeydew melon. The zombie stopped snarling abruptly and laid there motionless.
Destiny rose to her feet and quickly walked back to the car, without saying anything and without her knife. Holiday walked to the zombie and quickly pulled the blade out of its head before turning and joining Destiny in the car.
David stood there for a moment stunned. Holiday was acting odd, even more so than normal. Also, David had failed at controlling the zombie off of Destiny. He still didn’t fully understand how his ‘gift’ worked but it was clear he needed to practice controlling it, and fast.
“Come on son!” Holiday yelled from the backseat of the car as he started to lie down, once again covering his face with his sheriff hat.
David didn’t know exactly why Holiday was acting strange, but he thought he had an idea. The group had been through so much already and when David returned from killing his father, it was all supposed to be over. Instead, the group now has to travel all the way to New York City and face who knows what horrors along the way. David did the math before they left, 1000 miles from Iowa City to New York City. As he walked back to the driver side of the car, David began to think he should be doing this alone.
The sound of the car grew louder and louder as they drove. Almost ten minutes had passed since they saw the woman hanging from the tree. Destiny hadn’t said a word since, Holiday just snored, or spoke in his sleep and David’s eyes watched the road. It felt like it had been an hour if not longer. The sun was beginning to set and David had hoped they would be at the gas station before dark. ‘Any second now’ David kept thinking to himself. ‘Where is the gas station?’
Just as the last ray of light vanished from the sky, the car suddenly and sharply jumped. Holiday in the back seat nearly flew forward onto the floor from the jolt. The car let out a few wheezing sounds before a cloud of white steam billowed out from under the hood. The car quit on them, just as David had feared it would. David guided the car as best he could to the side of road. Destiny sighed loudly with disappointment while Holiday searched out the windows beside him to see what, if anything was around.
“How much further is it? Do you think we can walk it?” Holiday asked, gripping his shotgun tightly.
“Might have to,” David said throwing on the emergency brake and opening the driver side door. “Hope it isn’t too far.” He continued.
“I can barely see anything out there,” Destiny said peering down the road as best she could. “Way too dark, do we have a flashlight still?”
“No,” David said quickly as he stood outside the car and loudly closed the door. “Trinity Corp Security took our only one.”
The doors on the car were very heavy. When Destiny and Holiday exited the vehicle and attempted to close their doors quietly, it was louder than David would have liked.
“Everyone listens for anything,” David strongly commanded. “They can’t see in this any better than we can.” A long pause followed before he let out one more word, “Probably.”
Destiny began to worry about every little sound she heard. The footsteps of the group raced in her mind until she was nearly convinced she heard a horde running toward them.
“I can’t do this.” She said quickly and stopped moving.
“Yes you can baby,” David spoke softly trying to reassure her as well as listen to everything around him. Like Destiny, his mind was playing tricks on him too because of the darkness. “Just keep going and listen carefully.”
Destiny began moving, trusting in David like she always had. Only seconds passed before Holiday suddenly shouted out, “Down!” Immediately the sound of wings and chirping filled the air. Flying Horrors were overhead. Small fuzzy ball-like creatures only attracted to electricity. In Iowa City they held the group ‘hostage’ in David’s house because the helicopter coming for the group was destroyed by the flying horrors.
“Good thing the car did break down.” Destiny whispered. “Those things would have ripped us apart.”
“Same with the flashlight,” David whispered back.
“Shut it!” Holiday whispered loudly. “Can you guys hear something else?” Holiday was referring to the sound of distant thumps off in the distance. Small flashes of bright orange and white lights flickered through the trees.
“I hear it, and see it.” David said walking cautiously toward the trees. He stepped as quietly as he could around the trees until he was on the other side of them in a large sod farm field. He could see the lights easier, and they lit the field up slightly around him.
Off in the distance, very far away, small explosions lit up the night sky. “What is over there?” Destiny whispered as she walked up behind David. Overhead they could see the swarm of Flying Horrors heading toward the explosions.
“Pe
ople trying to fight back I guess.” David replied. Holiday also emerged from the trees and stood beside David.
“Let’s get to New York so they have a fighting chance then.” Holiday said in a low almost monotone voice before turning around and heading back through the trees. The Flying Horrors were now far enough away they could no longer be heard.
“Wait,” David said in a normal level voice while turning toward Holiday. “We should stick to the field, it might–” David was cut off as a gunshot rang through the air and a bright flash appeared where Holiday had entered the tree line.
“Sheriff!” David yelled and ran into the trees without a moment of hesitation. As David emerged from the other side of the trees moments later, he felt something large and hard hit his arm and send him forcefully to the ground.
“Nobody move!” A woman’s voice boomed.
David shook his head trying to catch his breath and attempted to see into the darkness. Suddenly a light beamed onto David’s face from a flashlight the woman was holding. David raised his hand in front of his face attempting to shield his eyes from the light so as to see what exactly was happening.
“Holiday?” David said praying for an answer.
“He is fine,” the woman continued. “He is lucky to be alive.” The flashlight beam moved to the ground a few feet away showing Holiday lying on the ground unconscious.
“He heard me coming and shot at Me.” the woman explained. David attempted to stand but froze when the flashlight was turned back toward him once more.
“Don’t!” The woman said shakily. “Just don’t move. I am going to go, and you are just going to forget about me, got it?” She spoke quickly and David could hear how worried she was.
“We aren’t going to hurt you.” David said reassuringly.
“Speak for yourself!” Destiny shouted as she jumped at the woman from the side. She had slowly moved around her while David and the woman had talked. The flashlight fell to the ground and rolled over to Holiday. David could hear grunting and smacking in the darkness but it was so incredibly dark he had no way of knowing who was winning. He crawled to the flashlight quickly and picked it up. He stood to his feet shining it all around him looking for the two women fighting.
Finally, he saw them. Destiny was on her back breathing heavily, while a woman wearing a white doctor coat, badly ripped, stood over her with a baseball bat raised in the air.
“Wait!” David shouted, causing both Destiny and the unknown woman to look toward the light he was holding.
“She attacked me!” The woman said sharply.
“She attacked Holiday first!” Destiny said in an almost attempt at provoking the woman to attack further. The woman lifted her bat a little higher as if she was going to hit Destiny, but stopped by the sound of Holiday’s shotgun cocking.
“Listen here stranger,” Holiday said as he walked up beside David pointing his shotgun toward the woman standing over Destiny, “We don’t have a lot of ammo left, but that won’t stop me from taking your head off.”
She slowly lowered the bat from above Destiny before dropping it to the ground beside her. She raised her hands and stared at the light shining at her.
“I know this was all a misunderstanding,” Holiday continued lowering his shotgun. “I thought you were a zombie, and you defended yourself. Let’s not have this get more out of control.” Holiday’s words shocked David; he was expecting Holiday’s odd behavior to turn this situation into a disaster.
“Put your arms down,” Destiny said while getting to her feet. “I am sorry.” She said quickly.
“What’s your name?” David asked.
“Sam.” The woman replied. “So I can just go?” she continued.
“Go?” Holiday said curiously. “Go where? There ain’t exactly any place that is safe.” Holiday grabbed the flashlight from David’s hand and threw it softly toward Sam. “Why not stick with us?”
“No.” Sam replied without hesitation. “I have somewhere to be.” The group looked at her as she walked down the road away from them shining her flashlight all around her to check for zombies. David walked quickly after her.
“Where is that?” he asked her. The group started to follow her. Her flashlight made it much easier to go down the road. “Maybe we can stick together for a bit then?”
“Look,” Sam said while stopping and turning toward him. “I am going to Chicago. I have – well just – you don’t want to go to such a big city when all of this is going on. O.K.?” She turned and continued walking.
Destiny and Holiday chuckled slightly at her comment as they were headed to New York City - one of the largest cities either of them could think of.
“What is so funny?” Sam stopped once more and shined the flashlight at the group.
“We are headed to a big city ourselves,” David said, “New York.” Sam paused for a long time considering his words. If it wasn’t so dark, the group would have seen the look of disbelief on Sam’s face.
“Have fun with that.” Sam eventually said. She turned and walked faster than before in an attempt to leave the group behind her. Destiny slightly jogged to catch up with Sam until she was at her side.
“What is in Chicago?” Destiny inquisitively asked.
“You guys sure are a curious bunch aren’t you?” Sam said ignoring the question.
“Yes, but we could help you. Chicago has boats right?” Destiny continued.
“Whoa!” Holiday shouted “I am barely in agreement with going to one suicide pit, now you want us to go through one and then to another?” Holiday stopped walking and stared at the ground angrily. “Fuck this.” He said and began walking back down the road the way they had come from.
“Sheriff?” David said turning to look at Holiday. He was lost in the complete darkness behind the group. “Sam can you let me use that light for a second?” he asked. Sam reluctantly handed the flashlight to Destiny who rushed up to David and shined the light at the angry Holiday who was storming away. “Holiday!” David pressed. “Where are you going?”
“Home.” Holiday grunted. “Fuck off.”
“What?” David was confused. He thought he may have done something or said something to upset him, but Holiday was more level headed about the whole end-of-the-world thing than anyone. To let something David had said bother him was hard to believe.
“What are you talking about?” he continued.
“Look boy!” Holiday shouted turning back toward David. “I lost everything fighting to get you to Iowa. That was the end – we did it, and it’s over right?” Holiday paused for a moment as if the answer wasn’t obvious, but it was.
The battle did not end in Iowa. Even after the group gets to New York to make the ‘cure’ for the disease infesting the world, there would still be much more to do. “No, it isn’t!” He continued, “And now we are going to New York City with some small hope they aren’t completely over run by zombies, but,” Holiday chuckled slightly and slowly took the hat off his head, “But first we are thinking of going to Chicago?” Holiday shook his head in disbelief. “I have an idea let’s go down to Vegas for a bit, or fly over to Paris. What do you say?”
“We have to do something Sheriff!” David snapped.
“Why?” Holiday said. “There is nothing left but survival!”
David was speechless. After everything they had gone through Holiday was giving up on the plan. “Going to New York is suicide son,” Holiday walked closer to David and spoke softly, “You haven’t been able to use this supposed ‘power’ of yours since your father.”
Holiday placed his hand on David’s shoulder but David pulled away. Destiny took a few steps back still shining the light on the both of them. “We should just find someplace to hold out.” Holiday finished.
“No.” David said. “We should fight tooth and nail!” Holiday let out a moan of disapproval. “I know you have lost a lot,” David’s voice echoed around them, “So have I, hell so have all of us.”
David pointed at Destiny and
Sam. He knew nothing about Sam, but he knew life for everyone had to be better before zombies were everywhere. “If we don’t try, things will only get worse. I won’t deny things aren’t going to plan but I will figure this out. We have to.”
“But David,” Holiday’s voice was still gentle but there was an obvious sound of frustration lining it. “New York could be overrun with thousands and thousands of zombies - Chicago also.”
“No,” Sam spoke up loudly from the darkness. Destiny shined the light toward Sam causing her to shield her eyes. “Chicago is pretty safe.”
Everyone remained quiet waiting for more information from Sam. She only stood there squinting through the light toward them.
“How do you know?” Destiny asked.
“That is where I came from,” Sam was confusing everyone. She said earlier she was headed TO Chicago.
“And you are going back there?” Destiny asked getting more confused with each second Sam didn’t speak.
“It is better there than out here. I didn’t believe them when they told me.”
“Who?” Destiny continued her questioning.
With a sudden flash, another gunshot echoed throughout the night. Holiday had fired his shotgun only this time he had shot a zombie. It was only feet away from David.
“Let’s just get someplace safe for the night O.K?” Sam shouted, “There is a gas station about two minutes further up this road. We can sleep there.”
The group agreed almost all at once. They had been standing in the dark arguing and talking without knowing if anything was around them. If Holiday hadn’t noticed out of the corner of his eye something shambling toward David, they would have been in a lot of trouble.
“Thanks, sheriff.” David said shocked he could not sense the zombie in any way.
“Don’t call me sheriff anymore son. Just Holiday.” he replied.
Within two minutes of stumbling in the dark with only one flashlight, it began to flicker wildly. The batteries in it were nearly empty. Sam had been using it for who knows how long “It should just be up ahead.” Sam reassured everyone. Seconds later the group saw it. A gas station with two gas pumps outside of it. It was one single room with empty shelves and a tipped over cash register outside the front door. The back door was boarded up making it a perfect spot to hide for the night.
Infestation Chicago: A Zombie Survival Series (Volume 2) Page 2