by Gallier, TW
If there were more zombies in front of us, then I didn't know what we'd do. I didn't want to get caught between two groups of zombies again. That was a last stand scenario, but before I could tell Olivia to turn right and away from them, we burst out of the forest and onto the wide barren banks of the river. The other four people were there, frantically looking up and down the river. More zombies were coming at us from both directions.
"I don't want to die!" a thirty-something blonde said.
The other group all looked mid-thirties, in jeans and t-shirts. Two large, fit looking guys and two attractive women. They looked just as exhausted and desperate as our little group.
We couldn't go back into the woods and we couldn't stay on the river bank. So I looked out into the river. It was a lot wider than I remembered, and was flowing fairly fast. I didn't think I could swim across. But then, maybe we wouldn't have to swim that far?
"Go to the island!" I shouted, wading into the water. I pulled off my pack as I went, slipping the AR15 through the straps to keep it above the water. The water was cold as hell. It was quite a shock to my overheated body. "Take off your packs. I think they'll float, but let them go if they don't."
Olivia and Ralph didn't hesitate. They followed me in as they removed their packs and followed my example with their shotguns. If the packs floated, then we could use them to keep us afloat. Hell, we could probably cross to the other side if they didn't get water-logged and sink. After only a short hesitation, the other four people waded in and followed us.
As expected, the zombies all stopped at the edge of the water and just stared at us. The other group watched them warily as they waded deeper and deeper. About a third of the way across the water was up to my shoulders, and my pack was floating, so I used it as floatation and swam to the island.
As soon as I reached the shore, I put a full magazine into the AR15 and followed the shoreline around to the other side. I estimated the island to be about two hundred yards long, and about a hundred wide. There was about twenty feet of clear shoreline all of the way around it, and the rest was forest and thick underbrush.
Once we were out of view of the zombies, I sat down at the treeline, released the shoulder straps, and rested, with my AR15 across my knees. Olivia dropped her pack and sat to my left, with Ralph joining us to my right. Old habits were hard to break. We were sitting back against our packs when the two couples stopped about twenty feet away and regarded us warily.
"Hi," the larger of the two men said, lifting a hand in greeting. "I'm Ted and she's my girlfriend, Carrie."
Ted looked to be about six-four and tough as nails. He had short brown hair, and his girlfriend was average height and weight, with shoulder-length blonde hair.
"I'm Mike and this is my girl, Vikki," the other guy said.
Mike looked like a smaller version of Ted. He was about my height and weight, with the same length dark hair as mine. Hell, we could've been brothers if he didn't look so tough and scary. For some reason, when I looked at them I thought rednecks and good ole boys.
"I'm Kyle, she's Olivia, and he's Ralph," I said.
The two couples looked nervously back and forth between each other. I didn't blame them. The three of us were very well-armed, and they only had the wet clothes on their backs. I kind of felt bad for them.
"Are you from around here?" I asked.
"Yeah," Ted said. "We live up the road a bit. Those creepers chased us out of the house and all the way over here."
"Creepers?" Ralph asked.
"The infected," Carrie replied. "Do you know if they are contagious?"
"Did any of them bite you?" Ralph asked.
They looked around at each other again. Ted answered.
"No. But we did fight with them hand-to-hand. The radio just calls them 'the infected' without going into detail," he said. "We're kinda worried we might turn into them."
Not the best admission to make. I didn't have an answer.
"Probably not," Olivia said. "The so-called infected turned that way pretty fast. Like almost immediately from what I heard on TV this morning. Since you haven't changed into a zombie, I doubt you're going to." She shrugged. "But I don't really know anymore than you."
"We don't have guns or anything," Vikki spoke up as she moved forward. "Can we hang with you guys? At least until we get to Emory?"
"Y'all are going to Emory?" I asked. "Do you know if they'll let us leave if we go inside the town?"
"I don't know why not," Mike said, but looked uncertain. "Why wouldn't they let you go?"
Lots of reasons, but I wasn't going to give them any ideas by bringing them up.
"Tell you what, my friends," Ted said, sounding way to smooth to trust. Red flags popped up, alarm bells rang. I kept my cool outwardly, but I felt both of my friends tense up. "You three have lots of guns. We got money. So why don't we make a deal and you sell us a couple weapons? Then we can go our separate ways."
I couldn't tell them we don't trust them. That would make them not trust us, which I suspected they already didn't. No one trusts anyone during the end of the world. Still, I didn't want to fight them.
"Here's the problem with that," I said. "You're just going to Emory, which is a few miles downriver. We, on the other hand, are heading to our hometown much further south, so we need every weapon, every round of ammo that we have. In fact, we'll probably have to find more before we reach home."
"We can't share," Ralph said. "We need all of our shit."
Ted didn’t take that well. Him and Mike shared a look that creeped me out. Their women looked kind of pissed, too.
"Still, we wouldn't just leave you alone without protection," I said, which I think surprised Olivia and Ralph. "We'll take you as far as Emory."
"That's very generous of you," Ted said, still not sounding happy. His eyes lingered on my AR15. "We should probably spend the night here since the creepers, or infected, won't swim over."
"Sounds like a plan," Mike said all gung ho. "I think we should make camp in the trees where no one can see us."
The two couples quickly divided up chores among themselves. It was obvious they'd all camped together before. Before I knew it I was alone with Olivia and Ralph, listening to them talking as they collected firewood and cleared out a campsite.
There was a lot of looking back and forth, eye rolling, and shrugs between us as we listened to them. I didn’t trust our new-found fellow survivors. Honestly, if there weren't zombies lining the riverbank I'd have suggested we quickly swim back across and vanish into the night forest.
We were kind of stuck there with Ted, Carrie, Mike, and Vikki.
"One of us is always on guard tonight," I whispered. They nodded. "I'd rather none of them stood guard with us."
"Exactly," Ralph whispered. "I don't trust them."
"They scare me more than the zombies," Olivia said. She looked past me into the woods. "Holy crap, they already have a fire going."
"What are they, boy scouts?" Ralph said.
That was a good question. They were all soaking wet, so any matches they carried would be wet, too. So they either had a cigarette lighter or they had some serious woodsman skills. I was almost glad we'd met up with them. We had matches and lighters, but there was no way we'd get a fire going that fast.
"I guess we can go sit by the fire," Olivia said kind of reluctantly. "I'm soaked to the bone and getting colder by the minute."
"Another thing," Ralph said. "We can't eat unless we share. So that sucks."
He had a point. It would just tick them off if we ate in front of them and didn't share. It would be rude as hell, too. My mother raised me better than that, despite my less than stellar social skills.
"I'm starved," I said. The mention of food made my stomach come alive, growling and gurgling. "So we share, but not a lot. What we have has to last us."
Guilt was already sinking in. I told myself we had to ensure our own survival first and foremost, but it did little to ease the pangs of guilt. Fear of Ted
and Mike, and to a lesser degree Carrie and Vikki, did help. The two men were bigger, and each of them looked much tougher than all of us combined. They reminded me of the bullies of my childhood.
After shouldering our packs, pausing to let our bodies adjust to the weight again, we slowly and warily entered the woods. The campsite was towards the upriver side of the island. Beside the fire that Carrie was tending, they already had a nice pile of firewood stacked up.
We stood in line at the edge of the clearing until the four of them sat on the other side of the fire. Only then did I feel reasonably safe. So we moved up close, dropped our packs, and sat on them by the fire. Ted and Mike struggled to keep their eyes off of our weapons, while the two women looked more interested in our packs.
"Do you guys have food?" Vikki said. "We're starving."
"We have a little," I said. "And we'll share."
They looked relieved. We took turns digging food out of our packs. Olivia went first. She gave packets of meat and veggies to the two women, before getting something for herself. I went next, giving Ted a pair of packets, one meat and the other veggies. Once I had my food, Ralph got out some food for himself and Mike. Then Ralph surprised us all with a can of soda each.
"You were carrying all that extra weight?" I asked.
"I like sodas," he said, shrugging. "Is it a crime?"
The survivor rations were cold, but remarkably good. My packet of meat was shredded chicken formed into a square loaf. I devoured it. The packet of mixed veggies was okay, but probably would've been great if we had a way to heat it up. Since we didn't have spoons, I had to "drink" the veggies out of the packet.
"Next gas station, we look for a box of plastic spoons," I said.
"Truth," Olivia said.
I glanced at her. She grinned at me. Maybe she was giddy from finally having a full belly. Ralph made happy sounds as he ate. Even the two couples seemed to enjoy the food.
"Sure wish you guys would reconsider selling us some weapons," Ted said as he scooped mixed vegetables from his packet with two fingers.
"Sorry, my friends," Ralph answered. "No can do. We have a long way to go, and a lot of undead between here and there."
I realized the danger too late. The four of them were all tensed up. As soon as I understood what was happening, I dropped my food and reached for my rifle. Ted let out a wild scream and rushed over the top of the fire. I saw Mike surge at Ralph, and the two women went after Olivia.
"Ooff!" I cried, tackled and knocked to my back. Ted kneed me in the gut, and then pounded my face with hard punches. "Stop!"
He pulled a pistol out of my tactical vest and pressed the barrel under my chin.
"You should've sold us the fucking guns, motherfucker," Ted growled in my face. "I ought to blow your brains out right now."
"Don't shoot!" I cried. "You have a gun now. All's good."
He pulled the other pistol out and tossed it to the other side of the fire. Ted stood up, still aiming the pistol at me. I quickly looked left and right. Carrie was behind Olivia, an arm slipped behind my friend's elbows and holding her tight. Vikki had a fistful of hair while she continued to punch her in the belly. Ralph was spread-eagle, and looked to be out cold.
"Stop hitting her!" I shouted, anger consuming me. Anger and humiliation, actually. They suckered us, and then kicked our asses. "I swear, I'll never trust another person again."
"You just trust I'll shoot you in the head if you even look at me wrong," Ted said. He kicked me in the side. "You stupid little geek freak."
"I saw some rope in this bitch's pack," Vikki said. "We can use it to tie them up."
"Screw that," Ted said, aiming for my head. "Just kill them."
Chapter 9
"No!" Olivia screamed.
"Don't do it, Ted," Carrie said.
"Why not?"
"Tie them up and then we can talk about what to do with them," Vikki said. She opened Olivia's pack and dug around until she found the coil of rope. "Besides, we need to strip them before shooting them and ruining perfectly good clothes."
Ted looked like he really wanted to shoot me, so I kept my mouth shut. That gun looked huge as I stared down its barrel at him. His trigger finger tightened, and then relaxed. The big redneck looked more disgusted than anything.
Olivia suddenly struggled and almost broke free, but Vikki pressed a knife to her throat. Carrie slowly released her, took the knife from Vikki with a wicked look, and made Olivia cross her wrists behind her back. Vikki quickly bound her, while a sinking feeling sickened my stomach. Poor Ralph was just starting to move again, moaning and groaning, when Mike rolled him over onto his belly and tied his wrists together.
While Mike dragged Ralph into a sitting position, Vikki grabbed a fistful of Olivia's hair again and punched her in the ribs a few more times. Carrie eagerly pounded in a couple more punches too. Why were the women so vicious? When Vikki forced Olivia over to sit by Ralph, Carrie came over and bound my wrists behind my back.
I looked to the side, and my eyes locked with Olivia's. The look of profound fear and dread in her eyes shocked me to the core. She was always the bravest of the three of us.
Once we were tied up and sitting in line, our captors returned to the fire and started pulling everything out of our packs. And I mean everything. Ted and Mike then reloaded all empty magazines, while the women sorted food and opened some more packets to divide between them all, but not us. They let out cries of surprise and delight when Vikki pulled a six-pack of beer from Ralph's pack.
Olivia and I both glanced at Ralph, who looked away.
They paired off to eat, drink, and make out. Frequent looks were cast our way. I think they thought the whole thing funny. Our presence was probably the only thing keeping them from having an orgy or something. Still, their hands were bold and they did pretty much everything but outright sex.
"Are you guys okay?" I whispered.
"Define okay," Olivia replied. "I hurt all over and inside."
Ralph nodded in agreement. I'd never seen him look so miserable. Olivia looked more sick than anything. I did a quick inventory of my aches and pains. My head, nose, and jaw throbbed, and I'd bitten my tongue at some point.
"I have to pee like a Russian race horse," Ralph muttered.
Olivia snorted. "Join the club, except I'm nauseous, too."
"You punks shut the fuck up," Ted called. "Or I'll shoot you in the pecker."
Mike snickered, and Vikki giggled. Carrie turned a wicked grin our way. Both her and Vikki seemed to only have eyes for Olivia. That scared me more than anything. I remembered how some of the girls in high school would go after her for no reason I could see.
Of course, both the guys and the girls used to taunt and bully Ralph and I in school. It wasn't easy growing up geek in a small rural town. Most of the guys back then were nice to Olivia, because she was pretty under her tomboy clothes. Even Ted and Mike looked at her with interest, which was probably why their women were being so mean.
A new concern started to creep into my head, and it got really hard to breathe. I realized why Olivia was so scared. Desperation warred with panic. I hadn't been that scared in years.
"We have to get out of here," I whispered.
Ralph and Olivia looked at me like I was an idiot. Kind of felt like one, too. Still, it was true. Twisting my wrists, I tested my bindings. Even that little effort helped with my rising dread. Olivia, and then Ralph, started testing theirs. There wasn't any give in mine. All I managed to do was rub the skin off around my wrists. Then I saw Olivia change tactics.
My breath caught when I realized she was rubbing the rope against a rock jutting out of the ground. Carefully, and very slowly, I started feeling around for a rock behind me. I watched our captors, freezing whenever one of them looked our way.
Carrie unzipped Ted, making all three of us look their way. Ted scowled at us. He pushed her to the side and stood up. My heart sank. His eyes were cold, cold, cold.
"We don't need these freak
s and geeks," he sneered. "What should we do with them?"
My heart started to hammer. It was so loud in my ears I could barely hear them. The prospect of dying was too much to bear. Worse, my friends were going to die with me. Just butchered for no good reason. Murdered out of pure meanness.
"I vote to shoot them all in the head," Ted said, picking up an Uzi.
"No, man, just the guys," Mike said. He gave Olivia a lusty look. "We can keep the girl."
"Leave her alone!" I shouted.
Carrie stood up and sauntered over to look us over with contemptuous eyes. She looked both sexy and scary in the flickering firelight. The other three had amused looks on their faces, which worried me. Was she going to do something bad to us?
"Aww, one of the little geek boys got a little boner," she teased. "Emphasis on little."
I didn't, so glanced at Ralph. He was staring at the ground, frozen in place. Somehow I managed to not look at his crotch. Nothing there I wanted to see.
"They're pathetic," Carrie sneered viciously. "No need to kill them. They'll probably get themselves killed anyway. I say leave them here and tied up when we leave."
She returned to Ted's side, pressing up to him possessively. Her eyes stayed on Olivia, as if warning her to stay away from her man. Knowing murdering us was not the unanimous opinion, I was able to calm down a bit. Not much, but I could see a glimmer of hope we'd at least survive to see another day.
"I don't agree," Vikki said. She wagged her brows at us. "I say strip them naked, and then force them to swim back across the river. Let the creepers have them for lunch."
"Sicko," Olivia said.
I thought we were all going to die right then and there. I wouldn't be so surprised if Ralph said something stupid like that, but not Olivia. Did she take a blow to the head? Did she have a death wish? Out the corner of my eyes I saw her pull her wrists apart.
"Enough talk," Ted said. He racked the Uzi, which kicked out a perfectly good round. I couldn't help but think idiot. "Their clothes are too small for any of us, and I don't like their stinking attitudes."
He moved the Uzi to his left hand and picked up a machete. My jaw dropped. Was he planning to hack us to death? Why would he do something like that?