Hunters

by L. J. Cuff

  All the infected cautiously crawled towards the door. They stood within sight but far enough to still be able to run away.

  “What are they doing?” Diane asked.

  “Whenever we get new ones, they always circle, like vultures. Sometimes they kill each other on the way here giving these guys the opportunity for a fresh kill. Alternatively, there might only be one or two in the shipment and these guys will either decide to allow those ones to enter their pack or they’ll kill them for meat.” Ryan responded.

  Diane’s jaw dropped. She turned to look at Ryan in horror then back at the floor. In fact, Ryan was correct, three of the four being dropped off were feasting on the fourth. She put her hand to her mouth and spun around.

  “I can’t believe it… Oh my God!” She turned back around, hitting into the handrail. She put both her hands in front of her to steady herself. Looking down, she noticed all eyes were on her.

  Ryan’s expression hardened as he lifted his gun to his ear. The infected began circling the wall in front of the two of them.

  “I think it’s time for us to go,” Ryan declared as he shoved Diane to the side.

  “But… I thought they couldn’t get up here…” Diane protested, watching the infected pushing a chair to the side.

  “Remember, there is still some humanity left in there… More specifically, they can learn solutions to problems… Now MOVE!” Ryan shouted as he shoved Diane down the platform and through a door.

  Just as they entered, they heard a loud bang from outside. Diane turned to look but Ryan didn’t. He locked the door and pushed the emergency safety lockdown forcing all the barricades to close over the windows.

  Ryan motioned for Diane to enter another room which was directly behind where they’d been standing originally. The cameras were all centered on the infected’s area showing all their activity.

  “Wow,” Diane exclaimed as she watched the infected work together to build a small ladder from a pair of chairs.

  “As I said, they are smart…” Ryan commented, “That’s why I hope you’re right that what you have is the cure…”

  “I hope so too…”

  Chapter Two

  Mary cautiously lifted her towel while inspecting the window. She was lucky: she still had access to well water allowing her the luxury of an occasional shower. She stepped out of the little basin she had used, carefully treading to avoid making any extra noise. As she bent over to dry her legs, she noticed shadows moving across her floor. Looking up at the window, she saw a pair of legs.

  She took in a shallow breath and stepped forward. At first, the legs appeared to be fully clothed but then they turned around. The front of them was almost fully torn away. The patches that were left were blood soaked. Mary held her towel in front of her mouth as she glanced over to her rifle. Although it made a lot of noise and would attract many more to her, all she needed was something to help her get to her car.

  Looking back at the window, she noticed the legs were gone. She let out a sigh of relief until suddenly, she heard banging on her upstairs window. She quickly got dressed, lifted her rifle, and moved herself out of sight.

  Hiding behind a box of dried flowers, she heard her first floor windows shatter. She cocked her rifle, taking careful aim to point it at the door. From upstairs, she could hear another set of footsteps entering her home.

  Ok, that makes two of them, she thought, reaching down and looking inside her ammunition box. I can still do this, she thought, steadying her hand.

  Another much lighter set of footsteps entered the house along with hushed voices. Mary leaned to the side, desperate to hear what was being said. As she moved closer to her crawl space, she accidentally knocked over one of the glasses right next to her.

  Instantly, she felt a set of eyes watching her. She glanced over her shoulder and saw a man pressed up against her window. Her mouth quivered with fear as she took in a deep breath. The man moved right then left, keeping his face plastered against the window.

  “Shh… Let’s get out of here…” She heard a voice to her side, startling her.

  She turned to look and noticed a man wearing military fatigues. “W-W-Who are you?” She asked, still shaking.

  “It’s a long story… But in short, my name is Ted and I think your little friend over there is going to call for help, isn’t he?” He nodded towards the window.

  “He might… They usually move on when they decide no one’s home…” Mary responded, still clutching her rifle.

  The two briefly watched the man who continued moving from side to side. He then turned to his right and grunted. The tall grass in front of the house began swaying differently from the wind.

  “He’s just called for reinforcements… We have to go…” Ted stated, grabbing Mary by the arm. She resisted at first, opting to keep in her hiding spot. Suddenly, something large hit into the window, causing a hairline crack right down the middle.

  “Shit, we have to go,” Ted announced, lifting his gun up to his shoulder to aim. Mary looked up at him then over at her window. A single tear dripped down her cheek as she felt a firm hand grab her arm and pull her over to her stairs. She glanced over at the person and was surprised by her appearance. It was a rather short woman dressed in hospital gear who was pulling her towards the exit.

  “Wait, who are you?” Mary asked, pulling her arm away.

  “Diane… we have to go,” Diane said as she grabbed Mary’s arm again and continued tugging it up the stairs.

  The sound of shattered glass filled the air.

  “They’re inside,” Ted stated as he pushed Mary up the stairs and into the hallways. He shut the basement door and used the butt of his gun to destroy the knob.

  Almost instantly, they heard footsteps running up the stairs followed by pounding against the door.

  “Why are you people in my house?” Mary asked, watching the hinges move slightly under the mounting pressure.

  “Because we needed to tend to the injured.” Ted responded, motioning to the other room.

  Mary stepped forward to get a better look. There was a young man lying on the floor with Diane and two others standing beside him. Mary took another step forward. She noticed one of the people standing beside him, another man, was holding an IV bag filled with what appeared to be blood. Diane was unravelling gauze and applying it to the young man’s chest. Another woman, also dressed in fatigues, was standing nearby handing supplies to Diane.

  “What happened to him?” Mary inquired, glancing over her shoulder at Ted who was currently pressed against the door.

  “He had a brick dropped on him,” Ted answered, “I don’t suppose you have something to barricade this door, do you?”

  Mary shrugged and shook her head. “I’m sorry, I kind of figured that the moment they got inside, I would probably be killed so I… Well… I planned to use the rifle on myself when that time came…” She responded.

  The door moved open about half an inch before Ted shoved it back into place.

  “Crap, I don’t know how much more I can hold this!” Ted yelled.

  “Then let it open,” Mary proclaimed, lifting her rifle to her shoulder. “I have two shots. There were only three of them originally and shots fired inside the house should be relatively quiet so we can buy some extra time.”

  Ted stared at her briefly, thinking about her words. He looked back at the door then down at his own gun. Mary took a defensive stance, while carefully aiming her gun. Ted glanced back at her and slowly nodded. He quickly jumped forward, lifting his gun to his shoulder.

  The door slammed open, startling the people in the other room.

  “Ted! What happened?!” Diane screamed but neither Ted nor Mary responded.

  The infected from the window slowly stepped forward. Mary took a step back, enticing it to follow her. It smiled and licked its lips. Suddenly, it got down on all fours and grunted over its shoulder. Another two infected came into view.

  Mary took another step back. Suddenly, the infe
cted lunged at her. She quickly stepped to the side and pulled the trigger. The other two that were still in the stairwell turned to escape. Ted fired two shots, killing one and injuring the other. He stepped forward as the second one was pulling itself up to try to run and fired one more shot into its head.

  Silence filled the air. All eyes were on Ted and Mary. They looked up at one another and nodded. Diane stood still as if frozen, watching the pair.

  “Diane? We need you back here,” The woman from the other room called out.

  Mary looked over at Diane who was still staring down at the bodies.

  “Is something the matter?” Mary inquired, glancing down. She used her rifle to move the infected’s body part but received no response.

  “Diane still views them as human beings so whenever we kill them she observes us as homicidal…” Ted explained, “But they stopped being humans...”

  Diane interrupted, “When they dared to get infected?” She confronted Ted. He rolled his eyes in response. “Every one of those that you kill means another person that can’t be saved.”

  “Apparently, Diane here found a cure but can’t make it without some ingredients from the hospital near here.” Ted stated.

  “Diane, please, we’re losing him,” The other woman called out again.

  Diane scowled at Ted and turned to leave.

  Mary opened her mouth to speak but stopped the moment she heard it. It began as a low murmur, something that was lost on the wind. As time passed, the sound grew into a loud humming sound.

  “Mary? Is everything ok?” Ted asked. Mary lifted her hand, extending her index finger.

  She made her way to the front room. Crunch! The glass littering the floor sounded like gravel under her feet. She looked down, briefly inspecting her shoe then looked up. The humming had become a mild cacophony.

  Mary stepped closer to the window with Ted tailing behind. She began shaking her head as she stepped back.

  “What the…?” Ted inquired until he noticed Mary’s gaze.

  Off in the distance, there was movement in the tall grass. Some of it was as close as a few feet while others was up to a mile away.

  “Is that…?” Ted asked, lifting his gun to his shoulder.

  “That will be ineffective.” Mary put her hand up to the barrel. She pointed to the second floor of the house. “There’s a sealed attic up there, easy to lock from the inside, get everyone up there. It’s the only way this will work. Don’t leave any trace that we were here.” She stated as she moved quickly up to the stairs and pulled open the attic.

  Within moments, Ted and his team were upstairs. Diane was cleaning the stairs and making it appear as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

  As Mary sealed the attic behind Diane, footsteps could be heard entering the home. The first one limped forward, towards the basement door. Mary peered through the small cracks to the outside. She counted thirty infected coming towards the house. She glanced over her shoulder, seeing Diane continuing treatment of the young man.

  Suddenly, one of the infected began screaming. Mary quickly looked through a small spy hole she’d made in her ceiling light fixture. The male infected was holding the female infected they’d killed in his arms. The others surrounded him and grunted. He stood up and growled loudly. Stepping over to the wall, he punched it, causing himself to bleed.

  Damn it, I thought that might happen, Mary thought as she watched the spectacle, that one must be the dominant one. She furrowed her brow and continued watching.

  The male growled at the others, nodding in different directions. All of them scattered quickly but he remained. He sat down on the floor next to the female infected and petted her shoulder.

  “How many are there?” Ted whispered into Mary’s ear.

  “Just the one,” Mary answered, “But he’s their leader. We already killed his mate, killing him will make things much more difficult for us.” Mary’s words were barely audible but Ted understood.

  ***

  Hours passed and the sun rose, the infected was still in the living room, almost as if he was waiting for them to come out. For them to reveal that they’d done it, so he could pass judgement.

  “We’ve got to get moving, we can see them coming in the tall grass.” Ted whispered into Mary’s ear.

  Mary shook her head. “What about your friend over there?” She said as she nodded towards the young man.

  “We can’t help him here anyways. Getting him to the hospital will be best for all of us.” Ted repeated. “Now I need you to make some noise to get that one up here and I’ll take care of him. Do you have some form of transport?”

  “Yes but it’s very noisy, it will attract a lot of attention if you…”

  Ted held up his hand. “You leave that to us.”

  “Us? There’s only one of you.”

  “Claire and Dennis are also highly trained.” Ted responded as he brought his hand down against the floor.

  The infected standing below looked up at the ceiling. He began walking around the room, scanning for an entrance. Ted pointed to the door. Mary shook her head but did as requested.

  Soon, Ted was standing outside the door, hitting into the wall. The infected quickly ran up the stairs towards the root of the noise. He entered the room, moving to the left as if he were stalking his prey. Ted brought his gun up to his shoulder and pulled the trigger.

  Suddenly, the infected leapt to the right and did a somersault. He stood himself up and charged towards Ted. Ted held up his arm to defend himself and kicked the infected off. The infected growled at him and got down on all fours. Ted held up his gun again as the infected moved to the side.

  The infected lunged at Ted just as Ted pulled the trigger.

  “Help me get this fucker off!” Ted shouted as he pushed the infected off his chest.

  Mary came out and pulled the infected off. She gasped loudly as she noticed the small tear in Ted’s shirt. Ted looked down then back up at her.

  “Well, let’s hope Diane actually has a cure,” He stated as he stood up. “Now where is this ride that you have?”

  “Down in my garage,” Mary responded, motioning for everyone to follow her.

  As Dennis stepped into the lowly, grey room, he looked at the rigging for the automatic door opener. “Please tell me that has a manual override?” He inquired, tapping on the button to see if it would work.

  Mary shrugged. “I haven’t really used this thing in six months… Ever since…” She responded.

  Dennis slowly nodded and moved over to the door. He grabbed the lower handle and lifted upwards but to no avail. He pulled out a knife from his boot and began cutting a cord attached to the door.

  “Ok, everyone else, get into the car,” Ted ordered as he stepped next to Dennis. He watched as Dennis cut the two cords attached to the door. “It’s your turn too.” Ted stated, pointing to the driver’s side. Dennis nodded and stepped along the side of the car when he heard grunts coming from inside the house.

  “Ted?” He called out in a hushed manner.

  Ted completely ignored him. Dennis hopped into the car just as an infected leapt through the open door, lunging at the car. Ted smiled as he opened the garage door and ran out. A number of infected began chasing him into the tall grass.

  Dennis turned on the engine of the car just as the female infected began slamming a piece of wood against the driver’s side window. He stared ahead as he put the car in gear and drove it out. He veered the car to the left, driving into the tall grass, towards where he’d seen Ted last.

  Ted was surrounded by three infected. He was looking from side to side for an exit but all he could see was the movement in the tall grass. Suddenly, he noticed the car barreling down on him. He jumped to the side as the car swiped into the infected to his right. He quickly got up and began running after the car.

  Dennis noticed Ted in the rear-view mirror and slowed down. Ted quickly jumped onto the roof of the car and Dennis sped up again. He drove on for the better part of a mil
e before he stopped fully to allow Ted into the car.

  “You have very odd methods,” Mary remarked as she looked at Ted’s festering wound.

  “If we can’t get to the hospital in time, we’re both going to be toast,” Ted responded, nodding towards the young man being held in the back middle seat. “How much gas is in the tank?” Ted inquired, looking over at Dennis.

  “It’s full, we can make it all the way there… Not back though…” Dennis responded.

  “Getting back won’t be a problem if I can get the serum working,” Diane remarked, looking into the young man’s eyes.

  “Please, explain to me how this is supposed to work again? Because I’m kind of hazy on all of this…” Ted questioned Diane.

  “Well, you see, these infected, they are victims of a virus that virtually shut down their entire body…” Diane began. Her voice trailed off as her eyes widened.

  Mary furrowed her brow as she looked forward. There, blocking the road, stood a large pack of infected. Dennis slowed down slightly and nervously approached. The infected began running towards the car, some of them got down on all fours in their pursuit. Dennis stepped on the gas, keeping the car aimed towards the road.

  “Dennis! No!” Diane screamed as she reached out and grabbed the steering wheel.

  Ted pushed her away. “You’re crazy, they’re going to kill us!” He shouted as he tried to keep her away.

  She hit into Ted’s wound then grabbed the wheel again. The car swerved to the right then back to the left. It spun wildly, moving itself off the road. When it stopped, it teetered over an edge with the front two tires sitting off the road.

  “Oh, shit!” Mary shouted when she looked up into the rear-view mirror. She couldn’t believe her eyes and turned around. There were twenty infected marching towards the car. All of them licking their lips, readying for the feast that was about to be had. She took in a deep breath and moved herself forward.

  “What are you doing?” Ted shouted at Mary but it was too late, the car tipped over. It drove directly down the embankment and back up the other side onto the farmland.