Mountain Sickness: A Zombie Novel
Page 21
Although they didn’t expect to see more of the horde in front of them, the fleeing survivors never stopped to question where they all came from. They continued on their path, passing through the two slow lines of gondola cars moving in either direction.
With the blundering mess of clumsy zombies on their trail, the group headed for the gondola car closest to the Telluride side of the station. As soon as they reached it, the three of them dove inside the still open cab, hoping they were finally safe. But when the door didn’t close behind them and the cab still continued its slow crawl towards the exit, they realized their dramatic escape didn’t go exactly as they planned.
Their quick pants for air suddenly stopped as they all turned back around to see the zombie horde quickly approaching them. The two adults kept their eyes out the window, but Stephanie saw fit to express her frustration. “Great. Now we’re in the very situation we were trying to avoid. I hope you’re happy.”
Leading the pack outside the cab was a large woman in a ski suit, and even through a deranged, bloody face, Chris still recognized her as the patient Phillip took down the mountain on his stretcher. At the sight of her, the young ski patroller wanted to feel hatred, but she came around the gondola car so quickly he didn’t have time to draw upon the emotion.
The large woman, crazed and covered in blood, stuck her right arm and head through the door, swiping at the passengers pressed up against the back wall of the cab. When it became clear that her prey were just out of reach, the woman tried to enter the moving gondola car completely. But just as she started to pull her body inside, the cab’s automatic doors began to close.
Completely oblivious of her surroundings, the demented woman gave another long reach into the car when the doors firmly sealed against her chest. Suddenly aware of her predicament, the large woman became as frantic as her humdrum disposition would allow as her body slowly dragged against the station floor.
A second later, the gondola hit another series of consecutive bumps, just as it did upon the group’s arrival, and then departed the station along the cable down to the town below. Her body still pinned between the gondola’s doors, the blood-soaked woman hung suspended in mid-air high above the mountainside.
With the gondola car steadily descending into town, she kicked her feet around hopelessly while continuing to moan and swipe at the people in front of her. Even under the circumstances though, the sick stranger wasn’t so much asking for help but desperately trying to complete her hunt in what little moments she had left. The only difference now was that the once cornered passengers were no longer backing away from her in fear but looking on at the helpless woman with a morbid sense of fascination.
When the pitiful sight became too much to bear, Chris finally leaned off the gondola’s back wall and began repeatedly kicking the top of the woman’s head, forcing her back through the doors inch by inch. First her shoulders poked through. Then her neck. Until a final hard blow drove the woman’s head straight through the opening, sending her plummeting down to the mountain below.
In what little time the gondola doors remained open before finally closing behind her, Chris expected to hear some type of scream from the falling woman. Or perhaps even some kind of animal-like shriek or cry. But there was only silence. Almost as if the human being had been transformed into a creature ignorant of death.
With the adrenaline in his system starting to putter out, Chris fell back onto the gondola’s seat and stared off through the window at nothing in particular. He remained in that position for about a minute when Stephanie randomly broke the still silence in the air. “Was the food there any good?”
The odd thought slowly permeated its way into Peter’s brain until he ultimately turned to her, almost offended that she would ask such an inappropriate question. “What?!”
But instead of being hurt by Peter’s tone, Stephanie responded as plainly as she could. “My family had reservations.”
And with that said, Peter slumped back down in his seat, allowing the stale silence to once again fill the gondola.
19
It had only been ten minutes and Bill already wanted to throw their new guest overboard. The man named Scott Brooks was just about the very reason he and Nellie tried to stay out of town as much as possible. Well, not him specifically. But his kind: rich city folk who felt entitled to this little corner of nature’s paradise.
Not that their presence was a complete burden. Telluride certainly wouldn’t be flourishing the way it had been without their money. But why did they have to be so loud?
Bill was experiencing firsthand what Travis Walker had known for quite some time: Mr. Brooks was an asshole. With their new passenger firmly planted in the middle of them, the three amigos sat together in the bed of the pickup as Nellie drove the truck back into town.
Just to make sure it wasn’t a viable option (and to get their new arrival to shut up about it), she drove up to the airport and passed the tarmac. Luckily, the steepest part of the road up to the terminal was plowed not too long ago, a feat which Mr. Brooks for some reason took credit for. Bill suspected he was lying, though.
Unfortunately, the rest of the runway wasn’t as favorable. It was heavily shoveled and plowed, another task Scott said he was responsible for arranging. But the clear pavement was now covered in blood, bodies and crashed airplanes.
Bill briefly wondered how the plague could infect this far corner of the valley, which, as far as he could tell, was spared from an attack during the storm. Scott Brooks wasn’t surprised about it, though. And so Bill refrained from inquiring.
But that didn’t stop Brooks from rambling on about everything else. First he began by championing his will to survive (while offering a brief eulogy for his bodyguard and pilots). He then moved on to criticize the town’s handling of the crisis. The marshal was wisely silent when Scott began bashing the police’s failure to subdue the lunatics. And it was only when the truck crossed over into town that he began actively challenging the group’s plan to return to Telluride.
Bill was actually surprised it had taken him that long to speak up about it, but when he did, Mr. Brooks proved that he was indeed a very opinionated person. “I don’t get it. Why are we going back to the place filled with homicidal maniacs?”
Both of the other men in the back of the pickup had enough of their companion’s bickering, but Marshal Walker, the younger of the two, sacrificed himself by engaging Brooks in conversation. “Montrose is over an hour away and we have no way of knowing what the roads are like. There’s a good chance we’d get stuck on them in the middle of the night.”
“Yeah. A chance I’d be willing to take.”
Upon realizing that humoring the man was pointless, Travis let out an exhausted sigh while leaning back against the cab. “Great. When we get back you can find a vehicle, dig it out of the snow, and hit the road.”
Like a proud father, Scott reached over and slapped the side of the truck. “No way. I’m taking this tank, baby. How much you want for it?”
The marshal just shook his head. “It’s not mine to sell.”
“Fine. Point me in the direction of the owner.”
Marshal Walker barely looked up to give a slight nod in Bill’s direction. Brooks then wasted no time relocating his obnoxious charm to its new target. “All right, Buffalo Bill. What’re these set of wheels gonna cost me? Name your price.”
The old man let out a short chuckle to himself at how quickly the conversation shifted. “My price? Mister, if you don’t say another word for the rest of the trip then nothing would make me happier than watching you drive this truck away from me.”
With a sly smile stretched across his face, Scott slapped Mr. Sheridan on the back as if they were nothing more than old friends. “And what do ya know. The sooner you hand over the keys the sooner our time together can end.”
Bypassing the man between them, Bill leaned forward to make eye contact directly with Travis, completely ignoring Scott’s seemingly unlimited confid
ence. “Man doesn’t seem to understand the concept of a deal, Marshal.”
Travis kept his laughter to himself, but Bill could tell that even Mr. Brooks was amused by the comment. The man displayed an odd grimace with a slightly menacing smirk, almost as if he took pity on the old man for not accepting his offer. Bill couldn’t understand why, but then again, he didn’t much care to. As the two of them continued to silently stare at one another following their short-lived business negotiation, Bill decided to amend his earlier conclusion: Scott Brooks wasn’t just an asshole. He was a devious one.
The look between them persisted for several more seconds until it was broken off by a sudden jerk of the truck. The brakes quickly locked up, causing the wheels to slide on the snow before coming to a complete stop several feet later.
Bill looked around and soon realized they were nowhere near the Town Hall. He then stood up and peeked over the truck to see the gondola in full motion. “Was that thing on when we left?”
He looked over at the two men next to him. Their attention, however, was not focused up ahead but on the ground in front of the truck. Bill followed their eyes and caught sight of a girl with purple hair lying face down in the middle of the snowy street. His first reaction to jump out of the bed was matched by the marshal, and Nellie did the same from her driver’s seat.
Brooks was expectedly clueless as to what was going on, but Bill was glad to see Hunter and Molly resume their roles as lookouts as he and the others ran to the girl’s side. Before they even bent down next to her Marshal Walker already had the girl identified. “It’s Georgia Croft. She works at the radio station.”
The Sheridans didn’t bother much with local radio, which was why they just looked at each other clueless. But for those who lived in town, a local DJ with purple hair was hard to miss, especially for a marshal.
Not knowing who she was, though, didn’t stop Bill from reaching down and feeling the girl’s neck above a raw piece of flesh. “She’s cold, but there’s a pulse.”
“Of course, I’m cold. I’ve been lying in snow.”
Bill nearly fell backwards when the girl spoke, and it took him a moment to shake off his fright. Neither Nellie nor Travis, who weren’t nearly as close to the girl when she uttered the words, shared his extreme disbelief. But they still took a moment to register what Georgia said. She didn’t bother to move or even open her eyes, which made them feel a bit uncomfortable.
And when they failed to respond, she continued on from the same position. “Would you mind helping me up? I think I have icicles in my bloodstream.”
Finally realizing that they left the poor girl lying in the snow, the three of them gently scrambled to lift her. As her rescuers sat her up, Miss Croft finally tightened up her face, using much more effort than normally required for a person to simply open their eyelids. “Thanks. If I could lift my arms I’d probably be giving you all hugs.”
Always in need to be the hero, Travis positioned himself ready to lift the girl up. “You want us to carry you inside the truck?”
But she carefully waved away his offer before placing her hand against her tired face. “In a minute. Just let me remember how to be awake first.”
The two men honored the girl’s request. Nellie, however, was more interested in information, particularly about the dead body lying close by. “What happened? Did that thing chase you out here?”
“No. And if I could’ve run I don’t think he would’ve been chasing me anywhere.”
Curious by Georgia’s comment, Nellie scrunched her brow before asking a follow-up. “What do you mean?”
“He was different than the ones people described on the phone. Different than my friend who attacked me. Crazy, sure, but not wild crazy. Slow and clunky. Sounded weird, too. Like he just didn’t have the energy to be all psycho anymore.”
The description made Nellie even more intrigued than before. She opened her mouth to ask another question, but before the words left her mouth, she was cut off by a loud, lengthy moan of agony and despair from deeper in the town. The long, monstrous wail rang out over Telluride’s snowy rooftops. A strange noise that sounded like that of a twisted and deformed human voice.
Bill and those around him instantly turned to face the direction from which the freakish groan came from. And as the drawn out sound finally came to a stop, Georgia was the only one not surprised to hear it. “He sounded kinda like that.”
***
Despite her current situation not being ideal, Beth felt lucky to be alive. She was neither dressed nor physically up for trekking through the deep snow that covered the streets. But anything was better than being left for dead.
She would’ve preferred to get somewhere safe or, at least, find a phone. Beth was curious as to how Peter was holding out, and she hadn’t spoken to her boyfriend since the night before. Dr. Morris was adamant about fulfilling her journey to the pharmacy, though, and Beth felt a nagging obligation towards the woman. She didn’t want to owe the doctor a debt. Beth made sure to have the upper hand in most relationships for this very reason. But she was grateful for what Dr. Morris did for her and wouldn’t leave the woman’s side until the favor was repaid.
In spite of the age gap between them, the two ladies made perfectly good small talk while venturing through the abandoned streets. Their conversation consisted of the usual topics. Where do you work? How long have you lived in Telly? Do you snowboard or ski? And when those talking points were exhausted, Beth moved on to a more pressing subject: the crisis at hand.
Anna had very little answers to her questions, though. The main one being where did all the crazy people go? The doctor had been cooped up inside her clinic for most of the attack. She hadn’t even seen an infected person yet. Although she expected her clinic to be filled with them shortly. And that fear was the very reason that drove her to take this little expedition.
The two of them soon found the small pharmacy nestled neatly into a typical Telluride city block. The tight buildings gave the store that old Western charm, which the town was famous for. But both women, having lived here for some time, had gotten used to Telluride’s nostalgic ambiance. They barely gave the pharmacy’s snow-covered façade a second thought as they passed by it and opened the door.
What they found inside, though, was a different story entirely. As soon as the door creaked open both Beth and Anna’s mouths dropped open in shock. The small, community pharmacy had been taken over by a large and diverse crowd of zombie-like guests. The strange people weren’t violent, though. And none of them moved very fast. They just kind of lumbered about, moaning sporadically and roaming around the tight quarters in all different directions.
The two women standing at the doorway were more surprised than afraid and stood quietly for a solid minute while observing the weird scene before them. Neither one of them dared to move. Probably because the oblivious wanderers remained unaware (or uncaring) of their presence. But to Beth, the most bizarre part of all was the fresh blood covering the zombified people’s faces. Every one of them seemed to be bleeding from every spot they could be bleeding from. Eyes. Ears. Nose. Their cheeks, chins, and mouths were completely drenched in crimson streaks that continued to drip to the floor.
For a second, Beth thought this might be the answer to the question pressing on her mind: what happened to the huge mob of people that attacked the town?
But there was a problem with her theory. One which Anna wanted to verbally confirm. “Are these the raging lunatics everyone’s been talking about?”
In awe, Beth addressed her question while staring at the peculiar sight before her. “Maybe. But they’re…different.”
After continuing her observations for another second, Anna began digging into her pocket. “Well, one thing they definitely are is sick. So I’m not taking any chances.”
Curious, Beth turned to the doctor and watched as she pulled out a surgical mask. “Do you have one for me?”
“Why? Are you planning on going in there, too?”
With the mask secured around her mouth, Dr. Morris carefully took a step forward into the pharmacy. “I came to get something, and I’m not leaving until I have it.”
After her first step, Anna began tiptoeing around the sluggish zombies as they aimlessly moved about. Their slow movements made it easy for the brave (or stupid) woman to slip around and navigate through the tight crowd without touching anyone. Her deliberate and carefully placed steps took her all the way through the drug store aisles and to the pharmacy counter located at the back.
During the doctor’s harrowing journey, Beth stood in the doorway, physically chewing the tips of her nails. Just watching her new companion fearlessly plunge into the crowd of hemorrhaging zombies filled her with enough anxiety to send her into a panic attic.
Beth wanted to take off. To just turn around and run away, never bothering to look back. She could find a nice hiding spot somewhere. Maybe even make it back to her boyfriend’s house up in Mountain Village now that the gondola was on. His big mansion would be the perfect place to just wait for all this insanity to blow over.
Sticking with Anna was going to get her killed. This woman didn’t know what she was doing. She hadn’t seen what these things were really capable of. For all she knew every infected creature was just as harmless as the catatonic, moaning sleepwalkers they’re dealing with now. How could she be a doctor? Only a mentally ill person would walk right in the middle of those things. She’s crazy. But even knowing all that, Beth still couldn’t abandon the person who saved her.
So she stood there anxiously waiting and watching as Dr. Morris searched through the pharmacy shelves in the back. It wasn’t long before the doctor turned around and gave Beth a smiling wave, signaling that her mission was a success.