A World Apart (Part 1): 8,000 Miles
Page 25
John heard Samir’s muffled voice coming from another part of the house. It sounded like he was speaking Pashto, but John wasn’t sure. He thought it was coming from the left doorway, so he moved towards that door with the others in tow. John moved the curtain to the side with the barrel of his rifle and peered inside. It was a hallway and he didn’t see anyone inside. There was one opened door to the left and two more doors on the right. John proceeded through the hallway and stopped next to the first door to the right. He peered into the room and realized it was a small bathroom. There was no toilet, at least not by western standards, but instead a hole in the floor that was made of ceramic. There was also a shower, but no bathtub. The layout was pretty standard for a bathroom in Afghanistan. The bathroom was empty, so John moved to the left side of the hallway and approached the opened door on that side.
As soon as he got close to the opening, he knew that Samir was inside. He was still talking softly in his own language. John looked inside. It was a small bedroom. Samir was in the middle of the floor, down on his knees and talking to a small boy. He was holding the boy by the shoulders as he talked to him. John moved inside and stepped closer. He soon realized that the young boy was in fact a zombie. It was wearing a long grey shirt and the front of it was covered in blood. On the side of its neck was an old wound that was consistent with a bite mark. The boy must have been bitten some time ago and had come back as a zombie. The small zombie was snarling in Samir’s face and tried to snap at him repeatedly as Samir held it back with his hands and continued to try and talk to it.
“Samir.” John whispered.
Samir didn’t respond, but the zombie looked towards John, at the sound of his voice, and issued another snarl. It continually tried to wriggle free of Samir’s grasp.
“Samir.” John called out to him again. “We have to leave. That is not your boy anymore. It’s a zombie. Come on Samir, snap out of it.”
“It is my boy.” Samir insisted in a louder tone than was prudent. “I would recognize him anywhere.”
Damien had stayed at the door coming from the common room, focusing his attention towards the other doorway on the right side of the couch. George was just outside the room, watching the exchange between John and Samir. Shelly was watching the doorway further down the hallway. She turned and poked her head inside the small bedroom to add support to John’s plea for Samir to come to his senses.
“I’m sorry for your loss, Samir.” She told him. “But John is right, we have to leave. Your family is gone.”
She didn’t hear the zombie come out of the room down the hall, over her own voice, until it was on her. The zombie was an adult woman. It grabbed the back of Shelly’s hair with one hand and wrenched her head back. The monster bit into her exposed throat and ripped her esophagus free. Blood sprayed the wall next to the open door where John and Samir were still inside. Both of them turned at the sound of the attack. George brought his rifle up and shot Shelly’s attacker in the head. The zombie collapsed to the floor and Shelly fell down, right next to it. She was dead.
“No!” Samir shouted at George. “My Reha, you killed my Reha!”
When he turned to cry out, he had loosened his grip on the monster that was once his son. The thing bit hard into his left forearm. Samir screamed in surprise and agony. John shot the child-sized zombie in the head and halted its attack.
“No!” Samir screamed again, oblivious to his pain now, and cradled the dead monster in his arms.
“Samir!” John yelled at him. “We have to go, now!”
He moved forward and grabbed Samir by the shoulders and pulled him out of the room. John handed him off to George who dragged him out of the hallway and into the common room. John bent down over Shelly’s body, kissed his fingers, then pressed them against her forehead. He was deeply saddened by the loss, but didn’t have time to deal with his emotions at the present moment. “Goodbye my friend.” He said to Shelly, then he reached into her shirt and pulled her dog tags free of her neck, and pocketed them. John stood up and ran out of the hallway and into the common room. Samir was fighting to get free of George, but Damien came to help and they dragged him down the stairs with John right behind them. They moved through the bottom floor quickly, out of the house, across the courtyard and back to the trucks where Ed was waiting. Ed saw them coming and knew something was wrong. He saw that George and Damien were practically dragging Samir out of the compound and he saw John come out after. He watched a moment longer, but never saw Shelly come out.
“Shelly?” He asked John from above.
John shook his head with a grim expression on his face and Ed understood the implications. He climbed down from the truck and tried to help George and Damien push Samir inside of the supply truck, but Samir continued to resist. John put a stop to his struggling by smashing him hard in the head with the butt of his rifle. Samir went limp in George’s arms; the blow had knocked him out. They pushed his unconscious body inside the supply truck and moved him over into the passenger seat. Ed jumped into the driver’s seat and started the truck. George ran to the fuel truck and climbed through the driver’s side to sit in the passenger’s seat and Damien climbed in behind him. John started moving to the MaxxPro, but spotted a zombie crawling towards him from under the truck. He took aim with his rifle and stopped its pursuit with a single shot. John got in his truck and started it up.
Damien pulled the fuel truck forward, running over a couple of zombies in the process, and moved well ahead of the MaxxPro. He turned left and moved all the way up to a wall on the left side of the road, reversed the truck and went backwards as far as he could and repeated this process until the long truck was turned back in the other direction. Ed pulled his truck to the right and pulled it off the road to the right side, so John could maneuver his truck around. Once Ed was out of the way, John turned right and pulled around Ed’s truck to take the lead. As soon as the other trucks were behind him, he took off, back the way they came.
It took them a few minutes to get back to the northbound road. John turned onto it and headed north until the road curved left and to the west. The populated neighborhoods soon disappeared and they left the city behind about thirty minutes later. Once the road was clear and John knew they were out of danger, he brought his truck to a stop. John got out of the truck and moved with purpose to the supply truck. Ed got out as well, and Damien and George joined them a few seconds later. John pulled open the passenger door of the supply truck where Samir was slumped in the seat. He was angry, he felt Shelly’s death was Samir’s fault. He pulled Samir roughly from the truck and let him fall to the ground. The fall brought Samir back to consciousness. John pulled out his pistol and pointed it at Samir. Samir put his hands up.
“Please don’t kill me.” Samir begged.
“You fucking idiot.” John yelled at him. “You got Shelly killed because you couldn’t see that your family was already dead.”
“I’m sorry!” Samir cried. “I was blinded by my grief. I’m so, so sorry!” Samir bowed his head and put his face in his hands. He cried hysterically and repeated the words ‘I’m sorry’ over, and over again.
John put the barrel of the pistol against Samir’s head. The hammer moved slightly as John applied pressure to the trigger. Ed put his hand on John’s shoulder, trying to calm him. John shrugged Ed’s hand away angrily, but finally eased off the trigger and lowered his pistol.
“Fuck!” John yelled at no one and kicked at the dirt on the side of the road. He calmed down after a few moments and looked back to Samir, then down at the bleeding bite wound on his left forearm.
“We have to leave him.” John stated flatly. “He was bitten.”
“We’re not sure he will turn.” Damien said. “We can’t just leave him out here, can we?”
“John’s right.” Ed said then. “We can’t risk it; besides, we are about to cross into Iran, where we have no idea what we might encounter. I don’t want to be driving through unfriendly territory and have him turn right next to me.
”
“You don’t have to leave me.” Samir told them.
“How do you figure?” John asked him.
Samir lifted up his right arm. It still had the bandage on it that was there when the group first found him. He slowly unwrapped the bandage, revealing the preexisting wound. He showed it to the group. It was a scabbed over bite mark.
“I am immune.” Samir said definitively.
***
The group had driven for about an hour and John knew they were getting close to the border of Iran. After Samir’s revelation, John had begrudgingly allowed him to continue the journey with them. If Samir was truly immune to the zombie virus, then at a minimum they wouldn’t have to worry that he would turn, but ultimately, they considered his value to humanity. He might be the key to finding a cure. The sun was going down, it would be dark soon. John brought the MaxxPro to a stop and got out. The others joined him at his truck shortly after.
“We should cross over after dark.” John suggested. “We roll with our lights off, just in case the border is being watched. Maybe we can avoid any contact with any surviving military.”
“Good idea.” George agreed. “That CIA guy said there were border guards when they last flew a drone over.”
“I’m sure there will be some sort of guard post at the border.” John continued. “We’ll approach slowly and look for any signs of soldiers. George, I want you in the hatch of the MaxxPro, manning the machine gun, just in case.”
“Roger.” George responded.
“Ed, you continue to take up the middle, and Samir and Damien will take the rear in the fuel truck.” He told the others.
Everyone nodded and headed back to their respective trucks. Once they were all loaded up and ready to go, they waited in place for the sun to go all the way down. It was completely dark a half hour later, and there was limited visibility that night. John was glad for that, he wanted the cover of darkness as they crossed over. John called the others on the radio and told them they were moving. He started up his truck, but left the headlights off, and drove towards the border. John kept the pace very slow. It was dark enough that he didn’t want to chance running through the border without even recognizing it. It took them almost an hour before John spotted the silhouette of a guard tower ahead. He brought the truck to a stop and watched for several minutes, looking for any sign of movement. It was very dark, but he felt confident, after several minutes, that the guard tower might be unoccupied.
John moved forward slowly. He continued to watch the tower as he pressed on. There was still no sign of anyone as the front of the truck came even with the side of the guard tower. He thought they would cross, unmolested, but as he rolled though the crossing, he heard a loud pop, as his front tires ran over unseen spikes in the road. John slammed on the breaks to avoid damaging anymore tires. Seconds after he stopped the truck, he heard and engine rev, as an armored vehicle pulled into the road. A spotlight from the armored truck lit up and was shined right into his window. John put his hand up to shield his eyes from the brightness, but he saw at least a dozen armed soldiers move into the road through his fingers. The soldiers moved around the MaxxPro and proceeded to each vehicle. John’s door was pulled open and he was roughly pulled out of the truck. He saw the same thing was happening down the line to his friends. Shortly after John was pulled from the truck, George climbed down out of the hatch and came out of the truck through John’s door, with his hands in the air.
The soldiers brought them all together and pushed them down to their knees. John was afraid they were going to be executed in the middle of the highway, but instead, they were tightly bound and gagged and sand bags were placed over their heads. John was pulled to his feet and the soldiers guided him and his friends away from their trucks. They were roughly pushed into the back of a vehicle, one by one. The vehicle pulled off, taking John and his friends away from their own vehicles, away from the border, away from their chance at freedom. John conjured a mental image of his wife and son.
I promise I won’t give up. This is not the end!
Table of Contents
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 31
CHAPTER 32
CHAPTER 33
CHAPTER 34
CHAPTER 35
CHAPTER 36
CHAPTER 37