The Long Walk Home

by A. M. Keen

  “You’re such an asshole,” Lacey quipped. Seth turned from the camera and looked at her. “Yeah, you hear me right, asshole.”

  Seth raised both his index fingers to the cameras and turned, walking back toward her.

  “She didn’t mean it,” Bucky gasped, worried for her safety.

  Seth ignored him and stood above Lacey, peering down on her like a drill instructor to a new recruit.

  “The hell I didn’t,” Lacey replied. “Look at him. What? I guess you were a mobster back in the old world? A gangster, am I right? And you had all these dumb ass, unemployable idiots making up your squad. You might think you’re tough, but without them you’re nothing. All you are is an unintelligent, unemployable son of a bitch who couldn’t even get a job flipping burgers. I bet your mum and dad are really proud of you.”

  Seth swung a hand and cracked her across the cheek. Lacey turned back to him.

  “How dare you embarrass me in front of my clients,” he whispered.

  “I’m not embarrassing you, I’m speaking the truth. Someone comes up to you and speaks their mind, a fourteen-year-old girl no less, and the only way you can respond is by slapping her across the face. You’re a coward. A wife beater. You’re the scum of this earth.”

  Seth drew his revolver and pushed it against Lacey’s temple.

  “No!” Johnny shouted. A heavy pulled him back.

  “No one has ever spoken to me like that before,” Seth said, leaning into Lacey.

  “That’s because I’m not afraid of you,” she replied. “I know I’m going to die here, somehow. I’ve been through hell reaching this damn place. I’ve been strong, I’ve been weak, but now I have nothing left to fear. Do it.” She pushed her head against the barrel. “Do it, coward!” Seth’s face contorted with anger.

  “Lacey, no. Ignore her,” Bucky pleaded.

  “Come on, wife beater. Pull the trigger!”

  Seth snarled.

  Johnny screamed. “No!”

  Seth smiled, lowering the gun and placing it back in his belt. “What kind of game would it be without you?”

  Lacey hocked and spat a large wad of mucus into his face.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Bucky screamed.

  “No, no, it’s okay,” Seth replied, holding an open palm to him. He wiped the mucus away with a sleeve. “I’m going to enjoy watching you,” he whispered to Lacey.

  “Not as much as I enjoyed embarrassing you to your clients,” she replied.

  Seth smiled and tapped her cheek. Bucky rubbed the back of his neck. The strike still throbbed. This guy sure was an asshole.

  “Now we move over to my pick of the day,” Seth began, moving along as though nothing had happened.”Tell the people at home what your name is, son.”

  “Johnny.”

  Seth slapped his back and smiled. “I have high hopes for this kid. Do you know he managed to drive some twenty miles before they bumped into us? Tell everyone how old you are, Johnny.”

  “Fourteen,” he replied.

  “God damn, fourteen,” Seth repeated. “You hear that, people? Fourteen years old, driving twenty miles to save his friends. That is resourcefulness. That is showing and understanding and belief in one’s self, and one’s skills. I like Johnny a lot in tonight’s game, so I’m only offering a three to one on him. Good luck, Johnny, I’m rooting for you in this game, pal.” Seth walked across to Aaron. “Then there’s this guy. What’s your name?”

  “Aaron.”

  “And how old are you, Aaron?”

  “Thirteen.”

  “My, we have a group of babies taking part in our little shindig tonight for your viewing pleasure. Now, this fella has been pretty quiet since he arrived. I don’t know much about him, so I’ll offer you a generous five to one. And that’s it. This is our team for this evening’s game. Get those bets in now, you have…” Seth turned to his watch. “Twenty minutes. We will start the games at nine fifteen.”

  “Boss,” called one of the suited heavies monitoring an iPad, “Mr Yeung would like to know what odds you will offer on the girl winning and the three boys being stopped by the same individual? He said he liked her attitude.”

  Seth turned to the kids. “She can talk a good game, but I’m not confident on the girl winning at all. I’ll say fifty to one for that special.”

  “Boss,” came another voice, “how about Snitchers to take all four within fifteen minutes?”

  “Ooh, that’s good. I will go… let me think… about… thirty-five to one on that. Actually, okay, let me give you some specials of my own. Their leader, the one whose jacket I took, is making up the numbers. I’m certain Snitchers will find him so I’ll offer another fifty to one that someone else takes him out before Snitchers gets there. If these guys reach the key they’re going home, it doesn’t matter which one finds it. For my Seth special, I’ll offer one hundred to one that Lacey finds the key first whilst the rest of her gang is still alive. That’s it. All other odds and specials can be obtained through Petey, the official accountant and bet maker for tonight’s game.”

  Bucky’s heart fluttered. While they were still alive?

  “Now, I bid you all brief farewell whilst I explain the rules to our contestants.”

  The group of heavies shuffled and bumped each other as they wandered away, disappearing through a red door. Adrian was the only one to remain. He fumbled in his suit pocket for a phone.

  “Okay, we’re going to explain the rules to you,” Seth said, taking Adrian’s phone. He messed about with it whilst addressing them. “You four have to reach the key on the far wall, as you know, but what you don’t know is that you’re going to be pursued by three zombies, or whatever you want to call them. Here’s our promo video.”

  Seth turned the screen to the kids who huddled around it. The word Snitchers appeared on screen. Someone waved a shirt before dropping it to reveal an infected man with tacks nailed into his eyes. His pale skin exuded black veins at its surface. His top and bottom lips had been removed, revealing black gums and muscle. A man appeared on screen tiptoeing around a machine. Snitchers appeared behind him, sniffing the air before launching on top of the man and chomping on his face. Smiler appeared next. Again, an infected man appeared on screen, only this time the flesh on his face had been removed in its entirety from the nose down. Black muscle and sinew contracted with his movements, stretching from ear to ear causing a horrendous grin, an image that Bucky believed nightmares could be made of. Smiler’s eyelids had been sewn shut with black material. The film cut to a woman running through the factory. Smiler appeared from behind a block of stacked pallets and bit down into her throat. The White Witch appeared on the screen. A woman whose eyes had been bound and gauged with barbed wire appeared to them. She bore a white dress against a skinny, pale body. Black liquid oozed from her mouth and fell against the once satin material. She carried with her a scythe that dragged across the ground behind her. It cut once more, this time to a man that stood against a wall as she passed. She stopped, lifted her head and swung the scythe, embedding it within his skull.

  “And that’s enough of that,” Seth said, throwing the phone back to Adrian. “Kids, the reality of the situation is this: we’re betting on how long you stay alive. The three zombies you saw on the video are all blind, but their sense of hearing is incredible. Your advantage is that you can see but there will be a few booby traps out there. If any one of you reaches the key, we come in and put the three freaks back onto their leashes. All you have to do is get to it before you are killed.”

  “What kind of sicko are you?” Bucky asked, no longer afraid of the consequences. Some of Lacey’s courage had rubbed off on him.

  “One that’s going to watch you die over and over again. You and your girlfriend, too.”

  The lights in the factory went dark. Safety lights poppe
d on.

  “Did I tell you about this?” Seth asked before smirking. “No, I forgot. That advantage of sight you have is only minimal. You’re going to be navigating your way through the factory in the dark. Maybe you can thank that little ho of yours for decreasing your odds. Good luck, assholes, the game begins soon. If you leave this area before we sound the hooter, you’re dead.” He pointed to a suited man who stood on a metal ledge above, carrying a rifle. “I’ll be watching from up there. Make sure the show is a good one. Have a blast.” Seth saluted as he and his cohort vanished behind the red door.

  “Wow, where did that come from?” Aaron asked, turning to Lacey.

  “He’s been bugging me. I guess it kind of, you know, just slipped out.”

  Johnny released a laugh. “It just slipped out?”

  Lacey nodded.

  “Any suggestions?” Aaron asked after a moment of studying their surroundings.

  “No,” Bucky replied. There was nothing to see in the poor light. “We’re going to have to ad lib this one out. Just see what you can find when we’re out there. If they’re all blind and track us by sound, the best thing to do is be quiet. That’s the only thing we can do.”

  “What about us? Do we stay together?” Aaron asked. It was a good point and one that Bucky didn’t want to answer.

  He shook his head. “No, Aaron, not this time. If they find one of us, they’ve found us all. This is one thing we’ll have to do by ourselves. We need to split up and take our own path through this place. If we don’t, we’re gonna be a risk to each other.”

  Aaron sighed. “Damn. This is the first time we’ve been separated, you know?”

  Lacey nodded. “Yes, but it’s going to be the last time.”

  Johnny took a step toward the factory. “You know, I think this the most scared I’ve ever been. Are you all scared?”

  A moment of silence occurred between them. The muted sound of laughter and merriment from the criminals emerged in the distance.

  “Terrified,” Bucky replied.

  No one answered. Lacey looked to her feet. Aaron looked away.

  “Hey, come here,” Bucky ordered. They huddled in a circle, each placing an arm around one another.

  “We escaped a car wreck, right?” Bucky asked them. “We escaped the clowns and killed Lawro before he did the same to us. We even escaped from being tied to the tractor. We sat in the middle of five thousand zombies migrating right past us. We escaped the football stadium when it became overrun. Those assholes up there don’t know what we’ve been through. They’ve been playing this game with people who haven’t experienced everything we have.”

  Johnny sighed. “But they were adults in the film. I know what we’ve done, but we’re just kids. How can we complete this game if adults can’t do it?”

  “It’s not about your age,” Bucky replied, “it’s about your experience and I would bet my life that no adult has been through the shit we have been through. Let’s get in there and prove all those idiots wrong. Let’s show them we can take anything they can throw at us. Lacey already started that.” Bucky looked across to her and noticed the smile. “Yes, I’m scared of having to face those zombies in the dark but remember one thing, they’re still only zombies. I’ve not seen an intelligent one since Day Zero cracked open its hair ass and shit on this country. These are zombies that have been thrown into a game, that’s all. Just like us. We need to walk in silence and stop when they approach us.” Bucky looked up from the huddle and scoured the factory in the poor light. About halfway down he noted a platform reaching over one of the central tracks. Ladders existed on both sides allowing people to climb up and down. His mind kicked into gear. He could climb to the platform and move across it. Moving was not his aim, it was the elevation he was interested in.

  “Guys, I have an idea. We need to be separated for it to stand a chance. I also need for you to keep moving forward, not running back. I may be able to give us some time.”

  Eleven

  Office windows overlooked the factory. Bucky watched as Seth slid open a window and leant out. An air horn rose into the air.

  “Okay, kids. Now is your time. Try your best not to die. Go and make me some money!” With that the air horn blasted through the abandoned factory. The long, airy squeak pierced the silence before coming to a halt. “Go!” Seth shouted. Bullets popped through the air and struck the floor behind Bucky, forcing them to move. He peered up and noticed the gunner on the platform.

  “Alright, this is it. Not a sound, you understand?” he then whispered. The kids nodded. Bucky returned the gesture. As he looked into their frightened faces, he knew deep down that this would be their end. All the prep talks and motivation couldn’t pull them out of this no matter how hard he tried to sugar coat it.

  Lacey waved to him. “Boots,” she mouthed in silence.

  Bucky smiled. Of course. He leant down and undid his laces, removing the boots with little sound. The rest of his group followed suit. The floor chilled his feet through the standard cotton socks he’d been issued. From the far reaches of the factory a screech emanated.

  “Go,” Bucky mouthed, pointing a finger into the darkness. He watched as the three friends moved into the factory, almost silent to his ears. Bucky then leant down and grasped a pair of boots under his right arm and in his right hand. With the left he grabbed another pair, leaving his own behind. The amount of sweat he’d discharged into the material may fox Snitchers. Perhaps the zombie would sniff them out first if it was indeed tracking him like he suspected.

  Bucky stepped into the factory. He hadn’t given the building enough credit. It was huge, stretching far away to his right before vanishing into darkness. The muted sound of scraping rolled from the depths. At that moment, he knew the key would be down there, on the farthest wall. That would also be where the zombies came from. That way both the zombies and the kids would have to cross paths, giving Seth the conflict he needed to stream across the internet and make his fortune. Refusing to dwell on the latest setback, he continued onward, clutching the footwear as he did so. Every footfall sounded like thunder in his mind. His thoughts focused upon the three infected that had been maimed and tortured and now wandered the darkness listening out for them. The scraping noise continued. Bucky recalled the image of the White Witch dragging the scythe behind her on the video. His eyes adjusted to the poor light but as he looked around could not see any sign of his friends between the tracks or machines.

  He wandered toward the platform reaching across the track. The scrapes and snarls became a little louder. Bucky reached the ladder and placed the boots on top of the platform as silently as he could. He then reached up and ascended the rungs. The solid, round metal he stepped upon pressed blunt and uncomfortable against his feet but the silence of a bare foot served him much better. He ascended onto the platform and stepped over the boots. Only a slight ruffle from his clothing signalled his whereabouts. If his plan worked, it was a price well paid.

  Bucky took a boot in his right hand and stood facing the direction he had just walked from. The gunner perched opposite him. Below the gunner, Bucky just made out the shape of his boots in the dim safety lighting.

  His ears opened, ringing in the silence. The infected were there. He heard them emerging from the depths of the factory, but his friends offered no signal to their whereabouts. Bucky stood motionless, listening to the thud of his heartbeat within his ears. The sound of intermittent flapping approached from his left. Bucky recognised it as the sound of bare feet walking across a solid surface, the same as the giant had made in the corridor during the breach back at the football stadium.

  Bucky listened as the bare footfalls drew closer. They stopped. Bucky squinted, attempting to see through the darkness. The safety lights were screwing with his vision. His night senses could not engage because they omitted just enough light for him to see. The scraping noise stoppe
d somewhere in the darkness. Bucky strained to hear something, anything, but the area remained silent. A short, sharp gust befell his hearing. It happened once, then twice. Butterflies danced within his body. Someone sniffed the air close by. Out there, not far from his position, Snitchers approached.

  Bucky lifted the boot in his hand. The flapping footfalls began, approaching the platform from the left. Bucky drew a breath and held it. The footfalls stopped. He stood motionless above the factory floor. Groans emerged from the darkness. Bucky ignored them. Somewhere close by Snitchers was hunting him. The footsteps sounded again. In the darkness below, Bucky noted movement. A hunched shadow ambled past. Its nose lifted into the air as though tracking a scent. It was. Bucky’s scent. He looked on, unable to exhale as the shadow wandered around the track and came to rest at the foot of the ladder. It was Snitchers. He recognised the tacks from the video. Snitchers peered upward to him and took a deep breath. Bucky perspired. His heart thudded into overdrive. Snitchers curled his mouth into a snarl and screamed. Bucky launched the boot from his hand. It flew across the factory and thudded down near to the boots he left at the start. Snitchers jolted and span at the noise, turning to the direction it came from. The snarling abomination sprinted through the darkness and descended upon the boots, swiping the air about him as he attempted to locate the source of the smell.

  The zombie wailed and snarled as Bucky descended the ladder and took the footwear he could carry, two under one arm, one clutched in each hand. Snitchers reached down in the distance and grabbed the boot. Bucky watched as he lifted it to his nose and drew a deep breath. Snitchers threw his head into the air, wailed like a banshee and threw the boot into the darkness. Bucky darted into the factory, almost silent on his tip toes, attempting to put as much space between him and the zombie as he could. Metal crashed somewhere behind him. Snitchers screamed. Bare footfalls sprinted toward him. Bucky froze. The flapping feet rushed from the darkness. Snitchers dashed by. Bucky watched on, motionless as the zombie passed him but stopped. Snitchers stood a moment, looking as though he had forgotten something. He turned his head slightly, cocking an ear to the air. From the darkness to their left more banging emerged. Snitchers wailed and dashed in that direction, leaving Bucky alone.