by M. Lorrox
Eddy looks at Roger, bewildered. Angry and sorrowful tears flow from Eddy’s eyes. Keep it together… He moves one of his weapons, slick with black blood, over to his other hand. He wipes the infected blood off of his empty hand and onto his shirt, then extends his arm into the window.
Roger grabs hold and pulls himself out of the truck. Eddy motions to Jess and Joe in the back. “Let’s try to open the rear gate.”
They move around to the back while Charlie takes out the last zombie on two legs. He surveys the immediate area and doesn’t see anything moving. He sees Eddy and Roger by the one truck, so he turns to head to the other one. He recognizes Tomas sitting on the side of the truck and is relieved to see him in one piece. “Tomas, are you alright?”
He nods, slides to the edge of the truck, and drops down. “Craig is inside. You probably need to lift him out.”
Charlie jumps up on the truck in a single bound, denting the door upon his landing. He drops to his knees and sticks his head in through the window. “Craig? You alright in there?”
Craig stares blankly up at him.
Charlie looks curiously back at him. Hmm, he might be in shock. Charlie starts to reach his hand inside the truck, but he notices how gross it is. He wipes it off on his leg and reaches in again. “Take my hand. I’ll lift you out.”
He lifts Craig out of the truck, then lowers him smoothly off the side and to the ground. Charlie looks over to the other truck and sees Eddy dragging something out of the back. What? Please let that be just a bag, and not…oh fuck, is that little Joe?
Jess hobbles out the back, dripping blood and holding her face in her hands, wailing. Eddy lays the body down in a clear area to the side of the upside-down truck. Craig and Tomas run over to them, then cast their eyes down at the body.
Charlie jumps off the truck and jogs over to the kids. His heart drops when he sees Jess sobbing beside Joe’s lifeless body. Oh hell.
For what feels like an hour, nobody talks. They just stare at Joe and try to process that he’s dead. Jess kneels by his head, petting him while she cries. Eddy and Tomas just stare. Craig cries, and Roger puts his arm across his shoulder.
Charlie looks around the field; bodies are islands in an ocean of trampled weeds. The slick blood in the moonlight looks like black froth on waves crashing against rock. This is horrible. He feels his stomach knot and his eyes start to burn. He turns back to the crowd of grief-stricken kids. “How did this happen?”
Silence.
He moves toward Craig and Roger. He stands between them and Joe. “How did this happen?”
Craig shakes his head.
Roger gulps and looks up at Charlie. “The plan was my idea. I take responsibility.”
Charlie growls through his teeth. “I don’t give a shit about your responsibility. Tell me what the fuck happened here!”
Tomas looks up and clears his throat. “A gun blew up. Then there was an explosion inside the truck, and we crashed over the edge. It was an accident.”
Charlie looks at Tomas. He’s standing there with no shirt, his skinny teenage body upright and strong among the slouched and sad others. Charlie nods, then looks at the group. “Who’s injured?”
Roger raises his hand. “I have a concussion.”
“And who the hell are you?”
“Uh, Roger, sir.”
Charlie frowns and looks at Craig. “What about you?”
“I hit my head and feel like I’ve been hit by a truck, but I think I’m alright.”
Charlie turns and looks at Tomas, who immediately shakes his head even though he has some large bruises welling up. “I’ll be fine.”
Charlie turns and looks at Jess. She was limping, and damn that’s a lot of blood. He takes a softer tone with her. “Jess? Are you injured?”
She nods but doesn’t look up at Charlie.
“What’s injured, Jess?”
She opens her mouth and tries to find the air to speak, but it’s somehow lost inside her. She takes a breath and closes her eyes, focusing her thoughts. With her eyes still closed, she lifts her head. “My leg, it’s reeaaallly broken…and cut a little.”
“Keep it clean. We’ll get you to the hospital.”
She nods and drops her head down again.
Charlie looks at Eddy. He looks like a ghost wearing a shredded-zombie-flesh costume. In addition to that filth, his clothes are ripped and torn, the blood he spilled down his chin stains his shirt dark red, and his own blood washes down from his healing wounds.
Charlie looks down at himself. He’s also covered in zombie flesh and goo. This isn’t going to go well. He looks up. “Listen, everyone, this is important. Your priority is to get home safe and to clean up. If you start to get a fever, tell someone and they can strap you down. Hopefully nobody is infected, but you can’t endanger others. Got it?”
Everyone at first imagines being strapped down to a bed by crying loved ones, but then they imagine they’re watching their own face biting madly in the air as their arms and legs flail out from restraints—like a desperate bug flipped upside down.
Charlie is unimpressed with the lack of response. “Everyone! Is that clear?”
This time they nod.
“Okay, Eddy—” Charlie looks toward his son and projects a very odd, concerned face that Eddy rarely sees. “Come here.” He turns and walks away from the group.
Eddy follows and joins him thirty feet away.
Charlie puts his arm across Eddy’s shoulders and ducks his head to block his faces from the others’ view. He whispers, “Eddy, they saw us.”
Eddy glances over his dad’s arm toward the others. “Dad, what else were we supposed to do?”
“That’s not what I’m saying.” He lets out a nervous breath. “Just be careful. And whatever you do, follow my lead.”
Eddy looks at him and sees something in his eyes that he can’t ever remember seeing before. Are you…scared? Oh shit. Eddy nods. “I will.”
Smoke and lingering flames from Charlie’s Harley welcome Sadie as she arrives. “Oh hell, this can’t be good.”
Skip looks up and loses himself in the flickering orange smoke. He imagines destruction and feels despair. What kind of nightmare is this?
June peers out the window, searching for the others. “I see them. they’re down in the field.”
Sadie looks down, inspecting the hill. Oh, we can handle that. She slows and turns the Jeep to drive down.
Skip is alarmed for a second, but then he relaxes. He’s heard enough stories of her bouldering with the Jeep to trust that she knows what she’s doing. He turns to look at June in the back. She shifts her position as the Jeep turns, maintaining a constant visual on the group down below. They’re standing around talking. That must be a good sign.
Charlie sees the headlights of the Jeep and knows it’s Sadie. He closes his eyes and tilts his head upward. Ringraziare gli dei! How lucky that you’re here first.
Eddy also recognizes the headlights. Mom! …Oh man, she’s gonna kill me.
Sadie reaches the field. She tries to avoid driving over zombies while making her way to the group, but nevertheless, the cab rattles around as the large tires crush the bones and skulls of zombies underneath them. The popping sounds get more and more frequent.
Skip closes his eyes. “Sadie, stop. I’m gonna barf. I just need a second.” He takes a deep breath. When the Jeep stops moving and the noise of bones breaking ceases, he feels like he might be okay. As soon as the Jeep is in Park, the back door flies open, and June shoots out. Skip turns to tell her to wait, but she’s turned away and shuts the door.
“So much for that.” Skip unbelts and opens his door. He looks down to the ground and sees a collection of zombie body parts and crushed skulls. He throws up on the back of what used to be a redheaded man.
June runs toward Eddy in her flip-flops. She gets to the group but still runs, not slowing down.
At first, Eddy is surprised to see her, but now he’s concerned for her. She’s not stoppin
g. She can’t hug me, I’m disgusting! He puts his hand up to stop her from getting too close. “June, stay back. I’m covered in zom—”
He doesn’t finish because she’s hugging him tightly. He hugs her back, loosely by his standards, but it feels tight to her.
She releases him and looks at him. “I’m glad you’re alright.”
He smiles. “Me too.” He lets her go. “Be careful: you’ve got zombie blood on you now.”
“I know. I’ll be safe about it.”
Sadie arrives at the scene and looks at Charlie. He diverts his eyes and turns his head. She follows and sees Jess on the ground next to Joe’s body. She gasps and looks back at Charlie. “David will be here soon.”
Charlie takes a breath and nods.
She tries to look at Eddy, but June is blocking her view. “Eddy.”
June moves to the side, and Eddy steps forward toward his mom. “Mom…”
She looks him up and down, then looks back at Charlie.
He raises his eyebrows.
She looks back at Eddy. You look like an undead Hollywood vampire who just went on a killing spree. “You and your dad need to clean that off your skin. There’s spare gas in the Jeep. Go now.”
Eddy looks past her to the flames in the distance. The explosion ignited grasses and weeds along the ground. He points to some flames near the Jeep. “But won’t it catch fire?”
Charlie grabs him by the shoulders, already moving toward the Jeep. “No, it won’t. Come on.”
Sadie takes a deep breath. Charlie will clean him up, but what about these kids, what did they see?
Skip makes his way over to the group. He feels better now that his stomach has been emptied. He passes Charlie and Eddy, looks them over, and is stunned. “Jesus. You look like shit.”
Charlie turns and pulls Eddy toward the Jeep. “Joe’s dead. See to the other injuries; Jess’s leg is broken, and one of the guys has a concussion.”
Skip’s jaw falls open, then he jogs over the mounds of zombies that Charlie and Eddy apparently destroyed. This…this really is a nightmare. He gets to the group and finds June on the ground next to Jess, hugging her. Jess has one leg flopped to the side, and there’s blood on her clothes. There’s a cut on her leg, but the bone didn’t break through the skin. It’s likely just a straight fracture. She’ll be fine. He looks up to the older boys. “Charlie said someone had a concussion?”
Roger looks up. “I think I do.”
Skip walks over to him and looks him straight in the eyes. “What’s your name?”
“Roger.”
“Where do you live?”
“What?”
“I’m testing your memory. Where do you live?”
“Umm, uh, crap. In Marshal.”
Skip frowns. “Where did you hit your head?”
“In the car.”
“Where on your head?”
“The side.”
“Have you ever had a concussion before?”
“Yes, sir, in the military.”
Skip nods. “Listen, you need to get to an ER as soon as possible. Do you understand?”
Roger nods. “Yes, sir.”
Skip glances at Craig, who is still crying for Joe. Skip puts his hand up to get his attention. “You okay, son?”
Craig wipes away some tears. “Kinda. I got knocked out, and coach always said that’s a trip to the hospital, so I’ll get myself there.”
Skip nods. “Good.” He turns toward Jess and Joe.
Tomas looks at him. “I’m bruised but not broken.”
Skip glances to him and smiles. “Glad to hear it, Tomas.” He walks over and kneels by Jess. “Your leg is broken?”
She nods.
“Are you bleeding?”
“A little. I got cut.” She points to the gash on the side of her leg.
Skip inspects the wound. Needs a couple stitches but should be fine. “Do you feel weak, or dizzy, or, uh, funny at all?”
She looks up at him in disbelief. My brother is dead and you’re asking me if I feel funny? She growls at him through wet eyes and clenched teeth. “I’m fine.”
He takes off his overshirt and wraps it around her leg.
She winces.
“You have to keep the wound clean. Keep this on it, and don’t touch it until you get to the hospital.”
She nods.
Sadie points to the road. “I think that’s your dad, Jess.” Please, please, please let this not get any worse.
Victoria, Jess and Joe’s mom, pulls David’s pickup off the road and starts driving down the hill in the tracks that Sadie laid. When she reaches the bottom of the hill, though, she stops.
David is in the passenger seat. “Good Lord, just look at all those bodies.”
“I don’t think I should drive over there. I don’t want to get stuck.”
In the backseat, Mike, the Kingstons’ neighbor and friend, looks out through the windshield at the blood-covered zombies and the wrecked trucks in the distance. “Yeeeahhhh, we can walk. Jesus.” He looks down at his nice pants and new shoes. Son of a bitch. A lousy date and now ruined clothes.
He had just come back from the city when he’d stopped by David’s for a beer. Right before they were about to open beers for round three, Tomas called.
Those beers still got opened, but they got chugged while Victoria put on her camo coveralls and David got a gun for Mike to use.
Victoria parks, and the three jump out of the truck with flashlights. David grabs the double-barrel sawn-off from the back, adding it to his armament; he’s wearing his leather revolver holster with a stainless-steel .44 Magnum slipped inside. His jeans are tucked into rubber barn boots, and his flannel shirt is buttoned all the way up to the collar. Victoria chose to bring her favorite over and under sixteen-gauge shotgun that she uses for duck hunting. Mike walks—carefully—with a Remington 870 12-gauge he borrowed from David.
Victoria looks down to the ground as she walks between the corpses. She steps near one with its head pointed her way and with its mouth open. “Hey y’all, keep your eyes peeled for any ground chompers.”
The men look down and raise their guns as they make slow progress across the field, looking for any zombies still moving. They fan out, with Victoria in the middle.
Charlie and Eddy finish cleaning themselves up behind the Jeep. They see the three flashlights coming toward them—moving cautiously through the field. Charlie smacks Eddy in the arm. “Remember, play it cool. All that matters is getting out of here.”
Eddy nods and closes the gate to the Jeep.
Mike calls out, “Got one here!” He takes a step back from the movement. The zombie’s face is smashed in, most of its teeth are broken, and it’s missing an arm, but it still makes the effort to bite at the passerby. Mike raises his gun and fires at point-blank range.
-BOOM!-
Dirt and pieces of skull fly into the air. Mike, startled by the splatter, looks down at his pants. Whew, maybe I won’t have to toss these after all.
Sophia comes to. She’s weak and feels a cold, dull pain all over her body. She can hardly move; there’s a couple of zombie corpses lying on her, oozing out smelly, rotten blood. She needs fresh blood to heal.
Victoria approaches. She’s looking left and right, sweeping the ground and looking for movement. She notices something out of the corner of her eye to the left.
Sophia can hear people. She tries to lift her arm, but can’t. The muscles and tendons of her shoulder are too torn and she’s too weak. She tries moving her head, and she opens her eyes. She sees Eddy walking at an angle in her direction.
She musters her strength, lifting her chin off the ground so she can speak.
Victoria notices the back of her head move.
Sophia blinks and forces out a wheezing, wet sound as she tries to call for help. “Krhell—”
“Got another one!” Victoria starts to raise her gun.
Eddy glances toward where she aims it. He sees Sophia looking straight at him. He g
asps and screams out, “Wait!”
-BOOM!-
Everyone turns to look at Eddy.
He stares into the bright-green eye that is frozen open. The bullet tore through Sophia’s skull, and upon hitting the earth the impact bounced her head up a few inches off the ground. Her head falls back to the ground, but now it’s missing the other eye, most of her brain, and about half her skull.
Eddy is frozen—until he starts shaking.
Charlie looks at him, but he doesn’t understand. He turns to Victoria and follows the end of the shotgun to the corpse. He sees the remaining eye and recognizes that it has a bright-green shine. Oh, please no.
David asks, “What’s the matter?”
Eddy doesn’t hear him. He’s walking with Sophia at archery practice. Now he’s running and jumping through the bushes with her up on the ridge. She’s smiling at him—with an intact head, brain, and two sparkling eyes.
Charlie swallows hard. “He’s still in shock.” He steps in front of Eddy, blocking their view of him. He takes a big, slow breath. “David, Victoria…”
Victoria lowers her gun. “What is it?”
Charlie looks her straight in the eye as a tear tumbles down his face. Tell them straight. Tell them with no bullshit. Tell them! “Joe didn’t make it.”
Victoria drops the gun, reaches both hands for her mouth, and whelps out all of her breath.
David jerks his head back and forth like a machine struggling to move on broken gears needing grease. The strength of his will pains against the sudden numb terror he feels as he tries to speak. “Nnooo.”
Tomas’ mother and brother, María and Hermix, drive down Hyatt Creek to get him. A small and tasteful sun-faded rosary with crucifixion pendant dangles down a few inches from the mirror. It sways back and forth as María swerves to drive around the zombie corpses that started to litter the road outside of town. When they arrive at the site of the accident, María pulls the car over on the shoulder and puts on her flashers. They look down and see a few pockets of smoldering flames and the headlights of the parents’ vehicles lighting the field. Zombie bodies lay everywhere, and there’s a group of people huddled near one of the overturned trucks.