by M. Lorrox
Hermix gets out with his aluminum baseball bat. He’s wearing jeans, an old pair of sneakers, a tank top, and an unbuttoned flannel. He starts to rush toward the hill—the flannel flying open behind him like a cape—but he stops and turns around. “Ma, come on!”
María still sits in the car, just staring. “I…I don’t know if I can.”
He walks over and opens the door for her. “I talked to Tomas, Mom. He’s fine, remember? Let’s get down there and see if we can help.”
She nods at him and sighs. “You’re right—” She motions with her head toward the backseat. “Grab the gun, will you?”
She gets out of the car. She’s wearing her pink floral-print Sunday dress with her late husband’s black leather police boots. Hermix retrieves the handgun case, opens it, and pulls out his dad’s old .38 Special revolver and a speed-loader filled with bullets. He flips open the cylinder, drops in the bullets, then clicks it shut. He hands it to her. “You’re loaded.”
She takes it and nods. “Gracias.”
David and Victoria huddle on either side of Jess, comforting her and crying for Joe. Craig had pulled himself together, but seeing his aunt and uncle crying and moaning in despair brings him back down.
Charlie walks Eddy back toward the group. “Keep it together, Eddy. Just…keep it together.”
María and Hermix hear the Kingstons wailing as they walk around David’s truck. Hermix looks at his mother. “Tomas is fine. Remember?”
In her anxiety, she nods her head three times faster than usual.
When they step into the light of the truck’s headlights, Tomas looks up and sees them. “Mama! Hermix!” He jogs over to them, bounding over the top of dead zombies with sure footing.
Hermix studies Tomas as he runs toward them without his shirt. Tomas? Is that you?
“Thank you for coming for me.” He slows when he reaches them and gives his mom a brief hug. When he releases her and hugs his brother, María clears her throat.
“Tomas, what in the world is going on here?”
He releases his brother and turns to her. “You can yell at me and ground me for as long as you want, but not tonight.”
María is shaking her head.
“Tonight we need to be thankful for our family and sorrowful for the Kingstons.”
María flattens her lips into a frown.
Hermix glances past Tomas, but he cannot see who everyone is standing around. “Who was it?”
Tomas turns to his brother. “Joe died. Jess broke her leg. Their cousin Bill is also missing, and so is another girl. They’re probably dead.”
Hermix hisses some air in through his teeth. “Dios mío.”
Tomas nods. “Sí.”
María points her hand with the gun toward Tomas. When she realizes she has a gun in that hand, she switches it to her other hand, then points at him again. “We’re going to have a very long talk about this.”
He nods. “I know, but later. Now we need to thank Eddy and Charlie.”
Hermix looks past Tomas and over to the group. He can see Eddy, looking pale in shredded clothing. He looks like hell. “Uh, why are we thanking them?”
Tomas points at the zombies around them as he leans toward Hermix and his mother. “Because they did this. They saved us.”
María looks around at all the bodies, piled up on top of one another, soaking the once-green grasses of the field a shiny black in the moonlight. “Dios mío.”
Tomas nods. “Sí.”
They walk over to the group, and María gasps when she sees Joe. Their arrival breaks the tension, and Victoria looks up at María through her tears.
María looks back. “I’m so sorry, Victoria.”
“Thank you, María.”
David stands up, still in shock. Mike puts his arm on his shoulder. “I’m so sorry, buddy.”
David just stares.
Craig takes a breath and steps toward his uncle. “David, can I borrow your revolver?”
David looks at him.
“I need to find my brother. He needs to stay dead.”
David shuts his eyes hard and tilts his head backward. God. Why? Bill too? He shakes his head as he lowers it and looks at his remaining nephew. Craig’s eyes are red and bloodshot. David draws the revolver from its holster and hands it to him. “I’m sorry, Craig.”
He swallows and tries not to cry. “Me too.” He takes the gun, then bends to pick up the flashlight Victoria dropped when she bent to cradle her dead son. He looks at David again for a moment, then walks off to look for his brother’s body.
David takes a breath and tries to subdue his emotions. He turns to Charlie. “What the hell happened here?”
Here we go. “I just arrived. I’m not sure exactly. I think we should get out of here, though. Jess needs to get that leg set.”
“She’ll live.” David doesn’t flinch. “Charlie, my son—and my nephew—are dead. What the FUCKING CHRIST happened here?”
Roger shakes his head and steps forward. “We wanted to take out some zombies, to help in the fight. There was an accident, though, and then everything went to shit.”
David glares at him. “Who the hell are you?”
“Roger, Craig’s friend.”
David glances around at the zombies all around them. Fucking monsters. He bends down and picks up his shotgun. “I… This is…this is a goddamned nightmare.”
Skip steps forward. “It is. And it isn’t the safest place to be. Let’s get out of here.”
Sadie nods. “That might be best. Let’s go.”
Victoria stands up next to David. “That’s it? That’s all you have to say? My son…” She bursts into tears again.
David puts his non-shotgun-wielding arm around her then looks at Charlie and notices how thrashed he looks. He glances at the shirtless Tomas, the zoned-out Roger, and just past Charlie, he notices Eddy—standing in a daze with June hugging his arm. David motions with his gun toward Eddy. “Why are his clothes ripped?”
Tomas speaks up instantly. “He protected the trucks while I called for help.”
Sadie closes her eyes. Tomas, SHUT UP!
Charlie steps toward David and his gun. “When I got here he was running from the zombies. He’s always been fast; looks like it saved him.”
“Looks like he might have zombie blood on him. Is he infected?”
Charlie puts on a show of shock. He looks at Eddy, then back to David. “I checked him out. He doesn’t have any open wounds. Looks like he’ll be alright if we can get that filth off of him.”
Roger mumbles something.
David looks at him. “What was that?”
Charlie bores laser beams through Roger’s head. I will kill you if I have to.
Roger meets David’s eyes. “Eddy saved us, me and…Jess. If it wasn’t for him, we’d be dead.” He motions to the zombies around his wrecked truck. “He piled them up to block us from them.”
June looks at Eddy. He glances at her and squeezes his lips together.
Charlie isn’t sure what to say or do. He looks at his wife. Sarra?
She notices. This is not going well. “I’m just glad—” Cazzo! David and Victoria aren’t glad. “—I’m relieved that Jess is okay. And Eddy—” she looks at María, “—and Tomas.”
Victoria points at Eddy. “Who killed these zombies? Him? And he didn’t get injured or bitten? My son is gone, and he’s fine?”
Jess looks up at her mom. “Mom! We crashed. He saved us. Alright?”
Eddy steps away from June and inches toward Charlie.
Mike has a better view of Eddy now, and he looks at him more closely. He sees some red blood on him, underneath his chin and around his shredded clothes. He still has the borrowed shotgun in his hands, and he gestures with it toward Eddy. “Whose blood is that?”
Sadie grits her teeth. “Hey, buddy, lower your gun.” Or I’ll shove it straight up your ass, backward.
Mike lowers it; he didn’t mean to point it at anyone. He looks down, ashamed.
Eddy looks around and then back up at the man, then to David and Victoria. “Joe’s. I…I helped carry him from the truck.”
Charlie exhales. That’s right. I forgot about that.
Tomas looks at Eddy. He’s not messed up at all. I saw him get bitten. I saw him bleed and scream—and fight like crazy. He did things that are impossible, and now he’s healed? They’re hiding something. Tomas glances at David. Whoa, he looks all crazy. Tomas clears his throat. “Mr. Kingston? It all happened so fast. We’re lucky to have survived.”
David looks at him with concerned frustration. “Did he get bitten? You know how serious this is, Tomas.”
He takes a deep breath, reluctant to answer.
Charlie takes a step toward Eddy. “David, I’ll watch him, and if he did get infected, then, well, we’ll do what we have to, but we won’t know for at least an hour.”
David nods and lowers the gun. His eyes follow the barrel to the ground, and he sees Joe. My poor boy.
Craig canvassed the field looking for Bill. He started at the trucks and is now all the way back up the hill. There aren’t as many zombie bodies up there; they’re mostly further down the road or in the field, so whenever Craig spots an area of flattened weeds and grass, he prepares himself for what he may find.
The .44 Magnum is heavy in his hand and glints blue from the moon as he walks. He comes up on another area of matted weeds.
“Bill…”
His brother’s body is crumpled on the ground. He’s covered in blood. It washes down the side of his face from split skin on his head, and it oozes out of a wound in his arm where the bone broke through the skin. Blood pools in places where zombies have taken bites from him: his exposed neck, his lower arm, his ankle, and the strong oblique muscles in his abdomen.
Craig stares down at him and sees the reflection of the moon quiver in a pool of red blood on Bill’s side. He’s breathing.
“I’m so sorry, brother.”
He raises the .44, clicks back the gun’s heavy hammer, and aims straight at Bill’s head. He tries to focus and force himself to pull the trigger, but he fails and lowers his arm. “Fuck!”
He thinks back to when they were making the wax bullets last week, when they were shooting zombies on the ridge yesterday, and to the conversation they had that morning about Bill’s new girlfriend. Bill told her to leave without him—because he had work to do—and she told him that she’d wait for him. That morning, Bill blushed when he told Craig that she might be the one.
Craig gulps down some air and raises the gun again. “I’ll see you later, bro.”
-BANG!-
The gunshot recoils through the field, surprising everyone. Many of them instinctively look off toward the sound, except for David. He thinks of his brother, of Bill’s dad, and how the two of them will grieve the deaths of their sons.
June walks up to Eddy and takes his arm again.
He looks at her. She’s nervous. He forces a quavering, reassuring smile.
Then, a zombie on the ground comes to, grabs out in a flash, and pulls June’s foot into its mouth. She screams as blood from her foot sprays out from the bite.
Eddy roars as he sinks down to the ground and grabs the zombie’s head by the hair. He yanks it away from her foot so fast that he almost scalps the beast—so fast that the zombie doesn’t even realize that its mouth is no longer on meat. It’s still trying to bite down, but before its jaw snaps shut on air, Eddy’s fist punches through its forehead and caves in its face.
Skip yells out in terror at seeing his daughter bitten. “No!”
Charlie and Sadie close their eyes.
Nobody else even breathes; they just stare. Eddy’s reaction was so fast that the zombie was dead before anyone could even move, but now they’re transfixed by what Eddy is doing.
The zombie was dead with Eddy’s first punch, but he doesn’t stop. He holds it by the hair with one hand and jackhammers into its face with his other fist. The punches are so fast and so powerful that the brain and skull and black blood fly outward in a pulsing spray, covering him again in filth.
June drops to her knees. I’m gonna die! I’m gonna turn into one of…them.
Skip rushes to her and falls on top of her. Charlie opens his eyes and sees Eddy, still punching and smashing the zombie’s empty head against his slick, black-blood-painted fist.
Eddy punches straight through the other side of the empty skull when Charlie grabs his son by his sides and lifts him up. “That’s enough, Eddy!”
“I’ll kill them! All of them! Fuck them! I’ll fucking kill them all! I’ll…” Eddy trails off and starts to weep as Charlie sets him down. He doesn’t find the will to stand and collapses to the ground.
Sadie steps toward the shocked and scared group. “Everyone, we need to get out of here. It’s not safe.”
María responds with a quick nod. “Yes. Let’s go. Tomas, come along.”
Tomas looks at June, then back to his mom. “Not yet. I can’t just leave her.”
“Tomas!” María points toward Skip, who is huddled on the ground crying with his daughter. “Let them be.”
Tomas turns to face her directly. “Mom, I’m not going to let my friend die without saying good-bye. You can leave if you must, but I am staying.”
David, Victoria, and Jess are all frozen, stunned by the impossible violence they just witnessed.
Charlie steps forward to say something, but before he can, Mike points at Eddy.
“What in god’s name just happened? How did he do that?”
Charlie shrugs. “Adrenaline, I guess.” He turns away from Mike, looking at each person one by one as he addresses the group. “Listen, Skip and June are family to us. Please go home; we’ll stay here and…and say good-bye. Please go.”
Jess clears her throat. “I think we all want to say good-bye.”
Eddy stands up with purpose and not so subtly gets his mom’s attention. We can save her, can’t we? He looks at her with wide-open eyes. He opens his hands and dips his forehead down slightly.
Sadie looks at him, and on the side of her body away from the others she extends and flexes her fingers outward. Just wait.
Roger notices the communication. “What is it?”
Hermix looks at him. “What?”
Sadie and Eddy lock their gazes on him.
“Oh, uh, I don’t know.”
Charlie looks at Sadie. If we do this, we have to do this now. If we wait, there’s NO chance it’ll work…
Sadie looks back at Charlie. We don’t have much time…
Off in their own little world, Skip and June are talking quietly between hugs and tears. June wipes her face. “I’m so sorry, Daddy.”
“Shh, no. You did nothing wrong.”
“But now—”
“June, stop.”
“I’m going to die, aren’t I?”
Skip holds his daughter close as the tears roll down his cheeks. You can’t leave me! I won’t let you! “No…you’re just going to sleep for a while.”
“Dad, I’m a big girl.” She bursts into tears. “I can take it.”
“I love you so much, June.”
“I love you too, Daddy. I’m so sorry.”
“Stop saying that. It’s not your fault.” He gasps for air, hugging her with his face pressed up against her hair, breathing in some strands and the scent of her conditioner. The same conditioner Monica used. He explodes into a sobbing fit as he squeezes June harder.
She hugs him back, crying with him.
After a few seconds, June steels herself, and pulls away. “Dad. Tell me what’s gonna happen next.” Her mouth pouts and lips quiver as she tries to hold herself together.
He takes a deep breath and wipes his face. “You’re going to get a fever, and…have a seizure, and go unconscious.” Skip scrunches his face, trying to not cry. He squeezes his eyes and teeth to try and hold it in for June. Gotta stay strong!
June moves her hand along his back. “Dad. Then what?”
/>
“Jesus, June!”
She takes a breath and tries to speak calmly. “I don’t want to wake back up…as one of them.” At the thought of being a zombie, her will to stay calm shatters. She pulls her hands away from her dad to bring them to her face. “Promise me you won’t let me!” She drops her head into her hands and sobs.
Skip can’t hold back anymore, and he lets out a wail as he hugs her tight. With his head pressed against hers and his cheek pressed against her hair, he whispers into her ear, “I love you, so much.”
“Promise me!” She shakes as her muscles quiver abruptly.
Skip feels like he can barely breathe, let alone talk. He manages to whelp out “Yyesss.”
Craig returns to the group, hanging his head low and dragging the increasingly heavy revolver at his side. He heard the commotion and figures someone was hurt. “What’d I miss?”
David turns to him and shakes his head. “A zombie bit June.”
“Oh… My god.”
Charlie is growing impatient. “Listen, everyone: get the hell out of here. Right now.” He folds his arms across his chest. “I’m not asking.”
Victoria scoffs at his lack of compassion. “Charlie, let the kids talk to her.” She shrugs. “There’s time.”
Charlie shakes his head and turns to Sadie. He doesn’t shrug, he doesn’t move his hands, and he doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t need to.
Sadie knows damn well that it’s possible to save June. If they infect her with their blood—if they give her vampirism before her brain is cooked by the zombie virus—there’s a chance she’ll turn and live as a vampire. She knows it has been done before to counteract other infections and injuries, and it works—sometimes—depending on timing and the strength of the individual. She wonders if it can work against the zombie virus; she hasn’t heard of any successful cases. There’s a chance, but we have to act now. Right now.
She takes a breath and nods.
Charlie uncrosses his arms and pulls his folding knife from his belt. He flips it open and turns to Skip and June, who are still hugging and crying together in a heap. “Skip!”