by Ricky Sides
“Ready,” Jason said, followed by Ed making the same announcement.
Herb led the way through the broken glass that crunched under the soles of his boots. He was heading for an open doorway he saw to the left. There was a closed door to the right. He heard a moan emanating from that room and changed directions to head toward the sound. He took up a position in front of the closed door and glanced back at Ed. He pointed to his eyes, and then the open door on the other side of the room. Ed nodded his understanding and turned to face that potential threat. Jason stood ready to follow Herb’s lead at the closed door.
Herb reached out and took hold of the doorknob. He tried to turn it, but it was locked. A scream sounded from within the room and Herb shouted, “We’re with Steve and we’re here to help!”
“They’re in the house!” a frightened female voice shouted in reply.
Herb was about to ask if the woman and her son were okay when Ed’s rifle discharged behind him. Both he and Jason spun in their tracks. Their rifles automatically tracked to point in their line of sight. They saw a female zombie of indeterminate age crawling across the floor toward Ed. Ed’s rifle fired again. His second round struck the creature in the forehead, killing her.
Ed moved toward the open door, flanked by Herb and Jason. They gave the corpse on the floor a wide berth. Ed and Jason stepped to the left of it, while Herb went to the right. Jason tapped Ed on the shoulder lightly, causing the medic to stop and stand still. Jason then moved past his partner and prepared to rush through the door. Herb also moved past Ed, once more signaling the man to watch their backs.
Jason passed through the threshold into the other room and turned to face the right. His rifle discharged almost immediately. Herb rushed through the doorway and faced left, but saw nothing but a dining room table. He turned back to the right as Jason’s rifle fired again. He couldn’t see much past his friend’s body, so he shifted his position to Jason’s left, bringing his rifle up into firing position as he did. His mind instantly noted the two downed zombies and a third that was moving toward Jason, who inexplicably wasn’t firing at it. Then Jason let the rifle drop on its combat sling and reached for his pistol. Herb fired two rounds at the male zombie’s head dropping it where it stood. Then he fired another round at one of the zombies Jason had taken down when it voiced an inarticulate moan.
“Thanks, Herb,” Jason said as he cleared the malfunction on his M4.
“You good now?” Herb asked.
“Yeah, it was my fault. It didn’t feed properly and I used the forward assist rather than just chambering a fresh round. That just jammed it worse.”
“That happens sometimes with these old service weapons,” Herb noted. Then he said, “Let’s clear the house.” Then he saw what was left of a large dog in the corner of the room. The zombies had cornered the animal and torn it apart. Portions of its entrails were dangling from a gaping hole in its stomach. As he stared at it, the animal lifted its head slightly and whined.
Jason fired a mercy round that ended the animal’s suffering. “Sorry, Herb. I know how much you like dogs, but there was no way it would survive what they did to it.”
Herb nodded in agreement. Changing the subject, he said, “Check your rifle.”
“It’s good to go,” Jason replied after a quick examination.
“Then let’s finish clearing the house.”
The living room had two doors besides the open threshold that led to the kitchen. One led to the room where Mrs. Childers was located. The other was a mystery to the men, so they tried it first. It turned out to be a large closet, filled with the usual items, such as shoes and clothing.
Next, they returned to the door to the room where Mrs. Childers had taken refuge. “Mrs. Childers, we’ve checked all of the house that we can access from this room. We killed four zombies. Have you seen others?” Herb asked from his place beside the door.
“I don’t know how many were in the house, but they were all out there,” she responded, and then the door opened. Herb saw a woman with short dark hair. “Where is Steve?” she asked.
“Outside in our bus,” Herb responded. He could see that she had been crying and assumed it was because of the terror the zombie invasion of her home must have generated.
“They... they bit our boy. Now I’m going to lose them both,” she said, and then she broke down and began to cry.
“Where’s your son, Mrs. Childers?” Herb asked.
“In the bedroom,” she managed to say between sobs.
“See to him, Ed,” Herb instructed the medic.
“No! I won’t let you kill my boy!”
“Relax, ma’am. We’re going to cure him, just like we cured your husband,” Herb said in an effort to reassure the woman.
“Herb!” Ed shouted from the next room.
Herb moved past the distraught mother and entered the bedroom. He saw Ed standing beside a bed working as rapidly as he could to try to stabilize the young man. He could tell at a glance that the bite must have severed an artery or vein. Blood from the open wound on his wrist had saturated a large section of the cream-colored comforter that covered the bed.
“I need help with a tourniquet, and I need it now!” Ed said as he tried his best to stem the flow of blood.
“Jason, you get the woman on the bus, and then get back in here to guard us while we work to save the boy!” Herb yelled, and then he went to the bed to help Ed.
As Herb put the tourniquet from Ed’s med kit around the patient’s arm, he said, “The gunfire will draw more of the zombies. We have very little time here. We have to control the blood flow, and then get him on the bus. I’m afraid you’ll have to work on him in there.”
“We’re going to have to get him back to the refuge, or we may as well let him bleed out,” Ed said. “Because there’s no way in hell I can keep him alive long without a blood transfusion.”
“I know,” Herb said, and he did. He’d reached that conclusion the moment he saw the amount of blood on the bed.
“It’s working,” Ed said, referring to the tourniquet. “Cinch it just a little tighter. Yeah, there, you have it perfect now. Hold that for a second while I see what I can do.”
Ed worked as rapidly and efficiently as he could to stabilize his patient so that they could move him to the bus.
“The lady is on the bus,” Jason said from the doorway. “They wanted to come back in to be with their son, but I told them we’d be bringing him out in a minute and they’d be in the way,” he added.
“Good, I’ve almost got it,” Ed said. A few seconds elapsed in silence as he continued to work at a feverish pace, and then he asked, “Have you got the tourniquet locked down?”
“Yes, we’re good to go on that count.”
“Carry my rifle and pack for me. I’ll get him,” Ed said. Without waiting for Herb to agree, he pulled the teenager to a sitting position and then tried to get his limp body across his shoulder.
Herb saw that the medic was having difficulty with the maneuver, so he helped him get the young man slung over his shoulder. He then grabbed Ed’s rifle and the small medical pack and followed him out of the room.
Jason led the way as they exited the house. “There are more zombies on the road headed this way!” Randy shouted when he saw Herb.
“Take them out if they get close. Otherwise, hold your fire. Maybe we can get away from here without attracting more. Jason, get everyone on the bus. I’ll be right back,” Herb said.
“Where are you going?” Randy asked.
“No time to explain,” Herb responded as he ran back in the house. He rushed into the kitchen and stopped beside the body of the dead dog. He grabbed one of its legs and pulled it through the house as fast as he could.
Out in the yard, Herb pulled the dog out to the edge of the road, and then he boarded the bus. He almost backed over the body of the dead canine as he turned the bus around and headed back toward Hunter.
“Why did you pull our dog out like that?” Steve asked.
“He’s dead, Steve,” Herb said. “I’m sorry, but I used the body as a decoy for the zombies. Otherwise, they’ll follow the bus as we head back toward Hunter. They still may, but they’ll stop at the dog first.”
“I count at least a thirty. Maybe a little more,” Randy reported. “They are milling around so much as they walk it’s hard to say for certain. And I see more coming up behind them further down the road.”
“Damnit. Then the dog won’t slow them down for long,” Herb said.
“We’re going to have to warn the people of Hunter,” Jason said.
“I know,” Herb replied.
“Raman’s not going to like it,” Jason added.
“He’d like it even less if we didn’t warn him,” Herb quipped as he pushed the bus to greater speed.
Minutes later, they rolled into Hunter. Herb returned to the house where the people had been gathered. He saw Raman there standing on the porch, as he had been earlier. “Do you have enough transportation to move your people all at once?” Herb asked without preamble.
“Yeah, but why would we do that?” Raman asked.
“There are dozens of zombies heading this way. There may be a lot more behind the ones we saw. The one that attacked Steve was just the first to arrive. More broke into his house and attacked his family.”
“And you led them back to us?!” Raman asked incredulously.
“That couldn’t be helped. We had to rescue the Childers family. Get your people together. Tell them they have thirty minutes to be ready to move out,” Herb said.
“We can’t abandon our homes that quickly,” Raman said.
“You don’t have much choice,” Herb countered. “Look, I don’t like this any more than you do. You’ll be able to come back in a few days for the rest of your stuff. The zombies will move on when they can’t find anyone here. Meanwhile, you said you wanted to join us at the refuge. Well, it looks like you’re going to get what you wanted.”
Raman nodded his understanding and said, “All right. This is no time to argue. We’ll form up at the highway. We’ll try for fifteen minutes, but I’m not going anywhere until everyone is accounted for, and that’s final.”
“Then let’s hope the zombies move slowly, because the Childers’ place is just six miles from here,” Herb said. “We’ll be waiting at the highway.”
Raman ordered his men to begin organizing the evacuation. As Herb left with the bus, the women were scrambling to return to their various homes where they would inform their families that they were evacuating.
“How’s your patient?” Herb asked Ed as they sat in the bus on Highway 49, waiting for the people of Hunter to assemble behind them.
“Not so good,” Ed said guardedly. He glanced at Steve and Joanne Childers, and Herb understood that he would have said more, but didn’t want to upset the parents.
“Have you given him the vaccine yet?” Herb asked.
“No, not yet,” Ed replied.
“What did you say? You haven’t given him the cure yet? Why not?” asked Steve.
“At this point, it could kill him,” Ed said.
“I don’t understand. You told me the injection was safe,” Steve said.
“Herb, you explain it. I need to concentrate on my patient,” Ed said.
Herb nodded in agreement. “The parasites can keep a man with a mortal wound alive long enough for them to spread to the brain. We don’t know how they do it, but it’s a fact that they can. Giving your son the shot now would kill the parasites, and as it stands at the moment, they may be the only thing keeping him alive.”
“What can we do for him?” asked Joanne.
“We need to know his blood type so we can give him a transfusion,” Herb answered.
“He’s type O positive,” Joanne said.
“That helps. We’ll see if any of the others have his same type. I’m assuming that neither of you are a match,” Ed said.
“That’s right. I wish I were a match. I’d be happy to give him every last drop of my blood, if that’s what it takes to save him,” Joanne said.
“Will the fact that they’ve been injected with the nanobots already complicate things?” Herb asked Ed.
“Frankly, I just don’t know. It may kill the parasites before he recovers enough to survive without them. I’d say that’s a possibility at the very least. Then again, he may still be strong enough to make it if he had a sufficient transfusion,” Ed replied. He shrugged and added, “We still know next to nothing about how all this works.”
“So what should we do?” asked Steve.
“I can try to reach the refuge and ask the doctor or Erma,” Herb suggested. “Meanwhile, Jason, I see some of the people beginning to line up their vehicles. See if you can find someone with the right blood type that is willing to give him a transfusion.”
“You’ve got it,” Jason responded.
“Randy, watch his back,” Herb ordered.
“I’m on it, buddy,” Randy assured him. “I’m also watching for early arrivals of the zombie persuasion.”
Herb tried to put through a radio communication to the refuge, but no one responded. He tried several times, but was forced to give up after ten minutes. “It’s no good. We must be in a bad location. I don’t think our radio signal is getting to them.”
“So we’re on our own then,” Ed said.
“That’s the way it looks,” Herb agreed. Then he said, “How’s Jason making out, Randy?”
“Not good. It looks like most of the people are here now, but everyone he talks to is shaking their heads. That most likely means they don’t match the blood type we need, don’t know their type, or that they aren’t willing to donate their blood.”
Jason returned a few minutes later. He reported that no one present, who knew their blood type, was a match. He then informed Randy that Raman was making a final count of the people, but was sure they were all accounted for, so they should be able to leave any minute.
A knock sounded on the door of the bus. Herb looked toward the door and saw Raman waiting outside. He opened the door to address the man. “Is everyone ready to get on the road?” he asked.
“They are,” Raman said.
“Okay, is one of your security vehicles going to take the rear in the convoy? I don’t want to lose a vehicle as we make the run to the refuge.”
“I’ll be in that vehicle. If anyone drops out of the convoy, I’ll sound the horn. The other drivers know to do the same,” Raman said.
“Then let’s hope it doesn’t become necessary because it’s best to travel quietly these days,” Herb stated. He didn’t agree with the wisdom of the plan, but with no donor available for the patient they had in the bus, there was no time to waste arguing over a basic plan of action to reach the refuge. “We’ve got to leave soon. Our patient may not make it if we don’t leave ASAP,” he added quietly.
Raman glanced back toward Steve and nodded his understanding. “They know to follow your bus, so head out when you’re ready. Don’t wait for me to get back to my car. My driver will pick me up.” He stepped back away from the bus, turned and began to trot back toward his vehicle.
Herb started the engine and dropped the bus into gear. As the Mercedes bus was coming up to speed, he glanced in the rearview mirror to see if the people of Hunter were following. He noted that they were, but then his attention was drawn to Joanne and Steve who seemed to be having some sort of disagreement. “Is something wrong?” he asked.
“Tell him. He deserves to know!” Joanne said with irritation evident in her tone of voice.
Herb concentrated on the road ahead and waited for one of the Childers to say what was on their mind. He didn’t have long to wait. “My wife thinks the party of men from Hunter may have led the zombies back to us.”
“That’s right, I do. Why the nerve of that man, accusing you of doing that to his people, when he and his team traveled north along this road earlier this morning,” Joanne said.
“Now, Jo, you know th
ey go scavenging up north of us often,” Steve said in a conciliatory tone of voice. “They’ve never led a zombie to us in the past.”
“I bet they were trying to get to that rice mill up north. You know he’s fixated on that place,” Joanne said bitterly. “And his obsession with it may cost our son his life.”
“Even if it’s true, it’s still not their fault,” Steve said in an effort to calm his wife.
“Thanks for telling me,” Herb interjected, “but I tend to agree with Steve. I’m sorry, but that’s just how it is these days. People have to go out and secure the necessities of life, and sometimes zombies follow them. I can’t tell you how many times people have led them to the refuge. In fact, we had an incident just yesterday where eight zombies followed a woman to our place.”
“I can understand that intellectually, but my son is fighting for his life because of it,” Joanne replied. “That makes it harder for me to forgive.”
“Yes, ma’am, I can understand that. Just bear in mind that it was an accident. For all we know, we could be leading them on to other people we may pass as we travel home. That’s just the way it is now,” Herb said. “We try to warn anyone we see that may be in the path of approaching zombies, but that’s not always possible. Sometimes people are in hiding and we don’t even know they are in the area.”
“Still, he accused you of leading them to him, when it was his group that led them to us. That’s hardly fair.”
“If he presses the matter, then I’ll remind him of his part in the problem,” Herb promised. “Thank you for telling me this. I was feeling bad about the community being forced to abandon their homes because of our action.”
“You’re welcome. Thank you for saving us,” Joanne said, and then she turned her attention to her son.