by Noah Porter
“What?” Her head shot up and her eyes were wide with fear.
Mason held his hands out, “As much as I love this place, we cannot stay here. I’m actually not ready to turn cannibal to survive, so at some point we are going to have to leave.”
“But where will we go?” Claire was torn. It was logical, they couldn’t stay, but she could not leave, and was afraid of facing anyone else. How could they forgive her?
“Fortunately, we already had that planned out,” Mason said giving her a momentary grin, “If I had had my way, we would have been there already, but no one listens to Mason.”
Claire laughed then immediately clamped a hand over her mouth.
“We just have to wait for the zombies to give up, then we will carefully make our way out of the closest hallway, and down the hill.”
Claire had started to stand up, knowing that he was right; she had to pull herself together. She stopped when he finished the plan, “Have you seen that ‘hill,’ it’s extremely steep and looks dangerous.”
“Which is what makes it perfect. Those things aren’t going to be able to follow us very easily, so it’s our best way out.”
Claire put a hand on her face and tried to tame her thoughts, trying to take in some of Mason’s calm aura to get herself under control. “So what do we do until then?”
Mason stepped forward and she felt something hard and round go into her hand. Mason leaned forward and her face turned beet red, “You promise to take really good care of that,” his hand was on hers, “and I will expect her back in exactly the same condition when we are done.” He leaned forward a little further and whispered in her ear, “And now, I’m going to go enjoy myself until it is time to go.” With that he spun on his heel and moved in front of one of the pieces of art. He was so still he could have passed for a statue.
Claire raised her hand and saw a beautiful, older gun with a silencer. Nothing to do now but wait.
*****
Dylan was anxious after Claire went downstairs, and he paced while waiting for her to return, no longer tired. He froze when he heard what sounded like breaking glass, and silently prayed he was mistaken. He heard what sounded like Claire, but he could not make out what she was yelling. In less than a minute his worst fears were confirmed when Mason’s orders reached his ears. Oh God, not again. Not again!
On reflex, Dylan reached out and started shaking the person closest to him, Paige, “Everybody get up, we have to get out of here.” He saw Seth was already doing the same on the other side of the room. Thank God he’s up too. Dylan could not focus on a single thought, so he let his body react to the new crisis. He tried to keep people quiet while urging them to move quickly. Sure enough, seconds later Mason’s voice echoed up the stairs with new directions.
No! Claire can’t be dead! I should never have let her go! Regret and remorse were starting to consume his thoughts, and without thinking he moved towards the stairs when Mason commands echoed from the stairs. “NOOO. Do not come down, I have three dead people down here. I will be fine. There is NOTHING you can do. Now GET OUT.”
The urgency in Mason’s voice shook Dylan out of his current direction. He turned back to the people who were now getting off of the floor, terror clearly imprinted on most of their faces. Kyle was already packed and ready to go, a gun in his hand. “Move it everyone. We have to get out. Kyle, don’t let anything up the stairs. Everyone else, out!” Kyle nodded.
People began picking up what they could carry, particularly the weapons, but there was so much commotion that several got injured. Someone stepped on Vanessa’s hand and she yelled in pain. Philip stood up too quickly as he retrieved a gun, and his head smashed into Seth’s nose. Blood began pouring out as Seth dropped to his knees. Andrew rushed over to him and gripped him by the elbow, pulling the little guy to his feet. Andrew handed him a cloth as Philip moved around apologizing profusely. Andrew waved him toward the door.
As people reached the door, Dylan directed them, “Don’t go out yet! We need to move as a unit. It’s still dark outside and we don’t know what is waiting at the door.”
This was followed by the sound of two shots. Kyle had taken down the zombies in front as they made their way up the stairs. As they fell, they knocked over a number of others behind them, buying the group a little time. Quickly taking a head count, Dylan had the remaining ten survivors at the door. Kyle fired more shots as zombies continued to climb the stairs.
Lily hissed in his ear, “Shouldn’t we be leaving?”
Dylan shook his head, “I’m not leaving them.”
“He told us to go and he’ll be furious if we don’t listen to him first thing today after not listening to him yesterday.” Lily began to open the door when they heard Mason’s last words to them, “Get away from the western stairs! I can’t keep them back any longer. I’ll meet up with you outside!”
“I’m sure he’ll be fine,” Lily said and thrust the doors open. It was difficult to see very far into the dark, but the group made their way out onto the bridge, Dylan and Kyle in the rear after shutting the doors. Paige and Seth were right behind Lily as they all moved forward as quietly as possible. Vanessa was in the middle of the group, holding her hand, and Andrew was guiding Seth, who still could not see clearly through the tears and pain.
Once the group began descending the stairs everything went wrong. In her pain, Vanessa reached out to take someone’s hand for comfort, but what she grabbed as a zombie. She gave a quick yelp before covering her mouth, her eyes wide with horror. Without thinking, Seth shot the zombie as it lunged at Vanessa. Soon they were being swarmed from three directions. Several of the group headed toward the steep slopes thinking it was the best way to escape, as others tried to go back up the road. Shouts rang through the air from the slopes of the hill, but it was impossible to see where anyone was.
Instinctively, Andrew had dragged Seth over to Vanessa’s side and he was desperately trying to protect both of them. Kyle and Ben literally bumped into them while looking for Paige. They knew better than to shout, so they were trying to locate her by the little light they had. No one said anything as they worked their way toward the slope, hoping that everyone else had gone that way. They heard someone scream and what was obviously the sounds of delight as zombies found a meal in one of the other survivors, who they didn’t know. The five tried to focus on getting down the slope.
Ben put his hands near Andrew’s face and made a shotgun motion. Andrew understood and pulled out his prize weapon. It wasn’t safe to use it yet, not while Ben and Kyle were knocking the things down without making any noise, but they couldn’t keep it up for long. Andrew took the front, butting zombies out of the way while Vanessa kept a hand on his shirt and another hand on Seth. She was trying so hard to keep them together that she failed to watch anything else. She lost her footing on a rock, and went down hard, impaling her hurt hand on a broken sprinkler head. Her eyes went wide but she was able to keep from screaming. Seth saw her go down and he moved to her side, pulling her hand back over the sprinkler. Tears flowed steadily down her face.
Seth took one look at her and knew they needed more time. He tugged at Andrew’s shirt and pointed to Vanessa. Andrew dropped his shotgun and scooped her up. Seth pulled two guns out, and nudged Kyle and Ben, killing their temporary feeling of victory at having opened up enough space behind them. The two men could barely make out what they saw, but knew what it meant.
Kyle darted over and picked up the shotgun. He pointed it forward as zombies moved in on them, “Run, Andrew. Ben, cover them until they get to the slope.”
Ben nodded and moved in front of Andrew, pulling out a pistol as he did. Seth stayed behind and began firing into the ones moving forward. Kyle moved beside Ben and took out four in the way, saying “Unless you plan to give her to me, go, you big ox.” The sounds of the guns had attracted far too much attention, and many of the creatures were turning to head towards them.
Andrew pressed Vanessa to his body and took off. He was soon
to the cliff and was making his way down. He lost his footing shortly after he began descending, but he managed to keep Vanessa in his arms, taking a beating to his body as he stumbled down the rocks and dirt.
Andrew could tell that he had at least sprained his ankle in the fall. The sounds of gunfire were the driving force for him now. No screams, I hope that means they are alright, he thought. And since he did not hear any of the creatures following him, he figured he should take it slower, more cautiously now. In his mind, he repeatedly told the rest of the group to be careful and catch-up quickly.
*****
Dylan had quickly worked his way to the front of the group on the bridge, catching up with Lily and Paige as they pressed forward. He could not see where the others had gone, but obviously they had scattered in different directions. He should have told them to head to the road before they left. They heard a scream, and each of them took a sharp intake of breath as the guilt ripped through them. Knowing that anything they tried to do know was more likely to get them killed than to help, the three pressed on, moving slowly and methodically toward the road. They tried to put all other sounds out of the minds as they progressed across the open space.
With sadness, Dylan thought of how less than 24 hours ago they had made their way through this area, following the lead of Mason. He would know how to deal with this situation, whereas Dylan was at a complete loss. The survivors were entirely split up now, and there was no plan of action. Paige had her baton back out, Lily had grabbed an improvised weapon from the gift shop on the way out, a lovely walking stick that in her hands was deadly, and Dylan was wielding his spear. They almost headed back when they heard the others start firing their weapons, but Lily stopped them from heading back. She mimed not being able to see coupled with shots being fired and they realized she was right; there would be no way to distinguish them from the zombies. Reluctantly, Paige and Dylan turned back toward their goal of escape.
They made it to the road without much trouble, which made Dylan feel even guiltier. They worked their way back the way they had come the day before as the sky began to lighten. Dylan and Paige walked in front and Lily walked while watching their backs. When they reached the road that would take them down to the river, Dylan stopped them. In the faint light of the morning, he could make out the forms of a group of zombies that were coming up the street. Grabbing each woman by an arm, he pulled them further along, having no idea where the road would take them.
Hoping that they would find another road that headed south, the three moved on. They occasionally heard the sound of guns off toward the museum, and they were torn between being happy to hear there were other survivors and not knowing what was happening. No screams had reached them, so there was still hope that they would meet up with some of the others.
They also heard the occasional moans without seeing any other zombies. Finally they found another road branching south. Following the road for a short distance, they saw a shack off to their right that appeared to be for tourists. Dylan led them toward the building, thinking that it was a tourist place that might have some bottled water they could take. As they rounded the front of the building, they saw about a dozen zombies standing still. Dylan directed the two girls to move south away from the shack since they had clearly attracted the attention of the undead. There was fresh looking blood splattered on the front of the building, too old to have been from their party, but it had been painted there in the last 48 hours. Dylan wondered what had happened as he looked for somewhere safer. They reached gravel and were no longer able to keep their steps silent. The zombies heard them and began shuffling forward.
“Stay close. We’ll keep working our way south. It’s time to abandon the roads and try to just get down the hill.” Dylan insisted on the two girls taking the front position so he could take out the zombies following them.
Lily’s eyes proved to be the best for the conditions and she was soon pressing them forward toward an odd looking structure. As they got closer, the three of them stopped and stared.
“What the hell is this?” Lily said, looking at a circle of large rocks.
“It looks like Stonehenge,” Paige said looking up and trying to gauge how large it was.
“Where did all of these guys come from?” Dylan’s attention was quickly back on the zombies pressing in from all sides.
“This way,” Lily took them into the rock formation. As she passed through the first ring, a zombie shuffled out. She put it down quickly and moved into the next circle thinking that they should be done walking through a bunch of oddly placed rocks.
They reached the center of the structure and the clear sound of moans was apparent from the south. With no way of knowing how many were between them and the river, Lily decided it was best to stop and try to climb on the rocks.
“Are you crazy,” Paige asked. Zombies were making their way through the rings from most of the sides.
“We can do it,” Dylan said. He pointed at the rock in the dead center and the three of them hurried to climb on top. It was flat, almost like an alter, but far too big to be for sacrifices. The three of them easily fit on top.
“Ok, now we need to get up on those,” Lily pointed at the pillars that were connected by a third rock, almost like a Stone Age version of the pi symbol. The other two were beating back the zombies who neared the structure. It was not high enough to provide adequate protection.
Dylan hopped down and took out four zombies before telling Paige to hop down and use him to climb onto the nearest stone. He easily lifted her onto the rock. Meanwhile Lily hopped down and moved toward the rock structure next to Paige’s, taking out two zombies on her way. Dylan rushed over to her and helped her up.
Zombies were beginning to pour into the circle at a faster rate, alerted to the living presence from the sound of their undead companions hitting the gravel. Dylan swung and took out several more of the creatures, but he was already feeling tired from the trip here. He had taken down nearly all of the zombies that the trio had encountered on their way across the Mary Hill lawn. His arms were slowing and he knew he could not make it to the next pillar because the majority of the zombies were streaming around it. The women were too high to be of any assistance.
He began to move toward the middle, where he would at least be able to get on higher ground, when a hand grabbed him from behind. Dylan heard the low moan and knew what was next. He drove his spear hard behind him, thinking to at least stagger the creature when a force struck it. It’s hand fell from his shoulder as the force drove the zombie to the ground where it twitched but did not rise. An arrow was pressed through the middle of the back of its head. Dylan looked up and saw Paige vigorously waving her bow toward herself to signal him to move toward her. Her other hand was already grabbing another arrow. She notched it and shot two zombies with one arrow, one through the head, the other through the shoulder. This was good enough to move them out of Dylan’s way. He raced toward her pillar, sweeping several zombies out of his way with the spear. When he reached the rock, Dylan ran up like he had on so many obstacle courses and a couple of times in combat. Paige grabbed his arm as he got close and helped pull him up onto the structure.
For now the three of them were safe. They watched as the light bloomed over the mountains to the south, coloring the cloudy sky. They did not talk, did not move, thinking they would soon be forgotten and perhaps the zombies would move on.
Lily stared out over the water, wondering if the barge would actually be any safer. Paige watched Dylan and wondered if they were going to be able to reach the barge. They could see several dozen zombies in the surrounding area and on the move below them, blocking their path to the barge.
Dylan kept looking back toward the museum, praying that the others had made it out safely. Maybe the three downstairs would be the only fatalities. It wasn’t right. Claire should never have gone down there, it should have been him. It should have been him. And no matter how strong he was, Dylan wondered if Mason had actually been all right
in the end. He had no idea how far they had travelled and could not see the museum from their current position.
Was this all that was left of life? Watching people you had gotten to know die? Constantly being on the run, never getting a real chance to rest? Every time they thought they were safe, they were ambushed. Something always went wrong. It was almost funny how he had always thought of zombies as a pathetic adversary.
They didn’t think, they couldn’t move quickly, and they sure the hell weren’t skilled, but they always seemed to get the upper hand. What did that say about the human race, that a mindless creature was able to wipe them out so easily, so completely? Was it really worth the continued attempts at survival?
Dylan shook his head, trying to erase the bad thoughts. He had had these thoughts before as a soldier. Surviving was always worth it, even when it looked bleak, even when you were significantly out numbered. He had gone through worse, much worse. It was just never for such a prolonged period. He looked at the two women with him. Lily winked at him and gave him a thumbs up, and he wasn’t quite sure how to take that. Maybe it was her way of saying that the zombies seemed to have forgotten them, now that they were higher and out of sight. Paige gave him a gentle smile and patted his arm. He didn’t need to think about what she meant. He put his hand on hers and looked at the clouds, again threatening a light drizzle on top of their other suffering. He gave the sky a lopsided grin, thinking that at least some rain would help wash off some of the gore on him.