by Jaime Horio
The smiles spread like the crazy infection that is surrounding us. Despite everything that has happened, we are able to find some joy in this revelation.
“Alright! Let’s do it then!”
We hop in the truck and follow the van down the highway.
Once we’re on the way, Lani turns to me. “I’m really sorry about Ben. I know you two were best friends.”
“Thank you. And I know that he meant something to you. I don’t know what exactly, but I saw the glances you two exchanged when you thought no one was looking.”
She gets an embarrassed look on her face. “Yeah, Ben was really sweet. He said that I kept him alive.”
“Well, you did. You kept all of us alive. At first we weren’t really sure what to think of your story about the dead coming back to kill us. It seemed over the top, sort of “War of the Worlds”-esque. But you were right. And Ben followed all of your postings. That’s how we learned the best way to kill them. That’s how we learned that they would come back after dying. So yeah, you did keep us alive.”
“I’m glad I could help. My station didn’t want me to report the real story. I don’t know why. I know this sounds a little like a conspiracy theory, but I think they were told not to report the real story. I don’t’ know if it was the government or the military or what, but someone was keeping this story quiet.”
“Well, I guess it doesn’t really matter at this point. I guess maybe if the word had spread faster this whole thing might have been avoided.”
“Or maybe people would have panicked and it would have spread even faster.” She looks very serious. She really seems to understand human nature. “It’s sad but it’s true. You and Ben, you were just a couple of guys. You can take in information like that and process it. But if you spread information like that to a massive audience, sometimes they freak out and panic. Maybe not the people at home, but say you’re out at a restaurant and two hundred people see this breaking alert about the dead coming back. That leads to chaos.”
“Looks like we’re here.” The afternoon is getting late, but I see the sign directing us toward the coast and we follow the van to the west.
It’s not long before the sun is nearly gone. We reach a gas station and decide that this is the place to try to hole up for the night. The place is more of a rest stop really. There's a restaurant and showers for truckers and lots of parking. We pull up and park, already feeling a little defeated by the "No Gas" signs hung up around the pumps.
Walking into the building I’m immediately hit with the smell of rotting flesh. I’m hopeful that it’s just coming from the unfinished plates of food that are sitting on tables.
The main dining area is clear. We can tell that pretty quickly. Greg and I sneak around the counter to go look in the kitchen. The smell here is much stronger, and I can see why. The door to the walk in freezer is open, and everything inside is rotted. We both gag at the smell.
“That’s terrible,” says Greg. “But I guess it beats finding a zombie in here.” He pushes the door shut.
Back in the dining area, Carrie and Julie are setting up some blankets and sleeping bags. The place may smell, but at least it’s shelter. None of us really sleep that night. The excitement about getting to the ocean is too great.
I do manage to get a few minutes of sleep, but I’m awakened by Carrie shaking me and holding her hand over my mouth. She let’s go and puts her finger to her lips. Then she slowly points to the glass doors at the front of the building.
Standing outside are four of the zombies. They don’t seem aware of us at this point, but we know we need to keep quiet and move fast.
Fortunately we didn’t bring very much inside with us, knowing that we would be better off being able to make a quick escape.
We gather up our blankets and try to sneak to a side entrance. But when we get there, we see even more of the zombies waiting.
“Shit, this place must be surrounded. OK, I guess that means we have to fight out way out.”
Greg, Carrie and I are armed. Julie and Lani are carrying the supplies. The three of us lead the charge out the front door. I push the door open, throwing the four zombies back and Greg and Carrie open fire.
Once we’re outside, we can see that there are a lot more zombies than we had expected. There are dozens of them milling about, and they are very aware of us now.
We start firing and rushing toward the van. We’re able to make it before the undead can really react to us. I toss the side door to the van open and Lani and Julie hop in. Greg jumps in behind them and I slide the door shut.
Carrie and I turn to move toward the truck. We reach the passenger side and she hops in. I get in behind her, but something grabs my leg. I look down and one of the creatures has its hand wrapped around my ankle. Carrie reaches out and pulls me in as I kick down at the thing’s hand. After a few kicks, I am able to break its grip and I pull the door shut behind me.
Carrie starts up the truck and we pull forward, the van following behind us.
In the light, I can see why we were surrounded. About a half mile up the road is a mobile home park, probably where most of the locals lived who worked at the rest area. They must have heard us coming in and made their way to the building while we slept.
Once we get a couple of miles from the rest area, we pull over to talk to the others. I tell them my theory on where all the zombies came from.
Carrie is looking down the road and estimates that we have another hour or so. There are a few foothills we have to go through first, then we should arrive at the coast. This road hits another highway that isn’t in a town, so it should be clear, but we will have to head into a town at some point if we want to make it to the islands.
She said that there should be a bridge leading out to one of the main islands, maybe a quarter mile from the shore. They used to head out there to camp, and compete in volleyball tournaments. It’s been a couple of years since they had a competition there, so we’ll have to kind of guess our way, once we get close we can probably figure it out.
Once we reach the top of the hills, we pull over again. We can see the road winding down the other side of the hill, and at the bottom is a small highway heading north and south. Looking through the binoculars, I can see the little islands that Carrie was talking about. There are four or five, and I can see the bridge leading out to the biggest.
I can’t make out the exact path to get there, but fortunately it looks to be toward the north end of town, so we won’t have to drive through the entire city. I make sure everyone is armed before we start heading down the hill. Even though it’s near the edge of town, we do have to go through a larger portion of the town than we usually have in the past. We’re too far away to see smaller details, but I am sure that we are going to encounter some of the undead when we get into town.
About an hour later we’re at the edge of town. Greg follows behind me in the van. We’re going slowly at first. But as we get deeper into town, I start noticing the undead on the side streets. And they’re starting to notice us.
I roll down the window and motion for Greg to drive faster. I start speeding up and driving toward the ocean. I drive around a corner onto the main strip of road along the ocean. I can see the turn ahead that leads to the island. But the road is filled with the undead.
“Damn it. Ok, here we go!” I slam down on the gas and head straight for the mass of bodies ahead of me. The sound of the truck gets their attention, and they are starting to turn toward us when I slam into the first of the bodies. They are standing thicker than I realized and we slow down.
I keep going forward, and look back to see the van following behind. I was worried that it might get caught up in all the bodies, but the large truck is able to clear enough of a path for the van to proceed.
We reach the edge of the crowd and turn left toward the island. I can see a second left we need to make onto the bridge up ahead. I slow down and make the turn. Behind us Greg tries to take the turn too fast. I see the van star
t to swerve and the left wheels start to leave the ground.
Suddenly it reaches a tipping point and the van flips onto its side.
I slam on the breaks and throw the truck into reverse.
“Cover me!” I should as I hop out. The van is sitting on the passenger side, so they can’t get out through that side. I run to the back and pull open the back hatch of the van. It’s kind of stuck, but it does open. Julie comes crawling out of the back. She is a little uneasy on her feet, but seems to be fine otherwise.
Greg is crawling out of the top of the car through the driver side door. Through the windshield I can see that Lani is lying there limply.
“Get moving!” Carrie is firing at the approaching crowd. They’re still about a hundred yards away, but moving in quickly.
The windshield is cracked, so I start kicking at it with my heel. Greg comes around and starts kicking as well. After a moment, the windshield pops out of its frame.
I reach in and grab Lani. I slide her out and pick her up and run to the truck. Carrie is standing by the driver door and Julie is already in the car. Greg throws open the door to the bed of the truck and I hand Lani up to him. I hop in and pull the gate shut. Carrie slams the door shut and takes off.
The drive to the island is only a quarter of a mile. We arrive quickly and start looking for somewhere to hide.
But there is nowhere to go. The only building is an outdoor bathroom and a storage shed. We head to the shed and open it up, revealing several boats. We are near the water so Greg and I drag two of the rowboats to the water. We place Lani in one and the rest of us fill in both of the boats.
We manage to grab a couple of bags with food and we are still armed, but all of our blankets are left behind in the truck.
Once we are out in the water, away from the grasp of the undead, we start rowing around the harbor. We approach another of the islands, which is only a couple hundred yards away from the one we just left. We land on the sand and drag the boats onto the beach.
It isn’t huge, and we can’t see anyone else here with us.
Julie and Carrie try to make Lani comfortable, and she is starting to wake up. Greg and I decide to head around the island and make sure it’s clear. There is no connection to the mainland, so the only things we should find would be anyone who was already out here.
We do find the remains of one man. It looks like he might have escaped out here as well, as he is sitting in a boat that is barely onto the beach. We approach slowly, unsure if the man has turned. When we get closer, he starts to move.
The creature raises its head, but doesn’t appear to have the energy to move. Its head turns toward us and tries to bite in our direction.
Greg walks up to it and shoots it. We leave the body for now, leaving the decision about what to do with it until a later time. We search the rest of the island and find nothing else. Toward the center of the island the ground is more solid, which is where we’ll have to set up to sleep.
When we get back to the others, Lani is conscious, but she doesn’t look good. She has a pretty good cut on the side of her head where she hit the side of the van as it hit the ground.
The afternoon is getting late, and we need to set up a place to sleep soon. And being on the ocean, the temperature is dropping quickly.
Looking back to the island where we started, the undead are starting to make their way across the bridge and walk toward where we took off from. But with the sand and the plants growing, they are even less coordinated than normal.
I need to go back and get some blankets. We can flip the two rowboats over to form a makeshift tent, but we will need more to keep warm. It’s risky, but I think that the terrain will be in our favor.
Carrie and I go. With only two of us we can move more quickly.
We push the boat into the water and slowly make our way across to the other island. Instead of going straight across, we circle around the island a little.
Back on the other island, Greg starts yelling and splashing the paddle into the water, trying to get the attention of the undead. They are turning toward the noise, allowing us to sneak quickly to the back of the truck where we grab three sleeping bags and make our way back to the boat.
The entire trip takes about a half hour, and we are back on the smaller island with the others. Greg and I drag the boats up to the center of the island and flip them over. Now that we have a small sleeping structure, we lay out the sleeping bags. It isn’t perfect, but we should be warm enough, especially with five bodies in here.
Julie is concerned that Lani might have a concussion, so we decide that we’ll take shifts making sure she doesn’t fall asleep. The island itself is cleared, so we don’t need to worry about watching for attacks.
The night is long and cold, but we make it through. Lani is really tired by the end, but we’ve managed to keep her up all night. For the moment, it looks like she’ll be ok.
In the morning, I look back to the main island. The entire island is flooded with the undead. The noise we made has obviously drawn them there, and they are all milling around looking for a meal.
“Man, it’s a good thing we went back for those sleeping bags when we did. There’s no way we would be able to get anything from that truck now.”
I nod at Greg, knowing he’s right. Our timing was very lucky.
Carrie walks up and joins us. “I think we need to head to the mainland.”
Greg looks at her like she is crazy. “What? We’re safe here! Why would we go back?”
“Because of that.” She is pointing across to a bait shop right at the shoreline.
“Oh, yeah. I’m sorry, I totally forgot about fishing.”
“We’re going to need water too,” I chime in. “Salt water isn’t going to do us any good. I’m betting we can find some buckets in there, and maybe we can catch some rainwater too.”
We all sit down to eat some food then prepare to head across the water. Greg and Carrie will be going with me. Lani really wants to go, insisting that she hasn’t done anything to contribute to the group since she joined us, but we tell her she is better off staying behind with her injuries.
A short while later, we’ve rowed across the bay, and we’ve tied the boat off at the back of the bait shop.
Looking up and down the street, there are a few zombies just standing around, but they don’t seem to be aware of us. We slip quietly into the shop and start grabbing what we can.
We head out the back door of the shop with three fishing rods, some extra string and four empty buckets. Carrie also grabbed several lures and a couple of extra knives.
There is also a small refrigerated container in the shop that contains drinks. The power is long gone, but the bottled water is still good. We fill up a couple more buckets with the bottles that will fit and head back to the boat. We are satisfied with the haul we managed to get and are about to leave. Greg stops and jogs back to the back door to latch the door shut.
“Gotta keep those bastards out, in case we need to come back.” He grins, but the grin fades when he sees our expression.
He stops and turns around just in time to see the zombie coming from around the corner. The thing lunges at him but he manages to dodge the attack. Carrie hasn’t entered the boat yet, so she runs forward to help Greg. She pulls out one of the large knives she just acquired and shoves it into the zombie’s neck. It is not dead, but she has it in a position where it can’t move. She reaches down and pulls a pistol from her belt and shoots the creature through the head.
Distracted by the zombie attacking Greg, we didn’t even notice the other two, one coming from each side of the building.
“Get down!” I shout.
Greg drops to the ground and I shoot the zombie to his side, but Carrie is pulling her knife out of the zombie she just killed. Before I can get a shot off, the creature that just came around the corner is on top of her. Greg runs over and basically tackles the thing, sending them both flying. Carrie hops up, covered in scratches.
; She runs over to Greg and shoots the zombie. But she’s too late, the zombie managed to get in a couple of bites on Greg’s arm. They didn’t tear out lots of flesh, but the blood has been drawn, and he is surely infected at this point.
“Get in here!” I motion for them to come to the boat. Carrie helps Greg up and the hustle to the boat.
As we are floating away from the shore, I can see that the other undead on the street are converging on the spot we just left.
Greg has his shirt off and is wrapping up his arm, the bleeding is getting worse.
“Damn, those things came out of nowhere. Carrie, are you alright?”
She checks herself but all of the scratches seem to be from the ground.
Carrie helps Greg to tighten the makeshift bandage on his arm while I row us back toward the island.
By the time we reach the island, Greg’s breath is starting to get short. He only has a couple of bites on his arm, but whatever carries the infection must have made its way right into his bloods stream.
He is losing his color as we pull onto the shore. Carrie is cradling his head now because he can barely hold it up on his own.
Julie comes running down the beach to us. “Oh my God! What happened?”
“We got attacked. Greg got bit. I don’t know, it’s tearing through him fast.”
I pick him up and carry him out of the boat. On the sand, he lays out, gasping for breath.
He grabs me by the shirt and looks into my face. I know what he wants, but I’m not sure that I can do it. Especially not with Carrie standing right here.
He coughs, blood spewing out of his mouth, and then he is still. Carrie breaks down into sobs.
I want to give her a few minutes, but I’m anxious. The infection hit him too fast. He only had a few bites on his arm. There is no way he should be dead by now. No one else had died from just a bit this fast before. There’s something different. I don’t know if the infection has mutated somehow, or if it just flew threw his system, but I’m not comfortable with it either way.