by J. Thorn
“And you’re still going there?” Hendrix asked incredulously. His eyes were flashing with anger, and he worked his jaw back and forth in frustration. “What’s down there that would make you willing to face Zombies in hordes, or worse, ex-cartel that would enslave you and make you entertain whole encampments of men?”
“It’s the mountains,” I whispered. I didn’t really want to give this away, but I had the deepest urge to defend my decision.
“We have mountains here,” Hendrix said slowly.
He seemed to have reined back the control he’d lost moments ago. It wasn’t until he regained his composure that I realized how out of place it felt when he’d started yelling at me. I shook my head a little at that though, wondering why I even thought I knew him enough to judge his character or personality. We literally met hours ago, I had no idea who this guy was.
“My dad’s cousin lives, or um, lived down there. As far as I know, she’s still alive. Anyway, she was this missionary. She had an orphanage in the Andes Mountains. When things started to get bad, she begged my dad to move us down there. She said it was safer than Iowa. She was protected by the mountains, there were very few people up there and she knew of this ancient Mayan city that had walls. She said we’d be able to protect ourselves, rebuild society.” My stomach churned with uncertainty, even as I pressed myself to sound confident. Mayan ruins? Andes Mountains? It really did sound crazy.
“Yeah and when’s the last time you talked to her?” Hendrix pushed, that careful control slipping again.
“Right before my parents died,” I answered. There wasn’t a way to make them understand, to get them to see my view on this. I knew that- mostly because it was practically insane to try to get through Mexico. Things had been dangerous down there for young girls traveling alone before the Zombie infestation. Now? It would be a miracle if I survived just crossing the border. “The phones were still working and my parents were considering it. They thought they would see how the assembly went, what other news was being floated around and then we would either stay or buy a plane ticket.”
“Your parents died early,” Page whispered with the wisdom of someone five times here age. “Ours didn’t go to heaven until after the planes stopped flying and the cars stopped driving.”
I pressed my lips together, uncomfortable with her sentiment. Iowa had been overtaken surprisingly fast, considering how many empty miles fell between all that farmland. It still seemed impossible that my entire home town was now a Zombie playground.
Page was right though, my parents had gone early, because we’d been unprepared. Something I vowed never to be again, well until tonight when I karate kicked my way into these people’s lives- literally. These boys made me feel very unprepared for life.
“You’ll never make it through Mexico,” Hendrix announced gravely, getting us back on topic.
“We’ve made it this far,” I argued.
“By pure luck and our generosity,” he countered.
I snorted at that, “Hardly. We would have made it out just fine. In case you didn’t notice, Haley swept up down there.”
“Yeah, fine,” he bit out. “But now her gun is empty. And how much ammo do you have left, Reagan? You hadn’t even drawn your weapon when you came flying through that door. I bet you have less than a handful of bullets left. I bet you’re on the last of everything.”
“That’s not entirely true. I’ve got plenty of makeup.” I shot him a sassy look and turned an evil glare on Haley.
“My point exactly,” Hendrix growled.
“Ok, great plan-maker, what’s your long term goal? You can’t stay here forever. Eventually you too will run out of supplies, water, and food. Then, what?” I was furious by now. Hendrix had made me feel tiny and my plans seem stupid. It was obnoxious how quickly he could derail me and then fluster my every thought.
“We’re heading north,” Vaughan replied evenly, not at all as angry as his brother. “Nova Scotia, or anywhere isolated in the Canadian provinces.”
“No slavers up north and not as many people turned Zombies to run into,” Nelson explained further. “We’re going through the Dakotas, taking our time so that we can stay strong, well-fed.”
“Racing your way anywhere, so that you’re starving and unarmed is foolish,” Hendrix echoed, obviously digging directly at our methods of travel.
“Going the pace of a snail, so that all that glorious land you were gunning for, is occupied and settled, is just as foolish,” I growled back.
“It’s not the California Gold Rush, Reagan. You’re playing with your lives when you expose yourself like this. You’re obviously starved and undersupplied. What would have happened to you if we wouldn’t have found you digging through the women’s clothing? Where would you have slept tonight?” Hendrix’s blue eyes were as deep as the ocean, his face flushed with emotion.
This both bristled and terrified me, “What do you care, Hendrix? We are not your concern. In fact, in T-six hours, we’re going to be well on our way, headed toward the other side of the equator than you. Leave it alone.”
I met his heated stare straight on and dared him to make some kind of contradiction, although I couldn’t even imagine what he would say. And apparently either could he, because he stayed silent, just the click of his jaw as he ground his teeth in frustration.
Vaughan cleared his through uncomfortably before saying, “Alright, now that we’ve gotten that settled, its’ time for bed, Page.”
She put up a pathetic attempt at getting out of it, but after a stern look from her older brother, she obeyed by heading off to brush her teeth.
Haley and I too, said goodnight to the brothers and walked over to our comfortable room. We laid down on the bed, side by side, our fingers interlocked and our thoughts spinning a mile a minute.
I didn’t know how to explain to Haley the need I had to go south, the instinct and faith in us; I had to keep us moving that direction. And I was guessing, after all the doubts Hendrix had just planted, that she was thinking about what a mistake she had made to follow my lead. Neither of us could voice our thoughts though and so we stayed quiet.
Besides, we’d made it through this day. And in our uncertain lives, each day we survived was enough to be thankful for.
Eventually, we both turned so that our backs were to each other and our hands on the guns under our pillows. Mine was loaded and ready; Haley’s had simply become a security blanket after it had run out of bullets. This wasn’t the first time we’d been low on ammo and it would by no means be the last. I was just thankful Nelson had returned it earlier, after they decided we weren’t threats.
Sleeping on the bed was the most comfortable experience I could remember. I’d finally drifted off in peaceful sublime when the first pounding of a fist sounded loudly through the empty room.
Like the hand of a demigod that boomed a rattling echo throughout the room; the fist came down again on the steel barrier that sat melded on those stairs. Another bang and I was sitting up in bed, watching the entire room of brothers, Page and Haley follow suit. I shared a terrified look with Haley as our nightmare became reality.
One fist was joined by two, and then two more. My heart got caught somewhere in my throat and I rubbed my sleepy eyes roughly.
Through the pounding of fists, the low, tell-tale moaning could be heard like an undercurrent of the Grim Reaper’s soundtrack. The putrid stench of death floated through the air, and I knew that my peaceful night of sleep was officially at an end.
The Feeders had followed us, right up to the top floor of utopia.
Looked like we would be checking out a few hours ahead of schedule.
Chapter Four
“Time to move on?” Haley asked dryly. Her voice was rough with sleep, her blonde hair a rat’s nest of messy.
“Looks like it,” I agreed in an equally raspy voice. Up until this moment I was sleeping better than I had in a very, very long time. And, even though I was ripped from sleep by an impending Zombie infestati
on, I was at least waking up semi-rested and without a nasty crick in my neck.
So, this was much better than most nights.
“Girls, we’re moving out in three minutes.” Hendrix stood in the doorway, semi-automatic machine gun held firmly in his hands. Where the hell did he get that? “Throw some shoes on. You don’t have time to pack.”
I snorted. “Like, we’re not completely ready to go already.”
Haley and I jumped up from bed and slipped our shoes on while simultaneously throwing on long-sleeved t’s over our tank tops. I had my hair knotted on the top of my head and my backpack shouldered in thirty seconds.
“Ready,” Haley said with a smile. She twirled her empty gun on her index finger and I probably would have laughed if the solid steel over the stairwell hadn’t started shaking from the incessant pounding of hungry Zombies out for a midnight snack.
Hendrix gave us a look of mixed surprise and respect and then nodded his head for us to follow him.
“Do you have any more of those you want to share?” I asked, indicating the machine gun.
“Over by Vaughan,” he pointed to a table that had been covered by a curtain before. “Take your pick.”
The table was layered with guns and ammo of every size, shape and power. I walked over in a dazed stupor. Where did all this come from?
At my look of amazement, Vaughan smirked, “We’ve been collecting.”
“More like hoarding,” I moaned excitedly. “I can pick?”
“Take whatever you want, but make sure you know how to use it,” he instructed while strapping on his own guns and filling a second backpack in addition to the one he was already wearing. “We leave in one minute.”
Haley and I shared a smile and then loaded up; two semi-automatic hand guns in each palm, several more thrown into the top of our packs with matching ammo and then… that was it.
“Damn it, the sweats!” Haley groaned. With jeans we could have easily tucked a gun in the back of our waistband, but yoga pants didn’t have pockets and weren’t tight enough- comfy to sleep in, sucky to run from Zombies in.
“We’ll be okay,” I assured her evenly. “Move your water to your pack and tuck some more guns into the side straps of your backpack.”
“Good idea,” she agreed.
We did that quickly while Nelson, King and Harrison strapped on their own assortments of guns. By this time the steel bent and groaned with the pressure of so many Feeders pushing against it. It was just a matter of moments before the barrier snapped like a crushed can of soda.
My heart dropped a little bit when I saw how many guns would get left behind, but there wasn’t anything I could do about that or the food that wouldn’t make it either. This was survival. We would be fighting our way through who knew how many Zombies; there wasn’t time to mourn left-behind peanut butter.
Okay, maybe there were five seconds to whimper about it.
“Let’s go,” Vaughan called out quietly from in front of the elevators. Despite his effort to keep his voice soft, the Zombie’s frantic pounding increased at the sound of life where they couldn’t see it.
We stood in line while Nelson and Vaughan took crowbars to the seamed steelwork that kept the elevators locked up. Page stayed tucked in Harrison’s arms through the tense minutes it took to pry the doors apart; and all the while the metal cage above the stairs shifted and swayed. The hungry growls of Feeders only grew louder and more insistent.
“This leads to the outside?” I asked Hendrix who had come to stand next to me.
“Eventually,” he shrugged. He sounded casual, but he was bouncing on the balls of his feet, his hands fidgeting and eyes continually drifting to Page. He was a ball of energy, completely alert and ready to protect his family.
“Alright, well thanks then,” I whispered sincerely. Nelson and Vaughan finally got the doors open and pulled a thick wire cable from where the elevator sat idling. They began yanking on it together so that the elevator was raised past the floor and a crawl space was created by a makeshift pulley system.
Clever boys.
“For what?” Hendrix asked with his attention fully on me now.
“For everything,” I shrugged.
“You sound like you’re expecting to die, Reagan,” Hendrix snapped a little louder than I felt comfortable with. The Zombies screeched in reply. “We have an escape plan. You’re going to be just fine.”
I repressed a laugh and admitted, “I know that. But we’re headed south and you’re headed north. I was just saying thank you before we got separated and I never got the chance to. I mean it, thank you.”
Hendrix looked down at me dumbfounded, like I’d just said the most insane thing. Finally Nelson got the cable securely stabilized and started waving his brothers through. Vaughan went first; he lay down and slid underneath the elevator carriage and then waved a hand once he was suspended underneath. I was assuming there were cables or ropes of some kind underneath, although I couldn’t see them. Harrison helped Page through the hole, and then we heard Vaughan’s encouraging words to her as she shook with fear.
“Alright, Reagan,” Hendrix said softly but firmly, directly in my ear. I shivered as his breath cascaded down my neck and his rumbly voice wrapped around all of my senses. “I get the independence thing, but you’re not going south until we get the hell out of here and to safety. You stay directly behind me, you got that.”
I whipped my head around to face him, while Haley crawled into the hole next. “Sweet offer, but I can take care of myself.”
“Never said you couldn’t,” Hendrix growled. “Stay behind me, got that?”
“Whatever makes you feel like a man,” I sighed, annoyed that I had somehow agreed to his protection without actually agreeing.
“And we’ll talk about going south later,” he promised.
Before I could respond with anything to that kind of crazy talk it was my turn to crawl through the elevator hole. I slid my arms through first and felt for the rope I had to believe would be there. My backpack barely squeezed through with me. Once my hands were firmly holding the thick wire cable, I awkwardly pulled my feet through and straddled the rope. I held on as tightly as I could, but my hands wanted to slip and my feet struggled for footing.
A flashlight had been dropped in the shaft and even though it hardly gave off any light, it was like a beacon of hope that promised there was life at the end of this rope. My biceps burned from holding my body up and my feet were planted so firmly against the wall I had no idea how I was going to get down.
Suddenly hands slid through the hole and my ass was being gripped firmly in Hendrix’s arms.
“What the hell?” I gasped as he worked something around my waist.
“Just,” he grunted, snapped a carabineer in place and then breathed out a,” There.”
He had tied a rope under my bum, supporting my weight and taking the pressure off my arms and hands. I still had to hold most of my weight by myself, but it was easier to move down the wall. Hendrix slid through the hole next and did the same to himself on the rope next to mine.
“Where are you supposed to stay?” He ground out as we worked our way down the wall, leaning back and painstakingly walking our way down the elevator shaft.
I shot him a nasty look, but he couldn’t see me because of all the darkness. “Hendrix, are you kidding me?”
“By me, Reagan. Always, by me,” he answered, ignoring my sarcasm.
My stomach flipped over at his words and suddenly I felt very sick- whether it was from the sudden onslaught of nerves or foreboding I had no idea, but there it was. I shook it off, convincing myself we’d be separated by the time this night was over.
The sounds of Harrison and King strapping in above us filled up the oppressive silence after Hendrix and I both fell quiet. Beads of sweat broke out across my forehead and every single muscle in my body burned with the effort to get to the ground.
We eventually hit the smooth concrete floor and started to unstrap without hesit
ation. Nelson was the last one through the hole above and just as I walked through the pried open elevator doors on the first floor, I heard a slice of a knife through the air, the whip of a taut cable as the pressure was suddenly released and the slam of the elevator back into place, suspended three floors above me.
“We rigged it so it’s not connected to anything, but there’s a barrier to keep it from falling down the shaft. It should hold in place for a while. We’re just trying to confuse them while we get out of here. But if they follow our scent, the elevator won’t hold them for long.” Hendrix explained.
“Do you think my bloody clothes will confuse them?” I whispered, meanwhile ice cold dread sloshed through my stomach when I realized that also might have been what drew them here in the first place.
“Probably,” Hendrix agreed.
“Hey, I’m sorry-“
“Not now, Reagan,” he cut me off and raised his weapon.
This section of the first floor was tucked away from the main hubbub of Zombie traffic. I could hear the horde of Feeders above us pounding on steel, desperate to get to live flesh. They were mindless in their hunger, their cognitive thinking long gone and replaced by an addiction, a powerful need that would destroy the human race all together if we couldn’t figure out a way to permanently survive their constant attacks.
Vaughan and Haley waited for us along the wall, their backs up against it, their guns drawn and pointed readily. Page stayed tucked between them, shouldering her own light pack, but weapon-free. This floor was lit up by the moonlight flooding through broken windows and plowed through walls. There were a few decaying bodies lying throughout the area, their stench choking in its ferocity; the sound of buzzing flies, the only thing to break up the cacophony of Feeder sounds above.
Finally, King, Harrison and Nelson were at ground level and ready to bolt. We waited for Vaughan’s command and then we set out. Hendrix led the way, with Haley and me directly behind him; Nelson and Page were next and then King and Harrison. Vaughan brought up the rear like an expert. I was shocked at the level of precision these boys operated with. They were like a fluid, well-trained military unit. And I expected the older ones to be comfortable with weapons, they would have grown used to them the same way Haley and I had. But Harrison and King were just as proficiently in control.