A Good Distance From Dying

by David Carroll

  The four individuals got out and looked at the wreckage.

  “Ain’t no goin around this mess.” Scruffy bearded man number one said then launched a wad of Skoal spit onto the road.

  From where we were hiding Shawn asked, “What do we do?”

  “We do nothing. Stay quiet and stay down.” I said.

  Back on the other side of the interstate Scruffy bearded man number two was saying, “We could try to climb over those cars and grab a straggler on the other side.”

  “Climb? Baby, I can’t climb over that.” Hot chick said and rubbed her man’s back.

  “You heard her boys, looks like we go around.” Scruffy number one said.

  Whiney boy looked around at the current surroundings.

  “You mean go through the woods?” Whiney boy asked.

  “Sure do, wha the hell you think I meant?” Scruffy number one said and pointed at Whiney boy as he laughed, “You scared boy?”

  Whiney boy looked from the scruffy bearded man to the woods and I could tell that yes, he was scared.

  “I don’t think going in there is such a good idea, guys. We have no clue what’s hiding in those trees.” Whiney Boy said.

  “Ain’t you learned yet? If there is anything in there, I’ll kill it.” Scruffy number one said.

  “Yeah…but…” any argument Whiney Boy had seemed to be leaving him.

  “No buts, let’s go.” Scruffy number one said as he began walking towards the side of the road.

  The four of them entered the woods and as soon as the last one had disappeared into the trees I saw movement in the daycare bus.

  “Oh no, not that.” I said.

  “Not what?” Veronica asked.

  “Oh my God.” Sass said. And I had to agree with the sentiment. Eight children had just hopped out of the bus. They were all young, but could all walk. Except they weren’t walking at all, they were running into the trees. A few seconds later the screams began.

  “How did you know?” Amanda asked me.

  “Haven’t you ever watched horror movies?” I asked.

  “I don’t see what that has to do with us going through the woods.” Amanda said.

  “It has everything to do with it.” I said.

  “What do horror movies tell us about this situation?” Shawn asked.

  “Nothing good ever happens in the woods in horror movies.” I answered.

  “And that pertains to us how?” Amanda asked.

  “In case you haven’t noticed yet, we seemed to currently live inside a horror movie.”

  Amanda seemed to think about this for a moment. “I see your point.”

  I stood up and walked back towards the front of the truck, “Come on we need to get over this wreck while their attention is on something else.”

  “Why didn’t they come after us? We were right there beside them.” Sass asked, but I had no answer for him. When I had gotten out of the truck I had been within six feet of the front of the bus and didn’t even notice it. The scary part was that I wasn’t the only one. Big Lou hadn’t registered them as a threat either. Why had he not barked?

  “I’m not sure. Maybe they were asleep or something.” I said.

  “I don’t know much, but I do know that zombies don’t sleep.” Veronica said.

  “Maybe not regular ones but something tells me the wild children of the dead, are far from normal.”

  “Did you see, they weren’t all wobbly like the grown ups are. They could keep their balance as they ran.” Sass said.

  “Yes, they are a threat. We need to leave this place.” Amanda said as she hopped onto the hood of our truck and began looking for what path to take across the wreckage.

  The climbing began. It was slow going, but in all reality, we were moving faster than I thought we would. We had just reached a point where we had to climb up on top of an old, nasty looking, seventies hippy van. This was the apex of the wreckage putting us easily thirty or more feet above the road. As each person made it on top of the van they would in turn help the others to climb up on top. After the van, we had to jump down to a car, which sat a good five feet below us. At that point we would just about be out of the main wreckage. We could weave our way through the outer wrecks and back onto the open road. Amanda and Sass were getting ready to be the first two to jump down to the car when Judy collapsed. She landed hard on the van and began to puke blood. Panic swept the group as everyone got as far away as they could except for Daniel who took her in his arms and held her. She looked up at Amanda and then to me and tried to say something, but was halted by the convulsions that began to shake her body like a rag doll. It was okay, I knew what she had wanted to say and I knew that Amanda and I were on the same wave length. Amanda raised her rifle and let it settle on Judy’s head.

  Daniel looked up at Amanda, “Get that rifle off of her!” He yelled, but Amanda stood as rigid as a statue. The shaking stopped and Judy looked from us to her husband. Her hand had risen and touched him on the cheek leaving a smear of blood where it had been. Softly she said, “Daniel.” Then her arm dropped back to the cold metal of the van and Judy Craig died.

  Daniel pulled the body to his chest saying “no” over and over.

  “Daniel, put her down.” Amanda said, but Daniel just kept holding her saying no repeatedly.

  “Daniel, she is going to change, you have to lay her down and get clear.”

  Daniel either wasn’t hearing Amanda or just didn’t care. He still held her.

  “Daniel! You are putting us all at risk. Put her down. Now Daniel.”

  Daniel didn’t care what Amanda said. He wasn’t putting his wife’s body down. After a few more seconds, Judy’s body began to jerk.

  “She’s not dead!” Daniel said.

  Amanda watched Judy through her scope. Daniel had released his grip on her, and I could plainly see her body do two more jerks. It seemed like a full body twitch. Then both of her eyes opened. She looked confused at first, like she was trying to get her bearings. Then her eyes fell upon Daniel and her brow furrowed as she opened her mouth to take a bite out of him.

  The gunshot was loud, louder than the handgun had been and I felt as if I had been punched in both of my ears. Judy flew backwards and slid off the edge of the van. Daniel watched her fall and turned to look at Amanda.

  “You killed her!” He screamed.

  “Daniel…” Amanda said.

  “You bitch, you killed my wife!”

  Daniel stood up and took a step towards Amanda.

  “Somebody needs to shut him up.” I heard Sass say and saw that one of the kids from the wild child pack was looking out through the trees. All the noise was getting their attention.

  “I WILL KILL YOU!” Daniel roared and lunged for Amanda.

  The second explosion of sound didn’t take me by surprise at all. I watched as the back of Daniels head exploded and he tumbled from the van to land, ironically, right beside the body of his dead wife. He had finally gotten what he had wished for all day. His family was together again.

  “What the hell did you do?!” Jim was saying.

  “Shut up and don’t move.” I said.

  “Do what?” Shawn asked.

  “Be quiet and don’t move; we have an audience.”

  At the edge of the woods a small boy had emerged and had began to look around scanning the area for more prey. I got the idea that he was the leader of the wild children. He stood there for a minute looking and seeing nothing because we were all standing still. I could tell that he knew we were out here. After not being able to find us by sight, he threw his head back as if he were looking at the sky and he began to sniff his nose. He was doing this so loudly that we could hear it on the other side of the interstate.

  After maybe a minute of his sniff test, a little dead girl with black hair put up in two ponytails came out and stood beside the boy. The boy didn’t seem to notice she was there until she touched his arm. He looked at her and she cocked her head back towards the trees. The boy nodded a
nd they went back into the forest to return to their meal. Just before he completely disappeared into the trees he looked back over his shoulder to take one last search of the road, then he was gone.

  “You killed him.” Jim said in a whispered angry tone.

  “Yes.” Amanda said.

  “What the hell? You can’t just kill people.” Jim said.

  The rage that had been smoldering in me started to come back to life. Judy was gone. The woman who had helped save us at Gray. The mother of our group was dead and now this little boy was going to lecture me on what we could and couldn’t do?”

  “We can and will do whatever we have to do to keep this group safe.” I said to Jim. “Daniel was putting us all at risk. His screaming and yelling would have brought every zombie within five hundred yards down on top of us. He had to be dealt with and he was."

  “Why did you even bother killing the King of Gray? You’re just like him!” Jim said. “Why did I come with you? I can’t stay here. I can’t stay with this group of killers.” Jim spun around in a blind panic trying to find the quickest path off this mountain of wreckage.

  “Jim, hey wait…” Shawn said, but it was too late. Jim leapt from the van aiming to land on part of a Toyota to our right, but he slipped as he landed and he fell off balance. In slow motion, I watched as he plunged into what was left of one of the Greyhound bus windows. He was cut from his hairline down his face and across his throat as he impacted the shattered glass. Blood exploded from his body then began to gush out in torrents. He hung on the glass for a few seconds before we heard a loud crack and the glass splintered, sending him down to the road below.

  That’s how quickly our group went from eight people to five. My rage that Jim had so easily rekindled was now completely out. The sight of Jim’s fall had left me feeling cold inside. He was nothing but a kid and I had scared him so badly that he had ran to his death and it was all my fault.

  My fault.

  C H A P T E R T H I R T Y - F O U R

  We walked in complete silence. I’m not sure for how long, time didn’t seem to register anymore. Big Lou had found a way around and met up with us not long after we cleared the last of the wreckage. We didn’t even look to see if there were any cars we could use, we just walked.

  Big Lou was at my side and he was keeping a watch for threats so all I concerned myself with was keeping one foot following the other. I was nothing more than an automaton, lost in my thoughts. Who was I? I was Charlie Collins, but what did that mean? Charlie Collins, the boy that surprised nobody when he flunked out of college. The boy who surprised nobody with the fact that he had made absolutely nothing of himself and didn’t really seem to care. Now, here at the end of the world, I found myself grouped up with the only people on the planet that didn’t seem to realize I was cursed. I was a failure. I would never be the man they thought I was. I had been a screw up since I could first walk and really didn’t see that changing just because the dead had started coming back to life. I thought to myself that I was anything but a leader.

  Jim said that I was just like the King of Gray. In his eyes I was as bad as that psycho who bit hunks off of the men he had just killed to sell his story of a zombie attack. I was no better than that? How far gone was I?

  I was in unknown territory. I had never been pushed to my limit. This was mostly because I took steps to not be pushed to the limit. Why on earth would I want to work that hard for something? If it was that hard I would just settle for the next best thing. Nothing was worth the difficulties of busting your ass. I was a firm believer in that.

  How had I let this happen to me? Was it ego? Was it pride? Maybe it was just me thinking here was a chance to start fresh. A chance to not be the screw up. A chance for the real me to shine.

  “Charlie, what was up with those kids back there?” Sass asked.

  “Yeah, that really freaked me out.” Shawn said.

  I looked around and saw no malice in their eyes. They looked to be having the same emotional breakdown that I was. Well, everyone except Amanda. She looked like she was ready to find the person responsible for all of this and kill them slowly and as painfully as her training would allow. She was a force of nature and at that moment she scared the daylights out of me.

  “From what I have seen in both the wild child pack and earlier with the kids on the bridge, it seems that kids are way different than the grown-up zombies. For one they don’t lose that strength and speed that all the zombies have when they first come back. I couldn’t tell that any of the kids back there had slowed down, and I imagine that they have been dead for several hours now at least.”

  “And that sniffing he was doing, what was with that?” Shawn asked.

  “He was trying to find us.” Amanda said.

  “No way.” Shawn said.

  “She's right." I said. “He came out of the woods because he heard Daniel screaming and Amanda’s gunshots. He was scanning the area to try and find us. That’s why I told everyone to shut up and stand still. I was taking two of his options from him. If he couldn’t see or hear us that only left smell, and I was betting that the wreck would mask us.”

  “If that girl hadn’t came I bet he would have been able to zero in on us by the smell of my gunpowder.” Amanda said.

  I thought about this for a moment and nodded. I hadn’t even thought about the gunpowder.

  “They could have locked on to the smell that far away?” Sass asked.

  “I’m not assuming that they couldn’t.” Amanda said.

  “You all aren’t seeing the big picture here. The kids aren’t brain dead like the grown ups. That little boy heard a sound; he wanted to find it because a sound usually means food. He walked out to the road, and at that point, he quit acting like a zombie. He looked for us, but since we weren’t moving we blended into the background clutter. It seems the kids as well as the grown ups can only pick out movement. Since he couldn’t see us, he began to listen for us. We were quiet so he then switched to smell. These are not automatic functions like the grown ups do. This kid was making decisions for himself on how to find us. And these decisions led to him actively searching for us, not passively searching like the others do.” I said.

  “Oh my God, you’re right.” Sass said.

  “Why didn’t we see that before?” Amanda asked.

  “Because we were so focused with Judy and Daniel and then Jim’s death that we forgot everything else.” I said.

  “Wait. What’s the difference between actively and passively searching for us?” Shawn asked.

  “A passive ability is one you have that you don’t have to think about. Active abilities are those that you need thought to control. It’s like seeing. Everyone can see but to track something, like the arc of a football, that needs intelligent thought. Everyone can hear but to isolate the noise or listen for a specific sound takes intelligence as well. And smells are the same way. Your nose will pick up any smells that it encounters, but to be able to differentiate what each smell is and home in on a specific smell takes active thought.” I said.

  “So…you’re saying that these kids can think?” Shawn asked.

  “There is no doubt.” Amanda answered.

  “Do you think it was just the boy, that he was some rarity, a mutant of sorts?” Shawn asked.

  “No. I can say that without any doubt whatsoever because of what I watched the little girl do. She came out of the woods and saw what the boy was doing. She then stood there letting him try to find us by smell. After she figured it was a lost cause, she tapped him on the arm and then cocked her head back towards the woods as if to say, “Come on, dinner’s getting cold.” He acknowledged this, and then they both left the road and went back to the woods.”

  “You’re right, that’s what happened.” Sass said.

  “The kids are more dangerous than the parents. The only question is why.” Amanda said.

  “That is the million dollar question.” Sass said back to her.

  As we had been walking we had
been passing signs that said, “National Storytelling Center” and “Jonesborough next exit.” I had begun to brace myself for what we would find as we came upon exit seventeen. However, as we made it to the exit I was surprised to find that we faced absolutely nothing. No zombies, no wrecks, nothing. The exit was a ghost town, I half expected to see a tumbleweed blow across the road in front of us.

  Another quiet spell hit the group as we started up a hill that took us away from Jonesborough. We weren’t far now. Exit nineteen would put us at State of Franklin Road in Johnson City. The sun was dipping further and further towards the horizon, and if we weren’t in dusk already, we had maybe ten or fifteen minutes until it would be official. I was really starting to worry that we weren’t going to make it. If you would have told me this morning when Sass and I were leaving the parking lot that we wouldn’t be here by nightfall, I would have laughed at you.

  The quiet was unnerving at times. I wanted to start another conversation but couldn’t think of anything to say. I settled on just walking and counting how many seconds would pass before each mile marker sign. They came at an interval of every two tenths of a mile. We were now at mile marker eighteen point four. We were close. By my calculations we would make it by nightfall, but finding a place to stay for the night would have to be done quickly.

  We were cresting a hill which would allow us to see down to the off ramp for State of Franklin Road. I was running through a list of shops that were near us, trying to figure out which would be the safest and easiest to reach.

  “Do you guys hear that?” Shawn asked.

  I could make out a sound coming from directly ahead of us. It sounded like waves rolling onto shore at the beach.

  “Yeah. I do. What is that?” I asked.

  “Sounds like the beach.” Shawn said.

  “There’s something else. It sounds like an alarm to me.” Amanda said.