by Blake Brown
***
Bryce heard the infected shriek as he restlessly lay in bed, instantly knowing that the sound was too close to not be coming from inside the camp. He jumped out of bed and grabbed his .22 rifle before running out of the cabin.
As he burst outside, he could see Matt putting a bullet in the head of an infected that was now lying limply on top of him. Sarah and Tara held each other and cried. He frantically looked around for any more threats, turning to his right as another infected called out. A dirt crusted, infected man was at full sprint and running straight towards Lauren who was obliviously working on the garden with her back turned to the action. Bryce raised his rifle and leveled the red dot sight on the man’s back, not taking the time to go for kill shots, but just trying to get the threat down. He rapidly unloaded several shots into the creature’s back, the small caliber rounds punching little, bloody holes into its flesh. The infected man dropped just a couple feet before reaching Lauren. Either by pure chance or from feeling the impact of the creature’s fall through the dirt, Lauren turned, and upon seeing the infected creature, cried out. She backed away from the still crawling man’s body. Bryce now took the time to place a well-aimed shot into the man’s left temple and his head fell to the ground.
After quickly locking eyes with Lauren, Bryce turned to look for more threats just in time to see another infected man running right for him. Bryce started raising the rifle that he had at a low ready when suddenly the man’s head erupted into a mist of blood. His body lifted off the ground and flew through the air for a few feet to his side, slamming into the dirt and sliding to a stop. Alejandro stood there holding his Mossberg 12 gauge. He gave Bryce a quick nod as he pumped the shotgun, ejecting the spent slug and racking a fresh one. “The gate.” Bryce said, knowing that he wouldn’t need to explain himself further, even if he had the time to do so.
The two of them rushed to the now open gate, watching as a shirtless Byark sunk the head of his axe into the head of a young, infected boy. Byark turned to them now that all the immediate threats had been dealt with. “Someone cut the chain.” He said. Without saying a word, Alejandro ran back towards the cabin to get a new chain and lock. Bryce continued forward to guard the exposed gate with the big Swede. “Somebody sabotaged us, they even left meat for those fucking things so that they would track the scent here.” Byark added, switching his pointing finger from the cleanly broken chain on the ground to a bloody patch of dirt. The bloody patch was inside of the fence and a few scraps of meat still lay there.
Alejandro returned a few seconds later and started securing the gate. “I’m going to check on the others.” Bryce said as he turned and started back towards the cabin. Byark followed him and as they stepped past one of the infected men’s body’s, they both stopped, seeming to notice something at the same time. “Handcuffs on his wrists, the chain in-between is cut clean through, just like the chain on the fucking gate.” Bryce said as he kicked at the corpse’s arm.
“There’s some duct tape scraps on the poor bastards mouth too, there’s no way this wasn’t an organized attack. Why would somebody attack us? With infected no less?” Byark added.
“I don’t know, but right now, we have more pressing concerns. let’s make sure everyone’s alright and get this place secured and cleaned up. Then we’ll figure out our next move.” Bryce responded as he continued to walk.
They approached the others just as Catori came out of the RV that Eddie was recovering in. She held two, wet rags out to Sarah and Matt to clean the blood off their faces. Sarah took hers and started wiping down her face, but when Matt reached out to grab his, he grimaced in pain. “Ah, fuck.” He turned his hand over and held it up close to his face to inspect his palm. “No……no…no…no…no…no.” Matt said, shaking his head in disbelief.
“What is it?” Sarah asked, putting a hand on his shoulder and leaning in to look at his hand. “No!” She cried out weakly after looking at his palm. Matt just continued to stare in disbelief.
Bryce closed the distance between them and grabbed the boy’s hand, confirming for himself what he already knew to be true. Matt’s hand had a patch of flesh missing where large teeth indentations were dug into his palm. Dark tendrils snaked out from the wound under his skin and started running up his wrist and towards his forearm. “You’ve been bitten.” Bryce said, sadly watching as the black tendrils very slowly inched their way onto the boy’s arm.
“I’m gonna die.” Matt let out quietly and solemnly as he continued to stare at his palm. Sarah wept as she wrapped her arms around him.
“You’re not going to die, there’s got to be something we can do.” Catori said, the healer in her not willing to accept the boy’s fate.
Images of Matt in Bryce’s nightmare just the night before flashed through his mind, the image of Matt’s missing arm in particular. The amputation was old, it had healed. He’d lived through it. Bryce looked one last time at the thin, dark tendrils moving up Matt’s arm and he knew, or at least believed, that Matt could be saved. “We have to cut it off.” Bryce said, looking up to face the others.
“What? Cut what off?” Byark asked, turning to look at Bryce.
“His arm.” Bryce said as he met Byark’s eyes with his own. He then turned to face Matt. “We have to cut off your arm. It’ll stop the infection.”
“What? Are you fucking crazy?!” Sarah said with tears in her eyes, looking up from Matt’s shoulder.
“How do you know that’ll even work?” Catori asked just as Alejandro returned to the group.
“To be honest, I don’t, but I believe it will, it has too. It’s our only option and if we do nothing, he’s dead either way.” Bryce said.
“You could just be causing him more, unnecessary pain and suffering instead of letting him spend his final hours in peace.” Lauren said, apparently having kept up with the conversation by reading their lips.
“I don’t want to die, I’m not ready to die.” Matt spoke up. “Do you really think it’ll work?” He asked as he locked eyes with Bryce.
“I do, but we don’t have a lot of time.” Bryce responded, pointing to the tendrils snaking their way up Matt’s forearm. “You have to decide right now.”
Matt locked eyes with Sarah in silence for a few moments. “I love you and I want more time with you.”
“I love you too. This is all my fault, you got bit saving me.” Sarah said shamefully.
“It’s not your fault. You would have done the same for me. Hell, you did do the same for Tara. The only reason that thing had you pinned down was because you were pushing your sister out of the way and protecting her before yourself. It’s what we all do for each other.” Matt replied bravely, consoling Sarah even though he was the one that was in danger.
“I don’t want you to die…” Sarah said as she lost control again, bursting into tears.
Matt kissed her deeply as their tears drenched each other’s faces, and then hugged her tight for a few moments in silence. “Do it.” He said confidently as he turned back to Bryce.
Bryce nodded, admiring the boy’s bravery. He grabbed Matt’s uninjured arm and led him to the tree stump that they chopped wood on. “Kneel down on this side. Byark, grab his hand and pull his arm tight across the stump from the other side. Hopefully I can get it in one blow.” Bryce said in a rushed tone, grabbing the axe that they used to chop wood. He felt bad for being so matter of fact, but he knew it was the only way he could muster up the strength to do what had to be done.
“I love you all. I want everyone to know that, just in case this doesn’t work.” Matt said with tears in his eyes, looking into the face of each member of their group. Alejandro and Catori ran to the cabin and quickly returned with clean towels and some bottles of isopropyl alcohol. Matt knelt as Byark grabbed his hand and pulled his arm tight. Matt in turn pulled back against him, like they were playing a game of tug of war with Matt’s arm over the tree stump. Matt locked
eyes with Sarah and then with Lauren, who was holding the teenage girl in her arms. “Don’t let her watch.” He said before turning away from them. Sarah turned into Lauren and cried as Lauren wrapped her hand around the side of the girl’s face, covering her peripheral vision and making sure that she wouldn’t see. Tara hugged Sarah and cried with her back turned to Matt. The other members of the group stood there in horrific anticipation, not wanting to watch, but feeling as though they would be abandoning Matt in his time of need if they didn’t. “I’m ready.” Matt said emotionlessly. Catori and Alejandro poured some of the alcohol onto their hands and rubbed them together before pouring more of the bottle onto Matt’s forearm and the blade of the axe.
“I’m so sorry man, I wish I didn’t have to do this.” Bryce said.
“This is going to hurt really bad huh?” Matt said.
“Yeah, really bad.” Bryce said, not being able to match the boy’s humor.
“On three?” Matt suggested.
“Alright.” Bryce replied, and after a short pause, he started the countdown. “One…Two.” Bryce swung down with all his strength, aiming for just below the elbow. Swinging a second early to make sure Matt didn’t pull away at three and make it worse for himself. He couldn’t really tell when the blade of the axe hit Matt’s outstretched arm, he could only feel when the bloody blade sunk into the tree stump with a wet and sickening thud. Matt and Byark both shot back onto the ground from the momentum of their pulling, and Bryce could see Byark now staring in shock at the lower half of Matt’s arm that he held in his hands.
Matt raised his mutilated limb up in front of his pale and sickly face, staring at it in shock as blood poured down onto him and small squirts of crimson shot out of what was left of his arm. Very quickly, the pain and realization set in and his look of shock turned into a look of horror. He screamed in agony as he wrapped his remaining hand around the amputated arm. The girls screamed and Byark dropped the severed limb as he snapped out of his shock, jumping up and looking for a way to help. Catori and Alejandro rushed forward, and Alejandro grabbed Matt, pulling the boy’s hand away from the wound as Catori used a towel to apply pressure to his stump. The once white towel turned red in an instant and Matt cried out in even worse agony from the contact, trying to fight the pair and get away to lessen the pain. The two of them overpowered him and fought off his shrugs and kicks as they kept pressure on the wound. Luckily, Matt fell unconscious and collapsed from the pain and trauma. Byark and Alejandro hauled him up and carried him to the cabin to start treating his wound while Catori kept a constant pressure on his injured arm. Everyone else except for Bryce headed for the RV’s, not wanting to get in the way and not being able to stay at the scene of what had just happened. Grunt approached Bryce and whined, swiping Bryce’s leg with his paw. Bryce looked down at his companion and realized that he hadn’t moved since he swung the axe, he was still even holding the handle. He let go of the axe and scratched the dog’s head. “It’s okay boy, you’re alright.” He walked over to the severed arm that now had a pool of blood surrounding it. He bent down, noticing something odd. The dark veins were slowly fading, and after a few moments, they were completely gone. Bryce turned and looked down at one of the dead infected, realizing that the dark veins that had previously ran throughout its body were now gone as well. His eyes were then drawn to the broken handcuffs that the man wore. Rage consumed him when he thought about the fact that someone had done this to them, to Matt. He stood and grabbed the handle of the axe, using immense force to pull it free from the stump before approaching the body. He stood there in rage for a few moments, staring down at the dead man. He swung down with the axe, taking off an arm with the swing. He repositioned himself and swung again, hacking off the second arm. He violently chopped into the body repeatedly, taking off the other two limbs, then the head, and finally just sinking the blade of the axe into the creature’s back repeatedly as blood sprayed across him and the ground. He swung again at the severed head and sunk the axe into the side of the man’s face, dropping it and letting the handle swing to the ground, screaming at the top of his lungs in primal rage. He took a few moments to catch his breath as he stared at the man’s dead and blood-soaked eyes. “I’m going to kill you, whoever did this, I’ll kill every single one of you. I’m going to torture you, cut pieces off you, and then, I’m going to kill you.”
CHAPTER 16
Bryce patrolled the grounds for thirty minutes with Grunt at his side, waiting for the bastards that attacked them to return. He spotted Catori and Byark exiting the cabin and they approached him. "If Matt's going to make it, he's going to need medical supplies that we don't have." Catori said. Byark was already on the way to his tent to get geared up.
"Tell me what you need and where to get it, and I'm gone." Bryce said.
"There's a small hospital not far from here, I've marked it on the map." She handed him one of the maps they had gotten from the outdoor store and a list of medical supplies. "As far as the supplies we'll need, there's a lot. IV bags, more antibiotics and painkillers, clean bandages, coagulants, I've written everything I could think of on the list. I just hope it's not too late."
Byark ran back over to them, adorned in chainmail and strapped with weapons. "I'm ready to head out as soon as you are."
Bryce nodded to the bigger man, then turned back to Catori. "I'm going to get geared up and we'll head out right away. Whoever attacked us might be coming back, I know everyone is upset and just wants to sit inside and cry right now but unfortunately that's not an option. Everyone needs to be armed and keeping a lookout while we're gone, and as for Matt... He might still be infected, we can't be sure that the amputation worked. You and Alejandro need to keep a constant eye on him and be prepared to do what's necessary if he turns." He said.
"I'm on it, don't worry about the camp. We've come this far, we can handle things while you two are gone. Just focus on what you have to do to save that boy." Catori said.
Bryce made his way to the cabin and Catori made her way to the RV's to inform the others of the situation and get them ready for an attack. Bryce stormed into the cabin with purpose, stopping in his tracks and gazing upon Matt's seemingly lifeless body. He lay on the living room table and blood coated everything around him. Alejandro didn't even bother to look up, keeping constant pressure on the amputated arm. Bryce grabbed his pack and threw in the necessary supplies and ammo. He reloaded his .22 and holstered his .45 before throwing the sawn off 12-gauge into his pack, he then strapped his knife and a hatchet to his belt. He grabbed two duffel bags out of the closet to load the medical supplies into and then fast walked out of the cabin and jogged to the GMC where Byark was waiting for him. He noticed Grunt trotting along behind him and considered for a moment if he should take the dog or not. He decided that they could probably use all the help they could get and snapped his fingers, signaling for Grunt to jump into the cab. The trio raced out of their home and started the journey to the hospital.
***
Private Howard watched the small group through his binoculars all day, not wanting to take his eyes off them for a second. He watched as their plan unfolded and the infected infiltrated the camp. He watched as they killed the creatures. He even watched as their leader hacked off the arm of the youngest male in their group. And now, he watched as their two, strongest fighters pulled out of the camp in a truck, leaving the rest of them to fend for themselves.
Howard couldn't control the excitement he felt watching the truck disappear down the dirt road. He pulled out his handheld radio. The fight's coming. Surely Riley will reward me for a job well done; some R&R, some pussy, some liquor. About goddamn time I get some recognition around here. Howard keyed his radio. "Private Howard to base camp, come in base camp, over." He said.
"What the hell do you want private?" Peterson replied after a few moments.
"The plan worked, the infected have injured one and taken them out of the fight. The leader and the Vik
ing have left the camp. Probably to get medical supplies. All that's left to defend the camp are a few women and one man. Now would be the time to strike. We could take them out with zero casualties on our end. Over." Howard said.
"Goddamn! Good work boy. We're going to suit up and be on our way, get in position for the assault."
***
"Take this exit." Byark said as they drove down the highway, examining the map. "The hospital's just down this road."
"Let's pull over and approach on foot, make sure it's not filled with hostile people or infected before we bring the truck around." Bryce replied as he took the exit.
"Good idea." Bryce pulled off onto the side of the road. They grabbed their gear and the duffel bags as they climbed out, locking the truck and continuing on foot. Grunt limped along behind them.
As they got closer, they could see the hospital in the distance and two Humvees parked in front of it. Byark motioned to the woods and Bryce and Grunt followed him into the tree line, slowly creeping closer. They stopped directly across the street from the front entrance, hidden by the thick layer of trees and brush. They could see two men dressed in military uniforms leaning against one of the vehicles with lit cigarettes in hand. They talked and joked with each other, although their words were silent to Bryce’s ears. "What are the odds these guys will just give us what we need and send us on our way?" Byark asked rhetorically.