by Jamie Davis
Eventually, the sun came up far enough to illuminate the whole village. If anyone moved between the homes opposite him, he’d see them right away.
He spotted movement to the right and glance that way to see someone dart from the corner of one building to run behind the dry goods store. They moved so fast Kurt couldn’t get a good look at who they were. But there was definitely only one.
It was strange because the zombies didn’t move like that. They weren’t concerned with hiding their location, they just ran straight towards food. Maybe this was a lone survivor from the village or another traveler? Kurt couldn’t be sure, so he waited and watched the side of the small store to see if whoever it was would show themselves.
A few minutes later they did and Kurt relaxed. It was Brent, and he was alone. Kurt leaned out from the opening in the hayloft and waved to get Brent’s attention as he ran across the street from the dry goods merchant to one of the homes nearby. Brent stopped when he spotted the movement and then waved back. He changed direction and jogged in the direction of the stable.
Kurt turned to Marci. “It’s Brent. That’s who you saw. And he’s alone.”
“Where’s Helen?”
Kurt shrugged. “I have no idea. I’m going to go down and open the door for him.”
Kurt climbed down from the loft and moved over to the barricaded double doors. He removed the wooden planks they’d pulled from the side of the stalls to brace the doors closed until he could open one side. As soon as he did, Brent darted inside. Kurt pushed the door closed and returned the wooden bracing. Brent took off his pack and lent Kurt a hand.
“It’s good to see you, Brent, I’d started to lose hope we were going to see you again. Where is Helen?”
“She didn’t make it. She was running beside me when we finished off the other group and we were rushing to catch up with you. Another mob came running out of the brush on her side and swarmed her under before I could do anything about it. I barely got away, myself. It was awful.”
Brent turned away and wiped at his face with the back of his sleeve. Kurt stared at the back of Brent’s head. He stood there hunched over and staring at the floor. He looked like a bit of a mess. He had a lot of blood on him as well as numerous cuts and scrapes. A scary thought occurred to Kurt.
“Where’ve you been? Are you scratched or bitten anywhere?”
Brent stood up straight and turned back to Kurt. He shook his head. “I don’t think so, I am pretty sure the attacks missed me. Most of this blood belongs to the ones I killed on my way through.”
“I still think the doctor should take a look at you. Come on up the ladder. We’re staying up in the loft.”
Kurt waited for Brent to climb up first, then followed him up to join the others.
Dr. Nboto sat eating some breakfast from an MRE pouch when Brent climbed through the ladder opening into the loft. She watched as Kurt climbed up and then stared at the opening and arched an eyebrow in question. “Where’s Helen?”
Kurt answered for Brent. “She didn’t make it. A second group of the infected jumped them as they ran to catch up with us. She was taken by them before they had a chance to fight back.”
He pointed to Brent. “Doc, do you think you can check him out? I want to make sure he didn’t get bitten or infected in some way. He says most of the blood isn’t his and belongs to the infected. I’m not sure how the virus is transmitted, but you do.”
“Of course, I’ll check him out right now. Let me get my bag.”
The doctor dug in her pack and pulled out a large soft-sided blue medical bag. As she was unpacking Kurt got a chance to look inside the rest of her pack. He saw nothing other than clothes and some toiletries. There was no sign of any sort of special container that might hold a vaccine supply. He wondered if maybe it was in her medical bag with the other medicines.
The doctor pulled out the stethoscope and put on some blue exam gloves. She began to give Brent a thorough check. When she was finished, she took off the gloves and put them in a zipper bag which she set off to the side.
She glanced at Kurt “We can bury that before we leave town.”
He nodded in reply.
The doctor turned to Brent and asked, “you are doing and feeling well?”
“I’m tired from being up all night but other than that, I feel fine.”
“That’s a good sign. It doesn’t appear that you’ve been infected and the vaccine I gave you back on Earth Prime should start working soon so we should be safe. Just the same, we’re going to keep you under observation for the next few days. All right?”
“Sure, Doc. Whatever you say. I’m just glad I found you guys. I didn’t want to be stuck here by myself. Those things are creepy.”
“That’s understandable, dude,” Marci said. “I don’t think anybody wants to be alone in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. There’s definitely a benefit to working in groups.”
Brent nodded but seemed distracted, which Kurt understood given what he must have witnessed when Helen was taken down by the zombies. Anytime you saw something like that, it affected you.
“Let’s get something to eat for you and then we can get back on the road. The sooner we put some distance between ourselves and any known sources of the infected, the better.”
“That’ll be great, I never stopped to eat anything last night, I just kept wandering through the woods until I found the village early this morning.”
Kurt helped Brent unpack an MRE meal kit from his backpack, heating it up using the integrated heating system in the pouch. While Brent ate his breakfast, Kurt got himself a protein bar and drank some water.
“Marci, I’m going to see if I can look around town a bit. Maybe we can find a place where we can fill up our canteens. There’s got to be a place with a well pump around here somewhere.”
“Good idea. I’ll come with you. We can cover a lot more territory if we split up. I’ll gather the canteens now and we’ll fill them while we’re out.”
Kurt shook his head. ”No, it’s better if we all keep our canteens with us. Just take yours and fill it if you get the chance to. We can all go back to the same place and fill them on the way out of town. I’d rather not give all our canteen to one person, no offense.”
“None taken. I’ll take the east side. We can meet in the middle by the dry goods store.”
Marci didn’t bother climbing down the ladder. Instead, she walked to the edge of the loft and jumped down to the street, performing a rolling tumble that sprung her back to her feet after she landed. She waved back up at Kurt and started searching the eastern side of the village.
Kurt followed but took the ladder instead. Brent came down to replace the door bracing after he left.
He angled himself to the west and started searching the small cabins on the outskirts of the small community. None of them had anything resembling indoor plumbing as evidenced by the outhouses behind them.
There had to be a central water pump for the village somewhere. Everyone probably fetched their water in one place.
He started to turn away when a shambling figure ran out of the forest a few hundred meters away. Kurt spun around and brought up his flechette gun to fire a burst and then stopped.
It was Helen.
She was obviously dead and infected. The former security team leader ran directly at Kurt, snarling and reaching in his direction with her hands.
He knew he had to shoot her, but he couldn’t bring himself to pull the trigger. He froze in a way he hadn’t in a long time, not since he left the special ops team all those years ago.
Helen drew closer and closer. He just stood there and watched her come at him.
She was only about fifty meters away from him when her head snapped back as a pair of flechette rounds impacted with a perfect double-tap shot.
Kurt turned and spotted Marci standing off to one side, tears streaming down her cheeks as she swung her barrel around to cover the tree line behind Helen’s body.
“Thank you,�
�� Kurt managed to say after a few awkward seconds. He forced his trembling hands to lower his weapon.
“I’ve got your back, K.C.” Marci gave him a warm smile. He sensed a bit of sadness and concern in her eyes. “You alright?”
“I am now. It was a shock to see her.”
The two of them walked over to Helen’s body. Kurt stared at her face, frozen in mid-snarl by the head shot.
Marci crouched beside the body. “That’s weird.”
“What is?”
“Look at her chest. At first, I thought all that blood was from whoever attacked her before she shifted. But those look like bullet wounds.”
Kurt stared at the body. The clothing had been torn away and Helen’s chest and stomach showed four distinct bullet wounds in a diagonal row from her right shoulder to her left hip.
“They are bullet wounds.”
“Did Brent shoot her after she was attacked to put her out of her misery? That would fit.”
“He didn’t say. Maybe that’s it, maybe not. Let’s keep this to ourselves for now. No sense upsetting him if that’s what he did.”
“And if it’s something else?” Marci asked.
“Then we’ll have to watch our backs even more. There might be something going on here that we’re not seeing yet.”
Kurt stood and looked around. They were out of the line of sight from the stable. It was unlikely Brent saw what happened. He turned back to Marci.
“What brought you over from the other side of the village so soon anyway? I’m glad you were here but I didn’t expect you.”
“I found a central well near what were probably the original cabins for this settlement. I came to find you and tell you I found it. Good thing I did, too.”
“Definitely. Let’s go back to the stable. We’ll keep this under wraps until we figure out if anything is going on with Brent.”
“Kurt, before we go back, is there anything we need to do or talk about? You froze. Are you going to be able to take the shot, the next time we encounter zombies?”
“It was just because I knew her. That’s all. I’ll be fine. I won’t let you down.”
“Alright. Promise me one thing, though.”
“Sure, what?” Kurt replied as they turned to head back to the stable.
“Don’t let me be turned into one of those things. If I turn or am at risk of turning, you do the right thing. Promise me you won’t freeze. Take the shot.”
Kurt stopped and stared at her, contemplating what she was asking of him. It had never occurred to him before that instant. He knew the answer as soon as she asked him, though.
“You don’t have to worry, Marci. I’ll take the shot,” he lied.
Marci nodded and the two of them walked in silence back to the stable.
Brent was finishing up his breakfast and Dr. Nboto had returned her medical bag to her pack.
“I heard shooting,” Brent said. “Is everything alright?”
“Yeah,” Marci replied. “Just a lone infected wandering around. I put it down. No problem.”
The corporate vice president shrugged and waved his hand in the air. “This whole place is creepy. Everyplace is empty most of the time and then you run into packs of the infected all at once.”
“The sooner we get on the road, the sooner we can make it to the safe enclave and get back home,” Kurt said. “Let’s get moving. Marci found the village’s central well. We can fill our canteens and get back on the road west.”
The others nodded and started packing up their gear and getting ready for the continued cross-country trek.
Chapter 11
The team traveled without incident for the next two days. Continuing the journey west, they moved through mostly open grasslands which made it easy to spot any groups of infected milling about in the distance with binoculars.
A low line of hills and mountain peaks rose in the distance and Kurt wondered if their luck would hold all the way to their destination. He didn’t relish climbing through a pass in the mountains while chased by a horde of zombies.
While they traveled, Dr. Nboto continued to monitor Brent’s health. She checked him over each time they stopped to rest, as well as each evening and morning, for signs he might have been infected during the attack which killed Helen.
Kurt was pretty sure he hadn’t been exposed to anything, given what he and Marci had discovered. Regardless, Brent passed through the incubation period without incident. On the morning of the third day after leaving the village, the Doc declared him clear of infection.
Brent breathed a sigh of relief and gave everyone a bit of a smile. He’d been rather sullen for the last two days. That might be explained given the fact he was dealing with the loss of both Helen and the possibility that he could be infected with the zombie virus. Now at least one of those things no longer weighed on him.
They headed out from their camp on the third morning for the hill country to the west. They’d stayed in a small storage shed beside a burned out cabin in the middle of a collection of apple orchards. Clearly, they’d brought seed through from Earth Prime. The fruits on the trees were ripe and the team helped themselves to several plump, red apples while they stayed at the farm.
Now they moved forward out of the rolling grasslands into the mountain foothills ahead. Kurt pointed westward at one point when they crested one tall hill. “Dr. Nboto, I looked at the map this morning. It appears that the mountain range is a little closer than the map shows. Is our destination on this side or the far side of the mountains?”
“The last time we were here, there was a settlement just this side of the mountains. They had plans, however, to move to a more defensible and remote position in a mountain pass where there was a large hunting camp. They figured they could avoid contact with any roving bands of zombies up there better than remaining down in the valley below.
“So they’re either in the closer settlement still or in the mountain pass?”
“I’m sorry I can’t give you a better answer than that. Like I said it’s been a year. A lot could have happened in that time.”
Including being wiped out by the virus or zombie hordes, Kurt thought. In which case, there was not going to be any lab to deliver the cure to at the end of this journey. He cursed to himself. This job was looking more and more like a wild goose chase.
Kurt stared at the map before folding it up. He put it in his pack rather than give it back to Brent. The corporate rep didn’t seem to notice or care. According to the map, they were going to have to travel through rougher and rougher terrain as they got closer to the mountains and he was increasingly worried about the Doctor and Brent keeping up with him and Marci.
That was going to be even more of a problem if they ran into any more infected and had to run for it. So far they’d spotted some bands of infected in the distance. They were able to avoid the zombies by hiding in whatever cover they could find and waiting for them to move out of sight. He knew they were pressing their luck, though. It was only a matter of time until they were caught by surprise again.
It happened on the morning of the fourth day out from the village. They’d been here in this world for a total of five days and were almost halfway to their goal. A band of infected moved towards them in the distance.
“Let’s head for those trees over there and hunker down while they pass on by,“ Kurt said.
The team jogged over to the trees and crouched in the brush while the zombies drew closer. It initially looked like they’d pass by like the others had, but without any warning, the large group of fifty infected turned in their direction.
Kurt was pretty sure they hadn’t been seen. None of the infected were rushing in their direction. They just kept on at their usual shambling walk. It was just pure dumb luck.
“Marci head to the back of this copse of trees and see if there’s a place where we can circle around this group. I’m hoping maybe there’s an open stream bed or something else that will conceal us while we move around past them. Be quick abo
ut it.”
“Gotcha. Be right back.”
“What do we do if they catch up with us?” Brent asked. “There’s got to be nearly fifty of them.”
“We fight. I know that sounds like a trite answer,” Kurt said as he checked his flechette gun’s magazine and prepared for the worst. “We don’t have a choice, though. If they spot us and attack, we will defend ourselves. It’s not just about fighting, though. It’s about fighting smart. Hopefully, we can find a place where we can get them into a kill zone and whittle their numbers down a little bit. If not we’ll find some high ground and defend ourselves while they run uphill at us. There’s plenty of hills around here.”
“Maybe we should just run now in the other direction.” Brent pointed behind them.
“No, this cluster of trees is too small and we’d be out in the open again if we head that way. They’d spot us running for sure. We’d never outdistanced them that way, especially not with the Doc being in the condition she’s in.”
Kurt shook his head as he continued. “There is only one chance to avoid a fight. We work our way around behind them while staying hidden. We can’t go back. Hopefully, Marci finds a way around to the right that skirts this meadow.”
Kurt didn’t have to wait long. Marci came back within a few minutes. He could tell from the look on her face the news wasn’t good.”
“What did you find?”
“There’s no cover around to the left or right behind us. There is a small rise, though, with some rocks on the slope to slow things down. I think if we can make it up there before they reach this tree line we can pick them off as they come out the other side from up there. When they charge up at us we’ll have a good killing ground shooting down at them.”
“All right, then, let’s get moving. Brent, take the Doc with you. Head up that way and look for that rocky hillside. Go to the top and wait for us. Marci and I will hang back just a little bit and make sure we don’t get caught by surprise in case they speed up.”