by AJ Powers
Tessa looked over at Naomi. “Probably not going to be any stops between here and the boat. You ready?”
Naomi winced as she readjusted her brother’s unconscious body. “Yeah. Let’s get going.”
Tessa quietly exited the parking garage, making sure the immediate area was clear before nodding at Naomi. The rest of the path to the boat was straightforward. They would cross 3rd Street, run over the short bridge spanning I-71, then head down Joe Nuxhall Way, following it until it dead-ended onto 52. Once they were on the other side of 52, they’d run into the park and drop down the stairs near the river. From there they’d just have to follow the trail running along the river, and then they’d be home free. It sounded easy enough, but easy in this new world was rarely a laid-back experience.
A fact that reared its ugly head seconds into their final leg of the journey.
“Shit,” Tessa hissed.
Halfway across the bridge, the shrieks of several infected on the other side ripped through the silent evening air. There were two… no, three… no…
Without realizing it, Tessa grabbed TJ from Naomi before screaming, “Run!”
Retreating, Tessa saw a flurry of activity up ahead, so they moved west on 3rd Street. More infected rushed into the streets, forcing them to cut up a glorified alley between two skyscrapers. An infected woman rummaging through an overflowing dumpster immediately noticed them.
As the woman let out a furious, fluid-filled cry, Tessa raised her right arm and leveled the pistol on her deformed body. She fired six shots before the ghoul finally went down, provoking more screams from the large group chasing after them.
Overwhelmed from the weight of her pack and her son, their speed slowed halfway down the alley.
“Give him to me,” Naomi said, taking TJ back from her before she had a chance to respond.
Tessa gasped as the infected funneled into the alley from 3rd Street. “Keep moving!” she yelled, urging Naomi forward with her hand on her shoulder, keeping herself between her children and the approaching horde. Checking over her shoulder every few seconds, Tessa watched the mass swell. “Dig deep, Naomi!” she yelled between puffs of air.
As they reached the end of the alley on 4th Street, they saw infected closing in from both directions, as well as the group storming down the alley.
Naomi pointed at a salon’s open door off to the left, “There!”
“Go! Go! Go!” Tessa frantically yelled.
They raced to the salon across the street. As soon as Tessa reached the door, she kicked at the cinderblock propping it open and pulled the door shut. She twisted the lock just as the first of the infected smashed into the door, splattering blood and pus across the window.
“Mom!” Naomi squealed in terror.
Tessa spun around just as a ghastly woman with orange and black finger nails lunged toward her children. Instincts overpowered Tessa’s body, and the pistol sights snapped into view as she delivered a perfect headshot with the first pull of the trigger. Before she could process the kill, Tessa swung the pistol back to the front of the store toward the angry screams and violent pounding of the infected mob behind the glass. There were at least thirty or forty of them piled up at the window, which was already starting to crack.
“This way,” Tessa said, running for the door at the back of the room. But it was locked. “Damn it!” she screamed in frustration as she tried to think of another way out. She returned her gaze to the angry mob up front, watching as they tirelessly worked to get inside. Out of options, Tessa calmly changed out the magazine in her pistol before solemnly looking at Naomi. “Get behind me,” she said before raising the gun once again.
We were so close, Tessa thought.
Chapter Thirteen
13 – Cincinnati, Ohio – May 25th
The barrage of angry, hammering fists finally broke through the window on the door, raining down hundreds of tiny shards of glass onto the tile floor. The first man in the group tried to run inside, only to be stopped by the crossbar handle of the door. The thin strip of steel temporarily kept the monsters at bay, but the simple obstacle would only perplex them for so long.
Tessa emptied her gun as the bodies pressed up against the door. With so many infected trying to get inside, it was hard to tell how many she actually killed, but the two at the front of the pack weren’t moving of their own volition. The corpses were actually blocking entry to the others behind them, giving Tessa precious seconds, maybe even minutes, of time.
Tessa swapped magazines—her last full one—before tossing two empty magazines to the ground. She dropped the medical bag from her shoulder and said to Naomi, “The box of ammo is in the bag. Reload those.”
“I don’t know how,” Naomi said, panic heavy in her voice.
“Figure it out!” Tessa replied as she took a single shot at a girl trying to squeeze between the cadavers at the door. The girl, probably no older than Naomi, dropped to the ground, adding to the dam of bodies stacking up in front of them.
Naomi set TJ down on one of the salon chairs and scrambled back to the medical bag. Quickly searching for the box of jacketed hollow-points, her hands shook violently, increasing her frustration with the task. She tried to load the first round, but it wouldn’t go into the magazine. Spinning the bullet 180 degrees, she managed to slide it into place with only a little difficulty. The sharp crack of Tessa’s pistol startled Naomi, causing her to drop the second bullet she was trying to load.
“Damn it!” Naomi cried as the bullet rolled out of reach before lifting another out of the ammo box tray.
“How’s it going back there?” Tessa said, lining up her next shot and firing.
“I’m trying!”
Putting pressure on her daughter would only aggravate Naomi’s anxiety, so Tessa said nothing more, swinging her barrel to another target instead.
Three more shots, Tessa told herself as she pulled the trigger again. Two more.
Her next shot dropped a rather large man on top of the pile of bodies at the door, eliminating the door as a viable path inside. The relief she felt at the organic blockade she inadvertently created was short-lived, as those at the door joined the other infected already pounding on the large glass windows.
The pounding continued, each strike from a fist or open palm sending a jolt of dread through Tessa’s weary body. She held her fire, knowing that if she shot, she would only hasten their entry by weakening the window. The screeching cries from the other side made every hair on her body rigid and every muscle tighten. She had no idea how many were outside now, but even after the handful she already dispatched, there were at least forty, maybe fifty. Regardless, even if she had enough magazines to hold the entire box of ammo, she wouldn’t be able to take them all out. That realization coerced bile up her throat. Managing to suppress the intense urge to vomit, she kept her sights trained on the biggest crack in the pane and readied herself to fire.
“Here!” Naomi said, holding up a loaded magazine.
Tessa reached back with an opened hand. As soon as she felt the weight of the magazine in her palm, she brought it up to the pistol and traded out the nearly empty magazine for the fully loaded one.
Even over the thumping impacts and bellowing moans, she could hear the cracking glass seal their fate as the spiderweb-patterns inched their way across the window pane, zig-zagging toward the frame.
Resigned to their demise, Tessa shifted from survival to hitman, taking out as many of the bastards as she could before they reached her. If the infected were going to have her and her children for dinner, they damn well would have to earn it.
Rage and anger replaced fear and anxiety as Tessa waited for her moment to fire.
She didn’t have to wait long.
A swinging fist punched through the glass, starting the chain reaction. Within seconds, the rest of the pane exploded, and the infected pushed their way into the salon. With a wall of targets to choose from, Tessa just pulled the trigger. One by one the bodies crumpled to the floor o
r slumped over the window sill.
Her slide locked back, and Tessa shouted, “I’m out!” She ejected the empty magazine, and it fell to the ground.
“Here!” Naomi responded, handing Tessa another full magazine.
Quickly inserting the magazine, the slide jerked forward, and Tessa opened fire again. The bodies fell just a few feet in front of her.
“Mommy!” TJ’s startled scream pierced through the commotion as he came out of his medically induced nap.
Tessa, unable to comfort her little boy, yelled, “Magazine!” to Naomi as she spent her last three rounds on a woman climbing over the bodies at the window frame.
“It’s only got four!” Naomi replied, but handed it to her mother anyway.
With dozens of infected still fighting their way inside, Tessa knew they had reached the end of the road. Still, she grabbed the magazine from Naomi and slammed it into the pistol. She refused to die without a fight.
As Tessa raised the gun, she heard a volley of rifle shots outside. Several heads exploded, spraying chunks of skull and brain matter all over the storefront. Two of the infected ignored the threat coming from down the street and continued their pursuit of Tessa and the kids, but the rest of the group turned to engage the shooter outside.
Continual rifle reports brought more dead bodies to the ground. Tessa, amidst the confusion, froze. The two infected climbed through the window and ran hungrily at Tessa. Snapping back from her daze, she opened fire, striking the first one in the chest twice before killing the other with just one shot.
“Watch out!” Tessa screamed.
Naomi dove to the side just before Tessa absorbed the impact from the infected woman with two bullet holes in her chest. The woman, though just barely Tessa’s size, had an unmatchable strength that caused Tessa’s feet to leave the ground as they both slammed to the floor, Tessa pinned beneath the ravenous woman. Her yellow-stained teeth snapped and clicked loudly as her red, cloudy eyes locked onto Tessa’s throat. Though she could hear the battle still raging outside and Naomi’s terrified screaming, everything around her became muffled and muted except for the gurgling hisses from the woman on top of her. Inch by inch, her bloodied face got closer, her muscles slowly overpowering Tessa’s.
“Get off her!” Naomi screamed, using a fire extinguisher to deliver a savage blow to the woman’s head.
The infected woman crashed to the ground, giving Tessa an opportunity to escape. But before she could even get to her feet, the crazed woman was angrily screaming as she lunged for Naomi.
The charging woman suddenly recoiled, her progress toward Naomi stopped as the store rocked from multiple rifle blasts. Her body shuddered with each .30-caliber bullet that bored through her torso. She crashed headfirst into a mirror on the wall before dropping to the ground with a lifeless thud.
Reeling from the attack, Tessa looked up at the stranger in front of her. She was briefly distracted by the smoke wisps dancing from the barrel of his rifle before she met his eyes. She gazed at him for a brief moment before offering the faintest of smiles.
“We need to go,” the man said with urgency, extending his hand out to Tessa.
Snapping out of it, Tessa nodded quickly before taking the man’s hand. He pulled her to her feet, and Tessa immediately grabbed her gun and the medical bag off the floor before scooping up her petrified toddler.
“Follow me,” the man said, stepping over the bodies at the front of the store.
TJ sobbed and cried at the sight of the carnage, most of which happened before he awoke from his state of sedation.
The man stopped and turned around. “Hey, little man, I know you’re scared… I am too. But your mommy really needs you to be strong right now. Can you do that for her?” His tone was soft and comforting despite the urgency in his posture.
TJ swallowed heavily before giving a skeptical nod.
“Good man,” he said, holding up his fist.
As if universally understood, even by a young child, TJ punched the stranger’s fist, faintly cracking a smile.
Shrieks echoed off the buildings to the west, forcing them to the east. They ran for a few blocks before making a beeline for an apartment building on the corner of 4th and Broadway.
“Inside,” the man whispered as he held the door open for Tessa and Naomi. He followed closely behind them into the dimly lit lobby and swept the room with his Glock. He moved over to the elevators and tapped the call button repeatedly before stepping back a few feet to aim at the door—he wouldn’t be caught off guard this time. When the empty elevator opened its door, the four of them quickly ran aboard.
As soon as the doors shut, Tessa handed TJ to his sister and wrapped her arms around the man, squeezing him to the point of discomfort. She sniffled into his ear and whispered, “Thank you,” over and over before slowly releasing her grip. Wiping away the tears, she stuck out her hand. “I’m Tessa.”
The stranger looked down at her hand for a moment before taking it into his. He lightly squeezed hers and gave it a gentle shake. “Malcom.”
Chapter Fourteen
14 – Cincinnati, Ohio – May 25th
Tessa voided the contents of her stomach as the last of her superhuman-dose of adrenaline coursed through her body. After all three of them got ice-cold showers, Tessa did a thorough check of both Naomi’s and TJ’s bodies for any bite marks or scratches. Tessa’s knowledge of the disease was limited, but Trent proved that even a little blood on a recent cut was enough to spread the infection. So, once Tessa was certain her children were unharmed, her muscles eased for the first time in hours, flooding her body with both relief and nausea.
There was no way to describe just how stressful the last forty hours of their lives had been. She had no idea how she would even begin to cope with everything they already went through, much less help her children. So far, Naomi seemed to handle everything better than Tessa, but it would only be a matter of time before the weight of it all hit the teenager hard. Tessa just hoped it would happen once they were within the walls of the safe zone, where she could focus on helping her daughter battle those demons.
After pulling the chrome handle, the toilet spit and spurt as Tessa watched what remained of her dinner from last night spin around the bowl. She climbed to her feet and grabbed the bath robe hanging on the back of the door, throwing it over her shivering body before heading over to the bedroom. Finding the change of clothes that Naomi thoughtfully picked out for her, Tessa dressed quickly. The pants required a belt to keep them up, and the shirt was large on Tessa’s small frame, but the clothes weren’t soiled with infected DNA, so she had no complaints.
As she laced up a pair of sneakers that were thankfully only a half-size too big, Tessa became nervous about the stranger who was alone with her children. She was forever indebted to the man for saving their lives, but she didn’t know him from Adam, and in a world where rules were no longer enforced, she was going to be hard-pressed to trust anyone with the two most precious things left in her life. After running a double knot on the laces, Tessa flapped the cuffs of her jeans over the shoes and went to join her family.
Her angst over Malcom immediately faded when she saw him playing Candy Land with TJ.
“My turn!” TJ said excitedly as he spun the dial on the color wheel. “Gween!” he exclaimed while bouncing up and down on his knees.
Noticing Tessa standing at the end of the hall, Malcom looked over at TJ and said, “Why don’t you take a few of my turns? I’ll be back in a minute.”
TJ spun the dial over and over again, perfecting the speed and accuracy of the flick while laughing with each attempt.
“How are you feeling?” Malcom asked Tessa as he walked to her.
Tessa nodded slowly as she let out a fatigued sigh. “It’s been one hell of a day… Two days, really. But…” she glanced over at Naomi, who was lying on a couch while thumbing through a celebrity gossip magazine, then down at TJ, who was hopping his figurine around the board, “we’re all still alive. Thank
s to you.”
“It was nothing,” Malcom replied, playing down his heroic efforts.
Tessa cracked a smile. “Oh, bullshit. It wasn’t nothing, and you know that.”
Malcom didn’t argue.
“Anyway, thank you. I will never be able to repay you for what you did.”
Malcom shrugged. “Like I said, it was nothing.”
Tessa shut her eyes before rolling them so that Malcom wouldn’t witness her visible frustration. When she opened them again, the first thing she noticed was the torn fabric on his sleeve and the stains of blood on his skin. “Holy shit,” she whispered, shock written across her face. “Did they get you?”
“Huh?” Malcom said before glancing down at the wound on his bicep. “No. Caught my arm on a shard of glass climbing through the window.”
“Are you sure?” Tessa asked.
“Yeah, it’s hard to forget when something sharp rips open your flesh,” he quipped.