Eaters: Resurrection

by Michelle DePaepe

  Vinnie landed on his butt. He scooted away from the car and brushed himself off as he rose to his feet. “Geez…chill out. Let Cheryl look at you then.”

  Cheryl had never seen Aidan this belligerent, not even back at Divine Sundaes when he tired of Kai fussing over him. Kai…oh how she wished he was here to tend to Aidan now. What did she know about head injuries? And if he had some serious damage, what were they going to do? She moved towards the open car door and approached him gingerly. “Can I have a look?”

  He kept staring straight ahead, and she took that as a sullen yes.

  Vinnie held the flashlight while she leaned in closer to inspect the bloody gash on the left side of Aidan’s head. “There’s a little glass. I’m going to pick—”

  He flinched before her hand even got close.

  “Hold still!” She leaned down, and—as delicately as she could—pulled the largest piece of glass from the red muck above his ear and tossed it to the ground. There were at least a couple dozen smaller shards. Wishing she had a pair of tweezers, she began to remove them one by one, and was thankful that Aidan remained still while she worked.

  The guys stood around her, watching.

  “What do you think?” Diego asked. “It looks bad, hunh?”

  “He took a pretty good hit.” And he sure as hell didn’t need it since he probably hasn’t fully recovered from the one he took in Sedona. She didn’t say it out loud because she feared it was stating the obvious, and would make Aidan angry enough to shove her away before she was finished.

  A few minutes later, her hands were shaking as she removed the last visible shards that were embedded in his skin. The last one caused a fresh trickle of blood to snake down the side of his cheek. “We really need to get you somewhere safe enough to lie down for a while.”

  He didn’t respond. Was he just brooding because he was upset that he got hurt, or was he having trouble processing what she was saying?

  “Aidan…” she said, trying to get him to acknowledge her.

  He looked up at her, and she saw the pupil in his emerald eye dilated to twice its normal size. “Hey Vinnie, will you grab me that towel in the back seat?”

  As Vinnie went for the towel, Aidan hoisted himself out of the car, stumbled a few feet away and threw up in the grass. He remained hunched over for a couple of minutes, before he stood up and wiped his mouth with his sleeve.

  “You okay?” Diego asked.

  Aidan gave him a nod.

  Vinnie handed the towel to Cheryl. It didn’t look very clean, but she knew it would have to do unless any of them wanted to strip off some clothing which wasn’t in much better shape. As she moved towards Aidan with the towel, he touched a hand to the side of his head, pulled it away, and looked at his bright red fingers and the glitter of glass. He snatched the towel out of her hand, wiped it across the side of his head, and threw it to the ground. “Let’s go,” he said as he straightened up. “We’re just sitting ducks out here if they decide to come after us.” He started to walk back towards the driver’s seat.

  Zach stood in his path and dangled the car keys in front of him.

  “Give ‘em back.”

  “No way. You think you’re going to be the hero and drive us to some new paradise where we’ll all live happily ever after? Well…I don’t know where we’re going, but that not going to happen. I’m driving now.”

  Aidan took a step towards him.

  “You’re going to have to go through the two of us,” Diego said, stepping up behind Zach. “And I guarantee you won’t be driving after that.”

  Aidan stood still, looking like he might keel over at any second. He looked over their shoulders towards the overpass above them. “Fine. We’ve got company, so there’s no time to beat the shit out of the two of you.”

  They all looked up and saw the heaps of rags and bones with gaping mouths starting to make their way down the hill. There were four of them and the silhouettes of more coming from above.

  As they headed for the car, Vinnie whispered to Cheryl. “He might have a skull fracture, you know.”

  She glared at him and whispered back, “Not much point in talking about it, since there’s no hospital to go to, now is there?”

  Vinnie slumped into the back seat on the passenger side and folded his arms like a scolded child.

  Zach was at the wheel now with Diego riding shotgun again. Cheryl took the middle back seat and Aidan took the left side.

  They took off in a peal of dust as the first of the Eaters reached the road. Cheryl looked back and saw a few of them standing there with wisps of mud-colored clothing blowing in the breeze and mouths like black caves watching with disappointment as their potential meal escaped. Though their sex was often indeterminate once their decay was advanced enough, she felt like the trio on the road had once been women, maybe they’d been someone just like her before they were infected. Sometimes, it really was possible to feel sorry for them. She couldn’t imagine what it must be like to have your body rot away day after day while the insatiable hunger never diminished. Though, she didn’t think she could ever feel compassion for them like the Quimera townspeople who visited the jail did. Dead was dead, even if it was still walking.

  She turned back around watched the road ahead. Aidan closed his eye and laid his head on her shoulder. She wrapped her hand around his. It was cool and clammy, though the air was uncomfortably warm.

  Zach assured them that the road they were on, Interstate 40, would lead them towards Albuquerque. If that town looked completely sacked and looted, they’d bypass it and head towards Santa Fe. Hopefully, they’d find it in better shape than some of the other towns they’d seen. They were looking for a drugstore where they could snag some medical supplies, a grocery store that still had food on its shelves, and a hardware store where they could find some basic tools to use to fortify whatever building they decided to use as a shelter.

  They’d only gone another hour when Zach pulled to the side of the road. “I need to rest,” he said. “And there are too many wrecks and things in the road to drive safely at night. A little break?”

  After some squabbling, they all voted for pulling over somewhere that looked secure to try and get some sleep. They drove on for a few more miles until they found a spot that looked secluded enough to chance it. There were crickets chirping, and the sparkle of fireflies flitting across the open fields on both sides of the road. Zach pulled over near a split rail fence that would delay any Eaters from approaching too quickly from one side. With the doors locked and the windows cracked just enough to let in a little air, they leaned their heads back and dozed.

  ###

  When the warmth of the sun on the top of her head woke Cheryl up, there seemed to be an air of subtle optimism in the car. Zach and Diego talked about football, arguing about who would have gone to the Super Bowl this year if the infection hadn’t happened. Zach had his money on the Ravens, and Diego said the Seahawks would have taken it again. She liked hearing their banter. It was heated at times, but helped to take her mind off their present situation.

  Aidan said something in her ear. It sounded like mumbling at first. Then, she made out some of the words. “Screens. They weren’t strong enough. Need…” He was sleeping, dreaming. A few more jumbled words fell from his lips, and she gathered that his mind was either back at his cabin or strategizing how to build a more fortified building that would be safer than the last one. She imagined he was thinking how good it would feel to work with his hands again, doing the carpentry that used to be his trade, putting heads together with the other guys to work on a security system or going hunting for game. Then again…maybe that wasn’t what he was dreaming about at all. Maybe he was imagining that he’d taken off on that motorcycle and left them all behind in Quimera, so he could try his luck on his own. She still wasn’t sure where his mind was.

  Once they were on the road again, Vinnie looked out the window, quiet and sullen, staring at the terrain as they passed long tracts of open space. Ins
tead of passing abandoned cars, corpses, and road kill, they were treated with stunning scenery: red sandstone formations, scrub, wild grasses, prickly yucca, cactus in bloom with stunning magenta flowers, and desert agave topped with golden blooms. Overseeing it all, the sun was high in the blue sky, shimmering over the landscape and causing ripples of heat waves across the road.

  “How you doing back there amigos?” Diego said, as he glanced into the back seat. It’s a beautiful day, and we’re going to find a new home far away from people—somewhere more remote where we don’t have to worry about idiot sheriffs, gangs, and hordes of Eaters looking for lunch.”

  His optimism was contagious, and Cheryl started to imagine that their luck had finally taken a turn for the better. Surely there was something better for them in New Mexico, the Land of Enchantment. She closed her eyes, trusting their pilot and co-pilot to keep them going safely towards their unknown destination. Exhaustion overcame her, and she felt herself drifting off again. She allowed it to take her down to a cool dark place where she could rest and escape from everything, even if it was only for a few minutes.

  When she awoke, she felt Aidan’s head as heavy as a boulder on her shoulder. She wiped a trickle of drool from her chin and craned towards the window just in time to see a green sign whiz by: Albuquerque 60 miles. “Why are we slowing?”

  No one answered her, but she saw the roadblock ahead. There was a large RV lying on its side across the highway, and there were cars on either side of it, completely filling the space between the bluffs on either side of the road.

  “What the hell?” Zach said as he approached the barrier and began to slow down even more.

  “That’s definitely not an accident,” Diego said. “Looks pretty deliberate.”

  They stopped just yards away and stared at the red paint scrawled across the RV:

  SAFETY DETOUR

  There was an arrow after the words pointing to the dirt road on the right.

  “I don’t like this,” Vinnie said.

  “Could be someone just looking out for travelers,” Zach said. “Maybe the road is impassable ahead. Or, maybe they’re burning corpses up that way.”

  Diego shook his head. “If they are, we’re not downwind. I don’t smell anything.” He opened his door. “I’m going to have a look.”

  “Wait!” Chery said before he stepped out.

  He paused without looking back. “What?”

  “It could be a trap. There could be someone inside the RV.”

  Diego smiled as he grabbed a nail-studded chunk of wood from the floorboard. “Robbers?” He chuckled. “The only thing they’re going to get from me is a headache and a few ventilation holes.”

  Cheryl tensed as she watched him stride towards the RV, swinging the board back and forth at his side. Despite his bravado, she knew they could be in serious trouble again if there were guns drawn on them. If it was just were robbers waiting to spring out and loot, they had little worth stealing. Their best asset at the moment was this Mustang GT, and it would suck to have their transportation stolen. Despite knowing how valuable the running car with gas was, she didn’t like being trapped in the back of it. When they had stopped to look at Aidan’s head, she’d noticed that the tires were getting low on air. And with the back window and driver’s side windows bashed out, it was hardly a secure vehicle to withstand any kind of attack.

  “Hello…” Diego called out as he stood a few feet away from the road block.

  A gust of wind kicked up a spray of dust, sending it shimmering across the road between them and Diego. It certainly looked like the place was abandoned, perhaps having been set up months ago. Still…the whole scene bothered her. Why would someone go to all the trouble to wedge an RV and a couple of cars across the road to make it completely impassable? Wouldn’t they have something better to do…like take care of their own shit?

  Diego leaned against the car on the right side, a white Dodge Intrepid that looked like it had seen better days. The hood was bashed and crumpled, and there were dents in its side. As he lowered his board and shielded his eyes to look further down the road, past the road block, Cheryl closed her eyes for one long blink, half expecting a bullet from one of the vehicles or one of the bluffs to take him down.

  But, nothing happened. Diego walked back with a puzzled look on his face.

  “There are a bunch of abandoned cars in the road just past here. Looks like there might have been a pile up and the road backed up after that. Maybe someone just set this up to prevent travelers from getting wedged in between the cars up ahead that could have a bunch of deadheads in them.”

  “Maybe,” Zach said. “Or maybe there’s some other reason.”

  Vinnie stated the obvious for them. “We don’t really have a choice, do we? We can’t go forward, and we can’t turn around and go back.”

  Diego got back in the car. “He’s right. I guess we’re taking the safety detour and hoping it doesn’t lead us to some clan of cannibals or a bunch of rednecks with shotguns.”

  Zach backed the car up a few feet and turned the front wheels towards the dirt road. “It leads south, not the direction we want to go, but hopefully it will intersect with a road going north or east, more towards Albuquerque.

  Aidan was awake now. He’d been staring at the roadblock without offering any opinion until now. “I don’t like it,” he said. “Reckon we don’t have much choice, though.”

  “I’ll take it slow,” Zach said. “If something looks fishy, we’ll turn around.”

  They started down the road, and Cheryl couldn’t help looking back towards the road block. She expected to see people run out and high-five each other because she and her friends had fallen for their diabolical trap…but there was no one behind them. Was it possible that someone had actually gone to all that effort to create the roadblock for an altruistic purpose? It gave her hope that there was still some sense of humanity left in this man-eat-man world.

  The dusty road went on for miles with no intersecting routes. It seemed like a detour into a never ending countryside. Aidan perked up as they drove. He started to talk to them about specific supplies he thought they should look for and the best ways to build a cabin if they decided to plunk down somewhere remote and start from scratch.

  They came to a bridge that spanned a stream and decided to stop and have a drink, using the paper cups they’d brought with them from the beauty salon. Confident that their pursuers from Quimera were long gone, they sat on the bank, enjoying the sunshine. Aidan said his stomach was still a little upset and didn’t drink much water, but the others gulped down several cups. They were just deciding it was time to move on when Cheryl spotted a lone figure about twenty yards away. It seemed to stare at them for a few seconds then it wobbled back and forth on shaky legs and took a few steps in their direction.

  “It figures we couldn’t go too long without having company,” she said, pointing. “Guess it’s time to get going.”

  The rest of them agreed, and they headed back towards the car.

  “You okay, man?” Zach asked Aidan as they climbed up the bank.

  “Sure,” he replied. “I’ll be all right.”

  “You’re kind of like a mean bear when you’re hurt.”

  “You get hit in the head a couple times and see how nice you want to play.”

  “I’d still like to drive for a while,” Zach said.

  Aidan paused for a moment. “Okay. But save some gas for me. Down the road I’d like to get behind the wheel again. It felt real good.”

  Cheryl didn’t think that was a good idea, but she kept it to herself.

  Once back on the road, they went less than an eighth of a mile before they spotted another Eater wandering through the brush a dozen yards from the road. From the distance, it looked like a tall stick figure shambling aimlessly and it didn’t raise its head as they passed.

  A short distance later, there were two more of them standing right next to the road—a male and female pair who stared at them with opa
que eyes and open mouths as they approached, but barely seemed to move as they passed by.

  “Ma and Pa,” Diego joked. “Foraging for lunch?”

  Zach chuckled. “Too bad for them…we’re not on the menu today.”

  The road curved to the south, rolling past an abandoned farm house with a spinning windmill and what might have been a body heaped on the front doorstep. After they passed it, a lone cloud skimmed across the face of the sun and darkened the sky. Sooty clouds were rolling in behind it from the northwest. Ominous flashes of lightning sparked from them like they were cooking up a spring storm. The somber sky affected all of them in the car, causing their chatter to dwindle.

  They came upon another half-dozen ghouls standing in the middle of the road. Zach swerved to go around them. When they drove by a ragged group of ten or more huddled together in a field a couple minutes later, he said, “Maybe there’s a town ahead.”

  There was a worried tone in his voice, and Cheryl figured he was remembering their drive through Globe, Arizona where their car had been surrounded as they drove down Main Street.

  “If there is, you better go through it fast,” Vinnie whined. “We’re a little short on windows.”

  They were headed into a heavily thicketed area when the first rain drops plopped on the windshield. Zach kept driving, at first ignoring complaints from the well-ventilated back seat where they were fully exposed. Minutes later, as the rain started to come down heavier, he said, “Maybe we can find somewhere to pull over ‘til it passes.”

  But, there wasn’t any shelter in sight. They hadn’t passed any more buildings, and the trees and shrubs, though dense, didn’t have large enough limbs to afford any protection from the rain or any wandering ghouls.

  Only Diego stayed relatively dry as the sky cracked open and doused them. Cheryl, Aidan, and Vinnie hunched together in the back as they were soaked by a torrent of cool water. Zach drove even faster, trying to outrun the storm.

  The water was coming in sheets now. He had to slow as he approached a dip where a gully from a previous storm had washed out part of the road. It was over a foot deep, about four feet wide and littered with trash and tumbleweeds that had blown into the crevice and were now floating in the muddy water. He slowed down to a crawl as he edged the front tires into it. They were in the middle when there was a loud pop and a jolt.