by Tim Moon
Ben met Anuhea’s gaze. In that moment, he knew that she understood.
“These were not cut off,” Anuhea said, gesturing at the heads. “It’s like they were torn off.”
“Or twisted off like a bottle cap,” Ben said, a ball of ice forming in the pit of his stomach. Who could have done this?
“That’s a gruesome thought,” Charlotte said. She moved to clean asphalt at the edge of the carnage, fanning the air in front of her face as if it would clear the air of the putrid odor.
“Yeah,” he said.
“How could anyone do that to so many infected?” Chadwick asked. “Surely they would be overrun.”
Ben could only shrug and no one else offered an explanation.
Every one of the infected, even the ones Ben and Anuhea had shot, were beheaded. The only two that weren’t, were the two runners that had nearly ended them, and they were on the other side of the barrier in their safe zone.
“Look at this,” Charlotte said, pointing to the ground. “What happened here?”
Ben carefully stepped over bodies and around heads to stand next to Charlotte. She pointed out a roughly three-foot-wide streak of blood that lead up the street and faded into the distance. Ben saw there was some directionality to the blood, as though a giant paintbrush had swept across a canvas. Something had been dragged through the gore. But why?
Ben followed the streak until the blood trail faded away. When he turned back to face his friends, who stood fifty feet away staring at him with curious expressions, his eyebrows shot up.
“Oh, shit,” he muttered. From where he stood he could see it clearly. Closest to the car, the ground was so polluted with body fluids that it was hard to tell what had happened, but here the smear began to take on a shape. It took a winding path that slowly straightened out and led to where Ben stood. The path reminded him of a slug’s trail meandering through a garden. It had bulldozed a path through the crowd of infected. Torsos, limbs, and heads lay on either side of the smeared trail.
Ben jogged back to his friends. “The strange roar we heard.” He pointed to Anuhea. “I bet whatever that was, caused all of this.”
“What makes you think that?” Chadwick asked.
“We never saw what made that sound,” Anuhea said with a nod as she followed the trail with her eyes.
“Could it be the fast ones you mentioned?” Chadwick asked.
“I don’t think so, they sounded different,” Ben said, glancing at Anuhea for confirmation. She nodded. “More like a screech than a roar.”
Charlotte looked skeptical. “You think it might be some other kind of infected?”
Ben shrugged but a voice inside his head said yes. “I have no idea and I’d rather not find out. Let’s get this mess taken care of before whatever it is comes back.”
They prepared for a cleanup and then returned to the scene. Facing the job head on was somewhat daunting since it promised to be both horrendously disgusting and exhausting.
“We’ll go find a truck,” Anuhea said, gesturing to Charlotte. “While you guys start stacking the bodies.”
“Bloody hell,” Chadwick said, looking even more disgusted.
“Take it easy though,” Charlotte said to Chadwick. “Don’t hurt your leg. The more stress you put on it, the longer it will take to heal.”
“Yeah, yeah,” he grumbled. Then a smile played across his lips. “You heard the lady, Ben. I can’t help you out. Sorry, mate.”
“Damn that,” Ben said with a grin.
He took off the backpack he was wearing and dug out their supplies. He handed Chadwick gloves and an old t-shirt to wrap around his face. It wasn’t much, but the shirt helped filter out some of the stench.
Charlotte and Anuhea walked across the intersection to hunt for a truck. Oliver had gone home with Nancy and was probably playing, or coloring pictures. Ben watched Charlotte and Anuhea for a moment, then frowned at the bodies and wrapped a t-shirt around his own face.
“Let’s pile them here,” Ben said, gesturing toward the center of the intersection.
Chadwick made a face but nodded.
They were halfway done organizing and stacking the bodies, heads, and random pieces when the others returned with a big, noisy truck. Other than the rumbling engine, it was perfect. Anuhea parked it by the body pile and they climbed out to help. Charlotte opened the tailgate and then went with Anuhea to get their gloves and t-shirt masks.
Chadwick frowned at the truck. “It’s kind of tall. Do you think we can swing them up that high?”
Ben eyed the vehicle for a moment. “Only one way to find out.”
They picked up a body and shuffled over to the tailgate. It was a little higher than Ben’s waist.
“We’re going to feel this tomorrow,” Ben muttered.
“Toss on three or three and then toss?” Chadwick asked with a crooked smile.
“Three and then toss.”
“Right.”
“One, two,” Ben said as they built up momentum. “Three, toss!”
Heaving with all their strength, they flung the body into the bed of the truck. It landed on the tailgate with a noisy thud, sliding a few inches. Ben quickly shoved the body away from the edge, so it didn’t fall back out.
“If any zombies are nearby, we’ll find out right quick, eh?” Chadwick said.
“Yeah. Let’s hope not.” Ben snickered. He glanced around out of habit. Satisfied they weren’t in any immediate danger he turned back to the stack of corpses and took a deep breath through his improvised mask. “Here we go.”
The morning sun watched over them as they loaded the truck. After the first few bodies, Ben had to climb in to organize them. He pushed them to the front of the bed one at a time, next to the cab. They had to fit as many as possible, so he wanted to stack them neatly. Anuhea climbed in to help pile them like firewood. In the end, they reached five bodies deep and four high before the bed was full.
Black, oily blood oozed out of the bodies and pooled in the grooves of the bed liner with other bodily fluids. Some of the gore began to drip through the seam of the tailgate. It pattered on the ground with a dull, steady splat.
Chadwick nudged Anuhea and nodded towards the truck. “We’ve sprung a leak.”
She gave him a deadpan look that made Ben chuckle.
Charlotte said, “Eww!” like a little kid.
“Looks like we’ll be taking two trips,” Ben said, leaning against the truck.
His back was damp with sweat, so he backed away from the truck and unzipped his jacket. A rush of chill air blew through his sweater and t-shirt and struck his damp body like a bucket of ice. Goosebumps raced down his arms as he shivered. One gust was enough for him to zip it back up. Chadwick looked just as tired as he felt. He limped over to the vehicle barrier, sat on a car hood and wiped his sweaty forehead on the sleeve of his jacket.
“Where are we taking these?” Anuhea asked after shoving a head and arm into gaps between the bodies. All the random pieces fit in the truck, which was nice. Another load of bodies would be all that was left.
“Far away,” Charlotte said. “I never want to see or smell these again.”
“Is it worse than a normal dead body?” Chadwick asked. “I mean you worked in a hospital, right?”
Anuhea groaned. Ben bit his cheek to keep from chuckling again.
Charlotte rolled her eyes and said, “A lot worse.” As though it was obvious.
Ben thought about where the corpses could be dumped. He didn’t want them to attract scavengers such as crows and coyotes, if they would even eat the infected. But the animals might draw the attention of curious survivors or infected. Charlotte had a point too. Vancouver was a windy city thanks to the Gorge. The smell could be a serious problem that wouldn’t fade for months. The thought of so many bodies rotting in the summer heat made his nose wrinkle. Flies, maggots… Ben swallowed hard, the back of his throat burning. There was no telling what diseases the bodies might spread.
It wasn’t worth
spending the time and effort to bury them though. There were just too damned many of them. Dumping them was the only logical plan. All he had to do was think of a discreet location.
Ben became aware of the silence and looked at his friends. All three stared at him, waiting for a response.
“Um, what was that?” he asked, thinking he missed a question.
“I said… Where are we taking these bodies?” Anuhea asked again, slowly so he could understand.
Clenching his jaw, he swallowed a sharp retort.
“This truck is noisy as hell, so we have to be careful where we drive to avoid attracting more infected, but I also don’t want to go too far.” Ben’s voice trailed off as he finished weighing the options in his mind. After a second, he snapped his fingers. “Got it. There’s a strip of land with tall power lines that runs east to west across town. The land itself is like wild parkland and it’s only about three miles away. We can just pull up and dump the bodies in the bushes.”
“Someone has to stay here though,” Anuhea said with a pointed look at Chadwick. “For security,” she added with a smile.
Chadwick frowned slightly and stood up from the car hood to argue. A low groan escaped when he put weight on his injured leg. “Fair enough.”
“Who’s going to help me unload?” Ben asked.
“Me. We’re just dumping them, right?” Anuhea asked. “You know his injury is a liability if something goes down. I can help push or pull them out, no problem. He can stay and watch the neighborhood from the house while we get this done. That gives him a chance to rest before we load the last set of bodies.”
Ben felt bad for bumping his friend from the project, but she was right.
“Okay,” Ben said, patting Chadwick on the shoulder. “Rest easy and when you see us return, hobble out if you can so we can finish up.”
“Right. I’ll make some tea and keep an eye on the neighborhood,” Chadwick said with a cheery voice. He carefully climbed across the hood of a car and slid down to the other side. He stopped and glanced back at them. “Be careful out there.”
7
The truck engine growled louder than a horde of zombies as they pulled onto Mill Plain Boulevard and sped away, leaving the neighborhood far behind them. Anuhea gripped the steering wheel like a getaway driver while Charlotte looked around at Vancouver, Washington as if it was her first time seeing a city. A buzz of excitement filled the vehicle.
Ben gave directions from the back seat of the spacious crew cab, cradling his rifle and dreaming of the double-bacon cheeseburger at Burgerville. Then they sped by a convenience store where he used to buy energy drinks and the occasional chili-cheese dog. Flashbacks of normalcy.
Driving was freedom. Getting out of the neighborhood refreshed the senses. All four windows were open, even as the heater blasted circulating fresh air, to blow away the rancid scent of death that stubbornly clung to their skin and clothes. Nothing could dampen their mood.
“At the next intersection, turn left,” Ben said.
The road clutter from abandoned cars and bodies was minimal, so the drive was smooth. The posted speed limit meant nothing as they flew down the road. Ben spotted a few random zombies but no large groups. They were out there somewhere but he tried not to let that worry him.
The truck slowed and then swayed with the turn. Ben looked through the back window at the corpses, wondering if any of them would fall out. None did.
“We’re keeping the truck,” Anuhea said as they straightened out and cruised down a two-lane road. “I like it.”
“Should we go all Mad Max on it?” Ben asked. “Add spikes and shit?”
“Not if you want to live,” she said, narrowing her eyes at him in the rearview mirror.
Charlotte smirked back at him.
Ben held his hands up. “A simple no would have worked.”
“Can we stop somewhere on the way back? Grab some treats for everyone,” Charlotte asked.
“Sounds good to me.” Ben had energy drinks and gummy bears at the top of his list. Honey roasted almonds would be nice too. “At the second light, turn right and then slow down because we’re nearly there.”
When they turned, Ben pointed towards a cluster of tall, bushy juniper trees. “This is it. There’s a driveway there and a parking lot behind the trees.
Anuhea pulled in and backed up to edge of the parking lot. Ben climbed out and did a little reconnaissance of the area. He walked the perimeter of the small lot and found the trail that ran through town. A sign with bold letters warned people to leash their dogs. Beside it was a board featuring a map of the trail system. Ben leaned in to refresh his memory. It followed the winding path of a creek and made up a strange mix of natural landscape with the metal powerlines towering overhead. He grunted to himself and then he strode over to check the road. He watched for several seconds in each direction, before determining that it was all clear.
When Ben turned back towards the truck, he was pleased to see that the way Anuhea parked the truck was hidden from street view behind the trees. Perfect cover from infected or prying eyes.
“Time to work,” he muttered to himself.
Slinging his rifle across his back, Ben strode to the tailgate to begin the gruesome chore. It was so quiet outside that when they walked, the crunch of the gravel sounded like firecrackers. Charlotte lowered the tailgate with a dull thump and Ben climbed in with the corpses. The ground behind the truck was covered in tall grass and weeds that sloped down to dense bushes and trees. It gave them plenty of room for all the bodies, even the ones they hadn’t moved yet.
Charlotte and Anuhea began tossing the loose pieces down into the bushes while Ben shoved bodies out of the back. After he had moved the first few there was room for Anuhea to join him in the truck. They used the same system he’d used with Chadwick. Grab them by the wrists and ankles, swing and let go.
When half the bodies were dumped, Anuhea called for a break.
“Good idea,” Ben said, hopping out of the truck.
“Not a bad day, all things considered,” Charlotte said, jerking a thumb at the corpses they had left.
“Too cold for my taste,” Anuhea said with a smirk. “Does it snow here?”
“Oliver asked the same thing.” Ben nodded. “Most winters we’ll get a little that doesn’t stick around long, but some years it’s like living in Montana again. We’ve had several feet before.”
“That’s wild. I’ve never seen snow in person before.” Anuhea had a wistful look.
“Really?” Ben asked, surprised.
Anuhea’s look turned serious. Her head tilted to the side.
Charlotte beamed at her friends. “I love a white Christmas. Snow on the ground, lights on the house-”
“Shh,” Anuhea said sharply.
Charlotte sputtered and was about to retort, when Ben held up his hand. He could hear it too, the faint sound of an engine growing louder. He cursed and unslung his rifle. It was close and getting closer.
“Take cover,” he hissed before rushing toward the trees and bushes that screened the truck from view.
Even if they weren’t spotted, Ben wanted to see who drove by. This brought their interactions with survivors in Vancouver up to two since arriving. He hoped it wouldn’t turn into a shit show like the night before, or like the gang in Hilo. That was not an experience he wanted to repeat.
Crouching behind a thick row of hedges next to the juniper trees, Ben watched a black car cruise down the long stretch of road. It came from the south; the same direction they had. That made him suspicious. On the other hand, it made the driver less likely to notice their truck.
Even so, nervous energy coursed through Ben’s limbs, making his palms sweat despite the brisk winter air. He glanced back to see where Charlotte and Anuhea had gone, but he couldn’t see them. No doubt they were hidden among the bushes, watching just as he was. He trusted them not to betray their presence.
A sense of calm rushed over him and he found an unbidden smile on his
face. It had been a long time since he could rely on people with as much confidence as he had in them. They would have his back and he would have theirs.
He narrowed his eyes at the car. Why were they slowing down?
The car closed to a hundred yards. Ben patiently watched. He could see hands on the steering wheel but couldn’t see a face. The driver didn’t seem to be in a rush at all. There were passengers; that much he could tell. Someone stared out from the back seat, scanning all around. His face was tanned, whether by ethnicity or the sun he couldn’t tell, and he was middle-aged. Brown stringy hair and a scraggly beard framed his face.
Ben froze in place as the sedan cruised past his position. Could the people in the car be searching for them? Had their truck been spotted driving this way?
He raised his rifle, just in case.
A swirl of emotions churned in his chest as the car cruised by, its occupants unaware of his presence. He could snatch the life out of the passenger if he wanted to. The sight of living people, other than his group, made his heart leap even though his brain viewed them as a threat. Gritting his teeth, he wondered if they might be missing out on an opportunity.
No, he had to be cautious; overly-cautious even. He had Oliver to think of.
Footsteps on the gravel dragged his attention away from the passing vehicle. He whirled around, pointing his rifle at the source of the noise.
Charlotte halted and nearly tipped over. She raised her hands and looked at him in wide-eyed shock.
“Sorry,” Ben said quickly. He lowered his rifle and added, “Stay down.”
“Can you believe it?” she asked, crouching down beside him, her enthusiasm overriding her surprise.
“Part of me wanted to wave them down for a chat,” he said with a nod. “The other part of me wanted to shoot them.”
“Shoot them?”
“They could be a threat. They could be out hunting for us. We have no idea,” Ben said.
She just shook her head at him.
They watched the car in silence until it disappeared.
Charlotte stood, and Ben followed. His knees ached from hiding. His back was sore too. No doubt he’d feel it for a few days. He stayed by the trees and stretched out before walking to the truck. They still had a lot of work to do.