A Long Walk

by Traverse Davies

  She finally managed to get herself pulled out from under the dead woman, and she headed back into the store. The shot might have brought zombies around back, to her escape route.

  There were a couple dozen zombies out front, a parking lot full. None of them had managed to get the front door open. Naomi sat down and threw up, the adrenaline dump gone, her body was overcome with exhaustion.

  She grabbed a couple of cans of coconut water and downed them, not caring that they were warm.

  After a few minutes she had her breath back, the shaking had mostly stopped. She still wanted to lie down and sleep, but Jasper needed the meds, and sooner would be better from how he looked before she left. She got up, got her legs under control, and shot through the front window of the store. The noise echoed through the dark store, the crashing of glass hitting the ground almost as loud. She turned and started running, as the zombies came through the now open front of the store.

  She slammed through the door to the back, turned, and locked it. The store would be full of zombies, and hopefully any that had made it to the back were now going to the front, following the noise and the horde.

  The back door stood there, steel, solid, menacing. Out there could be anything. If her gambit worked, a short run to the forest. If it had failed, maybe dozens of zombies.

  “Oh well, no time like the present” she mumbled under her breath, and then carefully opened the door. Nothing visible behind the store, so she hurried out of the open and into the woods on the other side of the parking lot.

  One of the zombies caught sight of her as she went, others followed. By the time she was in the trees there were a dozen zombies following her. She cast her eyes around for a defensible spot. Naomi didn’t have much left in her body, the coconut water had helped, but only a tiny bit. There was a very short cliff, maybe three or four feet, and the ground narrowed in a kind of V heading towards it. There was a large tree at the apex of the V. She ran for it, trying to get up the cliff before they reached her, drawing her sword as she went.

  The first creature reached her just as she made it to the tree. She swung the sword down on top of its head, but the angle wasn’t right, and she ended up biting deep into its left shoulder. The creatures left arm came off, but it still kept biting at her, and the sword was wedged. She pushed one leg against its chest, and pulled. The blade came free and she bounced back against the trunk. Movies made it look so easy, she had no idea swords got stuck so often.

  She needed to be more cautious, less fancy. She slammed the point of the blade into its face. The blade smashed through and into the brain. The creature dropped, but there was another one right behind it, and one to the right as well. She chopped off a leg on the one on the right, then managed to sever the head of the other one. Three down, nine to go. The one without a leg was still coming, crawling towards her though. She came down on the back of its head and it stopped moving. The next wave had three. One of them was a toddler. Horrific, but useful. She kicked it in the head and it rolled down hill, giving her more time to deal with the others.

  The next few minutes got lost in a red haze. Lift the sword, thrust, swing, chop. Finally, she brought the blade down point first into the skull of the toddler. The hill leading up to her perch was covered in gore and death. Limbs hacked off, heads severed. She wanted armour if she was going to keep doing this. Too many close calls in too short a span of time.

  She crept back to camp slowly, staying out of sight of the zombies. Her hearing gradually came back as she went.

  Mona said, "Thought you got eaten," as soon as she got back.

  "Nope, sorry. I'm still alive. Thanks though, the gun was good. You a'ight"

  "Glad. Pills."

  Well, the woman was probably never going to be friendly, but maybe a friend anyway.

  They went through the pills together, using the book to identify what they had. Mona seemed disappointed that there weren’t any serious narcotics, but had a pretty decent knowledge of medication. She grabbed a few pills and gave them to Jasper. They had a hard time getting him to swallow, but they didn’t exactly have a lot of other options.

  By that night Jasper’s fever was down. He woke up for a bit and they managed to get him to keep down some food. The wound was still hot to the touch, but the redness was down a bit. They also kept pushing water on him, keeping him hydrated. "I feel like shit."

  "You look like shit. Thought you was pale before, now you look like you been bleached."

  "Thanks, love you too."

  The great hunter

  By the next day Jasper was capable of sitting up. Still not walking, but not on the edge of death. Over the next few days he recovered strength, until he was finally able to get going again. They were low on food by that point - of course. None of them was willing to go back into Elmsdale though, so they decided to chance it and headed off into the mainland.

  As they traveled they tried some frequency scanning on the walkie talkies. For a long time they got nothing, then a scratchy voice came over the line. They couldn’t figure out what it was saying, but the talkies only had a max range of about fifty kilometers, and likely a lot less in practice, so whoever it was, they were close. They kept on that channel, getting short bursts of voice, and followed the path that made the quick squawks louder and clearer.

  Eventually they managed to make out some of the words on the channel. There were several voices, mostly male, all giving quick focused commands or replies. It sounded military, but the talkies they were using were definitely civilian models.

  "We need food. I'm going to do a bit of hunting," Jasper said, grabbing a small hunting rifle from the packs. He was still weak, but functional. Also, he was hungry. They were very low on food. There was only so much they could carry and none of them were feeling up to another population centre.

  Jasper found a deer trail and followed it, looking for traces of deer to shoot. Several hours later he decided to try for something more realistic. He spotted a squirrel, fired off a shot, and then cursed as the squirrel took off, intact but scared.

  They knew that they only realistically got one shot before having to move on. Who knew if the zombies would come to that noise or not... they left the area as fast as they could.

  They kept stumbling into bogs as they traveled, the land suddenly turning into a sodden slog, every step trying to drag them down. The bogs were full of biting insects and thorn bushes, tearing at their skin, tearing holes in their clothes. The landscape was dotted with bogs of all sizes; often they were the only way through an area, cliffs forcing their path.

  Naomi kept them to their path though, confident in her sense of direction.

  "Hey Naomi, how the hell do you always know where we are?"

  "I was with this fine boy named Tyrell. He was beautiful, but he smart too. Boy was in university, doing astronomy. He used to take me to the telescope, to look at the stars. It was cool, felt like being up in space, way the fuck away from my life. I started getting really into it and shit, reading about stars and constellations and all that. Once I found out you could use them for directions, I was hooked. Read all kinda shit about astronomy, navigation, all of it. Guess I always liked maps too. Mostly I wanted to get out of Nova Scotia, thought it would be easier if I knew where I was going."

  "Makes sense"

  "Anyways, Tyrell, he got this sweet job, but meant he had to move away, down to South America, some observatory in the mountains. He bought me a telescope before he left."

  "Why didn't you go with him?"

  "I was in grade ten. You can't take no jailbait to another country. I miss that boy."

  Jasper found himself falling into a deep depression. He didn't know how long they'd been traveling, he'd lost days to the fever, and travel was painfully slow. Snow kept him going, not just because of his tireless friendship and enthusiasm, but because he provided a link to Taylor, reminding him of why he had to keep moving, of what this journey was about. Taylor had named the big husky when Jasper first got him, refu
sing to even consider a more conventional name. The delays, the lack of progress though, they were sapping Jasper's motivation. The lack of calories was also taking a toll, leaving him weak and short of stamina.

  He knew how to trap, but that involved waiting a few days and checking the traps over and over again. He refused to set aside the time needed, driving himself harder and harder as he started to fail.

  It's a small world after all

  They kept walking North West, and the signal kept getting clearer. Jasper was pushing hard, trying to go further every day, trying to make do with less, less calories, less sleep, less breaks. Finally, after the signal had gotten fairly strong, Mona fell over. She was walking, and then she was lying on the ground, eyes closed. Her breathing was shallow and her pulse was rapid. Jasper tried to remember if he had seen her drink any water that day. He realized that he hadn’t, and that he hadn't seen her eat at all either. “Hey Naomi, did you notice if Mona ate or drank anything, anything at all, today or yesterday?”

  “Not sure… fuck. I don’t think she did you know?”

  They sterilized some water and poured a few drops down her throat, then a few more. Jasper knew it was his fault, he’d been pushing way, way too hard. Well, what could have been solved in a few short rests was now a life threatening situation that might take days to resolve. He’d been avoiding reaching out to the voice on the other end of the walkie talkie - he didn’t know anything about them other than that they seemed organized and were making regular runs. At this point it needed to happen.

  He took the walkie talkie and flipped the talk button. “Hi, my Name is Jasper Pellerine. I’m not sure of my exact location, but there are three of us, and one of us is incapacitated. We are extremely low on food. If there is anyone there, please help.” Then he waited.

  The wait seemed like forever, but eventually a strong voice came on the line, “Hi Jasper. My name’s Robert. I’m coming to you… can you give me an approximate location?”

  Naomi took over the phone. "Hi Robert, Naomi here. We are at forty-five point one three lat, minus 62 point nine eight long, or close to. Sorry, that's the best I can do, no GPS, can't see no stars. Shit's hard to figure right now."

  Jasper knew she was good with directions, but to be able to give that level of detail without equipment was still surprising. Jasper sat down to wait, exhausted, but Naomi said "Come on motherfucker. Too much shit to do, you heard? Light a fire. Give the man a chance to actually find us, I'm good at this shit, but I'm probably off by a bit. Ain't no zombies coming to check out smoke anyway. Get your ass UP!"

  He set to work. Another surprise, and another underestimation. Here he was playing leader, playing the big survivor, and here he was putting other people’s lives in needless danger, while a slip of a girl and a meth head were keeping him alive with their talents and intelligence. He needed to re-think the way he thought about people. He realized he'd been dismissing them because they were women, and in his head he had it fixed that men are the survivors, the strong ones.

  They kept a damp cloth on Mona’s forehead. After a little while her breathing started to get deeper and her pulse slowed. She opened her eyes and tried to get up.

  “Stay there, we have people coming to help. You passed out from dehydration, probably hunger too. Just lie there and get your strength back,” Jasper said.

  "K."

  Finally, two men came out of the woods, wearing camouflage clothing, carrying heavy backpacks, small crossbows in hand. They each had a rifle slung over their shoulder as well.

  The two of them looked nothing alike, one was white, with blonde hair. The other one was black with a shaved head. Despite that they seemed the same somehow. It was the way they carried themselves, the way they dressed, the equipment they carried. The blonde one said, “Hey, you Jasper? I’m Robert. Nice to meet you.”

  “Yeah, I’m Jasper. This is Naomi, and the one lying down is Mona. She’s in pretty rough shape. Guess I forgot that the human body needs fuel. Been pushing us way too hard for a bit now.”

  “Okay. Naomi, the human GPS. Nice to meet you as well. This is Tom. He’s our medic, he’ll look over your friend.”

  Tom checked Mona over, and then pulled out an IV bag from his pack and hung it from a tree, before poking a needle into Mona’s arm. He had some trouble finding a vein, taking his time, getting her to flex as much as she could, but he managed it after a few minutes.

  Robert sat down by the fire on a little folding stool he carried. He offered Jasper and Naomi some beef jerky.

  “What brings you folks to this part of the province?” asked Robert. His tone was casual, but there was an edge to it.

  “We’re heading to Charlottetown. My kid is there."

  “Okay, that makes sense. I was actually planning on hitting PEI as well. Good farmland.”

  “You guys’ military?”

  “I am. Tom’s reserves. The group of us are a bit mixed, but mostly either active or ex. We had a plan starting before this hit. Fucking zombies. It was a joke right? Like, we had a plan for if shit went fucked up, called it the zombie plan, but none of us figured that would actually happen. Well, guess the jokes on us.”

  “Yeah, I did a bunch of survival training. Used to tell my ex it was for the zombies. I was kidding. So far it’s been pretty damned useful.”

  “Shit… Jasper Pellerine. You took the wilderness survival stuff at Canada Survival School a few years back didn’t you?”

  “Wait. That was you? This place man, it’s like a small town of half a million. Yeah, I remember you. Big Rob the superstar student. I remember you got that fire going in the middle of the rain storm. Damn, good to see you.”

  Jasper hadn’t liked Robert all that much during training, but he seemed to be the only one. Everyone else was grateful to the big man who could make fire under any circumstances, could make a shelter in half the time the rest of them took, managed to get a dozen fish when the rest of them couldn’t get a single one. Jasper knew that he tended to be a judgmental prick, and that just the fact that someone owned a hockey jersey unfairly prejudiced him against them. Not to mention Robert clearly had a competent group with lots of supplies and lots of food. The fact that he was headed to PEI was a major bonus. Screw prejudice, better to go with them and survive to find his little girl.

  After a while Tom gave the all clear for Mona to move. Robert told them that he was set up just outside of Upper Musquodoboit, a small town a little to the north. They walked for a couple of hours, moving slow to accommodate Mona's condition. Roberts’ camp was invisible until they were standing almost inside it. There were tents, a dozen small ones and a few large ones, covered in branches and leaves. The whole thing was in a depression in the ground, which made Jasper nervous until he noticed a wide swale that would let water drain out, preventing flooding.

  The camp was tidy, and industrious. It was also very, very quiet. Somehow the group of people there seemed to be able to work in almost perfect silence. There were other defences once you got close. Ditches filled with spikes pointing out. Pits covered in dirt that were almost invisible until you were on top of them. Snipers in trees that could only be seen once you were on the other side of them. That probably meant more that were simply invisible unless you were right on top of them.

  Robert brought them into one of the large tents. A mess hall. The inside was lined with some sort of silver material. “Sound dampening, we can talk in here, still not too loud,” he answered when Mona pointed it out.

  There was a makeshift counter with trays and food containers. "Grab a bite," Robert said, "It's edible, barely."

  They grabbed trays, thankful to finally have something to eat. The food selection was limited. Scrambled eggs, some bacon, pancakes. A breakfast spread despite it being nearly suppertime at this point. They wolfed down the food as Robert sat there and waited. Finally, when they were done he got to the point. “Look, everything I have given you so far is free of charge. However, we don’t carry dead weight here. If you
want to join us, you have to contribute. You are welcome, hell, there’s not enough living humans around for us to turn away able bodies, but you have to carry your own weight and you have to follow the rules. The rules are strict, but they aren’t arbitrary. Follow orders. No conversation in the open. We scavenge empty places. Anything scavenged goes into the communal pot. Everything. No gunfire obviously, it draws them. We have crossbows. I notice you have traditional bows. That’s all good, you keep those. The dog. Does he bark?”

  “Nope," Jasper said, "He’s only barked once to let me know there was one about to get me. He’s figured out how to take down a zombie and keep away from the dangerous bits.”

  “Alright. He’s welcome too. Just like you though, has to pull his weight. Other than that, we don’t usually stay in one place very long. You folks clearly have been sharing a tent. That seems like a reasonable arrangement for now. You will get watch duty. Clearly Mona needs a day or two before she’s going to be able to do her turn”.

  “I’m tough, used to not sleeping. Can keep watch now.”

  Robert chuckled. “No, I think we give you a day or so. Not worried about you being tough enough, just don’t to waste all that nice saline fluid Tom dropped in your veins.”

  They got squared away and then one of the other soldiers showed Jasper where he would be set up for watch. The camp seemed to be about ninety percent male, and there seemed to be a lot more people than the number of tents would indicate.