Hollowmen

by Amanda Hocking

  “Oh my god,” I said and rolled my eyes.

  “Remy!” Daniels said in surprise, and I heard the shelves rattle as they scrambled to detangle themselves. “What are you doing back here?”

  “Can we get a little privacy?” Nolita snapped.

  “Sure, have all the privacy you need,” I said. “Just make sure you bring the food with you.”

  I was walking away and about to round the pots and pans when something caught my eye. The fire from the torch was shining through the shelves, and it reflected off the stainless doors of the fridges and freezers. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the light moving.

  I turned back around in time see the fridge door opening and a hand reaching out. Not just any hand, but a thin one with long, yellowed fingernails. A zombie.

  19.

  “Watch out!” I shouted, and Nolita acted instantly.

  She pushed Daniels back, protecting him, and he fell back into the rows of pots and pans, making them all clatter to the ground.

  The zombie had completely emerged from the fridge now, and it was clearly an older one. It was too sunken to have male or female features, and its only hair were a few patches of long dark strings hanging from its skull. Its mouth was mostly full of teeth, all jagged and crooked and protruding from its mouth. It was almost as thin as the zombie I’d seen climbing out of the semi-trailer, but this one was in better shape and surprisingly fast.

  Nolita charged at it, although I’m not sure what she meant to do since she had no weapons. I think her mind was probably fogged from making love with Daniels, and her only thoughts were focused on protecting the guy she was falling for, at any cost.

  The zombie lurched at her, and she punched it. She connected with its eye, pushing it deeper into its skull. If she’d hit in the jaw, everything might have gone differently. But she didn’t.

  I stood at the ready, holding my oversized pot, and if I’d seen a moment to jump in, I would’ve. But Nolita had a killer right hook, and as the zombie fell to the ground, I assumed she had it under control. She hadn’t taken off her combat boots, even to have sex, and I thought she’d smash the thing with no problem.

  But the zombie only fell to its knees. Nolita grabbed what was left of the zombie’s hair, meaning to yank its head back and punch it again. Instead, the zombie jerked forward, leaving Nolita with a fistful of zombie scalp.

  The zombie’s head was right at the level of Nolita’s bare stomach. She’d put on her panties and pulled her shirt down over her chest, but she hadn’t bothered to adjust it, so it was still bunched up under her breasts.

  And like that, the zombie bit into her, its teeth sinking into her flesh. She screamed, loud and piercing, as the zombie got a mouthful of her stomach.

  “Nolita!” Daniels shouted and tried to scramble to his feet out of the mess in of pans and shelves.

  Nolita was still screaming and hitting futilely at the zombie’s head, but it refused to let go. It dug its bony fingers into her thighs, latching itself even more tightly to her.

  “Move your hands, Nolita!” I yelled. I wanted to hit the thing, but she was hitting it and grabbing onto it, so her limbs were in the way.

  She did as she was told, and somehow, that knocked her off balance, and she fell backward with the zombie on top of her. It let go of her, but only long enough for it to tear a hole in her skin before going in for another bite.

  I swung the pot down on its back as hard as I could, crushing its bony spine, but it still didn’t let go. I didn’t want to hit its head out of fear of hurting Nolita worse. I hit the zombie again, and again, but it didn’t let go. Nolita was still screaming, and Daniels kept shouting her name, standing impotently behind us.

  I kicked the zombie in the side using all my might, and finally it came free. Sort of. It flew off the side of her, but Nolita’s intestines went with it. The zombie had a grip on a long tendril of her innards.

  When I’d hit the zombie repeatedly in the back, I’d apparently severed its spine, because it couldn’t seem to use its back legs anymore. It crawled toward Nolita, pulling itself with its hands.

  “Nolita!” Daniels immediately rushed to her side, kneeling down beside her.

  “There’s still a zombie, you idiot!” I grabbed his arm and yanked him back, fearing the zombie would latch onto him if it had a chance.

  The zombie opened its mouth, preparing to let out some kind of howl, and I jumped over Nolita and slammed the pot down into its head. I could feel the skull crushing underneath, but I lifted it and slammed the metal onto the zombie twice more for good measure.

  When I was done, I pushed the hair back from my face and turned around. Daniels was kneeling next to Nolita with tears in his eyes. She was still alive, her eyes open wide, but her mouth was filled with blood. She’d stopped screaming, and the only sound she made was her trying to swallow and choking on her blood.

  “What is going on?” Boden asked, storming into the kitchen and brandishing his gun. Then he saw Nolita and stopped cold. “Oh hell.”

  I stepped over Nolita and shut the fridge, just in case there were more zombies waiting inside. Then I made sure all the other doors were closed, and Boden walked slowly over to where Daniels was crying and cradling Nolita.

  Her intestines were hanging out of her stomach, leading to where the zombie lay crushed to death on the floor. Her mouth was moving, and she was trying to make words, but there was too much blood filling her mouth.

  “I love you, Nolita,” Daniels said, pushing the hair back from her forehead, and then he looked up at Boden standing over him. “I can’t help her. I can’t fix this. It’s too …”

  “Move,” Boden said simply.

  Daniels looked down at her and sniffled. Almost reluctantly, he let go of her. He still knelt by her side, but he moved back from her.

  Without saying a word, Boden stared down at Nolita. Then he pointed the gun at her forehead and pulled the trigger.

  I jumped, and Daniels wailed. He immediately picked up Nolita again, holding her dead body to him.

  As someone who’d been awake while people played with her intestines, I knew that Boden had done the right thing by Nolita. She wouldn’t have survived that much longer. Even if she miraculously did live despite the wounds, it would only be a matter of time before she was a zombie.

  Boden turned and walked out of the kitchen. I stayed behind, watching Daniels cry over Nolita for a few minutes, but the situation was too gruesome for me to leave him there.

  “Come on.” I touched his shoulder. “We need to go.”

  “No, I don’t want to leave her,” Daniels said. “I can’t just leave her here like this.”

  “We can’t bury her, and you can’t just sit here with a dead body,” I said. “Let’s go and get you cleaned up.”

  “No, I can’t.” He shook his head and tried to look up at me, but his eyes wouldn’t meet mine.

  “You’ll get used to leaving the dead behind,” I said.

  I grabbed his arm and started pulling him. He was resistant at first, but he gave in, letting me lead him away from her.

  I don’t know why exactly I helped him. I just knew how much it hurt to lose somebody you cared about, and it didn’t do any good to get their blood all over your clothes.

  20.

  We didn’t talk about Nolita. There wasn’t much we could say that everyone didn’t already know.

  In the main room, they’d all heard the commotion and were wide awake. Stella was crying, and Bishop was comforting her. When I took Daniels out, I cleaned him up as best I could using a rag and no water. They’d watched me for a while, but eventually, the kids fell back to sleep, and so did Bishop, Teddy, and Serg.

  Even Daniels managed to fall asleep. But I stayed awake for a long time. I don’t think Boden slept, but I’m not sure how much sleep he ever got.

  In the morning, we packed up to go. When Stella asked about Nolita, nobody answered her. We just gathered our things and left.

  Daniels walked mu
ch slower than he had before. He tried to keep to himself, staring at the ground and lagging behind the group. But whenever I noticed it, I would grab him and drag him along, forcing him to pay attention and walk faster.

  This proved more and more irritating as we went along. The area was heavily wooded and very mountainous. We tried to go around the mountains whenever possible, but the land was still rugged. Dragging Daniels around trees and up hills wasn’t exactly fun.

  It was getting colder now, but the ground wasn’t completely snow covered. The cold didn’t seem to deter the zombies, though, based on their death groans. They’d picked up right up on our trail. We might have lost them yesterday, but if Daniels was right about the virus being able to attract the infected, then the zombie that killed Nolita had probably alerted the rest of the pack somehow.

  Ripley seemed to be the only one that really didn’t like the cold. Whenever she had to walk through snow, she looked particularly pissed off and confused.

  Max was also struggling to keep up. Serg stepped in to help him, which really pissed me off. Not just because I didn’t quite trust Serg yet but also because I was too busy helping Daniels to be able to help my brother.

  We took a short break near the top of a smaller mountain. The hike up had been grueling, but it seemed to be the easiest way through. The peak was covered in snow, so we hoped it would at least slow down the zombies.

  Daniels refused to eat anything, but that was fine by me. One fewer mouth to feed was better for us all. It’s when we got up to leave and Daniels refused to get up that I finally lost it.

  “Oh my gosh,” I sighed. “Is this what Nolita had to deal with all the time? Constantly pushing you along?”

  “No.” He glared at me for saying her name. “I went willingly.”

  “Good. Can you go willingly now?” I asked.

  The others had walked a few feet ahead, but they were waiting for us. Teddy was carrying Stella again. None of us trusted her to be able to make it down the mountain on her own. The path was treacherous at times.

  “No. I won’t.” Daniels stood up, his face drawn. “Why don’t you just leave me alone? Why don’t you just let me stay here to die?”

  “Because!” I didn’t exactly know why, so I sighed in exasperation.

  “Because we don’t leave anyone behind.” Boden stepped toward us, trying to come to my aid. “If you can walk, you can follow us. Now come on.”

  “Exactly,” I chimed in.

  “No.” Daniels kept his eyes fixed on me and pointed at me. “You. I want to know why you’re pushing me so hard. You don’t even like me. And after everything I did to you and your brother, I don’t even blame you. Why can’t you just let me die?”

  “I don’t know why,” I said finally. “I just can’t, allright?”

  “No.” He shook his head. “That’s not good enough.”

  A zombie made a weird retching sound in the distance. We hadn’t heard one since before we stopped to take a break, so they were gaining on us again.

  “Remy,” Boden said. “We need to get moving.”

  “Go.” I looked back over my shoulder at him. “We’ll catch up.”

  Boden sighed. “Fine. But hurry up.”

  They started walking away, and I heard Max asking Boden something about me. Boden spoke too quietly for me to hear his answer, and I turned back to Daniels.

  “Why, Remy?” Daniels asked. “Why is it so damn important to you that I live?”

  “Why does it matter to you?” I asked. “Why isn’t just living good enough?”

  “Because it isn’t anymore.” He hugged himself with his thin arms, and he looked so despondent staring down at the dirt.

  “Look, I get it. I’ve been where you’re at,” I said. “But losing your girlfriend isn’t reason enough to quit. We need to keep going.”

  “Why?” His voice cracked. “Why do we keep going? Why, when there’s so clearly nothing left to live for?”

  I rubbed my eyes, hating this philosophical argument I was having with someone that I wasn’t even sure I liked.

  “Dammit, Daniels, you only knew her for a few days. What did you live for before that?”

  “Finding a cure. Trying to save us. And that failed,” Daniels said. “I worked as hard as I could, and I didn’t do anything, except nearly kill you. And then I met Nolita, and I couldn’t save her. I can’t do anything, and the whole world’s going to end.”

  “Maybe it will. Maybe we’ll all die,” I said. “But that’s not your fault. And we’re not dead now. And that’s why we keep going. We keep living as long as we can, and that’s all there is to it.”

  He considered that for a moment, then lifted his eyes to look at me. “Why do you care, Remy? Why are you helping me?”

  “You did the best you could, and I know it,” I said finally. “You did the best you could by me in a really shitty, fucked up situation. And maybe it wasn’t always the right thing or what I wanted, but it was the best you knew how to do.

  “And this is the best I know how to do,” I said. “And all I can tell you is that shit happens, get over it, and go on. But I can’t keep dragging you over these mountains. So if you want to stay here and die, then… I guess I’ll have to let you.”

  I waited a moment to see what his reaction would be, but he didn’t seem to have one. A zombie let out a long, low death groan, and I couldn’t wait anymore. I turned around and walked away.

  Just when I thought I’d left Daniels behind, I heard his footsteps behind me. He caught up to me, but neither of us said anything. There was nothing more to say. He’d made a choice, and I thought it was the right one.

  We hurried, so we reached the others quickly. Bishop was helping Max down the hill, holding his hand so he didn’t slip down a ridge. I took over and helped him until we got down on flatter land. Daniels did just fine without me.

  When we reached smoother terrain, Boden fell back next to me. He normally led the group, but he let Bishop take the lead. Max was walking beside Daniels, talking to him about a weird blue bird he’d seen in a tree, and for a change, I wasn’t pissed or worried that the two of them were interacting.

  “I take it that you’ve forgiven him then,” Boden said quietly and motioned toward Daniels.

  “Honestly?” I shook my head. “I’m not sure there was ever anything to forgive.”

  “Really?” Boden raised an eyebrow and stared down at me as if he didn’t believe me. “What about everything that happened? All the scars you have from him?”

  “He didn’t do most of that, and the parts he was complicit in… well, I’m not sure I would’ve done anything different.”

  Boden looked almost comically shocked at that. “You really think that?”

  I shrugged. “Desperate times call for desperate measures, and nothing’s ever been as desperate as it is now.”

  “Hmm,” Boden said thoughtfully. “Are you ever going to tell me what exactly happened to you at the quarantine?”

  “Probably,” I said. “If we live long enough.”

  “Ooo, a new reason to stay alive.” He smirked.

  I laughed, for the first time in quite a long time, but it was cut short by the sound of a zombie howling right beside us.

  21.

  Somehow, we’d missed it, and seven zombies were only a few feet away from us, standing between the trees. Maybe they hadn’t even been following us. It was entirely possible they’d just been standing there, and we walked into them. But either way, we were kinda screwed.

  “Take Max and run!” I shouted at Daniels, but it was the only way I could think to protect my brother. I’d stay here and fight and send him out of harm’s way.

  “Get the kids out of here!” Bishop yelled, apparently having the same idea I had.

  Teddy was holding Stella, who’d begun to cry, and he ran off through the trees. Daniels did the same thing, hesitating a moment longer than I would’ve liked, then he was pulling my brother along as they raced through the forest.

>   That left Boden, Bishop, Serg, and me to try to fight off the zombies. At least it was an even fight.

  Or it would’ve been, but right away, a zombie took off, running away from us. That ordinarily would’ve been a relief, but that meant it was going after Daniels or Teddy. It was going after the kids.

  Boden had his gun, and he fired one shot, hitting a zombie right in the head. He’d killed it, but when he pulled the trigger again, nothing happened. He was out of ammunition.

  Bishop had inherited Nolita’s gun, and she managed to get off three shots before running out. She killed one, but only maimed another that was charging at her.

  Teddy had the other gun, so Serg and I were the only ones without weapons. Or at least we were at the start of the fight, since Boden and Bishop ran out so quickly. But at least Boden was using the gun to beat the zombies with.

  I don’t know how Serg was fighting, and I didn’t really have time to think about it. I had my own zombie to deal with. I could maybe outrun it, but I didn’t want to accidentally lead it to Max or Stella, and I definitely didn’t want to try running back up the hill.

  A fight seemed my best option, even though I’d just seen how well that worked out for Nolita.

  When the zombie charged at me, I grabbed its arm and swung it around, slamming it into the trunk of a pine tree next to me. It felt a bit Wile E. Coyote to me, but the zombie was stunned for a moment.

  I grabbed the back of its head – which was still surprisingly full of thick curls, so I got a good grip – then bashed the zombie’s face into the tree over and over until it stopped moving.

  Serg was struggling with his own zombie. He had out a large hunting knife, which he was using to try to slash at the zombie in front of him. It kept the zombie back a bit, but it wouldn’t for long.

  In fact, if Ripley hadn’t come out from behind a tree and pounced on the zombie, Serg probably would’ve been dead meat. Thankfully, there was nothing that cat loved more than killing zombies.