As the World Dies (15 page)

    "I think we should try and go to the Fort. It seems to have calmed down. This may be our best shot," Eric said to her.

    Looking up at him, Stacey said, "I'm scared."

    "I know. But we need to try and make it."

    Leaning forward a little, she peered down at the ground below. It was empty of zombies.

    "I just want to feel safe," she said to him, tears in her eyes. "I'm tired of running away."

    "I can try and go alone and send them back for you," Eric offered.

    "No!" She grabbed his wrist tightly, tears springing to her eyes. "Don't leave me alone! I'll go with you."

    "Stacey, if it’s too much for you-"

    "No, Eric. I don't want to be alone," she said firmly. "Please. Just let me get my nerve up."

    "Okay, Stacey. We'll go when you're ready."

    It took her two hours to get her nerves steadied and he let her have the time. There were no more gunshots and every time he checked on the Fort, things seemed calm. Stacey changed into a pair of his jeans and one of his undershirts. He was surprised that she managed to make it look almost cute on her when she rolled up the pant legs and tied the shirt at the waist. Brandy wouldn't have been caught dead looking like that.

    "My feet hurt so bad." She pulled on her running shoes and she managed to tie them despite her shaking fingers.

    "Yeah, I'm pretty sore from everything. I've never worked out like this before."

    "Do you work out?"

    Eric looked at her strong arms and powerful legs and then down at his own thin, but mushy body. "Um. Nope."

    She laughed a little. "Then I bet you're really hurting."

    He couldn't help but blush. "Yeah, well, you're like an Amazon or something. I'm just a mild-mannered engineer."

    She motioned to the tent. "Thank God for that."

    "I've done much better work than that," Eric assured her.

    She smiled and seemed to relax just a tad. "I'm sure you have."

    After a little discussion, they decided to leave their camp on the water tower as a precaution and just take what was still loaded on the trailer. Pepe was stuffed into Eric's jacket once again and they slowly descended the long ladder. Eric went first, the revolver tucked into his belt where he could grab it quickly, and Stacey followed him with the shotgun slung over her shoulder.

    Pepe kept quiet throughout the ordeal, occasionally peeking out, and then ducking back out of sight. He was obviously unnerved by the height.

    When they reached the ground, they were relieved to see the coast was still clear. Eric started up the ATV and Stacey slid on behind him. Eric noted that they were both much more relaxed now that they were on the ground and no zombies had appeared.

    The morning coolness was giving away to the noon heat. The jacket was a little warm, but Pepe seemed comfortable enough. Stacey rode with the rifle in her hand and Eric felt reassured by her determined expression. She was strong despite all they had endured.

    They were just two blocks from the water tower when they heard the motorbike.

    "Eric!"

    "I hear it!" The excitement welling inside of him was intense.

    Then the motorbike came rushing around the corner and Eric swerved to avoid it. The growling bike came to an abrupt stop a few feet from the ATV. There were two men on it and they stared at Eric and Stacey in shock. One of the men, pasty white and hollow eyed, slipped off the motorbike and walked toward them slowly. His companion stayed on the bike and looked uneasily over one shoulder. He was a huge guy with masses of dark hair and golden brown skin.

    "Hey," the younger man said to Eric as he approached. "You from that construction site?"

    "No, no. We're from out of town. Are you from there?"

    The other man shook his head. "No, man. We're like holed up nearby, but we gotta move on. Got company after us," the kid answered and laid a hand on the handlebars.

    Eric suddenly felt uneasy. "We're heading to the fort."

    "That's cool," the man said. "Nice ride."

    "Ritchie, you better fucking hurry it up," the other man said.

    "Shut up, Sergio. I’m dealing with this."

    Suddenly, Pepe lifted his head out Eric's jacket and began to bark angrily.

    "Eric," Stacey whispered.

    "Ritchie, they're coming!"

    "Gimme the quad, bro," Ritchie said to Eric, his eyes growing cold.

    "No," Eric answered and shoved Ritchie's hand off the handlebars.

    Ritchie drew his gun quickly and aimed it at Eric's head. "Yeah. Gimme the quad. I need it. We've gotta move on and I need it."

    "Eric," Stacey said in a terrified voice.

    “It’s okay,” Eric said to her softly and hoped she would just stay calm and not try anything rash.

    Pepe was in a barking fit and it was not directed at Ritchie.

    "Dude, they are coming!" Sergio looked back over his shoulder.

    "We need the quad to move the others," Ritchie snapped back.

    "Just go with us to the Fort," Eric said, trying to ignore the gun. "It's safe there."

    "No, man. It's full of old people and losers. We're doing our own thing," Ritchie answered tersely.

    Eric could see the man's eyes were fully dilated and knew then that he was not dealing with someone in the state of mind to reason with.

    "Don't make me shoot you and the girl," Ritchie continued.

    Eric was tempted to try and draw his weapon, but he wasn't sure he could shot anyone still living. Plus, Ritchie could shoot him much faster than he could draw. Reluctantly, he slid off the quad. Stacey slid off with him.

    "They're coming!" Sergio whipped out his own gun. "Let's go!"

    Ritchie slid onto the ATV and quickly turned it around.

    Eric and Stacey both made grabs for the bags on the back of it and both managed to snag two each before the trailer was drawn away. The two thieves then rode off, whopping and laughing.

    Pepe was still in hysterics.

    "We need to run," Eric said to Stacey and began to race back toward the water tower.

    "Not again," she wailed and followed.

    They were a block away from the water tower when they heard the howls start up behind them. The slap of feet against the pavement spoke of a good number of the dead. Eric dared to look behind him and saw a throng moving rapidly toward them. They looked freshly dead.

    The bags full of water and food were heavy and Eric considered dropping them. Stacey managed to get ahead of him and rushed down the side road toward the water tower. He was slower than she was and he felt panic rising in him as Pepe's barking became more frenzied.

    He saw Stacey make it to the ladder and start to climb. Pumping his tired legs as hard as he could, he dared another look behind him to see that the dead were gaining. Pepe bounced around in his jacket and Eric tried to hoist the bags onto his shoulders as he got closer to the ladder.

    "Hurry!" Stacey's voice was frantic.

    His heart felt like it was going to burst from exertion, but he forced his body to move faster and he managed to reach the bottom of the ladder. It was hard lifting his arms up with the bags on his shoulders and he struggled to get up over the chains.

    Stacey was above him, the shotgun aimed downward. The bags she had managed to grab were dangling off one of her shoulders and forced her a little off balance.

    He struggled to get over the chains and not get caught as Pepe continued to bark furiously.

    "Eric!" It was more a shriek than a word.

    He had just hoisted himself up onto the rung above the chains when he felt a hand grab his ankle.

    "Eric! No!"

    Eric grabbed tightly to the rung above him and began to pull himself up. The weight of the creature clinging to his leg made it hard to climb. Pepe scrambled out of Eric's jacket and onto his shoulder and barked fiercely down at the zombie. Everything was happening to fast to process and Eric struggled to even have a rational thought.

    Then the worst happened. Pepe fell off his shoulder toward the raging zombie below. His foot slipped off the rung. And the bags he had put on his shoulders put so much stress on his grip he began to slip.

Chapter Twenty

The Beginning of the End

    "Pepe!" Stacey and Eric's voice were a chorus and they both watched in horror as the little dog fell.

    With a sharp yelp, Pepe's harness caught at the end of the leash and the small terrier dangled at the end right in front of the zombie. It snarled at the frenziedly barking dog and reached up its other ravaged hand and batted the dog away like a gnat. Pepe went flying outward with another sharp yelp, swinging high to Eric's left.

    As the dog arced away from him on the end of the leash, Eric's heart was beating so hard in his chest that he could feel it thumping against his arm as he managed to get a tighter hold on the rung.

    In about that same moment, a bag fell straight past him and slammed into the zombie holding onto his foot. The force of the bag full of cans hitting it knocked its arm free and it staggered back from the ladder. Eric gasped and quickly got his foot back onto the rung just as Pepe came swinging back into him and bounced off his ankles.

    "Climb!" Stacey's voice was a sharp order.

    "You shouldn't have dropped that bag! We need to eat," Eric exclaimed.

    "Shut up and climb! It's getting up!"

    Eric blinked and struggled to move higher up on the ladder as Pepe swung back and forth below him dangling from the leash attached to his harness. The added weight of the dog on his wrist, where he always kept the furry boy's leash attached to him, made it hard to lift his arm. The little guy continued to bark hysterically at the zombie struggling to its feet.

    The rest of the zombie pack arrived snarling and hissing and Stacey let out a scream that sent shivers down Eric's spine. She moved down the ladder toward him and he blinked in confusion as she hooked one arm around a rung and turned to face outward. Lifting her shotgun, Eric realized she was going to fire at something behind him.

    "Don't hit Pepe!"

    "Hurry up!"

    Eric was now a good ten feet off the ground and he kept struggling to climb despite the acute pain in his shoulders from the heavy bags and Pepe dangling from his wrist. The little dog was twisting and thrashing in a barking frenzy at the zombies below.

    "One of them is climbing!"

    "Oh, shit!" He pulled himself up a little faster, struggling to move under the items weighing him down. He reached Stacey's ankles and she reached down and grabbed the leash and hauled Pepe upwards.

    Eric dared to look behind him to see the fastest of the zombies struggling to figure out how to climb the ladder. The chains wrapped around the base of it were a determent to its ascension and it was having trouble maneuvering. Behind it, the rest of the zombies were hitting the first zombie and clawing at it, trying to push past it to somehow get to the humans above.

    Stacey held Pepe tightly against her side and aimed past Eric. He flattened himself against the ladder and the shotgun barked. The buckshot slammed into the zombie and it fell back, one leg strung through a rung and one hand tangled in the chain. The other zombies surged around it, their hands slapping against the ladder, but unable to figure out how to climb.

    Stacey, struggling with the last bag on her shoulder, Pepe clutched in the same arm, her other arm wrapped around the ladder and holding the shotgun, stared down in awe at her handiwork.

    "Um, move. Before I drop everything or fall," Eric said to her.

    "Oh." She realized she was stuck and it took a few precious minutes as the zombies jostled each other below for her to finally figure out how to maneuver so she could climb once more. Once she was situated, she began to move upwards and Eric, his arms now tingling and painful, struggled after her.

    A few times he checked down below to see that the zombies still had no idea how to climb and the dead one, tangled up at the bottom of the ladder seemed to confuse them. It was a relief and he forced himself to climb as his fingers went numb and his back ached.

    Stacey reached the top and quickly ditched the bag and set Pepe down. She climbed down to him and reached down for one of the bags. He let her hoist it off his shoulder and sighed with relief as she carried it back up. She was more physically fit and stronger than he was and he felt a little embarrassed by it. He finally got to the top and pulled himself up. His shoulder was screaming with pain and almost felt dislocated, but he had gotten the precious supplies to the top.