Beyond the Barriers (30 page)

We both squatted down and lifted, but the cage was very heavy. We kept looking over our shoulders and peering into the night, expecting the zombies to take notice of us at any time, but luck was on our side. The ghouls were doing whatever they did at night. They were always scarce after dark. In fact, I didn’t remember seeing any of them in the dark while we were locked up. Their oddly glowing eyes didn’t seek us out.

We stood and lifted and had better luck. The cage gave a sucking sound as the bars came out of the mud. The bars came up about an inch, but we set it back down. We could lift the cage, but not high enough for either of us to get out.

“Lift it higher and I can fit. I’ll figure out the lock and go get keys if I have to,” Haley said.

“You wouldn’t leave us here, would you?” Scott asked.

“No way. I actually like you guys. You make me laugh, and he is kind of a badass.” She indicated me.

“Not really a badass stuck in a cage now, am I?”

“No, but if I help you guys out, I think you might be able to protect my lily white ass from those things.”

Scott chuckled appreciatively. At her humor, I hoped. She may have been aged from the terrible life we were forced to live, but Haley was still just a child as far as I was concerned.

“Come on. We don’t have all day!” Was this the same girl who was shivering and wrapped in a ball the first night, afraid of my touch?

I shook my head and glanced around. With the rain pouring down, it was hard to see if any of the creatures were nearby. I hoped for the best. Scott and I lifted the cage as much as we could. We had to strain and reach down, letting go with one hand each time so we could grip the cage a bit lower. At last, it was about a foot off the ground, and my arms were trembling. I didn’t think I could hold it much longer.

But just like a snake, Haley bolted to the tiny opening and slithered out on her stomach. One advantage to being as starved as we were was that she was pretty far on the skinny side. In fact, she looked like one of those Hollywood starlets that ate a bowl of peas for dinner.

I nodded at Scott, and we lowered the cage as quietly and as slowly as we dared. I wanted to drop the damn thing, but I was afraid it would sound like a bunch of bells ringing. We managed to set it down with just a few grunts. When it had sunk back into the earth, I breathed a sigh of relief and stared at my friend. He shot me a quick grin, then his gaze darted to the girl.

The night folded around her as she scurried away. Eventually she came back around and looked at the lock, then at us. After she tugged at something, she disappeared. Scott and I waited for a minute, sure that she would reappear. A form walked toward the cage, but it was hard to tell if it was Haley. As the shuffling steps drew near, we both knew it was one of the dead.

It was a man this time. He was dressed in a gaudy red velvet shirt with blue pants. He looked like some ridiculous troubadour. Probably worked at a Mexican restaurant and was caught in the mess in his uniform.

“Friend of yours?” I asked Scott.

“Hey, fuck you, white boy. If I had a gun, I’d put him down with a single shot, Latino or not, bright puffy red shirt or not. Although I give him points for style. It’s hard to pull off that ensemble.”

Clapping my hand over his shoulder, I suppressed a chuckle. It was odd to think I had known this man for a very short time, and yet he was now my best friend in the world. He was currently my only friend, and I felt a fierce need to protect him even though he was more than capable of taking care of himself.

“I hope she comes back,” I said.

“You don’t think she will?”

“Would you?”

“For you? Nah, I’d rather haul ass out of here and take my chances in the woods all alone. Of course I would, dumb-ass.”

“Yeah? Well, I’d let you rot. You smell like death.”

“You’re one to talk.”

Scott walked over to the other side of the cage and stretched his hand out. He came back with the arm I had tossed aside the night before. He took it to the bars where we had lifted the cage and held it out to the zombie, hand first, like he was offering a handshake.

“Hey. Take this and fuck off.” He held the hand up and waved it around. The zombie didn’t have very good motor skills, but he managed to take the arm and sink his teeth into the rotted flesh. Then he wandered away with the morsel hanging out of his mouth.

“Do you blame me for this?” I had been afraid to voice this question, but it had gnawed at me since the day I awoke in a cave.

“I don’t, man. There were too many of them. They had that planned for a long time. They are getting smarter, the green guys.” He didn’t turn around, just kept talking into the night. “We noticed them changing a month or so ago. Getting more coordinated.”

“I can’t help but think it was me that brought them. I should have killed that ghoul when I had the chance.”

“Coulda shoulda. No way to change that shit now.”

I sighed and stared into the darkness around us.

We waited for what seemed forever, while the rain continued to hammer down. We discussed how to get the cage lifted long enough for the other to slip through, but I was already so tired I could barely lift my hand to my head, let alone hold the cage up long enough for him to slip out.

I sat down in the mud and thought about the meat they would offer in the morning. Should we give in? Give up our humanity? At least I wouldn’t be hungry and cold anymore. It would also give me a chance to see what they saw, feel the world the way they felt it. In a way, I felt sorry for the damned things. It wasn’t their fault they became they way they were. History was littered with tales of people eating the dead. It was a shame that we were being hunted to extinction by the ‘better’ humans.
We are you. Only better.
The ghouls words came back and chilled me to the bone.

To tell the truth, I would rather die than eat the rancid flesh. I would rather sit here and starve to death than become one of those things. Sighing, I leaned back against the cage. The rain had died down a bit, and the cover kept my back from getting more drenched. There was no way I could lay on the cold wet earth.

Scott sat beside me but didn’t speak. Weary, I laid my head back and closed my eyes. Without the girl here, we didn’t seem too concerned about huddling for warmth like we did before.

I was drifting off when a hand landed on my shoulder, which made me jump away from the bars. Heart pounding in my chest, I came up in a fighting stance, despite my foggy mind.

It was the girl, and she looked scared. Her hair was pushed back behind her ears, and her face was washed clean, so at least the rain had done some good. A bar sat in her hand—just a hunk of metal. I crept closer to her.

“I couldn’t find any kind of keys. There is a lock, but it’s dark, and I can’t see how it works.” She was standing by the door, feeling it with one hand. Metal clanked on metal, but she moved it gently.

“What are you planning to do?” I said.

“Not sure. I thought I could hit the lock, but I don’t want to bring anyone. Maybe I can wrap the bar in something.”

“Good thinking.” Scott unbuttoned his shirt and slipped it off. He handed it to her through the base of the cage, then stood shivering. His skin should have been dark, like he had a tan, but he was just as pale and white as me. I was probably paler. Glancing down at my hands and forearms, I realized that if I had red eyes, I would make a pretty good albino. I laughed at that thought, and Scott looked at me with a quizzical expression.

I was losing it.

She wrapped the bar in the shirt and then took a tentative swing at the other side. I couldn’t see what she was doing, but the sound was like thunder. It was softer with the padding, but to me it sounded loud enough to wake everyone in the camp.

The people in the cage across from us were on their feet, peering at us. They looked like desperate refugees, like something out of a movie about the Holocaust. The feed pit—that’s what they were in. If we got out, I knew I would have to take them with us.

She hit the door again, and a zombie wandered by on the other side of the cage. Scott used quick thinking, dashing over to that side and calling to the creature. It walked up to the bars, and he kept the dead man entertained by making faces and hand gestures. He held his arm out, and when the zombie went for it, he jerked it back inside.

If it wandered to the other side, we were screwed, unless she was quick enough to bash in its head.

“Shit!” she whispered. Another clang. This wasn’t working.

“Describe the lock to me,” I said.

“It’s not a lock. It’s just a bent piece of metal. The sides are away from each other, kind of like a Z. I can move it, but not far. There’s some kind of bolt or something holding it shut. I tried hitting the bolt, but it didn’t work.”

“How thick is the Z-shaped piece?” I kept my voice calm and low in the hope that it would soothe her. I didn’t want panic to show, even though I was about to go out of my mind with fear.

“Not very thick. But it is pretty hard.”

“Can you slide the bar between it and the door?”

“Oh!”

She handed the shirt back, and then I heard metal scraping on metal. She groaned, then there was a snap and she fell back. I pressed on the door, but it didn’t budge, which made me want to scream! Glancing over at Scott, I found he still attempted to keep the zombie’s attention, but it kept trying to wander off.

Then there was a grating noise, and something hit the ground with a thunk. Pressing on the door again, I found it opened on noisy hinges.

“Help us!” someone called. The others in the cage across from us had their hands pressed between the bars. Dirty hands and dirty faces—just like us.

I slid out of the tiny opening, and when I saw Haley, I swept her up in a fierce embrace. As I held her tightly to me, she sobbed in relief. “I thought I could sneak into a shack and find a key. But the guys with the green eyes were in there. I was lucky I didn’t get caught.”

“You did great, kiddo. I’m so proud of you.”

The people in the other cage didn’t take long to catch on after they watched us. Three or four of them lifted the cage, and others slithered beneath. It was dark, and rain still drizzled down, making it hard to see for more than a few feet. The others looked to be in pretty bad shape. I was concerned that they would be hard to separate from the dead in the event that it came to a fight.

When I joined the group, they stretched out fingers to touch me. I shook hands, but we remained silent. Then, like wraiths, we moved to other cages and lifted them or broke locks. Some picked up weapons and took out any of the wandering dead. Thumps in the nights, no cries or groans, just bodies falling to the ground.

If one caught wind of what we were doing, there was someone to put an end to them. The sound of thunks and metal grinding on metal were all I could hear. It was so hard to keep from running. Every extra noise had me on edge, biting my lip and fearing we would be caught.

Within moments, the dead lay all around us. Some of the living had their eyes set on the small housing spaces, and they had a hollow look, like they were already dead, or they expected to die. I grabbed one by the upper arm and hissed in his ear.

“If you go in there, you’ll raise an alarm. They’ll bring an army down on us.” The man was large, grim. He was covered in blood, and I wondered whose it was. Rain pelted his bald head and ran rivers down his hard cheekbones. If I saw this person from afar, I would have suspected him of being a zombie.

“They killed my son. They dragged him out and butchered him like he was cattle. He screamed the whole time. The next day they killed my wife. For that, I want to kill every one of those abortions.” His voice was choked with emotion, but his eyes were flat black orbs.

“Listen to me. It’s suicide. If we get out of this, we can come back when we are better organized. We can come back with guns, and we can hunt them down. Cleanse this place.”

The man stared at me for a long moment. Scott joined me, and his eyes were filled with concern. He touched my shoulder and motioned for the woods a few hundred feet away. Haley was at his side. She tried to smile, but it was halfhearted.

I was scared too, and wanted nothing more than to run, but I felt the need to get these people away from this death camp. I was sick and tired of being on the run all the time, but what choice did we have? The moment we woke up the ghouls in this hive, we would be dead. Hundreds of zombies led by ghouls would make short work of our group.

I looked at the dirty faces of young and old, men and women. We were a pitiful sight. Some had open wounds and wouldn’t survive much longer, but they would at least have a chance. If we went in blazing with what few weapons we had, it would be over before it started.

“Pass the word.” I gathered the man and Scott close to me. “Once we are free of here, we will come back with weapons and a plan. We will burn this place to the ground. No one will ever fear this area again.”

They both nodded, but I couldn’t tell if they believed me or not. Maybe they just wanted a shred of hope to overcome the desire to kill. I had the very same feelings, but I suppressed them and focused on getting us out of here.

There were nods all around, and before they could even finish passing my words back, I was on the move. I grabbed Scott, and we took off for the woods. We tried to stay low, but it was hard to see in the dark. We moved across the ground, hiding behind what cover we could find. Stacks of wood and rotted enclosures provided a slim hope of staying out of sight.