Rise and Walk (21 page)

They had passed out of the valley into the trees. The wretched beasts moved in staggered groups, spread out without any sort of organization. They took no note or exception with the many flies that landed on their decaying skin. The large country insects took bite after bite from the cool meat of their carrion. The creatures made no objections. They simply walked. Walked towards something that smelled desirable to what was left of their minds. They couldn’t articulate their desire. The ability to use any sort of language was long gone from the mush that occupied their craniums. They only reacted to the smell. Thoughts no longer occupied their minds, only the urge to feed. Now, driven only by the most primitive of instincts they found a clearing with a building not far from the trees. They didn’t understand what a building was anymore, only that it smelled appetizing. Like a slug that slithers away from a hot surface, these sickened, slimy creatures, covered with blood and foulness, crawled towards something warm. They slouched and shambled forward towards something to be consumed.

Veronica heard a faint rasp of breathing behind her. For a moment, she thought it was Lance, until he spoke in a frightened tone.

“What was that?” he asked hurriedly.

Veronica’s heart seemed to freeze. Lance’s voice excited whatever was on the other side of the shack. She heard another dry moan from outside. Something thumped against the wall next to Lance. He bounced forward from the impact. Hands slapped on the walls in greater numbers. Nikki, face blank with terror moved near Veronica in the center of the shack. She pressed her shoulder to Nikki wanting to touch her for reassurance but too afraid to remove her hands from the shotgun.

“They’re here??? What are they doing here???” Nikki almost screamed.

“I don’t know, they must’ve found us.” Veronica shuttered.

The moans from outside turned to growls, growing louder by the moment. The walls shook but held. Veronica moved to the door to check the two by four that barred it shut. Nikki followed, finding the open room, now free from motorcycles, very large. She stayed close to Veronica out of fear.

The air was thick with the cries of the living dead. Their loud moans seemed to converge closer and closer. Their forms outside blocked the light that penetrated through the small slats, creating horrific, slow moving shadows. Fingernails scrapped and broke off as the beasts tried to claw through the planks. Nikki looked at Veronica with a pale, questioning face. Veronica knew what she was thinking.
How did they get here and what are we gonna do
? Veronica took her left hand off the shotgun for a moment and put her finger to her lips, making the gesture for quiet.

Lance decided that now was the time to make a move. The wall behind him shook, throwing him forward with each blow. He thought he could smell the rot coming off their bodies through the wood slats. He threw his arms apart with explosive effort. The tape didn’t break. He pulled his wrists back up to his mouth and grinded the last bit of tape against his jagged tooth, smashing his nose with his open palms. The pain was excruciating but he succeeded. The tape separated with the girls too busy to notice. He grabbed the improvised dart and drew the sharpened tip across the tape holding his legs, several times. It perforated the surface of the tape but not all the way through. He sliced at his bonds faster and faster until he freed himself.

Wood crackled and snapped from opposite Lance. On the other side of the wall, something broke through a weak board, about two feet from the floor. The slat separated at a knot hole. A slimy hand forced its way in with the wood bending forward like a saloon door. As a ghoul tried to pull its hand out, skin tore on the rough surface of the wood, clamping down on the thing’s wrist. Veronica dashed to the intruder. Nikki stayed put, not willing to get close to the greasy claw. Veronica slid the shotgun barrel through the breach in the wall and fired the .410. The creature blew back from the wall leaving a six inch tall, one foot wide gap where its hand had been. She broke open the breach of the shotgun to reload. Lance sprang up, grabbing the open weapon. He punched Veronica hard across the chin. His size and weight advantage over her sent Veronica flying towards Nikki.

“No!” cried Nikki scrambling to point the pistol up towards Lance. Veronica got to her feet and watched Lance pull a green shotgun shell from his pocket.
Where the hell did he get that
? She wondered in anger. He snapped the breach closed and aimed at Veronica. Nikki remembered to flick off the safety and took aim at Lance.

“Put the gun down, little girl or I ‘m gonna put a big hole in this bitch’s chest,” he said.

Nikki was scared. The world was falling apart around her. She wanted to just put the gun down and hope that everything was going to be all right. But she knew it wouldn’t be. She knew she couldn’t let Lance have their guns. She pulled back the hammer on the pistol, just like Tony had shown her.

“You have one bullet, I have seven,” she threatened earnestly. Her soft voice sounding determined while holding back her panic.

“Yeah, but you’re not gonna shoot me. I will shoot her.”

“Shoot him Nik,” Veronica urged.

The walls shook. A creature looked in the hole next to Lance and growled fiercely; foamy saliva frothing from its chapped and cracked mouth. Lance saw the creature in his peripheral vision but kept his eyes on Veronica. Nikki’s heartbeat felt far too fast.

“Give me the shells in your pocket!” Lance demanded.

“Shoot him!” she called to Nikki.

Nikki saw Lance pull back the hammer of the shotgun. She pulled the trigger. She aimed for his chest but the bullet struck Lance in the stomach, just below the sternum. He reeled back in agony. Veronica turned and tried to gain some distance. Lance, still in shock but fueled with rage, tilted the shotgun up as he fell and fired striking Veronica on her left midsection. The shot reverberated through the shack exciting the ghouls even more.

Lance slumped unable to control his legs. He fell to his right against the hole in the wall. A raging creature outside snapped off the four foot plank that was underneath the exposed area. More things came to the breach in the wall. Fingers clawed at Lance. He slapped at their hands impotently with weak defensive swipes. The shotgun slipped from his hands in the struggle. Another plank tore free, lower than the first, exposing more area of the wall. Arms entered the building and seized Lance. He screamed in terror and they answered him with roars of hunger. A two foot by four foot section had now become exposed. A creature poked his head through and sunk its dirty teeth into Lance’s forearm. He wailed with a coward’s tenor as blood fell in thick drops on the plywood floor.

Nikki watched with her gun still aimed at Lance. She knelt down next to Veronica and saw blood soaking through her motorcycle jersey. Nikki was in a panic. She seemed to vibrate with frustration and fear. Lance screamed causing her attention to shift.

The creatures fought wildly over which one would have access to the hole in the wall. As one ghoul stuck its head into the shack to try and bite Lance, another would pull it out by the shoulders, wanting the meat for themselves. Finally arms began to pull Lance out of the hole. He moved slowly at first, fighting to stay inside. An exposed nail in one of the two by fours dragged a deep crimson gouge across his face as he was pulled along. Merciless jaws assaulted his appendages. Once his head became vulnerable to the outside, the erstwhile Professor Galloway found Lance’s face and bit ravenously into his lower lip. Mindy, the former cheerleader slithered her small form through the press of the hungry crowd like a cunning reptile and brought her broken and deformed braces down on Lance’s neck again and again, silencing his cries.

Nikki watched in horror as Lance’s feet disappeared out of the hole. The words,
Oh God, Oh God
, ran over and over in her head. She had never been so scared before in her life. She was alone with those things; hungry and surrounding her. They would come in and eat her if she didn’t do something about it. She had bullets; six in the gun and four in her pocket.
Oh God, Oh God
, the panic replayed. Below her mental mantra of fear, ideas for survival forced themselves to the surface. The thoughts were not words, rather an inspiration. She had to block the hole in the wall before one of the creatures crawled in.

Pocketing the pistol, she ran to the large workbench. With a wide sweep of her arms she cleared everything off the bench. Paint guns, tools and the red toolbox crashed to the floor with a loud clatter. She kicked the shotgun out of her way, sending it sliding towards Veronica’s body. Throwing all of her one hundred and eighteen pounds behind the bench, she was able to bring it to its tipping point. It hung in the air for a moment, balancing on two legs long ways then crashed to the floor. She pushed the bench the way a footballer hits the practice sleds. Slowly it moved towards the gap. The heavy workbench smashed flush with the wall against the two by fours. Without thinking, Nikki fetched up one of the blow darts and a hammer. She pounded the nail through the bench and into a two by four, smashing the paper cone. Turning, she pulled the axe off the wall rack and wedged it between the far side of the bench and another two by four on the back wall. The structure was heavy and it just might hold.

She fell to the floor and crawled in utter terror towards Veronica. Nikki didn’t know what to do. Somewhere in her mind she remembered that blood loss was a bad thing.
What do I use to stop the bleeding?
, she wondered frantically. She saw the little canvas pack that Tony had made for her to use as a pillow the night before. The
Oh God
mantra had silenced.

“He stuffed it with bandages,” she whispered.

THIRTY-SIX

The men saw two tattered creatures on the road about a half mile from camp. Mason avoided the first one with a swerve but Tony wasn’t so fortunate. The thing caught him on the helmet with an outstretched arm. Tony was clothes-lined off his bike at twenty miles an hour, sending his cycle to the ground five yards away. He landed with a jolt that made him instantly grateful for the protective vest. The creature leapt on Tony, mouth first. It brought its monstrous teeth down onto the shoulder pad of his plastic armor. Tony lifted his heavy helmet and saw the creature trying to bite the plastic. He made a high pitched sound of wonder at his luck. He slipped his hand behind the thing and grabbed its belt, his other underneath the creature’s armpit. The gear he wore made his movements more difficult, but he managed to pull with one hand and throw with the other, pushing the frenzied creature off. He rolled to his knees and stood. Tony stomped down with his heavy boot on the creature’s head several times, without looking at the result. He had to eliminate the thing as a threat but he didn’t want to see the gory event. After a few strikes, his foot became unsteady as it slipped about the greasy tissue. Tony turned to see the other creature approach. Mason was behind the thing accelerating his throttle. He stuck out his leg stiffly and sent the ghoul over the side of the road into the unforgiving rocks of the hillside. Mason pulled in close.

“Are you okay?” he yelled over the sound of his engine. Tony nodded in his helmet and walked forward to his bike, scraping the foulness from his boot on the dirt. Lifting the heavy Yamaha, he mounted it, checked the shotgun’s barrel for debris and made sure it was secure. Mason glanced at the smashed face of the creature that Tony had dispatched. The distorted remains were thick with horrid pulp. He putted his bike in first gear stopping next to Tony. Mason killed his engine.

“Take off your helmet,” Mason said.

Tony removed his helmet and looked questioningly at Mason. He was sweaty but didn’t appear to be having a crisis, under the circumstances.

“What’s up?” Tony asked without a hint of instability.

“I just wanted to see your face, make sure that you’re okay.”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” he smiled, “asshole tried to eat my pads.”

“You did a number on its head, sure you’re okay?” Mason said removing his helmet. He was worried about all the violence his normally peaceful friend was dealing with. This wasn’t practice anymore and Mason wanted to be sure his best friend was all right.

“I tried not to look; just made sure I hit him,” Tony said reluctantly.

“Let’s coast down in neutral, sneak in quiet.” Mason put his helmet back on and dropped his hand on Tony’s shoulder pad for encouragement. They engaged the neutral gears with the engines off and let gravity pull them down the hill.

The two motorcycles glided silently into camp. Mason’s senses were at full alert. He pulled his bike in front of the truck and leaned it on the bumper. Tony stopped his bike near the picnic bench and tore free the twelve-gauge from the handlebars. Looking over the rise he could see what looked like people wandering around the greater camp area. He knew they all were no longer alive by their gait. Dismounting his bike he looked around the camp. The coast was clear. He set his shotgun down and went into his tent. Grabbing a duffel bag of his clothes and setting them on an ice chest, he picked up the chest and carried it to the back of the truck. He knew that the girls would be hungry so he grabbed what he could. Tony picked up his shotgun and threw the pile of Mason’s clothes from the table into the truck bed. He looked around to see if there was anything else.

Mason opened the driver’s door carefully and popped the hood. The metallic clank of the release sounded very loud in the quiet camp. Something stirred in the brush on the other side of the truck. A low moan was heard as branches started to move. Tony jogged over, switching the shotgun’s safety off while he moved. Mason put his hand out to stop him.

“No noise,” he whispered as he pulled out his sword. The whisper wasn’t quiet enough. The shattered specter of a man emerged from the foliage. It jerked its rotting head and looked at the men. Mason widened his stance and waited. With a silence shattering growl, it charged. Mason thrust his sword into the oncoming creature’s collarbone, sidestepped and directed it to the ground. He stepped on its chest and pulled his sword up, out of the body. It flailed its arms and raged louder. Mason lifted his sword high and drove the steel chisel tip into the thing’s right eye. The
Katana
blade broke through bone, cleaving its putrid grey matter. Mason pulled his sword free and wiped the tip off on the creature’s shirt.