Winter Apocalypse: Zombie Crusade V (23 page)

After what seemed like hours, but was probably no more than thirty minutes, Luke dragged himself to his feet and continued walking through the woods. As with Jack, Carter, and every other soldier he knew, Luke had developed, or perhaps been born with, the ability to put traumatic events behind and move forward with the mission. Of course, in this instance he didn’t really have a mission, so when he saw three whitetail deer enter a thicket near the river he decided to focus his mind on hunting.

Luke had never learned to hunt; Jerry had taught him to shoot, and then encouraged his son’s desire to acquire archery skills, but none of these abilities had ever been put to use in bringing down big game. But now, even the thought of fresh venison set Luke to salivating, and he briefly wondered what the best way would be for taking one of the deer down. The bow was the obvious choice of weapon, though part of Luke wanted to just run one of the animals down and jump on it. He remembered the fever-dream he’d experienced the night before, and couldn’t shake the thought that he should be hunting that way. Of course, he immediately realized he would be seriously injured or killed if he jumped onto the back of a full-sized whitetail deer, but in the dream, Gracie had carried an axe. The rational part of his brain knew that an axe was no match for a bow when killing a large animal at any appreciable distance, but before he actually thought the situation through, the axe was in his hand.

Oh well
, he thought,
I am pretty good with this thing
. The deer had been moving parallel to the river, and hadn’t seemed to be spooked or alarmed in any way when they entered the thicket. He looked over the landscape and tried to predict what the animals would do. At the far end of the thicket was what looked to be a grassy area. The grounds the deer had left behind were heavily wooded, and Luke remembered from somewhere that deer liked acorns. Also, he figured that eventually there had to be agricultural fields past the most flood-prone areas near the river. Deer loved corn and other crops, and few humans were available this fall to harvest what had just been planted before the outbreak started. The bottom line was that the animals had probably been feeding and were now returning to a bedding area. Luke decided that if he was a deer, he would enjoy lying in a grassy meadow as opposed to a forest floor covered with sticks and other obstacles.

His decision made, Luke moved quietly but quickly toward the grassy area. He was closer to what he hoped was the deer’s destination than they were, so perhaps he could set an ambush for the animals. He was somewhat surprised at how quietly he was moving in the woods, considering the fact that the ground was littered with frozen twigs and leaves. The previous day’s light snowfall muffled some noise, but Luke felt as if he was somehow stepping in all the right places as he moved to cut off the deer. Soon after reaching the transition zone from woods to meadow, Luke noticed an obvious trail leading out of the thicket about twenty meters ahead and to his left. He would make his stand there.

Luke could hear the deer moving through the brushy thicket, and he felt certain they would indeed be coming out of the exit path he’d found. Moving even more quietly than he had before, he made his way to a fallen tree lying about six or seven meters from the trail. He carefully set the shaft of the axe on his shoulder and waited, now easily picking out the sounds of the deer snapping twigs as they pushed through the brush. Again, Luke discovered that he was salivating and growing excited at the prospect of fresh meat. Actually, he realized, he was salivating as he considered eating, but the excitement was all linked to the hunt.

Finally, the first deer cautiously stepped into the grass, a large doe with her nose lifted to smell for nearby threats. Unfortunately for her, Luke had instinctively taken a position where the wind was blowing toward him. Ironically, he was able to pick up the distinctive, musky sent of the doe while she was left clueless. Luke had never heard hunters describe the odor of their prey before, and he briefly wondered if this was normal. Then, the deer stopped and her tail flicked halfway up. She had her own refined senses, and right now they were telling her that something was wrong.

For a few seconds the doe stared right at Luke in spite of the hiding spot he’d carefully chosen. He thought for sure that the animal was about to bolt and the hunt had failed, but then the deer looked in the opposite direction, presenting Luke with a broadside target he figured would never get any better. With thousands of hours of practice under his belt, he expertly and powerfully hurled the trench axe at a spot just behind the doe’s ear. With a loud “thwack” the blade buried deeply into the animal’s skull, and she dropped kicking to the grass a few seconds later.

Luke was shocked at what happened next. For some reason, he sort of screamed in joy as he pulled his knife and leapt toward the fallen deer. He buried the sharp steel to the hilt in the side of her neck before ripping the blade outward in a stroke the severed the arteries and trachea she needed to be functioning if she was ever to regain her feet. But that was never going to happen now; Luke had just killed his first deer.

Barnes leaned back and folded his arms across his chest. “We’ll start with your first question. So what do you think, Ms. Carrell? How could my creatures make the world a better place?”

“You’re asking me how a horrific disease that turns people into flesh-eating monsters improves our planet? How unspeakable misery is somehow good for the human condition? It isn’t. Honestly, all I can think of is the ridiculous ‘we had to destroy the village to save it’ argument. Do you have anything other than self-serving, illogical foolishness?”

Barnes chuckled condescendingly. “Ah, you remind me why I never read military history written by women.” He leaned forward and glared at Andi with a menacing stare. “You are making a classic mistake, confusing what is advantageous for the human condition with what is best for our planet. It’s that kind of thinking that was truly destroying our world.”

Andi resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “So your solution to problems like overpopulation and environmental pollution is to replace humanity with mindless predators that consume any living thing they come in contact with?”

“If your home was infested with termites or some vermin that threatened the very foundation of the structure, what would you do? You would call an exterminator, that’s what you’d do.”

“So you’re saying that the infected are just exterminators, getting rid of the human infestation in the world? Do exterminators exponentially increase in number as they eradicate their targets? You know that healthy ecosystems maintain a balance of interdependent plants and animals—remove or introduce one seemingly insignificant life form and the whole system can come crashing down.”

“And how do you know this, Ms. Carrell? You know this because humans have wiped out species and destroyed ecosystems. Do you know what happened when wolves were reintroduced in areas where humans had wiped them out?”

Andy shook her head. “The infected are not wolves; they aren’t going to restore balance in their natural habitats. They have no natural habitats. So let’s move on to my next question—in your mind, what will the world look like in five years?”

“The number of humans will be greatly reduced, to a number appropriate for rebuilding civilization. My creatures don’t have particularly long lifespans. After a few years, they’ll start to die off. They literally fall apart—an arm here, a leg there. As the president of the United States, I will lead the global reclamation of the planet. Within a decade, I will embody Plato’s ideal: I will be a benevolent dictator, guiding our world to a new golden age.”

Andi’s heart was racing, but she managed to sound nonchalant when she asked, “How do you know that the infected will die off in a few years?”

“I am a physician and a scientist, my dear. Scientists perform experiments to test hypotheses. Do you seriously think that I would unleash an untested virus?”

Andi quickly fired off a series of questions. “So you were able to recreate the conditions of this outbreak? You observed a significant sampling of the infected over a period of years? You witnessed your creatures grow stronger for a while, then deteriorate?”

Barnes dismissively waved off the questions. “Perhaps we’ll continue this conversation later.” He stood,  crumpled his napkin, and tossed it on his half empty plate. “Enjoy my hospitality for the next few days. When I return, you and I will be taking a little trip.” With that, he turned and abruptly left the room.

Alone at the table, Andi was flustered by his hasty exit, and she was unexpectedly looking forward to her next conversation with the mad general.

                            CHAPTER 21

For at least a full minute, Luke just stood over his prize, chest heaving in exultation as he looked at the fresh kill lying at his feet. He could no more put words to how he felt than he could describe the feeling of Gracie’s lips on his own. He did know that he felt
right
, almost as if he were coming home after a very long journey. He was salivating as he considered the deer, but at the same time he instinctively realized that something in his world had been lost as well as gained. Slowly, he knelt down near the head of the fallen animal, and found himself drawn to the eyes of what he suddenly and completely understood to be one of God’s creatures, a living animal that had basked in the indescribable joy of living the life it was hard-wired to experience.

The deer was something completely different from the young hunter he’d killed earlier, and the flesh-eater had been quite different from the humans Luke had killed in combat. Nevertheless, he knew that he’d taken the life of a creature that wanted to live, and in this case, had done nothing to deserve its ultimate fate. Now sadness washed away the burst of adrenaline-fueled joy that had fueled him just seconds before, and he felt a profound sense of loss as he slowly extended his hand to touch the pelt of the dead animal.

The doe was beautiful, even in death, and Luke couldn’t help but feel as if he’d taken something special from the world. At the same time, he knew that this was part of what he’d been born to do: hunt and kill. Flesh-eaters died by his hand so they couldn’t harm him or his loved ones, or any other humans struggling to survive in this new world. The deer died so that he, Luke, could grow stronger. This was natural; even if it might have been possible before he was bitten, Luke no longer had the option of becoming a vegetarian. No, for his continued existence, animals would have to die to sustain him. He could let others kill so that he might live, or he could obtain protein through his own efforts. The latter option seemed to be the most honorable way to procure the meat he needed in order for his own life to continue.

Natural and necessary as the killing was, Luke still felt as if he should do
something
before he picked up the carcass beneath his hand. A thought formed in his mind, and haltingly, he gave voice to the thought. He whispered, “This was your fate, and mine. I will not waste you.”

He tried to think of something more to say in honor of the life he’d taken, but finally he had to settle for the words that most closely described how he felt. “Thank you.”

Stanley Rickers sat cleaning his gear, swaying slightly with the motion of the train as the battered troops continued their slow, sad journey back to Vicksburg. The young warrior had just pulled a whetstone from his pack, eyeing the battle damage on the edges of his weapons as he sat by his dying friend. Hiram had been fading in and out of consciousness for over an hour, and his shallow breathing had become ragged and labored. Stanley knew the rattle of impending death; he pulled his .22 and chambered a round.

This wasn’t the first time Stanley had been forced to take this sort of action, but it never got any easier. He placed his free hand on his friend’s forehead and closed his eyes, remembering some of the many things they’d done together since the Utah contingent had arrived late in the summer to help with the harvest. Stanley almost smiled as he thought about the battle in the state park near the Castle, the first big fight he’d ever seen the Utah soldiers engaged in. Hiram and his troops fought well that day against a massive horde that outnumbered the humans at least ten to one, maybe twice that. The Hoosiers learned that the Westerners didn’t budge when under pressure, and they were lethal warriors, as efficient in their killing of infected as the experienced Indiana troops were. Jack’s soldiers had been fighting for months, but it wasn’t until that day that Stanley actually thought that they had a chance at long term survival. Hiram had come east for corn, but he had brought hope along with him.

Stanley sighed and raised his eyes to look out of the tiny window in the compartment. He knew that Hiram was a Christian, and he fervently hoped that God was out there waiting somewhere to receive another brave soul. Stanley struggled with his own faith, the collapse of the world, and the death of billions of people, didn’t help him believe in the existence of some sort of benevolent creator. Still, he muttered a prayer for his friend before lifting the barrel of the gun to Hiram’s temple. Stanley looked at the stricken warrior one last time, and was shocked to see that his eyes were open and focused.

Hiram blinked several times, struggling to breath, then managed to whisper, “I saw angels, and my father.”

Stanley just nodded as Hiram drew a last painful breath. “I still see them . . .”

Stanley didn’t trust himself to look around, but suddenly felt certain that he was in the presence of something
sacred
. For a moment everything seemed so still and quiet that he wondered if he was possibly dreaming. Then, he looked down at Hiram and remembered that this was all too real. His friend’s pain was over: the Utah general now stared at eternity.

Stanley reached down and reverently closed the dead man’s eyes, then quickly put three bullets into Hiram’s skull. The tiny rounds left no mess, too small to create exit wounds. But the lead ensured that the general was truly gone, and gave Stanley peace of mind as he covered the corpse and called for a body bag.  

Luke arrived at the western gate, pulling the fresh carcass behind him with a length of wire threaded through cuts he’d made behind the knees of the back legs. The same guards who had earlier waved him through now allowed him to enter, one of them giving a low whistle in admiration of the deer.

“That outta be right tasty,” the young Tennessean declared. “Ain’t had no venison since the last huntin’ season before the outbreak.”

The second guard had stepped closer to view the doe. “Dang, you’re good with that bow to get a deer on the ground. You were on the ground, weren’t ya?”

Luke was briefly confused by the question before realizing that the guard must be thinking that he might have been in some sort of tree stand when he took the deer. Then, he made a mistake he’d only recognize later, when the mood in Vicksburg turned seemed to turn against him and his friends. “Yeah, I was on the ground, but I didn’t use the bow. I probably should have used it, but I was worried about losing an arrow, and I’ve never hunted deer before.”

The first guard looked confused. “How’d ya kill it then?”

Luke shrugged. “Hit it in the head with my axe.”

The youngster now appeared completely baffled. “What, you just walked right up to a deer and hit it with a war-axe?”

“No,” Luke explained. “I saw three deer head into a thicket, so I ran to the other side of the brush, in the direction they were headed. When this one stepped out into the open, I threw my axe and hit it just behind the ear; it dropped right there.”

The second guard had crouched down, examining the deep cut near the back of the deer’s skull. He looked up at Luke with a raised eyebrow. “Mister, I been huntin’ deer my whole life, and I ain’t never heard no story like that. But I don’t see no other wounds, so you must be tellin’ the truth.”

Luke was beginning to wonder why the two young men seemed so interested in how he’d taken the deer; after all, this was the first time he’d ever hunted the animals. He began to feel as if he should get back to Gracie, not exactly enjoying the way the guards were looking at him. He bent over to grab the wire he was dragging the carcass with, unaware of the small gap that appeared between his coat and glove. When he heard the younger guard gasp in astonishment, he followed the teen’s gaze to see that he’d accidently exposed the ugly pink scar covering his bite wound.

Quietly, and with more than a little awe tinged with fear, the kid stammered. “You’re Luke, the guy who was bitten after the battle.”

Both guards quickly took several steps back as their fingers fumbled for the trigger-guards on their rifles. Luke immediately stood back up, lifting his hands to show that he was no threat. As he did so, his left forearm brushed against his sunglasses and knocked them from his face. The nervous sentries froze when they saw hunter-eyes staring back at them, and Luke knew he needed to quickly calm the pair down.

“It’s all right, guys, the Utah soldiers figured out a way to make it through some bites; I’m sure you heard about it.”

When neither guard made any response, Luke carefully continued. “You cut the wound open and push as much blood out of it as you can. I still went into the fever and everything, but the only change that happened to me was these eyes.”

One of the sentries slowly began to lift his rifle.

“Whoa—I know I look weird, but we’re all hoping the eye-thing is temporary. You don’t seriously think I’m one of the infected, do you? Have you ever had a conversation with a flesh-eater?”

The young guard leveled his weapon as he replied, “I really don’t know what ya are.”

“Listen to me,” Luke quietly declared, “if you keep pointing that gun at me, I will disarm you. Somebody could get hurt, maybe two somebodies.” He was only slightly bluffing. The two guards were barely a few meters away, and Luke was fairly certain he could still take them both, even though they had guns and he didn’t. The problem was that he didn’t want anyone to get hurt in this situation. He couldn’t blame the guards for doing their job, and if things got out of hand here, it would be difficult to convince people that he wasn’t a threat.

“Look,” Luke continued, “call Captain Harden and ask him to come down here and clear this all up. Can we do that?”

The older guard slowly nodded and reached for the small radio clipped to his belt, his eyes never leaving Luke as he made the call. A few tense minutes later, Harden arrived at the scene with Carlson at his side, both of the leaders quite surprised to see Luke at the gate with a deer carcass in hand.

Carlson was the first to speak, quietly but firmly addressing Captain Harden. “Tell your guards to back down.”

Harden briefly hesitated before nodding at his men and motioning for them to return to their posts. He then turned his attention to Luke. “General Carlson here was just tellin’ me that you’d somehow survived the infection.”

Luke nodded before Harden continued. “I’m damn glad you made it, kid, I really am, but none of these people have ever seen somebody survive a bite-wound. Plus, your eyes are downright scary.”

Luke knew he probably looked as miserable as he felt at having caused such a ruckus. “I’m sorry, you guys, I just went for a walk and stumbled on some deer. My sunglasses fell off and the guards sort of freaked out—not that I blame them.”

Carlson decided to take over. “Captain Harden, let’s escort Luke back to his cabin and then spread the word that he’s alive and well, albeit with hunter-eyes.”

Harden wasn’t sure what to do. “My people aren’t going to like an infected person, or someone who looks like an infected person, inside our walls, even if it’s Luke.”

“I understand,” Carlson calmly replied as he made eye contact with Luke. “He’ll stay in his cabin, with some of my armed men outside, until everyone gets used to the reality that he has indeed survived.”

“All right,” Hardin slowly agreed as he shook his head. “I can’t promise that everyone will like it, but survivin’ a bite ain’t nothin’ short of a miracle. We’ve all heard stories, but this boy seems to be proof. That’s good news no matter what his eyes look like.”

Carlson stepped closer to Luke. “You should still be resting, son. Here, I’ll carry your weapons and Harden will help you drag the deer.”

Luke realized with a jolt of surprise that he was basically being made a prisoner, but he decided to play along until he could talk with Gracie and the others. “Sure, thanks for the help. By the way, either of you know how to skin a deer?”

The sun was setting over Vicksburg by the time Luke re-entered the cabin. At first he was surprised to find everyone still sleeping, but then he realized that his excursion, though filled with drama, had taken place in just a few hours. Gracie and the others hadn’t really slept for at least two days, during which time they’d fought the biggest battle of their lives and tried to keep him alive following his injury. He quietly walked over to where Gracie lay, covers pulled up to her chin, her dark hair splayed out over the white pillow case in a contrast of color that highlighted her beautiful face. Luke just watched for a minute or two, reminding himself that Gracie was now his wife. Finally, he knew that he had to wake her; he needed help preparing dinner for their guests, and he needed to explain how a fresh deer carcass ended up by the front stoop.

Luke leaned down and lightly kissed Gracie’s forehead. Without opening her eyes, she smiled and reached up to pull him in for a proper kiss. When her lips brushed his, she opened her eyes. “You’re freezing,” she said, the concern in her voice rising as she drew back and took a good look at her husband. “And you look a little flushed—do you feel alright?”

Luke maneuvered his way under the covers with Gracie and nuzzled her neck. “Other than feeling a little embarrassed, I’m fine.”