Dahmer Flu (25 page)

It was hard to look away from the scene below, knowing that if we had delayed only a short time, we would have been in the middle of it. The streets were clogged with the roving bodies, filling the yards and spilling into some of the homes, destroying windows and doors in the process. A scream, distinctly human, rose and then was cut short as the creatures continued unperturbed through the town. I looked back, one last glance, as we entered the woods and saw another smaller group of the undead coming from the other direction on the road, quickly bringing the town’s population to well over the five hundred and forty-nine that it had seen before.

Another town belonged to the ‘stalkers.

We hadn’t missed the horde completely, but leaving just in time and missing the main body left us with some slim hope. A handful of ‘stalkers milled in the woods, gaining a sudden interest when they heard us crashing noisily through the area. There were, fortunately, too few to pose an immediate threat, so we pressed on, moving as quickly as youthful legs would allow while dodging around the small collections of the undead.

The tree line, we found, was actually the top of a narrow ridge. We emerged to see a wide expanse below us; it was a second valley, much larger than the first, and undeveloped. The majority of the horde hadn’t yet found Ashland; the rest were here, in this valley. A countless mass of undead bodies roamed aimlessly in the bowl, most avoiding the effort of climbing the relatively steep sides without the promise of food. We were shielded from view by a low outcropping of rocks, and had stopped to regroup.

“What now?” Lisa asked. “You brought us up here, we’re surrounded… what’s your plan?”

“I don’t know yet…” I answered, after a moment. “They don’t see us; we’ll stay here ‘till we figure it out. Maybe they’ll move on.”

“That’s a stupid plan,” Lisa snapped.

No one spoke, except for the muffled ‘damn’ spoken under a breath. I realized, after a moment, that it was Madi.

“What’s that?” asked Robert, pointing towards the far end of the valley. Each of us followed his gaze, having difficulty seeing what he had seen, until one by one we recognized the line of vehicles rolling through the mouth of the valley and directly towards the group. Some of the ‘stalkers, as if curious, began moving towards the sound as they came closer; they were close enough now that we were able to recognize them as military. Five vehicles in all, four Humvees followed by a five-ton covered troop carrier, stopped when they came into range. The soldiers dismounted, not much more than a dozen in all, and assumed firing positions. Their movements were practiced and unhurried, but the binos brought their faces close enough to see the fear in them. It felt like a last stand- I mumbled a half-forgotten prayer, hoping that it wouldn’t be.

The first of the soldiers fired, perhaps too soon, but was joined by the others. They were good, trained at least, and the accurate fire cut down waves of the advancing horde. Most of the shots, I could see, passed harmlessly through the center mass or glanced off bone or skull, but more and more fell to the ground and didn’t rise again.

The shots, as I had feared, had attracted those creatures that were out of sight but not out of earshot, quickly closing off the valley from the direction that they had come. The feeling was one of helplessness; there was nothing that I could do to warn the men without exposing ourselves and calling the ‘stalkers that were nearby. It wasn’t long before the men realized the hopelessness of the situation as well, having far too many targets for the extended combat load of ammunition that they carried, and retreated to the relative safety of the vehicles. These quickly reversed direction, making a wide turn before the crest of the rotting wave, and directly into the eager arms of the second group. The vehicles were powerful, made to overcome unforgiving terrain, but each could only press so far into the relentless crowd before stalling on the growing pile of bodies, made worse by the lost traction in the mud formed by blood and viscera.

The troop transport was the first to succumb to the horde, the undead pressing over each other to go into the back. Bullets fired wildly into the crowd, forcing some back, but there were too many; the guns soon fell silent. The lead humvee was the next to abandon hope; its interior was lit by two gunshots before falling silent. Movement in another caught my attention, and I focused the binos on it. The gunner’s hatch flew open and two men scrambled to the roof; I guessed that they were able to see the rest of the horde coming behind them, and seized on the slim ray of hope before the crowd overcame them, too. Firing into the mob with their pistols, they ran like madmen, dodging through the thick group. One was quickly overcome, pulled down and into the mass that enveloped him like starving dogs thrown a scrap. The other struggled through the grasping hands and tangled limbs, firing at those who came too close or stood in his way. He wouldn’t last long, either, I was sure.

Our own slim ray of hope was dwindling, as well. With the crowd distracted, there was the small chance that we could make it through the opposite direction by keeping to the highest edge of Ashland’s hills and continuing on the road out of town- hopefully well behind the group that came that way earlier.

“This way!” I called, grabbing Madi and running carelessly along the uneven ground. I could hear Lisa and Robert behind me, each of us running quickly on adrenaline-powered legs. We hit the road at the far end with little trouble, most of the ‘stalkers either finishing the meal or trying to find it, and saw the scene that embodied the panic that gripped this town. The road was clogged with vehicles in various stages of u-turn, many of them forced unnaturally together. Most of them, as I checked, were missing their keys or were trapped and impossible to move.

“Who takes their damn keys with them, time like this?” I wondered out loud.

“Dunno…” Lisa’s voice trailed off behind mine.

An expensive-looking red sedan sat apart, well off the road and on the shoulder; the windshield was shattered and old, dark bloodstains discolored the driver’s seat and traced the path to the a few meters from the car where it ended in a wide irregular stain.

The keys were still inside. I sat in the stained seat and with appropriately low expectations, turned the key. The engine complained, and then died. I tried again, relieved when it sputtered to life and maintained a rough, uneven idle- at least it was running; perhaps our luck was finally changing. I opened the trunk and threw the bags inside, then returned to the seat.

I realized very quickly that my luck was the same as it had always been. Before I could put the car into gear I felt cold metal against my skull, just above my left ear. “Get out of the car!” The voice was unsteady and angry; I didn’t dare look, but heard Lisa and Madi catch their screams in their throats. “I’m not sayin’ it again- get the fuck out of the car; I will kill every last one of you, if you make me. Your choice, you wanna be a hero, I start with the kids.” I felt the barrel press harder into my skull.

Lisa spoke with fear and anger in her voice. “Go on kids, this side.” I stared straight ahead as I heard the passenger side doors open and heard Robert climb to the other side.

“Okay, we’re leaving,” I said, keeping my hands in view. “No one’s gonna do anything stupid; just take the car and go.” I moved slowly, inching the door open, and left the vehicle; the man stepped back to allow the door to swing on its rusted hinges and to better cover Lisa and the children. I joined the trio where they stood, getting a solid look at our attacker from the wrong end of his pistol. He was tall and thin, exhibiting the same haunted, hungry look that humanity had adopted over the last year or so; he wore the uniform of a soldier and was cleanly shaven. He was pale and sweating, and blood flowed freely down his free arm to pool at his feet.

“You’re bit,” Lisa said, gesturing towards the tear in his uniform above the bicep and the fresh wound underneath. A chunk of meat was missing from his arm, exposing the muscle and bone underneath; it had already begun forming a pea-green crust around the edges.

“Yeah,” he said.

He started to get in the car, but paused when Lisa spoke. “I’m a doctor; I can help you,” she said.

He stopped and stood upright. “You think I’m stupid, bitch?” Madi and Lisa both bristled at the word. “I know what a bite means, I’m s’good as dead and I know that. But I ain’t just waiting here for that to happen.”

He started again to enter the car, but Lisa called, “There’s a treatment- it works if we’re fast.”

“There’s no cure,” he said; he halted, unsure.

“Yes, there is,” She argued.

The man stopped and looked around before taking a few steps towards us. “What do you mean?”

“It’s a high dose of Niacin, then elevating your body temperature- if you do it soon enough after the infection, it forces the toxins out of the pores- it works about twenty percent of the time, but it’s a lot better than nothing. I really can’t believe you guys didn’t know that… what were you doing when someone got hurt?”

“Our medic died early on,” he answered as an explanation.

“Oh, Lord, what a waste,” she exclaimed. The children and I watched the exchange, not sure what to think of it. My concern was that there was a large horde of the undead nearby that would find us sooner or later, and this man with a gun stood between us and our way out. She gave him her sternest look; “Are we going or not? Your choice, you got the gun.”

A few animals ran panicked through the wood-lined side of the road, away from the town. The man thought for a moment. “Why don’t I just take you and leave them?”

“You think I’d go anywhere without my children?” She said. “You can’t have me without them, and without me… what are your odds then?”

“Okay, fine, I don’t have time to argue. Get in.” He pointed to me, “you’re driving, and I want to see your hands at all times. Got it?”

“You’re the boss,” I said as we all started to enter the vehicle.

“No.” He stopped Lisa, who was getting into the back seat with the children. “You sit up front; I’ll sit with the kids. I don’t want you to try nothin’ either.”

The car was still running roughly as we eased through the tangled metal mass and onto the long, lonely road, weaving through the rare dead or damaged vehicles that had made it this far in one direction or the other. The drive was silent, except the road noise and unhealthy wail of the aged engine. Shortly outside of town was another sign, much like the one that greeted us on the way in. Once again, it displayed only a single handwritten word: ‘North’. We drove on, trusting the road to take us somewhere safer.

“I’m sorry,” he said, breaking the silence. Lisa and I looked back at him, surprised. He continued; “My name’s Travis; I have a family, too- a wife and a little boy. I just wanted to see them before I die.” His eyes started to tear, which mixed with the sweat that flowed freely from his hairline; he was looking worse already.

“Where are they?”

“Just south of Annandale.” I had no idea where that was, but he said it like I did and I didn’t want to interrupt to ask. “I think we’re the last of the Army, I don’t know. There’s nothing on the SINCGARS since a while, and we lost comms on the CB, too. We were sent off to try and relieve a unit hold up in Midway-”

Robert chimed in, “My grandma lives up in Midway!”

“I don’t think anyone’s living there anymore, kid,” he said. Robert didn’t react, but I was sure he felt the sting. “We were trying to bring back any survivors to plus up our garrison; it was a desperate move, but we were desperate already anyways. They had the men and supplies that we were running out of, so we couldn’t afford to let ‘em get overrun by the Ucks.”

“Ucks?” I asked.

“Yeah, Ucks- U.C’s, Undead Combatants.” His words were starting to slur. “We saw the group, but it was just as bad for a ways either direction, too, and the terrain was the best in the valley. So we figgered this would be a good place to punch through- guess we were wrong, huh? Turn here”

I hadn’t noticed the turnoff coming up, but he knew the area better than I had. I turned to the side road just after the sign that advertised the existence and services of ‘West Lake’; I doubted that the gas stations, lodging and restaurants would be very hospitable, but that wasn’t really what we were here for. We slipped into the suburban streets like a scavenger into a predator’s den, stalking slowly forward with purposeful caution.

The city of West Lake seemed to be untouched, although hastily abandoned- most likely about the time that Ashland fell the first time. The homes were un-boarded and undisturbed, but children’s toys and bicycles lay deserted in overgrown lawns and unkempt streets. A mangy tan dog investigated a pile of rubbish and, finding it inedible, moved on to another; seeing an animal gave me a small amount of comfort.

Cursing the noise of the unhealthy engine, we crossed the downtown streets until we found what we had come for. The West Lake Community Clinic was a needlessly ornate building set at the end of a narrow parking lot; curiously, the lot was nearly full, although the vehicles had obviously been there for a long time. I circled through the back lot, preferring to be in the vehicle if surprised by the stalkers, where an ambulance sat awkwardly alone, with the rear doors left open revealing a disordered interior that spilled onto a bloody, but otherwise empty, gurney.

I parked behind the ambulance; it gave us more than one way out and afforded some degree of concealment from the street if anyone was watching.

I looked back at Travis. “Okay, let’s do this and get the hell out of here.”

He looked back at me with lethargic eyes and spoke as if with great effort. “Yeah, we just gotta-” He stopped in mid-sentence and his eyes grew wide; the color seemed to drain from his face as he launched himself from the car and next to the ambulance where he doubled over and vomited enthusiastically. Seeing the opportunity I slipped the car into reverse and gunned the engine, ready to launch backwards and away from the injured man.

The vehicle roared, but our escape could have only been measured in inches- the engine coughed, then died, leaving us still. Travis bolted to his full height and ran to the driver’s side door, wiping the bile from his chin and leveling the gun at the window. “Get out,” he said, with a simple anger.