Rise and Walk (12 page)

“Take it easy man, we’re here to help you,” Mason said with his left hand out; open in a stop gesture. His right hand at his side balled into a fist. The man became incensed, screaming without a voice, just the passage of air over dried decay. He leaned forward and picked up speed. Nikki put her hands on Tony’s arm and held on for dear life. Mason tensed like a coiled viper ready to strike. Veronica could tell that Mason was about to act.

“He’s sick, don’t hurt him,” she pleaded. Mason sighed feeling that this was no time for indecision. He wanted to help the man but not at the risk of himself or his friends.

The bloody man lunged. Mason grabbed the underside of both his arms in a modified Judo move. Using the man’s momentum he threw off his advance. The move would usually require one to grab the shoulders but Mason didn’t want to touch the man’s blood. Veronica was right, this guy was sick. He had a feeling that there might be some possibility of infection. The man hit the ground, air forcing from his lungs escaped through his trachea sounding like a thick sneeze. Tony pushed the girls back behind him with his arms wide and kept his eye on the man. The man turned upwards towards Mason, snarling disgusting sounds from his neck. Attempting to push off the ground, Mason prevented the man from rising with a boot to the inside of his elbow, collapsing his arm.

“What the hell is wrong with him?” Nikki questioned in fright.

Veronica studied the man. His neck was slimy and covered with filth. Dark foam drooled from his soundless mouth. His eyes were glazed and dry. There were blue patches on his forehead that looked like blood pooling from rigor mortis,
but that is impossible
. She thought that she must be mistaken.

“Some kind of disease?” offered Mason as he pushed the man down once again with his foot.

“I have no idea,” Veronica said becoming very afraid, “we should restrain him.”

“Fuck that issue, I’m not touching him,” Mason grunted as he kicked the persistent man hard down the grade. He rolled uncontrolled to a stop some yards away. Mason turned to the group.

“We don’t know what kind of bug that guy’s carrying. Let’s get out of here and get the Sheriff,” he said shaking his head. Tony nodded in agreement. Nikki was already moving towards the camp road. Veronica, torn between her will to help and the truth of Jack’s words, hesitated for a brief moment. Looking down the grade she saw the man struggle to all fours and begin crawling like a madman towards her.

Veronica joined the others as they ran towards the camp road.

TWENTY

Barbara and Ted Erwin beached their boat on the sand in front of their campground. Barbara stepped over the side into the cool water wondering where her Timmy was. She had missed her little darling on the morning boat ride. He wasn’t feeling well. She wanted to go home but Ted wanted to take the boat out again.
We are losing our Sunday
, she remembered him saying in that selfish whine that he called a voice. As she walked up the beach to their camp she noticed her boy wandering around.
Poor thing must have been lonesome without us
, she thought. He came running towards her. She opened her arms to receive him. Something was wrong. The state of her child frightened Barbara. He was awash in blood and lacerations.

“Ted, look at Timmy,” she cried to her husband as he exited the boat.

“Stop babying him Barb,” he hollered back in frustration of his wife’s constant fussing.

Concern sat on her face as tears threatened to flow for her baby. Timmy ran into her arms. She embraced him without her usual worry that his condition might stain her blouse. She hugged him close. Ted drew near, catching the faintest of glimpses at his son’s apparent trauma.
Maybe there is something wrong
, the father thought.

“What happened to my baby?” asked Barbara consoling.

Teeth bore down on her neck with merciless force, breaking Timothy’s retainer. Blood erupted from Barbara’s wound splashing on Ted’s prescription glasses, obscuring his view. Timmy held his collapsing mother’s body up while her legs buckled out from under her. He chewed the flesh that he ripped free while holding her convulsing frame. The bite was very large in comparison to his mother’s delicate neck.

“Timothy! Stop that,” his father ordered removing his soiled glasses. The creature was far beyond the capacity to understand any form of language yet his father’s voice did call its attention. The blood covered boy looked at his father with stoned dead eyes and chewed in defiance. The meat was warm and slippery in his salivating mouth. Swallowing the flesh and part of his retainer, the thing disregarded his father and took another, deeper bite. Barbara’s body contorted and jerked in her son’s arms as he dug his face into her neck. Ted shoved his hands between their bodies and tried to remove his son. Timothy growled and held on like a wild animal. Ted was a small man with very little strength. He moved behind Timothy and found better leverage. The boy let go allowing his mother’s body to slump tragically to the ground. The boy turned and menaced an angry roar. Timothy grabbed his terrified father who offered only a pathetic struggle. Falling to the ground, Ted raised his arms to shield himself from his son. Bite after bite, his child continued to take little bits of flesh from his small arms. Finally, with no more strength left, Ted dropped his useless tattered limbs as his son tore out his skinny throat.

Rickets was tired. Fatigue chewed at his muscles as he strived to maintain control of the crazed woman underneath his knees. The young man with the small bite wound had left to go get help, leaving Rickets with a catatonic shirtless young man named Chuck and the corpse of a young lady. Rickets thought that they said her name was Kim. He shook his head.
What does it matter
?
This crazy bitch killed the girl, there’s no need to remember her name
. He was feeling very ill now. He knew he had a fever and his shoulder was starting to smell really bad. The woman underneath him sporadically attempted to escape in small fits of energy. His vomit began to congeal and cool around his leg. He thought it strange that the woman didn’t put off any body heat. She seemed cold, perhaps it was his fever making him feel that way, he hoped. Rickets had to get off of the woman and lie down or risk throwing up again.

“Hey man. Hey! Can you get me some rope or something?” he called to the crying young man holding his dead friend. The man ignored him.

“Chuck!” He exclaimed, “Please man, help me the fuck out over here.”

Hearing his name shook Chuck loose from his catatonia for a moment. He turned to Rickets slowly with tear stained eyes that lacked recognition. Kim’s body jerked in his tender embrace causing Chuck to turn his attention back to the woman. Her face was pale but perfect. He had always had a thing for her. His unspoken feelings for Kim plunged him into an emotional coma when he thought she was dead. Chuck’s heart soared at the thought that she was going to be okay. He would wait until she was better and then he would tell her how he felt, how he had always felt, about her.

“Kim,” he said with smiling relief. She opened her eyes and looked from side to side. Her beautiful blue eyes were now somehow hollow and empty. She looked confused, as if she were awakening for the first time. She focused on Chuck. He brushed her soft brown hair off her face with care.

“Are you …” Chuck whispered.

Before he could finish she struck out. Her fine teeth caught Chuck on the cheekbone. She dragged the top of her teeth down across his jaw like a wire cheese cutter, flesh peeling back and collecting in her mouth.

“Kim?” he protested in shock, his voice raw and horse. She threw her arms around Chuck as he tried to back away. Pulling him close, her head over his shoulder, she bit aggressively into the meat of his trapezium.

Witnessing the attack, Rickets had enough. He jumped to his feet off of the woman and felt a surge of blood rush to his head. Standing so rapidly had almost caused him to pass out. He made his way on shaky legs towards his vehicle. He retched again and disgorged while stumbling. Vomit splashed against his struggling legs. Rickets threw open the door of his van and collapsed in the rear losing consciousness. He lay helpless with his legs exposed outside of the vehicle unaware of the sand covered, skinless face that soon found his limbs. The disgusting creature that was once Marcia Dahlgren tore into the marbled tissue of his calf. She fed greedily upon Rickets unfazed by Chuck’s cries. After four generous bites, his body cooled to the point where she no longer found his flesh palatable. She rose. Her exposed eyes in their constant lidless stare, peppered with sand and grit, looked about the campground in search of more food.

TWENTY-ONE

The Dodge pulled into the empty campground. Lance exited his truck wondering where Wanda had gone.

“Zeke, go call the ambulance,” he ordered as his men got out of the passenger’s side. Zeke did as he was told and left towards the general store. Lance looked around the camp and saw the burnout left in the soil by his Porsche. Shaking his head at the deep groves in the dirt he decided that it might be time to take the car away from his girlfriend for a while. Lance liked to enforce his way by restricting Wanda’s access to his possessions.
Teaching her a lesson
was how he put it. When she would exhibit too much free will for his liking, he would put the car in the shop for some unnecessary work. She didn’t have a car of her own and Lance was sure to never give her enough spending money so that she could squirrel away a savings. She would have to stay around his house and work out with Tae Bo videos or swim in the heated pool. She would get the message and would as always submit to his authority.
What else could she do
? She wasn’t the type of person to give up her lavish lifestyle and get a job. Lance smirked as he walked past the tracks in the dirt.

Josh noticed some blood on Wanda’s towel. The dark red smear stood out on the fine white terrycloth. He pointed.

“Is that blood?”

Lance saw the stain and laughed.

“She probably started bleeding, that’s why she tore out of here.” Sitting in his lawn chair he resolved that Wanda might not have brought any feminine products with her.

“I swear that girl has two periods a month.” Lance laughed.

Josh timidly kicked a corner of the towel over so that the cloth covered the blood. From behind the tent the corpse of a small boy emerged. Josh turned into the boy’s path and collided with him. The little demon grabbed Josh’s right arm, biting down hard. He screamed.

“What the fuck?” Josh yelled pushing the boy away.

Lance sprung to his feet. He saw the blood covered boy with the tattered chest launch again at Josh. The man ran around the truck and the boy followed growling. Around they came towards Lance who lifted his hand high in the air and slapped the boy hard across the face. The child fell on the ground with a solid thud. Josh continued running until he was back on the other side of the truck. Lance looked in disappointment at Josh.

“He bit me boss,” Josh said holding his arm.

“You pussy; running from a little kid,” Lance said shaking his head as he leisurely strode towards Josh. Once closer to his employee he could see that he had indeed been bitten. Lance looked at the man’s arm and could see teeth marks under flowing blood.

A man clad only in yellow bikini shorts that he really shouldn’t have been wearing, walked down the beach in front of Lance’s camp. The boy righted himself on the other side of the truck, took notice of the man and charged. Lance watched amused as the man in the yellow speedos began to run away from the snarling boy.

“What the hell is that all about?” wondered Lance while disregarding Josh. He walked behind his tent to get a better look.

The man in yellow was still ahead of the boy. Lance walked out farther through the campground to follow what was happening. Another man presumably heading out for a swim crossed the running man’s path. They crashed into each other and tumbled to the ground. The boy jumped on the men. It looked to Lance that the kid was trying to bite the men. The scene reminded him of an orgy porno video that Wanda had bought to spice things up in the bedroom. He shook his head at the scene unconcerned.
A kid with rabies
, he thought,
sucks to be him
.

A tormented scream from his left snapped Lance out of his amusement. He turned to see a man dressed in fishing gear on his knees attacking a tanning woman. Another girl, who must have been lying next to the poor woman, was throwing her weak fists at the fisherman. The victim rolled over and lifted her hands in defense, slapping at the beast. The young girl rose and ran to Lance. He started to move closer out of some unbelievable curiosity. The girl held onto Lance and moved behind him.

“Help my Mom,” she begged. The struggling woman, bloody and scraped in several places, pushed the man off of her and crawled underneath a Jeep for protection. The creature swiped at her calf with a bloody claw.

“Do something!” the girl screamed. The fisherman, attracted by the girl’s pleas, craned its stiff neck towards Lance. It rose to its feet. Lance couldn’t believe what he was seeing. The man was still chewing bits of the woman. The girl cried hysterically, holding on to Lance’s arm. The creature began to advance when Lance whirled, grabbed the girl and threw her in front of the creature. Lance turned and ran away to the tune of the girl’s cries.

Lance passed Josh who was still holding his arm up as if to display it for review. He jumped into his truck and started the engine. Josh opened the passenger’s side and almost fell out of the truck when Lance pulled away. As Lance carelessly drove through the campground he was cut off by a Mercury sedan that slammed into the camp gate at high speed. Behind the Mercury, a Honda Civic swerved and spun out, smashing into the Mercury’s rear end. A chain reaction of cars followed creating a pile up that effectively blocked exit through the gate. Lance threw the truck into reverse.