Stage 6 (15 page)

I shouted and began writhing in terror, but was stuck fast to the roof. It slowly and deliberately brought its bloody face over mine, almost as if considering where to take its first bite when the car suddenly sped up, flinging it off of the roof and on to the ground. The car continued to accelerate rapidly, and Infected now came from all sides, drawn out from their hunting grounds by my shouts. The car sped around obstacles, narrowly avoiding collisions by inches, but the Infected had no sense of fear. They began to rush the car, chasing it down or in the case of Infected in front of us, running on a collision course. We rushed towards an Infected and the car turned at the last second narrowly avoiding a collision but the Infected managed to grab on to the roof guard as it sped by, no doubt at the very least dislocating its shoulder. It felt no pain however and reached up with its other hand to pull itself up and all pretenses of bravery fled me in this moment. I would not die up here, eaten alive while rushing through a minefield of bloodthirsty cannibals. I screamed, I cried, I used all the strength in my body to fight against the bonds that held me. I jerked my limbs against the ropes, cuttings violently into my skin and drawing blood. I worked my right leg free enough to move slightly, and I started kicking violently against the roof guard attempting to free myself, bruising myself again and again. The Infected reached towards me as I heard a window roll down and a gunshot fire shortly after.

The Infected fell off and I begged, “Please get me out of here! Please!”

Lucy’s voice came faintly from the window but combined with my hysteria, the wind rushed her voice away and I couldn’t make out what she was saying.

Then two of the Infected flung themselves off the roof of nearby vehicles, and slammed against the sides of the car. The car swerved and we ran straight into another one who flipped over the window and cracked the glass. It landed next to my head and I squirmed as far away as I could from it. I screamed again and again, pausing for a second to think to myself,
what am I doing?
But at this point I couldn’t care less. I just didn’t want to die.

The car spun out of control, and went all over the place as the driver fought to regain command of the vehicle. A loud popping sound rang out and at first I thought it was a gunshot, but when the car began to turn and screech against the road I realized it was a blowout. A tire had popped. The car began to flip over and as the side of the car approached the ground I had to force myself to keep my eyes open: I wanted to see it as I was crushed under the thousands of pounds of weight of the car. I wanted to see the end; I didn’t want to die not knowing what had happened.

The car crashed down on its side and began to roll over, throwing me against the limit of my bonds, when suddenly another loud crash sounded and a portion of the side of the trunk was sliced away, mere inches from my feet. The trunk had smashed into another car on the road, stopping the momentum enough to keep the car from rolling but spinning the car on its side in the road.

Almost immediately as this happened, before the car even stopped moving I heard a door open and saw Steve jump out next to me. He unsheathed a combat knife from his side and immediately cut my bonds.

He grabbed me and lifted me to my feet and said, “Look Jack, can you understand me?”

I nodded yes, and he said, “I’ll hold them off, you NEED to help everybody out of the car ok?”

I nodded again, and dazed though I was, managed to pull myself up on top of the side of the car.

I reached my hand in and said, “Let me help you up.”

Kevin was the first person to take my hand, and after seeing it was me instead of Steve he instinctively crouched back, but then came around. I helped lift him out while he got footholds and appeared over the door. He drew his pistol and jumped down besides Steve, who was already firing off shots at Infected running towards us. I did not know the sounds of war, but at this moment I imagined myself one step closer. Steve’s assault rifle was obviously set on automatic, and he moved around the sides of the car shooting rapid fire shots at the hundreds of Infected approaching. He was thinning their ranks and slowing them down, but it was clear we didn’t have much time.

I began to think clearly again, and yelled into the car, “Come on, let’s go!”

Ian appeared next, and almost leapt out of the car himself. He then turned around and lifted Karen out, and helped her down from the car. He stood on top of the car, and surveyed the surroundings with a grim expression on his face. Sarah came next, and reached for my hand. I grabbed it and hoisted her up. I told her to stay on top of the car, out of the way of gunshots and she obediently moved. She had a cut on her forehead that was bleeding pretty badly, and Ian moved forward to help her bandage it quickly, to keep the blood out of her yes.

I then reached in and yelled, “Mom! Come on!”

She answered with a terrifying phrase, “I’m stuck.”

I immediately jumped in to the car, and saw her lying on the floor between two seats. Her arm was wedged under the passenger seat, and she was awkwardly flopped about.

She saw me and told me, “Jack I think my arm’s broken. I don’t know if I can get out!”

I reached down and said, “Sorry Mom, we don’t have much time.”

She stifled a scream as I pushed back the seat that was trapping her arm, freeing it but unfortunately causing it to move in the process.

I helped her up, and told her, “Mom you have to get out. Use the side of the seat to push up.”

She slowly moved into the passenger seat, and clambered up slowly. I turned to see Lucy staring at me with those brown eyes of hers, with a bleeding gash in her arm and her legs twisted off to the side. She was holding Victoria to her chest, crouched over her protecting. I gently uncovered her arms and lifted Victoria to see she had not been harmed at all. Lucy had shielded her from the wreck with her body, and it had taken its toll on her but at least the baby was safe.

I moved over to the passenger seat and yelled, “Sarah!”

She appeared over the door, and I said, “I need you to take Victoria ok?”

She looked horrified at the request to take care of such a precious item, but with the automatic gun fire ringing off in the distance and the look on my face she took Victoria as I lifted her up.

Then I stepped back to Lucy, to see her eyes still on me. She said, “Jack I can’t move. I tried, but my arm is burning and I can’t feel my legs.” She whispered softly, “Just leave me. Take Victoria, and make sure she’s OK.”

Shocked at this request, I replied vehemently, “No! Lucy I’m getting you out of here.”

I smiled at her, and she smiled weakly back. I quickly thought of a way to get her out. There was no way she could go through the passenger door up by where the roof should be, but... The trunk door! I quickly collapsed the middle seat, and gently reached down for Lucy.

She flinched, scared but I looked into her eyes and said simply, “Trust me.”

She nodded, and wrapped her one good arm around my neck as I reached down and scooped her up into my arms. I gingerly moved through the collapsed middle seat, and into the back trunk, careful not to knock her against anything. I gently rested her against my side, and reached forward and opened the trunk. It popped open half way, but then got stuck against the concrete. I lifted Lucy up and carried her through the narrow gap, and then looked to see the others now on top of the car, with Infected racing towards them. I could see that Steve had run out of ammo, as he was using the butt of his gun to knock back the Infected off of the car. I could also see that they were doomed. There was no way they would survive much longer.

I looked back at Lucy and opened my mouth to explain when she cut me off and said, “Jack, I can see just as well as you can. You might have a shot at surviving if you run right now, while they distract the Infected. But you’ll never make it with me.”

I considered this for a split second, and then realized I shouldn’t have even spent that much time pondering this. I would never leave my family, and that’s what this group was to me now. We were in this together. I used all the muscles in my being and gripped Lucy tight to me, and then sprinted off as fast as I could in the distance where I saw no Infected.

She asked me, “What are you doing!?”

I didn’t answer her however, too intent on my goal. I looked into the window of each car I passed, searching. Finally I found what I was looking for, keys. It was a dinky little car, only five seats and barely a trunk but it would have to do for such a dire circumstance. I gently lay Lucy down in the back, and then shut the door and raced around to get in the drivers seat. I held my breath and turned the key to hear the engine roar to life, to my delight. Lucy slowly positioned herself to take as little space as possible, as she quickly understood what I meant to do. I backed up, turned around and raced towards our group, fighting back the Infected off of their car.

I stopped about one hundred feet away, opened the door and shouted, “If you have any ammo left now’s the time to use it!”

They looked up to see me, and a glimmer of hope crossed their faces. Some shots rang out and I saw they were clearing a path blocked by a bus and a large truck, so that the only Infected that could easily get there would be coming from around the car’s themselves. I drove around and stopped in that area, as they hurriedly lowered themselves to the ground. Kevin reached the car first, and opened the passenger door and jumped in and shut the door.

I looked at him angrily and said, “Who the hell do you think you are? Open that door! Not only are we not leaving until everybody is here, but we have a five seat car and nine people! You better believe we’re doubling up!”

Almost looking embarrassed at his selfishness, he opened the door and got out to help the others get into the car. He helped Sarah into the passenger seat, and then made to get in when suddenly an Infected came running from around the Bus towards Karen. He hesitated, and then ran to intercept them. Karen dived into the car and squished up against Lucy, and Kevin grabbed the Infected by the throat, stopping it from biting him. He slammed it into the Bus door, and then threw it to the ground.

Then a blast sounded out and I turned to see Ian with my shot gun and jacket. He had apparently remembered it when everybody was running out of ammo and gone back in the car for it. By the time he was done, everybody had gotten into the car except Kevin and Ian who was in the process of carefully inserting himself between all the people in the back seat. Suddenly a horde of Infected came around the bus, and Kevin took off running towards an open field. The Infected started chasing him and he looked back, terrified. It was a sprint born of desperation. This expression, similar to what I must have looked like earlier set me into motion and I gunned the motor. The car took off chasing the Infected, and what followed must have been an odd sight. Kevin was sprinting like a madman through the field, running amazingly fast. A horde of Infected was running, shambling, and limping after him. And after all of that, eight people were crammed into a tiny little car chasing down the Infected. I gunned the motor more, and we sped up to forty miles per hour as we raced around the Infected. I quickly slowed to a little less than ten miles an hour alongside Kevin.

Sarah opened the passenger door and said, “Get in!”

He made a mad dive for the door and miraculously pulled himself in over top of Sarah. I took off, increasing to sixty mph yet again and heading back towards the road, over the numerous bumps that shook the car all around. At times it felt like we were flying and the danger of a concussion was imminent if we kept up the same pace. I came up near the road, where it was still somewhat flat and followed the road just shy of where we were
supposed
to drive. I slowed down to a comfortable thirty miles per hour after a while, and we stopped seeing signs of the Infected. This time there was none of the accustomed smiles, and laughter after escaping a close fate. We had come close to dying right then and there. In a few minutes we had gone from our comfortable, secure car with all the supplies and gas we had fought hard for, to almost dying and now in a crammed little car with every bare essential stripped from it. No doubt the previous owners had taken everything before leaving it. The gas was almost empty, and we would probably only get a few more miles on it at best. Lucy, my Mom, and Sarah had been injured, Lucy badly. We were lucky there weren’t more injuries, but at this point to talk of us being “lucky” was pointless. We drove in silence for a few miles, until the engine began to sputter and it slowly ran to a halt right outside the city limits.

We sat in silence in the car for a bit, when I asked, “What’s the look of our weapons? What do we have left?”

Steve answered, “We only have four guns with ammo: my pistol, which has half a clip left, and then one more full one in my backpack, Ian’s pistol, which is almost entirely out of ammo, Kevin’s pistol which has a few clips left thankfully, and then your shotgun, which has the handful of bullets Ian grabbed from your jacket.”

I leaned back and let that sink in for a second. It was worse than I thought. I asked, “What about food?”

My mom spoke up, “All the food we had was in the car. We have none now.”

I thought hard for a few minutes and then came up with a plan. “Ok so the way I see it we have two options. We can either go try to search for a new car with more gas, or we can sneak into the city, and try to find supplies there. There’s also bound to be some more survivors in such a big area, and possibly they can help us. What do you guys think?”

Steve said, “With the injured we have, there’s no way we are going to be able to ‘sneak’ into the city. I propose we combine both of those options into one. We send a few of us, those with weapons out to look for a suitable vehicle both with keys and enough gas to get into the city. Then we move into that car, and try to sneak into the city. In our experience the Infected have never gone for a car before right? They only attacked us then because Jack was tied on the roof.”