The Infected: A Post Apocalyptic Thriller (24 page)

8

The first rays of morning spilled over the horizon and Sam and Cole broke out their campsite in silence. Sam washed herself off in the stream, but kept her eyes locked on Cole. The remote control was buried deep in her pants pocket and it pressed against her leg each time she moved. She had fingered the button throughout the night, flipping the glass casing up and down, up and down, but couldn't muster enough courage to press the button.

The little information she had managed to make any sense of in the doctor's journal was about the remote. The middle button would bring any midnight runners in the vicinity in and out of rest. The bottom button would increase hormone production sending the target into a berserker-like state—Sam saw no reason to ever press that one. And the top would cause the midnight runner operation to terminate, ceasing all brain function permanently.

"You're staring at me, Miss Sam," Cole said as he loaded his bag into the cart.

"I'm sorry," Sam whispered.

"It's happening, isn't it?" Cole asked.

"Yes."

"You should just do it then. Before it's too late."

"No," Sam said.

"Why not?"

"Because if there's a way to reverse this then that answer lies within Concordia."

"And if it happens before we get there?"

She looked at him for a long time. "We need to go faster."

They traveled the whole day in silence. Artie walked on the opposite side of Sam and constantly stopped to growl if Cole got to close to him. It got so bad that Sam forced the dog into one of the empty canvas bags and zipped him in. She left enough of a hole for air, but the dog's apprehension towards Cole had slowed them down.

As the sun hovered above the horizon behind them, a glint of sunlight flashed on a piece of the metal on the side of the road, and they slowed to a stop. A road sign, covered with dense weeds and foliage, stood almost unnoticed. The glint of exposed blue metal caught Sam's eye, and she removed one of the hatchets from the canvas bag and hacked at the overgrowth.

Her heart leapt as they discovered the words on the sign were still legible:

"Welcome to Independence, Missouri," Cole said, reading the sign aloud.

"We're close," Sam said, and went back to the cart to get the map. Hope filled up her chest. Maybe there would be time to save her friend. Maybe Jordan had been wrong. Maybe—

"Sam," Cole whispered.

"If the map is accurate, we should have about fifty more miles until we see the walls." Sam carefully unfolded the map and searched for Independence.

"Miss Sam," Cole whispered again.

"That's two days," Sam said. "One if you feel like walking about 16 hours today."

"Sam," Cole said.

This time his words did not come in a whisper and Sam looked up from the map. "What?"

Cole pointed in the direction they had been traveling. His thin face had turned stark white and his arm trembled violently. Sam followed the path of his arm and her stomach turned to jelly. Half a mile away was a horde of halfways. At least a hundred. They had spotted Sam and Cole and were walking in their direction. Correction…running toward them.

"We have to go," Sam said. She shoved the map into one bag and unzipped another. Artie shot out of the bag and hopped onto the ground. He started barking at once. "Grab the bag with the guns and follow me." Cole did as he was commanded and then the three of them raced off of the road and into the thick forest to the south.

Branches ripped and tore at Sam's face and exposed flesh as she sprinted through the thick brush. She grasped ahold of the hatchet tightly as Cole thundered behind her and she caught glimpses of Artie's gray fur in her peripherals. From further behind them, she heard the sound of branches and limbs snapping as the horde closed in on them.

The woods grew less and less dense and Sam pushed through the remaining brush until she was free from the forest. She stopped dead in her tracks. On the other side sat a large field, the grass wild and overgrown, stretching above her waist, and in its center, a giant, rusted Ferris wheel. And beyond the field, lay the scorched city of her nightmares.

"Cole, do you see this?" Sam asked. "Am I dreaming?"

"No," Cole said and grabbed her by the arm. He pulled her through the sea of grass and towards the wheel. Sam couldn't make herself walk any farther. She stared out over the city, at the charred remains of all her memories.

"We have to go, Miss Sam!" Cole screamed. "They're coming."

"This isn't real," Sam said. "I'm dreaming."

"This ain't no dream," Cole said and lifted her by the waist.

He attempted to throw her over his shoulder but Sam screamed. "No!" She flailed until Cole, unable to handle the bag and her squirming, dropped her back to the ground. "This isn't real!" Sam screeched.

"Miss Sam—" Cole started, as the first wave of infected crashed through the tree line. An older man led the pack, his rotting flesh hanging from his skull like pulled pork. A dozen more followed close on his heels. The dead man spotted them, snarled, and then took off in a sprint.

Cole drew his pistol and raised it, but the sight of the creature brought Sam back to reality. She leaned back and heaved the hatchet. It whirred through the air, end over end, until the blade smashed into the old man's skull. Gray and black goop spilled out from behind the blade of the ax and the infected fell to the ground, disappearing beneath the thick grass.

Sam unholstered the Glock and the two of them fired. Wave after wave of gunfire ripped through the air, and clouds of black mist filled the air as the zombies dropped one by one. Headshot after headshot. Another surge of infected emerged at the edge of the forest as the last of the bullets flew from Sam's gun. A heartbeat later, Cole had emptied his clip.

"Fall back to the Ferris wheel," Sam said.

They ran as fast as they could to the midpoint of the field. When they reached the giant rusted wheel, Cole set down the bag, and they each drew a weapon from it. Cole grabbed the AA-12, while Sam took the two Mac-10s.

Sam spun in time to see the horde within a dozen yards and unloaded the guns. A spray of shell casings rocketed through the air as she squeezed the trigger. The first and second line fell and then Cole unloaded on the few that were remaining. He fired once and blew the head of an old lady clean off her shoulders. He fired again and sent another old man flying backward. Sam let out a sigh of relief as the two empty mags fell from her gun. They were going to make it. Everything was going to be o—

One of the stragglers managed to go unseen and get around them. A young woman jumped on Cole's back and sank her broken, rotten teeth his shoulder. Sam struggled to slam a full magazine in when another emerged from the tall grass just a few feet away. It speared Cole and brought all three of them to the ground.

"No," Sam said as panic flooded every sense.

She dropped the guns and pulled the remote from her pocket. In the distance, more halfways were appearing in the tall grass. She heard the sound of flesh being torn from Cole's body and flipped up the glass case. Her finger hesitated over the middle button, ready to end all of her friend's pain and suffering, but instead her finger slid down to bottom button. And she pressed it.

Cole erupted to life and rose to his feet. The young girl had taken a huge chunk of meat out of his shoulder and was about to clamp down again. Cole let out a terrible, spine chilling howl and flung the girl as if she was weightless. Without hesitation, he grabbed the zombie that had speared him by its throat and ripped its head from its body with ease. He spun toward the girl he had thrown down and lunged on top of her. He smashed in the girl's face with one swing of his giant fist. It sounded like eggs shells cracking and Sam watched in horror as the innards of the girl's face poured out onto the ground surrounding her flattened head.

Sam rested her finger against the middle button as Cole jumped to his feet. But he took off toward two more of the infected that lingered by the trees. He sprinted at a subhuman speed and Sam cringed as began to tear them to shreds.

She decided to grab the sniper rifle to pick off any stragglers when she was thrown to the ground. Her instincts took over, and she managed to spin as the halfway vaulted atop her. The remote slipped from her grasp and she jammed a forearm between herself and her attacker. The creature, a man in his late 40's, snapped his rotten teeth at her, as strings of long gray drool cascaded from his mouth. Sam struggled to push him off, but the man dug his heels into her legs. Sam managed a single scream, "Cole!"

A split-second later, the zombie's head was ripped off in front of her eyes and the body flung off of her. She reached out her hand, expecting Cole to pull her up, but instead he crashed down on top of her. His green eyes were bright yellow, and he howled as pushed Sam's arms to the ground.

"Cole, no!" Sam screamed. "It's me! It's Sam."

He opened his jaw and Sam's skin crawled. Cole's teeth all look razor-sharp as he widened his jaw. Tears spilled down Sam's face as he lowered his head towards hers. She had failed. Everything she had done was for naught and now she was going to be murdered at the hands of her own savior.

"I'm sorry, Jordan," she whispered.

There was a loud bark and Artie sprung onto Cole's back. He took his hands off of her arms as he pawed at the dog and Sam seized the opportunity. She reached out and managed to grab the controller and mashed the middle button. Cole collapsed on top of her at once, blowing hot exhales of breath onto her neck. Above, Sam watched as the first glimpses of twilight appeared in the sky.

She managed to push Cole off of her and checked her surroundings. Nothing moved in the field. Artie paced around her feet, his fur still stood high on his neck, growling at Cole who lay motionless. She stood there breathlessly looking at the chaos. The ground was littered with corpses and blood. And one midnight runner, whose chest heaved up and down, in rhythmic breaths. Sam turned toward the charred remnants of the city, dropped to her knees and began to sob.

9

Dark thunderheads gathered on the skyline as the sun faded behind the Ferris wheel. Down in the valley, the city lay dark and quiet. Echoes of ghosts and forgotten memories swirled through the brisk air as dead leaves rustled through the thick grass.

Sam drug Cole's body through the field of blood and propped him against a tree stump so he sat upright facing the city of ash. Artie was nowhere to be seen. Sam imagined he was hunting for food or perhaps patrolling the outer tree line for more of the infected. She didn't know and didn't care. All she cared about was getting to Concordia and making them pay for everything they had taken from her. Rebecca, Jordan, Nick, Alex and now Cole.

She dared a glance at the slumbering giant. His jaw was slack and black blood had dried and crusted in his beard. Deep lines pressed into his cheeks which had started to turn the slightest shade of orange. An image of the midnight runner flashed in Sam's mind and she turned away and screamed into the night air.

"Why?" she screamed out into the silent night air. "Why would you take Cole from me? Why have you taken everybody?" Her shouts were loud, but she wasn't worried about calling attention to herself. She dared another horde to show up. Begged for an outlet to defuse the pain and anguish drowning her soul.

"What the fuck did I ever do to you?" she shouted.

In the distance, a bolt of lightning flickered across the sky.

She cursed God as tears poured from her eyes and spilled down her cheeks. She cursed Concordia and Minister Troy. President Gates and General Soto. David. She cursed them all at the top of her lungs. She yelled until her throat was raw and the tears stopped falling. She felt empty and numb. She felt nothing.

She squatted on a neighboring stump and slowly removed the remote control from her pocket. Her hand trembled as she fingered the glass casing. Another wave of tears fought their way to the surface as she debated on whether to just push the top button. He would never know that he died. He would just stay asleep forever. Wouldn't that be more humane?

Artie appeared at her side and sat down beside her. He nuzzled his wet snout into the palm of her other hand which hung limply at her side. He gave a low groan when Sam gave no sign of acknowledgement and lay down at her feet.

"Everything Artie," Sam whispered. "They took everything."

Artie's ears perked at the sound of his name, but he didn't lift his head.

Sam stared blankly at the city as her fingers slid back and forth over the buttons. Somewhere in the city were the remnants of Sam's past. The answers had been burned to ash long ago but the framework still existed. She searched her mind for any resemblance of the missing pieces but the only thing she could see was Jordan. And Rebecca. And Cole. Their faces were scorched into her memory.

She flipped the glass casing open and pressed the middle button. Cole's eyes fluttered open. Cole's face dropped as his eyes fixed on the city. A moment later, he looked to Sam and began to sob.

"It's happening, Miss Sam," Cole said. "I can feel it happening."

"I know."

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to hurt ya. I would never—"

"You didn't hurt me."

A long moment of silence passed as the sky erupted in white light as tendrils of lightning scrawled through the pitch-black. Sam wrapped her hand tight around the metal device and swallowed hard. A clap of thunder broke the silence and her skin turned to gooseflesh.

"My wife," Cole said as he wiped his eyes. "I can remember my wife."

He smiled a weak, scared smile, but it was a smile nonetheless. "Oh my god," he laughed. "I can remember everything."

Sam wanted to ask if he remembered anything about Concordia. She sighed. No, she wouldn't ask him about the city. Everything she needed to know about the city had already been told to her. Evil men and women preying on the less fortunate. She wouldn't waste the few remaining moments of his life. "Tell me about your wife."

"She used to tell me that I was a hard man to deal with." He laughed nervously and ran his hand through his hair. His fingers found the metal device implanted into his skull and frowned. He stifled a sob. "I was a hard man to deal with."

Sam reached out and touched Cole's arm. He stopped rubbing the device and returned his palm to his lap. "Cole, I need you to—"

"I was born in the spring of 1997," Cole interrupted. "I fell in love with my wife in high school. Sophomore year. Fall of 2013 if I remember correctly. Name was Daphne Rose. She was a year younger than me and she was the prettiest damn girl I'd ever seen before or ever seen since. Met each other at a homecoming dance. Bet you didn't know I could dance, huh?"

Sam's hands trembled, and she took a painful breath. Tears stung at her eyes. Cole looked up to her, and she shook her head. He smiled and patted her on the leg.

"We fell in love almost at once. Hell, we were kids then. Thought we were in love. Found out that the love part comes later. When you're 16 all you care about is the physical stuff and we had our fair share of that. She got pregnant that summer and I dropped out of school to work at a printing plant. Her daddy made us get married so it'd be a proper birth. Said he didn't want no bastard grandchildren floatin' around this world. I don't expect he liked me none, but he sure did love her.

"Got married, and a few months later, we had a little girl. She died shortly after she was born. Lungs didn't develop right. Stayed on a respirator all her life." Cole paused and took a deep breath. Another crack of thunder pierced the air. "Damned shame when a kid dies. Hell, it's a shame when anyone dies. But something of that magnitude is too much for a kid to go through.

"Had a lot of anger built up inside of me after that. Started fightin' a lot. Couldn't drink in the bars but me and a couple buddies would hang out in liquor store parking lots beggin' for people to buy us booze. We'd always end up with enough, and by the end of the night, it'd always end in blows. After a few fights, nobody wanted to fight me anymore. That's when I started boxing.

"I won the golden gloves championship when I was 19 and a scout for the Olympics invited me to try out for the American team. Won a gold medal that year." Cole scratched his head. "How'd they manage to hide all these memories, Miss Sam?"

Sam shook her head.

"Anyway," Cole continued, "I decided to go pro after I got back to the states. Daphne wasn't too keen on the idea of me fighting full-time but then we got pregnant again and she seemed to care more about making sure her body was right then what I did with mine."

Sam's fingers traced the top button of the remote as her heart slammed against her chest. She knew what she needed to do. Soon, Cole would become a monster and she would have to kill him. At least this way would be painless. She hoped it would be painless. The story was making it harder though. She loved Cole all over again as he spoke and dreaded the next part of her life without him.

Cole glanced at the remote and grimaced. "Daisy Mae was born that spring, and we moved to a fixer-upper in Northwest Detroit. Daisy hung around a little longer than her sister. Made it a full year and then one day my wife went to wake her up one morning and she wasn't breathing. Doctor said she died of something called SIDS."

Sam's heart broke in two and she desperately wished that she would have just ended it while he was still asleep. No one deserved to go through this.

"Daphne wasn't the same after Daisy died. I tried to make things right again. Made a lot of money fightin' and moved her out of that junk heap in Detroit and brought her out to the coast. Got a place in San Francisco, but it didn't matter though. She was a ghost of herself. Cryin' all the time. Stopped eating and eventually I had to take her to the hospital. She never came home again. I went and saw her every day, and some were better than others. Once or twice, she even held my hand. But most of the time she just stared out the window. I went and saw her every day for 12 years. She died before the infection. Thank the gods. Doctor said it was an aneurism, but I think her heart was broken so bad that it made the rest of her body quit working. They said they found her on the floor by her bed, holding a little sweater she had knitted for our daughter."

A bolt of lightning cut through the pitch-black sky and crashed into the center of the city. It illuminated their faces for the briefest of seconds. Artie jumped to his feet and growled loudly at the darkness ahead. A moment later, the echo of thunder filled the air.

"I think when I die, I'll see her again," Cole said. His voice shook and Sam's heart plummeted into her stomach. "I'll see Daphne and she'll have the girls and she'll be normal again. She'll be happy like she was when we were in high school. Do you think the girls will remember me?"

"Yes," Sam said, fighting to keep her voice steady through the tears. "They'll remember you." She wanted to tell him how she would remember him. How she would miss him. She wanted to beg him to stay, but instead she remained silent.

"Miss Sam, if my girls would've lived…I'd have wanted them to be like you."

"Cole—"

"Don't feel bad for what you got to do. You got to get to Concordia, and you got to make them stop doing what they're doing. Me, I'll be looking down from heaven while you do it. Just remember that. And remember that I love—"

Sam pressed the top button of the remote and Cole went silent. His chin slumped onto his chest and then he fell over onto his side into the tall grass. Artie gave a low moan and then howled toward the sky.

"Cole?"

Thunder rumbled somewhere in the distance. Anxiety flooded over her as the realization of what she had done set in.

"Cole?!"

Sam hit the top button of the remote and then the middle. Her fingers pressed all of them over and over again, hoping to bring him back to life. She hadn't told him goodbye. She hadn't told him that she loved him. And now it was too late. She had killed her only friend.

She fell to her knees and draped herself over Cole's lifeless body. "Cole, I'm so sorry," she cried. "I'm so, so sorry. I didn't mean too. Please come back. Please. We'll figure something else out. I'll fix you." She shook his shoulders as she pleaded, each word growing more desperate than the last. "Please, Cole. Don't leave me alone. Please wake up. Please." She shook him as hard as she could, but her valiant giant lay as motionless as the dozens of other corpses in the field.

"No!" Sam screamed and put her head to his chest. There was no heartbeat. "Goddamn it," she cried out angrily. "Don't leave me, Cole! I need you. Please don't leave me." Her words caught in her throat and she took large panicked breaths. She was alone now. Artie lay on the ground next to Cole and licked the big man's cheek. "Please," she whispered. "Please come back to me."

The storm faded, and the world grew silent. After a while, Sam left Cole's side and found her pack through the darkness. She pulled one of the pistols from the bag and stared at the weapon for a long time. Then she lifted the pistol and pressed the cold steel barrel to her temple and wrapped her finger around the trigger.

She wanted it all to be over. She had lost everything she had ever cared about and now she was alone. If she could find the courage to squeeze the trigger, she could make it all go away. She could be back with them all in the blink of an eye. She could make the pain stop.

It's not over yet,
Jordan whispered.

"I can't do it," Sam said.

Yes you can.

"I killed him, Jordan."

They killed him, Samantha. You just put him out of his misery.

The gun shook in her hand and she pressed it harder to her skull.

You're so close.

"It doesn't matter. None of it does."

Yes, it does.

"I can't do this for you, Jordan. I'm sorry."

Sam squeezed the trigger until the tension was gone. Just a little bit more and it would all be over. She took a deep breath and held it.

Don't do it for me. Don't do it for you. Do it for everyone that's left in New Hope.

Sam tried to pull the trigger but couldn't. She screamed and tears flooded down her face. She just wanted to have the strength to end the nightmare, but knew deep down that it would take more strength to see it through. The strength came with hunting down the monsters in the dark shadows of her dreams and killing them. She let the gun fall to the ground.

The storm clouds gave way and rain drizzled down in icy sheets. Sam laid down beside Cole and curled into the crook of his arm. Artie nudged his way in-between Cole and Sam and the two of them slept until morning. When she awoke, Cole's skin was ice cold, and a chill had settled into her bones. She knew the chill would never go away. She knew she would be cold inside forever.

She picked some wildflowers at the edge of the field and placed them in Cole's hand before leaving and kissed him on the top of his head. This would be the hardest part. Leaving him in this field as she had left David in her memories. She gathered the weapons that she could find and shoved them into the duffel bag. Before leaving, she knelt down in the tall grass and whispered goodbye and told Cole that she loved him. She braved a glance at the city of ash and her heart ignited with ire and rage. She spun back toward the forest. Back to the road. Artie followed but continued to look back every few feet as if checking to see if Cole was really staying.