The Last Blade Of Grass (28 page)

Simone is looking at me and shrugs with her hands out, in a,
what is taking you so long,
gesture. I just hold my hand out in a stop signal and decide to start squeezing through the hedge with my back against the rose bushes. I give little sideways pushes and try to time them with the infected banging on the fifth wheel door. Unfortunately, this infected wasn’t a musician in its former life, because it can’t keep a beat for shit. I’m only halfway through when it skips a beat and hears me, or at least it gets distracted by something. The banging and moaning stop, and I can almost feel its gaze curve around the back edge of the trailer to lock right on me. Luckily, the meal in the trailer is a bigger draw than I am, and the uneven pummeling of the trailer continues.

I force my way through in the first two beats of the uneven melody being played around the corner and ready the bat as I walk to the edge. I have to walk past the open front door of the house in order to reach the trailer. As I side step past the opening, I look inside to make sure no surprise visitor is waiting for me, and see keys dangling in the door. It looks like someone wasn’t expecting there to be anyone at home, or at least not expecting infected when they opened the door.

When I look around the side, I’m reminded of the real devastating part of this disease. It isn’t one infected but two. Two older creatures are taking their turn weakly pounding on the door of the trailer. They must have been in their late sixties and just relaxing at home in their night clothes when they were turned. Whoever came to check on them is probably hiding in the trailer, unable or unwilling to end the lives of someone they once knew or loved.

The person in the trailer has been trapped in there for quite some time. The two older people have their arms and foreheads bloody from their relentless attempts to get at the fresh meat they know is locked inside. I figure I will be able to take both of them with the bat. Since they don’t have the strength to break open the cheap door they put on trailers, then they won’t be able to overpower me.

My learning curve in what these things are capable of always seems to be one huge step behind what it should be. With my first crunching step out from the back of the trailer, both of the infected heads snap in my direction.

Shit. Shit. Shit! These aren’t regular infected. I just gave my position away to two runners. Simone and the dark night are the only things that save me from my latest mistake. From her location on the opposite side of the road, these two couldn’t hear her. She moved farther down the road so she could have an angled firing position, instead of being directly opposite from me as I came around the trailer.

When their heads snapped toward the sound of my foot on the gravel, they couldn’t see me in the darkness, and since my surprise at their fast movement is keeping me locked in place, no movement gives my position away.

Simone shoots and blows out the brains of the man onto the side of the fifth wheel, giving it a grotesque new paint job. The old lady snaps around to the sound of Simone’s gun, and I step forward quickly, raising my bat over my head as I go. These damn runners are freaking me out. Her hearing must be exceptional, and the unnatural jerky quickness of her movements sends a chill up my spine as I bring my bat down. She turns again toward me before impact. My bat just bounces off the left side of her head but hits with a heavy
crack
on her shoulder, knocking her down. I swing the bat down on her head two more times as she is trying to get back up and reach for me. It finally caves in and ends her fight. My skin is crawling.

Simone runs across the road toward me, and says, “Gun, Gun. Eddie get your gun ready.” I think my lack of sleep and that fever are really starting to affect my actions. I know better than just standing here in unfamiliar territory after a gun has been fired. If there are any other infected here that can get to us, they will definitely come to the noise we just made.

“These were more runners, Simone. Did you see how they were moving when they heard me?” These were the only other runners I have encountered, but I am right about there being more of them. Also, they had quick movements like jerky puppets on a string. It’s as if this parasite couldn’t get complete control over the bodies.

Simone and I step back to back and move out into the middle of the road. It will be easier to see or hear an infected approaching out in the open than if we’re standing next to a huge trailer.

Simone says, “I’m sorry I shot him, Eddie. It was just so creepy the way they were moving. Why do these things keep changing?”

I’m just shaking my head back and forth, and a shiver runs up my spine again while contemplating the question. I half-heartedly say, “Maybe everyone behaves differently when they change?” I know that isn’t the case though. We saw enough of how these things behave to know this is something new. We haven’t seen or heard from anyone else about the infected running or about fast jerky movements and dexterity.

One runner was chance. Two more runners and them being together means they are changing. Hopefully our knowledge about what's out here can stay just slightly ahead of the changes to this damn parasite, or we’re doomed.

We scan the area for a few minutes before I finally say, “I don’t think any new infected will show up after the racket those two were making. Any more in the area would have already been here by now. Let’s check if someone is alive in that trailer. I think you should say hello, Simone. People respond better to unknown women than unknown men.”

Simone agrees, and we walk over to the trailer. I pull the bodies of the runners slightly off to the side so we can reach the door. I’m starting to feel bad for this older couple again. Now that they are silent and still, I again picture them as they must have been in life. They were probably happy and enjoying retirement. I step back to the trailer, and Simone knocks on the door.

“Hello? Is there someone in there?” Simone asks.

The fifth wheel shifts slightly, and I can hear someone moving to the door.

A man’s voice calls out, “Who’s out there, is it safe?”

I figure it is my turn to talk, “Hello, my name is Eddie, and my wife Simone is here with me.”

“Hello,” Simone says again. “We’ve stopped the two... infected people that were trying to get to you. We aren’t a threat to you if you aren’t a threat to us. Are you okay, and do you need any help?”

The man inside asks, “Are my parents dead?”

This makes me nervous because it could go in many different directions and few of them pleasant. These were the man’s parents, and no matter what they became, it is a hard thing to deal with. In the early weeks of the outbreak there were lots of healthy people killing other healthy people in revenge for a murdered family member. Of course, the family member killed was always infected, but people couldn’t see it that way. They refused to acknowledge what was happening to their loved ones. The compassion people have for their own family is one of the things that helped this disease spread so rapidly. It only takes one hidden infected person in an apartment to take out a whole building full of people. Hell, even today, even with me at times I have a hard time saying that these things are no longer thinking people. I understand completely why people have a hard time changing their understanding of reality.

I breathe in deep, and reply, “If these two elderly people were your parents, then yes, they are dead. I’m sorry for your loss, mister. What’s your name? Are you hurt?” The door cracks open and a man looks out with a questioning expression on his face.

“We are wearing night vision goggles since you can barely see us,” I add.

Finally the man starts talking, “My name is Ruben. This is my parents’ house. I’m...I think I’m okay. But…” Ruben hesitates and looks back into the fifth wheel. “Well, my wife has been bitten.” Tears start to roll from Ruben’s eyes.

“How long ago was she bitten?” Simone asks.

Ruben replies that he isn’t exactly sure. “We got here about ten p.m. from what I can figure, and she was bitten as soon as we opened the door.”

“That’s about five hours,” I say. “I’m assuming she hasn’t turned?”

Very quickly he adds, “No, no she isn’t one of them....yet.” His tears start flowing again.

“Did you know some people are immune Ruben?” I ask. Obviously, he doesn’t the way his head pops up. “Look, can we come in for a second, so we can turn on a light and see each other and talk?”

We all step into the fifth wheel. Simone and I take off our goggles and turn on a flashlight, which is enough light to illuminate the hall of the trailer.

“This is my wife, Maria,” Ruben says, and then continues to his wife, “Did you hear what they said, Mel? Some people are immune! That’s probably you, why you haven’t changed yet.”

You can see a sad smile of disbelief on her face, and then she lowers her head, and says, “These people just told you that so you would let them in here, Ruben. No one is immune, and they know they have to kill me before I kill you.”

Ruben quickly turns toward Simone and me with a look of worry on his face. Before Ruben can start fighting us out of the trailer, I say, “Maria, It’s true. I’m immune. I was bitten on my arm yesterday.”

She lifts her head as she starts crying, and through the sobs, says, “Don’t lie to me! I know what I will become. We’ve seen it with everyone we know that was bitten.”

I roll up my sleeve, undo the bandage, and show them the bite mark. Once they see this, a new round of tears flows from both of them. I know the feeling they are having. When I woke up from my bite and wasn’t infected, it was like I had just been born. Nothing is as beautiful or exhilarating as facing certain death and emerging unscathed on the other side. Well, relatively unscathed.

“Simone, I think you should explain to Ruben and Maria what they are going to be facing with the fever, and I will go back and get Hannah and Mike, okay?” Simone agrees and I step out of the trailer and put my goggles back on. As I walk back to the trees up the road, I can’t help but think about what Ruben was doing. He was just waiting for his wife to turn and let her bite him. She wasn’t tied up, and they know people change. Of course, maybe he doesn’t have any rope in there and was just stuck between the active infected outside and his wife as a potential infected inside. Either way, it’s a horrible way to spend five hours, thinking that the woman you love will die in your arms.

I scan around one more time before I call out “Marco.” “Polo,” I hear in return. “Hannah. Mike. It’s okay to come down. Hannah, your mom is talking to some survivors up ahead in a trailer. There were two infected, they were the man’s parents and had pinned them down in the trailer. That is what you heard your mother shoot at.” I lift up my goggles and shine a light at the trees to help them climb down.

They walk up to me, and Mike asks, “Marco Polo?”

“Well, yeah. Can you think of a better way to let someone know you aren’t infected when you’re walking up on them?”

“No, actually, it’s really smart. I get it. And it's totally non-threatening,”

“Okay guys, let’s grab the bikes, and get down to the trailer so we can head out.”

“I’ll be right there. I just need to use the bathroom,” Mike says.

“We’ll wait, but if you get stuck somewhere again like a tree, you should probably go while you’re up there or you’ll just make yourself miserable.”

Hannah and I get to the bikes, and I put Mike’s bike on top of my trailer. “Hannah, I’m glad you came with us, but I need you to know that there isn’t a very good chance of this ending well. We’re going against some pretty bad guys, and they outnumber us by about two or three to one. If we end up having to fight them, some or all of us will die. I’ll need you to get back to the ranch and your brothers and sisters as quick as you can if fighting starts, okay? Do not stay to help if I tell you to go. Do you understand?”

“I understand, but I’ll make my own decision on how things are going.”

“You know, Hannah, I would feel more comfortable if you would just lie to me sometimes and agree to do what I say. Why you had to inherit both your mom’s and my independence streak I just don’t understand.”

“I’m back,” Mike says. “All right, Mike, you grab Simone’s bike.”

As we walk down the road, Mike asks, “Are the people you found coming with us?”

“No, the man’s wife has been bitten, but it looks like she might be immune like me. She got attacked about five hours ago, so she’ll be going through the fever soon. We’ll check on them on the way back if we make it.”

“You sound pretty pessimistic for someone that has survived this long in an apocalypse,” Mike offers.

I give a sad nod and start explaining my views to Mike as we approach the trailers. “Mike, I never really liked the negative aspects of humanity. People can be very good, kind, and giving in the best and worst of circumstances. But the opposite is true as well. Some people live to be vicious, and this new world is a world that the most dangerous people can thrive in.” I pause, and add, “In a way, I am one of those vicious people, but I have standards.

“I had a gun shop before things collapsed and have always been into guns. Not for hunting or target shooting, my main reason for owning guns was defense. I know what shitty things thinking humans are capable of doing to each other, and it was my intent to arm as many innocent people as possible. I used to tell people, “Criminals don’t belong in jail, they belong in the graveyard.” I stop the bike, and call out to Simone, “Simone, we’re ready to go.”