They Walk (15 page)

Gabe never changed his, and I can’t help but wonder why.

I could ask him, but since our talk this morning, he’s been avoiding me. Not that I’ve made that much of an effort to track him down or anything. So, by at least noon we were all loading back into the truck. Thankfully it’s still quiet on this street, and I can only imagine how it’s going to be from here on out.

Dan has decided to drive and Maria is sitting beside him. In the middle are me, Sam, and Claire between us. In the back are Gabe, Emily and Michael. Dan doesn’t go back to drive down our Main Street, instead he takes the side street that cuts to the highway. After that we have to go through the town of Auburn before we reach the city of Lewiston. We don’t have any problems getting to the highway, in fact the road is empty and we breeze through it.

Occasionally we’d find an abandoned car or three, but never any dead or alive people.

As we get off the highway and come to the turnoff for Auburn, the road conditions change. The exit ramp has as least five cars piled up, and as we barley squeeze by, I can see movement from inside. At the last car we pass, I see inside the window and there is a little girl of five or eight with blonde pig tales. I can see her bloody mouth open and close and smash into the window. I thank the heavens as we pass, but I know I’ll never get that image from my mind. After the exit, we come to a three way stop light.

To the left are all the store fronts and most seem to be charred from a possible fire that has been long out. There are bodies lying in the street, but they aren’t moving. There are a couple cars and trucks up and down the road that are blocking the street off. To the left, leads to the occasional home or two and at the end we can see the high school. There are at least thirty or more dead shuffling about the street. They look to be in a worse state than the kids we had to fight off at Austin’s.

Some of them are missing limbs, chunks are gone, and about all of them are burned.

Straight ahead of us, the road doesn’t appear as bad. There are a few abandoned cars and some unmoving bodies littering the ground, but it seems the better route. Dan goes straight, and we all but hold our breath as we pass the dead on our right. About a mile down the road, the left side turns into a park with tree’s everywhere that you can’t see beyond it. The right side is blocked by a metal guardrail, and the ground slants downward twenty feet. Beyond that is a housing community, and up ahead further is an apartment building. From the road, I can’t really tell how it is down there. But at least nothing is burning.

I’m about to try to investigate the park surroundings, when Claire interrupts.

“
What is that up there?” She’s pointing out my window towards the park up ahead.

I turn to the window and squint to see what she’s talking about. I don’t see anything at first, but then a shadow is moving about thirty feet ahead of us. It’s large so I don’t think it’s human, but it’s moving very fast too. Slowly, it breaks free of the woods and comes onto the road.

“
What the hell is that?” Dan cries.

“
Is that a moose?” Sam says, as he leans over the seat to get a better look.

Thinking it would just go across and down the hill, Dan doesn’t slow us down. But it’s not alone. Behind the moose, are three burned dead guys. They are tearing after it, and as we get closer, I can see bites already lining its side.

Abruptly, the moose turns and starts to charge at us.

“
Dan, look out!” Maria cries.

“
Everybody hang on!” Dan yells.

The dead are right behind flanking the moose, so he can’t go around it. Instead he turns the truck sharply to the left intending to go into the woods. We are all yelling for him to stop the truck, but there isn’t enough time. At the same moment that the truck turns, one of the dead guys gets to the moose and claws at it. It bucks and dives at us, and Dan tries to turn us back to the other direction. I get tossed into the door, and my shoulder goes numb. The moose hits the truck, in between mine and Dan’s door at the next moment, and pushes us into an abandoned car. The truck is going too fast, and as we hit the car we get flipped onto our side. I fall towards Claire, and can hardly hear everyone screaming at the same time.

We land on the rail on the side of the road, and it bends under the weight of us. I scramble off of Claire and I try to pulls her back towards my door. Underneath her, Sam is struggling to move. I hear the metal of the rail snap, and don’t even have time to yell in alarm before the truck falls over the side of the hill. We flip back onto the hood, and with a feeling of vertigo we abruptly flip back onto my side of the truck. I get slammed back into my door with a bang, and I’m up too high to hurt my shoulder. Instead my head smacks the window, it happens so fast I don’t feel anything, all I hear is the glass breaking. We flip two more times, and each time my body goes limper each time I hit something.

Before I know it we land upside down on the hood at the bottom of the hill.

Chapter Twenty Nine

We are a mass of arms and legs, and I’m not sure who I’m lying on.

My body doesn’t hurt surprisingly, but I do have a hard time sitting up. When I do, I get dizzy and my eyes blur out of focus. I blink rapidly trying to clear them, but if anything they get worse. Ignoring it, I shift to the door and see Claire under me. When we landed, the truck must have impacted because there isn’t much room to move.

But I pull Claire a little towards me and she groans and opens her eyes. She has cuts all over her face from the glass, but she sits up right away as if she’s not badly hurt. When she turns to Sam next to her, I can hear some of the other’s moving around. I turn my attention the door next to me and try to open it, but it’s stuck. I push at it, and I feel a twinge in my shoulder that is gone before it begins to hurt. I see movement out the window, and I lean out to get a better look. Blurrily I see the three dead guys from the road falling down the hill.

I fall back into Claire with a yell.

“
Oh. My. God…Claire get that door open now, we’re about to have company.” I shout as I turn towards her and Sam.

He can barely open his eyes, and I notice his left arm is hanging awkwardly at his shoulder. In his right I squint, but can see the fire poker still in his grasp. Claire leans over Sam and tries to open the door. Swearing as she hits at it, the door groans and finally falls open. Sam and Claire both stumble out right away. I’m scrambling out after them, when I see something among the seat clutter.

Weapons.

I reach for them; it’s the ax and the baseball bat. I grab them without hesitation and slid free of the truck. I stumble out and land on my knees, my head feels fuzzy and I’m not sure of up or down. With my free hand I reach for my temple and it comes back covered in my blood. I know Claire is shouting before me, but I’m having trouble hearing her and she sounds far away. I look up at her, but she’s already going to the front seat. Sam is going to the back, and I try to get to my feet to help.

As soon as I rise, my stomach lurches and I almost fall back to the ground, but it passes. With deaf ears, I blindly turn towards the hill we came down. The dead have almost reached the bottom and I know they will be on us soon. I spin towards the back of the truck and smack into Gabe, he has to hold me steady as I stumble back. He says something, but I don’t hear what it is, so I just pull away. Behind him, Sam is helping an unsteady Emily and Michael.

They are all covered in cuts from the glass, and might be more hurt but I can’t tell at the moment.

Hearing a scream, we all rush to the front of the truck. Claire is trying to get Maria out of the door, but is having a hard time. One of her legs is trapped under the dashboard. On the other side, one of the dead is trying to get in through the window. Dan is trying to kick it out, but it keeps clawing its way in. Gabe pushes in beside Claire and together they pull Maria free, with a scream of pain from her. As she falls out on the ground, her leg is all torn up and I think I see bone poking through.

Dan scrambles through the open door then, and when he clears it Gabe leans down and shoots the dead guy in the head. My head spins at the sound of the gun going off, and my ears are left ringing. I grip the ax in my hands and try to steady myself. I must have lost a few seconds though, because when my vision clears a little, everyone is already standing.

Dan and Michael have Maria leaning on them, and Claire is helping Sam now. Gabe is walking towards me and says something again, that is lost on me. Assuming he’s offering help, I gesture to Emily who looks to be having a harder time keeping upright than me. He narrows his eye at me, but in the end goes to Emily.

I see movement on either side of me, and only then do I remember the other two dead guys.

Distantly I hear the shouts of the others, and Gabe and I move at the same time. He goes for the left and I go for the right. I swing the ax as I turn, and I catch the guy at his shoulder. We both stumble at the hit, and I almost fall backwards when I have to pull the ax from his flesh. I do however step back as he goes for me again. This time I shake my head to clear it and flatten my feet. I raise the ax, and right before he’s on me I swing the ax around so that I hit his neck.

He falls to the ground and I fall with him still gripping the ax.

I hear the sound of gun fire, and my ears ring again. A dull ache forms at my temple as I struggle to my feet. With the ax free and raised, I swing it down into the guy’s neck as hard as I can. Half his head is hanging off, but he’s already stopped moving. Satisfied I start to turn back towards the others, when I hear them all yelling. Quickly I look to the dead guy, thinking he’s getting up, but he’s still. Then I look up towards the apartment building across the way, and I almost pass out at the sight.

Running from all directions are hordes of the dead.

We huddle together then, and quickly figure out the only safe place is the apartment building, that is a dozen feet away. We just have to get there alive. Pushing forward, I have to swing out at the dead, as they are already reaching us. I see the others around me using their weapons, only having enough time to knock them aside.

Faster than I’d like, we are halfway to the building, we are getting surrounded. I’m swinging the ax around so fast, that the faces and ages of the dead go by in a blur. My arms are getting heavy and the ache at my temple gets worse. To my left, I see Emily struggling to hit at one of the dead with a knife. It catches her shoulder with its arms and she falls to the ground. Before I can yell or run to her, the dead girl she was fighting bites into her side. Barely hearing her screams, she gets lost under the mass of the dead.

With the dead momentarily distracted by Emily, we push back and closer together, knowing we can’t save her. After swinging again and knocking back an old woman, my arms are almost too heavy to hold them up. That’s why, when the next dead woman charges at me, I don’t hit her as hard. She only stumbles and comes at me again, but I lose focus mid swing and a throbbing pain forms behind my eyes. She’s about to knock into me, when Sam is there hitting her aside with the fire poker. The ringing in my ears gets louder then, and my head swims.

I stumble forward onto my knees, and look around at the others numbly.

We are completely surrounded now, and the dead are only kept at bay by our efforts. Dan while holding Maria is alternating between shooting and hitting with the rifle. The same can be said for Gabe with the handgun, which on the other side of our circle. Next to him is Michael, and somehow he has the knife that Emily was using, and he hits with it wildly. On either side of me is Sam and Claire, or I don’t hear what they shout at me as I fall. Across from me, Gabe glances at me, and waves his arm and yells to me. I peer over my shoulder, to see a one armed little boy shuffling to me. I know I should get up and protect myself, but I can’t feel my legs.

My thoughts feel so muddled, that I’m not really sure everything is happening at the right speed.

As I struggle to lift my arms to raise the ax, the dead boy is hit in the head with something and falls to the ground. At first I think Gabe shot him, but the thing that hit him sticks out and is on fire. My head feels like it’s spinning, and I almost think I am hallucinating.

More burning arrows fly over our heads and hit the dead?

Chapter Thirty

The burning arrows hit the dead, and they ignite into flames. The ones closest to us are all hit and they fall back. Distantly I hear the sound of gunfire and all the dead blocking our path to the apartments fall to the ground. The others are still fighting some of the dead around them, but I see what’s on the other side of the dead.

In front of the apartment building, are two guys and a woman.

The guys are holding a gun in each hand, and the woman has a large crossbow up to her shoulder. In one hand, she is holding a lighter and occasionally lights an arrow. They are all older than us, but not our parent’s age. I can’t make them out clearly though, but I do notice they are yelling and waving us towards them.

I see Dan helping Maria over to them, and Michael is by their side in an instant, warding off attackers. Sam is yelling to me, but suddenly I can’t hear anything over the roaring of my ears. My vision starts to go dark, and I’m having trouble feeling my body. My fingers loosen and I hardly feel the ax fall from them. My stomach rolls, and my visions swims again. Falling forward onto my hands, I feel bile rise into my lungs. I gag and cough something warm and wet up and spit it out. There are hands on my shoulders, and feet come into view. I don’t have the strength to be afraid, but I do raise my eyes. I see a shadowed version of Gabe, and Claire is yelling beside him. He comes in closer, and I don’t even feel it as he scoops me into his arms.