The Dead Road: The Complete Collection (3 page)

"How? My truck's up there, remember? What am I going to do? Keep running?"

Eli reached into his pocket and pulled out the keys of his car. "Here, man. If you get there and we're not there, take my wheels. We've got Alex's car."

Roger took the keys. "Down the road about two or three miles towards town is a wooden bridge. I'll wait at the lot as long as I can, then I'll head there and wait again. If I don't see you-"

I cut him off. "Wooden bridge, got it. We'll be there. Now go. Those things aren't far."

He nodded. For a moment he looked like he was going to shake our hands, or maybe hug us, but no one was willing to say goodbye. We were all thinking it, but no one was going to say it. He turned and jogged down the road.

I walked to the edge again and looked down. There was a small ledge, two feet across, about ten feet down, and a few cracks and crags on the way. That was our best bet from here.  "Well Eli... no time like the present, right bud?"

He swallowed hard and nodded. "Yeah, man."

I pointed down to the ledge. "Make for there." From further up the hill I could faintly hear a chorus of groans echoing in the night. "And hurry."

We both moved with renewed vigor, the sounds of the approaching cluster of groaning monsters was enough to put spring back into our tired and sore legs. Judging by the echoes the group had grown. I wasn't going to wait long enough to see by how much.

I laid down on the ground and threw my legs over the edge, feeling along the rock with my toes for something I could put my weight on. My toes scraped against a jagged ridge and I winced. I looked to the side and saw Eli was already half way to the ledge. I shifted to the left and groped around with my feet some more, until I finally found a suitable spot. I lowered myself as carefully as I could, shifting my weight from my belly against the edge to my legs.

Pain shot through my feet. The rocky ledge was uneven with a sharp edge that dug into the arch of my foot. I winced as I settled onto the rocks, and lowered my hands to a shallow crack in the rocks at shoulder height. Eli looked at me from his perch to my right. "You okay, man?" I nodded hesitantly. This was going to be a long climb.

There was a hissing groan from above. One of the things shuffled to the edge, then pitched over the side, tumbling forward as if it hadn't noticed the sudden drop. It whooshed past me, snarling frantically as it fell. It missed by only a few feet. Had it taken a step to the right it would have hit me on the way down and taken me with it. I could hear the wet, slapping sounds as it struck the cliff face on its way down. My heart was pounding in my ears. I swallowed the metallic adrenaline taste back into my throat. Tree branches below us broke, and there was a heavy thud as it hit the ground.  I looked up, expecting more to begin cascading over the side.

It seemed they learned from a single mistake. I could make out the shadows of them shuffling above us. They had turned, and were walking parallel to the edge, following the road after Roger. They groaned and sputtered as they moved, excited by the smell of us just below them, frustrated by their inability to get to us. None of them looked over the side, or tried to reach us, they just walked by. Seeing one of their number must have been enough to send the message that this was not a viable course. I wondered if they had some sort of hive mind, that the experiences of one were shared by the whole. The prospect made my mind reel with the possibilities. Did that mean there was some queen somewhere, some massive un-living beast that guided these all as they looked for humans to infect?  Did they all know what one knew, spreading like a massive bed of moss or fungus, stretching over the land, in search of prey?

I swallowed hard, trying to get my heart to stop racing. I was hyperventilating. The implications of what was happening above me scrambled my thoughts. I closed my eyes.
They just learned. They saw one of their number fall and they shifted. That's all. Nothing more
I opened them again and looked down.  I could see Eli making his way down the rocks.  I ignored the shambling throng of monsters a few feet over my head and instead planned my descent.

*****

I don't know how much time passed before I reached the bottom.  Every step became agony. I could feel blood on the soles of my feet and the palms of my hands. My arms and legs shook. When I landed my first step on solid ground I almost wept. I sat heavily on the dirt, taking deep breaths, trying to calm my pounding heart.

Eli found me as I sat. He looked tired, his face streaked with sweat and dirt. He laid a hand on my shoulder and I could see his own fingertips were bloody and raw. It hadn't been an easy climb for him either. "You alright, brother?"

I nodded, still breathing too heavily to respond.  He sat beside me, both of us leaning back against the rocks. He pointed to a dark mass in the shadows, just ahead. "That's our jumper. When I got down here it was dragging itself with one arm, trying to make it to the cliff. Its legs were shattered, and one of its arms had come off somewhere in the trees. I looked around but didn't find it."

I looked at Eli incredulously. "That thing was still coming?"

He nodded. "I smashed its head in with a rock. That was when it stopped. I think it's all about the head, you know? Like those old horror movies, they just don't stop comin' unless you put a bullet in their brains."

I stared into the darkness at the malformed lump on the ground. "When that one fell the rest of them turned. I don't know if they learned from his mistake, or if they're being guided in some way."

Eli shrugged. "If they're being led it's by the hand of the devil himself.  Either way, we gotta get movin' again man. It's no good to sit here. If they can smell us, we got enough stink between us to get them comin' our way for miles around." He laughed and clapped me on the shoulder before getting to his feet.

I struggled to stand, letting out a hiss through clenched teeth as I put weight on my ruined feet. The pain was shocking, but it jolted me awake like a bucket of cold water. Eli was right. Between our sweat and our blood, if these things did track by scent we would be easy to find. Sitting with our backs to a wall was a sure way to get surrounded. I started to limp after Eli, clenching my jaw, fighting through the daggers of pain that shot through my legs. "Do you know where we're going, Eli?"

He gave me a thumbs up. "If we keep heading this way, away from the cliff, we'll reach the road. Even if we don't make a straight line, the road loops from the left over in front of us. It just matters if we get to close or far from the parking lot."

I nodded. Walking was an exercise of will, forcing myself to put one foot in front of the other. Every pebble or twig I stepped on make my feet burn. The alternative was to lay down, let those things find me, tear me apart, or worse, make me into one of them. My blood went cold at the thought.

Eli slowed his pace to walk alongside me. "How many of them do you think were in that group up there?"

I shrugged. "Looked like a couple dozen from where I was, but I didn't exactly take a head count."

"It's the slow season up here, man. I mean, how many campers are on this mountain?"

I shrugged again. "I have no idea, but, that could be all of them."

"Right, so, follow me here. If that's all of them, how long would it take to walk from one end of the mountain to the other? A few days at least, right? So for all these people to get bit and turned, and to walk around gathering up like a pack of wild dogs, that means this shit probably started before we even came up here."

"I've been thinking about that myself, like, where did it start. Patient zero, you know? It's not an airborne virus or something, or else it would have gotten us. Jake didn't go until he was bitten, so it's safe to assume that it's transmitted by bite, like rabies. Now, I'd like to think that we would have heard something on the news if these things were walking around Manhattan, and it would take longer than a week for someone to walk from there to here anyway."

"Yeah, so, what's that all mean?"

I winced as I stepped on a stick, my foot jumping upward like I stepped in fire. Eli put his hand out to help me, and I leaned against him as I tried to re-establish my stride. "It means that this thing, whatever it is, probably started somewhere up here. Not the mountains per se, but in Vermont or New Hampshire. It means there may be a perimeter, some sort of boundary we can get to where this stuff isn't happening yet. Maybe a military cordon, or something."

Eli nodded, his eyes widening, "Yeah man! There's gotta be someplace we can drive to. I mean, driving's faster than walking, right? If it started here, and only got as far as those things can walk, then, hell, maybe we should make for Boston."

I nodded, patting him on the shoulder. "Right. Sounds like a plan to me."

Eli beamed a smile. I looked away and focused on walking. The truth was, it was harder to predict than all of that. It's not like one of these spontaneously crawled out of the ground and started biting people. Maybe it started as an infection, or a virus, something that spread and didn't become active until the first body died from it. It could have gestated for weeks, or months, before it got lethal. I had read enough stories about epidemics, seen enough movies. These things always start small, with one or two people trying to get away from the quarantine, not realizing they're carriers. Sick people getting on planes, trying to disappear, carrying death with them.

Entire airports get infected, spreading the disease all over the world. I needed to keep Eli's spirits up so he could in turn keep mine up. I needed him to be blissfully unaware of the possibilities, to not pay attention to the fact that my little hypothesis was weaker than my legs. The Black Death started with fleas on rats, and wiped out half of the world population, and that was before you
could cross an ocean in six hours. I didn't know enough to be able to truly predict what we would find away from the mountain, but it was just enough to keep me from being optimistic. Eli needed to be optimistic. I needed to be able to lean on him, to be able to grab him when I limped, so I kept going. He wasn't the type to press on no matter what.

I adjusted my rifle slung over my shoulder and increased my pace a little. Eli looked at me with concern. "You sure you're okay, man? Your feet are kind of fucked."

I gave a quick nod. "They hurt, but I'll be alright. Better than sitting here and becoming dinner, you know? Besides, the longer we wait, the further away that border becomes."

"Right, man. Didn't think of that. You just lean against me. A couple of hours and we'll be at the parking lot."

And if its overrun, if there's a hundred of these things, I know what to do.
I patted the rifle again, reassuring myself it was there, that it was the right tool for the job.
It would take a lot more than this to fight off a parade of those things, but only one bullet to make sure I don't have to see how bad it's really gotten out there.
"Just a couple of hours. No sweat. Thanks, Eli."

*****

We had to stop every so often to let me rest my feet, but our pace was steady, and we covered a lot of ground through the darkness. We heard the occasional groan of a distant creature, and we held still, my rifle poised at my shoulder, ready to fire, but nothing came close, nothing emerged from the shadows. It felt like we walked all night, but we finally reached the steady slope down to the road.

Eli guided me to sit beside a large maple tree. "You sit tight. Rest up. I'm going to go scout the road."

I took the rifle off of my shoulder and handed it to him. "Take this. Only shoot if you have to."

"What about you, man?
You here, by yourself? What if one comes out of the woods?"

I smirked and patted his arm, "I'll yell loud enough that you come rushing back. Don't worry about that. Besides, I can run if I have to. I just don't want to." He nodded, but the look in his eyes told me he didn't quite believe me. I gave him a serious look. "I haven't given up yet, Eli. Go check the road. I'll be right here."

He picked up the rifle and jogged down the hill to the pavement. I leaned back against the tree and closed my eyes. The world seemed to slip away, falling beneath me. My limbs felt heavy. My head swam for a moment, then there was nothing but the blissful embrace of sleep.

I remember dreaming. Being chased through a maze by some unseen beast. I could hear it slavering and drooling as it ran, pursuing me tirelessly. I felt like I was running on a treadmill. The faster I went, the less ground I covered. Hallways stretched on forever. Corners went into dead ends, or turned back on themselves. Spotlights swayed from above, casting everything into eerie shadows. I could never see what was chasing me. I knew if it caught me it was over. I also knew there was nowhere to run. There was no exit. I would be running forever.

Eli shook my shoulder and I woke with a start. I looked around wide-eyed, my heart racing. "Any?" I managed to croak, my mouth and throat dry and caked with the remnants of sleep.

Eli shook his head, "Nothing. I went up the road a few hundred feet too. I think we're in the clear. So up to it, man. Let's get to the car." He reached a hand down and pulled me to my feet and we began the slow descent towards the road. He kept the rifle, as I was now leaning on him completely as I walked. My legs had stiffened up, my feet had swelled, and I could tell there was infection starting in the sole of my right foot. Every step was like touching a hot frying pan. Eli helped me walk as I limped towards the road.

"We gotta get you to a doctor, man."

I shrugged. I didn't want to say that I didn't think there were any doctors left to get to. I didn't say that the first places that probably got overrun were hospitals. "Just some bandages and antibiotics. A pharmacy will do."

The road was much easier to walk than the woods. Stepping up onto the flat, even pavement was a welcome relief. Even though it was still painful, the pavement was cool under my feet and I could plant each step more confidently, unafraid of stepping onto something that will tear my foot open even more. Up ahead was a road sign, "Camping Ahead - 1/2 mile." In the distance I could see the faint glow of the single street light that illuminated the parking lot. Eli nudged my side with his elbow. "See that man? We're almost there."

My thoughts drifted as we walked. With Eli's help I didn't need to think about where we were going, I just put one foot in front of the other, limping just enough that I didn't slow Eli down. I thought about Roger. I wondered if he had made it down here first, or if he was behind us still, or if he made it at all. I let my eyes drift closed as I walked. I felt exhausted. The act of walking became a mechanical thing, something that a process in my mind was making happen without any sort of thought. I let Eli guide us, and forced myself to stop thinking for a while. I imagined that none of this was real. It was all just an extension of the dreams. The running, the pain, that desperate, clawing feeling of rising panic, it was all just in my head.

"Oh shit."

Eli's whisper broke me out of my reverie. I opened my eyes. They were blurry and gummed with sweat and the remnants of sleep, but I could see what made Eli swear. In the glow of the single light I could see a mass of shapes, milling about the parking lot like a pride of lions.  There were a dozen or so cars, and between all of the shuffled a pack of the things, over twenty of them, shifting and moving aimlessly.

Eli ushered me to the side of the road and we ducked down behind a clutch of trees. I rubbed my eyes, trying to clear the sleep from them. Eli brought my rifle up to peer through the scope.

"Oh god, Alex. There's a shit-ton of them. Gotta be twenty or thirty."

I groaned and leaned heavily against the tree. "Probably the group from up top."

"But, how man?"

I sighed, "They followed the road. Probably followed Roger. Is your car there?"

He scanned back and forth through the scope, frantic as he tried to peer through the foilage and crowd of monsters. "Uh, I don't see it. I don't think so, man."

I nodded. "Alright Give me the rifle, let me see."

He handed it to me and I lifted it up, closing one eye to look through the scope. I could see the throng of creatures as they walked, shambling back and forth around the parking lot. They seemed to move in a circular pattern, each of them shambling around one empty corner of the lot. Even the ones further away seemed to move back and forth to keep that spot in sight. It reminded me of dogs trying to catch a scent, but in slow motion.

"Did you park in the far corner, Eli?"

"Uh.. I don't... I'm not sure. It's been a long week, man."

"Think, Eli!" I glared at him. "My car's two away from that spot. Were you that close?"

"Uh, yeah, yeah I think so. You helped me carry the beer from my trunk, right? I pulled up on the other side of Roger's truck from where you were."

I nodded. "Right, yes, that's it. So they're circling your spot. They followed Roger's scent, and lost it when he got into the car and drove off. They're hovering around where he got away."

Eli slammed his fist into the tree. "What the hell do we do now, man? There's twenty of those things between us and your car! We'll never get all of them!"

I sighed, "I don't even have that much ammo on me. It was all in my pack."

"How far is the bridge he told us to go to?"

I shook my head, "Two or three miles he said. I'll never make it. My foot's screaming like a newborn baby." I looked over at him. "But you can make it on your own."

Eli sniffled. I could see tears welling up in his eyes. "No way, man. I'm not leaving you here."

"Eli, listen." He shook his head back and forth, his face screwed into a pained expression. "I can't. I just can't. You can't carry me two miles to a bridge with a pack of those things between here and there. They'll smell the blood on me. They'll smell us, and they'll chase us down, and I can't outrun them like this. I'm better off being a distraction for you, so you can run pat them. You can get to Roger."

Eli buried his face in his hands and started to cry. It was too much for him. He already had to watch Jake die twice right in front of him: once from the bite, the other when I shot him through the eye. Now the idea of leaving me to die, after everything we'd been through to get to this point, he couldn't take it. I wiped my own tears from my eye and looked back at the lot. My car was far from the others that were parked there.
If we can just distract them somehow, get them to wander away from my car just for a minute, we have a chance.

Eli sobbed, wiping his nose on his sleeve, sniffling loudly. "I can't, man. I just can't."  When he sniffled one of the things turned its head and paused. I got the feeling it was looking for the source of the noise, its dead eyes scanning the blackness. After a few seconds it started its shambling patrol again.

"Eli. Sh!" I whispered. He swallowed back his sobs and nodded to me. He reminded me of a schoolboy, trying to hold back his tears after his teacher scolded him; his lips quivered and his nose ran, but he made no sound. I kept my eyes on the parking lot, watching that single creature that heard him. It was back in formation, wandering in the small semicircle it had been walking before. I eyed the other cars carefully. One was a fairly new BMW sedan with New York plates, probably belonging to another Manhattan weekend warrior up here to escape the city. The things didn't seem to notice it at all, walking around it like it was just another obstruction. Watching through the scope I could see a red LED flashing, reflecting off of the driver's side window the dashboard. "Holy shit, Eli. I think I have an idea."

Eli looked up at me. I kept my eyes on the BMW. "I think that car over there has an alarm. If I put a bullet through the windshield it'll go off." He looked puzzled. "Eli, if there's a car alarm going off, we may be able to sneak into my car and get the fuck out of here before they notice."

"You think so, man?"

"When you made noise one of them looked over, but it wasn't enough to make it give up its hunt. It still thinks there's prey close by, even if it can't find it. I bet a loud enough noise will make them all move to check it out. Maybe not for a long time, but long enough to get a car started ."

Eli wiped his eyes and nodded, "Okay, man. Okay. What do we do?"

I lowered the rifle, "First, we gotta get closer. Feeling strong?" I could barely walk, and a slow limp around a parking lot full of monsters was a bad choice. If they spotted us, this plan was over. No amount of noise was going to distract a pack of hungry things when there was fresh meat in sight.

Eli picked up on what I meant. He moved over towards me,
then hunkered down in front of me. With an awkward hop I got up on his back like we were a couple of schoolboys at field day. He shifted me into a better position, then stood up. "Good thing I keep in shape," he grunted.

"Yeah, good for us both. Now cross the road here, and let's make a wide arc towards the lot. Once we have a good view of my car, we'll find a spot to take the shot from."

With uneasy steps he began to walk. Crossing the road was the easy part, as the pavement allowed for careful, measured steps, hell to toe, making as little noise as possible. Once we got to the other side however, the dirt and undergrowth made Eli unsteady. His steps came in stuttering shuffles, sliding in the dirt to make sure we didn't topple over. He got to a large tree and leaned against it, catching his breath for a moment, then started again, slowly making our way around the lot, keeping it distantly on our right.

We could hear the collective groans and sighs emanating from the crowd. I could feel fear clawing at the pit of my stomach as we got closer. There was something inherently wrong with them, something that triggered every primal response in me going back to when we were still weak primates dodging saber-toothed tigers. Even the rifle slung over my shoulder didn't provide any comfort. I knew it wasn't enough.

Eli stopped against another tree. The view of the parking lot was obscured, but we could see the shadows of the creatures milling back and forth. We were closer than we had been, the stench of death and foulness clinging in the air. I tapped Eli's shoulder and gestured for him to let me down. I slid cautiously to the ground and sat against the tree. He sat down next to me and whispered "What now?"

I gestured to our left, where I could see a few small trees in a tight group. "That's near the edge of the lot. I've pissed at those trees a dozen times."

He nodded, "Lemme catch my breath, man."

"Footsteps are too risky. We'll crawl it."

"You sure, man? Your leg--"

"My foot, not my leg, and I don't need feet to crawl. C'mon." I laid down on my belly and started to shimmy across the ground. It was slow going, but nearly silent. I felt like a sniper in a war movie, trying to get the perfect shot on the enemy. I got closer to the trees. One of them let out a loud moan. I froze. I didn't know if they communicated with one another, but I was afraid to look.

Eli came up behind me and shoved me forward. "Go, man!" he hissed.

I hazarded a look over my shoulder. It was a clear view to the lot from here. I could see them, shuffling, starting to break formation. They had given up the hunt, and now were searching for new prey. It was only a matter of time before one of them caught my scent. I shook my head, turned to face the lot, and brought my rifle forward.