Zombie Attack! Rise of the Horde (6 page)

“It's getting back up,” Tom yelled, shaking me out of my
state of shock. As quickly as I could, I ran over and cut its head off,
separating the brain stem from the body. Instantly it went still like a deadly
toy with its battery removed. Sam fell on the ground and began examining his
bite mark with shaking hands. We all gathered around him.

“That thing came out of nowhere,” Benji said.

“Let's have a look at that wound,” Joel said. Sam had been
pulling the skin to show the blood oozing out. He moved quickly to cover it up.

“It's not that bad,” he said.

“Does it hurt?” Tom asked.

“It stings a little bit,” Sam volounteered. “But I'll be
fine.”

For a kid who was crying about his feet being sore, he
sure got tough all of a sudden
, I thought.

The truth was that he wasn't going to be fine. He was
infected and there was nothing in the world we could do about it. Every second
that passed brought him closer to his fate of transforming into a mindless
killing machine with an insatiable appetite for living flesh.

No one said anything for a long time. We just exchanged
looks and stood around Sam while he stared down at the concrete not blinking.
It had to be setting in, what the bite meant. His life was over now. Nothing
could bring it back. Ten minutes ago he had a future. Now all that existed were
his last few moments. Benji leaned down and hugged him and Tom sat by his other
side. Joel gave me a glance that told me to meet him a little ways over toward
the deer. We both quietly walked away and stood looking at the dead animal, not
making eye contact.

“What do you think we should do?” Joel fidgeted.

“What can we do?” I asked. “He's a goner for sure.”

“Yeah,” Joel agreed. “That thing got a good chunk of him.”

“The virus is definitely in there. No doubt about it.” I
turned and spit over the side of the bridge.

“How long do you think it's gonna take him to turn?”

“Hard to say.” I looked back at Sam to see if he was
watching us. He hadn't lifted his head. Benji was cooing words of encouragement
in his ear. “From what I've seen, when someone gets bit good and deep like that
it doesn't take long for them to go full zom. Especially someone that small.”

“Yeah.” Joel absentmindedly tapped the deer carcass with his
boot. “I've noticed that too. So what do you think we should do with him?”

“I hate to say this,” I started, “but there is no way we can
take him with us now.”

“No argument there,” Joel said sternly.

“I hate to leave him out here,” I said. “I'm not sure we
have a choice now.”

“He's gonna become one of those things soon,” Joel said in a
gentle tone. “When he does, he will be a danger to all of us. Plain and
simple.”

“What are you suggesting?”

“Isn't it obvious?” Joel looked up into my eyes. “The only
humane thing to do is to kill him.”

He's right
, a little voice in my head told me, even
as I shook my head no.

“But he's just a kid,” I feebly protested, “a small,
helpless kid.” Joel looked sympathetic as I struggled with it.

“He won't be for long,” he calmly said. “Think about it.”

“No,” I said in total shock and yet it made sense what Joel
was saying. Soon Sam would not only be a tiny, out-of-control monster but also
a threat to each of us. “He's terrified. Look at him! We can't do that to him.”

“We have no way of knowing what happens after someone
turns,” Joel argued. “We don't know if they die right away or if they are, you
know, trapped in there, seeing everything they are doing but unable to control
it. By not killing him we could be condemning him to a living hell beyond
anything you or I ever imagined.”

“So we just shoot him in the face and move on?” My voice
cracked. “Would you do that to me if I was bitten? Or Benji?”

“If that's what it came down to, I would,” Joel said.

I'll bet,
I thought.
He's probably wishing it was
you that got bit in the first place so he could get you out of the way.

“What if it was Tom?” I asked. Joel hesitated. I'd hit a
nerve. “Would you be willing to casually blow your twin brother's head off
because he was going to turn into a zombie?”

Good,
I thought.
He does have some kind of moral
center after all.

“If it came down to that,” Joel said, but it was clear the
wind had gone out of his sails. He couldn't even look me in the eye anymore.

“Let's hope it never does,” I said, turning and walking back
over to Sam.

“We about ready to get going?” Sam asked, trying to sound
calm. “I think I can walk on it as long as I don't put any pressure on it.
Maybe I can get a tree branch and make some crutches out of it.”

“You can't come with us anymore, Sam,” I said. The others
looked away as I spoke. Sam looked crestfallen.

“I'll be okay,” he said, trying to change my mind. “It's not
that bad.”

“I'm so sorry buddy,” I offered, leaning down and looking him
in the eyes. Tears burst out and drooled down his face. “We can't take that
risk. I wish there was another way, but there just isn't.”

“You can't just leave me out here in the middle of nowhere
all alone,” Sam protested.

“I'm fairly certain you wouldn't appreciate the other
suggestions floated for how to deal with this situation,” I said. Sam's young
eyes filled with fear as the meaning of my statement settled over him in a
chilling moment of realization. His eyes flashed from Joel to the gun he was
carrying then back to me.

“Please don't kill me,” Sam begged as a fresh round of tears
burst out of him. It was taking everything I had in me not to lose it. A tiny
spark of anger at Joel rose up in me but I held it in check.

“No one is going to kill you,” I promised.

“What am I supposed to do? Sit out here and wait to die?”
Sam wailed. Benji put his hand on Sam's shoulder, comforting him.

“Listen, little man,” I said, “this is what you’re going to
do. You're going to turn around and follow the road all the way back to that
set of abandoned houses where we first found you. Got it?”

Sam didn't answer. He just nodded. I wasn't sure he entirely
believed us. I glanced at Joel and burning hatred filled my guts. It was wrong
to scare this poor kid in his final moments.

“Don't stop walking until you get back,” I said, reaching
into my pocket and handing over my emergency Snickers bar. “Pick a house you
like, maybe something with a pool, and lock yourself in. Once we find help in
Lompoc we'll come back for you.”

“How will you know which house I'm in?”

“We'll search all of them until we find you,” Tom said
softly.

“What if I get attacked on my way back? I don't have a
weapon to fight off the zombies.”

“We can't leave him a weapon,” Joel said. “It's a waste.
Chances are we're going to need it far worse than he is. By the time the sun
comes up he won't even know who he is!”

Sam looked down, afraid to make eye contact with him. The
rest of the group shot Joel dirty looks that shut him up. Tom handed over his
grenade launcher.

“Here,” Tom said. “Take this. It's only got one good shot
left but it's heavy enough to swing around and use as a club if you get
jumped.”

“You're going to be all right,” Benji said.

“He's right,” I lied. “There is less chance of being
attacked during the night so you'd better hurry. You're going to want to get
back before the sun comes up.”

“Okay,” Sam said, standing up with his new gun. He wiped his
tears on the back of his hand.

“Good luck,” Tom offered.

“See you later,” Benji said sadly.

“Pick a good house,” Tom added with a brave smile.

“We'll be back before you know it,” I encouraged.

Joel looked away but the rest of us watched as the young boy
limped away from us along the road in the direction we'd just come from, the
direction we'd been fleeing due to a wild zombie horde. When we could no longer
see him, we turned and continued on down the highway, the weight of everything
that had happened making my feet feel like two blocks of heavy lead.

We'd been walking in the pitch black for less than an hour
when we saw headlights approaching in the distance. The sound of the truck
buzzing along toward us reached us after we spotted what looked like an insect
glowing in the darkness. I was starting to feel delirious after all the
walking. It was the dead of night, the air was biting cold, and we'd been
walking so long my feet were going numb. I was totally wiped out. A quick
glance around showed me that the others were pretty much in the same state I
was. The incident with Sam hadn't helped with morale either. Aside from the
savage hunger and rotting skin, we weren't all that much different at that
point than the creatures we were fleeing. It took a moment for it to sink in
but when it finally did, I stopped dead in my tracks and just watched the truck
heading our way.

“That thing is headed right for us,” I mused.

“Thank God,” Joel coughed. “I'm walking along like one of
the zombies at this point. I feel dead on my feet.”

“Careful,” I cautioned. “We wouldn't want to have to shoot
you.”

He blasted a nasty look in my direction and I immediately
returned his glare.

“Guys,” Benji said, his voice weary and filled with dread.
“What do we do?”

“What do you mean?” Joel wheeled around on him. “We flag him
down and ask for a ride, obviously.”

“Benji's got a point,” I said. “How do we know he's
friendly?”

“Now just what is that supposed to mean?” Joel asked, the
anger rising up in his voice.

“We're not on the base anymore,” I continued. “Everyone we
meet isn't just going to be nice and want to help us. It's a lawless zone out
here. We have no way of knowing how the driver of that truck is going to react
to us. Plus they’re heading in the wrong direction straight toward a zombie
horde.”

“All the more reason we should wave them over and warn
them,” Tom interjected, looking over to Joel who gave him a nod of solidarity.

“What if we take cover for now until we see what the driver
looks like,” Benji offered. “If we feel safe once we've gotten a decent look at
the truck, we can make our presence known and try to flag him down. If not, we
haven't given ourselves away.”

“Now that is good advice,” I said. “Anyone have a better
idea?”

I could see that Joel didn't but he still wanted to argue.
After what happened with Sam I wasn't able to hide my disgust for him. As far
as I was concerned, Joel was a bigger threat to our safety than any zombie ever
would be. Zombies weren't accountable for their actions. They were victims just
like the rest of us. Joel, on the other hand, was a bloodthirsty killer just
waiting for an excuse to execute one of us. I felt like a monster for even
thinking of hurting Sam. Joel had been ready to pull the trigger himself! If I
had been there to stop him he'd have walked the poor little guy off into the
bushes like an old dog and shot him in the back of the head. The thought of it
made ice flood through my veins, hardening my heart further against him.

“Fine,” Joel said, relenting at last. He was trying his best
to maintain the illusion that he was in some sort of control and failing
miserably.

We scurried off the road and into a cluster of bushes to
wait. The sound of the truck grew closer and I grew more and more impatient.
Hunger was starting to make me edgy. I wasn't sorry I'd given away my emergency
candy bar as a last meal to a sad kid, but I sure wished I had another one. I
continued to think about Sam despite the fact it was the last thing in the
world I wanted to be pondering. The mind has a way of playing tricks on you
when you're tired. What if these people came across him walking back to
Vandenberg and discovered that he had been bitten? Who knows what they would
do? They might very well have the same reaction that Joel did. Then again, what
if Sam hid his bite wound out of fear and got into the truck with them? They might
be carrying the disease back to an area they thought was safe and spreading it.
Under those circumstances, Joel would have been right to want to kill Sam.
There was no way I was going to ever admit that out loud though. I couldn't and
still live with myself.

“Looks like a white Nissan with a bearded man driving,” Tom
whispered.

“What are those marks on the side of the truck?” Benji
asked.

“They look like bullet holes to me,” Tom said.

“That's because they are,” Joel confirmed. “There are also
two armed men standing in the back with some kind of rifles.”

“What does that mean?” Benji prodded.

“It means Xander was right to tell us to lay low,” Joel
admitted, sounding unhappy about having to give me credit for anything. “Could
be a militia or a roaming band of thugs looking for trouble to get into. I say
we wait for them to pass, then move on along down the highway until we get to
town.”

The truck was getting closer. Soon it would pass us and
then, if it kept heading north, it would run into Sam—who by this point
had probably sat down and gone into shock from his wound. Zombie bite victims
report feeling disoriented after they’re infected, this was according to early
news reports from back before anyone knew it was going to be an epidemic. Their
bodies shut down as a terrible fever overcomes them, just like people infected
with HIV. It's the body’s way of trying to fight off the virus. It doesn't work
and it leaves the victim totally incapacitated. Sometimes, from what I've
heard, they then experience organ failure. Within a few hours they lose the
ability to think clearly; they can’t communicate and then become agitated. At
that point they aren't fully people anymore, but they aren't quite zombies yet
either. The first victims had no way of knowing what was happening to them.
Poor Sam does. He'd know the whole way through what was happening to him. I
couldn't begin to imagine that kind of fear.