Chase felt the zombie grab his shirt. Sweat poured from him now. Just as he went to push himself away, he tripped backward over a tree root. With a thud, he hit the ground. The zombie had followed, but fallen to the wayside as he scrambled for purchase on something. Chase called out for Jayda before he could stop himself. All he could think of was this zombie having gotten her.
Scanning again, he didn’t see any movement save for the zombie. It regrouped its appendages and crawled toward him. The clack of the monster’s teeth gave Chase a start. But he managed to roll away just as the gnarled fingers of the creature reached him. A tremor ripped through his body when he found his waistband empty where his gun should have been.
A quick turn of his head saw the zombie reach for it. Chase jumped to his feet and grabbed for the knife he had wedged in the calf part of his sock. Lunging, he aimed for the head, but hit somewhere south of the neck. The zombie grabbed his wrist. The tight grip caught Chase by surprise. Chase reached up his free arm to stab at it again, but instead a bullet ripped through the zombie’s chest.
Thankfully to the thing’s side, the splatter missed him for the most part. He waited a beat for his heart to start again. Before that could happen, the zombie’s head exploded. Having ducked for cover at the sound, he peered out to find Jayda standing behind a tree, her gun still raised.
“Are their more?” she asked.
Moving to her side as if they were magnets separated, he looked around them.
“I don’t think so,” he sighed. “Good shot as always there, little lady.”
* * * * *
“Why don’t you go over to the other side of the highway in case someone comes the other direction,” Dax suggested to Lucas.
“Mind if I take Sherri along,” he asked.
“Nope. I got Richard here to keep me company,” he quipped.
Lucas smiled at Sherri as they took off. He imagined them out on a nice stroll on a beautiful day. He figured it couldn’t hurt anything, as long as he stayed vigilant.
“At least this gets us away from Richard. Dax isn’t all that pleasant himself at times, but at least he defended you,” Lucas offered by way of small talk.
“Yeah. I know Richard is sick, so he’s not thinking straight. I only knew him as nice up until a couple of days ago. And I do miss my husband, desperately. But he’s not coming back, even if that seems too unreal to process right now. It’s just this whole thing is so surreal, and we don’t know what life we have left.”
“No, I get it,” Lucas said. “Makes you think on things you wish you would have done differently, time you wish you would have spent with those you love.”
“I keep wondering if my family is alright, but I don’t even have a phone. Figured I’d wait till we got to where we were going. I don’t want to use up anyone’s battery life in case we need the phone.”
“That was my brother they were talking about on the radio—Dr. Benton. I don’t know if you heard that or me and Chase talking about it earlier.”
“I did, and I’m sure he’s fine,” she soothed.
A commotion at the van caught their attention. Richard had fallen out of the back of the van, his ropes falling off of him.
“Shit, somehow he got out of the ropes,” Lucas exclaimed.
“He has a gun,” Sherri screeched.
They raced back toward the van as Richard aimed the gun at Dax. As they approached, Richard put the gun right to Dax’s head, metal against skin. As they skidded to a stop just short of Richard, Lucas pushed Sherri behind the side of the van.
“Don’t move,” Richard commanded.
At the edge of the tree line, a gas station came into view. Chase sighed, gaining a small, pained smile from Jayda. He noticed she looked a little pale, as well as tired like the rest of them.
“Are you okay?” he asked. “You need a minute? I’m not trying to baby you, as I remember all too well how you hate that. I’m just genuinely concerned given the baby and all. It’s been hard on all of us, and we aren’t… well you know what I mean.”
“Yes, I get it. You can stop rambling now. I’m not going to bite off your head for your concern,” she replied, her voice hoarse. “Truthfully, I a little concerned myself, especially down the road as the pregnancy goes on, that I’ll become a burden.”
“Don’t worry. You won’t. A baby, I mean that’s big. And each of us are willing to take up any extra to accommodate for such a blessing in such a dire time. In fact, as far as morale goes, something like this could be just what we all need to keep going, to keep fighting.”
“At some point I will weigh down the team,” she said. “No pun intended.”
“Did you hear what I just said?” Chase laughed. “I will keep you safe.”
“How when I won’t be able to run or fight?”
“I’ll run for you. I’ll fight for you. I’ll do whatever it takes to keep you safe. I promise you, I won’t screw up again.”
With that, he just walked forward toward the gas station, listening for her to follow close behind him. He was set on keeping his promises to her this time. He may not have to live up to his vows anymore, but Richard was no longer in a place to, and damn it, he would this time keep her safe.
* * * * *
Richard held the gun against Dax’s head. The metal felt cool in his hand, even though he knew that after laying in the sun it shouldn’t. The heat burdened him, even though it wouldn’t even reach eighty degrees today. Sweat rolled down his forehead into his eyes. He swore his brain was melting. He couldn’t keep a thought together.
As his anger burned, he whispered whatever words he could find into Dax’s ear.
“Damn…Ass. You fucking…Ass. I’ll…shit. I’ll shoot. Damn ass,” Richard went on and on.
The words, whatever he could get out, released the pressure in his head and his chest. All he could concentrate on was Jayda, the fact she was with Chase instead of him. He yelled across the road to Sherri and that damn boy, whatever his name was. With the gun he waved them over.
Once they started to move, he pushed the gun back at Dax. He waited. The gun got too heavy and started to shake. He propped it on Dax’s head to help himself remain standing.
“We’re leaving,” he announced to the group once Sherri and the boy got close enough to hear him.
“We have no gas,” Dax said.
“We’re walking. Forest,” he got out and motioned the gun toward the trees.
His arms felt sore. His legs shook. His brain focused on only one thing.
“I’m going to kill Chase,” he announced as he used the gun to push Dax into motion.
* * * * *
Chase stopped cold. He pushed Jayda behind him, Focused on the head that had just popped out from behind the gas pump, he gripped the handle of his gun tighter, and moved forward to kill. In a few steps, he could see that the man was alive.
“Hey, where’d you come from?” the old man in relatively nice clothes still, asked as he pumped gas into a container.
Chase said nothing, but he lowered his gun. His finger remained on the trigger, though. He held out his arm to keep Jayda behind him, though he could feel her strain to see around his shoulder.
“So, what are you doing here?” the man continued on. He had a strained smile on his face that set off some alarm bells in Chase’s still fast beating heart.
“Guessing gas,” the man answered for Chase.
“Yes,” Chase got out as he stepped closer with great care.
“No worries. There’s enough for us both, I’m sure. Look, I’ll go grab you another container from inside,” the guy offered.
“I don’t like him,” Jayda whispered in Chase’s ear as the guy moved away from them.
“I feel the same,” Chase agreed. “Just stay behind me until we figure him out.”
“Sure,” Jayda sighed.
Chase didn’t have time to marvel at her easy response. The guy came back out with another container in one hand, a bucket hung from his arm and some sort of tool in his other hand.
“The pumps aren’t working, but I’m sure there is gas down in the chamber. Used to work in one of these places. Gas gets low, the pressure fails. But I can open this up,” the man said as he waved to the metal circle on the ground by the pump. “I’ll get us some.”
Chase just watched as the man filled the first bucket. He proceeded to fill his container with it. Then, he moved to fill the bucket again. He started to fill the second container. Then, he moved the bucket down in again. Chase furrowed his brow, but then heard the bucket drop. Moving to get a look down into the hole, he stopped at the sound of feet hitting the pavement hard.
The man had grabbed both gas containers and took off on a run while Chase was distracted looking into the hole. He figured Jayda had been doing the same as a few seconds later he heard her gasp.
He pulled his gun as he marveled at the speed that the old man had already gained. He yelled for him to stop or he’d shoot, but his finger remained frozen on the trigger.
As the man continued to run away, Jayda yelled for Chase to shoot him. He adjusted his hand on his gun, but rather than pull the trigger, he clutched the handle tighter. He adjusted his position again. Again, Jayda demanded he shoot. He wiped the sweat from his brow with his arm, and then let his arms fall to his side.
“I can’t do it,” Chase exclaimed.
“If you don’t we won’t make the checkpoint,” Jayda hissed.
Chase tried again. He aimed. He touched his finder on the trigger. He slowed his breathing and lowered his chin. Yet, his arms fell to his sides again.
“I just can’t. He’s alive. How can I shot him?”
Jayda sighed and walked back to the open chamber. Dropping to her knees, she looked down in the hole. She even stretched her arm down inside.
“If there is anything left, we can’t get to it,” she huffed.
* * * * *
Lucas did as Richard asked and walked into the trees with Sherri. With Richard behind him with the gun and talking crazy, he did as instructed, as his mind searched for a full-proof plan. Richard hit Dax with the gun a few times. Hard enough to daze him for a few seconds, but he kept walking.
As Dax stumbled, so did Richard. The sight behind them as Dax’s face got red and swollen with small trickles of blood made his stomach clench. Richard had to be an easy target now, it was just a matter of the right execution. They had a crazy sick guy with a gun.
“I’m leaderCha,” Richard choked.
Lucas dared a look at Dax. He could practically see the wheels turning in his head as well.
“Chase—” Richard got out.
Sherri coughed.
“Funny?” Richard yelled.
The sheer volume of it startled Lucas, as he looked at a stricken Sherri with her hand still over her mouth.
“Laughing….at me?” Richard screeched.
“No,” she stumbled over the one word. “I had a tickle in my throat.”
“I’ll infect you,” Richard managed to get out the threat coherently.
Then, without warning, he moved a step forward around Dax. With ease he hadn’t had in hours, Richard hit Sherri in the face with the edge of his gun. She cried out, and Lucas stepped forward. Richard moved to pull back up his hand with the gun. Without thinking it through, he lunged at Richard and pushed him.
Richard crumbled to the ground. Without hesitation, Lucas tackled Richard as he struggled to get up. Richard swiped at Lucas, but got only the material of his shirt as Lucas rolled away and toward Richard’s gun. He came to standing fast, aiming the gun at Richard’s head.
“Ha!” Richard scoffed. “What are you going to do? You can’t shoot that thing. You serious?”
Lucas tightened his muscles. Richard hadn’t gotten out that many words in one go all day. He seemed lucid suddenly. As the man rolled to his side to get up, Lucas swallowed hard and pulled the trigger.
The sound of the gun made him jump just as the kickback moved him slightly. Blood began to flow from where the bullet had hit Richard in the arm. He fell back onto the ground. Sherri just looked at him with an expression he couldn’t read. Dax, on the other hand, seemed to smile his way with pride.
Lucas straightened his back, gun still aimed at a now motionless Richard. Dax gave him a brief nod of his head before he turned toward the sound coming toward them. Chase and Jayda suddenly appeared from behind a patch of trees into the small clearing they’d stopped in.
“I shot Richard,” Lucas stated in a voice he didn’t even recognize as his own.
“I see that,” Chase replied.
Lucas watched Chase take in the scene, looking from a crying Sherri to a swollen Dax to a bleeding Richard, then back at him.
“I shot Richard,” Lucas repeated.
“You already said that,” Chase responded, his voice not giving away if he approved or disapproved.
Lucas couldn’t look toward Jayda, who had remained behind Chase, oddly without sound.
“He needed to be stopped,” Lucas continued.
“I’m sure,” Chase answered.
“You got gas,” Dax muttered.
“No,” Chase answered. “We need to improvise.”