Impact (20 page)

He pumped the gas, and we sped up. “I trust you, Dean,” he said over the roar of the engine. “I want you to be part of our family, for you to accept us.”

“I’ll do anything to help,” I said. “What’s happening?”

“We’ve got a breach we’ve gotta contain. We never let zombies get closer to Oxford than five miles.” 

I gripped the gun tightly. “I’m in. They don’t call me the Zombie Slayer for nothing.”

He shot me a side look and smiled. “You’re like the son I never had.”

“But you had a son,” I said softly, “more than one, right?”

He grimaced. “Right, but they weren’t brave like you. I bet your father is proud.”

“Yes, he is.”

“Where is he?”

Honestly, I had no idea. And that pain was killing me deep inside. “I don’t know,” I said, unwilling to divulge anything about the island back in Ohio.

“Well, I can be like a second father to you,” he said. “I miss having a son.”

I nodded, not to sure what to say to that.

He stopped the Jeep, and we all hopped out.

I peered straight ahead through my scope. The living dead lumbered, step by step, to where we were. “It’s a medium-sized herd. I’m gonna need more ammo.”

“Front seat,” he said. “There’s a vest, stockpiled with bullets.”

I walked back to the Jeep, found the vest, and put it on. 

“There are more than what we’re used to,” Eva said.

“I’ve seen bigger groups. There are enough of us,” I said, looking around at the other men, who were discussing their game plan. “We can take ‘em.”

Kirk assessed the situation. “We can’t let those things get a step closer. We have to take them down, keep our city safe. We always find them before they find us. All right, boys and girls, let’s do this. You know the drill.”

I looked through my scope and aimed on a stumbling zombie with bushy hair, like some sort of punk rocker with a bad case of rigor mortis. Black drool seeped from its gaping mouth, as if it was caught in a perpetual Steven Tyler scream. I pulled the trigger, and it dropped. Two more stumbled over it, and the first few lines of zombies leading the pack dropped to the ground as we continued to wipe them out.

No matter how many I shot, more continued coming at us, getting closer and closer with each passing moment. Their unblinking gazes sent a chill down my spine. The herd was bigger than what we originally thought, and they just kept pouring out of the woods.

Kirk suddenly yelled at one of his men, distracting me and messing up my aim. Instead of killing the rotter I was targeting, I blew off its leg. It fell flat on its face and tried to crawl, until I blew off its face and spilled its decaying brains out all over the ground. More stumbled toward me, riddled with bullet holes, and I emptied an entire box of shells into the walking dead.

“There are too many!” someone shouted in a panic. 

“Stand your ground,” Kirk ordered. “We are the last line of defense for the city. If any of you runs like a coward, I will shoot you in the back. Fight for your city, for your lives. Fight with passion, to protect the ones you love.”

As more zombies stumbled in, I knew we were facing a losing battle. There was no way just a dozen of us could gun down a herd that size. It just wasn’t possible. I wanted Kirk to order a retreat, because the odds were sorely stacked against us, but it was clear that he wasn’t going to let anyone flee. Part of me hoped the zombies would kill him, just so I could use the diversion to grab Asia and Jackie and make our escape. 

I kept firing and watched as four more zombies slumped to the ground. Three came pretty close to me, but I fired and exploded their heads in a spray of brains, bone, and gore. I surveyed the scene around me, only to see that they were still coming. The rotten ones just wouldn’t back down. I worried that Nick, Val, and Lucas might have already died in such an onslaught, and I was desperate to go find out, but I also understood a bit of what Kirk had said. If we ran, the zombies would pile into the compound and destroy it, kill everyone there, then move on to the next civilization they could find. We had to make a stand and take out as much of the zombie population as we could. 

Beep! Beep!

“The reinforcements are here,” Kirk said.

“Technicals,” a woman next to me said. “It’s about time they got here.”

I knew warlords owned technicals, something I’d seen on TV. A dozen of the improvised fighting vehicles parked in a hurry. They reminded me of military gun trucks, pickups with machineguns mounted in the bed on a large tripod.

“Ready when you are!” one of the stern-faced men shouted, set to fire and take the herd on.

“Fire!” Kirk shouted.

Automatic gunfire filled the air with loud blaring, instantly littering the landscape with bodies. 

When one truck stopped firing, Kirk spewed out a strand of obscenities worse than anything I’d ever heard; he sounded like Chef Ramsay critiquing a Taco Bell, with a bad case of Tourette’s.

“Clip ran dry,” a man shouted.

“Well fill it up and keep shooting...fast!”

“Got it!”

“Nothing crosses this barrier!” Kirk yelled.

When a scream tore through the air, I turned in that direction and saw a zombie savagely biting into a man’s neck. I shot the zombie right in the head, and it fell on top of the man as he took his last breath. Other zombies went right in for the kill, biting chunks off of the man and slowly chewing it like beef jerky. Anger coursed through me at the gruesome sight, so I took aim and destroyed every rotting corpse in close proximity to the dead man. I noticed a knife lying next to the man, and I quickly picked it up, hoping to hide it from Kirk. Before I could, though, a woman screamed. My heart began to pound wildly when I realized who was screaming.

A zombie wrapped its dead arms around Eva. She kicked it in the chest, knocking it backward, but two more quickly approached her, letting out those unearthly growls. She shot one and stumbled as the other went for her throat.

I rushed in, raised the knife, and plunged it deep into the back of the zombie’s skull with a sickening crunch.

“Thanks,” she said.

The machinegun on the trucks took out the remaining lines of zombies. It was a good call by Kirk. He’d just saved the city from what would likely have been a fatal attack, and none of his men ever left his side.

I looked over at Eva and noticed that she was holding her arm. Blood trickled from a nasty wound, dripping on the ground.

“What happened?” I said. “Were you bitten?”

Sadly, Eva nodded, and tears began to gush down her face. “They got me,” she said. “I’m not gonna make it out of here alive after all.” 

I ripped off a piece of my shirt and wrapped the bloody bite. “I can save you.”

She wiped her eyes. “No you can’t. I’m done for. It’s...too late for me.”

“I have a cure,” I whispered, “but it’s back in Fairport where I lived before I was abducted. If we can just get you there, we can—”

“Don’t,” she said, wiping her eyes. “I know you’re just trying to cheer me up, but I don’t want any false hope. It only hurts worse in the end.”

“I’m not exaggerating. We have a cure. When Asia was bitten, we gave it to her, and she survived. We were ready to take it to the experts, so they can work out all the kinks and mass produce it, but then I got kidnapped by Kirk.”

“There’s really hope?” she asked, looking at me like a ten-year-old doubting the Easter Bunny story.

I held her hand. “There is, but we have to get out of here. With that injury on your arm, we don’t have a moment to spare.”

She let out a long breath. “I want to live. I can’t die like this, not here.”

“You won’t, Eva—not on my watch.” I smiled. “You’re going to have a long and wonderful life. I guarantee it.”

She touched my face. “That’s all I’ve ever wanted, but there’s no way we’re going to be able to break out of here. They’ll be on high alert because of the zombies.”

“Then let’s go now,” I said. “They might not notice in all this commotion,” I whispered, pointing around at the men and the trucks.

“You mean...just sneak away?”

“Yeah. I’m sure we can commit a little grand theft auto and get to Fairport.”

“What about Jackie and Asia?” she asked.

“I’ll get help and come back to get them.”

“That’s a huge risk. If Kirk finds out we’re gone, he’ll kill them.”

I pondered. “I don’t want to risk their lives, but you’re gonna to die if we don’t do something drastic.”

She looked at me. “I can sneak away. You can’t. Just let me go by myself. I’ll tell your friends and family what’s going on. They can give me the cure and send rescue your way.”

I nodded. “That can work. And I know they’ll help you.”

“I know where Fairport is. Where’s the apartment building?”

I explained.

She bit her bottom lip and looked around nervously, then looked down at her bleeding arm. “All right,” she finally said. “I drove here by myself. I’ll sneak off once we start moving. I’ll slip away in a few miles. I know the perfect place to turn and they’ll never know I left.”

“Sounds like a plan,” I said.

I was thankful Eva would get the cure. And I was also thankful somebody would know where me, Asia, and Jackie finally were. I wanted the others to know we weren’t dead, not by a long shot. I knew my friends would come for me, and that gave me hope. This was a step in the right direction. I couldn’t wait to let the girls know. I bet Val, Nick, and Lucas would be here in a day or two.

“Thank you so much, Dean,” she said. “You’re giving me a second chance, and I owe you my life.”

“Just stay brave,” I said. “And here. Take this.” I handed her the extra shirt I was wearing, hoping it would disguise her zombie bite a little better.

Kirk ordered us to stay put while he packed things up.

Eva quickly put on my shirt, covering her wound, and plopped down next to me on a big rock. “If the world hadn’t fallen apart, what would you have done with your life?” she asked.

“I’m not sure. Why do you ask?”

“Curiosity, I guess,” she said, shrugging. “I wanted to be a nurse.”

“Maybe someday you still can. As for me, I’m not sure what I would have been, would have done. I just know I wouldn’t be so...emo and messed up. I’d just be a normal kid, looking for a normal job.”

“Define normal,” she said, smiling.

“I don’t know. Maybe a sports broadcaster or a journalist. I guess that wasn’t what fate wanted for me.”

“I believe you were born to be the Zombie Slayer.”

“In the ring, or in real life?”

She laughed. “Your destiny is to rid the world of evil.”

“I’m no hero,” I said, shaking my head. “I’m too spent in every way, physically, emotionally, and mentally.”

“You weren’t born to be normal, to live an ordinary life. You’re extraordinary. I could tell that about you when I first met you. You need to put your emotional scars behind you and live the life you’re meant to live.”

“Hmm,” I said, pondering her words. ”You sound like a fortune cookie.”

“Hush,” she said. “You’re making me want Chinese, and I haven’t seen an eggroll anywhere for months.”

Kirk walked back over and crossed his arms. “One of my men said he overheard you telling Eva you can help her.”

I bit my lip, debating about what I should say. 

Kirk looked at Eva. “I know you were bitten,” he said, “and if Dean was a true friend, he would not tell you lies. You must face the reality that your life is, for all intents and purposes, over.”

Eva touched his arm. “Kirk...”

“I’m sorry, young lady, but there’s no help for you now.” He took the gun, aimed it at her head, and pulled the trigger.

Just like that, she slumped over and fell off the rock.

“Eva!” I shouted. “No!” I rushed over and held her in my arms, rocking her back and forth. She had wanted out so badly, and I wanted to help her. After my heartfelt goodbye, I stood and stared Kirk in the eye. It took everything in me not to beat him to death right then and there.

Kirk just shook his head at me, as if I was pathetic for grieving her. 

I quickly lost my cool, and my temper exploded. I shoved him hard and asked, horrified, “How could you? She’s done nothing but serve and obey you since she got here! You talk about false promises? That was all you gave her from day one!”

He actually had the audacity to laugh. “I know you’re upset, my boy, but it’s for the best. You know as well as I do that she had no chance.”

“She wouldn’t have changed right away. Why couldn’t you have let her had a few days to say goodbye?”

“A few days of dread? She was infected, and she had to go. We cannot risk the lives of many for the doomed life of one. No one who’s been compromised can enter the compound. That’s how we keep our city safe and free of the virus.”

“She was a human being who was loyal to you,” I retorted.

“Let’s pack it up, people,” Kirk said, ignoring me.

“She deserves a proper burial,” I insisted.

“It would be a waste of precious time,” Kirk said.

“A waste? She was a human being, and if you don’t treat her like one, that makes you no different than those godforsaken zombies!”

“I like you, Dean. And I’m going to let that comment go because believe it or not, I do have a heart. I know you’re upset and grieving. You’re brave, and you fight hard. I understand that you had a bit of a bond with the girl, and I’m sure it hurts to lose her. There is a shovel in Jerry’s car, the red Toyota. You may bury her if you wish, but you must do so quickly.”

“Thank you.”

Some of the guys helped me bury her while others gathered up the dead zombies to cremate them, per Kirk’s orders. Once the hole was dug, I gently placed Eva inside it. I said a small prayer and told her goodbye. “I’m sorry I couldn’t keep  my promise, Eva,” I said, my voice trembling. “I hope you are happier where you are now.” We then buried her and rolled a big boulder over her grave, the very same boulder where she’d been sitting with me just moments before Kirk murdered her.

I tried to think clearly, but I couldn’t. I was numb and still in shock. I felt guilty for not saving her and angry that Kirk had so easily disposed of her. The world had lost a beautiful person today, a person who was loved and adored by everyone in their community. Eva’s death was sudden, violent, final, and unnecessary, and none of the gravediggers could stop crying, no matter how big and burly they were. At the zombie roast, I watched the smoke swirl up into the sky. Grief tore through me. I hadn’t known Eva long, but she had a good heart, and I was deeply saddened by her death.