Dark Grace (9 page)

Gus opened his eyes and looked at me.
“Good girl. I’ll need help if you don’t mind?”

“Of course I don’t mind.”

“Help me sit up?” he asked, his hand outstretched. I took his hand and let him lift himself, using me for leverage and balance. I could tell he was trying not to complain and I could tell he was hurting. “Reach into my back pocket and grab my knife. You’ll need to tear the sheet into a strip about eight inches wide.”

I found his knife easily and set to work on making the piece of binding.

“Zoe, I’m so sorry I wasn’t able to help you. I think the bastard pistol whipped me before doing the rest. I never knew what hit me. And fuck, my head hurts.”

“You don’t need to apologize.
You know that.”

“No, I do.
You needed me and I couldn’t help. You did real good.”

I smile half-heartedly at him.
“Thanks.” I ripped the sheet lengthwise. “Ok. You ready?”

“You bet.
You’ll need to make it pretty tight. Also take a few smaller pieces of towel or sheet to cover the wounds under the binding, ok?”

I ripped up several pieces of the sheet and made them into bandages of sorts to place against the wounds as Gus had instructed.

“Do these look ok?” I asked him.

“Perfect, darlin’.”

I set the bandages against his wounds and he helped hold them in place while I began wrapping the binder.

“Why are there rags in the wounds?” I asked.
I had noticed that the gashes were packed with small strips of towel.

“Just to keep the wounds moist.
Wrap it a bit tighter?”

I tightened the wrap as I wound it around his abdomen.

“That’s better. Thanks.”

“Think you’ll be ok?
Tell me the truth, Gus.” I looked him in the eyes.

“I think so.
As long as we find some medical supplies soon.”

Boggs and Nathan joined us.
I was holding Gus’ hands in mine, and slowly let go. I tucked the last edge of the strip of sheet into itself, and then sat beside Gus on the bench seat.

“We’re going to head to the first place we scavenged,” said Nathan.
“I swear there was a veterinarian’s office there.”

“Perfect,” said Gus.

“We need to ditch the boat,” added Boggs. “So they won’t know where we landed on shore.”

I sighed.
“So we’re all going ashore?”

“It’s best now,” said Gus, not sugar coating it.
“We’ll try for this animal hospital and try to hole up for a few days, and then regroup.”

“I’ll tell Susan and the girls,” offered Nathan.

“How far is it?” I asked.

“Maybe an hour from here.
Once we get there we’ll sink the boat and take the raft ashore. At least that’s assuming our path looks clear,” said Boggs.

Nathan was already headed below deck to fill in the rest of our group.
Boggs and I helped Gus to stand, and guided him to the shelter of the covered steering area. I hoped it’d help him stay warm, being somewhat out of the wind. He declined our offer to help him below deck, claiming the stairs might be hard to manage in his condition. Before long, Nathan had rejoined us and started the engine. He pushed the craft as fast as Gus could tolerate.

The trip to the mainland took closer to two hours than the one Nathan had predicted, since we had to go slower for Gus’ comfort. It was full daylight by the time we got there.

Nathan and Boggs brought the boat to a gentle stop at a lone, rickety dock.
Before long they had it tied to mooring cleats. All seven of us were gathered on deck, the two girls wrapped in blankets for warmth. Susan had instructed them to be as quiet as possible as to not attract the dead. Jane was clinging to her teddy bear. As I watched her, it dawned on me that the stuffed animal had come from the compound.

“Jane,” I whispered.
“Can I see your teddy bear for just a sec?”

She nodded and handed it to me, without a word or so much as a questioning look.
I took it from her very carefully, treating it with love knowing how important it had become to her. I started squishing its head and belly, feeling for anything that might not belong inside. It was plush, with no signs of foreign devices - until I squeezed one of its paws. It felt like one of those small press-me devices that start a toy talking or singing or dancing. I tried pressing it, but nothing happened.

“It doesn’t do anything anymore,” whispered Jane.

I looked at her. “Did it ever?”

She shrugged.
“Not for me. I think the battery runned out before it was mine.” She looked sad.

“Jane, the bad people have been following us.”

“I know. Nate told us.”

“This might not be a battery, honey.
It might be how they’re finding us.”

Little Jane’s big eyes were filling with tears and she looked like she was about to break down.
“I have t..t..to give up my b..b..bear?”

I shook my head no.
“I don’t think so, sweetie. But if you’re ok with it, I can give Teddy a shot to make his paw numb, and then do a tiny surgery to take this out. Would that be ok?”

“
Yeah, but Teddy can’t really feel anything, so I don’t think he needs a shot.”

I smiled softly at the little girl.
“It’ll leave a hole in his paw.”

“Like Gus’ belly?” she asked.

“Yup. So when we get Gus stitched up, we’ll stitch Teddy up too.”

“Ok.”
She began wiping away her tears.

I took out a small knife that I had grown used to keeping in my pocket, found a sharp blade, and quickly made a little slice in the stuffed animal’s paw.
Slipping my index finger in, I fished out the small cylinder. It was smooth and black, with no markings. It didn’t appear to open and had no seams. I carefully pushed a stray piece of stuffing back into the hole I had made, and handed the toy back to Jane. She smiled and hugged it close.

“Ok, we need to move out,” said Nate.

“Take a look at this,” I said, holding the small black cylinder out to him.

“What is it?”

“I took it out of Jane’s teddy bear.”

“Odd,” said Nathan, who handed it to Gus.
“What do you make of it?”

“Looks like some of the tracers I’ve seen, but bigger.
Best to smash it and throw it overboard.”

“There’s dead near,” I said without emotion.
“We need to go.” My hip had started hurting before my brain was flooded with the signatures of the dead. I could tell they were the slow ones: Roamers.

Nathan set the small black object on the deck and used a nearby fire extinguisher to beat it senseless.
As it cracked, I saw a small red light flashing inside of it. After just a few seconds it flickered out. Nate bent down and picked it up, tossing it as far as he could into the sea. Susan and I helped the girls climb out of the boat and onto the dock, which was tilted slightly to one side. We waited while Boggs and Nathan assisted Gus to do the same. His face looked pained and he had sweat beading on his forehead.

“The strip mall is maybe three blocks inland,” whispered Nate.
“We need to stay together.”

“If we get overwhelmed,” said Gus between labored breaths, “make sure you get the little ones to safety.
You can leave me behind.”

“Won’t hear of it, brother,” said Boggs.
“Now come on, let’s get moving.”

“We need to hustle,” I urged.

We moved as a group up the dock toward land. The wood planks nearest the shore had been replaced and it felt much sturdier there.

“Are we just going to leave the boat?” asked Susan.

“No time to sink it,” said Nate. “But it’ll drift. I untied the ropes.”

“All our supplies,” mumbled Abbey.

“We’ll find new things, Abs.”

Once we hit the asphalt of the marina parking lot, we quickened our pace.
It felt funny under my feet, not having walked on such a smooth surface for weeks. My belly was feeling heavy and as we walked more quickly I found my left hand resting on the lower half to support it. Sue had Jane in one hand, her other clutching a firearm like the rest of us. Gus and Jane were the only ones not armed and ready. Gus was being supported on both sides by the other men, but had his shotgun strapped over a shoulder. Even Abbey was handling a pistol and taking the situation very seriously. She had been forced to grow up far too soon. As we left the marina, we came to a cross street littered with abandoned cars and trash. I tried to not look at the half consumed and decaying bodies lying about. My head was flooded with the living dead and their urgency to feed. I knew they were close, but I didn’t think they were aware of us just yet. We worked our way inland, following Nathan and Boggs’ lead. It meant weaving in and out of obstacles, and trying desperately to remain quiet.

We made it about a block and a half before the first of the Roamers came into view.
They were approaching from our right. At first we only saw three, and Susan took aim to fire.

“No,” I whispered.
“The noise will attract more.”

“She’s right,” whispered Gus.
“Boys, you gotta leave me here and kill them by hand.”

“Fuck,” said Boggs.
“Ok. Just back us up if it starts to go bad. Zo, I need the hammer from your backpack.”

I slipped the
pack off quickly, unzipped it, and handed a five-pound sledge hammer over to him. “Be careful,” I muttered.

Nathan had taken a hatchet out of a belt of sorts he had been wearing, and the two men walked toward the Roamers.
The dead were aged and slow. They reeked of evil and looked like they had come directly from Hell. Well aware of our presence now, they began snarling and moaning. It was as if their slow shuffle gained momentum as Boggs and Nate approached. The three Roamers made up an odd group. One was naked and tall, almost skeletal, with wispy white hair on half of its head. The other half was bloodied skull, void of scalp. One was short and squat with a long flowing skirt, which was oddly clean and in seemingly good order. Her blouse was bright red and dirty in contrast to her skirt. Her nose was gone, along with half of her upper jaw and teeth. Her mangled face was almost comical next to her hair done in two French braids on either side of her head. The third was either a small teenager or a large child. It was impossible to tell. Clad in jeans and a tank top, one of its arms was missing. The bone of the other arm was jutting out from the shoulder, minus flesh, and the entire elbow down was just simply not there. Boggs was the first to reach the mini-army of dead, and swung the sledge hammer at the tallest one. He made contact with the creature’s head, knocking the bones of its decayed face inward. Thick dark brown sludge oozed from the resulting cavity, and the body fell lifeless on the pavement. Nathan was fast behind him and brought his hatchet up, landing a blow to the back of the head of the roly-poly girl with matched braids. She was a much messier kill, liquefied brain matter and gunk showering a large storefront window.

“Watch out!” I shouted.

The zombie with only one arm and a bone-stub was behind both of the men and close to making contact with Boggs. I could hear Abbey whimpering behind me. Boggs spun around at my warning and hit the Roamer in its side as it prepared to bite him. It was knocked off balance by the impact and fell to the ground. As it struggled to right itself, it snarled and hissed. Nathan brought his hatched down hard, splitting its ear in half and cracking the left side of its head open.

The sickly sweet smell of second death was now upon us.
I had grown to hate that smell. The buzzing in my head was still there and I knew more were on their way, alerted by my shouting and the sounds of the skirmish that had just taken place.

“We need to hurry,” I said.
“Nate, how much farther?”

“Just about a block.
We need to make sure none of them see what building we go into.”

“Let’s go,” I heard Gus say in a strained voice.

“There’s more!” said Abbey.

I looked to where she was pointing.
Coming from the opposite side street were several more walking dead. They were all similar in looks. Shambling, rotting, tattered. Disheveled lumps of walking death. One was wearing a hospital gown with a catheter bag still trailing behind it.

“Go!” yelled Susan.
“Run, Girls, run!”

Nathan and Boggs were at our side again, and quick to offer Gus support.
Susan and the girls were fleeing up the street in the direction in which Nathan had said the small strip mall would be located. I looked back to make sure the three men were following us before following the girls as fast as I could. The street was filling with animated corpses.

I could hear Nathan not far behind me yelling.
“Go left! Go left!”

I looked back and saw the shambling dead a block and a half down.
There were so many they were bumping into each other and a few had been knocked over. I knew that our only saving grace was their slowness. Had there been any Runners amongst them, we’d likely have been killed already.

“Zoe, Susan, run ahead and see if you can get in!” shouted Nathan.
The men were slower since they were supporting Gus.

I ran as fast as I could, catching up to Susan and the little girls.
I grabbed Abbey with my free hand as we turned left to go around the corner. I stopped short when I saw the Runner standing in front of me. It knew we were coming. It was waiting there for us. Susan and Jane stopped short just behind us. The Runner snarled, almost mimicking a smile. It kept its eyes locked on me. I ignored it. I guided Abbey behind me, then let go of her hand. I brought my pistol up, locked my aim on the dead man’s head, took a deep breath in and as I exhaled slowly my shot rang out.

“Go!” I yelled before the corpse had hit the ground.

Susan was already running ahead of me with Jane at her side. I caught a glimpse of Jane’s eyes as she passed and saw terror in them. I found Abbey’s hand again and dragged her along with me. She was still on the heavy side from her life before the dead rose, and I knew by her huffing that she was tiring.

“C’mon, Abbey, we’re almost there.”

Susan had located the portion of the strip mall that read Deacon’s Animal Hospital and was trying the handle of the front door. She turned to find me. “It’s locked!”

“Try the next one down,” I urged.

The next entry down belonged to a Smoke Shop. We hustled to the door as a group of four. The left side of the front door was shattered and it was clear at first glance that the shop had been looted.

“Get inside, quickly!” urged Susan.

“Keep your gun handy in case there’s any inside,” I insisted.

I looked to the corner we had just rounded, knowing the men should be there by now.
After several long seconds they finally came into view. Gus was struggling even more than before. I waved to get their attention. Boggs and Nate became desperate, each taking one of Gus’ legs while he held onto their shoulders, and they carried him the rest of the way. We ducked into the building before the Roamers came into view but we could hear their cries of hunger and moans of desperation.

“We have to cover the door,” whispered Nathan.
“Now.”

“There’s a vending machine back here,” whispered Susan.

Boggs and Nathan were already rushing to the back of the store to move the heavy machine.
Gus was slumped on the floor, his back against a wall. Susan was in the back of the store hunkered behind the purchase counter with Jane and Abbey.

“Zoe, get down below the windows,” whispered Gus.

I walked to him and sat down beside him. Nate and Boggs hustled past, dragging the vending machine. I could tell they were both straining to move the heavy machine. As soon as they wedged it into the hole of the door, they dropped to the floor on either side of it, huffing from all of the exertion of getting to safety. Boggs looked over at me and Gus and held a finger up to his lips. The dead were walking by. We could head their moans, smell their stench, and see their shadows as they walked near the barred front windows. I found Gus’ hand and held it tight. I clenched my eyes shut for several seconds before daring to look again. I heard Jane whimper once and I froze, waiting for the dead to force their way inside. I looked at Gus and locked my eyes with his to keep myself from losing control. It seemed an eternity before the sounds of the dead passed.