Our Undead (67 page)

Kerrick:
WE'VE GOT FRACTURING!!!

Erika:
I
KNOW! KEEP GOING!!!

When he looks back, Kerrick
sees the ground beginning to split apart. Multitudes of cracks
begin to appear, becoming larger, and soon the ground behind them
begins to cave in on itself. All the land has begun caving in,
starting from the center point where they had come out from the
escape hatch, and unfurling outward from it in a circular
formation. From an aerial perspective, the avalanche looks rather
breathtaking. From on high, one can see the interior of the circle,
the falling dirt and gravel causing plumes of dust to shoot up from
the ground as the cracks at the avalanche's edge draw themselves
unsystematically on to the unmarked desert floor. There are five
little dots just ahead of the materializing cracks, Sharp and the
rest. Just a little ahead of those five dots are two more small
dots, Holden and Feleider.

At ground level, the view
isn't as pleasant. The cracks are inevitably catching up to the
lagging group. Some cracks even start to form ahead of them on the
running path. Gwen is on her last few breaths. She doesn't know how
much longer she can keep up the pace, and then loses all hope when
one particularly strong tremor is too much for her. She makes a
misstep and falls hard to the desert floor. She hits the side of
her face on the ground and spits out the dirt that winds up getting
into her mouth. At this point, she knows her life is over. There is
no point in getting up, because there is no way she can outrun the
falling ground. She accepts her fate, but too early. An angel
appears, stopping down at her side.

Kerrick:
This is no place for a lie down, professor! Up, on my
back!

Gwen:
Thank you.

She sputters and spits some
more as she gets back up to her feet and on to Kerrick's back.
Stopping to pick Gwen up allows Erika and Billy to pass Matthew,
and Sharp is just catching up to him as he starts running again. It
also gives the cracks time to catch up as well. Running is a little
more difficult than he remembers it being, but he keeps a good and
steady pace. He and Sharp both run with a person on their back, and
Kerrick proves himself to be just as physically fit as his friend.
He even starts to pull away from Sharp when he gets used to the
tremors with the addition of Gwen's weight.

The professor holds on for
the ride, eyes open unlike the seventeen-year-old rider. She may
have given up when she had fallen, but given this second chance at
life, closing her eyes seems like it would be discourteous to life
itself. She looks ahead and prays that Kerrick can catch up, not
with Bill and Erika who she can still see, but with the other two
bodies much farther out in front.

After five minutes of full
on sprinting with a young girl on his back, Sharp begins to feel
the fatigue. The five minutes feel more like thirty, and he can
feel the avalanche beginning to catch up to him. He can feel the
ground literally sinking under his feet. The more the falling
ground gains on him, the more he feels like he is running uphill,
or up a never-ending staircase. Looking to each side of himself, he
can see the desert turf breaking up and caving in.

Margaret still has her
eyes closed, holding on tightly to his back. She doesn't see how
close they are to plummeting to their death, but there is no escape
from the tumultuous roar of the cascading land. It booms
mercilessly in her ears, and she tries to become one with the last
sound she will ever hear. Sharp digs deep and bursts forth with
every ounce of energy he has left, and for a moment he feels the
ground begin to level out again. They might just make it. If only
they can get out of the range of the underground explosions.
They
had
to be
close.

Ten more minutes go by, but
there is no sign of slowing down from the advancing, ever extending
mouth of the pit. Sharp has had to find hidden reservoirs of
strength and use numerous amounts of reserved energy to keep up
with Kerrick, but he can tell that Matthew is peeling away from him
again, ever so slightly. And again, he feels the ground under his
feet sink before he can make each of his leaping steps. He gets the
sensation of running uphill again, and he can again see the large
slabs of desert falling away on each of his sides. With every step
he seems to lose more and more ground. Just a few more, and he and
Margaret will certainly be falling to their deaths. He does the
only thing he can think to do. He takes three more powerful strides
and makes a Hail Mary leap, reaching out as far as his arms can
stretch while the ground falls away from under him and his
passenger.

About half a minute passes
when Erika notices that she is catching up to the previously tiny
figures of Holden and the General. It appears they have stopped
running. She wonders why. Why would they stop when the thunderous
sound of a crumbling landscape is still resonating in the air? Then
she looks back and sees why. The ground behind them has stopped
breaking apart. They aren't being pursued by cracks anymore. The
sound she is hearing is the residual landslides caused by the
explosions. Who knows how long they would last. No matter. At least
they could finally stop running. She prances to a stop, calling out
to her team as she does.

Erika:
THAT'S IT, GUYS!!! WE MADE IT!!!

Kerrick and Billy hear her
and put their breaks on, coming to an eventual stop. Both of them
are heaving from exhaustion, and with his adrenaline lowering
itself back to its normal level, Billy's legs give out, and he
collapses. Being more mastered than the fifteen year old, Kerrick's
legs hold up. He stoops down to let Professor Gwen off of his back
and makes sure she is seated safely on the ground. He asks her if
she is okay, and she nods affirming. Then he gets back up to his
feet to check on the others. He sees Billy already sitting on the
ground trying to catch his breath, and then Erika Blaze standing
with her hands on her hips, head to the sky, eyes closed, also
trying to catch hers. The one person he doesn't see is his long
time partner and best friend, and the injured girl he had been
piggybacking.

Kerrick:
Hey!…
HEY!!
Where's Denver and Margaret!?

Erika opens her eyes and
looks around, as does Billy. He lifts his tired head and searches
for any sign of them, but both Sharp and Margaret are nowhere to be
found. They immediately start to worry.

Erika:
He
was right here with us!

Kerrick:
We have to go back! Gwen, are you okay to
walk?

Gwen:
Yes... Yes, I am. Thank you. I owe you my
life.

Kerrick:
Don't mention it. We're going back to look for the others.
Follow at your own pace. Erika, I'm going!

With that, Kerrick starts
running back to the giant brownish beige dust cloud he had been
trying to outrun.

Erika:
Billy, are you all right?

Billy:
Yes! I'm coming back with you!

Erika nods. She looks to
the professor, and Gwen is already standing on her feet, dusting
herself off.

Erika:
All
right, you two follow when you can!

Erika leaves Billy and Gwen
to rest and follows Kerrick back to the demolition site. Gwen
watches her run off and sees how dirty the sky has become because
of the compound's self-destruction. She thinks about all the people
that have all surely succumb to it. All of those innocent people
have now either been crushed or burned alive, and none of them
deserved to be. Perhaps an equally devastating loss is the fact
that they were actually beginning to make some headway in their
research. They had just begun to make some major breakthroughs in
the production of a cure and now, all of that is lost. All that
remains is what her memory has been able to hold on to. Hopefully,
it would be enough.

A sound brings her mind
back from wandering, the sound of frustration and a body hitting
the floor. She turns around and sees Billy trying to stand. He is
able to get to his feet, but falls right back down after taking a
few steps. It reminds Gwen of a baby deer learning how to walk. The
boy must have given it his all. There is no way she would have made
it had Kerrick not stopped to help her. It isn't as dire a
situation, but now, she would help Billy. She walks up to him as he
attempts to stand one more time.

Gwen:
Hey,
hey. Take it easy. Let me help you.

He falls down again with a
plop.

Billy:
Ugh, I not even tired. It's just… my legs.

Gwen:
You've over worked your muscles. Just sit for a
moment.

Billy:
No…
I have to go
back.

Gwen:
(sighs)
All right…
Here.

She helps him to his feet,
and they start back.

Kerrick is first to arrive
at the edge of the great hole. The air is still laced with a thin
drizzle of dust, and it causes him to cough when he approaches the
fringe. He covers his mouth with the pit of his elbow and looks
over the smoldering cliff side. The crater's depth drops down
hundreds of feet, and the edge runs for miles on both sides. The
crater itself spans for miles. Even if the large collection of dust
floating around in the atmosphere were absent, he still wouldn't be
able to see the other side. Nevertheless, there is no sign of Sharp
or Margaret.

Kerrick:
DENVER!!!

His voice echoes out into
the vast cavity of earth.

Kerrick:
DENVERRR!!!

Still, there is no response
but the sound of his own voice, and then he hears footsteps
approaching from behind. They are Erika's.

Erika:
Nothing?

Kerrick:
No.

Erika:
You
check the left. I'll go this way.

Kerrick:
All right.

They split up, heading in
opposite directions along the cliff's border, calling out for
Margaret and their lost teammate.

<><><>

Everything has gone calm
now. She had just undergone some serious turbulence on her
piggyback ride, but with her eyes closed, she hadn't seen all that
had transpired. All she knows is that they aren't moving anymore,
and hears grunting coming from the soldier she is still attached
to, as if he is struggling with something. No matter, they had
survived.

Margaret opens her eyes,
but instantly regrets making the decision. She is still hanging on
to the soldier's back, but the soldier is now hanging off the edge
of a cliff, with a fall under them that would surely turn them into
pancakes if Sharp's grip should fail. She gasps and clutches
desperately to his neck, trying her best to get a better hold on
him. This is not good for the man, who has already had his energy
thoroughly drained. All of her floundering about causes his left
hand to slip off.

Sharp:
(chokes)
Relax!
(chokes)
S-stop
moving!
(chokes
)

The frightened girl settles
herself, but her arms maintain firmly pressed around Sharp's neck.
He attempts to communicate that fact.

Sharp:
…Y-.. ch-.. g-- .. ch--…

Margaret:
What?! Oh...

She loosens her hold, but
only slightly. It's just enough for him to throw his left hand back
over the edge and catch some breath.

Sharp:
Thank you.

Margaret:
What the hell is going on?!

Sharp:
Well,… we're hanging off the side of a
cliff.

Margaret:
What the hell are we doing here?!

Sharp:
Surviving… Look, do you think you can climb up? Give me a
little bit of a break?

She tries to reach for the
edge, but her fingers can only just barely reach over the
precipice.

Margaret:
I can't. It's too far.

Sharp:
Damn… Okay, lemme think.

Margaret looks down at the
drop again. Now that she has had time to calm down and absorb the
situation they are in, her recently felt emotions begin to return.
The fear dissipates, and hopelessness finds its way back into her
heart. Everything she had loved and had grown to love has been
pointlessly destroyed. With the exception of Billy, but Billy is
strong. If she died, Billy would move on much sooner than later,
and he would probably make more progress without her. After all,
her cast has turned her into a certified gimp. She would be doing
her last friend a favor if she just took herself out of the
equation. She looks down at the drop again, and it doesn't look so
bad.