Plagued (7 page)

“Which way?!”

“Straight ahead!” he said and ran forwards,
pulling Sarah with him. “Hurry, before they come back!”

They ran straight as fast as their legs would
carry them leaving the manic screams further behind with every step of their
feet. Sarah’s ankle pain was forgotten as her body filled with adrenaline and her
chest burned as she gasped desperately for air.

A dead tree appeared in front of them and Mark leaped
over it in one fluid motion but Sarah didn’t see it in time and tried to leap
clumsily at the last second. Her toes caught on the trunk and pain shot through
her ankle and calf as she toppled over it, hitting the ground hard. In a blind
panic, she scrambled to get back on her feet but pain shot through her twisted
ankle as she put weight on it. She screamed in agony. A warm feeling dribbled
down her fingers and she looked to see a small branch sticking into the side of
her wrist.

Mark appeared then and pulled out the branch
without warning, sending a burning pain shooting up Sarah’s arm. She screamed
again and her head swam, trying to fight the urge to pass out.

Mark, feeling her body go limp, pulled her arm
over his shoulder and lifted her off the ground in one swift move. “We have to
go now!” he yelled.

Screams came from the left and an excited voice
shouted something but it didn’t make sense. Two men appeared at the side of
them, one of them was naked and both looking directly at the spot where Sarah
and Mark were getting to their feet — they’d heard Sarah’s scream.

Sarah braced herself against Mark and tried her
best to run alongside him, the screams were getting closer and closer.
Adrenaline coursed through her veins and the pain died down and soon she was
able to let go of Mark and run unaided. They ran straight, not knowing where
they were headed but not caring, wanting only to escape their pursuers.

Mark looked backwards, hearing the mashing of
teeth, to see two males directly behind them, snarling at him.
They’re closing
in too quickly.

Suddenly the trees disappeared and the two of them
stepped out into a large clearing and light flooded their eyes. In the centre —
illuminated by the sunlight — long, black and charred shapes were piled up into
a heap that must have reached twenty feet in height. They soon became aware of
an intense buzzing sound that grew as they stepped towards the pile in front of
them. The air turned rancid, filling with a strange, sour odour that felt so
thick in the air that it left them gasping for breath.

Around the pile stood a large group of infected —
some were completely naked, covered in blackened sores and dirt. Mark and Sarah
watched them for a moment, forgetting completely about their pursuers. An
emaciated, naked woman with short, red hair pulled a long, charred object off
the pile that resembled a large branch and bit into it ravenously. Another
woman — this one much taller and heavier — saw her and tried to snatch it out
of her hands. They fought over it, each getting hold of the stick and biting
into it, pulling it between them like a game of Tug o’ War.

“Oh my God,” Sarah whispered in disgust, “That’s
an arm, isn’t it? A
human
arm!”

All Mark could do was nod silently, holding his
hand over his mouth and nose, watching in morbid fascination.

A scream from behind them broke the spell. Mark spun
around. The group that had chased them were directly behind them and running
straight at them. Mark didn’t have time to react, instinctively he raised his
hands to his face to shield it from what would come, hearing Sarah’s panicked
cry next to him. Mark felt a sudden weight hit his left shoulder as an infected
man collided with it and Mark braced for an onslaught. But it didn’t come — the
infected ran straight past them, ignoring them completely as they carried on
straight towards the pile of bodies in the centre. Mark and Sarah watched in
surprise as the newcomers scrambled up the pile, ripping and pulling at
anything they could get their hands on.

“They must be starving,” said Mark with a grimace.

The squelching and mashing sound as the infected
attempted to eat the rotting, burned flesh was too much for Sarah — as was the
smell — and she vomited violently, spewing a watery cracker mixture onto the
ground. “This can’t be happening,” she said between gasps.

“It is,” Mark whispered and then his eyes lit up.
“This is our chance, come on!”

He grabbed Sarah’s arm and pulled her towards the
edge of the clearing on the right, in the same moment that the blonde, naked woman
who had been punched in the face remembered what she had been doing before she
got distracted.

She turned around and saw the two of them as they
bolted back into the tree line. She shrieked loudly, pointing towards them and
a few of her friends that weren’t feasting turned around to see what the
commotion was. They began yelling to each other their indistinguishable
language as they watched the two figures disappearing into the woods, before
jumping to their feet and giving chase.

“Shit!” Sarah screamed in panic. She was trying
her best to keep up with Mark, who was right in front of her but gaining
quickly. “They’re catching up!”

Mark heard her voice falling further behind and he
turned swiftly, grabbing her arm to help her keep up. They ran straight ahead
now, the voices behind them getting closer and closer.

“Saaa!” The bald infected yelled from behind them,
waving his arms in the air as he ran clumsily with a seemingly impossible speed
for a man his size. Then he tripped over his foot, hitting the floor with a
large crash.

Some of the others saw this moment of weakness and
decided to strike. They began piling on top of his naked body, forgetting about
their chase. They ripped at his skin, clawing frantically at the loose folds as
they laughed hysterically.

The rest of the group, however, paid no attention
to the carnage that was breaking out and carried on running, their eyes firmly
locked on to their targets and their teeth bared. 

“I can’t run anymore!” Sarah said, gasping for air.
A searing pain burned in her lungs and she wheezed with every quickened breath.
Her legs had become shaky and weak—she wondered how many more steps she could
take before they gave way beneath her.

“You have to!” Mark said. “We’ve—”

An infected man leapt out of the bushes then and
launched himself at Sarah, grabbing her leg. She screamed as they fell to the
ground together. He tightened his grip on her ankles and started trying to drag
her backwards in to the bushes, the muscles in his neck stretching and tensing
to their limits. He laughed wildly and Sarah saw half of a tongue wiggling
inside his mouth, blood pouring from it and down his chin. In a fit of madness,
she found herself wondering where the other half had gone as she grasped the
ground frantically around her, feeling for her baseball bat without luck.

Giving up on the bat, she pulled at her right leg
with all of her strength and tried to wiggle it free. The grip on it loosened
as he lost his grip on the thrashing leg. Sarah reacted quickly, kicking at the
man’s head in desperation. Something crunched beneath her foot and the man let
out a high-pitched scream. He let go of Sarah’s other ankle and cupped his nose
in his hands as blood began pouring through his fingers and down his arms. He
whimpered for a second, pouting like a small child with a graze on his knee,
and then jumped straight back for her, pulling and clawing at her legs. Sarah let
out an agonized scream as the man’s nails pierced her flesh, causing red-hot
pain to shoot through her calf. She heard the man’s teeth snapping at her leg
and she tried to pull it away.

Something flew past Sarah’s head, causing her to
flinch, and it hit her attacker square in the face. He wailed in excruciating
pain and Sarah opened her eyes to see why — the handle of Mark’s crowbar had
stuck firmly into his eye socket and its victim was desperately trying to pull
it out, wiggling it from side to side to dislodge it. Thick, glutinous blood
trickled from around it and leaked straight into his open mouth. Sarah retched.

Mark shot passed her on the right and grabbed the
crowbar, pushing it as far into the man’s skull as he could. The infected man
fought with Mark, both of their hands firmly on the crowbar, pulling and
pushing in different directions. The man was screaming and frothing at the
mouth as it crunched further into his skull, Mark’s strength over-powering his
own. He gargled as his own blood filled his mouth in torrents. Sarah stood up
behind Mark and tried to pull him away, seeing that the struggle was over and
the man was dead, but he wouldn’t let go. His face was contorted in rage as he
pushed the crowbar through the man’s skull and it shot through the other side.

“Come on, Mark, we’ve got to go!” Sarah screamed,
pulling at his arms. “He’s dead!”

Her anger snapped Mark out of his fit of rage and
he pulled the crowbar out of the man’s head, leaving his lifeless body to slump
to the ground. Wailing filled the air as Mark and Sarah turned to flee and five
infected came crashing through the bushes, only stopping when they saw the
lifeless body of their friend. They studied the body for a second, and then
looked up with angry faces as they saw the backs of the two people who had
killed him.

Although there was no loyalty between the
infected, they still didn’t appreciate their members being killed by the
uninfected. That was
their
game and one that they enjoyed thoroughly.
The five infected gave chase; screaming and leaping through the grass until
their prey were feet away and losing their speed.  

Mark and Sarah were tiring quickly now, their
bodies were crippled with fatigue and their feet were beginning to feel like
they were covered in cement. They struggled to weave in between the trees,
panting heavily as they listened to the laboured screams of the infected that
were nearly in arm’s reach of them.

The thought of giving up crossed Sarah’s mind. She
was without a weapon and near collapse, her lungs burned and she desperately
needed water. It was hopeless. She slowed down her pace for a step or two and
the lead infected — a young man with a large bird tattooed on his hairless
chest — made a swipe at her jacket and managed to grab it. Sarah let out a weak
cry as she freed one arm from it, trying in vain to pull out.

Mark turned around; completely unaware of what was
going on. Seeing Sarah’s weak struggle as the other four infected caught up
with her, gave him a burst of energy that he didn’t think was possible. He
leapt towards Sarah and grabbed her free arm as the other infected reached her.
Mark yanked her arm towards him and her trapped one ripped free of the jacket,
leaving it in the tattooed man’s hands.

Before they could react, Mark pulled Sarah with
the last of his strength through some smaller trees in a desperate attempt to
lose those behind them. Branches scratched at their skin, leaving small cuts on
their faces but they didn’t care.

 A flash of green fields was the last thing they
saw as they burst through the trees, before the ground beneath them disappeared
and they plummeted downwards.

Branches and stones scraped at them and they slid
down the muddy drop and they clawed at the ground, hoping to grasp onto
something that would slow their fall. Mark hit his head on a rock and pain shot
through it, lights flashing in front of his eyes and disorientating him.

A branch sliced into Sarah’s thigh and she
screamed, trying to grasp a root that she spotted in the corner of her eye. She
wrapped her hands around it and she slowed for a moment, thanking God
internally until it snapped and she began sliding again. She heard Mark hit the
ground with a thud and she braced herself for impact, unable to make out the
distance below. Suddenly, she stopped rolling and felt nothing beneath her but
air. Her stomach flopped as she freefell for what seemed like an eternity and
closed her eyes as she smacked into the ground below.

The impact was softer than she had expected—thanks
to the layer of untamed grass on the ground—and the fall did nothing but wind
her.

After taking a few desperate breaths, she lifted
herself slowly off of her back to see what was causing the burning pain in her
thigh. She let out a whimper as she saw a thick twig piercing her jeans and
sticking out, standing perfectly upright. She pulled it out without thinking,
crying out between clenched teeth at the pain. Blood rolled down her jeans but
she ignored it and laid back on the ground, arms and legs spread out like she
was trying to make a snow angel.

 Mark dusted himself off nearby, examining the blood
dripping from the cuts on his arms and chest—nothing too serious. He saw Sarah
and walked over to her laboriously, wincing with every step. She looked up at
him and they smiled at each other in disbelief.

He pulled her to her feet and they followed each
other’s gaze to the top of the ridge they had tumbled down. Two infected stood at
the top, nearly out of sight. They were throwing something bloody and round at
each other, pulling at it and ripping pieces of the hard shell away. After a
while of chewing at it and spitting its contents at each other in a red spray,
they turned around and ran back into the woods, laughing hysterically.