Byron : A Zombie Tale (Part 1) (16 page)

There we stood, back to ba
ck forming a circle around Evan, John and the supplies. And rapidly approaching were far more than the fifteen Lords I’d previously thought were chasing us. Instead, we were facing at least twenty. This was not going to be a fun fight; especially since they had the same physical advantages as we did – if not more. Their colonies were able to modify their bodies to suit their needs. As the beasts approached, they spread out and wrapped themselves around us.

As far as comparable fighters went, we were outnumbered five-to-one. Only four of us would really be able to stand in a fight against the beasts: Elise, Tim, Pam, and me. But now we each had five opponents. Goddamn, this was going to be tough.

I had my sword drawn and was at the ready – as was each of my fellow defenders. Elise had both swords in hand, Tim had a baseball bat, and Pam had my trusty crowbar. Unfortunately for Tim and Pam, these were the best weapons we could muster. Pam admitted that she liked wielding the crowbar – it made her feel badass!

The creatures circled us, stepping carefully and always watchful for an opening in our guard. The first strike came like a bolt of lightning, unexpected and blindingly fast. One Lord leapt forward swinging his cudgel to brain either Elise or Pam, but he misjudged the ability of his foes. With an efficient and very skillful move Elise cleft the cudgel-swinging arm from his body. But, the beast leapt back toward the rest of the pack before she could deal him a deal blow. As I watched, his bones and skin knit themselves together as a replacement to the severed limb grew from the bloodless stump.

Elise and Pam were equally stunned and Evan, whom I could always count on as being ‘Captain Obvious,’ blurted out, “holy crap – they can regenerate!” I only hoped that our colonies could perform the same parlor tricks.

The next strike was coordinated. Three of the Lords leapt forward for me – two with their bludgeons held high with the third coming in with an up-swinging sledgehammer. I was thankful that I had requested my colony to furnish me with enhanced reflexes and speed.
With a mighty diagonally upward sweep of my sword I cut the wooden sledgehammer handle twain and when my blade reached shoulder height I rotated my trunk to redirect the momentum of the sword laterally to sever from the three closing Lords the one appendage I hoped could not be re-grown – their heads.

In this attempt I was partly successful. My blade cut cleanly through one solid neck, cleaving the head from the beast’s shoulders, but lodged itself about midway through the second. I yanked the sword to withdraw the blade, but the severed handle from the sledgehammer, which was wielded by the beast within whose neck my sword was stuck, came up and struck me smartly in the groin.

In a quick move, I rotated my trunk back right and then left again, both driving my elbow into the middle beast’s head – forcing the neck wound to open wide while allowing my sword to swing free. Unfortunately, the other bludgeon came crashing down upon me. Yet, fate was on my side as the blow struck the self-made gauntlet that was bolted to my left arm.

I swung again with my sword, finishing off the middle attacker and with a flourish drove the blade through the final beast’s ocular cavity to its hilt. To my left and right, I could see for the first time that my companions were engaged in their own combat. Each was contending with two to three Lords of their own. Using my foot for leverage, I drew the sword from the beast’s skull and deftly decapitated him.

To expect a break after such a fast, yet arduous, ordeal was surely a tall order. For as the sword came free of my fallen foe, I could see two more beasts leap at me, swinging wildly.

The battle carried on for about ten minutes as we surprisingly dispatched all of the Lords. Nobody had been bitten, and with the exception of a temporarily broken arm on Pam’s part – for the injury was healed within a matter of seconds after it had been delivered – our defenders made it through unscathed.

“We need to get going,” I said after a quick breather – though none of our combatants were winded in the slightest. “Though, I think that we should hunt a little.” To Pam and Tim I said, “you guys need some food. You haven’t fed enough and you don’t want to starve your colonies.”

So, we hunted. But, this time we went for larger animals. We were outside of town and fairly close to a nearby wildlife reserve. Here we would be able to find deer, wild dogs, and foxes. But, I cautioned the newcomers not to drink directly from the animals and so we managed to find an abandoned convenience store where we were able to find some large containers into which we could funnel the animal blood.

In total, we had managed to capture two deer, and these were more than enough to sate all of our appetites. We four blood drinkers supped on their vital nectar, while Evan and John cooked the deer flesh over a campfire. It was good that the deer did not go to waste.

We rested during the night in an abandoned building, sleeping in shifts, and then began walking during the day. It didn’t take long, however, for us to come across an abandoned vehicle that could serve our purposes. We found a minivan which had a full tank of gas, and actually had its keys. We loaded in all our supplies, and were able to start driving west toward the
Delaware River.

We stopped here and there at some large box stores, and sporting goods stores to get some additional provisions. By the time we were done, we’d gathered a couple of additional guns, some extra ammunition, and a few other swords and machetes. Our team was fairly well provisioned for whatever battle may lay ahead. We also gathered additional food and water for Evan and John.

None of us really spoke much during our travels except to convey information about wants and needs. The whole situation was getting fairly tense. It was strange. I felt that John and Evan didn’t trust us, and given that we were now walking undead with colonies of microorganisms maintaining our bodies, I couldn’t blame them. As we drove westward we could see the Tacony/Palmyra bridge approaching in the distance. We would soon cross into Pennsylvania.

As we entered the approach for the bridge there were signs all over:
WARNING! DANGER! ROAD CLOSED!
Concrete barricades had been placed across the roadway at one point, but these had been moved aside. We maneuvered the minivan around the obstacles and continued slowly out onto the bridge. However, as we got about half-way across the bridge we could see there was another barricade set up on the other side. This one hadn’t been breached. We stopped the van about fifteen yards from the intact concrete barriers.

“Okay, now what?” asked Evan.

I looked at him for a moment. It was probably the first time he’d spoken in hours. He didn’t seem to be happy about the current situation, but was too meek to say anything – I knew him too well. After a few seconds of silence I finally said, “I’ll go out and see what we can see.”

John spoke up from the back seat, “Do you think that’s a smart idea? Sending a super-zombie like you to go chat with the humans?”

I was flummoxed. Tim, however, had no problem rebutting John. “Is that what you think we are? That we’re just some friggin’ piece of dead meat?” I could hear the ire in his voice – Tim rarely got this pissed off.

Evan spoke up in John’s defense, “Look, guys, it’s just that you’re all infected. And, let’s face it, despite that your hearts beat now, you’re still dead!”

“The difference here,” I finally added to the conversation, “is that we don’t give a crap about drinking human blood or eating human flesh. It repulses us. It’s disgusting.” Point over my shoulder I added, “we’re far safer than anything that walks around back that way!”

“Doesn’t matter,” John said. “You’re not human anymore. We’ve seen what you guys can do. And we’ve seen what those things living in you can do. You’d be a risk to rest of humanity. It’d be too much a danger for you to cross the quarantine.”

“Fine,” I yelled in exasperation. “But, you still need someone to watch your ass until you can cross the border. You never know, the soldiers there may just gun you the hell down. At least one of us should accompany you.”

Evan and John looked at each other and shrugged. “Okay,” Evan finally said. “You can come along. But, only you – Byron. The rest of them have to stay here.”

I looked to the rest of our companions and each one nodded in assent to Evan’s suggestion. Tim added, “I have to agree. We don’t know how long we’ll be able to control the colonies inside us. For all we know, they may be just waiting until our bodies and minds become weak enough that they can take control and turn us into Lords.”

I had to admit that what they said made sense. However, I had a feeling that there may have been something else beyond what Tim said. As I watched him, he flicked his eyes over to Pam, who’d been exceptionally quiet and unfocused on either the conversation or the possibility of escaping the quarantine. I had a feeling that she was not doing well. There was something wrong with her, and there was a chance that she could pose a risk to others. Evan and Tim were right.

I nodded to Tim. “Okay, then John…Evan, let’s do this.” I turned in the seat, swung open the car door and stepped onto the bridge surface. John and Evan quickly followed.

We were past mid-span on the arched superstructure of the bridge and on the
Pennsylvania side of the Delaware River. But, still we had a little walk to do to make it to the barrier. I suggested as we started walking forward that we go up with our hands partially raised. Evan and John didn’t think this was too bad of an idea. With any luck, whatever military officials had been there would view our approach as a either peaceful, or in surrender.

Yet, our approach was halted by the very distinct sound of a loud report. Somebody had discharged a weapon. I looked left and right, before turning around. Tim was lying on the roof of the minivan with one of our newly acquired rifles pointed in our direction.

The rifle discharged again and I could feel a bullet pierce my flesh! What the hell was wrong with him? I opened my mouth to yell again, but suddenly felt a bullet pierce the back of my throat.

In spite of the fact that Tim was taking pot-shots at me, my body healed rapidly. I ran faster than I could have ever imagined back toward Tim. With a leap, I was standing on the roof of the van, but my perch didn’t last for long as he swung the rifle at me like a baseball bat, knocking me from the roof and to the ground below.

Surprisingly, I was able to adjust, somersault, and land on my feet. It was a good thing, too, because Tim was on me in an instant – his fists flying furiously. The rifle was nowhere to be seen.

I didn’t want to hurt him. He was still my good friend and frat-brother. But, then I heard a guttural moan escape his lips. With it was carried the stench of rot and decay. Tim’s body was dying, and the colony had taken over. And, for some reason or another, they understood how to use the firearms. Had they found a way to absorb Tim’s knowledge – to access his brain and memories?

Tim snarled at me. He’d definitely reverted to a more base and primitive means of communication. I shoved him away forcefully, but the colony reacted even faster than I could’ve imagined. Before I could even draw the sword which was still tied to my belt, he was rushing me with his claws flying. I grappled him, rolled backwards and flipped him away from me.

Then, I saw it – the rifle. It was about twenty feet away by the van’s back tire. But, I’d also just realized my mistake in flipping Tim the way I had. He was between me and John and Evan. I’d put them directly in danger!

Like a rifle shot myself, I ran at Tim, tackling him to the ground. As we grappled on the ground I managed to just barely avoid his snapping jaws. His colony was looking to spread – it needed hosts to spread to. And, it now occurred to me that the colonies were not peaceful, but instead were highly competitive with each other. They were like independent nations all seeking dominion over the world.

Ultimately, we’d rolled over and managed to come to a stand. Tim was crouching in an offensive posture, while I tried to brace myself for whatever move he’d send my way. The move, however, was not meant for me.

With a single leap, he shot himself into the air in a broad arc with the hopes of landing by John and Evan. I ran again like a shot, but this time it was not to intercept Tim. Instead, I ran to the back of the van, snatched up the rifle, and fired a flurry of shots.

Tim’s undead corpse was again dead when it struck the ground, for his head hit the bridge platform a split second later and several yards away.

John and Evan could only look at one another. They understood less about what had just happened than I did. And, I was sure that Tim and I had moved so fast that they probably couldn’t see all of what was happening.

It suddenly dawned on me that neither Pam, nor Elise, my love, had emerged from the vehicle to aide me. I opened the sliding rear door to the van and instantly understood why. I could hear a mighty scream echoing along the river as my knees collapsed beneath me. I will not describe here the extent to which the colony possessing Tim had desecrated the bodies of Pam and Elise, my love, but it was terrible. Another scream sounded, but I no longer cared about what kind of undead madness was coming my way. Elise was gone! Much later, however, John and Evan told me that no other creatures were coming – the screams had all been my own.

I also found out that as I sat there lost in mourning for the woman who’d been my anchor to this strange, new undead life John and Evan had managed to finish crossing the bridge. Their hopes for survival, however, had been dashed for what they found there were the rotting corpses of young soldiers who’d been unsuccessful in their defense of the quarantine.

Before leaving the bridge I decided that I just couldn’t leave Elise’s body to just rot in the back of the van. Pam too had deserved a better send-off than that. And, despite what Tim had become in the end, he was our longtime friend and brother. So, we loaded all of the bodies into the van, pierced its gas tank, covered it with gasoline, and set it on fire.

As the curls of black smoke rose into the heavens I felt kind of envious for those I’d loved who had died. They’d found a way to escape this cruel world and I hoped that wherever their souls wound up it was a better place than this.