Half the walk over and I took note of footprints that weren’t my own but made their tracks in the snow headed the same direction Robert, Sandra and I headed. Things were piecing together. The reason the infected behind us gathered so fast must have been because of this person that came by and was spotted by the infected on their way to their destination. The tracks swerved in and out and weren’t too close together which served as indication that the source of the prints did not only run, but was also forced to dodge the infected.
With visibility on a steady decline, the longer we took the faster my suspicions grew. Something was out of place. I was suspicious of the circumstances in which I encountered Robert and Sandra. They could have been behind me since I walked out of camp. They could have been looters or raiders in search of supplies when they caught sight of me; their plan could have been to trick me to bring them to camp so they could rob us for everything we’ve gathered. If this was the case, the extra set of footprints in the snow was in all possibility part of a third member in their group who traveled further ahead to achieve a different angle. They were unarmed as far as I knew. It did not seem likely but power in number could really have been their goal, like Marcus but it could have also been the other way around and they could have been after supplies. I figured if it were a trap, I’d walk right in intentionally and kill all three of them if there was no other choice. They might have already gathered supplies I could come back for at a later time.
“Be careful. Something isn’t right!” I told Sandra and Robert and I observed their reactions. A stiff shock overtook them, surprised maybe? But they kept their silence and nodded. Their reaction could have been fear of their plan being discovered. Were they scared I figured it out?
I grabbed my rifle, which hung off of my shoulder by its strap and continued with a grip on the handle and my other hand on the base of the gun for support; it would increase my reaction time. Only twenty five percent of the walk left to go before we arrived back at camp, but I didn’t want to lead Sandra and Robert back without first being sure whether there was a third member to their group. I decided to follow the tracks and give both Sandra and Robert a reason someone who wasn’t suspicious of them would support. “We have to follow these tracks. They are fresh enough for whoever made them to still be in the area. They might still be alive and we can’t leave without being sure.”
“Yeah, we should. If we have the chance to save them, then we should take it,” Robert spoke out. Everything either one of them said seemed like a plan to get me killed. What if I was meant to follow the tracks to walk into their trap where they’d kill me or take my weapons in order to more easily rob the next person or camp? I was too far in to just decide to not “save” this person either way.
Brookendale Path Detour
T
he tracks led us out of the street we took and into an area of town with fewer buildings. Visibility was now below fifty feet and decreased further with time. Haste was required to not become trapped in the storm.
Most buildings were now behind us. We were led through a large open area. There was no way to know where we headed since the buildings in the distance vanished behind the sheet of white made by the snow. Ahead, a dark faded shadow took form. It was low to the ground, no more than five or six feet tall and the length of three cars lined up, but still no defined shape to it.
“What do you think it is?” Robert asked with a whisper.
“I don’t know, but we better be careful. The tracks lead right to it,” I said, prepared to defend against Robert and Sandra if they tried anything.
The structure cleared with proximity.
“Oh God!” Sandra said. She failed to keep her voice down.
The grip I held on the rifle tightened. “What’s wrong?” I asked the hysterical woman.
“Look!” She replied with a finger aimed at the snow and the tracks that surrounded us.
There were hundreds of footprints. A panic filled my blood with ice and my spine with a shiver of hair-raising fear. I didn’t want to but my body forced my head up to the structure ahead of us. They were infectees, hundreds of them piled up on top of whoever left the original set of tracks. This wasn’t a trap by any means, it was our pending death at the hands of the infected that did not struggling with the snow: Runners.
This realization wasn’t the only dilemma either; I also realized Sandra almost yelled at the sight of the footprints. I wanted to tell them to remain quiet and motionless so the infected wouldn’t see us. We were far enough to be no more than blurs of unrealistic shapes to them, as they were to us, but my voice could have assured them we were alive. Sandra’s scream already let them know we were in the area. I expected both Sandra and Robert to know any sound or movement could be the last one we would ever make.
My heart rate increased.
Was I going to end up one of the people I looked down on for being so pathetic and weak? Was I going to fail to survive like so many others?
I wasn’t.
I scanned around to try to locate anything we could use as cover. I wasn’t sure how open the area was but the lack of visibility made it appear like it was vastly open. For all I knew there could have been buildings behind the line of visibility in every direction. In fact, I counted on it.
“Follow me,” I whispered in hopes both Sandra and Robert would hear me and follow my gentle movements. I slowly backed up in an attempt to increase the gap between us and the infected before it became obvious to them we were alive. It didn’t take them long to realize it.
“What do we do?” Robert asked while he watched the infected run in our direction.
“RUN!” my voice strained when I yelled because of the cold. My rifle was ready for whatever events followed and I ran. I hoped something would enter our short line of sight. The snow was eighteen inches gathered up; running was difficult for Sandra, Robert and I but it wasn’t as difficult for the infected, they broke through the snow with ease. They caught up quicker than we could escape.
“Over there!” again I yelled. I spotted the sign for an auto body shop, a second later the shop came into view. It was small but the walls we needed to keep the infected away were there. “Try to make it into that shop!”
As if things weren’t bad enough the way they were going, Robert was compelled to be extra pathetic at that moment and made things worse; he fell. I heard a gasp of breath come out of him when his stomach slammed through the snow.
“Gahh”
I looked back at his attempt to pick himself out of the snow. As compelled as I was to leave him behind and save myself, I already went through the process of saving him once, for him to die at that point would have defeated whatever purpose that was to serve.
I stopped where I was, Sandra ran by me and Robert was picking himself up. The infected were closing the gap between us. I readied my rifle and turned around to watch Robert get up and run right by me as well. “Keep going!” I yelled out to both of them synchronously getting the attention of the infected on me alone. Not the most intelligent choice I’ve ever had the pleasure of making, but one which would allow all three of us to survive long enough to meet our fates in a more productive fashion. I stood there and waited for the infected to become close enough to assure myself I’d successfully land head shots and avoid using more ammunition than need be, and with the tremendous lack of visibility this turned out to be closer than my comfort zone afforded, but it was a time for solutions which meant my comfort zone would need to wait.
My eyes glanced over the iron sight on the rifle to help me aim more accurately when I pulled the trigger. The front line of infected toppled over and vanish into the snow until they piled up on top of each other and stuck out of the snow. Every round shot out of the rifle shook my arms but I kept them steady enough so the shock wouldn’t shake my body and affect my aim. After enough of the infected took to the ground I retreated. Sandra and Robert got the door of the body shop open and waited inside for me to arrive. I ran right by them into the small shop and they closed the door behind me.
A dark depressing silence filled the shop. Seconds drained from time and no sound came from outside. The shop did not need to be searched because of its miniscule size; it was no larger than a small studio apartment with no walls to divide any rooms. Only two entrances; the door for people to walk in which led to the front desk, and the entrance for the cars which led to all the equipment required to work with a car.
It took the infected a minute, almost exact, to impact the door, it was the longest minute of my life. The screams of the infected made Sandra and Robert uncomfortable.
I walked through the body shop in search of any other exit we might have failed to notice but it didn’t exist. There were, on the other hand, windows but they were there only for light. They could not be opened any way, they had to be broken which made them a difficult escape route because the noise would assure the infected a way in.
“Barricade the windows!” I gave my instructions and followed them myself by pushing a large five-foot toolbox over to the front of one window while Sandra and Robert moved some equipment in front of the other one. The steel that the main entrance door and the garage door consisted of was strong enough to stop the infected from getting to us until we could come up with an escape plan.
The thing I kept in the back of my mind was that we weren’t too far from the rest of my group; if we could get in close enough range, they would give us support fire and hold back the infected long enough for us to escape.
At the beginning of this chaos I told myself that I would outlive this plague and my intention was powerful enough to keep me on my feet and moving at all times. With that in mind, there was little chance I would remain alive while trapped in a small shop. The added dead weight of Sandra and Robert was not going to help my chances either.
It was time to move out and unite with the rest of the group.
“If we don’t find a way out the infected will surround this shop and stand around till we starve to death. At that point our only hope would be for someone else to come by and take their attention away from us. I will not hold my breath for any good thing to suddenly happen. We need to act now and get out before we are doomed to die in this place,” I explained the situation, whispering to not make things worse. “I am open to any ideas you believe might work. If it sounds moronic or ignorant in your head before you say it do not bother verbalizing it, it’ll be a waste of time.”
Nothing came from either one of them. The cowards remained so horrified saying nothing was what they resorted to first rather than help coming up with an idea that could save their lives. They so easily depended on me to have a solution for the problem at hand.
“Guess we’ll just try our luck at a silent escape,” my words received virtually no acknowledgement. Sandra and Robert did nothing but nod. Their fear destroyed their voices. Their silence astonished me even in this situation. The cowardice displayed by the two of them disgusted me and reminded me how pathetic people could become at a time of action. I continued to rethink my decision to keep them alive. I wished to go back and leave them behind to die but I was not going to allow my efforts of already having saved them to be wasted! They would both survive long enough to reach camp even if it meant I would have to fight the infected fist to fist to assure their safety.
All these thoughts rushed through my mind and forced adrenaline to take over my act instantly. “Robert!” I yelled out to him.
Robert became jumpy when I called his name but it managed to get him focused on me as fast as I expected. “Yeah?”
“I need you to take this,” I walked over to Robert and gave him my handgun.
“I…. But I don’t know how to use this!” Robert’s knack for having a seemingly endless number of things to be scared of was beginning to aggravate me.
“Alright, take this instead,” I handed Robert a combat knife I kept concealed for emergencies. “You on the other hand…” I turned my attention to Sandra and handed her the gun, “You will take this whether you know how to use it or not.”
Sandra nodded again. “I can learn!” Surprisingly enough, this woman was more of a man than the man was.
“This plan will contain some risk. Anything we do wrong could be the death of us three.” I explained how we would manage to escape the shop. “We are going to walk right out the front door and all of the infected will be gone when we do so. “
“How do you expect us to do this without dying the moment we step foot outside?” Sandra’s concerns clear, I shared them myself, but there was a way, a solution.
“We’ll attract them in through the windows,” I said.
Sandra turned to the window closest to her and stared at it confused over what I meant. “We’ll make noise by breaking the windows and we’ll toss loud or breakable things outside. When the infected cluster at the windows we open the garage door and whatever is left outside will attempt to make its way through there, at which time we exit through the main door and close it behind us. Then we quietly distance ourselves and make our way back to my camp.”
Sandra stared at me and a smile of content curled up on her face. “I understand,” she said and maintained eye contact with me for a brief moment before Robert interrupted with his cowardly ways.