He could see down to the end of the long city street, past where he’d entered the parking garage, but only along the sidewalk. The street was filled with walking corpses; however, the sidewalk was clear. Not nearly enough space for them to attempt to get back to the car, but enough that he could see the right taillight of the vehicle he’d parked only minutes before. But right now, he needed to forget that. Right now, he needed to pull himself together and run, even if he couldn’t.
The two crowds had converged and were now moving through the intersection. It was time to go. Tom looked up at the woman and she seemed to understand. She leaned over and held her hand out. The knot running the length of his right leg had flattened, although he was still unable to bend it. Reaching for her hand, he bit into his lower lip and stood.
Letting out a deep groan, Tom moved up onto the sidewalk and tested his right leg. Twenty percent of his weight was doable, anything more than that would force him back to the pavement and into the fetal position—probably for good. Step with the left, limp with the right. Maintain a speed just fast enough to stay ahead of the growing horde and hopefully live to see tomorrow. That was his plan. It wasn’t good, but it was all he had.
Moving in close to the brick building to their left, the woman, still holding onto his hand, turned to him. Something about her was different, subtle, but still different. Maybe it was her eyes, maybe her expression, maybe the fact that her face appeared to have color for the first time since she’d exited the SUV. He couldn’t tell and given his current pain level, maybe it was nothing at all.
“Hey,” she said.
Yes, something was different. Even though it was only one word, he could tell there was more. He could have answered her right away, but he figured he’d let her continue instead.
She looked back. “They’re going to catch us if you don’t move faster. Can you move faster?”
Tom fought the urge to ask her all the questions that had backed up in his mind since he first glimpsed her from the street. He instead attempted to put her mind at ease. “I think I can move a bit quicker, but I’m gonna need you to help.”
“Okay.”
“Also,” Tom said, “We gotta find somewhere to hide, at least for a few—”
“I know a place. It’s not far, but we need to get there as fast as we can. It’s going to take a minute to get inside.”
As quickly as she turned it on, she again went quiet. Slowing, the woman pulled Tom’s arm up over her shoulder. By his estimation, he had a good six or seven inches on her. She pulled him into her and again started forward. The first twenty strides were an uncoordinated mess. He stepped over her multiple times, nearly taking them both to the ground. He didn’t stop. He didn’t turn, and he although he could hear their aggravated footfalls growing closer, he ignored them.
Finding their rhythm, she held him tight with her right hand and pointed straight ahead with her left. “Up ahead. Next block. Go left.”
Tom didn’t answer. He just kept moving. The pain along his right leg was now more of a dull ache. He figured the cramp had mostly subsided, although now may not be the best time to test his assumption. They weren’t gaining any ground on their pursuers, however they also hadn’t opened a big enough lead to take any chances. He’d save the heroics for another time.
Approaching the corner, the woman began to slow. She moved left and Tom hobbled along at her side. They weren’t nearly far enough ahead to make this work; however, they wouldn’t make it another hundred feet at their current pace. They needed to increase their speed.
Swinging wide, they stayed along the edge of the sidewalk and both breathed a sigh of relief as the intersecting street proved to be clear. She nodded toward the building fifty yards ahead. “Just past the second light post. There is a door, but I have it blocked. It’s going to take a minute to clear it and get in.”
Finally deciding to look back, Tom’s suspicions were confirmed. They didn’t have a minute. They probably didn’t even have thirty seconds. “I don’t think this is gonna work, we have to figure out something else.”
Her words came out slower now, and halted. She was winded, although not completely from running. Bearing a portion of his weight was beginning to take its toll. “You’re going to have to help me,” she said. Taking in a deep breath she continued. “There is nowhere… nowhere else to go.”
Twenty yards to the door and Tom was out of gas. His lungs were now breathing fire and the task of having to overcompensate for his injured right leg was beginning to wreak havoc on his left.
He could feel the pressure building in his ankle and the arch along his left foot begged for mercy. He knew he couldn’t add any more weight to the tiny woman under his right shoulder and the thought of again testing his wrecked hamstring sent a streak of ice-cold tension up through the base of his spine. Something had to give.
Clenching his teeth and hoping for just an ounce of luck, Tom tried straightening his right leg and adding more of his weight to the next stride. Instant pain, but not what he’d expected and not much more than he was already suffering. It was a six out of ten. He could do this, but not for much longer.
Passing the second light pole, the woman slowed to a stop and slid out from under Tom’s arm. Guiding him to the wall, she looked back. “I may need your help with the last one.”
He watched as she moved into the recessed doorway and then checked the crowds at their back. The horde had moved up onto the sidewalk and also filled the street from one side to the other. They moved much more quickly than he remembered and looked to be fighting one another for the chance to be the first to get to him and his new friend.
Turning back to the darkened doorway, the woman appeared once again. She shuffled backward and was dragging a lifeless corpse by the wrist. She pulled the faceless body out onto the sidewalk and let it roll into the street.
“What are you doing?”
She ran past him and shouted, “I’m going to need help with the third one.”
Looking back yet again, Tom shook his head, turned, and followed her into the darkness. He reached her not more than ten feet in. She was hunched over another limp body, attempting to pull it free from the one below.
Without looking back, he knew the horde was close. Their sluggish footfalls and throaty groans preceded their massive numbers. And as the daylight being fed into the recessed alcove slowly began to die, Tom moved to her side. He leaned into the wall, used his left leg for leverage, and helped pull the second body away from the pile.
Reaching for the third and final body, Tom glanced back. A pair of Feeders had entered the alcove and now fought their way over the downed body.
Turning away, Tom centered his weight over both legs, ignoring the excruciating pain firing through his right hamstring. He placed his hand on the woman’s lower back and pushed her forward. “Open the door,” he told her.
As she reached for the handle, Tom bent at the waist and yelped as a lightning rod of agony moved up through his sciatic nerve and slammed into his pelvic bone. Tears began forming in the corners of his eyes and he could actually feel his body shutting down. It was finally giving in to the exhaustion.
He looped his fingers through the belt of the last body and used what little strength he had left to quickly slide it aside. Looking up as the woman pushed into the building, his vision began to rapidly narrow. And as the feeling in his lower body started to fade, he fell forward through the doorway and instinctively reached out for her.
Rolling him onto his back, the mystery woman who’d only spoken a handful of words dragged him over the threshold and moved away. With the world around him beginning to recede, Tom watched the petite brunette attempting to close the door ahead of the grotesquely disfigured crowd.
Cora was now hysterical. Her voice cracking as she screamed for Ethan to do something. He wanted to help, but for now, the others would have to figure it out. He had other more pressing matters to attend to. First and foremost, he had backed the armored truck into a dead-end alley with only one way out. And at the moment, that exit was being filled by walking corpses.
“Cora!” he shouted.
Her words came through slowly as she began to sob. “Ethan… please…”
Throwing the truck back into drive, Ethan focused on a spot at the end of the alley. “You and Carly are going to have to handle this. Get Frank to help.”
Over to Ben, Ethan motioned back toward the growing crowd. “You good?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“Okay,” Ethan said. “Hold on.”
As Ethan shoved the gas pedal to the floor and the truck lunged forward, Ben turned in his seat. Griffin was laid out flat on his back, motionless. Cora and Carly leaned over him, attempting to remain upright. Shannon held tight to the rear door and Frank braced himself along the corner, gripping tight to the two black duffel bags.
Ben shouted over the thundering engine. “Thirty seconds, just hold on. Ethan’s going to go right through them.”
They only had a fifty foot run up, which was not nearly enough. The truck plowed into the first half dozen bodies and its speed was instantly cut in half. Ethan leaned into the pedal with his right foot, keeping it pushed into the floorboard and then cut the wheel hard to the left to avoid a particularly thick grouping.
“Ben, have that pistol ready to go.”
His eyes still transfixed through the windshield, Ben only partially turned to Ethan. He sat forward and pushed up on the dash, looking out over the horde and into the street beyond. “Uh… Ethan, I don’t really think… wait, what?”
“Be ready, I may need you to—” Ethan paused. He finally saw what Ben was seeing. He wasn’t sure how he missed it before. When backing into the alley, he assumed that he’d shake free those gripping to the armored truck. He’d then drive right through the remaining crowd and out into the street, giving them some room to breathe.
Slamming into the next grouping of Feeders, he realized he was only half correct in his assumptions. They’d freed themselves from a large portion of the crowd, although in doing so he inadvertently pushed back behind the larger section and beyond that, a second horde gathering in the street beyond. One step forward, three steps back.
Still shouting from the rear cabin, Cora begged for Ethan to hurry. Momentarily allowing his attention to drift back, he could hear Carly trying to calm her and at the same time speaking quietly to Griffin.
“Can you hear me,” she asked. “Griffin, we need you to fight, we need you to try to—”
As her words trailed off, the rear cabin went quiet. Five full seconds of silence and then Carly’s voice returned. Now more directed and abrupt, she spoke with authority.
“Cora, I need you to pull yourself together. If you can’t, then move aside and cry somewhere else. Shannon, get me something to put under his head. A blanket or a pillow. Frank, I need you to get over here and help me hold him down.”
Swerving sharply back to the right, his speed was again cut by half as Ethan drove straight into the massive group lining the sidewalk before the street. In much the same position he was in five minutes before, the density of the horde and the bodies piling up around and under the weighty vehicle brought it to a stop.
“Ethan,” Carly said. “Why’d we stop?”
He didn’t answer her. Instead, he gripped the wheel and shifted back into reverse. The group outside had again begun to push themselves up against his door and now started to move toward the passenger side. Ethan rolled the truck backward a few feet and then dropping it back into drive, revved the engine with his other foot over the brake.
To his right, Ben readied the nine millimeter and shouted to Ethan while staring straight ahead. “I’ve got like five seconds. Do you want me to get out?”
“No.” Ethan said. “Stay put. We’re gonna push through… right now.”
Carly came again, this time with more of a command than a question. “Ethan what the hell are we doing? Griffin is starting to convulse, so I need you to either get us the hell out of here or get back here and help. But I’m not going to be able to help him with this thing rocking back and forth.”
Pulling his left foot off the brake, the armored truck leapt forward and bulldozed its way through a lineup of Feeders three rows deep. The cabin shook violently as Ethan pointed the truck away from the alley and out into the street. Cutting the wheel to the right, Ethan drove through the last of the horde, tossing multiple bodies aside and driving directly over those who weren’t as fortunate.
Ben sat in disbelief, his jaw hanging open as he stared back into the passenger side mirror. “Are you kidding,” he said, still looking back at what they’d driven through. “How’s that even possible, I mean really?”
Two blocks ahead, the bodies still poured out from the old Taylor farm. Ethan maneuvered through the intermittent crowds and turned left onto Mineral Street. With nothing between them and end of the long block, Ethan pushed the truck up to sixty.
Moving quickly through the once happy town, he tried to forget what used to be and only focus on where they were headed. Glancing out the side window as they drifted past where he laid David to rest, Ethan gradually let off the gas.
Turning left onto Second, he slowed the truck as they moved past the Summer Mill City Limit sign. Cringing as he pulled to a stop, Ethan read the last line.
Population 2,699
As he pulled the keys from the ignition, Frank had already moved in behind his seat. “Ethan, Griffin’s not—”
“I’m coming.” Checking his mirrors, Ethan stepped out of the seat and followed Frank into the back. Cora sat near the rear door with Shannon and watched as Carly tended to their injured friend.
The rear cabin was quiet as Griffin lay on his side. He wasn’t moving, but he was also no longer convulsing. His eyes were closed and being cradled by Carly, he appeared to be breathing normally.
“So?” Ethan said.
Carly brushed Griffin’s thick dark hair away from his face. “I’m not even going to address what happened back there. You may have just saved us—and I’ll remember to thank you for that later—but right now Griffin needs a break. Two concussions in a lifetime are enough to induce permanent damage and he’s lost consciousness twice in only the last six days.”
Ethan slowly nodded. “I get it but—”
“No Ethan, we can’t keep doing this. We need to get away from here and just rest for a few days.” She looked down at Griffin. “Especially him—he’s not going to be able to take much more.”