DEAD: Darkness Before Dawn (34 page)

Perhaps there were millions
, he conceded.

It was a long five blocks to where the road terminated with a wide bike path that was already being supplanted by all the weeds that grew through the multitude of cracks. And on the other side of the bike path was a rusting Cyclone fence.

“Up and over, Heather goes first,” Kevin announced.

It was slow going
, and every time he glanced over his shoulder, the part of that zombie herd that had broken off and come after them seemed to be moving much too fast and gaining ground. Rose went second, then Aleah. At last it was Kevin’s turn. As his feet touched on the other side, he saw that the impenetrable leading edge of the main body was now less than a block and a half away. That fence would fold like paper when that much force hit.

“Now, everybody, as fast as you can, into the woods,” Ke
vin ordered.

He was thankful for early spring in that the foliage was not too dense just yet. A few months from now they would be screwed. A few times, they had to get down and crawl on hands and knees. That was when it was the most difficult for Heather.

It seemed to go on forever, and worse still was when the zombies came through the fence behind them; they heard the metallic ‘TWANG’ as the fence tore apart under the assault of the massive wall of undead, but worse were the sounds of the smaller trees being snapped like twigs. Kevin continued to urge them, but he was seriously doubting his choice. The reality was that he simply had not believed the numbers that had been reported. He had seen his share of mobs, but this was unlike anything from before.

At last, they emerged from the woods. Before them was row after row of linked train cars. Kevin had never seen so many train tracks side by
side. Worse still, zombies were everywhere, staggering about. The only good side was that they were having a rough time navigating the uneven ground.

“What’
s that?” Rose pointed to a dome-roofed building across the rail yard.

“No idea, but that long train will act as a better barricade,” Kevin said as he veered slightly.

One long set of coupled cars ran for what seemed like hundreds of feet in both directions. They would simply have to get there, squeeze through a set of cars and then climb another fence. It wasn’t any sort of permanent solution, but it would give them at least a brief reprieve where they could all catch their breath. Also, it looked like an interstate was on the other side of whatever that big fenced off complex might be. Whatever it was, there were a lot of large construction-looking vehicles parked all over the place.

While more spread out, there were still a good number of zombies staggering around. Kevin felt like the center ring of a bull’s eye. The group was less than halfway across the several sets of train tracks when the zombies that had followed them from that neighborhood came pouring from the trees.

At last they reached the long line of train cars. As they had drawn closer, Kevin started to notice a smell. It was not the smell of the undead; this was an acrid, chemical odor. By the time they were climbing between a pair of coupled cars, his throat was burning and his eyes felt like they would erupt.

“I don’t feel so good,” Rose managed right before she lurched away a few steps and vomited.

That set off a chain of events as the remaining three members of the group also spewed the contents of their stomachs on the rocky ground. Aleah wiped the tears from her eyes which only seemed to make them burn worse.

“Faster!” Kevin urged around a mouthful of bile-laced sal
iva.

“What the hell is this?” Heather managed before turning her head and sicking up down the sleeve of her coat.

“The tanker cars,” Kevin wheezed. “Some sort of gas!”

They continued to stagger on, coughing and
choking. Unfortunately, by the time the effects had started to manifest, they could not tell if it was better to keep going forward or risk doubling back where certain death awaited. Almost in a parody of their bodily functions, the woods appeared to be vomiting legions of the walking dead.

At last, the air almost seemed
breathable. However, any bit of exposed skin burned and itched like it was being swarmed by fire ants. They finally reached the fence and made a mad scramble to get over it.

“Wow,” Kevin breathed.

“What is this place?” Aleah asked.

“Highway department,” Kevin said. “See, over there you have snow plows, dump trucks to pour sand or salt…I just never saw anything this massive.”

He slung his pack from his shoulder and grabbed two water skins. He removed his jacket and set it aside as he tilted his head back and poured water on his face, most of it directed to his eyes.

“Everybody do a quick rinse,” Kevin said once he was fi
nished. “We don’t have long, but I have no idea what that crap was or what the lasting effects might be.”

While the others did as he had requested, Kevin pulled his sword from his shoulder harness and approached a trio of u
ndead. Making short work of them, he decided that none of the others inside this huge open lot were close enough to be a threat.

“I don’t feel good,” Aleah said with a shudder. Her face was growing more and more pale by the moment.

Without warning, she fell to her knees, wailing in pain and started to heave up the last of the contents of her stomach. When that ended, she continued to dry heave for a bit. At last she fell to her side and just laid there with her eyes squeezed shut.

Kevin, Heather, and Rose stood protectively around her, each sharing looks of concern. Kevin tried to reach down and hold her shoulder; anything to just let her know that he was there for her
, but she shrugged his hand a way.

“That sucked,” she finally gasped, sitting up and wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.

“Can you walk?” Kevin asked.

His eyes kept flicking back to the fence they had come over. He could no longer see under the long line of trains. The legs of the undead had acted as a curtain. A few had fallen or been shoved through the space between the cars, but not enough to overwhelm the fence.

Kevin offered his shoulder to Aleah who initially refused until she took a few steps and staggered like a drunk. Heather doubled up with Rose, and that is how the foursome made their way across the vast lot.

“CTA?” Rose asked, pointing to the huge letters on one of the
buildings.

“Chicago Transit Authority would be my guess,” Kevin a
nswered.

They reached the edge of the lot and came to the fence. An overpass was just beyond some tall grass. There was a highway and then more grass between them and a cluster of buildings.

“Those look like stadium lights,” Aleah said weakly as she leaned on Kevin for support.

“But what are those?” Rose asked, pointing.

Kevin had to shield his eyes to see, but just beyond the overpass where the highway passed underneath, there were several objects that at first looked to be floating in the air. Ducking down for a better look, Kevin could see the ropes.

“Looks like bodies hanging,” Kevin sighed. He could only hope they were old.

After helping Aleah over, Kevin and the others started for the overpass. Kevin decided that they would get the best look around from that vantage point. Of course what he didn’t say is that he really had no idea what they were looking for. When Rose had asked if they were going to try and find the others, Kevin explained that he had given Catie specific spots for her to camp along the journey and that he would make for those, but that there was no sense trying to make their way back to where she had been separated from the group.

They made it through the grass and came to the ramp that led up the overpass. “You three go ahead,” Kevin said. “I want to go check out whatever is hanging underneath.”

He was actually a little surprised when there was no argument. He walked up to the closest figure and looked up at it. The zombie stared down at him; its tongue, a black and bloated chunk of meat about triple its normal size, filled the mouth of the monster to the point that Kevin doubted it could actually bite anybody.

Hanging around its neck was a sign with the word “WHORE” scrawled in huge black letters. Moving down the line, he saw much the same with the exception of the word on the placard which varied—LIAR, DECEIVER
, (Kevin did not try to figure out what the difference may be) KILLER—but he noticed something remarkable. He actually did not pick up on it until the third body. It was a man wearing shorts…with a healed bite on one leg. He backtracked and went down the row, finally stopping at the seventh body; each one of the zombies hanging from the underside of the overpass had signs of a healed bite mark.

“All of these people were immune,” Kevin breathed. “What the hell is going on?”

His mind began to churn through the possibilities. However, it was a series of his own thoughts and feelings that provided the answer he thought would solve this quasi-mystery.

He had likened his infection with the AIDS virus. He had even been able to discern that once it was introduced to the sy
stem of a person who displayed “immunity” for whatever reason, that it might very well be communicable like the AIDS virus. That person would be a carrier.

If people were afraid of something…they might simply kill it nowadays.
There had been plenty of assaults and hate crimes in the so-called Civilized World. Strip away that thin veneer, and he had already seen some of humanity’s dark side. The fact was, this was a world without rules. Then it struck him. He would not actually call it a revelation, but the thought was rather forceful and consuming.

There were no rules.

Since this entire thing had started, he had done his best to live within the constraints of society. Yes, he had committed a couple of acts that bordered on barbaric. But looking back, his only regret came when he discovered that Cary had been immune. Leaving him in that car with a gun and a single round had been an act of mercy coupled with his own cowardice at not being able to kill another human being. He had discarded that little qualm when dealing with Heather’s twisted captor, Mister Abernathy.

So what could he do now that he had this newfound epiph
any? His first thought was to be proactive. There were obviously people in the area that were killing those who showed immunity to the zombie contagion.

“Kevin?” Heather’s voice called out. He could hear the fear and apprehension in it.

Giving the hanging zombies one final look, he had counted thirty-three of them, he turned and headed back to the ramp that led up to the apex of the overpass. When his three traveling companions came in sight, he noticed that they were all clustered together at the rail and looking off to his left. That would be west, and the general direction that he had intended them to travel for a bit before swinging north and making for the second meeting spot on the route he had given Catie.

He did not want to try for the first because he did not want to risk missing her by a day or so and having to play chase to catch up. It would be better to get ahead and just wait. Of course that would mean he needed to plan a route that would get them there, but he could worry about that later.

He was halfway up the ramp when a tremendous crash to his right drew his attention. The girls spun as well and sprinted across the overpass to see what it was. Kevin had an idea, but veered to the right to get a look for himself to confirm his suspicion. Sure enough, the main body of the horde that had broken off and followed them down the hill had finally reached a point where their numbers and sheer force had caused a section of the coupled train cars to topple. He did not want to think about the force required to do such a thing. And, honestly, he was now doubting how sane he had been in the first place to make the run for it.

Of course the zombies were no longer actually in pursuit of him and the others. In fact, their current path would now take them southwest
; whereas they were headed northwest.

He jogged the rest
of the way to catch up with Heather, Aleah, and Rose. “So what’s up?” he asked once he reached them.

He smiled at the fact that he had whispered out of habit. D
espite the fact that the zombies were far enough away that they could not possibly hear a regular speaking voice, he had slipped into that mode brought on by fear.

“You need to see this,” Heather said, grabbing Kevin by the hand
.

Kevin allowed himself to be pulled along. He had no idea what to expect. He certainly did not anticipate what he saw when he reached the other side of the overpass.

“That is a camp!” Kevin breathed.

He fumbled for his binoculars and scanned the area. It looked like maybe a college or something. The on-site stadium looked too nice to belong to a high school, but what did he know?

Whoever this group was, they had built the largest protective barricade that he had seen so far. The campus (and he was pretty certain that was what this place had been) sat in a perfect spot. The roads all around helped provide added strength to the barrier.

One of the things that he had seen in lots of the zombie movies were huge sections of road packed with traffic. That would have been realistic if the event had been sudden. This had not. It had been an isolated case here a
nd there. When he and his friends had set out, they had marveled at having the roads to themselves for such long stretches. That was not to say there were not some pockets of highway that had ended up log jammed; it simply was not very common.