Revelations - 02 (35 page)

Glaring outside, he saw them, with their dark pajamas and greasy black hair. Upturned faces with sinister slanting eyes mocked him. But it was he who mocked them. They
needed
him to come down. And that simply was not gonna happen. All he needed was a little rain. Just enough to refill his jug and get through another week.

Lawrence sat down at his table. Yep, he’d show ‘em… he’d have breakfast. And wouldn’t they all just give their left nut for a taste. Again, he glanced at Cindy, her blank eyes staring back as he cut into the strip of meat on his plate. There wasn’t much of this left now that he thought about it. That was okay, he’d go out later and carve off another piece from where the rest of Cindy hung to cure and dry.

In the corner, two young men continued in vain to struggle with the bindings that held their wrists and ankles secure. Their voices long gone from screaming against the gag. The older man sitting at the table adorned with Cindy Minor’s head as a macabre centerpiece, glanced over his shoulder.

“Yep,” he said, “gots me plenty of food…just needs me a little rain for some water.”

14

One Geek, One Girl

Well,
Heather thought as she took a seat across from the two men,
at least he’s kinda conscious.
She wondered if she looked nearly as bad as those two. Both were covered in dried blood and dirt. Both had bruises all over. Kevin’s eye had swollen completely shut. She touched her own left eye. It was bad, but she could see well enough.

Glancing up the rows, there was no sign of the enormous mob of zombies that had poured out of Heath in response to Kevin’s huge explosion. They’d been cutting through the immense cornfield, heading away from Heath while simultaneously moving away from the edge of the field. She’d never considered how far this thing stretched. They must be coming close to an edge. Of course the three of them weren’t moving very quickly. Faster than zombies, but that wasn’t saying much.

“We need water,” Cary broke the silence.

“Maybe I could double back towards the house,” Heather offered.

“No, the wind was taking the fire right towards it,” Cary said. “I’m guessing that it has reached it by now. The only thing saving our asses, really. I wouldn’t be surprised if this doesn’t burn the rest of Heath to the ground.”

“Not much of a loss,” Heather sighed. Sure she’d grown up there, but two years ago the family took a vacation to California. They saw all the favorites: Disneyland, Magic Mountain, Universal Studios. As an added bonus, the Indians were in town against the Angels. She’d seen her favorite baseball team in person for the first time. She and her mom went on a shopping spree. That’s when Heather had fallen in love with The City. So much to see, to do. A man with a guitar sitting on the sidewalk caught her attention. His fingers seemed alive and his voice was…beautiful.

She glanced over. He was still staring blankly ahead, but his mouth was moving. She leaned forward, but couldn’t make any sense of whatever he might be trying to say.

She sat up and gave Cary another once over. He was awfully pale. They really needed to find a spot where they could rest, clean themselves up, and get a little food and water. She briefly wondered how many times they would have to start all over from scratch. Sure, they had a couple of weapons, but nothing to speak of as far as firepower. The little they had wouldn’t let them shoot their way out if things got sticky.

“No, idiot.” She shook her head. “I’m gonna cut straight across and see if I can get to the end of this field. I’m going to move up from here, hopefully not drift too far left or right so that I can come back to you once I know how far we have to go.”

“Okay,” Cary said weakly and closed his eyes. “You do that, and I’ll be right here.”

Heather gave Kevin one last concerned look, he hadn’t budged. He still sat, staring straight ahead. She didn’t care what anybody thought, and she was pretty sure that Kevin wouldn’t even remember; so, before she left she leaned down and kissed Kevin on the cheek.

Nothing.

Stepping through the first couple of rows weren’t too bad, but by the time she’d put several dozen behind her, Heather began to feel a bit nervous. She hadn’t been alone, not like this anyways, in quite some time. It began to seem like there was truly no end to this field. Then she saw it…open ground!

Stopping a couple of rows from the edge, she watched for any sign of movement. Nothing at all passed by. Slowly, she crept the last couple of rows. Her heart pounded loud enough that she was certain that if there were any zombies near, they’d hear it. Her mouth was even drier than before.

That last row was like approaching the edge of a cliff. Her hands trembled, and it became strangely difficult to control her breathing. Parting the wide leaves with her hands, Heather peeked out. A narrow two-lane road was on the other side of the barbed wire fence that stretched in both directions.

Nothing moved. It was silent. She had to concentrate to hear the sounds of the fire left so far behind. Across the street she spotted a double-wide trailer. It was still attached to the hauler and had gone part way into the ditch on the far side of the road. Of course, it was only one half of the mobile home. The wall of black plastic was intact, which she took as a good sign. It wasn’t ideal, but it would do for now. If she could get Cary and Kevin inside, even at the angle it sat, at least they could rest up for a bit. She could go out on her own and scrounge up some food and water.

Yep,
she thought,
that would have to do
.



Cary glanced over at Kevin. The man hadn’t budged. He was still staring blankly straight ahead. At least he’d quit mumbling. Now there was nothing but the quiet…and the distant roaring of a fire. There was no hint of the sounds of the undead. That was what he really wanted to listen for. He knew that if he did hear them it was probably too late. Both of the worst possible ways to die in Cary’s opinion were definite risks today: fire and zombies.

“Cary,” a voice whispered.

“Right here,” Cary said looking around confused. Had he closed his eyes? He glanced over at Kevin. The movement hurt something terrible. Where was Kevin? He’d just been right—

“Cary,” the voice was more urgent this time. It was somewhere behind him. “Where’s Heather?”

He heard the rustling of the cornstalks behind him and rolled his head around to try and get a better look. Kevin pushed through the long, brown leaves and stepped uneasily into the row.

Cary explained all that had transpired in the past couple of hours as best he could remember. A few times he had to stop and take a few deep breaths when the pain spiked. He couldn’t ever remember hurting so bad in his life.

“How long has she been gone?” Kevin asked after Cary finished recounting events.

“I honestly don’t know,” Cary sighed. “I was sitting here, and must’ve dozed off. I remember thinking that my chances of dying were pretty high, and that of my two choices…fire or zombies…neither were very appealing. That, and I was glad that you’d finally quit mumbling.”

A sound cut Kevin’s argument off. The sounds of the cornstalks rustling were growing louder, but it was too difficult to tell from which direction. Kevin’s hands went instinctively to his weapons…which were long gone.

Kevin took the knife and tried to pinpoint the sound. He was so disoriented; the tall stalks on every side didn’t help much as he struggled to get his bearings. Plus, the tops of the plants were a good foot or so above his head. He turned and caught a whiff of something. It was the smell of—

A tiny body crashed through the stalks and he was out of position. He’d need to step over Cary to get to it. The little girl, a toddler really, had a huge chunk of its chubby upper-thigh missing. It was naked and filthy, a long line of dark drool hanging from its chin. Tiny hands reached out and its mouth opened. A sickly wheezing groan that made the hair on Kevin’s arms stand up issued forth. A second later, it was answered by a chorus.

“Shit!” Kevin cursed.

“Aww, hell!” Cary echoed the sentiment.

Not sure how many were coming, Kevin stepped across his friend and grabbed the matted mop of curly brown hair with one hand and plunged the five-inch blade into a milky eye-socket. A slight twist of the wrist for effect, and he let the body collapse to the ground.

“You ain’t got a choice now,” Kevin hissed. He knelt down and felt his entire body protest. “We gotta get you on your feet and move. We’ll try to follow the direction Heather went.”

“I can’t.” Cary shook his head.

“Bullshit!” Kevin protested. “I’ll help you. Now c’mon!”

“No,” Cary said. “I’m serious.” He coughed, unable to hold it back this time. It felt as if his entire insides were torn. Blood flecked his lips and dribbled down his chin. “I want to…trust me, buddy. But I just can’t.”

A new chorus of groans and moans of the undead drifted through the cornstalks in response to Cary’s cough. It almost sounded as if they were surrounded. Kevin looked around nervously.

“Kev,” Cary’s voice made him jump, “you gotta go, man.”

“I’m not leaving you…not again,” Kevin croaked over the growing lump in his throat.

“Look,” Cary clutched his friend’s pant leg, “it ain’t like last time. This time, I’m done. Something inside me feels… busted. You can’t leave Heather alone. She won’t last one day.”

“I can’t leave you here to get eaten,” Kevin said shaking his head. The distant sounds of the dead were getting closer.

“So give me the knife.” Cary reached up.

“There’s too many,” Kevin said, now able to hear the cornstalks being trampled by the approaching zombies. Looking up he could make out the tips of some of the plants several rows over shaking, then plunging out of sight.

“But at least I go down fighting instead of just letting them take me.”

“I can’t just—”

“We don’t have time to talk anymore, Kevin,” Cary interrupted. “You did the right thing by me once…giving me a chance. Don’t change up now.”

“I can help you.”

“No,” Cary insisted. “You can’t. And even if you did… something is seriously wrong…here.” Cary pointed to his stomach.

“Cary,” Kevin tried to argue, but he couldn’t. He took a good look at his friend. He was pale, even more so than he’d been just moments ago. Blood trickled from his lips and a little was starting to bubble out the nostrils. He handed Cary the knife. “I wish…” his voice trailed off. He could see them through the corn. They were only a few rows away now. And there were so, so many.

“Go!” Cary coughed again, this time a thick plug of blood came up.

Kevin rose to his feet. Something in his neck felt really bad, and both of his knees felt as if they’d been hit with hammers. But none of that compared to the pounding in his skull. His vision wavered for a moment, and he thought he might end up back on the ground. He swallowed the wave of nausea and kept his feet. He took one last look at Cary who gave him a weak salute.

“Take care of Heather, dude,” Cary said around a mouthful of bloody saliva. “And remember…this ain’t the movies.” Cary grinned big, which looked more than a little creepy considering the blood dripping from both corners of his mouth and the fact that his teeth were all stained red.

Kevin turned and slowly staggered through the rows of corn. His body found a rhythm and he was several yards away when he heard
the scream.
Cary won’t be coming back from this one,
Kevin thought. He stopped fighting the tears, and pretty soon, his vision was a watery haze.

He didn’t see the figure coming towards him until he ran smack dab into it. The impact was enough to send a shockwave of pain through him, but when he fell back on the ground, it was too much. This time he couldn’t fight back the nausea. Kevin heaved, which made a bad situation worse. He felt hands clutch his arm and he wished he’d stayed with Cary. At least that way they could’ve gone out together.