The Harvesting (10 page)

I stood over the head. It was still
biting and snapping at me. I stabbed it between the eyes; the pale
moons lost their sheen.

I ran toward Summer but heard rustling
in the brush behind me. I turned to find a plump little red haired
boy bearing down on me. In that moment, I knew I had to get past
it. Child or not, he would kill me and eat me alive. Or worse yet,
turn me into one of them.

He grunted and charged.

I pulled a dagger out of my belt and
lobbed it at him. It hit him squarely between the eyes. He fell to
the ground with a thud.

I looked behind me to see Ian swing
into the cab of the truck. They drove back toward the SUV. In the
back, the others fired shots into the weeds.

I bent low to pull my dagger from the
boy’s head. I pulled the dagger, sticky with blood, from his little
forehead. I felt sick. I turned and retched into the weeds. It was
too horrible.

I’d just caught my breath when the
truck pulled up beside me. Jamie jumped out and came over to me;
Will went to the SUV to check on Summer.

Jamie put his hand on my shoulder.
“You okay?” he whispered.

I wiped my mouth with the back of my
hand and stood up. “Yeah,” I said with a heavy sigh.

“
Layla, you alright?” Ian
called from the truck.

I nodded.

“
Come on,” Jamie said. He
took the dagger from my hand and cleaned it on the grass. He handed
it back to me. “It’s done now,” he said, and we walked back to my
SUV.

Will was talking to Summer, calming
her.

“
I’m okay now,” she
whispered, wiping tears. She smiled at me and shook her head in
disbelief.

“
This is a lot of work for
a 5 gallon can of fruit cocktail,” Dusty said finally, causing us
all to laugh.

We loaded back into the vehicles and
drove to the hunting club.

Chapter 12

We kept a sharp eye on the tall grass
as we headed toward the building.

“
We haven’t seen the Scout
leaders yet,” Summer observed.

Everyone’s weapons were poised and
ready. Will opened the door. The place was seemingly deserted. The
kitchen was in a state of upheaval; brown bag lunches and puddles
of blood covered the floor.

I heard Summer inhale sharply at the
sight.

Bloody child-sized footprints marred
the white tile floors.

“
Stay close,” I whispered
to Summer. I holstered my gun and pulled my sword from its
scabbard.

We passed through the kitchen and down
a hallway toward the reception hall. At the end of the hallway, we
stopped and Dusty looked out.

“
Eww, man, there are your
Scout leaders,” Dusty said.

The terrible smell of decay filled the
otherwise beautiful room. On the one hand, the room boasted a
massive stone fireplace with an elaborately carved mantel.
Overhead, a lovely chandelier twinkled in the morning sunlight. The
windows were all outlined with stained glass which depicted
woodland scenes. Rays of sunlight illuminated the colored glass
which cast a rainbow of sunny blotches on the floor. On the other
hand, the remains of two men lay heaped on the floor. Not much was
left save their skeletons and hanging bits of flesh and entrails. A
small boy, about eight years of age, was chewing on the rib-bone of
one of the men.

Ian stepped forward and shot the
undead child. The boy’s head exploded, a shower of blood and bits
raining onto the floor, and his body toppled over.

“
There could be more,”
Jamie said. “Let’s sweep the building. You guys take that end,” he
said, motioning to Dusty and Will, “Ian and I can cover this end.
Summer and Layla hang here and watch outside for movement,” Jamie
said, and they set off in opposite directions.

I slid my belt knife off and handed it
to Summer. “Keep this on you. And we need to get you a
gun.”

“
Layla, you know I’m not .
. . well, you know,“ she said shaking her head as she took the
knife. She stuffed it into her back pocket.

I knew exactly what she meant. Summer
was a gentle girl. She used to squeal when the boys teased her with
worms. “Just in case,” I said.

She nodded.

Will and Dusty came back.

“
All clear,” Will said.
“Let’s head to the kitchen and get started,” he told
Summer.

“
I’ll keep watch here,” I
said, and the three of them moved off.

I could not see anything moving
outside. I headed toward the long hallway down which Jamie and Ian
had disappeared. When I reached hallway, I heard their voices.
Their words were heated. As I turned to go the other direction, I
accidently caught a snippet of conversation. What I heard made me
pause.

“
All I’m saying is
apologize, man. Not everyone can just blow a kid’s brains out.
You’ve got no business yelling at her like that,” Jamie was
saying.

“
She knows it was just in
the heat of the moment. She’s fine,” Ian replied.

“
Christ, Ian, after
everything you put her through you expect her to just pick up where
you left off, with all your bullshit still intact,” Jamie
said.

“
What the fuck is it to
you, brother? What are you doing with her all the time anyway? What
have
you
got
on
your
mind?”

“
At least I’m seeing her
for who she is, not who she was. Which is more than I can say for
you,” Jamie replied.

“
You better step off,
brother. You better step off,” Ian warned.

“
Or what?” Jamie
replied.

Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted
movement outside. I followed the hallway the opposite direction
from where the brothers were arguing. I didn’t want to hear
anymore. At the end of the hallway a glass door exited onto a porch
that overlooked the shooting stand. I leaned against the glass and
looked outside. There was no one there.

I pushed the door open and went out. I
looked around. There was no one, but sitting in the field to the
right of the shooting range, I saw a gray wolf. It sat on the lawn
looking expectantly at me.

I walked down the stairs and moved
slowly across the lawn toward the animal.

The wolf turned and trotted into the
tall grass. I saw only its tail wagging through the tall weeds, and
then the wolf reappeared where the grassy field met the wood-line.
It turned once more and stood looking at me. It was almost like it
was waiting.

A moment later the door on the porch
opened. I stood still and did not look back. I waited as
well.

“
What is it?” Jamie asked,
coming up behind me.

I turned and looked. Only Jamie had
come.

“
A wolf, there, at the
edge of the forest,” I said, pointing.

Jamie peered toward the
woods.

The wolf trotted into the
trees.

“
That’s unusual,” he
said.

I nodded. “Let’s go check out the
shooting range.”

Jamie walked silently beside me. I
could tell he was thinking, and I really hoped he did not know I’d
overheard their argument. Embarrassed, I felt like a
snoop.

We rounded the earthen wall and walked
down the steps to the shooting stand.

“
Booyah,” Jamie
said.

There, laid out on the tables at the
shooting stand, was row after row of guns and ammo.

“
They must have been doing
hunter’s safety training or something,” I said as we walked amongst
the tables, picking up the rifles.

“
I don’t know what they
were doing, but I sure am glad,” Jamie said. “Come on, let’s get
the others,” he added and we headed back.

Jamie went to pull the SUV closer to
the range, and I went inside to get some help. As I walked toward
the kitchen, I heard Summer and Ian talking.

“
Your reception was so
beautiful. You remember the cake? Mom and I almost dropped it
carrying it up those back steps,” Summer was telling
Ian.

They both chuckled.

“
Yeah, it really was
beautiful. You and your mom really did a great job,” Ian
replied.

A lump rose in my throat.

I walked into the kitchen just as
Dusty and Ian exited the storage cupboard pushing dollies with
boxes of food. I smiled. “You think that’s a good haul, wait until
you see what we found out back,” I said.

We finished loading Ian’s truck with
the cases of canned foods and then headed around back to the
shooting range where Jamie had been loading my SUV. We loaded all
the guns and ammo. Inside, we’d also found several more cases of
ammo. Though it had been a rough go, the haul was worth
it.

It was after noon when we left the
Mara Hunting Club. Jamie and Will rode in the back of Ian’s truck
keeping the supplies secure while Summer and Dusty drove my SUV. I
rode back with Ian. As we pulled away from the club, I looked in
the rear view mirror. The wolf had appeared again at the edge of
the forest.

Ian turned the truck, and we headed
back down the hill toward town. The image of the wolf fell out of
sight. We’d ridden in silence for a long time when Ian leaned over
and took my hand.

“
Hey, sorry I yelled at
you today,” he said, squeezing my fingers.

I nodded but pulled my hand
back.

I looked in the mirror again to find
Jamie looking at me. Caught, he smiled abashedly. I smiled and
winked playfully at him. Then we headed home.

Chapter 13

When I was fifteen, Ian and I had
snuck away from my grandma and his parents at the Fourth of July
fireworks display to make out under the bridge. I remembered
seeing, as we snuck off in the darkness, the townspeople in Grandin
Park looking upward as fireworks exploded. Their faces were
illuminated shades of green, yellow, and pink in the exploding
light. I remembered my grandmother’s face clearest of all. How
happy she’d seemed, her face glowing pink, as she delighted in the
simple things of life.

Standing on the street in front of the
bridge, I turned and looked behind me. Almost everyone had come.
The remaining townspeople were assembled in Grandin Park to watch
the newest fireworks display. Sadness and despair wracked every
face. People looked like pale, hollow versions of themselves.
Everyone shifted nervously about. They wouldn’t miss this sight for
the world but were in fear of their lives every second.

Larry appeared from under the bridge
and signaled for everyone to get back. I jogged back toward the
park and waited with the others. Larry made a few adjustments to
the fuse box and then, with a quick movement, set something alight
and ran back to join us.

“
Cover your ears,” Jamie
said to me.

Moments later a sound, much like a
fireworks finale, went off. I felt the ground shake under me. We
covered our ears and ducked. The old metal bridge groaned. Asphalt
flew into the air and dropped into the river below. A huge puff of
smoke enveloped the structure, and with a heave, the middle of the
Hamletville Bridge began to collapse. There was an awful grinding
sound as the bridge seemed to resist its destruction. Finally, the
beams gave way and the structure fell apart in the middle, the
pieces falling into the river.

“
She’s down,” Larry
called.

“
I feel like we just
destroyed civilization,” I whispered to Jamie, fighting back
tears.

I turned to look behind me. The
residents, their faces long and pale, had already turned away and
headed back to whatever they had left.

The death of the bridge ensured our
survival. With the bridge collapsed, there was no way the undead
could reach the town from the interstate—unless they decided to
swim—which was the main route into our town. The barricades at
either end of Main Street were now in place. A mess of old
vehicles, scrap metal, farm equipment, and barbed wire and fencing
ran cross the road and between buildings at either end of town. The
town entryways were now secure enough to slow any visitors. All of
us were poignantly aware that there were many farms scattered
across the countryside with bodies yet unaccounted for; some
visitors were expected. Otherwise there was the wildness of the
forest and the dark black waves of the lake to protect us. With the
bridge down, there was a certain finality to the entire
situation.

We spent the next three weeks
canvassing the town to rid it of pesky undead locked in houses and
raiding residents’ homes for supplies. Everything was stored in the
elementary school gym. We decided to work on an honors system: take
only what you need. We made arrangements to rotate shifts at the
school and the barricades. Everyone was accounted for and paired up
to be protected. And everyone was acutely aware we’d had absolutely
no contact from the outside. Thus far Kiki had no luck with the
radio. The world, it seemed, had gone silent. It was something we
knew but did not talk about. We were alone.