They Walk (18 page)

Even as we drive past, their slow stumbling steps pause and turn in our direction. They don’t follow us though, but it doesn’t make me feel any better, there are more of them ahead of us too.

“
Holy crab, look at that.” Sam almost yells, as he points out his window.

We are almost to the end of the road, and too our left is a lumber yard. We all turn to look out the window at what he’s pointing at. In the yard near the back, there are at least ten dogs ranging in sizes. They are all nuzzling something, that I think my have been dead for a long time. Not one of them looks in our direction as we pass, and I notice that it’s missing half of his hind courters.

They must be dead too.

“
Where is everybody?” Claire whispers.

We all sit back as Noah turns us onto Hotel Road and the sights don’t get any better. There are pharmacies on both sides of us, and I can tell from here that no one living has been there for days. The cars in the parking lot are tipped over or have the doors open with bodies hanging out of them. Some of them are missing their heads, and I wonder where the people are that killed them. The windows of the stores are broken and there is blood covering the pavement going to the entrances. There are bloody footprints going in every direction. I can see shadows of movement inside, and it causes goose bumps to break out all over me.

Gabe reaches over to take one of my hands in his, and I have to unclench them from each other. His palms are slick with sweat and he must be as scared as I am at what we’ll find the further we go. Giving me a tight squeeze, it helps calm me a little bit.

“
Hold on guys.” Noah says.

Near the turn we need to take on Rodman Road, there is a garbage truck tipped over on the lawn of a house on our left and blocking half the road. There is trash and debris ling the road and he has to speed up the car for a second, as he steers the car up over the curb and the car gets jostled from the impact. As we clear the street and take the turn we need, I glance back behind me at the house. There is movement on one of the second floor windows, and if I squint my eyes, I can almost make out the form of a woman walking past.

I want to believe that she is alive, but she doesn’t come to the window and I know she must be dead already.

“
This is so wrong.” Gabe says as he watches out the window.

Rodman Road used to be a busy street, with at least thirteen businesses and depots. But as we pass at a slow crawl, I can see that half of them have been burned down like so many others we’ve seen. The air over here is still thick with smoke, and the tires of our car leaves tracks in the ash. There are more empty cars everywhere now, and bloody maimed bodies on the ground. Noah has to swerve many times to keep us on the road, to avoid hitting things. There is constant movement on either side of us now, and I have to hold my breath afraid that they will be alerted of our presence.

They only glance in our direction though, and just slowly shuffle along in the abandoned parking lots.

It’s so quiet out there, that when we near the end of the road, a scream pierces around us and causes all to jump in alarm. Noah slows us down even more, and we all pear around us waiting to see if someone is out there. All I can see though is the mindless movements of the dead in the distance. The scream comes again though, and much closer now too, but still we don’t see anything.

“
Shouldn’t we go and try to help whoever that is?” Gabe asks, as the car idles in the same spot.

Sam leans around the front seat and fixes Gabe with wide eyes.

“
Are you out of your mind? We can’t go out there.”

“
We’re not the monsters, Sam.” Gabe retorts.

Sam turns back to sit in his seat and glances nervously at Noah.

“
We’re not going out there right?” Sam asks Noah, with a high pitch squeak to his voice.

“
Gabe is right we should help anyone that needs it, if we can.” I say as I also look toward Noah.

He is still gripping the steering wheel, and I can see that his knuckles are bone white. I look up and find his reflection in the rearview mirror, and he’s watching Gabe. He looks haunted for a second, before he glances back to the road in front of him.

“
Sam is right Gabe, we can’t go out there. The screaming has already stopped, so I’m assuming they might already be dead. Who knows, they might have already been hurt anyways.”

“
What if there are more people out there though, we can’t just abandon people if they need help.” Gabe says, but he’s doesn’t sound as adamant as before.

Noah pulls the car back into a steady pace, and we near the end of the road again.

“
If there were people alive, I think they would have seen us by now. And if they saw us, I would think that they would come out to the road.

Besides, we would only waste weapons if we went out there. Later after we hit the armory at my base, we can come back alright?” Noah says, and tries to sound convincing.

From my right, Claire snorts in disbelief. None of us really believe him though, it’s hard enough to know what we can do from here on out, let alone make a plan to go backwards.

I just hope that the military base he’s taking us too, has some pretty useful stuff.

Chapter Thirty Five

Finally making it to Washington Street, the business’s drift off and we’re left with nothing but trees and grassy fields on either side of us. The dead dwindle down to nothing and we’re left alone for the next two miles. There aren’t even any cars or bodies anywhere now, and it should make me feel better, but it doesn’t. If anything, it makes me and possibly the others, very afraid of what is coming.

“
You’re sure there will still be weapons at the armory right?” Gabe asks, and I almost jump out of the seat as his voice breaks the silence.

I glance at him, and he has his handgun in his lap. He keeps checking to make sure the safety is on, and it gives me a sense of familiarity. I lightly touch his arm, and he stills his movements and tries to give me a smile. It doesn’t quit reach his eyes though, and I can’t help wishing again that everything was normal.

“
If anything there will be reserves with plenty of ammo, so I’m almost positive.” Noah replies, not even glancing from the road.

“
We’re going all the way out here, and there might not even be weapons, how is that reasonable?” Claire says, and I realize this is the first time she has said anything since getting inside the car.

“
It’s better than nothing, that’s why. It’s better to be safe than sorry. That has been my experience anyway.” Noah says.

“
I just wish we would get to the place where there should be people hiding out is all. I know having extra ammo is important, it just sucks having to go so far for it.” Claire says, as she finally looks away from the window and down at her hands griping her bow.

“
I know Claire, no worries.” Noah lifts his eyes in the rearview mirror and glances at us in the back. “The Collisee isn’t that far from the base, so it’ll be a quick trip after this. Just hang tight guys, okay?”

We all nod in agreement, and I think back to when we went over the plans of where we are going the night before. Noah had told us that he was certain of at least two places people would be evacuated to for safety, and the Collisee is one of them. Though it’s actually called the Androscoggin Bank Colisée, and is a huge stadium. I’ve never been there, but Noah says that it has many different stadiums inside that it’s perfect for housing large groups of people.

That sounded good enough for me, and it was supposed to be the first place we went.

But with our lack of ammo supplies, Noah suggested that we head for the army National Guard base. He can’t say for sure if we’ll find anything to use, but I agree that it’s better to check it out, than not. The second place where Noah thought there would be people is Bates College, and it is big enough for it. So if the Collisee falls through, that’s where we will be heading.

“
Are you alright Mags?” Gabe whispers into my ear, as he leans closer to me.

Turning to him I say, “Yeah, why?”

“
You’ve just been really quiet, like you’re lost in thought. I’m probably just over worrying.”

He puts his arm around me again, and I lean in with a sigh. Have I been out of it? I don’t really know, but I have been a little distracted I guess. I try to think if it’s really something to worry about, but it gives me a dull throbbing pain behind my eyes and I let the thought fade away. I close my eyes, and let Gabe hold me, and pretend everything is fine and we’re all safe. It doesn’t last though, I can feel the car turning and I know we’re heading for the next road.

Opening my eyes, I sit up and see where we are now and I regret it right away. On our left is a business building plaza and it’s in worse condition than any I’ve seen. The parking lot out front of it is full, and from the way half of some bodies hang out the windows, I know no one made it out from there. The ground below is littered with bodies, which will never get back up again, whether it is dead or alive. I glance away, as Noah steers us off the road and around to a highway exit on ramp. We turn back almost in the same direction we just were, but then we’re going off in a slightly different angle and we’re on highway 95.

“
Well, this is going to be tricky.” Noah grumbles after a moment.

I lean forward in my seat, and look out into the expanse of the highway. Up a head there are parked cars lining the road every so often, and it looks like it might go on for a long time. Even from where we are, I can see the bodies of the dead moving in between the cars.

My body goes cold just knowing we will have to drive slowly around them.

“
Do you think we can make it by?” Gabe asks, as he leans forward so he can actually see Noah.

“
This is a really bad idea.” Sam utters under his breath.

Slowing down a little, Noah turns to look at Gabe.

“
There aren’t that many cars, and I think I can squeeze us through the break down lane. If anything gets too close to us though, we should shoot them if we can.”

“
Shoot them?” Sam squeaks out.

“
You mean out the windows? Like, we’ll have to roll them down, to do?” Claire asks.

“
That is what I mean, yes. There’s not that many of them, but if they all come towards us, they could tip the car.” Noah says, as he speeds up a little and we get closer to the makeshift roadblock.

“
We can do it guys, just don’t let them get close. Shoot out as fast as you can, but don’t waste the bullets alright.” Gabe takes the safety off his handgun, and leans over to me and faces Claire.

“
I’m not using that thing.” She says, as she raises the bow in her arms.

“
Claire, you can’t use the arrows. You won’t be able to get them back, just take the gun please.”

He tries to hand it to her, but she pulls away and shakes her head. I know she’s scared, because I am too. But I’m more scared of those dead hurting me than using a gun. So I place my hands on his and take the gun from him. The gun is heavier than I thought, and I hope I can shoot this thing.

“
Switch places with me.”

I’m already trying to push over Claire, when I notice she has tears running down her cheeks. She slides over to the spot I was sitting, and quickly wipes her face.

“
I’m sorry.” She says.

“
it’s fine, we’re all scared. This is just another bump in the road, and we’ll make it past, you’ll see.”

I give her a small smile, as I begin to roll the window down. As I do, a blast of summer heat comes inside and I forgot that we even had the air conditioner on. With the air comes the smell that tickles the back of my throat and makes me want to gag. It’s the same smell that I’ve been associating with the dead, and it’s a metallic meaty scent. Like raw flesh and old blood, and I have to breathe through my mouth to ignore it.

Noah is driving us closer to the cars now, and as we drive pass I can see movement from inside the closed ones. The cars shake with their incessant movements to get out, and this sends the ones out on the road constantly turning their heads, like dogs catching a scent. We’re just passing two small cars, when there is a gap up ahead on my side before the next group of cars. Out of the gap limps a young looking girl and the similarities between myself and her almost makes me hesitate to lift the gun up in my hands. Her chest is wide open, but with her long limp black hair covering her, I can’t see the complete damage. She shuffles to the window faster now, but she struggles to make her foot that is twisted at an unnatural angle, to move right.

Hearing Gabe or maybe even Sam fire on their side of the car seems to wake me up, just as she is almost within reach. Raising the gun, I focus on the top of her head and let everything else fade from my line of sight. Holding my breath, I squeeze the trigger and hit her right where I wanted. The bullet lodges right in her forehead, and from the impact her head is thrown back and she coughs up blood. My hands and arms get sprayed lightly, but I try to ignore it. Won’t do me any good to freak out about it now, and besides it’s not like I’m not already covered in dried blood.

She lies still on the ground as we pass, and I have to remember to take my fingers off the trigger, or we’ll have bigger problems. I glance over my shoulder to find Gabe watching me with a smirk on his face, and for some reason it makes a warm blush rise to my cheeks.