The Wild Ones, page 7
“I’m not saying you’re making it up, I’m just saying it’s a bit out there. Anyway, how do you know all this?”
“I’m into science.”
I arched an eyebrow. “You?”
“What, because of the way I’m dressed? Oh yeah, let’s just pigeonhole me based on my clothing selection.” He shook his head and walked over to the main door and pressed his ear to the wall.
“Oh my God, I think they’re inside.” He ran a hand over his head and began looking panicked. I crossed the room to double-check. Sure enough, it was getting louder.
“Look, what about if we go up?” I suggested.
“Oh right, you got wings?”
“No, you idiot, I’m saying we make our way to the roof, it will give us a better view of what’s going on around us. You can distract them on one side while I make a break for the truck and pull it around, or I can draw them away and…”
“Hold on a minute. I’m not bait here.”
“I’m not going to leave you behind,” I said.
“You left Joe behind.”
“He was almost dead.”
“Almost?”
I squeezed the bridge of my nose. I didn’t have time for arguing back and forth. I crossed the room and scooped up the axe, then climbed up onto a table and used it to push up one of the ceiling tiles that were made of expanded polystyrene.
“Ryland, pass me your phone.”
He handed it up, and I powered it on. Standing on my tiptoes I shone the beam of light into the darkness. “Shit!”
“What is it?”
“It’s all blocked off by steel.”
I climbed back down and handed the phone back. “Look, we need to go out the window and climb up the side, or make a run for it. What do you want to do?”
“Why’s it down to me to decide?”
“Well I can decide for you and if it goes belly-up, I don’t want to hear you complaining.”
“If it goes belly-up I don’t think we’ll be alive to complain.”
Outside the door we could hear snarling, and then a few hands slapping against it. A couple of the chairs wobbled and both of us froze, hoping they didn’t fall to the floor. Another slap, then another and I rushed in and grabbed the chair just before it toppled off the rest. I breathed a sigh of relief but it was short-lived. Behind me another chair broke away from the rest and landed hard on the floor. It clattered and for a few seconds there was silence, then the pounding began.
“Okay, time to get out,” Ryland muttered heading quickly to the window. He brought up the blinds and felt around for the locks and then slid the window to the side. I grabbed a hold of him.
“Wait!”
“For what? For them to burst in here and chew us alive?”
I made a gesture to a section of forest that went down to the water’s edge. “You got your running shoes on?”
“Hell no, no, Scott, we are not doing that.”
“Do you really think we are going to make it to that truck?”
“No, but at least if we get on the roof we can figure out what’s what.”
“I’ll tell you what’s what.”
The table behind the door shifted and the steel cabinet rocked.
“Alright this is what we’re going to do. I’ll draw them away, you make a run for the dock and untie a boat, make damn sure it’s got oars in it, or a motor that works.”
“And if it doesn’t?”
“I hope you can swim,” I shot back.
His brow furrowed. “Are you out of your mind?”
“It’s either that or we make a run for the truck. Now you decide. But make it quick!”
More pounding, this time several of the stacked chairs fell to the floor, and the table shifted enough that the cabinet toppled. “Oh shit, no time to decide. Here goes nothing.”
With the axe in my hand I climbed out of the window and dropped down in the thick underbrush. “Get ready to run.”
My legs fired like pistons as I burst forward, yelling at the top of my voice.
“Hey ladies, come and get it!”
Two stragglers headed my way, and I reared back the axe swiping at some poor girl’s face, taking off what remained of her noggin. I kept yelling as I ran around the building and down towards another series of smaller cabins. Those that hadn’t entered the larger office building broke away. Some shuffled, lurched, stumbled and in some cases sprinted. I looked back to see Ryland making a run for it. I raised my feet high, hopping over logs and entering the forest that swallowed the camp. Behind me I could hear the screeches of the dead as they gave pursuit like a flock of birds heading south, except every single one had their dead eyes on me. I don’t know if any saw Ryland even though he was making a ruckus and screaming like a bitch. I took a left and darted in and out of the trees until my foot caught on a protruding root and my knees crashed into the earth. The axe flew out of my hands, bounced and landed a few feet away. I coughed, spitting dirt and scrambled to get over to the weapon. Behind, a Z had managed to catch up. As her predatory hands reached out like a lion’s claws on a slow-moving gazelle, I whirled around and planted the axe square into her chest. Three more streamed forward, and after unhinging the blade, I backed up swiping the axe like Thor, cracking one in the side of the head, then pushing her back into the other two. Then the rest came pouring around a grove of trees and I bolted, racing through the forest, my throat burning as I headed towards the dock. I’d never felt so scared in my life. The only thing preventing me from being frozen by fear was the image of Joe’s neck. In the distance I could see Ryland had made it into a boat and was having trouble getting it started. It spluttered, the noise attracting more of them his way. In between the trees I could see a mini-horde had fanned out and were working their way down to the water.
“Ryland! Get it going,” I bellowed, sprinting down the dock as fast as my legs could carry me. I launched myself off into the rear of the small boat causing the whole thing to bounce and rock. I quickly untied the mooring line as the engine spluttered to life and growled, kicking up water. The boat moved away, and we watched as several of the Zs crashed into each other and spilled over into the water. Water sprayed up on my face as we watched them fill up the shoreline, there had to have been close to two hundred of them. The camp was known for having upwards of five hundred but some must have escaped, or were still out there, wandering in the woods, crawling on their bellies or whatever the hell was left of them. The engine roared, and the boat bounced creating small waves as it took us across the expansive lake. Not a word was exchanged on the short trip back to camp; the look on both of our faces spoke volumes. This was far beyond anything we could imagine. Horror films didn’t even come close to this. My mind was telling me this wasn’t true but Joe’s blood on my hands painted a different picture.
* * *
After we docked and scrambled through the surrounding woods, the camp was quiet when we emerged in the clearing. Our nerves were on high alert, and my grip on the axe hadn’t relaxed. Two teens walking back to their cabin spotted us, one of them was a girl and she screamed and both ran towards the compound. Before we even made it across the campground, Sean burst out of the doors with others in tow.
“What the hell?”
“They were everywhere.”
Words blended together as we both relayed what happened — a jumbled mixture of words and fear, driven by adrenaline. It must have sounded like we’d lost our minds but the blood covering our clothes made it obvious that something had gone horribly wrong.
“Where is Joe?” Sean said looking over our shoulders.
Ryland’s chin dropped.
“He… He didn’t make it.”
“What do you mean he didn’t?”
I pushed past Sean, and he grabbed me by the shoulder. “What the hell happened over there?”
“I just told you. Now we need to get out of here. My brother is out there, and if this has spread this far, chances are he’s encountered the same thing in Long Lake.”
“You aren’t going anywhere until I call the cops.”
“Call them then!” I bellowed as I entered the compound and headed into the kitchen to wash the blood from my skin. I felt sick to my stomach, the smell of iron lingered in my nostrils. Sean got on a phone. I could hear him asking for the police.
“State the nature of the emergency?” he repeated. “We have a dead counselor and two of our campers covered in blood.” There was a pause. “I don’t know if they killed him or what. Both of them have a history of being unhinged, and one was sent here by the court.”
I twisted around unable to believe what I was hearing. I walked back out of the kitchen to find Sean glaring at me.
“How long? They could be gone by then. Thanks for nothing!”
He slammed the phone down on the table; the second he did Ryland got up his in face. “Unhinged? I’ll fucking show you unhinged.”
He shoved Sean back and Sean retaliated by smacking him in the mouth and knocking him to the ground. Sean was older than us by at least five years.
“Hey!” I hollered, rushing over and joining the others who were trying to get between Sean and Ryland. “Why did you tell the police that?”
“How do I know you didn’t just kill Joe?”
“Why would we do that?”
He shrugged. “Because you’re both delinquents.”
My grip tightened on the axe and I brought it up. “You better stay away from me.”
“Or what? You going to kill me too?”
“We didn’t kill anyone, go over there and see for yourself, if you don’t believe us.”
I walked back into the kitchen and laid the axe down on the steel sink and returned to washing my arms. Red blood pooled at the bottom, spiraling down the drain. Alexa walked into the kitchen and stood by the doorway, along with Jamal and Eli. Tobias was out with Sean trying to get him to calm down.
“Are you sure?”
I scoffed. “You don’t even believe me, do you?” I asked. “Why would we make this up?”
“Well, you did try to fake being ill,” Eli muttered.
“Faking being sick and coming up with a story about people chewing off faces is completely different. Fuck it. I don’t care,” I said as I grabbed up a towel and began drying off. “If you don’t believe me, fair enough but I’m not sticking around for when those things make it over here.” I squeezed past them.
“Where are you going?”
“To find my brother.”
I was halfway across the room when Sean grabbed a hold of me. “You aren’t going anywhere.”
“Get your hands off me.”
“While you are here, you are under our responsibility.”
“You aren’t in charge.”
“I am while Tom’s not here.”
I glanced over at Brooke. “Is that right?” She nodded.
“Well then you better arm everyone in this campground because we’ll be lucky to make it through the night.” I shrugged him off and headed out with the axe in hand.
“And you can leave that here,” he said.
“Come take it from me,” I replied, casting a glare over my shoulder. He’d have to pry it out of my dead hands before I gave it up. I stormed out of the building and made my way over to the storage area that contained weapons. I had no intention of staying the night, I would choose my moment to leave but I wasn’t going to leave everyone else at a disadvantage. We may not have learned much in the short time we’d been here but one thing was clear, we were only as strong as the one beside us. A light rain began to fall as I reared the axe up and brought it down on the padlock. Three sharp strikes, and it broke loose. I tore it off and yanked the door open.
“Scotty,” Alexa shouted as she crossed the campground with Eli and Jamal. I reached inside and grabbed up some bows. I hadn’t been trained in using one but maybe someone else had. I threw them behind me like I was fishing through a garage searching for a valuable item. I moved farther into the back, stumbling over items in the dark, and opened the gun cabinet. I pulled out a Glock 17 and stuffed it in the back of my jeans. Again, I didn’t have a clue how to fire one and there wasn’t any live ammo but at least the gun itself was real. Long Lake had a gun shop, I was pretty sure I could find what we needed there.
“Here!” I tossed a few of the firearms out before wrapping my arms around some rifles.
“Scott,” Alexa repeated, and I stopped to see what she wanted.
“What?”
“If you want to go to Long Lake, we can take my father’s truck.” She held up a pair of keys. I smiled.
“Thanks, but first we should at least…”
“Put that stuff away!” Sean Telle yelled. This time he’d gone and got reinforcements. Rob and Adam were with him.
“I told you, Sean — ”
He bellowed cutting me off. “And I’m telling you. You’ve just destroyed property. Now put it all back. I’ve called the cops, we are going to sit this out until they get here.”
I kept a firm grip on the axe just in case he attempted to go for it. It wasn’t his anyway, it was the property of the girls camp.
“Oh yeah, and when will that be, huh?” I backed up as they got closer. Rob began scooping up the bows and putting them back into the storage locker.
“It doesn’t matter. But until they show up, this place is on lockdown.”
The rain began to come down even heavier now.
I laughed. “Lockdown? Please, do you honestly think you can keep us here? Let’s go, Alexa.” I circled around them. Sean went for me but I reared back the axe. “I’m warning you. You come near me and I will fuck you up.”
Sean put a hand out. “Just calm down, Evans. No one needs to get hurt. We’re trained for these situations.”
“Then perhaps you should be arming yourselves instead of locking it up. Eli, Jamal, grab a rifle or a knife.”
They stood motionless, their eyes darting between Sean and me as if trying to decide whose side they were on. This wasn’t about picking sides but about pure survival. Now maybe if Sean had seen what had happened, maybe if he’d had the balls to go over and look for himself, we wouldn’t have been having this discussion but he was still treating this like a non-emergency — even with one of his own instructors gone.
Out the corner of my eye I could see Adam inching his way around. Even Rob had begun to edge forward. “I’m telling you guys, if you don’t listen to me, you are going to have blood on your hands.”
Sean darted forward, and I swung the axe, he ducked and at the same time Adam blindsided me, knocking me to the ground. Within seconds Rob jumped in and grabbed my legs while Adam held me down with his enormous weight.
“Get off! Eli. Jamal.”
In between Adam’s legs I could see them standing there, unsure of what to do. They hadn’t seen the horde, the way they tore into Joe Wheeler’s flesh or ripped apart a young girl on the shore. To them this was nothing more than a young guy acting out. I couldn’t fault them but at the same time I had a feeling that if someone didn’t help we’d all be dead by morning.
“Stop resisting,” Sean said as he wrapped a cord around my wrists and tied it off. They hauled me up; Rob kept a firm grip on my elbow as they dragged me off towards the compound.
“Come on, man, if you don’t believe me go over there,” I yelled. I looked at Eli, Jamal and Alexa as they escorted me back to the building. Alexa’s chin dropped, and I knew we were screwed. Once inside they took me into the kitchen and shoved me into a pantry. I collapsed onto my knees and Sean loomed over me tying off my ankles. “You’re going to stay here until either we find out what’s going on or the police arrive.”
“Sean,” I yelled. “You can’t do this!”
“I already have.”
He turned away and cast one more glance at me before slamming the door closed. I heard them lock something into place. In my frustration I kicked the steel shelving which housed multiple boxes of food and several cans fell to the floor and rolled. I tried to pull my wrists apart, but the restraints were too tight. I clenched my jaw. I was seething. I breathed slowly, trying to calm down, but it wasn’t working. All I could see in my mind was the carnage.
Minutes turned into hours. It was uncomfortable sitting on the concrete floor. The pantry wasn’t very big — nothing more than an eight by ten-foot room, no bigger than prison cells. Either side of me were two large shelves full of cereal, rice, beans, venison, dehydrated meat and cans of fruit.
Several times I heard voices outside the door but I couldn’t make out who they were. My mind returned to what we’d seen on the news at lunch, the incident at Yankee Stadium. Had it been a shooting or was it an outbreak? I figured the police wouldn’t show up if this had reached the seclusion of the Adirondacks.
Nick. I hung my head low, hoping, praying that he was okay. If he’d encountered anything like what we had tonight, there was no telling if he’d survived.
What was this? Zombies weren’t real. It was the stuff of Hollywood. This was 21st century America. The only violence came from terrorists and madmen bent on swaying people’s views of our great country and seeking revenge. I thought about what Ryland had said regarding the World Health Organization and our government. Was it possible they’d unleashed some form of a pandemic that caused the dead to rise and feed upon flesh? None of it made sense. I sighed and closed my eyes, my thoughts circled around to my parents. Being on a cruise, miles and miles offshore, had to be the safest place there could be. Were they safe? I hoped so. I really did. I gritted my teeth at the thought of Sean’s ignorance and cowardice. Anyone in their right mind would have gone over to see where their fellow instructor had gone. Not him. All this big talk about surviving and the only survival tactic he was showing was how to save his own ass. I needed to get out of here. Every second I stayed trapped was one step closer to death.
I couldn’t even see what time it was as my arms were locked behind my back. I glanced up searching for a clock. Nothing. I started kicking the door with my feet trying to get their attention. Maybe it would annoy the heck out of them and they would finally let me go. Then again, perhaps they couldn’t hear me.
