It took me a moment to register that I was indeed looking at another living, human being. Another moment to recognize that she was female. Then I ignored her in favor of the zombie that went after the drink bottle. I looked back over my shoulder to see if I could mark where that one went, then turned my eyes back just in time to see her move her arm. Mine moved in reflex and placed the barrel of my gun against her temple just as I felt the sharp prick of her knife at my throat. Both of us froze, scared to make the next move.
It's when I heard a faint growl somewhere beyond the dumpster that I spoke first in a tight whisper. “We could kill each other but I can guarantee that you ain't coming back as a walker.” I could see her pupils dilate as my words sunk in. I continued once I knew I had her complete attention, “now either try to kill me, or come with me and live or get the hell out of my way.” Something bumped into the dumpster that we were hiding behind with a thud. It had to been one of the other zombies from around back. I felt the pressure of the knife point leave my throat, then what felt like a drop of sweat running down my neck into my shirt. Great, the dumb bitch cut me. I didn't think it was bad but I didn't want to take the chance of putting the scent of blood in the air.
I removed my gun from her temple and turned to see behind us. It was indeed another zombie, wow, and a fatty this time, don't see too many of those now-a-days. Must've been a late bitten. One of those survivors that finally got caught. Either way it wouldn't matter because in about three seconds it was coming around the dumpster where we were crouched behind. Thankfully it still hadn't spotted me hunkered down and peering around the corner, it's eyes were focused (?) on something beyond us... probably at nothing. I ducked back and nodded to one of the cars. She nodded back and moved quietly around the Toyota that was parked next to the dumpster. I followed right on her heels, trying to be even more quiet and making sure my sword wasn't going to catch on anything and give us away.
From there she silently pointed at the woods which were now about 30 yards away. I shook my head and held up three of my middle fingers and then made a “walking” motion with two fingers, followed by a jerk of my thumb in the direction of the back of the building. She got it and moved around to the rear of the car.
I watched her and studied her movements to see whether or not she would get me killed or be stealthy enough to lead us out of the maze that we now found ourselves in. She stopped with her head below the trunk and peered underneath the vehicle out behind it. Her hand shot back halting me from moving any further. I took my eyes off her long enough to check on the fatty, he moved out into the front of the building with the other walker that I had previously distracted. My eyes darted to the rear of the building and didn't see the others, not yet anyway. I looked back at the woman, not even bothering to take note of her except her movements and hand signals which she was doing very well with by the way. Someone had taught her or she had previous training in covert escape and evasion techs. She looked old enough to have been in the military for a few years, so maybe.
Her open palm clenched into a fist and she then opened her hand again and waved me back. A zombie was headed our way. I turned quietly and looked at whatever route was available to us. Good thing too because somehow there was another zombie suddenly standing not more than four feet in front of me. Again, fortune favored the bold because this one hadn't spotted us yet. I reached around behind me for the handle of my sword and began to draw it. Before I could however a good sized knife magically appeared in it's forehead and it went down in a crumpled heap, the only sound was it's body hitting the bumper of the other car parked next to the Toyota and then the pavement. I turned my head back and the girl gestured frantically past the now dead zombie. In spite of myself I gave her a grin and then headed to where she was pointing. She moved past me to retrieve her knife, I don't know if she grinned back but my ears caught the gristly sound of her knife being pulled from the zombie's skull as she followed.
We reached the edge of the last car, a huge Buick Skylark with one tire up on the body of a dead person. Zombie or an unfortunate, we wouldn't pause long enough to find out. The raised fender gave us additional cover without forcing us to hunker down quite as low. The woods were tantalizingly close now, probably no more than fifteen yards now. If we reached them without being spotted we could duck walk til the foliage got thick enough for us to stand up and move quicker. This was of course providing there were no zombies wandering around in there. Usually there weren't but why take chances. I was able to now take my sword out and holster my weapon. She glanced at the katana in my hand and nodded in approval. Holding a finger to her lips she signaled that I was to go first in our break for the woods. I nodded not arguing.
Taking a quick peek towards the back of the building, I saw our angle of escape would put us in view of the three zombies that were still milling around there, not to mention, to my dismay the back door was opening. One of the interior walkers had managed to push open the back door, now they'd eventually come pouring out. I leaned back against the car and shook my head and before I could explain she frowned at me and began to move. I reached out and grabbed her by her belt and yanked her back and leaned in close to hiss in her ear, “the building is full of zombies and the back door just opened up, if we move now they'll see us and come pouring out of there after us.” Her eyes flew open wide as obviously she thought there was only just the few zombies we had seen thus far. “How many?” she whispered back. “Too fricken many,” I answered, “maybe more than a dozen, and they're uh, pissed off”.
I held up my hand as I saw her reproach forming on her lips. “We'll argue about it later, right now we need to use the cars as cover until we get to the woods over in that spot there” pointing to a spot twenty yards away where the woods had thinned out to meet the road. She didn't look happy about having to cross more open ground than necessary but given the circumstances she nodded grimly and motioned for me to go ahead.
I adjusted the grip on my sword and held it out in front of me but keeping the tip and edge out away from my body, be pretty stupid to stumble and fall on one's blade. My pack made it somewhat awkward to keep my balance as I stooped low to the ground but moved quickly. I could hear her footsteps behind me. In about twenty steps we would reach the tree line.
I then heard her grunt and fall flat on the ground as she must've tripped on something. I kept moving until I managed to pass a low scrub brush and then spun and laid flat behind it, keeping her in view. She was laying flat and not moving. Either very smart or she was unconscious. My eyes flicked to the nearest zombie to see if she caught it's attention. She did, and it was staring in her direction but not right at her, at least not from what I could tell. Apparently the noise caught it's attention and now it was trying to catch any movement. Hopefully from it's vantage point she looked like another dead body. They were about sixty feet apart but that was still sixty feet too close. I looked at her and she had very slowly moved her head until our eyes met and then she froze. Her knife was clutched in her hand and even from my distance I could see her knuckles turning white. Her eyes were wide with fear but the fact she remained calm and motionless spoke a lot about her.
I made signing motions about the zombie and tried to let her know if it was coming to her or not. She flexed a single finger to indicate she understood, at least I interpreted it that way. My eyes went back to the zombie. It took a few shambling steps in her direction then stopped and turned towards the road on it's left. Something else caught it's attention. I didn't bother to see what it was, only keeping my eyes on the bastard and prepared myself for whatever. I took a glance at the back of the store and saw that a lot more zombies had made it outside and were making their way to the front of the store.
The single zombie still seemed to be distracted by whatever it was on the road or across from it. From my vantage point I couldn't tell what it was. I looked at the woman again and she still hadn't moved but was watching me closely. My hand was still raised palm up in a “stay there”. I didn't know how fortified this girl was and how long it would be before the tension would cause her to get up and bolt. If she got up at the wrong moment she could bring the entire group down on top of both of us.
My eyes went back to the distracted zombie, it began moving towards whatever it was it was looking at. I signaled to her that the walker was moving away from her and she lifted her finger slightly again to indicate she understood but seemed to hold her ground to wait for my signal to move.
By now there were ten of the zombies outside from the back door and they had made their way to the front of the building and were fanning out. I marked that as unusual since they usually hold in a clustered group. The distracted zombie now reached the end of the parking lot and was starting to cross the road. A moment later there was a bark of a gunshot and it's head exploded and it went down after taking another step. The other zombies turned to the gunshot and began milling about excitedly. I didn't know whether to be pissed that the zombies had been stirred up like a stick in a hornets nest or glad that the attention was being drawn away from us. A moment later another gunshot and I heard rather saw another zombie go down to the ground. Whomever was shooting was a good shot but was running a risk of the zombies finding them, but then, maybe that was the idea. I took a quick guess that this woman wasn't alone and her group was trying to save her life. I looked at her and she still watched me. I nodded but still made the motion to keep still. Hopefully she understood that it meant the zombies were definitely distracted but they were still close enough to notice her if she got up and made a run for it. Her finger lifted showing that she did. Damned if I wasn't starting to like this gal.
Since I had a few moments, I now took stock of the woman. Her hair was brunette and cut short but not like a butch cut, more like a medium straight hair, above the shoulders type. She was thin but so was nearly everyone else in these days. For my taste she was kinda cute, probably a fine looker with her face made up, as if that'll ever happen again. I shook these thoughts away as I stared at her staring back at me, probably sizing me up no doubt... great, a zombie inspired romance. I mentally shrugged, being a guy who hadn't been with a woman in quite some time, I reckon I'm going to think along those lines whether I wanted to or not. I fought down an urge to grin and chuckle.
My attention turned to the group which was now walking quickly across the road. Another gunshot and I could see another head exploding and the body falling on the road tripping at least two of them, who got up again and joined the others who shambled into a trot towards the sound of the rifle shots. I made a fist at her and nodded for her to get ready. She dared now to turn her head and look behind her. Before I could signal she got up and raced towards me in a low run that definitely spoke of military training under fire. In seconds she was lying on the ground behind the bush besides me, not even breathing hard. Again, I was impressed by this woman.
“Who-ever is shooting, they're a good shot but is bringing a world of hurt down on top of themselves just to save your ass.” I muttered to her as another shot rang out and another fast trotting zombie went down. “Actually they're very good shots” I said with a touch of admiration. For the first time she grinned, “thanks, I'll tell him you said that, I trained him,” she paused for a moment and then looked at me, “it's my kid”.
I turned my head slowly and stared at her, “you're kidding?” She kept on grinning and shook her head, “nope. But don't worry, he's in a tree stand back in the woods away where there's a clear line of sight to the store, he'll stop shooting as soon as they hit the trees and they'll go right under him without seeing him.” I nodded grimly, looking back at the walkers as they reached the tree line. “I hope so, either way he's going to be up there for a while until they move on, running a helluva risk.” She shook her head again as she turned slowly on to her side facing me, and from a thigh pocket (she was also wearing military style BDU's) she pulled out a small cheap pair of binoculars, the kind that novelty stores sell but they still good enough optics to look at things with. She stared at the tree line where the last of the walkers had worked their way in. She then handed the glasses to me and pointed in the direction she wanted me to look. “Up there in the trees along the second line, about 20 feet up, you see a clump of leaves?”
I looked where she indicated and saw what looked like a mass of leaves clustered in a tall hickory. Looked like a mess of leaves alright until I saw movement and managed to make out a particularly straight branch that could only be a rifle barrel. “He's wearing a guilly suit?” I asked. She nodded in confirmation. I pursed my lips and nodded in approval. “Well as long as they won't smell him, he should be al-” she cut me off and said “Look just below where the tree stand he's on”. I raised the glasses to my eyes again and looked where she indicated. My eyebrows went up as I spied an arm dangling below where a person in a tree-stand would normally sit. “Is that, a zombie arm?” I asked, unable to keep disbelief out of my voice. She nodded again. “Smart. So now what?” I wondered, wanting to know what she had in mind. She took a careful look around past the bush we were hiding in a slow 360 degree turn before sitting down. “We wait.”
I raised myself up to my elbow and looked at her closely for the first time. Actually she was more than just plain cute. I raised my eyebrows again “For...?” and left the question dangle. She turned serious again, never taking her eyes off the tree line where her son was hidden. “For the zombies to get far enough out of sight and hearing range for my kid to get down from the tree and over to where we are,” she paused “unless you're not going to stick around...” and left that dangling for me to finish. Before I could answer she looked at me and the sword in my hand, “by the way, just so you know, my boy has you sighted and if you even think of making a move with that sword of yours, I'll guarantee that you won't come back as a zombie either.” I grinned and didn't doubt her son's ability to make good on her threat or warning. but I didn't answer her question right away. I laid there thinking. “It'll depend” after a couple of minutes thinking of our chances together or alone.
“If the store is cleared of zombies then I'd want to get some food before moving on,” I paused and looked at her, damned if her eyes weren't her best feature. “Unless you're claiming dibs on the store, which I would have to say, I have it, because I was here since yesterday afternoon. I got trapped inside until I made it to the roof and spent the night up there. I was about to get on outta here until I bumped into you.” I touched where she pricked me with her knife. It stopped bleeding and wasn't probably nothing more than like a shaving cut. She opened her mouth to say something but I held up a finger to forestall her, “I'm not going to fight over which store belongs to whom,” if you and your boy want dibs then you can have it. I got enough in my pack to keep me for another day and I should reach another exit along the freeway before then and find another store to scavenge.
“So if you and your boy want to have dibs on the store fine, least I can do is help you make sure there are no more zombies inside. In a way you helped me out by luring most if not all of them away. Hopefully long enough for, us to get some food and clear the area.” This caused her to think for a long moment without speaking. She took another look around and then raised her arm up in the air and waved, after a moment she stood up and beckoned me to do the same. I stood up slowly and then carefully stepped away from her and re-sheathed my sword back in it's scabbard. I looked across the road to the trees and in a moment I caught a flash coming from where the boy was sitting. Mirror signaling, brilliant idea I thought. I turned to see her making a series of complex hand movements that looked vaguely familiar. I turned back to the tree line and saw two flashes.
She looked at me and caught the quizzical look on my face. “My boy is deaf” she said simply.
“Two flashes means that it's clear on the outside as far as he can see around the building.” She nodded towards the direction of the back, “we can already see that there are no more zombies out back, so the only ones we need to worry about are the ones left inside... if any.” I nodded slowly trying to take it all in. “He can't see inside the building? I'm guessing he has a scope.” She shook her head, “I'm going to take for granted that it's clear on the inside as well as far as he can see inside, but there are a lot of places to hide in a store like that.”
I nodded in agreement, “yeah especially in the back. Can't chance that all of them went out the back door. I couldn't get an accurate count of the number of zombies that were in there... or out here for that matter.” I turned towards the trees where her boy kept watch on us. “How is he going to warn us if those walkers come back or if more show up? Those gunshots wouldn't have been heard by just that group. Other zombies for at least a half mile radius would've heard those shots too.”
Her voice was full of jaunty confidence, “Yeah, which is why we should hurry up and clear the store and get what we need.” She concluded and walked towards the building. As she did so she stopped by one of the vehicles and knelt down by it and reached underneath and a moment later she stood up with a small pack in her hand and placed it on the trunk of the car. Without preamble she opened up the pack and pulled out a large bore semi-automatic pistol and expertly checked the loads before placing the gun on top of the trunk of the car and reaching into the pack again to pull out another clip and slip that into the back pocket of her BDU's before turning to face the trees across the road once more. Her hands went into a short series of fluid movements and I turned my head in time to see two flashes from the boy's signal mirror. “I'm guessing two flashes mean yes, right?” She picked up the weapon and turned and grinned. “Yep, you're learning.” She waited to see what I would do. I unholstered my gun once more and held it pointing away from her, not wanting to risk a bullet in the brain. I didn't have to check the loads and knew the safety was still on.
I glanced at the spot where her son was hidden across the road, “what about him?”
“He'll come along as soon as the last zombie is gone. Trust me, I ... taught him well.” There was a note of motherly pride of course in her voice but something else as well, that little pause after referring to herself. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, to calm myself as I turned my focus on to the task ahead of us. If we were lucky there'd be only one or two zombies left in the store to deal with. The amount of food that I saw that was available in the store would be more than enough for the three of us. Presumably it was just the woman and her son. I guess, I'd find out one way or another sooner than later.
“Ladies first or shall I?” I asked pointing with my free hand to the store. She motioned with her hand in a graceful movement that was too clear to misunderstand. “He'll probably feel better if you went first, so you won't try to shoot me in the back. He's not paranoid, just watchful over his momma.” I couldn't help but give a derisive snort and made it a point to take two steps sideways before walking towards the store and keeping my gun pointed at the ground away from her. Once past her I held the gun in both hands and clicked off the safety and moved cautiously towards the front door. She was two steps behind me likewise holding her gun at the ready, as if she'd been doing it all her life.
No comments:
Post a Comment