Authors: Russ Watts
Jonas brought his attention back to the road ahead, and saw the problem. Another blockage on the road, and this time there was no getting around it. He saw a black helicopter, a large military type, in the middle of the road, a charred husk of blackened, twisted metal. Its rotor blades had gouged out the road, and whoever had flown in it was long gone.
“Can’t you squeeze us around the side?” asked Lukas.
Dakota pushed the truck onto the sidewalk, but she found it blocked by another pile of charred metal. The melted frames of cars surrounded the helicopter on both sides and stretched from one side of the road to the other. One and two storey buildings surrounded them making it impossible to get the truck any further.
“Leave it,” said Jonas. “We’re as close as we need to be. We’ll go on foot from here.”
Lukas looked at him with a furrowed brow, concern in his eyes. “I’m not so sure that’s a good idea, Hamsikker. We don’t know what’s out there. We should stay in the truck. Let’s find another route. There must be something.”
“No.” Jonas unclipped his seatbelt and opened the door. “We’re close enough. I’m not waiting any longer. The place is deserted, you can see that. Janey’s home isn’t far from here. We need to proceed on foot down the hill, cross over that inlet, and we’re as good as there. She lives this side of the city. We can do this. We’ll get the guns from the back and go on foot. We’ll come back for the truck if we need to.”
Jonas disappeared around to the back of the truck, and Lukas looked at Dakota. “You think this is a good idea?”
“There aren’t many other options open to us, Lukas. We could go back and find a way around, but I really don’t think Jonas is going to wait while we do that. He’s going down there whether we like it or not. We’ll be better off if we stick together.”
“I guess.” Lukas wished Bishop was around. He would know what to do.
“Look, if you want to stay with the truck you can. I have to go with him. I want to go. You understand, don’t you?”
Lukas nodded. “Yeah, I get it. I’m with you guys. I’m not going to pussy out now. Like you said, we’re better off together.”
Jonas handed out what weapons they had left. One gun each and some ammo. They decided not to take any food with them. It was a short trip and would only slow them down. Jonas knew there was food where they were going anyway. Janey would have enough supplies for them. The main point was to get to her. They didn’t need to be thinking beyond that. The priority now was to reach her home.
Jonas knew progress would be slower on foot than if they had stayed in the truck, but there was no guarantee they would easily be able to find another route. The falling rain hit his face, and its icy coldness was like a slap. He pulled up his jacket, noticing Dakota and Lukas did the same. Each of them kept their guns at the ready. As quiet as it seemed to be, there were no guarantees anymore. After what had happened to Julie, Jonas warned them all to be careful. He took the lead, picking a way through the mangled pile of metal where helicopter and car had meshed and found a way through so they could continue on into the city. He vowed they would stop only when they had to. There was too much at stake to pause now for anything other than an emergency.
Once they were past the blockage, Jonas felt better. Although he hadn’t been to Thunder Bay before, Janey had told him about it so many times that he felt as if he knew the area. With Lake Superior and the forest surrounding it, there was no reason why they couldn’t make a go of it. Just as soon as he reconnected with Janey, they could start planning the future. There would be a lot to organize. They would need to erect fences for defense, and perhaps some sort of early warning system that could alert them to any zombies approaching the house. They would need to organize the food, too, and find a way of sustaining themselves off the land. North of the city it was just bedrock too barren to sustain any form of farming, but they only needed a small patch of land. Somewhere close to the house where they could grow vegetables. They could fish and chop firewood in summer to get them through the cold winters. Along with his nephews, they could all live here. He wasn’t going to need to get ready for the baby, of course, and read up on childcare. He knew next to nothing about it which was why it was so important to get to Janey. She would be able to help Dakota with the pregnancy, the birth, everything. There was so much to do. Jonas picked up the pace, eager to find his sister again. He owed her so much, not least a huge apology. There was a lot to talk about.
“Hey, Jonas, look at this.” Dakota picked up a baseball bat. “Could be useful, eh?”
Jonas looked at Dakota. Her wet hair stuck to her face, she was probably completely miserable and cold, and yet she was smiling. She held up the bat for him like a child seeking praise from a parent. “Maybe someone dropped it?”
She was stood by the back of a courier van, its rear doors closed. The van was a sleek black, with silver lettering down its side. Jonas approached the van, and took the bat from her. “Sweet. Let’s hope we don’t need to use it.”
“Guys, give me a minute, can you?” asked Lukas. “I have a huge blister on my foot, and this rain isn’t helping.” Lukas hobbled over to the courier van, wincing as he walked, and flung back the doors. “I just want to sit down a second, and…”
The zombie inside the van thrust its face into Lukas’s, and he screamed as it jumped on top of him. The dead man’s face was smeared in gore, his hands bright red with blood. The zombie shook its face ferociously, like a hungry pig at a trough, guzzling down swill and gorging itself as if it hadn’t eaten for weeks. Lukas pushed his hands into the man’s chest, avoiding the dead hands that swiped at him, and shouted for help.
“Lukas, heads up!” Jonas smashed the bat into the side of the zombie’s head. It lost its grip on Lukas and fell to its knees.
“What the fuck, man?” Lukas jumped up and backed away from the dead man. “That nasty fucker’s been waiting in there for how long? Why isn’t it, like, mummified or something?”
Jonas swung again, smashing the bat into the man’s head. It rolled away, but was straight back up onto its feet. It was full of energy and showed no sign of stopping.
“Fuck it,” said Lukas, and he shot the man three times in the head. It was finally still, blood seeping out of the bullet holes into the gutter where it mixed with the rainwater and drained away. Lukas looked the man over. From the uniform it wore, it appeared to be the courier driver. “Fucking animal.”
“You okay?” Jonas looked at Lukas.
“Yeah, I’m okay. Just got a surprise. I should’ve checked first. I wasn’t thinking.”
“Forget it. You good to keep going?” asked Jonas.
Lukas wiped the rain and sweat from his face. “Yeah. Promise I won’t go opening any more random doors.”
Through the thunderous rain, Jonas went to Dakota. She was staring into the open courier van. Her eyes carried such pity that he almost dared not to speak for fear of her breaking down. When he spoke the rain flicked into his mouth. “Dakota? What is it?”
Dakota pointed through the open van doors. “
That’s
why he was so animated.”
Jonas stared at the inside of the van. What had once been filled with parcels and boxes was now filled with a half-eaten corpse. Blood was splashed up the walls, on the roof, and had soaked into what few cardboard boxes were inside. Scraps of clothing hung off the bones, and the skull had been licked clean. It was so white and striking against the van’s bloody background that it almost looked fake. The ribcage had been dismantled, and if it wasn’t for the skull, Jonas wasn’t sure he would even be able to recognize what was left as a human being.
“How long do you think it took him to eat them? They must’ve been in there a while,” said Dakota. Her faith was being sorely tested today. How long was He going to let this go on for? How many more had to die?
“Whoever it was, they’re gone. God rest,” said Jonas. There was no way back for whoever that poor soul had been. They were just lucky Lukas hadn’t joined them. He took Dakota’s hand and pressed the baseball bat into it. “Take this. Just in case. We should keep moving. Those gunshots will bring more out.”
Dakota and Jonas headed toward Lukas. Without warning, Lukas raised his gun, pointing it at them. Even through the teeming rain, Jonas could see Lukas’s face. His eyes were wide open, his hands trembling.
“Lukas, what are you doing?” asked Dakota. No way was this happening again. Lukas wouldn’t do that to them. She gripped Jonas’s hand in terror. She was so sure that Lukas was on their side, yet she had thought the same about Javier.
“Both of you…run!”
Lukas fired, and the bullet whistled past Jonas’s ear. He instinctively ducked, and turned to see a zombie fall right behind him. That wasn’t all he saw. As the lightening lit up the sky, he saw what Lukas had seen. A multitude of zombies was coming at them, pouring out of seemingly nowhere. They must have been inside the houses, dormant, waiting for something to bring them out. There was no way back now. It seemed as if the whole of Thunder Bay was after them.
“Come on, Dakota,” Jonas shouted, as Lukas shot again, dropping a runner right behind them, “we’ve got to get out of here!”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Darting under the awning of a barbershop, Jonas pushed Dakota back and fired. He took out a runner and shot another in the leg which slowed it down. Lukas and Dakota shot back, too, firing at the advancing crowd. The brief shelter from the rain enabled them to aim more precisely, and by the size of the crowd, they needed to. Through the cloak of rain the zombies emerged as one. The courier van was quickly engulfed by the advancing mob, such was their number, and the street was filled by a chorus of groans that was audible even over the incessant rain.
“I thought this place looked quiet,” said Dakota. “Shows what I know,” she said, as she put a bullet between the eyes of a thin man.
“Let’s keep moving,” said Jonas. Thunder Bay had a population of thousands. He sincerely hoped they weren’t all walking dead. “Downhill. We need to lose them in these shops. We can’t risk going straight to Janey’s and taking them with us.”
Jonas fired once again, reloaded his gun, and then ran out into the road with Lukas and Dakota following him closely. Jonas knew where he wanted to go, but he was going to have to take the long way round. At the bottom of the hill was a small inlet. The bridge over it led into parkland, and Janey’s house was somewhere inside along the edge of the lake. That little red house had never seemed so far away as it did now. If Jonas took them straight down the hill and over the bridge, the park would become infested with zombies. He had to make sure that didn’t happen. If they ended up staying in Thunder Bay, they could worry about thinning out the number of dead later. Right now, he had to concentrate on leading them away from Janey’s. Jonas dodged the outstretched hands of an old woman, and shot her in the face. Gristle and bone showered over his hands as the old woman fell, but Jonas had no time to clean it off. More were coming and fast. He turned to run, and slipped on a wet magazine. He tried to stay upright, but found his feet dancing away from under him as he ran straight onto more magazines.
His gun skipped out of his hands across the road as he landed with a firm thud, and his eyes caught on the adjacent travel store. Its large windows were empty of glass except for some sharp shards on the ground, and the main entranceway was exposed where a large red door flapped open in the wind. Racks of soggy brochures had fallen over, and many of the advertisements had blown out onto the street. Jonas jumped up quickly, and scooped up his gun just as another zombie reached him. Turning to shoot it, he was surprised to find it went right past him. Then he saw Dakota.
She pulled up her gun and fired, but only hit the zombie in the shoulder. It charged into her, knocking her off her feet, and Jonas watched them both tumble to the ground. Dakota’s bat flew from her hands, rolling under a car.
“Dakota!” Jonas couldn’t shoot with both of them so close. There was no clear shot, and he saw Lukas was too far ahead. He wouldn’t be able to get back in time to help, so Jonas ran. He ran to save his wife, hoping he would be in time.
Bullets whistled past his head as he ran through the rain, and he knew Lukas was doing what he could, stopping the zombies behind him. He could see the zombie and Dakota rolling on the ground, locked in a tussle that neither seemed destined to win. The zombie was an old man, still dressed in a check shirt with scruffy black jeans. He wore an old cap, and would almost be able to pass as human if it weren’t for the bloody hole in his neck.
“Dakota, hold on,” Jonas shouted.
When he reached her, he could see that her arms were trembling with the effort of keeping the zombie off her. Jonas put his arms around it, and pulled the man back. Instantly the zombie’s attention was turned, and Jonas found the man turning around, trying to bite him. They grappled briefly, but Jonas had the upper hand. He spun the man away from him, and fired quickly, blowing the man’s head apart. Jonas grabbed Dakota’s hand.
“You okay?”
“Yes, I’m fine,” she said breathlessly.
They ran to join Lukas, careful not to skid over the slippery surface of the road.
“This is too much,” he said as he fired his gun at another zombie. “We need to shake them off. I’m almost out.”
“I’m almost out too. We need a short-cut.” Dakota swept her hair from her face. “They must outnumber us fifty to one.”
Jonas looked for a way out; a place they could go for shelter. They had to get off the street. It was acting like a funnel for the zombies, and if they continued going directly downhill they were never going to be rid of them. He shot at another runner, a young boy, and it spun in the swirling wind and rain before falling to the road, dead. Thunder boomed overhead, rattling the windowpanes, before lightening lit up the road again. Jonas shielded his eyes from the constant rain and saw the dead coming for them in droves. He saw old men and women, even children, oblivious to each other, but walking side by side down the hill to the three of them. Some zombies had missing limbs, some exposed their innards, and others had bones protruding from their bodies where skin and muscle had been torn asunder.
“This way,” Jonas said, pointing to a side road. “We have to get off the main street and lose them.”
They ran across a small intersection, weaving between the cars. Jonas ducked into the doorway of a toy shop. There was a plastic doll in the window, its face surrounded by thick wiry hair, and it wore a shabby white dress. Its eyes were black, and it stared out through the window at him unblinking. A small tattoo of a dragon had been etched onto its cheek, and it held a small bag in its hands. Jonas felt almost as creeped out by it as he did the zombies.
“Over there, past the arcade and over the lot, there’s a sports center of some sort. See it? We’re going for it. We’ll try to lose them.”
Lukas looked at the large sports center, its outline barely visible through the rain. “What if it’s locked up, and we can’t get in?”
“Then we’ll keep running until we find something else. The horde will hopefully pass us by while we stay safe and dry, hidden behind those huge walls. It must be safer than somewhere small like this where we could get trapped,” Jonas said, indicating the toy store.
“And the scary ass doll has got nothing to do with it, right?” asked Dakota, looking at it through the window. “Now
that
is fugly.”
“Right,” replied Jonas. “Look, it would be better to take our chances in the center than remain outside and have to battle this lot. You two okay? Dakota, are you up to this?” She nodded, but Jonas could see she was exhausted. He just needed her to get through this, and once they were at Janey’s they could begin to relax. “We’re almost there. This is just a quick diversion. We have to throw them off, all right?”
Dakota nodded again, and then Jonas was off, picking his way through the streets, ducking behind every car, trying to make it difficult for the zombies to track them. When he was halfway across the parking lot, he cast a glance behind him. Beyond Lukas and Dakota he could see the dead. Some were following, but not all. It was as if they were following a leader. It was if they simply followed the one in front of them. There was no way they could see clearly, not in this horrible weather.
Jonas ran up to the main entrance of the sports center. It was dark inside, and he pushed on the glass doors. They wouldn’t budge, and he peered inside. There was a reception area and a turnstile, a couple of doors, and a stairway leading to an upper viewing area. At the far end of the foyer was a door that had been left open. Through it Jonas could see a swimming pool and a high diving board. It seemed perfectly empty, and the water was still. It was so dark, though, that he couldn’t be sure.
“See if there’s a side door.” Jonas knew the quickest thing to do would be to shoot the lock or the glass, but then there would be no way of closing the doors behind them.
Seconds later he heard Dakota call out. “Here. It’s open.”
Racing to join her, he found Dakota standing in a doorway, one foot already inside. He ushered her in, then Lukas, and then he slammed the door behind him. Instantly the noise of the pelting rain died down, and he felt like he could breathe again. He looked around for something to block the doorway but there was nothing. They were in some sort of service corridor, its walls smooth and gray, and a green unlit emergency exit sign above the door.
“Come on,” said Jonas as he wiped the water from his face and shook his head. “Let’s just hope they don’t figure out how to get in. I think we’ve a good chance of this working. We’ll work our way slowly through the center and find another way out.”
He held his gun out in front of him and began down the corridor. Reaching a door at the far end, Jonas pressed his ear against it. He was listening for sounds coming from within, anything at all that might suggest they weren’t alone, but he couldn’t hear a thing. Looking at Lukas, he indicated he was going to open the door.
“Ready?”
Lukas pressed himself against the wall. “Go for it.”
Jonas pushed the door handle, but nothing happened. He pushed again, but still nothing. Dakota put her hand over his, and pulled the handle, easing the door open with a simple click.
“Ready?” she asked with a glint in her eye.
“I knew that,” Jonas said, winking at Dakota. He looked at Lukas, and then pulled the door wide open. Nothing jumped out at them, no surge of zombies rushed them, and the door simply swung back with a faint squeak.
Lukas passed through into the center first. “It’s fine. It’s empty,” he said, and Jonas and Dakota followed him in.
Their feet squeaked as they walked on the tiled floor, and Lukas proceeded to the first door he saw. Inside he found a large gym complete with running machines, weights, and a whole heap of trashed gear. The bar bells were scattered across the floor, and one huge mirror that stretched the entire length of the wall was cracked. On a gym mat were a couple of dead bodies, flies swarming around them indicating that they weren’t going to be getting up again. There was no indication of anyone else inside. There was no sound either, just the faint regular sound of dripping water, and no other exit that he could see. There seemed little point in checking out the changing rooms, and he closed the door.
“Nothing,” he said, looking back at the main entranceway. There were distant figures shambling through the parking lot. “I suggest we go upstairs. It’s too open down here, and we’re too visible. We need to put some space between us and them. Give ourselves a better chance of getting out of here. A couple of minutes, and we should be safe to come back down.”
Lukas led them up a flight of stairs which indicated a seating area for non-swimmers. They passed a couple more dead bodies on the stairway, but the bodies were too far gone to be reanimated. It appeared as though most of them had been eaten. Lukas hoped they might find a food court or a kitchen. Despite everything, he was beginning to feel hungry. As they proceeded through the viewing area, Lukas found a vending machine. However, it had been completely emptied, and he kept going back into another corridor, looking for some place safe they could wait it out and maybe find a snack. Still, there was that sound of dripping water.
Jonas questioned the wisdom of going too deeply into the building. “We can just sit it out here, Lukas. There’s no need to check out every room.”
“I’m just saying that if we’re going to spend some time here, we may as well check it out. We could find something useful: guns, weapons…food.”
“We just need to stay put and hide for a while,” said Dakota. “Let’s stop here,” she said, pointing to an empty office.
Lukas shook his head. “Look, we’re here and we’re safe. We may as well have a look around. The place is empty.”
Lukas swung open a door, and stared into a gloomy exercise room lined with floor-to-ceiling mirrors. Gym equipment had been discarded and left strewn everywhere: dumbbells, towels, skip ropes, exercise mats, and large fitness balls. Each and every item was covered in blood. Lukas shook his head. He wasn’t going to find anything here.
The dripping of water became louder, and it became apparent to Jonas that something was wrong. It sounded less like a dripping, and more like a gushing sound. As they walked down the narrow corridor, Jonas realized his feet were wet. There were two inches of water lining the corridor, yet he couldn’t see the source of it. He looked up at the ceiling, trying to find a hole in the roof or a burst pipe, but there was nothing noticeable that would cause the flooding.
“Hey, Lukas, be careful,” said Jonas. “We don’t need to be in here for hours. We should go back down and see if they’ve passed. We might need to find another exit.” They passed by another room, and Jonas took a look out of a small square window down into the parking lot. The horde of dead was right there, directly beneath them, and Jonas quickly pulled back out of sight. What pleased him was that they weren’t hanging around the main entrance but moving past it. It looked like the zombies were passing them by, but he couldn’t be sure, not yet. “Lukas, you hear me?”
“Yeah, yeah,” replied Lukas. “Just stay away from the windows, Hamsikker. They’re close, but they don’t know we’re here. I think we’re safe up here.”
Jonas kicked the water pooling at his feet and went back to the corridor. It sounded as if it was raining inside now. The air was damp, and he didn’t think there was an inch of him still dry. His clothes were soaked through, and now his feet were too. There had to be a leak in the roof.