Chapter 8

     The highway was so congested that we had to drive on the opposite side.

"For a cop, you're a real law breaker, you know that?" Cassie says, smirking.

"My cop days were a long time ago, little one." I said, jokingly. Her smirk turned into a frown.

"You take that back." She demanded, eyeing me down.

"Nope."

"Take it back."

"Fine. I'm sorry I called you a little one, little one."

"Thank yo... wait. Hey!" I laugh my ass off, and she punches me in the arm.

"Ouch, that actually hurts. I might have dislocated my shoulder trying to save you." She looks at me.

"Good, you deserve it." She tries to make an angry face but she ends up laughing.

"We haven't seen any of the undead in a while, that's worrying me." Cassie looks at me.

"That's worrying you? That's perfect for us, we don't have to deal with them."

"Yeah, not right now, but we will later. It'll be worse if they're in packs. I mean, sure, one is easy to take down, but any more than that and your chance of surviving drop drastically."

"Are you kidding me, Jack. I seen you take down six of them on your own."

"Yeah, and I almost died, remember? You had to shoot the last one." I say.

"But you got out of the closet. You could have escaped."

"One day my luck will run its course, Cassie. I'm not a super soldier."

"Damn near close to it." She says and looks out the window. "I mean, where the hell did you learn to fight like that?"

"In the marines I took up mixed martial arts. I learned skills from many different fighting styles. I learned how to disarm many weapons and how to avoid getting hit. That's not what fighting is all about, though. It's a mental game, you always have to pay close attention to your opponent. Look away for even a second and they could gain the upper hand."

"Jack?" She looks at me.

"Yes?" I ask back.

"Do you think you could teach me?" She looks at me with questioning eyes.

"Of course, but we have to get somewhere that we know it safe. It's not going to happen overnight, but i have full faith that you'll learn fast." She smiles and goes back to looking out of the window.

The outer limits of New York looked horrible. Cars were rammed into each other, dead bodies littered almost the entire road. Entrails lined a good portion of the highway.

The dark of night begins to set in as we pass the border between New York and Pennsylvania. Every now and then a shadow or something catches my eye moving through the trees, but I brush it off as my imagination.

The truck starts to sputter and jerk. "Shit. Looks like it's on foot from here on out." I say, looking at the gas gauge, hoping that it too is a figment of my imagination.

"You've got to be kidding me, there's still hundreds of miles to South Carolina from here. Not only that, but it's the dead of night right now."

"We'll sleep in the truck tonight, but in the morning we have to hit the road."

"I'll take first watch this time," Cassie says, mocking me. "Since you sucked at it last time."

"Oh, shut up." I say as I'm pulling the lever to lean my seat back. I lean back and close my eyes, within seconds I'm asleep.

                                  ...

     "Jack." Its quiet at first, much like a whisper.

"Jack, wake up." My dream world starts to shake.

"Jack!" Finally brings me back into reality.

"What, what are you yelling for?" I open my eyes to see Cassie with one hand on my shoulder while surveying the surroundings.

"Do you hear that?" I listen for a seconds and hear nothing.

"No, I don't hear any..." then I hear it, somewhere in the distance an alarm is going off. It's quiet, but it's definitely nearby. "What does that have to do with us?" I ask, still attempting to wake up.

"Maybe there are people there that need our help." She fires back immediately.

"Cassie, be real, with that alarm going off, it won't be long until the undead trample them."

"Jack. There could be survivors in there." She looks at me, a fire in her eyes. She's determined to help these people.

"Okay. Grab your things, we have to hurry." I open the door to the truck. "Don't fire a shot unless you have too, we don't want anymore trouble than we're putting ourselves into."

She nods and throws her bag over her shoulder and straps the shotgun over her back and we're on our way through the forest, following the sound of the siren.

I draw my tactical knife, just in case.

"I'm going to have to get one of those too." Cassie nods towards the knife, I reach in my pants pocket and pull out the pocket knife.

"Here you go," I say, handing it to her.

"Are you serious right now?" She mocks, holding the knife out.

"It's better than nothing, it'll save your life if nothing else will." She rolls her eyes and flicks the blade open. We move through the forest quickly, twigs and leaves rustling under our feet, but there's something wrong, it's not just our feet making noise. There's something else, something faster. As I'm running, dodging left and right to avoid trees something comes up beside me and swipes my feet from under me.

"Jack!" I hear Cassie scream. I quickly get to my knees, knife are extended, ready to slash whatever come out of the darkness. The sounds of running are encircling us. Every now and then I see eyes glowing in the dark. The only light coming from the moon.

Time slows as something breaks from the darkness. It's a grotesque beast, it's back bony and rigid, it runs on all fours. It has elongated fingers and toes. Its eyes glowing a faint color of red. I slash with the knife but it swats my hand away and tackles me full force.

The air rushes out of my lungs as my back smashes into the ground. The beast straddles me and raises one arm above its head, the claws pointed straight for my neck.

I manage to free an arm and grab its wrist before it plunges its claws into windpipe. It's skin is slimy, though, my grip is slipping. It's claws centimeters from my neck.

A hand comes into my field of view, brandishing a pocket knife that enters under the chin of the monstrosity. It's blood leaking down onto my shirt. I throw it off me, Cassie holds out a hand to help me up, I accept it. She begins running, I pick up my knife and follow. The sound of the other beasts dead on our tails.

I manage to snap a look behind, four other beasts sprinting on all fours chasing through the night. I unholster my .45 and fire blindly behind me. A scream splits the air. I hit one, not knowing if I killed it or not. The gun clicks on empty. I snap another look behind, there's one less creature following us.

The sounds of the alarm are close now, I holster my pistol and keep sprinting. "Cassie, toss me the shotgun!" I scream over the grunting of the beasts, the alarm, and the wind whistling as we sprint through it.

She unstraps the shotgun and throws it into the air, but it's too far ahead of me. I pump my legs faster and dive into the air and grab the shotgun. I twist my body, shoulder the shotgun in mid-air and line up the shot in seconds. I fire and pellets reign hell onto the head of the creature to the left. It trips and rolls before sliding to a stop.

The blast from the shotgun propelled my towards the ground. I smash into it on my right shoulder and pain fires through the arm but it doesn't dislocate. I snap up to my knees and line up the next shot. I send buck shot flying into the closest beast and it's arms -or front legs?- fly off in different directions.

It face plants into the ground and skids about ten feet. The next monster is gaining ground fast. It hops to try and clear the distance of about seven feet. I stand grab the shotgun by the barrel, wielding it like a baseball bat. As the creatures disgusting head comes into reach I swing with all my might.

The crack that followed literally sounded like I hit a baseball over the field for a home run. Its head explodes out of the other side and its body flies against a tree. The forest falls silent besides the siren, distant moans of the undead and my heavy breathing.

I wipe sweat from my brow and turn around and sprint, catching up to Cassie. I throw the shotgun back to her, the brain matter and blood still covering the stock of the gun. She catches it.

"Ew, what the fuck did you do, Jack, shove the gun through its eye socket!?" She yelps, wiping her hand across her jeans to get it off.

"Yeah, that almost sums it up." I say through heavy breaths. The sound of the siren almost deafening now. We come up to a steep hill, overlooking an airstrip. Three Hangers line the far side of the tarmac. A red light flashing on and off on top of the middle hanger.

I point to the hanger, "that's most likely where the alarm is coming from."

"Uh, Jack, I think we have a bigger problem." She points to the main gate, hundreds upon hundreds of zombies are piling up, smashing the front line of the undead into the gate. Their skin being shredded as it's pushed through the holes in the gate.

"Holy shit." I say, my mind kicking into overdrive as I think of a way to get into the airstrip. I scan the fence.

"There," I point, "there's a small opening in the fence in the back of the compound."

"Think we can fit through that?" Cassie questions, worry beginning to fill her voice.

"We have to try." Cassie nods, we begin the decent down the hill towards the gate. As we near the gate I hear a faint hum.

"Don't get near that gate!" I yell to Cassie just as she almost grabs it for a hand-hold.

"Why not?"

"There's electricity flowing through it, listen closely and you'll hear it."

"Then why aren't the zombies affected by it?" She asks, looking behind at the horde.

"They probably are, but it's not doing much because they have no heart beat. It's just frying them."

"How are we supposed to get in that gap then?"

"Just be careful not to touch the endings of the fence."

Zombies begin to break from the tree line on top of the hill.

"Shit! Time to run again." I yell. We both begin sprinting to the hole as zombies trip and roll down the hill. More of those creatures burst from the tree line also. We take a sharp left, the gap getting closer. The zombies and crawling beasts right on our tails.

We reach the gap. "Go, Cass, fast." I tell her. She hands me the shotgun and throws her bag through the gap. I spin and fire the shotgun into the first zombie. The muzzle flash lighting the immediate vicinity for a few seconds. The zombie falls, as I'm lining up the second shot Cassie yells that she's through. I take the shot and drop the zombie.

I drop the shotgun and kick it through the gap. A creature springs for me as I'm preparing to get through the gap. I unsheathe my knife and duck it's strike. It flies over my head, but I hold the knife up, drawing it down its neck and through its stomach, it's entrails raining down upon me and the ground around me.

Fuck, that's disgusting. I think to myself as I go prone and army crawl the the gap. The shotgun going off above me as Cassie provides cover. That is, until the gun clicks on empty.

"Shit!" She yells out in dismay.

Something grabs my ankle hard. "What the fuck!" I yell out and kick my feet hard into whatever is preventing me from getting all the way through.

"In my bag, the side zipper. The box of shells, hurry!" I scream in desperation. The zombie holding me begins to pull me towards it. I kick harder, feeling the jaw break loose and the eye sockets cave in. Cassie rummages through the pocket and fumbles to load the shotgun.

She gets two in the gun and pumps it. She fires. I feel the wind of the pellets flying inches away from my leg. A wetness spreads over my thigh and calf. I scurry through the gap and stand up.

The zombies and creatures try to squeeze through the gap. I unsheathe my knife and begin sending the blade through their heads, using their carcasses to fill the hole so no more can get through.

We stare imminent death in face. It screams and moans just inches away from us, only held back by a wire fence.

"Come on, let's find out who started that alarm." I say, we turn around and head for the middle hanger. I look at the main gate. The fence is swaying back and forth due to the weight of the zombies on the other side. The ones in the back trampling over the ones in the front, struggling to get to the food on the inside.

As we approach the hanger the door opens and the barrel of an automatic rifle points the opening. Over the noise of the alarm someone yells, "Who are you and what do you want!?"

I put my hands and yell back, "We heard the alarm and decided to see what the commotion was about. Now I suggest turning that loud mother fucker off!" The door opens a little more slightly. A familiar face shows through the gap.

     "Jack, you ugly son of a bitch, get in here!" Dale screams over the alarm. I nearly burst into tears.

I walk to the door in disbelief. "I thought you were dead, man." The door opens and he embraces me in a bear hug.

"You know I can't die that easily," he says with a heart laugh, "and whose this young lady?" He asks.

"This is Cassie, the most bad ass eighteen year old I've ever met." She smiles and waves while Dale introduces himself.

From further inside the hanger I hear, "James, for fucks sakes, hurry with that alarm!"

A nasally voice responds, "I almost..." the blaring stops, "got it!"

"Thank god, I was going to go insane." The voice who yelled to turn the alarm off says.

The crowd soon begins to turn their attention to us. A woman's voice screams out. "Cassie!" The voice belonged to another familiar face, one that I'd seen in a picture of a family. Cassie's family.

She stares at the woman for a few seconds. "...Mom?" She asks in disbelief, tears beginning to flood her eyes.