WorldLost- Week 1: An Infected Novel (15 page)

I moved out of the kitchen and headed to the other rooms.
“Stay there,” I yelled to Butch.

I headed to the back bedrooms and bathroom finding all of the
rooms empty. The last room to clear was the basement, so I headed to the
basement door. I didn’t knock on the door, for some reason finding the young
girl in the trailer, in the condition she was in, just flipped a switch inside
me. I was pissed off, angry at whatever caused this disease.

Once I had the basement door open, I was confronted with two
infected waiting for me on the stairs leading down into the basement. I kicked
out at the first one, hitting him in his chest and causing him to tumble backward
into the guy on the stairs. They both fell back down the stairs hitting the
floor in a heap. I headed down the stairs, heading towards the infected at the
bottom.

Once I hit the basement floor, I forced my blade through each
of the infected brains as they were trying to untangle from each other and get
to their feet, one right after the other. Even before they had a chance reach
out to me, they were killed. I moved to the basement to make sure it was clear.
I found a set of doors that lead to the backyard of the house.

As I walked out the basement door I noticed a barn at the
back of the property. I headed to it to make sure that it was clear of
infected. So far, I’d found and dispatched a number of infected on the property,
but I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to find more in the barn. The barn door
was closed and once again, didn’t knock first. I pushed my way through the door
into the barn in one fluid motion.

I stopped about halfway into the barn and looked around, I
was quickly aware that I wasn’t alone. I sensed that I might have put myself into
a situation I might not make it out of. Headed towards me were five infected,
all decked out in overalls and baseball hats. They were the slow kind, but they
were all large, farm bred boys, and had the number advantage over me. They were
very eager to get to me and for the slow type; they made a good time covering
the distance between the two ends of the barn. I was probably the best thing
they had seen in three days.

I stepped forward and ran the blade of the hunting knife
across the stomach of the first one from the front of him to the back and I pushed
him to the opposite wall. His insides slid out of his body and fell to the barn
floor. The infected hit the ground but immediately started to stand back up. I
kicked out at the second one closest to me breaking his knee which made him hit
the ground when his knee wouldn’t hold his weight. The third infected ended up
on the ground when I elbowed him in the cheekbone, basically driving the bone
through the brain. It was a great hit by me, but it hurt like hell and I knew
right away that I’d have one hell of a bruise tomorrow.

The fourth hit me on the side and drove me to the ground. I
took my leg and struck out to push the infected off of me and to the side. The
fifth and last infected tripped on the fourth and now I had two of them on me.
One was on top of the other and both were on top of me. I had my forearm
against the neck of the one right on top of me to hold its head away from me
and with my other hand, I ran the hunting knife into the head of the one on the
very top of the pile and it slumped to the ground beside me.

I had lost the grip of my knife and saw it stuck in the
infected head lying beside me. I pulled my knees up and stuck my feet in the
infected stomach that was on top of me. Pushing with everything I had, I kicked
out and watched as the infected landed against the wall a few feet away. It hit
the wall and was stuck on some of the wall hooks used to hang the various
harnesses and saddles used on horses. I rolled over getting up on my knees and
pulled the knife out of the head of the guy on the floor.

The second infected was dragging himself towards me and had just
grabbed my ankle when I stomped on his head and crushed his skull. This left
the first infected with his guts lying on the floor and the infected stuck
hanging on the wall. I grabbed a pitchfork off of the wall and drove it into
the first infected face, pinning him to the wall. I grabbed a shovel off the
same wall and beat both of their heads until they stopped moving.

When I was done, I was covered in blood, horse shit, and
straw. I stood in the middle of the barn, taking deep breaths looking at the
carnage I had created. I heard a clearing of a throat and turned around.
Standing in the doorway was the group staring at the dead and at me.

“Jamie and Mary take Cindy and wait in the house,” Amy said
walking towards me. “Let’s get you cleaned up.”

The girls went to the house while Butch and Amy helped me get
cleaned up. A change of clothes was in order, but all of the supplies were in
the truck.

“Dude, you’re a killing machine,” Butch said.

“Shut up Butch.” Amy spat back. “What’s going through your mind,
Matt? Why the heroics and running off on your own? You know we are better as a
team when we are following a plan.”

“I just felt like I needed to do this, that I needed to prove
to myself that I could handle it.”

“You handled it alright.” Butch laughed. “Let’s get inside,
get something to eat, maybe have a shot of that Macallan and then get some
sleep.”

“I think we should hold up in the loft in the barn,” I said.
“It would be further from the road, it’s off the ground which might be safer.
We might be able to have a good night’s rest.”

“Sounds like a plan. I’ll drive the truck back here and get
it hidden; you guys move the bodies outside in the back.” Amy headed for the
door. “I’ll grab the girls on my way.”

Butch and I dragged the five bodies out the back door of the
barn and then went up to the hay loft to get it cleared out. We moved the hay
around to help block the view from down below, so if someone did get inside,
they wouldn’t immediately see us. We spread hay around to help make a more
comfortable sleeping space. We heard the truck pull in and the girls piled out
and headed up the ladder.

We made something to eat and took some time to clean and
check our weapons. Cindy came up to me and said. “Thanks for helping me. I knew
my mom was sick, but I didn’t know what to do.”

“No need to thank me. I’m just glad you’re safe.” I said to
her with a smile. I truly was happy that she was safe. It was going to be
children like her that would help to keep our race alive and fight off the
infected. If we didn’t do everything we can to save every child we came across,
we’d be quickly extinct and the infected would rule this land. I gave her
another smile and said. “Go along and get some rest.”

After a little while, we all got comfortable in our hay bed
and went to sleep. It was nice to not have to worry about surprises or someone
sneaking up on us. A solid night of rest would do everyone some good.

I woke up before everyone else but laid there on the straw
bed just looking up at the barn roof. The wind was blowing outside, a summer
derecho, my father used to call them. The barn was heating up and being in the
loft right by the roof was making it heat up even quicker. Amy was sleeping
next to me, Cindy next to her. Butch and the other girls were spread out
further down the loft.

“What are you thinking about?” Amy asked, startling me.

So anytime a woman asks you what you are thinking about, you
have two choices; either you say you are thinking of nothing or you tell them
exactly what you are thinking. The problem with Amy was that the first choice
wouldn’t work; she knew me better than that and knew that I was thinking about
something. On the flip side, I didn’t think she would take too kindly to what I
was actually thinking.

You see, after yesterday, I was having some very strange
things running through my head. If I was infected, would I be able to lock
myself away or kill myself like Cindy’s mother? Would I put my friends in
harm's way, make them deal with me or take care of myself?

Why did some of the infected seem like they understood what
you were saying? Cindy’s mom seemed to know what I was saying to her. She
calmed down, well as calm as an infected seemed to get, and paid attention to
what I was saying when I was talking to her. When I said Cindy’s name, she
seemed to know it, it was like a small spark that I thought I could see in her
bloodshot eyes. I’d seen a couple of other infected that acted this way.

What was really driving me crazy was why some of the infected
turned quicker than most and why some of the infected were faster over time
instead of slowing down. They even seemed like maybe they were getting smarter.
We’d only ran onto the faster ones Charleston. We hadn’t seen any outside the
city, could that have something to do with why they were faster than their
brethren.

“Hey, what are you thinking about?” Amy asked again, this
time poking me in my arm.

“Nothing,
” I said.

“Bullshit, you’re thinking about something, you have that
look in your eyes.”

“It’s nothing worth talking about right now.” I rolled over
and got to my knees. “We should try to get going so we can get as close to Butch’s
parents as possible.”

“Don’t change the subject.” She said as she got up and
stretched.

“I really don’t want to talk about it right now. We should
really pack up and move out.” I said as I put on my boots on and started to
head towards to the ladder. “We need to find some gas along the way.”

I lowered the ladder down to the floor as Amy gave Butch a
kick in the butt and told everyone to get up.

I moved down the ladder and found a corner in the barn to
relieve myself. I was standing looking out a window and noticed that there was
movement at the house. There was at least ten infected wandering around the
house. They were headed north so they must have come from the city. Were they
migrating to finding food?

I was pretty sure they were from the city because they were
decked out in business attire, suits, and dresses, which you normally wouldn’t
find in the country. They looked pretty ragged, worn and dirty. Their clothes
and bodies had seen better days.

I finished my business, zipped up and headed up the ladder as
quietly as I could. Everyone was packing up and were talking about what our
plan was today, how far we had to go and just minor talk. I quickly got their
attention and used my finger to get them to be quiet. With everyone in a group huddle
I whispered,

“We have company. About ten infected wondering around the
house outside.”

Cindy started to tear up until Jamie pulled her to her chest
and told her to shush.

“We should pack up and get out of here,” Mary said whispered.

“No, we should stay, be quiet, let them pass,” Butch responded
in a low voice.

“What if there are more of them, what if these are the first
of many?” Amy said.

“We could pull the ladder, draw them in the barn and then use
the spears to kill them,” I said. Everyone looked at me like I was crazy. “Hey,
we have the advantage of the loft, they don’t climb and we can reach them from
up here.” I knew that we could do this and it would allow us to make our escape
north without having to rush reducing the chances of making a mistake. “On the
ground, we’re fair game.” I provided as my final push to win the discussion.

“I agree with Matt,” Butch said. “I vote we kill them and
then leave.”

“We’ll need to keep Cindy safe and be careful with reaching
down to them,” Amy said.

“I’ll keep Cindy in the back corner,” Jamie said holding
Cindy. “She doesn’t need to see this.”

“I’ll help with the culling,” Mary said grabbing a spear from
my stash.

We had parked the truck out back after unloading our supplies
last night, under the hay loft access door, so that could be our way out if we
needed to get ours quickly.

We moved all of the supplies closer to the access door just in
case. Jamie and Cindy got settled by the supplies and the access door. When we
were all ready, I climbed down the ladder and went to the front door of the
barn. I had my rifle and decided the quickest way to get their attention was to
shoot a few of them and that should get them moving to the barn.

I opened the barn door a crack and looked towards the house.
The group of infected I had seen earlier were still hanging around the house,
but the group was a little bit larger, there was maybe a total of thirteen
infected now.

I took my rifle holding to my shoulder and took aim at the
closest infected to where I was standing. With a short breath out, I pulled the
trigger like my dad had taught me and watched as the bullet entered the head of
a guy in a business suit. He dropped to the ground. I quickly took aim and
fired another round at the first infected that turned and start heading my way.
I missed its head but hit it in the hip shattering the bone and causing it to
fall to the ground. It continued to crawl towards me.

The remaining infected were now on their way to the barn,
some of them were faster than the others so I moved from my position and headed
back into the barn.

I opened the barn door, leaving it open so the infected could
get into the barn. I headed up the ladder and was two-thirds of the way up the
ladder when I felt it come out from under me. I had the sensation of falling
before my arms were jerked up as I hung over the infected below me.

“Just had to be the hero and shoot two of them, huh,” Butch
said as he and Amy pulled me up tot eh loft and away from the infected.

We all got into position on the edge of the loft and using
our spears we took care of the infected that came into the barn. We lost a few
spears as they got stuck in heads or pulled from our grips by some of the most
aggressive infected. We had one almost fatal fall by Mary as an infected
grabbed her spear and pulled, but once again, Butch was there to save the day
by grabbing her by the waist and pulling her back.

Mary didn’t make that mistake again and after five minutes of
using the spears, all of the infected were on the ground except the one I had
shot in the hip. It was outside moaning and slowly making its way to the barn
door.

“The moaning will draw others. We need to take care of it.”
Amy said.

“The rifle shot already attracted any infected in the area,”
Butch said.

“Get our stuff and let’s move. Open the hay access door and
throw things down to me.” I said as I climbed over the loft edge and dropped to
the bloody floor. Between Butch and me we had the ladder back up in position
and the girls had the hay loft access door open and ready to drop our supplies
to the truck waiting below.

“Check the tractor out back for gas,” I said to butch as I
headed towards the infected still crawling on the ground.

With a jab to the eye socket of the crawling infected, I
dispatched the last one eliminating the moaning and headed back into the barn
to help finish the pack up process with the rest of the group. Butch was at the
truck stowing the supplies and the women were getting in the truck, ready to
leave.

“The tractor has a full tank,” Butch called out, so I headed
back to the barn and found a hose that we could use to siphon the gas. I also
grabbed two gas cans I found in the corner of the barn.

Butch had the truck started and was heading over to the
tractor when I walked out of the barn. I walked over to the tractor and with Butch,
we siphoned the gas from the tractor to the gas cans. As each gas can fill up,
I moved to the next and Butch emptied the can into the truck. Working together
we were able to empty the tractor in about five minutes and were back in the
truck and headed to the farmhouse and the driveway, ready to get on the road.

Waiting for us was a crowd of infected heading down the
driveway to the noise they had heard from my rifle. “Head back to the barn or
drive through the crowd.” Butch looked at me and winked as he pressed on the
gas and sped directly at the crowd not giving me time to warn the others in the
back of the truck.

The fastest of the group hit the front of the truck and was
dragged underneath the wheels. I opened the back window and warned the women to
get down since there was a chance that one of the infected could end up being
flung over the hood and land in the bed of the truck.

The next couple of infected bounced off the front and sides
of the truck, but a smaller woman was flipped up over the cab of the truck,
rolling up the windshield and then falling into the bed. We heard a thud as it
landed on the back of the truck and startled the women. Jamie shielded Cindy,
but the momentum of the truck moving forward forced the infected towards them
as the truck continued to move forward. The infected reached for Jamie’s arm
and was just about to lunge forward when Mary grabbed it getting the infected
to focus on her instead of Jamie.

Amy was thrown to the side of the truck and then the truck
hit the main wall of the horde and was instantly slowed down, causing everyone
to move forward due to the momentum of the truck slowing down.

The infected in the back of the truck had a hold of Mary
while Amy was on the floor of the truck and Jamie was too scared to do anything
to help Mary. The truck lurched forward as Butch jammed on the gas and we made
our way through the crowd, but Mary and the infected tumbled backward from the
momentum and ended up going over the tailgate hitting the gravel road as a mess
of arms and legs. Butch didn’t realize what happened and continued to punch the
gas to get us out of there.

“We lost Mary! Stop!!” Amy yelled from the back of the truck.
“Stop NOW!!!”

Butch slammed on the brakes throwing everyone towards the
front of the truck once again, but the truck came to a stop on the gravel
driveway. I opened the door and jumped out as Amy jumped over the tailgate and
headed towards Mary. We both arrived at the two bodies on the ground, with the
infected on top of Mary and Mary’s throat was already torn out. Amy drove her
knife into the head of the infected and kicked it to the side.

Mary was gone, but she would turn if we didn’t do what needed
to be done, so I drove my knife through her brain and finished the job. Some of
the infected from the crowd were now back on their feet and headed our way,
slowly, but making their way towards us. Amy was standing over Mary, tears
starting to fall as I headed towards the infected that were closest and used my
knife and spear to dispatch them.

There were four infected I had to deal with the first one taking
my spear to the head. The second infected was tripped by the first and fell to
the ground. The third one got the knife shoved into its eye and the fourth was
knocked to the ground by a shoulder to the chest.

I stomped on the fourth’s head and squashed it like a melon.
Grabbing the spear, yanking it out of the first one I had killed, I rammed it
upwards through the last infected mouth.

I went back to Amy as more of the horde were still headed our
way and pulled her back to the truck. After getting Amy into the cab of the
truck closing the door, I climbed into the truck bed with Jamie and Cindy.

I got Jamie and Cindy situated and tapped the cab roof
letting Butch know to get moving. Thankfully Butch didn’t punch the gas and
instead just took off in a normal speed heading towards the main road.

After we were a few miles down the road I had Butch pull over
jumping out of the bed and opened the door to talk to Amy.

“That was bad, but it was an accident. We need to keep
moving. We’re going to lose people. This is how the world is now. We can do
everything to save as many as possible, but we can’t grieve for everyone we
lose. Maybe sometime soon we can mourn the ones we lost, but not right now.”

She was crying again and staring through the front window not
acknowledging what I was saying I let her go for a few minutes until she turned
to me and said, “I get it. I know that we need to keep moving forward. But we
have to take the time to mourn the people we lose. That’s what makes us human,
we care about the one’s we lose.”