To Die Unknown

The tires squealed in protest as Brian drove wildly through the throngs of infected. It was nearly impossible to make out the difference between the living and the living dead. Many infected were running now. It must have been linked to the infected Sebastian himself had turned.

“Jane, are you alright?” Zacky had crawled back to the front seat, making room for the two of us in the back.

Jane? I stared at the pregnant woman beside me. I hadn’t even considered that this was Jane. Her hands were playing nervously with a strand of her long, pin straight, pale brown and blonde hair. Her blue eyes were red from the tears she’d shed.

“I... I was scared.” She raised her eyes to meet her husband’s. He had his body turned around in the seat to look at her. “I couldn’t find you.”

“I know babe. I’m so sorry I left you alone. But when they came from the back, many people responded by heading for the vehicles. You couldn’t run in your state, I had to get you out of here.” He paused, reaching out and cupping her cheek in his hand. “There’s a fast one. I don’t know how it happened, but it managed to break through. It was stronger, faster, and somehow smarter. It found our weak spot in the walls.”

Zacky trailed off. He glanced at Brian, frowning lightly. Jane nodded in understanding, moving her face into his hand as he caressed her cheek. I glanced out the window, searching for Victoria.

I wasn’t sure where we were going, but it was getting harder for us to move. There were other vehicles driving around, trying to help others. The fast infects were chasing some of the vehicles.

I watched in shock as infected completely surrounded a red car. Some jumped onto the roof, others smashing through the windows. I could imagine their screams of pain as they were overrun.

“Zacky!” Brian shouted, alarm apparent in his voice. He swerved out of the way of a woman dead woman on the ground, a group of infected eating away at her flesh. Their grimy hands reaching delightedly into her torn body. “We’ve got a clinger! To the back on your side.”

Zacky put his window down, hanging his body out of the window. He raised his gun, aiming for the infected climbing up the back of the vehicle. We hit a bump as he pulled the trigger. Zacky growled in frustration when he missed. He aimed for carefully, quickly pulling the trigger. The infected’s head snapped back. Its grip loosened and it fell from the vehicle.

“Anyone got a location on Johnny?” A voice cracked in the vehicle. Zacky pulled himself back into the SUV, putting the window back up. Zacky picked a walkie talkie up from the dashboard.

“No, Jim. We haven’t. What about Cassie?” Zacky said, holding the walkie talkie up to his mouth.

“Yeah. Diana was with her when they broke through. No one has seen Johnny though. We’re directing people to safe houses. Maybe we’ll meet up later.” The device in Zacky’s hand went silent. He reached forward, dropping it back onto the dashboard.

My eyes landed on a running brunette outside the window.

“Victoria!” I shouted, going to open the door and jump out after her. A soft hand pulled me back. I turned my eyes widening at Jane.

“Don’t.” She whispered. “If she’s like you, she’ll be fine. There’s too many for you to safely make it to her. Think about it.”

As much as I wanted to object, I knew she was right. I stared at Victoria’s retreating form. I then took in the form of a man running at her. He grabbed her, dragging her out of my line of sight. I clenched my eyes shut, praying for her safety.

“Why are we heading deeper into this, when everyone else is heading for the opposite direction.” I asked, the axe weighed heavily in my lap. I frowned at the blood drying on it.

“Zack, we’re going to need to make a stop at one of the storage sheds.” Brian said, his voice quiet. He completely disregarded me, only speaking to Zacky.

“I know.” Zacky replied. He ran his hands through his hair. “It’s on the other side though. I don’t know if we’ll be able to make it back. The infected are spreading, and fast. “

“We aren’t going to get far without food or gasoline Zacky. One of us is going to have to run in.” Zacky nodded his head in response.

Brian pushed harder onto the gas, running over an infected woman crawling towards a body. He took a sharp turn, landing on one of the cobblestone paths. We started to speed up as he continued winding around different vehicles. He pulled to a quick stop near a row of sheds.

Painted signs hung above the doors, Food, Weapons, Equipment, Food, it continued on, to where I couldn’t read the signs.

Brian took off his seatbelt, turning to face me.”Can you handle a gun?”

“I’m not sure. I haven’t used one in years.” I shrugged, not knowing where he was going with this.

It’s like riding a bike. You aim, you shoot. Easy enough? We need to go get whatever we can, and fast. Once the infected come down this way, we’ll be done.” He rolled his eyes at me, shoving a new clip into a pistol and handing it to me.

“I think I should stick with the axe.” He reached out, grabbing it from me and putting it at Zacky’s feet.

“And I think not. With these fast ones, you need to be a lot faster. You also need to be able to carry more. You ready?” He didn’t wait for me as he jumped out of the truck. Zacky climbed over the arm rest and got into Brian’s previous seat. He looked back at me.

“Go.” He said simply. I shook my head and went to jump out of the truck, but I merely slammed into the door.

“It was locked.” I muttered dumbly, quickly unlocking the door. They stared at me incredulously.

I jumped out of the truck, sad to leave my axe behind. I ran after Brian, who had ran beside a shed. He picked up a bunch of backpacks and hockey bags folded neatly to the side of one shed. He tossed a couple to me.

“Go to the Equipment Shed, grab gas and anything else you think we might need.” He ran into the food shed and I followed his instructions. I put the gun in the front of the waistband of my jeans. Pushing open the shed door, I searched for gas cans and found a long row of the orange containers. I opened one bag, forcing as many as I could into it. I quickly filled up a second bag.

I dropped them on the ground and searched around for what I thought would be useful. I spotted batteries and started putting various sizes of them into one bag. I grabbed a bunch of flashlights, lighters, and matches. There were a couple packs of candles and I threw them into the bag. Duct tape was tossed into the bag, followed by two compasses, soap, fleece blankets, sewing kit, and a couple other things. The four bags I had were filled.

I put two over one shoulder, and dragged the two bags of gasoline across the ground. They were too heavy. Brian was shoving bags into the back of the SUV. He raised his eyes and met mine, before looking down at the bags of gas. He jogged over, easily lifting the two and carrying them to the vehicle. I put the bags in the back, Brian doing the same.

“Shit.” He cursed. I stopped to look where he was looking. Some infected were staggering in our general direction. He ran to the front door.

“Zacky, do a lap around, we still need to hit the weapons shed. Come around the back.” We both ran to one of the weapons shed. He shut the door after me, forcing a lock into place.

He walked over to a bucket, pulling out large zip up bags from within. He walked around, grabbing guns and ammunition. I was shocked that they had so many weapons.

There was a sudden banging against the shed door. Brian stopped, looking up at it. The door was shuddering under the weight of infected forcing themselves against it. Brian glanced at me, glaring at my immobile figure.

“Start filling up a bag.”He commanded as he zipped up a bag. I grabbed a couple bags from the container he had previously been at. Jogging over to a wall he hadn’t started on yet, I didn’t bother glancing at the guns as I grabbed them, dropping them into the bag. I filled it to the brim with ammunition and guns. I struggled to zip it up, but finally it closed.

A heard a loud snap and my head jerked up. The wood of the shed at the front have was starting to splinter.

“Fuck.” Brian mumbled to himself. He worked faster. I didn’t think we’d be able to carry all of the bags.

I walked over to a wall that looked like it had rarely been touched. I couldn’t hold back the grin that spread across my lips. Various melee weapons were stationed around. I grabbed a couple sheathed swords, not having the time to admire them. I dropped a crow bar into the bag, not sure why it was there.

My eyes landed on a beautifully sculpted bow, I knew it was something I needed. I carefully placed it into the bag, along with as many arrows as I could fit. I didn’t know what they had done with my ragged bow and hand crafted arrows, but I certainly didn’t mind the upgrade.

I tossed some grenades into the bag, as well as some different sizes of knife, a machete, and some more guns.

“Why is there a flame thrower in here?” I asked, staring at it oddly. Brian dropped the filled bags at the back end of the shed.

“Never know when something like that could come in handy.” He shrugged nonchalantly. His eyes remained on the wooden front of the shed, hands were starting to poke through as they clawed at the wood.

“Yeah, because it only makes a horde of infected more lethal when they’re on fire.” I laughed, rolling my eyes at the stupidity.

“Shu-“ He was cut off by one of the infected finally making it through the wood. He raised his gun and shot it between the eyes. I heard a loud noise, and was knocked over as something crashed through the back of the shed.

I heard a grunt and realized, I’d fallen on top of Brian. I quickly jumped up, stumbling back from him, and into the awaiting arms of the infected.

I shouted in shock. I pulled the gun from my waistband, shoving it into the gaping mouth of the woman attacking me. I pulled the trigger, and watched her fall back.

Brian was shooting, and consistently taking out infected after infected.

“Come on!” Zacky shouted from the SUV. I ran over, picking up a couple bags and forcing them into the trunk. It was filling up so I moved quickly, putting what I could into the backseat. Jane grabbed them from my arms and tried to organize them as quickly as she could.

Brian covered me very effectively. He rarely missed, and as much as I wanted to stop and admire his excellent shot, I knew I couldn’t.

I heard a shout and turned around. An infected was grabbing Brian by the back of the head, trying to pull him towards his gaping mouth. Brian had his arms raised, trying to pry off the infected's strong grip. I raised the gun, aiming, and hoping that I wouldn’t miss. I closed my eyes and pulled the trigger.

Brian cried out and I opened my eyes, the infected lay dead at his feet. He was holding onto his arm, blood seeping between his fingers. “You shot me!”

“But I saved you.” I responded.

He groaned, and picked up the last bag – running to the passenger side and jumping into the SUV.

The shed was now almost completely overrun with infected. I stumbled clumsily after Brian, tripping over an infected body. When I got into the backseat, I had only just closed the door when the infected started pounding against the windows.

“Drive!” Jane shouted, her voice panicked.

Zacky didn’t hesitate and took off, driving into the seemingly endless crowd of infected. I let out the breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding.