Static Screams

I knew my need to go as soon as possible was probably annoying the others. I wasn’t saying anything, but I was antsy. My bones shook within my flesh. I felt like if I didn’t start following them soon enough, that I would lose them. Lose Logan. Lose someone again. The group was looting what they could from the gas station as I stood just inside the building, watching for more of the mutts.

Peter called them barkers. He said if the zombies were biters, the demon dogs were barkers. Holland smiled at that, but it didn’t reach the top half of his face. His eyes stayed flat as he searched the coolers with Cosmic at his side.

I had Logan’s messenger bag over my body, my backpack straps over that. I was kitted up, all of my weapons and tools on my slightly shivering body. The air was cool, but the shakes had to come from the mania I felt in my body. I didn’t watch the group as they moved. Staying where I was, watching the brightening skyline in case they came back, seemed to be all I could do.

Slowly the group joined me, the sound of zippers and velcro filled the space. “You tried, you know.” I looked up from the sunrise. Darren stood beside me, looming over as he watched the sun. “To save Lila.”

A choking cough sound got caught in my throat. I’d been trying to let that pain sink deep into my spine, to face later. Certain that dealing with all of the current events at one time might kill me. I shook my head quickly, shaking the previous two days down into my bones. Glancing around to see if everyone was ready, I started forward, gun in hand. Darren moved in sync with me, not saying another word about Lila.

“Let’s go.”

***

The gas station had some maps scattered on the ground below a map display. We were on the road now, and the map was splayed between Sawyer and I. I’d chosen a local one, that stretched about four by eight feet. From here to the edge of the state on any given side. We had been repeating all of the stories Wren had told us from her life and where she was when the apocalypse hit.

“The problem I am finding,” Started Holland. “is she went south. She found us south of here. What was she doing there if coming back here was the entire plan?”

We all thought about that for a second while Sawyer and I stopped in the middle of the road, tracing the map to figure out which way we were meant to go to get to the university Wren had worked for. It was back the way we came. Holland’s point was valid. Why had Wren gone south when she wanted to return here, where her story started.

Natalie was beside Sawyer, staying close in case he needed her. “I think maybe Wren wasn’t planning this from the beginning.” We all turned to her, mumbling confusions. “Hear me out.” She held up her hands. “What if she didn’t set out to do this, but while traveling with us she had some sort of revelation. Or she needed a person to make whatever it is work, so she waited.” We hm’d and haw’d. “Maybe she wasn’t going back, until the hellhounds showed up.”

“Hellhounds!” Peter shouted, clapping his hands together. “That’s what they are!” He threw his hands up. “That’s so much better than barkers.” he muttered, now feeling sheepish from the outburst.

Natalie smiled, shaking her head at her friend’s words.

Sawyer and I found the road we needed and messily folded the map back together before we continued on. After a minute of thinking I fell back into the group a bit, near Natalie. “I think you might be right. The hellhounds probably threw her off. She said she was testing theories about zombies. What if someone continued their work. What if she knows who made the hellhounds, or who started the apocalypse.”

“Why would she need Logan?” Sawyer mumbled, watching the road signs for the one we needed.

Natalie caught up with Sawyer, rubbing his shoulder. “I don’t think it was Logan specifically, I think maybe she would’ve taken any of us.” She squeezed his arm, pulling him in close as they walked. “We will find her.” She whispered to him, too soft for anyone not within arms reach. He nodded a small nod, leaning a bit into her affection.

I fell back a bit so I was walking in sync with Holland and Darren. I never noticed how the two had similar builds. Albeit Darren had a beard and tattoos, and from what I had seen of Holland, he did not.

“What do you think, Hol?” I asked, shrugging my backpack back up higher on my person, and adjusting my bow. We’d been walking for hours.

“I think Nat is right. I don’t think Wren planned this from back when she found us. I think we got too close to the University and the hellhounds showing up triggered something in her.”He rubbed a hand on his head, letting out a heavy sign. “I just hope she took Logan for something other than research or experimentation.” He looked at me sideways as he spoke.

My eyes narrowed but my walking gait held smooth.

“Wren better not touch her.” I felt Darren and Holland’s gaze on my face. “We are not losing anyone else. I will kill her before I let her hurt any of you.”

And with that, I moved back up to the front of the group.

***

It took us over a day to reach the university. It wouldn’t have taken as long if we hadn’t had to stop for rest and food. I managed to sleep a couple hours, but woke before anyone else, ready to hit the road again.

I wasn’t sure what university this was, as all of the letters on the entry sign had been rearranged to say VERMIN HERE. It was a more modern university, with walls of windows that had been shattered or cracked. The ones intact were covered in blood, dirt, dust, or some kind of grime. The once towering white walls were now brown and gray. And bloody.

“Now where?” Cosmic asked in a small voice. She’d been hovering near Holland the entire journey. They seemed to have bonded over their losses. Cosmic and Seven (Eight?) had been a bonded pair, siblings in a way that you could only be in the apocalypse. I couldn’t even begin to process the connection that losing Henry had been to what Cosmic lost.

And Holland? His loss was unfathomable.

“There has to be a campus map somewhere.” Peter stood on his toes, searching for some sort of sign. “There!” He exclaimed, pointing over our heads to a mini sort of billboard in the middle of a concrete park space.

“Everyone stay together.” I instructed.

Sawyer spoke for the first time in a while. “Yeah, no Scooby-Doo antics here.” We all smiled, in spite of the situation.

We headed for the sign, together but in little groups, each one watching a direction for any of the dead.

I traced my finger around the plastic covering the map, searching for the lab. “It’s got to be here somewhere.” I mused, feeling more anxious by the second. What if Logan was already dead, or hurt? My hand was shaking, even as it came still over the outline of a building labeled University Science Lab. I yanked it off the map before anyone could see, pulling it to my chest to ease the shake.

“Did you find it, Scar?” Darren stood next to me, reading the map, before turning away. “Alright, it’s down this path and to the right, let’s go. Let’s be careful, heads on a swivel.”

As we headed down the concrete pathway, a sudden burst of shouting echoed around the empty campus. Guns that hadn’t been drawn before, were now. Sawyer and I started towards the shouting. I couldn’t tell if it was Logan, or Wren. It was just loud voices.

Loud voices that were going to draw in zombies. Which would complicate trying to save Logan.

We half ran towards the voices, rounding the corner of a building without thinking, and coming face to face with a handful of the dead.And beyond them, an open door, through which the shouting was echoing.

“Logan.” Sawyer said her name softly, and darted forward. As he moved he swung his rifle to his back, and yanked his hatchet from his belt.

Everyone stood still for a beat. “Go!” I ordered, moving to follow Sawyer towards what could be the sound of Logan’s voice. Natalie darted in front of me, joining Sawyer as he reached the dead, who had stopped their run towards the voices and turned to us.

Nat and Sawyer started taking out the ones that were between them and the door. Holland, Peter, and Cosmic went around them, attacking from the side.

“Scarlett!” Sawyer shouted as he swung his weapon into a skull of what used to be a maintenance worker by the jumpsuit they wore. They were not freshly dead, but they had not been dead for years like most zombies were at this point. “Scar!”

I tore myself away from the zombie I’d just taken out. “Yeah?”

“Go find her!” He shouted, shoving a zombie back from Natalie. “Please!”

He couldn’t see my nod, but I shoved past the next zombie, running ahead. I heard Darren on my heels. As we came up on the open door, I heard what was definitely Logan.

“You’re crazy!” She was screaming, followed by a crash and a gunshot.

I barreled down the hallways, listening for anything and everything. Finally we stumbled into an open room filled with counters and science supplies. Up on a platform, Logan was on the ground, with Wren standing over her, gun in her hand.

My sight went red, I swung my bow off my body, taking aim at the person standing over the woman I loved. “Wren!” I screamed.

Her eyes locked with mine as she turned. “Scarlett, wait!”