Henry sat for what seemed like hours, staring straight ahead at the seat in front of him but not looking at anything. He could vaguely hear noise in the background, maybe some people talking but he could not be sure.
Everything that happened today, everything he had witnessed, he had rationalised based on the belief that society had just reverted to a previous form, that it had gone back 500 years to the 'Dark Ages' of history and some people just let go of their social behaviour. Never once had the thought of a nightmare like this crossed his mind.
"Zombies!?" He thought to himself. "I just... I do not... How can this be happening? What could have caused this?" Henry was beginning to mumble out loud.
"How?... Why?... When?..." were the only words that Meri and Dennis could understand.
Meri brushed up against Henry as she was trading places with Dennis.
She looked down at him as she was walking by. Henry slowly turned his head and returned her gaze. "When did all of this start?" He asked her.
Meri looked up to Dennis, and he nodded at her. Dennis turned around and walked a few steps up and begun to do a slow sweep of the area, keeping an eye out for trouble while Meri sat down across from Henry.
"All right," she said as she turned her body towards Henry "this is what we know. At around 8:30 this morning while I was getting ready to leave town, on this bus, a man attacked my landlady in the front yard. I was screaming at him to stop, but he just did not hear me."
Meri turned her eyes to look out at the window while she remembered the events from this morning.
"I tried to pull him off of her, I grabbed him by the head and the throat, but he just would not let go. I ran to the front step and grabbed the garden shovel that Ms Rose kept there to clean up weeds. And... I... " A tear started to run down her cheek as she recalled all of the details. "I hit that man over the head with the shovel, three times before he finally fell off of her. It was too late for Ms Rose, though, she was the nicest lady I've ever met. I was three months behind on rent, but she did not care, just as long as I was off the street, she would tell me. I felt bad that I was skipping town on her."
She looked back to Henry. "I knelt next to her body and watched the life leave her eyes. I cried more that day than when my dad beat me and threw me out of the house for defending my mum. I closed her eyes, just like they do in the movies, and stood up to see if someone had seen anything and could offer me some help since I did not know what to do."
"My street was a mess; it looked just like this. Cars crashed in living rooms, through garage doors, bodies all over the place. People were running screaming in every direction. No one paid any attention to what was happening on our property, they all had their problems. I took a few steps away, trying to figure out what was the best way to run when I saw this bus parked on the end of the street with a man waving people on it."
Her gaze returned to the window, and she wiped away a couple of tears. "I went back to say goodbye to Ms Rose, pressed my fingers on her forehead and turned around again. That's when she reached out and grabbed me. She was dead!" Meri raised her voice as she looked at Henry.
"She was dead." Her voice softened.
Meri started to cry more. "I watched her die. The wounds on her face, chest and neck; you cannot come back from that." She started to raise her voice more. "The noise that my landlady made when she was trying to pull me closer to bite me will haunt me forever. I knew it was not her. It could not be her! I kicked her in the face, Henry. I kicked that sweet old lady in the face until she died, again. And then I ran to this bus. I got on it and just cried."
Meri stood up, "That's all I know! Good people are dying out there for no reason at all."
She wiped the tears from her cheeks and walked away.
Dennis moved out of the aisle as she went past and tried to say something to her. Instead, he closed his mouth and walked towards Henry.
He stood in front of Henry and looked back over his shoulder towards the front of the bus where Meri was sitting looking out the windows still wiping away tears.
"Sorry about that, she was only just out of high school and been through a rough patch. Give her some time, and she'll grow on you."
He looked back to Henry.
Henry opened his mouth to say something, but Dennis cut him off. "Listen, I know you have questions, we all have questions, but we have to find someplace else to hide out. The front door cracked from that last group, and I do not know that it can take much more punishment. I have not told this to Meri yet, but I thought that if we get out of here and head to the mall..."
Henry spoke up and cut Dennis off. "No, that will not work. I just walked by, and the doors are all open, plus there's a bunch of roaming monsters."
"You mean 'zombies', right?" Dennis smiled as he said it.
"I'll never be used to saying that word." He shook his head. "Yes, there were about a dozen hanging around the front of Walmart and a few more hanging out by the theatre and bookstore entrances. That door was open, and I'm pretty sure something in there laughed at me when I went by."
Henry turned and looked out the front of the bus. "I was actually thinking of going to the Wholesale store just up the road. It's probably the safest place that I can think of." He turned to look back at Dennis. "There are no windows, the front doors are big heavy garage-style doors with another set of security doors inside. With all of that canned and boxed food, we should be set in there for a long while."
"That's actually an excellent idea." Dennis nodded at Henry.
"What's a good idea?" Meri piped up from just behind him.
Dennis jumped and turned around a little. "Henry was just telling me that he thinks the Wholesale store would be a great place to go next."
"It's pretty secure with lots of food," Henry added.
"You mean, go in the direction where all those zombies came from?" Meri asked, "I do not think so. I believe we should stay here and wait for help."
"I do not know that help is coming, Meri." Dennis turned to look at her, "With everything that I've seen today, I have not seen one police officer or official. Well, except the mayor that we ran down on the way here."
Henry gasped.
"Well, he was eating the leg off of an old man," Dennis smirked. "He practically threw himself in front of the bus."
"Think we can drive the bus over to the store?" Henry asked.
"Not unless we can find the rear wheel from when the pickup slammed into us." Dennis pointed out the back of the bus. "We're not taking this thing anywhere."
"I guess we'll have to make a run for it then," Henry added.
Meri smiled, tears still filled in her eyes. "You think he can run anywhere?" Pointing to Dennis, "Look at those boots."
Dennis looked down at his feet. "What's wrong with them? I can probably run faster than you."
"Only if there was a buffet ending in 3 minutes," Meri added before walking away.
"Why you..." Dennis smiled and reached out for her, but she was already gone.
"How long have you known her?" Henry asked.
"What time is it?" Dennis looked down at his watch. "About 2 hours now."
Dennis turned around and looked towards the front of the bus. "You think we have a chance of making it to the Wholesale? The mall is closer."
Henry stood in his seat and followed Dennis' gaze out the front. "It's the only chance we have, I think. There are just too many of them hanging around the mall for use to really make it there."
"It's settled then," Dennis spoke louder so Meri could hear at the front of the bus. "We're gathering our things and going to make a break for the Wholesale."
Meri sighed from the front. "It's not like we have anything anyways."
"Hey now. I have my hat and jacket to worry about. I cannot be getting any blood and guts on my leather jacket." Dennis said.
Meri turned around and rolled her eyes.
"How are we getting off the bus?" Henry asked. "I do not know that we can climb out of the fire escape in the r
oof."
Dennis looked up at the ceiling and jumped at the emergency exit. He pulled himself up a little and put his feet on the backs of a couple of seats. He grunted as he pushed his shoulders through the small opening and then kicked his legs as he pulled his lower body through the opening.
He stuck his head back into the bus.
"If you climb up on one of these seats first you should be good. I'll be here to help if you need it."
Dennis' head disappeared through the hole, and they hear him shuffle around on the roof.
Henry looked at Meri and looked at the ceiling. "After you."
Meri rolled her eyes. "Sure. I'll show you how it's done."
She walked to the front of the bus and grabbed a jacket and hat from the seat behind the driver. She stood on the seat below the hole in the ceiling and put her arms through. "I did not want you to have to drag us back her for these."
Dennis took them eagerly from her and put them on. "Thank you."
Meri stood on the back of the two seats with her elbows on the roof of the bus. With a grunt she disappeared through the hole, leaving Henry staring at the ceiling.
Alone on the bus, Henry stood in the middle of the aisle under the hole and looked around the bus.
"For something that's been through as much as they say, this bus is pretty clean on the inside." Henry thought to himself.
He stood on one of the seats under the escape hatch and reached up for the hole. While grabbing onto the edge of the hole, he put both of his feet on the top of the seat and jumped towards the ceiling; using his momentum he pulled himself most of the way through the hole before having to struggle to get his legs through.
Once on the roof, he could see that Meri was already at the back of the bus with her legs dangling towards the pickup truck. Henry looked down towards the end of Kings Road, to where that large group of zombie went. He turned towards the mall to check on the status of the roamers hanging around the parking lot. From this distance, it was hard to see, but he could definitely make out three of them, maybe the others joined up with the rest of that group.
Now that Henry was out, Dennis did a quick survey of the area to make sure that it was clear enough for them to get down without being harassed.
"Looks safe to me," Dennis said.
Meri was on the ground before Dennis had finished his sentence.
Dennis jumped into the bed of the pickup truck with a loud bang. And looked around to see if that had got any attention.
Henry whispered down from the roof of the bus. "What are you doing?"
"Have to check to see if anything is hiding out here," Dennis said.
While Dennis and Henry had started talking, Meri had begun walking up the road towards the front of the bus. She did not have the sharp instincts of Dennis to realise that she should be checking for hiding zombies before walking too far.
Meri was looking towards the construction site across from the bus, looking at the tools and equipment that would never be used. "Hey guys, you think we could find any weapons..."
Lunging out from one of the luggage compartment under the bus was the zombie dressed in the green suit that was looking into the bus earlier. Meri was too busy looking for weapons to clear the area of zombies before walking away from that she did not see the zombie until it had knocked her over and cut off her sentence.
The zombie had run into her hip with it's shoulder while she was turning back towards the bus to talk to the guys. The force of the attack knocked Meri backwards and into the side of the crumbled hatchback.
The zombie in the green suit, complete with the black smear of congealed blood on its face landed on its knees close by and snarled at her as it tried to climb back to its feet for another attack.
Meri kicked out with her leg while bracing herself on the side of the car. The zombie stumbled again to its knees and began to crawl towards her.
Meri screamed as the zombie grabbed hold of her ankles, pulling her to the ground with a thud.
She lashed out with her foot to keep the zombie from biting her flesh.
Henry, still on the roof of the bus, was frozen in fear watching the zombie crawl towards Meri looking for an easy meal. The ferocity that she was kicking the zombie was intense, and with every strike, Henry winced with the pain that he imagined the zombie felt if it could feel anything.
Hearing Meri scream Dennis quickly turned on the bed of the pickup truck he was standing on. He turned quickly and made a step towards Meri.
"I'm coming! Hang on!" He shouted as he planted his foot in a puddle of congealed blood.
His foot shot out in front of him from the force of his step. His arms started spinning as his body was leaning backwards.
He looked towards the bus and the roof of the pickup truck, looking for anything to grab hold of to keep himself from falling. There was nothing but a crumpled gun rack, he stretched his arm and reached for it.
Dennis fingertips ran by the end of the destroyed gun rack. He squeezed his eyes shut and leant his head forward as he braced for impact.
A loud bang grabbed Henry's attention, and he turned his attention back towards the pickup truck to see Dennis' head bouncing off of the bed of the pickup truck.
"Are you OK?" Henry shouted down to the sprawled out man.
"Um." Dennis groaned from the truck as he reached his hand to the back of his head and put it in front of his face to look for blood.
"Where did that come from?" He asked as he slowly started to sit up in the truck.
Dennis looked at the edge of the bed at the pool of liquid and scratched the back of his head again. He brought his fingers back to his eyes and looked for blood again.
"Was that here when you came up?" He asked Henry.
"No, there was not anything there. I would have killed myself on it when I jumped on." Henry added. "I do not remember any of those things leaking either."
Dennis began to get to his knee as slowly as he could. He rested his hand on his knee and looked down at the ground. Trying to get the woozy feeling to go away.
With Dennis where he was, there was no room for Henry to get down to help Meri. He knew that if he jumped from the top of the bus, he'd break both of his ankles from the fall. He'd dropped from a similar height when he was younger, and the doctors told him that since it happened before, it was likely going to happen again.
A noise of rocks falling down the embankment came from the side of the bus alerted grabbed Henry's attention, he turned his head and looked down. From the top of the bus, Henry watched in horror as another zombie came out of the other side of the bus and was walking towards Dennis.
The zombie had reached his hand up and into the bed of the mangled pickup truck and grabbed Dennis by the hair. Dennis reached up with one of his hands and tried to pull the zombie's hands from his head, his other hand was firmly planted on the ground to help him from falling down.
Dennis grunted in pain as his head was snapped down and into the side of the truck again causing his hand to slip out from under him making him fall to the ground. The zombie tried to pull Dennis towards his open mouth, but he was too big of a man for the zombie to move.
Dennis reached up with his other hand and put his both of his large hands over the top of the zombies and twisted them. Henry heard a crack as the bones in the zombie's hands shattered, Dennis continued to spin, and the hands continued to rotate. With another grunt, Dennis twisted and snapped his wrists making the zombie hands separate from the rest of its arm.
Dennis scrambled to his feet, his sudden burst of adrenaline making him forget about his head injury. He threw the hands in the face of the zombie.
"Asshole!" Dennis shouted at him as he punched the zombie in the face hard enough to knock the undead man onto his back and roll backwards down the embankment. The zombie came to a stop with its neck bent sideways and rotated around back. Henry watched the zombie make sure it was not moving anymore and jumped down onto the roof of the truck.
Denni
s jumped down from the bed of the truck and ran towards the zombie that was still trying to take a bite from Meri.
With the quickness and agility of a high school track star, Dennis sprinted down the road and as he got closer to Meri lifted his leading leg and planted it into the jaw of the zombie. The force of the kick caused the zombie's head to explode as it was pressed against the side of the hatchback. Blood and brains splattered onto the side of the car and all over Meri's chest.
Dennis stood with the toe of his boot on the side of the car and the other just inches from Meri's own terror-filled face. His face was red from the exertion of running, something he had not done in years.
He was panting trying to regain his breath as he looked down at Meri and said, "I bet you like my boots now. Don't you?"
With a little smile, he pulled his boot from the car with a grunt and bent down to help Meri up from her position on her back.
Meri looked over at the headless zombie laying on the ground next to her, a pool of black blood was starting to form at the base of the creatures neck. A shiver came over her body as she took Dennis hand and was lifted to her feet.
Dennis looked at her and said, "Sorry about the mess. I was not expecting that to happen."
He took off his jacket and offered it to her. "It might be a little big, but it won't be as disgusting as what you're wearing now."
He extended his arm and turned his head away.
Henry saw the gesture and turned around and looked back towards the truck. The pool of blood on the truck was not just contained to the bed of the truck there were several lines of blood trailing down the side and smeared along the top of the wheel as well.
He noticed a trail of droplets leading away from the truck and towards the bus before disappearing in the luggage compartment underneath of it.
Henry followed the path and bent down to look in the compartment where the zombies had been hiding.
"Son of a bitch!" Henry said with annoyance.
"What?" Meri and Dennis said in unison.
Henry turned around to look at them, noticing that Meri was down to just a tank top and putting the heavy jacket on over top of her bruise-filled arms.
Dennis seeing the look of surprise on Henry's face turned as well. His mouth hung open as he looked at the battered girl.
"What happened to you?" Dennis asked her.
"Nothing. Everything." Meri said with annoyance. "It does not matter, I do not want to talk about it."
"What did you find Henry?" she said trying to change the topic.
"We'll come back to this," Dennis said to her with the glare of a man who cared.
"Whatever." She said back, annoyed that such a deal was made over it and happy that someone finally cares.
Dennis turned back to Henry. "What do you see?"
"Is that one missing its hands? I know the one that attacked Dennis had both of its hands since you tore them both off." Henry sounded impressed by Dennis' strength.
"You did what!?" Meri said with a smile. "Remind me to not get on your bad side."
Dennis turned around, "Yeah, actually this one is. Hey! Was not this the one that was looking in the front of the bus?"
"It was. That thing knew we were on the bus and set a trap for us." Henry said, "I found his hand in the bottom of the bus, the bastard took his hand off and smeared the bed of the truck with blood trying to get us to fall down. So he could ambush us. There are all kinds of marks and droppings along the ground and side of the bus."
"Wait, you mean they tried to make us slip and fall?" Meri looked scared. "Zombies are not supposed to act like that. They're supposed to be mindless and dumb, just like in all the movies."
"I hope this was a trap of convenience, not something that they planned," Dennis added as he looked back towards the pickup truck and the evidence that Henry had spotted. "Good eye, Henry. At least we know we need to be more careful."
Dennis walked back towards Meri and looked down at the zombie dressed in the green suit that was laying on the ground. He picked up it's left hand and looked at the stump where it's hand used to be.
"It's right about now that I wish I had gone to medical school instead of a trade." Dennis looked up. "I can't really tell if it was chewed off or torn off when it fell from the bus. You want to take a look."
Dennis looked to Meri and Henry. The two of them were slowly shaking their heads, Henry was white as a sheet with a hand over his mouth.
"All right, I do not want to stay here any longer than I have to. We should get going if we are going to get out of here anytime soon." Dennis stood back up and walked slowly towards the front of the bus, carefully looking around every corner and hiding place that he could think where a zombie might hide.
The group walks slowly at first, continually checking around corners and over their shoulders, waiting for any kind of surprise that might be waiting for them. Dennis was in the lead, holding a crowbar that he found embedded in the head of a body just in front of the bus. Next was Meri walking two steps behind Dennis, close enough that if he stopped quickly, she would knock him to the ground. She was carrying all of the food that they had scavenged from the few cars that were on the bus. Henry was in the back of the group, he had found a hammer in the cab of a tow truck and was wielding that in his right hand while carrying a small container of water from the same truck.
Their pace had quickened once they had located a few weapons that they could use to defend themselves. They also had Dennis' small gun, he only had a handful of bullets left and wanted to save them for an absolute last resort.
They were just about to walk around the bulldozer when Henry remembered about the number of zombies that he had seen earlier and wanted to warn the others.
"Hey," Henry said quietly enough to not be heard too far away. "There about 6 or 8 of those things when I came through here earlier. We should watch out for them."
Dennis gave the thumbs up from the front as he poked his head around the back of the large vehicle and looked up the road for any danger. Once past the bulldozer, the traffic on Kings Road was almost negligible. There was a single car wrapped around the set of lights on the corner, that pole had come crashing down into the roof of another unmarked delivery vehicle that stood in the middle of Princess Street, and after that, he could see nothing else in the road that might be a danger to them.
They all come around the side of the bulldozer and look into the parking lot of Walmart on the other end of the road. If it were not for the dead bodies and liquid that covered the surface of the parking lot, it would have looked like any other morning there. The front doors of the Walmart were left open as a shopping cart had been turned over and propped the doors ajar, the silence and eerie calm that came from the store sent shivers up the spine of Henry.
The only thing that was different about the parking lot when Henry went by earlier was the lack of zombies that were roaming around looking for people to eat.
"There's nobody in the parking lot." Meri had said. "How many did you say that you saw earlier?"
"Probably about 9, maybe less," Henry responded. "Maybe a bunch of them had joined up with the group that came by earlier. The need for people to be in a group is pretty compelling. I could see them just following along because they had the urge to."
"That's good news for us," Dennis said with a little bounce in his step.
The group took one final look towards the mall as they continued on their way towards the intersection of Princess and Kings Road. There was a line of trees and an old police building on the right-hand side of Kings Road which meant that the group could not see anything happening further down the road towards where Princess Street turned into Highway 156. At the end of the line of trees is where the car was crashed into the light pole on the corner.
Dennis slowly crossed over to the left side of Kings Road, to give them a better chance of seeing any trouble that might be approaching from around the corner of Princess Street. The group slowed down as they approac
hed the car, it was then that Henry noticed that the downed light pole had wires laying on the ground.
"Hold up!" He said a little louder than he wanted. Instantly both Dennis and Meri froze in their tracks.
"There are power lines down on the road where that light pole went down." He pointed to the road behind the back of the delivery truck. "I do not know if they're still live or not. We should probably go between the van and the car to be safe."
Dennis looked at the road ahead, "You're probably right."
There was only a five or six-foot gap between the end of the car and the front of the delivery truck. The light pole was being held up by the roofs of both vehicles which meant that there were three and a half feet of clearance on one side and almost six feet on the other. On the other end of the car was a large embankment that was almost too steep for them to climb.
Henry had remembered seeing a car go off the road there one day. It took about 20 minutes for the driver of the vehicle to climb the bank to get to the road, the tow truck they had brought in had a hard time getting the car out as well.
"I do not know how I feel about this," Meri said, breaking the silence. "There's not a lot of room between the cars and I have a bad feeling about it."
"I'd rather go that way, then around the other side of the truck and get electrocuted," Dennis said looking over his shoulder towards her. "We just need to be careful not to touch the vehicles, just in case."
Dennis started walking again. Meri sighed and started following him. Henry took a look over his shoulder to make sure that nothing had tried to sneak up on them while they were stopped. Satisfied that nothing was coming, he followed the rest.
They carefully and cautiously approached the delivery vehicle. The group of survivors got in line with the car, Dennis got down on one knee and looked under the truck to see if the could see bodies or signs that there might be some activity on the other side.
Dennis grimaced as he stood up, still a little sore from slipping into the pool of blood getting off the bus. Standing up, Dennis put his hands on the small of his back and leant back stretching out his tight muscles.
"This is going to hurt tomorrow," Dennis says out loud, as he hunched his shoulders forward.
"If we survive that long." He muttered to himself.
"See anything?" Henry whispers to Dennis.
"No, there was nothing to see. There appears to be another vehicle turned on its side pressed up against this truck. Other than that, it looks OK."
"Do you hear that?" Meri says from behind the two men. "What's that buzzing noise?"
Henry stands still and holds his breath for a minute to listen to the sound. "I hear it too."
Henry listens to the noise for a minute longer. The sound appears to be coming from all around the group, it seems like it's coming from the front of the truck, the back of the truck and inside the truck.
"Do you hear bees?" Meri asks.
"No," Dennis responds. "That's live wires. Do not touch either of the vehicles or poles, if you want to live to see tomorrow."
Dennis goes first through the two vehicles, being a tall man he has to duck underneath of the pole. As he walks under the pole, he is looking up at it making sure there are no hidden wires before he motions the others through. On the other side of the pole, he stands up straight again and faces the others.
"OK. Come on through."
Meri is frozen in her tracks as two zombies stand up by the front fender and make their way towards Dennis' back. She sticks her arm out straight and points past him trying to mutter any words.
Dennis sees her pointing and trying to say something and immediately raises his crowbar out of instinct and recoils a little seeing two of them so close. He swung his crowbar across in front of him and catching the first zombie in the chin, the crowbar got trapped in the dead man's bone, and the force of the swing throws it to the ground. Dennis stomped on its head and yanks the bar out to get ready for the other one but is surprised to see it standing there just out of Dennis' swing zone.
"Guys, we have a problem." Henry piped up from beside the still horrified Meri.
Dennis looked up to see a group of six other zombies coming around the corner of the delivery van and walking towards Meri and Henry.
Immediately Henry recognised one of the zombies in the front as the mechanic that found him in the woods this morning downtown. Trevor had a few rough cuts and scrapes along his cheeks, and most of his coveralls were torn from trying to get over the razor wire fence on the other side of the highway.
"What the hell." Henry stammers backwards, bumping into Meri who turns to see the group.
"Run!" Dennis screamed at them.
Henry turned toward Dennis and grabbed Meri by the shoulders to turn her in the direction that he needs her to go.
"Move. Move. Move." Henry said as he's helping her along.
Henry reached up with his free hand and pushed Meri's head down as they get closer to the light pole.
Dennis took a step forward and swung the bar toward the still zombie catching it in the temple. The zombie dropped to the ground instantly as Henry and Meri go running past him.
Dennis turned around to see the first zombie approaching the pole and hit it with his face. The zombie convulsed from the amount of electricity running through its body. Stopping beside the zombie was the old man in the fedora hat that Henry had seen in the parking lot, he had stopped too close to the body of the electrically charged one, and its flailing hand reached out touched the old man's arm. Both zombies began to dance uncontrollably in the parking intersection.
Dennis backed up as the first zombie fell to the ground taking the other one with it since they became fused together.
Chapter Sixteen