like corn stalks in front of the truck. I was fish-tailing this way and that, trying to remember how to steer since it’d been a good while since I’d been behind the wheel of anything. Heading for the gate. I busted through that fucker at fifty and fought the wheel like the Skipper in Gilligan’s Island trying to avoid all the tree stumps.
I made a few of the close ones, then clipped one on a side panel and slewed left, heading right for another one no more than ten feet away. I pulled hard to the right and almost lost control, then floored it again. I was almost to the tree line when I misjudged and went full-on into another stump that refused to budge an inch. The truck came to a stop, throwing the girl into the floorboard and me into the windshield. The engine rocketed up to full power and then screamed and stopped abruptly. Smoke began to curl out of the hood.
I took a second to look in the rear view mirror and saw there was a lot of action behind me. Still behind the fence but moving with purpose. Red Eyes in the mix. I reached down and snatched the girl off the floor. I was hoping she wasn’t dead already and something about the feel of her body told me she wasn’t. Then I shouldered the door open and stepped out to the boundary of woods. She wasn’t moving and I figured she’d been knocked out when we hit that last motherfucker of a stump. Cast a look over my shoulder. Yeah they were coming.
Pressing the girl to my chest I made my way into the woods.
It was a rough go and not because the woods were that thick or anything. It was her. I’d never been this close to a Live-er before and I got to tell you, it was not easy. She was still out but I could feel the blood pulsing through her veins and her skin looked so tasty I was drooling down my chin. But I tried to stay focused. Thought about the bunch that was following us and what they might do if they caught up. Me, I wasn’t sure what they’d do to, but her I knew. They’d rip her to pieces and eat her. That was a fact.
I moved a little faster, not wanting to look behind me but powerless to stop. Yeah they were already to the busted gate and there was more than the first time. Maybe a coupla mudhead stragglers but mostly Red Eyes. They move a little more natural than the others. Kinda like me I suppose. And I knew they weren’t gonna stop. I’d really stepped in it this time and I still wasn’t exactly sure why. If there was one thing I wasn’t in the old days, it was a hero, and I wasn’t quite sure why I was trying to be one now. Regardless, I had the girl and the Red Eyes were coming on.
I sped up a little, trying to get up a head of steam. I had no idea where I was or where I was headin but I thought any place had to be better than back there. It looked like all woods in every direction. Mostly flat land, trees everyfucking where. I couldn’t climb with her in my arms and didn’t figure that would have been such a good idea in the first place. I also didn’t figure they’d stop until they had me but I goddamn sure wasn’t gonna make it easy for em.
She began to stir a little and I pressed forward, shouldering through vines and small bushes. I could hear em behind me now and that’s when I knew I was on a fool’s errand. But that shouldn’t have been so surprising since I’d always been a fool. I looked down at her and her eyes were fluttering and right about then I thought about what it’d be like for her. Opening her eyes to a buncha goddamn monsters with one running off with her and another bunch chasing. I thought again about what a dumb motherfucker I was but didn’t see how that made a whole lot of difference right about now.
Behind me I started to hear louder grunts and considered the possibility that at least one of em was probably running. Again, something out of the ordinary. They were gonna get me. They were gonna get her too and right then that was the major problem.
I stopped running and placed the girl down beside a tree trunk. Patted her on the head and she made another tiny noise. Then I turned around to face whatever the fuck was coming up from behind.
Through the trees I could make out the outlines of four Red Eyes. Steady coming on. The closest was about fifty feet back and grinning like a death’s head. I stepped away from where the girl was and stood my ground. I knew I didn’t have a monkey’s chance in hell of taking all those somebitches, but I wasn’t just gonna roll over. Those days were long gone. The damn thing didn’t even pause when it got close, just streamrolled up and we both went down like a coupla scarecrows. I started punching that fat, black, swollen face and it didn’t seem to make beans for difference. I felt a hand at my side, thick fingernails trying to rip inside me. It was going for a handful of intestines and I jammed my finger deep into its left eye. That goddamn red light went out just about the time the others got to us.
And then they started kicking my ass like there was no tomorrow.
I lost track of what I was trying to do after awhile, and then it was mostly crabbing up and trying to keep myself in one piece. I caught myself wondering why they didn’t just rip my arms and legs off and be done with the whole thing but I didn’t know they still had plans for me. And if I’d’a known it would have been better for them to just rip and tear. At least that way it would have been over.
I kinda faded away for a bit there and when I came back to my muddy senses I was flat on my back with those four motherfuckers standing around me looking down. From where I was it didn’t appear I’d done a hell of a lot of good kicking their ass because they all looked just fine. Or as fine as Deaders look. We all still stunk like rabid squirrels but they were none the worse for wear.
And then I saw that the one I’d fought first was holding something. I shook my head and tried to struggle up to my elbows. The one on my left side kicked me back to the ground. They had the little girl. I hadn’t done a damn bit of good. It looked like she was back from the land of the unconscious and she was not happy about it. She was screaming and kicking out but the motherfucker that had her acted like it was nothing. It grabbed one arm and one leg and held her out in front of it, looking over at the others and fucking smiling. I shit you not.
I wished a deeper kind of hell on those fuckers than I’d ever considered before but it looked like the gods were not paying attention.
The one holding her motioned something to his goons and two of em went down on the ground next to me and before I knew it they had ahold of my arms and the one left over grabbed my legs. Like grips of steel. I couldn’t move a muscle. Except for my head. I strained it up from the ground and looked at the one-eyed motherfucker holding the girl.
It walked over and straddled me, still holding her out in front of it. Then it dropped down on its knees and she was hanging about a foot over my head. I still didn’t know what it was right then but there were some connections just getting made. And that goddamn chicken bone was striking up a symphony in my head.
And then he pushed her down onto my face. That’s when I knew what these motherfuckers were up to and I started shaking my head side to side, trying to get the smell of her off me. Trying to forget about that sweet hot blood that was all packaged up and ready to go right there for the taking. I told myself no you don’t motherfucker. Do not do this, but the Red Eye pushed her down harder on my face and I could no longer turn my head. I squeezed my mouth shut but I could smell her like a four-alarm fire. She wasn’t even kicking much anymore.
And then I opened my mouth and bit into her. The second that young hot blood touched my lips I lost all control and the symphony in my head ramped up like a million men were playing for their lives. I started eating and couldn’t stop. I just forgot myself and everything went real bloody and red and then everything went black.
Sometime later I came around and it was all quiet. Not even birds squawking in the trees, though I have to admit there’s very little of that any more. I laid there for a moment looking up through the trees. Thought about how nice this would have been almost any other day in my old life. Now it was shit.
I brushed a hand across my mouth and it came back blood. The little girl. Jesus Christ. I shook my head and sat up. The Red Eyes were gone but those motherfuckers had left me a little surprise. It was all spread around me, pieces of her,
little bits of clothes. It appeared I hadn’t been the only one to have a go at that young hot blood. But it’s when I saw her bloody shoe that it all became too much. I reared back my head and howled into the woods. Yelled and screamed until I couldn’t make another sound. Then I just sat there. In misery. Looking at the mess around me. On me.
Those motherfuckers.
And then I saw it. A shotgun propped up against the closest tree. They’d made damn sure I’d see it when I came to. Without touching it I already knew it’d be loaded. I even half-expected those Red Eyes were hiding back there somewhere in the woods waiting to see if I’d do it.
And I got to tell you, it took all I had not to.
Just walk over there and pick it up, something kept saying. Pick that sonofabitch up and stick it in your mouth. Pull the fucking trigger with your toe. Just do it!
But I didn’t.
To this day I don’t know why not. Because I wish I had.
But right then I couldn’t. There were too many things running through my head. Thoughts about Heaven and Hell, the little girl. I hadn’t been a church-rat when I was coming up and ever since the Change I hadn’t lost any sleep over any such thing, but right then it was front and