Tail of the Dead (Write to Rank 2023)

SEVEN

 "Are you all right? You're limping," Julie said to Elsa.

Elsa wagged her tail. She seemed able to put weight on her hind leg, but she was definitely lame. She let Julie palpate the limb, as she'd seen her father do to dogs at his vet clinic.

"Nothing broken, I think. Don't worry, girl, Dad will fix it."

"Told you so," Cole said loftily as he trotted past.

The girl and her canine entourage proceeded down the empty highway, seeing a few more hastily parked cars on the narrow shoulders. One hung partly in the water like the bus, but all appeared empty. The smell of the Things was distinct, but Cole and Elsa agreed the scent was older.

At last, they saw the tall bridge over the river. It seemed quiet, though they couldn't see from the road if it was empty as well. Julie paused at the entrance to a small housing development, about five minutes walk from the bend that turned the highway onto the bridge. A last car rested against the marble sign that marked the entrance. The sign read, "Riverview Estates."

"Maybe I should see if someone's home," Julie muttered to herself.

Elsa scented the air and growled at the Riverview Estates. Cole thought he could hear something moving back there, but the houses were partly hidden in trees and hedges.

"Maybe not," Julie whispered, and backed away.

At that moment, a woman and two children, younger than Julie, came running out of the neighborhood. "Don't go that way!" the woman screamed. "There's no way out! Help! There's no way out!"

As she got closer, Cole saw that the woman's blouse was torn open at the collar, and a bloody wound gaped like an open, incoherent mouth on her shoulder. Joey and Bella both started barking hysterically, then turned to run for the bridge.

"The Things bit her!" Elsa snarled. "I can smell it!"

"She's been bitten," Julie said in a terrified whisper. "Let's go."

Behind the woman and her kids, a crowd of the Things emerged at a rapid, erratic sprint. These looked newer than the first Things they'd seen at home, more like the unfortunate students on the bus, and it seemed that meant they could move faster. Julie looked over her shoulder and screamed. The two children, both boys, screamed as well.

"Stay close to Julie," Elsa called to Cole. She hopped a bit on her injured leg. "I'll try to hold them off."

"Me too." Buddy planted himself in the middle of the road, growling like a Big Brown Truck.

Julie ran after the two smaller dogs, Cole at her side. They gained the bridge ahead of their pursuers, with the bitten woman just behind them. They passed an abandoned pickup, which looked like it had crashed into the railing. Its driver's side door had been torn off.

Cole glanced back and saw that the woman's eyes were bloodshot, almost purple, and the bleeding wound was starting to ooze a darker color. He paused and then did something else he'd never done in his life: snarled and lunged, snapping, at the human.

The bitten woman cried out and stumbled off to the side, far enough from Julie that Cole felt safe to turn and run again. His human sister was faster than he'd have thought.

"Go!" he heard the bitten woman say, in a weeping, tired voice. "Go on! I'll see you later." The older of the two boys dragged his younger brother away, both wailing.

They were about a third of the way over the long bridge when gunshots rang out.

Word count: 600

Total: 6931