A Walk Among The Dead

Chapter 5

I woke up to the sound of rattling tools and worn tires running on asphalt. My back was leaning up against one of the sides of the truck bed, sore from not moving for so long. I winced as I went to look at my shoulder. A mixture of purple, black, and green made the giant bruise look like a finger painting done by a preschooler.

It was early morning now. How I slept through the night, I don't know.

I turned to see Brady slumped over on the silver toolbox taking up the back wall of the bed. Daisy was leaning up against the hatch, making me nervous. I wanted to wake her up and tell her to move, but I didn't have the energy, or the motivation.

"Hey," Brady said lazily. "How's it feelin'?" He pointed at the artwork taking up residence on my shoulder.

"Hurts a lot, but I think I'll live."

"Let me take a look." Daisy chimed in. I thought she was asleep.

Daisy was a nursing intern at a couple of hospitals in Virginia. At age sixteen, I didn't know that was possible. She think's she's some kind of doctor.

She scooted her way to me, careful not to fall over. Her cold fingertips felt good on my heat filled injury. I didn't mind it, until she grabbed my upper arm and jerked it to the side. My teeth gritted together, trying to prevent a scream from escaping my throat. I glared at her.

"It's dislocated." Her bluntness made me cringe.

"Really Doctor Daisy? Did they teach you that in nursin' school?" I retorted with my best sarcastic southern accent. Brady backhanded my uninjured shoulder and gave me a look. I rolled my eyes and continued to glare at Daisy.

She threw her hands up in defeat. "You don't have to be a doctor to see a bone sticking out of place under the skin."

I hadn't really noticed before she said anything. Sure enough, a huge lump appeared under the bruise. I sighed obnoxiously.

"Great. How are we gonna fix this?" I asked. I was so sick of everything going wrong.

"You could let me pop it back into place."

Her words hit me like a truck. There was no way in hell I was letting her get the satisfaction of making me cringe with pain as she yanked my shoulder back into place.

"No way," I started. "I can do it my self." I spat. She crossed her arms and laughed.

"Be my guest." She motioned her hand, welcoming me to try doing it on my own.

Anger got the best of me. I had to prove this arrogant bitch wrong.

I slowly brought my hand up to my shoulder, gripping my upper arm and placing my thumb on the lump. I took a deep breath and prepared myself for the pain that was about to come. Ok, on the count of three. One, two, three! I jerked my arm to the side and pressed my thumb down on the bone. I heard a crack and a pop. I screamed, pain running up and down my arm. I looked at the place where the lump was supposed to be, but it was gone. I sighed with relief.

"See? Told you I could do it myself." I said, my heavy breaths making it hard to comprehend. She shrugged her shoulders and smirked.

"I'm impressed." She said. "Here, take this." She reached in one of the backpacks that was laying in the middle of us and retrieved a bottle of ibuprofen. She tossed me the bottle, the pills rattled in the air.

"Thanks," I said tossing to pills back, swallowing them dry. I almost choked on them as the truck came to a sudden stop.

"Shit!" I heard Bill call out from the cab. The truck came to a halting stop, making the tires screech on the pavement. We stood quickly to see what was going on. My eyes widened as I gripped the hem of my shirt tightly.

Cars upon cars lined the lifeless interstate lanes, the lines running for miles. The cars had dust and grime on their surfaces, making it appear like they'd been sitting there for years. I jumped from the bed of the truck, kitchen knife in hand, and stormed off to the nearest car I saw.

"You've got-" I stabbed the trunk of the car with my sharp knife. It went straight through, surprisingly.

"To be-" I stabbed the vehicle again. My body was shaking violently, rage threatening to make me explode.

"Fucking kidding me!" I screamed and stabbed the car for the fourth or fifth time. I felt Brady's arms wrap around me, pulling me away from the damaged car.

"Drop the knife." He whispered in my ear. Tears filled my eyes as I dropped the weapon. It rattled on the ground before finally laying still. He turned my body around to walk back to the truck. All eyes were on me, making me even more furious and upset.

My body was weak. All of these stressful events that kept taking place were going to break me. I fell to my knees and started sobbing, feeling four sets of eyes burning holes through my soul. My body jumped at the touch of a hand on my shoulder. I looked up to see Dad's sad eyes standing over me.

"Honey, I-" A noise from the side of the car I'd just flipped out on caught our attention, cutting Dad off mid sentence. Everyone raised their weapons, pointing them in the direction of the sound.

A single rotting body emerged from behind the car, groaning and growling deeply. It started limping toward us slowly, grasping the air in front of it, desperately wanting to reach us.

"Don't." I looked at Dad and Bill who both had their hand guns raised. I gave Daisy and Brady a look that told them to do the same. All four of them lowered their weapons, watching me closely as I bent over and picked up my knife.

I wanted this one. I wanted the satisfaction of killing it, and watching its body hit the ground when I did so. Maybe watching the thing that destroyed the world suffer would make me feel better.

My body began to tremble again. My eyes locked with the cloudy ones of the monster. Slowly, I raised my knife above my head, ready to bring it down on the rotting brute. It's bony legs continued to limp my way, creating an adrenaline rush that began pumping through my veins.

"You ugly piece of shit." I whispered, plunging my knife into the rotter's skull. I placed my foot on its limp abdomen and shoved the body away from me, removing the knife from its head and causing the thing to go flying. It's body hit the ground hard, bones cracking from the impact. Exactly what I wanted to hear.

I turned back to face the group. Daisy and Brady had their mouths half open, while Dad and Bill just watched me with wide eyes. I walked up to Brady and Daisy, their mouths still hanging from shock.

"Close your mouths, you're gonna catch flies."