An Undead Invasion

Three - Part 2

Penny, Leon, Zora, Steve, and Steve's older brother Patrick--a tall fellow with hair as light as his brother's--arrived in the nearest village a little over an hour later. The list of items Jerry needed was tucked safely in Patrick's jean pocket. He had been a maintenance worker before the outbreak. Out of the small group, he would be most likely to recognize the five items on the list. Steve and Zora had insisted on coming along and, on a whim, Penny had volunteered as well. She was pleased to see Leon quietly step forward to accompany them. Or her. Probably her. She smiled.

But now she was afraid. The town was scattered with wandering corpses, weaving through and around buildings. Her eyes settle on one in particular--a scrawny older man. He's wearing what used to be navy blue slacks, but the bottoms are shredded. The scraps are brown with mud and dust all the way up to his knees. He's wearing a navy blue jacket. A plethora of pins on his chest mark his rank and accomplishments. Penny doesn't understand them, but she saw some of the same ones on her father's jacket.

Her mind went back to the last time she saw him.

She was sitting in the passenger seat of their Lincoln Navigator, pouting. They were leaving their father in America and she was angry.

"Why can't you just come with us, dad?" she pressed.

"I've got obligations, pumpkin. I can't bail on them," he said.

"So you're bailing on us?" She had tears in her eyes.

"It's not like that," he said, pained. "It's for us. All of us. I'll do whatever they ask me to, to make it safe for you to come home. For now, you'll be safe at grandma's."

Penny tried to swallow, but her thoughts had left a sandy taste in her mouth.

"Perk up, red," Zora whispered. "We gotta be a hundred percent to get through these walking rotbags."

She nodded toward them as they shuffled along. A woman with half her bottom lip chewed away, blood staining the front of her pastel pink track suit, suddenly stopped. She threw her grimy blonde head back and pulled air into her dead, useless lungs. She wasn't aiming for oxygen. She couldn't breathe but she could smell.

"Patrick, you run and get whatever you need," Zora said. "We will handle them."

Penny's breath caught. She hadn't expected to have to fight them. Sneak by them maybe. Probably see some of the others handle a few. But she didn't expect to have to deal with them up close and personal.

The track suit zombie snapped her dead gaze in their direction. Her mouth opened and blackened blood oozed out in clumps, falling to the concrete in splats. A groaning hiss followed, causing the other undead nearby to liven up, each with the same thought: Food.

"Let's go," Zora said aloud.

Penny hardly noticed Parick making a run for it. Zora stood and, with her war hammer held high, she dove into the nearest living dead. The spike side of the war hammer plunged into track suit's skull. The thing hit the concrete where her pile of goop had settled.

"Wait, Zora, we can't kill them all," Leon said.

"Speak for yourself," said Steve with a wild look. He took off after Zora, swinging his spiked bat upward into the chin of a short, pre-teen sized undead. It flew backward and hardly hit the ground before he was swinging at another.

Leon cursed. "Come on, we don't want to be cornered here. Stay close," he told Penny. "You get my back, I'll get yours."

She nodded and they joined the fight. Penny drove her knife into at least twenty skulls out there. Leon downed twice as many with his hammer. Zora and Steve wiped out the majority on their own.

Once it was finally clear, Penny's arms felt like rubber. Her muscles were overworked, pushing and stabbing the undead. They were stupid, but they were heavy.

"Shit, where is he?" Zora said through heavy breaths. "He should be back by now."

"I'll find him," said Steve.

"Come on, we'll all go," Zora said.

Steve lead in the direction he saw Patrick heading. The first building they came to had an open door. They stepped inside.

"Ugh," said Steve.

There, on the floor, lay Patrick. Eviscerated. Steve vomited. Zora stomped forward and buried her war hammer in his head. She picked up his backpack and peered inside.

"It's all here," she said, all business-like. "Come on."

Steve went over and knelt at Patrick's side and let out an anguished groan.

"Come on, we don't have time," Zora said. "It's almost dark. We-oh, my God." She was looking out the door and whatever she saw, stopped her train of thought bluntly.

"What?" Penny asked. She ran to the door and peered out.

Amidst the fallen undead, stood very much alive undead. In the center, a livid, fresh undead. Darwin. Penny's heart stopped so suddenly, she felt as though she blinked out of existence for a moment. He was bigger, it seemed. In one hand he held Rose's old blanket--one they'd left at the house. In the other hand, he held Missy's grave marker--made by Howie and placed on the grave Jerry, Patrick, and Steve had dug before the small group headed out.

A string of bloody saliva hung from Darwin's mouth as he sniffed the air. He must have smelled Steve and Patrick all over his wife's grave. He'd been robbed of the chance to feast on her, to turn her. Now he was pissed. His horde seemed to have doubled in size. There was over a hundred easy. All ready to attack.

"Run," said Zora.

If an extremely tough person like Zora was scared, Penny was terrified. She stumbled on nervous legs as they fled through the building, hoping Darwin wouldn't be close behind. They didn't stop until they reached the hotel.

Zora slammed the backpack down on the registration desk, then left without a word. Probably heading off to have a nap. She always hid alone to sleep, and apparently never in the same spot twice. She had once said that changes made her feel safe. Well rested.

But Penny didn't think of that right now. She was still thinking about Darwin's grey skin, the patches of dark rot, and his blank eyes, with their depth of retained knowledge.

He trailed them there, Penny realized. He seemed more and more like a frenzy, a thought that swooped over her like a sheet of ice.