CHAPTER 16
BILLY
"We're going to have to get out of the car!" I yell. Hunter snaps awake as I swerve the Rustbucket and slam the brakes, parking in the shadow of an old house. The two-story house was yellowed with age, and appeared to be deserted. Sam, Hunter and I pile out of the car, leaving Pepper inside. Sam set her lab coat down, nicely folded.
"Don't touch it, pig." She says to Pepper.
"Make sure to lock it," Hunter says to me. She really is attached to that pig, and so I follow Hunter's orders.
"Okay, so here's the plan" Sam starts as we run up the hill. "The altitude should slow them down, and the lack of oxygen will probably cause them to suffocate. We should be to the top of the hill and back to the Rustbucket in fifteen minutes flat."
Behind us, the Swarm is beginning to slow down. If Sam is right, we can just live in the mountains and be safe. But wouldn't that be running away from the bigger problem? I think it would be best not to think about that at the moment. I turn back around, and see the Swarm is moving much slower than it was, but they were still gaining ground. I speed up, but Sam stumbles. I swear under my breath and slow my own pace. I feel every step as I slam my leather boots to the snowy ground.
We are making our way up the steep mountain, and Sam does a quick turnaround, running backwards, to check on the pursuers. We are a long way from the warm, grassy field where we parked the Rustbucket.
"They don't appear to be slowing any," Sam informs us nervously. I exhale sharply, worried about how much higher we will have to go. My stomach churns at the thought of going back down, and the area around us stretches further away, as if it were trying to get away from me. I try not to think about the height, tucking it away in my mind, and trying to focus on my surroundings.
When I snap back to attention, I see that the ground cuts off about thirty feet away from me and the girls. Hunter seems to have noticed this as well, but as brave as she is, she continues, headstrong. Sam is calculating, I can see it in her trembling grey eyes and her gentle biting of her lower lip. She breathes sharply through her nose and snaps back to attention. Her eyes are wide with concern as we stop at the cliff face. We all turn around, and I am expecting for the zombies to start dropping any second, like flies. But all that happens is that they have slowed their pace.
"Problem." Sam bites her lip, and reaches her hand to her neck.
"Problem?" Hunter asks, half-hysterical. "We are less than five feet from the edge of a giant cliff and you only now have a problem?" I cringe as I take a step away from the edge.
"Miscalculation, ac- actually," Sam says as she stabs her fingernails into her pale neck, hiding her hand under her dark brown hair. She is blushing now, a deep red. "I may have failed to notice that zombies don't breathe..."
"But you said that... the zombies appeared... to be... breathing heavily!" I interject. We are about to be eaten at the top of a mountain because of Sam.
"Well, I think... that their bodies... have to work harder... to maintain... homeostasis and-"
"Simpler, Sam! I'm stupid!" Hunter interrupts.
"You're not... stupid," I say.
"Their... Bodies... Can't handle... The... Cold..." Sam says slowly, not to 'simplify' but because we can feel the lower oxygen up here, along with the cold. The run surely doesn't help, not to mention we aren't exactly in heavy winter clothes. Hunter is in shorts and a t-shirt; at least Sam and I are wearing jeans.
"And they... Are moving slower... Like reptiles... Maybe they're c-cold blooded." Sam continues. She sneezes and clutches at her head. I hope she isn't sick. She seems to pick up on my concern and reassures me.
"Headache." She says, half-zoned out. The zombies are getting closer now, closing in on us.
Hunter looks around the Swarm, and I can see she is trying to think.
"What do we do?" She asks frantically.
"I- I- I don't know!" Sam sounds on the verge of tears. One rolls down her cheek but freezes by her nose.
"We're going to jump." Hunter says with full definition in her voice.
"Are you insane?" I half-scream. "We are definitely too high up, we'll never make it!" I feel my nerves tighten.
"On the count of three?" Sam says. She brushes a lock of hair from her face.
"One." Hunter starts, locking hands with me. I go to look over the edge, but stop myself in fear of throwing up.
"Two." Sam continues. I lock hands with her, and we are in a line. We step closer to the edge. I force myself not to step back. All of my muscles lock up. Sam accidentally jumps early, and her side slams into the cliff. The shock makes my grip loosen and she begins falling.
"Th- three." I finish, and we push off, leaping into the air. We let go of each other, but I secretly wish we didn't. We fall through the air, and I feel the rush of the wind disheveling my short hair. I look down to see Sam laughing, looking like she is truly enjoying herself for the first time all week. I guess she just needs the right kind of adrenaline rush. Her giggle echoes through my mind as I turn to Hunter. She is smiling at me, and for a second, I feel safe.
"Don't land on me!" Sam giggles as she tries to move in the air. At another glimpse, I see a darker spot among her black shirt, the spot on her right side near her ribs. Where she slammed against the cliff. Her laughs now sound airy, almost pained.
"I promise I won't," I say, except it's more like yelling because I have to be louder than the wind around us. I hear a puffing noise, and look down. Sam landed in a snowpile at the base of he mountain, and a bit of the snow near her has dyed itself from her wound. She isn't moving.
The odds of landing in the snowpile are slim already, having it be a small pile surrounded by grass, but then there's the issue of not landing on Sam. My heart rate races now and I look at Hunter. She tells me to calm down, and I take one last look at her pale green eyes when we hit the ground. The last things I feel are cold and worry, and then I am enveloped in darkness.
