Hollowland Page 15

  “It’s too dark to play.” Harlow looked out her window at the black landscape. Without any electricity, the only lights on the road came from our car. The stars shone brightly, but the moon only had a thin crescent to give off light.

  “Nonsense. There’s gotta be stuff we can see.” Lazlo searched the road, determined to prove her wrong.

  “What about that?” Harlow pointed to the front windshield.

  On the road a ways in front of us, the headlights glinted off something shiny. The closer we got, the more things glinted. Small flashes of light all across the road, reminding me of lightening bugs, but the glimmer had something menacing about it.

  “What the hell is that?” Lazlo leaned forward, slowing the car down.

  We drove near enough where the headlights hit more than their eyes, and we could see them lurching forward. They weren’t at their usual manic speed, but they were definitely a small legion of zombies. They stood there or stumbled ahead slowly, their arms hanging disjointed, their faces clawed and drooling. Some of them looked dismembered, and all of them were old and in terrible shape.

  “Holy shit!” Lazlo slammed on the breaks.

  “What’s going on?” Blue snapped awake, and Ripley growled in the back.

  “Zombies are blocking the road!” Lazlo gestured to the pack in front of us. “What do I do?”

  We sat in the middle of the road in an elderly station wagon with two guns and a lion, and I didn’t know how much ammo we had left. I might already be infected with the virus, and none of us knew exactly how close or how far we were from the quarantine. An army of half-dead monsters trudged towards us, and we had to make a decision.

  “Run the fuckers over,” Harlow said, and none of us disagreed with her.

  Lazlo pressed on the gas, and the car surged forward, as fast as this car could surge. It plowed into the zombies, and it gave me a twisted satisfaction at watching them splat on the hood on the car. Harlow actually squealed.

  The car mowed down a few of them initially, but running into bodies took a toll on it. And then the zombies started pushing back. Too late, we realized the zombies were at lot stronger and faster than they pretended to be. They had faked us out.

  We weren’t moving forward at all. They rocked the car from side to side, trying to tip us, and I remembered the truck where we found Ripley. The zombies had flipped it, and here we were, in the exact same situation. And I knew how well it turned out for the people in the truck.

  Harlow screamed, and Lazlo shouted for everyone to hang on, although I’m not sure how that would help. Blue told me to get the guns, but I was already on it, climbing into the back with a very pissed off lion. She slammed her paws into the windows, trying to get at the zombies taunting her from the other side, and I prayed she didn’t break the glass. I did not need her letting zombies in here.

  I got the shotgun and passed it forward to Blue, but I couldn’t find the handgun. Harlow had it last, and I had no idea what she’d done with it. Crawling on my hands and knees in the back, I searched through the bags, and narrowly missed being swiped by Ripley’s giant paws. She didn’t want to hurt me, but I was in the way of her attempted zombie murder.

  Lazlo shouted things I didn’t understand, and the car started doing more than just rock back and forth. It was full on tipping.

  I tried to grab onto something to hang onto, but it happened so fast. One second, I was on my knees, the next I was tumbling head over feet over lion.

  I heard things shattering and metal crunching and people screaming, but I hit my head and everything became very disorienting.

  Ripley leapt over me, her chain smacking painfully into my stomach, and then she was gone. I heard her roaring and felt a greasy hand grabbing onto my arm. I sat up, yanking my arm from a zombie grip.

  When the car flipped over, the back window broke out. Shattered glass was strewn about with the bags, and zombies were starting to creep in the back.

  Ripley rushed out to get them, and she held off a few, but there were too many for just her. There were too many for us.

  The zombie that grabbed my arm kept coming after me. I picked up a giant shard of broken glass and stabbed it into its throat, and the zombie finally stopped. But another one was right on its heels.

  “Remy!” Lazlo yelled. Blood trailed down his forehead, but he was sitting up and held his hand out to me.

  Only the back window had been broken out, so in the front, they were safe. Blue tried to aim the gun at the zombies coming at me, but I was in the way. Harlow had crouched down, covering her head with her hands, but otherwise, everyone looked okay.

  A zombie came at me, and I kicked in its face. It squished in, leaving a gooey mess all over the bottom of my shoe. I scooted backwards on my butt, mindful of the broken glass, but getting away from the window as quickly as possible.

  Once I was out of the way, Blue shot the zombies. After he blew one of their heads off, they came in a lot more slowly. Outside, I could hear their death groans and Ripley’s roars as she took them on. I hoped she didn’t get hurt, but at this point, I voted her most likely to survive out of all of us.

  “Are you okay?” Lazlo knelt right behind me.

  “Yeah.” I looked over at Blue, who fired on another intruder. “I couldn’t find the handgun.”

  “I don’t think it’s gonna matter all that much.” Blue gave me a sidelong glance, and he’d come to the same conclusion I had. We were completely overwhelmed.

  The zombies pounded on the side of the car, the sounds echoing through the small space like thunder. That was interrupted by shattering glass, and I covered my face.

  Before I could tell where they had gotten in, Harlow screamed. I looked up to see her being dragged out through the broken window, her fingers desperately raking on the felt ceiling of the car.

  – 15 –

  I went out the window after her. Glass from the broken window scraped my knees, and a long piece slashed across my stomach, but I barely noticed it. Harlow’s plaintive cries blocked out everything else.

  As I crawled out of the car, a zombie greeted me. One of its ears had been bitten off, and its jaw hung by a piece of skin. It did some weird screechy howl thing right in my face, its breath smelling of death and rotten meat.

  To shut it up, I punched it in the face. The skin gave way, and its head snapped back. It didn’t kill it, but it gave me a chance to slip by.

  A hairy monstrous beast of a zombie had grabbed onto Harlow’s ankles and pulled her out of the car, presumably so it would be easier to eat her. She rolled onto her back and kicked at his face as hard as she could, and I finally saw the appeal of her combat boots.

  Two more zombies came at her, rushing to the sound of her cries, but Ripley dove over her, tearing into one of them. The other one kept coming, and I had to get to it.

  The zombie with one ear tried to come at me again, so I punched it even harder, aiming my fist on the soft skin of its cheekbone. It caved underneath my hand, covering my skin with disgusting gelatin that passed for zombie brains. Before I had a chance to vomit, I yanked my hand out and got to my feet.

  Sprinting, I went for the zombie going at Harlow’s head. I tackled him in the back, slamming him onto the ground right next to where Harlow lay struggling. I knelt on his back, with his face smashed into the ground, and he wriggled and tried to get out from under me.

  I had been hoping that he would be older, and his whole body would cave under my weight, but no such luck. I grabbed his head, my fingers pressing on his dry, patchy scalp, and I twisted it hard, snapping his neck with a sickening crack.

  At least six and a half feet tall, the zombie attacking Harlow looked to be half a ton, not counting the grizzly dark hair running all down his arms and back and chest. On top of all that, he didn’t look that old. His skin hadn’t sagged or bloated. The only thing keeping Harlow alive was he was too stupid to think of a better plan than letting her kick him in the face, but eventually, he’d just snap her legs.

&n
bsp; He was far too big for me to take down on my own, and Blue was trapped in the car with the only gun, holding zombies off as long as he could. Ripley had taken down another zombie right next to us, and she ripped into the meaty part of its belly.

  Ripley still had that chain tied around her neck, since I hadn’t trusted her to let me get close enough to take it off. It might finally come in handy, and I grabbed it.

  Holding the chain in my hands, I jumped up and wrapped it around the monster zombie’s neck, choking him. He made a gurgling sound, and I literally hung off him by the chain. After a second, he let Harlow go and stumbled backwards.

  The chain yanked on Ripley, and she growled in protest, then jumped at his face. He fell backwards, with me landing roughly underneath him, and Ripley began eating him.

  Under the weight of them both, I couldn’t breathe or move. I was going to suffocate under a zombie.

  I felt Harlow’s hand, soft and small on my wrist, trying to yank me out. With her pulling, I pushed myself out. I was almost all the way out, except for one of my legs, when Harlow had to let go to fight off a zombie.

  Her defense was to squeal, grab a rock, and hit it in the head with it. While that wasn’t exactly how I’d do it, it worked, and the zombie collapsed to the ground. Harlow jumped back to avoid zombie blood, and I got myself the rest of the way out from under the beastly zombie. Ripley looked at me, licked her lips, and ran off to kill something else.

  I could hear the gun blasts from the car, and Lazlo yelled something unintelligible. Most of the zombies seemed to be swarming around the station wagon, but they were catching onto the fact that we were here too. A few of them lurched towards us, and I didn’t even have time to catch my breath. Without any weapons, my best bet for survival was preempting their attacks.

  We watched as they did that hideous jerky walk. In later stages of the virus, they moved as if they were always on the brink of an epileptic fit.

  “We’re gonna die,” Harlow whispered.

  “Not yet,” I said.

  I rushed for a weaker looking one first. They were generally easier to take down. I punched it in the face, and it stumbled backwards. I wanted it on the ground, though, so I kicked it in the stomach, and that made it fall. I stomped on its head, which gave easily under my foot.

  Needing a weapon, I had to be resourceful. I grabbed the zombie’s leg and bent it up at the knee, going against the joint. The bones were weakened, and it snapped quickly. I yanked it off, and finally, I had something to fight with. A leg, from the knee down.

  Harlow hadn’t moved, and I stood in front of her. Ripley continued taking out as many zombies as she could, and I didn’t know how things were fairing for Blue and Lazlo. And truthfully, I didn’t want to know. I couldn’t think about them.

  My only thought had to be surviving this second, because if I thought of anything past that, I’d realize how futile it was and simply give up.

  “Remy, what are we gonna do?” Harlow asked, almost whimpering.

  “We keep fighting.”

  Using the bloody leg like a baseball bat, I swung at a zombie coming towards me. I hit him hard enough that his neck snapped, but I knew I wouldn’t be as lucky next time. When another one charged at me, I hit at him, and he swerved, diving at me.

  He knocked me backwards onto the ground, his poisonous saliva dripping onto my face. Right before his teeth sunk into my neck, I pulled my legs up and kicked him hard in the stomach, sending him flying off me.

  I jumped to my feet and stomped on his chest, but he grabbed my leg, pulling it out from under me, so I fell flat on my back. I tried to get up, but he was on me again, so I slammed my zombie leg weapon into his ribs, trying to get him to back off. It worked, and I was up while I had the chance.

  Lazlo screamed, and I stopped. Just for a second, part of me froze, but that was all it took. I felt teeth sinking into my hip, in the soft part of my skin just above my jeans. Searing pain went through me, but for a moment, the world felt completely slow motion.

  I looked down, and in the darkness, I could see the zombie clamping onto my side. When I got it off, if I got if off, it would take a chunk out of my flesh, but that didn’t even matter. All I could think about was that this was really it.

  All the fighting I had been doing. Everything I had sacrificed. It all ended here, like this, with one weak moment and a zombie latched onto me.

  After a bout of self-pity, I was filled with rage. This stupid fucking leech biting me had destroyed everything I had worked for, for myself and my brother. I grabbed onto the back of its head, tangling my fingers deep in its ratty hair. I yanked back as hard as I could, knowing that would make the zombie take even more of my flesh with it.

  It hurt like hell, but I was too pissed to care. Pulling it by the hair, I got the zombie back down on the ground. I put my foot on its chest to weight it, and then I kept pulling on the hair. It made that awful rattling sound, which would only attract more of its friends.

  But I didn’t care. If I was going to die today, I would take as many of them with me as I could.

  With one final, strong tug, I ripped off the zombie’s head. There was a satisfaction in that, until I realized I was holding a head in my hand, and I dropped it on the ground. It made a splat and bounced, with dirt already sticking to the bloody stump of a neck. I stood up and took a step back, staring at the scene in front of me.

  “Remy, they’re still coming!” Harlow shouted, snapping me out of it.

  For the first time in a long time, I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know if I should fight or if I should tell her to run. We were in the dark in the middle of nowhere, and I hadn’t heard a gun in a while, so Blue and Lazlo might be dead.

  Harlow might be the only one really alive here, and I had no idea how to keep her that way.

  Light flooded everything, blinding me, and I held up my arm to shade my eyes. Bright white headlights appeared out of nowhere, and they bounced towards us in a hurry. A static voice bellowed something over a loudspeaker I couldn’t understand, and guns started firing, rapidly and loudly.

  Instinctively, I rushed towards Harlow and shielded her with my body. The light made it impossible for me to see anything, but I could hear the zombies roaring maniacally. The shooting stopped, and when I looked up, two soldiers were running over to us.

  “Come on! Get in the truck!” A soldier barked and waved us toward the headlights. “We can’t hold them off much longer!”

  Soldiers decked out in full camouflage uniform with helmets and weapons were here, rescuing us. Harlow ran right away, letting one of the soldiers lead her to the truck, but I just blinked at him.

  “Are you from the quarantine?” I asked numbly.

  “Yes, now get in the truck!” he shouted at me. When I didn’t move, he grabbed my arm and started dragging me.

  “Is that a lion?” another soldier asked as we reached the truck.

  “Leave her alone!” I yelled, suddenly afraid that they might hurt her. “She kills zombies!” The soldier pulling me looked at me funny, then yanked me along

  At the back of the truck, I stopped and wouldn’t go any further. It was one of those army trucks with the flatbed in back with a green canvas top. The soldier trying to rescue me couldn’t be much older than I was, and he looked more confused than irritated by my display. The name sown in his shirt read Pvt. Tatum.

  “Is my brother there? A little boy?” I had to speak loudly to be heard over the engine of the truck and the sound of gunfire. A few other soldiers were on the ground, shooting at the never ending supply of zombies. “At the quarantine. I have to find him.”

  “You’ll have to get on the truck to find out!” Tatum yelled and motioned to the truck.

  “Remy! Just get on the damn truck!” Lazlo shouted, startling me. I was even more surprised by how happy I was to hear his voice and know he’d made it.

  Much to Tatum’s relief, I climbed onto the truck. Bench seats ran along both sides, and three soldiers were sitt
ing on one side, along with a cache of weapons on the floor. Blue, Lazlo, and Harlow sat along the other bench, wrapped in blankets, the heavy duty kind they used for moving. As soon as I got in, a soldier put one on me and pushed me down so I’d sit next to Harlow.

  Tatum yelled something to the other men on the ground, and he jumped in the truck. Within seconds, everyone had loaded inside, and we drove away. I pulled the blanket more tightly around me, thankful for the thickness that would hide the blood sleeping through.

  I was covered in zombie blood, which wasn’t surprising, but I was covered in my own blood too. I didn’t want anyone to know that I’d been bitten, that I had to be infected.

  “I’m looking for my brother,” I repeated, talking to Tatum. He sat across the aisle from me, and he seemed to have some authority. “My name is Remy King, and his name is Max King. He’s probably in the medical ward. I have to see him.”

  “I don’t know anything about it.” Tatum kept his steel blue eyes fixed on some point behind me. “We’re almost to the quarantine. That’s why the zombies are so bad.”

  “What do you mean?” Blue asked, leaning forward so he could hear.

  “The zombies are attracted to people.” Tatum turned to Blue when he spoke. “The larger the group of people, the stronger the attraction. Zombies have been congregating around here so bad we’ve given up trying to kill them all. We just keep them locked out.”

  “Is that safe?” Harlow asked nervously. “The quarantine won’t get broken in?”

  “No, this place is secure,” Tatum assured her with a brash smile.

  “I need to see my brother,” I interrupted their conversation. Tatum’s smile disappeared, and he wouldn’t even answer me this time. “I need to see him! Is he there? If he’s not there, then you need to tell me now!”

  “Remy!” Lazlo said, looking over at me. “Calm down! We’re okay, and we’re almost there! You’ll have plenty of time to find out.”

  Swallowing hard, I looked down at the floor and didn’t say anything. I didn’t have time anymore. If Max was here, I had to see him while I was still coherent, so I could at least say goodbye to him.