“With the exception of the bodies already found, authorities have been unable to locate any of the other residents. The RCMP has set up roadblocks on all rural roads leading to the foothills surrounding the Margaree River Valley. In addition, the Canadian Armed Forces, with the assistance of members of the American National Guard, are planning a full sweep of the entire area. The highlands of Margaree cover approximately three hundred square miles. Details on the sweep will be released at a later date. Jess Jessup, ATN Evenings News.”
“Thank you Jess, and now, the forecast with Jimmy MacIntosh…”
Lucy and Michael ran out of the cellar when they heard Emma’s scream. Paul appeared from the lab just in time to follow them up the stairs with Lauren following behind. They reached the room Emma was in, but she said nothing, her shaking hand pointed towards the window. Cautiously, Michael moved towards the window, unsheathing the giant machete as he looked out.
“Damn things are everywhere!” Michael told them.
The rest of the teens moved towards the window and peered outside.
“Holy shit!” Paul whispered. “There’s so many of them. Maybe they’ll just keep going past us?”
“Anything is possible,” Michael nodded. “Maybe we should all stay really, really quiet, just in case.”
“Thought you said they didn’t hear very well?” Paul asked.
“I said we don’t know what in the hell those people are, and I didn’t think they could hear very well. But let’s not take any chances. Let’s all quietly go back down to the lab where it can be sealed by Robin, and we’ll keep really quiet and see what happens.”
Sitting on the laboratory floor, with the windows secured by the massive shutters, the tiny group of teens sat motionless as the sounds of moaning slowly circled the lodge. The hours ticked by painfully slow. Zombies banged and scraped at the lodge and boarded-up windows trying to get in. Everyone’s nerves grew thinner.
Michael stood up, as he had done several times before, and quietly disappeared upstairs, only to return a few short minutes later. As he took his place with his friends they all looked at him expectantly. He reported in hushed tones that from the upstairs window it now looked like there were at least three or four dozen of those zombie things walking around the grounds, looking for a way in.
Michael stood and announced, “I’m pretty sure those things hunt by smell. We have been super quiet for hours and none of them are leaving. So they must be able to smell us.”
Paul stood up and stretched his arms. “So we can talk now?”
“Yeah, I guess so,” Michael shrugged.
“Thank fuck, I was getting a little batty sitting there. So they can smell us, eh?”
“Looks that way,” Michael told him.
Paul scrunched up his face, and a few seconds later smiled.
“Oh, my God!” Lucy's eyes watered as she covered her nose.
Paul laughed. “Just thought I’d give them something to smell.”
“But did you have to try and kill the rest of us?” Lauren asked. “What in the hell did you eat?”
“Beans, beans, good for your heart. The more you eat, the more you…”
“Wait,” Michael interrupted. “That’s it!”
“Huh?” was all the rest of them could say.
“Smell. They are attracted to smell.”
“Here we go again,” Paul rolled his eyes. “More cloak and dagger bullshit.”
“Listen,” Michael informed them, “if our smell is what is keeping them here, then our smell can distract them.”
No one made a sound. Their minds were lost in the maze that was Michael’s logic. Lucy broke the silence.
“This time I have to agree with Paul. What in the hell are you talking about? Why don’t you just talk in plain English?”
“Smell,” Michael repeated, as if it was obvious.
The look on everyone’s face proved it was not that obvious.
“Yeah, yeah,” Paul mocked, “I smell, you smell, we all smell. So what does smell have to do with it?”
Michael explained, “Those zombie things are not too bright. They have been wandering around outside for hours, banging into crap because they can smell that we are in here, but they don’t know how to get in. If we can change how it smells in here, and somehow get our smell out there, that will distract them long enough for us to escape.”
“Great plan,” Lucy said, “Escape to where?”
Apprehensive silence filled the lab again.
“Ok,” Michael announced, “So it’s not a perfect plan, but at least it’s something. Maybe we don’t have anywhere to escape to right now, but if we can just get those damn things away from here we could all have a little bit of our sanity back.”
Paul grinned at Michael, “Getting a little frazzled are we, Mr. Cloak and Dagger?”
Michael ignored his comments and slumped back down on the floor.
“Hey, Emma?” Paul said.
“What?” she replied weakly.
Paul looked at her for a moment. He could tell she was really frazzled by all this. They all were, but Emma looked a mess. Now was not the time for silly blonde jokes.
“We’re going to be all right,” he said with a smile as he sat next to her and put his big arm around her shaking body. “You hang in there, okay?”
She nodded with a sob and buried her face in his chest. Lucy sat on her other side, rubbing Emma’s shoulder to soothe her.
“Thanks, Paul,” Lucy whispered as Paul stood up to stretch his legs. He nodded a smile as Lauren took his place to help comfort Emma.
As the hours passed, all sense of time eluded them. In today’s modern world of cell phones and text messaging, wrist watches had become all but obsolete,; a relic of a not so distant past, worn more for nostalgia than practicality. A relic worn by none of these teens. Their trusted cell phones and Blackberries sat somewhere in the smashed-up van halfway down the mountain.
A loud bang, like a gun shot, startled the teens to their feet. Another bang sounded as they ran upstairs to find Paul aiming a rifle out the window.
“What the hell are you doing?” Michael yelled.
“Testing your theory,” Paul answered.
“What in the hell is that supposed to mean?” Lucy asked him.
“Boy genius here said these things are like zombies.”
“What does that have to do with scaring the hell out of us?” Lauren asked.
“Mikey said all we have to go on is what we know, right?” Paul explained.
“And…?” Michael asked.
“And, what do we know about zombies?”
“What?” Lauren asked.
“In the movies the only thing that kills them is a blow to the head. So I shot one of them fuckers right between the eyeballs.”
“You shot him? Are you insane?” Lucy said disgustedly.
Paul ignored her. “It dropped him like a sack of shit.”
“Can you please refrain from your colorful and juvenile descriptions and get to the point,” Lauren ordered.
“Second shot was a chest shot. The impact dropped him, but he got back up. The headshot guy didn’t get up,” Paul explained.
“Interesting,” Michael thought out loud.
“Interesting?” Lucy said in disbelief. “He’s shooting people and all you can say is ‘interesting’?”
Another shot startled Lucy, and she spun to watch Paul reload.
“Stop it!” she yelled. “They are still people!”
“Those zombie mutha-fuckers are not people. They are the reason Wade is dead!” he yelled back at her. “They ain’t human.”
“Neither are you,” Lucy scolded and ran downstairs.
The other girls quickly followed. Michael stayed behind.
“Where’d you get the gun?” he asked.
“I saw this old 4-10 shotgun hanging above the door in the kitchen. It looked like it was in good shape, and there were some shells in the drawer, so I thought I’d test it out.”
“On zombies?” Michael asked.
“Didn’t see any rabbits running around. Did you?”
“Point taken,” Michael said as he looked out the window.
He scanned the area until he found the zombie lying on the ground with most of its head missing.