Her mind raced in fear as she kicked viciously at the empty air. It took her a moment to realize that nothing had grabbed her. She started moving once more and… tripped again. Blindly, she felt the ground for the machete and her bottle of water, and grasping them tightly, she climbed back to her feet, gulping in air. She was moving as fast as she could move in the dense brush, and they were gaining on her.
“They’re not tripping in the dark,” Lucy thought out loud.
She took a few more breaths to calm herself. Straying this far off the road had not been such a great idea. Taking another deep breath, she forced herself not to run and walked as fast as her tired legs could carry her. She felt twigs digging into her left foot.
“Shit!” she cursed in a frustrated voice.
Her shoe had come off. She quickly looked behind her but could see nothing. It was so dark. She could hear them coming.
“Fuck the shoe!” she said defiantly.
Prickly branches continued to slap at her tender skin; others pulled at her hair. She tripped over a fallen log and landed heavily on a large rock. It slammed into her chest with a vengeance. She tried to shriek in agony, but no sound passed her lips. The wind thoroughly knocked out of her, she protested in silence. Tears streaked her face. Panic engulfed her, followed by a feeling of complete helplessness. With no other response available from her exasperated brain, she curled up in a fetal position and began to sob like a small child
The sounds behind her moved closer, and she could hear their groans. She didn’t care anymore. Her lungs burned and her body shivered in the chilly night air. Her chest throbbed and her legs ached. She couldn’t run any further. She was beat. She painfully rolled to her back on the cold mossy carpet of the forest floor and stared up at a million tiny lights. How pretty the stars looked. How peaceful and serene.
Lucy screamed in horror as a putrefied hand reached down to grab her. Her mind snapped back into action and her body followed, refusing to die on this God-forsaken mountain. She screamed once more and kicked ferociously to escape the grabbing hands. She scrambled to her feet and then swung her giant knife. The sheathed blade bounced harmlessly off the zombies head. Lucy flung the sheath to the ground and swung the knife in a giant arc. The zombie creature never made a sound as its hands were severed at the wrists and dropped to the ground, motionless. Lucy snapped her leg forward, kicking the zombie. She swung the giant knife at its head. She missed the head, but the blade found its mark deep in the zombie’s throat. Blackish-red blood oozed from the deep cut as she yanked the blade free. She took a mighty, Babe Ruth swing as the zombie moved forward and collapsed. The blade missed the crumbled zombie, the force of her mighty swing flung her around like a child’s spin toy. She crashed to the mountain floor, her eyes staring up at the multitude of stars once again.
“Get up!” she heard Michael’s voice yell at her.
She sprung to her feet like a cat, her head jerking from side to side.
“Get moving!” she heard him again.
It was then that she realized the voice was only in her head.
“I think I’m losing my mind,” she said, but the voice of Michael ignored her. She heard bushes rustling. She didn’t need voices to tell her to get her ass out of there. She hastened her pace, hoping, praying, that she could keep from tripping, when she felt something hard under her foot. It took a few more steps to fully comprehend that the soft, springy floor of the mossy mountainside had turned to a hard, flat surface. She smiled triumphantly. She’d found the road.
With sunrise still a distance away, Lucy felt her way down the mountain road, her feet and hands warning her when she threatened to leave the road. It was a long, slow battle staying on the road, and the moonless night offered no help. Rocks were cutting into her foot, and it hurt like hell, but she limped forward.
She walked for hours, trying to ignore the chilly air and pushing past the pain of sharp rocks digging into her shoeless foot.
She struggled forward, and morning finally broke.
CHAPTER 14 – The Van
Lucy quickly rummaged through the bags trying not to look at Wade’s corpse. She found a bottle of water and took a long drink. It was disgustingly warm, almost hot, but it quenched her agonizing thirst. She poured some over her head as if trying to wash away the stench, then took another long, powerful gulp.
The water trickled down her face like tears, but she didn't have time to cry. She wanted to, she just didn't have time. She rifled through some more bags and found a pair of running shoes, socks, a t-shirt and more of the sun-roasted water. She grabbed her cache then stepped outside to escape the stench that burned in her nostrils.
Lucy lowered herself to the ground and gritted her teeth in pain as she peeled the blood-soaked sock from her battered foot. She took a deep breath and poured water over her wounds. Without taking the time to let the pain subside, she used one of the socks as a makeshift bandage to wrap her battered and blistered foot.
She picked up her trusted machete, and her lightly-freckled nose crinkled as she gave the mob a defiant stare. Empty, emotionless eyes stared back at her. The corner of Lucy's lip curled in disgust as she turned her back to them and started to jog.
Pain shot through her foot with a jolt, and her thighs begged for mercy. She had only taken a few steps before slowing to a fast walk. She may have been an athlete, but all this running around and lack of sleep was taking its toll on her petite body. That’s when she heard it. Her heart jumped in disbelief. It couldn’t be. She listened intently. There it was again; a ringing sound.
“My cell phone!” Lucy cried out excitedly as she spun around towards the van. In her desperation to find water her exhausted mind had completely forgotten that her cell phone sat waiting in the side pocket of her duffle bag. And, it was ringing! That meant there was a signal. That meant she could call for help! She was rescued!
Lucy took a few excited steps towards the van, ignoring her screaming foot, then froze in her tracks. Her heart sank.
Rescue was not within her grasp. Something stood between her and rescue: the zombies.
They had already reached the van. Most of them just staggered past it towards Lucy, but a few stragglers still hung around the vehicle, attracted to the stench of death. Lucy slowly walked backwards, her eyes darting side to side taking in her surroundings as her exhausted mind raced through possibilities.
“Double-back through the woods,” she thought excitedly. “No, that won’t work,” she corrected herself. “The zombies in the van might not leave, and then I’ll be surrounded.”
Her hand clenched the machete handle. “Kill the fuckers. Kill every last one of them!”
“There’s too many,” the other side of her brain told her. A war raged inside her mind: her emotions and intellect battled for dominance.
Intellect won.
It was hopeless. Help was perhaps just a phone call away, but it was a call she was not going to be making. A loud crack jolted her mind back to the task at hand. She looked from side to side for the source of the sound but saw nothing. She felt something tapping the top of her head. She looked up as tiny droplets of water kissed her face. The intensity increased abruptly as a heavy rain blew in. Moments later she was as wet as a trout.
She laughed sardonically. “Figures.”
And, like so many times before, Lucy turned her back on the approaching mob and walked away, leaving her cell phone, and her last hope of rescue, behind.
Her laughter turned to sobs which shook her body. Tears flowed hot down her cheeks and melded with the cold rain. Her mind raced through recent memories, memories of her friends, of their happy, smiling faces. Those visions were replaced with the horror of watching those same faces screaming as their young flesh was being ripped apart by monsters.