Before dusk, Gina had retrieved her weapons bag and traveled deeper into what she considered her forest, moving farther south through the thick woods and avoiding small packs of the dead, until she’d found a copse of pine trees up on a small ridge. With the advantage of higher ground, and the additional concealment the pines afforded, as well as masking her scent, Gina had decided to set up camp among the pines.
Sitting before a small fire, Gina inhaled the second half of a bag of beef jerky, and a bottle of water—both provided by the dead man’s backpack. There were also three small packs of peanuts, and a box of Slim Jims, along with three more bottles of water. The food had been an immediate relief, providing her the needed fuel to safely get away and find a new camp before nightfall… but it wouldn’t last long.
Two days tops, she calculated with a shrug. Doesn’t matter. Each day out here could be her last, food or no food, and there were many wondrous new ways to die in this dangerous world. Starvation seemed almost a merciful way to go considering the alternatives.
For now, she chose to savor a dry evening before a warm fire, relishing the salty taste of the dried meat that made her eyes roll to the back of her head with each bite. This is better than sex… almost, she thought with a smile.
Gina stood up, grabbed the dead man’s pack, and sat back down before the fire.
“Thanks for the jerky orgasm, dead guy, but what else did you pack?” She started pulling out items and then stopped as a fit of laughter seized her. “‘Jerky orgasm’… now that’s a bit redundant.” This just made her laugh harder as she wiped tears from her eyes and then settled down. She nervously looked around the dark trees, not expecting the dead, but feeling self-conscious, speaking out loud and laughing with no one. “I guess this is what the beginning of madness looks like,” she said, feeling more and more comfortable talking to herself. She ate another piece of jerky and smiled. “It was funny, though… guess you had to be there.” She returned to the backpack.
There wasn’t much else of any use aside from a cheap pocket knife, some spare clothes, a small pack of band-aids, and a spool of nylon rope. The rest of the pack was full of more memorabilia poison. Gina pulled out a small picture frame. It was the man, looking much more alive, standing next to a woman holding a baby. In the background, Gina could see the ocean.
“Must have been nice… that life.” She removed the picture from the frame, tossed the frame aside, and then stared at the photograph as if trying to place herself on that beach. She then frowned and tossed the picture into the fire. “Goodbye,” she whispered, not really knowing why.
Fortunately, there were no more photographs, just trinkets that once held significance, now as meaningless as the man who once carried them. She burned what would burn, discarding the rest. And that’s it.
Gina returned the useful items to the backpack, merging what she could from her gun bag… minus the shotgun. “Well, it’s good pack,” she said to no one. “Now I just need-”
Something was crawling toward her from the darkness, through the thick brush beneath the pine trees.
Seriously? These fucking things never quit!
Gina cautiously backed up, keeping the fire between herself and the intruder, while she took aim with her silenced handgun. Better not be more than one… I’d hate to waste the ammo.
Something crawled into the firelight, raised its sickly and lethargic head up toward Gina and hissed… weakly.
Shit! Gina raised the gun to keep from firing, startled by the sight of a young zombie girl.
It was an emaciated teenage girl with tangled long black hair with faded blond highlights. The girl was wearing some torn-to-shreds, bloody concert t-shirt with some band or emblem that could no longer be identified.
The dead thing tried to lift itself up and charge at Gina, but it lacked the strength to do so, only managing to get its hair tangled up in a low pine tree branch. The thing was immediately pulled back by the bouncing branch as it struggled to get free, flailing its stick-like arms and screeching at the pine tree in vain as if caught in the middle of some teenage zombie tantrum.
She looks… she looks just like Ashley!
Yes, the resemblance was there. But it wasn’t Greg’s dead daughter.
Gina frowned at the frail thing. For a zombie, it didn’t look like it had eaten much since turning. But it had somehow managed to survive the winter.
Survive? Is that something the dead… do?
The teenage thing continued to howl in frustration at the pine. Every few seconds, it would forget its hair was snagged, charge toward Gina again, and then repeat the cycle of being pulled back by the indifferent pine as the pitiful creature swore at it in zombie tongue.
“Well, you certainly act like her,” Gina said with a laugh, putting down her gun and retrieving her hunting knife.
The Ashley-like zombie turned toward Gina’s voice and stopped struggling for a moment.
Gina stared at it and raised her eyebrows. “You’re a creepy little fucker, aren’t you?”
The zombie thing just stared back in response.
Gina shook her head. “For a moment, I thought you were going to say something. Yeah… I’m definitely starting to fucking lose it out here.” Gina moved forward with her knife to put the thing down.
As soon as she moved, the teenage zombie charged again, swinging its arms toward Gina’s face, before the pine tree pulled it back in place.
“Calm down you little shit-head,” Gina spat, trying to get close enough to stab the psychotic teen. “That tree is thoroughly kicking your ass, by the way.”
The zombie girl stopped struggling again and stared at her.
Gina paused. “Stop doing that. It’s hard enough to do this nasty business without you acting like you understand me, or something.”
The zombie girl continued to stare.
“Do you understand me?” Gina asked. She took a step closer to the girl, moving very slowly, knife ready for its charge.
But the zombie teen just sat there, staring into Gina’s face. Gina swore it even cocked its head like some dog trying to understand a strange sound.
Gina braced her feet, anticipating the frail thing’s charge. She would use its crazed momentum against it, get inside, and stab it in the ear. But it wasn’t charging.
“Come on! What the hell are you waiting for… and invitation to dinner?” Gina swung her blade in front of its face.
This got it to stir. The zombie teen started to charge again but one of the bones in its left leg snapped, causing it to fall over on its face.
Gina was unprepared for the clumsy maneuver. She backed up three steps.
“You’re one pathetic zombie,” Gina said, staring at the dead thing’s broken leg. “How the hell did you make it this long?”
The zombie girl stared down at her useless leg, not comprehending why she couldn’t get back up. It didn’t stop her from trying to jump at Gina again. This time, it toppled over sideways and bashed its head into the pine tree’s trunk.
“Well… you had to try… I guess,” Gina said. She was starting to feel sorry for the lousy zombie girl. “Why don’t you just lie there and let me finish this. You’ll save yourself so much more embarrassment.”
Colliding with the bully-like pine tree seemed to stun the beast. It didn’t move much and was slow to regroup for another pointless attack at human flesh.
To Gina, the creature reminded her of a wasp she’d found when she was a child. It had managed to stick around well into the winter months as young Gina found it dying near a floor vent. She’d screamed her head off until her grandfather came in and they both watched it struggle. It couldn’t fly… couldn’t sting… it just slowly crawled beneath her grandfather’s raised shoe, oblivious to the crushing that followed.
Gina watched the dead thing try to get up, but it kept falling back down. Eventually, it rose to its knees and raised its head toward Gina again. This time, it didn’t seem all that eager to tear its teeth into the red-headed blood bag. It attempted to hiss at her, but it came out as a low groan.
“Okay. Let’s get this over with.” Gina approached the dead thing again. This time it didn’t charge. It just stared at her with that intense desire in its eyes, lacking the will to heed its compulsion for blood.
The zombie girl let Gina get within striking distance as it continued to stare.
Gina was about to bring the blade down directly through the top of its head.
But she stopped.
~~~
The next afternoon, Gina reluctantly decided to return to the freeway for a second attempt at foraging supplies. She moved farther east this time, hoping the horde she’d seen had continued west along the interstate.
Before exiting the forest, Gina heard hushed voices coming from the other side of a large group of trees off to her right. She ducked down to avoid being seen and started crawling toward the voices, using the trees for cover.
She stopped when a man and woman came into view through the foliage. They were both wearing t-shirts with small packs on their backs. The man, who was wearing a dirty ball cap over his eyes, bent over to pick up a shovel and then just stood there. “Any last words?” he said.
The woman had a green hoody wrapped around her waist and a matching bandana around her forehead, holding her long hair out of her face. She shook her head. “Let’s just… let’s just finish this.”
The man started moving dirt from a small pile into what appeared to be a grave.
Gina turned her head back toward the way she’d come. The freeway was close enough to make out through the tree line. What are they doing out here? Gina thought with annoyance. She concluded that they must have come from the other side of the highway, deciding to stop in her woods to bury one of their own. This is bullshit! She was vaguely aware of how insensitive she was behaving, but it changed nothing. They didn’t belong here. Is it just these two or are they part of a larger group? she wondered. After further inspection of the man and woman, Gina shook her head after realizing they were unarmed. Fucking tourists. They think that just because they’re in the woods that they’re safe. She started fidgeting as she tightened her grip on the shotgun. Since living out in this forest, Gina was aware that the dead occupying these woods tended to avoid the freeway, just as the freeway dead never ventured away from the highway. She didn’t understand why that was, assuming that the dead, on some level, behaved with territorial tendencies. This mutual understanding between the dead created a zombie-free zone near the freeway, just inside the woods to the south… unless there were living idiots foolish enough to set up camp in the area.
Gina took a deep breath, considering her options. She could reveal herself to these two, warn them to move on. But then their group would know she was living in the woods, and perhaps, follow her deeper into the forest.
Fuck! The last thing I need are survivors stirring up the local dead population any more than they already are! She decided to wait. Perhaps they would return to some camp on the other side of the freeway and move on.
The man stopped and leaned against the shovel. “Well, that’s that.”
“Did you… you know… make sure he was really dead?” the woman said.
“Yeah. I bashed his skull in with my axe first.”
“I didn’t need to know that.”
“You asked.”
Gina rolled her eyes impatiently. Come on… just leave already.
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“We should get back,” the woman said. “Brandon’s gonna have a cow if we’re gone too long.”
The man laughed. “He’s going to have a heart attack if he keeps worrying about everything. Josh got bit two days ago following that idiot’s orders.”
“Don’t remind me.” The woman looked around the woods. “This place creeps me out. I feel like I’m being watched.”
Gina made herself smaller behind the tree.
“He’s talking about staying here a few days,” the man said, moving toward the woman. They both started walking east together, parallel to the freeway. “He thinks we could score big searching all those cars before crossing back.”
“You can’t be serious?”
“Brandon thinks that underpass is a perfect place to set up a base.”
Gina considered their words. Underpass? That explains it. They crossed beneath the freeway, somewhere they feel protected from what’s above them.
When the two strangers were far enough ahead and out of earshot, Gina started following them to their camp. She had to know what she was dealing with.
Ten minutes later, Gina found the rest of their group. There were at least fifteen of them hanging out near a stream that emptied out beneath the freeway and ran into the woods. Rather than safely remaining hidden within the low convex-shaped cave built into the concrete underpass, they were all performing various chores out in the tall grass near the water. Some were washing clothes while others were eating. Some were just lying out in the sun, and others were laughing next to a small fire pit.
Gina looked up toward the freeway. She could see no movement in between the tops of condensed cars.
Those morons have been damn lucky to escape notice so far, she thought. If they’d pulled this shit a day earlier, the horde would be raining on top of them right now. Once again, Gina looked for weapons. Other than a few wielding baseball bats and one carrying a golf club, she didn’t see one gun among them. None of them seemed concerned enough to watch for dead-heads, all assuming they’d found a secure and secluded place.
“Fucking retards!” Gina hissed to herself. “Just leave! Get the hell out of here before you ruin everything!” Gina wasn’t worried about these fools as much as what it would mean if the freeway dead discovered them down there. After falling from the overpass to feed, the dead could conceivably wander off into the woods afterward, too stupid to figure out how to get back up on the freeway, increasing the dead population in the forest considerably.
She was about to turn and leave when she spotted something curious in the middle of the idiots’ camp. Gina moved in as close as she could without risking exposure until she identified four covered wheel barrels. That’s odd, she thought. A gust of wind suddenly blew one of the tarps off a wheel barrel overloaded with a variety of food supplies. It looks like these fools raided some grocery store and tossed whatever they could into the wheel barrels. Gina was getting more and more upset the longer she watched them. They have enough food to last them weeks! And yet, they risk everything just to get more.
Gina started back before she emptied her shotgun into the air above their heads. She needed to return to the pine trees, gather up her meager supplies, and head farther south and away from these… people.
While backtracking, she nearly stumbled over the freshly dug grave. Gina stood there and shook her head. The body was half in, half out of a poorly dug hole that was way too shallow for the scrunched-up body dumped into it.
“Josh, I presume,” Gina said. The majority of the dirt mercifully covered the man’s face, leaving much of the rest of the body exposed beneath a flimsy layer of earth. “They buried him like they could give a shit,” Gina said. “That Brandon probably ordered them to do it.” She noticed the blade of a hand axe sticking out of what was left of the dirt pile next to the body. Gina bent down and picked it up. “Add ‘careless’ to the rest of these idiots’ survival resume. This was probably the best weapon they had.”
Gina started wiping the bloody blade off in the grass. She then stopped, remembering something. She turned and looked at the body.
~~~
She held her hands over the small fire for warmth, noticing how filthy they were. She stared into her palms with a weak smile, understanding that those grimy hands might as well had been a mirror to how the rest of her must’ve looked. Gina stared up into the clear night, the smell of pines dominating the cool but comfortable evening. She’d decided to spend one more night in the pines before heading south in the morning. “You’re looking pretty savage, girl,” she told herself. “Keep this up and someone’s going to mistake you for a dead-head.”
In response, the creature with the broken leg, now securely tied to the base of the pine tree that once held it, looked up toward Gina with a look of puzzlement, then dipped its bloody mouth back into its meal.
Gina gave it a sideways glance just long enough to make sure the nylon rope was still secure around its neck, then averted her eyes. She couldn’t stand to watch it feed. Gina stared into the fire with a frown and said, “Hurry that up you sick fucking thing. I can’t listen to that shit all night.”
The Ashley-looking zombie ignored her and continued to bite into the meaty portions of the human leg.
Gina closed her eyes and shook her head. Why are you keeping it alive? You should’ve put it down last night and moved on. Yes, Gina had surprised herself when she’s attempted to put her blade into the pathetic creature’s skull, and then stopped when it looked up at her with those miserable eyes.
What is this? Pity? Are you that hard-up for company that you actually feel sorry for the flesh eater?
Gina looked back at it.
The Ashley-thing stopped feeding and stared at her.
“Don’t thank me for the meal… thank Josh.” She immediately regretted the joke.
Gina lightly laughed at the absurdity of it all. “Here I am, in the middle of fucking nowhere, looking like I need a permanent shower,” she started. “I just desecrated a grave today and now I’m talking to a killer corpse who looks a little like a girl I once knew… Maybe I am crazy.”
The zombie continued to stare at her, blood dripping from its chin.
Gina leaned forward toward the creature. “Do you even understand anything I’m saying? Or am I just some food source you can’t quite get to yet?”
The zombie had no response.
“You do look better this evening… well… as much as you can for being dead.” Gina reached over to grab another stick for the fire.
The Ashley-thing hissed at her.
“Shut up, dead meat. Haven’t you ever heard the expression, ‘don’t bite the fucking hand that feeds you’?” This made Gina laugh. “If you weren’t a fucking stupid cannibal, I think you’d find that hilarious right now.”
The zombie growled at her this time.
“Okay. Maybe not so funny. You’re a touchy little carnivore, aren’t you?”
The zombie put its face down and resumed eating the leg.
Gina just watched the dead girl this time, as if staring curiously at the strange habits of some pet. “Are you even aware of where you are, what’s happened to the world, or that you’re fucking dead? Or, are all the lights out in that rotting skull of yours except the one that keeps buzzing like some fucking bug lamp every time you bite into flesh?”
The zombie continued to feed.
Gina stared at the girl’s filthy hair, and then into her bloody grey face, marveling again at how much she resembled Ashley. Gina leaned back with a grunt. “I keep expecting you to glare at me and say something smart-ass to one of my lame dead jokes. I suppose you’d have to still be human to feel offended.”
The zombie continued to feed.
Gina turned away, tossing her hands out, and feeling ridiculous. “Look at me, seeking acknowledgement from the dead. Hell… I’m still talking out loud to myself.” She turned to look at the dead thing and finished, “I guess the one thing I have in abundance out here is the privacy to lose my shit in any way I choose without worrying about what anyone will think.”
The dead thing stopped and stared at her again.
Gina’s eyes glazed over as she stared past the dead girl. “I’m alone out here. Probably going to die alone. Doesn’t matter how I look, or what I say… or do… not anymore.”
The dead thing grunted, drawing Gina out of the darkness.
She smiled at it and said, “That’s right. Fuck it all! If I want to talk to a dead girl for a little while… then… so what? You’re certainly not going to judge me, right?”
The zombie continued to stare back.
Gina’s face changed. “And… and if I wanted to… pretend… for a little while… that you are Ashley… you’re not going to mind… right?”
The zombie had no response.
Gina closed her eyes. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I let you down, little girl. I wasn’t there to watch over you. I lied to you back then… back on the tracks. I made you believe it was okay to still just be a kid, and that you’d always be safe… and that the world would go back to normal. But it didn’t, and it wasn’t okay… and you died. Then I let your dad die, too.” Gina stopped, wiping tears away from her dirty face. “Anyway… I just wanted to say that I… I’m very sorry, Ashley. I’m sorry I let you down… that I wasn’t strong enough back then… and that you died because of it.” She looked at the dead thing.
The zombie had resumed feeding.
Gina smiled. “Man… I’m losing my shit out here. Get it together, girl, before you start seeing all your friends in the faces of the dead.” She took a deep breath and forced all the emotions back down into the darkness… where they belonged. She shook her head at the zombie. “So, aside from me losing my fucking mind… I ran into some survivors today. That’s why you’re eating good tonight.”
The dead thing looked back up.
“That’s right. Anyway, I wanted to scare them off because they’re just like so many others in this world now. They’re already dead, but they don’t know it yet. But I know. I can tell. People like that don’t last long out here. How they survived the winter I’ll never know. Probably got lucky and found a hole in the ground somewhere like we did. In a way, I’m glad you weren’t around for that, Ashley. You would’ve hated being stuck in that underground prison. I know I did.” Gina turned back toward the fire. “Anyway, these people, they’re here now and we’ve… I mean… I’ve got to leave these woods. Get far away before they fuck this all up… and they will.”
Gina looked toward the dead girl who continued to stare back. “I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that if I’m so fucking lonely out here then why don’t I just join up with them. Makes sense, right? But it doesn’t. Trust me. I’ll end up getting them killed because they’re not fit for this world. If I joined them, I’d forget they’re already dead. I’d start acting like them, too. Then I’d get complacent, lower my guard just once, and that’s when it would happen. The dead would come… people would die… and that blood would be on me. All on me.”
The zombie continued to stare.
“So, you see,” Gina finished, “I’m not good for them, and they’re not good for me. Whenever I’m around the living, I just get people killed. My heart can’t take that anymore, Ashley. It makes me weak. Makes me vulnerable. And you can’t be weak in this world if you want to win… if you want to survive!”
The Ashley-thing growled at her as Gina raised her voice.
“That’s right!” Gina said. “You get what I’m saying, don’t you, Ash? That’s why we’re leaving tomorrow. Those fucking people are going to get themselves killed… and us, too, if we stay. Although, I guess you don’t have to worry about that.”
The dead girl grunted.
“I just wish we didn’t have to go. I mean, we could make this work out here. There’s plenty of room for all your friends and myself. I already know the routines of the dead-heads in these woods. I’m already recognizing the regulars wandering around out here. Their habits and behaviors are predictable. If you and I can sit here like this and not kill each other, then maybe I can do the same with the others. But it won’t work if the living start stumbling through our forest… those greedy fuckers! There’s nothing out here for them!”
The zombie was getting more excited, aroused by Gina’s anger.
“You want them gone, don’t you? I can see it in your dead fucking face. Maybe… maybe I’ll go back tomorrow morning, check to see if they’re still there. It’s possible they gave up and left. But if they are still there…”
Gina’s face lit up as a horrific idea struck her.
She quickly shook her head. “No. That would be crazy. Risky as fuck… especially if it backfired.”
But the more she considered her idea, the more it excited her. Gina got up and retrieved the hand axe from her pack. She walked over to the nearest pine tree, turned the axe so the flat side was facing out, and then struck the tree trunk hard one time.
The Ashley-thing dropped the leg, responding to the knocking sound, completely unaware that Gina had caused it. It leaned forward toward the tree until the rope went tight around its neck, then it fell back, howling in frustration. A moment later, the creature re-discovered the human leg as if seeing it for the first time, and then resumed feeding.
Stupid fucking things… but sound sensitive, Gina thought. I can use that.
Gina sat back down and began drawing in the dirt with a stick. She started mapping out where most of the dead in her woods hung out… and then she drew an ‘X’ signifying where the survivor’s camp by the stream was.
Go check first, she thought. Find out if those idiots are still there… and how far away the next freeway herd is.
Gina had already scanned the interstate this afternoon before heading back, believing most of the freeway dead had already moved west. Tonight, those people were safe. But tomorrow… unknown.
If they were still camped there come morning. Gina would have to leave.
Or, resort to something… crazy.
~~~