Jacqueline Druga - No Man's Land

Diana was aiming her gun… at Leah.

“No!” I shouted. “Stop. No!”

“What?” Diana was surprised. “She’s one of the infected.”

“Don’t shoot that one. Not her. She’s harmless. She won’t bite. Please.”

Diana lowered her weapon.

Just as she did, Hannah brushed by me.

“Yep. Don’t listen to me,” Hannah said as she walked ahead. “Been with us all about three minutes and already she’s trying to shoot your wife.”

“Your wife?” Diana asked, confused.

“I’ll… I’ll explain as we move. It’s complicated.” I walked back and grabbed the rein and wagon, and started walking.

Crossing the main interstate was our targeted milestone for the day. Once we reached there we’d be in a position to stop for the night and the next day we’d be close to, if not at, Sanctuary Sixteen.

Leah slipped in distance, she would catch up when we paused, then slip back again. Diana walked side by side with me as I led the cart with Hannah and Edward and some of the supplies. She kept her back to Leah. I didn’t blame her, I had a hard time not looking at her. Leah had begun to swell. Her stomach was huge, her arms and legs were bloated as well.

“Honestly, I don’t think she’ll bite us,” I said.

“People say that all the time about pit bulls.”

“I guess they do.”

Diana looked over her shoulder. “You know what the progression of her body will be right?”

I shook my head.

“Right now, her body is bloating, filling with gasses. Her skin will break down and seep. Most of the Vee go through all the decomposition stages, then sort of slow down. The skin kind of tightens around what remains. The insects give up at that point. Very odd process, unnatural. Some say it has to do with a portion of the brain working. If the body is moving, then the circulatory system is working, even a little.”

“What did you do before all this?” I asked.

“I’ve ran into several people, they don’t believe me. You probably won’t either.”

“Try me.”

“I was a professor of mortuary science.”

“You’re right,” Hannah said. “We don’t believe you.”

“Hannah,” I scolded. “So you taught people to be funeral directors.”

“Yep. I did. I was a coroner first in Buffalo. Then I went into teaching. Because of my degrees in psychology and biology… I never could decide what I wanted to be…”

Hannah made a scoffing noise.

Dianna shook her head with a smile. “Anyhow, I got pulled in to work with the outbreak when it hit Cleveland. Actually, I didn’t have a choice.”

“They made you work on the outbreak?”

“I worked with the Viral Enhanced. Or Vee as everyone calls them. I studied their anatomical breakdown, how some differed from others. They thought they had a way to bring them back. About six months ago, early in the outbreak, they had what they thought was a cure, or antidote.”

“Did they?”

She shook her head. “No. It was hopeful. My job was to observe, examine, and report. The medical examiner and pathologist were needed medically elsewhere. This thing got big. Your wife… she was bit.”

“No kidding,” Hannah said sarcastically.

Diana continued. “If I were to guess, somewhere that wasn’t a deadly bite. Like arm or leg. She lived for a couple days. Most docile Vee were bit in nonlethal areas and took days to die. Because of the time it took the infection to kill them, most like that seemed to retain some mental capacities. Our study was never complete, but I know the Vee.”

“If you know the Vee,’ Hannah said. “Then does she know him?”

“There is no scientific evidence to support that,” Diana answered. “However, from observation it seems something is retained. We just don’t know what. She may not know him, but there’s an instinct to follow him. Eventually though…” Diana stopped walking. “You will have to take care of your situation. It isn’t mentally healthy for you to keep it going.”

“I know. I know. I just didn’t expect it to go on this long. I guess I won’t have a choice when I get to Sixteen.”

“No you won’t.”

“You know!” Hannah hollered. “You all keep whispering and talking like that, Leah will get jealous and no amount of mice is gonna stop her from going nuts.”

“Oh, quit that,” I told her, then looked to Diana. “Can that happen?”

“I don’t know that it ever—”

I held up my hand to silence her, then whispered. “Shh.”

We had arrived near the interchange that would take us to the interstate. There we would head west for two miles then catch another back road.

However, something was wrong. I not only smelled it, I heard it. Once all talking stopped and the clonking of Mary’s hooves were no longer heard, the shuffling and groaning cut through the silence.

Unmistakably, it was the sound of the dead.

“Vee,” I said.

“Calvin,” Hannah whispered. “That sounds like a million of them.”

“It does sound like a lot,” Diana said. “Where though?”

After telling them to stay put, I followed the sounds. I crept through the brush on the side of the highway but didn’t need to make it far to see what was happening.

Hundreds of Vee swarmed the road. They moved about aimlessly, back and forth. It reminded me of a concert crowd, just mobbed there.

Diana’s one word of, “Here” made my jump from my skin. I grabbed my chest as she handed me a pair of binoculars.

“Jesus, you scared me.”

“Sorry. Take a look. It goes just a quarter mile both ways. Trucks got them blocked in.”

I saw what she had described. I hated that I saw them closer, some of them wandered about while eating something bloody. “How does that happen?”

“Someone did this to block the exit, I guess.”

I handed her the binoculars and turned.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“I want to look at our map.”

Still remaining quiet, I made my way over to the cart, holding my fingers to my lips as a sign of ‘quiet’ to Hannah.

I pulled out the map and spread it out.

Hannah, without a sound moved her lips to ask, “What’s going on?”

I pointed to where we were and spoke in a whisper, “Vee. Lots.”

“What do you mean?”

“Try to keep the baby quiet while I figure this out,” I said. “The Vee are blocking I-64 for about a quarter mile. They’re penned in by trucks.”

Diana returned, peering at the map. “Can we go around?”

“We could. It would add a day’s journey especially if we backtrack and try the exit here…” I pointed. “Take that road for a while. It’s all the wrong direction. Getting on the main highway is a straight shot back to Old Sixty and that’s where we need to be…”

“So get on the highway,” Hannah said.

“Hannah, there are hundreds,” I explained. “Right here is the only place.”

“It’s a trap. Someone wants you to go around for a reason.”

I nodded. “A reason, yes. I think just to keep that side of the highway safe.”

“No, Calvin, I have a bad feeling. If the Vee are there, the only way to get them is to lead them. So lead them out. And why are they there? You know Vee look for food, right. I highly doubt animals are such a plenty that the Vee don’t need to move.”

“What are you saying Hannah? Someone is feeding them?” I asked.

“Yep. I say we play pied piper. They don’t move fast. Heck, I’ll do it. I’ll go make noise, have them follow me. Once it’s clear you get across.”

“No.” I shook my head. “If anyone is doing that, it’s me.”

“This is ridiculous,” Diana said. “Look we don’t need to backtrack.” She showed me on the map. “We’re on old sixty now, right? We need to be on old sixty to get to Sixteen.”