Timothy Long - Beyond the Barriers

Holding one arm out, I put my hand up in a form of supplication I hoped she found comforting. I started whispering to her, because I didn’t know what state her mind was in. “It’s okay. I promise not to hurt you.”

She stared at me, and then seemed to withdraw. Her eyes clouded, and she clenched them tightly shut. Then she curled up into a ball and shook as great wracking sobs took hold. I nearly wept at the misery before me.

I considered the situation. I didn’t know shit about girls her age. All I did in my teens was chase them. Now I needed to be someone quite different, so I moved to her, creeping across the ground ever so gently. When I reached her side, I sat down with my legs crossed. The ground was cold and wet here, grass pressed down by the bodies that had been in here before us. At least I assumed that was the case. I reached out and shoved aside the chunk of meat that was left near her head, shuddering in revulsion. I couldn’t even pick out what part of the body it had been. It was just meat, like something left over from cattle.

I wanted to douse my fingers in acid to clean them, but I stuck out a foot and kicked the chunk across the cage. It rolled over and over until it struck a bar.

The arm was a mess. It was covered in blood, with the exception of the hand. So, like a weird handshake, I took the arm by the fingers and pushed it away. I couldn’t get it far enough away, though, so I picked it up and slung it under my side, flinging it away so it struck the bars with a hollow clang. Scott groaned and curled up into a ball, the ground crunching under him as he moved.

I reached over and gently touched her shoulder, just leaving my hand there for a moment then patting her. I didn’t want to push my luck, so I lifted it and tried to talk to her again.

“Hey, can you tell me how you got here?”

I tried to appear as non-threatening as possible, which may have been next to impossible. My normally short hair was in need of a trim, and after the lack of baths, it probably hung long and lank. I hadn’t shaved in days, and I’m sure my eyes were hollow and rimmed with red. I had slept the sleep of the injured, not the sleep of the tired, and I was paying for it.

My eyes were raw, felt like sand had gotten into them, and I wanted to rub them. I really wanted to put my face in a pail of cold water and revel in the feeling. A bath would wipe away the filth of the past few days.

I patted her shoulder again, but she recoiled from me like I burned her. I backed up a few inches, but sat so my chin was on my fist. She stared into my eyes, and it appeared that she came to some kind of conclusion.

“I don’t know. There was the fight, and people were running everywhere. Mom said to hide in our truck, but when I got to it, there were a bunch of the monsters around it.”

She had a scared voice that was tinged with a hint of hysteria. She sounded so young. Her voice quavered as she spoke, and I barely resisted the urge to reach out and touch her again.

“Were you at the camp with Lisa and the others?”

“I don’t know Lisa. We were up from the center of town, in the Vesper Wood area. About thirty of us. Mom said we were going to move on soon, but it kept getting pushed back. Said there were a lot of sounds out there, a lot of noises, like the things were getting closer. They raided our first camp, but we fought them off.”

I let her talk.

“We had a lot of guns, but this time they came late at night. They were silent, and they just walked over the cars and barricades. By the time the alarm went off, there were too many of them. We tried to fight, but they kept swarming the camp.”

Smart of them—quiet and at night. I tried to imagine a less organized group than the one I had been in. How long had it taken them to grow complacent and lax in their patrols? As the batteries wore out, had they been forced to use less of the flashlights? Maybe they didn’t have enough fuel to run generators all night. This required a lot of organization. Lisa’s group was always on guard. That is, until I came along.

Of course, that had been my fault. Bringing the ghoul there had been a terrible mistake. I should have killed the green-eyed bastard when I had the chance. Should have left his head split like a melon and returned to camp. What did I gain? I had the picture of me and Allison and some fruit, but that was all gone now. All gone and me with it, because I was sure I would die sooner rather than later.

Darkness all around. That was the new world in which we lived. It was devoid of life and love; these things that had been human were washing away the old world and recreating it in their own rotted image. Their lack of humanity and love was appalling. How many had gone to church? Worked as cops, maybe doctors and nurses? Or just Joe Everyday who gets up for work and kisses his kids and wife goodbye, only to become one of these things.

I wanted to cleanse the earth of them.

I’ve never had much love for causes. But right now, I wanted to take every gun I could find and kill every one of the things. Fuck them and fuck what they had done to my world.

“Gotta get out,” I mumbled and realized she had stopped talking. I seemed to have drifted off and was muttering to myself. The girl was staring at me with those big eyes that bored into my head like a drill. My vision swam, and all I wanted to do was lie down and sleep for the rest of the day. Just put my head down and call it. After a midday siesta, everything would make sense again.

A voice in the back of my head screamed it was bad to let someone with a concussion sleep, but I silenced it with a loud “shhh” that may have come from my mouth and may have come from inside. Either way, it silenced the voice and I laid my head down on the filth and slept.

I didn’t dream.

It was dark when I came to. Jerking upright, I reached for my mouth. A line of spittle rolled down the side of my face. It felt like a bug, and that freaked me out. As I rose off the cold ground, I may have let out a little cry. My head still hurt, as did my throat and back. I shivered violently and curled up into a ball. It was so cold. The earth beneath me was hard and unforgiving as it leached more warmth from my body. I shivered again, and my body took that as a cue to shake all over.

Scott was having a similar reaction, so I went to him and wrapped my body close to his. We may have been strong men, but I should have done this when I first woke. No attraction, no ulterior motives. I just wanted to get warm. The girl watched me from the opposite corner. Her dirty hair covered her forehead, but one luminous eye held my gaze. It didn’t blink for a long time. She shook just as we did. Lying next to Scott, I put his hand over my chest and pulled him tight. To the girl, I gestured, and after awhile, she rose and crept to me, snuggling into the crook of my body, but when I tried to put my arm around her, she stiffened. I laid it on my side, parallel to the ground.

The night was silent. No bugs chirped, no crickets called, and no animals moved in the underbrush. The only sound came from the zombies as they wandered around the camp. Sometimes I would hear them approach the cage and rest a hand or a forehead against it. They were probably staring at us like we were prime rib. I rolled my head to the side to stare at one who leaned forward, blood and gore leaking out of his mouth. Most of his forehead was missing. I gave him the finger, rolled back over, and went to sleep.

In the morning, things were no clearer, least of all the sky. Clouds had rolled in overnight. It was overcast and gray, reminding me of a fall day. It was a bit warmer thanks to the clouds keeping the heat in. I went to rub my eyes, but one look at my filthy hands dissuaded me. The girl stirred against me. Quietly I tried to extract myself from the little sandwich we had created, but my movement woke her. She turned her head and, for a moment, the filth covering her features made me think of the ghouls that stood outside our cage. I sat upright, and she scrambled away from me and into the corner.