She had seen her share of them. Infected. Possessed. Undead. There were plenty of words to describe them, although nobody seemed to know exactly what they were. Zombies. That was the word most people called them. They were monsters, in human form.
Their behaviour was unnerving. The way those things would just stand there, unmoving, in kind of a half-crouched position. Their heads pointed down and to the side, like they were seeing something interesting just beyond one of their feet. Like somebody fell into a trance just as they were about to pick up an object from the ground.
Yes, it was unnerving. But even more unnerving was the way their faces had changed. Once you saw that face, you knew that you were looking at something that was not human anymore. Their mouths hung wide open, almost unnaturally so – like their jaws had become unhinged. And then there were those wide-open eyes... Like they were stuck in some kind of macabre staring contest. The whites of the eyes turned grey like overcooked eggs. The whole countenance was some kind of sick homage to Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream’ painting.
Any noise or movement would trigger activity. They would jerk their heads up and stagger towards the noise or motion. If they saw you there was no stopping them. And if they got a hold of you...
Just focus on the road, Em. Focus on the job. Emily tried to calm herself.
“There’s the ramp” Peters leaned in to see if the top of the ramp was clear. Luckily for all on board, it was. The army had done an excellent job keeping some of the main highways free of traffic.
Emily knew though, that that particular job had been messy. Very messy.
Well, what did you expect? This is the US of A, and Americans are a proud people. All about their rights and liberties. Even when under martial law. Heck, especially when under martial law.
To many people, this was the catalyst for bugging out. Within hours of the announcement, thousands had packed up their cars and hit the road. Unfortunately for those people, the armed forces had their orders. Keep strategic infrastructure operational. They had prepared for this and the harsh lesson that the American people learned that day, was that you don’t fuck with the US armed forces.
Emily heard plenty of stories about civilians and their vehicles literally being pushed off the roads. It had turned pretty ugly, and there were some major gunfights between the US army and the civilians it was sworn to protect. After these clashes, bulldozers were apparently being employed to ram and shove everything off the highways.
She had seen enough evidence on the sides of highways and major thoroughfares to know that this particular rumor was very true. If she looked carefully, she could see the bodies in amongst the crushed vehicles lining the ditches.
Ah, stop it Em. Think of something positive! Emily gave her head a small shake. Cheer up Em, at least the weather is holding up well.
Just a couple of clouds in the light blue sky, nice warm temperature. A nice day for a bike ride or hike. Too bad it’s the end of the world.
Ah bollocks. Positive thoughts, damnit! She berated herself once more.
“We’ve got about eight miles on the 71 before the interchange. Then two miles on the 495 before we get off the highways.” Garcia said from three rows back. In his hand he clutched a list of addresses. Today’s pickups.
Corporal Garcia was second in command in this outfit. He was a stocky guy – only a couple of inches taller than Emily. He had a pockmarked face that was dominated by his expressive dark brown eyes. Emily felt strangely attracted to this charismatic soldier. He was one of those guys that inexplicably attracted a lot of women. Emily couldn’t put her finger on it. But the guy’s charm was undeniable.
Emily quickly looked ahead when Garcia looked up and caught her staring at him.
Focus Em. This is no time to check out blokes!
She focused on driving for about ten seconds, before her mind drifted to other matters. This was their fourth day of doing these extractions. Every day got a lot harder than the one before. On day one they left the safe zone in one of several convoys, with a minimum of five school busses per convoy, escorted by several High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles, or ‘Humvees’ as everybody called them.
Some of them had M2’s gun turrets. The fifty caliber machine guns made short work of the occasional undead. Or any obstacle for that matter. They had even had a couple ‘little bird’ helicopters circling overhead and a black hawk on stand-by at HQ, ready to provide support. They never had to use that support.
Not that it was a total cake walk. Civilians were running around all over the place. A bunch of them had packed up their belongings into vehicles and tried to head to the hills, despite the martial law. Emily had even seen one –a fucking Prius of all things! –ram one of the armored vehicles in an attempt to get around the convoy. That didn’t end well for those people.
Emily was fascinated with some of the shit people took with them. Cars were jammed with everything one could think of. Or maybe they weren’t thinking. What the fuck good is a huge flat screen tv going to do you in the boonies. She’d even seen a couple with their arms sticking out the car windows, trying to keep a mattress on the roof of their car as they drove along. Really?!
But after the first couple of days things changed rapidly. The streets became deserted. Then more and more of those things started appearing. On top of that the helicopters were called away, and the convoys shrank in size dramatically.
Today, theirs was the only bus to leave the safe zone, and the number
