Fall of the Risen – Week 32 – Clark

I jumped out of the van and opened the driver’s side door. “Don’t sweat it, Murr. I’ll get us out of here.”

Murray didn’t move. I grabbed him and pulled, but the old bastard wouldn’t budge. He was stronger than he looked.

“Murray! Let go of the wheel. Let. Go.”

Then, hands pulled me backward. It was Jack, pulling me back in through the side door of the van. A zombie was nearly on top of me. Murray pulled his door shut as I fell backward into the van. The zombie lunged after me. I kicked at the side door and it slid home with a sickening crunch as the head splattered.

The zombie’s arm was still inside the van. Its fingers reached forward a few times, then it went still.

Jack and I opened the port holes and started slashing.

“These port holes really are too low,” Jack called out.

He was right. It was tough to get a kill without sticking my arm through the hole, and by then the van was completely surrounded, three-deep. That was too much risk, even for me.

“To the roof,” I said, opening the hatch.

It was easier from the roof, but there was still no end in sight. Dawn and Ferguson climbed up to help as much as they could. I could tell from their faces that they weren’t happy about it, but thought all of our lives depended on it.

A mini van roof doesn’t look that small until you’ve got four people standing on top of it. There wasn’t a lot of room to swing a machete, and there was no room to move around. To make things worse, the sheer mass of zombies were starting to rock the van. Violently.

“Kill more on this side or we’re going to tip over,” I called out.

It didn’t seem to matter. I didn’t know where the hell they were all coming from, but they were still appearing out of the trees. Some were even climbing over the big tree blocking the road.

“I’m going to jump off,” I said. “Lead them away, if I can.”

“Don’t,” Jack called out. “You’ll die.”

“There’s a chance,” I said.

Dawn put a hand on my arm.

“Don’t leave me.”

My only other choice was to get back into the van and try to wait them out. No one I knew had ever tried that before. I didn’t know how long it would take. Would it be hours? Days? Or would they stay until we were dead?

Then, gunshots. Rapid, repeating gunshots.

A man appeared at the side of the road, holding an automatic rifle. He dropped a dozen zombies, reloaded with another clip, and went right back to shooting. He was concentrating his fire in one area.

“He’s clearing a path!” I called.

Jack was the first one to nod and move to that side of the van. When the man stopped firing, Jack jumped and landed smoothly on the ground. He turned and played defense for the rest of us, batting away zombies that tried to move into the newly formed gap.

Ferguson jumped next and stood behind Jack. Dawn looked at me and reached out her hand. I looked at her and then looked down into the van, where Murray still sat like a terrified sculpture.

“We can’t leave him.”

“You’re right,” she said.

She dropped into the van and started talking to Murray, I couldn’t hear what she was saying over the noise of the undead, but it clearly wasn’t working.

I dropped into the van beside her and together we tried to pull his arms off the steering wheel.

“We’re never going to get him anywhere like this,” Dawn said.

“Awfully sorry about this, Murr.”

I socked him in the jaw as hard as I could. The van was a little confining, so I wasn’t able to give it my all, but his hands fell away from the steering wheel and his chin dipped down to his chest.

Dawn looked at me with wide eyes. I shrugged and pulled him from the driver’s seat. “Ain’t it Better than leaving him here?”

Together we lifted Murray through the hatch and onto the roof. Gunfire started up again to clear the gap that had filled in. Jack and Ferguson were now standing behind the man with the gun.

The firing stopped and the man ejected the clip and grabbed another.

“This is my last one,” he called out. “I’d rather save it.”

I nodded and heaved Murray onto my shoulders.

“We have to go now. Just jump and start running over to Jack. I’ll be right behind you.”

She did as she was told, for once. I jumped down after her, with an extra couple hundred pounds across my shoulders. When I hit the ground, the extra weight threatened to put me on my face and I took staggering steps forward. For a second, I thought I was going to make it. Then my chin hit the ground, with Murray still on top of me.

I heaved his weight off, turning onto my back just in time to see a zombie reaching for me. A gunshot rang out and it fell.

Dawn was there a second later. She helped me to my feet and together we got Murray back over my shoulder.

“Follow me,” the gunman called out. “My place isn’t far from here.”

Then we all ran.