Survival

Part 8: Paz

I walked through the bush aimlessly.  Everything had gone. Everything had ended. Grace was gone. There was no hope. What had happened to the world? Suddenly I was hit by an idea.

My hands burned as I scaled the tree. It was one of the tallest in the area, and it was perfect for what I wanted. At the top, I shimmied out onto a branch. The drop below me was dizzying. I could see where the forest ended and where the plain began, and above that I could see the cliff with it's long grass fields. I took a deep breath, praying forgiveness. It was obvious that He had abandoned us, but why not try? I prepared to let myself go.

The sound of galloping hooves snapped me from my reverie.

A single horse thundered through the forest and began crossing the plain, dripping blood and chased by a horde of Changed. The horse almost made the ford in the river that came from the gorge, but not quite. The beast stumbled and fell, and the Changed descended like the gruesome vultures they are. I shivered.

Suddenly I heard a snarl from right below me. Five or six Changed were standing at the base of my tree, rotting arms reaching towards me uselessly. I calculated my chances. If I went through with jumping out of the tree, and didn't die but just was crippled, I would have to deal with the excruciating pain of being eaten alive before my death. As much as I despised the new world, I didn't fancy leaving it that way. So, I was stuck in a tree with a bunch of Changed blocking my escape. I wedged myself securely into a fork in the tree, praying that zombies got bored.

No such luck.

The rest of the Changed, the ones from the horse, were drawn by the snarls from my would-be-attackers. The horse bones were clean, lying in a pool of dark blood. Well, damn. I snapped a few twigs from the tree and threw them down at the Changed, succeeding in making them angrier. Looks like I would starve to death stuck in a tree.

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I was contemplating clean ways of dying when one of the Changed broke away from the group. I held my breath in hope; could they be giving up? Some more followed it, keening loudly. Soon the whole pack was gone. That's when I heard what they were running to; human footsteps and voices. What poor people. The footsteps soon faded away. I made my way back to the tip of the highest branch I could find. That's when I saw them break free of the grass.

A teenage boy with shaggy hair, a girl with long black dreadlocks, a huge dog, and what looked like a skanky space ranger girl sprinted towards the rope bridge. I held my breath. They weren't going to make it. Without thinking about what I was doing I climbed from the tree and ran as hard as I could down to the plain, arriving just as the space ranger girl ran over the bridge above me. I waded across the ford I had spotted earlier in the deep river and hid in a little cove. I was directly beneath the bridge that spanned the gorge. The dreadlocked girl ran over the bridge, getting about halfway before the big dog began following her. The bridge groaned and snapped. She leapt helplessly, slamming into the side of the cliff. The space ranger girl pulled her up. A shower of pebbles fell on my upturned face. The dog fell to the river, only a metre or so away from where I hid. It's stomach split open from the impact  and the water ran red and lumpy for a while. I shivered. Poor thing. Then I remembered the boy. He hadn't crossed the river. I craned my neck but just couldn't see him. I heard gunshots, and a girl's scream.

"Love you, Val." I heard from above me. The girl screamed something that sounded like 'I'll find you.'

A Changed came hurtling down to meet me. I withdrew deeper into the side of the gorge in shock. I noticed that there was something atop the zombie; the shaggy haired boy was using it to break his fall. Smart. It would be fitting to say the zombie exploded on contact with the water. Various body parts splattered the gorge walls. I dodged them, just.

The boy stayed underwater.

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I jogged down the river, following the dark shape that was the boy. I couldn't just let him drown. Up ahead I saw two boulders on either side of the river. With luck I could lower myself from them and hopefully snag him. I sprinted to the boulders, trying to keep ahead of the swift current. Scrambling to the top of the boulders burned the raw flesh of my already-sore hands, but I was too engrossed in my job to care. I put one leg on either boulder and hung from them, just like I had done with the ropes in the old circus with Grace. The river was dragging the boy close even faster. I shimmied down the sides of the boulders, wedging my feet into little crevices. I was hanging over the river, my head almost touching the surface and arms outstretched into the water. Something brushed against my fingers and I snatched at it. It was the boy.

With huge determination and effort, I pulled myself upright. I was holding onto the guy's muscled upper arm. His head was still underwater, so I hooked my other arm under what I guessed would be his armpit and strained against the river. He was so heavy. Somehow I managed to drag him to the river bank. He was unconcious, as you generally would be after falling from a great height and being underwater for a while. Now what?

I rolled him onto his side, cursing myself for not attending school on the CPR day. I thumped his back with my fists, continuing for a few tense seconds until he began coughing up water. Gasping from effort, I fell back away from him and gave him space. He got onto his hands and knees and vomited river water everywhere. Ew.

The boy didn't notice me until he had sufficiently cleared his lungs and stomach of every drop of liquid he had ingested in the past day.

"Oh... Uh.. Thanks..Sorry..." He stammered, embarrassed.

"It's cool. No worries man." I grinned at him reassuringly. He smiled back.

"Who are you?" He asked me.

"I'm Paz. You are?"

"Jeordie."

"Well, Jeordie, those Changed seem to be falling into the river. It might be a good idea to skedaddle."

The zombies were plummeting off the cliff. They wouldn't be able to get out of the current, not until they reached the ford at least.

"Good idea."

Jeordie jumped to his feet, quite an achievement for someone who hadn't even been concious for three minutes. We made our way back up to the gorge. All we could see of the Changed were dark shapes floating down the river.

I figured that I'd have to get used to things getting weirder from now on.