Dead Hunt

CHAPTER 6 – The Cabin

“Turn here,” Lucy announced.

The van skidded to a stop then turned towards Centre Margaree. They crossed over Cranton Bridge, a popular swimming area and salmon fishing spot on the Margaree River, but nobody was swimming or fishing today. Ahead of them was another gas station. They didn’t stop for gas. They made a right and headed towards Portree Road. The road dipped up and down like a roller coaster. It looked like it hadn’t been paved in twenty years. At one turn, the edge of the road had caved in where the Margaree River pounded into the side of the mountain for hundreds of years until it finally collapsed the road above. They could see a long stretch of the Margaree River in all its majestic glory. It was a million dollar view, but right now the only view they wanted to see was Lucy’s cabin. Wade navigated the turns cautiously.

They crossed a small bridge that opened into a large, flat valley when Lucy spoke up.

“It’s the little red place on the left.”

Michael noticed a few other houses and cabins around, but no people. He wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. The van drove up the grassy driveway then rolled to a stop. The hot sun was starting to set as the teens jumped out of the van and ran towards the cabin.

Lauren turned to Lucy. “Do you have the keys, Lucy?”

“No,” Lucy answered.

Everyone looked at Wade.

“What? Oh I get it, all of a sudden I’m a B &E expert. I’m insulted.”

“Can you get us in or not?” Lucy asked.

“Of course I can,” he answered with a smile. “But I’m still insulted that everyone assumed I could.”

He walked up to the door and rattled the doorknob.

“So who has the lock picking tools?”

They looked at him but said nothing.

“Guess it’s plan B then,” he suggested as he stepped back and kicked the door below the handle.

The door frame shattered as the door flung open.

“After you, ladies,” Wade motioned to the door.

“I could have done that,” Paul shook his head.

“Ahh, but I did,” Wade answered with a smile.

“For your next trick,” Paul added, pointing to the splintered door frame, “I want to see you lock it again to keep those things out.”

Paul was still grinning as Wade pushed past him.

“You people expect me to think of everything,” he mumbled and turned back to Paul. “Instead of standing there grinning like a dill, go grab the tinnys.”

“Grab the what?” Paul asked.

“Tinnys…the cans of beer.”

Paul looked towards the van. Michael was standing next to it in the waning light, looking up at the mountains.

“Hey, star gazer, door’s open.”

“Looks like there’s a light up on that mountain,” Michael yelled back.

“Yeah, so? We’re down here, not up there. Grab the beer!” Paul barked as he stepped inside the cabin.

Michael grabbed the cooler of beer and walked towards the cabin.

“Something tells me we should be up there,” he thought out loud.

Inside the cabin Lucy flicked the light switch. Nothing. She turned the main power breaker on and the lights flashed briefly then went out.

“Fuses are blown,” she announced.

They helped her search for spares in the failing light, but could not find any.

“Guess we’re camping in the dark,” Emma said as she turned on the tap.

Nothing came out.

“It’s an electric pump,” Lucy informed her. “No electricity, no water.”

“Any other good news?” Paul asked. “We don’t have any electricity, there’s no water, and look,” he pointed to the old stone fireplace. “No wood to build a fire. Nice place you brought us to, Lucy.”

“Hey, guys,” Michael spoke up, “we can’t stay here.”

“Why not?” they all asked in unison.

“This place is too open. We don’t have any electricity. There’s no food, or water…” Michael started.

“Hey, I have water!” Lauren announced. “Two or three bottles in my duffel bag.”

“There’s six of us,” Michael told her. “And we don’t know how much longer we’ll be stuck here. A couple bottles of water and some beer ain’t going to help us much. I don’t see anything we can use to board up the windows and,” he looked at Wade, “the door won’t lock.”

“Well, I didn’t see anyone else coming up with ideas,” Wade bit back.

“Well, we can’t go out there with those things,” Paul told them. “We should just stay here the night and head for St. Peter’s in the morning. Who in the hell were those people?”

“Zombies,” Emma suggested, not realizing she said it out loud.

“What?” she asked when she realized everyone was staring at her.

“She’s right,” Michael suggested.

“Oh please,” Paul spoke up. “Zombies? Gimme a fuckin’ break.”

“No, think about it,” Michael started to explain.

“Think about what?” Wade interrupted. “This ain’t the movies, Mate.”

“No, it’s not,” Michael agreed. “It’s as real as we are standing here. Those things out there are real and they are headed this way.”

“You don’t know that!” Paul argued.

“Then let’s go by what we do know,” Michael suggested. “We saw them eating human bodies.”

“I hate to break it to you, Sherlock,” Paul interrupted. “But that would make them cannibals, not zombies.”

“When we ran out of the Co-op and out of that hall,” Michael continued, “they didn’t run after us. They walked. They staggered like they had no coordination.”

“So?” Wade questioned.

“So, when you pulled away,” Michael told him, “twice I saw you shower them with rocks and twice they barely even flinched. Like it didn’t even hurt them! And, what about the little girl you ran over?”

“What about her?” Wade asked.

“You hit her doing what? Forty, fifty miles an hour? We all felt the van hit her. And she got up! That impact should have killed her, but she got up and started walking after us! I don’t know what they are or how they got that way, but everything so far points to zombie-like behavior, and that’s all we have to go on.”

“So, what’s your point?” Lucy asked.

“My point is, we can’t stay here,” he said again. “When we first saw them, Lucy, you said hello but they didn’t really hear you until you screamed. It wasn’t until that first one made that weird growling sound that the other one came.”

The teens stared at him, trying to follow along.

“And at the hall, they didn’t even know we were there. But as soon as Emma screamed, that little kid let out the same type of growl, and that’s when the rest of them looked. If they are like zombies then maybe their brains can’t really distinguish one sound from the next, but that growl they make is like some kind of sensory communication or something.”

“Sounds kinda weird to me,” Wade offered.

“And people eating people or little girls getting up when they were hit by a van is not weird?” Lauren asked.

“They didn’t really see or hear us,” Michael explained. “But as soon as one of them knew we were there and made that growl, they all knew we were there.”

“Then that settles it,” Paul announced. “If we stay here in the dark and be real quiet, they can’t see or hear us.”

“No,” Michael explained, “think about it. If they don’t hear that well and don’t see that well, then how do they find food?”

“How?” Emma asked though she was pretty sure she didn’t want to know.

“By smell.” Michael let his words sink in before continuing. “They must be able to smell food.”

“Then why didn’t they smell us when we opened the doors?” Lauren asked.

“I don’t know,” Michael answered. “That place reeked from all those dead bodies. Maybe that smell was so strong it hid our smell. It’s starting to get dark and we don’t have any lights. We won’t be able to see them coming. They could be right outside the door and we wouldn’t even know it.”

They all looked at the shattered door.

“We’re sitting ducks here,” Michael told them. “Even if we did see them coming, you saw how bad the tires spun on the gravel. When the sun goes down it’s gonna get chilly and damp, and then we’ll be spinning tires on wet grass trying to get away. It’s not safe here.”

“Where do you suggest we go?” Lucy asked.

“We can’t go back the way we came because there’s too many of them on the road. I don’t think the van could plough through them all. On top of that mountain, I saw lights. That means there’s somebody up there.”

“What if there’s not?” Lauren asked.

“Then at least we know there’s electricity. Lucy, do you know what that place is?”

“There’s a hunting lodge up there. My dad said some doctor bought it a few years ago.”

“A hunting lodge means guns,” Michael stated.

“Oh great,” Paul interrupted. “Stay here and get eaten or go up there and get shot!”

“No, he’s right,” Lucy said, “If someone is up there, I don’t think they expect those…” she hesitated and said reluctantly, “those zombie things to drive up in a van.”

“What if they are… zombies too?” Emma queried.

“It’s pretty secluded up there,” Michael explained. “We didn’t come across any of those things coming into Margaree, so it should be safe up there.”

“Should be!” Paul laughed. “That’s comforting.”

“I think we should do what Michael says,” Lucy suggested.

“Oh I see how it is,” Paul said sardonically. “Everything lately is Michael and Lucy. Where you go he goes. What he says you agree with. Something you guys want to tell me?”

Lucy shot a dirty look at Paul. “Grow up. You’re such a dick.”

“I’m telling you guys, we have to get out of here,” Michael continued, ignoring Paul’s jealous comment. “We are surrounded by houses and cabins and God knows what else. If one of them senses we are here, how long do you think it will take for more of them to figure it out?”

Nobody said a word.

“We know they don’t move very fast,” Michael added. “So the quicker we get out of here the better.”

Michael looked impatiently at his friends. It seemed like it took forever for them to make up their minds, but it was really only a few seconds.

“Ok, then,” Wade sighed, “let’s head up to the top of the mountain. That way we’ll be closer to heaven when we die.”

Lauren laughed. “If that’s the case, Wade, you’re going in the wrong direction.”

Everyone chuckled nervously as they headed out the door.

Michael noticed a butcher block and grabbed a large kitchen knife. As he was leaving he spotted a machete hanging above the door. He dropped the kitchen knife and pulled the giant machete out of its sheath imitating Crocodile Dundee, “That’s not knife. Now that’s a knife.”

Wade poked his head back in the door, smiling. “I heard that!”

Michael returned the machete to its sheath and followed his friends to the van.

As Wade pulled onto the road they noticed people covered in blood were coming out of their houses, all walking in that same unsteady swagger, all walking towards them.

“They’re all coming out at the same time. I wonder why?” Emma asked.

“We are why,” Lauren told her. “It’s feeding time.”