Free Fear the Dead: A Zombie Survival Novel by Jack Lewis

travellers had, so it was obvious
he wasn’t from Vasey. He also smelt faintly of Old Spice, and I didn’t know
where he could have gotten that from, or why. What did it matter how we smelt
these days? He had a dark leather belt around his waist. On one side of it was
a sheath for his knife, and then wrapped around the rest of it were what seemed
to be parts taken from various animals – a couple of rabbits paws, presumably
for luck, and some teeth that looked like they were from an alligator, though
he must have ordered these online before the infection. As I followed the trail
of animal memorabilia hung around his belt my eyes snapped onto something, and
I felt a cold shiver run through me.
     
    There was a human ear on his belt. It
was torn and mangled, but unmistakably human.
     
    I remembered what Justin had said about
the hunters, and suddenly it didn’t seem so stupid. The need to free my leg
became more urgent, and the feeling of being trapped jabbed at me. It was a
struggle to control my breathing, and my chest felt tight. Behind us, getting
closer still, the infected moved toward us.
     
    “Name’s Torben,” he said. His voice was
as rough as sandpaper. “Torben Tusk.”
     
    I looked down at my leg, but there was
no way I could get myself free. It would take someone to hold up the metal while
I dragged myself out, and Torben didn’t move to help. I still had my knife in
my hand, but he was knelt in such a way that he could easily move himself back
if I took a swing at him. The infected were moving slowly toward us right now,
but they would speed up when they got closer, and at that point I would need
Torben to take care of them or they would be on me.
     
    Where the hell was Justin? I wanted to
look at the other side of the barricade to where he had squirmed his way
through, but I didn’t want to draw Torben’s attention to it. The longer he
thought I was alone, the better.
     
    My only option was to see what he
wanted, and hope he didn’t want one of my ears for his belt. I was conscious of
the fact that my bag was on the floor a few feet away from me, and in it were
the bulk of our supplies as well as the broken GPRS. I prayed Torben didn’t
notice it.
     
    Torben wiped his knife on his khakis
again. He brought the tip of it toward his mouth and stuck his tongue out so
that it was millimetres away from the blade. I thought of the lingering
infected atoms that would still be on the silver, just waiting to enter a new
host.
     
    “Peculiar, don’t you think? One little
nick from this blade, and in a few days I’ll be one of them,” he said,
gesturing behind him. He didn’t seem to care that the four infected were only
fifty feet away and headed in his direction.
     
    I stayed quiet and kept my eyes focussed
on him, waiting for the slightest of movements in my direction. As silently as
I could, I twisted my foot and tried to make room to pull it out.
     
    He held the blade of the knife in front
of him as if transfixed. “We’re all living like this – inches away from the
knife edge. Makes you wonder if it wouldn’t be better to just give in and
become one of them.”
     
    The infected were forty feet away now.
Where was Justin?
     
    Torben leant in a little closer. “How’d
you come to be in this fix?”
     
    I feigned a smile. “I slipped.”  I
needed to play nice as much as I could, but I wasn’t telling him anything.
     
    “Accidents happen easier than you think,
‘specially now. You from town?”
     
    “Yeah,” I lied.
     
    He turned his head away from me and looked
at my rucksack on the floor. As he moved, I saw an infected closing in behind
him less than ten metres away. My heart pounded. Should I warn him, or should I
let it pounce on him? I didn’t trust the guy an inch, and he gave off a vibe
that made me want to get far away. But once the infected was done with him, it
would eventually turn its attention toward me. Justin was gone and I was stuck,
and I’d be helpless as