The Long Dark by Billy Farmer (best book club books for discussion .txt) 📗

took several unsure steps in my direction. The one next to him grunted and moved, and that prompted the next Gray and so on and so forth until I had managed to move a decent-sized group of them away from the duplex. They were surprisingly easy to move. Too easy.

As per usual, when someone gets cocky, mistakes are made. I wanted to hurry up and get them out of the way, so I moved farther away from them while clapping my hands harder. I had no reason to worry because the ones following me seemed to lack the ability to locate me in the heavy snowfall. Like the one back at the house, not all of them were docile idiots. There were smarter ones out there. I forgot that fact.

I had moved them far enough away for my escape plan to work, but I decided to clap one more time for good measure. Not long after that last clap, I heard fast footfalls in my direction. Assuming I was the target, I wasted no time attempting to get the hell away from the quickly approaching footsteps, but I lost my footing in the snow and fell to the ground in the process. My head hit something hard, maybe the rifle, in the snow after my feet slipped out from under me, and I felt like I might black out, AGAIN.

The warm, rancid breath I felt on my face and inhaled through my nostrils jolted me back to my senses. The Gray crouched between my spread legs, much closer to the goods than was remotely comfortable. His gray face was covered in dried blood, which instantly reminded me of the lunch lady back at the house. I threw up, most of which ran out of my mouth, down my face, and into my ear. The Gray sniffed and snorted wildly.

Besides his face being the normal gray, it also drooped badly on one side, maybe from a stroke or whatever was causing them to go crazy. His face also seemed to be locked in an almost sorrowful expression, which in no way resembled his demeanor towards me. He grabbed air with his hands, just above me: once, twice, and then over and over again. I used my elbows to crawl backward a few feet, but he sensed my movement and followed. I could see the silhouettes of at least two of the ones I had lured away from the duplex, but for whatever reason, they didn't join the fray. I moved again, with the same result. I tried to get up, but he was too close.

If I scooted backwards, he moved forwards. If I tried to get up, his probing hands would feel me. I’d have to wait for the right moment. Luckily, that moment didn’t take long to arrive. The baby began to cry, loudly.

The Gray jerked his head around towards the sound of the screaming infant. I took advantage of my opening. I quickly scooted far enough back that I could maneuver my rifle around for a shot. I aimed at his head, and just as he began to turn his gaze back towards me, I fired. His head exploded above me in a mist of crimson. He lay crumpled between my legs, a small hole just above his left eye, blood flowing from the wound causing the white snow to turn red.

I was on my knees in an instant, trying to regain my footing. “Fuck!” I slipped and fell. I yelled out loud, adrenaline coursing through my body. I reached for the rifle that had fallen to the ground when I slipped and used it as a crutch to help me regain my footing. I was dizzy, but at least upright. I moved quickly towards the sound of the crying baby.

I heard two quick shots, followed by two thuds. Two dead Grays lay crumpled on the ground, still twitching. Kelley was nowhere in sight. I followed the screaming baby, as did every other damn Gray in the vicinity. I bowled over a Gray from behind. I honed in on the wailing baby. Kelley was just in front of me. I yelled for her to follow me. She adjusted her course and I quickly caught up to her.

“Miley’s,” I said quickly, struggling for breaths. At that point, it didn’t matter how much noise we made, because the baby had already done the damage. They were coming at us in every direction. It also didn’t matter in which direction we went because every Gray in a half-mile radius was converging on us.

There were pounding footsteps a few yards behind me. I turned and fired the rifle, clipping the lead Gray in the leg. He cried out in pain as he tumbled in the snow, after losing the use of his nicked leg. Lucky shot to the knee cap, I thought. I slung the rifle over my shoulder and ran as fast as I could for the next thirty or so yards.

I skidded to a stop within a few feet of what used to be the entrance to Miley's office. No! The entire door frame had been pulled out of the structure, leaving a double-door sized opening in the building. The frame lay on the ground, the top-center part bent outward in a sharp V-shape, a chain still attached.

“Fuck,” I yelled. There was no one there. Miley’s had been broken into. With the doors gone, it wouldn’t be safe inside. All of this was for nothing – there was no place to go now. And my friends… “Fuck!” I repeated. Between the wailing baby and my bellowing curse words, we might’ve well been circus barkers with bullhorns. Come one come all; come pummel your baby and washed up former drill superintendent.

“Where’s your boss?” Kelley asked, her voice tinged with worry. Maybe she wasn’t a robot, after all.

“I don’t know.” The Grays were quickly surrounding us. “We’re going to have to figure something out quickly.”

The lead element was maybe twenty yards and closing.