Wilder Than Fate
1. Rosie
Chapter one
Rosie
M y wrist burned as Barrett dragged me around another corner to keep up with our group of five.
“That hurts,” I hissed, wiggling my numb fingers, but his grip only tightened, no doubt leaving an imprint again. Even when my boyfriend’s hands weren’t on me, I still felt trapped. We have been together for two years, and most days that feels like two too many. Being on the run for a month has made everything seem like a lifetime. My neck ached from looking behind me, from checking to see how much space we’d put between ourselves and the…things. My legs hurt from running, my lungs strained from constantly being on the move. They weren’t the fastest and the distance had grown but it wasn’t enough. I wanted walls. Tall, tall walls. I wanted security to make sure those things didn’t come anywhere near me.
The lumbering group of undead had come out of nowhere, surprising us as they pushed their way out of a storefront. Their clothes caught on jutting shards of plate glass, tearing open and slicing their arms and legs. They didn’t flinch, the cuts went completely unnoticed. They no longer felt pain. No longer felt anything besides hunger and the endless desire to keep moving. Never stopping, only ever looking for their next target. One of them was only a teen, clumsily bumping into a garbage can. Empty glass bottles skittered noisily onto the concrete, some shattering in their wake. The sound served to distract them as we slipped further down the block, our own will to keep moving giving us a second wind.
“We need to choose somewhere for the night, Barrett,” I demanded. He didn’t stop, continuing to drag me behind him as he sought out shelter.
“Don’t you think I know that?” he bit back. We were both exhausted from the chase, from our lack of obvious survival skills besides the ability to keep moving. The sidewalks were covered in litter and leaves that crunched beneath my sneakers, stores were busted out and looted.
We weren’t the only people here. The occasional curtain fluttered on an apartment window. A lock would click on a street level door. If you did see another small group of the not-dead, they kept their heads down not wanting any trouble. That’s something I wanted to avoid too.
Right before everything went wild, I had a whole plan for breaking up with Barrett. I’d scribbled a whole page worth of notes in case he tried to talk me into a corner which was something he excelled in. Barrett had the type of mouth that could go on and on until you doubted your own name. But before I got up the nerve, classes started getting cancelled due to a “communicable illness”. Then the cafeteria had all these weird rules about portions. Only days later my mom offered to fly me home, but that was on the other side of the country, and I knew she didn’t have that type of money. Flight prices had doubled and the news stories about full hospitals and experimental medicines seemed like something from a movie. When the television and radios started playing emergency distress messages and the university closed “indefinitely”, I knew I wasn’t getting my fresh start that weekend. I crumpled up that piece of paper with my talking points and accepted my fate. Four weeks later, I wasn't feeling so accepting. I’d been following Barrett blindly for weeks. First, we were stuck in his dorm room where we bickered constantly due to the stress and close proximity. Then, we left the University of Alberta campus behind in a cramped truck with five of his friends that I barely knew. Roads were surprisingly clear, like people hadn’t even bothered evacuating. Maybe they figured that there wasn’t anywhere better to go. With nothing to do but rest my chin in my hand, I’d stared out the dusty truck window hour after hour, watching the clouds blow through the sky, and the drying leaves flutter from the trees. When the gas ran out, we found another vehicle and continued west until abandoned vehicles slowed our progress. We’d ditched the ride, which was only on a quarter tank anyway, and walked forever along the shoulder until we saw the sign indicating we were approaching the next town.
Copper Ridge had one of those beautiful handcrafted welcome signs, the letters carved into a thick slab of dark wood and set atop a neat base of river rocks. Weeds crept along the smooth, grey rocks. Named for the long since closed copper mines, the small city was a mix of proud historical buildings and contemporary construction. I’d spent several Saturdays in its cute shopping district with an overpriced smoothie in one hand and my charged cell phone in the other.
We entered the city limits of Copper Ridge out of sheer necessity, quickly learning that it was overrun with lawlessness despite the military checkpoint that must have been operational at one point. I wasn’t sure how the government had made their decisions over which cities to protect and which to let crumble. It appeared that some type of line was held here, at least for a little while.
Barrett wouldn’t admit it, not to me, and certainly not to his buddies, but he had no plan. How long would we run? How long would I follow him? When would this end?
The sudden squeal of tires startled me. Gas stations were empty and so many roads were blocked, so seeing an operational vehicle this many weeks later was almost unheard of. We’d been more than lucky to travel so many miles in one. Catching a glimpse of the sedan barrelling towards me sent hot panic through my blood. Late afternoon sun glinted off the windshield as it picked up speed. My silent pleas didn’t stop the car from careening into a pole. Time seemed to slow as blood spattered the interior of the vehicle on impact, a red starburst on the windshield that made me gasp. The body slumped forward with enough pressure to activate the car horn.
“The noise!” A woman whose name I hadn’t bothered learning whispered.
Barrett and his friends were particularly generous when it came to picking up random women. Matt and Tobin rushed through the steam billowing out from under the crumpled hood. When they wrenched open the door, one of them tugged the driver from the vehicle, the lifeless body sliding out onto the damp pavement. It was a woman dressed in jeans and a red sweater, her neck kinked at a sickening angle as blood dripped from her nostrils into her slack mouth. I screamed through my fingers at the sight, my stomach churning.
Barrett turned his glare on me, hissing, “Shut up, Rosie!”
His anger was palpable, sobering me with his narrowed, hardened eyes. As if one shrill scream could make a difference after the racket that car horn had caused. At least a scream was a sign of life. Maybe if there was anyone good left here, they’ll have heard it. Inwardly, I scoffed at myself for being so naive. Nobody looked out for anyone but themselves anymore. So, maybe my scream wasn’t the greatest of sounds, the undead were looking for signs of us as it was. I stood on my soapbox that the horn was worse than me screaming.
Over the hiss of the steaming car wreck and the laboured breathing of our group came the deep voice of a man. My spine snapped ramrod straight, and all five of us turned toward the sound, backing up instinctively as a man with a black bandana covering most of his face strode into an alleyway. A weapon I couldn’t make out rested casually on his shoulder as he walked with far too much confidence, almost like a swagger.
“You making all that noise on my street?” he asked, his voice steady, like this wasn’t his first day being a threatening asshole.
As he drew nearer, the skull print bandana and a heavy bat came into focus. It didn’t take a genius to figure his only intent was hostility.
“Shit,” Barrett said, tugging me in front of him.
I squeezed my eyes shut. Only he would consider using his girlfriend like a human shield. That’s what I was worth to him. Two more men in the same skull face coverings emerge from the shadows of the alleyway. It was almost cute that they’d taken the time to coordinate matching bad guy outfits while society collapsed. If I wasn’t so focused on the overwhelming urge to pee myself, I’d laugh. Every synapse in my brain urged me to run as the three men encroached. These guys were bad news and we’d already lingered here too long. To be honest, I didn’t want to be in reach of that bat.
“You guys crash that car?” said the one who seemed to be in charge.
“No, man,” said Barrett, holding his free hand up in innocence. I didn’t much relish the idea of my asshole boyfriend with a weapon, but I desperately wished he had something in that hand aside from his own audacity.
Bandana man clucked his tongue, the wet sound echoing off rows of overfull metal garbage bins.
He glanced back at his cronies, his eyes dancing dangerously between the two and our group. “Somebody did.”
The same woman who whispered about the noise spoke up, her voice shaky. “It almost crashed into us. We we’re just walking by. Honest!”
There was a time I’d have thought she was a brave, strong woman for speaking up. But given the current circumstances? I thought it made her stupid. A target. Better her than me, I supposed.
“ Honest! ” mocked one of them, causing the other two to laugh.
She folded her arms across her chest, sinking her shoulders as low as she could manage.
While the bandana brothers had their eyes trained on my acquaintance, I had a better idea. This was my chance. The fact that this situation felt like a positive one was a testament to how royally screwed my life currently was. With Barrett distracted, his grip loosening on my wrist with every second that passed, this could be an opportunity. If I jerked my arm sharply, I’d be free of him, and then I could run. But where? Staying with Barrett would likely get me killed either way. He wasn’t the sort of person I should have hitched my wagon to before shit hit the fan, especially with the way I’d become his full body shield. He certainly wasn’t the type of man to stay attached to after, either. If I took off, all I’d have was the small daypack on my back. Terror prevented me from even remembering what was inside of it.
I counted down from ten, glancing around the block as covertly as I could. If I waited any longer than that, I’d lose my resolve. The alleyway filled by our latest threat wasn’t an option. The direction we were headed when the car crashed was a big, bold question mark. I had no clue what lurked around each corner and that scared the shit out of me. But Barrett didn’t either. And that gave me at least a small advantage. By the time I reached five on my countdown, my palms sweated profusely. Barrett noticed, shaking me off and wiping his hands on his filthy jeans while he shot me a filthier look.
“Sorry,” I mouthed, trying to arrange my face into something that resembled subservience.
Energy surged through my legs the moment I hit zero, taking off like a shot. For several long instants, the only sound was my shoes slapping the ground. All I needed was a headstart.
“Rosie! What the fuck?!” Barrett yelled, his voice bounced off the metal cans around them.
I recognised the voice of the main masked man immediately. “Leave her.”
Yes!
Even if Barrett tried to chase me, I was in school on a track scholarship. Only a month ago I’d been at the top of my game, training twice a day. He might have hit the gym when the mood struck, but he’d spent the last couple years drinking like a fucking fish and couldn’t stop vaping to save his life. I darted around a corner with a looted pharmacy, head on a swivel as I ran. The balance between running as fast as I could away from Barrett, and not running headlong into a more immediate threat was tenuous.
Between the twists and turns, and the fact my smart watch died weeks ago, I had no clue how far I’d gone. Leaving the downtown core behind, which I barely recognized from the shopping trips that seemed so long ago, the buildings grew taller. They closed in around me like a labyrinth, reaching up toward a darkening October sky. Five miles used to feel easy, but my energy reserves were low, and a sharp cramp shot up my side. Slowing, I stretched my arms over my head to ease my pain. I weighed my options. If I kept running around much further, I could go in circles and bump into the very people I sought distance from. Making it this far without finding further trouble felt like dumb luck.
A dark building across the street caught my eye. It wasn’t the tallest building on the block, but it looked sturdy. Mature Chestnut trees with russet coloured leaves partially hid the brick facade. It reminded me of the library back on campus. The lobby was open to the street, glass broken and strewn across the sidewalk. Daylight faded and the idea of being alone at night in a strange place was almost scary enough to turn back. I fiddled with my backpack straps. If I told them I got spooked and saw some infected people…
No, Rosie.
It was those doubts that made me stick with Barrett so long. The tinkling sound of glass breaking made me gasp, causing my heart to jump into my throat. The jolt of adrenaline made my mind up for me. Heart still pounding, I looked both ways before I crossed the street, because old habits die hard. Whatever instincts had kept me alive until now, I hoped I had enough left of them to see me through.