Chapter Nineteen

I wake up. It is not a natural awakening. There is noise in the distance, a formless blob of sound coming from the east. The sound of a gunshot here and there. I scramble to my feet and peer into the distance. Even with the afternoon sun at my back I see nothing out of place. Then, I remember the binoculars left to me. Set my gun down for a moment, I reach into my pack and carefully remove them.

"Darn. I still can't see anything." I mumble, my eyes stuck to the lenses of the binoculars. I scan the area multiple times. It is not for another minute or two that I see, in the distance, Jim running madly in my direction. "Shit, it's them!" I exclaim, putting the binoculars back into my bag and grabbing my gun. He was running from infected, no doubt about it. With rifle in hand I look again at where I spotted him. I see Ann and Greg with him as well. A gaggle of infected are hot on their trail. They turn back every few seconds to fire at the mob, then continue their sprint.

This is no time for a reintroduction. "Hey, don't worry! I've got your back!" I shout. I can tell they've noticed me, though I'm not sure if they're aware that it's the creepy little witch from yesterday shouting at them. The infected heard me as well. For a moment I ponder whether I should have just let them know where I was like that, but quickly mentally slapped myself across the cheek for thinking such a selfish thing. "All right, you sons of bitches. Come on!" Still at my vantage point at the top of the playground, I steady my hands, take aim and fire into the crowd of infected. One goes down. I'm getting better at this, I tell myself.

I continue firing until my allies are almost at the playground. Then, I hear a noise I had not heard before. It was a roar. At least I think "roar" is the right word for it. It sounded like some kind of animal, a donkey or some large hoofed animal, someone's bad impression of a very large donkey animal. Regardless, it sounded very angry. I quickly found the origin. While the infected had thinned out to only ten or so, among them trampled in a very large, very frightening creature. This is an infected, right? It must be, it still has a pair of overalls on. The giant infected stands at least six feet tall, maybe even seven, and is just as monstrously large in frame as it is in height. One arm is gigantic; it composes at least half of the infected's body, and looks almost as though it were made of rocks, while the other arm is tiny and decrepit, dangling pathetically as the creature runs.

I hear one of the men, Greg I think, fearfully shout "What the hell is that thing!" They can't shoot it just yet; there are still normal infected in their line of sight. That thing's going to be able to get right up next to them and punch the shit out of them with that massive arm of its. I have to kill it. I have to! I take aim and fire I barrage of bullets into the thing. One or two pierce its chest, but then it quickly shields itself with its hulking arm, and the remainder of the bullets are deflected. This isn't good. It doesn't even seem fazed, and I just spent the last of that round! I curse under my breath and eject the magazine. The creature bellows again. I instinctively look towards it, pausing. It leans forward and begins a vicious charge at the playground.

Someone shouts "Look out!", but it's in vain. The monstrous infected barrels straight through the playground, knocking the entire thing over, shattering the wood into splinters and warping the playground, all with a deafening crash. I am sent skidding across the grass field and straight into a nearby seesaw. The butt of my rifle jabs me in the gut as I fall, and something cuts my elbow.

For a moment, my head is spinning and I can't tell what on Earth just happened. The world takes a moment to align itself. I can hear gunshots and shouts, noises of battle. I try to get to my feet, but I'm dizzy, my balance is entirely gone. Just as my sight is reconfigured I see the giant infected fall to the ground, finally dying from its wounds. For a moment, the park is enveloped in an eerie silence, all of us holding our breath in case the mayhem will still continue.

It does not. The assault is over. We all breathe a sigh of relief. The rush of adrenaline fades, and I can feel the delayed pain of the battle creep into me. My stomach hurts, and my arm stings terribly.

Before I can check for wounds, a voice interrupts me "Oh, you've gotta be shittin' me." it says. It is Ann. She approaches me, a smoking shotgun in her hands.

"Please don't tell me there are more of them!" I hear Jim complain from the other side of the remnants of the playground.

"You could say that. Come see who our little ally is." Ann replies. As the other two make their way to us, Ann says with a slight growl in her voice "Just what the hell are you doing out here?"

I'm stunned. I was expecting a warm welcome from her, what is this all about? "What am I doing out here? What do you mean?"

Jim and Greg spot me. "Is that Maggie? Did you follow us here?" Jim asks.

"Follow? No, I… your note! I just came where your note said to come, Ann!"

She arches an eyebrow and shifts her weight from one leg to the other. "My note? What the hell are you talking about?"

"The note! 'Couldn't convince the others. If you still want to come, meet us at Warwick Park'!" I recite from memory. There is a long pause. "That… was you who wrote it, right? It didn't look like a man's handwriting, so I-"

"It was Lorraine." Ann answered. "Look, Maggie… don't take this the wrong way, please. We just… we couldn't have you with us. It just wasn't going to work out. Lorraine, she defended you, but she was alone- I mean… how do I say this? She-"

"Wait." I stop her mid-sentence. I want to shout at them. I want to scream and yell at them in blind anger, but not only do I realize that would be an extremely lethal thing to do right now, I have to ask them: "Where is she? Where is Lorraine?"

They don't say a thing. Ann and Jim both turn their glances down to the ground, away from me. At his grandmother's name, Greg looks completely shattered. Oh, don't tell me…

"She's not here, is she? I haven't seen her since-" I repeat.

"She's dead." Says Jim, solemnly, without emotion.

I take a step back. "Dead? Her? How?"

Jim takes a seat on a picnic bench that survived the battle. "We said something to the effect of "We must be immune", right?" He paused. I swallowed a lump in my throat. I get the feeling I already know what he's going to say. "Well, we were wrong. Lorraine wasn't immune. Now she's dead, because we killed her."

I was in shock. "But… there's no way! Th-there's no way that could happen!"

"Well apparently there was, okay?" Jim shouted.

I feel the unmistakable feeling of a sorrow with missing tears. "But… but you all made it so far! How could someone not immune avoid the infection that long?" Jim doesn't respond, instead only pulling out a cigarette from a pocket and lighting it.

"If anyone could, it was that old girl." Says Ann. "C'mon. We've spent too much time here, we've got to find a safe place to hide for the night." She says to the others. Jim tells her he already knows that, while Greg is silent. "Hey, Greg. C'mon kid, you'll pull through this."

I come to my senses and start to gather my things. Jim notices. "Maggie, don't follow us again, please. I'm sorry, but you can't come with us."

I ignore him. "Not happening. You're stuck with me whether you like it or not."

Ann groans. "Look, that's real cute, but-"

"No, YOU look. You made me think you were going to convince everyone to let me come along, and you didn't. Not only that, but the four of you left without saying a single word to me. You lied to me, and you OWE me for it. I made up my mind when I left my house that I was not coming back, and not a damn thing you say is going to make me return. Do you understand?"

They stand astounded. Damn, it felt good to get that off my chest. None of them say a word, merely readying themselves to continue on their trek; I can tell they're not going to argue with me.

After a moment, Ann speaks up. "Our plan of action is to follow the railroad tracks. They eventually lead south, to the forested area north of Fort Knox. Grab your things, I wasn't kidding when I said we need to find a place before dark."