Born Nameless

Chapter 26

Bending her knees, she shifted her weight back, her feet far apart as she braced herself to lift the gas caddy, her hands on the handle. Straining, she managed to lift it a bit, before she set it down again, her arms shaking. Frowning down at the stubborn thing, she crouched more, bracing her back against the caddy, her hands holding the handle by her shoulder. Bending forward a bit, the caddy lifted off the ground, leaning on her back and slowly, she managed to stand up. Her arm muscles bulged and her fingers whitened with how tightly she was holding the canister, but she managed to slowly walk backwards and slide the caddy onto the truck bed. Carefully setting it down, she exhaled harshly, shaking her hands out to get the blood flowing in her fingers.

That had been much heavier than she thought it would be and she was not looking forward to doing the rest. The second one was just as difficult, as was the third one and Anamika was ready to just abandon the barrels after the fourth caddy was loaded into the truck. The barrels seemed a lot bigger and she was sure she would not be able to lift it, not if she struggled already with just the caddies. Tucking some strands of her hair that had come loose behind her ear, she walked to the barrel, slowly shifting it closer to the truck, before doing the same with the last one. Regarding the two troublesome things, her eyes drifted to the two empty drums she had moved to the side and a lightbulb moment happened.

She had a gas pipe in her truck, underneath the passenger seat. If she could move some of the gas from the full drums to the empty drums, then she wouldn't have to lift all that weight at once. Sure, she would have to fit four, maybe three barrels into her truck, which would need some rearranging, but it's better than leaving two 30 gallon barrels of gas behind.

Nodding to herself, she fetched the gas pipe and rolled the empty gas barrels closer, cursing when they clanged against the other barrels before she could stop them. Huffing, she lifted the one up, before bending to lift the other one. She had just managed to right it, when a foul smell hit her nose and before she could react, rotten arms wrapped around her from behind and moaning filled her ears.

Yelping, her eyes widened and she immediately tried to drop, to get the walker to let go of her, but the dead bugger had a tight grip on her and all that happened was the two of them staggering to the side. She heard a clicking of teeth right next to her ears and her hand shot up as she attempted to keep the walker away from her neck. The next few moments seemed to blur together, as her hand pushed the walker under its jaw to try and keep the teeth away from her as she flung her body back, causing both of them to stumble backwards.

In the ensuing scuffle, she managed to brace her feet, her hand that wasn't pressed under the walker's jaw grabbing the back of its head. Bending forwards, she shouted as she thrust her shoulder up and pulled her hands forward, flinging the walker over her shoulder and causing its grip on her to slip free. Usually, most walkers were so decomposed that the amount of force she used to throw them would tear their body apart. This walker, however, seemed to be quite fresh and intact and as such, she grunted as the entire body came over her shoulder instead of just the head or so.

She staggered back as the walker moaned and got to its feet and her eyes narrowed. She yelled again as she kicked the walker in the middle of its chest, trying to gain enough space to pull out her machete, but the next moment her eyes widened in fear, as the walker went crashing into one of the support poles of the barn, the rotten wood breaking apart under its weight. For a moment, it seemed as if nothing will happen, but then the crack of splintering wood and the groan of the building filled her ears.

The support beams above her splintered and broke and with her heart pounding in her chest, she ran and dove out of the barn, just in time to hear a tremendous crash behind her. Coughing, her eyes tearing from dust and fine splinters, she turned to see that the entire second level had collapsed and half of the barn as well.