The Road to Nowhere

Chapter 66: Plan

Chapter 66

We made it out of that massacre by the skin of our teeth. The mutants were preoccupied by the guard's heavy gunfire, but when we ran across the battlefield toward the corn they looked like they had an odd fascination with Brianna.

As we ran by, the mutants stopped their destruction just for a quick moment. It was like they could smell the scent of her and they knew it was her. Like she had some sort of importance. I didn't take the second to stay and see what would happen next. I made sure to yell at Brianna to run faster after we made it into the corn.

"Go! Don't stop running!" I yell. I'm worried that the beasts decided to follow us into the corn and if we slow down just a little bit, we're going to be their midnight snack.

I guess some of the guards had the same idea. I hear thier screams coming from every direction in the corn, followed by growls and shrieks.

I pick up my pace and end up in front of Brianna. I get a small glimpse of her face. Like mine, it's riddled with small cuts from the corn's thick leaves scratching her skin as she runs. Her eyes are watery. I can tell she's trying to hold in her tears. I don't know if its because she wants to be strong, or she doesn't want the mutants that are hunting us like rodents to hear where we are.

Before we know it, we reach the edge of the corn and the café pavilion is straight in front of us. Like the murder a couple days ago, a body is dangling from the rafters of the pavilion, but the person is still alive, and a mutant is eating at its legs.

The adrenaline in my body muted the sounds coming from Moen as I was running through the corn. Or, I possibly didn't want to hear them and I drowned it out. But all in all, it sounds like nothing I've ever heard before. When Z-Day came, everyone was screaming with complete shock from the disturbing sight of people eating each other, but this is different. The screams are unworldly. The mutants look like aliens, and every poor person that encounters them screams like their soul left their body.

The area around the pavilion is riddled with dead bodies. However, there are still a few people running around trying to figure out what to do. I can hear children crying out to their mothers and fathers and it breaks my heart.

In the dull moon's light, I can see someone walking towards the main campfire with no left arm. It's cut off at the shoulder, and it's really a sight to see. I'm used to seeing infected without arms, but seeing a person without one quickly takes me back to the naked lady in the washing hole. It's more fighting to see someone alive with such a wound.

The lady stumbles and falls over. Crying out in pain, she then starts convulsing and with a growing puddle of blood beneath her, her eyes close and her body become motionless.

Suddenly, a mutant appears in the clearing from the corn stalks across the fire. The small flames contour its rough skin and show off the rotting corpses inside its translucent stomach. It stands up on its hind legs, looking around the area with its dead and yellow eyes.

"What is it doing?" Brianna whispers.

"I don't know. Looking for people to kill?"

Brianna's eyes flicker with confusion. "Do you not hear it?"

"What do you mean?" I ask.

Brianna looks back out to the creature, her eyes widening. "It's– it's talking."

"What?" I say and bring my ear forward to try and hear. "I don't hear anything at all. Just the fire and the screaming in the distance."

"It's very loud." She says with the color on her face draining.