Dead Frontier/Issue 102

This is a preview for Issue #102 of Dead Frontier, titled Back to the Start. This is the final issue of Volume 17. The entire issue is planned to be posted the week of August 26, 2013.

Issue 102 - Back to the Start
The sun has nearly completed its descent in the sky when Adam, Cole, and Jake emerge from the woods and onto a nearby road. Cars fill the street, too many to count, the majority of them in inoperable conditions. It’s obvious they’re even farther from the city now, with nothing but trees behind them and an empty field across the road. It may have been a popular route to escape from the city, but one that was an obvious failure. Adam can’t decide if the sheer number of cars here is a good thing or bad--will they find a decent one quickly, just because there’s so many, or will they spend useless time searching?

By this time, Cole’s eyes begin to close from exhaustion, but he’s stayed awake this long, so he wills himself to keep it up until their return to the hotel. He’s still using Adam for support as they walk, Cole’s arm around his shoulder. “Come on, man, just a few more steps. That’s it,” Adam says. They stop, and Adam helps Cole onto the asphalt. Cole winces, sits, and leans against a nearby dark-blue sedan. He tries to adjust his body to get a little comfortable, but he’s burdened with sharp, unbearable pains radiating from his knee whenever he moves. “Jake, start seeing if any of ‘em have keys. Hurry up.”

Jake nods and begins peeking into dusty driver’s side windows. He swiftly moves from one car to the next. Adam, though, briefly focuses his attention on Cole, crouching down in front of him. He surveys Cole’s face; his condition has worsened rapidly during their journey, a fact obvious to Adam just by his look. The cold, glassy look in his eyes, his ashen face, eyelids half shut, mouth parted just slightly as he takes in quick, painful breaths.

“You’re doing good. I just need you to stay awake for me, okay?” Adam says with an assuring nod. “How’s the leg feel?”

“Like...I’m gonna...die,” Cole says.

“You’re not gonna die. And your leg’s gonna be fine, too,” Adam says firmly. “I’m gonna go help out Jake. We’ll be done real soon, so you just...you stay put.”

Cole nods as Adam disappears in Jake’s direction. Now that any sense of danger, for now, has gone, Cole can finally let himself relax. Or, relax as much as he can in his state. The pain has been so constant, he’s almost able to ignore it, but his mind still races. He’s still trying to acknowledge the fact that he isn’t dead yet. That his entire kneecap is blown out. That, besides Adam and Jake, he doesn’t know who’s retreated from the camp safely. That the guilt he feels right now, for destroying something as precious as the life of a friend, will burden him forever, he's sure.

Suddenly, his eyes snap open and he realizes he dozed off. He rubs his eyes, mumbles encouragements to himself to stay awake. But it's difficult, and he finds his eyelids feeling heavier and heavier as time passes. Until he hears something. It's almost like a rumble, and he turns his head to the left. His vision is a little blurred, and the cars blocking the way make seeing even more difficult. He forces himself to scoot to the end of the car. He peeks his head around the back bumper.

Far down the field on the other side of the road, Cole can see a wall of them: infected, a near-stampede making their way toward them. His eyes widen, and his previously slowing heartbeat quickens in pace. He assumes his position from before and calls out to Adam, which comes out as nothing but a weak, half-hearted yell.

Adam is inspecting another car, his face near the window, when he hears his name. Something’s wrong. He lifts his head, ready to turn to Cole, but he freezes.

“That’s bad…” Jake says, looking in the same direction as Adam, directly at the herd.

“No shit. Keep looking,” Adam says. He rushes to Cole and keeps his eye on the approaching herd as he does, only stopping when he reaches him.

“Did you find a car?” Cole asks as Adam lifts him to his feet. His words come out slow and slurred. Barely conscious, Adam realizes.

“No, not yet. Still working on it. But we gotta start walking, just in case we don’t.”

“I’m…” Cole begins, but he feels a sudden surge of dizziness and squeezes his eyes shut, a trivial attempt to get his bearings. “...slowing you down,” he finishes.

“You are, that’s true. But I don’t care.”

“You’ve gotta--”

“What you’ve gotta do is more walking and less talking. You can barely do either, so how about we focus on one?”

Farther down the road, Jake alternates between peeking into car windows and looking up at the herd, which is close enough now that he can hear it. “All these fucking cars, not one key…” he says to himself. The effort, along with the long journey through the woods, has exhausted him, not to mention the frustration and added pressure of the infected. He picks up his pace, a curse escaping his lips at each empty car. Eventually, he sees something out of the ordinary. One of the windows is cracked, and is covered with what he assumes is blood, instead of a sheet of dust. He leans his face in closer, squinting, until he sees a body in the seat.

He can make out a few details of the body; rotted flesh, patches of skin falling off, a mouth of black and yellow teeth. And then, a pair of keys in the ignition, dangling invitingly. He pulls at the door handle once, then a few times more in a fit of denial as he realizes its locked. He kicks the door in his anger. Only then does the rotted face smash through the window, breaking the already-cracked glass and reaching out to Jake. A few shards of glass stick out of its face as a result, and Jake jumps back with a quick screech.

He glares at it, a bit angry at himself for assuming it was really dead. But he moves on from the scare quickly, grabbing the infected by the head and pulling it forwards just a little. He brings the head down, then smashes its face on the car door a few times, leaving a dark red stain. He finishes the job quickly, opens the door, and lets the infected tumble out of the seat and onto the asphalt.

End Preview