by Chris Pike
For the first time in my life I saw pure evil, and it scared me.
“Once I’m finished with you, I’ll entertain myself with these pretty little girls.” He forced a belly laugh, trying to draw Kyle into a foolish counterattack.
It was then I viewed Kyle in a completely different light. Bloody and absorbing blow after blow, it looked as though he was barely hanging on.
My epiphany allowed me to see Kyle had blocked every serious blow after the initial strike. Though Kyle appeared to be slow and indecisive, he was allowing the man to tire himself out with ineffective, angry attacks. Kyle’s eyes remained alert, looking for a final, decisive opportunity.
The man’s confidence was starting to wane. He was breathing hard, his knife hand hanging downward, his body crouched forward. His eyes were wild and feral, ready to strike out in desperate fury.
Kyle backed up and pretended to slip.
The man took the bait and thrust with everything he had reaching for Kyle’s stomach.
Kyle sidestepped left to avoid the thrust.
Following his forward momentum, the man rammed his knife into the metal wall of the freight car where it was stopped cold, and since there was no guard on the knife, his fingers slid over the blade, slicing the skin and tendons, rendering his hand useless. Stunned, he glanced at his bloodied hand and uttered a high pitched shriek.
Kyle rushed forward, gripped the man by his shirt collar, and slammed his head into the metal wall, forcing his face over the sharp welds holding the sheet metal together. Kyle punched the back of the man’s neck with each fist before backing away out of reach.
Now bloody and badly hurt, the man still showed no sign of giving up. He switched the knife to his good hand. “I’ll make you pay for this!” he roared.
Perhaps it was the thought of what could be in store for May or myself, or the knife glinting in the sun’s rays, but whatever it was, the paralyzing fear I had earlier vanished, throttling me into action. In one deft movement I brought up the .357, held it tightly with both hands, and sighted it squarely at the man, center mass. I pulled the trigger, slowly, deliberately. The hammer came backwards, then released with the sight picture still perfectly centered on his heart.
The resulting simultaneous explosion and the thud of lead tearing flesh didn’t bother me one bit. He had insulted me, my sister, and was tormenting Kyle. He clearly intended to kill everyone at his first opportunity. His irrational mind put all our lives at risk. I had to do something. I had to protect us.
The man stumbled, his eyes rolled back, and he slumped to the floor.
I kept my aim on the man in case he was playing possum like before.
“Is he dead?” I asked Kyle.
“Let me check. If he moves, be sure not to accidentally shoot me.”
“I won’t.”
Even if he was alive, I had no intention of helping him. He could bleed out.
Kyle tentatively approached the man. A river of crimson bubbled out of his chest and onto the floor. Using his boot, Kyle nudged the man. He got no response, so he used the toe of his boot to nudge the man’s cheek. Still no response. Kyle reached down to him.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Checking if he is breathing.” Kyle put two fingers to the man’s carotid artery, on the side of his neck. After a few moments, Kyle stood and shook his head. “He’s gone.”
“What should we do with him?”
“Toss him out.”
“I’ll help you.”
“I will too,” May offered.
“Be careful not to get any blood on your hands or clothes,” Kyle said. “We still don’t know if whatever killed everyone is contagious through bodily fluids.” He glanced at me then at May. “Did either of you get any blood spatter on you?”
“I don’t think so,” I said.
“May? Did you,” he asked.
She glanced away before she answered. “No. Do you have a first aid kit in your backpack? You’re hurt.”
“Where?” Kyle asked.
“On your arm. Don’t you feel it?”
“I do now,” he said, looking at his arm. “There should be butterfly closures in the first aid kit. I’ll need some.”
“I’ll find them,” May said.
I took a scarf from my pocket, folded it, and put pressure on his wound.
Digging around in Kyle’s backpack, May found the first aid kit and a semi-automatic pistol. “You had a pistol all this time?”
“I did.”
“Why didn’t you use it?”
“There was no time, May.”
I cleaned and patted the wound dry, then Kyle took the butterfly stitches and we worked together to carefully line up the edges of the wound starting in the middle. We placed the strips on one side of the cut, then gently brought the other side towards it and closed the cut.
After we tended to Kyle’s arm, we sat down to recover from the ordeal. I sipped on water to calm myself, then handed the bottle to Kyle. He took a gulp and passed the bottle to May.
Fifteen minutes later, after our adrenaline rush had waned, we decided to toss the dead man off the train.
Kyle held his arms by using his long-sleeved shirt as a grip. May and I each took a leg. He was heavier than we expected and the center of his body dragged along the floor. Dead weight was always heavier. With great effort, we moved him parallel to the opening of the car. It was then I noticed the train had slowed, although for what reason I wasn’t sure. I didn’t recall the train stopping anywhere along the tracks. Trains came and went along this railway track for as long as I can remember, and while they slowed down for crossings, there was not a reason to slow down now, nor to stop, and this train was stopping.
“We need to get him off the train now,” I said. “By the time the train stops, we’ll be half a mile down the road.”
“I’m going to count. We’ll pitch him off on three.”
May and I struggled to get enough lift on the man. Since I was taller, I stood closer to the open edge of the car.
“Ready?” Kyle asked.
“We’re ready.”
The man’s head hung lifelessly and bobbed when we moved him. His eyes were open, his mouth frozen in mid-speech. Kyle had a tight grip on his forearms, which pulled his shirt out, exposing his belly covered with red trails of blood. I grimaced.
“One,” Kyle said.
We swung the man forward then back.
“Two.”
I struggled to gain momentum.
“Threeee!”
Using all my strength, and with my left foot planted securely, I heaved him as far out of the railcar as I could. Kyle and May did the same, and we simultaneously released our grip. I watched his lifeless body tumble awkwardly, arms and legs splayed in different directions. The corpse landed on the coarse gravel, then plummeted down the embankment.
I never forgot him, for it was the first time I killed a person.
It wouldn’t be my last.
Chapter 10
Exhausted from the fight and the struggle to move the man’s body, I sat down with my back to a wall, pulled my knees up to my chin, and hugged my legs. May sat next to me.
Tommy reappeared and gave us a once over. “What happened?” he asked, swinging into the car. “And whose blood is on the floor?”
“That man who was here was up to no good. Kyle got into a knife fight with him.”
“Are you hurt, Kyle?” Tommy asked.
“I’ll be alright. Ella was the one who finished him off. She shot him.”
“Really? That’s impressive. I guess I need to get on your good side. Too bad I missed all the action.”
“Did you find any food?” I asked.
“No. Just a bunch of useless stuff.” Tommy shuffled over to a far wall of the car and sat down. “If you don’t mind, I’m going to catch a few winks of shuteye.”
I didn’t want to look at anyone, and fortunately nobody said a thing for a long time. Kyle had slumped down on the opp
osite wall, May and I the other one. Only one side of the railcar was open, and I was thankful for the noise the train made. Silence would have been too much at this point. It was like the noise kept us from talking or analyzing what we had done, and kept us sane during an insane moment.
“Kyle?” I finally asked. “Where do you plan to go?”
“Somewhere away from here. The city is starting to stink with all the corpses around. From reports I heard, other cities are as bad if not worse. People who are left are desperate for food and water. Two days ago, I checked out the grocery store.”
“What was it like?”
Kyle grimaced. “Flies everywhere. Corpses. I covered my mouth and took as many canned goods I could carry.”
Kyle retrieved two cans of peaches from his backpack, and my mouth watered. Although I was thinking he would offer a can to May and I, to my surprise he took a pair of socks, knotted the ends, put a can in each one, then knotted the other side.
“What are you doing?”
“Making you and your sister a weapon.”
He stood and swung the sock in a circle over his head, and I watched in fascination. Then I understood.
“I can hit someone with it.”
“Bingo. Especially if you don’t have a weapon at hand, or for instance if someone takes your weapon when you are sleeping. Ella, you should always keep your gun hidden.”
“I will.” I glanced down shamefully, then lifted my gaze to meet his. “You should keep yours handy.”
“Fair enough. We all make mistakes. I doubt either one of us will make the same mistake again.”
“I won’t.”
“Here.” He handed a sock-covered can to me, and gave the other to May. “Practice with it. Swing it like you’re roping a calf.”
“I’ve never roped a calf,” I admitted.
“Doesn’t matter. Just do what the cowboys do at the rodeo.”
* * *
May and I practiced our moves by swinging the sock-covered cans like they were whips, except we didn’t flick it at the end. I didn’t want the can accidentally hitting me in the arm since the last thing I needed was a broken bone.
The train wasn’t traveling fast at all, and was sure I could pedal a bike faster. Intermittently, the train sped up, and then slowed to a crawl again. This pattern went on for about thirty minutes. After tiring of practicing, I sat down, stretched my legs out, and tried to catch a nap. Considering all the excitement, it was impossible.
The rumble in my stomach reminded me to eat. I fished out a granola bar from my backpack, and handed half to May. Finding another one, I asked Kyle, “Would you like this one?”
“You keep it for yourself.”
“If he doesn’t want it, I’ll take it,” Tommy butted in.
“On second thought, I’m keeping it.” I held the granola bar I was eating between my teeth then tucked the unwrapped bar deep inside my backpack.
Tommy huffed.
“Next time, try helping someone,” I said, finishing the last bite of the bar. “They might help you in return.”
“Which is what I did when you needed my help in third grade.”
“You’ve held that over my head for years.”
“But look what it got you…an invitation to all the cool parties.”
“It doesn’t matter anymore.”
Tommy shrugged. “It used to.”
“Things have changed, Tommy. Get used to it.”
He huffed again and turned his back to me.
“Tommy?”
“I don’t want to talk about it. Give it a break, Ella.” Tommy pulled his cap over his ears, clearly a sign he had left this conversation.
“Kyle, what else do you know?” I asked. “You were telling me about the grocery stores earlier. Do you think we might try to scavenge anything from them?”
“I wouldn’t bother. If you have a place to go to, hunker down there, ration your food, and if you can, hunt for meat.”
“That’s my plan.”
“Good,” he said. “Do you have a water source?”
“A well on the land.”
“Excellent, because the water in the grocery stores is all gone.”
“I figured as much. The faucets at our house were down to a trickle.”
“Same at my house.”
“Have you had any trouble in your neighborhood?” I asked.
“There was a gang of five armed men and one woman in our neighborhood going house to house. They had a wheelbarrow to take away canned goods and anything else of value they could carry out. When they got to my house I opened the front door with a shotgun pointed at who I thought was their leader. I told him he had to the count of three to leave.”
“What happened?”
“He left on two.”
I chuckled.
We sat in silence, listening to the knocking of the train and taking comfort in the fact we would be out of the city soon. Since the city had gone quiet, it had become too eerie, and I couldn’t stand it anymore. My mind drifted to the ranch house we were headed to, and though it was empty and quiet, that was the way the country should be. It never scared me; rather it invigorated and nurtured my soul in ways I didn’t always appreciate.
The train had slowed down to a crawl. I chalked it up to the conductor slowing down for a crossing, or possibly debris on the tracks. Whatever the reason, it didn’t concern me much.
It occurred to me Tommy and Kyle, two brothers less than ten years apart, couldn’t be more different. Physically they were similar, with the same athletic build, thick hair, and a sharp jawline. Tommy used people, while Kyle helped people, and I wanted to know more about him.
“What about your mom and dad?” I asked.
Kyle glanced away, probably lost in some memory of his parents, then he lifted his gaze and made direct eye contact with me. It unnerved me, and I quickly averted my eyes before coming back to him. I wasn’t sure why, other than I hadn’t expected him to look directly at me.
“When they didn’t come home, I went to the office where they both worked. The roads were too clogged with abandoned vehicles, so since they weren’t too far away, I walked.” He shrugged. “It only took me about thirty minutes to get there, but once I was in the building, let me tell you, it was creepy, and I got the feeling I was being watched.”
“By what?”
“I couldn’t tell you, only that shivers went up and down my spine.”
“I had the same feeling at home,” I said.
“About being watched?”
“Yeah. And I heard some weird sounds at night.”
“What did it sound like?”
“Like a lion roaring over a kill.”
He passed his hand over the stubble on his beard.
“It scared me half to death.”
It was a moment before he began talking again. He shifted his position and uncrossed his legs.
“I’m sorry I asked about your parents,” I said. “I didn’t mean to pry.”
“It’s alright,” he said, letting out a shaky breath. “I found them at their desks, slumped over. There was nothing I could do so I placed them on the floor next to each other. They were already stiff…”
Kyle’s face flushed, and I could have sworn he was about to cry. There he was, a young man in the prime of his life, recently discharged from the Navy, full of youthful bravado with shoulders that had carried those that needed carrying, and he was about to cry. I didn’t mind if he did, although I didn’t want him to feel embarrassed about it.
I asked a question to bring him back to his story. “What did you do?”
“I took a few jackets and covered their bodies.”
He stopped talking and looked at the countryside. A few cows munched idly in the pasture, and a lonely donkey stood in the shade of an oak tree. A field sparrow flitted from tree to tree, and a breeze drifted into the railcar, offering a brief cooling comfort I was thankful for. Things weren’t as bad if your body was cooled by fresh air.
/> “There was nobody left alive in the office.”
“I’m sorry to hear what happened.”
Kyle nodded. He glanced away and cleared his throat.
“Where were you—”
“Give me a moment,” he said. “I need a moment.”
“Okay.”
May, who had been listening to our conversation, shook her head, and put her hands up, indicating she had no idea what to do.
It was quiet in the railcar. The wheels had ceased their squeaking and grinding on the metal rails.
Kyle lowered his head and took a deep breath, then another and another. For the next few minutes, he did nothing else other than breathe. He didn’t open his eyes, shuffle his feet, talk, and didn’t appear like he was aware of his surroundings. Then he lifted his chin, his eyes meeting mine.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“Yeah.”
“Do you mind if I ask what’s going on in your mind? You looked a million miles away.”
“I was breathing. We were taught in training to concentrate on our breathing when we’re under extreme stress.”
“Does it work?”
He nodded. “It does.”
“Kyle, where were you when it happened? Did you see the cloud? I thought it was storm clouds from a tropical storm.”
“I didn’t see anything. I was at home, sleeping. My EMT shift ended a little before seven in the morning because my replacement got to work early. He told me to go home and get some sleep. It had been a bad night with a car accident and we were the first on the scene. Some poor kid probably lost his leg.”
“You think the hospitals are still open?”
Kyle shook his head. “After I left the office building, I headed to the nearest hospital to see if I could help.” He hung his head. “God, it was so bad in there. Dead people in the emergency room had been stacked up against a wall. They were covered in sheets. I almost vomited because of the smell.”
I gulped and put my hand to my mouth. “It must have been awful.”
“It was.”
A noise outside caught my attention. “Someone’s coming,” I whispered.
Kyle shot a worried glance at me, then to May, who had pressed herself into the corner. There was no place to hide. I readied my .357, as the running footsteps came closer.