“How can I trust you?”
“I guess you can’t,” Dylan replied, fighting to remain calm. “But this is my car, and you’re welcome to walk the rest of the way if you wish.”
“I…” Maddie’s mouth worked, searching for words.
Kyle chipped in, a worried frown marring his forehead. “Mom, she’s fine. Look at her. She’s not turning into a zombie. I’ve heard it takes days anyway.”
“Listen to your son,” Dylan advised. “It’s a long way to Vandalia on foot. But by car, you’ll be there within an hour. Safe and sound.”
“I suppose you’re right,” Maddie said after a tense few seconds. With slow movements, she slid back into her seat, though her stiff shoulders betrayed her mistrust.
Dylan sighed, already regretting her kindness of earlier. This is going to be the longest drive of my life.
Chapter 11 - Dylan
They drove in silence until they hit Millersville. As they neared the town, Dylan spotted a cloud of smoke hanging above it. Worried about what they might find, she slowed the car to a crawl.
Maddie tensed up again, a deep furrow forming between her brows. She gripped the dashboard and asked, “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know — something’s burning. Keep your eyes open,” Dylan said. “You too, Kyle.”
The boy nodded and gazed out the window with serious intent as they cruised between the buildings while sticking to the main road. It was mostly deserted except for a few cars parked along the side, and it looked almost normal. They’d nearly passed through the town when Kyle spotted the origin of the fire. “Over there!”
Dylan edged closer, slowing down even further as her eyes met a strange sight. People armed with all sorts of weapons ranging from guns, pitchforks, sharpened sticks, and shovels were gathered in a small park. The park fronted a large square building made from exposed brick. Its windows and doors were barricaded from the outside and written across the front in dripping white paint were the words: The Infected are Damned.
Flames licked across the walls, and smoke billowed from the shattered windows. The heat was intense, so strong that Dylan could feel it against her skin all the way across the park.
“What are they doing?” Kyle asked.
“I’m not sure,” Dylan said, but a suspicion was forming. The fire, the message, the crowd…it all pointed to one thing.
“They’re burning the zombies,” Maddie answered, leaning forward in her seat.
“Zombies?” Kyle asked.
Dylan didn’t answer. She watched as the fire consumed the building, filled no doubt with the undead. Then a strange noise reached Dylan’s ears through the crack in her window, the sound of multiple voices screaming for help. She jerked upright in her seat, listening harder. “Wait a minute. Those aren’t zombies.”
Maddie glanced at her. “What do you mean?”
Dylan’s stomach churned as the horrifying truth sank in. “They’re killing infected people. Not zombies.”
Maddie’s expression didn’t change. “What’s the difference?”
“The difference is, those people are still alive. They haven’t died yet,” Dylan said.
“They’re burning people alive?” Kyle cried out. “Just because they’re sick?”
“I’m afraid so,” Dylan said, staring at the awful sight.
Between the planks nailed across the windows, she spotted a few faces, barely visible through the smoke and flames. Hands scrabbled at the wood with frantic desperation as those that burned inside sought to escape an agonizing death. Her stomach churned as she imagined the horror, the terror, and the pain those poor unfortunates were experiencing.
The people outside felt no mercy. That much was clear. Instead, they cheered at the deaths of what must once have been their neighbors, maybe even friends and family. They were getting rid of what they perceived to be the enemy, an evil in their midst, and in the process, they were becoming that same evil.
Suddenly, the crowd rippled and parted down the middle to reveal a struggling duo. An older woman was dragging a young girl to the front. The girl pleaded with the woman, and tears streamed down her cheeks to drip onto her torn and bloody shirt. “Please, Aunt Lily. Please.”
The woman ignored her niece’s efforts and addressed the gathered townspeople in a loud voice. “I present to you this thing…this zombie for cleansing.”
“No, Aunt Lily! I’m not a zombie. I’m not. I swear,” the girl cried, trying to pull free from her aunt’s iron grip.
“My niece is gone. She died when the infection entered her bloodstream. You’re nothing but an infection in our midst. A living canker that will sow death and destruction on us all. Unless we stop you now.”
“No, Aunt Lily. Please, I beg of you,” the girl cried as two people grabbed her arms and dragged her toward a smoking pyre in the middle of the park. “Don’t do this!”
Flames licked at the wood heaped into a pile, burning brightly, and a bed of coals gleamed at the bottom. A charred corpse lay curled up in the middle, the arms and legs pulled into a fetal position during its final moments.
Dylan watched the entire time with growing horror, unable to believe that ordinary people were capable of such barbarism. Her stomach churned when she realized they were capable of it, and that they fully intended to burn the young girl alive.
Without thinking about it, she undid her seatbelt and reached for the door handle until Maddie stopped her. “Where are you going?”
Dylan stared at her for a second. “I’m going to help that girl.”
“You can’t. She’s infected,” Maddie said.
“Maybe, but she’s not a zombie yet. She can still think and feel. She’s still a person,” Dylan protested.
“You can’t help her,” Maddie insisted. “She’s already dead, and those people won’t let you interfere.”
“I don’t care. I have to try,” Dylan said, watching as the girl was dragged toward the fire kicking and screaming. “I’ve got a gun.”
“Yeah? So do half of them,” Maddie said. “You won’t get far.”
“My mom’s right. They’ll burn us too. Let’s get out of here,” Kyle said, wringing his hands together.
Dylan shook her head, fighting against the truth of Maddie’s words. She couldn’t let the girl die like that. She had to try and save her. “I can’t leave. She’s all alone.”
“Dylan, please. You can’t help her. She’s dead already, but we’re not. My son…we have to protect my son,” Maddie cried, gripping Dylan’s forearm with steely fingers.
Dylan looked at Maddie’s fingers, wrapped around the very place where her own infection began. Hidden. A secret. These people…they’d burn me too if they found out. They’d kill me without blinking an eye. Just like that girl. We’re alone, the two of us. Alone in this world.
“Please, Dylan. Think of my son,” Maddie repeated.
Dylan blinked, and reality shifted. Maddie was right in a sense. She couldn’t help that girl. Not without sacrificing herself and possibly Maddie and Kyle too. She was outnumbered and outgunned. Her voice felt raw when she uttered the words, “Alright, Maddie. We’re going.”
Maddie sagged with relief. “Thank, God.”
Heads were beginning to turn their way, and Dylan realized they were out of time. No one would welcome them, especially not her. She’d be added to the pile of corpses on that pyre, her flesh charring to ashes as she screamed out her final breaths.
“Let’s go,” she said.
As she turned the car back toward the main street, the scene being played out in the park reached its final act. The girl was tossed onto the fire without ceremony, a broken doll that was of no use to anyone anymore. She twisted and turned as death licked at her flesh, her hair a fiery torch against the gray skies. A brisk wind whipped the flames into a frenzy and carried her screams to the furthest corners of its reach.
Kyle sobbed, his hands pressed to his eyes to deny the sights before him. His mother watched with a ston
y expression, and Dylan swallowed as vomit stung the back of her throat. It took everything she had not to pull over and scream out her anger and helplessness at the world. Guilt burned her with its hot touch, much like the flames that had consumed the girl. “I can’t believe I left her to die like that. That I did nothing.”
“You had no choice,” Maddie said with cold finality. “It was her or us.”
“I know, but…”
“But nothing. She was infected anyway,” Maddie said, causing Dylan to look at her with narrowed eyes. Before she could say anything further, Kyle leaned forward and grabbed his mom’s shoulder. “How could they do that, Mom?”
Dylan knew what he was asking. He was pleading for answers that would help him make sense of a terrifying new reality. The knowledge that people could, and often would, do terrible things in the name of their beliefs. She doubted he would get any real answers from Maddie, though, and she was soon proved right.
Maddie turned toward her son shrugged, her face a smooth canvas. “I don’t know, sweetie. I guess they were protecting themselves.”
“Protecting themselves from what?” he asked. “They could’ve just locked up all the infected people until they turned before they killed them.”
“Calm down, sweetie. Forget about those people. It’s over.”
“How can you say that?”
“It’s not as if they were human beings anymore. They were dead already, and they got what they deserved,” Maddie said.
“That girl…she didn’t deserve to die like that.”
“Remember your father, Kyle. He would’ve killed us in a heartbeat. The infection changed him and took him away from us. He wasn’t your dad anymore, and you know it. Just like that girl wasn’t her anymore.”
“But he was dead when he tried to hurt us. Mom. A zombie. Before that, he was still Dad,” Kyle said.
“No, he wasn’t. He was infected just like everybody else. A vicious monster,” Maddie said, showing genuine anger for the first time. “Your real father was gone the minute he got bitten, taken over by whatever this disease is.”
Kyle stared at his mom with an open mouth before curling into a little ball on the seat. He stared into the distance while holding onto his knees, and Dylan felt awful for the poor kid. Silence fell as Millersville shrank into the distance until soft snores indicated that he’d finally fallen asleep.
Dylan cleared her throat. “Do you really believe that? What you said earlier?”
“Believe what?” Maddie asked.
“That the infected are dead already. That they should be killed like that girl,” Dylan said.
Maddie fixed Dylan with cold blue eyes. “Of course, I do. They’re nothing but a danger to the rest of us.”
“Even if they’re still alive? They only change once they die,” Dylan said in the mildest tone of voice she could manage.
“It doesn’t matter. Once infected with the virus, they’re not them anymore,” Maddie replied.
“They can still feel pain, you know. They can think and feel, just like you and me,” Dylan said.
Maddie flashed her a pitying smile. “They only look human, but it doesn’t mean they are. Their souls are gone. The thing that remains behind is a monster that must be killed.”
“Even Kyle? What if he gets infected?”
Maddie hesitated, her lips quivering before she nodded. “Even Kyle. If he becomes infected, I’ll release him from his suffering.”
An angry retort rose to Dylan’s lips, but she shut them without saying a word. People like Maddie and those of Millersville were the most dangerous kind in the world. They were worse than serial killers and murderers, rapists and thieves, for they believed themselves to be right.
Instead, she kept quiet, all the time vowing to keep both eyes on her at all times. The sooner I get rid of her, the better. I feel sorry for Kyle, though. Imagine what she’d do to him if he got bitten. What she’d do to me if she knew I was infected.
Chapter 12 - Dylan
After Millersville, nobody felt much like talking. Kyle alternated between napping on the back seat or staring at his mother with a grim expression, while Maddie concentrated on the countryside. Now and then she’d flash Dylan a strange look, one that made the latter squirm in her seat.
Dylan was caught between two opposites, pity for Kyle and loathing for Maddie. She prayed the rest of the trip would be uneventful, and that she could get rid of the crazy Madeline without anything else going wrong, but her instincts told her that was highly unlikely.
At least, I have a gun, and she doesn’t. As long as I keep an eye on her, it should be okay, Dylan thought, shifting in her seat once more.
As the minutes passed, she became hyper-aware of the bite wound on her forearm. The edge of the bandage stuck out from her sleeve whenever she moved in a certain way, and it was the last thing she wanted Maddie to notice.
The wound itself itched and burned too, and a couple of times she caught herself scratching at the material of her jacket while Maddie watched. The fourth time it happened, she forced a bright smile onto her face and her hand back onto the wheel before saying, “So, you’re going to your mother’s house in Vandalia?”
“That’s right,” Maddie said. “She says it’s safe. They’ve set up a neighborhood watch and everything for the zombies.”
“It sounds nice,” Dylan said, trying to keep her voice light.
“What about you?” Maddie asked. “Where are you going?”
“To a friend in Kentucky. She lives on a farm, and I reckon it’ll be a good bet.”
“I see,” Maddie answered before resuming her vigil of the countryside.
Dylan suppressed a tense sigh, praying Maddie hadn’t noticed anything out of the ordinary. She glanced at the fuel gauge and the odometer. They still had three-quarters left in the tank, and only about thirty minutes to go before they reached Vandalia. Thank, fuck. I just hope Vandalia hasn’t gone to the dogs yet.
“When was the last time you heard from your mother? What does Vandalia look like with the outbreak?” Dylan asked.
Maddie shrugged. “She called me before the networks crashed. The citizens have set up a kind of militia, and they’re patrolling the streets for infected. They’re trying to block off the town, build walls and roadblocks.”
“Will they let us through?” Dylan asked, worry setting in. She didn’t trust homegrown militias. Or mobs. Not after what she’d seen at Millersville.
“I’m sure of it. I’ve got a letter from my mom with her address and everything on it in my pocket. I grew up there, too. There’s nothing I don’t know about that place,” Maddie said without a hint of fear.
Dylan nodded, hoping she was right. If not, she’d shoot the first bugger who tried to touch her. “Okay. I’ll take your word for it.”
They’d been driving for another ten minutes when Dylan spotted a three-car pile-up blocking the road. She slowed and maneuvered to the side, hoping to bypass the accident when Kyle tapped the window and said, “Wait! Someone is moving inside that car.”
Dylan gritted her teeth and resisted the urge to slam her hands on the wheel. This was exactly the kind of situation she’d hoped to avoid. Another delay. Another few precious minutes lost. “Are you sure?”
“He’s right. There is someone inside that car. They might be hurt,” Maddie said.
Dylan looked at the light. The sun hung low, and dusk was almost upon them. “It’s getting late. We should keep going.”
“We can’t just leave them,” Kyle protested, ever the good Samaritan.
Dylan sighed. “Fine, let’s have a look, but we should hurry.”
She pulled the car off to the side and got out, one hand resting on her gun. Maddie followed after telling Kyle to stay put.
“But, Mom…” he protested.
“Your mom’s right, Kyle. We don’t know what’s waiting up ahead. Stay in the car,” Dylan said.
She glanced at Maddie. “Ready?”
Maddie scouted aroun
d before picking up a rock the size of her fist and nodded. “Let’s go.”
“We should take it slow. This could be a trap,” Dylan warned.
“I get it.”
They crossed the distance to the accident with slow steps, and Dylan quickly became aware of a few things. The car closest to them was empty. It had taken the brunt of the collision, and all the windows were smashed to bits.
Maddie’s shoes crunched across the broken glass before she squatted down and pointed at a splash of blood. A trail of the crimson liquid led to the driver’s side door which yawned open, but there was no sign of anyone. No corpse either.
“The blood is old,” Dylan said, noting its blackened and congealed state.
“Yeah, I think the driver got hurt but walked away,” Maddie said.
“He or she couldn’t have gotten far. Not injured like that.”
“Maybe, or maybe someone picked them up,” Maddie said. “What about the truck? It looks like there’s someone in there.”
Dylan moved closer to the vehicle in question and peered into the front. A man lay slumped over the wheel, and she cleared her throat. “Hello? Are you okay?”
It was a dumb thing to ask. The man clearly wasn’t okay. Not once you noticed the color of his skin or the blood pooled onto the seat. Old blood.
“Dead?” Maddie asked.
“Yup,” Dylan said, swallowing hard. She walked over to Maddie, and together, they circled the truck. The third car had come off the lightest of the three. Its windows were still intact, and overall, it looked fine. Just the front bumper had a dent in it.
The windows were lightly tinted, and Maddie leaned in for a closer look before jumping back. “Whoa! Movement, definitely movement!”
“Let me see,” Dylan said, peering through the glass. A lipless apparition smashed its face into the window, hissing at them, and Dylan screamed. “Zombie!”
“I thought so,” Maddie said from behind Dylan. “He or she must have turned while driving and caused the accident.”
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