by Gouge, W. B.
Sarah slammed the door behind her leaving the others in silence. Liz cried and hugged David, and he hugged her back. Owen shook his head and clenched his teeth. David held Liz and felt guilty, “Owen. Liz. At least you are ok.”
The rest of the day passed by slowly. The sun started in the living room couch, then slowly crept across the floor to the coffee table. Sarah had not come out of the bedroom all day despite the group making several attempts to talk to her. Owen had tried to comfort her, but she wouldn’t let him in. Then Liz tried, no answer, David simply asked if she needed anything, she said no but that was all.
They all were feeling terrible for Sarah. They all knew that it was a death sentence to be bitten. It was only a matter of time now before she got sick and began to slip away. David had seen it, they all had. His grandmother had become sick, then she began to lose her mind slowly, not realizing who she was or who he was. Then she turned. David thought that was the worst part. It was bad enough that someone he loved had died, but then she had come back. Not as herself, but as a monster, death in the flesh come back to kill and eat anyone she could. David didn’t want that for Sarah, or anyone for that matter. He looked over at Liz, he had failed to protect everyone, that had been his promise to himself. That no one else would die and he had failed. He couldn’t fail anymore, all he had left was Liz and Owen. He couldn’t afford to mess up again. Later on that night he told himself he would throw the rest of them away.
The three of them sat uselessly in the living room, no one spoke. Instead they sat in silence, with the TV off. Hours passed by as the sun began to droop down near the horizon they heard the bedroom door creak open.
They all stood quickly, Owen and Liz looked concerned and eager, David rose from the couch, rifle in hand and waited for her. Sarah came around the corner, she hand a makeshift bandage on her shoulder, it looked like she had made it out of bedsheets. She was pale with dark areas under her eyes which were deeply red, it was obvious she had been crying. She looked at each of them and took a deep breath, “I know what I want to do.” She said.
The three of them waited, wondering what would come next as their hearts pounded. Sarah cleared her throat, “I want to be alone, I want to leave here and be alone.”
Her words were like a door being closed forever. Tears ran down Liz’s cheeks as she nodded. At first David was puzzled by her decision, “Why would anyone want to be alone? Especially at, the end?” He wondered. Owen shook his head, “No… let us take care of you…” he said and stepped toward Sarah.
She shook her head and placed her hand on his chest, “You can’t help me, and… I don’t want you to watch me die.” She began crying and Owen pushed past her hand and held her.
The three of them wanted so badly to help Sarah, but she was right. There was nothing they could do to help her. She cried into Owen’s chest, the sound muffled as she repeated over and over again, “I want to go home. I don’t want to die! I just want to go home!” she pleaded.
Liz broke down and hugged Sarah from behind, David placed his hand on Sarah’s shoulder, “Im sorry,” he thought, “I let you down.” The words burning inside of him. “Sarah, tell us what you want us to do.” He whispered trying not to cry.
Owen squeezed his eyes shut until his face turned red, Liz sniffled and sobbed. Sarah finally slowed down, then she stood up straight and wiped her eyes. There was a calmness to her face now, a resolution that David hadn’t seen before. Sarah looked at them all one by one, “I have to go,” she met Owen’s gaze, “I HAVE to go now.”
The group headed out to the front yard of the farmhouse. The sun was settling down on the horizon and casted an orange glow over the countryside. David walked to the end of the small dirt road with Liz at his side, in one direction it led back to the barn where they had been the day before, the other led into the woods again and most likely connected to a main road somewhere past the trees. A few seconds later Owen and Sarah emerged from the front door, Sarah leaned on Owen as they walked. As they approached David could see just how bad off Sarah was. Her face had grown pale, the dark areas under her eyes had expanded, her lips were cracked and dry and her expression was one of pain. It was the look he had seen on his grandmother’s face before she turned.
The group met at the road by an old mailbox. Sarah walked over to Liz and held her hand, “Be strong Liz, and thank you for saving my life in the barn.” Sarah said smiling with tears running down her face.
Liz nodded and hugged Sarah. Then Sarah came to David, “Thank you for taking me into your house, and for letting me tag along all this time. Take care of them David” Then she leaned in close to David and whispered, “Stop taking the drugs, you are better than that,” her words caught him off guard, “they’ll need you.”
The guilt was too much for him, after everything that had happened that he couldn’t fix he failed to be there to stop this. It was his fault, and now Sarah was dying. Finally she approached Owen, he wore an expression of depression and anger, but mostly he looked exhausted. Sarah cupped his face with her hands, “Owen,” she stared into his eyes and he stared back, “I like you the most when you’re just being yourself.” She smiled and kissed him on the cheek.
Owen had held it together until then. After the kiss he began to cry, Sarah hugged him tightly and held him for a while. Then she let go and walked away backwards. All of them cried now, Sarah waved with both hands and yelled, “Take care of each other, and get to Fort Union!” then she turned around and walked away. They all stared as she disappeared into the gathering darkness of the forest. Liz was sobbing and hugging David, so he helped her back to the porch and into the house. Before he went through the door he turned to see Owen standing there in the road staring at the sky.
Fourteen
David woke up to the sun shining through the curtains. It had grown uncomfortably hot in the living room already. He sat up from the couch and stretched. Owen came down the hall quietly. David met his gaze and realized how tired he looked. Like David, he must not have slept much last night. “Good morning.” David groaned.
Owen didn’t reply, instead he walked over to the window and looked out for a long while. David watched for a bit, he wanted to say that she wasn’t coming back. And even if she did, you wouldn’t like what you saw. But he decided against it. Instead he turned on the T.V. just in time for another breaking story. The reported looked terrible, bags under his eyes and clothes a mess, he stated that a Russian submarine had been sighted off the coast of San Francisco and the Navy had launched several planes to confirm the reports.
“Yikes, this is getting out of hand fast!” He thought.
The reporter went on to cover the violence and unrest in the wake of the spread of the virus. He kept repeating the same thing every few minutes, “If you can reach on of the designated safe zones do so, otherwise stay in your home and wait for rescue.”
Then he heard Liz coming down the hall. She looked tired too. She sat next to David and they were all quiet for a long time. David kept thinking that they needed to decide what to do next, he started the conversation off slowly, “I know things are bad right now. But we need to decide what to do now.” He watched Liz and Owen as he spoke hoping for some reaction to his lead, but they both were silent.
“Do we try for the safe zone at Fort Union? Or do we stay here for a while… and wait it out?” he asked them.
Liz sighed and looked at Owen, “Sarah wanted to go to the safe zone to help others, I vote we still go there. Maybe we can be useful somehow.”
David admired her positive attitude. In the face of everything that had happened her thoughts were about helping others. It made him think of how attitudes are infectious, good attitudes can make people feel optimistic and hopeful. And unfortunately, bad attitudes can make people feel hopeless and negative. David looked to Owen for his opinion next. Owen looked at Liz and nodded then said in a hoarse voice, “Yeah, let’s get out of this place, and go to the Fort.”
The group got all the food and wat
er they could carry in David’s backpack and then check the front yard, the coast was clear, so they headed for the path they hoped would lead them to a main road. They decided they would have to keep low and quiet on the road until they found a vehicle to use. Owen was out in front with a tobacco stick in hand, David was right behind him with his rifle, and Liz was in the back with another tobacco stick over her shoulder. The sun shone brightly and the humidity was already high. Immediately David was uncomfortable out in the open, he felt so vulnerable. The woods made it difficult to see very far, and the animals moving around in the trees and the almost constant chitter of insects made it hard to determine where sounds were coming from. The three of them kept quiet and moved to the dirt road quickly. When they reached the road Owen pointed at the ground with a grim look on his face, “We better be careful.” He whispered.
David and Liz looked to where he was pointing, in the mud there were dozens of footprints. In all directions the tracks went, some were shoe prints, others were bare feet, but they all added up to the same thing. There must have been dozens and dozens of infected here over the past few days. David suddenly realized how easily they could have been overrun in the small farmhouse. Luckily, they had been quiet and went unnoticed, but if they had been noticed there would have been no escape. In his grandparents’ house they had slipped out through the cellar, and it had only worked because Greg had stayed behind to distract the infected. “Greg, Sarah, Grandma, Grandpa” he felt that familiar sinking feeling that followed him night and day now, he looked at Liz then Owen and hoped no one else would get hurt, or worse.
They walked slowly to minimize the noise, the heat had them sweating and exhausted in no time. The muddy ground began to dry out and the leaves became crunchy under their feet. After a short walk they reached the main road. Owen motioned for them to get down since there was a few of the infected down the road. The group watched them as they milled around in the road, thankfully they didn’t seem to notice them.
Owen whispered to the others, “We should stick to the woods for now, keep the road in sight and watch for a vehicle.”
They all agreed and David, Liz and Owen hurried into the trees that lined the road. According to their map they needed to find a road that would lead them to highway 491. It connected to the interstate 75, once they made it there they could follow it all the way to Fort Union. It was only around three hours or so away by car, David hoped they wouldn’t run into any more trouble. But he couldn’t shake the feeling that they would, even after everything there would always be more of them out there. And they had a lot of ground to cover to get to any real safety.
Traveling through the woods was slow going. There was no path to follow along and there were sticks and leaves scattered everywhere which made noise when they stepped on them. Luckily, they didn’t see any infected for a long time, David thought they must have moved on since they hadn’t found anyone.
After a long time they finally stopped to take a break in the shade of a massive Hickory. They were sweaty and tired, each one of them took a few sips of water but nobody spoke. David watched Owen who seemed much quieter than usual before checking on Liz. “Man its hot out, you doing ok?” he asked.
Liz didn’t answer, she seemed very tired too. “Are you ok? David asked her again.
When she looked at him, she seemed exhausted. “I’m fine, I just didn’t sleep much last night. That’s all.”
David stood and stretched when something on the other side of the tree caught his eye. He got Owen’s attention and the two of them began to sneak around the large tree to get a better look. It was a pair of shoes sticking up, and a leg. They tiptoed around the tree ready to strike at the slightest movement when they found a man sitting against the tree. Or at least the corpse of one. The man sat with his back against a tree with his legs straight out in front of him. His head was hanging forward revealing a gaping wound in the back of his head. The tree behind him was splattered with blood and flecks of gummy tissue.
David placed his hand over his mouth trying hard not to vomit as the heat and stench filled his nose. Flies swarmed and maggots wriggled around on the wound. His hands were lifeless lying beside him, one hand was curled in the shape as if he were holding a gun. David looked around but couldn’t see any gun. It would be helpful to have another one, but he wasn’t able to find it.
David knelt next to the man when Owen snapped at him, “Don’t get too close dude, what if he tried to bite you?” Owen whispered.
David shook his head and pointed the barrel of his rifle at the wound in the back of the man’s head, “I don’t think he is going to get up… they don’t after they take a blow to the head like that.”
David searched around the man hoping the gun he had used to shot himself was flung back a few feet but had no luck finding it. He patted the man’s pockets despite Owen’s protest and felt somethings small and metal in the left pants pocket. He reached in slowly and carefully just in case his theory was wrong and came out with a set of keys with a large peace sign keychain dangling from the ring.
He held them up to Owen, “Where do you think the car is?” he asked.
Owen shrugged, “How would I know, could be anywhere.” He said.
David put the keys in his pocket and backed away from the body. Liz asked what they had found. Owen told her it was a body, and she should stay back. The smell was starting to make David sick, he needed some fresh air. He headed for the road with his rifle pointed forward. It was only a short distance to the road, David stepped out into a clearing and spotted a pair of infected wandering around near an old van with a large peace sign painted on the side. He smiled and ducked down as one of the infected turned to his direction. “If we can’t get to the van we are as good as saved!” he thought.
Owen came up and squatted down next to David in the brush, “Cool van!” he said.
David put his finger up to his mouth, “Shhh, we need to sneak over and avoid them.” He said pointing toward the infected.
The pair was a young woman with several nasty looking gashes and wounds on her arms, legs and face. The other was an older man, the entire front of his throat and chin were missing with a slick, red hole were his chin should have been. David was about to tell Owen his plans to avoid them when Owen chimed him, “You distract them and I’ll come up from behind and whack them!”
Once again David shushed Owen, “Let’s just go around them and get in the Van.” David argued.
“To hell with that, lets whack these things before someone else gets hurt by them.” Owen said.
David didn’t want to take the risk, but he also didn’t want to leave them here for the next passing group as well. He sighed, “What did you have in mind?” he asked.
“Well, like I said. YOU distract them and I’ll whack em!” Owen said and turned to hurry off in the opposite direction.
David shook his head. “Please don’t do anything stupid!” He thought.
Seconds later David saw Owen pop up behind the pair with a large club like stick in his hands and that foolish smirk that he used to wear whenever he was up to no good. He gave David a thumbs up, David didn’t know what that meant exactly but he decided to do his part. He stood up and yelled at the pair, “HEY! OVER HERE!”
The young woman caught sight of him, let out a growl and came shambling over in a trot. David looked for Owen but saw that the other one had ignored him. David tried to aim the rifle at her but she was moving too much and he couldn’t get a clear shot so he held the rifle out in front to barre her from reaching him. She collided with the outstretched rifle much harder than he had anticipated and knocked him to the ground. She was lying on the rifle grasping at his face and all he could do was hold her back away.
He struggled to fight her off but she was surprisingly strong. As her awful mouth snapped open and shut he pushed her back when she flew backward suddenly. David jumped to his feet to see Owen swing her by her hair and toss her into the road. David knew Owen was strong but he had never se
en him throw a person, especially over ten feet away.
David watched as Owen then hurried over and bashed his face in with the makeshift club. The other infected was laying over by the van, his head a bloody mess of unrecognizable gore. Owen finished killing the infected and turned to David with a satisfied look on his face. “Two more down…”
David shook his head, “Why didn’t you just use the tobacco stick?”
Owen looked confused at first, “I dunno, this is much easier I think.” He said holding up the club.
Liz came out of the woods and surveyed the carnage. She didn’t look impressed, instead she asked about the van. David and Owen crept over to the vehicle and peered inside. There didn’t seem to be anyone in the van so the pair opened the back door ready to fight. Inside there was a sleeping bag, an empty water bottle and some candy bar wrappers. Otherwise the van was bare. Owen jumped into the driver’s seat and turned the key, the van sputtered to life and seemed to be running well enough. He turned back to David and Liz who were standing by the back door and gave them a smile and thumbs up.
David and Liz were happy that they wouldn’t have to walk for a while. They climbed in and shut the door behind them. “How much gas is in it?” David asked.
“Looks like about half a tank, if the gauge is working in this old piece of crap.” Owen said.
The interior walls were bare metal, the floor in the back of the van was a cheap carpeting, the front of the van had two cloth covered bucket seats that smelled old like machine oil and dust. It reminded David of how his grandfather’s truck had smelled. Liz laid down on the sleeping back and David leaned up against the wall with a sigh. “Next stop Fort Union!” Owen said and they pulled away.
Fifteen
David stirred in the back of the van and quickly looked around. He had fallen asleep and completely forgotten about the van. Owen was driving, Liz was lying next to David. She was still asleep as David looked down at her. Not wanting to disturb her he quietly climbed into the passenger seat of the van. Owen was chugging a bottle of water, he offered some to David, “Drink?”