by Gouge, W. B.
David took a few sips from the bottle, “Where are we?” he asked Owen.
Owen picked up the map from the dash and handed it over to David, “Only about eighty miles or so until we reach Lexington.” Owen said.
David took the map and found the area circled that read, “Fort Union” just outside Lexington Kentucky. He stared for a moment full of relief. “I can’t believe we are so close now!” Then he noticed how close they were to his uncle’s town. David was still looking at the map when Owen slowed down and leaned forward squinting. David looked up to see what he was looking at when he saw a man standing in the middle of the road with a shotgun. He was familiar, and then David remembered him. It was Tom.
David was happy at first to see he was okay, but that feeling faded as Tom lifted the shotgun to point it at the van. Then he yelled, “GET OUT OF THE VAN! AND KEEP YOUR HANDS WHERE I CAN SEE THEM!”
David and Owen were scared. Tom walked around the Van and stood by David’s door pointing the shotgun at him. Owen would have ducked and punched the gas but he didn’t want to get David killed, so he put the Van into park and turned the engine off. Tom was getting impatient and jerked open David’s door, “I SAID GET THE FUCK OUT!” he screamed.
Liz woke up in the back. They all got out and stood side by side next to the van with Tom standing in front of them pointing the shotgun. David nervously looked at Tom, he noticed how he looked exhausted and strung out. David tried to reason with Tom, “It’s okay Tom, tell us what’s wrong and we will help you.”
David was genuine with his offer, but Tom wasn’t about to listen. Tom laughed and stared straight at David when he spoke, “How are YOU going to help me? You’re already dead you IDIOT!”
Then Tom’s face turned even more red and he began to cry, his eyes unfocused as he spoke again, “My family… they… my son…” Tom collapsed into tears as he stood still holding the weapon on them.
Then, all at once he snapped back into rage, “My son turned, he attacked my boy… My wife… she tried to stop him but she was bitten.” He looked up ahead in the road to the intersection where his car was sitting in the road.
The three of them noticed the blood spattered windows, the chaos inside as Tom’s family tried to escape the car. Every few seconds their bloody hands would smash against the back window of the car and they could hear the retched screeches all the way from where they stood.
Tom turned toward the car and took a few shaky steps, “My family… was…” he sniffled.
David and Owen looked at each other and nodded as if to say to each other to run. And immediately they took off running with Liz away from the van and into the tall grass that lined the road. Behind him David heard a deafening BOOM and felt a strong wind shoot past his right arm as he darted into the brush scattered field. His heart was pounding as he ran made worse by the faint sound of Tom’s voice calling after them, “IM GOING TO KILL YOU…” he shouted.
Owen reached the wood line at the far end of the field first followed by David. Liz stumbled behind them and collapsed as she reached the shade of the trees. Owen reached down and scooped her up, David helped while keeping his eye out behind them for Tom. David grabbed Liz by the arm and his heart sank when he felt how hot she was. “Oh no! She has the fever!” he thought.
Everyone that had the fever up until then had turned and David couldn’t even think of what to do as he stood holding her arm.
She looked up at the two of them, her face was pale and her eyes deeply red as she tried to catch her breath, “I don’t feel very well…” she said.
Owen and David looked back toward the van, they had to get her some help, they had to make it to Fort Union soon! David had an idea, “Quick, put her up against the tree and stay here for a second.” Then he ran off without an explanation leaving Owen angrily calling after him not to leave them.
But David was already gone when Tom came bursting out of the bushes behind Owen pointing his shotgun right at him. He was sweating and looked exhausted, his eyes were wild. Tom was enraged and completely out of his mind when he yelled at Owen, “Don’t move damnit.”
That’s when Tom noticed Liz lying by the tree. He stared at her, then looked back at Owen, “You see, you’re all dead already. There’s nothing you can do about it.” Tom stared at Owen as if he were looking past him rather than at him.
Owen tried to reason with Tom, “Please, just let her go, she needs to get to Fort Union for help. I’m sorry about your family but…” but Tom cut him off before he could finish.
“Fort Union? What are you crazy? The fort was overrun by those things! They got inside somehow and the whole place is history! Just like all the other safe zones!” Tom explained.
Owen starred in disbelief, “How do you know it was overrun?” he asked.
“Its on the news! Haven’t you been listening to the radio?” Tom lifted the shotgun to his shoulder and pointed it directly at Owen’s face.
Owen held his hands up as Tom squinted his left eye and placed the bead of the sight on Owen, “I told you, you’re already…” a high pitched shot rang out, owen’s ear rang as he felt dizzy.
Meanwhile…
David had ran around the filed and reached the van, he jumped inside and grabbed his rifle. He quickly headed back toward the tree he left the others under carefully following the path they left in the tall grass. He slowed down when he heard Owen talking and Tom yelling something about Fort Union. He crouched down behind a patch of grass and wiped the sweat from his forehead. He needed to help his friends but he knew what that meant, he knew he would have to kill someone. His mind raced as he tried to think of another solution but he was running out of time. He looked over the patch of grass again and saw Tom raise the shotgun to his shoulder, “Oh no Please don’t!” he thought.
Owen was clenching his jaw and held his eyes closed for what felt like eternity. He tensed up when he heard the high-pitched gunshot. His ears continued to ring as he felt the warm breeze, and then he began to hear the bugs chitter and the bird sing. He thought for sure Tom had shot him, until he opened his eyes and found himself still standing over Liz in the shade of the trees.
Owen looked down to see Tom lying face down with a ragged, red bullet wound in his back just between his shoulders. He wasn’t moving and his stare was blank and expressionless. Just then David came out of the tall grass with his rifle pointed at Tom’s body, he stopped at the corpse’s feet and kicked them. No response, then he hurried over to Liz and helped her to her feet. “Come on, we have to get to Fort Union before it’s too late!” he said to Owen.
Owen didn’t know how to tell David the news about Fort Union, and he wasn’t sure how to behave knowing that his sister would probably not make it much further. He knelt down beside her and placed his hand on her cheek. David asked him what was wrong, but Owen couldn’t bring himself to say anything. He just stared at his sister, the last family he had left, and knew there was nothing left that he could do. A chorus of growls came from the bushes behind them and David lifted Liz up and headed for the van. Owen followed, looking back as they reached the road to see a few zombies reach Tom’s body and began to eat him. Once they laid Liz in the back Owen stopped David, “Tom said that Fort Union was overrun.” He said defeated and tired.
David was frozen for a moment while he analyzed the information. “What? How did he know that?” David asked.
“He said it’s on the radio, all the safe zones were overrun. There’s nowhere to go and there isn’t going to be any help.” Owen’s eyes grew red and teared up as he spoke.
David’s mind was racing. “What are we going to do? We can’t let Liz die! We can’t let her become one of those things!” he thought. He needed a solution and he needed it right then. Owen sat down on the bumper of the van and placed his hand on Liz’s hand. She was very weak and didn’t seem to be doing well at all. David thought maybe they could find a pharmacy and get her some meds, maybe they could catch it in time he thought. Then he realized, he had given Tom a
nd his family antibiotics in the park. David rounded the corner and headed for the car, “Come on Owen! I know what to do!”
Sixteen
The boys headed back to the van with the antibiotics. It had been easy to find them, they were in a bag in the front seat with Angie. But first they had had to take care of Tom’s family. When they had walked up to the car Owen busted the window out with a big rock. When William reached out for him Owen bashed his head with the rock. As Tucker tried to climb out to get to the boys they had bashed his skull in with the butt of David’s rifle, then they had opened Angie’s door and clobbered her beside the road. Then they grabbed the meds before heading back to the van.
David’s hands were shaking as visions of Angie fighting them shot through his mind. She had been infected, but it still bothered him that they had to do it. David was convinced that the infected were no longer people, instead they had become, like zombies! Even as the thought came to him he shook it off and hurried to the van.
They reached the van and opened the rear door to find Liz lying quietly on her side. She was shivering even though her skin was very warm to the touch. David ripped open the packaging of the antibiotics and counted them. Sixteen, four were missing. Apparently the meds hadn’t helped Will just like they hadn’t helped David’s grandmother. But it was their only option at that point.
David took two pills out and handed them to Owen. Owen lifted Liz’s head tried to help her drink from a water bottle. David could see that Owen was shaking and he seemed as though he could break down at any moment, so David held out his hand, “Let me help Owen.”
Owen handed David the pills and stared at the ground as he stepped aside to give David some room. David helped Liz drink some water, then gave her the pills and she swallowed both of them. She laid her head back down, her hand still resting on David’s. All they could do was wait now.
“Where do we go now?” Owen asked nodding his head toward a few infected making their way down the road toward them in the distance.
David shook his head, “I guess…” he started, but then he remembered his uncle’s place was nearby.
“On the map there is a town called Walton, head that way until you see highway 25 to Crittenden.” David said.
Owen closed the rear doors and jumped in the driver’s seat, then he fired up the engine and they were off.
David held Liz’s hand the whole way. He was terrified, not just because Owen was driving like a maniac while looking away from the road to read the map every few seconds, but for Liz. They had never seen anyone survive once they got the fever, and now she had it. “But she wasn’t bitten! How did she get it?” David didn’t have any answers. He squeezed Liz’s hand and hoped the antibiotics would do something for her. As he clenched her hand the van tilted to the right a bit and the tires squealed. “Damn Owen, you’re going to get us killed! Slow down!” David shouted.
“Sorry! I’m trying to get us there before its gets too dark.” Owen said.
The sun had begun to dip toward the horizon, the western sky was still lit up while the eastern sky had become darker and darker blue. David poured some water into his hands and rubbed it on Liz’s head, neck and bare arms. Hopefully it would cool her down, hopefully the antibiotics would help. “Or else… we would have to…” David pushed the thought out of his head. He couldn’t bring himself to kill her, even if she was infected. He closed his eyes and silently wished for a miracle. And then Owen shouted, “Here it is! Highway twenty five!”
David looked up and out the front window. They had come to a T shaped intersection, on the far side of the road the signs stated that they had reached highway twenty five, right to Walton, or left to Crittenden. “Go left, it should be real close.” David said.
Owen turned the wheel and they were southbound again. But after several minutes of driving they came to a construction zone. Owen slowed down and followed the bumpy path around the construction. They passed by a few pieces of heavy equipment, piles of black top and dirt and a long trench that ran along side a flattened stretch of land. After that the construction ended and the road was back to normal. David had been watching out the front of the van when he saw an old silo standing next to the road. “Wait!” David called out from the back.
David stared at the silo, he had seen it before, when he was younger. Then he remembered that it was close to his uncle’s garage. David started to tell Owen to go back when Owen shot a surprised look out the right side window of the van. Just then something slammed into the van and Owen yelled from the front, “Shit! A bunch of them coming from the woods!”
David laid Liz down easy and climbed into the front to see a dozen or more infected sprinting across a field out of the woods across the road. A few had already reached the van and were banging away at the windows and doors trying to get to the boys. David yelled to Owen as he grabbed his rifle, “Turn us around!”
Owen threw the van into reverse and punched the gas. As the van roared backwards the group of infected in front of them grew. Then Owen turned the wheel and switched the van into drive before punching the gas again and swerving onto the road back toward the construction site. David was worried that perhaps the garage had been torn down during the construction until he saw the old water tower sticking up from behind a giant mound of gravel on the far end of the construction site. He pointed toward it and yelled to Owen to head that direction.
Owen turned onto the dirt road behind the bulldozers and excavators just a several more infected came running through the site toward them. As the van bounced and rocked they rounded the mound of gravel and saw the old gas station and mechanics garage. David felt so relieved to see it even though the place looked terribly run down. As they pulled up in front of the gate that led into the yard which was surrounded by a sheet metal fence Owen blasted the horn several times.
David looked back and saw that the growing mob of infected was heading their way and hoped someone was inside to let them in. A few seconds later a man appeared on the roof and waved down to them. David jumped out and recognized him immediately, it was his uncle Roy. He called up to him, “Roy it’s me David! Let us in quick!”
“David? Debbie’s boy?” he started when David cut him off.
“Yes, now please let us in!”
Roy disappeared behind the wall of the roof. David looked back again and saw that the infected were much closer now. There must have been at least two dozen of them screaming and growling and shambling toward them. That’s when Roy appeared in the doorway of the gas station waving for them to come. David ran back to the van and ripped the door open to get Liz, Owen called back to him, “Why didn’t he open the gate so we could just pull in?”
“I don’t know, just come on and help me get her inside!” David yelled back frantically.
Owen jumped out of the van and helped David carry Liz, as David looked back again he saw that the infected were not far now and would be on them in seconds. He hurried with Liz to the door and as they reached it he noticed that the large, front glass windows of the garage and store would not hold back the infected. They weren’t boarded up and there was nothing to stop them from crashing right through. The infected were close and there would be now time to barricade the doors let alone the windows. He looked back and remembered the gravel mound, and he formed a plan.
Seventeen
David lifted Liz’s arm up and place it on Roy’s shoulder, “Take her inside!” he yelled as he slung his rifle over his shoulder and ran toward the gravel mound.
Owen demanded to know what David was doing but David kept running and didn’t stop to explain. Hopefully he would be able to lure as many of the infected as he could away from the station and away from Liz. David reached the gravel mound, he didn’t dare look back to see if they had followed. He already knew they had since he could hear their moans and growls as they tried to catch him.
David looked up to the top of the mound, it must have been at least thirty feet high. He started to climb the base when he heard a
voice right behind him. “What the hell are we doing?” yelled Owen.
David was surprised to see that Owen had followed him, “Why didn’t you stay back there with Liz?” he demanded.
Owen started climbing the mound alongside David as he spoke, “You can’t take care of yourself without me! You’re too much of a wimp!” Owen said in a very serious tone.
They climbed as fast as they could but it wasn’t easy. The loose gravel gave way under their feet making every inch they climbed slow and often they slid back down even further than they had ascended. The growls and snarls below them meant that the infected were at the base trying desperately to reach the boys. David and Owen reached the top about the same time exhausted and out of breath. Owen gasped for air, “Now what do we do?”
David first glanced back to the garage, luckily none of the infected had tried to get in, instead they had all followed the boys. Which left David and Owen to focus on the infected scrambling up the gravel mound to get to them. David took the rifle off of his shoulder and laid it gently on the ground, “Not enough bullets for them all!” he thought looking around for something to use as a weapon.
Then he saw them, two pieces of steal rebar sticking up out of a pile of large concrete pieces on the other side of the mound. He grabbed them both, and tossed one to Owen. The infected were almost to the top, but they were having a much harder time ascending the steep incline than the boys had. David then grabbed a large piece of concrete, walked over to the side the infected were climbing and tossed it over the side at the mob. The concrete smashed into one of the their heads busting it wide open and sending it face first into the gravel. The others behind it began to climb over him and bury him in loose gravel as Owen chipped in and hurled his own piece.