Aberdeen

by James Bierce

  When he walks through the door, he has no idea what to expect — since what he just did seems horrifying to him as well. "Listen, I don't…"

  "You don't have to say anything," Sarah interrupts. "I would've done the same thing."

  Curtis walks over to the couch and nearly collapses onto it, overcome with emotion, and then he looks up and sees Ben staring out the window on the south side of the room, looking back in the direction of town.

  "Dad, I can see lights over there…"

  After covering the front door with a partial piece of plywood, the entire Lockwood family sits in front of the upstairs bedroom window, watching as the once peaceful town of Grayland descends into chaos. At first they weren't going to let the boys see what was happening outside, but they've passed the point of being able to shelter them by now, and knowing the cruel realities of the world around them is probably more important than ever.

  The lights that Ben had seen earlier turned out to be bonfires, most of which seem to be concentrated behind the trailer park, near a cranberry bog if Curtis' memory is correct. They can see the outlines of people passing in front of the fires, but it's impossible to estimate how many are out there. They've also seen groups of them on the highway directly in front of the house, usually dragging something behind them, most likely another person or animal from what they witnessed earlier in the day — but what they do to them is mystery, a mystery that none of them really want the answer to.

  "We'll leave first thing in the morning, as soon as the town looks empty again," Curtis says.

  "Will we walk on the beach, like before?" Matt asks.

  "I don't know, son, I saw several of them on the beach the other day, and it was broad daylight. It might be best to stick to the dunes."

  "You know," Sarah says, still staring out the window. "After Larry and Beth left the cabin, I used to blame all of our problems on Amanda, thinking that she ruined whatever life we'd carved out for ourselves — but looking at this, everything was bound to fall apart eventually, wasn't it?"

  "We'll find someplace…" Curtis tells her.

  "I know, I think we will too, but it won't be anywhere around Westport or Grayland."

  CHAPTER 6

  Grayland: March 28th

  Huddled in the dark, listening carefully to every sound coming from outside the house, Rachel can't help the thoughts of regret from entering her mind. In the very beginning, after the virus had sent everyone around them into isolation, she remembers telling Bill that she wanted to stay in their home on the west end of Olympia. For an urban setting, the house was somewhat secluded compared to many of the neighboring communities — and by the time they left, she was fairly certain that they were the only living souls in the entire area.

  As much as she wanted to stay in familiar surroundings, however, Bill felt just the opposite. To him, living in a dead, abandoned city was giving up on any kind of future, and he was determined that if there was any small pocket of humanity left, he was going to find it — with or without her and their son, Travis.

  Foolishly, she made the decision to follow him on his search, regretting that choice almost immediately after leaving the city and entering the town of McCleary. It was there that they saw the first signs of the infected — and when Travis first developed the early symptoms of the virus. Whether he had it when they left home or not she couldn't tell for certain, but part of her still blamed the trip for sickening her only child, and Bill for instigating it.

  It was several days ago that she made the second worst decision of her life — and that was when she listened to Bill yet again, and left Larry, Beth and Christine behind in that house. Whatever happened to the three of them is a mystery to her, but it couldn't be much worse than the horrors she encountered soon after exiting the home that night. After dragging Rachel's family into a large building, the hunters pulled Bill aside and began torturing him mercilessly, leaving her with mental images and sounds that will haunt her for the rest of her life. It was only after the hunters became distracted that it left an opportunity for her and Travis to escape through the rear of the building, leaving Bill behind, his body so badly mutilated that he would've only been a hindrance to them anyway.

  Since that night, they've watched the hunters go door to door in search of people, forcing her and Travis to move three times already. As of this morning though, moving is no longer an option — not after Travis woke up to a coughing fit, soaking the washcloth with fresh blood from his lungs.

  They both knew what it meant — he wouldn't be here for more than a day or two at the most.

  She can see people in the distance, going from one house to another, pulling everything from furniture to people out into the street, and then executing them without any hesitation. Eventually they'll come to their house too, but for now she can still hear Travis behind her, his breathing weak and shallow, but at least he's still breathing.

  "Mom?" Travis says, his voice weak and congested.

  "Yes, I'm here, honey." She watches him struggle to get off of the couch that he's been sleeping on. "You need your rest, you shouldn't be getting up…"

  He stands up, then stumbles into the chair next to her and looks out at the scene through the window. "They're getting closer…"

  "They won't find us, we'll hide."

  "Mom, promise me something…"

  "Sure, honey, anything."

  "Promise me that you won't leave the house, no matter what."

  She doesn't really know how to answer him, and she's more than a bit confused by it — wondering if the virus has finally begun to affect his mind. "Of course I won't leave…"

  "Promise me, no matter what…"

  "I promise, no matter what. Where is this coming from?"

  Holding onto the arms of the chair, he pulls himself up, but instead of returning to the couch, he grabs the doorknob on the front entrance and turns the handle. "Lock the door behind me…"

  Before Rachel can say anything, he opens the door and steps out into the night, slamming it shut again before trudging through the muddy ground in front of the house. She rushes to the door and starts to open it, but then looks out and sees several people surrounding her son — all of them armed with something. As they close in on him, she sees him take something out of his coat, then place it next to his head. Just as she realizes what it is, she sees the muzzle flash, then hears the gunshot as it echos off of the neighboring buildings. The people, none of whom she can see all that well, all look in her direction for a moment, and then most of them turn and walk the other way, while the two remaining people stay behind and each grab one of Travis' arms. As they drag him off into the darkness, Rachel feels her legs give out from under her, and she drops to the floor in tears — stopping only momentarily to lock the door.

  Dark thoughts are no stranger to Rachel's mind — having grown up in a broken, dysfunctional family where abuse seemed more like a tradition than a crime, she'd felt completely alone more than once in her life.

  This, however, was very different.

  In some remote corner of her mind, she's telling herself to escape this godforsaken place, and to return to her home in Olympia, where the absence of life seems preferable to whatever inhabits this place — but another part, a much more dominant fragment of her consciousness, is telling her to follow Travis' example, and to simply give in to the grief and heartache.

  As she looks across the room at the knife lying on the kitchen counter, she imagines both scenarios in her head — and then she thinks about the sacrifice that Travis just made for her, all so that she could live through this somehow. She gets up, taking another look through the window at the empty street beyond, then she walks into the kitchen and picks up the knife, staring at the surface of the blade, which is still stained with the blood of someone that she killed only two days before. Taking in a few deep breaths, she places the knife into a bag she found in the bedroom closet, and then packs the rest of the space with extra clothes and a few items of food.

&nbs
p; She knows the hunters won't stay away for long, but she also knows that there's no possible way that she can wander around at night without being seen. Picking up the bag, she walks into the hallway and opens up the attic door, which is slightly recessed into the ceiling and difficult to spot unless you happen to be looking for it. Once she climbs the narrow, rickety steps and into the low-ceilinged space above, she barely has time to reach down and pull the stairs back up before she hears somebody banging on the front door. In a matter of a few minutes she can hear them inside, throwing things around and fighting with each other. She very quietly tugs on the string that's hanging from the attic door, then pulls it back up and ties it to a nearby rafter. Still listening to them, she rests her back against some insulation and closes her eyes, drifting off to sleep for the first time in days.

  CHAPTER 7

  Aberdeen: March 29th

  Watching Christine step into an old patient room, Larry waits until he hears the door lock before he turns and walks back down the corridor and into the main ICU area. As grateful as he is for Mike's hospitality, they've also only known one another for less than a day, and for much of that he's been sleeping in the same room while Christine sat quietly and watched over him.

  As he enters the reception area, he sees Mike sitting at one of the computers playing a game of solitaire.

  "Do you ever turn the generator off to save fuel?" Larry asks him, sitting down at a desk next to him.

  "I did once, and almost didn't get it started again — so now I just run it all the time."

  "So, about this plan of yours… Have you been outside of the hospital since the outbreak started?"

  "Honestly… no, I haven't."

  "I've been to several cities now, and whatever horrible image you have in your head — believe me, it's a lot worse."

  "I'm still going."

  "I know, but I'm going with you. Christine can stay behind and let us in."

  "You trust her not to fall asleep or something?"

  "You have no idea what she's been through — she can handle it."

  Looking relieved, Mike rolls back his sleeves and holds out his arms so that Larry can see them. "Do you mind doing the same?"

  With some hesitation, Larry takes off his coat and displays his own arms, which seems to please Mike. "Looking for bruising?"

  "Yeah, you can never be too careful."

  "So when did you wanna take off?" Larry asks.

  "How does tomorrow morning sound?" Mike points to the wall, where there's a clock hanging on the wall. "It's two o'clock in the afternoon, it's getting a little late to do it today."

  "Shit, I didn't realize I was out for that long…" As Mike smiles and goes back to his game, Larry looks around at the emptiness around him, and feels bored for the first time since being trapped on the boat in Sequim. "Have you looked around the hospital for insulin?"

  "I've looked through most of it."

  "But not all of it…?"

  "Not the second floor — for obvious reasons."

  "Did you know that woman?"

  "Just as a patient, nothing personal."

  "Do you mind if Christine and I take a look later tonight?"

  "Be my guest… I'd appreciate it, but I really wouldn't recommend it."

  Curious as to what the city looks like at sundown from the waiting area, Larry gets up and stretches his sore leg out, then begins walking toward the hallway. "I'm heading to the other side for a bit."

  "The lights are turned off on that end."

  "That's okay, I have a flashlight. By the way, who was that guy you were talking to in Shelton? The one on the radio…"

  "His name is Frank, and his wife's name is Mary, or Marie, I can't remember which."

  "Is he okay? He sounded like he was in trouble."

  "He's more than in trouble — Frank is infected, he has been since almost the beginning. I started talking to his wife early on, and I still hear from him occasionally."

  "Is his wife sick too?"

  "No, Frank killed her months ago."

  After watching the city of Aberdeen from six floors up for a couple of hours, Larry is more convinced than ever that the city isn't nearly as dead as they assumed it would be. Whether the people have come in from across the southern bridge, or have been in the city this entire time, it's hard to tell for sure — but he can definitely see movement in and around some of the buildings, mostly down next to the edge of the harbor. Although most of the activity seems to be confined to the shadows, or during periods when the cloud cover is particularly dark, he can also see some of them walking around in the open, unencumbered from the daylight.

  "Seen anything exciting?" Christine asks, walking up behind him.

  Larry smiles as he stands up and grabs his light. "A few months ago this would've been mind-boggling — but no, I haven't seen anything out of the ordinary." When he turns around and faces her, he can tell there's something different, and when she finally walks into the light from the windows he can see what it is — she's cut her hair extremely short, making her look even younger than she really is.

  "I got tired of dealing with the mats, so I just cut it off."

  "It looks good."

  "No it doesn't, it looks like crap — I'm definitely not a hairdresser."

  "Well, on the plus side, nobody gives a shit anymore." After a quick check to make sure he has an extra light and plenty of ammunition, they start walking back down the hallway toward the stairs. Mike, for whatever reason, is nowhere to be seen.

  "Where are we going again?"

  "The second floor, down to a supply room that might have extra insulin. He drew us a map," Larry says, handing her a piece of paper with a crudely drawn outline of the floor.

  "What are we gonna do about the woman?"

  "Hopefully she won't even know we're there. Mike said he's gonna turn the lights on for us, so at least we won't be going in blind."

  As they open the door to the staircase and start their descent, the lights suddenly come on overhead, and they hear the radio begin to crackle.

  "Do you have lights now?"

  "Yeah, thanks. We should stay off of these though, they might attract too much attention down there," Larry replies into the radio.

  "Do you trust him?" Christine asks.

  "I don't distrust him."

  "I keep remembering when Jake bragged to me about killing him."

  "It might not be a good idea to bring that up, especially the part about me being his brother-in-law."

  "I know, I won't say anything."

  When they reach the platform for the second floor, Larry peeks through the window in the door and sees that the overhead lights down the corridor are all brightly lit, along with most of the rooms — but almost all of the doors are shut. Mike told him that this was the maternity ward before the outbreak, but it's been virtually unused since the virus was first reported.

  "Do you see her?" Christine asks.

  "No, I don't see anything."

  "It says the supply room is all the way down on the other side, then to the left."

  Larry takes a key out of his pocket and quietly inserts it into the lock, but despite his best effort, the door makes an incredible amount of noise when he opens it. He stands there without moving for a minute, only halfway through the doorway while he waits for someone to run toward them — but the place stays eerily quiet. When he steps into the cold hallway with his pistol held firmly in his hand, he can feel warm air blowing across his face from the ventilation system above — but the air smells putrid, like rotting flesh.

  "That smell is horrible…" Christine whispers to him.

  "Do you need to stay here?"

  "No, I'm fine — let's just get this over with."

  Looking into each of the lighted rooms as he passes by them, Larry can see bodies lying on the beds and even the countertops in most of them. A little over halfway down, the lights over them start to dim, then blink a couple of times, making the two of them exchange worried looks as
they continue their search. With his gun still in his grip, Larry takes a flashlight out of his pocket and turns it on, then stops in his tracks as he stares into one of the rooms.

  "What is it?" Christine asks.

  "That's the woman I saw through the door…"

  Christine takes a look for herself, and sees an old woman lying on an exam table. "She looks dead…"

  "Good, that'll make this a little easier."

  Only a moment after they begin moving again, the lights flicker, and they hear some commotion from one of the rooms behind them. Larry turns and faces the one with the woman, but Christine tugs on his sleeve and points to the other side of the hallway, where he can see some faint movement coming from inside the darkened room.

  "We should get out of here…" Christine says, still backing up further away from the staircase door.

  Larry aims his gun at the door just as it starts to open, and a half-dressed man wearing only a pair of unbuttoned pants comes stumbling out into the hall, looking at the two of them with a confused look on his face.

  "Does that map have another exit listed?" Larry asks.

  "No, it just has the path from the stairs to the supply room."

  They keep backing up, watchful of any activity in the rooms that are still behind them, and then they see somebody else enter the hallway and stand next to the shirtless man. Larry recognizes her as the woman that he saw the day before, the woman that was just lying down and motionless only moments before. As they move away from them, the man pushes the woman out of the way and begins walking toward Larry, glaring at him with an intense look on his face.