A Safe Place

by Frost, Scott

  “I can handle the pain. I just want to get the hell out of here. But before we do can you help me with my jeans?”

  I grabbed her jeans from her hands and slid them onto her legs. When I got them halfway up, she put her arms around my neck, and I lifted her to a standing position. Her eyes tightly closed as her jeans reached her wound. I pulled the jeans all the way up and I felt tears run down my shoulders.

  “I’m sorry. I’m trying to be gentle.”

  “It’s okay.” She whispered.

  “Okay, there you go. Do you need help with the button and zipper or can you do that?”

  “I can do that. Thanks for everything.”

  “You don’t have to thank me. I did what anyone else would do.”

  “No and that’s just it. You did what no one would have done.”

  We stood there in silence, Katie leaning against me, and my arm around her waist. We waited for Clyde. We heard gunfire below and I quietly prayed that he was okay. Katie must have been thinking the same thing because her body tensed when she heard the gunshots.

  “What happens if he can’t get us out of here?”

  I didn’t have a hopeful answer for her so instead I didn’t reply. The gunshots were loud and echoed in the small attic. We patiently waited but expected the worse. As the minutes passed, memories of Natasha and Emma hit me hard. I remembered our first dance as husband and wife. We had picked, “Let’s Stay Together” by Al Green as our wedding song. And it was a very fitting song. We both loved Al Green’s music and both agreed that the lyrics were perfect. Rose petals were scattered across the dance floor. The lights were dimmed and our names were called.

  “Okay, it is time for Alex and Natasha’s first dance as husband and wife.” The announcer’s voice drummed out of the speakers.

  Natasha and I looked at each other and both turned red. Neither of us was good in the spotlight and as I took her shaking hand, I gave her a re-assuring smile. We walked onto the dance floor. As we stopped in the middle of the dance floor my dad stood up and yelled.

  “Keep it clean you two.”

  The reception hall exploded with laughter. Natasha’s face turned a deeper red and she looked at him and gave him a grin but laughed herself. The lights were dimmed and a soft light illuminated us. The song came on and everyone became silent. I reached for her hand, and pulled her close to me. I held her hand and my other hand went around her waist and her free hand went around my waist. I don’t remember much about the three minutes that we danced other than that I never took my eyes off of her. She was amazing. We twirled around the dance floor and as the song came to an end our friends and family applauded. Our faces were still crimson red. I kept hold of her hand and as we walked off the dance floor and into the hallway, I pulled her close to me and we kissed. I didn’t want the kiss to end, but then the hallway door opened.

  “Hey you two. You’ll have plenty of time for that on the honeymoon now get back in here and dance.”

  My mom was smiling and her voice was sweet, but adamant. We both knew she was right, but we stayed in the hallway for another ten minutes, holding hands and kissing.

  “Unlock the stairs,” Clyde yelled.

  “Okay.”

  I quickly unlatched the stairs and lowered them. Clyde was standing against the hall. I lowered my head and looked around. It looked safe.

  “You okay?”

  “I’m fine but we need to hurry. I took a quick look outside and we don’t have much time. We need to hall ass.”

  I turned back toward Katie who was now sitting. She raised her hands and I carefully lifted her up. I walked toward the staircase and with all my energy lowered her into Clyde’s open arms. He had a hard time holding onto her and when I thought he had his balance I let go. They fell backwards and into the wall.

  “Fuck,” Clyde shouted, while Katie screamed in pain.

  I quickly walked down the stairs and picked up Katie and leaned her against the wall. Clyde got up and rubbed the back of his head.

  “Clyde. Are you okay?” I asked while listening for movement downstairs.

  “Yeah I’m fine. Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

  I got on one side of Katie and Clyde got on the other. The hallway and stairs were wide enough for us to walk down with each of us holding onto Katie. When we reached the final step, Clyde stopped and held his hand up. We stopped. I looked around the corner and didn’t see any infected.

  “Alex can you hold Katie? I want to check outside before we make a run for the Jeep.”

  “Yeah sure.”

  He let go of Katie and ran to the front door. He held his rifle, ready to shoot. He paused at the front door, and looked both directions before walking outside. He ran back to us.

  “We need to get a move on. They are coming straight at us. We only have a few minutes.”

  He didn’t need to say anything else. We both grabbed Katie and lifted her into the air. I lifted her left leg and arm and Clyde lifted her right leg and arm. Katie closed her eyes.

  We made it to the Jeep as the first group of infected closed in on us. The first one reached for me and in habit I reached for my shoulder, but it was empty. The rifle was still upstairs. I dropped Katie and she hit the pavement. She screamed in pain. I turned around and kicked the infected in the stomach sending him backwards. Clyde turned toward me and yelled.

  “Get down!”

  As I dropped to the ground he fired two shots and took out two infected. Their blood splattered onto my bare back. The next group of infected were getting close but they wouldn’t reach us in time. I stood up and lifted Katie and gently laid her in the back seat. I grabbed a bottle of water from the front seat and dumped the water onto my back, frantically trying to get the blood off me. Clyde was already in the driver seat and the Jeep was started.

  “Come on we can take care of that later. We need to get going.”

  I jumped inside and shut the car door. We drove down the street in silence. Initially I didn’t know where we going, but as he drove, I realized that the rest of the group was back at the lake house. The realization that Emma was alive and safe made me cry. Clyde put his hand on my shoulder and drove toward the lake. We made it back there without the infected seeing us. We were safe.

  Chapter Thirteen

  We pulled in front of our shelter. Clyde got out and looked around for any signs of the infected. When he gave the sign that the coast was clear, I opened my door. Clyde helped get Katie on her feet. She was in terrible pain and could barely support herself. She leaned against me as Clyde knocked on the door. He knocked three times fast and then paused and then knocked another three times slow.

  I didn’t hear anything. We waited for sounds of movement from within the building. We waited for the sound of an opening lock. Clyde knocked again. Three times fast. Three times slow. My heart beat kept increasing and beads of sweats fell off my face. If Clyde or Katie were afraid they didn’t show it. And as Clyde began to knock again, the sound that we had been waiting for came. The lock was being unlocked. And before the sound silenced in my head the door opened.

  Mary stood in the open door way with her rifle pointing directly at us, well not at us, but at whatever else might have been there. Her hands were shaking.

  “It’s okay, it’s just us.” Clyde’s voice was calm and loving.

  That was all it took. Mary lowered the rifle and her face changed from worried to happy. A smile emerged. And her eyes began to swell. She rushed outside and threw her arms around Clyde’s neck. He nearly fell backward. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her in close, as he buried her cheeks with kisses.

  Katie and I were standing behind Clyde and while in embrace with Clyde, Mary looked at me. We made eye contact. She let go of her husband and rushed to me and Katie. She wrapped her arms around both of us, which nearly caused us to fall down. Mary looked back toward Clyde, and smiled such a smile. Her voice was sweet and calming.

  “I knew you would find them. I love you so much.”<
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  Clyde pulled her back into his arms, and kissed her gently on the lips. Katie and I watched them in silence. I don’t know about Katie, but in that moment, I felt truly alone. Not alone in the sense of not being around people, but in the sense of not having someone to kiss; a true love’s kiss. We stood in silence until I heard Emma screaming for me. And within that second, I dismissed the thought of being alone. I wasn’t alone. I had my love. I had my beautiful daughter.

  “Daddy! “ She yelled over and over, as she ran out of the door. She rushed into my arms, eyes full of tears. I almost dropped Katie.

  “I knew you were okay. I just knew it.”

  “I love you so much. I would never leave you. I missed you so much.”

  “I missed you too Daddy.”

  She filled my face with an explosion of kisses.

  I was in heaven. It felt, I can’t even find a word to describe how it felt to have her in my arms. I thought I had lost her. I thought. Well, it doesn’t matter what I thought. After a moment Emma’s high came to pass, and she simply laid her head on my shoulder and hugged me. And then it hit me. Where was Melanie?

  I had forgotten about Melanie. I know that is bad to say, but I did. I was so lost in the moment that I had forgotten all about her. Maybe she was sleeping.. Clyde gestured for us to get inside. No one objected. Once inside the door was locked and Clyde and I barricaded the door with a couple of tables and chairs. Once that task was completed we followed Mary into the kitchen. Katie leaned against me and Clyde helped her walk.

  I lifted Emma back into my arms and carried her. It felt so nice to hold her in my arms. While I was stuck in the attic, part of me, a little part, was convinced that I wouldn’t see her again. Living without Natasha had been tough, but if something had happened to Emma, I would’ve lost all will to live. What would’ve been the point of surviving if I had no reason to survive?

  As I walked into the kitchen I looked around for Melanie. The kitchen was empty, except for the clutter of empty boxes, food, and water and the rest our supplies. No Melanie. She wasn’t there. I looked toward the office and even though I had a bad feeling that she wasn’t going to be in there, I started walking toward the door. Clyde stopped me before I took two steps. He must have been paying attention that I was looking around. He knew what I was trying to find.

  “Alex. Melanie didn’t make it.”

  I looked at him with a blank stare, not completely understanding, at-least, not wanting to understand.

  Mary walked to me and put her hand on my arm. And in that small gesture I understood.

  “What happened?”

  I wasn’t sure that I wanted to know the answer but it was a question I felt the need to ask.

  “We tried to help but there were just too many of them. They surrounded the Jeep very quickly. We weren’t paying attention to the street side of the Jeep, which is where Melanie was standing guard. Clyde and I kept watch on the building. She didn’t even scream. Once we heard them it was too late. They were too close. Before either of us could fire a shot, the first infected had Melanie in his arms. She didn’t even scream. The infected sank his rotting teeth into her neck. There was so much blood. I couldn’t believe how much blood there was. We fired two shots, one into Melanie’s head and the other into the infected. They both fell. We didn’t have a choice. Alex you know we would have done everything we could to save her, but it was too late. We hit the horn several times, but you didn’t come out and we didn’t have a choice. We had to leave. I’m so sorry we had to leave you both behind.”

  Mary gave Katie and me an apologetic smile.

  “But we didn‘t have a choice. We promised you that we would keep Emma safe. And Melanie was gone and we knew that you two would make it out of there.

  We drove around Manteno and looked for both of you, but we didn’t see you guys. We drove until a little after the sunset. We wanted to keep looking, but we knew it wouldn’t be safe so we decided that we needed to find safety, and then we would try again today. I’m just so glad to see you both of you. Well, Katie, you don’t look okay, but you’re alive. Thank God for that. Clyde help Alex get Katie on the table. I need to have a look at her leg.”

  We lifted her up and set her on the table. She smiled at us and told us that it wasn’t necessary. Mary was persistent. Mary looked at her wound through the hole in her jeans.

  “Okay. You two need to leave. I need to take her jeans off.” Mary said in a firm voice.

  “Sweetie is that okay?” She asked Katie. Her voice changed from firm to sweet. She reminded me of my grandmother. Grandmother’s have a special ability to judge situations and know what tone of voice to use.

  “Really I’m okay.” Katie said. But she knew it wouldn’t change Mary’s mind.

  Mary didn’t reply and motioned for us to leave. I picked Emma up and we left the kitchen. Clyde followed behind us. The three of us sat against the wall. Emma sat on my lap, and fell asleep.

  “Listen Alex I didn’t want to leave you. I just wanted to keep the girls safe. I know you must have thought we abandoned you, and I’m sorry for that. I drove around the grocery store for a couple of hours, driving down each street within a mile, but I couldn’t find you. I thought that you guys didn’t make it out. I don’t want to get all sissy on you, but it sure is good to see you and Katie. I think the next time we look for supplies we need to stay together. I don’t think I can handle the responsibility of taking care of everyone if something happens to you.”

  “I know why you did what you did. I appreciate it. I never thought you left us for dead. I knew why you left. You kept Emma safe and trust me, I would’ve done the same thing. And I feel the same. When Katie and I were in the attic I didn’t think we would make it out of there. We had no food or water and I didn’t figure the infected would leave. And with Katie being hurt, we didn’t have a chance in hell of escaping. I figured we would slowly rot away sitting in that dark attic. I figured Katie would go first because of infection and I would slowly die from starvation. I missed Emma so much. I lost hope and accepted that I was going to die.”

  As I talked to Clyde, I watched Emma sleeping on my lap. I rocked her back and forth. She looked so beautiful and relaxed. Clyde looked like he hadn’t slept in days. I’m sure he thought the same about me. We sat in quietness for a while and then Clyde turned toward me and asked how Emma and I made it from Bradley to Manteno with no vehicle. I didn’t respond right away. My mind didn’t want to remember the horrors of that night. The truth was that we almost didn’t make it.

  “Well, it wasn’t easy. After I searched for Natasha and couldn’t find her, I knew it was time to leave. I had hoped that she had made her way down here. That was our plan, after all. We were staying in an apartment a couple of blocks off the expressway and I figured taking the expressway would be safer than walking through the entire town. We waited until night, thinking that the darkness would help us stay hidden. It did for a while. When we walked out of the apartment, the road was clear. I didn’t see any infected. We started walking west. We made it to the expressway with no problem. I didn’t smell any infected, though we were up wind. We had to take cover several times as the sound of footsteps came near. I wasn’t sure if they were infected or not. But I didn’t want to find out.

  The expressway was littered with dead bodies. Both infected and not infected. Cars were abandoned and many were burned to a crisp. The dark had helped us hide, but it also helped the infected hide. We had gone less than half a mile when we saw the first group of infected. They were about fifty yards in front of us, it was a small group, but still, it was just Emma and me, so a group of two was enough to handle let alone a larger group. The wind suddenly shifted and started blowing south. The stench of death filled the air. They were slowly walking north, the same direction that we were walking. I hoped that we could stay far enough behind them and just follow them until we reached Manteno. But that didn’t work. We followed them for another mile, staying a good distance behind them, when I thou
ght I heard a girl screaming. I wasn’t positive. It was muffled.

  How she saw us I will never know. If she would’ve just stayed in the car, she would be alive today. But she didn’t. She jumped out of her hiding place, a broken down Honda Civic and ran toward us. She might have made it if she hadn’t screamed. The infected turned around. They saw us. And slowly came for us. She made it less than five feet. She tripped over something I couldn’t see. I was too far away to save her. Clyde, you have to believe me. I would’ve tried if I thought I had a chance. But I couldn’t risk it, not with Emma. The infected covered her within minutes, ripping at her arms and legs. Her screams were silenced by the sound of ripping flesh and chewing. Emma and I should have ran and tried to find someplace to hide, but we didn’t. We watched the girl try and free herself, until her arms were ripped from her body. By the time I had enough sense to hide, the infected had spotted us. The first infected came at us and then the others turned and followed slowly behind. I only had this rifle and less than a dozen bullets, which wouldn’t have been enough to take all of them out, plus as you know I’m not a good shot.”

  “Yeah, I’ve noticed.” Clyde said with a short laugh.

  “Anyways, I waited until the group came closer and fired two shots and amazingly dropped the first two. After that I picked up Emma and ran off the road and tried to run pass them, but the infected further ahead watched us and slowly walked toward us blocking our direction. I stopped running and watched the infected come at us. I had thought about giving up, but I couldn’t give up because of Emma. And so I ran into the crowd of infected. I held Emma tightly in my arms against my chest. She buried her face into my neck. I hit the first two infected and they went down, but the hole was quickly filled by more of them. They out numbered us. I could feel their fingers gripping my jacket. Thank God I was wearing a jacket because without it, they would’ve ripped into my skin. We made it over half way through the group when I tripped on a dead body. I landed face first. Emma cried out in pain. I was stunned, but I snapped out of it when I heard Emma scream. I stood up and ran. We made it pass the group, but what was ahead of us was a gruesome image. As we approached a school bus, I put Emma down, so that I could ready the rifle. The school bus was packed with dead bodies. They were all kids. I could only slightly see inside the bus, but from what I saw, I knew that the kids hadn’t suffered an attack from infected. Against my better judgment, I walked into the bus, hoping that maybe someone had survived. The kids that I could see had slashed throats. A girl near the front of the bus was naked; she was around ten. Her body was against the window, smashed from the weight of other dead bodies. Her eyes were wide open. As I looked around the bus, I saw that most of the girls were naked, and the boys were fully clothed. The throats of the girls were not slashed. I knew what had happened. Like I said, I find it hard to trust anyone these days. People that aren’t infected are almost more dangerous than the infected. At least the infected are slow.