The Missing

by Gary Chesla

  I then knelt down next to Sandy and Nicole, my body trembled as I looked into Sandy’s eyes, I knew this wasn’t going to end well. Nicole whimpered as she looked up at me and cried, “Daddy.” Sandy tried to talk and tell me what had happened, but she had been so torn up, all she could do was sob and gasp for air. I could tell from the conditions of their bodies and the far-away look in their eyes that they, we, didn’t have much time. I held them in my arms and whispered for them not to try to talk. I did my best to try to comfort them, but I was not prepared for this and I had no words. We managed to say I love you, then it was over. I held my wife and little girl for a few long moments after they were gone, until Bear began to growl and attack the limbless bodies that had wormed their way closer to us. I got up and grabbed the first thing I could get my hands on and caved in the skulls of these things. I hammered down on them until they finally stopped moving. I sat back on the floor and looked at the nightmarish creatures lying on my floor around us. Creatures that no longer resembled human beings, they looked more like ghoulish monsters from some horror movie.

  The next thing I remembered was Bear’s nose against the side of my head. I slowly turned my head and looked at Bear, he was covered in blood, his left ear had a small piece missing and his teeth were bloody. I couldn’t tell how much of the blood was his and how much was from these things lying on the floor, but I knew there was some of each. Bear had done the best he could to protect Sandy and Nicole, but outnumbered seven to one, he wasn’t able to take out all the attackers in time to save the girls.

  I’m not sure what I did next, but the next thing I remembered was staggering over to the door and looking outside. My neighborhood was one big bloody horror movie playing out in front of me. I was standing in the now open doorway to my house when a soldier came running up to me. It was from this man that I learned what little that I know about what happened to the world. He didn’t know much, but he knew more than I wanted to hear. He didn’t know how it had all started or what it was for sure, but he knew what happened after a person had been infected. When I told him about my wife and daughter, he told me what would happen next and then he told me what I needed to do if I didn’t want to see their dead bodies get up and walk away. What I had to do if I didn’t want to see my girls become something that would haunt me for the rest of my life. He told me that they were gone and there was no way to bring them back, all I could do for them now was to put them to rest and give them peace. The best I could do was to keep them from what he described as Hell on earth.

  He then suggested that I get myself cleaned off before I got infected too. If I thought what I had just experienced was bad, the next hour was worse than I ever could have ever imagined.

  When it was all over, Bear and I got in the shower and let the water wash the blood off our bodies. Once we were washed off, I examined Bear and saw he had about four serious looking bite wounds on his side and legs. I expected that I would soon be burying Bear out back with the rest of my family before the day was over but was happily surprised to see that aside from the wounds, he never exhibited any other negative effects from his ordeal. He hasn’t left my side since that day, like me, he probably lives in fear of losing his last friend, so he won’t let me out of his sight.

  I stayed at the house for the next three days, since I didn’t know what else to do. I tried calling everyone I knew, but no one ever answered. The phone rang in my ear, but no one answered. I tried to browse the internet on my phone, but other than a few small bits of useless information, I wasn’t able to find out anything before my phone went dead. The lights went out early that first day, leaving me in the dark in more ways than one. I don’t really know much more now than I knew on that first day. All I’ve learned is how to survive.

  It was impossible to go out and look for answers, the number of the dead coming through my neighborhood grew each day. Finally on the third day when the mayhem around my house seemed to slow down a little, I said a tearful goodbye to my home and my family. It was heart breaking to see my wedding ring, the new dress I had bought Sandy for her birthday and her favorite coffee cup lying on the top of Sandy’s grave outside the back door. On Nicole’s grave I had placed Fred, her teddy bear, her barbie doll and the Wonder Woman lunch box we had bought her to start school. I had intended to come back home as soon as I could, but it has now been a year and all I can do now is hope that I can go home for a visit someday before I die.

  Bear and I ran out and got into the truck and made a mad dash to get out of Lexington. It was touch and go until we reached the interstate, the truck was dented and bloody by that time, but of course as you’ve figured out by now, we made it. We had the truck for about a week until we were not able to find anymore gas or was unable to keep the truck running, then Bear and I headed up into the mountains on foot. Thanks to Bear, I’ve managed to learn enough to survive and with his help I hope to survive long enough to go back home someday. What is beginning to worry me is the gray hair showing up in my beard, but even more concerning than that is the gray hair beginning to show on Bear’s snout. Bear has been with me for eight years, but my buddy is starting to get old. Life had also become dangerous and difficult. How long we could manage to survive in this was anyone’s guess, all I could do was to hope that each of us would have a little more time together before I found myself truly alone.

  I Looked down at Bear as he began to quietly paw at my leg. He looked at me and then he looked up the path that led to the watering hole below us. I strained my eyes to look as far up the trail as I could as we sat there motionless. Of course, Bear’s nose or his ears had been right, a large buck came wandering down the trail a few minutes later. I very slowly got the bow ready, when the deer was directly below us, I made my move.

  The deer went down with the first shot, the people at the fort would eat well tonight, but first Bear would have a good snack as his reward. I cut off a prime section of meat from the hind quarters and gave it to Bear. He likes his food cooked, but he doesn’t have a problem with his food being done rare or even raw. He is not as picky as he once was.

  Chapter 3

  The next morning Bear and I woke up feeling content. The men were late getting together for the morning meeting, I assumed after the big meal we had last night they had also been content and were all moving a little slow this morning.

  I got up and made myself my morning tea, then I just sat at my site and relaxed as I watched the fort slowly come to life. Bear snuggled up against my leg and went back to sleep, knowing that I was awake and on duty he took the opportunity to get some extra well-deserved rest. I knew while I slept during the night that Bear slept with one eye open to keep us safe, so I let him rest and patted his side to let him know it was OK for him to sleep. He had earned it.

  After about ten minutes, all the men had finally gathered around the morning campfire. I was surprised to see that Ed was there this morning. I talked to Ed last night as we were roasting the deer over the fire. He had informed me that his wife was still missing, but he didn’t have much more to say. I asked him if he had put the little teddy bear on his daughter’s grave, but he didn’t know anything about that. Ed had seemed distant and confused, but I couldn’t blame him for that. I knew that feeling only too well myself and could imagine what was running through his mind. The pain and disbelief at what had happened, the horrible sense of loss. The knowledge that as bad as things had been, it was now even worse. By the look in his eyes, I knew he was feeling what I had felt for most of the last year, that feeling of loneliness, that empty feeling that would be with him for the rest of his life. He looked so bad last night that I was surprised to see him out here this morning, but on the other hand, maybe talking and being around others might be the best thing for him.

  I got up and moved over to join this morning’s meeting. When I reached the group, I sat down next to Ed.

  “How are you holding up?” I asked Ed.

  “OK, I guess,” he replied, but the wild look in his eyes told me
another story.

  “Is there anything I can do to help you today?” I asked. “Bear and I will be happy to help you look for Cheryl.”

  “No thanks,” Ed replied, “I don’t know where else to look, she never went very far from the fort by herself. I sat up all last night listening and watching for her, but that didn’t help any. I’m so tired I can’t think, so I think I’m going to try and get some sleep this morning. Maybe after some rest and my mind is working better, I’ll be able to think better. I just came out here this morning to see if anyone had seen anything, but so far no one has seen or heard anything.”

  “You do look like hell,” I grinned at Ed. “After you get some rest, my offer to help still stands, come find me when you are ready.”

  “I will,” Ed replied then got up slowly and shuffled back to his building.

  I noticed Bear sniffing the air as Ed got up and walked away.

  “He smells like hell too,” I said to Bear. “I was going to tell him to get cleaned up a little, but I decided to give him a break. Besides, you and I have probably smelled worse than that a few times ourselves.”

  Bear of course just ignored my comments and watched Ed as he walked across the courtyard and went inside.

  I turned back towards the group as I heard the tone of the conversation amongst the men sitting around the campfire change. The sound changed from what had been a normal conversation to a hushed curious murmur. As I looked around the circle of men, I detected a change in their expressions. Their normally content, clueless expressions were replaced by a look of concern or confusion.

  “Is there something wrong?” I asked.

  Everyone stopped talking and all the faces turned to look at Bill.

  “Bill?” I asked as I looked at Bill and saw that he seemed to be nervously looking down at the ground. “Is something wrong?”

  He looked up at me.

  “My wife is gone,” he replied quietly.

  “Gone where?” I asked. From what little I knew about Bill, if I had been his wife, I think I would have left a long time ago.

  “I don’t know,” he replied. “We went to bed last night like we always do. After that big meal we had last night, I fell asleep fast and slept all night long. When I got up this morning she was gone. I couldn’t find her anywhere at our place and when she didn’t come back after an hour, I went out to look for her. She goes over to talk to Charlie’s wife sometimes, but she hadn’t been there this morning. I’ve been asking everyone, but no one has seen her. I think something must have happened to her just like what happened to Ed’s wife.”

  “It sounds like we might have a serial killer around here,” Fred said.

  “Do you think one of the dead are sneaking in here at night and carrying off our people?” Bill asked.

  “I’ve never seen the dead do something like that,” I replied. “They aren’t that subtle.”

  “What do you think happened?” Fred asked looking at me.

  “If no one heard anything, the most likely possibility is that she went outside the fort for some reason,” I replied.

  “You mean like sleep walking?” Fred asked.

  “I don’t think anyone that is sleep walking has the capacity to open the gate,” I replied. “I doubt that she disappeared because of sleepwalking.”

  I thought that was a stupid possibility, but I had to consider the source of the question.

  “Is there any place that she likes to go sometimes?” I asked. “Maybe somewhere like walking down to the creek.”

  “Other than going over to visit Charlie’s wife, Connie never really went anywhere else and she never went outside the fort by herself,” Bill answered. “I don’t know where she could be.”

  “If she isn’t inside the fort, the only place she could be is outside somewhere,” I said. “Have you gone outside to look for her?”

  “Not yet. Tom, will you and your dog help me look for her?” Bill asked. “You know the area outside the fort better than we do, we don’t go out there very often.”

  “Sure, I’ll see what I can do,” I replied. I didn’t know what could have happened to Connie, but I knew these people didn’t seem capable of searching for anyone on their own. Their answer for everything seemed to be to sit and wait for them to come back on their own. Just like their way of surviving was to sit and wait for help to arrive, their way of searching for a missing person was to sit and wait for them to come back.

  “All in favor of Tom and Bill teaming up to search for Connie, say Aye,” Charlie said.

  Nine ayes sounded next.

  I tried to keep the disgusted expression from showing on my face, how could they could consider me offering to help Bill look for his missing wife an item that needed to be voted on was beyond me, but again, I had to remember where I was.

  The next few minutes were taken up by the group approving who was going to carry water, firewood, check the fort walls and pick up trash. Ben, the man I didn’t know his name yesterday, again was voted to be the lookout on the wall.

  The same people had the same assignments again today, just like they did every other day since I’ve been here. I was going to suggest that assignments be voted on for a seven-day period instead of every morning, but again I held my tongue, if they did that, they wouldn’t know what to do with themselves every morning.

  When the morning meeting broke up and everyone started to get to work, Bill came over to me.

  “Where should we start?” Bill asked.

  “Can you get me something of Connie’s that I can let Bear smell?” I asked. “He has a great nose and that way he will know what we are looking for.”

  “I can do that,” Bill replied and ran over to his building and disappeared inside.

  While Bill was looking for something of Connie’s, I spotted a pair of tennis shoes sitting out in front of Ed’s place and walked over and picked them up. While I was looking for Connie, I might as well see if I could pick up any clues about where Cheryl went. It was my guess that if either of the women had gone out of the fort in the middle of the night and haven’t returned, I was concerned about what we might find. These people were not what you would call survivors by any stretch of the imagination and I knew if one of them went outside the fort on their own that they would not last for long. It might be better if we didn’t find them today, it would be better for Ed and Bill if they didn’t have to see the remains of what I expected we would find.

  Bill returned a few minutes later holding a dress in his hands.

  “Will this be OK?” he asked.

  “That will be fine,” I replied and took the dress from Bill.

  I held the dress down in front of Bear so he could smell it. I looked at Bill, “Maybe we can find out how Connie got out of the fort. If we can do that, maybe it will give us an idea of where she could have gone.”

  “Can your dog do that?” Bill asked.

  “We’ll see, “I replied then looked at Bear.

  I held up the dress and said, “Bear, go find Connie.”

  Bear looked at me as if trying to understand what I was saying, searching for missing people wasn’t something that we had done before.

  I held up the dress and repeated my command.

  “Go find Connie,” I repeated and shook the dress in front of Bear’s nose.

  I thought Bear finally got the message when he began to sniff the air then began to walk around smelling the ground.

  “I think he has something,” Bill said excitedly.

  Bear began to walk around, smelling the air and then the ground, finally he took off with his nose to the ground. We followed Bear as he weaved around the courtyard, finally he took a straight path that led us across the courtyard. When Bear stopped, we found ourselves standing in front of Ed’s door.

  “I don’t think she got out of the fort by going through Ed’s place,” I said as I patted Bear on the head and called him a good boy. “I’m sure Connie’s scent is all over the inside of the fort. Since we know she’s not in
the fort, I think we needed to go out the back gate and try this again. If Bear can pick up her trail outside the fort, we’ll have a better chance of finding where she went.”

  We went out back and tried it again, this time Bear led us down near the cemetery, but that was where the trail ended. The only thing I could think of was the trail that Bear had found was left when Connie and some of the others from the fort went down and they had gathered around Cheryl and Ed where their daughter had been attacked.

  “Now what?” Bill asked.

  “I doubt that Connie crawled over the wall, she would have had to have gone out through one of the gates, so I think we should try again outside the front gate,” I replied.

  Bill and I started to walk around the outside of the fort, making our way to the front of the fort.

  “Tom?” Bill asked. “If Connie left the fort and just started walking, what is she going to find out there?”

  “It depends which way she walks,” I replied. “If she walked into the hills out behind the fort, she will find mostly hills and trees, not much else out that way.”