by Stevie Kopas
Isaac blinked back tears. His face grew hot and his mouth was dry. He wanted to tell her he was proud of her, that he always wanted to be the one to look out for her, but he knew how lucky he was to still have her here with him. He tried to open his mouth to thank her for saving his life and getting him out of that apartment and to promise her he would put his big boy pants on from here on out, but Ben casually strolled in the room and sat down in his recliner.
“How’s it goin’ in here you two?” He had a smirk on his face and made it obvious he had been eavesdropping.
“It’s fine dude.” Isaac discreetly wiped tears from his cheeks, his face red with embarrassment.
“So, I can’t help but hope, that ya’ll know how to use those weapons you got on ya.”
“Yes.” She was annoyed that he’d looked through her bag. “My dad loved to hunt and go to the range.”
He scratched his messy blonde hair and laughed at her. “I figured so.” He leaned back and put his feet up. Veronica imagined him watching football in that chair once upon a time.
“Why do you ask?”
“Well, for one, you don’t just go carrying around rifles and pistols if you don’t know how to use them. Plus I didn’t want you to hurt yourself out there.” He was still smiling to himself when Lucy and Sal joined them in the living room and sat on the couch. “What’s the verdict?” Ben asked Sal.
“Well, there is not much. Not enough to supply 5 people.” Sal realized his tone of voice might have been a little harsh. “I did not mean to be disrespectful, but it is the truth. We did not plan on two more. In fact, I hate to admit, but we were glad the other three left us.”
“You are young, like my son.” Lucy chimed in. “We could not have turned you away.”
Ben’s face looked so serious, his lips made a straight line and his eyes were narrow. “But the truth of the matter is that we would have had to eventually leave. Whether or not anyone else showed up.” He said this without looking at anyone.
Sal rubbed his shiny bald head and sighed. “Yes. But we could look for food maybe. See what’s out there to bring back.”
Ben laughed. “Sure, we could stay here, continue to shit in a pizzeria.”
“We’re going to the coast.” Isaac chimed in. “If we’re going to go as a group, we should all be on the same page and we should leave as soon as possible.” Veronica cringed at her brother’s decision to volunteer information like that but she was also surprised he had made a decision at all. She tried to hide her smile. It made her happy for the first time in days.
Ben, Lucy and Sal decided they would leave with them in the morning. The rest of the day proved uneventful. Things were packed, Ben cleaned his gun, Lucy made jam and peanut butter sandwiches on what remained of the English muffins for the morning and the group ate canned tuna and green beans for dinner. They quietly chatted and laughed as they ate, each of them thinking about leaving their semblance of safety and distracting themselves in daydreams of finding refuge on the coast.
None of them slept very well that night.
XI
The crack of dawn came and the group gathered their things and readied themselves for the road. Veronica had overheard Sal and Lucy that morning, whispering to each other in Spanish. She couldn’t understand what they were saying but she could tell the conversation upset Lucy very much.
“We’re gonna walk out the back door and take a left down the alley.” Ben addressed them when they were all ready to go. “We stay together and keep it tight, don’t talk unless it is absolutely necessary. When I go, you go. When I stop, you stop. Weapons always ready but do not fire them unless you are saving someone’s life.” Veronica held up her kitchen knife. Ben laughed, “Yeah, you probably shouldn’t let yourself get that close to one of them things though.” He continued laying out the plan on how they’d make it to the highway and get off of it and out of the open as soon as possible. The farther they got from the city, the more trees there would be, and more trees meant more cover from their surroundings.
Veronica didn’t like how nervous Lucy looked as she clutched the crucifix that hung around her neck. She prayed to herself in Spanish before they left and Sal made her assure him she was okay to do this. Before they left Ben offered Veronica his own hunting knife in place of her kitchen knife.
“No thanks,” she said sheepishly, “my mom spent a lot of money a long time ago watching infomercials.” Ben chuckled as she shook it at him. “Lifetime guarantee.”
The group, led by Ben, did exactly as Ben said they would. They walked down the stairs and out the back door. Nobody wanted to reenter Pisano’s kitchen again. Sal brought up the back as they took a left and made their way down the alley, slowing down as they neared the street. Ben put up a hand and the group stopped, he poked his head out to make sure the way was safe. The street was empty as he had wished. He motioned for them to follow and they took a right.
Two more blocks up they made a left and from there it was a two mile stretch to the highway. They quickened their pace and were making excellent time. Empty cars were everywhere, trash littered the streets and every now and then you’d hear a wail or moan from somewhere they silently hoped was not too close. Embers glowed from dying fires in the hearts of what once were shops and Veronica wondered if the lifeless bodies she passed on the streets had been lucky enough to lie dead where they dropped. They suddenly heard Sal gasp at the back of the group and abruptly stopped. To everyone’s dismay, Lucy screamed at the top of her lungs at the sight of a man with a knife to Sal’s throat. He had his hands up in surrender. The man had long hair pulled back in a messy ponytail and enormous arms that held Sal in place. Ben felt his chest tighten as he saw everything unfolding; he would have rather run into the hungry dead than deal with the maniacal living.
“Shut that bitch up.” The man said and another man appeared from the alley beside him. Lucy continued to scream as the man raised a gun to her face.
“Jesus Christ Lucy, please.” Sal pleaded with his wife. A scream even louder than Lucy’s was heard in the distance, but this was a scream of the dead.
“Fuck this.” The second man with the gun reared back and smashed his weapon into Lucy’s forehead. A sickening crack was heard as she dropped to the pavement. Sal cried out and squirmed against the man with the knife, tears forming in his eyes as he watched Lucy’s body twitch before him.
Ben, caught off guard by how fast everything was spiraling out of his control finally had the chance to speak. “What do you want? Our bags? Take them. Now!” More howls and yells were heard but this time closer than before.
“Look what that bitch went ahead and did.” The second man yelled at his friend, still pointing the gun at Lucy’s unmoving body. Everyone stared at the man with the knife with Sal still in his arms. The man let go of Sal and threw him to the floor.
“Drop all your shit, weapons, bags, and fast.” Nobody moved but Sal, on the ground, holding his wife’s head in his hands, frantically trying to find a pulse in her neck, praying to a God that wasn’t listening.
The second man’s gun was on Ben now. “Seriously, take the shit and let us go. They’re coming.” Ben lowered his gun to the sidewalk while Isaac removed his bag from his back. Veronica heard the familiar sound of feet slapping against the asphalt behind her and turned around.
“Holy shit!” The man with the knife yelled as an eater slammed into Veronica, the two of them flying down to the sidewalk beside Sal. Isaac hurled himself at the eater on top of his sister and with strength he didn’t know he possessed, yanked it from her body.
“Isaac! No!” She screamed from the ground as her attacker turned itself on her brother and sunk its decaying teeth deep into his side. Isaac let out a roar of pain as he grabbed the eater by its head and pulled it away from his ribcage. A huge chunk of flesh tore from his side and the eater hungrily gobbled it up. Isaac’s blood poured from his side and at the sight of it made his knees grow weak. The eater thrust itself back upon him, opening up anot
her huge hole in his stomach as it feasted on his flesh. The two looters watched on in horror at their robbery gone wrong. Sal, enraged by his wife’s demise brought himself up and head butted the man with the knife, instantly shattering his nose. The man with the knife buried it into Sal’s stomach and in the same instant, his face disappeared as Ben fired a shot into it. Sal collapsed with his assailant’s body still in his arms. He looked up at Ben, his face twisted in pain. Veronica threw herself onto the atrocity that was ravaging her brother and plunged the kitchen knife into the eater’s head with a force so hard that the blade, with the lifetime guarantee, snapped off in the eater’s skull. She cried out in anger, watching her brother bleed out.
“We need to go!” She attempted to get Isaac to his feet. “Please!” She looked back at Ben as he beat the ever living shit out of the second man. “Ben!” She cried out to him, Isaac’s blood covering her chest and arms. He stopped, still holding the man by the throat, even though he had already stopped breathing. He stared into his lifeless eyes and wished he were still alive, so he could kill him one more time. The desperate cries of the eaters were upon them as they turned a corner a few blocks away.
“Ben, you have to take her and leave me.” Sal yelled to his friend. “Go now!”
Ben cracked his neck and turned to the crowd of dead approaching them. He clutched his gun in one hand and picked up Sal’s bat with the other. “Veronica get out of here.” He said sternly.
“Ben what are you doing?” Sal winced in pain on the sidewalk, nearly passing out.
“Ben!” Veronica tried to hold her brother up with her shoulder; he was bleeding uncontrollably and had stopped making any noise. “I need your help!” Isaac became dead weight. She brought him back down to the sidewalk and shook him as she screamed. “Isaac?!” His eyes stared off at nothing. Her hands began to shake. “Isaac?” Her brother had died, just as his father before him.
“Amorcita. You need to go.” Veronica looked at Sal as he closed his eyes for the last time.
Everything suddenly began moving as if in slow motion and all the sound was sucked out of the world around her. She stared up at Ben who had started firing at the eaters running up the street yet she heard no shots. She looked back at her brother’s still unmoving eyes as they began to glaze over a milky white and knew what needed to be done. She hastily grabbed her gun from her bag. “I love you.” She told him, yet she didn’t hear herself say it, nor did she hear the shot she fired into his head. Without another thought, without another second to spare, she threw herself to her feet and tore off running in the direction of the highway. Looking back only once to see a tsunami of death advancing on her only friend left in the whole world.
She ran faster than anyone ever had and had it been the right time, she would have entertained the thought of pretending to be the winner of a famous race somewhere. She hit the highway without a sound and kept running, weaving in and out of abandoned cars and avoiding small clusters of eaters here and there. She was too fast, even for them, and her light steps barely made a sound, she was instantly forgotten to them. She began to feel cold drops on her skin and in an instant, the sky erupted with what felt like the heaviest rain she had ever been caught in. The sounds of the world collided once again with her ears and she collapsed to the asphalt, panting, her tongue thick in her dry mouth. She looked around, bewildered by her surroundings. She didn’t even consciously know she had made it this far. How long have I been running? Where am I? She looked around frantically; there were no eaters after her. She noticed a semi-truck about 15 feet up ahead of her. She got back onto her feet, looking around her once more, and made it inside in under a minute. It was a sleeper cab and at this point she didn’t care if it was empty. She threw herself into the back and flopped onto the bed, slamming the small door behind her. The room smelled awful but she didn’t care. She lay on her back, staring up at the ceiling, not even bothering to look around her and take in the details of her surroundings. The rain slamming against the roof of the cab filled her ears and Veronica cried herself to sleep.
In The Beginning
Veronica woke to silence. The musty aroma of the cab filled her nostrils. She sat up on the bed, which was surprisingly comfortable and rubbed her eyes. A calendar full of naked women hung on the wall across from her and other miscellaneous junk filled the room. A case of water sit untouched, as if waiting for her. She leapt toward it and tore into its plastic, chugging down almost a whole bottle instantly. She panted from her furious drinking and sat in silence for a moment, taking in her situation.
“Everyone I know is dead.” She looked around the sleeper, almost as if expecting an answer. “Everyone I know is dead.” She repeated to herself and her eyes dropped to the floor. She felt like she should cry but couldn’t muster up any more emotion. She was empty. There was a small bag full of foul smelling rags in the sleeper with her. She threw them to the floor and filled the bag with as many of the waters as she knew she could comfortably carry.
She crept into the front of the cab and carefully scanned the area around the truck. The coast was clear and she quietly opened the door and got out. The sun was getting ready to set, meaning she had slept nearly the entire day away. She looked around and found a comfortable spot to relieve herself and as she squat by a tree she noticed a pile of discarded PVC pipe on the side of the highway. She made her way to it and picked out the perfect and most dangerous looking piece she could appropriately wield for protection. She nodded approvingly at her find and adjusted the bag’s strap around her shoulder. She smoothed out her filthy purple shirt and headed off for her destination.
Veronica wasn’t sure how long it would take her to get there, she wasn’t even sure how far she’d already come from the city limits, but she was sure as hell not going to let anything stop her. She tried hard to busy her mind with song lyrics or anything at all to keep from thinking of the world around her, all the while straining her ears for the sound of a threat.
She did a good job of keeping herself busy. She didn’t even notice the big green sign off to her right.
Franklin Woods – 6 miles
Paradise Bay – 8 miles
Part III: Tying Up Loose Ends
“These stupid assholes are going to get themselves killed!” Andrew cried out over his shoulder. His hulking frame took up almost the entire window as he watched in amazement the spectacle in the street below. Five people had silently made their way down his street only to be ambushed by the local creeps that had taken to lurking, robbing and killing anything that they came across since the world went ass up, as Andrew liked to say. One of the women in the group had begun screaming when the thugs revealed themselves.
A thin pale hand found its way onto his dark skin, slowly caressing his arm. “Keep your voice down,” Juliette said softly. “We don’t want them to find us too.” Andrew turned to look at his girlfriend and shook his head.
“Are you bein’ serious right now?” His brow creased as he shook her hand off his arm, “We need to do somethin’ about this!”
Juliette folded her arms across her small chest. “We’re not putting ourselves at risk for anyone else. I thought we agreed on that? No more playing hero.”
“I’m not sayin’ we do anything crazy, I’m sayin’ we need to get rid of those fuckin’ thieves anyway, send them other folks on their way and get back inside. I can’t sit in here and watch anybody else get wasted out there.”
“And I sure as hell don’t want all that hollerin’ and shit outside bringin’ those dead things to our front door. Drew’s right girl, I’m sorry, but we were gonna run into those crazy looters sooner or later and I’d rather take them out now while they’re all distracted.” Andrew’s brother Clyde had joined them in front of the window, making extravagant gestures as he spoke.
“Then you two do it. I’m not leaving, I’m not helping. I don’t care about anyone outside of this apartment and I’m locking the door once-“
“Oh shit!” Clyde screamed out, smack
ing his brother on the back and tapping against the glass. “Them fuckin’ things are out there now!” The other woman in the group on the street was knocked down to the ground by an eater. One of the members of the group that helped her was bitten, another began fighting back against the attackers, and off in the distance, the screams of a certain kind of death could be heard.
“Things are not lookin’ good.” Andrew brought his big hands up and locked his fingers behind his head, closing his eyes, silently praying for a sign. His brother squealed and squirmed, both in horror and intrigue at the scene rapidly unfolding before him. He could feel Juliette’s glare of disapproval. A loud shot rang out and Andrew’s eyes popped open.
“Oh shit, they got guns!” Clyde clapped his hands and shot Juliette a sassy look, “I’m out.” He flashed her a peace sign and smacked his brother on the shoulder, “Let’s do this.”
Andrew turned around to Juliette, still standing with her arms folded, an expression of anger painted across her face. Neither of them spoke as Andrew left his place at the window and joined his brother at the dining room table. The brothers were identical in their muscular physique and almost the same in height, Andrew 6’4” and Clyde just an inch shorter. Andrew had hard features and dark skin like his father while Clyde was light skinned and definitely took after his mother’s femininity.
“How many you takin’? Andrew asked his brother while he loaded his .357 and stashed extra ammo in his pockets.
“One for each hand and one for good luck.” Clyde responded as he tied his long braids up in a tight ponytail. He had two .45’s on each hip and a .40 S&W on the table before him. Andrew had been a cop and had himself a fine collection of guns and ammunition. His brother was a gay black bartender in the south so Andrew had made sure the man knew how to handle a weapon in case he ever needed to defend himself. Sometimes he thought his brother was an even better shot than he was. He stole a glance at Juliette who now nervously paced near the large window.