End of the Line (Book 1)

by Lara Frater

  I decided to risk it.

  I went to the door and pressed my ear against it and listened.

  I heard nothing. I unlocked and opened the door. It was automatic but I was able to push it open. Light came in. It was lovely out. Warm and sunny, but not too hot. I forgot what day it was but if it were Saturday, I might go to the park with Cam, sit on the grass. Cam would kiss me when people were looking.

  I had to stay strong. Cam would want me strong.

  Now that I could see, I noticed the long board with several sets of keys attached to it. Okay, we achieved keys. Now we would see if they worked.

  It all depended how long ago the family fled. The house wasn’t so dusty. Maybe it had been months, which gave us a better chance that these cars would start.

  “Okay,” I said to myself. I decided to keep the door opened so I could see what I was doing. I wished Henry had come.

  I grabbed the Prius one first since I recognized the key and knew the car wouldn’t need as much gas. I hit the open button and heard it unlock. The light was on but dim. I think the battery was nearly dead. Even so, I tried to start it.

  Nothing happened but a click click click.

  I got out of the car and went back to the board and grabbed a bunch of keys. I went to the SUV and tried each one until I found the one that opened the door. This time it didn’t unlock and there was no light.

  I went to the convertible and discovered a note under the windscreen.

  To whom it may concern. My name is Dr. Harold Goldstein and I have fled my home along with my wife Pamela, my older son Steven, daughter Joyce and baby Amanda. We plan to take my boat up to the coast to some place that doesn’t have a lot of people.

  If you are reading this note, and you plan to take my car, I lovingly restored it. It is a 1967 Mustang convertible with most of the original parts. Please take care of it.

  I snickered. The man loved his car. I’m glad they didn’t get the flu and fled alive. Not only was it a good thing, but it meant five additional zombies weren’t lurking. I unlocked the convertible. The light went on and it started immediately. I had to wonder if the owner started it right before he left. I shut it down, closed the door and pocketed the keys. I could use it to charge the Prius. No reason to steal Dr. Goldstein’s trophy car and it wouldn’t suit our needs.

  I decided to go upstairs and asked Dave for help when I heard the moan followed by the sound of something dragging

  Fuck.

  My heart raced, my mind blanked. It sounded close. Should I go to the garage door and try to close it or flee upstairs?

  I didn’t want to risk it getting to the house, so I ran to the garage door. I could see it, but thankfully this one’s body was twisted at an odd angle making it have trouble walking.

  I stared at it for a moment, stunned to see it move despite its torso twisted slightly to the left. I had to wonder how that happened. When it saw me it got angry, excited or hungry. I don’t know. I only knew it put more energy in getting to me. I was sweating. I felt like I was going to puke but nothing happened.

  “Oh fuck,” I whispered to myself. Okay, I couldn’t panic. Only one of them and it was slow. Find a weapon and bash its brains in, easy as pie.

  I didn’t want to do it. I wanted someone else to shoot it.

  It dragged itself closer. Once a man, he wore overalls that were torn in several places. He was missing an eye and now had a dark socket. I had to kill it now. If I went to get the others, it might go anywhere.

  I searched the garage until I located a shovel. I did the slowest walk to it. When I found roaches in the apartment, I made Cam kill them. Now I had to bash the head into a creature that was once human and now wanted to kill me. It still moved to me with a fierce determination to get to its feast. I stood outside the door wondering if I should wait for it. I noticed the horrific stink and flies. They buzzed around me, wondering if I too was a corpse.

  The creature made a horrific moan, the kind they make when a kill is close. Something snapped, the fear, the terror, I needed that thing gone. I remembered killing the Smile-Mart greeter. I ran forward and with all my might smashed the shovel over the thing’s head.

  I knocked it down and it collapsed to the ground, but it didn’t die. I didn’t hit it hard enough. It wasn’t even mad I hit it, instead seemed more excited I was closer. It began to move on its belly to get to me.

  I screamed when it reached out and smashed it again in the head. I felt the hand grab my sneaker, a $19.95 CostKing special and move up my ankle. I could feel the cold touch of its decayed fingers as it tried to pull my leg in to bite.

  I smashed it again and again, gore from the head splashed all around me and on me but I didn’t stop until it stopped moving and released its hand. I wacked a few more times after that. I took a deep breath and pulled my ankle away from its cold fingers.

  “Jim,” I felt a hand touch my shoulder. I screamed like a little girl and swung the shovel around nearly whacking Annemarie.

  “Jesus,” she said. She looked at me, covered in gore, then looked at the zombie with its head bashed it. “Oh shit, Jim, are you okay?”

  “Had better days,” I said, dropping the shovel. My heart beat so hard and so fast I would have a heart attack.

  “Come on,” she said, taking my arm. “Come upstairs. Let’s get you cleaned up.”

  She took me back into the garage and closed the door. I let her lead me upstairs and into the kitchen.

  I heard Tanya, Jake and Dave calling out Ashley’s name.

  “What’s going on?” I managed to croak out. I couldn’t get my heart to stop dancing.

  “That’s what I came to tell you, Ashley’s missing.”

  “What?” I said, trying to make coherent thoughts.

  “Her backpack is gone. I think she left.”

  How could she have gone? I was on watch most of the night. How did she get passed me?

  Annemarie took me to the kitchen where she used bottled water and wipes to clean me up. I still couldn’t get my heart to slow down and now I was shaking.

  Tanya came in a moment later followed by Dave. “She’s gone. You okay, Jim?”

  “Bashed one of their heads in—“

  She didn’t respond.

  Despite what I said, Dave looked angrily at me. “She’s gone and I blame you.”

  “What?” I said. My fear turned to anger. “I didn’t toss her out of the house and I tried to talk her out of it.”

  “You wanted to be in charge? You aren’t keeping your people together. You’re letting the zombies in on us.”

  “Hey, what’s with all the shouting?” It was Dot, she had woken from her drunken stupor.

  “Ashley’s gone,” Dave explained.

  “I know.”

  I looked at her. “You know?”

  “Yep, she left through the basement.”

  “And you let her go?”

  “Should I have stopped her? Roped her up or something?”

  “I was going to teach her how to drive. I thought you said you wanted to go with her?”

  “Changed my mind, not feeling so great and I like this house,” she said and gave a long cough. “Found the pantry, saw that the master bedroom’s got a fire place.” she started coughing, a loud yakking sound then she spit on the ground. I would have said something but I noticed the saliva was bloody.

  “You all right, Dot?” Dave said.

  Dot smiled. “Fit as a fiddle,” she paused. “I told her not to go.”

  “How long ago did she leave?” I asked.

  “Don’t know, still dark, couple of hours.”

  I looked at Dave. “We can try and find her.”

  “She has a head start.”

  “We can grab the convertible in the garage. It runs.”

  “You sure you wanna look for her? Nothing to make her get into the car,” Tanya bought up.

  She was right. Ashley wanted to leave, I couldn’t stop her. Was it worth looking for her? “At least we can try,” Ann
emarie said.

  “What a beaut,” Dave said from behind the wheel.

  Jake and Annemarie would remain behind with Aisha and Dot while Tanya, Dave and I would search or an hour and if we didn’t find her we would come back.

  I realized we were looking for a needle in a haystack. Ashley could have gone in any direction but I hoped she would stick with the familiar.

  We weren’t far from the Long Island Expressway, the easiest way to get across the island. The hardest part was getting on route 106. It had cars blocking it, but someone who could walk could get through it without a problem. We ended up riding a lot on the shoulder or the grass. Thank god Harold Goldstein kept his trophy car filled with gas. Plus I think Dave fell in love with it.

  “She could be miles ahead of us. Or she could have taken a car or a bike. Or she could be dead.” Tanya said.

  I didn’t respond. I watched the road for movement. I didn’t see any zombies, so that was good at least.

  The LIE was near impossible to navigate. Dave looked frustrated. I knew he wanted to find Ashley but the expressway was covered with broken down vehicles, accidents with bodies in the cars, on the road, and of course zombies.

  We had driven for thirty minutes when we saw a tourist bus, one of those Hampton deals on its side surrounded by several zombies. The bus was in a pile up that would be difficult but not impossible to get around but it required us getting very close to zombie bus.

  Dave stopped the car.

  “Gotta figure out how to get around them.”

  Tanya didn’t respond. She stared at the bus.

  “Tanya, what is it?” I asked.

  “Ashley’s on that bus.”

  She was right. I should have seen it. Zombies always wanted us. No higher brain function left except to somehow smell us.

  “Look at them, they smell somethin livin,” Tanya said. “I ain’t got enough bullets to kill them all.”

  I looked at the zombies. There were at least eight I could see. If Ashley was inside, I couldn’t let her go like that.

  “Any ideas?”

  “Distract them,” Tanya said.

  “Thought we might drive passed them and double back,” Dave said. “I’ll drive slowly pass them, honk, pull them to the next exit then jump the divider and come back. You all get your seatbelts on.”

  “I’m getting out here,” Tanya said.

  “What?”

  “You pull 'em away, I’ll get her out and we’ll run to the other side of the divider where you get us.”

  It was a good idea and it was stupid. Not all the zombies would go after the car. What choice did we have?

  “Good luck,” I said, as she got out of the car. I noticed that Dave didn’t object or say anything.

  “Hold on tight,” he said to me. I was strapped in but I held on to the door handle as well. I don’t know which place was safer, in a slow convertible being chased by zombies or dealing with the ones that stayed behind.

  Dave got to the bus and was so slow I thought he was going to stop. He blasted the horn. He honked it repeatedly until most of the zombies looked up. Their gruesome faces staring at us, two of them were kids. A little naked boy moved towards us with most the skin from his upper torso gone. A few began to head to the car. They got to close for my comfort. I still felt tense and nervous from my encounter before.

  “Go faster,” I said.

  “I don’t want to lose them.”

  I held on to the handle for dear life. I could hear the zombies’ moans, the inhuman shrieks of anger or hunger. I hated that sound. It sounded like of the end of the world. I thought of the zombie I killed in the garage. How Tanya moved the body so we could get the car out and how it left a trail of human decay.

  “Hold on,” Dave said. I think he noticed how tense I was by the way I held on to the door handle.

  It seemed like forever before we got to next exit. We managed to keep most of them following us. Dave did a massive K-turn and jumped the divider. The car hit it so hard, I almost hit my head and I lurched forward. Harold Goldstein was going to have a large bill for his muffler.

  We crashed down with a massive bump. I held on to the seat belt as we landed, praying it wouldn’t break, and we were on the road again. Dave hit the gas and went as fast as he could around broken down cars. I heard the grind of the top coming down. Ashley and Tanya were already running towards us. I didn’t count how many zombies were staggering behind them but it was a lot. The one foot divider seemed to be giving them trouble.

  Tanya slowed down because Ashley couldn’t keep up. She grabbed her hand and pulled her forward. When we got to them, Tanya practically leaped into the car. Ashley had a little more trouble and I physically carried her over. She sat in the seat, so out of breath she couldn’t talk.

  As soon as we were all safely in, Dave hit the gas, clipping a parked car as we sped away. Dr. Goldstein was not going to like the condition of his car.

  “Jesus,” Tanya said. “I only killed one, and got one in the knee caps.”

  I heard the grind of the top coming back on. I looked out the windows. The zombies were giving chase but even they couldn’t go 30 miles per hour and were soon dots in the background.

  “You’re going the wrong way,” Ashley said, after she finally caught her breath. Dave slammed the brakes of the car. I didn’t want him to stop, even though we had gone some distance from the remaining zombies.

  “Goddamn Ashley, I’m sorry about your fucking daughter, but we all lost someone. Do you think my kid is still alive? You don’t see me running off half-cocked.”

  “I didn’t ask you to come.”

  “If we hadn’t that bus would have been your tomb.”

  “My decision to make.”

  “Ashley,” I said. I sounded desperate because I was. “Please don’t do it this way. I have—“ I stopped in mid-sentence. I realized something I had to do.

  “Jim, what is it?” Tanya asked. By instinct, she turned around and looked for zombies but there were none.

  “Ashley, I’ll take you to where you can pick up I-90 that goes all the way across the country. I’ll find a car and send you on your way.”

  “What?” Dave asked. “Have you gone crazy too?”

  “No,” I said. “After I drop Ashley off, I’m going into the city.”

  Tanya looked at me, sharply. Her look was angry but some fear, for me.

  “I need to find what happened to Cameron.”

  “Jim,” Tanya said. “Ashley’s got a slim chance, New York’s a death sentence.”

  “Knowing I never tried to get to Cameron—I can’t deal with it. Dave, let’s go back to the house and I’ll get the Prius working and take Ashley to I-90.”

  I figured Dave would explode. Call us irresponsible and crazy.

  “I’ll go with you,” Tanya said.

  “You don’t have to.”

  “I do,” she said. “A year ago, life left me nothing, but now I got you all.” A surprisingly sentimental statement from Tanya.

  Dave still hadn’t said anything.

  “Dave,” I said. “We can drop you off back at the house.”

  “I’m not going into the city with you, but my daughter lives in Fordham,” he said. “Maybe it’s time I found out what happened to her.”

  Chapter 14

  “There’s a gun store in Floral Park,” Dave said as he turned from Jericho Turnpike on to Tulip Ave. “I’d like to check it out.” It was getting on late afternoon and we needed to find a place to crash soon. We didn’t go back to the house, instead we radioed the others. As leader I didn’t like splitting us up but hoped fewer people at the house meant fewer zombies. I trusted Annemarie to keep Jake and Aisha safe and I hoped that Dot wouldn’t be too much of a pain. At least they had plenty of food. If we weren’t back in a week they would move on. We would meet back at CostKing. Annemarie didn’t seem happy. I guess she wondered if we would be coming back at all. I didn’t tell her my plan to visit Manhattan.

  I wondere
d that myself. Was I being as stupid as Ashley? Manhattan had to have millions of bodies and I don’t know how many zombies. Was a deluding myself? If Cam was alive, he would have come home. We had been on the road for a few hours, moving from the LIE to Jericho Turnpike and had passed New Hyde Park. We didn’t call CostKing because I knew Rachel would freak out.

  Soon we would be in Queens. As we got closer, roads became more congested and we saw more zombies roaming the street. This time Tanya didn’t take them down. We didn’t know how many were hiding and would come out from the sound of a gunshot especially since we were in a car not a truck. Also, Tanya only had her handgun and told us she had 10 bullets left.

  No one disagreed with Dave, but I didn’t think we would find anything. Guns and bullets had become even more valuable than food. The place was probably ransacked by now.

  Dave drove down Tulip Ave. I spied dozens of formerly pretty garden apartments in disrepair, burnt down or taken over by trees. Litter filled the streets and the sidewalks. I saw a LIRR overpass. No trains would be passing over it and the trestle looked rusted and overgrown with weeds. I saw the shuttered ticket window: Floral Park station. I wondered if the trains would ever run again.

  Dave drove two blocks and had to stop. I could see the gun shop a few stores down: pitch black with the gate down. The faded letters of Floral Park Guns and Ammo could still be read. The stores around it were all sprayed painted with the same message. NOTHING BUT DEAD HERE. We passed a supermarket missing all its windows. Inside it looked bare. Tulip Ave was a two lane street and now four cars blocked the gun store’s entrance including one on the sidewalk. Dave pulled behind one of them. None of the cars looked smashed, so I wondered if this was some kind of blockade. Would a psycho limo driver pop out of one of the cars, but I could see they were empty.

  No sign of zombies either. The street was quiet, except for birds tweeting. The sidewalk was stained with old blood. Dave went to the gate and knocked loud.

  “Hello!” he yelled.

  No response. He looked at Tanya. “Do you think you can get the lock open?”

  “For the gate?” she said. “There’s no lock.”