Darkness and The Grave: A Zombie Novel

by John Tolliver

She shook her head. “I just don’t understand why she and Megan are going to follow Anthony.”

  He laughed. “I think it’s the other way around. I think Megan and Anthony are following her.”

  “Whatever, I just don’t understand why they’re okay with him being in their group.”

  He shrugged. “Anthony’s not that bad.”

  Katie glared at him. “Joel, he almost got us killed a few nights ago!”

  He threw his hands up after he laid a bag in Rachel’s SUV. “I know! I know! But people do make mistakes Katie.”

  “Yeah, and besides, he just gives me the creeps.”

  “Is it the thin moustache he possesses?”

  She glared again.

  “Oh, you’re mad because he called you Kathy. I get it. I do, but you know, Kathy does have a nice ring to it.”

  She laughed and punched him in the arm. “Joel Ryan, you can always make me laugh!”

  “Let’s go back in and get more bags. I think Michelle is done packing,” he said.

  After they finished loading up the cars, they gathered in the front yard and stood in a circle.

  “Guys, I’m going to miss you,” Anthony said.

  “We’ll miss you too Anthony,” Joel said, hugging him. "Be careful out there."

  Megan sniffled. “I’m going to miss all of you girls!”

  “We’ll miss you too Megan!” Michelle replied.

  At that, they tearfully bade each other farewell, boarded their vehicles and drove away. Katie wondered if she would ever see Megan or Amber again. She, Joel, Rachel and Michelle headed south to the freeway; Joel drove. They passed by burned out military vehicles and piles of bodies. It didn't take a degree in rocket science to see the quarantine had failed.

  As they slowly turned onto the freeway, Katie realized their plan needed some modifications. The freeway was jammed with abandoned cars; their hulking SUV simply wouldn't fit.

  "Wait, I saw a moped dealership not too far back!" Michelle exclaimed.

  "It's worth taking a look, I suppose," Joel said, pulling out. "I think I know which one you're talking about."

  They turned around and drove for a few miles until they came to the dealership. Unsurprisingly, the place had been abandoned. Amazingly, however, it looked as though a full stock of brand new mopeds were available.

  Joel walked up to the dealership and found the door locked. He looked around, grabbed a stone from the garden and threw it through the glass door. The glass shattered, but as the power was out, no audible alarm sounded.

  The four survivors went in and grabbed four mopeds. The keys were in the office as were some helmets. All of the mopeds were fully fueled, but Joel grabbed extra fuel to carry on each one. Then they loaded up what supplies they could from the Toyota and set out. Joel led in front, on a black moped, Katie was next on a turquoise moped, Rachel was next on a pink moped and Michelle was last on a green moped. They returned to the freeway and drove onto it. The cars were close together but there was enough room in between to fit the bikes.

  They had driven a few hundred yards when Michelle screamed. Katie skidded to a stop and saw the cars they had been passing contained Infected in them. Most had their windows rolled up, so it was just bloodied hands banging on glass. Some had their windows down though, allowing greedy claws to reach for passersby.

  "Are you okay?" Katie asked.

  "Yeah, just a little shaken. How far are we from the next exit?" she asked.

  "I think about half a mile," Joel replied.

  "Could we maybe just get off the freeway there and take the back roads to Rachel's cabin?" she implored.

  "Yeah, I guess we should. It would be safer," Joel said thoughtfully.

  So they sped to the next exit, weaving carefully between the rows of cars and the rows of bloodied hands grasping toward them. At last they came to the exit and left the highway. Katie noticed they had exited in a burned out section of town.

  Joel led the way south out of the city. Katie saw tired looking people, hungry looking people, angry looking people and people who were knelt down on the ground weeping as they drove south. They passed roving bands of gangs armed with crowbars and they passed bands of Infected who would briefly chase and then give up.

  Katie sighed. So many stories. Who were those people? Who had the Infected been? Sick people who had been promised a cure but given snake oil? Unfortunate people whose families had received the Noble treatment who then were infected following the imposition of quarantine?

  Gradually city transitioned to suburb that gradually became rural farmland. Katie was astonished by how few signs of civilization there were. The only signs of civil authority she had seen were burned out police cars and soldiers who had been infected. The rapid breakdown of society was both surprising and disturbing. What had happened?

  Around noon the group stopped at a rest area just south of Buffalo to eat lunch. Joel took the bat and walked around, checking the buildings to make sure they were alone. Katie heard a brief struggle and Joel emerged from the main building with a grim look on his face and a bloodier bat.

  "There was one in the bathroom. They were stuck in a stall. I put them out of their misery," he said.

  Everyone washed their hands with hand sanitizer and sat down to eat lunch; cheese and crackers.

  "So Joel, where are you from originally?" Michelle asked.

  "Well, when I was born we lived in Chicago. We moved to Washington D.C. when I was eight," he replied, chewing on a piece of cheese. “Katie still occasionally teases me for liking the Cubs.”

  Katie laughed.

  "Any brothers? Sisters?"

  "Yeah, I have two brothers. I'm the middle child. My older brother is five years older than I am. He is a missionary in Southeast Asia, or he was," his face darkened. "I think he was in Thailand, Bangkok maybe. It might have been Bangladesh. My younger brother is a year younger than me. He's studying criminal justice at the University of Tennessee."

  "Wow," Michelle said. "Your parents did a good job."

  "Thanks."

  Before the group got back on the road, Joel peeked in a car parked at the rest area. He opened the door. "Look what I found!" he yelled as he pulled a crowbar out.

  "Awesome! I can see how that would be useful!" Katie yelled excitedly.

  "Well, let's get going," he said, strapping the crowbar to his back.

  They continued on. They drove until it started getting dark. Joel motioned toward a gas station on the side of the road. They pulled into the parking lot.

  "How much further is the cabin?" he asked Rachel.

  "It's still a few hours away at this pace," she replied.

  He furrowed his brow. "I guess we'll need to stop for the night soon. I don't like this place, but we might not find another more suitable place before it gets dark. At least we can sleep in the cooler and rotate watch."

  Joel and Katie searched the building for Infected, but it was empty. They pushed the bikes into the mechanic’s garage and went back to the cooler.

  They did rock-paper-scissors to see who would stay up first and second and so on. Katie won, so she chose to go first. Rachel would go second. Michelle would go third. Finally, Joel would go last. They would each take a shift two hours long.

  "Goodnight Katie Bee," Joel said.

  "Goodnight Joel, I love you."

  "I love you too."

  "Goodnight Katie," Michelle said.

  "Goodnight Katie," Rachel said, adding, "I'll see you in a few hours."

  "Goodnight guys," Katie said, sitting down in a chair near the freezer's entrance, bat in hand. From her vantage point she could see the front of the store and see outside. The front of the store faced west.

  Once the sun dipped below the horizon, useful light faded quickly. The sky faded from orange to blue to black. The stars gradually appeared.

  Katie listened carefully and was relieved to hear crickets chirping. She could also hear coyotes call to one another in the distance. She hoped the night would be
uneventful.

  Sure enough, her shift passed without incident. She woke Rachel up at 10:00pm.

  "Get some sleep Katie," Rachel said as Katie handed her the bat.

  "I will. Holler if you need help," Katie said. Then she walked into the freezer and lay down next to Joel. She covered up with her jacket and sank into dreams quickly.

  She looked at her dad. This was a dream she had frequently. They stood in the airport's terminal.

  "I'm sorry honey, but your aunt will do a better job than I could have," he said mournfully.

  "Dad, I don't understand. Why are you sending me away?" she asked, puzzled and hurt.

  "I can't handle the pressure now. I'm afraid that if you stay with me, you will die next."

  "Come on dad, let me stay!"

  "I can't, I'm sorry. Your aunt and uncle will be waiting for you in Toronto. Be looking for their sign. You'd better hurry, I think they just made the final call for your flight."

  Katie looked at him as her vision grew blurry through tears. He was really abandoning his fifteen-year-old daughter.

  "I'm sorry," he said as he hugged her tightly. "Know that I love you and I will come to visit when I can."

  She nodded, trying not to cry, trying not to make a scene. She stepped back from him, wondering why he wasn’t crying.

  “Goodbye Katie,” he said quietly.

  She nodded and turned and walked through the terminal to her gate and crossed the gangway to the airplane. She was grateful she had a window seat.

  Katie had no idea what to expect in Toronto. She had no idea what living with her aunt and uncle would be like; she had only seen them a few times. She had no idea if she’d ever talk to her friends in Baltimore again and she had no idea how well she’d make new friends in Canada. She didn't even know how long this flight would last!

  She settled into her seat and put some ear buds in. She pushed play on her Zune, hid her ear buds' cable and music player and closed her eyes as the music started.

  She faintly heard the plane's engines rev up and felt the plane begin accelerating forward.

  ”When I was younger, I just wanted to be like you."

  The plane tilted upward and left the ground.

  ”You were my hero, my inspiration, my daddy.”

  The D.C. Metro area faded below into lines and grids of amber lights arrayed on the former tidewater marshes and was then eventually obscured from view by gathering clouds. Katie looked around the airplane's cabin. There were all kinds of people seated, presumably on their way to Canada.

  ”In my mind’s eye, you never left but that doesn’t change how you left that day.”

  She was nodding off.

  "Tell me where you are now, did you fly to the moon? Did you fall in a volcano, lost in the jungle? I know you’re never coming back, I know I’m left all alone."

  "Tell me where you are now," she quietly mumbled before drifting into oblivion.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Adam Doss

  Day 5

  They reached the outskirts of Chatham, Illinois just before noon. They had seen smoke rising from the horizon from about ten miles out and as they approached, Adam saw why; several buildings were ablaze all over town.

  "Be alert guys," Casey said as they followed the railroad tracks into a business park.

  "Whoa," Missy said as they walked by four charred corpses on the side of the tracks.

  "Let's try to get through town quickly," Adam said.

  It took about an hour to walk through the deserted town.

  "Hey, look. We must be crossing Lake Springfield," Randy said.

  Sure enough they were surrounded on both sides by a lake. They continued on.

  "Oh man!" Casey yelled.

  "What?" Adam asked.

  "Look! The bridge is out!" he yelled.

  Sure enough, as they neared a short bridge over the lake, Adam saw that it had collapsed. "Now what?" he asked.

  "I guess we need to retrace our steps," Randy said. "We'll have to get off the tracks and find another bridge over the lake or go around it even."

  They turned around and walked back toward the town.

  "What do you guys think about trying to find a car?" Jill asked as it began to rain.

  "We might have a hard time getting from here to Chicago if the roads are blocked," Randy said.

  "So we can get a big pickup truck or something and go off road to go around blockages," she retorted.

  "So we should steal a car?" he asked.

  "It's going to take us a long time to walk to Chicago, Randy. It's getting colder. And we don't even know who or what we will encounter between here and there. At least if we're in a car, we can quickly escape a threat. I mean, we've almost been robbed, we've been chased by infected people, we've seen piles of bloody corpses! I mean, this has just been something out of a nightmare!"

  Adam cleared his throat. "Jill's right Randy, we should at least try to find a car."

  Randy stared at him for a moment.

  "They're right, Randy," Casey said.

  He sighed. "Okay, let's try to find something."

  Twenty minutes passed as they doubled back to a road that ran under the railroad tracks. They climbed down from the rail bridge and walked east on the road. They soon came to an apartment complex to the left.

  "Let's look in here," Randy said. "Anyone know how to hotwire?"

  "I do," Missy said.

  "Okay, let's start looking."

  As they entered the parking lot, Adam saw a vehicle that would be perfect. "Look at that truck!" he exclaimed.

  A bright blue Chevrolet Silverado with an extended cab was parked about twenty yards to the left. They ran to it and Randy laughed when he peered in the window.

  "We won't need to hotwire it after all," he said. "They left the keys on the seat!"

  He opened the driver's side door and unlocked the other doors. Everyone climbed in. Casey climbed in the front seat with Randy and Adam sat in the back seat with Jill and Missy.

  Suddenly Adam heard an angry yell. He turned and saw a rather large man walking toward the truck from a nearby apartment. He had a crowbar.

  "Come back here! I'm going to skin all five of you!" he screamed.

  "Randy, we need to go," Adam said quietly.

  "I know Adam! I'm trying to figure out which Chevy key is this truck's!"

  "Hey Earl! Hey Tad! Get out here! Some fools are trying to jack our ride!" the man yelled.

  Two more men dressed in leather jackets walked out of the apartment. One had a shotgun.

  "Randy, we really need to go!" Adam said more urgently.

  At last the truck roared to life. Randy shifted the truck into gear as the man with the crowbar came within six feet of it. The truck jumped backward out of the parking spot and Randy turned it around quickly. Then they sped off, leaving the trio of angry men behind.

  "That was close!" Jill exclaimed.

  "Yeah, it was," Randy said, laughing nervously.

  A few minutes later they pulled on to Interstate 55 and headed north.

  "The roads are remarkably clear," Adam said, peering out the window at the empty highway.

  "They are," Randy said. "This is a marked difference from Saint Louis."

  "Hey look," Casey said, pointing ahead. "Are those military vehicles?"

  They passed a trio of burned out Humvees that were stopped on the shoulder of the highway.

  "Yeah, I think they were," Missy said.

  They drove past some infected people shuffling along the highway as they crossed Lake Springfield.

  "I guess eventually all those people will die," Jill said morosely.

  "If they're not already dead," Casey said.

  "Whatever."

  Adam closed his eyes for a moment.

  "Hey Adam," Randy said. "Wake up."

  Adam opened his eyes and looked around. Jill and Missy were asleep. It had quit raining. They were approaching a roadblock on the highway. It appeared to be abandoned. He hadn’t eve
n realized he had fallen asleep. "Where are we?" he asked.

  "Just south of downtown Bloomington," Randy replied. "This is the second roadblock we've passed in the last three miles."

  The truck stopped.

  "We'll have to get off at the last exit we passed and try to go around the roadblock" Randy said as he turned the truck around.

  "We've passed a lot more military vehicles as we've driven north," Casey said. "They've all been wrecked."

  "Hmm," Adam said as they drove off the interstate. They turned north on to South Main Street and drove on past several burned out cars. Soon they passed several large piles of charred corpses.

  "What's with all the burned out vehicles and bodies?" Casey asked.

  "I don't know," Randy said. "I'd like to not find out."

  Jill stirred and sat up.

  "Where are we?" she asked as she leaned against Adam and rested her head on his shoulder.

  "Bloomington," he replied.

  "Indiana?"

  "Illinois," Randy said.

  "Oh. Why aren't we on the highway anymore?"

  "Roadblock," Adam said. "We had to get off to go around."

  "Oh."

  They drove past a parking garage and several tall buildings. Suddenly Adam heard a loud pop and then a grinding noise from the back of the truck.

  "Man, I think we have a flat tire," Randy said as he slowed the truck to a stop in front of a small park.

  Adam got out and saw that the rear driver's side tire was flat.

  "What did you drive over?" he asked Randy.

  He shrugged. "I don't know."

  Adam stooped to peer under the truck. "Well, it looks like there's a full-sized spare on the undercarriage," he said. "Here, look under the back seat and see if the tools are there to remove the spare and jack the truck up. Ladies, you're going to have to get out."

  Casey pulled out a jack and a tire iron and handed them to him.

  He grabbed the tire iron, crawled under the truck and began loosening the spare. "One of these bolts is rusted on real good. Hold on guys," he said.

  No reply came. He just assumed the guys hadn't heard him and kept working.

  A few minutes later one of the bolts finally popped loose with a loud squeal.

  "Finally!" he exclaimed. "I'm making progress. Guys? Hey guys?"