by Chad Morgan
On the edge of the street was a corner convenience store, one window covered with plywood, the other shattered along with the door. Lisa almost dropped Daniel as she jumped for a bag of chips she saw on the floor, but Daniel pulled her back. At first, she thought he was angry for losing his living crutch, but he put his finger to his lips, the gesture for silence. Daniel pulled the tire iron out of his belt and, stepping away from Lisa, walked inside. He limped badly, but Daniel braved the convenient store alone.
Lisa wasn’t sure why he hadn’t changed yet. She couldn’t dare to hope he would stay human for long. Hell, now she was tainted, she’d probably turn as well. At least she wouldn’t turn alone. Daniel pulled her out of her apartment, fought off the monsters without hesitation. Now he was braving even more attacks while on his injured leg. She had to admire that.
Turned out, Daniel’s continuing acts of bravery weren’t needed. The store was empty not only of monsters but most food and supplies, though she inhaled the package of chips once Daniel gave her the all-clear. He found some milk that had turned and a few bottles of water in his initial pass, but most of the food was gone. Once they got settled, Daniel went to make another pass, searching the disheveled aisles for anything useful. The store was small, and she could see the top of Daniel’s head over the shelves so she was comfortable enough with him limping away. Lisa sat against the wall and tried to ignore her growling stomach. The chips helped, but it wasn’t enough.
Daniel came back, and Lisa looked up excitedly, but instead of food, he was carrying medical supplies. His limp was less pronounced as he walked to her and knelt in front of her. He put the supplies down beside him, and Lisa saw a brown bottle of hydrogen peroxide and a box of gauze bandages amongst the pile.
“Your leg okay?” she asked.
“Landed on it hard, but I don’t think I did anything too bad to it. Nothing broken or anything.” Daniel held up a small bottle. “Found some ibuprofen.”
“How’s your arm?” she asked.
They both looked at the wound on Daniel’s arm, the bottom half visible now that the lower end of his sleeve was tucked against Lisa’s shoulder wound. The infection had spread, its black tendrils reaching into his hand. He flexed his fingers. Lisa expected to hear his bones crack and pop, but as ugly as the wound looked it didn’t look like it affected him.
“Doesn’t hurt,” he said. He sounded surprised. “Feels sort of numb actually. How about your shoulder? Let me take a look at that.”
Very slowly, Daniel peeled the bit of his shirt sleeve from her shoulder. Lisa felt the small tug as the clotted blood didn’t want to let go, but his strong hands were gentle. She looked up into his eyes, but Daniel was focused on his task. She looked down at her exposed wound. Dried blood streaked down her right breast and stained her cotton bra, but there were none of the black tendrils or discoloration that spread out from Daniel’s arm. Daniel grabbed the hydrogen peroxide and poured it onto the wound. The cold fluid bubbled on contact. Lisa hissed. Daniel’s wound was numb, but she got to feel pain?
“Sorry,” Daniel said.
Daniel mopped up the spilled peroxide with a piece of gauze, gently rubbing the top of her soft breast. Lisa thought in another time, she might enjoy that. In another time, she might let him touch more, but the pain from the cut in her shoulder was too distracting for her to enjoy it too much. The pain reminded her of what it meant. She was stabbed by one of those spider monsters. There was no sign of the dark tendrils yet, but it could only be a matter of time.
“It won’t help, you know,” she said, looking to the peroxide. “Not from those things.”
Daniel started dressing the wound anyway. “Yeah, I know. Didn’t help me. But it’ll help with the garden variety infections.” He lifted the gauze and studied her wound. “Besides, it doesn’t look infected. Not like mine is.” He shrugged his shoulders and finished the dressing. “Maybe you have a natural immunity.”
Lisa snorted. “I can’t be that lucky.”
“You made it this long,” he said, sitting back. Lisa wished he wouldn’t. She liked it better when he was close. “You said you saw your neighbors change. How long did it take?”
Lisa looked away. She didn’t want to go back there, didn’t want to remember everything that happened, the things she was made to do . . . but she knew what Daniel was looking for. Daniel wanted to know how much time they had left. She shrugged. “I don’t know. At first, none of them were monsters . . .”
“Yeah, I know. You told me that part,” he cut in. “The monsters were the last thing to happen. But once the monsters did show up, how long did their bites take to change people?”
“Depends,” she said. “Some turned really quick. George Tennant, he turned almost instantly, but he was such an ass he was probably an evil monster already. Others took much, much longer. My momma . . .”
There it was. Lisa tried to push the memories away, but the image of the thing that used to be her mother flashed in her mind’s eye. It stared down at her, her eyes black, her teeth elongated and her tongue lashing out like a whip. She killed her mother. She told herself it wasn’t her mother anymore, she killed a thing that used to be her mother, but she couldn’t make herself believe it. She cried over that thing - that mutated, smelly, asymmetric thing – while she cradled it.
“I’m sorry,” Daniel said.
Lisa felt the tears, warm against her chilled skin, rolling down her cheek. She wiped it away. “She was such a wonderful person. And not just because she was my momma. I don’t think she had a mean bone in her body. She was attacked by one of those things. It looked like a child at first, that’s how it got her. She always had a soft spot for kids. Have you seen those?”
Daniel looked away, and Lisa wondered what he wasn’t telling her. He simply muttered, “Yeah, I’ve seen them.”
“They did . . .” Lisa tried to say, but she choked on the words. She swallowed hard and tried again. “They did horrible things to her. More than just cut her, they hurt her soul. Seeing children trying to eat her, having to fight them off . . .”
“Yeah, I know,” Daniel said, cutting her off.
Lisa swallowed hard. The message was clear. Daniel had experience with the things and had his own nightmares. She put the memories of the child creatures away with effort. They clawed and screamed in her mind as she pushed the memories away, but that was much easier than the memories of her mother. Her mother’s warm smile burned in her with loss and regret. “She was fine for a while, then she remembered what she had done. It was like, the infection fed on it. And the more the infection spread, the more depressed she got.”
“It feeds on negative feelings?” Daniel asked.
The laugh escaped her. It sounded weird coming out of her mouth, even to herself. It had been a long time since she laughed. “Do you realize how ridiculous that sounds?”
“Any more than your neighbors turning into monsters?” Daniel asked.
“And it’s my rosy disposition that’s keeping me alive?” she countered.
Daniel smirked. “Obviously not. Not that I blame you. You’ve gone through hell, but if this thing fed off bad moods . . .” He held up his wounded arm, and Lisa understood what thing he meant. “You’d be a feast. There’s got to be something else to it. I still say maybe you have some kind of natural immunity. Maybe it was how you were baptized, or your blood type, or your diet . . . I have no idea. But there has to be a reason this . . .” He tapped the wound on her shoulder. “. . . didn’t’ turn into this.” And he held up his bite would again, showing the infection.
Daniel got up and went to the back of the store where the coolers stood. There was no power of course, but the cooler doors still had that suction sound when he pulled them open. He found a few water bottles and stacked them in his arm. He walked back, but instead of handing her a bottle, or even taking one for himself, he stuck them into his backpack with his kid’s doll and his ex-girlfriend’s diary.
“What are you doing?” Lisa asked.
Daniel paused and looked over his shoulder back at her. “Packing up supplies,” he said as if the answer should have been obvious. Then he turned back to his backpack.
“For what?” Lisa asked.
Again, Daniel looked at her over his shoulder, and again he said in a tone that suggested the answer was obvious, “For when we leave.”
Lisa jumped to her feet. “Leave? Are you nuts? We barely escaped with our lives, and you want to go back out there?”
Daniel got to his feet, more slowly but as he stood a head taller than her he was still intimidating. “This place isn’t secure. Those broken windows won’t keep out a breeze, let alone one of those things,” he said, pointing to the broken glass. “Staying here isn’t an option.”
She looked at the broken door and the hole in the window. He was right, they weren’t safe here. The four walls and ceiling made her feel more secure than she really was, but with the entrance wide open it would only be a matter of time before some creature would wander by and that illusion would be shattered, just like the window was. Lisa nodded, conceding his point and thinking quickly. “Okay, so we grab some supplies and we find someplace else. There’s a bar on Third that might . . .”
“And then what?” Daniel said, cutting her off. “Wait for me to turn into one of those things? Or did you forget about this?”
He held up his wounded arm again as if she could forget it. It scared her when he was assertive like that. It made her think of when her mother started to turn, snapping at Lisa with uncharacteristic sharpness. She didn’t know Daniel. For all she knew, he was a wife-beater or a drunk, or he was mild-mannered and his harsh tone was a sign he was turning. She had no way to know which.
“Maybe you won’t turn?” she suggested timidly.
“What if I don’t?” he asked. “Then what? What happens when we run out of food?”
Lisa looked away. She didn’t have a counter argument, but she couldn’t picture braving the town again. She wanted to be back in her apartment with the doors locked and the windows boarded up. They had no choice but to leave, but her heart raced the entire time, positive death was around every corner. She was developing a well-earned case of agoraphobia.
She felt Daniel’s hand on her shoulder. It was light, tender, but commanding. He turned Lisa back to him, then she felt the rough skin of his hands against her smooth face as he caressed her chin and tilted her eyes towards him. In spite of everything, his eyes were full of hope and determination. She used to have that same look, and while Lisa wasn’t surprised she had lost that in herself, she wondered at what point it left her.
“I need to get my daughter before it’s too late,” he said.
Her heart ached, though whether it was over going back out into the town full of monsters or having to tell Daniel the harsh reality that his daughter had to be one of them by now, she wasn’t sure. “Daniel, there’s no chance . . .”
“I don’t care what the chances are,” he said. “I’m going to find her while there’s still time. Before this . . .” Again, he held up his wounded arm. “. . . takes over completely. Then you can take Bethany out of here.”
What did she have to do to convince him his daughter was gone? How many times did she have to tell him . . . wait, what did he just say? She asked, “Me?”
“If this thing, this infection, does what you say it’ll do, then I’ll need to get you two out of here while I’m still myself,” Daniel said. “Now, we’ll need weapons. Any ideas?”
She had been in the town so long, fighting for survival for god knows how many days, that the thought of getting out, of going back to the normal world, was overwhelming. She wasn’t sure she believed it. She asked, “Both of us?”
“Yes, both of you,” he said. “I get you out, you take Bethany with you. Deal?”
She nodded so hard her neck hurt. “Yes? Yes!”
“Good, now about those weapons?” Daniel asked.
Lisa thought hard, now invested in this endeavor. It had been so long since she felt hope, it felt strange to her, but it was like having sex for the first time. It was scary but exciting. “There’s . . . there’s a sporting goods store on the other side of town.”
“Sporting goods store?” Daniel asked.
Lisa nodded again. “Buck’s Sporting Goods and Camping. He gets a lot of business during deer hunting season.”
“Hunting rifles?” he asked.
“Should be plenty, if the place hasn’t been looted already,” she said. “Maybe some dehydrated food too.”
“And you say it’s on the other side of town?” Daniel asked.
Lisa could tell from Daniel’s tone he was concerned about traversing the town without protection, but she knew her town. “Yes, but the good news is, it’s by the bank.”
Daniel shrugged his shoulders. He wasn’t seeing it. “And why is that good news?”
She was almost giddy. Daniel had been so commanding, she was swelling with pride that now it was her turn. “Think about it. It’s a bank. There’s nothing in the bank but money, and those things aren’t going to care about money. It has to be empty, right? I mean, what could they possibly be doing in it?” She smiled wide. “Should be clear sailing, right? Right?”
The business suit woman stood outside the bank. The empty town was creepy. It felt like being in a room with a dead body. For the hundredth time, she swallowed her doubts over whether she was doing the right thing. She worked for BEC, the largest company in the world. This had to be for a reason, some greater good, or at least some profit in the end. She couldn’t see it, but she trusted that the board knew more than she did. Her job was to be a good little soldier and follow orders. Still, she couldn’t see the benefit from all this death. She prided herself on seeing all the moves on the chess board, but the motivations behind this project were beyond her.
She turned back into the bank. It was a long hall, with teller windows on one side, and on the other, desks for such things as loan approvals. Clear on the other end was the open vault door. Her heels clicked on the hard wood floor as she walked. To her left, one of those dog things jumped up onto the counter. She knew it wouldn’t hurt her, but the damn thing stalked her anyway. She eyed it, but she refused to show it any fear. It growled at her but made no effort to pounce.
As she came to the end of the bank, two more monsters paced in front of the vault like guard dogs. Inside, the business suit man slid the scroll case into one of the safety deposit boxes. It had been her idea to secure the scroll in the bank, and while her partner was uncomfortable leaving the scroll here while they set up at the wood mill, he couldn’t deny the logic behind her argument. In spite of that, he kept checking the scroll was where they left it, locked in the safety deposit box. He seemed obsessed by it, reading and re-reading it. She even caught him petting one of those damn dog things.
The business suit woman pulled the key to the deposit box out, hanging on a chain around her neck, and locked the box. She convinced her partner to let her keep the key with some effort. She tucked the key back under her shirt and looked back out into the bank.
At least it was unlikely they would be bothered here at the bank, she told herself.
22
“Can you stop that please?” Daniel asked.
Lisa was playing with her lighter, flipping it open and closed, open and closed, the metal clicking and clacking each time. In the supernatural silence of the town of Shellington Heights, it traveled like a gunshot. Plus, the regular flip-click was damn annoying.
Daniel had searched the small convenience store and found a stairwell to the apartment above it, most likely the former home of the late store owner. A quick search didn’t turn up much, most of the food was spoiled or gone, and the owner had apparently killed his wife and them himself. They both lay in the bed, both their hands wrapped around the gun. His first thought was they had struggled, but he reconsidered. There were no signs of a struggle. Daniel figured they decided to pull the trigger together. Daniel thought of ta
king the gun, but he couldn’t find any ammunition, and even though the gun might have had as many as four shots still in it, he couldn’t bring himself to disturb the pair for such a small gain. So, he left the apartment, which is when he found the stairwell to the roof.
The roof of the store was flat, with ventilation machines sitting without power like square boulders. From their vantage point, it gave Daniel a good view of a couple of streets. He could still see the smoke trailing out of Lisa’s apartment window in the distance, but he couldn’t see any flames. Good. He didn’t want to burn the town down. Well, not until he got Bethany and got the hell out first.
Lisa paced near the stairwell entrance. She was uncomfortable being outside as if her nervous playing with her lighter wasn’t enough of a hint. With a huff, she put her lighter away in her jeans pocket.
“Whole damn store, not one packet of cigarettes. . .” she mumbled to herself.
Daniel rolled his eyes. Dealing with Lisa’s moods and PTSD was bad enough, now he had to deal with nicotine withdrawal. Still, now that the seed of hope had been planted in her, she was much easier to deal with. What he didn’t mention to her was that if she showed any signs of infection, she wasn’t leaving with Bethany. He had to be quarantined, and if Lisa caught this monster crud, so would she. There was no way whatever this thing was could be allowed to leave Shellington Heights. Since Lisa wasn’t showing any signs of infection, there was no point in bringing it up. She’d only get upset over a hypothetical situation.
Daniel looked out over the street in the other direction from Lisa’s smoldering apartment complex. He could see the bank in the middle of the street, looking not unlike one from an old western. He was sure the town went to great lengths to keep it that way, either as a historical landmark, to attract tourists, or both. Next to that was the sporting goods store. The large sign with crossing hunting rifles on it made it pretty obvious it was exactly what Lisa said it was. The building on the other side of the bank, though. It was long, with lots of glass windows. Another store maybe? What he didn’t see were any monsters.