A Glimpse Of Decay (Book 2): Staring into the Abyss

by Santiago, A. J.

  “The T.V. What’s up with the empty studio?”

  “Oh, it’s the only channel I could get that was showing something. There was this reporter and he was trying to talk to some other reporter in Omaha. Or at least I think it was Omaha. Anyway, the only thing they could get was her voice, so she told the guy what was going on over there. She said that they were leaving the city and that it was real dangerous. She said that people were killing people and then she said something about reanimated people. I guess that’s scientific talk for zombies, or at least that’s what I think. She also said that there were people out there eating other people.” She sat up slowly and looked over to where Benjie was sitting.

  With her eyes misting up again, she asked, “Benjie, what’s going on?”

  Chapter 10

  Day 22

  Highway 20, just east of Rome, Georgia

  Benjie clutched at the steering wheel of his aging pickup truck as he drove west along Highway 20. The road was eerily empty of traffic and he nervously glanced to either side as he searched for potential threats. The towering pine trees that lined the scenic road instilled him with a sense of dread. Normally, he loved nature and everything about it, but he knew that although the green rolling hills of North Georgia looked peaceful enough, danger could be lurking in the middle of all those trees.

  He yawned and widened his eyes as he fought to stay awake. After a sleepless night on Michelle’s couch, his body and his mind were wearing down. As morning broke, he knew that it was too dangerous to stay in the neighborhood any longer, and he set upon convincing Michelle that it was time to make their way to her father’s cabin. Through a little reverse psychology, he had reassured her that Jerry and her mother were sure to head up to Rome once they discovered the note that she had left for them on the kitchen table. He also told her that he knew that Jerry would have wanted her to go on without him because he wouldn’t have wanted her to be in danger by waiting on him.

  Michelle, sitting in silence and staring out of the window, continued to pray for her husband’s safety. At her feet was the loaded shotgun that Jerry had left behind.

  “Check and see if you can get a signal now,” Benjie said in reference to Michelle’s cell phone.

  “I just checked a second ago and still nothing.” She sighed out loud and drew her arms up into her chest. “I still can’t believe any of this…what the president said, what we’ve seen on the T.V. I can’t believe any of it. There’s no way this can be happening.”

  “Well, something is definitely going on for them to be saying the crazy stuff they’re saying,” Benjie countered. “They wouldn’t make up something like that.”

  “No, I’m sure you’re right.” Michelle paused to fight back a sob. “I am sure something terrible is taking place right now…and my momma and Jerry are caught right in the middle of it.”

  “Don’t worry. I bet that they aren’t too far behind us now. I’m sure they’ll catch up.”

  “God I hope so.” Michelle clapped her hands together and held them up in front of her, as if she were praying. After a few moments of silent meditation, she pointed to the oncoming lanes. “Have you noticed that we haven’t seen any cars going in the opposite direction?”

  Benjie looked in his rear view mirror, as if expecting to see the tail ends of vehicles in the east bound lanes. “You’re right, I haven’t seen anyone going the other way.”

  “I hope nothing has happened to Rome. Like the news said, it’s everywhere.” She continued to scan through the radio stations for some sort of update, but the few remaining stations that were still broadcasting were replaying the same automated messages from the Emergency Alert System. “I don’t remember that church.”

  “What?” Benjie asked. He had been concentrating on the road and was only partially listening to Michelle. “What are you talking about?”

  “This church up on the right.”

  He looked over and saw an orange brick church with a high white wooden steeple. “What do you mean that you don’t remember that church being there? It’s been there forever.” As the truck drew near to the large temple, he slowed down to see if there were any cars in the parking lot or if any people were standing around. When he saw that the church looked empty, he picked up his speed and didn’t bother to look back at it. Something about the building made him feel uncomfortable and it had an ominous appearance to him.

  “You know, maybe the Lord wanted this to happen,” Michelle said.

  “What on earth would make you think that?” Benjie asked in a surprised tone. He looked over at her with an astonished expression on his face.

  “Well, I’m just saying. The world…it’s all messed up right now. You turn on the news and all you see is war. People killing people, people blowing themselves up, child molesters and rapists. Every night in Atlanta people are getting shot over drugs, or people are robbing people. You can’t turn on the T.V. without hearing about someone shooting up a movie theater or someone killing their own kids…I mean it’s really bad out there. And even in Cartersville. Things are getting bad there too. Meth is all over the place. I can’t tell you how many people me and Jerry went to school with who have gotten hooked on that stuff. Rhonda Stevens, I don’t know if you know her, but she works in the Sheriff’s Department, well, she said that meth and crystal are easy to get ahold of if you really want it.”

  “I keep hearing that. I knew that one guy who shot himself not too long ago. They said he had been having problems with that junk. I think it’s called ‘ice.’ ”

  “That’s what they call it.” Shaking her head, she said, “No good ice.” She looked out from her window and continued saying, “Jerry would say it was ‘ice on the mountain,’ you know, because we’re mainly mountain folk and it’s got a lot of us frozen with trouble and addiction.”

  “And you think God would unleash this on us to make the world a better place?”

  “Well, not a better place, but maybe to clean it up a little. I don’t know…I’m just trying to make some kind of sense of this all. I keep thinking that any second now I am going to wake up in my bed with Jerry right next to me and that this is all just a bad dream.”

  “It’s a bad dream alright…more like a nightmare…but I’m not sure that God would do this to his people.”

  “Why not? He’s done it before. The flood.”

  “Well, you got a point there, but that’s just old scripture and I ain’t sure I really believe in all of that Bible stuff.” Benjie glanced in his rear view mirror again but saw no other traffic. “Look, for instance, look at these beautiful green hills and mountains. Why would he want to destroy all this?”

  “See, that’s the whole point,” Michelle explained. “He ain’t destroying the world, he’s destroying what is destroying the world. Kinda like an old dog scratching at fleas. Maybe the planet is trying to get rid of its fleas.”

  Benjie looked over at Michelle again. He was sensing that she was attempting to disconnect herself from reality in order to deal with what was happening.

  “Okay girl, I don’t need you going off on the deep end now.”

  “But I’m not. I’m not going off on the deep end.”

  “Well, just make sure you stay here with me, not out there somewhere,” he pleaded.

  “You know, maybe Jerry and Momma were fleas too.”

  “Say what?” Benjie asked incredulously.

  “Well, Jerry wasn’t always the best guy. He worried more about that business then he did about us. He had one affair on me that he confessed to. And I know he was still fooling around behind my back. I followed him one time to Red Top Mountain and he was sitting in the jeep with that Melanie Spicer girl. And I know you knew about it too, Benjie Webber.”

  Benjie was caught off guard at Michelle’s revelations. He had often wondered about Jerry and Melanie, but he had never asked him about her, nor had Jerry ever mentioned Melanie, and on several occasions he had seen her in the shop acting awful friendly with Jerry.

 
“Hold on there, girl, I never knew nothing about no Melanie and Jerry. That I can promise you.”

  “Whatever you say, Benjie. Just make sure your conscience is clear, especially with the rapture going on and all.”

  “Where in the hell are you coming up with this stuff? This ain’t no damn rapture, and this isn’t the end of the world. Good Lord! And how can you say that about your momma too!”

  “Everyone knows my momma ran Daddy into an early grave. She always had to have the finest, and with him working for the logging company, he had to work his fingers to the bone just to keep her happy. Did you know that he didn’t even take a vacation for nearly eighteen years? Sure, we’d go on vacations, Momma and me, but he would always stay to work. It wasn’t ‘til three years ago when they went on that cruise out of Miami that he actually took a vacation. And then he was dead six months later. He worked himself to death just to set Momma up in that big house in Cartersville.”

  “Well, everyone knew that your daddy was a hard worker, but I don’t think he worked himself to death. Jerry told me that when he had his heart attack, the doctors said they were surprised that he had made it as long as he did, seeing as how bad a shape his heart was in. You really shouldn’t go around saying things like that.”

  “It’s the truth. It’s just a shame that it took the rapture to make me see these things.”

  “Okay miss high and mighty, so then why hasn’t the rapture taken you? What makes you so special?” The aggravation in Benjie’s voice showed his displeasure with Michelle’s rationalizing. He didn’t even notice that he was weaving as he became more engrossed in his conversation with her.

  “Boy, I’m not special, not by no means. Maybe it’s just not my time yet.”

  “You’re talking crazy, and to be honest, you’re kinda scaring me.”

  “Maybe it’s time for us to be scared. Maybe it’s time for us to realize what we’ve done with our lives and how we’ve messed them up…squandered them.”

  “Talk for yourself, Michelle. I haven’t squandered shit. I am happy with my life and I don’t wanna die…and I don’t wanna be caught up in your rapture.”

  “Well, only you know…deep down inside…if you’re truly happy with where you’re at in life, if you’ve lived your life to its fullest potential. Only you know.”

  “Okay, Michelle, enough of this talk. Let’s talk about something else…please.” Benjie looked over at her and frowned. She sat motionless and was looking down at her feet. Her lips were quivering slightly and Benjie was unnerved at her demeanor. As he continued to study her, he realized that he was no longer paying attention to his driving. He looked back to the road just in time to see that they were quickly approaching the tail end of a pickup truck. It was sitting still in the same traffic lane that Benjie was driving in.

  “Shit!” he yelled. Slamming on his brakes, he was able to bring his truck to a screeching stop. After catching his breath, he realized that he had just rolled into some sort of traffic jam. He could see a line of vehicles ahead of him that stretched down a slope towards the intersection of Highway 20 and the scenic loop that went around Rome. He then saw something that troubled him even more than Michelle’s preaching. It was a road block.

  “What is it?” Michelle asked as she sat up in her seat, trying to see what was going on in front of them.

  “Look, it’s a damn road block. See, they got cop cars down there, and it looks like military vehicles too.” Benjie pointed at the cluster of police and military vehicles that were positioned along and across the highway. A small convenience store sat off to the left of the intersection and its parking lot was full of regular cars and trucks, as well as military vehicles and police cruisers.

  “Wow, looks serious,” Michelle commented. “They even have a little building right down in the middle of the intersection…and they got those concrete barricades completely blocking the lanes that head out of Rome. Barbed wire too. Looks like you have to drive through that mess in order to get to the city.”

  “Look, here comes a state patrol car,” Benjie said as he pointed to an approaching blue and silver police vehicle. It was slowly making its way up the hill in the east bound lanes. As it neared, he could hear a gravelly voice booming over the vehicle’s public address speaker.

  “This is the Georgia State Patrol,” announced the unfriendly voice. “For your safety, please remain in your vehicles. A state trooper or member of the Georgia National Guard will contact you soon. Again, for your safety, please stay in your vehicles.”

  “Guess they don’t want us to get out of the truck,” Benjie said to Michelle. “I wonder if there’s been any trouble around here.”

  “It sounds like they aren’t messing around,” she said. “Hey, you notice that no one is turning around?”

  “Lookey, they’re rolling out a school bus from behind the road block,” Benjie said. “What in the hell is going on here?” A yellow bus was slowly maneuvering through the barricades, making its way up the hill.

  Both Benjie and Michelle eyed the state patrol vehicle as it slowly drove past them and continued to blare out its message. Benjie then glanced in his rear view mirror and noticed that several more cars were pulling up behind them. “Guess they were trying to get over to Rome too.” He turned around and looked back at the driver of the car that was now behind them. He shrugged and raised his hands in a questioning gesture.

  “Here comes a second car now,” Michelle said as she pointed at a rapidly approaching police car. “Another state patrol car.” After catching up to the first cruiser, both police vehicles came to a stop and two troopers exited the first car and a trooper and a National Guardsman exited the second car. They were armed with military rifles and they quickly fanned out and crossed over the grassy sunken median. Michelle could see the nervous expressions on several of the men’s faces as they apprehensively approached the line of waiting vehicles.

  “Hello there, I’m Trooper Cantrell with the Georgia State Patrol,” announced a young looking officer as he walked up to Benjie’s door. His light blue pants, baby blue shirt and his gray campaign hat gave him an appearance of authority, and anyone who had ever lived in Georgia knew that the state troopers were never to be taken lightly. Michelle immediately recognized the voice as the same one that had been making the announcement over the loud speaker. “Where are you coming from?” the trooper asked.

  “Uh, just outside of Cartersville,” Benjie said. “Say, what’s going on? Are we in some sort of trouble?”

  “Nothing to be worried about sir, we’re just making sure there aren’t any infected folks trying to get into the city.”

  “Infected folks?” Michelle asked. “How can you tell if someone is infected?”

  “Well, the government says that if people are acting aggressive or crazy, that’s a sign of infection. Also, if they got any visible injuries or cuts or anything like that, they might be infected.”

  “And what are you doing with someone if they are infected?” Benjie asked.

  “They’re being held in quarantine,” Trooper Cantrell said. He fidgeted with the safety of his rifle as he looked down into the truck.

  “So what’s gonna happen to us?” Michelle asked. “This really seems scary.”

  “I know that this must be frightening to the both of you, but there’s some bad stuff going on right now that requires these scary precautions. What’s going to happen is that once I make sure you guys aren’t wounded or possibly infected, you’ll step out of the truck and walk over to that bus down yonder. Once we get it full it will take you back into the city. Same thing is gonna happen with the rest of these folks here. You’ll be taken into the city and go through an inspection, and once you clear that, they’ll see to getting you situated in a shelter.”

  “Yeah, but we aren’t planning on staying in Rome. We got to get to the other side and get to her family cabin.”

  “Well, I’m sorry, but now that you’re in this line, we can’t let you get out of it. The state’
s trying its best to contain whatever’s breaking out.”

  “So what about my truck and all of our stuff?”

  “You’ll have to leave that all behind. Once you get into the bus, someone will come along and drive your truck through the road block where it can be inspected and sanitized. Once it’s cleaned, it will be stored until this is all over.”

  “Sanitized?” Benjie asked in a perplexed tone. “How in the hell are you going to sanitize my truck?”

  “Well, for starters, lots of folks around these parts like to grow their own food, and some of them have been trying to bring it with them into the city. The government ain’t too sure if this disease is spread through water, so to make sure that contaminated food don’t get into the city, all non-processed food will be confiscated, including anything that’s home canned.”

  “This don’t sound too good,” Benjie protested. “You can’t go around taking people’s things and all. What about my shotgun and my pistol?”

  “Oh, those will have to be confiscated too. We can’t have everyone running around in there with guns.”

  “Are you shitting me boy?” Benjie pointed to the rear license plate of the truck in front of him. “See what that plate says. It says ‘Georgia’ on it. This state was built on gun ownership. You ain’t gonna take my damn guns from me.”

  Sensing Benjie’s anger, the trooper leveled his rifle at the truck. “You do know what martial law means. Right?”

  “It don’t mean shit to me, that’s for sure,” Benjie shot back. Michelle was completely surprised at Benjie’s change in demeanor. He was always quiet and reserved, and she had never seen him get worked up like the way he was. “Now I’m gonna back my truck out of here. I don’t want no problems, so don’t you try and keep me here.” Benjie made sure that his eyes were looking directly into Cantrell’s to ensure the trooper realized just how serious he was about pulling out of the line of traffic.