by Mike Kraus
On the side of the road, on the shoulder next to the median, a man stood still, staring at the truck and shielding his eyes from the sun. He was a younger man, dressed in hiking gear with a large backpack lying next to him in the road. As she approached, she instinctively slowed the truck down, but James’s words still echoed in her head.
“Don’t stop for anyone, don’t help anyone, and don’t talk to anyone.”
Nancy’s compassion was tempered by the harsh realities of the kidnappers, but it was still present, tugging on her heart and mind as she neared the man. He was relatively clean-cut, though a bit ragged from obvious signs of travel, with hair cut short and a beard that looked like it had been growing for a few days. He reminded her nothing of Richard and Joshua, but even still, she tried to maintain a sense of caution.
Nancy double-checked that the doors on the truck were locked and rolled her window down just an inch. She was only fifty feet or so from the man when she stopped the truck, keeping her foot hovering over the gas pedal in case she needed to get away. The man walked slowly towards the center of the road, in the middle of her path. Nancy shouted at him through the cracked window.
“Whoever you are, I don’t want trouble. Just move out of the way and leave me alone.”
The man didn’t respond at first, and Nancy’s fears went into overdrive. She felt her hands begin to shake and sweat pour down her chest, wondering where his companion was that would jump out and take her prisoner yet again. Nancy tried to calm herself, but her imagination was out of control, casting doubt on her every decision. She yelled out at him again, louder this time, her voice cracked and shaking.
“Just get out of the road, please!”
There was still no response from the man, though he continued to walk slowly towards her. Did he not hear me? Is he deaf, or just trying to delay me for some reason? Nancy looked around. The woods were growing dark in the fading sunlight, but she saw no movement to suggest that anyone else was around. Nancy tried to speak to the man once more, and this time she managed to elicit a response.
Rachel Walsh
5:40 AM, April 4, 2038
Rachel woke to the smell of smoke mixed with Sam’s rancid breath as he licked her face, whining at her and gently pawing at her arm. She began to sit up when a sharp pain from her chest sent her falling flat on her back again.
Rachel closed her eyes and gasped in pain. “Broken rib. Right. Forgot about that.”
Sam stepped back from her and whined again, a mix of concern and hunger written on his face. Rachel looked at him and smiled, reaching out to stroke his head. “It’s okay, boy. Give me a minute and we’ll get something to eat.”
Rachel took several minutes to gingerly push herself up into a sitting position. She held her head and chest, the pain from her throbbing headache fighting with the searing ache from her torso in a ferocious battle to see which could outdo the other. Rachel scrounged in her backpack and pulled out a first aid kit, then ripped apart two packs of aspirin and downed them with a large gulp of water. Sam was still next to her, whining hungrily as she pulled out some jerky and a couple energy bars next.
“Sorry it’s not much, but we don’t have time for a real meal this morning. We can’t stick around here any longer; we need to keep moving.” Hungrily snapping up the pieces of jerky, Sam didn’t mind the makeshift breakfast as much as Rachel did. Twenty minutes later the aspirin finally kicked in, dulling the raging pain in Rachel’s head and chest. She patted the seat of the handcart, motioning for Sam to resume his position. Once he was seated and her backpack was secured, Rachel slowly climbed onto the handcart, groaning with each twinge in her chest.
With a final check to make sure everything was set, Rachel began to pump the lever of the handcart, moving the contraption out of the side rail they were on. The switch in the track was two-way, meaning that no matter what direction it was switched, train cars that were already on the side rail would be able to enter the main rail. Rachel debated about turning it back so that future trains would be diverted onto the side rail, but decided that there was no point. It’s not like that would really delay them, anyway.
The journey through Raleigh was quick, especially since the railroad track was freshly laid and greased. By the time they hit the center of the city, the handcart was going full speed, whipping past the destroyed buildings and wreckage that cluttered the streets. Smoke filled the air here, as it did back in Charlotte, and Rachel could hear Sam’s coughs over the clicks of the wheels on the tracks.
“Almost there, boy! Just hang on!” Rachel shouted at Sam over the noise, silently hoping that he wouldn’t decide to suddenly jump off the handcart in the middle of the city. The repaired track was like a tunnel through an alternate world, with the gleaming metal and fresh track ties in sharp contrast with the smoke, pulverized asphalt and crumpled buildings surrounding them.
In a short time, they passed through the city and back into the open country, leaving the ruins of Raleigh behind. The color of the tracks on the northern side of the city abruptly changed from silver to rust, signaling that this was where the swarms had started their repairs. As Rachel continued to fight through her pain and pump the handcart, keeping it at top speed, she began to grow concerned again.
The train they had encountered in Raleigh was clearly the first one that had been down this line. But what if it wasn’t the last? Without a way to get the handcart off onto another side rail, Rachel and Sam would have no way to avoid losing the handcart should another train head south along this same line. Rachel gritted her teeth and began to pump the handcart faster, forcing herself to continue despite the stabbing ache in her chest and head. If they did lose the handcart, she wanted to be as close to the next city as possible.
Marcus Warden | Nancy Sims
6:21 PM, April 3, 2038
Marcus stared at the woman sitting in the truck in front of him. She was terrified and tired, and the hardness of her voice was betrayed by the trembling at the edges of her words. She had screamed something at him twice already, but the sound of the engine muffled her voice enough that he had trouble hearing what she said.
Nancy screamed at him again, this time loud enough to cut through the engine noise. “Get out of the way, now!”
Marcus raised his hands up to head level, leaving his backpack on the side of the road behind him. He approached the truck slowly, speaking loudly and calmly.
“Ma’am, please… I’m not going to hurt you. Here, look! I’m unarmed!” Marcus turned back and forth, showing the woman that he had no weapons on his person.
“Like hell you are! That’s what the last guy said! Just get out of my way or I’ll run you down!”
Marcus’s shoulders slumped and he sighed, giving up. Trying to reason with the woman in her frantic state wasn’t going to work, and he preferred walking to trying to crawl with a broken leg.
“Okay, you win. I’m really not going to try anything, though. I just want to get to Richmond. Go on, I’ll get out—” Marcus trailed off as another sound caught his ears, rising in volume over the idling engine. A buzzing filled the air, low in pitch, rumbling in Marcus’s ears. He looked at the woman in the truck. She was staring into the side mirror of the vehicle, a look of horror etched on her face as she peered back along the interstate.
“You hear it too?” Marcus yelled over the engine and the buzzing.
The woman looked at him with terror in her eyes. “What are they?!”
“I don’t know, but we need to get out of here, now! Please, just let me ride in the back!”
Nancy hesitated, her eyes darting back and forth between Marcus and the pinpoints of silver that were appearing in the distance. “Fine! Get in, quick!” If this man had meant to hurt her, she hoped that he would have done it already. He did seem to be genuinely afraid, and in the end, her compassion won out over her fears.
Marcus wasted no time in taking advantage of her change of heart. He ran to his backpack as the truck pulled forward, skidding to a stop
in front of him. “Hurry up!” The woman screamed at him, and he leapt into the bed of the truck, pushing aside the gas cans to make room for himself and his gear.
“Ready!” Marcus slammed his hand on the side of the truck a few times and it took off like a shot, barreling down the highway. Nancy maneuvered the truck through the crowded lanes with ease. Her driving skills had improved significantly over the last several days, an unexpected benefit of having to drive through and around wreckage for such a long span of time.
Marcus could still see flecks of silver in the distance as the truck picked up speed. Before long, they solidified into what he feared the most. Six creatures were running and jumping along the interstate, drawing closer to the truck. Silhouetted against the sunset, they were even more frightening than in full daylight, casting long shadows ahead of them as they moved effortlessly through the wreckage. Marcus slid open the glass window on the back of the truck and yelled at Nancy over the wind and the engine.
“You’ve got to drive faster! They’re gaining on us!”
Nancy glanced back at him, narrowly missing an overturned minivan as she skidded around it. “What? What are you talking about!?” Marcus stared at the approaching creatures as Nancy looked in the rearview mirror. They were close enough now for her to see them as well, even through the gleaming light of the setting sun. The creatures weren’t being subtle or sneaky about their movements anymore. They were in pursuit of a target, and had only one thing on their minds: speed.
Marcus sank lower into the bed of the truck as he felt it surge forward. At this speed, one wrong bump could knock him out of the truck, where he’d be defenseless against the creatures.
“Hold on back there!” Nancy hollered from the front seat.
Marcus mumbled in response. “Yeah, no shit.”
Leonard McComb
11:28 PM, April 3, 2038
The Jeep’s wheels shrieked and the axles groaned as Leonard slid the car around a corner, fighting to keep it on the road while pressing the gas pedal down to the floor. Within an hour of stopping to refill the gas tank, his feeling of nervousness and dread had increased, culminating with a glimpse of two of the creatures darting between buildings just a block behind him. Their approach became less subtle once they realized that he had spotted them, and they had soon begun their cat and mouse chase all over again.
As he passed by the remains of a skyscraper that still towered several stories overhead, Leonard grimaced and rubbed his eyes with his left hand. Driving for an entire day without rest had worn him down more than he realized, and his body was beginning to fail him. Even the occasional sighting of the creatures did nothing to make him less tired, as his body was too down to both produce or respond to adrenaline.
Leonard was making slow progress through the city. Too slow, he thought. Those things should have been on me hours ago. This sudden realization brought on another thought. What if they aren’t really trying to catch me? He had spotted the creatures only intermittently throughout the day, and even those times had been fleeting glimpses where they disappeared as soon as he caught sight of them. Leonard’s muddled mind churned through this, struggling to make sense of it.
They’re herding me, wearing me down. Leonard’s goal was not to head east, but instead to go south, to escape the city as fast as possible. Instead, every time he tried to go to the south, he had spotted one or more of the creatures in short order. His response was to get away from them as fast as he could, so he just kept on driving, moving steadily away from the center of the city.
Leonard slowed the Jeep down to a crawl, then stopped it in the middle of the road. If they really wanted to catch me, they could have done it before now… why are they waiting? They tried to get me before, but why wait now? More so now than ever, Leonard felt like a deer being stalked by a predator, carefully maneuvered and manipulated without even realizing it. A pack of wolves was toying with him, playing with their prey in an attempt to make the kill as easy and as certain as possible.
Leonard shook his head slowly. Screw this. Let’s see what you little assholes do when I change the rules of the game. Leonard placed a hand on the only weapon at his disposal, still sitting in the center console and close at hand. The cordless drill wasn’t much of a defense against ravenous beasts, but it was still better than harsh language. So you want me to go this way, huh? Let’s try something a little different.
Having spent the better part of the day driving east through the city, Leonard knew the path well enough that he was sure he could follow it in reverse, even in the dark. With a quick U-turn, he brought the Jeep back around, facing it in the direction he came from. Leonard thought back over the last several hours, mapping out the streets and obstacles in his mind. Driving through a ruined city in the middle of the day was hard enough, but doing it at night while pissing off the creatures that were hunting him was going to be even more interesting.
Leonard’s theory about the creatures herding him to the east was proved far sooner than he had imagined. Mere minutes after he took off to the west, a great howling cry went up from around him and the creatures began to pursue him in earnest. Even in the darkness, bits of light from the moon and reflections from the headlights still glinted brightly off of their silver bits, giving Leonard fleeting glimpses of them in the rearview mirror as he drove along.
The Jeep careened around corners, flew over piles of rubble and roared down narrow streets, winding its way back west. Although the creatures had the advantage of greater mobility in this environment, the superior speed of the Jeep combined with foreknowledge of the route gave Leonard a slight upper hand.
After a couple miles of frantic driving, Leonard could no longer see the glint of the creatures behind him, though he was sure they were still there. Leonard knew that he needed to get off the road or out of the city, but without being able to study the map and figure out where he was, the best he could do was to keep driving forward, heading deeper into the heart of Richmond.
Rachel Walsh
9:09 PM, April 4, 2038
With the help of several more painkillers along the way, Rachel and Sam rolled into the train station at Richmond in the late evening. Rachel’s arms burned and she could barely hold them up, let alone use them for anything useful. After stumbling off the handcart and plopping onto a bench at the train station, she clumsily opened a can of tuna fish and baked beans, pouring half of each in a pile on the concrete next to the bench for Sam. Hands trembling, Rachel scooped the food from the cans into her mouth, working feverishly to satiate her hunger. She barely noticed the cold of the food as she gulped it down, matching and exceeding even Sam’s eagerness.
The train station was on the southwest side of the city, and the railroad here – like in Raleigh – passed through the center of the city on its way to the north. The tracks at the station were old and worn, showing no signs of repair, but Rachel could see them winding their way through toppled structures and torn up roads, so she was certain that they must have been repaired again farther up the line.
Before she ate, Rachel had pushed the handcart off onto a side rail at the depot, behind a few abandoned cars. In case any more trains came through the area, she wanted the handcart to be in the safest place possible, especially since they would likely be using it again to get out of the city. Rachel stood up from the bench when she finished eating, wiping her hands on her pants and guzzling down a bottle of water, pouring bits of it into Sam’s open mouth. She shouldered her rifle and slowly walked into the train station, feeling groggy from weariness and the sudden influx food she had just consumed.
The inside of the train station was intact, like the exterior, and showed no signs of damage or collapse. It looked like a passenger station, with rows of chairs and benches for travelers to wait for their rides. Piles of luggage were still stacked behind the counter, a sad reminder of the number of everyday lives that had been cut short without warning.
Rachel moved slowly through the station, struggling to keep her bod
y tensed for another encounter with a beast like the one from the train. The station was quiet, though, and Sam was calm, padding softly around, sniffing the air and the floor. She moved into the back of the station, searching through the offices until she was satisfied they were empty and that she and Sam were alone.
We’ll stay here tonight, she decided, then we’ll move out again tomorrow morning. Rachel deposited her backpack in one of the offices, then headed back to the lobby. She spread the large military map across the broad oak counter, shining her flashlight on the area she was heading for. Marked with a circle, it was somewhere on the western side of Richmond, though the exact location was impossible to tell on the map. Red lettering was scrawled on one side of the circle, inscribed there by one of the men she had met from before.
LV400 – RV & recon.
Retrieve weapons cache.
Proceed to Norfolk.