by Karen Carr
Thinking I would find some water, melted ice cubes still in the tray or the bottled variety, I opened the fridge first and then freezer. The fridge had multiple stacks of soda cans and the freezer’s icemaker held a full container of water. Thankful that there wasn’t anything exceedingly gross in the fridge, and unsure of how to move the water, I gathered the soda and packed it in another garbage bag before I left the trailer.
Huck was still in the yard when I returned, but there was no sign of the others.
“You find anything?” he asked.
“Yup,” I said. I held up the two bags. “Junk food bonanza.”
“Good job, Hella killer.” He took one of the bags from me. “Let’s get in the house. We got about a shred of daylight left.”
I looked up at the farmhouse and saw flashlights on the second floor, Zeke and Stan were still up there. I hesitated, thinking about joining them, and then turned to walk to the ranch with Huck.
The living room was lit with over a dozen long white candles. The house smelled peachy, like someone had just sprayed air freshener in each of the rooms. The furniture was old, but it looked comfortable. A recliner sat on either side of a long couch. The coffee table, which had a glass top held up by tree stumps, had an oil lamp on it which Zora had lit.
“Hello,” I called out.
Zora came out of one of the rooms. “Oh hi,” she said like she lived there. “I was just making the beds. The Professor is already asleep. Thank goodness none of those creatures were trapped in here. It is certainly livable. At least for the night. We’re getting up as soon as the sun rises, right?”
“Yup,” I said and held up the bag. “Where’s the kitchen.”
Huck put his bag down on the floor. “You might as well leave that here, we’re going to be munching on it right away.”
“Makes sense,” Zora said. “But I’m sure we can use some bowls. Come on, Hella, I’ll show you.”
I put my bag down on the floor and entered the kitchen with Zora. The kitchen was dusty, but it was clean. There weren’t even any dishes in the sink. It was the complete opposite of the trailer. It made me think that the inhabitant of the trailer must have been kicked out of the house, left to fend for himself on his own, except near enough to ask for help if he needed it.
“You open the fridge yet?” I asked Zora.
“Nope. I was concentrating on lighting and sleeping arrangements. Who are you going to sleep with Huck or Stan?”
I laughed. “Neither.”
“That’s a good thing,” Zora said. “You don’t want to start up with something like that right now.”
“You’re right,” I said.
I tried the faucets just in case they worked, but they didn’t even gargle or sputter. I opened the freezer and a waft of stale air greeted my nose. There were several items wrapped in white paper that must have once been frozen and a full container of water from the ice maker inside. I grabbed the container, brought it out and set it on the small kitchen table.
“We need a pitcher for that,” Zora said over my shoulder. Her hair smelled like roses and lemonade.
“You think it’s still good after being in that smell?” I looked deep in the water and saw my reflection looking back. I almost didn’t recognize myself. My hair either clung to my cheek or stuck out in all sorts of unnatural directions, my face was smeared with blood, and my lips were swollen.
“I don’t think the smell is an issue. Sitting around for nine months might be though.” Zora sniffed the water. “We can use it for washing.”
We gathered some bowls for the chips and brought them out just as Stan and Zeke entered the house empty-handed. Zeke’s expression was flat as he looked around the room, pausing at the windows.
“We can see the lights from outside.” Zeke strode forward in slow steps and closed the curtains in the living room.
“I’ll get the rest,” Zora said. She then ducked out of the room.
I opened the Cheetos and chips and poured them into two big bowls. Then, I opened a pack of napkins Zora had found and placed them near the plates. “Dinner is served,” I said.
Everyone grabbed a plate of chips and a soda and found a place to sit. I sat on the couch, Stan sat next to me and Zora sat next to him. That left the two recliners for Huck and Zeke. Zeke rested his back against a wall and stared blankly at nothing in particular.
“Can you tell us more about Durham?” I asked Stan.
Stan cocked his head to the side and lowered his brow. “The old tobacco buildings.” He instinctively reached for my hand like he used to do when he had something serious to tell me. Usually it was about a grade or a test, but not anymore.
“You know the ones they renovated into apartments right downtown? They’re long and brick and well secured—almost impenetrable if you don’t know your way into them. They have iron fences around them—perfect for keeping dead things out. But, Hella.” He squeezed my hand and furrowed his brow. “There are so many of those not-dead things downtown. Thousands. It was like a blood bath every day.”
“Is that where Saudah is?” I asked.
“Yea,” Stan said. “You have to go there. You could do some damage to the dead in Durham with your virus. You could kill thousands at once, don’t you think? Just being there would help Saudah and the others out. If your virus kills the zombies they are using on their test subjects, they won’t be able to test them anymore.”
“I’ve never taken out more than a couple hundred at once.” I glanced at Huck sitting in the recliner next to me. He clenched his jaw and leaned forward, but didn’t say anything. “But it’s worth a shot. Huck, you heard what he said. I can help Saudah by just being there, by just walking down the street next to where she is held.”
“If you’re going to take on that adventure, you’re going to have to plan it,” Zeke said. He walked around the coffee table, nabbing a hand of Cheetos, and sat in a chair.
“We will.” I stared at Zeke, trying to read him. He was staring at the wall with a blank expression.
Zora opened a soda. “When we get up tomorrow, we’ll head straight for the village, to where we left the monster truck. We have to get Boa first before we do anything else.”
“There’s an old sedan in the yard that we might be able to start,” Huck said. “It’s behind the farmhouse.”
“Good,” I said. “My feet are too sore to run anymore.”
“We can drive to the village in half an hour, right Hella?” Zora asked eagerly.
“Just about, if we go straight through Pittsboro. There’s not an easy way around that town. But it should be okay. I didn’t see much of any kind of life when we flew over it. There’s nothing else between Pittsboro and Haverlyn Village. The monster truck was just to the south of the village, so we don’t even have to go into it.”
“The Professor wants his cat,” Zeke said. “You’ll have to get that.”
“Great,” I said and then turned to Zeke, making sure to get his attention before I spoke again. “You’re not coming with us?”
Zeke examined me, his eyes travelling from mine, to my neck, shoulders, arms, and hands and then he stood up and walked into the kitchen.
“Eliza’s there,” Huck said.
How stupid of me. He didn’t want to go back to see Eliza’s body, or what had become of her.
“Who is Eliza?” Stan asked.
“Zeke’s girlfriend,” Zora said. “She was bitten and turned into a zero and then she was killed by Hella’s virus. We brought her body back in the monster truck. Zeke left her in the bushes right next to it.”
“If he doesn’t come with us, what else is he going to do?” I asked.
“He’s on tilt,” Huck said.
“We need him,” I said. “His bite. He’s immune. He might not be like me, but he’s immune. That’s worth something.”
Zeke laughed from the doorway of the kitchen. “That’s all I am to you, an immunity?” I opened my mouth to apologize, but he held up his hand. “No, I get it.
I’d like to have you around as my personal zombie killing machine, so the feeling’s mutual. Eliza would not have wanted me to give up. She would have wanted me to do something worthwhile, like seek revenge against those who killed her.”
I blushed and looked down. “I killed her.”
“No you didn’t,” Zeke said. “You saved her. Those assholes in the helicopter killed her. If it wasn’t for them invading the village, we’d still be back there now enjoying a life domestic. I’m in for some good old fashioned revenge.”
“Revenge isn’t very worthwhile,” Huck said.
“Well, it’s going to have to do for now,” Zeke said. “I’ll go along with your plans. I’ll help you find the others and then I’ll kill every one of those meatheads who chased us out of there. We should’ve never left. We have the ultimate weapon.” Zeke pointed toward me. “They know nothing about her.”
“I’d rather not have them find out,” I said.
“They won’t.” Zeke glared at everyone. “Right?”
Everyone nodded and agreed with Zeke, except for Stan who had fallen asleep.
Zora turned toward me. “After I find my sister, I’m not going to be able to help you. I didn’t sign up to go to war. We’re going to get leave, head down to the beach. If you get yourself into too much trouble, Hella. I don’t want to live my life on the run. It was pleasant in the village, it felt like home and I want that again.”
“I don’t want to go to war, either.” I gave Zeke a nagging glance before I turned back to Zora. “I was given a gift and I have to use it. That’s clear to me now. I have to use it in a big way. But I don’t know how yet. The only thing I know is that I am not going to use it to launch an attack against the helicopter militia. Once we get Saudah out, I want to get as far away from them as possible.”
“We better make plans if we’re going to Chicago to rescue your parents,” Huck said.
“How did you know?” I asked.
“It’s a long walk,” Zora said.
“Well maybe I can convince Zeke to steal a helicopter and the Professor to fly it there.” I smiled.
“Now you’re talking.” Zeke sat at the dining room chair, cracked a beer he had found somewhere, and rested his feet on the table. “I’ll kill those bastards and take both of their helicopters.”
“How are you going to get over the mountains in a helicopter?” Zora took another handful of chips and started eating a can of cold Spaghettios. “Don’t they run out of gas in a couple of hours? I’d hate to run out of gas on top of a mountain. You have no idea what we went through up there, Hella. Not a good idea.” She filled her mouth with little circles and sauce.
“You need to practice your motorcycle riding ability,” Huck said.
“Will you teach me how to shoot?” I asked Huck.
“Sure in the morning,” Huck said. “Now I’m tired. It’s been a long and rotten day.”
“We are all tired,” Zora said. She wiped her mouth with a napkin. “There’s two bedrooms left. Looks like your boy Stan has picked out his spot on the couch.” Stan was snoring softly. Zora got up and walked over to one of the doorways. “Why don’t Zeke and I take the kids bedroom, the one with the bunk beds and you guys can have the other.”
“I call bottom,” Zeke said as he opened up another beer. He followed Zora into the bedroom, leaving the door open.
“You ready for some shuteye, princess?” Huck stood up and held out his hand for me.
“Sure.” I placed my hand in his and he pulled me up.
Before we went to bed, I rinsed my hair out with the water from the fridge, using as little as possible. I just wanted to get the stink of death off of me. Then, Huck and I went into the master bedroom and closed the door. I hadn’t had a chance to talk to Huck alone, so I was looking forward to some time with him behind closed doors. Even though I was super tired, I was too wired to go to sleep. Huck was the same, for he sat next to me, leaning his head against the wooden headboard.
“So you promise never to bite me?” Huck asked. His gaze was focused on the ceiling fan above the bed. I stared at it too, not wanting to answer him. The fan was the fake wood variety, dusty but not dirty. “You bit that man, and he turned into a zero.”
“Yea, I remember. How about that?” I said.
“Did you know you could do that?” he asked.
“I wasn’t sure,” I said. “Remember Harper, the twelve year old girl? Maxwell and her brother, Renoir?” Huck nodded and turned on his side so he could look at me. “Renoir. I bit him in the Walmart parking lot. Trevan, Lily and I went there for supplies before you came back. Maxwell and Renoir, they threatened us with a gun. I didn’t know what else to do, so I bit Renoir. We put him in the trailer and were going to bring him back to the village, but before we made it, he changed into a zero. I couldn’t be sure if it was my bite or if he had been bitten before. But now I know. It’s my bite, Huck. It kills, worse--it changes people. Huck, what if…”
Huck touched my hair and ran his fingers from my head to my shoulder and then down my arm, leaving Goosebumps in its wake. His hand met mine and our fingers twined together. He brought my hand to his mouth and kissed it. I tried to distract myself from his caress and my desire.
The room was full of keepsakes from the last residents, doily covered nightstand, photos tacked to the mirror above the dresser, people I recognized from the massacre outside. One woman held a baby, another was pregnant, I had to look down. There was a full baby’s bottle on the floor next to some slippers. I closed my eyes, but the smells of the room, just as strong and vibrant entered my nostrils. I was haunted by the previous owner.
“Stop thinking so much,” Huck whispered in my ear. “Let it go.” His finger touched my forehead and travelled down my nose to my lips, where it rested. I took his finger, moved it from my lip, and rolled away from Huck. It was almost impossible to turn my back on him, but I didn’t know what else to do. I couldn’t risk infecting him, turning him into one of those things, so I rolled over and went to sleep.
CHAPTER 5
We awoke early in the morning to the sound of a loud roar coming from outside, not like a lion but like an engine. Huck jumped to his feet, grabbed his shotgun, and raced out the door before I put my feet on the floor. I followed him out the door, barely able to walk, still stiff from yesterday’s jog. When we reached outside, the morning sun struck my eyes so I had to raise my hands to shade my eyes. Zeke was sitting in an old Ford sedan and the Professor standing next to it.
Zeke turned off the engine and got out. “She’s got plenty of gas and is in good shape. The windows are busted out, so there’s not much protection from grasping hands. If we run into a swarm, we could be in trouble.”
The Professor had found a dusty old hat to wear. He took it off and scratched his head. “Hella, we’re going to have to keep your virus with us through Pittsboro. It’s the safest thing to do. We can still drive, but we’ll have to go slow.”
“No,” said Zora from behind us. I turned around to see she was dressed in new clothes and had combed and styled her hair. She had even put on a touch of makeup on her chestnut brown skin. “We don’t have time.”
“The Professor’s right,” Huck said. “It’ll take an hour extra, tops. An hour isn’t going to make a difference. If the others, you know the smart ones—humans, if they are looking for us, it’ll be easier to see them and stop the car before they see us.”
“Fine, let’s get our stuff and leave.” Zora turned and went back to the ranch house, stopping at the door. “Hella, we’re going to have to fix your hair before we go out. It’ll just take a sec.”
We went back inside and Zora guided me to the bathroom to give me the quickest and best haircut I’ve ever had. It was a short pixie cut, easy to manage in the apocalypse. I found some bandages to wrap my blisters and put my stinking boots back on. We left the bathroom to gather our things and collect more supplies.
There was still plenty of junk food left, so I put it back in the garbage
bag and then I joined Huck in the master bedroom to retrieve my gun. My gun had become a part of me, always resting at my hip, and I felt strange not having it there. I changed back into my white American flag tee, my lucky shirt, which still smelled fresh and clean and put my gun in my pants.
Huck pulled a metal box out from under the mattress. He opened it revealing a thick wad of cash, loose change, and two gold bands.
“Their life savings,” I offered.
I picked up the gold bands and thought of the zeroes we left in the bushes. These were probably their wedding rings. Part of me longed to be back in the village with all of the items I had collected and catalogued, my time capsule of the past. The other part of me put the rings back in the box and closed the lid.
“Not worth much to us now,” I said.
Leaving the ranch house felt at once victorious and frightening. We had only been there for a day, but in the morning with the birds chirping and the aroma of blooming flowers around us made me think about staying. Nobody would bother us tucked away in this little corner of land. Nobody would find us, there weren’t enough corpses to give us away. But there was a scary new world out there that we had to conquer, and I was ready for a fight.
Zeke drove, Zora sat next to him and Huck rode shotgun. I was sandwiched between Stan and the Professor, their warmth feeling good against my aching muscles. We drove down Walker Bright back onto the 15/501 and turned left.
Travelling at the speed of walking in a car was incredibly annoying, especially since there were no windows, not even a windshield, and the exhaust was pluming incredibly stinky smoke right into the interior. Thankfully the road was clear and there was no one in the air looking for us.
“Holy shit,” Huck said. “What is that?”
There were two beasts sitting at the side of the road.
“They look like tigers,” Zora said.