by Mark Clodi
Stewart kept her gun at waist height and cleared her throat loudly, “Excuse me, Max. I hate to interrupt this love scene, but who in the hell is this guy?”
They parted looking a little abashed and Max said, “This is the guy I was telling you about, Bill. Bill this is Stewart, she has been with me since this started.”
Bill put his hand out towards Stewart, she looked at Max and asked, “You're sure he is okay? I mean really okay, not just because you want him to be?”
Max turned to look Bill over, then back at Stewart, “He is alive, I don't think he is infected, he seems healthy.” Then to Bill, “I can't believe it is you! What the hell are you doing here? What is going on? How is Trish? Man it looks like you've lost a few pounds too.”
“Whoa, whoa, hold up there a bit!” Stewart shook his hand and smiled at him while he was talking. “So tell me how you got here? Where are Sarah and the kids.”
Max's face fell and he looked at the ground, prompting Bill to say, “Oh Max! Max no! I am sorry man. So sorry! We heard, we heard Denver was a mad house, like Chicago. It was nuked wasn't it?”
Nodding Max said, “It wasn't....good. Sarah got bit right before I got home, because of me actually some of the smart ones they...”
Cutting him off Stewart said, “Wait. Hold it right there. This is not the place or time to talk about this. Bill can you come with us or do you have men with you?”
“No, I don't have any men with me. I don't know if I can go with you. Something has happened to me. Something I can't explain away and I...I am not sure if I am human anymore.”
Max smiled at his friend, “I wouldn't worry about that Bill. You shouldn't worry about that at all! C'mon Stewart lets go back to that gas station and get that map we were talking about before we saw Bill.”
Stewart grinned at Max, “Fine, I am driving. And you two can start talking.”
The helicopter behind them turned on its axis and started towards them briefly, then dipped and veered off to the north along the river, the sounds of small arms fire was cut off as they sealed themselves into the car.
Stewart didn't bother crossing the median to get into the 'correct' lane, she just turned the car around and headed back to the last exit they had passed. There were a slew of stations to choose from, but Stewart pulled up to the first one they came to. The electricity was still working, which came as a surprise to all three of them. Despite what Stewart had said Max and Bill did little other than fawn over each other on the way back to the exit. Stopping by the pump Stewart said, “Max can you and Bill go get this thing turned on? I'm gonna top off the tank while we are here.”
“Yeah, we can do that.”
“Hey grab us something decent to eat too, if anything looks edible anyway. No 'food bars' though I am sick of those.”
“Will do. C'mon Bill.”
“Oh and Max, tell Bill our story, I want to hear his too, but I think you can safely give him ours without me being around. Remember to tell him how many times I've saved your life.”
“Yeah, sure, Stewart I will do that.” said Max as he and Bill approached the front door of the gas station.
“On second thought I think I would rather be there when you tell him!” she called just as they went inside.
Max immediately went behind the counter and started looking for the switch to turn the pump on.
“Shouldn't we check for zombies first?” asked Bill.
“There aren't any here, they are all east of us, this place is deserted.”
“You can't know that for sure.” Bill ventured, looking around nervously.
“Bill, you remember you said you might not be able to go back? I think I know what you are going through. I have a sense of these things. I know if there are zombies around. I can sense them about a mile or two away, further if I concentrate. I can see people too. This place is empty, no threats to us.”
Slowly Bill lowered his rifle barrel down, but he didn't seem to relax.
“Here we are.” said Max as he pressed a blinking button, outside Stewart gave him a thumbs up as the gas started to fill the tank.
“Max, uh, what else can you do?”
“Well I seem to be stronger and tougher, I can punch through safety glass...well not in one punch, but I can get through it eventually. What is going on with you?”
Bill shifted his feet nervously and looked at the floor, “I, uh...”
Stewart came through the door like a tornado, Bill turned and raised the gun in a flash, “Just me partner, good reflexes though. Damn good reflexes. It only took two gallons. Can you believe the price of gas these days? Unbelievable!”
Lowering his rifle Bill stepped back and said, “I am sorry. It's just that I am a little jumpy after the last few days.”
“No apology needed. Any food Max? Or are you just working here these days?” she asked. Max was still behind the counter, looking for all the world like a store clerk.
“ My days of clerking are long over. Let's go see what they got to eat, huh?”
The three of them headed over to the cooler section and started looking at the food through the glass. Stewart opened the door and pulled out a burrito that had the words “La Bomba” on it in a southwestern font. Turning it over she looked at the expiration date. “What is today?”
Both men shook their heads and Max said, “They took my cell phone, even though it didn't work to make calls, so I can't tell you the date or time or anything.”
“Yeah me too, what about you Bill?”
“The military guys took all of our cell phones, mine still worked, when I had it two weeks ago.”
“God we are pathetic, we can't even keep track of the date without some gadget to tell us!” Stewart took the burrito and went over to a microwave, she opened one end and sniffed the contents before putting it inside and heating it up.
“Uh, do you think you should eat that? It might be expired.”
“Max, I am not touching those sandwiches, they are almost green, and I am not eating another power bar unless I have to. You don't have to eat the burrito, so relax. Hey Bill was Max always this way?”
“Mostly, as a kid he was a finicky eater.”
“Like you weren't. One summer you lived on ice cream and peanut butter sandwiches with plain potato chips.”
Bill nodded, “Well different flavors of ice cream.”
“Mostly vanilla. Oh and popcorn you ate a lot of popcorn at the pool.”
“What is wrong with popcorn?” asked Bill
“ I am officially sorry I asked. So yes then; Max has always been this way.” said Stewart.
“Yeah pretty much.”
“I find something and I stick with it. Eating expired food is nasty.” Max stopped and stared at Bill, a wide grin lighting up his face, “Damn brother, but it is good to see you!”
Bill looked up from where he was staring at the burritos, “Yeah, you are about the last person I expected to see here. I was just trying to warn you off, so you wouldn't drive into a horde of zombies. I didn't know it was you in the car. Do we have time to catch up real quick?”
Max looked over to Stewart, who said, “We should keep moving if we want to get to Des Moines before the train arrives."
"What for?" asked Bill.
"The kids are on it, they separated us from the kids in O'Neil and put them on the train to Des Moines this morning."
“Your kids are alive?!” yelled Bill, “I thought they were dead!”
“No, I made it to them in time. I just couldn't save Sarah.”
“Well fuck it.” said Stewart, “We better get our stories out now, you two can catch up while I look the maps over. Stick to the story Max, if I hear you deviating I will chime in.”
Max and Bill chose food, both opting for granola and candy bars along with highly caffeinated drinks and then leaned up against the counter near the back of the store. Despite Stewart saying to keep it short she unfolded a map and participated as Max gave Bill a short synopsis of what they had been thr
ough since the zombie outbreak. It seemed like forever since Max had been sitting at his desk typing Bill an email, it was hard for all of them to believe it had only been about three weeks. Bill caught them up on what he had been doing since the outbreak too, however when he got to the part about the bridge collapsing his story turned a little vague.
“Hold up there Bill, you can't just say 'and the bridge collapsed and I have been cut off for the last four days' and leave it at that. A lot happens in four days. And you have been on the zombie side of the river the entire time.” said Stewart, “How have you been living? What happened and why couldn't you just swim across the river to safety?”
Slowly the man nodded and said, “Fair enough, I guess. Well when the bridge started to fall I managed to grab a hold of this bar and swing myself down and further into the river. I hit deeper water but I felt like I broke one of my legs anyway. It took about three seconds for me to realize this wasn't my biggest problem because the bridge started to come down on me. I tried to dive underwater and swim downstream, but something hit me on the head hard enough to daze me. I remember choking and sucking in dirty water, then choking some more. I felt like I was drowning, heck, I probably was. When I finally got into daylight I was about a half mile downstream, what was left of the bridge was barely visible around the curve of the river and I was still closer to the wrong riverbank. I almost yelled then, hell my leg was broken, I was choking on dirty river water and I was in pain. Then I caught sight of the zombies on the west side of the bank. They were moving north, towards where the bridge had been. They were not wandering, they were moving fast and with a purpose.”
“I clamped down on the pain and decided to swim the river to get back to my troops. I couldn't make it, I had too much pain in my leg and I kept going underwater when I tried to actively swim. So I decided to drift further downstream, moving just a little to try and get me closer to the far bank. There were a lot of zombies on the west side, I kept an eye on them and in a moment, as I watched, they all stopped and did an about face. Just like that, they turned and headed south. No words, no hand signals, one minute they were all moving quickly north, the next they turned and headed south. It freaked me out, like a bad horror movie where the monsters are connected together like some sort of hive mind.”
“So then what?” asked Max.
“I drifted under the highway twenty bridge and I could probably have gotten help then, but right when I was getting ready to yell the air force made another bombing run. I thought I was dead for certain, but I guess those boys know their stuff, none of the bombs dropped into the drink or onto the bridge. A lot of explosions went off just north of the bridge and the entire area was covered in a dense dust that blew over the river and cut me off from everyone else. I hated breathing that stuff, it left a very bad taste in my mouth and I am sure it was full of something toxic. I suppose I might get cancer in ten years, if I live through this. Anyway the river started curving west and I was drifting in close to that shore, close enough that I could grab the overhanging trees and branches. After a mile or so I was finally able to hold onto one of the damned things and pull myself close to the river bank, but not out of the water.”
“The problem was I couldn't see very far up the bank. I knew there was a path running along the side of the river that the zombies had been on, but I couldn't see it from where I was at, so I didn't know if any of them were there. I was as quiet as I could be, but the river was running pretty fast where I was at and I couldn't hear anything over the flowing water. I must have held on there for an hour before I decided to let go. I thought it through and figured there had to be a stream or some other waterway that came into the river eventually and if I could stay close enough to shore I should be able to pull myself up into an area where I could see my surroundings better.”
“You see I still wanted to live. And I really wanted to kill zombies. I think Max...” Bill broke into tears, and started sobbing.
Max leaned over and put his arm around his friend, “What Bill? What is it? You're with us now, together we will be fine. Stewart has bailed my ass out of the fire many times.”
Bill calmed down a little and wiped his arm across his eyes, “It isn't that. I don't worry about me. It is John, he never came back from when I sent him after the other squad. I was hanging on that branch and decided I didn't want to go back. How could I face Trish? Tell her I sent my son to his death? That he was eaten alive?” Bill cried again, but pulled himself together faster this time, Max left his arm around his friend and they sat quietly while he composed himself to go on. “So I let go. Funny thing though, I didn't get out at a stream, I drifted into a more populated area and people had docks out. The first one I got to had a ladder and on the south side. It wasn't a permanent dock, but a floating one that can be pulled in during the winter. There weren't any boats on it or I might have just crossed the river, even though I had decided not to go back. I thought it would be better for Trish to think John and I had died as heroes instead of me sending him off to die alone. I wanted revenge too, I admit it, I was angry and not thinking right. My leg was still hurting and I couldn't climb up the ladder, if I pulled up out of the water it was agony, even if I didn't put any weight on it. So I followed the dock to shore and pull myself half out of the water next to it. Looking at the dock I saw that it was supported by giant plastic floats and that I could probably crawl up between them onto shore without being seen. I eased back further into the water and then came back to shore between the floats. I wasn't the only one who had discovered this secret little hollow under the dock, some kids had made it into a little clubhouse, there were towels on the sandy dirt, a bag of opened chips, six juice boxes, some matches with a candle and a flashlight. I was able to get myself all the way out of the water and had just sat myself up against a cement pillar that the dock was attached to when two of them walked onto the dock above me.”
“I knew they were zombies because they were talking about me. One said he had seen me floating down the river, the other said he was crazy and didn't like being out in the open. Both of them went out onto the dock and I think they looked out into the river for me, when they didn't see anything they came back slowly and one spotted the area where I had half come ashore before. He said that was proof that there was human in the river and jumped down on the bank to look over the area. I was sitting stock still, praying he wouldn't see me, inevitably his eyes lifted and locked with mine. The one on the dock asked if he saw anything and as the one on shore started to answer the side of his head blew out onto the sandy grass beside him. The other one jumped off and started running and I heard another shot ring out. It was a sniper, of course, probably a for real army sniper not some guy with a twenty two because the zombie's head was...well missing for the most part. I knew we had a few sniper teams, but hadn't realized there were any around Sioux City. I owe whoever it was my life, because there was no way I could have defended myself right then. I mean what could I have done? Thrown a juice box at it? I devoured the stale chips and drank four of the juice boxes and then put my head down on a rolled up towel and fell asleep. There was no rush, I wasn't going back anyway.”
“Jesus Bill, what about Trish and the other kids? They still need you.”
“I know Max; I told you I wasn't thinking right.” Bill paused to take a long drink from his soda pop.
“Then what? Where'd you get the rifle?” asked Stewart.
“When I woke up the sun was in the east, low to the horizon. I had slept for almost twenty four hours. Sometime during the night I had rolled off of the towels and draped them on top of me for covers, everything was damp. My leg didn't hurt nearly so much either, it felt tender, more like a strain than a break. I checked myself over and found that I wasn't nearly as badly banged up as I had thought, I still had a scab on my head from where I got hit with the concrete from the bridge, but otherwise I felt good enough to find better shelter. First I drank the other two juice boxes and took a long piss in the river. My clothing was all s
oggy and smelled horrible, like I had been sweating all night. I eased back into the river and got out on the upstream side, only getting my pants wet in the process, it was a lot chillier once I was out of my hidey hole and the cool morning air was causing me to shiver. I had tucked the matches and candle into my shirt pockets, along with the flashlight. I had absolutely nothing useful with me otherwise, sure I had about twenty loose rounds of ammo for my army rifle, but no gun to fire it out of. The grenades I had on my belt were gone, as was my belt knife. Oh, I still had my army issue identification card, which isn't real useful for braining zombies either.”
“On the river bank I looked up at the house in front of me, it was set well back from the shore up a steep incline. The grass between me and the house was cut short and covered with morning dew. My paranoia was running pretty high because of how the zombie had seen where I came ashore the day before. I went back under the dock and climbed up the ladder instead of going ashore where I would leave tracks. My leg was aching, but held my weight. I got up on the dock and took the stairs and sidewalk up to the back door of the house so I wouldn't leave a trail through the dew either. There was one body lying on the shore of the river, the other one must have gotten away. The patio door had been broken out from the inside, there was broken glass all over outside, some with blood on it.”
“I moved the blinds to one side of the doorway and looked into the house, it looked deserted, but I couldn't tell for sure, I mean I could only see the kitchen and dining room. The place was a mess, the table and chairs were broken apart all over the floor, there was a wooden table leg sticking out of the wall too. I stepped in and grabbed that leg, it would have to do as a club until I found a better weapon. The place was two stories, but didn't have a basement. I was pretty sure I would hear someone if they were moving around upstairs, and so far I hadn't heard a thing. I went into the kitchen and pulled open the fridge, it was well stocked with food, but it had been awhile since the outbreak and some of it was nasty looking. I pulled out everything that still looked okay to eat, fruits, vegetables, some packaged lunch meat, cheese, I was starving. The cupboard held some moldy bread, but there were crackers that still looked okay so I made myself a big plateful of the stuff. I had just turned back to look in the refrigerator for some mustard, when a voice called out softly behind me.”