by Chase McCown
He finally saw an opportunity to strike, but as he raised his knife to plunge it into the creep’s temple, the thing spun around to face him.
It stood there staring at Howard, twitching slowly and erratically, before raising its head to the sky and shouting in a frenzied howl.
Howard tried to stab the monster, but it knocked him backward. He watched in dismay as his knife slid out of reach.
He pulled out his pistol, took aim, and fired once at the infected. The shot whizzed by its head, missing by only an inch.
The thing paid no mind to the shot as it charged at Howard.
He pulled the trigger again, but his gun jammed. He fought frantically to clear the jam, but the creep was upon him before he could fire again.
Howard was caught in a whirlwind of teeth and claws as he struggled with his handgun. The infected clawed at Howard’s neck, trying to get close enough to bite him, but Howard managed to kick the thing away.
He finally cleared the gun, but the infected was on him again.
As the creep plunged its head down to bite Howard, a shot rang out. The beast slumped over, a small hole in its forehead.
Howard looked for the shooter, but there was nobody nearby. Then he noticed that his own gun billowed with smoke, and an ejected casing sat beside him.
“Wow, that was close. Too close.”
*
“I wonder where Howard is,” Susan pondered, glancing around the parking lot.
Suddenly, a gunshot rang out, coming from the nearby gas station.
“Jacob, Charlie! Let’s go!” she shouted.
*
Howard stood to his feet just as Susan, Jacob, and Charlie reached the parking lot.
“Are you okay? What happened?” Susan asked.
“I’m fine, I just had a close call with a creep is all. I took care of it. Let’s get the car loaded and fueled up.”
As they loaded the car and filled the gas tank, more infected began to emerge from the supermarket.
The four quickly piled into the car and took off before the creeps could reach them. In minutes, the supermarket was long behind them.
Chapter 25
May 10th, 2025. Somewhere along Interstate 10 in New Mexico.
As the four headed back toward the interstate, Howard bowed his head and began to pray aloud.
“Lord, I thank you for your mercy and grace, for seeing us through our hardships according to your plan. I thank you for the love that dwells within me and pray that in time, others may know it as well. In Christ’s name, Amen.”
A white-hot anger began to rise up in Charlie. He clenched his fists in rage and grumbled against Howard to himself. He visibly shook with anger. His lip began to bleed from where he had been biting it, and he could keep quiet no longer.
“What are you thanking God for? We almost died!” Charlie shouted.
“But we didn’t die, Charlie. We’re all still alive. In fact, none of us even have a scratch on us. I’d say that’s something to be thankful for.”
“So we didn’t die this time. That’s it? That’s what we have to be thankful for? It’s just a matter of time, Howard! If there really were a God, he would have stopped this from happening. What kind of a God would let so many people die?” Charlie gestured frantically while he spoke.
“I’ll answer your question with another question. Do you believe in God, Charlie?” Howard asked, putting his hand on Charlie’s shoulder.
This question took Charlie so completely by surprise that he stuttered for a few moments, trying to think up a response.
“Well, that’s a stupid question to ask. Of course not,” he snapped back, brushing away Howard’s hand.
“And you probably wouldn’t attend any church, would you?”
“No, why would I?”
“So you’re telling me that meeting me might be the only meaningful exposure to God’s Word that you’ll ever have?”
“What? Sure, I guess.”
“God could have done this specifically to bring people like you into situations where His children, like me, could reach them before it was too late. A person’s body is just a temporary shell anyway. If it kills a person’s body but saves his soul, it will have been worth it. In this case, if you’ll forgive the overused expression, the ends do justify the means,” Howard explained.
“So as long as the end result is good, it doesn’t matter what kind of cold, heartless things you have to do to get there?”
“I didn’t say that. In this case, even if there’s just one person who’s saved who wouldn’t have been otherwise, wouldn’t it have been worth it? I mean, we’re only seeing it from a very narrow viewpoint. God sees the whole picture. We only know we’re hurting now, but God knows that it’s only going to be for a little while, and we have to trust Him and know that He has a plan in all of this that’s beyond our understanding. The truth is, I don’t know why God let this happen. Nobody does, except God, and He chose to let it happen for a reason. All we can do is trust that He’ll keep us safe while we go through these hard times,” Howard said.
“How can you trust something you can’t even see? How can you put faith in something when you don’t have any proof it’s real?”
“I do have proof, Charlie. I’ve seen more miracles than one man ought to see in ten lifetimes. I’ve seen God’s mercy in the jungles of Vietnam, when bullets fell on us as often as rain, and my brothers-in-arms were dying all around me, but somehow I made it out alive. I heard His call in the quiet whisper of an army chaplain, asking if I’d been saved yet. I’ve felt His power and His anger, His forgiveness and His peace. I don’t have the answers to every question, and that’s okay. I’m at peace, whatever happens next.”
“So you’re saying you’re willing to die?”
“If I had to, yes. I’d even die for you, Charlie, if that’s what it came down to,” Howard said.
“That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. Only a lunatic thinks like that. Any sane person has to put himself first.”
“You may not think so yet, but there are some things worth dying for. Jesus spoke about this during his ministry. ‘Whoever seeks to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for My sake will save it,’” Howard quoted.
“You sound like a crazy person, Howard. That doesn’t make any sense,” Charlie said.
“It may not make sense to you now, but one day you’ll understand. Some things are worth dying for,” Howard explained.
Charlie threw up his hands in frustration, but he kept quiet and didn’t press the issue further.
Chapter 26
May 10, 2025. Las Cruces, New Mexico.
The four stopped along the highway to have lunch. As Jacob stepped down from the truck to grab some of the food they had left, he felt something clamp onto his leg. Not knowing what it might be, he panicked and kicked his leg frantically, leaped forward, and spun around to see what the thing was.
He saw a snake, which hissed at him and made a rattling sound. The snake had a triangular head, and a body covered in tan and whitish colored splotches, which gave way to a striped tail. The snake slithered away into the brush, and Jacob was left with a sense of panic that washed over him.
He was paralyzed. What should he do? He sat there, frozen in fear, until he could gather enough courage to grab Howard by the arm and pull him aside.
“What is it, Jacob?” Howard asked.
“I got bit. What do I do? It bit me, I—”
“Bit? By what? Tell me it wasn’t a creep, Jacob.”
“No, no, not a creep. It was a snake. I got bit by a snake!” Jacob said, suddenly shouting. He lifted up his pant leg to reveal the wound.
“Calm down. What did it look like?”
“Uhm, it had splotches on its scales that were tan and then a lighter color. The tail was striped,” Jacob said.
“Did you see a rattle?”
“No, but it did make a rattling sound.”
“Okay, what did its head look like? Was it more round or tri
angular?” Howard asked.
“Triangular,” Jacob said.
Howard tried to keep cool, but he was visibly disturbed by the answer.
“Why? What’s wrong? Was it poisonous?” Jacob asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe. I don’t know anything about the snakes in this area. We need to find out what kind of snake it was. If it was venomous, there isn’t much we can do without the right antivenom. Even if we found some antivenom, it wouldn’t do us any good unless we could identify the right snake. Of course, it may not even be venomous. The only way we’re going to know is by knowing what snake bit you. In the meantime, put this above the bite.”
Howard handed Jacob a piece of cloth and helped Jacob tie it above the bite to slow any possible venom.
“What’s wrong?” Susan asked, just hearing the commotion.
“Jacob got bit by a snake. We need to find out what kind it was so that we know how to handle it. Then we need to get him some antivenom if it was venomous. I think we’re coming up on a small city, so we should check and see if they have a library and a hospital.”
The others agreed, and they piled back in the car and raced to the nearest city.
“How do you feel, Jake?” Susan asked.
“I—uhm—let’s just keep driving,” he said. A cold sweat broke out on his forehead, and his insides trembled. His jaw chattered, and goosebumps rose on his arms. He was sure he was dying. It was only a matter of time.
A few minutes later, they arrived in the city Howard had mentioned. There wasn’t much there, but it did have a hospital and a library. Howard and Jacob let Susan and Charlie out at the hospital to gather what supplies they could find, while they took the truck to the library to identify the snake that had bitten Jacob.
“Where are we going to find antivenom?” Charlie asked as the two entered the hospital.
“I don’t know. Maybe they have a map we could look at.”
The hospital was in shambles. Chairs and tables were overturned, and paperwork littered the floors, along with several bodies of those unfortunate enough to be in the hospital when the infected began to grow hostile. In one hallway, a janitor’s cart was overturned, and the trash and supplies it carried were scattered across the walkway.
The two wandered until they reached the elevators, where they found a map of the hospital hanging in a large frame.
“Maybe there’s some in the lab?” Charlie asked, pointing out the room.
“Good idea! You check there, and I’ll check the emergency center. Meet back here when you get finished.”
“What if I run into a creep?” Charlie asked.
“You have a gun with you, right?” Susan asked.
“Yeah,” Charlie answered.
“Good. Try not to use it if you don’t have to, but if worst comes to worst, it should be enough to get you to safety. If you’re careful and quiet, you should be fine. I haven’t seen any creeps here anyway. They’ve probably moved out of the city by now.”
“Alright. Be careful, Susan.”
“You too, Chuck.”
Susan headed to the emergency center, which was at the other end of the hospital but thankfully on the ground level.
The hospital was desolate. She could imagine what the scene had been like here during the outbreak, but now an eerie silence hung thick in the air.
In the emergency center, drawers and medical supplies were strewn all over the floor.
“I hope there’s some antivenom left here,” Susan said.
She rifled through the drawers and tables that were intact and scanned the cluttered floors for anything that she thought could be antivenom. On the label of a handful of small vials she found inside a warm, unpowered freezer, she noticed a warning: “Keep frozen. Once thawed, use within twenty-four hours.” She could only hope the antivenom would still be effective since it had thawed long ago.
She threw what she had found into her backpack and raced back to meet with Charlie, hopeful that something she had gathered would save Jacob.
Back in the library, Jacob paced back and forth anxiously while Howard searched for a book about snakes or snake bites.
“You know, this would go a lot faster with two people looking,” Howard said.
“Huh? Oh, right. Sorry,” said Jacob, walking over to help Howard look.
“Hmm, an encyclopedia probably has something about snakes in it, but we need something more specific,” Howard said.
“What about this?” Jacob asked, holding up a book titled Snakes: Surviving the Bite.
“Perfect!” Howard said. “Bring it over here.”
He cleared a table for them to read at while Jacob handed him the book he had found.
“What does it say?” Jacob asked.
“It says the first thing you need to do is look at the bite. Does it look like two dots or more like a horseshoe?”
“Uhh, a horseshoe I guess,” Jacob answered.
“Let me see,” Howard said, leaning over to investigate the wound.
“What does that mean?” Jacob asked.
“One second, I lost my place. Where was that at— Aha, here it is. It says here that ‘venomous snakes leave bites that resemble two dots. Nonvenomous snakes have no fangs to leave wounds like that, so they only leave a horseshoe-like bite mark,’” Howard read.
“So...it wasn’t venomous?” Jacob asked.
“That’s what it sounds like.”
“It wasn’t venomous. Hey! It wasn’t venomous! I’m okay!” Jacob shouted.
“Yeah.” Howard laughed. “You’re going to be fine.”
Just then, Charlie and Susan burst through the front door of the library.
“We have the antivenom!” Susan shouted, tossing the backpack onto a nearby table.
“What kind of snake was it?” Charlie asked.
“It’s okay, guys,” Howard said.
“What?” Susan and Charlie asked in unison.
“It wasn’t venomous. I don’t need any antivenom,” Jacob said.
“Oh! Really?” Charlie asked.
“Yeah,” Jacob answered. “I’m fine.”
“Good,” said Susan, letting out a sigh of relief and collapsing exhausted into one of the chairs by the table she’d thrown her backpack onto.
“What now?” Charlie asked.
“Well, we can rest here for a while, then we’ll hit the road again,” Howard said.
“So I guess this was just another test, right? I wonder what he was trying to teach us this time,” Charlie mocked.
Howard remained silent. He’d heard it all before and could only hope that in time, Charlie’s eyes would be opened.
Chapter 27
May 10th, 2025. El Paso, Texas.
After about an hour of driving, the four reached El Paso. They were weary from driving and had planned to take a break at the next stop, but El Paso did not appear to be as abandoned as they had hoped.
“Uh oh,” Howard muttered in a worried tone. “More bandits?”
Three men neared their vehicle. Each man was armed with a firearm—one had a shotgun, and the others had assault rifles.
The man in the middle spoke first. “Welcome to beautiful El Paso!” he shouted in a thick Spanish accent.
Howard grasped his handgun, sticking his head out of the window.
“What’s all this?” he asked cautiously, sizing up the threat.
“We’re just the welcoming committee,” the man assured. “You’re going to drive straight ahead, nice and slow, and only where I say.” He then turned to face the fortress walls that surrounded the city of El Paso and spoke again, this time in Spanish.
The front gate opened, and the four were led in.
They were instructed to park the car in a garage and remove their weapons, and they begrudgingly complied. As they continued on, they noticed some men marching and doing exercises in squads, while others could be seen honing their aim at a firing range. Still others were being trained in hand-to-hand combat techniques. Many were led by of
ficers who drilled them ruthlessly. The whole facility ran like a well-oiled machine.
There were countless bandits here, but to make matters worse, they had military weapons to go along with their impressive training. The four were no match for them in an honest firefight.
They were then led to a large building in the center of the city. It looked like it may have once been the city hall, Howard thought. Perhaps it still was. The whole city bristled with guards, and women and children darted this way and that.
They were led up the stairs of the large building and into a room with two more guards standing outside it.
“Welcome, welcome!” cackled a tall, slender man who stood up from his desk at the back of the room. He reminded Susan very much of the vultures they’d seen so many of in the desert. He had a long, beak-like nose that protruded from a comparably small face, and his eyes looked like small, black beads. He was balding quite badly, with only a small line of graying hair around the sides and back of his head. His neck was thin and seemed to stretch endlessly and down to two stooped shoulders that resembled the hunched stature of a resting vulture. His Adam’s apple bobbed visibly up and down as he spoke. The way he rubbed his hands together made them all nervous.
He raised one hand, and the guards who had been escorting them backed away.
“What brings you all to El Paso?” he asked, looking them each over in turn.
“Well,” Howard began, “we’re just passing through, trying to get to DC.”
“Ahh, yes, I’ve seen the evacuation orders. What makes you so sure things are any better there?”
“With all due respect, they can’t be much worse,” said Howard.
“Hmph,” the man puffed, apparently displeased by this response. “I have a better offer for you, amigos. You will stay here, with me. I can offer you protection, food, water, shelter, all you will need. In turn, you work for me. You do as I say, and you ask no questions.”
The four gave each other worried looks, vehemently opposed to this idea but unwilling to anger their new host.
“May we talk it over?” Howard asked.
“Ha!” The man laughed. “You mean plot? I think not. You decide now. Remember this, you are alive only because of my great generosity, and because I may yet find a use for you,” he reminded.