by Bell, A. E.
Creed pushed off the creature’s head with his feet trying to get away. His headlamp illuminated the infected enough for Creed to see it. He still couldn’t believe that something so hideous was once human. He shot it in the head. The Infected let out a grunt and its head fell to the floor. Creed laid his head on the ground for a minute. He was shaking from the surge of adrenaline that was pumping through his body.
Evie was outside and heard the gunshots. She ran to the back of the RV, woke Sylvie up and told her, “Grab your gun. You need to stand right outside the RV. If you hear or see anyone, you jump inside and lay on the horn.”
Sylvie was freaked out, “Mom, what’s going on?”
Her mom said, “I don’t have the time to explain it right now, just do it. We will be out in a minute.”
She ran to the rear entrance and found Creed laying on the floor shaking and out of breath. Then, she saw the infected laying on the floor. “Oh my God, did he get you? Are you okay?” At first, Creed said nothing. She was pointing her gun at the infected but then turned it towards Creed. “Damn it Creed, you better fucking answer me. Did he bite you?”
Creed turned towards Evie and saw the gun pointed in his direction. He yelled, “What the fuck? Don’t you fuckin shoot me! He didn’t bite me, I promise. Seriously, put that fucking gun down, right now.”
Evie slowly lowered her gun and held her hand out to help Creed up. They both walked slowly over to the infected. Creed kicked him over. There was a bit chunk of hair missing from the top of its head. Creed looked down at his hands and saw the clump of hair in between his fingers, that he must’ve grabbed it during the struggle. Half of the flesh was missing from his face. Its teeth had pieces of rotting flesh stuck between them.
Evie asked, “Are you sure he didn’t bite you? Let me look you over to make sure.”
Creed said, “Damnit, we ain’t got time for this shit. You can look me over when I go to take a shower. If I’m bit, shoot me in the head. Apparently, you would have no problem with that.” She laughed at him. He continued, “We need to gather up as many weapons and ammo as we can.”
They both packed an armful of guns out to the RV. Sylvie was relieved, “I was getting freaked out. You could’ve let me know y’all were okay.”
Creed scoffed, “We were a little busy.” They set the guns right inside the RV door.
We’ll be back in a couple of minutes.” He grabbed a backpack and emptied its contents onto the floor and threw one of its straps over his arm.
Creed and Evie ran back inside the building. Creed started filling the backpack. Evie looked around to see if there was anything else they needed. She found an old army duffel bag. Right next to it were a couple of tomahawks that she threw inside the duffle bag. She hurried over to where Creed was and started filling her bag with ammo also. Creed said, “Let’s go, we cleaned the place out. We will inventory this shit later.”
They climbed inside the RV, dropped their booty, and headed towards the back of the RV. She pulled the privacy curtain, took his headlamp, and turned it on. Creed undressed, and Evie examined every inch of his body to make sure there were no bite marks. He laughed, “This must be how your patients feel when you examine them. This is the weirdest shit you have ever done to me.”
After she completed the strip search, she slapped him on the ass, “All clean, I didn’t see anything.”
He jokingly replied, “Well, I hope you saw at least one thing, or I’m gonna be offended.” She giggled, “Okay, maybe a LITTLE something. Now, take a damned shower.”
Evie drove down the road, feeling a bit guilty for what they had done. She had never stolen anything in her entire life, not so much as a tube of Chapstick. She tried to convince herself that they didn’t hurt anyone. They may have saved someone from becoming an infected by killing that thing. She wasn’t sure if she believed it, but she had no choice at this time.
Eventually, Creed emerged from the bathroom. He walked up to Evie, rubbed her neck for a minute, and sat down in the seat next to her. Sleepily he said, “I think I’m just going to lay this seat back and sleep up here. There’s not much space back there.” She smiled at him and continued down the long road that seemed to go nowhere. It was only a few minutes before she heard the snoring she had grown used to in the past several years. She was always jealous that he could fall asleep that quickly.
They drove for what seemed like forever. Every few miles she would pass by a mailbox, and a driveway she assumed was leading to a ranch or homestead. She wasn’t sure how much longer it would be to the Wyoming line, but it had to be soon.
About thirty minutes later, she came to the end of the road, where there was a sign with I-90 south and an arrow that pointed left. She nudged Creed awake and said, “I have to get on the interstate, there’s no other way right now. I’ll stay on it until we get inside Wyoming. From there, we can take an exit and get back on the backroads.”
He hated the idea of getting on an interstate, but he gave in, “Do what you gotta do. It’s not like we got any choices, right now. We definitely can’t go back in the same direction we came.”
She took a deep breath and took the I-90 exit towards Wyoming. Her inner voice was screaming at her, telling her this was a bad idea, but she did it anyway. Not long after, Creed was off in la la land again.
She saw the occasional vehicle going in the same direction as her, but on the other side of the interstate, it was like gridlock. The strange thing is none of the cars had their headlights on, and it didn’t look like they were moving at all. She whispered, “What the fuck is going on? It can’t be good. I wonder what the fuck is up ahead.”
She nudged Creed awake, again. He growled, “What now? Can’t you see I’m trying to sleep?”
She snapped, “Yeah I can, but I kinda think you might oughta see this. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life.”
He opened his eyes wide so that he could see. Astonished he squawked, “We need to get the fuck off this interstate! Pull over before the next exit, so we can take a look at the map and see where to goes. Cuz right now, it looks like we’re headed straight to hell.”
Four miles later, they came to an exit, and she pulled over onto the shoulder of the road. They decided to let the kids and Cinnamon out for a little while. Cinnamon went over to the tree line and lifted his leg to pee. The kids were playing catch beside the RV. Creed and Evie used a flashlight to try and figure out where this exit would take them and make sure it wasn’t another dead end.
Cinnamon meandered over to play with the kids. Evie glanced up to fuss at Cinnamon when he started barking at something in the woods. She saw five of the infected coming towards them. She hit Creed on the arm and said, “Holy shit, look! Kids get in the RV! Cinnamon come here, baby!” They all stood there stunned for a few seconds. It’s hard to describe the feeling that you get when all your nightmares, or in Creed’s case, dreams of an impending zombie apocalypse come true. He used to joke with Evie, that he would love for there to be a zombie apocalypse.
He asked Evie, “Can you get up on the roof and start shooting these things?” The kids ran towards the RV, but Cassie tripped on a rock. Cinnamon ran towards her and kept barking at the infected. It appeared that his barking was drawing them out of the woods. Creed sprinted over to Cassie and slung her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Just as he started to turn and run towards the vehicle, he felt a tugging sensation from behind. An infected had grabbed Cassie’s arm and was pulling them down. Creed went into full fight mode and started repeatedly kicking the infected until it released Cassie. He then made a mad dash towards the RV with this terrified child over his shoulder. Cinnamon was on his heels the entire way. He was not letting his human out of his sight. Just as they were about to get in the door of the RV, an infected crashed into them. Creed flung Cassie inside the RV just as the shirt collar tightened around his neck like a noose. Evie was standing inside the doorway and caught the girl. She saw the horrified look on Creed’s face and the infected thre
e inches away from taking a bite out of her husband’s neck. She instinctively aimed her 9mm and put two shots right in the infected’s forehead. Creed fell inside and stumbled up the steps, “Goddamnit woman, I’m glad you are a good shot. You know you could’ve fucking shot me in the head, if you were even just a couple inches off.” Creed looked down and saw that it had fallen right inside the door, so he took his foot, kicked it out, and slammed the door shut just as another one of those things was approaching the RV.
Creed went to drive away, and that’s when he noticed a swarm of infected surrounded them. He yelled, “Y’all take your guns, open the side windows, and shoot as many of those things as you can. Evie, take your rifle up top and clear a fucking path for us.” Evie crawled up through the hatch. She started with the infected that had gathered in front of the RV. Ollie went to one side, and Sylvie went to the other, they both started firing out the window.
Evie yelled to Creed, “As soon as I clear a path in front, you need to haul ass up that damn exit ramp.” It took a couple of shots for Evie to compose herself again after watching Creed almost get eaten. The first shot went low and hit one of the monsters in the arm. The second one went right and didn’t even graze one of them. Once she got her flow back, she was able to pick them off one by one. She could see rotting brains flying out from behind as she painted the road with their blood.
The kids continued shooting at the ones on the sides. They had a little difficulty because no amount of preparation could’ve prepared them for how scary it would be killing the dead that had risen. Cassie sat on the floor with her hands covering her ears. Cinnamon was sitting across her lap growling as to warn anything that might try to harm her.
Finally, Evie had cleared the front enough that Creed was able to navigate through it. Evie held on for dear life up top, she lost her grip for a split second and almost fell off but was able to grasp the inside of the hatch. When Creed got to the top of the exit, he stopped so Evie could get back inside the RV. Out of breath, she called out, “Damn that was a close call, that was a fuckin’ herd of infected. I wonder why they were all clustered up like that? Why aren’t you driving?”
He grumbled, “I can’t just drive. I’ve got to get out and use some of the gas from our supply. We are on E. We’re going to have to find a gas station soon. But for now, I need you to come outside and cover me. Sylvie, come up here and watch out the front window if you see anything or anyone coming honk the horn.”
Evie was standing out back. Even though it was dark out, she could see movement coming up the exit. She knew exactly what was coming their way. “Creed, hurry the fuck up. They’re coming up the exit towards us.”
Creed was getting frustrated, “Fuck, it never seems like you can move fast enough when you need to. I’m hurrying, I promise. I need two more minutes.”
She was freaking out by then, “I don’t know if we have two more minutes. Seriously, we gotta go now. Finish the gas can you’re on and let’s go.”
He completed the task at hand and yelled to Evie, “Come on, let’s go.” He could hear what sounded like a hundred of the infected scurrying up the ramp towards them. Once inside, Evie stuck her head out the window and shined a floodlight down the exit ramp. She couldn’t believe what it showed. If they had waited one more minute, they would all be dead. There were hundreds of them headed directly towards them. If she wasn’t so scared, it would have almost been comical to see all those things staggering towards them as fast as they could. They were faster than she would’ve imagined.
Chapter 8
Evie sat in the back, going stir crazy in the RV, and now they couldn’t even stand outside for a few minutes to take a break without one of those things attacking them. She loved her family more than anything but needed a little while to decompress. She was accustomed to going to working full time. Luckily, Evie was pretty good at blocking the world out and being alone in her own thoughts. She couldn’t help but wonder what drew those things to them, to begin with on that interstate. Was it the scent of fresh meat? Was it the noise that the kids and Cinnamon were making while playing? Maybe they just happened to show up right at that moment, but she had a hard time believing that it was just bad luck. Then, the darkest thought of all came to her mind. Maybe all those things were from the vehicles on the other side of the road. Maybe while they were all sitting in gridlock, they were bitten and infected. She knew from the hospital that it didn’t take as long for some people to change as others. Could that be the answer? If so, at this rate how could the human race ever survive?
Her time inside her mind ended when Creed yelled, “I need your help figuring out which direction to go.” She was relieved because her thoughts weren’t taking her anywhere good. She went and started looking at the map of Wyoming. After a few minutes, Creed asked, “What’s wrong? Why you so quiet?”
She responded, “I’m fine. I don’t wanna talk about it.”
He said, “Okay, but please remember, I’m here to listen. I don’t ever want you to take on any burden alone.” She knew his words were honest. Creed was the best man she had ever met. In the all the years that she knew him, he had always put their family first.
She started giving him directions, “Take this road to the end, there will be what looks like a fork in the road, take a left. That should get us far enough away from the interstate to be a little bit safer.” She kept studying the map and wrote out directions as she went. “If I’m right, and I usually am, this will lead us right outside of a small town called Recluse. We can stop there and fill up again. Ugh, I love this RV, but it sure is a gas guzzler.”
Creed saw a sign and read it aloud, “Welcome to Recluse, population 222. This seems like my sort of town right here. Maybe when all of this is over, we can move up here to Recluse, Wyoming.” He looked over and saw what appeared to be the only gas station in town. “Here we go, babe. Let’s get gas and get back on the road.” He pulled in to the one gas pump at the gas station and jumped out of the vehicle.
He started pumping gas, and the entire family came out also. They went inside the door of the small mom and pop store. Creed looked up and saw them slowly, backing out the door with their arms raised. He was confused for a second, then he realized they were being held up. Creed pulled out his handgun. An older man came out the door and had a shotgun pointed at Evie’s face. Creed yelled out, “What the hell are you doing?”
The man shouted back, “I don’t know what you are doing here, but we don’t take kindly to strangers.”
Creed tried to reason with the man, “I’m Creed, and that woman you are pointing the gun at is my wife, Evie. Those are my kids, and the dog growling at you is Cinnamon. Sir, we don’t want any trouble at all. We just want to get gas, maybe buy a few groceries, and be on our way.”
Unconvinced the man said, “Yeah, that’s what the last people said. They tried to rape my wife and steal my groceries. I had to put two of them down. The others ran away. Are you sure that you aren’t part of their group?”
Unsure how to convince the man, Creed responded, “I am positive we aren’t part of any group. My wife is a nurse. She was on a travel assignment in Seattle when this uprising of infected started. All we are trying to do is get home to Kentucky. We don’t want to hurt anyone, and we would never hurt anyone unless they tried to hurt us. Now please lower that gun you have in my wife’s face, let us finish pumping gas, and we’ll be on our way.”
The man suddenly became apologetic, “Did you say your wife is a nurse? My wife was injured when those last people came through. Do you think she could take a look?”
Relieved Creed said, “I’m sure she can, but first you need to get that shotgun out of her face.”
The man slowly lowered the shotgun and nodded his head towards the door, “She’s in here.”
Evie followed the man inside the store. A sweet looking woman was sitting in a chair. She introduced herself, “Ma’am my name’s Evie. I’m going to try and help you can you tell me what’s going on?”
Evie examined the woman’s arm. She didn’t see any obvious deformities, just some swelling on the wrist. She said, “We can’t be sure without you going to the hospital, but my best guess would be that it’s just a bad sprain. Do you have any ibuprofen, ace wraps, or anything like that?
Mags said, “I have ibuprofen, but we don’t have ace wraps.”
Evie replied, “Wait right here, I have ace wraps in the RV. Sir, you get the ibuprofen for her.” Evie ran out to her first aid kit and got out an ace wrap.
By the time she came out of the RV, Creed was just getting done pumping gas. He asked Evie, “How’s it going?
“I think it’s just a sprained wrist. They seem like a sweet couple that are just protecting themselves.”
He scoffed, “Yeah, well let’s hope so. I think I’m going to let the kids and Cinnamon play out here and I will stand in the doorway in case.” She smiled, nodded, and quickly scurried back into the store.
She smiled at Mags and began to instruct her about what she was doing, “I’m just going to wrap this snuggly around your wrist. You need to take this off two to three times a day to check it. Have your husband rewrap, make sure that you can slide two fingers underneath. You don’t want it to be too tight. The ibuprofen needs to be taken every 6-8 hours for a couple of days. If the pain doesn’t get better in the next couple days, you need to find your way to a hospital to get it looked at.”
Margaret looked up at Evie and said, “Thank you so much. I’m sorry, but my husband Jim is a little overprotective. When those men came in, and one tried to attack me, it tore him up.”