by Bell, A. E.
Evie smiled down at the woman, “I’ve got one of those overprotective husbands too. I think that your husband did exactly what any man should. Now, don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t thrilled at being on the wrong end of that shotgun. Have y’all seen any of the infected around here?”
The lady asked, “You mean the dead people we saw on the news? We haven’t personally seen any, but we heard that Tommy Bottoms had gone to the city, and his wife got bit. By the time they got home, she had got sick, and he put her in bed, he went to check on her, and she tried to eat him up. He locked himself in another room and by the time he came out she was gone. We haven’t heard of anybody seeing her since.”
Evie looked up at Jim and said, “If you see her, put a bullet in her head. It has to be in the head. That’s the only way to take her down. Don’t think twice about it, just do it. She’s not alive anymore. She will eat you at the first opportunity she has.” Just as she was walking to the door where Creed was standing, she saw headlights.
Creed saw them at the same time that she did, “Damn, two cars are pulling in the drive. Do you have another way out of this place or a place to get onto the roof? Where do you live?”
Jim answered, “If you go into our little storeroom, there is a pull-down ladder to get on the roof, and that door right there leads to the back of the store, our house is right next door.”
Creed yelled, “Okay, you stand at this front door. Evie, I need my personal little sniper on the roof. I’m going around back. Mags, you wait at the back door. If you hear me yell, you and the kids need to try and sneak off over to your house. Do not turn on any lights, just sit there. If you got any guns, give one to each of the kids.” They all hurried to their posts.
Jim called out, “It’s those same people.” As soon as he said it, one of the guys fired a gun right at Jim’s head. It clipped the side of Jim’s ear. By then, six men had piled out of the two vehicles. Evie took a shot at one of them and hit him center mass, the man tried to raise his gun to shoot her, but he fell to the ground. The men attempted to see who was shooting at them from the roof, but there was very little moonlight. By this time, Creed had gotten around to the side of the building. He aimed at the man that appeared to be the ringleader. He shot him right in the head, his brains spewed out the back of his head onto the man behind him. Evie shot at the man who was wearing his boss’s brains, there was a loud bang and then blood gushing out the side of his neck like a red river flowing. Three down, three to go. Evie already had the next one in her sights before the third one hit the ground. She hit him directly in the chest. He tried to shoot back but was too weak to lift his gun in the air towards her. He just crumbled to the ground in a pile. Jim shot his shotgun at a man running towards the door. His first shot did not bring the man down, so he pumped his shotgun and shot again. The man was almost to the door, and he fell head first on the pavement. Creed finally got a clear line of sight for the fifth one. He fired off two shots. He knew that he hit the man, but the guy just kept running towards the side of the building at Creed. Creed fired two more shots, and the guy fell on top of him. Creed fell to the ground with the man lying dead on him. The final raider started to run towards the door, Jim and Evie both shot at him at the same time. Brains shot out the side of his head, and blood trickled down onto the ground as the man started falling face first towards the ground.
Evie ran over to the ladder and out the door to check on Creed and the kids. Mags was standing at the back door with her arms wrapped around the children. Sylvie was holding onto the dog because he was going batshit crazy trying to get at those men. “Kids, I’ll be right back. I gotta check on dad.” She ran around the side of the building and saw Creed just as he was getting on his feet. She ran to him and wrapped her arms around him, “Oh my God, I thought you were dead. All I saw was that man coming towards you. When I didn’t hear any more gunshots, I thought that he killed you.”
They went around front to check and make sure there weren’t any survivors, collecting their guns as they went. The man that Evie shot in the neck was barely alive, they could hear him gurgling with the blood that was filling up in his throat. Creed coldly shot him in the head. The gurgling ceased. Jim, Sylvie, and Ollie arrived outside just as the dying man was taking his last breath. Creed saw them and fussed at the kids, “If I tell you to stay somewhere, I mean for you to stay put. What if one of these people were still alive? They could’ve killed you.” The children apologized and ran up to their parents to hug them.
Cassie stood at the door watching Sylvie and Ollie hug their parents. Evie looked over and saw the little girl with sad eyes looking at them. She said, “Come here, baby girl. You are a member of this family now also.” Cassie meekly shuffled her way over to Evie. Evie wrapped her arms around her and squeezed her tightly. At first, Cassie just stood there, but eventually, she reciprocated. Cinnamon came running up with his little nub of a tail wagging like crazy. He wanted in on the love too.
Mags and Jim just stood at the door smiling as they watched this beautiful family. Mags turned to Jim and asked, “Aren’t you glad you didn’t shoot that woman?” He just looked at her and winked. Mags offered to let them stay the night before they headed off. The kids all begged to stay. They were so tired of riding. “Please dad, pretty please, please Mr. Creed, we wanna stay.” they all chanted. Creed looked at Evie, she just shrugged her shoulders.
He relented, “Okay, fine. One night. One night. No more.” Sylvie and Ollie ran up and hugged their dad. Cassie stood back petting her dog, looking up at him bashfully. “Come on, Cassie. Evie already told you, you are part of this family now too. You can hug and love just like the rest if you want to.” She ran over and hugged him.
Evie felt tremendous guilt where Cassie was concerned. She knew she had no choice but killing her parents in front of her would haunt them both the rest of their lives. It wasn’t the only thing that she felt guilty about either. She took the Nightingale pledge when she graduated from nursing school and in the past day she had killed infected beings and living souls. She did it because it was her life or theirs, but she had spent what seemed like a lifetime helping people bring their babies into the world and bringing other people back from the verge of death. She silently hoped that she wasn’t losing herself through all of this.
They gathered their night clothes and went to the older couple’s house. Mags told them, “Feel free to take hot showers, we have feather beds in these two guest rooms. Sorry, we don’t have more beds, but they are big beds.”
Evie replied, “That’s quite alright. We’re used to much smaller. They will love having more space. Creed, you might want to pull our RV around back so that nobody sees it from the road.”
Creed responded, “You’re probably right. Maybe we should take turns keeping watch in case there are more people in that group running around.”
She knew he was right, but she was looking forward to spending a night alone with the love of her life. She accepted that at least until this all blew over, she wouldn’t be able to spend an entire night together. She followed him outside, there was certainly nothing stopping her from having a little quickie with her husband while the kids were getting ready for bed. She needed a release. She wanted to feel him inside of her. It might be the last chance they get for quite some time.
He moved the RV around back and stood up to go back inside the house. She grabbed his arm and whispered, “Not so fast.” She pulled him down towards her and started kissing his lips, face, and neck. He let out a long sigh. They started ripping off each other’s clothes, there was no time for making love. They only had time for a pure unadulterated fucking. He sat down on the small bed in the back, she climbed on top of him and wrapped her legs around his body. He slid his hand down to her clit and started rubbing it. He could see that there was no need for that. She was already dripping wet. He laid back and raised her body up just enough to take him inside of her. She started grinding on him, the friction of her body next to his made her reach orgasm. T
hen, she started lifting up and down slowly. The more he moaned, the faster she went. He got quiet, clinched his teeth, and climaxed. She didn’t stop, she started grinding on him, again. She was so turned on that her pussy ached to have another orgasm. Evie bit her lip and climaxed for the second time. Eventually, she fell on top of him. They were both completely satisfied. They knew they had no time to enjoy any post-coital cuddling.
After they cleaned the evidence up, she walked by him, and he slapped her on the ass. She giggled. Creed confessed, “Evie, you have no idea how bad I needed that.”
She grinned and said, “I’m pretty sure I do.”
Creed locked the door, and they both headed inside. They went into the room the kids were sharing and gave them a goodnight kiss. Evie kissed Cinnamon on the head and scratched behind his ears.
Evie walked with Creed into the other bedroom. She kissed him and said, “I’ll take first watch. You know I can never sleep after sex. You, on the other hand, have never had a problem with that.” Creed climbed into the tall feather bed. It was the most comfortable bed he slept in what seemed like forever.
She went to the kitchen and poured herself a cup of black coffee that Margaret had made her. She took her coffee to the living room. It was kind of nice to be the only one awake. She was finally going to get some time alone, and it felt wonderful. Almost as good as the sex she had with her husband.
She stayed up for 4 hours, it was now 0300. She walked into the bedroom and woke Creed up. He jumped and drew his fist back. She jumped out of the way. It wasn’t the first time that he woke up from a nightmare ready to fight. She had grown used to it, and luckily, he had never landed a punch. Creed apologized. He hated when he did that, he was scared to death that one day he might hurt her.
Creed tucked Evie in, kissed her on the forehead, and then went to check on the kids. Cinnamon was scratching on the door. Creed said, “Come on, boy. I’ll let you out to pee.” Creed let him out back and stood on the porch while he waited for him to come back in. Suddenly, Cinnamon started barking like crazy. Creed could see a figure in the darkness but couldn’t make out who or what it was. The closer the figure got the more Cinnamon was barking and growling. Creed finally got a good enough look at the figure, it was an infected. It was walking with that shuffled gait he had seen before. The infected started walking towards Cinnamon trying to grab at him. Cinnamon started bouncing from side to side and barking his head off. The infected started to stumble over its own feet. It fell to the ground. Creed ran over to it and shot the thing square in the back of the head. When he turned the thing over, there was nothing left of its face. Its brain matter had been blown out onto the ground. There was black oozing stuff seeping out from what used to be its face.
The bang from the gun woke up Jim and Evie. Jim turned on the porch light. Evie and Jim both went running to the backyard. Jim looked down at the infected laying in his yard, “That’s Tommy’s wife.”
Creed started to explain, “I think, one of the things, they are attracted to is sound. Cinnamon was raising cane, and that infected woman didn’t even try to come after me. She tripped herself trying to get at Cinnamon.” He looked over to Jim and Creed saw that his eyes were tearing up. “I’m sorry was she some relation to you.”
Jim quietly responded, “No but when you have a population of 222, you tend to all be like family. I hate to have to tell Tommy about this. He’s gonna lose it. I guess now are population has dwindled to 221.”
Creed had a hard time understanding what he felt because he was always a bit of a loner until he met Evie. She was his second wife but had never completely let the first wife in. Evie somehow managed to break down all the walls, but those walls were only broke down for Evie and the kids. He was as nice as any person could be, but to let someone into his circle was more work than most people were willing to put in. He shrugged and said, “Maybe you shouldn’t tell him.”
The old man scorned Creed, “If Evie were dead wouldn’t you want someone to tell you, so you didn’t wonder where she was for the rest of your life. Surely, you would want to give someone else that peace of mind.”
Creed looked at the old man and replied very analytically, “That woman was dead the moment that she changed, actually the moment she was bitten. After that, she was just a flesh-hungry creature.”
Jim’s eyes dropped to the ground, “You may be able to look at it without feeling now, but until you are put into that position you really don’t know what you will do.”
Creed knew the man might be right. Even though the only people he let in was his wife and kids he had not always been this crass. It wasn’t that he didn’t have the propensity to be compassionate to other people, but he found that as the years passed being married to Evie had hardened him a little bit. He used to believe that nurses were these caring, compassionate people. He found out after being married to one, that as a group, most of the nurses he knew were very hard people. Even with the kids, Evie found it difficult to show her caring side. It was almost as if it annoyed her when someone close to her got sick or hurt. He recalled her telling him one time when he had made that observation to her, “I deal with fuckin sick ass needy people all day, the last thing I wanna do is come home and deal with them here too.” He had spoken to many other nurses’ husbands, and they all said the same thing. You can only be around that for so long before it kind of wears off on you. Creed decided that he and Jim might have to agree to disagree.
After a long silence, Jim spoke, “I will go over at daylight and tell him what happened. It’s probably best if you two don’t come. It might be an extra kick in the teeth because to him not only are you an outsider, but you are the man that killed his wife. Even though you all can look at it the way you do, the rest of the world may not be able to.”
Creed and Evie sensed that they had overstayed their welcome. Evie smiled at he the man, “We will leave in a few hours. I will wake the kids at dawn.”
Jim quickly pleaded, “You don’t have to leave. You are welcome here for as long as you want.” Jim knew that even though they might not live the same way of life as him, they could use the extra protection. Jim was able to use a gun but was a little shaky. Poor Mags had one arm in an ace wrap and couldn’t use it. He was not without gratitude, he appreciated the fact that he and Margaret would probably be dead if it were not for these two people. He owed them everything.
Evie felt the man was sincere. It was all too easy to be convinced to stay. There are so few people here, it should be easy to defend, but there were not enough resources there to support four adults, three kids, and a dog. She respectfully replied, “No, we have to go. We have to get home to Kentucky. That has always been our plan, and we can’t change it now.”
Jim understood, he may not like it, but he had no say in whether they stayed or went. “Will you at least let us make you breakfast? You can just let the kids sleep a little bit longer. It might be the last good night's sleep they get for a while.”
They knew he was right, Creed looked to Evie as she nodded. He relented, “Okay, we will stay until after breakfast.”
They all walked back inside the house. Evie crawled back in bed and Creed started playing a game on his phone. He was kind of limited as to the use of his phone since he had no service. He still wasn’t sure if it was out everywhere or just in the middle of nowhere. Jim sat in the living room with Creed, reading an old western book. Neither of them spoke anymore, and the air seemed a little heavy. When everyone else in the house woke up they both acted as though there was never a disagreement.
Mags called to the kids from the kitchen, “Do you all like pancakes, bacon, and eggs?”
Ollie was thrilled, “Who doesn’t like pancakes, bacon, and eggs? They would have to be insane.”
Evie said, “You shouldn’t cook that much. You might need to save some of your food. We have no idea how long this will all last.”
The old woman just said, “Look, we owe you our lives. It’s not gonna hurt anything to make sure we
send you off with a good meal.” Evie knew the woman was thinking to shortsighted, but it wasn’t her place to tell her what to do in her own home.
Jim had already left and came back from telling Tommy about his wife’s death. He didn’t speak a word of it in front of any of them. He figured it best to wait until after their visitors had gone. At the breakfast table, everyone just made small talk, they all mostly talked about the best route to take to get them home. When they weren’t talking about the directions most of the other conversation was directed towards the children.
After breakfast, they prepared for departure on another long leg of the trip. Mags gave hugs to everybody in the family, and Jim shook hands with Creed. The kids were sad to leave Jim and Mags. Creed and Evie were brimming with anticipation to get home, but they also had so much apprehension at what lies ahead of them. They all climbed into the RV. Evie watched out the window as Jim and Mags became all but a memory. She knew in her heart that it was only going to be a short time before they were wiped from existence. They did not have what it takes to protect themselves from what was coming.
Chapter 9
Evie planned to stay as close to I-90 as possible without actually being on it. Hopefully, if they did this, they would not run the risk of getting too far off track. After a short time of driving, they were able to get on Hwy 14 which should take them close to Gillette, Wyoming and also near I-90.
Evie gazed out the window, the world looked so peaceful. Somehow, she lost herself in the beauty of Wyoming. The trees had changed colors. She had never seen such vibrant colors of red and orange. She opened the window and let the air in, it was cold and crisp, but not a hint of pollution. She closed her eyes for a few minutes and just breathed the fresh air in. She daydreamed of raising her kids in an area just like this. It had been untouched by the outside world. All the nastiness that we as a country had become didn’t seem to have made its way to this little piece of paradise. The nastiness that was around far before this infection started to form was nowhere to be seen. She shrieked, “Look, there are antelope.” All the kids jumped up and looked out the passenger side windows.