by Bell, A. E.
Evie and Creed both turned their attention back to the man. He appeared to be young like his wife. Evie took mental stock of him. He was average height and medium build, with short brown hair and no facial hair. She could tell he took care of himself through exercise and diet. Evie asked, “And you? What is your name, sir?” I’m going to take a stab in the dark and assume you are either in the military or were in the military.”
He looked up at her surprised, “My name is Jeremy. Jeremy Thompson. I just got out of an 8-year stint in the Army. How did you guess that?”
She laughed, “Well unlike me, you haven’t let yourself go yet? So, you either are in or haven’t been out for very long. I left the Army almost sixteen years ago. I only served four years, but I can usually pick a military man out a mile away. We all have similar words we use, and we seem to carry ourselves a particular way.”
The mood lightened a bit. Jeremy looked over at Evie, “Well, that explains why you have your back pointed towards the wall and can turn your head either direction and see an entrance. It also makes me a little less concerned that you have looked like you are casing the joint since you walked in here.”
She smiled, “I’m just doing a check of my surroundings. You should know better than anyone that you should never leave your back turned where someone can sneak up behind you. I want to know if I gotta get out what all my options are.”
Creed said, “Well I guess we should tell you who we are. I’m Creed, currently a house husband. This is Evie, she’s not just a veteran, but a badass nurse, and this is my daughter Sylvie and our son Ollie. This little beauty over here’s name is Cassie, we have basically adopted her and are hoping one day she will adopt us. And that nosey slobbering fool is Cinnamon. Now that we got the introductions done, I think we need to tell you nice folks about what’s going on outside especially in the next county over.”
Jeremy looked over to his son Pete, “Take the kids and their four-legged friend upstairs so that we can have a grown-up discussion down here.”
The boy tried to argue with his dad, but all it took was a look from Molly before the boys stood up and ran upstairs. Evie and Creed’s kids were not far behind. Cinnamon clunked up the stairs on the heels of Cassie.
The parents all sat down, and Creed explained what was going on in the neighboring county. Molly and Jeremy listened intently. Evie was listening, but she was more concerned with what was going on outside the window. She didn’t care to relive the last couple days, but she did care if the gang was trying to track them down.
Jeremy stayed quiet for a few moments, and finally, he spoke, “I hate that you had that happen to you. I will help you in any way I can, but I’ve also got to protect my wife and kids from that sex trafficking gang. Let me think on all this overnight. It’s getting late. Molly, can you run upstairs and have the boys share a room for the night? Evie’s kids can share Pat’s room. We have a blow-up mattress we can put in there for them, so they have plenty of sleeping space. You two can sleep down here, and I guess Cinnamon can stay where ever he wants.”
Evie turned to Jeremy, “Those sleeping arrangements should be fine. Cinnamon will sleep upstairs. He’s kind of overprotective of the kids.”
Molly went and got blankets and pillows for Creed and Evie. Evie had noticed she wasn’t much of a talker. She couldn’t tell if she was just shy or if she was less than pleased about these strangers being in her home. Evie was leaning towards the latter. When she brought the blankets in, she looked at Evie, “Will this be enough?”
Evie replied, “Yes, it should be fine. I know this must be rough having complete strangers in your home at such a dangerous time. We will leave as soon as we can, and I promise we will not do anything to hurt you or your kids.”
Molly gave her a half-hearted smile, “My husband trusts you which means I have to trust you. I’m sorry if I have done anything to make you feel unwelcome.”
Those words made Evie cringe all the way to her core, “Molly, you have been a perfect hostess. I was saying that if the shoe was on the other foot, I might have my concerns.” Inside Evie was feeling more than a little sick inside. She could remember when she was a child feeling the pressure to maintain the appearances of a perfect household even though her house was far from it. She could spot a battered woman a mile away. The problem was her abuser was the only person in the world that could keep her safe at this time. Evie reminded herself that there was no way she could get her out of this situation right now.
Molly left and went upstairs. Evie heard the door close. She laid out the blankets and arranged the pillows so that she would be head to head with her husband. She whispered, “We need to get arrangements made to leave tomorrow or the next day at the latest. I’m not feeling good about this.”
Creed said, “No problem. The day after tomorrow at the latest.” He reached up and turned off the light in the corner behind his head.
Evie tossed and turned a lot that night. Her thoughts were swarming between the gang, the kids, her husband, their safety, and the abuse that she sensed was going on inside this home. Creed, as usual, seemed to be sleeping like a log. She sometimes wanted to throat punch him for sleeping so soundly regardless of the world falling down around him.
It was approximately 5 am, and she heard Cinnamon scratching at the door. She quietly crept upstairs and let him out of the bedroom. He pounced down the stairs and gave Creed a lick across the face. Creed just wiped the lick away and continued to snore. Evie put the leash on the dog and took him outside to go pee. He did as all dogs did and marked every tree, every car tire, and every corner around the shed. They were next to the shed, and she heard noise coming from inside it.
She opened the door, and she saw what looked like a man with a small lantern glowing behind him. He quickly introduced himself, “Don’t worry, Evie. It’s me, Jeremy. I can’t ever sleep past 5 am. Been that way ever since I joined the army.”
She agreed, “It took me a long time to get past that. Working nights seemed to help somewhat. It’s strange I usually hear every sound in the night, and I didn’t hear you come downstairs and go outside.”
He smiled, “I have a set of stairs that lead out my bedroom. I didn’t want to wake you all up, so I came out the back way. It seems I woke the dog up though. I’m sorry that he disturbed your sleep because of me.”
She sighed, “No problem there I had a pretty restless night sleep. Since all hell broke loose, I can’t seem to get my overactive brain to shut down. Well, I guess the little guy here as done his business. We will go back inside so you can finish your tinkering on that engine.”
He called after her, “It’s no trouble. You haven’t disturbed me at all. Try to get you an extra hour or two of sleep.” She nodded to him and waved as she stepped outside the shed. She walked up the stairs and went into the house.
She laid down, and Cinnamon laid down on the floor next to her. She fell asleep petting the top of the dog’s head. When she opened her eyes again, it was light outside. She looked at the clock on the wall, it read 7:30 am. She nudged Creed, “It’s time to get up sleepy head. We have a long day ahead of us.”
He opened one eye, “I hate you sometimes. I’m exhausted.”
She giggled, “Yeah, yeah I know. Get your lazy ass up.”
He knew she wasn’t going to give him a moment’s peace until he woke up. So, he sat up and started to wipe the sleep out of his eye. He rubbed what he thought was his morning wood, but then remembered that he had a knife tucked in his crotch. He did some shifting around so that the metal between his legs wouldn’t be rubbing up against his cock and scrotum. He gave his wife an annoyed look, “There I’m up. Are you happy?”
She let out a deep breath, “I’m thrilled. Thank you.” She leaned over and kissed him. She pulled away quickly because the bristles from his beard and mustache were tickling her face and nose. She hated that beard, but he wanted it, so she didn’t complain much about it. She took a deep breath and sat back on the couch.
They were whispering amongst themselves when Pete and Pat came running down the stairs. Creed asked Pete, “Do you care to wake up our kids for us? They have slept late enough. We have to get a lot accomplished today.” Pete nodded to Creed and turned and ran back up the stairs. Within a few minutes, all the kids came running like a herd of elephants downs the stairs.
As the kids were all climbing on the couch with Evie and Creed, Jeremy came through the back door. Evie greeted him, “Good morning, again. I want to thank you again for letting us stay. I wanted to know if you can guide us to one of your neighbors that might have left or are no longer with us if you know what I mean?”
Jeremy answered, “Well, there are very few people left. We lost a lot to the virus. They just turned into zombies. We tried to steer clear and make as little noise as possible. The ones that didn’t die tried to escape when the government started with the EMS bulletins on the radio and tv. They all left for the FEMA camps. I told the ones that came to tell us bye that they were crazy. The last place I’m going right now is a FEMA camp. I don’t want to be herded in like cattle to those small camps. If one person gets infected, that will be it. Not to mention people start stealing each other’s rations. It’s gonna be a mess. I decided we would take our chances here.”
Creed jumped into the conversation, “Yeah, we totally agree. We are just trying to get home to Kentucky. We have a cabin in the woods with provisions. There is no way we would go to a FEMA camp either.”
Jeremy told Creed, “It’s up to you, we can go see what kind of vehicle we can hook you up with together and Evie can stay with the kids and Molly, or if you want to go with Evie, I can stay back here.”
Evie spoke up, “I’ll stay here. You and Creed can look for a vehicle. You wouldn’t happen to have a set of walkie-talkies or shortwave radios would you?”
He responded, “A matter of fact, I do, as long as we stay within a one-mile radius we can stay in contact. I’ve wanted to try them out anyway.” He looked up and saw Molly coming down the stairs, “Did you decide to get up and join us?”
She sneered at him, “Yes, I did thank you for the concern honey.”
Evie could feel a chill fill the air, “Hey, how about we go out and get those walkie talkies so y’all can head off. The sooner Creed finds us a vehicle, the sooner we will be out of your hair.” All the kids walked outside along with Evie, Creed, Jeremy, and the dog. Molly stayed behind. The kids were playing catch and Cinnamon was trying to catch with them also. He jumped on Pat and knocked him down. Pat started rolling around with the dog. They were laughing and playing. Life almost felt normal for a while. Creed brought a few weapons along with him. He grabbed his handgun, his shotgun, and his tomahawk. Jeremy had a baseball bat and an AR-15. He handed one walkie-talkie to Evie, and he took the other one. He instructed her, “Go around the corner to see if they are working.”
She walked around to the front of the house, and she turned the volume up. She pushed the button and said, “Can you hear me?”
She waited for a few seconds and heard a voice coming through the walkie-talkie, “Loud and Clear, girl.” She walked back around the house. She sat down on the back porch to watch the kids play.
Creed assured her, “We will be back soon okay, babe. Try not to worry and don’t let the kids out of your sight.”
She stood up, wrapped her arms around him and whispered, “Be careful. Your ass better come back alive.” She kissed him on the cheek.
The men both took off walking towards the closest house to Jeremy’s home. It was about a quarter-mile away. Evie watched until they disappeared around the corner of the house. Her heart was in her throat. She hated not being able to see them. Anything could happen around that corner.
The two men made small talk as they were entering the home. Creed could tell that Jeremy wasn’t as trusting of him as he was of Evie. He assumed it was them both having a military background and that it must create an immediate bond of some sort. He knew that his wife was a force to be reckoned with, also. Men just naturally felt comfortable with her. It wasn’t in a sisterly way, it was more the fact that she could be raunchier than any man and could hold her own with any man. Confident men saw her as an equal, chauvinistic men saw her as competition.
Creed knocked on the door, and there was no answer. The two men walked inside and checked the house out. They didn’t see or hear any signs of people or the infected being there. Creed was looking in the kitchen to see if they had any food he and his family could take on their trip home. He happened to look up and saw a garage door opener. He called to Jeremy, “Hey buddy, I found the garage door opener, what do you say we go outside and see if they left a vehicle we can ‘borrow’?”
He heard footsteps coming from the front room and Jeremy’s voice saying, “I’ll be right there.”
The two men went in front of the garage door. Jeremy had his baseball bat in the air like he was going to hit a home run. Creed had his tomahawk in one hand and clicked the garage door opener with the other. They were unprepared for what they were about to see. Jeremy yelled out, “It’s a fuckin’ kid zombie! I know her, that’s little Sydney. Her and Pat were in the same class.” What used to be Sydney, came running out the door and charged towards Jeremy. At first, he tried to get away from it because he didn’t want to hurt a child, but Creed came up behind it and smashed her in the head with his tomahawk. Jeremy was appalled, “Dude you just killed a kid.”
Creed shook his head and replied, “Hell no, that wasn’t a kid anymore. What would’ve happened if she got away and two days later killed one of our kids?”
Jeremy stopped he was frozen. What Creed didn’t know was that Jeremy had been to Afghanistan and Iraq. He had seen kids that were suicide bombers. One day he had to make the unfortunate decision to take out one of those kids. It was something he could never remove from his mind. It was always hiding deep in there somewhere, and when Creed hit Sydney, it brought it all pouring back.
Creed shook him, “Jeremy, are you okay? Hey man, snap out of it.”
Jeremy turned to Creed, “Dude, I’m sorry. I just blanked out for a minute.”
They both walked further inside the garage where they saw a garden hose taped in the exhaust and fed into the back window. The engine was no longer running, the car had run out of gas long ago. Jeremy had walked toward the front of the car where he saw his neighbor, Ann in the driver seat. Creed was unable to see in the back passenger seat, so he opened the door. It wasn’t clear if it was the smell or the sight, but he immediately started to throw up. He slammed the door shut.
Jeremy asked, “What the hell is back there?
Creed answered, “It’s a baby in a car seat.”
Jeremy could barely find the words to say, “Oh shit, that’s Maya! What the fuck was that crazy ass woman thinking?”
Creed finally recovered from puking next to the car, “She probably thought that she couldn’t bear to leave one child as a zombie and didn’t think she could survive with a baby on the road.”
Jeremy was disgusted, “I don’t care, but I could never give up. No matter what. I love my family, but you always have to move forward. I didn’t go through hell overseas to die here in my hometown. Either way, there is no way you will ever be able to get the smell out that thing. We will have to move on down the road.” He turned on his walkie-talkie, “Evie, are you there? Evie, can you hear me?”
He heard static then the sound of Evie’s voice, “Yep, it’s me. Are y’all okay?”
Jeremy replied, “We are fine, but we ran into a glitch. We need to go to another house.”
Creed was within range and heard Evie say, “Fine, but you boys stay safe. Tell Creed, I will kill him if he dies.” The two men both laughed and went to the next house. There was one a few hundred feet down the road on the opposite side.
Evie stuck the walkie-talkie back in her pocket. When she looked up, it dawned on her that she didn’t see the kids any longer. All she heard was some laughing and Cinnamon barking in a playfu
l manner. She walked behind the shed and saw the kids playing in the field behind the house. She yelled, “You kids need to come closer to the house. It’s not safe to be that far away.”
Cinnamon took off running, but he was running in the wrong direction. Cassie ran after her dog and the next thing she knew Ollie was running after both the dog and Cassie. She heard Cinnamon start growling and barking and this time it was not in a playful manner. She took off running towards them and sent Sylvie, Pete, and Pat to the house. She was running as fast as she could, but the closer she got the more she realized that the growling she heard was not all just Cinnamon. It was the sound of the infected. “Run back up here now kids. Damn it, dog, get your ass back up here with those kids.”
She finally made it to the kids and Cinnamon. She saw an infected on top of the Ollie. She heard her son screaming for his life. She took out her gun and shot both the infected that were next to him with two shots. She kicked the one that was on top of Ollie multiple times. Once he was no longer on top of Ollie, she shot it in the head twice.
She burst into tears when she saw what had happened. Her son had a huge bite wound above his elbow. She picked him up and carried him back up to the house. She laid him down next to the shed and ran inside it. She found some paracord and wrapped it around his arm as a makeshift tourniquet. Molly came to the door and yelled, “Oh my God, get him away from here.”
Evie screamed at her, “I’m a little busy right now. I’ve got to figure out a way to save my baby.”
Molly ran into the house. When she returned she had a gun in her hand pointed at Ollie. Evie crawled over top of Ollie and dared Molly to hurt him, “Bitch, I’m telling you. Back away now. If you hurt him, I will kill you.”
Molly screamed, “He’s going to kill us all.”
Evie replied with pure anger, “Not if I can help it. Just put the fuckin gun down. If somebody makes that decision, it will be me.”
Evie looked up and saw Creed and Jeremy running towards the house. When they made it to the house they saw Molly with the gun pointed at Ollie and Evie. Jeremy walked over to her and yelled, “Jesus, you crazy bitch. I don’t know why I ever married you. Give me that fuckin gun.”