by Bell, A. E.
Derek announced, “They’re coming after us, and they’re bringing that horde with them.”
Creed sighed, “Look, there is no way they can keep up with us with that tire losing air.”
He kept staring into the distance, “When that horde catches them they are done for. Did we just leave them to die?”
She looked at him with determination, “We didn’t do shit. They chose to try and separate us. They chose to try to take that little girl. We reacted to the choices they made. That’s all. There is only one thing that matters to me, getting my family to safety.”
He saw their car disappear into the horde, “They are as good as dead now.”
She grabbed him, “Quit looking. There is nothing we can do or could’ve done differently.”
Chapter 18
Derek asked, “So, what do we do? Just sit in the cabin for a couple of weeks until this thing works its way out?”
She shook her head and scoffed, “I don’t think you are getting the big picture here. This thing is not just going to work its way out. I was working in a hospital when this shit started, I’ve never seen a virus even close to this thing, and I’m not just talking about the fact that people started eating each other. I’m talking about how fast this thing spreads.”
Derek tried to convince himself she was wrong, “Maybe they can find an antibiotic or something to cure it. That’s possible right?”
She put her head down, “No it’s not possible. This thing is a virus, you can’t cure it with antibiotics. If we are lucky and that’s a big if, they will come up with a vaccine for it eventually. The disease has to run its course, and the rate people are becoming infected it could wipe us all out by then.”
He was in total disbelief, “That can’t be. It can’t be possible.”
She spoke calmly and assertively, “It is possible. It is happening all around us. We have to fight to stay alive. We need to get to the cabin and pray that nobody has destroyed what we built out there.”
Creed took a quick left turn, and the horde was out of sight but not out of mind. He drove as fast as he safely could, but there were cars abandoned on the road making it difficult to pass especially with all the curves. Jeremy fell over onto his hurt arm, “Fuck that hurt.”
Evie hurried to him, “Let me help you sit back up.” She checked his arm, “The bleeding looks like it has about stopped. You will be fine now. I’ll patch you up better when we get home.”
The truck came to a screeching halt. Evie whipped her head around to see what was going on. There was a car turned over in the middle of the road and a few infected climbing out of it. He slowly pushed into the far side of the car, hoping it would move the car over a little so that they could pass by. He continued slowly pushing, and within a few minutes, he had nudged it over enough that he barely squeezed by it. He knew he had to be careful, under the best of circumstances this road could be difficult to navigate, all the stopped cars and occasional infected were making it that much harder.
Another car sped around the curve and hit them head-on. Creed checked to make sure the kids were all alright. Evie checked on Derek and Jeremy. Amazingly nobody was injured. Creed jumped out of the vehicle, “What the fuck? You could’ve killed somebody.”
A teenage girl got out, “I’m sorry, but my parents are acting crazy. I was trying to find them help.”
Creed looked at the truck, “Look, if we can get the truck started, we will drive up and take a look at them.”
The girl sighed a sigh of relief, “Thank you so much.”
Creed turned the engine over, and it actually started. He asked the girl, “Where do you live?”
She answered, “If you get to the top of this hill there is a drive on the left. The house is set back a little bit.”
Creed told the girl, “Get on the back and we will head up there.”
Creed drove carefully up the hill and turned into the drive. He got out of the truck and said, “I think it would be best if the girl stays with Jeremy and the dog. Evie and Derek, come with me.”
They walked apprehensively into the house. They heard a clanking sound coming from inside. Creed went around the corner and saw an infected banging against the back-screen door trying to get out. He quietly approached it and stabbed it up through the base of the head. When he pulled the knife out, the infected fell to the floor. They searched the rest of the house but could never find what used to be the girl's mother.
Evie walked out cautiously outside to the truck, “Honey, I don’t know how to say this, but there is no way to save your parents. They have already turned into one of them. Do you have someone that you can stay with?”
The girl was sobbing, “No, all I have is them. I just came home from college because my parents were scared for me to stay in Louisville with all this happening.”
By this time, Creed had made his way outside. Evie walked up to him, “We can’t leave her by herself, and she says she has nobody to watch over her.”
Creed scoffed, “Hell, why not? I guess she has to come with us.”
Creed went over to the girl, “Alright, first things first. What’s your name?
She replied, “Sarah.”
He inquired, “Do you all have another vehicle?”
She answered, “Yeah, we have a Jeep in the garage.”
He tapped his hand on the truck, “Okay, we are going to get the Jeep and take as many resources from your house as we can. Is that good with you?”
She still had tears rolling down her face, “Yes, that’s fine with me.”
He asked, “Where are the keys to the jeep?”
Sarah quietly replied, “They are in the house on the kitchen counter.”
Creed ran back inside and grabbed the keys. He pulled the jeep out of the garage. He told Evie and Derek, “Load as much stuff from the house into that truck as we can. Evie, you need to drive the jeep. Cinnamon can stay on the back of the truck, but you need to take Derek, Jeremy, and Sarah with you.”
She nodded, “Sounds good.”
The proceeded to the cabin. Sarah was in the jeep with Evie and asked, “What is all this? Why are people trying to eat other people?”
Evie answered the best she could, “It’s some kind of virus. Some people believe that it is a biological agent that North Korea started. All I know is that once you get sick or if you get bit, you eventually die and then turn into one of those flesh-eating monsters.”
Sarah was in shock, “So, how do you get sick?”
Evie shrugged her shoulders, “I’m not sure. I think it’s through bodily fluids because I was around a lot of sick people in Seattle and never got sick. The first people we treated was a man and his wife. After that, everything got really crazy, fast.”
Something caught Evie’s eye off to the left. She looked and saw a woman running for her life from one of those things. Derek screamed, “We have to help her.”
Evie slammed on the brakes, “Come on, Derek.” She handed Sarah a gun, “If anything or anybody besides once of us come to the jeep, shoot them in the head.”
They took off running towards the infected. Evie started yelling, “Hey, come over here you, stupid mother fucker. Come and get me.”
He must have heard her because he started scurrying in Evie’s direction. Derek ran up to it and stuck an ax straight into its forehead. He pulled it out and struck it again. Its brains started spilling out of its head.
The woman never stopped, she just kept running for her life.
Creed hadn’t noticed that Evie had stopped. He looked in the rearview mirror and realized that they were gone. He started driving slow, to see if they were going to catch up. After a couple of minutes, he decided to turn around and try to find them. After he turned around, he saw Evie and Derek walking back to the jeep from a field. He shouted, “What the fuck are you two doing?”
Evie pointed towards the lady running away, “There was an infected chasing that woman, so we stopped to help.”
Creed shook his head,
“Seriously, can y’all get back in the jeep and let’s get home? Don’t stop again unless you signal me.”
She put her middle finger in the air, “Yes, sir. No problem.”
Derek looked at her, “He must have the patience of a saint to deal with your ass. Are you always so stubborn and opinionated?”
She laughed, “Absolutely, that’s why he married me.”
The rest of the drive was slow but no major obstacles. Derek looked out the window down a huge hill, he saw a bunch of those things down at the bottom. They were walking slower than he had ever seen them move before. He asked Evie, “Why do you think they are down that hill?”
She shrugged, “I’m guessing because they go with the flow of least resistance and if that’s the case we have one thing going for us. Our cabin is on top of a ridge.”
Sarah started stuttering, “This guy doesn’t look good back here.”
Evie instructed Sarah, “Check the wound on his arm. Is it bleeding? Turn him, so he’s laying down and raise his legs up on yours. If he’s still bleeding, apply pressure to it. I can’t help him until we get to the cabin.”
Sarah answered, “I don’t see any more blood, but he seems pretty out of it.”
Everyone was quiet as they drove the curvy country road to what they hoped was a safe place to stay until a new beginning. They all wondered if there would be a new beginning or if they would all perish along the way.
Sarah just sat there watching every breath that Jeremy took. She was afraid every breath might be his last. His breathing was beginning to sound labored. Evie could hear it, she turned and looked at Sarah, “I know you are afraid. It’s going to be okay. Jeremy is going to be okay. I just gotta get him to the cabin. I will give him fluids, antibiotics, and stitch him up. He will be good as new.”
Derek wasn’t used to curvy roads like this. He was a city boy through and through. The more curves they went around, the sicker he felt. He finally opened the window and started throwing up. He couldn’t help it. He felt like he was in a small boat out in the middle of the ocean. Once he started throwing up, he couldn’t stop. Evie looked over at him and chuckled a little bit to herself. She tapped his arm, “Don’t worry, you will eventually get used to it.”
He lifted his head from vomiting and muttered, “How much further?”
She answered, “It’s less than five minutes.” She was like a little kid on her way to Disney World. The anticipation was killing her. She was happy to be home but worried that the cabin wouldn’t be there when they got there. She had no idea what they would do if they traveled all this way and lost so much for nothing. She wondered if she had sacrificed her son’s life for a pipe dream.
Chapter 19
Creed put his turn signal on out of habit, but he knew that Evie knew exactly where to turn. They turned left onto an old dirt road and climbed a hill. Evie took a deep breath and slowly released it when she saw the green metal roof to their cabin. They pulled in front of it. It was a simple one-room cabin, but in Evie’s eyes, it was like the Taj Mahal.
She climbed out of the jeep and hit her knees. She was crying tears of happiness. The moment that she had been waiting for was finally there. Everyone else started piling out of the vehicles. They were so happy and hugged each other.
Evie knew the joy was short-lived, they had so much to do. The first thing they needed to do was try and save Jeremy. Creed and Derek walked over to the jeep and pulled Jeremy out of the backseat. They carried him into the cabin and laid him on a cot. Evie went to work on him, knowing that he only had a 50/50 chance of survival at best. Evie called for Sylvie, “Honey, I need you to hand me stuff as I ask for it.”
Sylvie crouched down between the cot and the tote full of medical supplies that her mother had in the cabin. She spiked the IV bag with the tubing and primed the line while Evie was looking for a vein. She hit the vein first stick and ran the IV fluids wide open. She told Sylvie, “When that bag is almost empty start a fresh bag. Keep an eye on it because it’s going to go in fast.”
Evie started investigating his gunshot wound. She took some saline and cleaned the wound. She stuck her gloved finger into the wound to make sure there weren’t any bleeders or bullet fragments left inside. She didn’t feel anything out of the ordinary, so she cleaned it again and then began sewing it up. She started with the exit wound and then made her way to the entrance wound. She opened some antibiotic capsules and mixed them with normal saline. She injected it into the second bag of fluid. She glanced up at Sylvie, “You did good. Come on let’s go talk to Pete and Pat.”
They walked out the door. Pete and Pat were standing next to the door waiting for word on how their father was doing. Evie put her arms around the boys, “All we can do now is watch and wait. I think he will be okay. He’s just going to be weak for a little while. We’ve done all we can for now. It’s his turn now, but your father is a fighter. He will pull through this.”
Cassie walked up to Evie, “Can you fix Cinnamon now? He’s really hurt.”
Evie cringed, she didn’t know anything about working on dogs. She looked down at the little girl, “Sure, baby I will do everything I can.” She called to Creed, “Can you put the dog on a tarp and bring him inside the cabin?”
Creed tapped Derek’s arm, “Come on, man. Let’s get take the dog in there.”
Evie asked Sylvie, “Are you ready to help me, again? We got to patch up the dog next.”
Sylvie smiled at her mom, “No problem, momma.”
Evie told Derek and Creed, “Hey, I will need y’all to keep this dog from biting me and from moving around too much.”
Evie washed her hands and put gloves on. She cut open Cinnamon’s hip a little bit. Then, she slid her fingers in and found the bullet. Evie manipulated the bullet with one of the tools from her kit and was able to extract it.
Meanwhile, Cinnamon yelped in pain and occasionally tried to bite Derek. Creed put the dog’s head in his lap and stroked his head, “It’s alright, boy. Just calm down and let Evie work her magic.” She sewed up the dog as quickly as she could. Cassie cried every time she heard her dog yelp in pain.
Afterward, Evie walked out and said, “You can go in and see Cinnamon now. Your dog is going to be alright. I promise.”
Cassie wrapped her arms around Evie’s waist, “Thank you so much. I love him. I don’t know what I would do without my dog.”
Evie put her hand on the back of the child’s head. “You're, very welcome. Now go see the doggie.”
Creed addressed the group, “This is a small cabin, but it will have to work for now. The cabin is far enough in the woods that very few people even know it’s here. Everyone will need to pitch in to make this work.”
Evie walked to the side of the hill and stared at the vast countryside around them. She thought to herself that the fate of the world may be in question but for now what’s left of her family is safe.