by W. A Castle
“How could you do what you did? You abandoned your baby to go kill those monsters, what if something had happened to him?” Val sounded so appalled I couldn’t help myself from turning in my seat and see if she was for real.
“Eli is a responsible kid, I didn’t abandon Diego,” You bitch; I bit back those last words, “I did what I had to do to keep those flesh eaters from getting to us.” I said through gritted teeth. I was over trying to give Val benefit of the doubt.
“Flesh eaters?” Whimpered Pattie, Val shot me a glare, I glared right back at her.
“You could have just called out to Aaron, he had the gun.” Val said looking away from me.
“He was a bit busy at the moment if you don’t recall.” Seriously, what is this? I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone inside the Twilight Zone. With a sigh I turned back on my seat. I looked at Ulises waiting for him to back me up. I did what I had to do and I didn’t put either Eli or Diego in danger. Sensing my stare, Ulises looked at me from the corner of his eye, “What? I side with her. You never should have put yourself in danger.”
I interrupted him with a scoff but he continued on like if he hadn’t heard me, “You have two kids for Christ sake.”
My mouth fell open in surprise, “What? I don’t have two kids?” I stuttered.
He took his eyes off the road for a second to look at me and then back at Eli in the seat behind me.
Eli spoke up without even looking up from his snack, “Trevor is my brother. Our mama is going to call us soon from Japan.”
“Oh. I-uh, thought you and Trevor, and the kids...” Ulises seemed flushed, which was a startling sight in a man with such a rough exterior such as his.
“No. We just met the other night and he’s been helping momma and me with the baby and everything.” I said, a blush creeping up my face making my cheeks feel like they were next to an open flame. Ulises didn’t say anything else but gave me a last glance before focusing back on the road. I looked down at Diego as he finished drinking his bottle and gave a small baby yawn before closing his eyes. “Roar.” I whispered as he yawned.
I couldn’t help but turn around in my seat and look through the back window and look for Maddie’s face. It was hard making her and Ulises’s faces from the dark tinted windows from Ulises’s hummer but my mind wouldn’t quiet down until I saw she was still there.
“Maddie and Diego are both okay, Sue-Anne.” Trevor’s sweet voice made me turn back on my seat, and he continued, “I know, though, I keep looking back at them and make sure they’re still there, that Eli is still there.”
Heavens me, I knew I wasn’t the only one separated from a loved one right now, but Maddie was my baby (no matter how old she was she would always be my baby), my only child and ever since the world went to hell I haven’t been away from Maddison for more than a few minutes. I knew Maddie was easily triggered and I feared for her every second of every hour. When she was a child her generalized anxiety had been more easily manageable (so it seemed at the time) but once she graduated high school she refused to leave her room, sometimes for weeks at a time. I knew she was an anxious girl but we didn’t learn about her agoraphobia until one day when I forcefully pulled her out of the house, in one of those moments I where I was so frustrated that my child had become a hermit and lived inside her own head refusing to step foot outside the front door and was fed up with it. I still remember that moment so vividly. Maddie dug her feet into the ground and gasped and cried. I didn’t know what to make of such spectacle. Then Maddie clutched at her chest and began hyperventilating, I thought she was having a heart attack, at a loss I had called an ambulance and we were given her diagnosis soon after.
After a few years of therapy Maddie had progressed enough to be able to move out on her own, encouraged by that nutty psychologist of hers. When she moved out, I almost prohibited her from going through with it. But I do want what is best for her; I want her to be strong and independent. But after a lifetime of helping her though panic attacks and doing everything to keep her sheltered, it was damn hard for me to let go.
And now that we are stalked by demented people trying to eat us, my worry was almost as crippling as her agoraphobia. She’s a strong kid (although not so much of a kid now), seeing her walk out of her house, something she rarely ever did on her own accord, and seeing her bring flesh eater after flesh eater down , something blossomed in me. Hope. Maybe, maybe, she was stronger than she even knew. I was ashamed to admit that maybe she was stronger that even I thought she really was.
“I still worry, son.” I smiled at him. In my motherly heart I had adopted Trevor and Eli. They were still kids and their momma was away, I decided I would take them in as my own. But I didn’t tell them that.
“Could I ask why exactly are we heading to Nevada?” Adrie asked from the back seat. Bless her heart, that girl was trembling in her seat, her eyes constantly shifting outside to the streets that blurred past.
“We are meeting a family friend there darling. He will help us.” I smiled at her. I wasn’t sure whether it was okay or not to tell them that Maddie’s man friend, Jax, had a bunker that he was taking us to, because… I didn’t know if he could take all thirteen of us. When Jax had offered us safe haven, it had been just Maddie and I. I bit my lip and looked forward, not really paying attention to the road ahead.
“How exactly can your friend help us? How can anyone help us?” Lexi asked in a surly tone.
“We need to make a pit stop.” Aaron’s static voice came through the walkie-talkie.
“What’s up?” Ulises’s voice sounded next.
“Bathroom break.” Aaron’s amused voice replied.
The three cars came to a slow stop, no sense in pulling over I guess, we are the only ones on the road. Everyone got out of the cars, stretching their stiff legs and backs.
“Where are we?” Clara asked walking over to us.
“We’re just about to cross over to Hesperia.” Trevor replied, making his way to the hummer. I pursed my lips in an attempt to conceal my smile; Trevor had a thing for Maddie. A mother always knows these things. Even in the worst of times, love can still blossom. Where there is love, there is hope.
“It’s fucking hot.” Gary fanned himself with his shirt as he walked around the cars.
I shielded my eyes and looked up at the sky; this summer heat would make hades feel like a winter resort. The further we went into the desert the more suffocating the heat was going to become. With my head still tilted towards the sky, three stars in the sky caught my eye. Bright Stars? I squinted. It was too early for any stars to be visible and no stars I had ever seen had ever been this bright. No, these were bright lights of some sort. Planes? My heart started pounding in my chest.
“Guys are those bright lights over there?” I exclaimed, pointing towards the shimmering lights in the sky. I could hear the group gasp as they saw the lights. The bright lights became brighter and bigger, I took a step back briefly thinking they might explode. But as sudden as they became bigger and brighter, they disappeared suddenly. I blinked once then twice. What was-
“What was that?” Maddie finished my thoughts. I turned to her wide eyed and shook my head in confusion.
Chapter Five: Gloom of the Grave
I stood there in the middle of the road. I looked up at where the bright stars had just been seconds ago then I scan my eyes, taking in my surroundings. We were in the deserted highway now, surrounded by nothing but red dirt and distant mountains. All that open space began to smother me and my chest began to feel tight. Diego squirmed in my arms and Eli held on to my free hand, having them here grounded me in a way.
“What the hell was that?” Aaron ran a hand through his thick curly auburn hair. I blinked, and then turned away. Whatever it was it was gone now.
Eli tugged at my arm, “Maddie, I really need to go number one.” He whispered. I smothered a smile and turned to look for Trevor, I jumped back when I turned and he was right behind me.
“Eli needs to use the
potty.” I leaned into Travis, whispering. He gave me a conspiratorial twitch of eyebrows and a smirk. As Eli and Trevor went behind some bushes (Because hey, no modesty in the apocalypse right?), some of the others did the same.
“Am I supposed to just squat?” Lexi sighed and she and Adrie stalked off behind some bushes. I had to pee but I wasn’t ready to go primitive just yet. Diego writhed in my arms again, I looked down at him with a frown; he had slept and eaten, what was wrong now? I searched for momma but I could see the top of her red head behind some bushes. I patted Diego’s bum in a soothing motion, that’s when I felt it; he needed his diaper changed. Oy, I pressed the bridge of my nose between my thumb and index finger. I was about to get a crash course in diaper change. I walked towards the hummer quickly and set Diego down on the passenger seat, after some fumbling I pulled out a new diaper and baby wipes. Biting back groans of eekiness I quickly cleaned Diego (I am proud to say I only gagged twice!) Once he was nice and clean again he gifted me with a gurgling smile and closed his eyes again. I couldn’t help myself from leaning down and kissing his chubby cheeks.
When I leaned away to throw away the dirty diaper I caught Val’s eyes. She was leaning against the Camry, arms folded across her chest glaring at me. What was her problem anyway?
I was so ready to reach Jax. It was a mixture of excitement and something else I couldn’t name. I had only seen Jax a handful of times over the years that we’ve known each other, although we constantly talked to each other via calls, text and video chat apps. What would he think of all these people that were coming with us to his bunker now? I can’t imagine what he’s going through right now, making his way down to me after just having lost Alexa. Fuck.
It was deserted here. No survivors, no flesh eaters, not even abandoned cars anywhere in sight. It gave me an eerie feeling that we could very well be the last people on earth… well except for Jax too. Speaking of… I got my phone out with the intentions of letting him know where we were but I had zero bars out here. The desert is notorious for dead zones. I jammed my phone back into my jeans pocket frustrated.
“Let’s hit the road!” Ulises’s voice thundered. This time I traded places with momma, letting her ride in the safe hummer with Diego.
It was all relatively peaceful and uneventful. I tuned out Lexi’s excessive complaining and just went between stealing glances at Trevor and zoning out looking the blurring scenery. If you forgot the entire cannibalistic crazy virus induced state that had infected the population, this scenery could actually be beautiful.
It wasn’t until we reached the middle of Victorville that we ran into a straight, unadulterated hell scene. Aaron, who was in the car in front of us, screeched to a halt, “Oh shit!” Trevor barely had time to press down on the brakes running into the back of the Honda. Ulises who was behind us also screeched to a halt, steering the hummer to the side of the road and quickly made a U-turn. Both Trevor and Aaron attempted to do the same but the horde of flesh eaters was already pounding at our doors.
Aaron gave up trying to reverse to make a U-turn and rammed through the horde. I wanted to scream out but I bit down on my tongue so hard I could taste my own blood. Adrie on the other hand whimpered and screeched, banging on the headrest of my seat and yelled at Trevor to gun it. As Trevor tried to maneuver the vehicle through the horde without crashing into one of the buildings, I clutched my seat belt and the door handle until I felt my fingers were about to break. I had to hold on to something to keep from being thrown around like a rag doll. Fleshy, bloody faces pressed against my window, teeth scratched at the glass as the flesh eaters snapped their teeth against it as if they could already taste the tasty chow just behind the glass. They pounded their fists and heads against the windows with such ferocity I was afraid that the glass would break with each thud. Lexi and Adrie unbuckled their belts and huddled together in the middle seat.
The flesh eaters’ groans were deafening. But through their growls and screeches I could hear far away screams of horror. A shiver went up my spine and made my skin break out in goosebumps. Oh God I could recognize those sorts of screams anywhere. Through the masses I could make out a figure that recoiled from the horde and lifted his bloody and torn arm to his eyes as he screamed in agony, in an instant the flesh eaters around him turned on him and went to chow town. I whimpered and pressed my fist to my mouth.
“Was that a survivor?” Lexi gasped trying to look through the writhing masses.
Trevor drove through the maze streets trying to out run the flesh eaters while trying not to crash into the buildings. I wiggled around in my seat trying to spot the other cars, but all I could see and hear where the growlers.
“Fuck!” Trevor growled as he made a sharp turn, the wheels of the car went up onto the sidewalk, the side of the car clipping the side of a building. The car jolted sending my head crashing hard into the window. Oww! I silently groaned as I clutched my head and tightly shut my eyes when my vision became blurry.
From the back seat I could hear Lexi and Adrie whimpering. I shook my head and focused on the road ahead. Where the fuck where we going anyways? I reached for the walkie-talkie radio that was rolling around beneath my feet, “Guys, where are you?” The static crackled in response then went silent a moment later.
The car screeched to a brutal stop, the smell of burn rubber filled the air burning my nostrils and making us cough. The sudden stop made us lurch forward, the seatbelt dug into my chest painfully. But Lexi and Adrie (who had taken their seatbelts off to get away from the windows) crashed into the back of my seat and Lexi even lurched forward enough to make it through the partition in the middle of the front seats. “Crap.” Lexi muttered, pulling her hand back from the consoles and pushing herself back.
My eyebrows furrowed, my nostrils flared and my mouth gaped open as I took in the scene in front of us. Adrie hyperventilated behind me, I couldn’t see or hear Lexi’s reaction. Travis’s hand reached for mine, which was gripping the dashboard to steady myself. I clutched to his hand. In front of us was a massive cluster of flesh eaters, they seemed to have been in a standing comatose state, they reminded me of how a cave full of sleeping bats looked. One by one each flesh eaters opened their eyes. And just like a colony of bats leaving their cave, the flesh eaters simultaneously broke off at a sprint towards us. Holy mother of shit! I internally freaked out. For whatever miracle of reason Travis kept his head on long enough to quickly and efficiently turn the car around. What was with this town? It’s like all of the flesh eaters for miles around had congregated in this little town, because certainly this small town in the middle of nowhere couldn’t have housed these many residents. My mind did a flashback to the horde gathering in my hometown. Did… did flesh eaters flock?
“We’re holed up in some library.” Momma’s voice crackled through the walkie-talkie. My mother! I had been so caught up in this craziness that besides initially looking for the others’ cars, I hadn’t stopped to hope that momma, Diego and Eli had made it out alive. That everyone had gotten away from the swarm. Guilt threatened to break my thinly stretched sanity. “Baby, it’s just off Alley Avenue, make your way here. Be careful.” Momma’s voice broke through once more before the static died.
“Instead of high tailing it outta here, we’re going rendezvous in a damned library in the middle of a monster infected town? Yeah that makes sense.” Lexi muttered, holding on to a sobbing Adrie. I tried really hard to swallow my annoyance towards her. I am well aware we are all threading on thin ice where our nerves are concerned, but goddamn, Lexi’s constant negative attitude was sanding away at my thinly veiled calm.
“We need to meet up with the others. We all made the decision to stick together, we won’t leave anyone behind.” Trevor spoke in calming tones; I looked at him trying to figure out how the hell he was so calm! But the twitch in his jaw gave him away. He was speaking like that for our sake. Bless his heart.
Trevor was driving through the streets looking for the library while we were keeping an eye out for A
lley Avenue.
“There!” Adrie exclaimed, hitting her fists on my headrest and pointed towards the city signs indicating with arrows where the library was. Trevor followed the signs trying to out run the flesh eaters and trying not to lose control of the vehicle.
I don’t know how the hell it happened; the universe must have just said ‘the fuck with you bitches!’ because at an intersection two hordes came together, creating a massive swarm of festering flesh and animalistic growls. At that, it was impossible for the car to continue forwards. The horde behind us joined the new horde. Trevor dug his foot all the way to the floor but the car would only reeve and lurch forwards slightly but as it creeped forward the wheels got stuck underneath all the flesh eaters he was running over. The car jolted and bumped and threw us all over the interior. I couldn’t stop the dry sob that made its way up from my throat. Lexi shrieked when the car was almost tipped over by the swarming mass of flesh eaters pushing against the car trying to get to us.
Would they give up if we stayed quiet and unmoving long enough? Did they have short term memory? All these questions swam around in my head making it hard to catch my breath. I looked back and one of my questions was answered. Adrie had checked out. She sat huddled by the window, her knees up and her arms around them with a vacant look in her eyes, her eyes were glistening but she was a statue. A quick look outside her window told me the flesh eaters weren’t about to give up on trying to break inside anytime soon. Half a face outside pressed against her window. Next to Adrie’s face a bloody tongue poked through jagged, broken teeth and licked the window. Jesus fuck. I swallowed the bile that threated to come up.
“Get us out!” Lexi roared, “Christ, Adrie, pull away.” Lexi swung her arms around a zombified Adrie.
My thoughts went to momma and Diego, and Eli. Even though I had only just met Eli, I had bonded with that kid. I really didn’t want to die. My heart was pounding as hard as the pounds on the windows. Trevor kept hitting the gas pedal up until the window next to my face shattered, sending both glass and bloody fingers into my hair. I screamed when I felt my head being pulled back towards outside of the car. I grasped at whatever I could to keep from being dragged out. Strong hands held onto mine and pulled half of me back inside. Other hands grabbed my arms trying to pull me in as well. I shut my eyes tight and whimpered when all I could hear the guttural growls right by my ears. I could smell them. Any moment now they were going to turn me into gourmet Maddie chow.