The Survival Pact

by Christy Sloat

  He shrugged. “Thought I’d travel the country before I die.”

  He did say he didn’t want to go back to California and maybe he didn’t stay in Oregon because his sister was dead. Either way, he was offering us a meal and a place to stay for the night. I didn’t want to get too close, but then again, it was nice to meet someone else. We had been travelling for days and encountered rude people, and a few helpless people.

  We pulled up to a large cabin that didn’t seem like a hunting cabin at all. It was more like someone’s retreat from reality, and it would do nicely for the night.

  “I got electric and hot water here. So feel free to shower; God knows I need one. I will make dinner for you ladies if that’s all right?” he asked, as Emma put the car in park.

  Lou turned toward him and said, “That’s real nice of you, but I think that we can make our own dinner. It’s nice enough that you’re letting us wash up.”

  He looked at me and then at our stash of food in the back.

  “Sure thing,” George said. He broke his gaze and then got out. “I’ll just show you around the place.”

  Snack got out and sniffed around the property a bit before doing her business right on the front porch. I giggled at her lack of empathy for where people planted their feet.

  George showed Emma where the electricity came from, which was solar panels on the side of the cabin. Then he unlocked the front door and waved the key in our direction.

  “Found this under the doormat.”

  I glanced down and saw no doormat. It was weird but not weird enough to think twice about.

  “This is the front room, and upstairs are three bedrooms. I’m staying downstairs on the couch. I don’t like to be away from the front door. Just in case.”

  “You have weapons?” Emma asked, still not making eye contact or being polite.

  “I do.”

  She nodded. “Cause we’re not giving up ours.”

  Then she finally looked at him and if looks could kill.

  “No problem there. I’ll be here if you wanna wash up,” he said with ease.

  “I’ll get to cooking,” Lou volunteered. “Kami, go shower.”

  I didn’t need to be told twice.

  I peeled of my dirty clothes as if they were a second skin. It had been days since I cleaned up or even changed anything. The thought that I had been wearing the same underwear made me a bit ill. If I knew that this would be my life a month ago, I would have done something more exciting before it all happened. As I let the warm water run over my skin, I tried to think about anything but my place in New York. I tried to ignore the desire for a cup of hot coffee and a cozy bed. The last time I slept in a bed was at Lou’s house, before I assisted in her mother’s death.

  I was a horrible person and if I survived this trip, I was going to tell Lou about her mom. I had to. I had to get this off of my chest. The need to tell her what really happened was strong and it ate at me daily. But there were days like this that I could just shut it off like a switch.

  I scrubbed my skin and hair until I felt tingly all over. Blood and fluid from my victims ran down the drain and I didn’t think about that visual and vowed never to again.

  I stepped out and dressed in clean clothes and ran a brush through my hair. This cabin was equipped with all the finer things and the fact that George said it was an old hunting cabin bothered me a little. Having electric after everything shut down was a huge deal. And there was nothing old about all the nice furnishings.

  I left the bathroom and Emma entered grabbing me by my elbow.

  “Shh,” she said to me as she pulled me back inside.

  “What’s going on?” I asked, in a hushed whisper.

  “I don’t trust him. So don’t make yourself too comfortable here. We leave as soon as he falls asleep. We’re going to rest and get our energy back up and then hit the road.”

  I shook my head in confusion. “Why? He seems nice, Emma. I don’t see anything weird about him. He’s just a nice guy who lost his sister and has nothing; like us.”

  She shook her head. “He has this cabin doesn’t he? I don’t buy his story for one minute. He didn’t just come across this cabin in the woods; he stole it. And those people on the road, that’s his doing.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Emma, I love you but you’re a bit too paranoid right now. I think we should leave at first light. Eat, rest, and then go.”

  She let go of my arm and started the shower. “My paranoid behavior may be the only thing that saves our asses. And I won’t let you two trusting bitches get in the way of my protecting you.”

  I laughed. “Thanks. I know you meant that in the nicest way possible. I love you too, Emma.”

  15

  After Lou made dinner she showered and went to bed in one of the upstairs bedrooms. Emma decided to stay downstairs with George to protect the door. I didn’t question her. If that’s what she wanted who was I to change her course of action?

  I said goodnight to the both of them and headed upstairs. As I fell into the bed I could hear Emma and George talking softly.

  I didn’t listen too long before sleep found me. When I was awoken in the dark it wasn’t by Emma or Lou, but instead a banging outside. I sat up fast and with weak knees I went to the window to check it out.

  The sky was pitch black but the full moon shone down on the yard below. I searched the ground for the sign of the loud noise. Nothing.

  I grabbed my gun beside the bed and made sure there was one in the chamber; something Lou taught me while we were driving. “Never walk around with a weapon unless you make sure it’s ready to shoot someone.”

  I held the gun down at my side and listened at the door for any sounds downstairs. I heard no movement which I found odd. There was no way Emma didn’t hear that noise. Lou, I could see since she sometimes slept through the loudest noises. A train could have gone through our dorm room and she’d never hear it.

  I cracked open the door an inch and stilled, listening.

  There was no light coming from downstairs, which again was odd. When I went to sleep a fire was going in the fireplace, even though it wasn’t fire weather.

  As I slipped out the door and down the stairs, I prayed silently that there wasn’t a major horde of dead downstairs. My feet moved noiselessly down the steps and when I made it to the last step I avoided the creaking piece of wood that I noticed when I first went up.

  Some people thought I never paid attention to detail, but I always noticed things. I was a writer; we pay attention to everything.

  I looked to the couch where Emma should have been and then to the one where George was and noticed they were both gone.

  “Shit.”

  I had to go outside and try to find the source of the noise. But as I went into the kitchen I realized that there was more food on the counters than there was when I went up to bed. In fact it looked just like the food we got from the school kitchen.

  Either Emma or Lou had felt like sharing, or George stole it.

  It was too late to go upstairs and wake Lou, so I was going to go outside by myself. As I pulled on my boots that rested by the front door, I thought about what the smartest tactic would be.

  If I went out the front door I might call attention to myself. But if I went out the side door that was locked still, I could sneak out there unnoticed.

  I was thankful that Snack went to sleep with Lou or she’d be barking like mad as I went out the door. I quietly closed it behind me and pulled my gun up. I searched the darkness for any signs of movement. It was all quiet out here, so I decided to keep it that way.

  I moved slow and steady, making absolutely no noise as I crept along the house. Once I made it to the front, just beside the porch, I saw him. George had taken everything out of our Jeep. All of our weapons, our packs, and our food were lying on the porch ready to go inside t
he house. He was pouring something all over the Jeep and when the wind blew in my direction I realized it was gasoline.

  That motherfucker was going to torch our ride. I was going to kill him.

  But I had to find Emma first. I had no idea how he did all of this without her noticing or her not killing him. Unless… no I couldn’t think about that. Emma was indestructible and that’s how I liked to think of her. No one was going to kill her first; she was too amazing for that.

  I hadn’t thought this guy was going to hurt us; he seemed so nice on the road.

  “George what do you wanna do with the ones upstairs?” asked a pretty blonde that came out of a storage shed.

  “Kill ‘em. But do it quickly. I don’t want them waking up and coming after us,” George answered harshly.

  “Got it. Want me to put them with the other one?” she asked. My stomach turned.

  They did hurt Emma.

  He nodded and she closed up the storage shed. Emma had to be inside there.

  I had a choice to make and it wasn’t easy. Which of my friends did I try to save?

  If Emma was in the shed then she was either dead or safe inside there for them to kill later. So I decided that I was going to meet this chick face-to-face and give her a little surprise.

  I crept back inside the house and waited for her to come in. I waited for her in the dark. I heard the door open up and then close quietly. She walked along the floor and it was that last step that gave her position away. I came out of the darkness from behind her and didn’t even think before I put the gun to her temple and switched off the safety.

  “Where is my friend, bitch?” I asked.

  She didn’t even struggle, the fear of death was apparent. I wasn’t messing around and she knew it.

  “Which one?”

  “The soldier.”

  She nodded, “She’s in the shed. George… he had this all planned out. He planned to take--take your food. That’s how we got this place.”

  She was nervous and I was glad. I just didn’t want to hesitate because my feelings got in the way.

  Don’t think about it. I told myself.

  “Is she dead?”

  She shook her head.

  “Who are you in all this? And where were you when he was playing nicey-nice?”

  Her whole body shook against mine and I wouldn’t be surprised if she wet herself from fear.

  “George is my brother. I waited in the shed for him to take care of the Marine. And when he drug her outside I moved quickly to get all the food into the house and unload everything else. We’re not bad people, I swear. We just want to survive just like you do.”

  I shook my head in disgust. “We’re nothing like you psycho’s. We’re not stealing food from people along the way. We’re trying to survive, not kill anyone. That food is ours and has been since this whole thing began. And when I’m done with you, I’ll be loading it back up and driving away with it all.”

  “You’re not going to hurt me. You said you’re not a killer.” Shit, she did have me there. And it was then that she knew I wasn’t going to kill her. She moved quickly and her elbow crashed into my stomach. The pain was swift and I dropped my hold on her instinctively.

  She grabbed my hand and clenched my gun. I fought for my hold on it but this girl was stronger than she looked. My hands began slipping and I used the only thing I could to fight her off.

  I head-butted her in the face and as much as it hurt my own head to do it, blood flowed freely from her nose.

  She screamed and I knew that I’d have to deal with George now. I couldn’t hold back with him. I would have to kill another human.

  When the arrow flew into the girl’s skull, she dropped like a fly. My mouth fell open in shock. I hadn’t even seen it coming. I looked up and saw Lou with that wrist rocket that I had made fun of. I realized now that she had killed the girl with it.

  It didn’t seem to faze her as she came down the stairs.

  “We gotta move fast,” I told her, as Snack barreled down behind her.

  “He’s torching my Jeep isn’t he?” she asked, looking outside.

  I nodded and she took off toward the front door; so much for keeping quiet.

  Snack was out the door faster than anyone else. I didn’t realize how fast that darn dog was until she attacked George’s leg with ferocity, she grabbed a hold of it and didn’t let go. George flung her as hard as he could and she still didn’t let go.

  Lou held her wrist rocket, and I my gun, and we aimed toward his face as the Jeep went up in flames.

  “Your sister’s dead. Great plan, George. Where’s our friend?” I informed him.

  His face fell, and the fact that Snack clung to him like a tick no longer mattered.

  “She’s… she can’t be dead,” he cried. “You killed her?”

  “Do we need to repeat ourselves?” I said.

  “You bitches!” He ran toward us and Snack let go. I shot twice taking him down on the second shot. He fell to the ground clenching his belly where blood began pouring out. “No. No. This can’t be.”

  I walked toward him and leaned down as he writhed in pain. “Why did you think you could get away with this? You killed the people who lived here and probably tons more. You can’t survive by stealing and murdering everyone, George. I sure hope the Devil has a nice cell for you to rot in.”

  He spat at me but it was weak.

  “The Devil is here you dumb whore. And you can’t escape the evil that walks around in corpses without being ruthless.”

  “Yeah, okay,” I said, as I rolled my eyes. “I don’t think I need your advice.”

  Lou unlocked the shed with a set of keys she found on his sister’s body. Emma lay on the ground in a heap. I had never seen her so helpless before.

  “She won’t wake up for hours. And I’m not going to die,” George said, as he started to get up.

  “Yeah, I don’t think you’re going to survive that,” I told him, pointing to his wound.

  He fell back down unable to get up or move properly.

  I kept my gun on him while Lou dragged Emma outside. The flames of the torched car were rising higher and we needed wheels badly. I searched the property trying to remember if I saw one as we drove up.

  I took my eyes off George for one second and felt the pain in my leg like fire that burned hotter than the car.

  I heard the gunshot and looked down at George, it wasn’t one he would survive. I didn’t watch as he took his last breath but I heard it. One last look up and I saw Emma holding the gun that killed him.

  “Kami,” Lou yelled, as I went down. All I saw was blood covering my leg and foot and I blacked out.

  Snack was licking my face and not in the cute way that a dog does, but more in a ‘hey I want to make-out with you’ way.

  I pushed her off and sat up.

  “Ow,” I exclaimed, as I felt a burning hot pain in my leg that ran up my spine.

  “Sit back and try to relax, Kam,” Emma said, as she ran her hand over my forehead.

  “What the… you’re okay?” I searched for the burning wreckage of our Jeep and the cabin but all I saw was pitch black. But we were moving.

  We were in a car. Not the Jeep and definitely not as well equipped.

  “Shhh. You’re sort of drugged a bit and you’re probably disoriented. The bottle said you’d feel a bit confused so try to take it easy,” she told me pushing me back. “Just sit back and we’ll tell you everything.”

  I nodded as I began remembering things.

  The cabin. George’s crazy sister who was now dead. The torched jeep. All of our stuff on the porch. And George taking his last breath, but not before the pain in my leg.

  I looked down and saw the bandage on my leg.

  “What happened to it?” I asked.

  “That scumbag u
sed a pretty big knife to stab you in the calf. It went deep and his knife was rusted beyond hell. We had to amputate the rest of your leg in order to prevent it from spreading.”

  “What!?” I yelled, feeling for my leg.

  “Emma, leave her alone!” Lou yelled, from the driver’s seat. “He stabbed you and you’ll live. Don’t listen to her, she’s an idiot.”

  Emma laughed at her joke and I was too tired to yell at her.

  She continued to tell me what happened after I blacked out. “We found this car hidden at Psycho George’s place. It’s not the Jeep but it will do for now. We filled it back up as much as we could before the dead started coming for us. I shot as many as I could while Lou packed it up and loaded you in, and then we hit the road.”

  I looked at the car, which was more like a station wagon, and saw that we had significantly less food than before.

  If I hadn’t passed out, or maybe prevented him from stabbing me, I would have been able to help them load more.

  “Sorry,” I said before the drugs forced me down into sleep.

  16

  Lou pulled into a shopping center that was full of cars. It looked like people were out for a Sunday shopping trip, except there were no people. It was a total ghost town as we drove up and down the rows of cars searching for signs of threats.

  A few lifeless made their way to us but Lou ran them over and that was that.

  She parked the car, that I figured out was a Volkswagen, and pointed to a Jeep.

  “That one,” she said.

  “Can’t we just keep this car?” I asked, not wanting to have to switch everything back over to a new car.

  “No. I want a Jeep and I don’t like this crappy car. We’ll have more room and we can get through the hills better.”

  I nodded and got out as Emma watched my back. Snack ran alongside me as I mostly hobbled.

  The pain was manageable but I couldn’t run to save my life, which in the end of the world was sorta the point.

  This Jeep was smaller than hers and less badass for sure, but it was currently empty. I gave a thumbs up to Emma and I opened the already unlocked doors.