The Contaminated: Where Were You When The Pandemic Hit?

by Kypers, Ryan

  Contmain8r: Don’t know yet. How long will it take you to get here?

  Darylsaurus: About eleven hours, assuming this maps program is correct and there are no delays.

  ZmB1EbtR: They’re usually accurate enough.

  Darylsaurus: That’s what I’m hoping for.

  Contamin8r: Do you really think that Kansas City is a haven for us, for people?

  Darylsaurus: I don’t know. All that I know is that we don’t have another option, and that we can do this.

  Chapter 20

  I heard the sound of a car engine pull up the driveway and into the backyard. The rear window of the house showed me that Zach and Chelsea were pulling the tarp over the green sedan, placing the rocks on top of it to hold it down. They quickly put two packs on their back and came inside through the backdoor.

  “You guys good?” I asked when they put their packs down. Both were heavy eyed and had slumping shoulders. “You seem tired.”

  Chelsea walked over and sat down next to the kitchen table, “We got in and out pretty fast. Went back to the superstore up the highway. We managed to fill the packs with cans before a contaminated showed up. Should have just killed it and left, but we tried to sneak around it.”

  “Tried is the key word,” Zach added. “Unfortunately the contaminated tried harder to find us. We ran for a bit before just saying fuck it. Didn’t realize that we left the bats in the car until it was right on top of us.”

  “We had to lure it down an aisle before Zach pushed on one side of the shelf, collapsing the whole thing onto it,” Chelsea finished. “It was pretty cool actually. A few more shelves fell kind of like dominos, but much, much louder.”

  They proceeded to empty the contents of their bags onto the kitchen table. The sound of aluminum colliding with the wooden table erupted through the house, making me instinctively look out of the window to see if any of the contaminated heard. Once I was confident enough that nothing was coming, I looked back at the table. A very impressive finding filled the tabletop.

  Out of Chelsea’s bag fell three cans of chicken noodle soup, five cans of beef barely soup, two bags of pretzels, six cans of carrots, and two cans of corn. Zach’s bag contained bags of beef jerky, turkey jerky, and more beef jerky. I imagine that there would be no shortage of a protein in our diet anytime soon. There must have been thirty bags or more of the stuff. That would easily last us the trip and more. Besides, if we somehow did run out of food, we could always stop in powered zones on the way to resupply.

  “Not too bad,” Zach said with a grin, his teeth mostly straight and mostly white. “Look!” He held up a bag of jerky. “There’s even teriyaki flavored jerky! I’m in heaven!” He said, smelling a bag by practically rubbing it all over his face. “I am so excited for this trip.”

  “Yeah, me too,” I said with a large amount of sarcasm in my voice. “This looks to be a good haul though.”

  “Oh, forgot something,” Chelsea said. She ran out the door and into the backyard. A few seconds later, I heard the distant sound of a car door closing followed by the tarp being moved over the vehicle. She returned with a pumping device with a tube in the center and two hoses on opposite ends, “I figured that we can use this to siphon gas if we can’t find anywhere to pump gas. Can’t hurt to have it with us anyways,” Chelsea said, obviously proud of her find.

  “Oh,” Zach piped in. “Here are the talkies,” He said, holding up four black and oval shaped talkies, each with a three inch long antennae topping them off. He tossed one to me, “They have a three mile range, so distance shouldn’t be a problem as long as we pay some attention to our position. They’re also water resistant, but I wouldn’t test that feature. On top of that, we even have an extra talkie, just in case one breaks.”

  “This is excellent,” I said to their delight. “But we still have quite a bit to do. There is only one more day to prepare since we will be leaving on the third day. Zach,” I said looking at him. “We literally need to become gun experts overnight. If we are going to be on the road, there is the potential that we get swarmed. I think that our best shot out of that is the weapons that you brought with you from Buffalo. Can you teach us?”

  He was deep in thought for a minute before replying, “I can teach you how to use them, but the accuracy and overall ability that you will need is something developed over time. But I do have a few of the twenty two’s in the car. They’re not as strong, but the kick shouldn’t throw you off nearly as bad as a forty-four. They will be a lot easier to handle for practice.” He had a smug look on his face. Now he was the teacher, and I was the learner. I had a feeling that he was going to love this, “Maybe if you impress me, I’ll allow you to use something with a little more bang behind it.”

  “Well I hope that you are prepared to be blown away,” I countered. We all laughed a little bit with that, though I did not think that the joke was particularly funny. “In all seriousness,” my voice deepened. “We absolutely have to learn. I figure that we can practice shooting off some rounds near the superstore. There is a drop off right next to it which will give us some range. We can use basic cups for targets and what not. If we get lucky, some contaminated should show up too. Live targets are the best, or so I would imagine.”

  Zach shook his head, “As the gun expert, I would have to agree with that. Live targets are the best, and that location sounds solid enough. At the very worst, we can escape through the highway. Any following contaminated will not be able to follow us there once we’re in the car.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” I replied.

  “Well what time is it?” Chelsea asked. I looked at my watch. It was only three thirty, though it looked darker because of the clouds above. I showed her the watch, “Well why don’t we go now? If there are any cars in the lot we can siphon that gas too. There are two gas cans in the shed which can be filled. They are only a gallon, but it will help anyways.”

  “I don’t know. It’ll be getting dark in an hour or so,” I said, though the thought at getting some gun practice in while possibly getting gas was tempting. “What does our gun expert think?”

  “Well, we were just there,” Zach had his hand on his chin as if he was thinking very hard. “There was only one contaminated there, and we cleared it out. If you guys are in, I’m in.”

  “Let’s go!” Chelsea exclaimed and ran out the door. I swear, I would have yelled at her for her recklessness if she wasn’t so damn cute.

  The superstore was empty, so was the parking lot. The only vehicle in the area was a parking lot patrol car that was parked at the back of the store. Zach began to set up with the guns on the far side of the lot with us.

  “Now see this part?” He pointed to the underside of the handgun. “That’s the safety. Use that when the gun isn’t in use. This is how you reload,” He hit a button and the magazine slid out. He quickly put it back in, “And when you load, pull back on the slide to load a bullet into the chamber. After that, you should be okay to fire.” He held the gun and pointed it towards the cliff. A loud gunshot was heard as a quick puff of smoke erupted from the gun. “Boom!” Zach yelled. “That’s how it’s done. Here,” he said, fixing the gun into Chelsea’s hand. “Okay, just a little tighter grip. Yeah, just like that. Okay, now pull!” A shot fired off into the distance. “Excellent, Chelsea.”

  “Oh yeah! Bonnie Parker here at your service!” She yelled, holding the gun in the air.

  “Please don’t shoot me,” I said.

  She laughed a little bit. “Well, just make sure that you are a good boy and nothing bad need happen to you,” She said with a maniacal look in her eyes.

  Zach showed me next, putting the gun in my hands, “Alright, now squeeze the trigger.”

  I did. A light pop erupted from the gun as a shot fired off. The casing bounced and clanked on the pavement below. “I think I have the gist of it,” I said to him.

  “No, you don’t,” He replied. “You have only shot one bullet and your hand is less than steady. Here,” he pointed over
to targets that he set up. Zach pulled us over to them, placing us behind a white parking line about twenty feet away from the targets. “Shoot these from here. Once you hit a target, take three steps back. Just keep going until the targets are all gone.”

  I looked at the targets. One was a glass bottle void of the soda that it once contained, there were two Styrofoam cups weighed down by water, a milk jug, a pint orange juice bottle filled with murky water, and a playing card, the three of diamonds, that Zach managed to wedge into the wooden planks that held the targets up.

  “Alright, now you guys shoot those without killing each other. I will be over by that security car, trying to siphon anything that I can from it,” Zach said and was off before we could reply.

  “What a hasty escape,” Chelsea said.

  We both quickly lined up our weapons, taking aim at our respective targets. I wanted the glass bottle to by my first prey. I aimed up the sights, took a deep breath, and BANG! The glass bottle erupted in a fit of shards flying through the air, the bottle falling off of the wooden beam. I looked to Chelsea, “I was aiming for that!”

  “Well you should have fired first. Don’t be upset that I’m just a better shot than you,” she said, taking three steps back. “You can take your turn now princess.”

  I made a fake laugh at her, though I was amused by the joke. I steadied my sights on one of the cups, releasing my breath, and pulling the trigger. My eyes flinched at the noise momentarily, but when they focused on the cup again, it was unscathed. I grunted in anger and was about to line up the sights again when the top left portion of the cup that I was aiming at flew into the air and onto the ground. I turned to see Chelsea fully smug with her accomplishment.

  “Chelsea: 2. Daryl: 0,” She counted off.

  “Daryl hasn’t gotten a second shot off yet,” I replied in the third person. Not waiting for a reply, I raised the gun again, pointing at the milk jug. I was not ready to embarrass myself again by missing. It was also a waste of ammo, though we did have a lot.

  The milk just was a lot easier to get on target. Zach was right, my hand was not steady by any means. I do not know if it was the late fall chill or my inability to hold things steady, but the sway of the gun was far more difficult to account for than I would have thought. I waited, holding the gun up at the milk jug, trying to time when I pulled the trigger with the sway of my hands. I squeezed the trigger, my eyes flinching once again. When I looked back, the milk jug was leaking its contents all over the ground below. I let out a light whoop and leapt into the air.

  “Daryl: 1, Chelsea:2,” I said in a mocking tone. I took three large steps back, placing me slightly farther than she was.

  Chelsea took her three steps back, “Don’t think that I’m going to let you off easy,” She said, raising her gun. She fired and the orange juice bottle burst from the side and fell over. “Chelsea: 3, Daryl: 1,” She said before taking three steps back.

  “Doesn’t matter, I’ll be taking the rest,” There was only the cup and three of diamonds playing card remaining. I took sights on the playing card, breathed, and fired. The top of the card had a mark on it, the card fluttering back and forth from the impact. “Does a graze count?”

  Chelsea raised her arms, “Well, I guess the objective is to hit it, and you did hit it, so why-“

  “Doesn’t count!” Zach yelled from the other side of the lot. “If that was a contaminated, it wouldn’t be dead. Clean hits or bust!”

  I shook my head and gestured for Chelsea to take her turn, but a hissing noise was coming from around the building. I looked to Chelsea and she heard it too. The sky was getting darker, my watch saying four thirty-seven, which made it hard to see where the contaminated was coming from. I turned around and looked to Zach. He hadn’t heard it and was still pumping. I whistled to him doing my best impression of a bird.

  He looked up to me. Not knowing how to signal for a contaminated, I merely did a Frankenstein walk and pointed to the side of the building. He nodded and got down behind the car as we did over the guardrail at the edge of the lot.

  The contaminated came into full view around the edge of the building a second later, alone and wandering. It looked around the lot, at the green sedan, to the targets, to the sky, to the targets again. The milk jug was still leaking its contents onto the ground, making a splashing nose and attracting the contaminated.

  “Mine,” Chelsea whispered to me, slowly raising her gun at the contaminated.

  I looked around. There was nowhere to go if the contaminated charged at us. If Chelsea missed, we were potentially screwed, “Chels, no.”

  “You can be jealous of my shot all you want-“

  I put my hand on her gun, lowering it, “We don’t have an escape plan,” I whispered. “If something happened and you missed, we would be screwed.”

  She understood and crouched lower. The contaminated was close now, standing over the milk jug, trying to figure out the situation. Its breathing was horse and hard, its yellow eyes glowing through the dusk.

  I suddenly felt a tickle in my throat, then my chest erupted in a loud cough. I tried to muffle it in my shirt and sleeve, but it did little good. The contaminated hissed loudly now, its feet shuffling in our direction.

  “HEY!” I heard Zach call out. The contaminated turned and hissed in his direction. Chelsea and I looked up to see Zach in the middle of the parking lot, shotgun in hand. The contaminated was moving towards him in almost a jog now, approaching faster than before.

  “Die you shit!” I heard Zach yell before a deep bellowing of the shotgun shell firing off. Blood and skull was ripped from the body of the contaminated, but it did not stop moving. “What the fuck?!” There was panic in Zach’s voice.

  “Let’s go!” I said to Chelsea as we leapt over the barrier.

  Another shot was fired off, but the contaminated kept moving. “Just die!” Zach yelled, firing off another shot, quickly pumping and firing again. He took off the leg of the contaminated, but it kept crawling to him. With the monster fully hobbled by Zach, he had an odd look in his eye and pulled out his hunting knife. “Imma test sumptin,” He said in his best broken English. “Consider the following: if we shoot the head, nothing happens. If we shoot the body, nothing happens. Blood loss equals death. What about a spinal tap?” The knife whirled through the air as Zach‘s hand brought it down on the contamianed’s back, right through the spine. The creature stopped moving almost immediately and became fully limp.

  “I think I found their weakness,” Zach said, smugly wiping the grime and blood off of the knife.

  Chapter 21

  We made it back home in one piece, thankfully. Two more of the contaminated showed up to the parking lot of the superstore, but we were already in the car and driving away as they got there. By the time we made it back to the house, it was already past five o’clock and fully dark outside. We pulled the car up the driveway and into the backyard to avoid any stragglers.

  Chelsea had already taken some of the remaining hotdogs out of the refrigerator and placed them on the counter to thaw while getting out a pan to place them on.

  “Well, that certainly was exciting,” Zach said to the quiet kitchen. The only other noise was Chelsea using a can opener to pop open a can of green beans, my favorite. “We can do that again tomorrow if you guys want to. During the light, this way we can see better and experiment with any of the contaminated that show up.”

  “What do you mean by experiment?” I asked, plopping down on one of the kitchen chairs.

  Zach shrugged, “I think that’s a bit obvious. I was using slugs in my shotgun, so there was no spread but better penetration for giant damage, but the contaminated that I shot didn’t really react to it. I don’t know if you noticed, but it went limp almost immediately once I stabbed its spine.”

  “Interesting,” I said.

  “But you have us using smaller caliber weapons,” Chelsea said. “Doesn’t that mean less damage? Assuming that we have to start aiming for the spine of these thing
s.”

  Zach had his mouth twitched to the side in thought, “Well, maybe. The ability of the twenty-two doesn’t mean that it cannot penetrate that far, but whether it will do enough damage to the spine once it hits. I’m really not a super expert once it comes to this kind of stuff. I can shoot and care for the weapons but I’ve never really paid much attention to total damage. My father was much better at this.”

  “Well what kind of bullet will do the most damage?” Chelsea asked. “That is, if we want to get to the spinal column.”

  “Well I have the three fifty-seven, but only one of those. There’s also my shot gun with slugs and birdshot. For that, we’d have to be up pretty close,” Zach said, making a distance marker with his hands. “I’ve also got a couple of nine mil’s, but I doubt that those would penetrate all of the way to the spine, along with the twenty-twos.”

  “What about shooting them in the head then?” I asked. “We’ve been hitting them pretty hard in the head with blunt objects, and that’s seemed to work out pretty well. I mean – AH CHOO!” I sneezed vigorously into my arm. “Sonofabitch. I think I’m working up a cold. Just as I coughed when the contaminated was near us before.”

  “Aww, poor you,” Zach said making a pouty face. “I’d call the wambulance, but I don’t think that they are currently operational.”

  “I’ll hit you,” I replied in a joking manner. We all erupted into laughter, a nice and hearty laughter, though I coughed twice after. Chelsea had just thrown the hotdogs onto the frying pan and was heating up the green beans as well.

  “Dinner’s almost ready,” She said, poking at the hotdogs with a fork.

  Zach clapped his hands together, “Great, I’m starving.” He walked over to the pan and took a deep whiff of the food, “Smells wonderful.”

  “Of course it does,” Chelsea said. “I made it.”

  “Touché,” Zach replied. “Back to your point, Daryl. I agree that you have been successfully killing the contaminated by hitting them over the head with the blunt objects, but I don’t think the actual shot to the head is what is killing them. Do you remember when you took off half of the contamianted’s face with the wrench?” I nodded. “Well, it was still coming after you. And when I shot the one earlier today, it was still approaching. I think that when you guys would hit the contaminated in the head, it would sever some part of the connection in the spine, thus resulting in a dead contaminated.”