The Contaminated: Where Were You When The Pandemic Hit?

by Kypers, Ryan

  “What’s up?” I asked drearily.

  “It’s pump yourself. Thank god that Zach lived in New York. I have no idea how to use this thing,” Chelsea said.

  “It would be nice if it would actually pump when I told it to!” Zach practically yelled as his hand smashed against the gas board. A soft beep came from the pumping station, and Zach inserted the nozzle into the car, “About damn time. Okay your turn.”

  He came to our car and did basically the same thing. Curse, beat his fist, curse some more, and the pump would work. I wondered about calling him the gas whisperer, but thought better of it.

  “I didn’t know that’s how gas pumps work,” I said with a heavy emphasis at the sarcasm as I did not want Zach more pissed off, but simply could not pass up the opportunity.

  “God damn piceofshit pump. Worthless stupid fu-“ Zach’s cursing was interrupted by an extremely loud roaring coming out of the woods. We all stopped moving and looked in the direction, Zach’s shotgun at his side.

  Another roar came out, it sounded like a hoarse lion yelling at the top of its lungs. Zach’s pump clicked and he pulled it out of the car, never taking his eyes off of the wooded area. Not long after, our pump clicked and he did the same.

  “In the car, now,” I said as calmly as I could. Nobody argued and our engines started quickly.

  The cars began to move onto the ramp to i-70. We did not breathe easy until we were in full acceleration mode, advancing down the highway. Some force pulled my eyes backwards and I glanced back at the gas station where we just filled up. The woods were stirring, as if some giant gusting wind was pushing the trees to the side. I watched a tree as it moved. A large hand like object struck it and it fell. Just as we were about to get into position for a better view of what was happening, a large highway advertisement blocked my view entirely. Once it passed, the wood rustled no more.

  Just over four hours into our trip, the three of us quickly learned how boring driving over distance is. All that we could think of was how much longer we had to go. We decided to guess the distance and time. Whoever was the closest to the actual time of arrival would get the extra bag of teriyaki beef jerky. I had four thirty, Chelsea said five thirty, and Zach said three forty-five. I am pretty sure Zach was prepared to lose and had a spare bag of the special jerky hidden just so that he could gloat about it while Chelsea and I were forced to share.

  Needless to say, we arrived at five o’clock, thusly inciting an argument over who won between Chelsea and me. This went on for almost ten minutes before we realized that we were losing sunlight and fast.

  Zach began to start a fire with spare paper and fire starter logs that we brought from home when he looked up at me. “Are we in Central time?”

  I looked down to him as I unpacked sleeping equipment from inside the car, “I think so, why?”

  “Huh,” he said to himself. “Then that means that you and Chelsea lose our bet.”

  “Uh, we got here at five o’clock. Please explain how that is anywhere near three forty-five,” I countered.

  He looked smug, “Well, since we are in the central time zone, I win. By that standard we arrived here at four, not five.”

  “Well suck my-“ I began to curse but was interrupted by a car moving slowly across the highway. I looked up to see it taking the exit ramp down to our camp. “Daryl, guns.,” I said, wanting to be prepared for whoever this was. I did not want to risk someone coming down and trying to rob us or shoot us as we slept.

  He tossed a gun at me then one to Chelsea. I glared at him. “What? The safeties are on. Chill out,” he replied.

  We positioned ourselves behind our respective vehicles, not drawing the weapons. I did not want to potentially drive James away with unnecessary hostility.

  The car pulled around the bend. It was an old station wagon with rust emerging out of any possible edge that it could catch. The once maroon paint was peeling off in almost every section of the vehicle. The car rolled to a silent halt in front of our camp.

  The driver’s door opened and two hands popped out followed by the body. The hands remained in the air until the person was in full view of us.

  “Who are you?!” I almost yelled. A coughing fit came after that, but I muffled it as best I could into the sleeve of my pleather jacket.

  The man stood in plain view, standing about five feet and ten inches with an average build and long blonde hair. He had an incomplete beard of reddish-blonde growing across his face in scattered patches. The rest of his body was hidden behind his hooded sweatshirt.

  “You Daryl?” the stranger said nonchalantly. “Hello. I’m James.”

  Chapter 26

  I motioned James over, “How do we know that you are actually James and not someone claiming to be him?” I questioned. My caution for the situation had not left me even though my head was pounding from my sickness.

  He shrugged his shoulders, “I don’t know. My name on the forum was Contamin8r, spelled with the number eight. If you have an internet access, I’ll log in for you.”

  I looked to Chelsea then to Zach. They each nodded and we lowered our weapons. “Alright, James. I guess that will have to do. There’s really no other way to identify you anyways. Just don’t do anything suspicious.”

  “Woah, if I’m not mistaken, it was you guys who were asking for my help,” James said defensively. “I did need to leave the city, but I could have just gone ahead all by myself. There was no need to help you guys.”

  I waived my hand, “Alright, alright. I get it.”

  “Look, I’m just saying that a little bit of trust would be nice,” James said.

  Zach approached him, hand stretched out. James took it, “I’m Zach, or Buffalant909. You’ve met Daryl, and that’s his girlfriend, Chelsea.” James nodded in greeting.

  “Okay,” I said, ready to get down to business. “We’re going to have to siphon whatever gas is left in your car, James. That was the plan.”

  He nodded, “Well, my car is at about three quarters of a tank. Why not just take mine and fill up on the way?”

  “Well,” I began. I was trying to be delicate, not intending on driving him off. “We have all of the food and supplies in our cars already. You can throw your things with Zach’s as you will be in the car with him. It’s probably the safer of the two cars. Chelsea will be driving with-“

  “Women drivers make Zach’s car safer?” He joked.

  Chelsea held up the handgun, “Say that again!”

  “Chelsea!” I said. She was only joking, but James did not know her well enough to understand her humor.

  “I’m just kidding! Gosh, not going to shoot our guide,” She said, holstering the weapon. “I can take a joke, just don’t expect to be in the same car as me.”

  I shook my head, “Anyways, we have about a ten hour drive tomorrow and we should be able to get there just before dark if we leave here around eight. Actually it is getting darker with the rapidly approaching winter season, so probably not, but I would like to be there as soon as possible.”

  Everyone agreed with that statement. Nobody liked being camped out on the road in the freezing cold. Zach had the fire going nice and hot. Everyone quickly became huddled around it.

  “Someone will have to keep watch,” I said to the group. “We can’t have a contaminated giving us the jump while we are sleeping.”

  “I can do it,” Chelsea said to the group fire.

  I shook my head, “No. You have been driving all day and need your rest. So does Zach.” I looked to James who had a surprised look on his face. “I’ll be staying up. Besides, I pretty much slept the day away, so there’s no reason that I can’t just do that again tomorrow.”

  “You need your rest!” Chelsea said, almost forcing me down.

  I waived her off, “No, I’ve had too much rest. Besides, I’m starting to be able to breathe out of my nose, and my headache hasn’t gotten worse. I should be fine.”

  “Daryl!”

  “No, Chelsea. I haven’t c
ontributed since we left. The least I could do is give you guys a proper night to sleep without worry,” I raised my hand before Chelsea could reply. “That’s how it is happening. No arguments.” She would be mad at me, I think, for shutting her out, but the conversation would have gone on for too long if I didn’t.

  She already had marks of heaviness in her eyes from the day’s ride. She would be asleep before she knew it.

  “If you don’t mind,” Zach said. “I’m a paranoid shit. So I’ll be sleeping in my car tonight, or next to it.”

  “Doesn’t matter to me,” I said.

  “Good then,” he said, wrapping himself in a blanket and walking off. “Sweet dreams!” he said as he walked off, but stopped at his door handle. “Uh quick tip. You might want to keep the fire down to coals. The light from a decent fire would probably alert any nearby contaminated, though we are elevated enough, but why risk it?” he opened the door to his car and closed it behind him without waiting for a response.

  “Lay down, Chels,” I said, kissing her on the forehead. She was stuffed inside of the sleeping bag wrapped tightly around her. She gave in to sleep and rested her head down on my lap. Shortly after, I could hear the faint rhythmic breathing coming from her sleep. “What about you, James?”

  “Not too tired, yet. First time out today and for a while at that,” he said. “Figure I could keep you some company.”

  “Thanks,” I replied, though I secretly wanted to be left in silence. The quiet was something that I always enjoyed and allowed me the best time to think.

  “You two are cute together,” James said, breaking the awkward moment of silence. “Did you meet her during the crisis?”

  I shook my head, “Na. Grew up together, but I didn’t ask her out until a few weeks before the initial contamination. Her family was killed while the town was being evacuated.”

  “What about your family?” He asked.

  I shrugged my shoulders, “They should be fine, as far as I know anyway. They all got out and made it to safety. Well, all but one of my brothers, but I haven’t heard anything from him.”

  “Must be nice,” he said. “My family was part of the beginning, the start of the contamination. My little sister, she was five years younger than me, so twelve, was walking home from school with my father one day. One of the first contaminated came up and bit her right on the arm. My father beat the living shit out of it, punching it until his knuckles were torn and bloody. Unfortunately, that is how he became contaminated.

  “When they got home, they were already showing signs of change,” he said, wiping a bit of snot coming from his nose with his sleeve. “It was nothing super noticeable, just as if they were sick. You know, a paleness combined with a sweaty face and high fever. The eyes weren’t yet yellow, but I’m sure that would have happened sooner than later,” I noticed that his voice had been getting deeper as he told the tale. “The military showed up shortly after. They wanted to take my father and sister away to a camp for research, like the ones that I told you about on the forum, but my mother wasn’t having it. She argued with the military commander for nearly an hour, screaming her head off at him. I’ll give the man credit for keeping his cool during the whole conversation.

  “Eventually the commander had heard enough. He ordered his men to take away my father and sister by force, but he did it while my mother was in the bathroom, or so he thought. You see, my mother had a mental disorder for panic attacks. She had a medicine to keep her calm, but sometimes just didn’t take it. Little did I know that she had been three weeks clean of the meds,” he took a deep breath, and exhaled very slowly, his breath stoking the flames of the fire.

  “She came back with my father’s shotgun and fired on the soldier who was holding my sister. Blew his arm straight off. They responded by dropping my mother in a matter of seconds. I don’t know how many shots were fired. My father became enraged and began to fight the soldiers. They dropped him too. My sister was screaming and crying out for my mother. All that I could do was stand in shock.”

  “I’m sorry, James,” I said. What else could I say?

  He had an awkward look into the fire, “You know, the worst part of it all was that they all left. All of the soldiers left without a word accept for one. ‘Sorry kid,’ was all that he could say. I’m sorry for slaughtering your parents in front of your baby sister and you then leaving you shit free to fuck for yourself.” He had his hands covering his eyes, “Sorry. I don’t know why I’m telling you all of this.”

  “What happened to you? I mean did they just leave you there, alone?”

  He shook his head, “Sort of, well I don’t really know. I ran, terrified of what happened. I just carried my body as fast as I could into a remote park, hiding up in the trees. I woke up with tree bark marks on my cheek and remembered what had happened. I made my way back home, but the house looked almost untouched,” James exhaled heavily. “My father’s body was gone, probably for research. My mother’s body was gone, probably for research. The blood was still on the floor where they dropped my parents. I don’t mean to trash the armed forces, but these guys suck.”

  “They’re desperate,” I said, getting a look from James. “Not that being desperate is an excuse for their actions, but the world’s kind of gone to shit in an Easter basket. I’m not justifying their actions, but I understand it.”

  He shook his head, “Maybe you’re right, but it doesn’t make me feel any better about what they did. I mean, my sister was just twelve years old. Twelve! A crisis occurs and we lose our rights? How does that fit for a land of the free?” he took a deep breath. “I’m sorry for ranting a bit, Daryl. I can just get so heated.”

  I waived it off, “It’s fine. I don’t mind listening to those who want to talk.”

  “Thanks. It’s nice to get that story off of my chest. I haven’t had anyone to talk to in a long time now,” he said with a nod. “I’m going to hit the hay. Apparently I am more tired than I thought. Night,” he said as he collapsed into his own sleeping bag without another word.

  I woke everyone early the next morning, the current remains of the fire smoldering into the ground. Frost had covered the cars with a thin layer, making the ice crystals sparkle in the morning sun.

  The group mumbled awake as we placed a pot of water on top of the fire to warm it up. Once it was boiling, we scooped the water into cups with teabags in it. Chelsea then warmed some soup in the pot. Soup and tea: the breakfast of champions. We hastily finished, practically throwing the hot soup into our frigid bodies. Breakfast itself took a total of twenty minutes before we had the fire out and were on the road once more.

  Indianapolis came quickly, within an hour or so. “I’m going to have Zach lead,” I heard James say over the radio. “Follow him to the gas station and we can fill up there.”

  We got in line behind Zach’s car as the sun rose above a mar mountain range, practically blinding us. Chelsea handled it like a champ and kept steady at the wheel. We took the exit for Indianapolis and pulled into the gas station quickly.

  “Zach and James on filler duty while Chelsea and I watch for contaminated,” I gave the orders.

  I walked over to James who was filling up our car. Drowsiness from staying up the night before was beginning to overwhelm me, “Everything good here?” I asked.

  He nodded, “Yeah seems okay. Just wondering, but who made you the leader person?”

  I had not thought of that. Nobody had declared me the leader, “I guess it is just from lack of competition. Nobody else wants to be it and I just took it without thinking. Honestly I never really thought of it. We mostly just operate as a group.”

  He nodded in acceptance of my statement and I moved on in search of contaminated. “Daryl!” I heard Chelsea call. She was pointing off to the side of the station where a contaminated was coming out from behind the bathrooms. “Mine!” I called her off.

  I ran towards it, the frigid draft chilling my fingers gripping my bat. “We stay silent,” I said as I rushed past th
em. The contaminated had just caught a whiff of our scent and was coming at me, hissing and clawing at the air. My bat connected with the classic sound of aluminum striking a contaminated body, sending the thing back. I kept advancing, striking blows to the head and neck one after another until I was sure that it was dead.

  “Finished!” Zach said, pulling his gas hose out of the car. I nodded to him when I saw Chelsea point to another contaminated. She launched her body at it, knocking it back with her shoulder followed up by a blow to the head from her own bat.

  “Done!” James called. Another two contaminated had popped out of nowhere. I began to advance on the closest when I heard the engines start. My bat collided with the skull right as the other launched itself at me. My tired body barely had time to sidestep it when a bat fell down on its head, crushing it into the ground.

  Chelsea looked at me, bloody bat in hand, “Let’s go before more show up!” She said.

  We got into the cars and sped quickly onto the highway and away from the dangerous Indianapolis.

  “This is it, guys,” I said over the radio. “This is the final stretch of our journey. We’re practically there so don’t stop now!”

  “Let’s do this!” I heard Zach reply before my eyes shut out of exhaustion.

  Chapter 27

  “Hey,” Chelsea said, resting her head against my shoulder.

  I grabbed my three of diamonds playing card turned bookmark and inserted it into a page, “What’s up?” I asked as I closed the book, entrusting the three of diamonds with my progress.

  “It has been a whole week since your grandmother left,” she said. “I – I don’t think that the military is coming back.” I heard Chelsea take a deep breath in her attempt to fight off tears.

  I took my arm and wrapped it around her back, “They’ll be back. Don’t you remember what that marine said? ‘We will be back in three days,’” I said trying to imitate his deeper voice. Fortunately, I gave Chelsea a light chuckle. “Maybe they are just running late. It happens.”