Project Airborne

by Johnson, Cassandra

  Looking into the bag, Kaige shook her head softly, she didn’t have kids and the way that the world looked now Kaige wasn’t sure she would want them now, but she knew what it felt like to be afraid, to care more about someone else’s well-being than her own. When her landlords, Eunice and Walter were sick, Kaige was the only one there who could take care of them, and many times she lay down at night and cried herself to sleep because she prayed that their passing would be gentle. They were such a sweet little couple, they didn’t deserve to see these dark days.

  “Meg, I don’t know if the world is ever going to go back to the way it was, but I promise you Tobey will never want for food again and neither will you. I was alone for a long time and I’ve built up a decent stockpile, with someone to help me, I know that it will grow big enough to take care of us all.” Kaige bent down, crouching on the balls of her feet looking up at Megan. A cautious smile tried to tug at the corners of her lips. Megan had been there for her so many times when she lost her mom, now it was Kaige’s turn to be there for her and her family.

  6.

  Most of the things the group actually needed could be carried on their backs, but Kaige was sure that the extra bags would come in handy at some point. Wrapping the straps around the handlebars of the bicycle Kaige looked back at the group. Logan and Tom looked ok, cautiously surveying the landscape through shrewd eyes, but Megan and Tobey seemed unsure.

  “We’re going to be ok.” Kaige told the seven-year-old trying to offer him a piece of assurance. “Stay close to mom and dad, they’re your super heroes.”

  Looking around once more Kaige began to walk out in front of them, keeping her eyes peeled for any movement ahead of them. Stopping at the end of every block to look around the corner. Alone, if she caught the attention of one of the others Kaige had no chance against a group, but with Logan, Tom, Megan and Tobey? Yes, they could try to fight and maybe they would win, they could try to run, but Kaige felt responsible for them, she was the one leading them through the danger, but if they could avoid it. That was Kaige’s main objective here, to avoid meeting one of the walking dead. This wasn’t a take out as many as you can kind of mission, this was all about getting out alive.

  Carefully checking for what could be lurking down the block, Kaige didn’t see anything moving so she stepped out, waving the others in the group to follow her. They were getting closer to the school and the mountain road and Kaige hadn’t seen any of the walking dead, she was hoping that her attack from before hadn’t drawn more attention to the area as they hiked up the street.

  “I’m cold, Mama.” Tobey complained, his voice barely above a whisper and he was right. From the time that Kaige left her apartment this morning to finding her co-workers in her old office building the temperature had begun to rapidly drop as the storm clouds got closer.

  “I know sweetie. We’ll be back inside soon.” Megan replied just as quietly. Picking Tobey up, Megan wrapped her jacket around him to give the child an added layer of warmth until they reached their destination, which was still a long trek away from where they were now.

  Coming up the road, Kaige led them down the middle between cars thinking of them as a barrier between whatever might be lurking in the trees between the road, and the trees that surrounded them. Hopefully that was enough to give them fair warning.

  The eerie silence that surrounded them should have been enough of an alarm bell to keep them on their toes. To Kaige, every time she left her apartment she found the silence to be the most disturbing part. It was as if it seeped into your bones and lingered there like a sickness and it urged her steps forward knowing that in that silence there was something out there, and you were its prey.

  “Tobey?” Kaige spoke his name softly, slowing her gait just enough that it alerted all the others. She could see the leg of the zombie that she had killed earlier up ahead, the black, dead congealed blood that seeped out of its head had spread a little further into the road.

  “Yeah?” His voice sounded a little scared as he clung to his mother.

  “I need you to do me a great big favor and keep your eyes closed until I say you can open them, okay buddy?” Kaige swallowed slightly, she’d stopped all together, looking back at the little boy in Megan’s arms. He was sitting on her hip, Megan’s face looked pale as she looked at her not understanding why Tobey needed to close his eyes but knowing that it must have been something bad.

  “Yeah, I can do that.” Tobey replied, squeezing his eyes shut before Kaige noticed that he tucked his face into his moms’ neck, hugging her closer. Kaige just hoped that Tobey hadn’t developed the morbid curiosity of most little boys and tried to peek.

  Pushing on, even though Kaige knew that she’d killed it, she still caught herself edging past the dead zombie, its face, and skull crushed by the impact of her baseball bat to its skull. The stink was awful, something that she hadn’t noticed in the initial encounter. The smell of rotting dead flesh was vomit inducing and from behind her, she heard someone make a small gagging noise, but she wasn’t sure from whom it came from and hurried on to get away from the corpse faster.

  “Okay, Tobey, you can open your eyes now.” Kaige told him once they rounded the bend and the hill was beginning to crest downward. She knew they were getting closer. A cold wind began to blow around them, pushing dead leaves along the road. She didn’t like that, as much as she hated the silence, that sound made her think about footsteps in the trees and her eyes frantically searched for something moving towards them, every tree branch that shivered in the wind made her heart race and urge the group forward a little quicker until she saw her street below the hill and nothing was moving there. Kaige had never been so happy to see the chain link of the back gate as cold, tiny droplets of frozen moisture began to fall on their heads.

  “Is that sleet?” Megan held her hand out, trying to catch it, but Kaige could see it pinging off the ground.

  “It looks like we’re getting here just in time.” Logan said from behind her as she lifted the latch on the gate and let them inside first before securing it behind them hurrying up to the back door with her keys in her hand.

  “Okay guys just go straight up to that first landing.” The heavy exterior door being pushed open and the four newcomers disappeared inside, moving up the six steps to the first landing as Kaige looked around before she let herself in, making sure that the door clicked shut behind them. “Sorry it’s so dark guys, hang on.” Kaige apologized, using her flashlight to get the key into the lock and went inside.

  Leading them inside Kaige went to the living room, low embers of the fire from that morning still glowed from the grate.

  “Come get comfortable, I’ll get the fire lit.” Kaige told them as she scooped out some of the ashes and put more firewood inside of the grate, more paper and a match helped the flames grow and come back to life as the cold sleet outside danced and pinged off the windows.

  Behind Kaige they all gathered closer, warming themselves in the delicious heat.

  “This is so much better.” Tobey said as he held his hands out and wiggled his little fingers around.

  “See? I told you we would be ok.” Kaige felt herself smile, a genuine smile for the first time that wasn’t just for face value. They made it back without any bumps or scrapes.

  “Are you guys hungry?” It seemed like an obvious question, but Kaige asked anyway, she could only imagine when they last ate a hot meal, not that Kaige considered Chef Boyardee to be a meal in the true sense of the word, but it was as close as possible in the world that they shared now. Kaige had created as much of a surplus of goods as she could while she was on her own, now Kaige was considering what they would be able to accomplish working together.

  “I’m starving.” Tobey spoke up again, the little boy wasn’t shy about voicing his needs more readily than the adults.

  Getting to her feet Kaige picked up the lantern she kept on the floor beside the couch, she’d found it in the basement one day when she was storing more firewood and s
he was happy she’d done so while it was still warm out. The back of the house seemed to have eluded the zombies for the most part, but it still didn’t make cutting down the surrounding trees any easier. Kaige was terrified the whole time that a tree would fall on her, or crash into one of the surrounding houses or take down a fence that was only being held up by a wish and a prayer. The light was fading because the battery was getting lower every time she used it, but there was still a little bit of life left in it and she used it to light her way into the kitchen with Tobey right beside her, looking at what she was doing.

  Opening the cabinet, Kaige remembered the look in the little boy’s eye’s when he saw that can of spaghetti-o’s back at the office. In the cabinet along with all the other canned goods, Kaige had collected a lot of those quick to heat meals that left memories from her childhood at the forefront of her mind.

  “Do you like ravioli?” Kaige asked.

  “I do. I love ravioli.” Tobey was looking up at the cabinet like he was seeing Legoland for the first time.

  “Then we will have ravioli.” She passed two cans down into his waiting hands and took two in her own.

  Now, considering the limitations the most that Kaige heated was water and she usually ate her food cold straight out of the can, but this reunion constituted a very special occasion. Taking a small boiler from the stove, Kaige and Tobey trooped back to the living room where Tom and Megan had found seats on the couch together and Logan was looking outside through some of the spaces between the boards that covered the windows like a little old man watching the weather channel with avid attention.

  “It looks like we made it here just in time.” Logan turned then, seeing what Kaige and Tobey were doing as they situated themselves on the floor in front of the fire.

  “Sure do miss the weatherman.” Tom said with a mild twitch. He needed his medication.

  “A heads up from Miles MacKenney would have been nice.” Kaige laughed popping the first can open and pouring the contents into the boiler followed by the other three cans creating a feast of Chef Boyardee Overstuffed Ravioli. Sticking the cookware close to the fire, she poured some more water into the kettle and sat in into the flames as well.

  “I never would have imagined that we would come to this. I never even thought about how the world would end, period.” Megan said after a few minutes of silence had gathered around them.

  Kaige agreed, at least in part.

  “I did.” She said, her voice soft as the fire crackled, “But I always thought it would be like how it’s depicted in the bible. You know, the rapture that takes place in Revelations? That’s what I thought it was. The day when all those people just dropped in the street, stopping whatever they were doing, I thought that Jesus had come and swept them all up, but it just got so much worse.” Kaige wiped her eyes quickly to hide her tears.

  “Nothing makes any sense.” Logan shook his head. “I don’t believe that there was a terrorist organization big enough to cause this, and even if there were, why zombies? Our own government couldn’t contain the outbreak within twenty-four hours of those things waking up.”

  “I don’t think it was a terrorist attack either.” Because initially that was what the news reports said. Sniffing, she set the handle of the pot further away in case Tobey tried to stir its contents and burned himself and got up. Kaige got some bowls and mugs from the kitchen. While she was on her own, Kaige had plenty of time to think about what caused the apocalypse of zombies to come about, but Kaige didn’t have anyone to tell those thoughts too.

  “It wouldn’t be such a leap to believe that it could have been an organized attack though.” Kaige said with a small grunt as she sat back down on the floor in front of the fire, checking the food quickly and giving it a stir.

  “How do you mean?” Logan asked.

  Kaige noticed that everyone was looking at her, including Tobey, although he could have been curious about the package of powder she was emptying into a mug.

  “Well, maybe a terrorist organization couldn’t pull it off. That would require a lot of manpower obviously and while there were some enormous pockets of terrorists all over the world, I don’t think they had as many numbers as the newscasters always told us. But what about the organization right in front of us, the one that makes up all the rules? Our government.” Kaige placed Folgers Singles coffee bags into the remaining mugs, stirring the ravioli now that it had begun to really bubble and get hot. “My grandpa was always telling these crazy stories about how the government was out to get us, how they were hiding things from us. He always believed that once you reached a certain age that the government didn’t have any use for you anymore.”

  “That still doesn’t explain the undead.” Megan told her. And Kaige had to agree, it didn’t make sense, but zombies also weren’t supposed to exist either.

  “No, it doesn’t,” Tom had said, leaning forward in his seat. “But there could have been a flaw in their plan.” He explained, the tone of his voice invited the notion that he would entertain the possibility that it was true.

  “Yes.” Kaige nodded. “They were testing something, maybe even some kind of chemical weapon to be used in the army, but they didn’t mean for this to happen. Obviously, it’s only a theory, but how many times in our history as a country has our very own government done some shady stuff? It’s scary to think about.”

  Pouring hot water into the mugs Kaige watched as Tobey realized that his drink was hot chocolate, the last package she had since Kaige normally drank coffee or water.

  While the group ate, it was quiet except for the ice storm raging outside and the sound of spoons scraping bowls, but it left them with a lot to think about too.

  Once their bellies were nice and full Kaige noticed that Tobey was falling asleep where he was sitting until Megan called him up onto the couch and the little boy fell asleep with his head in her lap shortly followed by his parents. Even Logan had leaned back in the recliner with his eyes closed.

  Kaige couldn’t sleep, finding more survivors had her on an adrenaline rush. It was possible that there were more somewhere out there, but Kaige had no idea how they could be found. She was also thinking about what happened to the rest of their group. Kaige didn’t believe for a second that she saved them, they’d already saved themselves who knew how many times, if anything they had saved her.

  Tossing a few more logs onto the fire to keep the flames roaring, eventually Kaige felt her eyes beginning to grow heavier with exhaustion while the wind howled outside of the multi-family home and she curled up on the floor, soothed by the peaceful breathing of four other people. Kaige wasn’t alone anymore.

  7.

  “I think I was seven the first time my step-dad touched me,” Lauren was saying, her brown eyes growing glassy as she looked out of the window at the skyline. “I used for the first time that night. I was in a lot of pain and he gave me one of my mom's pain pills and half a beer to make it stop, then he left me alone in my room.”

  This was the part of her job that she hated. Children didn’t understand addiction. They didn’t know what it meant to use one self-destructive habit to dull the pain of what was happening to them and Lauren was the direct product of those circumstances. In this case, Lauren’s step dad had introduced her to both.

  “Does anyone know about what happened between you and your step-dad, Lauren?” Megan had met with Lauren’s parents upon her initial entry into the program, but they had never come to see her afterwards. This was the first time the girl was opening herself up to talk to Megan about how she began using She knew the progression because it was part of her medical history, but Lauren never told anyone the details at the heart of it.

  “I told my mom, about Craig but, she didn’t believe me. She said that I was making it up because I never liked Craig and hadn’t wanted her to marry him and I didn’t. I never liked him, he was always weird, looking at me funny or finding some reason to touch me even if it was just on the arm. He always gave me the creeps.” Lauren cl
eared her throat, shrugging her shoulders as if all of this was of no importance what-so-ever. “I was a problem child, and this was just my way of getting back at her for marrying my step-dad. She told me if I ever told anyone what I told her that she would send me to a home for bad kids.”

  “Did you ever tell anyone else?” Megan felt the trimmer of rage boiling beneath her skin.

  “No, I was too afraid to tell anyone after that. If my own mom didn’t believe me, then who would? I felt like I was the biggest piece of trash on earth after that. I tried to run away a couple of times, spent the night hiding in friends’ houses, but eventually they got tired of getting in trouble because of me and stopped talking to me, I get it. I don’t blame them or anything, but it hurt.” Lauren said, tightening the fold of her arms over her chest. “So, I kept my mouth shut about what was going on and every time Craig came into my room, he’d give me another pain pill and half a beer until eventually I was stealing four or five of my moms’ pills at a time and taking them at night before I went to bed. It helped block everything else out even when Craig didn’t come into my room, it made me not care anymore and it was better until my mom started questioning what was happening to her pills. She has chronic migraines and her doctor always wrote her a thirty-day supply. Craig covered for me at first, said he saw her take one or two more than she remembered, but then she started writing down when she took them on a notebook in the kitchen and counting the pills. She caught me taking some one day and she slapped me. After that? No more pain pills for me and I had to deal with the pain after Craig was finished.”

  Megan swallowed back vomit. There were no words that could change a single thing that happened to the fifteen year old. No wonder she was constantly playing defense. The one person whom she told didn’t even try to investigate her claims. Lauren was left completely unprotected by the person that should have had her best interests at heart no matter what. Lauren had a history of drug abuse, including opioids, Xanax, self-harm, and heroin. She’d tried to kill herself once and was admitted into the program by her mother and step-father after she overdosed on Xanax six months ago.