Project Airborne

by Johnson, Cassandra

  “I know the feeling.” Megan said, glancing out the window, she could hear Tom and Logan wheeling their cart of firewood back to the house, that was the third trip they’d made today, and she was sure that they would be finished for the day soon. “Would you mind some company?” Megan asked. “Thanks to the toys, Tobey’s going to be good and occupied for a little while and I could use some fresh air. I feel a lot safer here than when we were in the office before about going outside.”

  “Of course, and everything that we don’t need we can always store in the basement for later.” Kaige suggested, brushing her hands off, feeling a grit on them that was going to be washed away in a good shower later, but right now, while the sun was still high in the sky she had found a mission to keep herself busy.

  “Who knows, maybe one day we might come across more people and we’ll have more than we need, and we can help them.” Megan supplied. That was her nature, when she had more than she needed, Megan wanted to help others. That was her calling in life.

  Kaige didn’t tell Megan what she was thinking as they slipped outside together and began to go over the contents of what was in the next vehicle sitting in the road, blocking any other cars from getting through, not that there was any traffic these days. She wanted to find more people, it was like something that kept gnawing at the back of her mind knowing that there were more out there, they just needed to get to them somehow. Once upon a time Kaige was alone and she believed that she could be the very last person, but if Tom and Megan, Tobey. Logan? If they could survive holed up together in an old office building, how many others could there be? Kaige was certain that there were others, but it was difficult to justify looking for others when they were already doing whatever they could to ensure that their own group made it through the coming months.

  For the most part, Kaige and Megan found more clothes and they took turns going through what they could keep for themselves, what wouldn’t fit, things of that nature. Food supplies were scarcer, not everyone had thought to take things like that. It was always easy to think that you could find those things whenever you got to where you were going, but even then, when the streets were filled, she knew that they were living in uncertain times and that nothing could be taken for granted.

  “Have you gone through this one yet?” Megan pointed towards a Forest green GMC Suburban. It had run off the road into the curb, slamming into the back of another car. Gold Camry’s seemed to be very popular because there were at least three on this street alone. They were an economical choice which explained why so many people had them, and oddly enough gold was also the least expensive color. Red cars were rumored to be more expensive no matter what kind of car they happened to be. It could be a cherry red Geo Metro and it would still cost slightly more than another of its fellow models of a different color. It was considered a sporty color, so car manufacturers could get away with charging more for the exact same thing in a different hue.

  Despite the cold temperature Kaige used the neck of her shirt to wipe away a sweat mustache and shook her head.

  “No, I wasn’t able to get that far on my own.” Kaige replied, walking up beside Megan looking at the Suburban. Together the two women had been steady at work for the last three hours without a break and they’d managed to clear out six cars from their combined efforts.

  Only a few vehicles were as ill prepared as the last one Kaige cleared out on her own, the rest were easier to go through. Collecting as much as they could as the sky shifted from blue to the hazy orange of twilight.

  “Let’s save this one for tomorrow.” Meg decided, her voice sounding tired as she wiped her forehead with the back of her hand.

  “Sounds good to me.” Kaige said. “We can always pick back up where we left off.” Kaige said, the two women turning back to the house unaware that they were being watched.

  12.

  In the new world they lived in the five of them were building a new normalcy and instead of being people who merely lived in an apartment building together, something different happened. They were becoming a family.

  “Can I help look in the cars today?” Tobey was pouring maple syrup over his oatmeal as the five of them sat around the kitchen table eating breakfast.

  Megan and Kaige spent the day before collecting goods until they were too tired to go through anymore. Tobey, while he wasn’t playing with his new toys would come to the back window of the apartment and watch them from his parent’s bedroom. Luckily, Tobey was relaying what he saw to his dad and ‘uncle’ Logan so when the women climbed the stairs to their apartment’s dinner was being cooked for them.

  Kaige stopped stirring her coffee, lifting her eyes to look at Tom and Megan.

  “That’s up to your mom and dad, Tobey.” Kaige said, tucking herself deeper inside of her robe.

  “Well,” Megan hesitated. As a mother, Megan knew that keeping Tobey cooped up inside all the time wasn’t good for him. He needed to be able to get fresh air outside and run and play under the sun soaking in vitamin D, but they didn’t live in the world they used to, where the risks were bad enough considering the number of children who went missing in the blink of an eye. Now you had to also worry about flesh craving zombies. Even though they hadn’t seen any of the others in a long time, it didn’t mean that they weren’t still out there somewhere, aimlessly wandering, hunting for something to sink their teeth into. Megan secretly thought that was what happened to all the animals. They were more vulnerable than the humans were.

  “I don’t think it could hurt for Tobey to come outside for a little while today.” Tom offered. “As long as he isn’t alone.” Tom reasoned, looking at his young son.

  “Please, mom?” Tobey looked at Megan hopeful.

  Megan poured some sugar into her coffee cup, thinking while Tobey patiently sat waiting on the edge of his seat for her answer.

  “Only for an hour and then you have to come right back inside, you can watch from the window and be our lookout.” Megan finally said, uncertain whether she was making the right decision or not.

  Until they were finished with the cars, Kaige and Logan had discussed waiting to go scouting again. They had more than enough for the time being, and they were still finding more inside the cars outside the apartment. Tom and Megan both agreed that they could take a day or two off from scouting to see what could be found in the cars since they seemed to have more than they needed.

  After breakfast was finished, the five of them went outside wrapped in their warmest coats, the heaviness of the clouds looked like snow was coming and they wouldn’t be able to come outside for some time until it stopped.

  Tom and Logan began to walk down the street, headed towards the grove of trees at the bottom of the hill where they had been chopping them down and making a decent dent in the foliage there. Normally Kaige might have been against it, but the trees were made of wood and it wasn’t like they could just run to the local Kroger and buy their firewood. When she thought of the things that they used to waste money on just for convenience she had to laugh a little bit.

  “Tobey button up your jacket.” Megan was telling the boy as they stepped off the curb, walking over to the SUV that they were about to begin yesterday evening when they decided it was getting too late and went inside to rest and clean themselves up.

  “But if I button it all the way up it feels too tight and I can’t move my arms.” Tobey complained as they opened the front doors of the GMC and started looking around. Kaige checked inside the glove compartment and found a handgun. Luckily Tobey didn’t see it. So far he didn’t know about any of the guns, but if he found one in the cars while they were searching them they were going to have to keep an eye on the little boy. He had to know that they weren’t toys and if that gun was in your hand you had to be ready to use it for protect yourself.

  Tucking it inside the waistband of her pants, Kaige shivered from the cold steel touching her skin and didn’t know how the hell people did that in movies without doing the pee-pee dance because it was
so cold.

  Tobey grunted swinging the driver’s side rear door open and climbed into the vehicle, rummaging through the bags in the back seat. To be honest the little boy wasn’t really looking for anything other than more toys or something cool that he might like. It was like going through someone’s belongings when they were out of town and you were house sitting for them, no normal person didn’t snoop a little bit, but it was a small problem when they were looking for things that could be used for their survival.

  “Mom, there’s a big box of cans back here behind the seat.” Tobey called to Megan from the backseat of the Suburban and they could hear Tobey rummaging through them while he hung his body over the seat to investigate it. “There’s peanut butter, strawberry jelly, uh oh. A moldy bag of bread. Creamed corn, French cut green beans, something called hamony, but it looks like white corns. Ew! Lima beans. I hate lima beans.” Tobey said with utter disgust that anyone actually ate them.

  Kaige and Megan had stopped what they were doing to look at each other as Tobey named off what he was finding in the box and then the distinct sound of him throwing the can of lima beans into the floorboard. The two women couldn’t help laughing. Some things never changed no matter what shape the world was in, if a kid didn’t like something they would sit there and starve themselves just so they didn’t have to eat it.

  “Pork and beans with those little chopped up hot dogs in it!” Tobey twisted around in the seat, plopping on his butt and holding the can between his mitten covered hands.

  “That’s good sweetie put it back in the box so when we open the trunk, we can get the box. And put those lima beans back too, I’ll eat them.” Megan snorted a laugh watching as Tobey contorted himself around in the back seat again.

  “Mom! There’s fruit cups too!” So, he’d found two things he really liked, and he was letting the entire neighborhood know about it, then they heard something.

  “Tobey was that you?” Kaige said, lifting her head up to look around outside the windows of the Suburban.

  “Was what me?” Tobey turned around on his knees in the seat, looking at his mom and Kaige through the seats.

  “Did you grunt? I heard a grunt.” Kaige told him.

  “I didn’t hear it.” Megan said, looking around quickly.

  “Maybe it was dad and Logan?” Tobey said, scooting his butt across the seat to get out of the door of the car.

  “I don’t think so, it sounded close by. I heard it right after you were telling us about the fruit cups.” Kaige told him turning her attention back to Megan for a second before she noticed something move. It didn’t necessarily come towards them, but she saw one of the cars that were parked in front of one of the other houses on the corner move. It was maybe twenty to twenty-five feet away and Kaige knew that it couldn’t have been the wind forcing the car to move, if it was they would have felt it.

  “There,” Kaige pointed at the black Dodge Neon with the dented fender. “See it? It just moved.” Kaige got out of the Suburban and walked around to the other side of the car to stand next to Megan.

  “Kaige, I think your eyes are just playing tricks on you.” Megan stated looking at the car, not seeing what Kaige saw.

  “No, I’m telling you I saw it move.” Kaige exclaimed in frustration. “I saw that freaking car move, it was just a little bit, but I saw it and that is the same direction that I heard the grunt come from.” Kaige told Megan, for whatever reason feeling that she had to prove that she wasn’t just seeing things and losing her mind. “Come on, let’s take Tobey back inside.” Tightening her coat around her, Kaige was determined to investigate this. It was just like when she told Zach about the weird white streaks in the sky the day that the world stopped. At first, he hadn’t known what she was talking about until she explained it, then he believed her. If she remembered their conversation right, he called the streaks contrails? Something like that. Somehow, Kaige felt like this was the same thing. She was noticing something out of the usual and no one else seemed to even notice it but her.

  At first Megan didn’t move, she thought that maybe Kaige was just overreacting, it was a stressful time and it would be incredibly easy to see something when it wasn’t there. Megan herself often thought she saw something that wasn’t there, and she did a double take, especially when they were always looking over their shoulders to stay alive. Maybe this was all that was, but it did worry Megan that Kaige was experiencing that much stress that it was causing her to see things that weren’t there. Instead of making the situation worse, if Kaige felt it was a good idea to go back inside, they would go back inside. There was always the hope of accomplishing the rest of this tomorrow.

  Collecting Tobey, Megan wrapped her arms around his shoulders as they walked back up the street together and through the gate to the back door of the apartment house, but Kaige didn’t follow them. Not to their apartment anyway.

  Kaige went into her kitchen, grabbing the baseball bat from behind the door and went back out. She knew what she was doing, or at least that’s what she told herself as she walked back out of the house, closing the door, making sure that it clicked behind her so that it couldn’t be opened from the outside without the key, which Kaige had in her pocket.

  Swallowing, Kaige walked up to the black Neon, using the end of the bat to slightly tap on the trunk.

  Whatever she had heard before, she didn’t hear again and there was no movement, there wasn’t even the sound of a flinch. In her mind, she was sure there was something or someone hiding in or around this car.

  Whenever she’d sat down and watched a movie about people surviving the end of the world, there were often factions of survivors who didn’t want to share the world with anyone else other than those that they deemed to be good enough to inherit the earth. Hitler had tried to kill anyone who didn’t come from a pure bloodline, even though technically he hadn’t killed everyone in the world, but who’s to say he wouldn’t have if people hadn’t stood up and said that what he was doing was wrong and they wouldn’t allow it to go any further?

  Standing in front of the car, Kaige looked around, the bat in her hands up and over her shoulder, ready to take a swing at anything that made a false move to come near her, but she didn’t see anything. There was only the sound of the ax swinging and slicing off chunks of wood as Tom and Logan were working down the hill.

  What was she thinking? She probably scared Tobey to death, not to mention Meg probably thought she was losing her shit.

  Scrubbing her hand over her face, she knocked her beanie askew slightly, looking around at their neighborhood that literally had not changed since the day Kaige brought the group here. Of course, there was nothing out here.

  Exhaling tightly, she let the bat swing free from her shoulder, turning back towards the house when she heard it.

  There was someone inside of the trunk of that car. Something moved inside it, like an arm or a leg, trying to find a comfortable position in the cramped space.

  Kaige turned back, looking at the car’s trunk. Whatever was inside Kaige knew instinctively in the pit of her stomach that it couldn’t be good. Within her mind everything slowed down to a crawl, she couldn’t even hear the ‘THUCK!’ of the ax blade biting into the bark anymore as she tested the driver’s side door and found it open like many of the other cars that were abandoned on the street.

  Ducking her head inside she scanned her eyes over the console looking for a button or a latch that might open the trunk since the keys weren’t left in the ignition nor could Kaige see them anywhere in the front seat. Exhaling through her nostrils, she spotted it and pressed the button as the cold seized her bones, making her movements feel sluggish as the trunk clicked. Swallowing, Kaige’s ears felt like they were ringing as she edged around the vehicle as quietly as she could, raising the bat over her head Kaige stretched her hand out and began to lift the trunk lid open, but what she saw inside she wasn’t prepared for.

  The woman inside was perfectly preserved except for her skin, it was completel
y black. She wasn’t African American, but her skin had turned black just like the zombie in the Dollar General that attacked Logan, except the discoloration had spread everywhere. Stepping back, she wasn’t moving and Kaige couldn’t tell whether she was breathing or not, not that she’d seen zombies breathing before, Kaige tried not to get close enough to one to see if they were breathing.

  She was just lying there, crumpled up inside the trunk of the car. Kaige didn’t know if she was alive or dead or a zombie already when she was put in that trunk. Peering closer, there was a small hole in the trunk close to the right wheel barring but there was a plastic shopping bag being used to tape up the whole. That had to be what she kept hearing rustling around, the wind was catching the bag and making that noise.

  The sound of the ax striking the tree brought the world back up to speed again, the wood was groaning as the tree began to tip, crashing to the ground and Kaige could breathe again for the first time since she opened the trunk of the car.

  “Jesus.” She murmured softly before the eyes opened, like pools of pale green poison and the face of the corpse almost snarled, a black hand gripping the bottom of the trunk coming up, it’s arms reaching out and grabbing onto the collar of Kaige’s jacket.

  Screaming, Kaige stumbled backwards, pulling the zombie from the trunk with her before its full weight fell on top of her body.

  “HELP ME!” Kaige managed to call out as loud as she could, the bat was no longer of any help to her. The corpse was on top of her and chomping to get to her flesh as Kaige kept it pushed away from her face and neck, but she had no idea how long she was going to be able to keep that up. She was stronger than she looked, maybe it was the driving desperation for a taste of flesh that was making the dead woman so strong, but Kaige began to kick and scream, using her arms to keep the woman’s black rotten teeth from sinking into her skin.