by R. M. Smith
“The spit. It’s growing worms where it lands.”
Nick and Scott quickly jumped back up into the truck.
The bridge was now covered with thousands of splotches of bloody flesh. Worms grew out of each splotch, reaching for them.
“Come on, get inside,” Scott said. He reached down to help Janet climb up into the truck. Once everyone was inside, he reached up and pulled the overhead door closed.
In the quiet darkness, Carmen said, “It seems like these dead people are evolving.”
Janet asked, “What do you mean?”
“I don’t know. How would they know to spit? Have any of you guys seen them spit before now?”
“No,” Kim said. “They just stand there reaching for us.”
“They do move around,” Scott offered. “But yeah, once they can’t go any further, they just stand there reaching.”
“So they’ve evolved into the ability to go beyond a reach,” Carmen said. “They can spit now.”
She was sitting up on the mattress closest to the door with her back against the wall with her legs stretched out in front of her. Nick and Janet were sitting on the mattress next to hers facing her with their backs against the other wall. Kim and Scott were facing one another sitting on the next mattress.
The interior of the truck was getting darker and darker. They were quiet, all lost in their own thoughts.
Finally, Kim broke the silence. “I wonder what brought this on. Why all of a sudden did this sickness take over?”
“It could have come from anyone or anything,” Scott said quietly. “Maybe it was a mosquito bite or something in someone’s food.”
“Do you think it’s worldwide?” Janet asked. “I mean, it spreads so fast. I’ve never heard of anything like this.”
“This is instantaneous death,” Nick said, breaking his own silence. His arm was aching. “Whoever gets touched dies immediately.”
“Or even if you touch something that has been touched by one of the dead people…you die,” Carmen added.
“I hope my girlfriend’s ok,” Nick said quietly. “We just found out we’re pregnant.”
“Oh, congratulations,” Janet said. She put her hand gently on his shoulder. He nodded his thanks.
Carmen asked, “Has anyone called for help? Does anyone even have a cell phone?”
“I didn’t call anyone,” Janet said. “I was with Nick. I didn’t have my phone on me. It was charging at work.”
“My phone’s in my car,” Kim said. “But I don’t know where my car is. My husband dropped me off and went to park someplace. He didn’t like me to have my phone. He didn’t trust me with it.”
“Why?” Scott asked. “Were you having an affair or something?”
“No,” Kim said in disgust. “He just didn’t trust me. He thought I would call some guy or others guys would call me when nothing like that was even happening. We didn’t have a very good marriage.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Carmen offered.
“Mines in my car,” Nick said. “I had it on the charger. My car’s over by the Rent-A-Center.”
“I left mine back in the building where my meetings were,” Scott said. “I didn’t think I’d need it so I left it on the table.”
“Mine’s on a park bench down by Eola Lake,” Carmen said.
Nick asked, “Why don’t we just get my phone?”
“I wouldn’t want to take the chance,” Scott said. “Not with all of the spitters out there. I think we should just wait in here – overnight – and see what first light brings. Then again, who knows, they might all move along and leave us alone if they can’t see us.”
Janet asked, “How can they see us? They don’t have any eyes!”
“Yeah I don’t get that, either,” Kim said. “How can they see us?”
Carmen said, “It’s like they’re being controlled by something, like they’re robots. They all move at the same time, they all reach at the same time. Something has to be controlling them.”
Scott said, “I want to see what’s in that box.” He stood up, stepped over to the cardboard box along the back wall of the truck and tore it open.
“Please let it be clothes,” Carmen whispered.
Nick looked at her cleavage then down at her crotch. She didn’t notice.
“Here use this,” Kim said. Reaching into her pocket, she handed Scott her penlight. She asked, “What’s in there?”
Scott clicked on the light. “Nope. It’s a bunch of Christmas candles.”
Christmas candles, Carmen thought.
“Great,” Nick sighed. “Now all we need is matches.”
“I’ve got some,” Kim said as she reached back into her pocket. “My husband was a smoker. He always forgot his lighter.”
Scott took the matches from Kim. He handed her penlight back, struck a match, and lit one of the candles. Immediately a scent of mistletoe filled the truck.
Mistletoe!
Kim asked, “Aren’t you guys scared?”
Carmen stared at the candle. “Of course we are.”
“Yeah, I’m scared,” Scott admitted. “I’m scared shitless; and I’m scared for my family. I hope they’re ok because these spitters aren’t messing around. I think, for some reason, they want us to be like them.”
“But for what gain?” Janet asked. “They want us dead so we can stand around or spit at the next person who comes by that isn’t sick?”
“I told you I think this sickness is evolving,” Carmen said as she shifted nervously against the wall of the truck. “I mean, look, at first, when this sickness took over, all it did was force all of the blood and liquids out of a person’s body. Then, it got people who died to stand up and walk after other people who were still alive – so it became mobile. When it couldn’t t move anymore, it shoots the sickness out of dead people’s mouths.”
Janet asked, “So what’s next?”
“I don’t know, and I don’t really want to find out. What we need to do is think of a way to either out-think its next move or find a way to hurt it so it won’t come after us.”
“Or we just get the hell out of here,” Nick said. “Why are we sitting around in the back of this truck waiting for them to make the next move?”
“Maybe because we’re trapped in here?” Janet asked.
Scott asked, “Do you think they can see us in the dark?”
“I don’t think they can see at all,” Carmen said. “Maybe they sense motion – or maybe it’s a sense of smell.”
Nick asked, “How do you know?”
He was getting anxious. He wanted out of here. Sitting around trying to make up theories about the sickness was not sitting well with him. He said to Carmen, “You seem like you have some kind of knowledge about what’s going on here.”
“No. I don’t have any idea what’s going on,” Carmen said. ‘No idea at all.”
“Then how do you know they can sense us?”
“It’s just a feeling.”
“A feeling,” Nick repeated. “Well I feel like getting the hell out of here.”
“Where would you go?” Janet asked. “They’ve got us blocked in here.”
He thumped his back against the wall of the truck.
Carmen said, “I knew something bad was going to happen.”
Kim asked, “You knew? How?”
“I saw it in a vision.”
Nick muttered, “Oh Jesus...”
Carmen said, “My boyfriend always kidded me about having a sixth sense because sometimes I can sense when something good or bad is going to happen. It doesn’t always come true. Sometimes nothing at all happens; but this one time I had this weird feeling that something bad was going to happen. I didn’t know what it meant or what would happen, but later that night on the same day, my mom called and told me that my twelve year old cousin broke his neck playing football.”
“That’s just a coincidence,” Nick broke in.
“No, I don’t think so, Nick. There was another time whe
re I felt like something weird was going to happen – and again I didn’t know why or how; but later that night, me and my boyfriend went to dinner…and sitting three booths down from us was his ex-girlfriend.”
“Oh Jesus, that was just a coincidence, too. There’s nothing weird about it at all.”
Kim said, “It’s weird that she has the feelings before anything happens.”
Carmen nodded, “Right.”
“They call those premonitions,” Scott volunteered.
“I don’t know what it is, but I had a feeling earlier that I was going to be locked in a room somewhere and I'd smell mistletoe. I thought it was weird because this is June. Why would I smell mistletoe in June? Well, there were Christmas candles in the box. Mistletoe scented candles.”
“That's quite a coincidence,” Kim said, shocked. “How were you able to do that?”
“I don't know.”
Nick was shaking his head. He didn’t believe any of it. “Ok then,” he said. “What do you sense now?”
“That we’re in trouble and -”
“Well no fucking shit,” he interrupted, nearly shouting. “I could’ve told you that.”
“Alright, Nick - calm down,” Scott said. “Listen, maybe Carmen has a gift of foresight. Who knows? Right now, let’s just try to figure out what these spitters don’t like. If we can figure it out, then we can use it as an advantage over them.”
“They don’t like liquids,” Janet said. “They squeeze it out of your body when you die.”
Nick quickly sat up on his knees. “Tell us, Carmen. Why don’t they like the liquids in our bodies?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well what do your visions tell you?”
“I don’t know! I’m not an expert. I just told you sometimes I get feelings about certain things.”
“Well what does it tell you about the liquids?”
“I don’t know I said. Maybe it’s squeezing the life out of you. Maybe that’s the only way it knows how is by infesting you and then expanding so that everything gets squeezed out.”
“What expands in you?”
“I don’t know!”
“Well whatever it is, we need to stop it,” Scott said. “And Nick, why don't you lay off of her? She's just guessing.”
Nick didn't say anything.
Kim asked, “What else doesn’t it like?”
Nick looked at Carmen, expecting an answer.
“Would you back off, please Nick?” Carmen said to him in a loud voice.
“I’m just looking to you for an answer.”
“Well I don’t know all of the answers.”
“Blood!” Janet said. “They don’t like blood.”
“That’s a liquid,” Scott said.
“Right.”
“Well, they don’t like solids either,” Nick admitted. “It’s pretty sick but, the lady inside the office at the Rent-A-Center had a fetus hanging out of her mouth like it got squeezed out of her.”
“Oh God,” Kim said. “That’s nasty.”
“Poor Maria,” Carmen said quietly.
“Ok, so basically the disease squeezes anything out of you as it kills you,” Scott said. “It’s like you get crushed from the inside out – so really, it’s not that the disease doesn’t like liquids or solids, it just needs to get them out of the way so you die.”
“But why does it need to get your – guts out of the way?” Carmen asked.
“Maybe it really doesn’t need to get anything out of the way. Maybe it’s just the body’s natural reaction to it,” Kim said.
Scott asked “What are you talking about?”
“Well, kind of like a cut, I guess. I don’t know, I’m just thinking out loud here. As a teacher, I had to take, you know, first aid classes through college. You guys know about anti-bodies, right?”
“Sure,” Scott said.
“Well anti-bodies attack any kind of infection. Maybe this infection is too strong for anti-bodies. Maybe the body revolts against it, and as it does, it rids itself of anything that gets infected.”
“That’s pretty extreme,” Carmen said. “I don’t think anti-bodies have that much control. They’re just like ‘cleaners’ I guess.”
“Well the body gets cleaned out,” Kim said.
“Totally,” Janet added.
“Let’s just look at the facts,” Scott said. “The disease kills people. It causes people to eject all blood and liquids out of the body. Then the disease takes control of the empty body. It enables the body to become mobile so that it can walk and touch and then infect another person.”
“K, what doesn’t it like?” Nick asked.
“Fire,” Carmen said quietly.
“You burned one?” Kim asked.
“I ran into some after hitting a car that was on fire. I was driving a hotel bus. Some of the spitters got caught between the car and the bus and caught on fire.”
“They didn’t like it?” Kim asked.
“No. I mean, they didn’t look like they were in pain or anything, but they burned up real fast, like paper – and they aren’t heavy at all. They were real light.”
“With all of their body liquids gone I can see why,” Scott said. “Maybe we can use it to our advantage.”
“What? Fly them like kites?” Kim asked with a short laugh.
“No, they’ll burn like leaves, and it will spread quickly.”
“Oh shit,” Carmen said, her jaw dropping.
“What?” They all looked at her.
“I had a feeling. Earlier. I had to push some of the dead people away with the back door of a hotel bus. When I shoved them, I thought to myself that they felt like they hardly had any weight…they felt like leaves. I hope it doesn’t get windy. Oh Jesus…if it does, they’ll lift up in the wind…they’re that light! - they’ll be able to soar on the wind…like a bird…and spit at us from above.”
“I don’t think we need to worry about that,” Scott said with a laugh and a shake of his head. “That seems a little bit too crazy.”
“You never know,” Carmen said.
“Yeah, I think I do,” Nick said. “Actually, the idea sounds pretty damn stupid, Carmen. There’s no way those things out there are going to learn to fly. Come on. Get real.”
She shrugged. “Hey, I don’t know. I’m just guessing. You don’t need to call me stupid.”
“I didn’t call you stupid. I said your idea was stupid. Next thing you’ll be saying that they can drive these trucks.” He was looking at her like she was an idiot.
Carmen looked at her swollen foot. She decided to keep her opinions to herself. She didn’t need any of this extra backlash. It was already bad enough.
It’s not your fault, a voice told her in her head. You’re just being silly.
“Silly?” she repeated.
Scott asked, "What?"
“Nothing. I think I’m going to get some sleep,” she said as she laid down on her side on the mattress.
“Good idea,” Scott agreed. He laid down too.
Nick was still looking at Carmen. He shook his head and stretched out on his mattress as well.
Kim snuggled up to Scott’s back. He was warm.
Janet stayed sitting up. Her mind was miles away.
It was a long time before any of them could sleep. Carmen stared at the wall for a long time.
Being silly. Where did I hear that before?
At dawn, Nick got up with the raging need to piss. As quietly as he could, he slowly opened the overhead door of the truck.
Janet was sitting up, sleeping. Scott had rolled over and now Kim was laying in his arms.
Looking outside, the whole bridge was covered in tiny waving worms. Only a small half-moon area near the back of the truck was clear.
Leaning out the driver’s side of the rear of the truck, looking toward the Rent-A-Center, Nick saw that the side of the truck he was in, as well as truck number two, was completely covered in dripping red spit. Beyond that he could see the roof of his
car near the store. His car and the road around it had no spit on it at all.
All of the sick people were still standing in the exact same places as the night before. None of them had moved an inch; except for a few behind the truck on the left side of the bridge. Some of them had moved out of the way. Had they been pushed by something? Had another car come through and shoved them to the side?
Curious, Nick leaned out the other side of the truck. The people on that side looked the same. He wondered what had caused the people on the other side to move.
He leaned back out the other side again.
There was no way to really get a good look at it unless he got out of the back of the truck.
He had to piss badly. He climbed down out of the truck. Carmen’s back was to him. She got a fine ass, too bad she’s such a psycho, he thought. Turning, he stepped closer to the edge of the spit, unzipped and took care of business.
The worms didn’t like the urine hitting them. Some shrunk down into the muck, others started to climb his urine stream but the pressure was too strong for them to climb very high.
There was a slight shuffling sound to his right. Small dead children had ducked under truck number two and were slowly crawling toward him. One of the kids, a little girl with pigtails who was no more than four years old, led the group. Worms were interlacing with their fingers as they crawled. She had blown out eyes. Nick realized that her other pigtail was a writhing bundle of worms. Seeing it gave him the chills.
The little girl reared her head back to spit at Nick. A glob came dangerously close to hitting his right elbow. He quickly zipped up his pants and jumped up into the truck. He slammed the overhead door down waking the rest of the group.
“What the hell?” Scott said sitting up.
Carmen opened her eyes.
“There’s kids out there!” Nick screamed. “Dead kids and they’re spitters! They’re coming onto the bridge!”
Scott yelled, “What the hell were you doing out there?”
“I hadda take a piss!”
“We’re screwed now,” Carmen screamed. “We won’t make it by them. Nick, you just killed us all!”
“I hadda piss! I’m sorry! I hadda go!”
“You son of a bitch!” Scott said as he got to his feet. “Now what the fuck are we gonna do? You got us trapped in here!”