by mike Evans
“Will it keep the bad things from coming in here?” the boy asked.
“It sure as hell won’t hurt to be quiet, buddy. Just eat and sleep; we can take a few days to rest up. We might be hungry, but at the very least we won’t be tired. Maybe we can work our way through the apartments, Brandy, and see if there’s anything we can take.”
“How about a car? Maybe we can find a set of car keys or something?” Brandy asked.
Shaun didn’t say anything. He lay down next to his rifle. Faces ran through his visions as he fell asleep of all that had been lost. Strangers that he’d never met were in his dreams, asking him for help, pleading for him to do something, to come up with an answer for all of this; to make the world safe again. The longer he slept, the more people he saw.
By the time he awoke, he felt like he was being suffocated. The strangers begged and pleaded that he could be the savior, but he could not help all of them, and by the end of the dream, they were nothing but a blood-soaked horde trying to devour him. He awoke with a start, grabbing at his neck. He looked at his radio, which was one of the last things he’d had on him still, and thought. He couldn’t bear to hear anymore pleas, or for that matter, truths from his friends left behind.
Shaun awoke before the sun had started to come up. His body could feel every hit, scrape, fall, and most definitely his ears could feel that lingering pain from the damn grenade blast. His ears were throbbing, and he had a headache that felt like it would have no end in sight. He tried to think of what was still in his gear bag and if by some small chance he’d be lucky enough to have a package of Ibuprofen. He checked the streets, looking for The Turned, but with no moon or street lights, there was very little in the way of light.
He sat by the window, filling magazines with what he had left for ammunition, trying to figure out what was available. He watched Timmy kicking on the floor, and he thought how horrible it was that someone his age had to deal with the nightmares that haunted himself.
When the sun rose, he checked the streets again and still saw none of the dead. Shaun made his way through the apartment, this time looking for the things they could use to survive that had been ignored the night before when searching for safety.
He left them, shutting the door and making his way through the hallway. He spent the next two hours searching the complex and clearing the building. He found enough food for them to stay there a week, as long as they were willing to attempt the off chance that they could get sick from expired canned goods. He came back down, emptying a bag of goods, water bottles, and fifteen sets of keys.
The two sat up in their blankets, rubbing the sleep from their eyes. “You don’t sleep in do you?” Brandy asked.
“I couldn’t see any of The Turned out there. I can’t just sit somewhere or I’ll drive myself nuts, and the idea of staying here another day without knowing if any of the dead are in here did little to help me relax. Now, look at all these keys I found. One of these has to be to a car that still runs. We just have to take our time, because we can’t go and set an alarm off. We make noise, we bring The Turned, and that’s a lose-lose situation for everyone. Besides, they’ll run to that car and tear it apart for annoying them.”
Shaun looked through the keys, separating them by brand, while Timmy dived into some of the sweeter things he’d found while walking around. Shaun took the keys up to the third floor, looking around until he found the car lights flashing on one of the key fobs when he tried the set of keys. He checked the rest, seeing that two other cars were still there and that the lights worked on them. It gave him hope that the battery, at the very least, was alive, and that they might be able to take it.
Brandy came up touching him lightly on the shoulder making him jump. “Woah, it’s just me, Brandy. I just… I just wanted to apologize.”
“You wanted to apologize? Did you hit your head or something yesterday? I should be the one saying that I am sorry. Christ, I would have done everything a million different ways if it even gave us the slightest hope of not having what happened happen. I’ve been in plenty of shit storms, but I think that one was the winner. Other than losing my dad, I don’t think I’ve ever felt so bad in my entire life.”
“Just shut up, Shaun. It’s a come to Jesus kind of meeting. Do you have a plan? I mean, what’s the endgame? What are we going to do? Where are we going to go? What are we going to use to do all that?”
Shaun thought about it, which made her feel better. She knew from experience with boys that a bullshitter would answer without thinking, but someone sincere or intelligent would take their time to ensure they had the right answer. “We are going to try to take a sport utility out there. It looks like it is in decent shape, can’t be more than a year or two old. There’s a few other ones as well, but that is where I’d like to begin. I want to head east. I'm not trying to get any new people either. I want that up front and known in advance. If you find a colony or group you want to stay with, be my guest. I feel better knowing the two of you would be somewhere safe, but that is your call. My endgame is these things dead. I plan on teaching enough people until they can do it, or finding someone smarter than anyone else who knows how to kill them.”
“So, you’re going to just travel America training people, or looking for some super genius; is that what you are saying? Given you don’t get eaten, of course.”
Shaun shrugged, dropping the keys he didn’t need and pocketing the other ones. “Kind of looks that way, doesn’t it? I'm not trying to be a hero; I don’t want to be looked up to and I sure as shit don’t want to lead anyone. I just want enough people to know what to do. Now, if all those people just happen to go in the same direction as me, then maybe we could organize something, something big. We’d talked about it at home, having a place where people could go to for sanctuary, but I was always more interested in saving those who were still in danger.”
She smiled, brushing the hair from her ear. “You realize you’re kind of a leader the way it is. I mean you can assume you are not… and be wrong. But people don’t look up to others if they aren’t given a reason to. I'm sorry you don’t want to be, but I think you’ll help more people than not if you were in control. Just my two cents, take them or don’t, but I think we know a good thing when we got it. We’ll be around for a while.”
She disappeared around the corner and Shaun went back to the window, contemplating the last year, the friends and loved ones lost, and all the dead that they’d tried to take out. He could hear Greg and Patrick giving him shit and calling him the leader of The Orphans Brigade. He realized that at some point, it was time to put up or shut up, and it seemed like he was getting near the point where the line was drawn in the sand.
☣ ☣ ☣
They spent the next few days gathering everything they thought could be useful in any way at all in the complex. They’d never been as thankful as now to not see one of the dead. The last thing they needed to do was to test out the car. They had spent almost the entire time in silence and had bandaged their wounds well enough to make sure that not even the faintest smell of blood had been able to make its way outside. They knew what would happen if it did.
They got all the gear out by the car and Shaun waited for Brandy to give Timmy the sign that the coast was clear. Shaun slipped out, staying small. He didn’t think that the dead had all gone away and knew that at any minute they could be easily overtaken. He unlocked the car, getting in slowly, and turned the key, shutting the door when the bell went off. He took a few large breaths and resisted pushing his foot on the gas and flooding the modern SUV. He waited for the engine to come to life and when it did, felt instant hope. The car had almost a full tank of gas in it, and he wasn’t going to complain. He’d thought he was guaranteed an empty tank or just short of it, the way that his luck had gone the last few days.
He kept an eye on the window where Brandy was watching from, and she kept a thumb up as long as he was good. He checked regularly as he backed the truck up to the sidewalk, stopping when th
e back tire hit the first step up the stoop to the apartment complex.
He checked one last time for the thumb and leapt out, running to the back and throwing everything he could fit into the rear cargo space. When that was full, he started filling up Timmy’s seat. Timmy did his best to hand things to Shaun but didn’t quite yet have the muscle power to do so. When they were done and loaded, he whistled up the stairs and Brandy appeared, booking ass to get out of there.
“I can’t believe we actually found a car and are able to leave this place. I thought we were going to be here for, like… for like, ever.”
“Come on, let’s get out of here while the gettin' is good. Last thing we want is for them to know we are in here. This place is about as cheap of an apartment complex as I’ve ever seen.”
“College students lived here, I’d bet you.”
“Why do you say that?” he asked.
Her face got red instantly. “Because I found a ton of condoms, text books, and ramen noodles. We could live on those things forever.”
“Did you bring the ramen with?”
She smiled devilishly, happy to put him in the hot seat, and said, “I brought everything with. Who knows when we will need some of that stuff, right?”
Shaun swooped down, picking up Timmy and purposely ignoring the question, not wanting to be in the hot seat. He could almost see a little of Tina in her attitude, and she use to go out of her way to mess with his head. He tossed Timmy into a pile of blankets in the back and said, “You keep an eye out while I drive, Timmy. If you see someone, you say something; better to do something earlier than later, so keep your eyes peeled.”
Timmy gave him a thumbs up, rolling off the pile and into the oversized passenger seat in the back. He brought the lap belt across him and nodded.
They took off slowly, driving straight for the outskirts of town. Shaun only stopped twice to syphon off gas from other vehicles, stocking up on every can that they could find and filling it to the brim. They purposely stayed out of town, taking it slow over a few weeks, and letting their injuries heal. Shaun watched the map and the fact that Davenport had so many of the dead made Chicago sound like they had lost their effing minds for wanting to go there.
Shaun pulled into the outskirts of the city and they did an assessment. He got out of the truck, as did Brandy, and they stared at the gear that they had left and food. “We don’t have shit, Shaun,” she said.
“Thank you for pointing that out, Brandy. We need to find something in town. We are too far away from anywhere else. If we get in trouble and have to wait it out, then we are going to starve to death.”
“Go in town, hope for the best, pray we get food, and then what?”
“Then we try to get out alive. Maybe we pick up a new map and work our way further east. We hit small towns, show people what to do, help them clear hordes. We can do the outskirts of Chicago; maybe the suburbs will have some people,” he wondered aloud.
“For how long?”
“Until we hit the ocean, I guess. Then we turn around or go a different direction. You got anything better to do?”
“Would I sound a little selfish if I said I didn’t want to make a life out of being a hero? I mean, it’s noble, and you seem to be pretty good about it, but I don’t want to have the same kind of demons that you seem to have following me around. We all-in-all had an easy first year. I don't want to continue with chancing it. I’m not scared of gray hair, a husband, maybe kids in my future.”
“Wow, slow down.”
“Not with you, ass. I’m just saying I don’t know if I’m going to be a warrior. It suits you, though.”
“It’s my responsibility. My dad released it, it’s his fault. That falls on me. He never would have made the cure for my girlfriend’s mom if they’d never met. She got sick, unable to be cured, and she’d have died. The world would have been a better place for it.”
Brandy didn’t actually know what to say and Shaun realized he was going to probably get mixed reactions. He could not tell people, and he was well aware of that, but the last thing he was about to do was start relationships, and in some cases an army, based on lies.
“Your dad started it?” she asked.
“He was trying to cure cancer; that didn’t happen. I really just need to write down his story and put it on paper. Better than having to tell people over and over again. I fucking hate it, like… hate it. Tell you the same thing I tell everyone: if you can’t deal with it, just let me know and I’ll drop you off somewhere safe, I promise you. No hard feelings, I hope.”
“If that’s the only reason you are doing this, you are a complete moron. It isn’t your fault. Just because your dad and his girlfriend met because of you, it isn’t your fault. It’s fate, stupid. Maybe this is all part of a bigger picture.”
“Bigger picture of what?”
“That maybe God was ready to clean out the world and start it over. Get rid of those that can’t survive. Maybe this was the cleanse, who knows?”
“I have no idea. I’ve always kind of felt God was sitting this round out. Now the Devil, on the other hand, I could totally see him or her taking a slice of this action.”
“You guys are both crazy,” Timmy said. “I’m starving and have been for a few days.”
Shaun and Brandy didn’t mention that they both had rumbling stomachs too. Neither of them wanted to come to terms with the fact since they’d rolled through a few towns which had been picked to the bones and in some cases, were crawling with the dead. Each of them had been experiencing bouts of dizziness running through their heads.
Shaun drove slowly to the outskirts of town. The truck was close to empty and he had no clue how much more he would get out of it. If it hadn’t been for the fact that he’d been used to driving a Humvee and the viable options at hand would have been greater, there would have been a very strong chance he would have picked up a Prius, or a little Elantra—basically anything not electric that got great gas mileage. Had he known how to ride one properly and not have Brandy or Timmy, he probably would have stolen a motorcycle. Before the outbreak, he always thought he was more the road-racer kind of guy, who’d be next to your window at a stop light one moment and in another two seconds be rolling seventy miles an hour down the highway.
Shaun checked his rearview mirrors regularly as they entered the limits of Chicago. The city didn’t look like it had been skipped when it came to the outbreak. He watched the rooftops and was thankful for the sunroof in the SUV. He’d seen these things atop of roofs, and the last thing he wanted to consider is one of the bastards leaping from ten stories up and ending up on top of their car. He could just imagine it practically imploding on them, with nowhere to go and trashing the car, if not killing them in the process. Shaun tried to take a few more deep breaths, but knew he was never closer to being on the verge of passing out than he was right now.
Brandy shook his arm. “You are awake, right? We need you to get us through this, Shaun.”
“I'm fine. We’ll find a shop or something and get some food. I’ll run through it, and clear it out. If I find something, I’ll give you a hand signal to come in.”
“What kind of a hand signal?” Brandy asked.
“The only one you’ll see me do.”
Shaun pulled into an alley when he found a sign that said, “Local Market.” He backed it in slowly and they sat waiting. Timmy climbed up, taking off his seatbelt and whispered, “Why are we sitting here? This is, like, totally boring!”
“Do you want one of those dead things to eat you?” Brandy questioned.
“No, not really. Why, is that going to happen? That isn’t going to happen right, Brandy?”
“No Timmy, but if we don’t make sure there’s no hordes moving through here, then I'm not going to feel very good about leaving you here while I go and check it out. There might be enough in there that we could stock this truck, given we’d still need to find some gas, and it’d be nice to hole up somewhere for a few days. We still have a long
haul ahead of us. If we could get some serious rations, we could make little safe places where we could send people.”
They sat there for an hour without seeing anyone. “Lock the doors, keep the windows up, and don’t say anything. I don’t want you leaving this truck unless you think you are going to die. I’ll come back once I know that it is safe. Can you do that for me?” Shaun asked.
Brandy nodded slowly and whispered, “I really hate you going out there by yourself. We can take care of ourselves, but what happens if you need help?”
“I’ll just pray that there’s something somewhere that can provide it. I’ll be happy to use my machine gun if worse comes to worse. Turn your radio to three and leave it there. I’ll let you know what’s happening, I promise. I'm going to set up on the roof and get a better look. We need to eat though, like, soon before we all pass out. There won’t be anyone coming for us and we need to take better care of ourselves.”
“Then you come back, Shaun! I mean it, don’t make this the end,” Brandy said.