I start to say something but Felecia explodes from her seat, golf club in hand, and storms to the back. The poor kid looks confused but more frightened. He should be. He doesn’t even get a chance to speak before her bloody golf club is pressed beneath his chubby chin, forcing him against the window.
“And who the hell do you think you are?” That’s the Felecia I’ve come to know, only, is she standing up for me? “Because I suddenly have the urge to give swirlies and put ‘kick me’ signs on someone’s back. Oh, hey that explains it. Look everybody, it’s Clay O’Connor’s little brother.” The kid’s too scared to move the golf club away from his throat, everyone else is too shocked to help. Blood smears his neck. “Hmm, I wonder if Clay would help you if he were here? What about your sister?” It’s made obvious by the change in his facial expression that she’s struck a chord. “Or do you think they’d sit there and laugh at their useless piece of shit brother? Worthless losers, shouldn’t, speak. But please, if you have anything else to add, feel free.”
She pulls the club from his throat but continues to glare a hole through him with her venomous stare. He wipes himself frantically, breathing heavy, on the verge of tears. I know who he is now. I never realized he was one of the O’Connors, freshman I believe. Clay’s mentioned a little brother but never said he went to our school. Now I get it, he and Monica are super popular, apparently their little brother is not. I’ve seen him get picked on a million times, Clay and his sister never did a thing to stop it. The black sheep of the family. I want to feel sorry for him, but he did threaten to throw me off a bus.
Felecia looks at me, only this time there’s no smile, just cruel Felecia. “Go ahead Noah. You were saying?”
“If we go to the evacuation center, we’re sitting ducks. None of us know much about these things, but they can smell human blood. I’m certain of it. If we put a bunch of people together in one place for any length of time, they’re gonna know. At least on the bus we can stay moving. I’m not saying we won’t leave the second we can, it’s just, they’re not even set up yet. We should wait it out, at least a day or two, then go.”
“So then,” Neil snarls in a sarcastic tone that makes me remember why I’ve hated him all these years, also why I thought he and Felecia would make the perfect couple, “what do we do, in the meantime, your highness?”
“We hold hands and sing Kumbaya,” Felecia answers for me. I laugh a little but I think I’m the only one. “What the fuck do you think we do, genius? We try to stay alive.”
I nod. “What she said.”
“And because you say it we’re automatically supposed to listen?” He just hates not being in charge.
“No Neil,” I sigh, clearly irritated, “you’re supposed to listen because you haven’t contributed any reasonable ideas that won’t get us all killed in point two seconds. You actually get a good idea, let me know.”
I plop down next to Caylee. She looks worried and it kills me. I don’t want any of us to be here in this position, especially her. She’s the sweetest girl ever. She shouldn’t have to go through this.
Her hand rubs mine the second I sit and I’m forced to look into those beautiful eyes, even though what they’re saying is hurting me. “Are you sure we’re doing the right thing?”
“I promise you Caylee, I would never risk hurting you. I think this is our best bet.”
“Okay. I trust you.” But she doesn’t, I can see it in her eyes. It’s a look that wasn’t there before. She wants to trust me, she really does, but she doesn’t. Not anymore. “Plus, I kinda wanna keep you around.”
“Kinda, huh? Well, it’s better than nothing.”
She shrugs and flashes me an adorable smile that almost seems genuine. “So, since you won’t be taking me on a date tonight, maybe I can hold your hand instead? And we can still have a goodnight kiss, which my overprotective dad would have interrupted if it went too long, which I fully intended on. But now that no one’s here to stop us.”
“Gag.” A loud cough snaps me out of my own little world. “Do you two mind?” Felecia gives us a dirty look from around the seat. It’s hard to believe that not even half an hour ago, it was the two of us who almost kissed. I think. “There are other people on the bus. Not all of us feel like barfing all over ourselves. Again,” she adds under her breath.
We ignore her and smile at each other, letting our hands wrap around one another. I do have to say, this is the strangest start to a relationship ever, but it makes being here bearable. With so much death around us, it’s amazing to find a reason to live.
If this is what the world has come to, in spite of it all, I’m lucky to be here. I’m lucky to be alive.
CHAPTER 25
Darkness closes in around us. I find myself scared of what the night may bring. The rain has slowed considerably, the outpouring of walking corpses has not. They wander the streets, stalking victims no one is coming to rescue. In the dimming light, you can’t tell if they’re dead until it’s too late. Homes that should be lit up and full of life appear abandoned. I hope they aren’t. I hope they contain families hiding, waiting for help to come, waiting to get word that it’s time to go to the evacuation centers where the government will get this whole mess sorted out. I hope they’re not waiting in vain.
Despite the nightmare that binds us, the divide is forming. There are two halves of this bus. Theirs and ours. We should be united but I don’t have the power to do it. And their side is larger than ours. I don’t even know where they all came from. They must be the kids who were in that classroom with Neil.
Neil. That’s our problem right there. He’s his father’s son. Even when his dad isn’t around, he’s doing all he can to impress him. That desire to be in charge. No, it’s more than a desire, it’s a necessity. He needs to be the leader. And he won’t rest until he is. Normally I’m fine with that. I don’t care to be top dog. This wasn’t my choosing. It was no one’s choice. I became the leader here because I’m the one they owe their lives to, Neil included. I know him, I know how he thinks. He hates the fact that it wasn’t him who got all these people to safety. He froze in the moment and it haunts him. He needed to be the hero. Just as badly as I don’t want to be in charge, he needs to be. I did what he couldn’t and it’s eating away at him.
I want to give him the power that I reluctantly stole, just to keep the peace. If it means I get to live, I can do that for three days. I can follow his orders. I can obey his rules. The problem is, with him in charge, we won’t last three days. Why is it that the people who want power the most are the last ones who should have it?
“Hey Noah,” Marty yells, “saddle up for a second, we gotta chat.”
“Anything you two have to say can be said in front of us.” Ms. Higgins. You’re a psychology teacher at a California high school, not a professor at some prestigious British university so you can stop talking like one at any time. “We’re all in this together and we all have a voice. There’s no need for secrets. Everyone on this bus has a say in whatever decision making is taking place.”
“Don’t get your granny panties in a bunch sweetheart,” Marty says crassly, turning back to face her for a brief second, just long enough to wink at her. “The men are talking, we’ll ask for your opinion when we feel it’s needed.”
Her eyes practically bug out of her head and I can’t say I blame her. Women’s rights and all. He’s doing it intentionally just to antagonize her but it’s working a little too well.
“I don’t know who in the hell you think you are but you are not in charge here.”
“That’s funny,” he laughs, puffing his arms out while gripping the steering wheel, “because I feel pretty in charge right now. But you’re more than welcome to take the wheel or get dropped off at any point. In fact, this looks like a lovely area, shall I let you off here, madame? No? Is that a no? Then how about you shut the frig up for a minute and let us talk.”
Well that shuts her up. She is beyond furious and it worries me. She’s moving closer
to the back of the bus. I’m not exactly sure why it’s disconcerting, it’s not like they can vote us off. They need us. We’re what’s keeping them alive. Hell, this is Marty’s bus. He can remove any one of us anytime he wants. So why hasn’t he? There is clearly a struggle for power and we haven’t even made it through one day. I’ve seen Neil and Ms. Higgins talking. Conspiring. I don’t know what they think they’re going to do but it’s certainly not going to make these next few days easy. Maybe I made a mistake. Maybe I shouldn’t have rescued anybody.
“Gee Marty, you really do have a way with the ladies,” I say under my breath while plopping down on the floor beside his seat.
“Oh she’s just jealous because my ponytail’s prettier than hers. Old hag. Never trust a bitch who looks at you over the top of her glasses. But that’s beside the point. Noah man, we’ve been circling these streets for hours now, there’s more of them every time we come back around. They ain’t clearing out.”
“I know, I was just hoping they’d, I don’t know, realize there was no food here and walk somewhere else.”
“I hear ya. I thought they’d do the same thing. I mean shit, half of ’em are just standing there staring at their hands. They ain’t even moving.”
“What if everything we know about them is wrong? We’re basing our knowledge off TV and movies. How many people out there are thinking they can shoot them in the head and boom it’s over? These things aren’t what we think they are.”
“Son of a god damn whore,” he mumbles under his breath. “You’re right. Fuckin’ A you’re right. This is ’Nam all over again. We’re fighting the wrong kind of battle. Fuck.” He punches the steering wheel a few times, not like he’s trying to break it, but like he’s trying to beat some sense into himself. “And now’s probably not the right time to mention it but we just dipped below half a tank. We gotta start thinkin’ about gassing up, plus what we’re gonna do for tonight. We at least need a safe place to park this rig and try to get some shuteye. And this infested neighborhood ain’t it. You hear me brotha?”
“The only thing I can think is to park outside the city, in the most uninhabited area we can find, where maybe there weren’t many people. Something rural, farmland maybe, so we can see them coming from a distance.”
“You might be onto something. We’re gonna have to take turns on guard, if those bastards swarm the bus, we’re screwed. The tires are big but they can only run over so many. And between you and me, I’m not feeling all too confident in our bus-mates.”
“Trust me, you’re not alone. Where’d they all come from anyway?”
“Man, I don’t even know. A whole group of them came running outta the building and saw me and the Spanish girl getting on. They all climbed in like they were invited. I figured fuck it, the more of us there are, the better our chances at protecting ourselves. Professor Cunt Bucket there tried running over a whole mob of the bastards in her Prius and got stuck so we rescued her. Picked up a couple kids running down the street. The younger one there, kid with the rad mohawk, your two black buddies. Hey, strength in numbers, right? When shit hits the fan, we’re gonna need ’em. Even if they just stay behind and guard the camp while a few of us go out and do the dangerous stuff. Someone’s gotta do the gardening, you know what I mean?”
“You’re saying that like we’re gonna be out here for a long time. It’s only three days. All we gotta do is hold out until the evacuation centers are set up. Right?”
“Sure, they’re probably right on it, just like they were in Puerto Rico. Or the south, when Hurricane Katrina hit. Those guys are on the ball, we’ll be rescued in no time. There ain’t no help comin’ kid, this is it.”
“No, no Marty, I get it, it’s bad. But they’ll figure something out. They had enough warning in DC. They’ll, I don’t know, build a wall or something. Fly us to Europe and stick us in some refugee camp.”
“And if they do? By some miracle, let’s say they get their shit together and get us out of here. Pack us in some government run camp in a foreign country, you’re okay with that?”
“It’s better than being out there, with those things.”
“And how exactly do you think those things came to be? Because I’m betting you’re putting your life in the hands of the same people who created this mess in the first place.”
“Then what the fuck are we supposed to do Marty? What do we do? What are we fighting for if we’re all just gonna die anyway?”
“I don’t know, you tell me. You’re the hero here, risking your life, saving everyone you can. What are you saving them all for? Tell me, what do you see in their future?”
Did I save them all for nothing? I didn’t think about it when I was doing it, I just, I wanted to help. I never thought that far ahead. I guess I assumed the government would step in. They’d send help. Soldiers with guns and tanks. They’d bring the survivors to some secret bunker hidden under a mountain. Life would go on. It’d be different for a while, sure. But they’d devise a plan to fight back. Slowly but surely we’d rebuild and eventually life would be normal again.
That’s still what’s going to happen. I can’t be wrong. I can’t be because if I am, what has all this been for? We’ve all seen zombie movies. We’ve read the books. Played the games. We’re well educated on the subject matter. Hell, we’re about as woke as can be when it comes to the zombie apocalypse. It’s not going to play out like it does in those because those are entertainment. They were made to be the worst case scenario because they were made to entertain us.
In real life there is no war between Rick and Negan. There’ll be a government run by the same officials who run it now. They’re the ones who were rescued first. When they’re good and ready, they’ll come back for us. What good are leaders if there’s nobody to lead? There’s no dystopian villages run by groups of random survivors. No, no those were created to entertain us because that’s entertaining.
What’s not entertaining is getting loaded onto an armored bus where trained soldiers do the fighting. Where we get clumped together with other survivors and let the paid officials deal with whatever goes on outside the walls they built to keep us safe. Where we don’t deal with humans turned monsters. We did our part. We survived the attack. Our story ends here. Now it’s time for someone else to step in and tell their story. The soldiers who will protect us. The politicians faced with the task of rebuilding. The scientists who are going to discover a cure. It’s their turn now. All we have to do is follow their instructions and pass the baton to them.
“We’ll be alright Marty.” I rest my hand on his knee and stand up. “Help is coming. The hard part is over. All we gotta do is get to that evacuation center.”
“Let’s hope you’re right,” he grumbles, his cold glare icy enough to make me question everything I think I know.
CHAPTER 26
“Stop the bus.” Felecia’s voice comes from out of nowhere, disrupting the uncomfortable silence we’ve fallen into. “Are you deaf? I said stop.”
“For what?”
“I need to use the bathroom.” She gets up and walks to the front, not bothering to wait for a response.
“We just stopped thirty minutes ago,” Marty calls back to her, not taking his eyes off the road.
“If you don’t stop this bus, I’m shitting on the floor.” She begins lifting her oversized maternity dress to prove her point.
“Jesus woman!” Marty doesn’t like it but he angrily pulls into a parking lot. “When you come back, don’t be surprised if we’re not here.”
“Why do you have to be so nasty?” Blake yells from the back. “Freakin’ skank.”
“Oh go choke on a roofie you insignificant piece of–”
“Enough, you two.” Marty turns around to give them the angry bus driver glare. “I won’t hesitate to throw you both off if you don’t shut the hell up. I’m starting to lose my fucking patience here. This isn’t a field trip, it’s life or god damn death and if you little shits don’t realize that real soon, so h
elp me god. Go, and make it quick.”
“I’m not going alone,” she scoffs. “You’ll leave me here.”
“Oh for crying out loud.”
“I’ll take you,” Neil pipes up, still trying desperately to impress her. What the hell did he do to piss her off so much?
“Yeah, because you’ve definitely proven I can trust you.” She looks at me. “You mind?”
“What is your fascination with him?” Neil screams across the bus, his face turning red with anger.
“Caylee too,” she says, ignoring Neil as if he didn’t even speak. “I don’t want to be in the bathroom alone. Come on, hurry, I gotta go.” She grabs me by the arm and pulls me up.
“You got five minutes,” Marty says, opening the door, grumbling obscenities under his breath. She picked me because she knows he won’t leave without me, but I’m beginning to question it. I’m not so sure he plans on going to any evacuation center. And I don’t know what that means for the rest of us.
When we step off the bus into the misty night, I realize where we are, it’s Angelo’s, the fanciest, most overpriced restaurant around. I suppose I shouldn’t put it past her, if she has to go, why not go in style? Although I highly doubt the restroom attendant will be handing out warm towels tonight. The lights are on, if someone was inside, still alive, they’d shut them off rather than draw attention to their whereabouts.
She holds the door for us, which certainly beats breaking in. The look on Caylee’s face says she’s a bit apprehensive to enter. I understand. An overturned table greets us, bloodstains tainting the white fabric. Zombies either were here or still are. Leftover breakfast plates sit on tables, some of them untouched. People must have run out in the middle of their meals. Some made it, others have left remains that say otherwise.
Felecia holds her golf club in position while making a beeline for the restrooms. Her two sizes too big shoes cut through the eerie silence this place has only ever known in the lonely hours of the night. Something tells me we’re the last humans these walls will hear. A time capsule. Someday someone will walk through the door again, if it still stands, and wonder what happened here.
Blood Type Infected (Book 1): No Future For Man Page 15