“What about my car?” she asked suddenly. She felt silly, but she didn’t want to leave her car here. It was new and completely paid off. And it was hers.
“Your car will be fine. We’ll come back and get it when things die down,” he said. “No pun intended.”
She instantly felt ridiculous. Her car didn’t mean anything, not in comparison to their lives.
“My apartment is on Second Street, right next to the deli. It’s on the second floor.”
“I know the building. Okay, buckle up.” She buckled her seatbelt as he started the engine. She cringed at the loud rumble, knowing it would draw attention to them. He flipped off his headlights and started backing out of the space when they spotted the first runner.
A man, old and frail looking, ran around the corner of the building. His bathrobe was spotted with dark stains that Anna really didn’t want to speculate on. His face was drawn into an expression of wrath as he sprinted toward the truck. The red brake lights gave him a maniacally ghoulish appearance and she shivered with sudden goosebumps. Anna clenched the handhold as Jared accelerated, way more slowly than she thought he should. It was probably a very good thing that she wasn’t driving. She probably would have rammed the truck right into a building in a panic.
The man struck the tailgate, scratching at the paint with his fingernails. She saw his mouth working in a frenzy, his teeth gnashing. He clutched on to the back of the truck as it accelerated, and she watched out the large back window.
Surely there was no way he could hold on!
Even as she was thinking that his clawed fingers disappeared. A second later his body appeared in the road behind them, scrabbling up on severely skinned legs. They looked like they had been through a cheese grater, but he still ran after them.
He wants to rip us apart!
She turned back and looked at Jared. He looked so calm. How is that possible? She was envious.
“Okay, when we get there, I’m going to park in the alley near the stairs. If there are any signs of movement, then I say we wait and come back tomorrow during the day.”
“Okay.”
They took the back streets, passing the industrial warehouses and vacant lots for future industrial park projects. He drove slowly, attempting to keep the noise of the truck to a minimum. All around them in the distance she saw shifting shadows in the fading light. They were out there.
Cars were parked at awkward angles along the streets and sidewalks. Some were wrecked, but some were just left there, doors open, like their owners were only stepping out for a moment. She wondered if they would ever come back. They saw more body parts than she thought was possible. Blood splattered various surfaces and she steeled herself against it all. It was something they would have to endure, to get used to, at least for now. They would have to desensitize. Compartmentalize.
She looked for survivors. They couldn’t possibly be the only ones. She was sure they were out there somewhere, but she didn’t see any. Nobody ran to them for help or tried to flag them down. She guessed everyone was hunkered down, hiding, and waiting. For what, she didn’t know.
The closer they got, the more nervous she got. She didn’t want to get out of the truck. In here they were somewhat safe. Out there, they were prey.
When they got to her street, she looked all around, hoping it was quiet. It seemed to be, though it hadn’t escaped the carnage either.
“It looks clear to me,” he said.
He parked and turned the truck off. They listened for a few minutes, with the windows cracked a bit, but heard nothing close by.
“Get your keys ready. Don’t get out until I come around to get you.”
She fumbled in her purse for her keys. She was thankful that she was going to be able to get into some clothes better suited to this…this situation. She blessed her earlier decision to wear her Keds today, knowing that she might have been dead by now if she had worn her pumps instead. She wanted her running shoes, or maybe some hiking boots…and the baseball bat she kept behind her door.
Jared finally came around to her side after he peered out into the street in front of her building. He held his finger in front of his lips and gestured. She jumped down and he closed the door so it didn’t draw unwanted attention. He led her to the stairwell door and edged it open.
Inside was dark, and the air was stale, close, and humid. The lights hadn’t yet been switched on by the building manager. She went to turn them on, but Jared suddenly stopped her, placing his hand over hers. He shook his head and shut the door.
They waited at the bottom of the stairs, hearing nothing and seeing nothing. Anna felt the time pass like an eternity.
Was that her harsh breathing or Jared’s? Was it some crazy person lurking on the first landing?
After a moment, Jared pulled out a flashlight from one of his many pouches and swept the beam around small space. It was empty. They went upstairs, the scuff of their feet on each concrete step echoed loudly in her ears.
When they reached her landing, Jared cracked opened the door and peeked around quickly before stepping out with his rifle.
He motioned her out and she went quickly to her door and unlocked it, grateful to be out of the damp darkness of the stairwell. She ran toward the kitchen and turned off the light she had left on. This cast the apartment into darkness. The only light came from the orange streetlights filtering through the opened blinds.
Jared locked the door behind him; the deadbolt sounded definitive in the dark. Any other time and she would have been beyond thrilled to have Jared at her house. It was too damned bad the freaking apocalypse had to happen to get him here.
“There are some boxes in the hall closet, and trash bags under the sink if you want to pack up whatever food you can find. I’m going to get some things from my bedroom and bathroom, and I’ll be ready.”
“Okay. Let’s make it quick. We aren’t safe here.”
Muffled thuds came through her living room wall, shaking her flat screen and causing her to gasp. She covered her mouth with her hand and looked at Jared in the low light. He placed his finger to his lips, and they waited as the thuds subsided for the moment.
“Wow, your neighbors like it rough,” he said, placing his ear to the wall for a moment.
“A single, old man lives there. I highly doubt he’s getting it on right now.”
“Well then, like I said, we aren’t safe here,” he retorted.
She waited until he started rifling through her coat closet for boxes before she ran to her bedroom.
“Just how much crap do you buy from Amazon?!” he said from the living room.
She cringed. She was going to treat that as a rhetorical question. Was it embarrassing to know the UPS driver so well that they started to exchange Christmas cards?
She had blackout curtains over her lone window in the bedroom, and so she felt safe turning on her closet light. She changed into a comfortable pair of jeans and a t-shirt, exchanging her Keds for her running shoes. In a backpack, she quickly stuffed three changes of clothes, two weeks’ worth of underwear and socks, and another pair of sneakers.
She tossed her bag on the bed along with the formerly mentioned hiking boots and carried a large tote bag to the bathroom. She threw in her toothbrush and toothpaste, some hair ties, her shampoo and conditioner, some soap, deodorant, and two boxes of feminine hygiene unmentionables.
She eyed the extra toilet paper under the sink, and then decided to toss that in too. It would suck to run out of toilet paper.
“Anna, you about finished?” Jared quietly asked, coming into her room. “I’ve got most of the food and stuff ready. We’ll have to make two trips to the truck. And remind me later to ask why you have so many cases of kidney beans in your pantry.”
“Wait!” she said, quickly reaching for the drawer on her nightstand. She took out her only picture of her mother and put it in the front pocket of her backpack. “Okay. I’m good. Let’s go.”
She followed him out to the living room,
grabbing her two bags on the way. She looped the backpack over her shoulders and the tote bag over her head and one arm. She still had her hands free, so she grabbed one of the bags of food. The other hand she was saving for the Louisville Slugger.
Jared grinned at her weapon but didn’t comment on it.
“Let’s take this stuff out, then we’ll come back for the canned foods.”
“I hope those things don’t know how to open doors,” Anna said in a slight whisper.
They left the apartment cautiously. Anna was halfway expecting to be ambushed outside the door by insane neighbors, and she was relieved when the walkway turned out to be empty. She wondered if they shouldn’t try to knock on the other doors and see if anyone was home.
She dismissed that idea just as quickly. She didn’t really know her neighbors, and she wasn’t sure it would be a good idea to meet people they didn’t know. Not everyone was good. She wouldn’t feel safe.
She did feel safe with Jared.
They made it back down the stairwell with Jared holding the small flashlight in his teeth. Anna wished it were all over and they were somewhere safe already.
She was so tired, and her head was starting to pound again... not to mention the gallon of sweat she seemed to be covered in. She just wanted to wash up a little, take some acetaminophen, and go to sleep for a while.
“Ready?” Jared said when they got to the bottom.
He didn’t give her a chance to answer before he edged the door open. They scanned the area before running as soundlessly as possible to his truck. They turned their heads every direction, not wanting to be caught unaware by anything.
Anna tossed her load of things in the backseat of the truck and Jared came back around. They made another trip, leaving the rest of the canned goods for last. It made her wish she lived on the ground floor. They settled the heavy box into the bed of the truck and prepared to go for another load.
Boom!
What the hell?
She turned toward the brick wall behind her and saw a small chunk lying on the ground. When she looked up toward Jared again, Anna saw a small, muted flash from the window of a building a couple blocks over, quickly followed by another boom. She frowned and squinted at it. What were they doing?
“They’re shooting! Get in the truck now!” Jared yelled, pulling his rifle and firing three rounds toward the dark building as he came around and stood in front of her.
She jumped in the truck and leaned over to open Jared’s door. When he saw that she was safely in, he went around the opposite side and jumped in. He started the engine and gunned it out of the alley. She hoped like hell that whatever bullets that person was firing wouldn’t disable the truck.
She held on tight and looked out the front windshield, fully expecting to be shot any second. Tires screamed loudly as he made a sharp right turn that would take them to the highway out of town.
A loud thwack sounded as a bullet punched through the back of the truck. Anna fastened her seatbelt and kept her head down. She was more worried about shooters now than the crazies.
“He’s shooting at the cans!” Jared said, laughing like a lunatic. “He hates these cans!”
“Cool it, Jared! What the hell else can go wrong today?!” she practically yelled at him.
“We could get a flat tire. We could get food poisoning. Someone could nuke us. He could have shot your thirty-seven cases of kidney beans. I could have a heart attack. We could be having a weird dual delusion about this whole thing and get arrested for killing Darla and Hubbard and stealing property from the office—”
“It was a rhetorical question.”
Chapter Ten
Leaving Safety
They drove through town as quickly as possible, which wasn’t very fast. The sniper either lost his angle on them or was distracted by something else. She was glad their little town didn’t have taller buildings. Imagine the damage a sniper could do with a better vantage point.
The truck slowing stopped her thoughts in their tracks.
They were at a T-intersection directly beside a gas station. Its bright white lights beckoned them with a false sense of safety. There were a few cars in the lot, but the large glass store front was busted in several places. She didn’t think there were any survivors here. Not anymore.
A theater across the street looked like a war zone. The parking lot was full, absolutely jam packed, with the opening of a new, highly hyped movie. She didn’t want to think of the devastation inside. There must be hundreds of people in there, whether they were sane or crazy, normal or sick, she didn’t know.
They could all be dead.
A pervasive sense of desolation filled the truck as they stared at the building. She felt Jared take her hand in the dimly lit cab of the truck. He squeezed gently. She was grateful for the human contact— grateful that she wasn’t alone right now. She swallowed down the tears that threatened. There would be time for that later. Maybe.
“It’ll be okay. We’ll be alright,” he said. His deep voice was steady and sure. His eyes though…they reflected her grief.
“I know,” she said with a sad smile.
She gasped when she turned back. Without warning, a mob of people came rushing toward them from behind the movie theater complex. They streamed across the parking lot and out into the road. They seemed intent on tearing the truck apart with their bare hands and teeth. Some bounced off the cars packed in the lot, their progress stunted for the moment, but the ones that made it through came fast.
“Hold on!” Jared shouted and jerked the wheel violently to the left.
Anna held on tight as the truck swerved to the left. Their stuff flew to the right side of the vehicle. The canned foods in the bed made a loud racket as they all shifted and rolled. She glanced out the window and saw the nearest frenzied face a scant few feet from her. The malignant glare, the insane, murderous fury…it was too much.
She remembered that she could turn into one of those things at any moment. Jared might have to kill her. She was scared. She didn’t want to die, and she didn’t want to leave him here alone. She had to bury those thoughts. There was nothing she could do about it.
They avoided most of the crowd, only hitting one of the freaks who seemed particularly agitated by the headlights. A sharp smack, and the right headlight dimmed. Anna saw the body tumble to the side, rolling a few feet before stopping. Most of the right side of the thing’s face was gone.
It. The things. The monsters. The crazies. The demons. She was dehumanizing them. She couldn’t help it. Jared was right. She couldn’t think of them as sick people and kill them or watch them be killed. They were rabid things to be put down. Monsters to be eliminated. Maybe later this would all catch up to her and she would feel guilty. Maybe not.
“Promise me something,” she said abruptly, not looking over at Jared.
“What?” he asked.
She heard the wariness in his tone, as if he thought she was going to ask for something he couldn’t give.
“If I turn into one of them, I want you to shoot me right away. Don’t hesitate.”
“Anna…” he began.
“No, Jared. Promise me, please. I don’t want to be like that.”
“Fine. But you won’t turn into one of them. I already told you that I won’t let you,” he replied.
“There would be nothing you could do to stop it,” she argued.
“Watch me,” was his answer.
She decided to drop the subject for now. She had gotten the promise that she wanted. Now, she was concentrating on making it to his house in one piece. She needed to sleep, just for a little while, or she was going to have a mental breakdown. That would be embarrassing.
They reached the edge of town. There was a neighborhood off to the side. The streetlights were further apart but held more warmth. Jared turned here unexpectedly. She thought he lived further out.
The homes weren’t the largest, but they were solidly upper middle class and nicely kept. The streets wer
e kept in good repair and the sidewalks were new. This neighborhood looked almost untouched.
“I don’t know if this is a good idea. Do you think those things made it out here yet?”
His lips tightened before he answered. “We aren’t staying here. This is where my mother lives with my sister. I think those things are already all over the place. They were people who got sick, remember?”
“Yeah.” How could she have forgotten?
“My mom got sick,” he suddenly said as they drive slowly down the street.
“I’m sure she’s fine. Is your Dad…”
“He died several years ago.”
“I’m sorry.” She didn’t know what else to say.
He didn’t say anything else.
The houses looked mostly normal, like she imagined they would at any other time. Some windows were lit up, curtains open. Some had lights on, but their blinds were closed. Some were dark.
The front doors on a few were wide open. Belongings scattered across lawns. Most didn’t have cars in their driveways, and she wondered why. The streets were clear though, and she was thankful because she was certain that Jared would physically clear them himself to get to his mother’s house.
She would have if it were her mother.
They finally stopped at a side street. The dead-end sign mocked them in the headlights. She heard him let out a deep breath. These houses looked the same as the others.
She didn’t like being in this neighborhood, no matter how welcoming it would have normally looked. Now it was one large maze, with all kinds of places for those things to lurk and hide. The shadows were deep between homes.
And whatever walked there, walked alone.
The line from Jackson's novel popped into her head instantly. It fit.
They stopped at a mailbox with the name ‘Carson’ painted in white script. She looked at the house as Jared put the truck in park. He left it running.
“Stay here and watch the truck. If you see anything bad or anything happens, honk the horn. Don’t get out, understand?” He pulled his rifle into his lap and took out the magazine. It looked full and the bullets glinted in the glow of the dash.
The Salvation Plague | Book 1 |The Turning Page 9