by Wise, A. R.
Day Two – 11:38 pm
June was finally asleep. Porter had been checking on her periodically, hoping that she’d go to sleep, but her insomnia had been causing her problems again. Red, on the other hand, was snoring like a tranquilized lion, his body sprawled out on the kitchen floor in as many different directions as his appendages allowed.
Porter dared a whisper as he stood at the back door, “June.”
She didn’t reply.
He carefully closed the door, and then hurried to the truck. He grabbed the grocery bags and tried to silently lift them out. One of the headlights from Maggie’s car clunked on the bed of the truck as he pulled a bag out, and he paused in fear that he’d woken June. Once certain he was in the clear, he carried the bags over to the side of the house and set them on top of the tire-planters. He made a few trips back and forth, unloading the supplies he knew they’d need, and saving only the essentials for himself.
Once the bags were unloaded, he took out the marker from his pocket and started writing on the side of the house above where he’d placed the supplies.
‘I LOVE YOU, RED. KEEP JUNE SAFE. DON’T COME LOOKING FOR ME.’
He stared at the simple message, wishing he had time to say more. Finally, he pocketed the marker and went to the truck, trying not to dwell on how he would likely never see Red again.
Porter eased the truck’s door open, and cringed as the hinges squeaked. He didn’t close the door all the way, but just enough that the light inside turned off. Now came the hardest part: starting the engine. He knew it would wake June up, and that she’d quickly discover what he’d done. The only way to do this would be to start the engine and race away as fast as he could.
June had been right about the aurora borealis being bright enough to light his way, as he’d known it would be. He looked around at the farm, and marveled at the illuminating glow the solar event still caused.
His eyes passed over the hilly wheat field they’d passed to get here, and then he paused. He squinted and stared at the crest of the hill where an odd, boxy shape sat, larger than the hay bales, but smaller than the tractor.
Porter opened the truck’s door, and was annoyed by the light in the cab as he got out to investigate. He caught a glimpse of reflected light off the object, and all at once was struck by the realization of what he was looking at.
It was the Renault.
“Red, June!” He screamed in warning.
The Renault’s driver knew they’d been seen. The car’s headlights came on, and a loud, furious, female scream echoed across the shorn field. Suddenly, one by one, more headlights appeared, revealing several vehicles hiding on the other side of the hill.
The Renault led the charge down the hill, followed by at least three more vehicles.
Porter burst through the back door. June was already up and attempting to stir Red.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
“We’re being attacked. Get the guns.”
“Being attacked by who?” asked Red as he clumsily stood.
“By a whole lot of infected people,” said Porter as he locked the back door. “It’s the bitch from the road – the one in the Renault. She’s back, and she brought friends.”
June looked through the window just as headlights beamed in, hurting their eyes. The Renault skid across the gravel driveway, and slammed its front end into the back of their truck, sending it into the side of the house. The kitchen window shattered, and the wall buckled. Plaster dust fell from a new crack in the ceiling.
They headed for the living room, but another car had pulled up to the front yard. It turned sharp, and its headlights came in through the front window, facing directly at them as the car gunned the accelerator.
Porter pushed June in the direction of the bedroom, but she fell over a mound of refuse. Red was beside her, and tried to help her up, but by that time the car was already colliding with the front wall, shattering the bay window and tearing down the curtains. The front left wheel collided with the TV stand, causing the car to pivot and the television to crash to the floor. The driver was relentlessly hitting the gas. The front tires spun madly, tearing into the garbage and the television stand, sending debris bouncing off the shattered wall.
The driver screamed through his broken windshield, “We’re here to help.” He cackled while whacking a machete against the dashboard. “Here to help!”
To Be Continued in
Survive – Day Three
Author’s Note
I hope you’re still along for the ride, despite a rather nasty turn halfway through this part of the story!
I struggled with the way Porter dealt with Abraham, and if you found yourself grimacing at his decision, then trust me, I’m right there with you! It fits his character, and takes him in the direction I want him to go, but it’s not an easy scene to get through.
In his defense, I think Porter was trying to protect Abraham from the awful reality that his final days would’ve been. No one would come to help. He’d be stuck there slowly dying, growing increasingly worried about his daughter. That would’ve been the way he eventually died – alone, covered in excrement, weeping for his missing child. Porter saved him from that in a violent and awful way. Still, it’s not easy to come away from that and still feel great about our main character, and that’s partially my intention.
However, if we’re being completely honest here, Porter also did it because he didn’t want to waste the pain killers on the sickly old man. That’s the dark side of Porter – the pragmatic, take-action, confident man who doesn’t always stop to consider the implications of what he’s done. He knew Abraham would die soon, and he convinced himself it was the right thing to do to kill him. The benefit just happened to be that he’d get strong pain medication that he’d been pining for at the beginning of the day when June was cauterizing his wound.
Porter has flaws – lots of them. He’s far more like his father than he’d care to admit, which is a devil that’s going to hang heavy on his shoulder throughout the series. As we get to know more about him and his family, we’ll see multiple sides to the drama that’s played out between them. There’s no right or wrong in these sorts of squabbles, and everyone can claim to be the hero of their own story.
As an outsider, June may be the one excavating the truths about the Law family – if she survives, of course. We’ve already seen that starting to happen here, where Porter nearly confides a secret to her in the barn, but only just stops himself. He likes June, perhaps more than he should.
Of course, the real question in all of this is how they’re going to manage to make it all the way to south Texas. They haven’t even made it out of Colorado yet, and already it seems as if they’re falling apart. Porter tried to leave Red and June to keep them safe, but trouble found its way to their doorstep – more accurately, it found a way to barrel a car through their doorstep!
My goal with this series is to provide an entertaining, exciting romp through a ravaged country, while also providing compelling, complex characters who take us in directions we might not expect. Hopefully you’ll stay around for the whole journey! It’s only going to get more intense from here on out.