Chapter 2 – Jeremy
We were speeding down the highway at about 88 miles an hour. There were oddly no cars on the highway; usually, the highways are riddled with abandoned cars left from when the outbreak first started. We’ve already seen some half-vacant highways, but nothing like this; it may have been odd, or it may have been me just being paranoid.
“Hey Jeremy, there’s a station up there, you want me to pull up?” Zach asked me from the cockpit. I told him to pull into the station and I would assign positions.
“Haley, you and Caitlin go into the station to try to find some food and water; Wilson, you and Zach pump the gas and I’ll keep watch.” Everyone agreed to the plan and executed it. I climbed to the top of the RV with my Sniper Rifle and stood watch. The road split both ways, plus there was a huge field on the opposite side of the road. This was good, because I could see any zombie coming from any direction within 3 miles. I sat there and watched the road and field as the boys pumped gas. A few seconds later, I saw a figure emerge from behind a warehouse about half a mile down the road from where we came. I pulled the scope up to my face and zoomed in on the zombie. Something felt familiar about the figure; I couldn’t put my finger on it, though. I pulled the trigger and put a bullet straight in between the zombie’s eyes. As soon as the zombie went down, I felt a pain in my gut; but why was this happening?
“Alright Jeremy, we’re good to go!” Zach called from the ground.
“No we’re not.” I replied. I climbed down from the RV and walked over to the zombie. I had a gut feeling that I just killed someone I knew before the outbreak. I started searching the zombie, looking for some form of identification or at least social security number. I looked on the zombie’s wrist and saw a Harley-Davidson watch. The watch looked very familiar, but I didn’t want to be sure until I had proper identification. I searched through the zombie and found his wallet. I contemplated opening it, figuring out if I really wanted to know the identity of the person I just killed. But then I remembered these aren’t people anymore; they are things that will stop at nothing to feast on the living. I opened the wallet, and immediately regretted it. I dropped the wallet and its contents on the ground, not sure what to make of everything. My heart sank in my chest, my mind in a whirl, and my body completely numb. I couldn’t believe what I had just done. I had just shot my father, Ron Bene; I had killed him for the second time. Nothing made sense anymore, I couldn’t move, I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t do anything. I kept trying to remember that this wasn’t my father, that it was a flesh-devouring demon being that’s sole purpose was to kill my new family; whose sole purpose was to kill all things in sight. It didn’t work, I just kept thinking about my dad and how he raised me. How he taught me all the qualities that I know and value. How he shaped and molded me into the person I am today; and I just shot him in the face with a sniper rifle. I bowed my head and prayed for my father to now rest in peace, for him to finally be able to leave his body behind and for his soul to be at peace. I stood and returned to the RV, and at this point everyone was standing outside waiting for me. They all knew me so well; they could tell that something was wrong just from the expression on my face.
“What’s wrong Jeremy?” Haley asked. I didn’t say a word; all I did was shuffled through the RV, grabbed the shovel, and returned to the zombie. I dug a hole next to him and dumped the body into the hole, covered the hole, and made a makeshift tombstone. ‘Here Lies Ronald Dale Bene, An honorable man, A great role model, and A hell of a dad (Inscribed by his son Jeremy Ronald Bene)’. This was the most honorable thing I could think of doing for the man. I stepped away from the grave and returned to the RV to put back the shovel. As I stepped back out, I noticed everyone was crowded around the grave, undoubtedly reading the tombstone and realizing that I had just shot my father. Almost at once, the entire group turned back to me. I’ve always tried to stay strong, especially in front of the group, but I know better than anyone that no man can hold everything in. No man can bare the everlasting pain of losing one of the closest people in your life. The group started to run to me, but before they got to me I fell to my knees. I felt as if my heart was ripped out of my chest. I knew my father was gone, but this was different; I had just shot him in the head to ensure his final death. However, I had to look on the bright side; I put my father at peace. I enabled him to reach his final resting place, because his body wasn’t being used for anything else. Who knows, we don’t know if the person’s conscience stays in the body or not. Maybe they just lose control of themselves and the virus takes over, maybe my father could see everything I was doing to him. I hoped that if he did, he would see that I was doing it out of love. Before I knew it I was in the arms of my people, the comfort of all those arms wrapped around me was unparalleled. At that moment I knew that I shouldn’t dwell on what I left behind in the world that doesn’t exist, I must focus on this new world, and my new family. We all eventually piled back into the RV and trudged onward on our journey for survival. It was my turn to drive, but Weir volunteered to take my shift if I took his shift in 2 days. I agreed and he started to drive. I sat down near the window in our booth set up for our meals and I stared at the scenery that we were passing by. It was autumn, the trees were filled with brilliant colors, mixed with the motion blur from traveling inside the RV the whole scenery looked brilliant. This is probably one of the only beautiful sights left in this world, and I won’t soon forget it. “Hey” I heard a voice next to me. It was Caitlin. I was so busy watching the beautiful scenery I had not even noticed she had slid into the booth.
“I’m sorry about your dad, Jeremy. We all knew he was gone but we didn’t know……”
“It’s fine” I cut her off because I didn’t want her to mention his zombification.
“I did what he would’ve wanted to do.” She nodded her head like she understood, but I knew she didn’t really fully understand. Nobody did. But I know they are trying their best to understand, and for that I give my eternal thanks. Before I could say anything else Caitlin wrapped me in a hug. It caught me off guard, but I embraced her back. We pulled away and stared into each other’s eyes. I’ve always believe that you could see someone’s emotions just from the look in someone’s eyes, and it appeared that Caitlin was both sympathetic and paranoid. I wasn’t sure where the paranoia was coming from, but I could swear I saw it in her eyes. Before I could address it, Haley and Ryan slid into the booth on the opposite side of the table.
“How’re you doin bro?” asked Ryan. He sounded more sympathetic than I’ve ever heard him, even more so than when he found out his mother died.
“I’m fine……just coping” I responded.
“If there’s anything I can do…..”
“Thanks for the offer man, but this is just one of those things you just have to shrug off” I cut him off. He nodded and was silent. Haley hadn’t spoken the entire time since the burial. Not only to me, but to everyone; she just refused to talk. She had a deep look of concern on her face, like she had just seen a ghost. She was staring down at the table when I caught her off her guard.
“Haley, can I talk to you for a second?” Her head jerked up in shock. She gave a concerned look at me, and then looked over to Ryan. He nodded his head as if giving her his approval. Caitlin and Ryan slid out of the booth, letting me and Haley out. I put my arm around hers and walked her into the master bedroom.
“Haley, what’s going on? You haven’t talked since the incident. If it’s because of me I’m fine…..really. I just need a minute to cope, to fully understand the situation you know?” She nodded, but still remained silent.
“What’s going on sis?” She finally raised her head and opened her mouth.
“You buried your dad even though he was a zombie…….when my dad died I laughed. I couldn’t help myself. After all the crap he’s put me through in my life……I couldn’t help but laugh at the fac
t that he couldn’t do it to me anymore.” She put her head back down and started to cry. I crouched and put my arm around her shoulder.
“Haley, Sometimes your emotions take control of who you are. It's normal not to feel the typical emotion when something happens. Like crying when you see roses, it may remind you of a lost love. I know where you’re coming from. Sometimes I feel guilty about what I did to some people too, but I never regret it. Because in my eyes, it’s payback for what they have done to me. Don’t ever second guess yourself Haley, that’s always been your problem. You’re a born leader, that’s your one flaw, every leader has one flaw.” Haley looked up at me again with tears in her eyes.
“What’s yours?” The question caught me by surprise, but in retrospect I really should’ve expected it.
“Overconfidence. I think I’m invincible and sometimes that can get me into trouble.” She stared at me as if trying to comprehend that I actually had a flaw.
“You do get a bit cocky…..” she mumbled in between her tears.
“Thanks Jeremy.”
“Anytime Haley, you know I’m always here for you, anytime you need me.” She smiled and hugged me. We pulled away and she went back into the living quarters, I however stayed in the master bedroom for a bit. I sat down on the bed and stared at the wall. I thought about my mom and how I had brought her up to Haley. People may think that what I did to her was unorthodox, but if those people only knew what she had done to me. My entire childhood was hell due to the fact that she was messed up on some kind of drug for 99% of it. She had threatened to kill me on many occasions and had me scared for most of my childhood. Eventually a grew a pair and made her sure I wasn’t scared of her anymore. She shunned me from the family from that day on, and on the day she died I consider it my vengeance day. I also thought about that fatal flaw that I addressed to Haley. Overconfidence. It was true, it was indeed my fatal flaw, and fatal flaws always get people killed. I have been lucky up until now, it was good that Haley made me think on it and address it. I had to start being more careful, because if I got too overconfident, it could cost me my life. I had so many thoughts bubbling in my mind; what to do about the outbreak, how much longer we could hold out together, how we would overcome these tremendous odds. I then realized that I couldn’t think on this, I had to focus on the present. I walked into the living quarters and saw Haley curled into a ball in Ryan’s lap. I glanced over and saw Wilson and Zach playing chess at the table. Caitlin was watching, and by her reactions I figured she was favoring Wilson. I glanced out the window and saw open fields start to turn into urban suburbs. The streets were slowly getting smaller, and the mass of broken down cars and road hazards increased along the way. We eventually came to a point where we had to stop. I walked up to the cockpit and saw the obstacles in our way. A few sedans were piled up on top of each other in the middle of the road, and along the sides of them were pickup trucks toppled over on their sides.
“What do you think we should do Jeremy?” Weir asked me. I thought that I would have the same answer as he did; plowing through the sedans in the middle was the obvious choice. Sedans were no match for the RV that we had reinforced; however, some of the sedans were toppled in such a way that their gas tanks and hardware were flipped toward the RV. If we hit the sedans too hard, the entire mass could explode and send the RV straight to hell. We would need a big impact in and of itself to get through that mass, so in retrospect that didn’t really seem like a good idea. Then I thought of the pickups, could the RV plow through one of those without being run off the road and marooned?
“Back up” I told Weir. He looked rather confused, as if he were thinking we were retreating. He started to back up and it looked like he was going to turn around when I told him to stop. I grabbed my sniper and climbed to the top of the RV. I laid down to get a more stable shot, but I decided to look around a bit before I shot. This urban suburb would eventually lead into a small city, from our position it looked a lot like the entrance to Denver. More than likely, there would be supplies there. I then refocused my scope on the mass of sedans and put my crosshairs directly on the gas tank. I shot and a split second later, the tank exploded sending sedans flying off the road. The resulting explosion left a huge hole in the road where the mass of sedans once stood as an obstacle to our journey, now defeated. As if he were reading my mind, Weir changed the RV’s gears and I slid back in.
“Nice job, I probably never would have thought of that.” Weir told me as he started to drive again.
“You’re a smart guy Andrew, you would’ve thought of it eventually.” I replied. Usually these guys compliment me when I have an idea, but in reality any of these guys would have probably gotten the same ideas in the next minute after I originally have them. I’m really not that brilliant, but I guess it was the desperate need for a leader that led the group to look to me. Before the outbreak, I would always try to help with other people’s problems, and apparently it took an effect. I didn’t know what was so special about me in their eyes; I seemed like a miracle worker to them, when in reality I’m far from it. I make mistakes just like everyone else; I just hope one day that mistake won’t cost me everything. We kept rolling onward toward Denver, and with none of us being familiar with that area, we didn’t know what to expect. As we sped down the narrow strip of road, we caught eye of something in the distance, it was a burning building. If the building were burning, that means there were people around, my first thought was that it could be something to distract the zombies in order for a getaway plan. But the fire was too large, it couldn’t have been done on short notice; my next thought was maybe the burning was planned, as if it were a warning or a call for help. Weir took the RV closer in for a better look. Other than the occasional zombie caught in the flames, there was no form of human life anywhere, and then I saw it.
“WATCH IT!” I yelled and jerked the wheel to the right. The RV careened off the road and into a ditch. We kept sliding sideways so long and so fast I could swear we were going to topple over. Finally, we came to a stop and everyone sighed a breath of relief.
“Everyone ok?” I called. Everyone responded that they were ok, just occasional cuts and bruises here and there.
“What the hell was that for Jeremy?” Weir asked almost angrily, but I could tell he was expecting a logical answer. I turned and stepped out of the RV and looked back to where we started to skid. The small cylindrical object that I had spotted in the middle of the road was still there. I half-hoped I recognized it correctly, because if I hadn’t and it wasn’t harmful to us, I would’ve just wrecked the RV for nothing. I picked up a rock and threw it at the object. Just as the rock made contact, the object exploded into a million pieces; just as I expected, a land mine. I turned to the others who were now outside the RV; everyone was wide eyed and their jaws were down to their feet.
“So we’ve got land mines out here too?” asked Wilson in disbelief. I nodded my head, and dreaded this new danger. Apparently the natives of Denver had access to advanced technology, which could mean a lot of trouble if we didn’t play our cards right.
“Well, the RV’s shot for now, if I can get the right parts I could probably fix it”. Ryan called from under the hood of the RV; I hadn’t even noticed he was over there.
“What’s the damage?” Zach asked, making his way over to the hood. As Zach and Ryan conversed about the condition on the RV, I looked back over at the burning building. The fire was enlarging, but why was it there in the first place? I had a feeling we would probably find out who before we left Denver, Colorado.
Kinemortophobia (The Fear Of The Undead) Book 1 Page 2