by Gouge, W. B.
All That’s Left: The Outbreak
By W. B. Gouge
Copyright © 2019 W. B. Gouge
All rights reserved.
Message from the Author:
The release of this story is the culmination of a five-year struggle for myself. I have always loved reading and the idea that I may one day present my own stories to those who also love to read. I started writing this years ago, then put it down, and then picked it up again. After thinking “I can do it!” and then thinking, “No one will ever read this.” I decided to do what I thought was best. Finish this damn book and publish it! So here it is, the beginning of a series I hope you like called “All That’s Left.”
For Geri, Phil, and little Pete…
One
The cabin of the bus was warm and quiet, it rocked back and forth gently. The silver bus sped down the highway only half full of passengers. Bright sunlight shone through the windows on the left side of the bus which had caused most of the passengers to close the blinds and made the bus warm and uncomfortable. None of them spoke, many of the passengers slept. Some had remained awake to read books or magazines, or to simply stare out the windows into the vast empty corn fields that flanked the road and stretched to the horizon. There wasn’t much to see, just the occasional billboard or highway marker. Every now and then there would be a barn or a silo jutting out like a tiny island in an endless sea of tall, green cornstalks. Every few seconds a telephone pole would pass by the window as if they were the second hands of a slow moving clock.
David was the only passenger on the right side of the bus with his window shade pulled down. He sat up in his seat with his eyes closed reeling from the drugs still in his system. David earphones were tucked into his ears to drown out the two girls who sat behind him even though his cheap flip phone didn’t play music. Their laughing and giggling annoyed him for most of the trip and the earphones did little to block them out. It wasn’t as if he were trying to sleep though. It was very difficult to sleep on DXM. And though he wasn’t asleep, he also wasn’t awake. He was in a sort of neutral, lucid dream state that was common when coming down off of dextromethorphan. Just before the bus got started back in Raleigh, David had slipped into the bathroom of the bus terminal and eaten a whole box of over the counter cold and cough medicine. It was the only way to easily get the amount he needed to get high, and the only way to get it without a prescription. A half hour into the trip, he had only begun to feel the drug course through his body, making the nine hour ride more bearable. For some time now, he had been floating in and out of the most powerful hallucinations. It had been a good trip so far, but now he was coming down and the after effects were brutal.
His mouth grew dry and he became anxious. The high from DXM was a series of peaks and valleys. The peaks brought hallucinations and euphoria while the valleys had him strung out and nervous. More than a few times during the last semester of school he had been asked by his classmates what it felt like to get high on DXM but David had always struggled to describe it. The best description he could come up with was that it was like having a lucid dream, like opening the doors between reality and imagination. But it was so much more than that, more than a few times David wasn’t sure if he was dreaming or not.
He sighed and sat deeper in his seat as he began to rise to the top of yet another drug induced peak, the hallucinations began to fill is mind with visions and emotions. The change was subtle at first, manifesting itself in the sound of water dripping in a cave. Then came the visuals, colors that flowed behind his closed eyelids like an illuminated breeze passing by. Afterwards the real hallucinations came. He often found himself in wide open fields, near great flowing rivers or some other natural setting. But this time he was having his favorite dream of all. This time he was flying! He flew over green forests, brown valleys and dark blue lakes. He flew over hills and streams and mountains with incredible speed. He could actually feel the wind ripple his clothes as he cut through the open sky. Then he turned himself upward and soared into the billowing white clouds overhead. He never wanted this feeling of power, of freedom to end. Then he suddenly fell from the sky and his vision blackened, he fell back down to reality when the old woman next to him cleared her throat and readjusted herself in her seat. “Shit…”
He stared at the woman for a moment frustrated with her, the old woman smiled at him and looked back to her magazine. David had been very tense from the visions, he took a deep breath and decided to let it go before readjusting in his own seat. David stretched and looked around the cabin. Everyone was still and quiet, he checked his cell phone for the time. 4:30pm, the bus would be arriving in a few hours at the next stop. The knot in his gut grew tighter and tighter , “How am I gonna tell them?” He thought.
During his high he had nearly forgotten his recent problems. David had been kicked out of school for failing too many classes. He couldn’t bear to tell his grandparents, not after they had paid everything they had to send him to school that he had wasted his time there getting high and ditching classes. But he had nowhere else to go, and they were the only family left to him. With no one else to turn to, he would have to figure out how to break the news of his expulsion and admit that he was a failure. They would be so disappointed in him, and that was the last thing he wanted. He put the phone away, opened the AC vent above his seat. He didn’t have to address the issue right now though, instead he decided to enjoy what would probably be his last good high. That had been how he dealt with his problems for the last few months anyway. He would worry about how to break the news to his grandparents later. Fresh, crisp air blew down on him from the vent as he closed his eyes. “Maybe I can get back there again.”
He pictured the sky, the hills and streams below, the clouds. Nothing for a while, just darkness. But as the seconds ticked by he felt his arms and legs relax and he began to drift into the space between reality and dreams. It started again with strange noises, he thought he heard creak, like an old wooden floor when someone had stepped on a loose board. The sound echoed as if coming down a long hall before fading away. When he opened his eyes he found himself standing on a road in the middle of the night. The pale moon provided just enough light to see that the two lane road was lined with tall grass on both sides. He turned to look behind him as a gentle breeze ruffled the waist high grass and he could see the road disappear into the darkness of some trees. Their branches swayed in the breeze and David felt at ease, it was a familiar place he thought but he couldn’t put his finger on where he actually was. He looked around for a bit before he realized that this was the road that led to his grandparent’s house. He hadn’t recognized it at first, the details came to him in bits and pieces. This spot was no more than a mile or so away from home.
David was happy and excited to be so close, he remembered that he could see through the trees to his house from this spot! He turned to see the old house through the trees on the hillside and was startled by something he saw on the road. A group of dark figures staggered toward him. He immediately felt uneasy by their unnatural movements. They looked like people but when they moved, they moved quickly, then froze before moving quickly again. It reminded David of any film with choppy resolution. He noticed that they were devoid of any details, they were more like silhouettes or shadows come to life.
He didn’t like this at all, the three of them had already halved the distance between David and them. He turned to head in the other direction only to find more figures in the road behind him as well. They had the same sketchy movements as the others, fast then slow, then fast again. Their movements were accompanied by a slick, slippery sound. It reminded David of the sloshing sound mud when he walked on it. He looked all ar
ound for a direction he could go that was clear, but the dark figures came at him from the tall grass, and the trees at the end of the road. They came at him from all directions, the slippery sounds rising around him to a deafening surge. As they drew closer he could feel waves of pain washing over him from these creatures, a feeling of doom and despair filling him up as they settled around him. David looked up at their faces but it was too dark to see much, the only thing he could make out was their gaping mouths. Each one had rows of rotten teeth chomping at him. He began to panic and at the sight of this he jumped forward to try to escape. He smashed into the back of the seat in front of him and landed in the floor. He sat on his knees on the floor as everyone on the bus turned to see what was going on, “Are you ok young man?” the woman sitting next to him asked.
David was embarrassed. He tried to catch his breath, feeling a little stupid for reacting that way, especially when he knew it was a nightmare, “Yeah, I’m fine. Just a nightmare I guess.”
David climbed back into his seat and tried to relax. The old woman looked worried and kept her eyes on him. He had been getting high on this stuff for months and had many, many hallucinations before. Some were extremely realistic, but none of them had been like that. The hair on his arms was still standing as he tried to relax and look out the window.
The next few hours David found himself wide awake and restless in his seat. As if that nightmare had not been enough he was slipping into the valley of the drugs now. The peak had subsided and now he felt drained and strung out. David didn’t like this part of the high. The valleys felt like the medicine was wearing off at first allowing the user to think clearly while the drugs affected the body instead of the mind. He felt nervous and agitated. David was once again confronted with the question of how he would break the news to his grandparents. It wouldn’t be long now he thought as they passed a sign on the road, “Ten miles to Dry Creek,” David thought and tried desperately to relax.
A while later the bus slowed down and turned left into the large concrete lot of the bus station. Benches and shelters lined both sides of the lot and at the end stood a small ticket booth. There were several cars parked in the lot and as they passed by the window David recognized his grandfather’s old pickup truck. He smiled to see the old, rusty thing and began looking around for his grandfather. The bus rolled to a stop in front of a line of at least a dozen people. They were looking through the bus windows and waving at people as if they knew them. David stood and walked to the front of the bus taking his turn to step off into the heat. He squinted at the blinding sun and used his hand to shield his eyes as he looked back and forth in the crowd for his grandfather. He sighed and tried to swallow but his mouth was too dry, his blue jeans and blue cotton T-shirt did little to shield his body from the heat of the sun so he headed for the relative shade of one of the shelter when he heard a familiar voice call to him.
“Hey! David!” his grandfather yelled.
The old man had been sitting on one of the benches in the shade. His grandfather wore his usual button up shirt with jeans held in place by suspenders and an old, dirty cap on his otherwise bald head. He rose slowly and David met him, “Good to see you boy,” he hugged David and squeezed him tightly, “You lost some weight there.”
David felt like a little kid again when Henry hugged him. “Yeah, been living off of junk food and soda.” That was a lie, his habit killed his appetite and he had been getting high a lot lately, especially since he had received the letter detailing his expulsion.
“I can tell, you look a little pale too. Are you feeling okay?” his grandfather, Henry asked.
Henry’s smiled caused his wrinkles to spread across his face, but it was a warm and genuine smile. David thought that Henry looked a little pale too. He couldn’t tell if it was the fact that he hadn’t seen him for so long, but his grandfather looked…tired, or ill.
“Yeah, just tired…long trip… How’s grandma?” David changed the subject.
“Oh she’s fine as always…” Henry reached for David’s bags, “let’s get going. We’ll talk on the way.”
The old man struggled with the bag and so David swooped in and grabbed it instead. David saw the look of concern on Henry’s face, his grandfather knew something was different. He and his grandmother, Edna, had raised David. No one knew him like they did. But Henry didn’t raise the subject again. Instead he asked all kinds of questions about school and girls and career prospects. David lied a lot to Henry, he didn’t like to but he felt like he would let the old man down if he told the truth. So he dodged the details when he could and tried to change the subject often. The overwhelming sensation to come clean tugged at David. Not because of guilt, but because David felt comfortable, at ease talking to his grandfather. The more they chatted in the cabin of the old pickup truck the more David began to feel like coming home was a good idea. The troubles of school were behind him, maybe here, where he grew up, surrounded by people who really cared about him, he would get to make a fresh start.
Two
David leaned back in his seat and took in the countryside, it was plain and flat but familiar. Miles of corn fields lined the road so tall, green and thick David could only see the rooftop of the few houses and barns as they passed by. David recognized the area more and more as they drove to town. They passed a sign that read “Now Entering Dry Creek” and the corn fields gave way to houses with small fenced in yards, then to one story brick buildings side by side, then two and three story brick shops, stores and garages. Henry pulled up to one of only four stop lights in the town of Dry Creek. All four stop lights were located at the four corners of the town square. The square was really a large rectangle road that surrounded a park with trees with benches under them. There were small walking paths and a playground for kids by a fountain, David had been here for many celebrations and holidays and fairs. The park road was surrounded by small businesses mostly. There was a funeral home next to town hall and a hardware store next to the pharmacy and Dr. Morgan’s clinic. Not a whole lot had changed since David left for school only a year ago, the place seemed as if time had stopped here while he was gone. It was nice to be here, in a place so familiar and predictable as Dry Creek.
Henry pulled up in front of the pharmacy, “I gotta go grab something,” he turned the truck off and opened the door, “You can come in if you want to, it’s hot as ever out here.”
David got out of the truck and stared at the pharmacy for a few seconds. “I can’t, “he thought. “No… I’ll hang out here.”
Henry opened the door and climbed the single step on shaky legs, “Well, suit yourself then…” he trailed off as the door closed behind him.
He leaned on the truck, the heat coupled with the drugs made him feel dizzy and out of place. The sun beat down on his head and shoulders, sweat formed on his forehead as the heat rose from the pavement. The street was quiet and empty. He tried to take his mind off the heat, but it was useless. David wanted to go in and get out of the sun, it was so hot outside. “Maybe I’ll just get some water.” He told himself.
He walked in the door of the pharmacy, the old building was small. There were only a few aisles, not like one of those chain pharmacies in the city with everything you could get at a grocery store. Here, there were just medications and medical devices and the like. David walked over to the cooler by the door and grabbed a bottle of water. It was cold, he wanted to take a drink now but he’d wait till he had paid for it. David could see Henry in the back of the store talking to the pharmacist. “I wonder…” he read the old yellow labels at the end of each aisle. The one in the middle read “Cold remedies.”
David headed down the aisle looking back and forth as he walked. He stopped in front of a series of boxes that all had the same name but were labeled for different symptoms. The one for cold and cough was right in the middle, half a dozen boxes and they weren’t locked up like in the chain pharmacies. David couldn’t believe it. They always locked these up, especially after so many people knew you co
uld get high on them. He looked around the pharmacy, there wasn’t anyone there except his grandfather and the pharmacist. He quickly grabbed three boxes in each hand and headed for the front counter with his bottle of water under his arm.
He dropped the boxes on the counter loud enough that whoever worked the register would hear and come out to ring him up. He looked back and forth nervously until a young woman stepped through the door behind the counter marked employees only.
“David?” she asked.
David stared at her for a moment before he recognized her, “Liz?”
“Wow…when did you get back in town?” she asked smiling.
“Uh? Just now…how have you been?”
David wasn’t sure what else to say. Liz was his best friend’s little sister. She was a couple years younger than David and he remembered her as a kid. It had only been a year since he left town but she looked all grown up. She had short orange hair and bright green eyes and she was smiling even though David thought she seemed like she was trying to hide it.
“I’ve been good. Got a job here at the pharmacy now, I’m going to be a senior this year.”
“Cool… How’s Owen been?” David hadn’t heard from his friend since he left last year.
“He’s still an idiot. So he hasn’t changed much,” She giggled, “How have you been?”
“Great! No complaints at all.” He was trying to sound genuine and it wasn’t working at all.
“How’s school then?”
“Huh, boring mostly…” he looked down at the boxes on the counter. Until now he had forgotten about them entirely, “I-uh, just need these here.”
She looked down at them a puzzled look on her face as she began to ring them up and place them in a bag. “Late summer cold?”