by Tristan Vick
Out of breath, Rachael slowly collapsed to her knees. She was too numb to cry, too exhausted to hunt for her missing son, so she just sat there, staring down at the asphalt, hoping it was all a bad dream.
Rachael looked up at the sky. She watched white clouds waft across a vast blue dome. It was serene, peaceful, but somehow it didn’t feel quite right. There weren’t any jet trails threading the sky above, nor was there any sound of traffic in the streets below. No morning dog Walkers. No joggers. No kids on their way to school. The world had fallen deathly silent.
10
High Tension
Walking over to the blinds, Jennifer poked her fingers in and spread them open so she could see out. She couldn’t believe they’d been forced to spend the night there. It wasn’t an easy night either. After trying to tough it out for the first hour or so, she grew too miserable to bear it any longer. Sleeping on an office floor with no blanket or pillow was impossible, and so she had reluctantly snuggled up next to Zanato. Before she knew it, they were all over each other like two rabbits in heat, and they fucked until they both passed out. Although he hadn’t earned it as she had hoped by doing something incredibly heroic, his arm did make for a comfortable pillow for the evening.
“What the hell are you doing?” Zanato cried out in a half panicked whisper. Leaping over some chairs, he slapped her hands away from the blinds. Jennifer stepped back and shot Jesse an irritated look.
“I just wanted to see if they’re still out there.”
“Of course they’re still out there. They’re always fucking out there!” he moaned. “They’ve been out there all fucking night!”
Jennifer walked over to the windows overlooking the city streets below, and stretched. Standing naked for the whole world to see, filled her with a sense of empowerment. Hell, she didn’t care if anyone did see her. It would only be incentive for them to come rescue her, the beautiful, naked damsel in distress.
Gazing out at the motionless cityscape, Jennifer asked, “What the hell happened to everyone?”
“Fuck if I know,” replied Zanato.
“Yesterday was all birds chirping and kids going to school and—”
“People fucking,” Zanato interrupted with a snicker.
Ignoring his sad attempt at ribald humor, she went on. “Yeah, normal shit like that. And today it’s like…the end of the bloody world. People are killing each other. Worse. They are eating each other alive!”
Zanato pretended to listen, but he had blocked out her hysterical jabbering minutes ago. Now his mind just hummed with random thoughts of what he’d like to do to her if given another chance.
Jennifer chucked Zanato’s shirt at his head. “Get dressed, lover boy,” she said.
“What? Why?” Zanato said, sounding disappointed.
“A, because I don’t want to stare are your raging boner all day. B, because we can’t just sit around here doing nothing.”
“Fucking ain’t nothing,” Zanato said.
“I already gave you your end-of-the-world fuck, buddy. Now it’s time to figure out how the hell we’re gonna get out of here.”
“Fine,” Zanato said, reluctantly pulling his shirt on over his head. “But if we don’t get out—”
“We will,” she interrupted, shutting him down.
After putting on her clothes, Jennifer pushed the one remaining table they had over to the windows that overlooked Newcastle City. Reaching into her purse, which she had been smart enough to grab on the way out of the copy room, she pulled out her burgundy lipstick, pulled off the lid, and twisted the container until the red tip poked out of the top. Zanato watched her curiously as she climbed up onto the table and stuck out her beautifully formed ass. In giant block letters she scribbled “Help Us” on the large panoramic glass that overlooked Newcastle City.
Zanato cleared his throat, to try to get Jennifer’s attention, but didn’t seem to hear him. Either that or she was too focused on the task at hand to be distracted. He cleared his throat again, this time making it louder. Pausing, Jennifer turned toward him and asked, “Well, what is it?”
“You’re writing it backwards.”
Jennifer just gazed at him in dismay. “It’s not for us, genius. It’s for the people out there, you know, on the other side of the glass.” Jennifer pointed out the window toward the urban backdrop behind her.
“Still, it’s the wrong way around.”
“It’s supposed to be backwards, genius.”
A vacant look came across Zanato’s face. Then he frowned as he struggled to make sense of it. Jennifer laughed at the fact that his pea-sized brain just couldn’t figure it out.
“It’s supposed to be backwards,” she informed him. “On the other side of the glass, to the people on the outside, the letters will appear the right way around.”
“You sure about that?” asked Zanato, scratching his chin.
“Have I steered you wrong yet?” Jennifer asked, shooting him a smile.
“No, I suppose not.”
“Then trust me.”
As Jennifer went back to filling in the block letters with red lipstick, Zanato used his hand to make a 2-D representation of the window. Looking at the front and then the back of his hand, Zanato did it again just to be sure what he was picturing in his head was correct. After thinking about it for a moment, his eyes lit up. “Ohhh, I get it now.”
Jennifer Hurley laughed again, not because he was intentionally funny, but because he was so sad. She wondered to herself how on God’s green earth this idiot would ever survive the day.
Feeling embarrassed by his display of ignorance, Zanato rubbed the back of his head and did his best to simulate a convincing laugh. Better to play the part of the charming fool than to be a dick and get defensive, he thought. Besides, Zanato desperately wanted back into her panties. The elegant tattoo of a blue monarch butterfly that hovered above her perfectly formed ass enticed him even further. She probably didn’t even realize how unbelievably hot she was.
Attempting to take his mind off of her for just one minute, if it was even possible, he went over to the water cooler to get himself a drink. As he turned to look out at the cityscape he suddenly saw a shiny glint. “Whoa! Did you see that?”
“See what?” Jennifer climbed down off the table and peered out the window with him. Jesse raised a finger and pointed across to the building several blocks away. “Over there. Do you see it?”
Jennifer strained her neck but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Then, without warning, a hot white flicker of light flashed.
“There it is again,” said Zanato.
“I see it!” Hurley replied with excitement.
“It’s some kind of light.”
“It’s more than that,” Jennifer replied. “It’s a message. Somebody must be using a hand mirror to signal for help.”
“What should we do?” Zanato inquired.
Jennifer looked at him and then back out at the flickering flashes of light.
“We have to go to them.”
Dismayed by the suggestion, Zanato threw up his arms and pulled his hair. “What?! Are you crazy?!”
“Think about it. We have no way of communicating with them. I doubt they can see the writing from all the way over there. Besides, we can’t stay here forever.”
“I thought you said we would be better off just laying low until help arrived.”
“That was then. This is now.”
“So what’s changed exactly?” Zanato put his hands on his hips and waited for an answer. Jennifer looked back out across the cityscape and saw the flickering light repeat the same pattern.
“The odds,” Jennifer replied in all seriousness.
Zanato threw his hands up into the air, again. “The odds? What the hell are you talking about?”
“Look,” Jennifer said with authority, “I got my degree in accounting, so I’m pretty good with numbers. We can risk staying here, and hope someone comes for us, and wait around to either starve to death or
be eaten by those things on the other side of the doors. Or we can take our chances and meet them halfway.”
“Fine,” pouted Zanato. Thumbing over his shoulder at the closed shades which hid the hideous zombies on the other side, he asked, “So how the hell do you expect to make it past the monster squad?”
Jennifer walked over to the corner window and ran her hands along the window sill.
“I have an idea,” she said with a slight smile.
“I don’t think I like where this is headed,” Zanato informed Jennifer as she popped open the lock and pushed the window open. “Yeah, I definitely do not like where this is headed.”
Turning back toward Zanato, Jennifer motioned with her hands as if to say, “After you.”
“You’re out of your freaking mind if you expect me to go out there at this height.” Narrating with his hands, Zanato played out the whole scene with finger puppets. “One misstep and we’re pancake batter, squashed into oblivion. Hello pavement. Goodbye world. Thanks, but no thanks.”
“Wow,” Jennifer said in an amused tone, staring at Zanato with a mystified look.
“What is it?”
“Nothing,” she said, brushing her hair out of her eyes. “Forget I said anything.”
Zanato shrugged. It was fine by him.
Approaching the window timidly, Zanato made a valiant effort to look fearless. Peering out over the ledge he paused and then looked back at Jennifer. “You’ll be the death of me. You know that, right?”
“We’ll see,” Jennifer replied in a playfully devious tone. Then she feigned to push Zanato out of the window. Overreacting he gripped the windowsill with white-knuckled terror and screamed.
Jennifer couldn’t hold it in, and busted out giggling. “You scream like a girl,” she said, trying to catch her breath.
“Not funny,” Zanato mumbled as he gathered himself together and stepped back a few feet away from the ledge. Zanato motioned with his hands for Jennifer to go ahead of him. “Ladies first.”
“What a gentleman,” Jennifer said with a touch of sarcasm.
“Hey, what goes around comes around.”
“I suppose so,” Jennifer replied as she peered down the edge of the skyscraper. Forty-eight stories down, to be exact. Looking back at Zanato she winked, and said, “Well, here goes nothing.” Without any further hesitation, Jennifer Hurley took a deep breath and then boldly stepped out onto the ledge.
11
Almost Road Kill
It had taken Rachael Ramirez nearly all morning just to dress herself. She was too much in shock to act as though the day was like any other. It wasn’t.
Finally getting her stuff together, she set out to look for her son. Making her way to the ground level, she found her Audi parked on the side of the street, got in, and started down the road. As she turned the corner, she only saw another long stretch of empty road. Everywhere she looked it was strangely desolate.
As she drove along she occasionally ran across an abandoned vehicle, but the real trouble weighing on her mind was how so many people could simply disappear in less than forty-eight hours. Where did everyone go? What did they know that she didn’t?
With her mind coming back to her son, Rachael drove toward his middle school. She was thinking about sending Hector to one of the more prestigious private schools closer to her work in the city, like Avery Academy or Washington Irving Middle School, but she wanted him to experience public school life for a few years before she took him out. Currently, she had him enrolled in Newcastle Middle School, which was close to their home but a bit far from where she worked. Even so, she didn’t mind the extended commute to work and back. Maybe next year they would find a new place and move closer to her work.
Of course, the reason she was heading Hector’s school was that if anything ever happened to either or them and they couldn’t get back home, they’d agreed to meet at the school. It also gave her an excuse to drive around for a while and look for him.
“What the…?” Out of the corner of her eye, Rachael glimpsed what she thought were a couple stooped over a dog—eating it. She turned her head to get a better look at whatever was going on off to the side of the road, when suddenly a grove of trees rushed into her line of sight, blocking her view. Rachael shook her head and told herself it was just her mind playing tricks on her. After all, she’d had one of the worst possible mornings a mother could ever have, and things weren’t getting any better. All she wanted to do was find her son.
As she left the city limits, she drove around the bend of a hill outlined by a grove of trees. She could see upscale houses tucked away behind the greenery, where all the wealthy and retired folks lived, just before the point where Newcastle golf resort took over. As she came over the crest of the hill, she plowed into a huge gathering of white-eyed shambling people that had come out of nowhere.
“Oh my God!” Rachael screamed, thinking the worst. Rachael was going too fast to slow down in time, and bodies bounced off her car as she left a bloody trail in the massive gathering. A few of bodies toppled over her hood, while a few more went under the car. The tires bounced over their bodies as if they were speed bumps. Slowing to a stop, Rachael looked into her rear view mirror only to see the ones she had just run over start to get back up.
Just then a hand slammed against her window, causing her to scream again. Looking over she saw a pale-skinned brunette woman, who had the same foggy white eyes that Hector did, pawing at the window. Suddenly more hands, from all angles, pressed against her car. She honked the horn to get them to scatter, but it had the opposite effect and only excited them instead. Soon enough her car was rocking uneasily and Rachael had had enough. If they really did have what Hector had, she knew from experience, they wouldn’t listen to reason.
Putting the car into drive, she slowly began inching forward, pushing those blocking her out of the way. Another one slipped under the wheels, but she ignored it and kept going. “Sorry,” she whispered to herself, just in case. But at the same time, Rachael knew a normal person would have jumped out of the way and cussed at her to slow down. And if these had been normal people, when she had run over a person, the others would have stopped to help the fallen. But these people, if they were even still people, simply ignored the fallen and kept following after her—hands and fingers stretched out toward her—as if they wanted to pull her in and devour her, just as Hector had tried to do.
Picking up speed, she finally broke free of the horde, and watched them slowly shrink away in her rear-view mirror. Rachael let out a sigh of relief and was glad to be out of the thick of it.
Looking back out of her front windshield, Rachael barely noticed the form of a woman waving frantically for her to stop. Rachael slammed on the brakes and skidded to a halt, stopping mere inches away from the nose of the terrified girl. Peering out her windshield at the girl, Rachael noticed that her eyes weren’t whitewashed like the horde of Walkers she’d just plowed through. Leaning over, Rachael popped open the door and shouted, “Get in!”
The young woman jumped into the SUV and slammed the door behind her. Rachael checked the rearview mirror, and said, “They don’t give up, do they?” Slamming her food down, Rachael pushed the pedal to the floor, and with her tires squealing, the silver SUV peeled away, leaving nineteen-inch tracks burned into the road.
As she caught her breath, the girl looked over at Rachael as if to say thank you, but before she could speak a single word she passed out from exhaustion. Rachael noticed one of her pants legs was missing and her thigh was tightly bandaged.
12
On a Razor’s Edge
Balancing on a tiny ledge forty-eight stories up, Jennifer Hurley scaled her way to the corner ledge of Newcastle City Bank. Jesse Zanato fearfully treaded behind her.
“Shit,” Jennifer said in a low voice.
“What now?!” cried Zanato, trying not to let his fear of heights get to him.
“It’s just that I hadn’t thought this all the way through,” she stated.
“What do you mean? I thought you had a plan.”
“I did have a plan,” said Jennifer. “I was going to lead you to the window washer’s bench I saw earlier and save your sorry ass.”
“So what’s the problem?”
She raised her finger and pointed at the floor above them.
“The problem is, the bench is on the forty-ninth floor, the floor we were on yesterday, when we first met, and this floor is…” she paused momentarily and then disappointedly added, “the forty-eighth.”
“What?” Zanato asked, less than amused.
“In all the chaos and excitement I must have gotten what floor we were on mixed up.”
“You think?!”
Jennifer frowned, feeling embarrassed for having made such a stupid mistake. Now they were stuck out on the ledge of the building, their lives literally hanging in the balance. “We have to go back. It’s our only option.”
“Uh…I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Zanato said looking over his shoulder in time to witness the zombie mob break through their barricade and stumble into the meeting room they had just exited from.
“Great! Just fucking perfect!” Jennifer shouted.
“We’re gonna die out here, no thanks to you.”
Jennifer shot Zanato a sharp look that said he was trying her patience, and then scooted herself back to the corner of the building.
“Wait…where are you going?”
“Well, we can’t go back that way, so I’m going to look around for an open window or something.”
“Great…or something,” Zanato said, nervously glancing down at the distant pavement below. The cars were so far away that they looked like little toy cars. Surreal.
Rolling her eyes, Jennifer was already beating herself up over the fact that she allowed herself to sleep with such a whiny little coward. What she mistook for a young strapping man of Italian descent was really an immature boy.