by Mariah Lynde
Christian’s own sniffling cries were ignored as I yanked the steering wheel left in order to pull the car out onto the street. The subtle snap and thump that came as my tires rolled over the frame of the woman that had been on my car was ignored even as Cal cursed beside me.
My focus had left the car and settled on the scene where a few minutes before there had been some semblance of order. Onlookers had become victims once the car had been open, and now there was a frenzied panic as people ran across the asphalt holding bleeding wounds or the hands of those who had been injured. More than that, the zombie that had been in the driver’s seat now hung haphazardly out of the door of their car. The seatbelt kept the creature fastened in place to flail about just as listlessly as their passenger that currently remained stuck in the windshield. However, the scene was more than a little disconcerting as the driver’s head flopped and slammed repeatedly into their torso with every twitching, swiping movement that its arm made.
“Damnit woman! What the hell are you doing?!” Cal screamed.
“Getting us the hell out of here!”
“By driving us into them?” He snarled and the sudden screaming cry from Christian in the back seat brought me back to reality.
“By getting us back on the road and headed to the apartment.” I muttered, again, slamming my foot down on the gas pedal and peeling out of the parking lot with the smell of burning rubber assailing me. Every few seconds my eyes went to the streaks of red being spread across my windshield as my wipers screeched back and forth across the mostly dry glass.
In my haste to make the turn, I felt the back of the Explorer drag as the trailer wildly shuddered back and forth. At one point I could swear I saw the thing going up on one wheel before crashing back down onto the pavement to bump along the street as I raced away.
Just as the sound of my own heartbeat left my ears, I began to register the other sounds in the car. Christian’s muted sobs from the backseat tore my heart in two, but I didn’t have the time to waste to pull over and console him. Not that Cal was any better. He sat beside me, breathing like he had on a respirator mask and the wheezing got worse with each passing moment. Exhaling once, I eased up on the gas. Peering into the rear view mirror to check that the trailer was righted and seeing a few stragglers from around the accident running after us.
A sigh of relief given, my gaze returned to the road even as I spoke to Christian to try and ease at least that little ache.
“You alright, buddy?” I worked at keeping my voice soft and even. I glanced up into the rear view mirror only to see Christian rubbing his eyes as he sniffled and peered back at me. Snot had run down from his nostrils and onto his top lip, and my first reaction, much to my own chagrin, was an internal shudder accompanied by the mental scream of ‘ewwwwww’.
“I didn’t mean to make you mad, Angiel.” Sniffle.
My heart shattered and I felt like an utter bitch. This poor kid thought I had been yelling at him.
“You didn’t buddy. Things just went a little crazy with those people outside the store.” It was the best explanation I could hope to give him, at least for the moment. Everything that had happened today had been non-stop. There hadn’t been a second to breathe let alone consider just how to go about explaining why he was with me and what was happening in the world around us.
Both were things I’d need to figure out how to accomplish and soon. While I realized the truth of that, I couldn’t help but stay more rooted in this moment. Focusing on something that wouldn’t happen for a while yet, could wait until I actually found a moment to rest and chill out.
“So yous not mad at me?” Another sniffle accompanied the line, and I frowned a little. Poor kid.
“No, Christian. I’m not mad at you.” I answered softly and moved to change lanes. Idly letting my eyes move to the dried line of crimson that was streaking across my windshield. Grimacing, I pulled the wiper lever towards me, spraying the glass with fluid and watching the windshield wipers go to work. This time, there was no clearing the bloodied remnants away, but instead a subtle lightening of the color to a light pink.
Much like the rest of this whole situation, I could try to erase it or forget about it, but there would always be subtle little reminders, like this one. This particular lesson would be one I’d learn well in the coming months, whether I wanted to or not.
Chapter Thirty – Zoom, zoom, zoom…
With the small reassuring conversation with Christian at an end, the car fell silent. Beside me, Cal continued his sucky Darth Vader impression while I maneuvered the car along down the street. For the most part, we remained silent. It was honestly as if both of us were aware if one spoke to the other we were likely to explode like Mount Vesuvius over Pompeii.
The silence, while uncomfortable, served its purpose.
At least until we made it to the road block. Less than two miles away from the small complex I called home, we encountered a line of barricades with flashing yellow caution lights.
“Oh, what the hell.” As if an already bad day couldn’t get worse, now we had to deal with this. Then again, at some point I would learn it was better not to even consider such things. Mostly because once you started thinking like that, fate found a way to severely twist shit so that it got worse.
“We just came by here less than an hour and a half ago.” Cal said in a raspy voice. Slowly applying my foot to the break, I cringed slightly as I heard the trailer attached to the back shudder and groan in complaint. Likely, it wasn’t attached or anchored correctly, but that was something that I could only worry about once we were back behind the relative safety afforded by gates and walls.
Oh, I was under no illusions. Despite what Cal may have thought, eventually my little life of luxury in the subdivision would be a death trap. The only question I had about it was whether or not it would be sooner rather than later.
It also happened to be the reason that part of my emergency plan for any world changing event was to wait out the initial panic and then head back home. Home being wherever the people I trusted and cared for most ended up.
It was a thought which brought me back to the moment. As I applied pressure to the break, I noticed a line of cars beginning to form. Most of them seemed to be moving towards the side streets that led around the residential areas and onto Main Street. Normally, I would have considered the same thing, but in the current situation I happened to be more concerned with expediency. Considering the amount of cars already starting to jam up the small roads, I knew that falling in line with that particular train of thought only put all three of us in more danger.
“What the hell are we supposed to do now?” Cal asked quietly.
“We adapt.” I answered him softly, moving to cut the steering wheel and pull us over into the left lane. Creeping forward to try and extricate myself and the trailer attached to the back of the Explorer with as little fuss as possible from the traffic snarl.
“This leads to…” Cal began.
“The Interstate…I’m aware.” Finishing his sentence for him, I tilted my head, checking on Christian in the rearview mirror and finding him rubbing his eyes sleepily. If nothing else, I suppose I could be grateful for his little emotional outburst if it meant he’d sleep for a little bit. I don’t know why, but I felt better about taking risks if he was oblivious to just what was going on around him.
“Why would you risk that?” Cal hissed softly, one hand moving to grab my arm. His fingers began tightening in their grip and caused me to snarl softly in his direction from the discomfort. Pulling my arm away, I turned towards him and grimaced.
“I plan on taking the Interstate up two exits and circling around the backside of town to get to the apartment. Is that okay with you?” I snapped. I worked at keeping my voice soft and downplayed so that I didn’t disturb the little boy in the back seat.
“You don’t even know if that’s possible.” Cal frowned before moving to fidget back down into the seat.
“No, I don’t but it’s a
damn sight better than lining up with those cars in a gridlock and being bait for another group like those one’s back at the feed store. Who knows how many zombies there are that way or how mobile they are?” I finished softly, flicking on my turn signal before watching the absence of traffic coming my way and turning on to the ramp leading out to the interstate.
“I think this is a bad idea.” This time, Cal sounded more like a petulant child than an adult. For a brief moment I wondered if that meant I had become the babysitter of the apocalypse since it seemed I had two children with me rather than just one.
“Your thought is duly noted. Again I will remind you that you’re welcome to get the hell out of the car and go out on your own.” Annoyed with him once more, I frowned. Just like that, my general acceptance of his presence had turned sour in light of his almost peevish whining.
“You really want to be rid of me, don’t you? Doesn’t getting the trailer mean a damn thing?” His question had me gritting my teeth. The fact he kept his voice lowered meant he happened to be aware of the child beginning to doze off in the back seat. I recognized the ploy for what it was. He was trying to control my reaction in the situation so that it would sway more in his favor.
He had really underestimated my level of give a damn. I’d been running low on that since I had clocked a lady in the lobby of the place I worked with a fire extinguisher.
“Since you can’t man up, yeah it’d be nice if you took the hell off. I already had my hands full trying to watch out for myself before. Now, I have Christian to consider too and that leaves very little room for a fully grown man who’s about as useful as a bloodied tampon.” I muttered under my breath.
Whatever he’d been expecting, it obviously was not the answer I had given him. An immediate look of disgust crossed his face as he sat back in his seat.
“That was uncalled for and disgustingly crass, Miss Warren.” He said softly, and I chanced a glance at him just to see he was trying to sift through what I had said. “You honestly think I’m of so little use?”
“Considering you panic often, challenge and question everything I do, and pretty much make everything more difficult by demanding explanations then whining afterwards…yes.” He wanted to risk having this little heart to heart while Christian was dozing to control my reactions, it had worked to a degree. I wasn’t yelling, but it sure as shit didn’t mean I had to filter my thoughts anymore if it meant getting my point across.
“So, basically you want me to just be a lemming and follow your lead without question?” He spoke softly.
“Until you start becoming productive…it’d be nice. What did you think this would be like, Cal?” I asked him, wondering just why he’d bothered to throw his lot in with myself and the others.
“Not like that. I assumed you’d do things I suggest that might make things easier. I thought that was the whole point of your little group.” When Cal spoke, he sounded lost, almost confused. Not that I could blame him. I would have liked nothing better than to lose my shit.
You can’t plan for the end of the world. Not really. You can think you’re prepared for it but when it actually starts to happen, you spend a lot of your time in shock or disbelief. That said, no matter how prepared you think you are, when the shit hits the fan it feels like your brain is exploding. You can barely think in a full sentence, let alone function like a well-adjusted adult. Hell, I had a hard time doing that even when the world was fine and dandy.
“Look, at some point, you might have an idea that makes things easier. Right now?” I paused, turning my head to chance a glance at him and shrug before turning my eyes back to the almost empty interstate. “You don’t have anything that is really helpful. Yes, I appreciate the trailer, but when it comes to everything else, sorry…no. You may have been a big business mogul or manager or whatever before all this began, but you have little in the line of knowledge about health care or procedures in emergency situations. To a degree, I envy you that because even now you’re sitting there and thinking that it might not be all that bad.
“You’re thinking that this could just be temporary…some kind of surreal dream. Me? I’m already thinking about how bad this is, how far it could have spread. Worst case scenarios. It’s just how I think, but it is just that which stopped everyone from being zombie food in that lobby two days ago and why my house is filled with enough supplies that we can hole up for weeks.” I finished softly, letting him take in all that I had said while I cruised up the interstate.
As that awkward silence fell once again, I began to notice something I should have noticed before. The lanes around me were completely empty. On the opposite side of the concrete dividers, oncoming traffic was practically non-existent with only a few cars here and there.
That was decidedly strange. Normally, this whole freeway was packed with rushing cars and trucks running to and from Charlotte. That sinking feeling in my stomach grew worse. This was bad.
Really bad.
Leaning forward I flipped on the radio, leaving the volume down low as I strained to focus on the announcement that made its way through the car.
“….we repeat…do not leave your homes. Charlotte is now under a mandatory lockdown and all hospitals have been closed. If you have an emergency please dial…”
Having heard enough I frowned and flipped the radio off. Beside me, I heard a soft sigh of air in a sudden rush of motion.
“It’s starting isn’t it?” He sounded weary, almost drained – the sound of his voice was an accurate representation of exactly how I felt, even if I didn’t act that way.
This was really happening. The end of the world had come.
As we travelled down the interstate, I could see smoke rising in the distance. Moving to change lanes and get on the off ramp leading to Main Street of my small little suburban hell, I found myself questioning just how bad it could be this early.
As the Explorer pulled off of the interstate, I fell silent as shadows began to lurch and move in the tree line that served as landscaping on either side of the road.
I didn’t say a word. Now was not the time to panic. Maybe Cal hadn’t noticed.
The ascension up the ramp and towards the stoplight passed in silence. Any hope I had of keeping things calm and collected for the ride back to the apartment was shot to hell with the scene that lay before us.
An eighteen wheeler was turned over, the tires on the trailer still spinning aimlessly where the truck laid on its side. The trailer itself had been damaged, the white steel and metal twisted and ripped back, revealing the segments of the trailer that had been chained and roped off.
The worst part?
Spilling from those segmented areas and out the now twisted back doors, were slow moving bodies. Some of them were in one piece, others were misshapen lumps of flesh that had long ago seen better days.
Whatever the case may have been, it did not change the fact that Armageddon had spilled into town. Pandora’s box had been opened and every twisted, dark creature that it contained had been unleashed onto the populace.
I watched in abject horror while bodies moved across my line of vision. Some of them were aimlessly wandering along the sidewalks and through the streets. Others were slowly dragging themselves across the asphalt with barely discernable movements.
It was a twisted scene that reminded me of a grotesque circus. Missing limbs and staggered heights ran amuck and fragmented my attention. Legless torso’s crawling across the ground with their nails clawing at unforgiving asphalt and shredding their fingertips to bloody bits clamored for freedom. Yet there were no screams of pain or torture, no bitching complaints or ‘woe is me’ speeches given.
There were only the sounds of walking death. The slow groan of air being forced out of an otherwise lifeless body, the rip and tear of flesh across the hot North Carolina asphalt, the wet slopping sound of organs being strung across the area as twisted as they were detached and ripped free of their moorings.
It was a ghastly look at the future.
Our future. And what the world would become.
Alas, hell had arrived and in that moment I had absolutely no idea just how we would survive it.
The End…
Look for more of the Zompocalypse Series for the continued adventure of Angel and her crew.