Most of the living population of San Francisco had waited too long to evacuate during the onset of the plague. When people decided to leave the city, they all had decided at the same time. The vehicles had come to a stand-still because of the traffic which was a perfect opportunity for waves of dead to attack the stuck vehicles. Even after a year, dozens of motorists still sat in their vehicles, buckled for safety. They would simulate driving their cars until they rotted away.
Billy looked left then right into the darkness. The metal tombs stretched endlessly in both directions. Grass had found its way into cracks in the asphalt and stood tall at about knee-level in some places. Several dead meandered between the vehicles, but they were unable to figure out how to escape the trap as the cars were bumper-to-bumper in most locations.
“We have to get across,” Billy whispered to the kids. “How’s your ankle?”
Kyle reached down to rub his foot. “Still hurts.”
“Can we go around?” Vanessa asked.
“Nah, it’s like this for miles.” Billy nodded. “We’re going to have to climb over.”
“Over that?” She pointed to a dead woman reaching for them from the passenger-side window of a blue Subaru. Dozens of arms reached for them from dozens of broken windows. The noises were beginning to attract attention as well. A few infected had gathered behind the survivors and were shuffling in their direction. More were coming from crossroads and open doorways.
“Yeah, and we gotta go now.”
Billy picked the spot with the least amount of reaching appendages and climbed up on the hood of a yellow car. He motioned for the kids to follow and helped Vanessa up. They climbed down and up, up and down over several vehicles. Billy used his sword to dismember or destroy four of the things that they couldn’t go around. In just a few minutes, the three of them stood on the other side of the traffic jam.
“Easy-peasy,” Billy chimed and a hand shot out from under the car next to him. It latched onto his ankle. “What?” he yelped in surprise. He pulled his foot away easily. The creature was stuck under the car and growling at them.
“That was freaky!” He smiled at the kids. They all looked up when they heard a gigantic plane roar over their heads not three hundred feet above. The plane shook the ground. Billy was still smiling when he returned his gaze to the kids. Both saw his smile vanish as he looked behind them. They spun and saw hundreds of dead coming for them on this side of the cars. They came from the front and the side. Billy swallowed. He hadn’t seen so many in one place since the armored car heist he had pulled off earlier in the month. “Oh.”
They moved to the east, with infected coming from three sides, driving them in that direction. They soon came across another traffic jam, also headed east. The followed that track, staying low and between the cars. They were mindful about any occupants of those vehicles, and Billy checked both inside and beneath the cars as they moved forward, but it slowed them down.
The dead had noticed them and were now converging on three sides. Billy looked up and suddenly he and the kids were between two massive concrete walls. Vanessa shook her head and pointed. Both Kyle and Billy followed her finger, now staring into the twin maws of a tunnel.
“San Francisco has a tunnel?” Billy asked.
“No,” breathed Vanessa.
Billy looked momentarily confused. “Uh, yeah. I’m looking at it right there.” It was his turn to point.
Vanessa shook her head, staring intently into the darkness. The sounds of dead things were clearly audible coming from inside the inky blackness. “No, we can’t go in there.”
“Have to,” Billy told her, and grabbed her hand. She tried to fight him for a moment until the sounds of the dead behind her drowned out the noises from the tunnel. She dared a brief glance over her shoulder and felt a quick warmth grow in her crotch. A small bit of urine had escaped into her underwear. Thousands of dead were behind them, the closest less than hundred feet away.
“We’re going to die in there…” Kyle let that hang.
“Maybe,” agreed Billy, “but only for a little while. Besides, we’ll definitely die out here.” He put the boy on his back again, and the three of them moved between the abandoned vehicles into the tunnel, the darkness closing in behind them. Vanessa’s ragged breathing was loud, and reverberated through the cars and concrete of the underpass. She heard it herself and willed herself to breathe easier.
Wordlessly, Billy boosted the kids up onto the concrete sidewalk used for stranded motorists and pedestrians. A metal railing was the only thing protecting them from the infected in the tunnel. He climbed up after them then took the lead.
He stuck his mouth next to Kyle’s ear and whispered as quietly as possible, “Can you walk by yourself?”
“I can walk.”
They inched down the walkway, their eyes unable to penetrate their dim surroundings more than a few feet. The darkness past that was absolute. It was odd, because fifty or so feet behind them, the opening of the tunnel allowed light to breach the gloom a few feet in. They could see out, but they hadn’t been able to see more than a few feet past where the sun stopped. The dead would suffer the same problem. It didn’t stop the infected from hunting though, and they poured into the entrance by the hundreds.
Hacks, rasps, and moans from the front alerted them to more undead in that direction. Vanessa started to breathe heavily again, obviously terrified. She put her hand into Billy’s and wouldn’t let go. The three of them hugged the damp tile wall with their backs, strung out in a line with Billy in the front and Kyle in the rear. They moved slowly with danger so close, but they didn’t want to make any noise.
A shadow moved past them its chest at the level of their feet. More followed, traipsing on a collision course toward their brethren chasing dinner. Billy noticed the light at the far end of the concrete tube but was afraid to say anything to the kids. A simple gasp or a sigh and they were done for.
Dozens of shadows moved between the abandoned vehicles in the tunnel, their movements giving them away as what they were. Vanessa had been keeping her eyes closed, afraid she would compromise the stealth of the group should she let go with a scared shriek if she saw something awful. She opened her eyes when something growled in front of her and lunged through the railing. It couldn’t reach them because of the height difference and the distance from the edge of the sidewalk to the ceramic wall of the subway. The thump of its head impacting the railing echoed through the small space, causing every dead eye to search the darkness with renewed vigor. Another thing reached through the railing, then another, all three growling and hissing at prey just out of reach. Kyle and Vanessa attempted to push further into the wall if that were possible.
Billy needed both hands to battle the beasts, but the terrified girl who had his left in her grasp simply would not let go. He had to rip it from her, and a second later, his blade flashed in a downward arc. Two severed hands plopped to the sidewalk and Billy smiled. He repeated the act, but two more creatures had heard the ruckus and were now stretching their infected claws toward the kids.
Most of the things lacked the capacity to figure out how to reach the meal that was so close, but one of them pushed itself up onto the pathway and stumbled after them. Billy moved back past the kids and slashed it across the face, destroying its right eye and flaying the rotting cheek off. He used a forward stab and the blade stuck out a few inches from the back of the creature’s head. For the second time in five minutes, something latched onto his ankle and he didn’t even look as he swung the sword downward. He kicked off the severed hand and sped by the kids.
“We need to run!” he whispered. “Stay as close to the wall as you can and keep quiet!”
They ran.
As they moved quickly down the walkway, dead hands reached through the bars in the railing. The closest appendage was still two feet away, but a single misstep would put the living in the arms of the dead. The tunnel echoed with the noises the things made, further adding to the mounting terr
or.
A dead woman loomed in Billy’s way and he cut her down with his sword. She fell backward, Billy and the kids vaulting over her easily. Kyle let go with a hiss of pain when he landed, but he kept up with the others. Vanessa dared a look back and could barely see the walkway behind them. It was no longer empty, dark forms traipsing slowly after her.
The light at the far end of the tunnel beckoned to the survivors with a warmth the gloomy, dank tunnel couldn’t fight. Abandoned vehicles extended out the end of this side of the concrete tube as well. Billy noticed a large tanker truck, which would have been forbidden to enter the tunnel under normal circumstances, sticking part way out into the sunlight. Panic must have induced the driver into the tunnel, the vehicle becoming mired in the traffic like all the others.
The dead behind them continued to make their horrible noises as the trio burst back into the daylight. This side of the tunnel was devoid of the dead and Billy called a halt.
“What? What are you doing?” demanded Kyle breathlessly through pain-clenched teeth.
“Surprise!” Billy smiled. “I’m going to give them a surprise!”
The young man searched the rear of the tanker truck but couldn’t figure out how to open anything. “Fine!” he yelled and spun. He and the kids weaved through the vehicles. “Let’s get way back!”
They got another fifty yards back, and Billy stopped. “Watch this!” he bragged, putting his rifle to his shoulder. He fired twice, two holes blossoming in the rear of the tanker truck. Liquid spewed from the holes and hit the ground, the majority of which flowed down the slight incline into the tunnel.
Billy’s eyes were wide. He rounded on the kids. “Crap! It didn’t blow up! Why didn’t it blow up? It blows up in every movie ever made! Crap!”
Kyle rummaged in his pack and held something out to Billy, who smiled a wicked smile, took the item, and ran back toward the tunnel. The dead were just starting to stream out into the sunlight.
Billy unscrewed the top of the skinny cylinder, rubbed the two pieces together, and was rewarded with a bright flame. He threw the road flare as hard as he could, the red stick tumbling end over end as it arced toward the truck. He turned and fled, not waiting to see if his ploy would work. He grabbed the kids on the way by and they hurried through the vehicles and onto a side street.
“Huh,” Billy groused when they stopped to catch a breath. “I guess it didn’t—”
A gigantic explosion ripped through the air. Flaming liquid shot in all directions, covering the abandoned vehicles and setting them ablaze in turn. Billy and the kids watched as the tunnel filled with fire. A dozen or so infected stumbled through the conflagration, but none took more than a few steps before collapsing. One of the vehicles near the mouth of the tunnel emitted a deep WHUMP! and the back of it jumped into the air a bit.
“That’s our cue to skidoo, children.” Both kids stared at him blankly and he rolled his eyes. “How’s the hoof?” He pointed at Kyle’s foot.
“Hurts. I’ll be okay.” The boy nodded.
“Looks as if we have a bit of a break from the dead.” He put his sword away in the makeshift sheath he had fashioned out of a towel and a length of rope. It hung on his right side. “Hop on, kid.”
Kyle climbed up. “Who do you think was in that plane?” the boy asked.
Billy shrugged. “Dunno. Big plane though.”
The three of them could smell the salt air as they moved north.
Alcatraz Island, San Francisco
The most difficult thing Rick had done in the five weeks he’d been back in San Francisco was explain to his daughter why her mother hadn’t come back from Boston with him. The second was to explain why her friends Chris and Dallas had remained behind with strangers. Little Sam hadn’t taken either explanation well and had been sullen and angry for a month. The only thing that made her smile was her cat, Pickles.
The cat adored her, and she him. He was a calico, which was extremely rare for a male cat. She stared at him, lounging on his back on a cinder block window sill in the sun. She wiped her eyes and sniffled. She had been crying again because her mom hadn’t come back to be with her. Sam knew what her mother was doing was important, but it was her mother. She should have returned with her father! Sam sighed.
“C’mere, ya big rodent,” she demanded of the cat. The animal turned its head to regard her. She smiled because he sprawled on his back with his paws in the air. As most cats are wont to do, he made no move other than to stare back at her.
She raised an eyebrow and put her hands on her hips. “Oh yeah?” She moved over to him and nuzzled his nose with her own. He clawed at the air as she rubbed his belly. She sat in an ancient metal chair and sighed again. Pickles suddenly put his head in the air and stared no place in particular. He jerked his head to stare intently at the door at which point Sam heard movement on the stairs below her. She hoped it wasn’t her dad. Her father would kill her if he knew she was in here. This was the Sally Port, and it was condemned. She wasn’t really sure what condemned was, but she thought it meant dangerous. Sam had been so angry at and hurt by her mother for not making the return journey that she had come here on several occasions in the past month with her cat to get away from everyone. In addition to not being allowed in the Sally Port (which had a girl’s name and was therefore cool), nobody was to go anywhere alone. Ever. She had gotten into trouble several times in the past month, and that was unlike her, but what could anybody do? How could they punish her?
The cat jumped down from the sill, cautiously moving to the door and peeking first left then right. Sam moved to the door and hid behind a low wall. She heard a voice.
“It’s me. Yes. Yes. There are over two hundred people now. No, they’re not newcomers. It’s that asshole from Texas. Yes, he called in on the radio. The imbeciles in charge are very excited for his return.”
“Dallas,” the young girl thought. “It had to be Dallas!” Sam shifted her position so she could hear a bit better.
“No, I wouldn’t recommend that. Not yet. There are many soldiers here, plus the police, and even some Navy SEALs. There’s… Wait a minute, I thought I heard something.”
Sam heard someone coming slowly up the rickety steps. “Shit!” She heard someone shout under their breath and Pickles scrabbled out of the room and down the stairs.
“No, it’s fine. It was that stupid cat.”
There’s a cat? Sam could now hear that the man outside the door was on a radio.
“Yes, one of the cops has a kid and she came in with it at the beginning. So, the rotational guard schedule is as follows…”
The owner of the voice, who Sam thought she knew but couldn’t exactly place, began to walk back down the stairs talking. She didn’t know why, but she was terrified. Not that she would be caught in the Sally Port, but that this man was a bad man and he was close.
Sam waited what she considered a long time then made her way down the stairs and out into the sunny, salty air. She searched for Pickles, but the animal had made his escape. Sam decided she would go speak to her dad and hang out with him for the afternoon. She saw a pair of roving guards and ducked behind a concrete support pillar. The men stopped right next to her and began to talk.
“Dude, next time you take off for ten minutes, I’m gonna tell Meara, I shit you not.”
“Oh, relax. I had to pinch one off. I didn’t need you watching me.”
“Nobody alone. Ever. Ever. I don’t care what happens, next time your ass belongs to Meara. He’s itching to bust you anyway. Why do you have to challenge everything? They saved you. They saved all of us.”
The second man laughed contemptuously. “Saved us. Sure. I had a good life before and now…now I just do what I’m told for crappy soup and a moldy mattress.”
“You’d be dead any other way. When you figure that out, maybe you’ll thank these people. I think our rotation is done. Let’s get back,” the first man said in disgust.
The men strode off in silence. Sam peeked out from
her hiding place but couldn’t tell who one of the men was. The other man was the guy who was always complaining and telling folks how to do things. She couldn’t remember his name.
Her cat darted across the path behind her. He disappeared into the high grass without so much as a glance at her. Sam moved back toward the cell blocks smiling. She knew she wouldn’t be able to find Pickles. Entering the large, white structure, she found her father speaking to his friend Mike. Mike was one of the bosses around here.
They rounded on her as she entered the walkway. Her father smiled. “Where you been, peanut?”
“Playin’ with Pickles.”
“Dallas is coming in on a boat right now,” Rick told her. “Wanna come with Anna and I to pick him up?”
“Yeah,” she smiled, “I want to.”
A few hours later, Alcatraz was a happy place. Dallas had returned, and he had brought some people with him. Captain McInerney squeezed a woman in a bear hug and they both cried. A few seconds later, the captain threw himself at Dallas and began to hug him too. True to his word, Dallas had escorted Captain McInerney’s wife Clara to Alcatraz. The reunited pair stood together on the dock with three new soldiers, a young woman, and giant bloodhound named Clyde.
The corpsman from the Florida interrupted the revelry. “Sorry, folks, but everybody returning from the mainland has to undergo mandatory two-day quarantine. The quicker we get you in, the quicker you can leave.”
Rick, Captain McInerney, and a few others elected to stay with the quarantined folks during their brief internment. They couldn’t be in the individual cells, but the captain and his wife spoke through the bars and Rick played cards with Dallas. The three soldiers were from an enclave of survivors in Montana. They also disseminated information to Captain McInerney and within a few hours, there were short-wave radio calls from California to Massachusetts to Montana.
Dallas had spoken of a pair of men who had literally pulled him from the teeth of a horde of infected. These men had also accompanied him, Clara, and Clara’s friend Eleanor to a group of mix-matched military who had in turn escorted the three civilians back to Alcatraz. The men were headed to an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico called Atlantis. McInerney tried to contact Atlantis, but the rig had been either unwilling or unable to answer the radio.
Run_Book 3_Long Road Home Page 27