by A. R. Wise
"I don't remember." She was surprised and confused by my sudden intensity. "He took the note."
"What did it start with?"
She stuttered as she tried to recall. "Dora. Dori. Something. I don't remember. Why? What's happening? What's the matter?"
I tried to get up, but my body had been beaten to the point of collapse. "Go open the door. Try to stop Billy. Try to yell out and stop him."
"Why?"
"Just do it!" I picked Annie up and raised her arm. "No, no, no," I said as I saw the black boils beginning to form under her skin. "Oh God, please no."
"What's wrong?" asked Annie as she tried to see what I was looking at.
Kim stood outside the garage and screamed Billy's name, but he was gone. I pulled myself onto the edge of the boat and grabbed the bottle of Oxicontin. I dumped several pills into my hand, put most of them in my pocket, and then tossed one into my mouth. I chewed it to get it into my system faster and the bitterness made me gag. I needed to ignore the pain if I was going to do what needed to be done.
"What's the matter?" asked Kim after she gave up calling after Billy.
I took the crutches Billy had brought and adjusted them to my height. "Your sister's sick. She needs some of that medicine they were talking about on the radio."
"The Dora antibiotic?" she asked.
"Yes."
"What about the one Billy brought? Can we give her that?"
"It can't hurt to try," I said. "Go ahead and get her to take one of those. You'll have to cut it up into small pieces and force her to swallow them."
"Why me?" asked Kim. "Where are you going?"
"Don't panic, Kim. You can do this."
"Where are you going? Are you leaving us?"
I tried to calm her. "I just need to go to that pharmacy, for the medicine."
"No!"
"Billy's not going to be back for a long time, if he even comes back at all. Annie needs that medicine."
"You're leaving me again," she started to wail. "You promised me. You promised."
"I know, Kim." I tried to grab her flailing arms. "Calm down, honey. You've got to calm down."
"You're going to die too."
"Stop it, Kim. I need you to calm down. Now! Listen to me. I want you to look after your sister, but I want you to stay away from her. Give her the pill, but after that just let her lay in the boat and you stay up here, by the bench. If she gets up, and starts to act like the bad people, I want you to climb up into the rafters and wait for me." I pointed to the beams above our heads.
"She's going to be a zombie?"
"No. I don't know. I don't think so. Please, just do as I say? I have to get to that pharmacy before it's too late."
"I don't want to lose you too."
"You have to trust me, Kim." I took her by the shoulders and looked into her eyes. "Your father and I love you and your sister more than you can possibly imagine. Everything we've done has been to protect you. I have to go get this medicine for your sister or she's going to die. Do you understand? I need you to stay here and protect her. To protect both of you."
"Are we all going to get sick?"
"I don't think so, but if we have the medicine we might be able to stop it."
"We all ate the same food," she said.
"I know, but no one else is sick yet. Just Annie. Maybe her immune system is weaker."
"Or it was the apricots."
I'd forgotten about the chocolate apricots. No one other than Annie had eaten them and everything else had been cooked, which should have killed any bacteria in it. "You're right, Kim. That's probably what it was."
"Mommy," said Kim as she grabbed my hand. "I love you. Be careful."
"I love you too, sweetie. Now bolt the door behind me and don't let anyone but Billy or me in. Okay?"
I stood outside of the garage and stared up the street that led through the industrial area. It was an uphill climb and I saw no sight of the neighborhood Billy said was there. It would be a long, painful trek up the hill and I wondered how long it would take for the painkiller to kick in.
Every step made me wince and the crutches dug into my armpits as I relied too heavily on them. My left foot was bandaged and almost useless, but I needed to stand on it if I was going to make it up the hill. I set it down as light as possible and felt the agonizing sensation of the bandages scrape against the fresh wounds. The side of the white gauze darkened with fresh blood, but I had to endure the pain.
I kept moving and a trail of blood followed me.
Helicopters hovered somewhere nearby, but I couldn't see them amongst the towering steel structures of the neighboring industrial plant. The sound of the rotors echoed through the desolate park as I moved ahead.
A deep, bass voice called out, as if through a speaker or megaphone, but the sound was too far away to discern. It seemed to be coming from the helicopters, but I couldn't be sure as the sound bounced around me.
A tall fence blocked the entrance to the Salvage Yard, but it had been broken down and pushed aside. I went into a guard shack that sat beside the gate and looked for anything that I could take with me as a weapon. I hadn't thought to grab anything back at the dock and suddenly felt very vulnerable as I stared out into the street ahead.
It was a tiny shed, with a desk and three small televisions that were part of the security system. I flicked the light switch on and off, but the power was out here as well. I fell into the swivel chair and cringed as I pulled my left foot up and crossed it over my right knee so I could inspect the shark bite.
The bandage was soaked with fresh blood from the wounds I had opened by walking. They hadn't been stitched and had only closed thanks to the pressure of the bandages. My jaunt up the hill burst them wide again. I could feel the painkiller start to take effect, and my body's recognition of pain changed to a mere awareness instead of debilitating agony.
Someone's voice cried out in a guttural blast from the Baylor Projects. I looked out the window at the abandoned ten story buildings that stretched down the street outside of the salvage yard. I could see between the buildings and into the parking lot that wound around them, but there was no movement. The doors of the projects were sealed shut and red 'X' marks were spray painted over them.
The voice moaned again, this time with animalistic intensity. It didn't call for help, or say anything intelligible. It was a primeval grunt of hunger and I sat rigid and fearful as it echoed through the streets.
Then it was quiet for a long time.
"Get up, Laura," I whispered to myself. "Get your ass up." Fear had frozen me in place, the same as it did on the dock when David died. I couldn't move and I trembled in the chair of the security shack.
I thought of Annie's pale, pretty face, quietly lying in the boat as the infection ravaged her. I was the only hope she had of a cure. If I stayed here, she would die, and so I forced myself to stand.
I found courage as I thought of my daughter, Kim. She had ignored the pain in her back so I wouldn't worry about her, and that strength drove me forward. I had to keep my promise to survive and return to her.
The street was ominous as it stretched out ahead of me. I charged up the hill with renewed vigor and listened for the sound of feet from behind. The city had seemed abandoned before, but now it felt teaming with vicious intent. Every empty alley promised new horrors as I passed, and every window was a view on my vulnerability. When would they see me? How long would it take for them to follow my trail?
The scream started again, and it was closer. I couldn't see it, but the creature was somewhere in the projects. Its voice had an emotionless droll to it, but it sounded as if it were right on top of me. That's when we saw each other.
I glanced up, and it looked down. The zombie stood on the fifth floor of the building to my right and had been aimlessly wandering in one of the apartments. The person must have died there, and was left to search the abandoned project for someone to eat once it was reanimated. Now it found me, but it was trapped up there and
I thanked God for that.
Then it jumped over the railing.
The male zombie plummeted to the ground and landed feet first. Its legs buckled and I heard the femurs crack and split as the creature crumpled to the ground. Sheer white bone poked out of its leg and black, rotten blood leaked out like a broken bottle of molasses. His face was grey and torn at the temples, as if he had been clawing at himself in death. He landed across the street from me and was deathly still, twenty feet away.
I whimpered at the sight, but carried on, a trail of bloody footsteps behind me. Billy said the pharmacy was just inside the Baylor Projects. I had to be getting close.
Then the zombie called out to me.
Its growl shocked me and I yelled in terror. I thought it died from the fall, but it started to move. The infected man stretched out and scratched at the pavement. Its nails bent backward as it struggled forward. The creature crawled at me as viscous black blood oozed from its gaping jaw.
I couldn't run. I tried, but my leg was too badly damaged and my fervor to get away made me stumble against the wall of the building to my left. The zombie started to move faster than I could as it pulled itself across the street and screamed at me. I hopped on my good leg, but the painkillers hid my injuries too well. The muscles in my body revolted and seized up. My thigh burned as I did everything I could to move uphill, but the zombie gained ground.
I fell and landed on my right side. I rolled so that I sat on the sidewalk, facing the creature that would eat me. I took the metal crutch and ripped the foam pad off the armrest. When the creature came within striking distance I wailed the crutch down on its head, but it didn't stop. I struck again, but I wasn't strong enough to kill it. It grabbed onto my bandaged, bloody foot.
I pressed the armrest of the crutch against its face and pushed, but I couldn't keep it off me. The monster grabbed the bandages on my foot and dragged me to him, which ripped open the wound on my side as my back scraped against the concrete. Fresh, brilliant red blood poured out of me and ran downhill to mix with the zombie's black stream of fetid liquid.
My flesh peeled off as it gnawed into my ankle. The creature pulled the bandages away and bit onto a flap of skin from my open wound. It pulled its head up and my skin ripped back to reveal the bone of my ankle. I screamed out in pain and despair as the inevitability of my death became apparent.
If I let this thing win, I would break my promise to Kim. I would die, and Annie would die, and Kim would be left to face this new, apocalyptic world alone.
No. That wasn't going to happen.
I kicked the creature in the face with my left foot and a strip of my flesh ripped off in its mouth as it reeled back. I sat up, grabbed onto its face, and pressed my thumbs into its eyes. My voice roared in fury as I plunged my nails into the spongy sockets. The left thumb dug in while the right slipped under the ball of the eye and popped it out of the socket. The eyeball dangled on the monster's cheek as black blood oozed out of the left.
Pain didn't faze it though. The zombie lurched forward to blindly grasp at me. It caught my left arm and bit into my wrist. I wrenched my arm out of its grip, but this was a fight I couldn't win. These creatures didn't feel pain, and he would continue to claw and bite until he was utterly destroyed. Punching, kicking, and clawing at them wouldn't keep me alive. There was only one weapon left to use.
I dug my right thumb deep into the creature's socket and shoved its head back. Its neck stretched out before me, and I bit into him.
My teeth sunk into its rotted flesh and the putrid blood gushed over my cheeks as I clenched down on its jugular. The creature wailed as my teeth ripped into him, and then the sound of his voice turned to a gasp as I gnawed into his throat. Air whistled past my ear as it tried to breath through the hole in its neck, but I plugged it with my chin as I pushed forward and opened my mouth to take another, bigger bite. It let go of my arm as it grasped my shoulder to push me back, but I wouldn't relent. The meat tore easily and the decayed flesh peeled off as I pressed the fingers of my left hand into the wound to pull it wider.
The monster thrashed beneath me as I pushed it on its back against the pavement. I surged over him without letting go of the wound I'd opened in his throat. The four fingers of my left hand pushed their way into its esophagus and I could feel its tongue lash around.
My left thumb wormed its way into the creature's throat and my entire hand burst into its mouth. I could feel its spine against the back of my knuckles and I started to slam my fist into the roof of the monster's mouth. The sickening rip of rotted flesh splattered around my ears and I clenched my eyes shut.
Its spine broke and I continued to push its skull forward with my left hand. I bit at the remaining flesh of its neck and felt the skin tighten, then rip. I pulled the zombie's head off and threw it forward, down the hill. It rolled a few feet and then settled in a storm drain as I lay over the decapitated body.
I vomited the rotted meat.
CHAPTER EIGHT - HER BEST SHOT
I couldn't stop throwing up. Even as I made my way to the pharmacy and into the aisles of the well-stocked store, I continued to wretch. My black vomit spilled out over the clean, white linoleum as I dragged my useless foot behind me.
My mind wasn't right anymore. Not just because I'd cannibalized a man on the street, but my vision swam in and out of focus as I stumbled through the aisle. My hand struck the shelves in places I didn't expect as I struggled to stay upright. Nothing around me made sense anymore as I neared the pharmacist's counter. I swung the waist-high door open and stepped into the row of white bottles where customers weren't allowed. Somewhere among these endless rows was the medicine that could save my daughter's life. Mine also, for that matter.
The crutch under my left arm hurt more than it should. The overdose of pain killers that I'd subjected myself to should have taken care of any sensation my nerves could muster, but something was wrong with my arm that was bad enough to break through. I leaned against the shelves and pulled up my shirt to see what was wrong.
Black buboes swelled beneath my skin. I was infected. I was turning into one of them.
"No, please no. Not yet." My body was riddled with the infection. Not only had the creature bitten me, but I also swallowed more parts of him than I cared to recall. The infection swelled through me and it would only be a matter of hours before I would turn.
I started to throw bottles of pills off the shelf as I inspected them. The one I wanted wasn’t there. I desperately turned in circles and looked through the shelves. There was nothing close to what I looked for and I started to panic. My emotions overwhelmed me and I pulled an entire shelf of bottles to the floor as I screamed out in frustration. I'd come all this way, fought this hard, and it was for nothing. The antibiotic wasn't here.
I dropped to my knees and started to slam my fist into the ground. I glanced at the bottom shelves, but they didn't have pills there. Instead, the bottom shelves were filled with powders.
What if it was a powder I was looking for instead of a pill? The possibility hadn't occurred to me. I started to rifle through the bags.
Doripenem. I found it!
I was overwhelmed with joy and started to cry as I held the pouch. It was hard to focus on the instructions as my mind spun from the Oxycontin. The label thankfully had more information on it than the bottle of painkillers that Billy brought me. It was an injectable and needed to be mixed with a liquid diluent. I found needles beneath the counter and shoved a handful into my pocket. I got up and tried to focus on my next task of finding the diluent when the bell over the pharmacy door chimed. Someone had come in.
"I'm just gonna grab a few sodas. You want anything?" asked a man's voice as he came in.
I stumbled to the front of the counter and slapped my hands on it as I tried to call out to the stranger, but my voice was a garbled mess of sound as black vomit trickled from my lips.
"Holy fuck!" said the stranger. He was a police officer and he stumbled back at the sight of me. He drew his p
istol and pointed it at me as I struggled to scream out for him to stop.
I fell to my knees, beneath the counter, as the gunshot rang out. The bullet struck the wall behind me and I started to scream until my voice turned from emotional, guttural noises into actual words.
"Stop shooting!"
"You're alive?" asked the officer.
"Yes." I stood up slowly with my hands in the air.
"What the fuck is going on in here?" asked a second officer as he burst in through the door. He nearly slipped in the blood trail I left on the floor and he grabbed the side of the door to steady himself. He was taller than the first and had short blonde hair and deep frown lines that fell from the corner of his mouth beneath his wide cheeks. "Why are you shooting?"
"This chick scared the piss out of me," said the first, smaller cop. He had sharp features and a long nose that hung over his thin mustache. His eyes were black and set deep into his face above dark circles that made him look sickly.
Something was wrong with the way they looked at me. They weren't here to help, and the momentary relief I experienced at first seeing them began to fade. The big one started to laugh and his barrel chest puffed out as he lowered his shotgun.
"You've got to be shitting me," he said. "Is your name Laura?"
I nodded and kept my hands up as the little cop aimed his gun at me.
The blonde one slapped his partner on the shoulder with the back of his hand. "This is the bitch Trev was talking about."
"No shit?" asked the dark haired cop as he lowered his gun.
"Where's your boyfriend?" asked the larger one.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Don't fuck around, twat," he said and brought his shotgun back up. "The one that was on the boat with you. Where's he at?"
"He left. Went into the city."
The short one interrupted, "Yeah, Trev said he was headed back into the city."
"Where's your kids?" asked the one with the shotgun.
"They're not here. I needed to get this medicine for my littlest one. She's infected." My drug and infection addled mind couldn't piece together what had happened. The things they said to me, and the way they knew so much about my situation, didn't make sense. "How do you know who I am?"