by Lanza, Marie
“Where was the military taking the survivors that made it out of Glen?” Dan asked.
“Wherever they could. Our mission was to get survivors to the bases and rebuild. We didn’t think past that.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me. That’s it?” It was something no one could ever be prepared for.
There is no more government.
“The Navy is at full capacity on their ships. They were even talking about having to dock as they got closer to running out of supplies. So, yes, I guess that’s it. Let’s hope the good doctors searching for a cure are still alive.” Jaxon didn’t have to say anything else. It was pretty clear there was nothing left.
“What about the rest of the world? Is anyone doing OK?” Dan asked.
Jaxon just shook his head as he thought about that question. “No one.”
CHAPTER 10
Feeling isolated was an understatement. No TV, no phones, no computers, no communication to others. We were driving blind. We were all feeling overwhelmingly defeated by the recent events, trying to make sense of it all.
“We should get to Summer Springs Valley. Maybe Mel & Jason made it there with the baby.” I was more talking to myself, but loud enough for Dan and Jaxon to hear.
“What’s this place?” Jaxon asked.
“My brother-in-law’s parents have a home on the coast. Big place with a lot of land. When the outbreak first happened we had planned to all go there together.”
“If there’s anything left,” Dan said.
“What have we got to lose?” I asked.
With those words, tires screeched on the pavement behind us. Jaxon and I looked out the back window. A rusted, beat up pickup truck was gaining on us at an uncomfortable speed. I could see several shadows sitting in the cab and two others standing up in the bed, holding onto the yellowish paint of the cab, peering over the roof.
Dan turned for a quick look over his shoulder, but kept his eyes on the road and in the rear view mirror.
“I’m just gonna take a wild guess…” Jaxon looked at Ethan and made sure his seat belt was on him.
Dan pressed down hard on the gas, revving the engine, and surging us forward.
“How do they know it’s us?” I knew no one actually had the answer.
“They don’t! This is what we’re dealing with now, infected and assholes!” Jaxon checked his weapon and rolled down the window. “Do not slow down. These guys are living by their own rules.” He looked to Ethan. “Buddy, I need you to lie down, OK?” Ethan did as he was told.
Jaxon aimed his gun out the window and fired several rounds at the truck.
The truck braked hard and swerved side to side momentarily, losing speed; however, it quickly regained control and began to speed up again.
“Ethan, honey, can you give Mayhem a big hug for me?” I pulled Mayhem off the back seat and set him down so that he was standing in the foot space. Ethan wrapped an arm around Mayhem. “That’s perfect, buddy. Hold on to him real tight for me.”
“We’re never gonna lose them on this fucking highway!” Dan shouted.
I looked out ahead of us and feared Dan was right. We were on a long country back highway with no roads in sight. As close as these outlaws were, even if there was a turn off, we wouldn’t lose them.
“Just keep driving!” Jaxon fired two more rounds.
My attention went behind us again.
The truck was relentless in their pursuit. They were either aware we were responsible for the others at the old house and were intent on revenge, or we were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“Shit! Infected!” Dan screamed out again.
We hit a body before I could even turn around to see. A few scattered infected had made it into the road. Dan plowed through them with the truck, sending their bodies flying off to the side of the road.
Jaxon focused on the men in pursuit.
It finally came to me that there was a map in our glove box with plenty of details that could lead to a way out. I opened the compartment, pulled it out, and immediately began scanning. I had never worked under such intense pressure before. I could see Dan giving me quick side glances.
“Here!” I pointed to the map.
“I don’t know where ‘here’ is, babe!” Dan shot back.
I’ve always expected that Dan be able to read my mind, and most of the time I would demand that he try. I would maintain the idea of ‘well you should know me well enough to know what I’m thinking’ but clearly this wasn’t one of those times. “Uh… uh…. OK! Road coming up in a small town; definitely has some turn offs we can get lost in.”
“I’ll fire some shots when we get close to make ‘em slow down! Let me know when we’re about to turn!” Jaxon shouted from the back seat.
“It’s coming up at any moment on the left.” I stared out hoping to help Dan catch it.
“Jaxon in about 10….. 5seconds,” Dan called out.
A volley of shots rang out, separated by a couple of seconds from each other. I turned around to see if the truck slowed.
Dan quickly turned left without doing much to the brakes, causing our tires to scream as they struggled to hold onto the road.
We turned into a small trailer park. Dan made the first right he could, then a left.
“I didn’t see them make the turn into the neighborhood,” Jaxon said.
Dan drove through what looked like a driveway that connected to another street, turned left and pulled into a carport.waited.
Ethan still stayed down, lying in the back seat with his arm wrapped around Mayhem who was standing on the floor.
Dan, Jaxon, and I stared out the back window into the street. We had pulled into the carport far enough that we weren’t visible from the street. We collectively held our breath, hoping that if they did follow us into the neighborhood they would just drive by.
“Do you think we lost them?” I asked.
“Stay here.” Jaxon opened his door and popped out, partially closing the door behind him. He disappeared around the house.
We had a very limited view of the street sitting in the carport, but it was probably a good thing that we were able to pull in so far. That is, unless these guys saw us and tried to block us in. Although, from the looks of the ramshackle carport, I was certain that if Dan wanted to, he could just hit the gas and go through the wall. It wasn’t like we needed to worry about paint jobs these days.
“Ethan, you OK, buddy?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Ethan answered with his small voice. He was such a tough kid.
“There they are.” Dan tensed up.
“Where?”
“A street over. Just saw their truck. They’re headed that way.” Dan pointed left.
We waited, listening for the sound of the truck engine to turn down the block and come our way. There was nothing.
Jaxon came back into the carport and got back in the truck.
“Are they coming?” I asked before he could even shut the door.
“No, they left this neighborhood and headed to the next one over. We should get back on Highway 59 and find a place to sleep for the night. Probably even a good idea to hide the truck.”
Dan turned back around in his seat and put the truck in reverse then slowly backed out. “All clear?” he asked.
“Yeah, all clear.” Jaxon had a better vantage than we did from the front seat.
Dan pulled out of the driveway, headed back out of the trailer park and onto Highway 59. I was surprised we hadn’t seen any infected in the neighborhood. There were usually plenty in any type of populated area. It was a nice change even if it would only be for a minute.
Ethan stayed laying down holding on to Mayhem. I assumed he was comfortable and maybe even a little tired. None of us asked.
Our focus was on getting to a safe place for the night out of sight from the infected and this new threat of lawless lunatics. I wondered if those types were criminals before the outbreak, or if the outbreak changed them. No one really kn
ows how a disaster will affect them until they experience it. Now that the entire world was suffering, we were all adjusting in the only way each of us knew how. Maybe we were all turning into new versions of ourselves, or existing attributes were just being accentuated. I shivered at the thought that the lunatics that threatened to feed us to an infected might have been pleasant, church-going folk with something deep inside that was always ready to snap.
It didn’t take long for us to come upon a small community with only a general store, a few restaurants, and gas station.
“We could park the truck in that car repair shop,” Dan suggested, pointing to the garage attached to the gas station.
“Yeah, that looks good.” Jaxon scanned our surroundings while he checked his weapon and placed it in its harness.
Dan backed in but left the truck running. Jaxon got out, ran to the pull-down door and began closing it.
Mayhem began to bark.
Dan and I grabbed our machetes and hopped out of the truck.
“Ethan, stay here. Try to keep Mayhem calm.” I closed the door behind me.
An infected man came around the corner, snarling and biting at Jaxon. They seemed to be getting uglier. Our attacker had alien features and a desperately sunken face, wide open eyes, and flesh falling off where he suffered gaping wounds.
Jaxon was able to pull down the garage’s door before it reached him. The door had big openings that were once windows, now busted out just at eye level. The infected reached over and through the opening trying to reach Jaxon. Dan took his machete, plunged it into the infected man’s head, and it fell to the ground with a thump.
“Stay alert, we might have more visitors in this place.” Jaxon pulled his weapon and walked through the garage. Dan followed, watching his back. They disappeared through a door that looked like it led to the gas station’s convenience store.
The place had been completely torn apart; drawers were opened and emptied, tool cases turned over, and the windows were all shattered. There were a couple of abandoned cars in the parking lot, but nothing in the shop.
A single gunshot rang out.
I gasped. Listening. Gripping my machete.
I looked in the truck, and Ethan was now sitting up in the back seat staring at me. Then I heard more moans coming from outside. That shot better have been worth it, as it just called the neighborhood over to us.
Mayhem began to bark more. Even if the infected couldn’t find where the gun shot came from, they would definitely hear Mayhem.
I looked at Ethan and put my finger over my lips hoping he would take it as direction to quiet Mayhem. He did. Ethan looked away from me and down to Mayhem, rubbing his head.
Bodies crashed against the garage door separating us from the outside. I instinctively retreated away several steps, almost a little embarrassed that the infected caught me off guard. There were two infected reaching through the opening; they growled and bit at the air. I took a moment to recover, faced the infected with my machete, and jammed the weapon into their faces one at a time. With each thrust, I could hear the thud of their bodies hitting the ground on the other side.
Dan and Jaxon came back through the door through which they had disappeared. They both stopped in their tracks, staring at me. The grimace must not have left my face.
“I hope the gun shot was worth it.” I wasn’t happy about having to kill infected people, and now we had several more advancing towards the shop.
“Sorry, taken by surprise by what used to be an employee.” Jaxon pointed behind him towards the convenient store.
“We have company.” I nodded my head to outside.
“How bad?” Jaxon walked up to the door and looked outside.
“I counted five so far. I guess we’re lucky this isn’t a big community.”
Dan looked out through the opening, “We can’t stay here tonight.”
“You have something better in mind?” Part of me didn’t think it was a good idea to get back on the road so late in the day.
“I say we crawl back in the truck and call it a day. We could all use something to eat and some sleep,” I said.
Dan looked at Jaxon for his opinion.
“I can’t disagree with her,” Jaxon shrugged his shoulders.
I guess he didn’t have a better idea either.
More bodies crashed against the garage door, taking us out of the conversation and bringing our attention to the threat. Dan and I took our machetes while Jaxon pulled out his bayonet. We walked to the garage door, and we killed the group of infected quickly and without discussion. It was shocking how little provocation it took for me to stick a machete into something that still carried their human form.
The infected never flinched when we brought our weapons up to their faces. They never showed any signs of life left in them. Their eyes were glazed over with a white film that looked like the protective eye cap of a snake, and their bodies looked more decayed than the ones we had seen in the beginning. One by one, their bodies fell out of sight on the other side of the door.
It was quiet.
“Shall we?” I walked back to the truck and hopped in.
Dan and Jaxon weren’t far behind me.
“We should all eat, drink some water, and rest.” Jaxon leaned over, reaching for the water bottles sitting in the floor space and handed Dan and I each a bottle. He then gave one to Ethan and kept one for himself.
“We have plenty of canned stuff in the back. We should see if anything is left in the store and restaurant across the street,” Dan suggested.
“Maybe tomorrow when we head out of here.” I turned around in my seat to face Jaxon and Ethan. “Jaxon, do you mind seeing what we have for canned stuff back there? And if you don’t mind grabbing the dog food, I’m sure Mayhem is starving.”
Jaxon dug around in the back, pulling out cans of beans, vegetables, and tuna. I hadn’t realized how hungry I was until I laid eyes on the food. I never imagined canned beans would sound so delicious. We split the three cans between the four of us, and Mayhem ate his dog food.
“You know, Mayhem’s food has a higher grade chicken than the stuff we eat.” I took a bite of tuna.
Dan looked at Mayhem eating his food. “Do you think we should ask him to share?”
Jaxon and Ethan chuckled in the back seat.
“I think we need to consider that it may get to the point where we ask Mayhem about sharing his dog food.”
Mayhem looked up at the sound of his name and tilted his head in curiosity.
Jaxon leaned over and picked up a piece of food from Mayhem’s bowl. “I don’t know guys, seems it would be like eating cardboard.” Jaxon investigated the piece of food with over exaggeration to get a laugh from his son. It worked. “Ethan, what do you think buddy? Dinner?”
“No daddy! Gross!” Ethan giggled.
It was such a refreshing sound to hear, listening to Ethan enjoy a few moments and laugh with his father. Laughing together as a group was the most normal thing that we had done since that word normal had disappeared and become something that seemed to no longer exist.
Jaxon popped the piece of dog food in his mouth and began to chew, acting as though he was thinking of how it tasted with every crunch. “It’s definitely doable. Not sure I’d eat it in place of chicken though.”
We all had a much needed laugh and finished up our small feast of canned food.
We could see a few more infected roaming around outside, but none of them had noticed us sitting in the garage, hidden away in the truck. We were all grateful for the break, however short it would be. The silence was a blessing.
“Do you think they’re still out there? Mel and Jason, the baby? Do you think they’re sitting in a place just like us questioning if we’re doing the same thing as them?” I couldn’t help but wonder out loud.
“Let’s hope so,” was all that Dan could give me.
“Do you think Jesse and Carl made it out alive?” A part of me felt responsible for the boys. I knew we hadn’t f
orced them to come with us, but if we hadn’t stopped there, we wouldn’t have met them, and they wouldn’t have followed us to the base.
“You can’t do that to yourself, Harmony. Loss is something we all need to be getting used to,” Jaxon said. He adjusted himself in the back seat to bring his legs up, and Ethan cuddled on his lap.
“So I’m the only one who wonders what happened to them? I just feel like we brought them to a death trap.” I lay back in my seat and stared at the truck’s ceiling.
“Well, if you want to think like that, I’ve brought you to two death traps.” Jaxon spoke so nonchalantly.
“This world is a death trap, honey.” Dan reached over and patted my arm.
“You’re right. I know. It’s just hard. Hard to shut my brain off and not think about this stuff.” I turned my head to face Dan. “Would you kill me if I get infected?”
“Don’t ask me something like that.” Dan brushed me off.
I just stared at him waiting for a better answer.
“Babe, I have no idea. Would you kill me?” Dan wasn’t going to play my game of ‘what if’ scenarios.
I hadn’t really thought about it, nor did I really want to. I honestly didn’t know if I could do it.
“I’ll do it. I wouldn’t technically be killing you. You’d already be dead,” Jaxon interrupted, saving me from having to answer. Again he spoke so plainly and easily about death.
Dan and I both rolled around in our seats. I wasn’t quite sure if I was disturbed or happy that he made it seem like such a simple decision.
“I promise to wait until you turn,” Jaxon added and shrugged his shoulders.
After seeing him shoot his wife, there wasn’t any doubt in my mind he’d finish us.
“Do you think they’ll find a cure and save the infected?” I asked.
“I don’t think those things out there can be saved. They’re too far gone. But I think there’s the chance of saving anyone in transition. From when they first get infected until the change. But the infected out there, you can’t bring back the dead.”