by Wilde, J. M.
As I sat across from him to eat my pasta, I noticed he still had sweat beading on his forehead from his scare back in the cafe.
“How long until we get to Daintree?” he called to Wyatt, so suddenly that I dropped my fork on the table in surprise.
“Still got about fourteen hours,” Wyatt called back, and Martin groaned in frustration.
I turned to look at Jo, who sat cross-legged on the couch with Hunter by her side. Her eyes were narrowed at Martin, and I could see she was as worried about him as I was.
His eyes darted back and forth between us. “What?” He raised his hands in the air. “Why are you looking at each other like that?”
I turned my attention back to my bowl of pasta, avoiding eye contact with him. “No reason.”
He cocked his head to the side and folded his arms over the table. “You got a problem?” he asked, raising his voice.
My discomfort grew as he leaned forward in his seat. I could feel his eyes burning into me. “Nope,” I lied.
“Good,” he said as he leaned back in his seat again.
Dread filled me as I thought about having to spend the next fourteen hours trapped in the RV with him. We already knew he couldn’t be trusted—he proved that by leaving Jill and Tom to die. My instincts started sounding the alarm about him the moment he stepped into the RV, but he had nowhere else to go. If we kicked him out now, he would surely die.
As I argued back and forth with my conscience about what to do, I could feel his eyes burning into me again. Trying to be inconspicuous, I glanced up at him, only to realise he wasn’t staring at me, he was staring at my food.
“Do you want some?” I asked, pointing to the extra bowl of pasta on the kitchenette bench that I had offered him just ten minutes earlier.
“Yes,” he answered, but I noticed something different about his voice.
I stood up to get the extra bowl, but by the time I had turned around to give it to him he had started shovelling mine into his mouth.
“Sure, go ahead,” I muttered sarcastically as I sat across from him at the dining table again.
He snapped his head up from the bowl to glare at me, and the look in his eyes made my heart skip a beat. I could hear Hunter growling from the back of the RV, and I slowly turned to see he had his eyes locked on Martin.
I knew what was happening to him, and I froze. He gorged on my bowl of pasta, then pulled the other bowl in front of him and started scooping it into his mouth. My heart started to beat faster as my eyes scanned his face. His skin had grown pale and sallow, sweat drenched his skin and the blood vessels in his eyes had quickly inflamed. I searched his arms and any exposed skin for a bite or a wound, but I couldn’t see anything. Polishing off his second bowl of pasta, he pushed it aside and rested his head on his arms on the dining table.
It instantly reminded me of the man I saw in the diner when the outbreak began. The irritability, the hunger, the sickly appearance, it was all the same. Within minutes, that man had transformed into a zombie.
The same was about to happen to Martin.
One of the zombies must have bitten him at the truck stop.
And now he was turning right in front of me.
Trying to act calm, I stood up from the table and walked over to the driver’s cabin, watching Martin the entire time. I could tell from the rise and fall of his back that he was still breathing, which meant we still had time. But the infection would kill him soon, and once that happened it would only be a matter of seconds before he came back as one of them.
“Guys,” I whispered to Wyatt and Ben. “Listen very carefully. We’ve got a serious problem.”
Wyatt’s shoulder tensed. “What is it?”
“It’s Martin. I think he’s been bitten.”
Ben peered around me to see Martin hunched over the dining table. “Are you sure? It looks like he’s asleep.”
“I’m pretty sure,” I replied. “Remember the guy from the diner? The first time we saw a zombie? He was pale, sweaty, aggressive ... it’s all happening to Martin.”
“I’m pulling over,” Wyatt said as Ben started rummaging through his backpack for his knife. I heard movement behind me, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand on edge. Someone was standing behind me, breathing heavily.
Before I could turn, Martin bellowed at me, making me jump. “What are you all whispering about? Why are we stopping?”
I didn’t move, too afraid to face him.
I could see Ben slowly pulling a knife from his backpack. “Are you feeling alright, man?”
A low growl rumbled in Martin’s throat and he gripped onto my shoulders. “What did you say to them?”
He threw me to the floor, and I rolled over and kicked him in the knee, hearing a loud crack as it snapped backwards. Screaming in pain, Martin collapsed next to me while the RV pulled to a halting stop. His face looked much worse, now a sickly grey colour, and his eyes were white. I jumped to my feet and grabbed my axe, standing over him. Hunter growled and bared his sharp teeth at Martin, and Jo held him back.
Ben and Wyatt held Martin down, and he thrashed his body against them. “Get off me, you bastards!”
“Get him outside!” Ben said as they lifted him to his feet. I held the door open as the three of them stumbled out onto the highway. Jo and I stepped out of the RV and closed the door, leaving Hunter barking at Martin from the window.
Wyatt stood behind Martin, holding his arms behind his back to keep him still while Ben searched for the bite.
“Is he infected?” Jo asked, gripping a knife as she stood beside me.
“Looks like it,” I said, motioning to his face.
Her expression turned from fear to anger, and she stormed towards him. “You knew you’d been infected and you came with us anyway?” she yelled. “You could have killed us all!”
My jaw dropped as she squeezed her hand into a fist and punched him in the nose.
“Bitch!” he roared, but she didn’t even flinch. I’d never seen her so furious in my life.
I took her by the wrist and pulled her back, holding an arm around her as he glared at her with furious eyes.
“Where’s the bite?” Ben yelled as he held his knife against Martin’s throat.
“What are you talking about?” Martin sniggered.
“You know bloody well what! Tell us now!”
“Piss off!” Martin spat as he tried to struggle out of Wyatt’s grip.
After pulling his shirt sleeves up and finding nothing, Ben crouched down to search his legs. Seeing an opportunity to fight back, Martin slammed his knee into Ben’s jaw, sending him flying back onto the ground with a loud smack.
“Ben!” Jo cried as she dropped to her knees next to him, but he was out cold.
A rattle echoed from Martin’s throat, and he threw his head back, head-butting Wyatt in the chin. In one swift movement, Martin thrashed out of Wyatt’s grip and leapt free.
I stood in front of Jo and held my axe back, expecting him to launch himself on us at any moment, but he didn’t move. He just stood still, poised like a lion ready to pounce at anyone who came near him, his eyes snapping back and forth from me, to Jo, to Wyatt.
I watched his eyes carefully, and noticed something odd about them. One moment he glared at us with hunger and desire, the next they would emit a profound sadness that was utterly human. It appeared as though he was fighting an internal battle; his human self versus the monster that had started taking control of his body.
“Please ...” he whispered. “Help me.”
Chapter Seven
“Please,” Martin begged. “I don’t want to die.” He fell to the ground, clutching his head in his hands as he began to weep.
Wyatt and I glanced at each other, confused by his sudden shift in demeanor. Neither of us approached him, too suspicious of his intentions. We knew it could be a ploy to get us close enough for him to attack again.
“We know, mate,” Wyatt said. “We don’t want you to die, either. But if you
’ve been bitten, you’ll turn. Do you really want that to happen?”
Martin didn’t say anything, instead he just sobbed louder and louder. He pulled his legs up against his chest and buried his head behind his knees. Slowly, he started lifting his jeans up to reveal the skin of his right leg.
My head dropped in sadness when I saw it.
The flesh of his calf had been bitten into, and the skin around the wound had already begun to rot.
“Maybe we can cut it off,” Wyatt suggested. “Stop the infection before it spreads.”
Martin just shook his head. “It’s no use.” He shifted around, wincing in pain as he lifted the back of his shirt. Another red raw bite had been taken out of the skin of his lower back. “I’m sorry,” he cried. “I just ... I knew if I told you, you would leave me. I didn’t want to die alone. Please, don’t let me die alone.”
I looked at Wyatt and Jo, unsure of what to do. He looked just as pained and uncertain as I felt. My heart ached for him. I knew if it were me sitting there on the dirt, slowly mutating into a zombie, I wouldn’t want to die alone, either.
“What do you want us to do?” I asked him, crouching down in place to be at eye level with him.
“Just stay,” he replied. “Please.” A tear fell onto his cheek as he pleaded with me. “Just until it happens. Then do what you need to do.”
Wyatt took a step closer. “We’ll need to tie you up.”
“Whatever,” he said. “Just don’t let me become one of them. Promise me.”
“We promise,” I replied.
I stepped back into the RV, making sure I didn’t let Hunter out. If he got close to Martin he would tear him to shreds within minutes. After searching through my backpack, I pulled out some rope and ran back outside to tie him up.
“I’m really sorry,” I said as I began tying his wrists together behind his back. “But we have to do this.”
“I know, it’s okay,” he replied, keeping still while Wyatt tied his legs together, carefully avoiding the contagious bite on his leg. “I’d do the same thing if I were you.”
We finished tying the rope as tight as we could, stood up and took a few steps back, unsure of what to do next.
“You better step back further than that,” Martin murmured, struggling to keep his eyes open. “I can feel it growing. It won’t take much longer.”
Wyatt and I stepped back just as Ben was beginning to regain consciousness.
“Ben?” Jo asked, still by his side. “Can you hear me?”
Groaning in pain, Ben slowly sat up and started rubbing the back of his head. He took one look at Martin sitting on the ground in front of him and jumped to his feet. “What the hell happened?”
“It’s okay, Ben,” Jo said, standing in front of him with her hands on his shoulders. “He’s tied up. He’s dying.”
Ben glared at Martin. “So you are infected.”
“I’m sorry,” Martin whispered, his head hanging in shame as more tears dripped onto his lap.
Ben balled his hands into fists by his side, and Jo pushed him back towards the RV to be out of earshot from Martin. “He doesn’t want to die alone,” she said quietly. “We’re going to stay with him until ...” she trailed off, but he knew what she meant.
Ben rolled his eyes. “Why should we? If Eva hadn’t have spotted the signs, he could have killed us all.” He made sure his words were loud enough for Martin to hear.
“What if it were you, Ben?” Jo snapped. “Wouldn’t you want some compassion shown to you? Or would you want to spend your last moments alone and terrified, knowing what you’re about to become?” She stood her ground, her eyes blazing with determination. It wasn’t until Ben sighed and nodded his head that she backed away and came back to stand next to me.
We all sat down against the RV and started waiting for the inevitable to happen. Watching Martin as he sat there on the dirt, tied up like an animal, I felt sick to my stomach. There was no honour in dying like that. I wondered if that kind of horrible death awaited us all. The longer I survived, the closer I came to the day it would happen to me. Or Jo, or Ben, or Wyatt. I tried to find the right words, to say something to make this painful moment easier for him, but I had nothing.
“I never did anything I wanted to,” he said suddenly, his head still hanging low. “I always wanted to travel, see the world, go on adventures. I could have, you know?” We didn’t say anything, we just sat there, feeling helpless as he sank deeper into his regrets. “I had the money. I had the time,” he continued. “I even got my passport and knew exactly where I would go, what I would do. But I never did it. Instead, I just worked every day at a job I hated, got drunk on weekends, and that’s it. That’s all I did. And now I’m here.”
His words terrified me. I wouldn’t let that happen to me. I wasn’t going to waste my life, no matter how little time I had left. And I wouldn’t let Martin die thinking he wasted his short life, either.
“That’s not true,” I said. “You did so much more than that.”
Martin scoffed, shrugging his shoulders in ambivalence.
“No, I mean it,” I continued as I sat up straight. “If it weren’t for you, Max would have died. You saved him. You took care of him and kept him alive. And then you helped to reunite him with his dad. You’re a hero, Martin.”
Slowly, Martin looked up at me with tears in his eyes, and he smiled weakly. “Thank you for staying with me,” he said. “You’re good people. You’re lucky to have each other. You need to stick together. No matter what.”
I exchanged glances with Wyatt, Jo and Ben. Any differences we may have had up until that moment completely dissolved. We had each other, and that’s all that mattered. When I looked back at Martin, he had stopped breathing.
“Martin?” Wyatt asked, having noticed it, too.
He didn’t answer.
“Is he ...?” Jo whispered.
Ben stood up and slowly walked over to Martin, holding his knife close. Crouching behind him, he lifted up his wrists to check for a pulse.
“He’s dead,” he said blankly. “We better be quick.”
“Who’s going to do it?” I asked, hoping it wouldn’t have to be me.
“I will,” Wyatt said as he stood up and walked towards Martin’s lifeless body.
Ben rolled Martin’s body onto his back as Wyatt dropped to his knees next to his head.
“Sorry, man,” Wyatt said as he held his knife with two hands and lifted it over Martin’s head.
Jo reached out to hold my hand. “I can’t look.”
“Don’t,” I said, squeezing her hand tight. “Just look at me.” We stared into each other’s eyes like our lives depended on it. We had seen a lot of tragic and violent things over the previous few days, and we had no desire to see more. We winced at the crunching sound of the knife entering Martin’s skull.
“Let’s go,” Ben said as he and Wyatt untied the ropes and respectfully positioned Martin’s arms folded over his chest.
The four of us went back to the RV and drove away in silence, leaving Martin’s body lying on the side of the highway. He was only in our lives for a matter of hours, but I knew his death had changed us forever.
I sat down on the couch next to Hunter, who was back to his normal self now that Martin was no longer with us. Jo stretched out next to me, resting her head on my thigh.
“Eva,” she said quietly as she closed her eyes. “Tell me something good.”
I thought for a moment, trying to think of something to cheer her up. A grin formed across my face as the perfect story came to mind.
“Do you guys remember that road trip to Sydney we took last year?” I asked, and everyone smiled.
Jo laughed. “We were hanging out one night, and at, like, two in the morning we decided it would be cool to drive to Sydney.”
“Yeah, we drove all night long,” Wyatt said with a crooked smile, looking at me through the reflection in the rear view mirror. “Kind of like now, only without the zombies.”
&
nbsp; “And Ben got car sick and threw up all over Jo,” I added, bursting into laughter at the memory of Jo’s face as she sat there covered in vomit.
“That wasn’t funny!” Jo shrieked, as she usually did whenever I brought it up. “My dress was completely ruined after that.”
“That was pretty funny,” Ben said, slapping his leg with laughter. “Your face was hilarious, Jo. You just sat there screaming, ‘Ewwww, speeewwwww!’” We laughed as Ben did an exaggerated impression of Jo, waving his arms around frantically and scrunching up his face.
“And when we finally got to Sydney,” Jo said, ignoring Ben’s impression of her, “we were so tired that we just found a hotel and slept all day long. That was the best idea anyone’s ever had at two in the morning.”
“It was my idea,” Ben grinned.
“No way, man,” Wyatt said, shaking his head. “It was mine.” They started arguing over whose idea it was to go to Sydney, as they always did whenever we spoke about it. Jo and I laughed as we listened to the boys bicker with each other, and for a little while everything felt normal again, like it did only a few days ago.
“Thanks, Eva,” Jo sighed. “I needed to laugh.”
“Whatever happens,” I said, stroking her hair. “We have to stay positive. I know it’s hard and it seems ridiculous to be positive right now, but if we give up, we die. It’s easy to be positive when everything’s going well and you’re happy, but staying positive during the hardest times shows true strength.”
“And we’re strong, you and me,” she said, nodding her head.
“Hells yes, we are!” I smiled. “And we’re only getting stronger. We’re gonna be okay.”
Jo smiled as she began to drift off to sleep on my lap, and I gazed out the window over the outback. I could see another kangaroo hopping in the distance, and I remembered something I learned in school: kangaroos can’t move backwards, they can only move forward.
That’s what we had to do now. We couldn’t go back to the way things were, no matter how badly we wanted to. The only choice we had was to move forward with grace and strength, just like the kangaroo.
And that’s exactly what we would do.