by SJ Morris
“Yes, I do.”He said as he tried to fish it out of his leather pants.
“I may need you to call 9-1-1 about the accident. Not yet, though, I want to peek at the driver and see if he’s okay first. If he’s infected then I’m not going to waste the police’s time coming out here and possibly getting infected themselves, but if he’s not infected, I’m not taking this guy with us. Okay?”
“Got it, Mom. Cell phone out but not doing anything until you say so.”
“That’s my boy. Allycia, where’s the ax? Where did you put it?”
“I knew you may need it…So, it’s right here…under your seat.”She pulled it out as her shoulders shook with each of her sobs. I looked at her with forgiveness in my face and she just shook her head and mumbled that it was going to be okay to the dog. We were all going to need some major therapy if this whole thing was over quickly. If it wasn’t, this was the beginning of hardening us all to a new reality.
I was hoping for the therapy. I could always make more money to pay a shrink for as long as it takes.
“Lance, do you know where the bow and arrow are?”
“Yes, I put them under Tyler’s seat since they wouldn’t fit under mine.”
“Okay, good. Well, I’m going to go out there and see if I can get this...thing to go away. If not, I am going to have to get rid of it. I’m sure you all know what I mean by‘get rid of it’. Once I dispatch it one way or another, I will wave to you and you grab the bow and arrow, Lance. Get out of the truck and stay just outside your door, helmet on, and scan the tree line on your side. Please, be ready for anything. I will take care of the other side. Once we make sure there are no more of them out here, I’ll cover you and you change the tire as quickly as you possibly can.”
“Sounds like a plan. Are you sure you want to go out there by yourself, Mom?”
“Yes, I don’t know if they see one of us if they will suddenly surge with energy and bum rush, so I would rather I found out myself than put any of you in danger. That’s the main theme here, none of my kids in any unnecessary danger.”
“Okay, but if you look like you’re in trouble, I’m going out there to help you. So, if I tell you to drop, then drop so I can shoot it.”
“I understand, Lance. Please aim for the head and don’t miss.”
With that, I shushed everyone and turned around to see what progress our gimpy friend had made.
My heart leaped into my throat as I realized he was nearly to the truck.
“Crap, now I have to drive a little further on this stupid busted tire!”
Allycia just put her head down so she couldn’t see anything except the dog’s fur. Tyler looked straight at the approaching monster with wide eyes, and Lance looked pissed. He no longer seemed scared.
Great, that took all of five minutes for him to not be frightened anymore.
They grow up so fast!
I put the truck back into gear and let off the gas very slowly. The truck started to inch and then stopped, I guess I’m going to have to give it some gas. I barely touched the pedal and we started limping along on our busted tire. I kept going until I was at least fifty feet from our new buddy and put it in park. I grabbed the ax from Lance, put on my helmet, hopped out of the truck and ran around to the front.
I came around the passenger side because that thing was heading for the driver side like it knew someone would definitely be coming from that door. I sure as shit hope that these things don’t have any human reasoning left that allowed them to predict our movements, or I was screwed.
My normal workout routine was yoga, not kickboxing or jiu-jitsu!
The ax was surprisingly light, but then again it was one of the short little guys with the rubber handle; more of a hatchet I guess.
It looked heavier than it was but I sure hoped it was as deadly as it looked. The blade was super sharp. I kept going around the passenger side until I was at the very back of the truck.
I peered around the edge and it was about ten feet away from the boat on the other side so it hadn’t seen me get out. This is good. I crouched down and did a little crab walk to the end of the boat trailer and took a deep breath. I stood up and ran for the overturned truck. As soon as I reached it I turned around to see where the zombie was and sure enough, it had turned around and was coming after me. Although, now, it was lurching forward with a lot more pep in its step than when it was chasing the truck that just had a possible promise of food.
Now, it could see me, or whatever senses it still had left told it I was close.
It let out a loud, awful moan and reached its filthy, blood-stained arms out towards me.
I didn’t move.
I wanted to get that thing as far away from my kids as I could before I took it out. I knew that I would have to kill it, especially after what I saw on the news. There was no reasoning with these things. No leading them away unless I had time to lead it far away from the kids and a good way to disappear from sight so I could lose it and backtrack to my kids, but I was not letting my kids out of my sight.
As it got closer, I realized that what I thought was a business suit was a flight attendant’s uniform. He had the flight wings on his lapel that said Sun Air. So that’s how he got infected so quickly. He was probably a flight attendant and was on a plane with someone from somewhere who was infected, got scratched or bitten himself and headed home to share this wonderful new virus with his family and friends. How nice of him.
I became so mad with this man I had never met before but then quickly realized it wasn’t his fault. The government knew this was out and kept it a secret. This poor guy was just doing his job and had an unfortunate accident with a passenger he probably thought was drunk or just really sick and went home to get better himself.
Another moan from my flight attendant buddy brought me out of my thoughts and I found him close enough that I raised the ax like a bat and started to circle around him as he reached out for me again. He was persistent as I tried to find the right opening.
It was his mangled leg from the crash that was his downfall. I timed his limp so his arms would be down, out of grabbing range and I swung right for the temple. The ax connected with a gruesome crunch as black, rotten brain matter sprayed all over my helmet's visor.
Thank God for these damn helmets or there would be zombie brain all over my face.
Yuck!
The blow was final and the now lifeless reanimated body of the flight attendant slumped to the ground with a thud and continued to leak black fluid from the gash in his skull. I stepped away from the pooling muck and then the smell hit me.
It was the foulest thing ever to assault my senses. It was like deadskunk, hot diarrhea, and medical waste porridge. I began to gag immediately and had to lift the visor and dry heave. I had to back up again since the black liquid just seemed to be pouring out of the infected’s head.
I thought about it as I gagged and figured it was part of the virus’s design. If it transferred itself from host to host through fluid exchange, it would be easier to transmit if the bodily fluids were so watery that after termination of the existing host, the virus would be excreted as much as possible.
This way, it had a higher probability of being picked up by another host where it could start the vicious cycle all over again.
If this was true, I wondered how long the virus could survive outside of someone. This virus was proving to be weirder than I thought because it was acting more like a parasite than a virus. This was worth talking over with Troy if I ever heard from him again.
I looked up from my heaving and saw Lance jump out of the truck with his helmet on, thank God, and come running for me. I instinctively looked around to see if there was some sort of threat I was unaware of and saw nothing. I started walking towards him taking deeper breaths as I got further away from the putrid mess that used to be alive; well, kind of.
“What are you doing out of the truck? I didn’t wave for you to come out yet!”I scolded.
“Oh my
God, that smell is awful! I’m sorry, we saw you lift your visor after you killed him and you bent over like you were coughing so we were worried. I didn’t know what happened to you, so I wanted to make sure you were okay.”
“I’m fine, it’s just the smell of what came out of the body was so bad that I almost threw up. I had to get some air. Put your visor down and go back over by the truck.We have to get the tire changed and get out of here right away.”
“What about the driver of the truck? Do you want to check on him really quick since we’re kind of over here?”
“Sure, why not? I was just starting to get used to that awful smell anyway.”
“You better get used to it, you’re covered in it.”
“Damn it! What the hell are we going to do about this crap all over me? I guess the ax isout of the question to get rid of these things, it creates too much splatter.”
“Well, we have those disinfectant wipes in the car, you could try and wash most of it off in the creek over there and then I can wipe you down with the wipes before you get in the car?”
“Sounds good to me. Let’s check out the driver first. Be ready with that bow and arrow, though, I am not using this axagain anytime soon unless I absolutely have to.”
Lance nodded and we turned toward the crash. It amazed me how quickly I became okay asking my oldest son to be prepared to take the life of another person. Dire situations change everything, especially when the survival of your children was at stake.
Everything was changing a little too fast for my liking, but it’s not like any of us had a choice. Survival of the fittest, in action.
I stepped around the pool of black blood that had come from the infected and had finally stopped spreading, getting as close as I could get to the driver-side door without stepping in the smoldering mass of infection.
I leaned in closer, to be able to gain a better line of sight through the cracked window, where the zombie had left black streaks of blood from using its hands to dig at the spidering glass. I had it all over me anyway, so I was about to use my forearm to clean a spot on the pane, to look in when the driver leaped at the window towards me with a smash.
What used to be a young man was now a full-fledged zombie and he wanted out of his trap to eat me. He was now banging on the window, trying to get to us and the window was not going to hold much longer since it already had a huge crack and small hole in it.
I backed up and motioned for Lance to get back before it broke through. It was so hard to see around where Lance was with my helmet on. I had to turn my head all the way around to see him and he was about fifteen feet from the truck with the arrow notched and ready to go.
My little boy, my first son, was about to kill someone and I was trying to gather the courage to let him, should that need arise.
What has this world come to?
Just as I was about to tell him to go back in the car so I could take care of this one too, the window gave way and Lance let the arrow loose, straight and true. The arrow found its mark, right at the top of the zombie’s head as he spilled out of the truck and now lay lifeless.
Surprisingly enough, Lance turned around and walked back to the truck like nothing happened.
When he reached the truck, he started climbing under the Range Rover to get at the spare tire. I turned around to get another look at our would-be killer and saw the same thing as before, even though this man had only just turned.
It was the same, thin, black blood pouring out of the head wound around the arrow and spilling onto the ground.
I took a good look around the area and there was nothing and no one around so I quickly went to the other side of the truck and opened the door to see if the driver may have had a gun or another weapon I could replace my ax with.
There was nothing except fast food garbage and a notebook with a pen stuck in it. I flipped through the notebook and there were addresses of people that were getting deliveries of fencing and animal feed.
I guessed he had finished with the animal feed deliveries because I didn’t see any in the back. I went to a blank page and wrote in big letters; These men were infected - Aim for the head and don’t let the blood get on you, that’s how it spreads.
I ripped the piece of paper out and walked back around to the young driver with the arrow jutting out of his skull. I pierced the paper in place through the nock of the arrow.
At least, whoever found the crash and these men would have a little advice to follow for their future encounters with the Z-Strain.
Let’s just hope they understood and listened. It may just help them or their families survive a little longer.
I headed back over to Lance, who already had the spare out from underneath the truck and was rolling it around to the passenger side. He already had the tools out and once he propped the tire up, he got the jack out and started doing whatever it was that he need to do to change the tire. I had no idea what he was doing, so thank God he did. He stopped and looked up at me with his visor up.
“Why don’t you go clean off in that stream, Mom? I don’t think I can concentrate with you standing here. You smell worse than a rotten, dead animal in 120-degree heat.”
“I’m sorry, I’m not leaving your side. I need to make sure nothing comes up and surprises you while you’re paying attention to what you’re doing.”
“So, tell Allycia and Tyler to peek their heads out the windows and keep an eye out for me. If they see anything, they’ll yell and we will deal with it. I really can’t even breathe with you anywhere near me. Go clean that crap off. Tyler already has the disinfectant wipes out for you.”
“Alright, I’ll do a once over of the surrounding area and then, go wash up.”
“Thank you... Stinky…”He teased.
“I heard that. Just get the tire changed so we can get back on the road before it starts getting dark, which will be in about forty-five minutes, an hour, tops.”
I walked the tree line next to the road in front of us and then walked all the way back to the crash to make sure no one decided to come back to life again. It was really creepy being around dead bodies, let alone ones that should have stayed dead the first time they died and might be reanimating for a second, or even a third time. Truth was, we had no idea what these things were capable of. I kept feeling like any second, they were just going to get back up again.
I went back to the inside of the truck and grabbed an empty coffee cup and walked to the stream that was next to the road. I started by dunking the top of my helmet really quick and put it back on right away. I wanted to make sure I was prepared if any surprise undead visitors showed up.
Where there’s one, there had to be more, right?
After securing my helmet again, I poured the water over every spot of goo I could find, making sure not to pour anything into the breaks for my sleeves or pants. I still didn’t know how long the virus could last outside a body and even though it was diluted with stream water, I didn't want to take any chances.
What I really wanted to do was strip all of the leather gear off and burn it, but I was not going to worry about that now.
I just needed to get as clean as I could so I could make it to the cabin.
Once I felt a measure of safety that I hoped the cabin would be able to provide, I would disinfect these clothes thoroughly.
I headed back over to the truck where Lance was tightening the lug nuts on the, thank God, full sized spare tire and Tyler handed me the wipes. I asked him to hand them to me one at a time. I would hate to contaminate the bottle of disinfecting wipes.
Now, that would be shitty!
How did you get infected? My Mom left dead person goo on the wipes and I grabbed the bottle after biting my nails…
Oh, the things that were going through my head about contamination now. It made me think back to washing up in the stream. What about any living organisms in that water? Were they now going to be infected and pass on the Z-Strain? What if fish ate stuff that came from the stream and then someo
ne ate the fish?
Shit.
Troy better call me back and soon, or I was going to lose my mind thinking of all the possibilities. I’m sure my kids would kill me after a few days of my neuroticism. We would be burning clothes after coming in contact with anything that was possibly infected and spending our lives looking for something to wear
“Mom! Mom! I’m done. Are you ready to go? Do you want me to get your back since you can’t reach?”Lance pulled me out of my psychotic thoughts of everything being contaminated.
“Yes please, I don’t want to get in the car and get this crap all over the seats.”
“Ally, see if you can find a towel or something in the back to cover Mom’s seat with please,”Lance said as he took a few wipes from Tyler through the window. He cleaned off my shoulders and under my arms where I didn’t think to get. It was a little weird having one of your kids wipe you down. Normally, it was the other way around.
Then again, normal for us at the moment was an exceedingly relative term.
“I got the towel I was using to keep Lilly’s dog hair off the floor on Mom’s seat so whenever you’re ready to go, let’s get out of here, please,”Allycia replied as she put her window back up.
“All good, Mom. I don’t see anymore... stuff.”
“Thanks. I can’t wait to get to the cabin and get out of these clothes. Let’s head out.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice.”Lance threw the wipes on the ground and hopped back in the truck. I guess I didn’t have to worry about finding a garbage can either. We were already leaving enough of a mess behind.
If you could call two infected, dead bodies something as ordinary as a mess.
I had never been so happy to get in the front seat and throw the truck into gear.
Still, I pulled away slowly, checking my mirrors to be sure I wasn’t going to run over anything else and Lance looked at me funny.
“Are you alright? You know you can hit the gas right? I did put the tire on correctly so it’s not going to fall off.”