“Yep, I’ve got that stuff all over me,” Justin quipped absently. Gaia then looked to the young lad and smiled, wanting to share in his worldly ignorance if only for a minute.
The trio hurried toward the bus, Justin following closely behind her, Nick losing pace quickly behind the running pair, and Maye was wrapped tightly around her neck and shoulders, holding on for dear life.
As Gaia made it to the side of the bus, she noted with some trepidation that there were bloody handprints on the side of the vehicle. She forced down the bad thoughts and began toward the door, hoping beyond hope to see what she wanted to see and not what she expected to see when she looked at the state of the door.
Her heart sank again.
The door was open.
Nick arrived to their side just then and his face went pale. Gaia leaned involuntarily against the door, unable to move at all. She felt as though she was paralyzed, and she was fearful of asking a question aloud or learning the truth that awaited her in the bus. She felt her legs trembling, fell back against the side of the bus, and slid down to her backside onto the hard gravel.
Nick, seemingly realizing her fears, steadied her.
“Maybe he’s not in there…maybe he went looking for….”
Nick couldn’t even finish the sentence before Gaia shot him a look and he immediately fell silent under that gaze, averting his eyes. She slowly got to her feet, took a step, and spun to face the door. She leaned forward, peering inside and inspected the slide lock.
The door and the rod were both bent inward. Tears streamed down her face as a horrifying scenario repeated in her mind.
She took a step onto the bus.
She heard noises that made her skin crawl.
She took another step up.
The sounds became more distinct, moaning and sloshing sounds pervading the area.
She ascended that final step and saw silhouettes in the darkness kneeling on the floor of the bus.
Sounds of chewing and groaning could be heard distinctly as she stood staring despondently into the darkness beyond. As she squinted, sunlight chose that very second to intrude upon the gloom.
She witnessed a pair of the living dead leaning over a prone body.
Adam…no….
Gaia fell to her knees in that instant and felt hands on her pulling at her and trying to lift her to her feet.
That lingering touch was followed by the sounds of voices that she could not understand. She felt herself being lifted off the ground and felt her backside fall against something soft. She fell prone against that plush surface, unable to right herself in that moment.
Then two loud bangs ensued.
They lingered in her ears for what seemed an eternity.
Then she felt herself being dragged up and something blurry was yelling at her. The sounds still did not penetrate the deep, dark place in which her mind had ventured these past few moments.
Thoughts of her life with Adam flashed through her mind. From the time they met in high school, to every birthday and anniversary they shared, to all of the wonderful lovemaking sessions they had, to all of the fantastic days they spent together simply lying next to each other on the sands of the beach.
All of them were there and gone in an instant.
She felt something cold and wet hit her face, that drew her from her reverie—one that her mind forced upon her to keep her from shock, it seemed!—as she suddenly came rushing back to the hard, cold reality where Adam was no longer with her.
“Gaia! Can you hear me, dammit!?”
She stared back at Nick as if realizing he was there for the first time. She nodded ever so slightly.
“Shit, I thought you were going into shock,” Nick said.
“I think I am…,” she added, her chin dropping to her chest.
“Is she gonna be okay?!” Gaia heard coming from the young boy. Gaia looked up and locked eyes with the boy’s brown orbs that seemed so full of concern for her, a woman he’d only just met less than ten minutes ago, as if he were his own family. That touched Gaia in such a way as to have faith against the terrible turn of events that took the love of her life from her, if even for an instant.
She forced herself to think about that emotion.
That very sentiment that the boy offered her, tears welling up in his eyes as she considered it, brought her back from the brink of hopelessness.
She took a deep breath and cried for a moment herself, allowing a bout of self-pity and accompanying anger that she needed in order to deal with this unthinkable loss she now felt in her heart, mind and soul.
Nothing compared to it, and she imagined, nothing ever would again.
She finally managed to make it to her feet and began to make her way toward the carnage. Maye finally emerged from the window and stared at Gaia blankly, though she barely recognized the capuchin. Nick was suddenly barring her path.
“I am begging you. No. Don’t do this….”
She stared at Nick for what seemed an eternity before pushing past him. Nick tried to hold her back but reluctantly allowed her to pass. She could hear Justin in the distance behind her weeping. The boy was scared. But she did not have the time or energy to console him. She had to see what happened to Adam, despite her common sense telling her to turn around. She ignored the voices in her head and continued on.
She stood over the two prone zombies, which were both face down, bullet wounds in their heads.
Then she saw Adam.
Or rather, the gore and fleshy parts that once belonged to him. She couldn’t even recognize his remains as ever having belonged to her beloved Adam.
Gaia averted her eyes, turned, and raced to the adjacent window where she abruptly vomited all over the parking lot and down the side of the bus.
She collapsed back into the seat and curled up into a fetal position, unwilling to believe the harsh truth of what had happened here.
And then she wept.
Chapter 7
Gaia opened her eyes and heard the sounds of Maye chattering in her ear. She was eating a banana and sitting right beside her on the vinyl seat of the bus. Gaia shot up, immediately regretting that action as her head ached once more, painfully reminding her of her wounded forehead.
She expected to see Adam and Nick sitting right beside her, but there was no one there across the aisle.
Then the gruesome reality of what had transpired recently inundated her mind and her heart sank.
She made it to her feet and stared around. She did not see the ruinous remnants of her deceased lover, nor did she see the remains of the zombies that had murdered him.
Was it all a dream?!
Hope and excitement replaced the despair and pain for a fleeting instant as she spun around and saw Nick in the driver seat of the bus. She raced over to him and smacked the brim of his hat, waking him from his slumber uncaringly. She had to know.
“Was it a nightmare!?” she asked him excitedly. Nick slowly shook his head. He then stood and nodded his head toward the window on her right.
Gaia’s optimisms were met with the bitter truths of reality yet again as she noted that they were no longer on the center bus.
“Sorry, sweetie. But I couldn’t let you, or him,” he said, gesturing to the slumbering young man lying in the front seat of the bus, “stay on that bus any longer.”
“Son of a bitch,” she whispered, collapsing into the seat behind him. Nick turned to face her. “You do anything you need to, Gee. If you wanna go out and beat the side of the bus, you do it. You wanna scream at the top of your lungs, you do that, too.”
Instead of doing that, Gaia lethargically walked all the way to the rear of the bus and plopped down in the seat, staring at the center bus and knowing what was there. Wanting desperately to replace that image in her mind, she removed her phone, powered it back on, and stared at the wallpaper image. It was a photo from a recent wedding two weeks ago. The both of them were dressed formally, Adam wearing a black jacket and blue shirt with a colorful tie
. And her with her brand new short hair all styled to the nines, a brand new little black dress cut short on the thigh, diamond earrings, and lace top band thigh highs that had Adam eyeing her lustfully all night. She remembered in that moment the ache of her heels. Gaia sighed, her exhale full of anger and irony, as she wished that her lack of comfort was once again her biggest problem. What she wouldn’t pay for that to be true.
In the picture, she had her arms draped around his neck hugging Adam tightly and pulling him down for a kiss as her friend Debbie took the photo with her camera phone. There was a series of five photos she saved from that day. Tears welled up in her eyes as she remembered a message on her voicemail and dialed the number, waiting for the voice to come on.
“Hi, Gee. Just wanted to let you know I was thinking about you and can’t wait to see you tonight. Love you,” the voice of Adam said tenderly in the message. She wept for a few minutes and tried to harden herself against the overwhelming sentiments brought on at simply hearing his voice. She stood, knowing that she had to be strong to honor Adam—after all, that’s what she saw from him all the time. He would want her to be strong for the others. Using that as motivation, she stood, wiped her eyes and took a deep breath.
She walked toward the front of the bus where Nick sat, staring out the window. Her resolve shrunk with each step she took until she got to the front of the bus.
“I just wanna cry right now, Nick. I miss him so much already,” she admitted. Nick stood, hugging her tightly. She hugged him back and he winced loudly as she put pressure on his shoulder.
“Jesus, Nick. Lemme look at that,” she said, seeing that the area all around the bandage was red and swollen.
Nick tried to fight it, but eventually he let her see. She peeled away the bandage and saw that the wound was badly infected.
And she realized that it would probably get worse soon enough and that he probably wouldn’t survive it. “Shit, Nick…this is bad.”
“I know, Gaia. I know. The hits just keep on coming, eh?” he smiled, despite the bleakness of the situation. Gaia smiled back at him, or at least tried to, she wasn’t exactly sure what kind of face she had just made, but she hoped it was the reassuring smile that she had intended.
“We can go back and get more meds,” Gaia offered enthusiastically.
“We could. Won’t do me any good though,” blurted Nick pessimistically. “Writing’s on the wall, sweetie. It’s gonna be my time to check out soon enough,” continued Nick in his disparaging diatribe.
“Don’t say that,” said the young boy, sitting up, looking very melancholy. “My dad says that only quitters quit, but winners have to play the whole game…I don’t really get it, but he was pretty sure about it.”
“Very uplifting,” Nick said, before Gaia shot him a look. She leaned in close to Nick’s ear.
“He’s only trying to help.”
“Right he is.” Nick stared back at her and then to the bus in the distance. “Your dad sounds like a smart man, Justin. I guess we need to be thankful for what we have, when we have it.” Gaia again began to weep as thoughts of Adam besieged her mind, completely governing her emotions. She suddenly felt the grip of arms around her waist and peered down through tear-stained eyes to see the young child looking up at her.
“It’ll be okay,” Justin said, nodding. “I promise.”
“I know, honey,” Gaia said, not believing a word that she spoke. she had lost the love of her life, was about to lose her only friend left in the world and now this young man came into her life to complicate matters. Intrusive inclinations of motherly duties permeated her thoughts and she stumbled back and out of the embrace of the child, fearfully withdrawing from him as if he were suddenly the enemy. She fell into a seat and stared at him.
“How many of these zombies have you killed, Justin?” Gaia asked him, trying to rid herself of the irrational fears.
“Just two so far, ma’am. I been hiding mostly. They haven’t found me yet. And when they do, I run and hide.”
“You don’t need to call me ma’am anymore, okay? Makes me sound old,” she whispered to Nick, who nodded and chuckled. “Call me Gaia.”
“Okay, ma—I mean Miss Gaia.” Nick rifled through a brown bag and fished out an apple, laughing at the child’s compromise.
“Here, have some breakfast,” Nick said, tossing Justin the fruit. Then he handed Gaia a comic book and nodded to the boy. Gaia handed that to the boy, too. “Thought you might enjoy that, too. Found it on one of the busses. Eat that while it’s still fresh. Don’t know when you’re gonna be eating a sensible breakfast that good again for a while.”
“That’s a bit grim, don’t you think?” Gaia whispered again as the boy took the fruit and the comic and sat in a seat further away from them.
“The boy’s gonna have to learn to survive. And it ain’t gonna be easy, right?”
“No, but I am hoping to ease him into the news, you know. He’s only—shit!—we never asked him how old he is!”
“Hey, Justin. How old are you, son?” Nick called to him.
“I’m nine, sir.”
“I’m Nick from now on, too. If she’s no ma’am, then I’m no sir,” he said with another chuckle. “Got it?”
“Yes, Mister Nick,” said the boy through the sounds of chewing. Evidently, he was hungry, Gaia noted.
“Just Nick. No mister.” The boy nodded as he hungrily pierced the skin of the apple and tore away a bite.
“Poor kid probably hasn’t eaten in a day,” Gaia mentioned in a sympathetic manner.
“Gaia, there’s dry food and cases of water stored in the basement of the house. Canned goods and whatnot for the animals, too. Canned fruit, nuts—that kind of stuff the ol’ man used to eat nuts and tofu in his last few months, trying to eat healthy. To hell with that, I said, but he did it anyway. Mom made sure of that. There should be plenty of it around still. Looks like the electricity is still functioning, too,” Nick observed, making it to his feet with a grunt. “And I know there’s a gun safe that grandpa had in the basement. Mom hadn’t even begun the process of moving any of his shit since he died, so I’m sure it’s all still there. Might be a good idea to secure the house and the grounds and make this place home.”
Gaia looked at Nick as if the idea were absurd. But after the initial wave of skepticism passed, she gave it some serious thought. The animals were here. The grounds were mostly surrounded by gates that seemed intact for the most part. There was plenty of food for the herbivores, and she was sure Nick could figure out something to do with the big cats before they started to get feisty. It had been over a day now since they’d eaten anything, which was not abnormal. But, it brought that thought into her head and so she asked Nick.
“The tigers eat every day?”
“Almost. We feed them six out of seven usually. I’m thinking if you toss zombie corpses inside, they’ll eat ‘em. I know the hyenas and wolves will. The cats will if they have no other choices.”
“Shit. What am I gonna do for them long term?”
“One day at a time for now.” Nick seemed to look pensively at Gaia for a good long minute as she turned and saw Justin quietly reading his comic book. When she turned back, Nick was smiling. “If you wanna know the truth, I’d get the inside of the house cleaned out of zombies and then maybe let the big cats out of their pens.”
“Seriously?”
“It’s a thought, anyway. Let ‘em hunt. They’ll probably kill most of the zombies inside the grounds, and then once that’s done, they’ll probably wander out.”
“Or kill us next,” Gaia remarked, eyeing him accusingly.
“Maybe. Maybe not. Most likely they’ll wander out of here either way.”
“You want me to just let them go?!” she asked him, her words continuing to drip with cynicism.
“Well, what choices do we have, Gaia? It’s not exactly normal circumstances. The cats are used to hunting to survive and it is natural for them to eat carcasses,” he added emphatically, lending
credence in Gaia’s eyes to his previous concept. “If you want to give them the rabbit carcasses, or meat, or the manufactured stuff, they’re in the meat locker. But, this seems like a win-win. And who knows? They might just even the odds against the fuckin’ zombies.”
“That’s a pretty crazy plan,” Gaia admitted.
“But it just might work, right?” Nick added, retrieving his rifle. “I don’t mind helping you while I can,” Nick said with a sigh. He was handling his imminent fate considerably well, Gaia thought, considering that he was basically terminal at this point. The infection would ravage his body soon enough and with this latest offer; he wanted to go out on a good note.
Admirable.
“Sure thing, Nick. Any help you can give with getting the cats loose and securing the house would be…well, great.”
“What about the boy?”
“Well, we can’t leave him here!” Gaia whispered. “He has to come with us.”
“Why can’t he stay—never mind. Sorry.”
“It’s okay, Nick. There’s nothing I can do about it now.”
Tears formed again as Gaia tried to battle the sorrow as she thought of what lay in the bus right beside her. Nick was kind enough to have made sure that Adam would never come back as a member of the living dead, and for that, she was grateful. She had tried to go and see him on multiple occasions, but could never muster the courage again.
Maye was once again right outside the window. She was probably hungry, as was Gaia now.
“Justin, c’mon up here,” Nick called to the boy. He looked up, rolled the comic book up, shoved it into his back pocket. He stood before her and Nick, looking up at them innocently with a pair of big brown eyes.
“Are you ready for an adventure?” Gaia asked him. He stared back up at her and nodded.
“What kind of adventure?”
“Well, we are going to visit that big house near the center of the zoo. Did you see it before?” Gaia asked. Justin nodded again. “We want to make sure the house is safe for us to stay there for the time being, right?”
Cage The Dead Page 8