State of Emergency

by Hallberg, Mary

  Sam shuddered. “Let’s get something to eat,” he said. “I’m starving.”

  They pulled out the leftovers in the refrigerator and ate in silence. Pierce finished quickly and stepped out of the room, onto the front porch. When he came back in a few minutes later, his phone was in his hand, and he looked pale.

  “I think I’ll do the dishes,” Dallas announced.

  “Dishes?” Pierce wrinkled his nose. “It’s not like we’re going to be here for that long.”

  “It’s just a compulsion. I can’t stand to see a dirty kitchen.” She snickered. “Good lord, I’m turning into my mother. After all those years of saying I’d never do it.”

  Sam headed for the garage to gather up boards, and Talia volunteered to help him. To Dallas’s surprise, Pierce helped her gather up the plates and throw the napkins away — though there weren’t many of them so it didn’t take long. As soon as the table was clear, he turned back to her. “I just called my dad,” he said.

  “Really? Just now? What did you tell him?”

  “That I was still going to Chattanooga, and that he shouldn’t worry about me. He and my stepmom are in St. Louis, I think. They want me to come, but I told them I was going with you guys.” He sighed. “I’ll try to get in touch with them again later.”

  Dallas didn’t know what to say, so she filled the sink with water. As she rinsed and scrubbed the dishes, Pierce grabbed a towel and began to dry them off, sitting them on a rack by the sink. They worked in silence for a few minutes before he spoke again.

  “Dallas, I’m sorry,” he said. “About yelling at you in the car earlier.”

  “It’s no big deal. Really.”

  “Yeah, it kind of is. You and Tally and Sam deserve to be treated better than that. I know I kind of have...issues. And sometimes I can’t control my temper. But now that I have medication, I really should have been nicer. But anyway, I’m really sorry.” He reached out and hugged her, and she returned the hug reluctantly. Her hands were still wet from the dish water, but he didn’t seem to care.

  “Holy shit!” Sam yelled from the garage. Dallas broke out of Pierce’s arms and they ran over.

  The garage was dimly lit and the air was thick and humid. Dallas and Pierce weaved their way around a black SUV to find Sam and Talia by another doorway in the far corner. They had stacked most of the boards against the wall, but their focus was beyond the door.

  “Is everything okay?” Dallas said. “Is anyone hurt?”

  “We’re fine,” Talia said without looking up. “Come take a look at this, guys. You won’t believe it!”

  Dallas and Pierce approached the door. There was a low moaning noise, but it didn’t sound like any zombie Dallas had encountered so far. And it wasn’t.

  A Great Dane stood in the corner of the storage shed. What little fur it had left was matted and falling out, and green bumps covered its skin. It took a step forward, but its back left leg was broken. It growled.

  “Is it a...” Pierce began. They all nodded.

  “What should we do?” Talia whimpered.

  “We need to kill it. It’s slow right now, but it could get out and hurt someone.”

  “I don’t think it’s going to hurt us,” Dallas said.

  “Why not?” Pierce countered. “All the other zombies have so far.”

  “All the human zombies. Remember those cows and horses the other day? They looked kind of funny, but we didn’t think they were zombies because they weren’t trying to attack. The only report we’ve heard about zombie animals was the one from the zoo. And those animals were big enough that they could hurt a human inadvertently even if they weren’t zombies. I don’t think most of them are a threat to us.” She looked back at the dog, which sat down and laid its head on the concrete.

  “And exactly how do you plan on…killing it?” Talia said.

  “I don’t even know. I don’t want to get too close to it.”

  Sam shook his head. “I’m not doing it. He reminds me too much of my own dog.” He turned away and looked at Talia, who shook her head. Dallas did the same.

  Pierce groaned. “Oh Christ, where’s a knife?” He took a few steps forward. The dog growled and tried to sit up, but fell on its back legs and whined. Dallas’s ears hurt.

  Pierce reached up to the shelves above him and found a pair of shears. They looked like the ones Dallas’s mother used to keep the begonias in their front yard pruned. This family probably used them for the same thing.

  Talia gasped. “Pierce, you can’t be serious.”

  “It has to be done,” he said. “If the dog stays here it’ll just starve to death slowly. Do you really want that?”

  Talia shook her head, her eyes red.

  “I didn’t think so.” He raised the shears. “You guys might want to leave.”

  Sam put a hand on the small of Dallas’s back, and she motioned to Talia. The three of them exited the storage room. Talia pulled the door closed on her way out, but left it cracked. There was a squishing noise, and the dog whined again. Dallas closed her eyes and buried her head in Sam’s shoulder. A moment later, Pierce opened the door. Dallas didn’t look up, but saw that the shears in his hand were streaked with blood.

  Chapter Eleven

  Sam grabbed a few boards on his way out of the garage, and everyone followed. They all helped prop up the boards in the window sills, and Sam hammered them in as quietly as possible. Despite him shouting so loud earlier, they were all paranoid about noise.

  As they finished the last window, Dallas announced she was going to take a shower. The water was hot as they washed dishes earlier, and it was just as hot as she stepped under the nozzle.

  She took her time in the shower. She knew she should save some water in case any of her companions wanted one too — they had all been waiting as long as she had, if not longer. But they could take their turns in the morning, she figured.

  She didn’t shut off the water until it was nearly freezing. There were a few clothing items in the guest bedroom that fit her, and she redressed in them. She was combing her wet hair with the bathroom door open when Sam walked in.

  “How is everything out there?” she asked.

  “Okay, I guess. Your sister keeps talking about zombie dogs.” He rubbed her back. “I kind of want to stay here for awhile. I think we’ll be able to.”

  “I don’t know, Sam. Those hordes could catch up to us any time.”

  “Well, we should stay as long as we can. Gather up some supplies soon, maybe head out in a day or two. That car in the garage has a full tank of gas. We can get to Chattanooga in it.”

  She nodded. “I’m worried.”

  “I know you are.” Sam brought her in for a hug and she laid her head on his shoulder. “It’ll be all right.”

  Dallas tilted her head up. Sam leaned in to kiss her, wrapping his arms around her waist and lifting her onto the marble cabinet. He reached out with his foot and gently shut the bathroom door. His hands slipped down her back and under her new shirt. She leaned back onto the cabinet and he moved with her. His hands moved down her waist and onto her thigh.

  The door burst open and Pierce ran in. “You okay?” Sam asked, but Pierce ignored them. He held his hand over his mouth and stumbled to the toilet. Dallas broke away from Sam and watched as Pierce collapsed in front of the toilet and vomited. She covered her mouth and headed for the open door, running into the nearby guest bedroom.

  Talia was on the bed, skimming through a book. She looked up abruptly when Dallas dashed in. “What’s going on?” she said.

  “Pierce just came in the bathroom and started puking. I had to get out of there before I puked myself.”

  “Oh my God. Is he okay?”

  “Don’t know. I think Sam’s still in there with him. I’m going to stay in here awhile and let him get cleaned up.”

  A few minutes later, she and Talia sat side by side on the bed. Dallas’s hair was almost dry, and she pulled it back in
to a messy ponytail. Talia had also found clean clothes to change into, but her hair was still dirty and stringy. She fidgeted in her chair, chewing on her nails and staring hard at the dark bedspread.

  After ten agonizing minutes, Sam and Pierce walked in. They were both playing with their hands nervously.

  “What’s going on?” Dallas asked. Talia shifted in her seat.

  Sam nodded toward Pierce. “Do you want to show them?” Sam was visibly shaken, but Pierce didn’t hesitate to pull up the right sleeve of his sweater, exposing a long scratch across his forearm.

  Dallas gasped. “When did this happen?”

  “At the gas station, as we were running out.”

  Talia covered her mouth with her hand.

  “Pierce,” Dallas said, “Why didn’t you tell us?”

  “I wasn’t sure if it would hurt me,” he said. “It’s just a scratch, not a bite. So I wanted to wait before I said anything. See if it was fatal. And guess what? It is.” He didn’t have the trademark green bumps yet, but his skin was pale white and his lips blue.

  “No,” Dallas said, “You’re going to be fine. It’s just a scratch, right? We don’t even know if scratches and bites are fatal.”

  “Dallas, don’t kid yourself. Look at me; I’m dying. And one of you is going to have to take care of it.”

  A thought like this had never occurred to Dallas. “What? No way, I’m not doing it. I’m not going to...kill you.”

  “Oh come on Dallas! This is Alabama. There’s probably at least one gun in this house. It would be quick and easy. You wouldn’t have to worry about me anymore and you could get rid of some of these other zombies in the process.”

  “What other zombies?”

  He nodded toward the sliding glass door that led onto the balcony. Sure enough, the hordes trickled in on the street below. There were only five or six — far less than they had encountered earlier — but it was only a matter of time before the others caught up. Pierce was right — his death would distract them, maybe even long enough for the others to escape.

  In zombie movies, anyone who got bitten or scratched was immediately disposed of. There was usually a character like Pierce, who was able to hide the fatal wound for awhile, but even they were always caught and killed. Pierce had been less than pleasant through a lot of the trip. But he was still a living, breathing human being with feelings, family, friends, hopes, dreams. Even if the zombie outbreak had taken most of these things away, he still had her, Sam, and, most importantly, Talia. If it had been Sam with the telltale wound, Dallas knew she never could have hurt him.

  “I’m not doing it Pierce,” she said. “I refuse.”

  Pierce looked at Sam, who shook his head. “No way, dude. You’re crazy if you think I’m going to do it.”

  “Me too,” Talia said.

  Pierce laughed. “Should have figured. You guys couldn’t even kill a damn dog.”

  Talia had stopped crying but was still sitting on the bed looking at the sheets. “Fuck you Pierce,” she muttered.

  Pierce raised his eyebrows. “What was that?”

  “You heard me. I said fuck you.” She finally looked up, her eyes red. “You really think you can do this? Just waltz in here, say you’re going to die, and then expect one of us to do it? Why would you ask the only three people you have left in the world to do something like that?”

  “And what do you think I should do, Tally? Just stay here as I get sicker and sicker and those damned zombies outside keep pounding on the door? Then what? I die and turn into one of them? Hell, it won’t matter if you can keep them out if I’m in here! No, I’m not going to do that to you.”

  Dallas looked at Sam, and he shook his head apologetically. Pierce sighed and held his arms above his head. “I’m sorry, Tally,” he said. “I shouldn’t have yelled. I know this hurts, but I’m doing it for your own good. I’ve already hurt you guys too much. In a few hours, hurting you is all I’ll be able to do. And I’m not going to put you through that anymore.” He looked across the room at the balcony and the sliding glass door.

  “But this is hurting me, Pierce!” Talia cried.

  Tears formed at the corner of Dallas’s eyes. She had once read somewhere on the internet that when a person began crying and the first tear fell from their right eye, they were crying from joy. If it fell from their left eye, they were crying from pain. She wasn’t one to believe everything she read on the internet, but a tear did fall from the corner of her left eye.

  Pierce turned around to face Sam. He hugged him briefly, then went back to Dallas. Tears poured from her eyes, but he hugged her as well. Finally, he turned to Talia, whose sobs had subsided.

  “I love you, Tally. Don’t ever forget that, okay? I’m doing this to help you, not to hurt you. I never wanted to hurt any of you. I know I have, and I’m really sorry.” He slinked his arms around Talia and she embraced him. After several long moments, he pulled away and kissed her gently. Normally, Dallas would have found this revolting, but she didn’t say a word.

  Pierce looked back at Dallas. “Take care of Tally for me, will you?” Dallas didn’t think she’d ever heard him be so sincere.

  He let go of Talia reluctantly and went for the sliding glass door. Dallas’s eyes were too full of tears to see anything more than his outline as he climbed to the edge of the balcony and let himself fall over. She heard the crack from below as his body hit the ground, followed by her sister’s sobs.

  Chapter Twelve

  The deadly virus that originated last week in New Orleans has now claimed over 1,000 lives. Originally called a “zombie virus” only by conspirators, the nickname has caught on, as victims are rendered unconscious for nearly an hour, only to wake up and violently attack those around them.

  Researchers have traced the virus to a truck crash near Lafayette Cemetery in New Orleans on the afternoon of Friday, October 7. The truck was carrying toxic waste that included strains of avian flu, remains of a so-called “resurrection bug” and various other microbes. Many victims have not received bites at all, but contracted the virus by drinking unfiltered tap water.

  Dallas wanted to leave the house as soon as Pierce’s body hit the concrete. The hordes were still feasting on him, but she didn’t know how long they would be distracted. She wasn’t sure how intelligent or evolved they were yet, but didn’t want to wait around to find out how long it would take them to unlock doors.

  But they needed a plan first. They had a car, but someone had to load their supplies and open the garage door without attracting the hordes. Or at least quickly enough that the three of them could get in the car safely before the hordes caught up with them.

  And nobody felt like doing much after Pierce’s suicide. Because that’s exactly what it was — a suicide. Even though he would have died soon anyway, even though he said it was for the best, he had still ended his life by his own decision and his own doing. Even though he told Talia he loved her and he was sorry — and Dallas believed he was genuine — she had seen the look on her sister’s face as Pierce fell. For that, she couldn’t quite bring herself to forgive him yet, no matter how much he insisted it was better this way — and no matter how much she believed him.

  There was a loud beep, and she jumped. “It’s just my phone,” Sam said. “Oh, I got another text message from Ali. She says they should be in Chattanooga tomorrow. They might even beat us there.”

  “Really?” Talia said. “They started further away from us and several hours later. How are they so close?”

  He shrugged. “David’s kind of a speed demon. Being out on the road with so few cars is probably heaven for him.”

  But they had been caught in an enormous traffic jam on their way up, and there were probably more in the surrounding cities. Surely Ali and David had been in the thick of the evacuations, or at least stalled by them. They had clearly overestimated their arrival time. But no matter; they, along with Dallas’s parents, would be there soon enough. They could hav
e a fresh start, and the few zombies who straggled up the mountain would quickly be taken out by her gun advocate uncle — or his electric fences.

  Dallas thought briefly of her former dream of being a singer, a fantasy she had believed in so much just a week earlier, and her anger at Tatum for fulfilling that dream despite her lack of talent or dedication. It wasn’t fair even now, but Dallas was still clinging to life while Tatum would remain sixteen forever. Everything else seemed so trivial in comparison.

  They couldn’t get wi-fi reception on their phones without a password, but Dallas found the family computer and fiddled with it for a few minutes. She skimmed article after repetitive article about zombie mannerisms: The way they shambled around, sometimes on broken legs or even with nearly severed heads. Their herd mentality, and how they worked together to find prey. Their awful groans and what they could possibly mean. She didn’t find a single article about rogue zombies, or how much they had evolved in just a few days.

  If her mother had been there, she would have made some remark about how all the zombies needed was their morning coffee. Dallas felt an unexpected pang of homesickness. Surely she would see her parents again soon, but not her house. Six years of living there and it was just a memory now. She wondered what would happen to Roger, the little goldfish her mother had kept in a bowl for just over a year now. Would he starve to death, or possibly become a not so satisfying snack for a not so lucky zombie? It wasn’t as painful to think about as the human losses, but it was strange and unsettling. She wondered if the pets being left behind — including the dog in the garage — were intelligent enough to realize that something was wrong, or if they simply thought they were being abandoned. Then she wondered which one would have been worse.

  “I want to go upstairs,” she finally said. “There might be more things up there that we need.”

  “Like what?” Talia asked.

  “Like more blankets. Flashlights, maybe. You remember how bad it was walking through this neighborhood in the dark. And when we make it to Uncle Jack’s, we’ll have to deal with winter, and who knows if we’ll have a working heater. Hey, there might be phone chargers up there too. I want you guys to gather up as much food as you can and load the car in the garage. We’ll leave as soon as we can.”