by Poe, S. B.
6
Through the Darkness
See the Light
Tilly, Amanda, Dottie and Raj emerged from the SUV. The smoldering remains of the bus blanketed the woods with smoke. The rising sun cast its light into the haze. Their eyes were adjusting to the light. No shapes moved. The air was still. And quiet. The morning crept into the world bringing the truth of the night before. A shadow moved across the corral. Tilly raised her shotgun. JW, Evelyn, Ed, Jennifer and Lori stepped through the smoke towards them.
As the sun rose a little further the breeze began to carry the smoke away. The veil lifted off the bodies that littered the ground. Some burnt, some not. Some small, some not. But all of them dead. Really dead. They made their way around the piles on the ground towards each other. JW looked as hard as he could at the group coming to them but didn’t see his family.
“Which way did they go?” JW asked Tilly.
It took her a second to remember where their last conversation had left off.
“That way.” Tilly said. Pointing past the cars at the other end of the corral. He turned to go.
“Wait.” Raj said. “I will go with you.”
“Me too. We all will. We all stay together.” Tilly said. She didn’t appear to be open to negotiation.
“Fine. Let’s go.” JW said.
JW didn’t care. If they wanted to go, fine. If they didn’t, fine. He was going. He turned and started across the corral.
“Where you going?” Bridger called as he stepped around the burnt out husk of the other bus. They all turned to his voice.
Bridger stepped out of the haze. Followed by Kate, Josh, Scott and Charlie. Kate’s eyes met JW’s.
“John.” She said as she ran towards him.
“Dad.” Josh and Scott said in unison. They all met over the burnt remains of lawn chairs and dead scattered around the corral. He hugged all of them at once.
“Are you ok?” JW asked while cupping Kate’s face in his hands.
“Yes, yes. We’re fine.” Kate said. She smiled through her tears. She kissed him.
“Boys. Y’all ok?” He said. Looking each of them in the face.
“Good.” Josh said. Scott just gave him thumbs up. JW hugged them all together again.
“Where are the others?” Bridger asked. “Where is Janice? Where are Jeremy and Clyde?”
“They ran.” Raj said.
“Into the woods.” Tilly added, pointing in the direction they went.
“Chris?” Bridger asked.
“I don’t know. We were together for a minute but there were too many. We got split up.” Raj said. Then turning to Amanda. “I’m sorry.”
Amanda just looked at him and nodded. She was biting her lower lip as she let the tears flow down her cheeks. Dottie reached around her shoulder to comfort her. Dottie didn’t blame her. Now Amanda knew it. She felt a little better.
“Ray?” Kate asked.
Dottie just looked up into her eyes and shook her head no. Kate looked down. “Oh” was all she said.
“Well let’s get started.” Bridger said.
“Started what?” Lori asked.
“Looking.” He said.
“We don’t know what’s out there.” Jennifer said.
“Yes we do. For the first time since this all started, we know exactly what's out there.” Dottie said. “Hell”
“And if your going through hell, just keep going.” Bridger said, recalling the words to one of the few country songs he could remember. He smiled. Dottie didn’t.
“Listen. We can’t just sit here. We have to look. We have to.” Charlie said. Most of them nodded.
“Ok. But let’s be smart. Let’s give it another minute and let the sun come up a little more and maybe some of the smoke will clear out.” Bridger said.
Kate walked over to Evelyn and pulled the makeshift bandage off her forehead. They both winced.
“Ooh. That’s deep.” Kate said. “Raj, take a look at this.”
Raj stepped in front of JW and over to Evelyn. JW turned and grabbed the back of Scott’s head and pulled his forehead to his. He did the same to Josh. He took a long look at each of them. He turned and squeezed Kate’s shoulder as she tended to Evelyn. He walked over to the other side of the SUV and sat down in the open rear compartment. Charlie walked over to Jennifer and Lori.
“Stay here. We will go and look.” He said to Jennifer.
Scott walked over to the burned out bus and looked over into it. Lori and Jennifer walked over to him.
“What are you looking for?” Lori asked.
“Well, since that bus had almost all the food on it, I was hoping some of the cans might have survived.” He said.
Bridger released the magazine from his rifle and inserted a full one.
“Ok. Charlie and I will head this way.” Bridger said, pointing. “Everyone else just wait here. We will be back in twenty minutes. Until then everyone stay put.”
There was no objection. They had all had enough for one night. Bridger and Charlie walked out of the corral.
“You think we’ll find them?” Charlie asked as they turned.
“We’ll find them, one way or the other.” Bridger said.
They walked a few yards beyond the bus. They came upon one of the infected. It had been close to the bus when it exploded and one of its legs was missing. The other leg was ripped apart just above the knee. The femur bone stuck out of the charred stump and it was dragging itself towards some unknown place. Bridger handed his rifle to Charlie and pulled out his knife.
“What are you doing?” Charlie asked.
“Well, I don’t want the rest of them to get all worked up again because they hear a gunshot.”
Bridger walked over and put his boot in the middle of the things back and pushed it against the ground. He dropped his knee down and drove the knife into the base of its skull. There was an audible pop. Both Bridger and Charlie jumped back just a bit.
“What the hell was that?” Charlie asked.
“I think that was its damn head.”
“Damn” Charlie said, handing the rifle back to Bridger.
“So, now that we have a moment, who the hell is the new guy?” Bridger asked.
Charlie realized that since they had picked up Bridger walking out of the woods yesterday they still hadn’t had a chance to tell him what had happened to Tilly. He began to recount the entire ordeal, including some of the conversations between him and Ed.
“And you think this other guy, the guy back at camp, Ed, you think he isn’t a bad guy? He damn sure hung out with a piece of shit.” Bridger said after hearing the story.
“Hell, I thought JW was some psycho crazy loner dude until he pulled up to my house with two buses and a way out of town. Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you get assholes.” Charlie said.
“Well JW is some psycho crazy loner dude, but you still got lucky. I did too. We are in the middle of nowhere and that just happened. Can you imagine what its like where people actually are?” Bridger said.
Charlie hadn’t thought about it that far. He did now. They had all been living in kind of a state of suspended belief. Sure they could hear some things on the radio and they had even seen a thing or two when they were trying to get out but it had been tempered by a week of isolation. They had been able to keep it at a distance. It hadn’t touched them. Until now. He realized that whatever they had been doing for the last few days, trying to adjust or whatever, they were fooling themselves. What Bridger had just said made him realize that this was not going to get better. At least not for a long time.
“Where was this place this guy was telling you about? This compound?” Bridger said.
“He said…” Bridger stuck his hand in front of Charlie and brought his index finger to his lip. He pointed to Charlie’s left.
About ten yards away they could see one of the infected. Charlie recognized the shirt. Ray had managed to pack three shirts when he was evacuated. All of them were some kind of bright Hawaiian pri
nt. This was the blue one. It was kneeling on the ground with its back to them. It’s head down near the ground. They slowly walked up behind it. Bridger looked down at his belt to pull his knife out again.
“Holy shit.” Charlie said. Bridger’s eyes snapped to Charlie, then to the thing on the ground.
It started to turn around. Bridger saw the face of its meal. It was Janice. As the thing turned its body he could see another infected eating the other side of Janice’s body. This one was smaller, a child. He raised his rifle and fired twice. He turned his head and emptied his stomach.
Kate walked to the bus and grabbed the first-aid bag. JW had snagged it from the deputy’s car what seemed like a lifetime ago now. Good thing. It had a suture kit in it. She brought it over to Raj and he started cleaning Evelyn’s wound.
“I don’t think you have a concussion.” Raj said. “I think a couple of stitches should just about take care of it.”
“Thanks” Evelyn said.
Kate squeezed her hand and walked around to back of the SUV. JW was facing away from her. He had one of his boots in his hand.
“Hey what are…” she froze.
She could see the tear on the top of the boot. Her eyes went from the boot to JW, who had swung his head around as she spoke. His face was wet.
“Is that? It’s not..?” her hand coming up to her mouth.
He pulled the sock off his foot to expose the small marks. They were each less than an inch long and less than a half inch deep. Individually they were unremarkable; together they formed a perfect bite mark. They stared at each other for another minute. Then she just walked over and stood next to him, pulling his head against her chest. He looked at the ground. She looked at the sky. Two shots rang out in the distance. They ignored it.
Bridger held it to two retches before straightening back up. He wiped his mouth and turned back around. Charlie was looking at the scene in front of him trying to understand. He couldn’t.
“What now?” Charlie asked.
“I don’t know. I think we keep looking. We still need to find Clyde and Chris.” Bridger said.
“I think we found Clyde.” Charlie said, pointing to another small body a few feet away.
Bridger turned and looked. He looked down at the ground again.
“Let’s go back. I don't think finding Chris is going to change anything. I think we know how it ended.” They turned and started back to the camp.
Josh grabbed his rifle when he heard Bridger fire. He was standing next to Janice’s car looking out in the direction the shots came from. Lori sat down on the ground next to the car.
“Do you think they found them?” Lori asked.
“Maybe but I wouldn’t count on it.” He said.
“Why not?”
“Didn’t you see what just happened here?”
“Yes but that doesn’t mean it’s hopeless.”
“It’s pretty close.” He said, turning to look at her.
“But it’s not hopeless everywhere.” She said, almost asking.
“I wouldn’t know.” He said.
“Well, I mean, my parents may still be out there. We don’t know for sure.”
“No we don’t, but I don’t know how we could ever be sure anymore.”
“We could look.” She said, looking up without raising her head.
He looked at her. He looked back out into the woods.
“We could.” He said. She smiled.
“When?” Kate finally managed to ask. “When did it happen?”
“On my way back. I stopped for a second to use the walkie. I didn’t see it until it had done it. It was on the other side of a tree and I just put my foot in the wrong place.” He said.
She sat down next to him.
“What now? I mean, what is going to happen? To you?”
“I think we both know how this ends up. I think we need to bring Bridger in on this pretty quick.” He said.
“What about the boys?” She asked.
“Bridger first. I want to make sure that if, you know, something happens, he is ready.” He said. “Pretty sure he’s wanted to crack my skull a time or two anyway.” He smiled.
“Don’t joke about this John.” She said.
“It’s really all I can do, honey.”
Josh saw Bridger and Charlie walking out of the woods. He turned to Lori.
“Wait here.”
He went to meet them.
“Well?” he said as he fell beside them.
“We found them. Most of them. Their gone.” Bridger said.
“Gone?” Josh said, stopping.
“Yes, gone. We found Ray, Janice, Jeremy and Clyde. They were all gone.” Charlie said, still walking.
“Chris?”
“Listen Josh, they are all gone. Just leave it alone.” Bridger said, stopping and looking Josh in the eye.
“Ok” Josh said. They all walked around the back of Janice’s car and into the corral.
Most of them gathered around the center of what had been their home. The pit they had prepared for their fire was still there. It now had two dead infected in it. Scattered around the ground was a mixture of scorched signs of life and roasting corpses. Evelyn, Ed and Raj joined Jennifer and Lori along with Scott and Josh. Dottie and Amanda were leaning against the tires of the remaining bus. Bridger and Charlie stepped into the middle of the group.
“I’m sorry.” Bridger said, looking at Dottie and Amanda.
“The others?” Evelyn asked.
“No.” Charlie said, shaking his head.
They all briefly looked at the ground.
“We need to figure out what comes next.” Bridger said. “For now, let’s start trying to clean some of this shit out of here.” He said, delivering a swift kick the dead thing in the pit.
He looked at Evelyn.
“Where’s JW and Kate?” Bridger asked. Evelyn just nodded towards the SUV. He started walking.
Kate had overheard Bridger and knew he was headed towards them. She turned and met him as he came around to the back of the SUV. She couldn’t disguise her eyes.
“What’s wrong?” Bridger asked, suddenly aware that Kate had been crying.
“It's John.” She said, stepping to the side so he could pass.
She followed him back around. Bridger stopped and looked down at JW. He was sitting in the back of the SUV with one sock off. His eyes went to his foot. He saw the bite mark. He looked back and forth between JW’s eyes and his foot two more times.
“Well shit.” Bridger said.
“Yeah, that’s what I said.” JW smiled.
“So now what? I mean what comes next for you?” Bridger asked.
“I don’t know. I’m not quite sure how this works but I am pretty sure we all know how it is going to end.” He glanced down at one of the burnt corpses scattered around the SUV.
“We have to tell the boys?” Kate said.
“We will, honey, but we need to make sure I am not a threat first.”
“You’re not a threat, you’re just…” Kate said
“Bitten. And that means we don’t know what I am now.” JW said
7
Another Hard Life
Long forgotten
JW sat up against the back of the seat. He had been stretched out in the SUV for long enough. He had made them isolate him in here after they told the boys and the rest of the group. He knew that last night had taken most of the fight out of everyone and he didn’t want them to sit around and watch him die. He knew time was shutting down for him. He could feel his body dying. It was a strange sensation. He was beginning to notice parts of himself going numb. Not a foot or arm but just spots. Under his arms, the backs of his hands or the side of his face. Like having random shots of Novocain. The feeling would return but it was happening more often and over more of his body. He felt cold, which meant he was probably running a fever. He looked over his shoulder into the rearview mirror. His eyes were set back and he had dark circles under them. He looked tired. But mo
re than that the skin that covered his cheekbones was starting to relax. His lips were still pink but there was a tell tale bluing around the corners. He leaned forward and lifted the towel he had draped over his foot. The bite was just two small tears in the skin when he first pulled his sock off to show Bridger and Kate. Both spots were now at least three inches wide and the hole in the middle smelled, the same smell he had been searching for, like a dead dog but different. More ammonia. It was acrid and in an enclosed space like this it made his eyes water. He reached down and opened the door next to him. The sunlight streamed in and the fresh air made him feel a little better. Bridger walked over to the open door.
“How you doing?” Bridger asked.
“Still able to open the door.” JW smiled. “Guess I am still here. For now.”
“Come on man, you look good.” Bridger lied.
“I think you need to bring my family over.” JW said. He and Bridger had talked about this when he first locked himself into the SUV this morning.
“Are you sure? ” Bridger reached out and touched JW on the shoulder. JW smiled up at him, squinting in the bright light.
“Yeah, I think I am getting close. I need to say goodbye and when I am done you and I can go for a drive.” JW smiled again. Bridger looked down out the ground and shrugged his shoulders. They had talked about this part too; he knew he would be the only one coming back.
Bridger walked over to the corral. Kate, Josh and Scott were sitting on the ground, the chairs lost in the fire. They all looked up. They all looked back down again after they saw the expression on his face.
“Is he..?” Scott mumbled.
“No. But it won’t be long. He wants to see y’all.” Bridger said.
They all stood. Josh linked his arm with Kate’s. She moved her hand down to hold his hand. She looked over at Scott and stuck her hand out. He took it. They walked past the surviving bus and around to the side of the SUV. The door was open. Bridger walked slightly ahead of them, pistol in hand.