by Sergio Gomez
“We’re going to a river,” Alejandro said, now looking up at the road. “I think if we keep going down this road it’ll take us there.”
“Are we going to swim?”
“We’ll clean up and then swim if you want.”
Charlie looked out at the sky, surprised to find that it was still early. “We have soap?”
“Found some in John’s bags back at the church.” He didn’t want to mention that there were also hairs stuck to it…and that he wasn’t sure which part of the body they belonged to.
“Oh,” Charlie said, and nodded. The idea of getting cleaned up sounded good to him.
“You want a haircut, too?” Alejandro said, looking at his son’s hair that was well past his ears. A length his mother would have had nightmares about if she could see it.
“Wait, what?” Charlie asked, a smile from ear-to-ear forming on his face.
“I’m thinking about cutting my hair. You want me to cut yours, too?”
Charlie looked at himself in the side mirror. His hair was longer than ever without his mom around to take him to the barbershop as soon as the sides started creeping into his ears, but also because trying to survive the end of civilization put haircuts low on the list of priorities.
“I don’t know, I kind of like it.” He said, looking away from the mirror.
Alejandro shrugged. “It’s your choice.”
“What are you going to use to cut your hair, anyway? A knife?”
“Yep, that’s what I was thinking.”
This made Charlie burst out with laughter.
“What? You think it’ll look silly?”
Nodding he said, “Yeah, I do.”
“If it looks silly you’ll have to cut yours too.”
“Oh yeah, why’s that?”
“We’re in this together, if one of us looks silly, we both have to look silly.”
Charlie’s smile disappeared and his face grew serious. “Yeah, we are in this together, huh?”
Alejandro grabbed Charlie's head and ruffled his hair. “Yep, me and you. Los dos amigos.”
“Dad?”
“Yeah, Charlie?”
“I’m not…slowing you down, am I?”
The question took Alejandro by surprise. “No, mijo. You’re what’s keeping me going.”
“Really?” Charlie asked.
Alejandro kissed him atop his head. “Yep, you are. You’re the only thing I care about in this world anymore.”
A silence came between them and the words took on an almost tangible form. Alejandro put the map back under the seat and started the truck back up.
“I’ll let you cut my hair when we’re at the river.” Charlie said.
Alejandro smiled the entire time they drove down to the river.
6
Like everything else Terrance had come across, the cafeteria was ruined to shit. Tables were flipped on their sides. Some were flipped upside down so they looked like giant bugs with metal legs poking out into the air. There were packets and containers from the refrigerators torn to pieces and thrown about, their contents splashed in every direction. It was like walking through a psychedelic painting with mustards, ketchups, other condiments.
Talk about a food fight, damn. Terrance thought as he walked through the dining area and past the main cooking station. The mess didn’t stop at the dining area, it continued throughout the rest of the cafeteria.
A stain that shined on the floor in the back work area caught his eye.
He walked closer to the stain, his sneakers leaving footprints in the flour that covered the floor like late autumn snowfall.
He knelt down in front of the stain and confirmed what he thought it was; egg.
He dug through his bag and took out a spoon and his water bottle (which was just about empty). Using the spoon he scooped the egg yolk into the empty water bottle and then put it back in the bag.
Scanning the rest of the room for any leftover goodies the previous raiders may have missed, he found nothing edible except a piece of rotting cabbage that at first glance looked like a chunk broken off someone’s head.
With nothing interesting here, he walked further into the kitchen to the back work area where the walk-in fridges and freezers were. The windows on the doors were narrow but he could see enough of the inside to see that the shelves were empty. Everything they had once held could be found in the dining area, thrown all about the walls and floors.
Terrance continued down the long corridor, walking past a set of double doors. The corridor turned sharply to the right and he followed it until he came to a dead end filled with rat droppings and cobwebs.
On his left was a door that opened up to a forgotten storage area where broken machines had been left to collect dust like old relics.
Terrance walked through the room noting that all of the machines had the front glass shattered and were emptied out.
He made his way to the other end where one machine was facing the wall like a scorned toddler and just for the hell of it stuck his head in between the machine and the wall to get a look at the face of it.
He could hardly believe what he saw.
Three of the rows of rings still held snacks, sure the chips would be stale and the chocolate a melted mess inside of the packaging, but it was more than he and Toby (R.I.P.) had found in weeks. And it was all his, no one to share with. All his.
He raced to the kitchen, remembering a heavy piece of metal he had seen underneath one of the sinks earlier. He picked up the object, which was part of a bracket used to hold up a shelf, and swung it like a bat. It was about a pound and a half and solid enough to get the job done.
Turning back, he headed to the storage area.
Once in front of the snack machine he saw that there would be enough room for him to swing the metal bar, so he took his stance from his high school baseball days, and uncorked one. The impact gashed the glass, but it wasn’t enough to shatter it.
He licked his lips, and tried once again. The metal smashed into the glass, the entire panel shook and a fissure formed about a foot up and down from the point of impact, but still it held.
“Goddamn.” His confidence waned a little, but then he thought of how good the candy bars would taste. He hadn’t had a candy bar since before The Chaos, and now there were two Hershey bars staring him right in the face and only a few inches of glass stood before him and gorging on them.
He took his stance once against, and this time putting his entire body into it, he swung the metal at the glass. Now a circle of cracks formed, like a spider web starting from where the metal had struck the glass.
Another swing, and now the glass crumbled and small pieces of it came out like teeth. He swung again, more shards.
A third swing, a fourth swing, by the fifth swing there was a fist-sized hole in the glass. He stuck the metal into it and scrapped the sides of the hole and with a sawing-like motion he made the hole bigger until it was big enough for him to reach into.
The chips and peanuts he stuffed into his bag. Then he grabbed a chocolate bar and ripped it open and ate it all in two bites. It was even more delicious than he thought it would’ve been, sweeter and more satisfying than he ever remembered a candy bar being. After months of surviving off hamburgers and eggs, this candy bar had brought him a euphoric feeling he had never associated with food before.
Almost without thinking, he grabbed the second candy bar off the ring and ripped it open. He ate this one in three bites. And it was just as good as the first one, if not better. But now that they were both gone, a feeling of emptiness began to set into his mind, where would he find another candy bar?
He licked his fingers where there was still some of the sticky goodness, but that wasn’t enough, so he picked the wrappers off the floor and licked them. He licked every corner and crumb until the wrappers were void of any chocolate residue.
As he did this, he was unaware how crazy he might’ve looked to an onlooker. And he was even less aware that he was losing the
final grip on his mind.
7
Alejandro shut the engine off and they both stepped out of the truck.
They met at the headlights, and just stared in awe at the beauty set before them.
The sun was suspended in a gorgeous summer sky, at just the right angle so that the top of the river gleamed and the light passed through to reveal the usually hidden activity of life underneath the surface. Small fish of various colors swam through the river greens and large rocks covered in moss. Their little mouths opened and closed, trying to catch what food they could to fill their tiny stomachs. Above the water flocks of seagulls circled, waiting for their opportunity to dive down and catch food of their own.
“Nice spot, huh?” Alejandro said.
“And I can go in the water?” Charlie asked, not believing what he saw. They hadn’t seen anything except ordinary forests and rundown buildings for almost a year now, this seemed like paradise in comparison.
“Yeah, go ahead and go swim. I’m going to cut my hair.”
Charlie took his clothes off and then took off for the river. He turned back, grinning. “Don’t take too, long!”
As Alejandro watched him make his way into the water, he thought about how nature was one of the few things that remained largely untouched by the plague of The Chaos. The one thing that still remained that could be appreciated, the one thing that could make one forget about the blood splattered cities or Los Noches.
Turning away from these thoughts, he went to the back of the truck where his bag was and took a switchblade from one of the pockets. He made his way over to the side mirror and hunched over it to get a look at himself.
He hardly recognized his own reflection in the mirror. The days when he would see himself every morning in his bathroom mirror were long ago, a lifetime ago really.
Back then he would always keep his hair short on the sides and comb the top back. After that he would brush his teeth, then take a razor to scrape off the shadows of an oncoming beard.
The person looking back at him was far removed from that combed back, factory managing, clean-shaven gentleman. The person staring back at him had a wild look in his eyes, like an animal mindful of the traps that may be setup in its vicinity. His beard was long and scraggly, like Charlie had said, Jesus-like. But the way the real Jesus had walked around, not the way every twentieth century portrait of him depicted. It was a beard with hairs going every which way. His mustache was so long that it hid most of his upper lip. His hair was almost down to his shoulders, and it was shiny with the oils from his scalp dripping down it. And is that streaks of brown on the top of my head? Did the sun bleach some of the color out, when did that happen? My God.
He looked down at the switch blade in his hand, and then back up at his reflection in the mirror. What’s the point? Who would care how I look?
Anyone he would meet would look as bad as or worse than he did. And this thought brought up the image of the fat man lying in the middle of the carnival with half his face torn off by a bullet. Yeah, he could get away with a bushy beard and oily hair.
“Dad!” Charlie called from the river. “Hurry up, dad!”
Alejandro looked over the top of the side mirror and saw Charlie smiling back at him from the river. His pearl white teeth flashed underneath the sunlight.
He put the switch blade back into the backpack and tossed the bag on the driver’s seat. Taking the gun and holster off first and laying it down next to the bag, he stripped of his own clothes. For a split second when he stood naked, he had the sensation that he had stripped all of the horrors that he had seen.
As if he somehow was free from the nightmare (if only temporarily) he sprinted down to the river in glee. A summer breeze rushed past him as he neared the river that sent shivers up his back, but they were good shivers. For once, they were good shivers.
He jumped into the water, and ducked his entire body underneath the surface. When he popped back up, Charlie was splashing him with water and laughing his head off.
The water came at him from every angle like a miniature typhoon, and Alejandro burst out laughing as well.
It was an image worthy of a photographer’s resume, father and son laughing and smiling together in a Pennsylvania river while in the background the sky was blue and soft as a newborn’s cheeks.
It would have been perfect, if not for Los Noches lurking in the surrounding trees.
There they were…watching and waiting.
*
Alejandro had Charlie up on his shoulders and was about to throw him into the water like a WWE wrestler when Charlie’s attention was caught by something in the distance.
“Dad, look!” He screamed it, but it was a hushed scream.
Alejandro looked over at the trees where Charlie was pointing; suddenly wishing he had the gun at his hip.
Standing on their hind legs, facing them underneath the shade of a canopy of trees, stood two Noches. From what Alejandro could tell from this distance, they were smaller than any of the ones they had seen.
“Why are they out in the day?” Charlie whispered from behind him.
Alejandro swallowed. His throat felt like it had been crammed with sandpaper. “I’m not sure. Lower your head underwater and come up only up to your nose when you need to breathe.”
With that he started forward, keeping his eyes locked on Los Noches. And they too, stared back at him from the cover of the trees.
“Pa, where are you going?”
Alejandro threw his hand up to silence him. The gesture came a little faster than he had intended it and he splashed the water. The sudden sound caused Los Noches to stir, as if they were ready to move in on them.
This is the end. No way I get out of the river and to the truck in time to shoot them both.
The trees Los Noches were under were about the same distance as where Alejandro was from the river. The only difference was that there was solid ground between them and the truck and not water. Los Noches were faster, and these being smaller than the other ones they had come across likely meant they would be the fastest ones they had encountered. The odds were completely against him.
He didn’t even know what he was going to do once he got out of the water. The only thing he knew was that he had to draw their attention away from Charlie.
When the water was at his shins and he felt like he had enough solid ground underneath his feet, he came to a sudden stop.
Over his shoulder, in a voice a notch louder than a whisper he said, “Charlie, when they start chasing me, run for the gun in the truck.”
Charlie’s head rose out of the water, his face drained of color.
“Don’t be scared mijo, we’ll be al—“
The rifle going off thundered through the trees. Alejandro turned in time to see the bigger of the two Noches falling forward with a giant hole in its chest, and she second one run out from beneath the trees.
As it ran through the sun, hairs on its body burned off from the sunlight. The skin underneath the hair started to crack. But more startling than that was the two large breasts bouncing up and down the creature’s chest.
The rifle went off again and the female creature’s right leg was blown off. It tumbled to the ground. Grass clippings flew all about from where she tried to dig her claws to stop the momentum. Seconds later came another shot and this one tore a hole through her stomach. When the creature stopped rolling forward from the momentum she was dead.
Alejandro looked back into the trees where the shots had come from and saw two human figures—one carrying the rifle—and a feeling of relief washed over him.
He stuck his hand out and waved toward them, “Hey! Hey! We’re down here!”
Alejandro raced up the riverbank toward them.
The humans broke through the shadows of the trees and he could see them now. One was a barrel-chested fat man wearing a flannel shirt with no sleeves stained with a week’s worth of yardwork and sloppy eating. The other was tall and skinny and wearing a pair of reflecti
ve sunglasses and a camo hat so low on his head that his forehead was lost behind the accessories.
“Oh look, Daryl, he done all the work for us, how nice.” The tall man said this while keeping a crooked cigarette clamped in between his teeth.
Alejandro only caught the tail end of what the man had said. “I’m sorry, what?”
The tall man pointed the rifle at his chest. “I said, put your hands up or I blew you to bits like I did those ugly shits back there.”
The barrel-chested man, Daryl, began to giggle like an idiot.
Alejandro felt the terror when he saw Los Noches return. He put his hands up as the man instructed him.
“That your truck?” The tall man asked.
“Yeah.” Alejandro could hardly get the word out.
“Alright, what’s going to happen is—what’s your name?” The tall man asked, but it wasn’t a question of politeness.
“Alejandro.”
“Alright, Alejandro, what’s going to happen is my brother here is going to take all of your shit—food and water included, sorry, we gotta survive. Then we’re going to drive off. If you try to follow us, I’ll kill you. You understand?”
Alejandro nodded.
“Okay, good. We killed them creatures without a second’s thought, but cause you’re a human we’ll go easy on you. We just want your shit not to spill blood all over this damn pretty river, you hear?”
Alejandro nodded again. Afraid that if he tried talking it would come out as pathetic as a mouse’s squeak.
“Aright, Daryl, go and get the truck.” The tall man said to his brother.
The barrel-chested man ran back into the woods they had come from.
“You’re not from around here are you?” He said it as casually as if he wasn’t pointing a rifle at Alejandro and threatening his life. “Don’t see too many of your kind up here…well, we don’t see too many humans nowadays anyway, but you get what I mean.”
Not only did he manage to laugh at his own joke, but he looked at Alejandro as if he expected him to join in on it.
Alejandro shook his head.