by David Peters
Mike found a downed freeway sign and pulled the grass and brush away that had overgrown the large blue sign. There were several well-known gas stations listed by their Old World icons. Across the top in bold white letters the sign read GAS, NEXT EXIT.
Dean said quietly, “Remember when that meant you only had five minutes to go?”
“Yeah, we still have at least another hour before we will be at that exit. We have five mile markers to go. Once we get there, we need to look for someplace to camp out for the night. We also need water and food. We have slowed our pace considerably just because we are slowly starving to death.”
“There could be something left in one of the gas stations ahead so we just keep following the pavement for now.” Dean added.
Several hours later Mike looked at his watch and saw it was just after six in the evening. Through the overcast sky he could see the sun was just starting to dip below the horizon. It was going to be dark soon and with no moon or stars it would be pitch black. Two of the gas stations at the small intersection off the freeway were burned to nothing but their cinder block foundations and exposed rebar. The last one had obviously been ransacked but the doors and windows were still intact.
“This will be home for the next ten hours. Hopefully we can scrounge something up.”
The inside of the small minimart was destroyed. Everything down to the shelving had been torn out and thrown around the room. They couldn’t find so much as a wrapper left on the shelves of the small store. After several years of professional foraging, Mike and Dean knew the places to look and find the hidden treasures that could mean the difference between life and death in times like these.
“Jackpot!” Mike called out quietly, “Looks like the boss liked to keep a stash of candy hidden on top of his book shelf.” Mike was holding a small bag of individually wrapped chocolate bars. He poured the contents of the bag into a small mound on the desk and split it into four even sized piles. They each grabbed their allotted candies and they moved to separate parts of the store to enjoy their meals.
Dean smiled, “Do you have any idea how rich we would be with this bag back in Folkesburg?”
Mike smiled back as he savored the stale chocolate, “I’ll bet Jim would build us a cabin for half of this bag.”
“Probably do it for just a few of those peanut ones you have there. Jenny would have given us a month supply of bread just for letting her smell my fingers right now. Rich would have traded me a year’s supply of jerky for a few of these.”
The four of them laughed quietly as they ate their new found wealth of chocolate.
“You check the toilet?”
Tracy curled her face in disgust.
Mike shook his head, “It’s dry as a bone, even the tank. Think they were on a well though, we might find something in the pump house if we can find it.”
“We did. It was that black smudge outside. No water there.”
They sat in silence for several minutes.
Mike tucked the few remaining bars into his shirt pocket and leaned back on a pile of old newspapers, “Not much point in having anyone standing watch. No weapons, no light and nowhere to run.”
He was asleep before anyone bothered to disagree with him.
~4~
Mike stepped through the open front door of the minimart and walked out into the early morning sunshine, “We still need to figure out where we are. This place doesn’t look familiar to me. Not that I was ever in this part of the world before everything went to crap.”
Dean nodded as he walked into the sunlight behind him as he stretched, “There must be other stores around here. There were six gas stations on the sign and we have only found four.”
“See for yourself. That road there dead ends and the other direction is the freeway onramps. There isn’t anything else out here. Maybe there was at one point but I don’t see how. I guess there could be another exit a few miles down with two more gas stations but that’s kind of a gamble. This building doesn’t even have a name on it.”
“How come we didn’t see any signs on the freeway saying where we were? The sign for this place was the only one I remember seeing the entire trip and it was buried under a bunch of weeds.”
“Half the roofing in Folkesburg was made with freeway signs. Stuff is way too valuable to leave stuck out on a pole. There wasn’t a freeway sign within thirty miles of Folkesburg. I should know, I think I pulled half of them down myself.”
Dean nodded as he thought about it, “That’s right! I remember now, it was hard as hell to get any sheeting nails through that stuff!”
“Besides, I think I know where we are without any street signs.”
“How did that epiphany come to you?”
Mike pointed at the side of the minimart. A large mural map of the area covered the entire side of the building. A big black star marked with ‘You Are Here’ told them their location. Far to the north, a cartoon style drawing of a large saw mill marked the town of Sumter.
“Damn, Mike. We are a good fifty miles too far to the south. No wonder I’m so damn sore.”
“Long hike left. I don’t see the soreness going away anytime soon. We need water or we aren’t going to make it that far.”
Two small metal boxes were anchored into the concrete at one corner of the parking lot. Mike found a large rock and walked over to one of the units. He hit the face of it until the mounting plate broke free and he could pull out the full length of hose.
“It may have been for radiators, but it was potable water back then.”
He pulled all of the hose out until he got to the end. He lifted one end up and over the light pole above the unit then pushed the small trigger at the other end. Warm water flowed out into his hand. Small bits of rubber hose stuck to his hand and the smell of rubber was strong. He took a cautious sip of the dirty water. It was wet and tasted as if he were chewing on a balloon, but it was water.
“Thirty feet of hose, we should be able to get at least a gallon out of this. Everyone take turns. It tastes like crap but it will keep us alive.”
~5~
Mike had been able to coax nearly twenty miles out of the group on the first day but without food their pace was dropping fast. The sugar rush from the candy bars had faded far sooner than he had hoped and Dean was getting worse. Ten miles back he had torn up his own shirt in order to cover the mess that was Dean’s feet.
“I can’t believe you aren’t screaming with every step, Dean.”
“It stopped hurting a few miles back. It’s just two massive points of numbness at this point. You think I’ll keep them? They don’t look so good.”
“Those are pretty ugly feet. You’re tough as nails and you wouldn’t be lucky enough to lose them fugly things.”
Dean smiled at his friend and accepted the hand up. He grimaced several times as he shifted his weight from one foot then back to the other.
They spent the night in the sleeper cab of a semi-truck. The big rig smelled of rotten food and mildew but they were so tired no one complained. The inside had been looted of anything that wasn’t welded to the frame. Even the electronics and wiring had been stripped clean from the walls and floor of the truck.
When they woke up the next morning it was already nearly ten and the sun was already high overhead. Mike had to yell to get everyone moving. They were all beginning to show advanced stages of dehydration and lack of food.
They had made it just past mid-day the next day when Brian fell down by the side of the road and threw up. They had drunk the brackish water from a ditch several miles back and were now paying the price. They had finally managed to get Brian moving again when Tracy bolted for the brush and threw up. She simply laid in the tall grass and dry heaved for several minutes as her body tried to purge the impurities.
“I’m guessing we’re next,” Dean said.
Mike held his finger in the air as if to pause Dean then promptly threw up at his feet. Dean turned his head away and followed suit.
Mike
leaned back into the tall grass by the side of the road and clutched his stomach, “That’s it. We’re done for the day. We need to hole up and let this pass. Tomorrow morning we make a dash for Paradise Falls,” he finished his sentence by throwing up again. A wave of weakness rolled over him and he rolled onto his side and curled himself up. A flash of hot then frigid cold as his body fought the bacterial invaders. He knew it was going to be a rough night.
There was general agreement from the other three as they clutched their stomachs in mutual pain.
The group found a small grove of maple trees that looked to be comfortable enough to hide out in. They weren’t huge but it would keep them off the ground and away from most of the bugs and critters walking around at night. After spending the previous night in the horrible smell of the rank big-rig, it would be a welcome respite. Mike was able to find a branch that would let him rest his back against the tree and he drifted off to an uncomfortable sleep.
Mike felt as if he had only been asleep for a few minutes but the pain in his back was telling him it had been quite a bit longer than that. Something had woken him but he didn’t know what. He could hear Dean breathing on the branch above him and he knew that Brian and Tracy were in a second tree not far away.
He felt a surge of adrenaline as a loud sniffing sound drifted up from below him. From the dark night around him he heard several, deep animal breaths as something sniffed the air below them. He struggled to hear anything in the darkness but all was quiet. He heard a twig snap several yards away toward the other tree but couldn’t see anything as he strained his eyes in the inky darkness.
The breathing and footsteps moved off in the direction of the tree Brian and Tracy were in. The soft padding footsteps came back to the bottom of the tree and again he heard the sharp intake of breath as the animal smelled the air. The footsteps faded as it moved off into the forest. Everything was quiet when the footsteps pounded back to the tree.
Their tree shook violently as something slammed into the bottom of it. Dean yelped awake as he struggled to hang on to his branch. Another slam and the tree wavered slightly under the force. Brian called out in fear from the other tree just before Tracy screamed out loud.
Two more slams against the tree and they felt it continue to lean further. The tree struggled to stay upright but a loud snapping sound ended the fight. Brian yelled loudly as their tree came down followed quickly by Mike and Dean’s. There was a tangle of limbs and leaves as they fought their way out of the maze of broken branches and leaves.
Mike was the first to break out from the branches with Dean close at his heels. At ground level they could clearly see the two Hunters moving around Brian. The two men picked up large sections of broken branches and moved forward. Mike nodded at Dean. Dean moved right while Mike slid to the left. With another nod, Dean yelled loudly and beat the ground with his stick. The Hunter on Brian looked up and turned toward Dean. There was a sound of rushing air as Mike pushed the jagged branch through the Hunter’s back and into the thing’s lungs. It struggled to reach the branch in its back but fell forward and slowly drowned as blood filled the Hunter’s lungs.
Another scream a short distance away led them to Tracy. The Hunter had her pinned to the ground and was savagely biting her shoulder. Dean swung his branch like a baseball bat and lifted the Hunter off of its feet. It landed with a thump right in front of Mike’s feet. He brought a heavy rock down hard on the beast’s head. With a grimace of satisfaction he heard a morbid crunching sound and the Hunter stopped moving.
“We need to get out of here, Mike. All this yelling has got to be alerting other Hunters out here. We won’t be so lucky if they find us all on the ground.”
“Yeah, get Tracy on her feet if she can still move. We’ll figure out how bad these two are torn up when we get to a safer place.”
He helped Brian to his feet and the two of them followed Dean and Tracy into the darkness. They moved as fast as their feet could carry them. They had gone no more than a quarter mile when Dean yelled out and crashed into a rolling ball of yelled curses.
“I hate sticker bushes so damn much, Mike,” he cursed several more times as he tried to find a way back out of the bushes. “I mean, I really hate them. If I had one wish right now it wouldn’t be for a damn pair of shoes, it would be for all these damn bushes to disappear.”
Mike could hear the groans of pain from Brian and the curses as Dean backed his way out of the thicket.
“We need to find a way around this. We’re going in the right direction though but we can’t go through that thicket.”
“Get us the hell out of here, Mike. I don’t know how much more I got left.”
~6~
Mike was in a daze. He was carrying Dean like a child down a long dirt trail when he heard a voice yell from behind him. He looked over his shoulder and saw a rider approaching with his weapon drawn. He turned back and kept walking toward the tree where he had put Brian and Tracy. He had gone the last mile carrying each person fifty yards at a time. At some point in the night he started believing he was in a dream. He wasn’t even aware his legs were moving anymore. He would quit when his body stopped working. Even though he could feel the heat from the other two changing, he refused to leave them in the woods alone.
He felt the rider next to him and looked up, “Just a little ways now. I’m almost there. He wouldn’t give up on me and I ain’t giving up on him.”
“Where are you goin’, bud?”
“Just need to get to Paradise Falls then we can rest. Everything is okay there. Just need to get to Paradise Falls. It’s right around the next bend. Always has been. Just need to get to the next bend so I can get Dean help.”
“Are you two from Folkesburg?”
“Folkesburg is gone. Need to get to Paradise Falls.”
“I’m from there, you really look like you could use some help.”
Mike stopped and looked at the man on the horse. He appeared to be surrounded by a haze and fog. He stared at the figure on the horse for several moments as his mind struggled to cope, “You are from Paradise Falls? You know where it is? You know the way?”
“Sure as rain. If you don’t mind me saying, you don’t look so good. Let me help you get there, okay?”
“You...are...help?” Mike felt the energy drain from his body. He had been pushing himself to get his friend to the town. Now that he knew he was close, he had nothing left to give. The darkness took over and he fell to the ground.
~7~
Dylan stared at the man, “You are one lucky bastard to make it that far.”
“I sure as hell don’t feel lucky. My feet are so sore I don’t think I will be able to walk for a week. I haven’t tried to move yet but I’m betting my back is pretty thoroughly wrecked too. I don’t want to think about getting out of this bed.”
“You won’t have to. Doc wouldn’t let you out of here even if you wanted to go.” Dylan looked at the deeply sleeping man a few beds down, “So the guy in the other bed is Dean?”
“Yeah, we’ve been buds since the first day I walked into Folkesburg. He recognized me right away but didn’t say anything. He was a huge football fan before everything fell apart so he was pretty starry eyed. I mean huge. His life rotated around Seattle Football. He has a tattoo on his forearm that I still give him grief about. He finally let it out that he knew, he was dying to ask me so many questions. It was like he was a kid and I was some sort of super hero.”
An uncomfortable quiet settled over the room as they stared at the new arrival. No one knew what to say.
Niccole asked, “Should I see if Kelly made it in with the others? I would think that would be pretty good news if so. I’m sure Doc will let her sit bedside until he finally comes around.”
“That would be great. That’s going to be the first thing he asks about when he finally decides to wake his ass up. He would never let on at the time, but he was so nuts about her.” He looked at his friend for some time. Even Dean’s face was scratched and torn from t
he trip, “How is he doing? I mean, how is he really doing? Is he going make it? Is he going to keep his feet?”
Doc sat down next to Dylan, “Your friend won’t be walking for several weeks, maybe even a month. His feet are a mess, I have no idea how he made it this far. Not to mention that thicket of sticker bushes did a number on him. He is going to be in a world of pain for quite some time, but he and his feet should pull through just fine. If we can manage the ensuing infections, he should be fine in the long term. Short term, he has some tough days ahead.”
“Once we met the other two, we just wanted to try and get them help. I don’t know why we brought them here. I guess it gave us purpose, a reason to push ourselves so damn hard. We knew they were both turning. Hell we could smell it the whole way here. When Dean finally gave out,” his voice caught as he continued, a single tear rolling down his face, “Dean gave it all. I would have given up and died in a damn ditch. When he needed it I pushed, when I needed it he pushed. Between the two of us we kept going. When he finally fell I couldn’t stop. I couldn’t leave him. I couldn’t let him go that hard for nothing. No one ever knowing what he did to try and save two innocent people that didn’t stand a god damn chance.”
Niccole wiped a tear away, “It wasn’t for nothing. It did make a difference.”
“How? All we did was bring them somewhere else to die.”
Doc brought the breather bag over and handed it to Mike, “Something that we were able to do because of these two. We tried two different methods on them. One was unsuccessful but the second worked. It was administered too late to save her but it worked none-the-less.”
He turned the clear plastic bag around in his hands. Traces of blue Dust rolled around the creases, “So you breathe the Dust in?”
“It isn’t just simple Dust. It has to be purified in a sense, but yes, it is inhaled over a period of about fifteen minutes. The dose must be administered no later than three hours after exposure to the Corrupted pathogen. Once the organs have undergone too much of a change, the reversal is fatal. The person is left in a nonfunctioning state between the two species.”