Dead Stop

  Bennie guessed she had been given permission to tell him the truth.

  “Those were dead people, Benny,” she half whispered. “Zombies, Just like in the movies, only scarier.”

  “What? Zombies? But…how? Where?”

  “They came from the county cemetery down the road,” the girl closed her eyes and shuddered, “and they started killing everybody. Arnold, Tomas, Leon, Gladys…everybody. Only six of us got away. You, me, Marisa, Deke, Harley, and the Doc. Well, there were seven, but Grandpa Tom died this morning. We’re hiding out here at a vet clinic near Lake Cowell until we figure out what to do next.”

  Benny just lay there, trying to take it in.

  “By the way,” Stacey seemed to rally, and gave him a weak smile, “Doc has to give you a shot once this blood bag is empty. I gotta warn you, she’s not as good at giving shots as she is at other things.”

  “I heard that,” came the woman’s voice down at his legs. “Just so you know, once I’m done with Mr. Trujillo, I’m coming after you’re arm next. Be glad for the wonders of lidocaine.”

  Benny ignored the banter and tried to focus.

  “Hiding out?” He fought to think. “Why are we hiding out? Shouldn’t we go get help?”

  “There’s nowhere to go, Benny.” The fear in her voice convinced him she was telling the truth. “According to the CB radio in the truck, these monsters are coming up all over the place…Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Arkansas mostly…and we’re right in the middle of it. There were some people saying it could also be happening in Mexico. And the people they’re killing are turning into monsters too! The government has called out the army, and there’s been rumors of a quarantine. Somebody even said they bombed Killeen and Amarillo last night.”

  “Idiots!” the woman down at his legs hissed. “It’s a soil based organism and they’re blowing tons of dirt up in the air! That’s helpful!”

  “Yeah,” Stacey winced, then continued. “Anyway, Harley said we should hide here until things settle down and we have a better idea what’s going on. I think he’s as scared of running into the army as he is of the dead things.”

  “But…but what about Masonfield?”

  “We don’t know…we know some people got away, but…we don’t know. I’m sorry, Benny.

  Benny could hear the lie in her voice. It landed on his heart like a wet sack of cement. He lay his head back and closed his eyes.

  Masonfield dead? Probably his wife, Corina, as well? The dead rising from the grave? Entire states being quarantined? His mind reeled at having to wake up to all of this at once. He wouldn’t have believed it, but he could remember the things chasing Stacey himself. This was real. It was catastrophic. It was….biblical.

  “It’s the end of the world, isn’t it…” he breathed. “Judgement Day is finally here…”

  “No!” Stacey whispered fiercely and gripped his arm. “It ain’t like that! Doc says this is like a plague or a disease. It’s bad, but we can fight this thing. Right, Doc?”

  “Humans are notorious for coming through cataclysms,” the other woman muttered while she worked on his legs. “Hell, I think we create our own from time to time just to stay in practice. Don’t ever rule us out.”

  “What she said,” the girl affirmed. “We ain’t licked yet. Just hang in with us, Benny. We’ll make it through this. You’ll see.”

  Benny didn’t respond, still trying to absorb the enormity of it all.

  “Benny?” She took him by the hand. “I know you’re hurting…we all are…but we’re going to get through this. You just rest up and get better, okay? We made it through last night, and now the storm is over. We’ll find our way from here.”

  He stared at the ceiling, not knowing what to say.

  “We need you, Bennie,” Stacey continued, her face solemn once more. “I need you, and so does Marisa. Of course she’ll never admit it, but she does. Hang in there for us, okay? Please?”

  Whether she knew it or not, she hit every button that mattered. Even if it was the end of the world, Bennie wouldn’t dream of not being there for them. They were the daughters he had never had…even if both of them were huge pains in the ass. Somebody had to keep them out of trouble.

  And he doubted the two young rednecks he barely remembered were even close to being up to the task. They were going to need his help.

  Starting now.

  “It’s okay, Chiquita,” he sighed and gave her a weak smile. “I’ll be okay. Don’t worry. Whatever happens, I’ll be there.”

  ###

  Epilogue- Rachel

  Rachel stepped out the front door of the country clinic and arched her weary back.

  Benny Trujillo, Deke, and Stacey were now stitched up, and everybody had been given a shot of the antifungal medication. She had warned it might make them sick a day or two, but it was the most effective available. Now they all slept in the front office of the clinic. All in all, she allowed herself a small bit of self congratulation on a job well done.

  Well, almost…

  The sight of a small makeshift cross in the pasture across the barb wire fence caused her to wince in memory at her one “failure.”

  Grandpa Tom had made it. He had escaped with the rest of them. And when they had all staggered into the clinic after Harley jimmied the door, he had sank exhausted into the closest chair he could find. So had the others…except for Rachel who had dragged herself back into the doctor’s office to use the internet to post warnings about the nature of the threat and grab all the medical information she could while the power still lasted. She had been at it about an hour when Marisa had come back and quietly told her that Grandpa Tom was dead.

  He had simply drifted away in his sleep, right there in the chair.

  Rachel could only console herself with the knowledge she couldn’t have done anything for him anyway, and that he got to pass peacefully. That had to count as some kind of victory, didn’t it? Compared to what might be in store for them, he may have gotten off lucky.

  Because in truth, Stacey was wrong…the storm wasn’t over.

  It was just beginning.

  Now that she had the time to focus and think without the distraction of possibly dying any given minute, she started to realize the enormity of what they faced.

  It has to be a soil based fungus, because it got in the coffins first. But now it’s out, and spreading like wildfire. A five hour window between its host killing somebody, and then that somebody getting up to kill as well, is a ridiculously fast incubation period. And I don’t even know if that’s the only vector for transmission. Not to mention, the ground itself has been infected.

  Marisa had told her earlier how Harley predicted the spread to have already killed Masonfield, and how fast he thought this stuff could expand. After listening to his reasoning, then applying her own knowledge of disease transmission, she realized he had actually underestimated it. The proliferation would be geometric, and if the rumored quarantine failed then Benny’s concern might be more realistic than they realized.

  This could be apocalyptic.

  Rachel hoped not. Not just for herself, but for the new young friends she had made over the course of this ordeal. She really wanted to see Deke and Stacey get an honest chance to see if they had a future together. And Marisa and Harley…she wasn’t quite sure what to make of that pair. They were something, but she couldn’t quite figure out what it was.

  A glance over at the feed store side of the building revealed the two of them had made impromptu recliner couches out of feed bags at the front corner of the building. Now they stretched out side by side, snoring in the afternoon sun. Rachel figured after all they did last night, and having to dig a grave this morning, they had earned it.

  Rachel decided she could let them sleep and attend to their injuries later. She had already given them the antifungal shot and that was what really counted.

  Until then, her job was done.

  Now she just stood in the parking lot, soaking up the sunshine. The
air fairly steamed with humidity after the storm from last night, but she didn’t care. Just standing in daylight again felt glorious. The warmth helped drive the memory of last night’s chill further from her mind, and gave her a sense of hope.

  Rachel had instructed Deke to fill the four galvanized water troughs in the feed store full of water before the power cut out. So they had a supply that would last a good while. She also knew the hundreds of bags of animal feed were edible by humans, even if they tasted like crap. So they were covered on that score as well. Top that off with the fact they were surrounded by pastures and had an unobstructed view for at least half a mile in any direction, and they had what amounted to a secure and hopefully surprise free situation.

  For the moment, they were safe.

  Now it all depended on the rest of the world.

  Hopefully the quarantine did its job. At least a line of heavily armed soldiers stood a much better chance against these things than the people of the Textro last night. She just hoped nobody did something stupid and tried to end this with some really big bombs.

  But there was nothing she could do about that but wait and see.

  Until then, the best she could do was plan and try to see they had everything they needed to get by until either help arrived, or they tried to reach the quarantine line themselves. Harley said they might try after things had settled down and he was sure the soldiers weren’t just shooting at anything that approached.

  Movement on the horizon caught her eye and Rachel turned her head. A flock of crows flew along the distant tree line on the other side of the pasture. She frowned at the aerial procession, and folded her arms as she tracked their progress.

  She noted their current trajectory would take them to the east and away from the store, so that was a small relief. Besides, they were flying straight as opposed to wheeling like Stacey had described last night. So they weren’t following a pack of zombies either. The grim side of her figured they had probably gorged enough lately anyway.

  And then it hit her.

  “Oh my god!” Rachel gasped. “The crows!”

  “Doc?” Harley’s soft voice came from the corner of the building. He must not have been as asleep as she thought. “Is everything okay?”

  Rachel didn’t answer, her throat locked tight as her mind desperately recalculated the spread with this new vector in the equation. It was the roughest of guesswork. Pure estimation. But even allowing for that, the answer she came up with dismayed her.

  No. Everything wasn’t okay.

  The world was going to change. Whether civilization survived or not…whether man survived or not… nothing would ever be the same again.

  The crows would see to that.

  They had been walking and feeding in the bloody remains of all the zombie’s victims. Now they were moving on in search of future feasts. And they were carrying the means of making those meals happen along with them.

  Rachel watched in despair as they flapped their way over the horizon…

  …their feathers dusted with a deadly cargo of spores.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  D. Nathan Hilliard lives in Spring, Texas with his veterinarian wife, two children, and two cats. He draws his inspiration from a childhood living in different small Texas towns, accented by teen years spent in western New Mexico. He has experienced life through a diverse collection of jobs ranging from meter reading and being an assistant manager at a convenience store, to working at cotton gins, window factories, and uranium mills. After coming down with Charcot Marie Tooth (CMT) at the turn of the century, Mr. Hilliard now happily settles for tending house, raising his kids, and exploring the field of writing.