by C. M. Wright
I lay there just trying to breath again. And feel the sharp pain in my stomach. The pain that is going to end my life. I start sobbing, thinking of my kids, my husband, my parents, grandmother, brothers, sister and in-laws, and all their kids. I'm not going to live to see them again. I'm not going to make it through this. I pray that someone here will be able to kill me. Maybe Jake can. I hear my husband calling for help and I feel like I'm going to pass out from the shock. I see all of the adults move in sight above me. I see Ash sticking his head out the window. None of them look very concerned. None of them know.
Chapter 16
The weight of the old man is finally lifted from me and Jake and Will help me stand. I immediately cover my stomach where he had bit me. It hurts so bad! Again, it hits me that I have to die, soon, before I hurt one of them. I stare at them as they talk about the shoot-out. Stare at them as they laugh to ease the tension of the drama. Stare at them as they tease me about letting an old man get the best of me. If they only knew how much of me he had gotten. Finally, they all stop talking one at a time and just stare at me with baffled and questioning looks as I stare at them with a serious expression, not joining their laughter or reacting to their teasing. I just stand there. Hand on my stomach and staring at them.
I see my mom's eyes go to the hand on my stomach and she gasps. Her eyes fly to mine. I see the men look at Mom, then me. Finally, they understand. Dad turns and walks down the road, his body tight with anger. Jake drops his head and walks into the trees. Mom starts crying and drops to her knees. Will screams in anger and flings his arms around me, holding me tight and sobbing. Me? I just stand there. Staring. Staring at nothing.
Finally, Mom gets herself back together, and considering she's the only one capable of doing so, takes control. She pries Will off of me and removes my hand from where it is still covering the bite. I let my arm drop in defeat. I hear Mom gasp so I don't even need to look to see how bad it is. I feel her yank my military fatigue clear up to my neck and then silence. Shit. It's bad.
What I hear next scares the hell out of me. Mom is.....laughing! She's freakin' laughing. What the hell? She must be in shock. She must have damn well lost her mind! Jake hears her and comes running back, his eyes suspiciously red. Will is staring at my stomach, saying nothing, but his mouth is starting to twitch. I can't believe these people! I know I should look, too, but I'm scared to. Jake reaches us and stares at what I hope is my stomach and not my boobs. Yanking my shirt down, I glare at all of them. I watch as Jake goes over to the corpse that bit me. He kneels down and taking his knife, pries the stupid things mouth open. I stare in shock.
He has no teeth! Looking down at my shirt, there's no blood. Lifting my shirt back up, I bend my head and look where he had bitten me. No. Not bitten. Gummed me? Well, shit! But man, it still hurts like hell. But no open wound.
I can now laugh, too. With relief, joy, amazement, and for the total irony of the whole thing. Who could get so lucky?
"Hey!" We hear a shout and all of us stop and look around in surprise for the unfamiliar voice. Finally, remembering the whole reason we had stopped, we walk to the truck that had been surrounded by the undead earlier. As we walk toward it, we see no one inside, but a man in a high squeaky voice is still yelling.
"Hey! You all gonna help me or stand around laughing like a bunch of damn morons?" Yeah, that's it, Dude. Piss us off. You're making us really want to help your ass now. I approach the driver's side window and lean in slightly. Jake presses his chest against my back, leans over me, and aims the gun inside. It's dark now and hard to see in the even darker interior of the truck but I finally spy the man, curled on the floor in a fetal position, arms wrapped around his legs.
"Is it safe? Are those stinking pieces of shit gone?" He squeaks out. I tell him that yeah they are gone and he can get out. I move around to the other side of the truck and the others follow me. The door opens and he jumps out. No, really. He jumps out. The guy has bright curly red hair (more orange than red), freckles that cover every bare piece of flesh, skinny as a toothpick, and maybe five feet tall. My youngest is taller than he is!
I look at the mammoth truck then back, uh, down at him. Then I repeat those looks. I feel my mouth twitching and the laughter stuck in my throat, almost choking me because I am doing my best to keep from letting it out. I look at the others, hoping to take my mind off the need to laugh and see that they are having the same problem I am. Of course, us looking at each other blows that all to hell. We all burst into uncontrollable laughter. Jake and Will bend over clutching their stomachs, Dad walks off shaking his head, his laughter floating back to us. Mom just walks away, back to the vehicles and the kids. I notice the shake of her shoulders and I know she's laughing, too. I'm one of those that once I start laughing, I can't stop. No matter what. I may even laugh so hard that I snort a time or two, which, of course makes me laugh even harder.
I see the little guy through tears that are streaming from my eyes. He's mad. Jumping up and down, pumping his fist at us. That makes us laugh even harder. His face flaming bright red. I can't understand a word he's saying because I'm laughing so hard, but I can still hear the squeaky tone of his voice. Suddenly, I see a flash of orange come at me. I straighten and take a few steps back, my eyes widening. He raises his fist at me and takes a swing. Next thing I know, he's flying to the ground a few feet away. He screams and cries, holding his arm in pain from the fall. His left eye already swelling. I look back up and see Will stalking toward him and then bending down with his hand clenched into a fist and pure anger on his face. I rush to Will and grab him. I pull him away, which is hard as hell to do when he's that mad. I tell him it's ok, he can't hit him again or he may kill him. Will grabs my arm and pulls me to our vehicle. He shoves me into the passenger seat, points his finger hard at my face, and tells me to keep my ass in the truck.
I salute and in a quiet voice say, "Yes, Sir". Of course, I'm not stupid, so I wait until he has his back to me and can't hear me. I know why he's pissed. This isn't the first time I've stepped in a fight between him and another man. He tried making me promise never to do it again, but I couldn't make that promise. I did tell him I'd try not to, but I'm not very good at doing what I'm told, especially when I think I'm right. Which is most of the time.
I watch him make his way back to the little guy who is now on his feet and throwing out every insult he can about me. But before he can get close, Jake steps in front of Will, putting his hand on his chest and talks intently to him. I can't hear what's being said, but I think anyone can guess that Jake's trying to keep Will from killing the little dude. Finally, Will shakes his head hard and walks back to our truck. He flings himself into the driver's seat and doesn’t say a word. I figure it would be safer to keep my mouth shut for now.
Everyone walks closer to the vehicles and I can now hear actual words. Jake is chewing the guy's ass for coming after me, especially since we were all laughing at him. Jake also tells him he survived the zombies but almost got himself killed by a pissed off husband. Eventually, the orange-haired man walks over and climbs up on the sidestep of our vehicle. I didn't laugh. Wanted to, but didn't. He looks at me and apologizes. I tell him it's alright and I'm sorry I laughed at him. He smiles at me and tells me it's ok. He probably would have laughed, too. We weren’t the first and probably won't be the last. Now I feel bad. He looks over at Will and apologizes to him, too. Will tells him he will let it go, this time, but he’d better never raise a hand to his wife again. You get 'em, Baby! He nods at Will, then jumps of the truck.
We all get back out and stretch and let the kids move around a bit. The men walk around with their guns watching for any danger. Mom brings Kaleb to our truck where I'm changing Grace, and changes his pull-up and clothes. We take a small container and add water to it, using it to clean Grace and Kaleb as best we can and then we clean Grace's bottles and Kaleb's sippy cups. I start my truck and turn the heater on full blast. I place Grace back inside in her carrier after I feed her, wrapping her i
n her blanket, so she will stay warm.
Mom has made a fresh container of water which she and I use to wash our faces before calling my boys over to do the same. Finally, Mom and I take over keeping watch for the men who splash some of the cold water on their own faces. Will comes up behind me and wraps his arms around me as I'm keeping watch. He tells me that the little guy's name is Sam and his truck had run out of gas. Then he tells me he's not so bad once you get to know him and that he's coming with us, riding with Jake and Greg. I nod, lean back, and raise my face to his and kiss him. He holds me tight, telling me how damn scared he was when he thought I'd been bit. Him? Hell, shoulda been in my shoes! I smile to myself, and we just stand there, watching around us, holding each other. He cups my chin and raises my head back up, kissing me again. I smile up at him and as I'm turning my head back around, I see Jake staring at us with an expression of pain on his face. I stop turning and look back at him, wondering why he was looking at us like that. He locks eyes with me for a few moments, then turns and walks away. Puzzled, I watch him as he goes. Eventually, I assume it was because maybe he has come to care about us and thinking I had been bit, upset him a little, too. Turning away, I lean my head back against Will and sigh.
Chapter 17
Everyone finishes their washing and stretching kinks out, and the men push Sam's truck off the road. Everyone loads up and we continue down the road. According to the GPS, we should be able to get back on the main highway within ten miles. We are hoping the roads are clear enough to make it to my grandmother's in Darling, Mo. Mom had informed me that she has been calling her and my siblings on a regular basis. Translation-every five minutes. My grandmother is obviously scared, who isn't? I feel awful knowing she is alone especially during all this. I feel an intense urgency to get to her as fast as possible.
My grandmother and I have always been very close. I hate that she lived so far away from us and we had actually planned to move closer to her in a year. I call her Ma so try not to get confused between her and my mom. The rest call her Grandma or Nana. She's in her early 70's. Sweet and gentle. I am her first grandchild so I'm extra special. Seriously. Ask her.
We turn west on another gravel road that is supposed to lead us to a small town, and then the highway is just on the other side. No people, dead or alive. No vehicles. Nothing but the road, trees, and us. Now, I thought the other road was creepy but at least it had other vehicles, something, besides this.
We can't drive very fast, because of the road itself, but also because we can't see much in front of us easily in this pitch black with only our headlights to guide us. I keep feeling like I'm being watched from out there. I strain my eyes trying to see any movement in the trees. I think I do see something a few times, but I write it off as my eyes playing tricks or it's just the leaves and branches moving. I shiver at the total eeriness of it all.
Soon, we see a small beaten, weathered sign announcing we are entering Mesa, Mo. Population 610. Looking around as we move slowly through the town, I realize things can get a lot creepier than the tree-lined road we just left. It truly looks like a ghost town. The main street doesn’t even have a paved road! It's dirt-packed with a layer of small rocks imbedded into it. The buildings are all old-time like you'd see on a western movie or TV show. They are covered in dirt and dust. The paint and signs are dull and faded. Every one of the buildings are small and attached to each other on each side of the street. On my right is, in this order; a grocery store, pharmacy, doctor's office, dentist, community building and mayor's office. On the other side; a butcher shop, hardware store, police station, bar, (how convenient) and a beauty shop. At the very end of the block, I can see a service station with a single gas pump on the right, and on the other side, a small two-story Bed and Breakfast. I just know any moment now, I'm going to see ladies in long dresses and bonnets strolling along the boardwalk in front of the buildings. Maybe a man thrown through the bar's doors, (I seriously think it should be called a saloon.) with a group of men following him out, watching the ass beating about to come. I can also imagine seeing two men standing in the middle of the town, prepared for a duel. Horse buggies and lone horse riders wandering the old roads. And to make it so much better, there is now a low moving fog surrounding the town. I can see maybe two blocks, which seems to be the entire length of the main street. Totally. Frikken'. Creepy.
And what does everyone decide to do? Yep. They stop.
I give a huge exaggerated sigh and throw up my arms. Startled, Will looks at me.
"What? Whats wrong?"
"Don't any of you people watch scary movies? Ghosts could be here or psycho killers. Who would stop in a place like this?" I ask with exasperation.
"Oh, Honey, that's just the movies," I watch him as he stops cold halfway out the door, remembering the 'it's just a movie' situation we are living in right now. He turns his head back to me and I raise a brow at him. He gets back in and slams the door shut. His wrists rest on the top of the steering wheel and he chews at his bottom lip, looking around nervously.
I watch as Jake and Dad walk to his window. Will avoids looking at them. They just stand outside the window, staring at him. I wonder how long this game will go on. Them staring, him avoiding. Finally, Dad raps his knuckle on the window. Will jumps and acts like he didn't even know they were there. Men! And they say we are the dramatic ones.
Lowering the window, Will grins at them and says, "Hey, guys! Didn't see ya there." Hehehe! Rrriiight "What's going on?"
Dad and Jake cross their arms and stare at him for a moment.
Finally, Dad speaks, "Well, we thought it might be a good idea to check some of these buildings out, considering there doesn’t appear to be anyone around."
Jake, "Yeah. That is, unless you'd rather stay with the women and kids. I mean, we can handle it."
Such total asses! And of course, Will being a man and all, has to prove it. He gives me a look saying, 'sorry but I have to' and gets out. I punch the dash and let out a low frustrated scream. I sit back against my seat and am totally in the 'I'm gonna kill my husband' zone when I feel a hand come down on my shoulder.
I scream and jump forward, banging my head on the windshield, not to mention smashing my boobs on the dash. I whip around and see the top of my son's head hiding behind the seat. Grabbing my chest where my heart is trying to pound through, I fully turn in my seat and lean over the back.
Touching Ash's head, I tell him it's ok. He raises his face to me, looking as if he's going to burst into tears. I fling my arms around him and pull him up. I tell him to climb over and he does. I hold him and he apologizes for scaring me. I laugh and tell him I know he didn't mean to and I love him. I hold him for awhile until he calms down and then I scoot over to the driver's seat. Starting the truck, I see the men burst out of the grocery store. I wave at them and tell them I'm just moving up beside Mom. Will waves and nods and they go back inside.
Parking next to the passenger side of my parents Hummer, I lower my window and Mom does the same with hers. I see Bo in the back playing on his Gameboy and Kaleb passed out in his carseat. Glancing back at Mom, I notice she looks a little uneasy.
"Mom, whats wrong?" I ask her
"This place just isn't right. I don't like it here. We shouldn't have stopped." She tells me.
I nod my head and tell her I had told Will the same thing. She shakes her head and mutters, "MEN!" See? Men!
We grow quiet as we search the shadows for....well, anything! I hear the men as they leave the grocery store and head toward Jake's truck. They have their arms loaded with bags. Ok. So, if there were food in there, that means someone would have had to stock it. But who? And where are the others? This just doesn’t make any sense. If anything, there should be bodies. At least one!
The men leave Jake's truck and head to the pharmacy. I think I see movement down by the gas station. I stare harder but still can't tell for sure. I whisper to my mom and she starts watching that area, too. Suddenly, we see several shadows moving in the fog at
the opposite end of town, only two blocks away. I turn and look behind us for the men but, instead, my entire life flashes before my eyes.
Chapter 18
Both ends of the main street are now packed with human forms. Stumbling, shuffling. Yeah, it's the damn dead alright! I don't know what to do, scream or honk? Mom makes the decision for me. She honks and screams. I look at all the buildings trying to find them. At last, I see my dad and Jake running for us. Jake jumps in his truck and Dad in his. I don't see Will!
"Where's Will?" I scream over at my dad.
"He went upstairs in the pharmacy. I thought he'd be here by now." Dad looks back and still, no Will. I see Jake moving his truck sideways in the street. Dad does the same. All I can do is look for Will. Watching the door of the pharmacy, I keep honking. Surely he's heard me by now!
I hear the sound of rapid gunfire coming from Jake's truck and see him standing in a hole in the roof. A gun is propped up by a tripod and he's dropping the dead quick. Hearing the same sound in front of me, I swivel my head and see my dad doing the same. Well, what the hell? I turn, look up, and see a knob in the roof of our truck. Twisting the knob, I raise the hatch until it bangs against the top of the roof. I tell Ash to stay in the front and watch for his dad, then moving the baby in her carrier to the floor, I lift the backseat to see what other goodies are in there that Jake was kind enough not to tell me about.
Oh. my. God! Guns galore! I'm lovin' this! And in the corner, nestled into their own little pouches, were what looked like hideous Christmas ornaments. Oh boy! I know what those are! But just because I've seen grenades used in the movies, I hardly think I'm brave enough to try them myself. Jake has some teaching to do. Just as I'm putting my hand out to grab the big machine gun like Jake and Dad are using, which by the way is right next to the grenades, an explosion rocks the truck. I scream and fly down in the floorboard next to the baby, certain I somehow set off a grenade and am now dead.