by David Lovato
Katie looked at the remains of the map in her hands. Most of the readable portion was gone.
“Fuck!”
She looked around for other zombies. It was dark, and she could hardly see anything, but she saw no movement. Katie peered over the counter and saw that the zombie was getting up. She shot it, and it fell back down.
Katie looked along the counter. The only way to get behind the counter without hopping over it was to go through a small office to the side. She looked around again for more zombies, saw nothing, and hopped onto the counter. She reached down to grab one of the maps.
The bar was a good four feet off of the ground, and Katie couldn’t reach. She leaned in a little lower, leaving only her bottom half to hold on to the other side of the bar, and tried again. She kept one hand on the inside edge of the bar to keep from falling, reached the other, and was about to grab a map when she felt a hand wrap around her leg.
“Shit!” Katie tried to pull her leg free, and started kicking with the other. She kicked once and felt nothing, then kicked again, felt her foot hit something—hard—and the next thing she knew, her leg was freed, and she was falling face-forward into the ground on the other side of the counter.
Katie woke up to a splitting headache. She had no idea how much time had passed, but the first thing she saw was the faint, blurry outline of a person leaning over the counter, reaching for her face. Both outstretched hands dangled a few feet above her head, as the zombie wasn’t smart enough to climb onto the counter. It swiped every now and then, but never got any closer.
Katie’s legs were sprawled across the zombie she had killed earlier, and she was lying in a pool of its blood, a book digging its corner into her side. She almost sat up, thought of the zombie above her, and decided not to. She blinked a few times, each one sending a pulse of pain through her head, and then reached beside her and found a pamphlet. It was a library brochure, so she tossed it aside and reached again. This time she found a Washington state map.
Katie put the map in her pocket, then reached around for her gun. She was startled to find it wasn’t on the ground with her. She looked around as much as she could while moving as little as possible. Then, she spotted it, its barrel just barely poking out over the edge of the counter, entirely out of her reach.
The zombie didn’t look like it would get to her anytime soon, but Katie wondered what she could do. There was no space to get up without putting herself in reach of the zombie. She couldn’t reach the gun from where she was.
She could wait for someone to get worried and come for her, but what if they were in just as much trouble out there? Katie decided to try to reach the gun with her foot.
She raised her leg slowly. The zombie noticed and reached for it, but couldn’t make it from where it was, so it shuffled to the side a bit, and then tried again.
Katie was paying attention to the zombie, and accidentally tapped the barrel of the gun with her foot, sliding it farther back onto the counter. She could no longer see it.
“Damn it.”
The zombie continued shuffling, so Katie lowered her leg. Then, she had an idea.
Katie raised her leg as close as she could to where the gun had been. The zombie reached for it. She lowered her leg so that it couldn’t reach her, but kept it high enough to keep the zombie trying. The zombie brushed against the gun, sliding it slightly forward. Katie raised her leg again, and the zombie grunted and almost grabbed it, but she lowered in time. The zombie pushed the gun forward, and it teetered on the edge of the counter. Katie’s heart raced, but she let her leg fall down and took a few breaths. Being hasty would do no good; it had gotten her into the situation to begin with. When she felt calm, she raised her leg and lowered one more time, and the zombie pushed the gun over the edge. Katie grabbed it, aimed, and fired.
She felt dizzy when she stood up, and her head was throbbing. She hopped over the counter, thinking of how the whole ordeal could’ve been avoided if she had done that in the first place. Lesson learned. She had the map, and she was okay, and she was thankful for that much.
It was still early, but after the dark of the library, the light outside was almost blinding. The cars had shut off, and the zombies were slightly more numerous. Katie headed to the minivan, and Layne unlocked the door.
“I was starting to get worried,” he said. “You okay?”
“Yeah. Did you grab any aspirin last night, by any chance? I hit my head.”
“I did, actually. It should be in the bag in the back.”
“Awesome,” Katie said. “I got a map.”
“Then let’s head out,” Layne said. He started the car and pulled out, looked back to make sure Garrett was following, and then headed down the road.
****
The trip to Seattle was mostly uneventful. They tried to stay on roads close to the highways, but not on the highways themselves when they could avoid it. There were too many cars in the way. Every time Layne glanced over at Katie, she looked more nervous.
Somewhere just outside of Olympia, Ralph broke the silence.
“So, Katie, what made you decide to be homosexual?”
“That’s hardly appropriate,” Layne said.
“Seriously,” Kyle said.
“No, it’s all right, guys,” Katie said. “I can handle this conversation.” She turned to Ralph in the back seat. “Simple. I didn’t.” She smiled widely.
“Yes you did.”
“Oh really? When did you decide to be straight?”
“It’s natural to be straight.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because,” Ralph said. “I’m naturally attracted to women. And if I wanted things to be otherwise, I’d have to choose to do so.”
“But that’s just you,” Kyle said. “What works for you doesn’t work for everyone.”
“Yeah, but there are tons of people who thought they were homosexual for a while, and then changed back later. And they said it was a choice.”
“Can we just enjoy the ride?” Dex said. He was staring out the window, and he looked bored.
“A lot of gay people have said it isn’t a choice,” Katie said. “Does that mean anything to you?”
“They’re mistaken,” Ralph said.
“How do you know your guys aren’t mistaken?”
“Because, it’s natural. Look at the animal kingdom. You don’t see any animals engaging in homosexuality, do you?”
“I don’t see any animals getting married or looking for jobs, either,” Kyle said.
“Those are social boundaries, not natural ones. And why do you care so much, Kyle? Are you a homosexual?”
“No,” Kyle said. “But two guys loving each other never hurt me.”
“But it does hurt me,” Ralph said. “It makes me sad to know that their choices are going to cost them eternal salvation.”
“Doesn’t the Bible say something about not judging people?” Lacie asked.
“It does. But it also says that homosexuality is an abomination.”
“So is cutting your hair,” Katie said.
“I’m not talking about Leviticus, I’m talking about Romans.”
“Why’d you decide to leave the church and come with us, anyway?” Kyle said. “You’re starting to sound just like the people back there.”
“Because they were crazy,” Ralph said, to which Kyle responded with an exaggerated laugh. “They were willing to harm others. That’s not right.”
“But you are harming others,” Katie said. “Not physically, but emotionally, and psychologically. You’re hurting people.”
“I’m doing it with their best interest in mind. My God loves them, but He can’t save them.”
“That’s funny,” Katie said. “Because my God can.”
There was a moment of silence in the car.
“How can you claim to believe in God, but still choose to be homosexual?” Ralph said. “They’re in direct conflict with each other.”
“No they aren’t.”
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“If you choose to live a life of sin, then you’re going against God, and therefore you don’t truly believe in Him.”
“But doesn’t Romans say that every person sins?” Katie said. “Doesn’t it say that to God, all sin is equal?”
“But—”
“So under what you just said, nobody truly believes in God, because whether I’m gay or you have an impure thought, we’ve both gone against God, and therefore can’t be saved?”
“That’s not how it—”
“Doesn’t the Bible say Jesus died for mankind?”
“For those who follow him, yes—”
“And didn’t Jesus say that those who have done good to their fellow man have in turn followed him, done his work?”
“But Paul said—”
“So now Paul has more authority than Jesus? Isn’t that a little backwards?”
“Enough!” Layne said. The others turned to him. “This has been a lovely conversation, but we’re not getting anywhere by pissing each other off.”
“Thanks, Dad,” Dex said. “I can’t even follow along with most of the conversation anyway.”
After a small moment, Ralph said, “It’s still important.”
“That conversation isn’t as important as the task at hand, which is getting to Seattle,” Layne said. “And we’re never going to get there safely if we don’t stop bickering. There’ll be time for that later.”
“I hope there isn’t,” Dex said.
A few miles outside of Tacoma, Layne glanced at Katie. She was fidgeting with her hands, and one of her legs was bobbing up and down.
“It’ll be okay,” Layne said. Katie looked at him. “I’m sure she’s fine.”
“I hope so,” Katie said.
“What’s her name, anyway?”
“I can’t believe I haven’t told you yet. Keely, her name’s Keely.”
“I’m sure Keely’s just fine, okay?”
“I hope you’re right,” Katie said.
****
The streets were getting denser as the survivors reached the outskirts of Seattle. There were more cars, and more zombies. The group was running out of side roads to take, and the ones they found were just as cluttered as the main roads, so they decided to stick to those. Every few minutes, Layne would look to make sure Garrett was still following him.
“Once we get into the city, you can get us to Keely’s house, right?” Layne asked.
“As long as we pass by the airport, yeah,” Katie said. “I’ll know the way.”
“Wait a sec,” Ralph said. “What are we going to do, exactly? Just go to this girl’s house, knock on the door, and hope a zombie doesn’t answer?”
“Ralph!” Kyle said.
“No, hear me out, though. Even if she’s safe, would she be waiting? We don’t even know that she’s home. What if she isn’t there, then where do we go?”
“Keely knew I was on my way,” Katie said. “She’d wait for me, unless her life depended on leaving. And if that was the case, she’d leave a note, or some kind of sign telling me where she went.”
“So we’re just going to follow her? What if she didn’t find a safe place?”
“That’s a good question, Ralph,” Layne said. “But what if she did?”
“Okay,” Ralph said. “Point taken. I still think this is pretty risky. Does she live in the city itself?”
“She lives in a small house crammed between other small houses. It’s not quite a suburb, but she’s not in the inner city, either.”
“So there’ll be a lot of zombies,” Kyle said.
“Most likely,” Layne said. “And it’s broad daylight.”
“So we can’t just park somewhere and hope nobody sees us, then,” Katie said.
“Seems like we’ve found ourselves a problem,” Kyle said. “How are we going to get anyone inside? And let’s say she’s there, and we get her out here, then where do we go?”
“We’ll figure out where to go later,” Layne replied. “We just have to take this one step at a time. Let’s figure out a plan when we get close to Keely’s house, okay? Anything we come up with out here may not even apply. Too many things could be different or go wrong. For right now, we just have to get there.”
They soon passed below a sign that read “Airport” next to a big white arrow pointing upward. Katie was wrinkling the map in her hands.
“It’s not too far from here,” she said.
Every now and then a zombie jumped for the car, but it always either missed, or bounced off and ended up lying in the street. Dex and Lacie were taking turns facing backwards to watch for Garrett, so Layne could focus on driving. He still checked the rearview every now and then.
“Oh my God,” Kyle said. “Look at that shit.” He pointed to the airport to their right. There were pillars of smoke everywhere, and much of the building had collapsed. The remains of planes were everywhere.
It reminded Layne too much of everything. The plane, Alex, the night they crashed and the days that followed. For the first time, he thought about life before the crash, before the zombies. He felt distracted by these memories, and decided to store them away.
“All right,” he said. “Get us there, Katie.”
****
The cars idled on a small bridge. A few zombies noticed, and were shambling toward the cars. Layne ignored them.
“It’s that one?” he asked, pointing to a small house.
“Yeah. The little white one.”
Layne watched for signs of life, but all he saw was the occasional zombie in the street and a bunch of parked cars.
“There are a lot of zombies,” Kyle said. One got to the car and pressed its face against the window.
“We have no way of telling Garrett what’s going on, either,” Lacie said.
“We don’t even know what’s going on, yet,” Dex replied.
“Well, someone’s going to have to get inside,” Layne said.
Katie didn’t hesitate. “I’ll go.”
“You’re not going alone.”
“But if we’re waiting in the cars, we’re basically sitting ducks,” Dex said.
“I think I have an idea,” Ralph said.
Kyle rolled his eyes. “Oh, great. We’re saved.”
“Do you guys know what a Roman Tortoise is?”
“I don’t want to hear anything about Romans,” Kyle said.
“It’s not a Bible thing,” Dex replied. “I saw that in that movie about the Spartans. They would make like a big shell with their shields, and stick their spears out through the sides. So they could attack, but nothing could get in.”
“We can do that with the car as our shell,” Ralph said. “Everyone can take a gun, and sit at a window. If anything gets too close, you roll the window down, kill it, then roll it back up.”
“This may actually work,” Layne said.
“What about the front and back windshields?” Lacie asked. “Those don’t move.”
“Chances are, we can hit anything that comes for the front from the sides,” Ralph said. “Garrett can rest at our bumper, so we’ll cover their front, and they’ve got our back.”
“How are we going to tell them this?” Dex asked.
Katie reached into the glove box and got some paper. She took a pen, and made a sign in big, thick letters.
PULL UP CLOSER
“Just press this against the back window. Garrett will see it and get closer. That way, Layne and I don’t have to go out there and risk our lives explaining the plan.”
Ralph pressed the paper against the back windshield. Garrett’s car got closer, but not close enough. Ralph waved them forward until the bumpers were almost touching.
“Now we just write them a novel, paper by paper,” Kyle said.
“Can I see the pen?” Ralph said. Katie handed it to Kyle, who passed it back to him. Ralph started scribbling on the other side of the sign.
“What are you doing?” Dex asked.
“I’m drawing a diagram. A pic
ture is worth a thousand words.”
“Is that from the Bible?” Kyle said. Ralph looked up at him. He looked offended. “Okay, sorry.”
Ralph finished his drawing and pressed it against the glass. Garrett looked on from the other car, confused.
“I don’t think he’s getting it,” Dex said.
Warren said something to Garrett, and Ralph could tell it finally clicked. Garrett gave him the thumbs-up.
“Yes!” Lacie said.
“Houston, we are go for launch,” Dex said.
“Okay,” Layne said. “Stay safe, guys. We’ll be back soon.”
“And make room,” Katie said. “We’re bringing someone back with us.”
The two of them left the car, each carrying a shotgun.
****
“Okay, let’s get this done quickly,” Layne said. He and Katie walked briskly down the bridge. A zombie at the bottom shambled toward them, somewhat slower than usual.
“The hill is going to slow them down,” Katie said. “This may work better than we thought.”
Layne raised his gun, and the two of them heard a shot. Katie turned to see a zombie fall down next to Garrett’s car, and the barrel of a gun retreated into the vehicle as the window went up. Layne waited for his own zombie to get closer, and then fired. It dropped to the ground.
“Come on, let’s move.”
Three more zombies waited at the bottom of the bridge. The gunshots seemed to be attracting more of them. Layne and Katie took care of the zombies at hand, and made for the small white house.
“Cover me,” Layne said. He rushed up the stairs and tried the doorknob as Katie turned and shot an approaching zombie. “It’s locked. Do you have a key?”