Apocalypse Atlanta

by Rogers, David

  “Hello?”

  “Jessica! Dear God, are you okay?” Dennis Morris said, sounding equally relieved and concerned.

  “Yes.” Jessica replied, closing her eyes and forcing her hand to relax before she crushed the phone and broke it. Her palm was hurting, so tight had her grip been. “I’m so glad to hear from you. You have no idea how glad. Is everyone okay there?”

  “Trudy and I are fine.” Dennis said. “But we can play twenty questions about ‘how are you’ later. Your message said you needed help. What’s wrong?”

  “We . . . had to leave the house.” Jessica said. “I’m in the car with Candice and trying to find somewhere safe. I just found some information about refugee camps outside the city–”

  Dennis cut her off. “Forget that. You should come here, as quick as you can.”

  Jessica hesitated. “Are you sure?” Then she blinked, amazed she’d actually asked that question. She glanced at Candice in the seat next to her, still diligently scanning around the car to make sure nothing bad got near them. Jessica winced involuntarily. “What I mean is, is it safe there?”

  “Yes.” Dennis said. “Jessica, listen, there’s way too much to explain over the phone right now. My hand to God, come here and you’ll be safe.”

  Jessica put the car in gear and looked behind her quickly to ensure the road was clear, then pulled out into the travel lanes. There was an exit just ahead where she could get off. Doctor Morris lived in Johns Creek, which was west of here. “How are the roads there? Anything I should know about blocks or wrecks or anything?”

  She heard him breathing for a moment, then he spoke. “There are some sick people wandering around in the area, at least that’s what I’m told. But you shouldn’t have any trouble getting here. You remember where the house is, right?”

  Jessica frowned as the Accord climbed the exit ramp. “Yes, I know just where it is.” She came to a rolling stop, the kind that could get you a ticket, at the top of the ramp as she looked in both directions, then turned left through the red light and headed west. “What do you mean? Who’s telling you about the roads?”

  “Jessica, just get here. Before the sun comes up.”

  “Doctor . . .” Jessica said sternly.

  “Christ . . .okay, short version. You remember my brother?”

  Jessica blinked. There was a wreck ahead, just past the west side of the interstate, but there was easily enough room to drive past. Why would Dennis ask her that? “Tyler?” she asked slowly, thinking back to the Christmas party last year. She knew she’d met him, but for the life of her couldn’t seem to summon a clear memory of having done so.

  “That’s right.” Dennis said. “He’s here now with some of his people, and more are on the way.”

  Jessica was silent, still confused. She kept her high beams on and pushed her speed up to well past the four lane road’s limit. If she remembered correctly, she could follow this around for a few miles, then cut south and west and she’d be at Peachtree Industrial. From there it was basically three more turns and she’d be at Dennis’ neighborhood. “His people?” she finally asked, trying to find something she could use to figure out what Dennis was trying to explain.

  “Damnit Jessica, I told you this was too involved to get into over the phone.” Dennis said, sounding frustrated rather than angry. “Look, how long until you get here?”

  “Um . . .” Jessica considered. “I don’t know, fifteen minutes, maybe.”

  “Good. Don’t stop for anything, there’s nothing you need to bring except you and Candice. When you get here I’ll explain what’s going on.”

  “Okay.” Jessica said, still confused but unwilling to push him on it. He was probably right, explanations could wait. She’d be there shortly.

  “Be careful Jessica.”

  “I will.” Jessica hesitated, then smiled very slightly. “Thank you Doctor.”

  The line went dead, and Jessica dropped the phone back into its cradle.

  “We’re going to Doctor Morris’ house?” Candice asked.

  “That’s right.” Jessica said distractedly, trying to pay attention to the road. The road was clear, but there were a fair number of cars parked on one shoulder or the other, or, more uncommonly, sitting tangled in pairs or trios in a wreck of some sort. The speed limit was forty-five, and though she was ignoring that, she didn’t feel comfortable pushing past sixty in the dark and with the likely possibility of one or more of the lanes being blocked as she zipped along.

  “He’s your boss.”

  “Yes, I work for him.” Jessica said, though she left unsaid that she hoped that were still true. She would love to be able to go back to the office and return to the regular routine of managing it for Dennis. That would mean things were back to normal, which could only be a good thing. Somehow, she didn’t think that was going to happen anytime soon.

  “So that means he’s a good guy, right?”

  “Yes, Doctor Morris is a good guy.”

  “Good.” Candice said, sounding content.

  Jessica gave her a quick smile, but didn’t pull her attention from the road ahead. “We’ll be there soon.” she said, silently thinking the sooner the better. The road finally curved around to the south for a mile, then ended in a T-intersection, where she turned right to reach Peachtree Industrial. It was less than a minute before she did, and she swung out with another rolling stop against the light after looking in both directions.

  It was creeping her out how strange the roads looked. It wasn’t the abandoned or damaged cars that was bothering her. It was the lack of other traffic. Even though it was the middle of the night, it was Saturday night. Atlanta’s traffic was legendary for a reason. The emptiness on the roads was alien and disconcerting. She never thought she’d wish for a bit of traffic, but as she zipped along Peachtree Industrial, she found herself wishing, a little, for that bit of normality.

  When she saw a particularly nasty looking wreck ahead, where a four door sedan that looked like it was probably in bad shape even before the impacts had been mangled between a van and a jeep, she slowed while she sized things up. The vehicles were twisted together across both of her lanes, leaving only the oncoming ones clear. Jessica let her speed ease down from sixty to a more sedate forty while she studied the road, but it was just one more wreck.

  Satisfied, she swung across the center line to the wrong side of the road and put her foot back on the accelerator again. She was just about to make it past the accident site when a humanoid shape suddenly silhouetted itself in her headlights. Jessica didn’t have time to form any thoughts or to say anything, not even to gasp or scream in surprise. Her hands twisted sharply on the steering wheel, trying to veer left and avoid the impact.

  Distantly, she heard Candice inhale swiftly as the car started to change course, and then there was a heavy and violent thud that rocked Jessica forward against her seat belt. She’d almost missed the figure, but only almost. Rather than hitting just to the right side of center, she’d changed the point of impact instead to the front right corner of the bumper.

  An instant after she heard and felt the collision, something heavy and . . . squishy . . . hit the windshield on Candice’s side of the car. The safety glass fractured immediately, converting into a web like pattern rather than shattering explosively. The difference was almost academic, as Jessica couldn’t see through it clearly anymore.

  When whatever it was that she’d hit rolled off the windshield, up and over the roof, she barely noticed. The car felt like it was starting to skid around to the left, and she jammed her foot down on the brake as she fought for control. She couldn’t see! And all she could think of was how bad it would be to run off the road and straight into a building or utility pole. As she tried to correct for the skid, she felt the car heeling right, then start wobbling violently as she tried to tame the back and forth motion into something resembling a straight line.

  She was still trying when she lost the battle, as the car’s wobble slowly, so terrifyingly
slowly it seemed, turned into a tip to the left. Jessica gasped as the world rotated around her, hearing Candice screaming. The Accord came off its wheels and down on its left side with a skittering thud. She heard a series of rapid bangs, something punched her in the head from two different sides, and suddenly everything went black.

  The next thing she knew, someone was shaking her. Candice, it had to be Candice. She heard the girl’s voice, high and thin with terror, pleading with her. “Mom! Mom! Wake up! Mom!” Something was wrong with her hearing. Her ears were ringing so loudly Candice’s voice seemed to be coming at her from the top of a very deep well.

  And everything seemed off kilter, wrong somehow. She didn’t know what it was, but it was confusing. Disorienting. Jessica shook her head a few times, trying to drive the cobwebs away. “Mom! Are you alright? Mom!”

  Jessica opened her eyes and blinked several times, as if that would pull her thoughts back on track. Wreck. She’d wrecked the car. Oh God! She realized she was on her side, against the door. The seat belt was digging painfully into her shoulder and hip. That was why things felt so wrong, well part of it anyway.

  “Candice?” she asked, turning her head to the right, up really. Her voice came out thick and slightly slurred, and she tasted blood in her mouth. The salt and iron tang was unpleasant and scary. She could feel her lips acutely; they were swollen like she’d been hit in the face, making it hard to shape words properly.

  Her daughter’s face came into focus slowly, reluctantly, as if her eyes were still remembering proper function. The girl’s expression was drawn wide and white with stress, her eyes frantic and desperate as they fastened upon Jessica. Candice hung against her seatbelt above Jessica, feet braced against the center console to support herself as she shook Jessica with her left hand.

  “Mom!”

  Jessica bent her arm at the elbow and awkwardly patted the girl’s hand as it shook her shoulder. It took her three tries to even make contact. “Okay. It’s okay.” She muttered, then blinked and shook her head again. It made her dizzy, but she felt some of the ice on her thoughts starting to come loose. “Are you okay?”

  “I think so.” Candice said anxiously. “My ears and nose hurt.”

  Jessica blinked again, then swept her eyes around the interior of the car. The windshield was still a pebbled pattern of a thousand small cracks. The airbags had deployed, now hanging limply from the steering wheel, the passenger side of the dash, and along both side headliners above the doors. Her head had been nestled in the curtain bag to her left. She heard a sound and realized the engine was still on, sounding very odd. She reached out and fumbled for the ignition, finally getting her fingers on the key and turning to switch it off.

  As the engine reluctantly died, her hearing improved a little. Her ears were definitely trying to recover from all the airbag deployments, which might take some time. She remembered Brett having told her once the airbags basically used what he described as shotgun shells to trigger. Hazily she wondered if the airbags hadn’t been worse than just tipping over would have been, but she thrust the thought aside. It wasn’t helping at the moment.

  “Alright.” Jessica said, then spat to the side to try and clear her mouth. She didn’t dare look at what came out when she did, but her mouth was clearer. “Phone. Candice, help me find my phone. We need to call Doctor Morris.”

  “We need the police.” Candice said, though her head was already swiveling around as she searched the interior of the car. “An ambulance.”

  Jessica shook her head very slightly. “They’re not coming. They’re all busy trying to help sick people.”

  “You’re sick.” Candice said, stretching from within the restrictions of her seatbelt for something on her side of the car.

  Jessica blinked, then made her voice sharp. “Never say that.”

  “What?”

  Jessica spat again, then continued a little more gently. “Candy Bear, right now sick means something bad. Don’t say sick unless they’re like the people on the news, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  “I’m serious.” she persisted, thinking of someone hearing that word and immediately shooting or killing whoever was being talked about, before an explanation could be given. “You say injured, or hurt. Don’t say sick unless they’re like . . .” she floundered to a halt abruptly.

  “Like Joey and Sandra.”

  Jessica blinked, then had to step hard on her emotions to avoid bursting into tears. “Yes, like Joey and Sandra. And anyway, I’m fine.” Jessica said, silently hoping that was true. Her body was continuing to report in, and she felt bruises and aches all over. The worst was her knee, the left one. It throbbed steadily, though when she reached down she didn’t feel any rips or tears in her jeans, nor did it feel wet like it was bleeding. It just hurt. A lot. “Just find the phone.”

  “I am.” Candice muttered, still straining towards something on her floorboard, out of Jessica’s sight behind the dashboard. Jessica fumbled at her seatbelt, finally getting her fingers on the button and disengaging it. The belt came loose and she slumped the final few inches to the side of the driver’s compartment. She clamped her mouth shut to avoid cursing when her knee hit the door. Painfully, moving carefully, she shifted until she knelt against the driver’s side window.

  Straightening as best she could, she saw the phone lying at the far front of the passenger side floorboard, out of Candice’s reach. Jessica grabbed the charger cord that still connected the power socket to the phone and tugged, reeling it in. Candice finally got hold of it as Jessica tugged on the cord, and gave a sound of triumph. “Got it.”

  “Thank you sweetie.” Jessica said as her daughter handed the phone over. The screen was cracked, but responded as she swiped to unlock it. She could feel more damage, cracks, on the phone’s case as it rested in her hand, but she ignored all that as she used the recent calls list to call Dennis.

  On the second ring the call was picked up. “Hello?”

  Jessica paused, confused. The voice was male and unfamiliar. “Dennis Morris?”

  “He’s busy. Who is this?”

  “Jessica. Jessica Talbot. I just spoke with him.”

  “Ah.” The man sounded like he was making a checkmark on some list he was maintaining. “You’re enroute?”

  “No!” Jessica said, trying to keep from shouting. “There’s been an accident. My car’s overturned. We’re stranded here.”

  “Christ.” she heard the man cursing, then some background voices. They were just a touch too indistinct to make out, but there were more than two or three. She couldn’t tell if they were arguing or yelling or talking, but they didn’t sound like they were having a calm conversation.

  Jessica felt her hand growing warm as it clutched the phone and made herself loosen her grip. The phone was her lifeline, literally. “Hello?” She said loudly, trying to get the attention of whoever had taken her call. “Hello!”

  “Right.” The voice was back. “Location, where are you?”

  Jessica frowned, trying to think. “Peachtree Industrial Boulevard. North of Highway-120, not too far north. I was almost to it.”

  “Okay. What kind of car?” She had the distinct impression the man was writing, his voice now had that unique flat quality people tended to adopt when they were splitting their attention.

  “It’s an Accord, Honda. Silver.” Jessica said quickly. “It’s overturned, on its driver’s side in the road.” she added, trying to anticipate his questions even as she glanced around, then out the rear window of the car for confirmation. Yes, they were still in the road. She could see the pavement stretching out in that direction.

  “Are you secure?”

  “Secure?”

  “Are there any zombies nearby?” The man asked calmly. “Is the car intact?”

  Jessica looked around. She did not consider this intact. The news had showed her far too many scenes of zombies beating their way into vehicles that were surrounded. Even if the windshield weren’t already damaged,
she knew this wasn’t safe. “No, it’s not.”

  “Okay.” Her hand was still warm, almost hot now. She shifted, holding the phone in a sort of claw grip. Jessica realized the man’s voice was fading. “You need to–” she heard faintly, each word quieter than the one before it, until she couldn’t hear him anymore.

  “Hello? Hello!” Jessica looked at the phone, but the screen was black. She shook it in frustration, then put it back to her ear. “Hello?”

  “Mommy?” Candice asked fearfully.

  “Something’s wrong with the phone.” Jessica said as calmly as she could manage. She had no idea why it wasn’t working now. Turning it over, she felt heat radiating from the back, not enough to be dangerous, but definitely warmth. A lot of warmth. It didn’t make any sense. Her phone never did that.

  “Mommy.”

  “What sweetie?” Jessica asked, still perplexed over the phone. Maybe the wreck had done something to it.

  “I hear someone walking.”

  Jessica forgot the phone instantly, letting it slip from her fingers. “What?”

  “Footsteps.” Candice said, pointing at the windshield. “Don’t you hear them?”

  Jessica held her breath and listened, cursing the persistent distraction the ringing sensation in her ears was providing. Her hearing was still struggling to recover from the aftermath of the airbags. Everything seemed to be clouded by sound she knew wasn’t really there. She concentrated as seconds passed.

  Finally, as she opened her mouth to say she couldn’t hear anything, she abruptly did. Feet scraping on pavement. Such a simple thing, normally so innocuous, but now enough to send icy chills through her very soul.

  “Quiet.” Jessica whispered, reaching up and putting her hand on Candice’s shoulder. Straightening further, her body an awkward fit for the sideways car, she managed to get her head close to her daughter’s. “Be. Quiet.” she breathed into Candice’s ear.

  Candice grabbed Jessica’s hand with both of hers, clasping it tightly. Jessica could feel the girl’s pulse strongly, felt her own heart beating rapidly. Jessica squeezed Candice’s hands reassuringly and waited, praying. ‘Please. Please God, let it keep going. Please let it go away.’ She breathed as shallowly as she could, trying to minimize any noise. Seconds ticked past. She strained her ears, trying to figure out what was happening outside the car.