The Remnants of Yesterday

by Anthony M. Strong

  “Tell me about it, the book.” Clara moved closer, her arm brushing mine. “What’s it called?”

  “Promise you won’t laugh?”

  “Why would I?” she said.

  “When Dreams Were Done.” I spoke the name of the book, and that flicker of disappointment returned. “It’s a mix of fantasy and love story set in the twenties. My stab at literary fame.”

  “Sounds interesting.”

  “You haven’t read it yet.”

  “I’d like to.” She looked at me. “When this is all over.”

  “This might never be over,” I said. “Besides, I left my laptop locked in the trunk of the car back at the gas station.”

  “Too bad.”

  “What about you. How did you see your life going?”

  “Not like this, obviously. I’m not sure I had any concrete plans after school. I took literature because I love books, not because I had any great ideas for my future. Sounds kind of short sighted, huh?”

  “Not really. I’ve spent the last three years serving coffee. Hardly a stellar career move.”

  “But you did write a book too.”

  “Yes. I did. And look where that got me.” I surveyed the motel parking lot again.

  “It brought you to me. If you weren’t still working in that coffee shop, you might not have pulled into the gas station when you did.” She closed her hand over mine. “I’m not sure I would have made it this far without you.”

  “Are you kidding me?” I said. “You’d have done just fine without me. I saw the way you busted the restaurant door open like a pro.”

  “Ah yes. My father taught me well.” She laughed, her eyes dancing for a moment before a look of sadness came upon her. “They’re probably dead, aren’t they? My parents.”

  “Maybe.” It seemed futile to lie. “Then again, we’re not. If they survived they’re probably thinking the same thing about you.”

  “You are lucky. You know your brother is fine.”

  “All I know is that his phone sent me a text, and a pretty impersonal one at that. It could have been sent by anyone.”

  “For what purpose?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “You should choose to believe it was your brother that sent it until you find out otherwise. Everyone needs a little hope.”

  “And what about you?” I asked. “What hope do you have?”

  “I hope we reach New Haven and it’s a safe place, somewhere with normal people. Who knows, maybe my parents are heading there right now, just like us.”

  “You’re right.” I put my arm around her.

  “I know.” She rested her head on my shoulder and closed her eyes, and suddenly there didn’t seem to be anything else worth saying. It was enough to be close, to share the moment, two small specs of humanity huddling together under the heavy moon. Who knew what lay ahead, what tomorrow would bring, but for now we had each other - and a little dash of hope.

  32

  CLARA STAYED WITH ME on the balcony for a while longer before retiring back to the room. Before she left, she made me promise not to stay up all night keeping watch, to let Darwin take his turn. Apparently, she sensed my unease about the pothead guarding us, but she also knew I would need to be rested for the next day.

  The silence was like a void after she left, and I found my mind drifting. With Darwin not set to relieve me for another hour, I paced back and forth, doing my best to stay alert and fight the boredom. Since freeing Alice from the cooler, we had seen neither hide nor hair of her, which made me a little uneasy. I would have preferred to know where she was. I decided to take a turn around the balcony, to see if I could locate her.

  I never got that far.

  The first wave of dizziness made me stop in my tracks. The second caused me to grab hold of the railing just to stop myself from falling to my knees. I held on for dear life and gulped in the cool night air.

  The world spun around me.

  My legs felt weak, unable to support my weight. Then the nausea came, the feeling that I was about to throw up was so strong that it surprised me when I didn’t.

  I groaned and slid to the floor, my back against the railings, and breathed deeply, fighting the darkness that threatened to close in on me, the fuzzy nothingness that drew my vision down until I felt like I was looking at the world through a keyhole.

  And then it was over.

  The sensation retreated as quickly as it arrived.

  I sat there for a moment, dazed and bewildered. I knew I hadn’t been eating enough, and I was tired from the events of the past few days. Maybe it was exhaustion finally catching up with me. Given the circumstances, it seemed like the most logical explanation for what just happened.

  However, deep down I harbored a more frightening thought. What if this was the virus? The thought of joining the ranks of the Crazies was almost too frightening to contemplate. Would I be chasing Clara and Emily tomorrow, wanting to make them into my mid-morning snack? A stab of terror gripped my stomach and turned it upside down. Alice had clawed at me in the kitchen earlier that day, grazed my face. It was barely a scratch, nothing to worry about. Until now.

  She was infected with whatever virus had been unleashed upon humanity. Was it possible she had transferred that infection to me? For the second time in as many minutes I felt sick, only this time it was fear induced.

  If it happened again I would tell the others, but until then I decided to stay mute. There was no point in worrying them unnecessarily.

  I climbed to my feet, holding the railing just to be safe, and waited a moment, not trusting my legs. Finally deciding it was safe to move, I released the railing and was about to turn back toward the hotel room, when something caught my eye.

  A figure hovered in the darkness at the far end of the balcony.

  I blinked and looked again.

  It was still there, barely visible in the gloom, a lighter patch against the blackness, clearly human in shape, yet indistinct in nature.

  “Hello?” I called out, but the figure did not respond.

  Instead, it seemed to shrink back, melting away until it was almost imperceptible.

  “Do you need help?” Was it a Crazie? Darwin had spoken of there being some guests in the motel at the time of the incident, so maybe it was one of them. But that would be odd since we already searched the entire floor, going room to room just to make sure. We also blocked the staircases, and I surely would have heard the noise if the barricades were moved. Maybe Alice the waitress had found her way up here. Somehow I knew it wasn’t her. There was no grunting, in fact no sound at all, and I was not running for my life. No, whatever this was, whoever it was, had the feel of something entirely different.

  I took a step forward, unsure if I should investigate, but knowing I must. We couldn’t afford any more surprises. What if it was another survivor, and they needed help?

  I drew closer to the spot where I’d seen the figure, my eyes searching the gloom for any sign of a person, but the space was empty. Confused, I came to a halt, unsure what to do next.

  Then I saw it once more, or rather, caught a glimpse of movement from the corner of my eye. I turned, locating it again among the shadows. The figure seemed to be fading in and out. One moment it was there, the next it wasn’t. And it was moving toward me.

  I froze, my heart pounding.

  The figure was closer now. I could see the vague outline of a face, the lips moving as if it was speaking, but no sound came out. I took a step backward and closed my eyes, just for a moment, wondering if this was just some apparition brought about by tiredness or lack of food. When I opened them again, it was gone. The balcony was deserted.

  I breathed a sigh of relief and turned back toward the room, then stopped dead.

  The figure was right there, standing just a few feet from me. As before, it faded in and out, translucent at times, almost imperceptible at others. Strangely though, I could feel the air moving around the shape, almost as if it was in the center of a miniat
ure cyclone. The rushing air tugged at my clothes and hair, sending a chill through me.

  Then there was that face, those blurred, almost unfocused features, and the mouth, silently speaking.

  I reached down and pulled my gun, bringing it up, not sure what else to do. My finger curled around the trigger, ready to fire.

  Then, without warning, the thing melted away. It almost seemed to fall apart like smoke, becoming one with the darkness until there was nothing left but a vague sense of what had once been. That too soon faded, and I was left alone, gun in hand, staring in disbelief at the empty balcony.

  I stood there for a long moment, stunned, shaking. What had I just seen? Was it real? It sure looked real enough. For a moment I considered calling to the others, telling them what had just happened, but decided against it. After all, what could I really say to them? That I’d seen some sort of vague shape and then it was gone? Besides, now that things seemed normal again it was easy to reason the encounter away as some sort of a hallucination brought on by fatigue or stress. It was better not to worry them unnecessarily. For the moment I would keep quiet about the incident, and if it happened again, well…

  I pushed the gun back into my belt and stepped toward the room just in time to see Darwin emerge. He looked confused for a moment, clearly expecting to see me right there by the door, but waved when I drew closer.

  “Taking a stroll?”

  “Something like that,” I replied. “Just trying to stay awake.” If he noticed the strain in my voice he didn’t say anything.

  “Well you can go catch a few winks now.” Darwin said. “I gotta warn you though, that Clara snores like you wouldn’t believe. I barely got any sleep.”

  “Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind.” I suppressed a smile.

  “You’re welcome.” He eyed the gun in my belt. “I should probably have some protection while I’m out here.”

  “You can use that.” I nodded toward the tire iron, which was propped against the wall next to the door.

  “Really?” He looked disappointed. “Are you sure I shouldn’t have something a little less hands on? Seems like I’d have to get mighty close to someone to use that thing.”

  “You’ll be fine.” There was no way I was giving Darwin the gun. “If you see anything, just come and wake me up.”

  “Well, okay.” His eyes lingered on the pistol a moment longer before he turned away and leaned on the railing, looking down into the parking lot below. He was silent for a moment, and then spoke again. “Can I ask you something?”

  “What?”

  “Can I come with you tomorrow when you leave here?” He glanced back at me. “I don’t want to stay here anymore, and I heard the girls talking about New Haven.”

  “Sure.” I figured he would want to come with us. “You are going to have to leave the pot behind though.”

  “Really?” He raised his eyebrows. “All of it?”

  “All of it. We’ll need you to be alert. It’s not safe out there.”

  “Like it’s been safe here.”

  “That’s the deal, take it or leave it.”

  “Fine.” He turned back to the parking lot, sullen.

  I waited a moment, expecting him to say something else, but he didn’t, so I made my way back to the room and climbed into bed, the weird apparition heavy on my mind.

  33

  SOMEONE WAS SHAKING ME. I opened my eyes, blinked away the sleep and tried to focus. Weak light filtered through the red and yellow striped drapes, finding its way in through the gap between the curtains. I sat up. “What is it?”

  “There’s something going on outside.” Darwin’s eyes were wide with fear. “You have to see this.”

  From the other bed, I heard Emily and Clara stir.

  “What is going on?” Clara asked. “Has Alice come back?”

  “Sort of.” Darwin said, enigmatic. “Only much worse.”

  “Oh great,” Emily said. “She was bad enough. What do you call much worse?”

  “Just come and see. It’s freaking strange.” Darwin practically pulled me out of bed. He was hopping from foot to foot, as if the floor were a bed of live coals. “Hurry.”

  “Alright. Easy there.” I stood and reached for my pants, pulling them up over my boxers, then slipped into my shoes. I turned to the girls. “Get dressed, and move the backpacks to the door ready. We may need to make a quick escape.”

  “Okay,” Clara said.

  “I’ll meet you out there.” The evening before, we’d taken the time to stuff as much of the food and other supplies as we could into our packs. Now I was glad we had. “Grab some blankets from the beds too, anything you can fit, we may need them.”

  “Got it.” Clara nodded.

  “And don’t take too long.”

  “Come on.” Darwin was at the door already, glancing outside, nervous. “Bring the gun too.”

  “Right.” I exchanged a glance with Clara, then pushed the pistol back into my belt and followed the desk clerk outside.

  What I saw stopped me dead in my tracks.

  The road was full of Crazies.

  There must have been fifty in all shapes and sizes, old and young, male and female. I spotted a man who must have been pushing eighty years old, and a kid no older than six. One guy wore a cop’s uniform. Some people must have been either sleeping or preparing for bed when the virus affected them, given their partial state of undress, ranging from nothing at all in one case, to underwear or bedclothes. They shuffled around, moving slowly, their heads turned in our direction, although they didn’t seem to be coming any closer.

  In the middle of the group, standing stock still, I spied Alice in her bloody waitress uniform, her arm still hanging limp and broken to her side.

  “This is not good.” I pulled the pistol from my belt. “How long have they been here?”

  “Just a few minutes before I woke you.” Darwin said. “Alice showed up first. I didn’t want to disturb anyone, so I went for a pee around the corner. When I came back she was standing there, just like she is now.”

  “And the others?” I asked, as Clara and Emily came up behind me.

  “They arrived pretty quickly.” Darwin said. “They seemed to be attracted to her somehow. Some came off the interstate, others from the fields. It was freaking creepy.”

  “Why aren’t they moving?” asked Clara.

  “I dunno. They just stopped right there. Not a one of them has set foot into the parking lot so far. They seem to be staying in the road as if there’s some invisible barrier.” He scratched his head. “They know we’re here. Alice looked right at me.”

  Emily watched the Crazies with a look of revulsion on her face. “I don’t want to be here anymore.”

  “We’ll leave soon enough.” I assured her. “First we need to figure out what they are up to. I don’t like it.”

  “Me either.” The tire iron had somehow found its way into Clara’s hands again. “They should be trying to get up here and kill us.”

  “Maybe they’re getting better.” Darwin said hopefully. “I mean, if it is a virus they could fight it off, right, like a cold?”

  “I don’t think it works that way,” I said. “Besides, they don’t look any saner than the other ones we’ve encountered. They are just not attacking us right now for some reason.”

  “Alice certainly seems to be just as crazy as she was yesterday,” Clara chipped in. “She gives me the creeps, standing there like that.”

  “It’s almost as if they sense something,” Emily said. “Maybe they’re afraid.”

  I turned to her, surprised. “Off what?”

  “I don’t know, but they say dogs can sense things we can’t, vibrations, high frequency sounds,” she explained. “Some people believe they can even sense ghosts. Maybe the Crazies sense things too.”

  “Well for one, they’re human, not dogs, so it seems unlikely they have suddenly developed some sort of sixth sense,” I countered. Even so, I could not help but think of the strange figu
re I’d seen in the early hours. Were the Crazies picking up on that somehow? I found it hard to believe. “Besides, what could they possibly be afraid off?”

  “I think I know,” Clara whispered. Her eyes had strayed from the road, and the Crazies, to the roofline of the motel across the parking lot. Her face was white. “Look.”

  I glanced up, and suddenly understood why the Crazies didn’t want anything to do with us. Creeping silently along the roofline were several creatures, their skin dark and oily. They moved forward on all fours, powerful muscles rippling. As they went, their bony, muscular heads moved from side to side, coal black eyes inset under deep boned brows. Rows of vicious pointed teeth extended up and down from powerful oversized jaws, the canine teeth at the corners of the mouth so long they looked like daggers.

  Emily stifled a shriek.

  “Oh sweet Jesus. What are those things?” Darwin back peddled, nearly bumping into me.

  I reached out and grabbed him, realizing that he was about to turn tail and run. “Just keep calm. Whatever those things are, we don’t want to draw their attention.”

  “They don’t look like any animal I’ve ever seen.”

  “No they don’t.”

  “Maybe they escaped from a zoo,” Emily said. Her voice cracked when she spoke.

  “I don’t think so.” I watched the closest creature slink along the roof, hunkered down. When it turned in our direction, I froze. My heart pounded in my chest so loud I thought there was no way we would remain undiscovered, but the beast turned away again, focusing its attention on the Crazies.

  “This is so not good. Not good.” Darwin was visibly shaking. He looked down at the gun. “Why aren’t you using that thing? Shoot them.”

  “Be quiet,” I hissed. “I don’t think they know we’re here yet.”

  “And I would like to keep it that way,” Clara added.

  The creatures reached the edge of the roof and stopped. Below them, in the road, the Crazies made no move to retreat.