The Systemic Series - Box Set

by K. W. Callahan

  “Come on,” Joanna said, grabbing Janet by the arm and pull her and Shane off the road and toward the sheltered safety of the woods. But as she did so, her pull became a push as a vehicle suddenly burst from the nearby tree line, its headlights off as it barreled down an access road that Joanna hadn’t even realized was there.

  Janet – still holding Shane on her back – stumbled from the force of Joanna’s shove, collapsing in a heap in a nearby pile of bushes. Meanwhile, Joanna moved to follow, but it was too late as she felt the massive force of the vehicle as it impacted with her body.

  CHAPTER 6

  “Watch out!” screamed Claire, grabbing my arm on the steering wheel.

  I slammed on the breaks, locking them up into a slide, but it was too late as we heard the sickening thud of the woman’s body collide with the front of our SUV as we prepared to exit the camp access onto the main road.

  There was the sound of tires skidding on gravel behind us as Dad narrowly avoided ramming into the back of our SUV.

  “Fuck!” I pounded the steering wheel with both hands as I sat, our SUV idling, absorbing what had just happened. “What the hell was she doing?” I said, stunned and confused as to why this woman was standing in the middle of the access road entrance.

  Jason was crying in the back seat and Claire was just staring ahead, wide-eyed.

  I pulled myself together and opened the driver’s side door, pulling my .44 from the center console just in case this was some sort of trick.

  “Be careful,” Claire said.

  Dad was out of his vehicle too, but I motioned him with a hand to stay back where he was. “Give me a second, Dad…but be ready for anything.”

  I reached back inside the car and flipped on our SUV’s headlights.

  In front of me, I could see a young woman lying on her back about ten feet in front of where we’d come to a stop. She wasn’t moving.

  Suddenly I sensed movement near the edge of the road. I spun, raising my gun, my finger on the trigger, squeezing.

  From the perimeter of light that shown from our vehicle’s headlights, I could see a young boy standing, crying, and someone crouched beside him in the shadows.

  “Come out,” I yelled.

  My arms were shaking from a mixture of adrenaline and shock as I moved my gun’s aim to the person beside the boy.

  A young girl rose to stand beside him, her hands up.

  “Anyone else with you?” I called, doing my best to scan the darkness around them.

  “No,” she answered.

  Suddenly the little boy darted out to the woman lying in the road. “Momma!” he screamed.

  I lowered my weapon.

  “Oh my god,” the girl said, lowering her raised hands and putting one over her mouth. “Is she…?”

  I slipped the gun into my waistband and moved over to where the woman lay on the pavement. The little boy was now crouched, sobbing beside her, holding one of her hands.

  I knelt beside her as well, taking her other hand in mine. I felt for a pulse. There was one.

  I scanned the area of pavement around her, searching for traces of blood. I didn’t see any, but in the near darkness, it was hard to be sure.

  Claire, Dad and the young girl had joined me now.

  I continued to inspect the woman. There didn’t seem to be any outwardly visible injuries.

  “Can you hear me?” I asked the woman, squeezing her hand softly in mine. Her hair was over her face and I used my other hand to carefully brush it aside. “Can you hear me?” I asked again. “Are you okay?”

  Even in the glare of the headlights, unconscious, and having been hit by a car, I realized the woman was extremely attractive. She had long, straight black hair, full shapely lips, and a strong jaw that curved around to connect with delicate ears and a thin, yet strong neck. But I didn’t have time to ogle her beauty. I could sense movement behind the woman’s eyelids, and her head moved slightly, as her eyes fluttered.

  “Don’t try to move,” I said. “You’re with friends here,” I told her, hoping that my reassuring words would keep her from any frightened movements upon her regaining consciousness to look into a stranger’s face. I was afraid that such a reaction could exacerbate any unseen injuries she might have suffered. I knew internal damage was a distinct possibility, but if that was the case, there wasn’t anything any of us were going to be able to do about it.

  The woman’s eyes flickered open. She blinked them several times and then looked directly into mine with an intense, piercing gaze that almost frightened me.

  “What happened?” she asked.

  “You were hit by a car,” I said, not really wanting to tell her that I was the one that did the hitting

  “Shane and Janet…are they okay?” she breathed softly.

  “They’re right here,” I said, assuming that Shane was the little boy and Janet the young girl. “They’re fine.”

  Her eyes gazed up into mine. “Thank you,” she said.

  “Uh…you’re welcome,” I frowned, unsure as to exactly how I should respond after her thanking me for having run her over. At this point, I realized that I was still holding her hand in mine and I gently released it.

  “Mommy,” Shane cried next to her, moving in closer.

  Her eyes flickered over to the little boy. “Hi sweetie,” she smiled. “Mommy will be okay. Go sit with Janet now.”

  He released his mother’s hand, stood, and moved quickly back over to the girl who remained standing nearby. I was impressed with how quickly and automatically he responded to his wounded mother’s command.

  “How do you feel?” I asked, probably sounding like a complete moron. “Does anything hurt?”

  I scanned her body, looking for signs of serious injury. I was afraid to try to move her, but I was also afraid of sitting with her out here in the open for too long.

  “Claire, bring some water,” I called behind me.

  Claire hurried back to the car.

  “And the flask from my pack!” I called after her.

  The injured woman moved her hand slowly up to her face and then slowly over to the side and back of her head.

  “How’s your head feel?” I asked.

  “Hurts,” she said, slowly feeling around in back of it. “I must have hit it on the pavement when I landed.”

  “Where did the car hit you?” I asked.

  “I…I’m not sure. It happened so fast. The front and the side…near my waist I think?”

  I unzipped her jacket and un-tucked her shirt slowly, pulling it up to reveal her lower abdomen. From what I could tell, it appeared red and slightly swollen, and there were some scrapes near the right of her stomach. I touched the area softly, “Does that hurt?”

  “A little…not really,” she said.

  “That’s good…I guess,” I nodded, smiling down at her.

  Claire was back with the supplies. I took the flask from her and unscrewed it. “You feel like you can sit up?” I asked.

  “I think so,” the woman said.

  Claire moved around to the other side of her and we helped her slowly up and into a sitting position. “Here,” I said, putting the flask to her lips. “Have some.” It was the last of our alcohol, a little whiskey I’d set aside for a special occasion. I’d been tempted to drink it after the funerals earlier, but I’d held off, wanting to keep my wits about me for the night’s drive. Now I was glad that I had.

  She took a drink, coughed, then drank more and handed back the flask. “Thanks,” she said.

  “Sure,” I nodded. “Now have some water.” I exchanged the flask for a plastic water bottle.

  She took a long drink. “Liked the first option better,” she smiled at me, our eyes meeting again, locking this time, but only for a second.

  “Do you live around here?” I asked, handing her back the flask.

  “Used to. We’re on the move as of tonight.”

  “Where to?”

  She shrugged, “Anywhere safe.”

  �
�No one sick where you came from?” I eyed her tentatively.

  “No,” she said. “Well…used to be, but they’re all gone now.”

  “Haven’t been in direct contact with anyone you don’t know lately?”

  “No,” she answered.

  I looked at Claire, then back at Dad and Will who were watching nervously.

  “What about your boy and girl?”

  “No,” she shook her head and took another sip of the whiskey.

  I was watching her closely. It seemed like she was answering honestly. I didn’t want to take the chance of her infecting our group, but I hated to think about leaving her and the kids out here on their own, especially after I’d nearly killed this poor woman with our vehicle.

  I decided to make the call. “We’re heading south. I’d be willing to give you all a lift if you’d like. If you think you can move, we’d better get back to the car and be on our way though, there are some bad characters around here.”

  She nodded, struggling to get to her feet, “Yeah…I know.”

  Claire and I helped her stand, supporting her as she swayed unsteadily. I bent to pick up the pack she’d been carrying that lay on the ground beside where she’d fallen. I shouldered it, and she handed me back my flask, swaying backward, then forward as she did so. I quickly took her by the shoulders, steadying her, then I caught her as her knees buckled and she collapsed into my arms.

  “Dad!” I called behind me. “Help me get her to the car.”

  Dad rushed up, grabbing the woman’s legs while I held up her torso.

  “She…” the young girl started, then stopped, “…we haven’t eaten in almost a day.”

  “Will,” I said, get some food from our cargo area and help get Shane and…” I looked at the girl.

  “Janet,” she refreshed my memory.

  “…and Janet into the back of your van…if you can squeeze them in.”

  “We’ll make room,” he said.

  “Yea, more kids.” Sharron remarked sarcastically, giving me the evil eye.

  I ignored her. “Emily, can ride with my parents, and we’ll put…”

  Again I looked at Janet questioningly.

  “Joanna,” she said.

  “…Joanna in our car. Claire can work on her while we drive.”

  I wasn’t sure if it was shock from being hit by a car, internal injuries, the knock on the head, the lack of food, the whiskey, or some combination thereof that had put Joanna out of action; but whatever the case, it wasn’t doing us any good standing around out in the open waiting to find out. I decided that we might as well get on the move again and hopefully somewhere safer while we figured it out. And if she didn’t survive the night, we at least owed her watching over Janet and Shane.

  Claire put one half of our SUV’s backseat down so that it opened up more room in the cargo area and then rearranged some of our supplies. This allowed us to lay Joanna down straight and gave Claire room to tend to her while we drove.

  As we started on our way again, I left the headlights on. I didn’t want to run over anyone else. We didn’t have the room or the supplies to pick up more strays.

  As we traveled, I’d occasionally make a quick rear-view mirror inspection of the work going on behind me. I could see Claire hunched over Joanna, talking to her in hushed tones. Eventually, I heard a soft response to Claire’s questions informing me that Joanna was at least awake and alert.

  Jason had fallen asleep in his car seat, his head kinked over awkwardly to one side, a shock of blonde hair that was several weeks overdue for a cut, obscured one eye.

  “How’s it going back there?” I asked softly.

  “Fine,” Claire responded. “I think she’s just exhausted and in shock.”

  “I don’t blame her,” I said. “It’s not every day you get hit by a car.”

  “I think we just need to let her rest,” Claire said.

  “Good idea,” I agreed. “You guys try to get a little sleep. I’ll be fine driving.

  “You need anything first?” Claire asked.

  “Just get me the road atlas,” I said.

  I knew our planned route fairly well as I had studied it before we left, but I wanted to be ready to quickly adjust our course in the event that we came up against any unexpected detours.

  Claire leaned forward, her torso pushing awkwardly over and into the front passenger seat as she rummaged around among a pile of supplies she had spread out on the floor. Finally she found the atlas.

  “I’ll just put it here,” she said, laying the book in the front passenger seat. Then she leaned over to give me a kiss. “Wake me up if you need something else or want me to drive,” she said.

  “Will do,” I agreed.

  Minutes later, all was quite inside the vehicle and I was left alone with my thoughts.

  It took about 45 minutes to reach the highway, and as I drove, my eyes kept flashing to the digital clock in the center console. It looked strange to me as I stared at the time. Time was something that I realized really didn’t even really matter now. It suddenly hit me that I didn’t even know what today’s date was or even what day of the week it was. The digital clock just seemed so out of place in our strange new world. Time didn’t matter now. All that mattered was life. There were no work schedules, no deadlines, no bedtimes, no doctor appointments, no “don’t miss” television shows to catch, no ballgames to see. Life was simply the act of living and figuring out what the next step in surviving was.

  My mind eased just a bit as we found the entrance to the highway unobstructed and we glided slowly up the on-ramp and onto Interstate 57. There were no other vehicles in sight.

  As I began to settle into a groove as we drove along the darkened lanes, I started to think. There were so many thoughts, ideas, questions, worries, and unknowns all mixed together in my mind. I thought about what we had: guns, ammo, supplies, family members, new members added to our group like Ray, Pam, Joanna, Janet, and Shane, and most importantly, our lives. Then I thought about the horrific events of the day and the last few weeks and who and what we had lost: our homes, our jobs, our friends, the safety and security of our little camp, Steve, Brian, and likely Kevin and his family and possibly cousin Chris and his family as well.

  Then I thought about what was next. I didn’t spend much time on this though because I really had no idea what was coming. My mind was a whirlwind of questions. Where should we go? What routes should we take to get there? What should we do once we arrived? Was there anywhere safe? Was there anyone working on a cure for this terrible disease? If so, how much longer would it take? Was there anyone even left to work on a cure or anyone left to cure for that matter? Was the disease even still a threat? Would it mutate to affect animals? Should we try going to a town or city further south to see if things were different there or should we continue to do our best to stay away from humans altogether? Where would our food come from? Where would we get more fuel? How would we get more diabetic supplies for Claire? Was the woman in our backseat going to survive the night or would we be having another funeral in the morning? Would I have to adopt her children since I was the cause of her death? Where would we stop to camp? Should we stop before or after daylight?

  One thing I did know was that we needed to find a safe place to hold out for the winter, preferably in a warmer location; but that type of longer-term planning just wasn’t realistic right now. Things were happening so quickly that it was hard to plan for the next six hours let alone the next six months.

  My main concern at the moment was gas. We had nearly a full tank when we left camp, but what would happen when that ran out? Where would we get more? Gas stations were likely all closed or out of gas.

  Then it was back to thinking again. What if one of the vehicles broke down? What if someone got sick? What if we were attacked again? What if we went south and the situation was just as bad there or worse? What if? What if? What if?

  I shook my head to clear the thoughts rampaging through my mind. Right now, we jus
t needed to take things one step at a time.

  The rest of the drive through the southern tip of Illinois and into Kentucky was actually kind of a nice detox period, releasing some of the stress from the events of the day, events that never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I’d experience. It wasn’t like those zombie-apocalypse movies where wrecked vehicles and luggage were scattered all over the highway. Actually, the roads were surprisingly clear. No flaming cars. No roadblocks. No debris. I guess it made sense in a way. I mean, who suffering from the effects of a deadly disease was going to head out for a joy ride. Those who were still healthy were hunkering down in their homes. Those who were sick were too sick to drive, leaving the roadways devoid of vehicles. So it was an amazingly uneventful drive. But as we neared the Kentucky/Tennessee border, the tension again built inside me, and as dawn began to break, I began searching for a spot at which to pull off to make camp.

  After the calm of the drive, I was almost fearful of leaving the serenity of the highway’s concrete confines, but I knew that traffic might pick up during the day; plus, I needed some rest. I was exhausted both mentally and physically, and I wanted to shut my eyes and let the events of the previous day fade into oblivion for a few hours.

  It was then that it hit me – we were killers now.

  While I reasoned that what we had done was for the safety and protection of our family, and largely in self-defense, my reasoning did nothing to wipe clean some of the images I saw in my mind of the men we had killed yesterday. It was something I was going to have to learn to live with, and I now recognized that it could very well be something we would have to do again.

  Just as dawn began to break, I saw an empty-looking exit that appeared to be a promising camp site. From the highway, I could see no buildings or homes in the area, and that sort of spot was exactly what I’d been searching for as a stopping point.

  I’d had the driver side window down for the past hour to help keep me awake, and the fresh morning air felt good, whipping a cool breeze across my face as I drove. I slowed, putting my blinker on both out of habit and to inform the family members traveling behind me that we were exiting soon, and then moved into the right-hand lane. I could sense movement in the backseat. A second later, Claire was climbing into the front seat beside me.