“Let’s get behind the counter so they can’t see us,” Bobby said quietly. They all ducked down behind the counter. Betty looked at the new additions to her and Frank’s group with disapproval. She scooted down further away from the men on her knees and kept her head down low as she stared up at them with her cold eyes. They were fierce eyes. The same look that Frank gets when he comes in the house with grease on his hands and dirt on his shoes. The same look he gets when he spits in the kitchen sink or forgets to put the toilet seat back down after taking a piss. Betty stared at them and wished they were not there. She wished they were out in the streets being eaten alive in order to spare her and Frank from any more terror.
Troy peeked over the counter just barely enough to see the bloodthirsty people standing in the street.
“Are they still there?” asked Bobby.
“Yeah, but they look lost. I think they might move on.” Troy watched as the psychotic people in the street looked around, confused. The people knew there were live humans somewhere close, but they could not understand where they could have gone. When all the people had turned hostile, they must have turned stupid. The hostiles kept looking around and then slowly went away.
“I didn’t think they were ever going to leave,” said Frank. “Damn people have been crazy like that for the past few hours.” Frank sat down behind the counter and put a hand out for Bobby to shake. “The name’s Frank. This is my wife, Betty.”
Bobby shook hands with Frank. “I’m Bobby. Nice to meet you.” Troy shook hands with Frank and introduced himself. Troy and Bobby looked at Betty, but she turned her head away. She was clearly disappointed that Frank had let the two men in. Bobby didn’t want to say anything to her out of respect for Frank. He turned to Frank and said, “Can you tell us what’s going on out there?”
“Well,” said Frank. “I don’t really know where to begin, but you probably won’t believe it.”
“I think we can believe anything at this point,” said Troy. “We just crashed landed in the middle of the interstate. So anything you tell us we’ll probably think it to be reasonable and believable.”
“That was your plane?” asked Frank. “We didn’t think anyone survived that. We saw the flames and heard the explosion. It shook the entire building. I thought the place was going to come down because of the shockwave.”
“We were the only two to escape. I lost my best friend, Pete,” Bobby said. “What happened to that building we saw go down?”
“Oh that building. That was a freak accident.” Frank shook his head and had a slight smile to his face. Not because he thought it was funny or anything, but because the situation was so fucked up he couldn’t help himself. “Right when everything started happening, the driver of a propane truck drove straight into the lobby of the building. Drove right up the steps. Damn thing exploded and the building must have come down not ten minutes later. I didn’t see what happened to the driver to make him do that, but it doesn’t matter now. I guess he maybe went crazy while he was driving.”
“What made everyone go crazy?” asked Troy.
“Yeah, do you know what it was?” Bobby asked. “We had some people go nuts on the plane. That’s why we crashed, because the co-pilot attacked the pilot. Ate his face off. Blood everywhere. We were lucky enough to have the pilot survive long enough to get us on the ground.”
“That’s disgusting,” said Betty. She covered her mouth with the palm of her hand and shook her head. She wasn’t used to anything out of the ordinary. She had spent most of her life as a housewife. Spending her time cooking and cleaning with the occasional burned corn bread was the most excitement she ever had. The only times she got out and around other people was whenever Frank convinced her to go on a road trip with him. “Did he live? The pilot?”
“No,” said Bobby. “He died in the plane crash.” Betty looked as though she was going to start crying.
“It’s probably good that he did,” said Frank. “I wouldn’t want to go through life knowing my face had been eaten off.”
“So what is it that happened?” asked Troy. He moved closer to Frank, making sure to keep his head down just in case the hostiles outside were staring into the restaurant. “Do you think it’s terrorists? Like some kind of poisoning or something?”
“I don’t know,” said Frank. “Me and Betty were walking down Second Avenue when all of a sudden it seemed like everything just stopped. Like time stopped itself. I did notice a lot of people walking around looking sick before it happened, but I didn’t think anything of it until after it happened. One minute everything was normal and the next...shit went haywire.”
“Hey,” said Troy as he looked at Bobby. “That guy on the plane that went nuts first...He was sick before he got on the plane...Maybe that’s what it is. People were sick and then just lost their minds. Like they went rabid or something.”
“Could be,” said Bobby. He put his hand on his chin and looked like a professor, thinking really hard about what he was going to say next. He shook his head and asked Frank, “Did you see anything else out of the ordinary when it happened?”
“Nothing very significant, or at least nothing that could be a distinguishing factor that made everyone go crazy. You know, like a bright light, or a buzzing signal? Nothing like you would see in one of those cheap science fiction flicks. It just happened.”
“It’s the end of times is what it is.” Betty shook her finger at the three men. “God’s coming down and punishing everyone for their sins. That’s what he’s doing. It’s the rapture and we’re all going to pay for our sins. That’s what this is.”
“Shut up Betty. You’re scaring these young men.” Frank shushed her with a finger in front of his lips. He looked back to Bobby and Troy and continued his theory. “I don’t know exactly what time it was, but the moment it happened, everyone just stopped. Well not everyone, just the ones that went crazy. They stopped suddenly and the next thing we know, all these people started growling and hissing like dogs or bears. They started running at people who didn’t seem like they were crazy. Then the crazy people started jumping at them and taking them to the ground.”
Betty chimed in again. This time her voice was shaky and the tears were boiling up in her eyes. “They started eating them...Ripped their—” she took a deep breath “throats apart.” She started sobbing. “They killed them for no reason. And they’ll kill us, too.”
Frank got up and went beside Betty. He put an arm around her and rubbed her shoulder with his other hand. “It’s okay honey. We’re safe in here. Don’t worry. They won’t come in here.”
“How did you two get away?” Bobby asked. “There must have been a lot of people on the street here in Nashville with the tourists and all.”
“We got lucky I guess.” Frank leaned his head against Betty’s. She still sobbed, but quietly. “When we saw it happen, I grabbed Betty’s arm and we ran down the sidewalk. By the time we got to this place it was empty. We watched a couple of crazy people run out the back when we came in. Thank God they didn’t see us coming. We would have been screwed...After we got in, I locked the doors in the back while Betty stood lookout up front.”
“How come we didn’t see that many bodies on the street?” Troy asked. “I mean if all these people went crazy and started attacking people and killing them. Where are the bodies?”
“Believe me son,” Frank said quickly. “There are bodies out there. There aren’t that many though. Mostly because it looked like more people went crazy than those that did not.”
“I wonder what made them go nuts,” said Bobby. He shook his head and went into one of his deep thinking modes again. Frank and Troy stared at him for a moment, waiting for him to say something else. For some reason, one that Bobby could not explain until later, a thought popped in his head about Eddie. A little smile broke on his face as he pictured in his mind playing toy cars with Eddie back at their home in Wyoming. Then the smile went away. He remembered how Eddie had gotten sick the day before and there were
so many people in the hospital that thought they were sick. If the people had not felt better shortly after throwing up, it could have been considered an epidemic and it could have been a great news story for Bobby to put together. Eddie was sick, just like the sickness Troy described with the crazy man on the airplane. Just like the sickness that their new normal friend, Frank, had described just before everyone went crazy. Was Eddie still sick this morning? Bobby had no idea. He left too early in the morning and didn’t tell his son goodbye. He was starting to wish that he had. “My son was sick yesterday...He had eaten a bad steak biscuit yesterday morning...My wife and I took him to the hospital, but he was fine shortly after...I hope he wasn’t sick this morning when I left.”
“What are you saying?” asked Frank. Troy’s eyes opened wide and his mouth started to droop open. Betty dropped her hand from her mouth and stared at Bobby.
“There were a lot of people sick at the hospital,” said Bobby. He wiped away the sweat that had beaded on his forehead. “If I remember correctly, the doctor had said something about a type of possible food poisoning. I think everyone there had eaten meat.” They all looked at Bobby as if he were crazy, but they stared with curiosity at the point he was trying to make. “I know this sounds crazy, but when was the last time any of you have eaten anything with meat in it?”
“Shit I don’t know,” said Troy. “I haven’t had a hamburger in I don’t know how long.”
“What about you two?” asked Bobby, pointing to Frank and Betty.
Betty looked at Frank. Frank hesitated before finally answering. “We’re vegetarians.”
“What does this have to do with the people going crazy?” asked Troy. “How could you possibly come to the conclusion that it’s connected to meat?” Troy raised his eyebrows as he asked Bobby.
“Look,” said Bobby. “My partner and I were flown into Nashville so we could take a rental car up to Franklin, Kentucky. We were supposed to be gathering information for a news story about a massive amount of cattle that had died there. There were also other farm animals that had died as well.”
“All the way from Wyoming?” Betty interrupted.
“My boss is an asshole. He’ll do whatever it takes to make sure the Cheyenne Channel 4 News has the story.” Bobby chuckled. “It’s funny. I was going to quit after this trip.” Everyone sat quiet, listening to Bobby and watching him as he unfolded his story. They felt like Bobby held the key to unlock the information they needed to understand what was going on in the city, and what was likely going on across the country and probably even the world for that matter. Bobby said, “I didn’t watch the news and I don’t know if this is happening anywhere else, but I think it’s safe to say it is.” He looked toward Frank. “You said the people you saw where sick. The people on our plane were sick. The people in the hospital yesterday were sick—“
Troy interrupted, “and none of us have eaten any meat since we can remember...This is crazy.” He stood up and started pacing back and forth behind the counter. “I need a drink.” He looked over at the rows of liquor that would make an alcoholic praise the Lord.
“You’re right. This is crazy,” said Bobby, “but it just makes sense if you think about it this way.”
Betty grabbed Frank’s hand and spoke. “So we are all probably to die.”
“Oh, stop it Betty,” said Frank. “We made it this far already haven’t we?”
“Made it this far! Seriously?” She jumped to her feet and flung his hand away. “We made it from the street to inside this God forsaken café! We haven’t made it anywhere.”
“It’s okay Betty.” Bobby interrupted. “If we stick together we can make it out of this. We can make it out of the city where the population is smaller. Besides, I want to get home to my wife and son back in Wyoming.”
Betty’s lips started trembling as she stared at Bobby. She looked as though she were halfway between fainting and falling over sobbing again. She leaned against the counter and put her head in her hands and wept. Frank sat on the floor with his back to the counter. He had enough of his annoying wife for the day. He didn’t even bother comforting her again. Bobby felt Frank’s pain.
Troy popped the top on a bottle of whiskey and poured out four shot glasses to the rim. He passed a glass to Bobby and Frank. Betty shook her head and declined the shot. “I think we all need a drink after this morning,” said Troy. She changed her mind and downed it like a professional.
“If all this is true,” Frank said as he wiped the wetness of the whiskey from his lips, “then we do need to get as far away from here as possible. This is the south. Everyone loves to eat meat down here.”
“All that southern home cooking,” said Troy as he poured another round.
“We want to get back to St. Louis,” said Frank, “but it probably won’t matter anyway if what you say is true. There won’t be anything left there either.”
Troy downed another shot and slammed the glass on the bar top. “I’ve been in this town for three hours and I hate it already.” Bobby and Frank cracked a faint laugh. “If we’re getting the hell out of here then we need to get going. I don’t want to be sitting in the heart of Music City while a bunch of bloodthirsty nut-jobs are trying to take a chunk out of my neck. This certainly isn’t the way I planned on visiting Nashville. So much for the Opry.” Troy laughed hysterically. “You think they’ll give me a refund on my tickets?” Everyone stared at Troy for a moment and wondered if the two shots he had already made him a little tipsy.
“He’s right,” said Bobby. “We can’t stay here. There’s no telling how many people are out there. They seem to be in groups right now, but that could change. They could break up and then it would be harder to escape. We wouldn’t hear them coming and we wouldn’t know where to look. They could jump out of an alleyway or from behind a trashcan and get one of us.”
Betty turned quickly and grabbed Frank’s hand. “Well, what in the hell are we still sitting here for? Let’s get the hell out of here.”
Bobby declared that Betty was right. Troy and Frank surely assumed the same, but Bobby felt the most sincere about getting out of there. At that moment, he made up his mind that he would do whatever it would take to get back to Wyoming as fast as possible. He only wished the phones were working so he could call home and check on Nikki and Eddie.
I hope they’re safe and nothing is wrong with Eddie.
He knew he was hoping for a lot, but hope is all that would keep him going until he could find out for sure if anything had happened to them. Nikki is smart, he thought, but would she be smart enough to save herself and Eddie from crazy people like he had just seen on the street here? He could only hope.
They devised a plan of escape and decided the backdoor would be the best way out. Bobby and Frank grabbed some supplies from the gift shop along with some knifes from the kitchen while Betty grabbed some snacks and put them in a bag.
They agreed to take turns carrying the bag so one person would not have the burden of being stuck with it the entire trip. It would be a long trip walking out of the city, but the first chance they would get, Frank suggested they would find an SUV or a large sedan to drive that was not blocked in. They would have to take side roads to avoid the slew of crashed cars on the main roads. It wasn’t like people thought to themselves, jee, I’m about to lose my marbles and start eating people. I better find a good place to pull over. Only in a perfect world.
All four of them felt like they had been walking for days just to get over the Shelby Street Bridge and out of the city. Troy felt like it was taking longer before the alcohol started wearing off. Betty wanted to scold Troy, but she doesn’t know what kind of people her and Frank had just teamed up with. They could be escaped convicts for all she knows. She doesn’t want to end up going head first over the bridge and into the dark and deep Cumberland River just for giving a smart remark to some guy they just met. So she kept her mouth shut and did her best to ignore Troy while he sobered up.
“I’m surprised we hav
en’t ran into any crazy people,” said Frank. Of course, he would speak too soon and ruin such an easy walk out of the downtown area. Right around the last few syllables of his jinxing statement, a herd of angry and unforgiving crazies seemed to appear out of nowhere. If they had all been paying attention instead of thinking about how shitty of a trip it was going to be just to get to where the roads were remotely clear, they would have realized the bloodthirsty mob had come from behind a large thrift store.
Most of the crazy people were covered in blood from their chin down to their waste. They all growled and hissed the same, but they were off sync with each other. They apparently had no musical skills nor had been in a choir before. It sounded like some garbage that is played on the radio these days. Another crappy song about smoking pot or whatever it is kids sing about now. Interestingly enough, you could say this bunch of gorging lunatics had the munchies something terrible. The group was small, but they looked like they could do some damage to Frank, Betty, Bobby, and Troy. There were four women, a boy of about twelve, and five large men who looked like construction workers. The boy carried a severed arm in his hands that he had shoved between his teeth. He ate as he walked and his growling rumbled out of his mouth and across the flesh of the severed arm. It was a muffled sound, but fell right in line with the sounds coming from the others who staggered alongside of him.
“Look!” yelled Bobby. “They’re coming right at us!” It didn’t matter how loud or soft Bobby had said it, the herd of bloodsuckers seemed to be able to smell them a mile away. They had come right out from behind the building in a straight B line for them. “We need to get a move on it and now.”
“No shit,” screamed Troy. “I ain’t waiting to say hello nor goodbye.” Troy took off running in a drunken jog, passing up Frank and Betty who were walking slightly ahead of Bobby.
The Gorging Page 17