Nightmare-Z

by S. A. Lowry

  Riggs has his arms up, in a way shielding the rest of the survivors to his left and right, and whisphers to them.

  “Slowly back away for the love of god. Do not make a sound,” a wide eyed Riggs whisphers. Audrey is now in a state of panic. She begins opening fire on them with her shotgun without warning. Right when she does this, Riggs and Andrew both yell the word “NO” at the same time.

  Lance begins opening fire as well. Riggs and Andrew seemingly having no choice, opens fire in order to put down the attackers who now know of the group’s presence.

  “What was that!” Tabatha yells as she shoots up from her seat on the bus. Everyone on the bus, now startled by the loud popping sounds coming from inside.

  Linda tells the people on the bus that it sounds like gunfire, similiar to what they heard at the airport. Dwayne, sits in his seat restless wanting to go inside and help, however realizes his job by the wheel is more important. Randall stays comfortable in his seat as he looks back and forth to the other group members for comfort. Tabatha, who is now standing in the middle of the aisle, happens to be standing right in front of Randall whose seat is located closest to the side of the store.

  “We need to go in there and find out what’s going on. Oh my god Lance. Please, someone come with me?” Tabatha pleads as she stares through the bus window in the direction of the entry way of the store.

  While she says this, Randall appears to be glaring outside the window in the opposite direction towards the parking lot side of the bus. He remains silent, however, begins moving his lips as if he was trying to say something to the rest of the group. Nobody notices this except Tabatha. What Randall notices behind Tabatha, are the apparent bodies of the deceased, who appeared dead and lifeless as they drove in to the front of the store, now appear to be rising up as if they had just awakened from a slumber. There are too many to count as Randall begins to slur his speech in panic. After noticing this, Tabatha turns around to see what Randall is looking at.

  Once she does this, as a result, she places her hands to her cheeks and begins frantically screaming in horror. The gunfire now stopped. Everyone on the bus now draws their attention to the parking lot. The bodies are now attempting to stand erect and approach the bus as all of their pale white eyes stay locked towards the bus’s direction without ever turning away for a moment.

  “Holy shit. They are looking right at us!” Dwayne yells as he begins frantically honking the horn located on the center of the wheel. Some of the bodies which are located further away now appear to be in a dead sprint for the bus. Others are walking towards Tabatha and the group of survivors. Dwayne continues to sound the horn desperately hopeing the others will come out in time.

  “If they aren’t out in thirty seconds, i’m taking off!” yells Dwayne. Tabatha and other members of the group yell at him and tell him to wait. Randall encourages Dwayne to drive off now, the people inside “are probably already dead” he says.

  At that instance, Tabatha smacks Randall across the face. Tammy leans over and threatens Dwayne. “If you take off I will beat you across the head with this bat right here. You wait, got it?” she threatens in a low and promising voice. Dwayne turns around and tells her to sit down.

  “I’m going to do what I have to do. These things are getting closer. Damnit, hurry up!” Dwayne yells as he begins to lose his calm and continously sounds the horn.

  A few moments pass, Dwayne brings the vehicle from neutral to drive against the rest of the group’s frantic threats. At that point, Dwayne proceeds to place his foot on the acceleration pedal. Right before he depresses it, Riggs along with the other three come storming out of the entrance. Lance appears to still be pushing the cart full of supplies. Tammy and Tabatha quickly wait by the door as Audrey and Riggs storm onto the bus. Andrew turns around and helps Lance pick up the cart as they take off in a dead sprint for the door. They yell for everyone to clear a path as they charge right onto the bus and throw the shopping cart down filled with supplies and guns down on the floor.

  The shopping cart loses balance and falls over on it’s side, as a result, all of the items fall on the ground. Dwayne begins yelling for joy as he immediately accelerates and plows right through the crowd. Once he does this, multiple people are hit and splattered onto his windshield. He proceeds to use the water and windshield wipers to clean off the blood and bodily tissue obstructing his vision.

  Riggs tells him to just hit the freeway as they will find another gas station down the road. Dwayne complies as he exits the parking lot at a high rate of speed and takes a sharp turn to hit the off ramp exit to the freeway.

  Lance immediately goes running into Tabatha’s arms as she begins to sob and cry. The small boy, taps Andrew on the shoulder from behind after he sat down to rest. Andrew looks over.

  “That was pretty bad ass Andrew two. Nice job!” the child says.

  Linda immediately gives him a look of dissapprovel. “Baby, how did you learn to talk like that!” Linda complains.

  Andrew smiles and tells Linda that “boys will be boys”.

  Linda appears upset. “Hey now kiddo. I was born before you. I think we should leave numerics out of this. How about I call you young Andrew and you call me old Andrew? I mean, we do have to share this name. I am willing to do that for you because I like you so much!” Andrew exclaims as he puts his hand out to shake in agreement.

  Young Andrew obliges and shakes his hand in return.

  “Don’t you ever do that to me again. I was worried sick, thought I lost you,” Tabatha says to Lance as she wraps her arms around him.

  Lance calms her down by stroking her hair gently and tells her everything will be alright.

  “Nothing can kill me, except you babe,” Lance boasts as he stares into her eyes and gives her a kiss.

  Tabatha seems happy again and decides to forget about the close call in the parking lot. As the bus moves along, Riggs pulls out his Atlas maps and moves to the front of the bus beside Dwayne. Riggs decides to open up the map and plot a course through Georgia to Alabama. Before he gets into deeper discussion regarding the routes they will take, he asks Andrew if he can inventory the weapons and ammunition. Andrew agrees and begins pulling the shotguns and rifles out of the bags. He lays them along the floor of the bus and begins counting boxes of ammunition by type.

  Some time on the road passes as Riggs and Dwayne figure out the best and safest possible route to take. After long deliberation, they finally come to a mutual conclusion. Both of them agree on the safest and most time effecient way to get there. Upon agreement, Riggs informs the group and asks if any of them have any objections to it. Nobody does.

  As Andrew continues inventorying the weapons and ammunition, he decides that he will go for the other supplies as well. He is in deep thought right now, wondering and worrying about his brother along with his nieces and nephew. He hopes that Joanne is doing alright and that everything will hold up and be stable enough in time for him to get there so he can protect Trevor’s family. He realizes that the situation looks very grim for his brother and he doesn’t know if he will ever see him again. All he hopes is that he puts that military backup and fire power to good use over there to some how make it home, by any means necessary.

  Right then and there he realized something. Andrew recalls the flights which were leaving out of FOB Basrah when he was there. The emptiness of the base along with the missing gaps in his leadership. He now realizes that they all must of known about this or got fair warning and decided to high tail it out of there before the going got bad. It boils his blood to believe his brother was abandoned like that. As Andrew sits there, becoming lost in count, he realizes how lucky he was to leave while things were still decent. His brother’s fate weighs on him heavily. Almost to the point now, where he wants to begin crying. However, he stops himself short.

  He knows he has to be hard in front of the group for his sake and theirs. Wouldn’t do anyone any good if he were to collapse and break down. Where ever Trevor is or whatever has
happened to him, Andrew tells himself he will never forget him. He will die trying to protect his family just like he promised. All he has to do is get there and secure them. He realizes that Riggs and this group is his best shot.

  Lance glares at Riggs in contempt. What makes this man so special and all mighty, he asks himself as he continues to study him. When Lance was always on campus, he was the center of attention. Women flocked to him along with men trying to be his buddy. He was also the captain of defense for three running years on his high school football team. He was pretty much always in control regarding any matters. Especially in his relationships.

  There was never someone there to put him in check or question his authority. Now it seems like the world is ending and all barriers are crashing down. Lance is having trouble accepting this. He is also afraid that his fiance will look at him in a different light if he doesn’t take better control of this situation which plagues the group. Who is the man in charge here? Who will establish themselves as the De Facto Leader? Lance feels he is up to the challenge and he doesn’t intend on letting anyone get in his way.

  He wants his fiance to look up to him like she used to. He feels challenged by Andrew as well. This bothers him to no end as he fears his fiance will begin to hold them in higher regards. As Lance sits there, he ponders ways to take control of this group and filter out the other two. Tabatha now lies asleep with her head on his lap as he continues to stare on at Riggs without him even knowing.

  Tammy rests her face up against the glass of the bus window and continues to keep her eyes closed. She is awake, however, she wants to appear sleeping so nobody bothers her. She wants to be lost in her own world where she is holding her fiance’s hand down the streets of Paris or having lunch by the base of the Eiffel Tower where he took her on a date so many years ago. She attempts to drown out all of the horrors of this new world and the defying laws of nature she witnessed over the past couple of hours so she can bring herself back to a sense of normalcy.

  She wonders if she will ever get to see the one she loves again so dearly and if he will be alright. She fully knows of the chaos which was reported over the news regarding major European cities coming under attack by ‘The Dead’. This thought she tries to ignore way too often, however, always seemingly creeping up on her like a Mesquito at night.

  She doesn’t want to be alone for the rest of her life, especially what little life she has left now. Coming to this realization, she now begins thinking of Riggs. His demeanor, his character and his bravery are all qualities she loves for a man to possess. This is something her fiance doesn’t have for he isn’t very sure of himself and always tries to avoid conflict due to being afraid. However, she loves him anyway for his ability to be so sweet to her and the other unique qualities he possesses.

  However, with Riggs, his qualities are too over bearing to ignore. She feels drawn to him like a magnet. In time, she intends to show it to him if he opens up to her. For now, she won’t even try.

  Linda is worried for the group. She notices there is alot of animosity between some of the members of the group and fear that it will lead to something worse later on down the line. She also realizes that Lance’s actions and attitude towards his fiance Tabatha is seemingly dangerous. She fears that Lance may have beaten her at one point and will intend on doing it again.

  She knows Randall, who is practically useless, will turn his back on them the moment it doesn’t serve his purpose. She will have to keep a close eye on him she decides. She stares at young Andrew as he looks out the window and counts the abandoned cars he sees on the side of the road.

  So far, he is up to one hundred and twenty three cars and sixty-five bodies the bus has so far passed since he began counting. What is in store for this child in a world like this she wonders as she compares his counting of bodies and cars to a an official math class back when the world was some how sane.

  Is this how this new generation is going to learn? To learn nothing but survival? They will learn math through round count and geography through a map of where the safest locations are to live? The thought freightens her as she orders young Andrew to quit counting and take a much needed nap. Young Andrew reluctantly disagrees. However, a persistant Linda orders him away from the window out of fear of what else he may see. Young Andrew complies and leans back in his seat in order to make an attempt on closing his eyes.

  A now bored Dwayne, apparently lost in his own thought, attempts to stray away from his mind by flicking on the radio once again. The emergency broadcast station which they had tuned into earlier, is no longer broadcasting. All which is heard now is static. Dwayne begins changing stations looking for any FM channel broadcasting. After a few minutes, he comes across a working station.

  “Again, this is the emergency broadcast station. New developments regarding the mass hysteria which has engulfed the nation and the rest of the world. Blood borne bites by the infected will lead to certain infection. Symptoms include excessive sweating, coughing, dialated pupils, muscular aches and vomiting. Late phase of the process leads to self induced seizure which is 100% fatal. All victims whom have fell ill and gone into a seizure will produce a 100% mortality rate.

  Do not attempt by any means, to prevent the victim from swallowing his or her own tounge with your own hands. Infectious bites passed by saliva into the blood stream will increase the effects on your system. Once the victim passes on after seizure, reanimination is certain. Time for specific individuals to reanimate can occur anywhere between thirty seconds to twenty four hours. Scientists believe this varies depending upon the victim’s previous metabolic rate, weight and size.

  I say again, do not attempt to prevent the victim from swallowing his or her own tounge with your own hand. Other cases are pouring in of victims of this virus contracting the symptoms earlier described through passing of saliva whether it is shared drinks or contact with the infected’s sweat. The process regarding this matter is prolonged and much more indirect. The victim may experience symptoms ranging from days to weeks which ultimately leads to self induced seizure. Whether the victim contracts this via blood borne bite or through indirect bodily fluids, all is permanent and will lead to certain death. Any person contracting any of these symptoms must be isolated immediately. Do not attempt to go near these people by any means necessary.”

  Dwayne places his head down for a moment and begins scratching it while trying to soak in all of the information he has just heard. He looks behind him and realizes everyone on the bus has now stopped what they were doing to pay attention to the broadcast.

  “Wow. This is unbelievable. Knowing is half the battle I guess,” Riggs states with a sense of acceptance in his voice.

  Everyone else on the bus, wide eyed, begins looking at eachother as if they were inspecting one another for symptoms.

  “Doesn’t look like anyone here has those symptoms. Thats the good news,” Andrew states.

  At that moment, Audrey butts in and asks him what the bad news was in a sarcastic, yet playful voice. “Bad news is getting bit or coming into contact with one of those sons of a bitches. If anyone is bitten by those things, you need to let the group know immediately. This applies to everybody, got it?” Riggs interrupts with a sense of urgency.

  Everyone on the bus stays silent as if they were doubting what he had to say.

  Andrew agrees. “If you choose to withhold this information, you could be putting us all at risk. We need to establish this now as the number one rule. The infected comes clean so none of it spreads to all of us. We need to agree on this,” Andrew adds in addition to Rigg’s comment.

  Everyone on the bus warily agrees.

  “Hell, I’ll be the first to blow your brains out,” Dwayne threatens as a general statement to all the members of the group. After the meeting, Andrew reports to Riggs the round and supply count. There are enough weapons to go around for everybody. The only one who doesn’t receive one is the child. Old Andrew promises young Andrew he will some day properly train him on a
weapon so he can defend himself. Once he tells him this, young Andrew asks about the where abouts of his mother. Everyone in the group stays silent and decides to pass the leg work over to Linda as she established the closest connection to the young boy.

  Linda decides to bring Young Andrew to the back to have the discussion with him in private. The rest go about their business. Riggs tells the rest of the group they will be good for awhile on food and supplies as they push closer to the border of Alabama. Riggs and Andrew begins passing out weapons to the rest of the survivors. Andrew walks down to the end of the bus and hands Linda a pump action shotgun. She takes it from him immediately while thanking him, then proceeds to re-engage in conversation with Young Andrew as he begins crying. Andrew decides to sit down next to the boy in order to comfort him.

  Time passes on as they are on the road avoiding populated areas and bypassing traffic jams. Most of the route planning has been done by Riggs and Andrew as they displayed a natural knack for pre-planning which served in the group’s favor regarding safety matters.

  They have crossed into the border of Alabama late into the night and realize they are now low on fuel once again. Riggs awakes after being tapped by Andrew, who took over on the wheel so Dwayne could get some much needed rest. Andrew informs him of the fuel situation. Riggs quickly goes to his Atlas map to see if there will be another fueling station up ahead at some point. He could only identify the general area of where the bus is located and says, according to the map, there will be some built up areas another twenty to thirty minutes down the road. There the bus will pull off at the nearest exit and fill up on fuel along with the cans they have in their possession. Riggs and Andrew come to the agreement without incident. They realize that everyone on the bus is asleep. They decide not to wake them.

  Some time goes by. Now driving down the dark and empty roads of Alabama, they come across a small town which connected them from the freeway. It brings them right down the main street of the town. Riggs grows nervous as he did not intend to drive through this area, he wanted to stick to the plan like before and go around it. However, fuel at this point is the priority so they really have no choice at this point.