The Returners

  Greenstone had a population of just over a thousand people. It was one of those small towns where everyone knew everyone else. The type of town were people helped each other out, the kind you grew up watching on old television sitcoms.

  At first the news reported it was some sort of drug-induced craziness that was making people attack one another. The reports were vague at best. It started out as just a few random attacks throughout different cities over a few weeks. Gradually the reports became more and more frequent. It was actually three months into the epidemic before the first attack happened in Greenstone.

  One of Jessica's neighbors, an elderly man by the name of Roger Mills was returning home from the local drug store. When he pulled into the driveway and got out of his car he noticed his wife Martha standing in the doorway of the house. She was clothed in only her nightgown, staring blankly ahead.

  Roger took a few steps towards the house knowing something was wrong. Before he'd made it half way there Martha leaped from the doorway and came running at him. In a state of panic he dropped the bag he was carrying and screamed.

  "Martha, what’s wrong?" Rogers voice filled with concern and fear. An odd blend that made his voice come out in a raspy croak.

  Martha never answered, never stopped, hitting him at full speed and knocking him to the ground. She herself fell from the impact. Scared and confused Mr. Mills got to his feet and looked at his wife with tears streaming down his face. With little effort Martha Mills pushed herself up from the ground and let out what could best be described as a snarl. It was then Roger noticed her lifeless milky-white eyes.

  Again he spoke to her, his voice breaking up as tears continued streaming down his face. "Martha, what’s wrong? Martha, Martha can you hear me?" She still didn't respond. Horrified at what was happening he turned and ran towards Jessica's house.

  Jessica was just coming out the front door to leave for work when this all took place. She watched the whole thing, frozen in fear. When she saw him running towards her with Mrs. Mill's not far behind. The only thing she could think to say was "Mr. Mills is everything okay?"

  Everything else after that was a giant blur. The next thing she remembered was sitting in the front seat of her car. Mrs. Mills was leaning over the top of Mr. Mills smashing his head off the pavement in her driveway. Mrs. Mills stopped and looked up at Jessica, her eyes lifeless and void of any emotion. She then stood up and began pounding on the window of her car.

  Jessica took her key and opened her glove compartment and pulled out a 9mm pistol. The gun had been a gift from her late husband Danny. He'd bought it for her for protection. She often worked late night shifts at McDaniel’s, the local truck stop and cafe in town. Danny always told her because of that he felt more comfortable knowing she had a way to defend herself if the need arose. He'd always feared some creep would follow her to her car and it gave him peace of mind.

  Growing up in a family that hunted her father had taught her how to shoot and use a gun safely at a young age. Handling the gun was something she was comfortable with and she had confidence she could use it to defend herself if necessary. That situation was happening right now.

  Mrs. Mills continued to pound on the window as Jessica chambered a round into the gun. The old lady was hitting the window with such force it shook the whole car. Jessica feared she would break through the glass if she kept pounding on it like that.

  "Mrs. Mills, please stop." She looked down at the ground where Mr. Mills lay face down and unmoving. An expanding pool of blood was forming on the pavement under his head.

  "Mrs. Mills, please Stop!"

  Jessica had no more than gotten the last word out when the window shattered and Mr. Mills grabbed her. She remembered firing two shots from the pistol while struggling to get free of her grasp. The bullets struck, making her stumble backwards and fall to the ground. Blood spattered across Jessica's face and the interior of the car as bullets ripped into flesh. For a moment she couldn't move, frozen from what had transpired. That brief moment of stasis didn't last long as an overwhelming feeling of survival and self preservation took over.

  Opening the car door she cautiously stepped out, keeping an eye on Mrs. Mills who lay motionless. The sound of police and ambulance sirens could now be heard approaching from the distance. She knelt down to examine Mr. Mills and heard faint raspy breathing emanating from his throat. He was hurt, but alive and bleeding heavily from his head wound. He wasn't going to last long if he didn't get medical attention quickly.

  The sound of sirens screamed in her ears as the ambulance and police cruiser stopped at the foot of her driveway. Turning her head towards the vehicles she recognized the cop as Mark Stepson, a friend she had known for years.

  "Mark! Mark! Mr. Mills is hurt bad and I think Mrs. Mills is dead." The words came out of Jessica's mouth so quickly she wasn't sure they made sense.

  Mark's hand was on his gun. He was looking at her with a fixated stare while slowly approaching her. Airing on the side of caution, unsure of what had transpired.

  "Jessica I'm going to need you to slowly put the gun down on the ground.” Jessica complied. “ Good, now put your hands behind your back and lean across the hood of your car." Again she complied.

  She hadn't realized she had still been clutching the gun. Jessica couldn't help but let the tears flow as she leaned across the hood of the car. The chaos of the whole situation finally registering in her brain. Hitting her with a flood of emotions that couldn't be controlled. Mark placed handcuffs on her and turned her to face him as two men from the ambulance crew rushed towards Mr. and Mrs. Mills.

  Mark had known Jessica since high school. In fact they had dated for a short period of time their senior year. She was one of the most honest people he'd ever met and knew she would tell him the truth, no matter how bad it was.

  "Jessica, I need you too calm down and tell me what happened," Mark said in a calm reassuring voice. Something his training had taught him to do when dealing with distraught subjects.

  Fighting through her tears and emotions she managed to tell him what happened, at least what she could remember. So much of it already a complete blur. The look on Mark's face told her for some weird reason he believed her. He didn't respond, but listened to her story until she was finished.

  “That was everything you can remember?” Mark asked.

  “Yes, Mark what's going on?”

  Mark looked down at the ground. He wasn't sure now was the right time to explain what was going on, and freak her out anymore than she already was. “Give me a second okay?”

  Jessica nodded her head as she watched the paramedics load Mr. Mills into the ambulance. Several people had gathered in the street and were now watching what was going on. Mouths agape, fingers pointing in Jessica's direction. It made her angry to think these people had nothing better to do and almost said something, but decided against it.

  Mark had noticed the gathering crowd as well. "Stay right here for a second."

  Jessica watched Mark go to his cruiser and grab a sheet from the trunk of the car. He walked to where Mrs. Mills lay and placed the sheet over her body.

  Mark turned and looked at the small crowd who had gathered from the neighboring houses. "Everyone needs to go home and stay inside!”

  His voice was raised and filled with an odd nervousness. One Jessica had never heard in all the years she'd known him. It almost seemed he wanted to say more, but didn't want to cause a panic. His body language projecting a similar signal.

  People looked at each other with confused looks, but did as they were told and began to disperse. When Mark was confident there wouldn't be any stragglers and everyone was headed home, he turned and walked back to Jessica.

  "I'm gonna take those cuffs off you now. I trust you won't do anything to make me regret that."

  “I won't.”

  She turned so he could unlock the cuffs and he unlocked them, taking them from her wrist. Tears began to run down her face again as she turned back towards him. Jessi
ca stood there unable to speak through her sobs. After several minutes she finally managing to subdue her emotions and calm down enough to talk.

  "Mark, what’s going on?" She asked again.

  As worried as Mark was about giving her the news right now, she needed to know. If this was what he thought it was, she would find out soon enough anyway. It wasn't likely what happened to Mrs. Mills was going to go away anytime soon. In fact, it was likely to get worse, much worse.

  "We've been hearing for a few days about stuff like this happening in some of the other towns around here. We've been trying to keep it quiet so people wouldn't panic and overreact. We're not sure what's causing it, but it's bad." His face was sullen as he answered her question.

  "Is this like what's been going on in the cities? I remember hearing about some strange events a few weeks ago, but it seemed to have stopped. I'm so confused right now. They were such nice people. Why would she attack her husband and I?" Emotion overwhelmed her. Despite her best efforts to fight back them back, tears began to fall again.

  Mark stepped forward and pulled her towards him, hugging her and trying to offer some sort of comfort. There wasn't much else he could do, sometimes a simple gesture of kindness was worth more than empty words. When she had calmed down he let go of her. Giving her a chance to compose herself before he spoke again.

  "I'm gonna have to bring you down to the station with me. At least until we can get this all straightened out. I'm not charging you with anything, but we need to be sure you didn't miss anything that could help us."

  “I understand,” Jessica said.

  A second ambulance had arrived shortly after the first one. It's sirens now filled the air as it pulled away with the body of Mrs. Mills. Both Jessica and Mark stood watching it disappear down the road. A strange and eerie silence now taking place of the chaotic noise.

  “We've need to go so we can get this over with,” Mark said.

  They walked to the cruiser without another word spoken. This was Jessica Alberts introduction to the plague of the 21st century. Life almost seemed to get back to normal in the weeks following the incident. Nothing else happened until about a month later when all hell broke loose. The plague began hitting everywhere. Nowhere was unaffected, small towns, cities, it didn't matter.

  Whatever this infection was it was fast moving and didn't discriminate. Young or old, black or white, rich or poor. All walks of life were affected by it. People weren't calling them zombies or undead, which is exactly what they were. It seems even in this time of crisis the media tried to gather ratings and create a buzzword. A news reporter from Boston had taken to calling them Returners. It had stuck and that's what all the media outlets began to call them. The plague seemed to affect people differently depending on how you died. It seemed if you died of natural causes it took you longer to return. You came back able to run and move with quickness, at least at first, but over time slowed down. If you were bit you returned quickly, but moved slow right from the start.

  In the early days, those who remained largely avoided each other and didn't leave their houses. Fear of the dead, and distrust of the living keeping them isolated and alone. Most people chose not to stay and fled Greenstone to find family or safety. Holding out some sort of hope things were better elsewhere.

  Within six months it had wiped out half the population of the United States. Within a year who knew? The last news report Jessica had heard said the plague had gone global. That was fifteen months ago, shortly after that the power went out and never came back on. No cell phones, no computers, there was nothing to communicate with.

  Eighteen months after the plague first hit, Jessica's small town was empty, at least from what she could tell. It had been months since she'd last seen signs of another living human being besides her daughter. All that seemed to remain was the Returners and they were growing in numbers by the day.

  They spent six months hiding in the upstairs of their house. Making it inaccessible from below by blocking off the stairwell with a wall of boards. Jessica kept a ladder in the room with them so they could get out and scavenge for supplies without compromising their safety.

  Winter arrived with a heavy snowfall, the first storm dumping two feet of heavy wet snow on the ground. There was no heat and as the temperatures dropped they found it harder to find ways to stay warm. Their food was nearly gone and Emily was starting to get sick. That was when Jessica made the decision to try and make it to the old family hunting camp before things got any worse.

  She knew there were supplies and plenty of wood there. It was always left stocked well, plus it was way back in the woods, which hopefully meant no Returners were there. For some reason the cold and snow seemed to keep the Returners at bay, at least to a point. She wasn't sure if it dulled their senses or just made it hard for them to move around. If there was a time for her and Emily to get out, this was it.

  After spending several days planning out what they needed to do, she finally had a solid plan. The road they lived on had been abandoned fairly early on. She figured they might be able to find a decent amount of supplies in the abandoned houses further up the road. They could use the snowmobile and sleigh her neighbors the Carter's had.

  It was late by the time the plan was laid out and solidified, so they slept and waited for morning to arrive. When daylight came she wadded through the waist deep snow to the shed, and luckily for her found it unlocked. Mr. Carter had let her and Danny borrow the sled a few years ago to go on an ice fishing trip. She had made sure Danny showed her how to operate it in case something happened to him while on the trip

  The sled was out of gas, but she found a couple of canisters filled with fuel. She was lucky Mr. Carter liked to do all his own work around the house. He always had plenty of gas around for his machines, hopefully it was still good. You never knew if the ethanol blended gas would break down or be stable enough.

  After filling the sled up she took a few minutes to look around the shed and found a chainsaw and some fishing equipment. Both items would be useful tools for the journey and packed them along with the extra gas containers in the back of the sleigh. It took a few pulls, but the sled came to life. Smoke from the exhaust filled the room as it pushed the old gas through its cylinders.

  Jessica lightly revved the engine to make sure it wouldn't stop and then quickly opened the large twin doors of the shed. Jumping on the sled she pressed on the throttle and exited, heading straight for her house. Before coming outside she had packed what they would need into two bags and placed them near the back door of the house. She'd told Emily to wait upstairs until she heard the sled coming. Then she would go down the ladder, grab the bags and get the sleigh packed.

  They needed to do this as quickly as possible in case any Returners were still in the area. Returners seemed to be drawn to noise and she didn't want to waste any time or take unnecessary chances. Even though it had been almost a month since she had last seen one, you never knew where they might be lurking.

  As Jessica came around the house to the back entrance Emily appeared with the two bags. Putting them in the sleigh and making sure they were secure she jumped on with her Mother. The two of them beginning their journey to what she hoped would be their sanctuary.

  Along the way they checked several of the houses they came across for food and other useful items. It wasn't hard to get into most of the houses, most of them were not locked. People either had been infected or fled in a panic. They managed to find a decent amount of canned and dry food. They also found a .22 rifle with a scope and a couple of bricks of ammunition for it.

  Only once did they encounter any Returners when entering the houses. It was one of the last houses they were going to stop and search. They were just finishing up their search of the house when one came at her and Emily. One shot from her 9mm quickly dispatched it. That was the last time they stopped, she didn't dare risk stopping again until they reached the cabin.

  That was four months ago. It had been a rough winter, but they ha
d survived. There were no other cabins in the area that she knew of and no roads for miles. Just a few four wheeler and snowmobile trails. Between what they had found, and what she managed to get hunting food hadn't been an issue. They currently had enough to last them another month or so before they'd start getting low.

  She felt safe and secure here. At least she had until this afternoon when she'd first noticed the smoke over the trees. Now she wasn't so sure. One thing was definite, no harm would come to her daughter. She would make sure of that, doing whatever it took to protect her.

  "Mom, what’s wrong?" Emily asked as she approached her from across the cabin. She had noticed her staring out the window and began to worry.

  The sound of her daughter's voice snapped her out of the daze she was lost in. "Nothing sweetheart. I need to go check something out." The look of concern in her daughter’s eyes obvious.

  "Okay," Emily's voice was shaky and nervous as she struggled to just get that one word out. A single tear rolled down her face. Something was wrong and she knew it.

  "Don't worry sweetie I'll be right back, remember what we went over?" Jessica said as she wiped the tear from her daughter's face.

  Emily's bright blue eyes looked back at Jessica as she nodded her head yes and walked away from her mother. Right then Jessica couldn’t help but think how much she looked like her father. She had his blue eyes, his skinny nose and red hair. Emily was tall for her age and most likely be tall like her father was. Danny would be proud of the young lady his daughter had become.

  Jessica watched Emily retrieve an old single shot shotgun from the corner of the cabin and walk back to her.

  “I remember everything you taught me mom.”

  Even though Emily sounded nervous Jessica had confidence she could take care of herself. These last few years had made her strong and resilient beyond her years. Even at the age of eleven she could handle herself if need be. Confident in that fact she opened the door to the cabin and stepped outside.

  “Love you. Be right back,” Jessica said