Trying to Survive (Part 2)

by C. J. Crowley

  “It’s like the world’s shittiest lottery!” Jessie remarked as he went around a tight corner and caused us to all lean left.

  I was in no mood to laugh, but something I’d periodically been wondering about came to mind. “I’ve noticed something… I haven’t seen a single child that’s turned. What about you guys?”

  “No, and my father did mention that they noticed no children had turned… I can’t explain that – only come up with theories. Most being about how the gene doesn’t become armed, if you will, until a person’s body fully matures.”

  I could see that Melanie had gone somewhat pale, even in the dim lighting. I didn’t look back to gauge Walt’s reaction, I just said “I understand what you’re saying. I just don’t understand why we would have something like that in our DNA… It doesn’t make sense.”

  Walt interjected. “It doesn’t sound like it’s helping to take care of over-population… It sounds like it’s meant to wipe us out.”

  Jenny replied “Even though I could tell my father was holding a lot back from me, I could also tell he didn’t truly understand it… Nature could have very well put it in place to protect itself against us – it might not have anything to do with our survival… But, he did admit that he’d been saving up to have a private company build a bunker for our family since he found out we didn’t have the gene. According to my father – everyone with the money who knew about this and didn’t have the gene was having them built in preparation.”

  This is fucking crazy…

  Walt scoffed “So, they knew it was coming?”

  “They knew it was coming eventually… As in the same way we know our sun will eventually die off, along with the planet. There was no way to know when it would happen… But really, not that many people knew about it. For example – I’d guess that less than five people in the Whitehouse knew, and even the President wouldn’t be included on the list.”

  Jenny sighed. “It’s gets a little dark – I almost couldn’t believe it when he told me, but… my father also admitted they were working on a virus that would kill off everyone with the gene… They were planning on releasing it all over the world to prevent this from ever happening, but they were never able to succeed in creating it… That’s the main reason I never told anyone until now – I could only assume having the information was worthy of permanent arrest or even assassination.”

  Walt’s expression quickly changed from fearful and curious to portraying a slowly building rage. “They were going to purposely wipe out 70% of the population?”

  Jenny looked up from the floor of the van and their eyes met. “Now that you’ve lived to witness all of this – would you really go against that decision? Think of the tens of millions of lives it would have saved… No, more like hundreds of millions. And if it’s happening all over the world – billions.”

  Walt slowly shook his head and turned away to coldly stare through the window. “I guess not.”

  So… this is our fault for threatening nature?.. I was still in disbelief, but I managed to choke out “So, the whole world might not be affected?”

  “We really don’t know anything else… Everything happened so fast. The only reason we survived was because we were alone in the cafeteria with our team after a late night at the lab… and we were all armed when they started to turn.”

  Brian took over to give her a break. “It just happened from one minute to the next… There were twenty-two of us in that cafeteria – including the two cooks. They all just fell to the floor and started having these crazy seizures – within thirty seconds they started to attack us… They’re a lot weaker when they first turn.”

  They had to kill all of their friends?.. Fuck… When the thought of having to kill Walt because he turned entered my mind, I truly understood how difficult that must have been for them.

  Jessie was staying quiet and puffing away on his cigarette as he drove, flooding the pitch-black road ahead with the stadium lighting set up on the front of the van. Every time I looked through the window the speed he was going scared me, but he obviously knew what he was doing so I just tried not to look.

  Brian reached down to his feet again, this time coming back up with half-sized bottles of water. He handed them to me and said “Pass these around.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Anyway… It took us three days to escape from the base, and as far as I could tell, we were the only survivors.”

  Jessie finally added to the conversation. “We’re alive because most people had already left for the night… We still had to spend days playin ninja before we finally got the hell outta there. Those things have ears like German Shepherds.”

  Jenny said “That’s part of the change – it drastically heightens all predatory functions and instincts… and believe it or not, there is an upside to that.”

  Jessie remarked “I wouldn’t exactly call it an upside.”

  She snapped “It’s something, Jessie.”

  Melanie said “How could there possibly be an upside to any of this?.. And why haven’t any of you mentioned the fact that something like this is clearly written in the Bible?”

  I guess that is a good point… It is pretty fuckin strange…

  Jessie mockingly remarked “Because our faith lies in science, lady. This whole thing can be easily explained.”

  Brain was a little more respectful of Melanie’s views. “I don’t know what to think…” He turned to Jessie. “But, I honestly can’t say the thought hasn’t crossed my mind. It is really weird, man.”

  Jessie scoffed “If people would have listened to all the warnings from the scientific community about the dangers of over-population – this shit never would have happened.” He began waving his hands around and the van slightly swerved. “All you people had to have five or eight kids because some old book told you to be fruitful.”

  Melanie was pressing her lips together and growing increasingly upset by the second. The last thing we needed was an argument, so I did my best to derail the conversation back to the original subject. I forcefully interjected. “How about this? If we survive, we can start placing blame or giving credit to Gods… For now, let’s focus on working together and getting through this shit.”

  Melanie bit her tongue and sat back in her chair. Then Jenny regained control of the conversation. “As I was saying… There really is an upside. The heightened strength, speed, agility and massive amounts of adrenaline wears down their bodies and kills them. The triggered natural production of a supplement very similar to breast milk drastically strengthens their bones, nails and teeth, but also helps to wreak havoc on their internal organs. … And as I’m sure you already know, they also start eating each other when they get desperate enough. So, eventually, time will wipe them all out.”

  Walt jerked forward in his seat. “Whoa, what!? How long does it take?”

  I felt the familiar spark of hope until Jenny bleakly replied “My father claimed it took close to two years for one to die naturally – longer with another subject.”

  As usual, it was crushed by reality… A lot can happen in two years… Now I know what Jessie meant when he said that he wouldn’t exactly call it an upside…

  Chapter 3

  If we had been able to use the highway, it would have only taken about four hours to reach the Georgia State line. Due to the horrible condition of the roads, we’d been driving for almost eight hours and only made it to Jacksonville.

  It felt like Jessie had to slow down every fifteen minutes to hop the van off the road and creep around an accident that had taken place. Meanwhile, having to watch for debris that could lead to a flat tire.

  Palm Coast was a rapidly growing, but mainly undeveloped area, and just as I suspected – things changed drastically when we went through more populated ones. Many of the roads were completely walled off with abandoned and crashed vehicles, and there were even several instances where Jessie had to turn around and take a longer route because so many of the shredders were in the stre
ets.

  The fourth time we came upon a large pack, Jessie overestimated how many of them the van could get through. He figured the weight combined with the battering-ram style, metal grill guard on the front would be enough to break through... It was still dark at the time, so he probably couldn’t tell just how many of them there really were.

  He hated the idea of having to turn around again, so he gunned it and plowed into them. To be perfectly honest, I assumed it would work as well. Even Brian seemed shocked.

  The van only made it about half way through before all the bodies collecting underneath the front-end forced it to a dead stop. Luckily, it has rear-wheel-drive, so he was able to throw it in reverse and get us away from them before anyone was hurt. The abnormally high ride-height of the van seemed to be a big factor in making it so they didn’t get inside.

  Jessie spent quite a while cursing himself out after it happened – the van was badly beaten up... The front passenger window was broken – only being held together by the tint. The back right window was completely smashed out, and dozens of dents from them pounding and jumping at the van were clearly visible on the inside.

  Since the van was originally a commercial shell-model and had no “interior” in the back, the dents were shockingly pronounced, and in some spots their fists and nails actually started coming through the thin metal. To me, it suggested they could kill a regular person with a single strike... Many of the dents actually looked like they were inflicted by a sledgehammer.

  Melanie suggested it was a miracle that none of us were ripped out of the windows during the few seconds it took Jessie to put the van in reverse and build up a little speed – I couldn’t help but agree.

  The incident shocked every single one of us, but it really terrified Anthony and Clara. Jessie must have apologized thirty times over the last hour, even though we all kept assuring him that it wasn’t really his fault – that it was just a miscalculation, an accident.

  Even now, studying his eyes in the rearview mirror told me that he was still deeply angry with himself…

  The sun was just starting to come up, and we’d been driving through Jacksonville for a little over twenty minutes. I felt Jessie let off the throttle, then he turned back and notified us that we would have to stop and siphon gas again.

  It was a relatively easy thing to do since there were cars everywhere. It simply took some time to find a spot that didn’t have more than two or three shredders wandering around. Jessie and the others had “plenty” of ammunition, but conservation was still a top priority.

  I can clearly remember being astonished at how quickly the bullets disappeared when I’d go shooting with my father, so I could only assume they were very familiar with the feeling as well… A box of bullets doesn’t last worth a shit…

  After our… incident… Brian used the map to direct Jessie around the more built up areas. It was taking substantially longer, but it greatly reduced our contact with the shredders.

  When I felt the van come to a stop, I grabbed onto the armrest and began working my way out of the seat. The cramped space and limited foot room made it even more painful for me to maneuver around than usual.

  Brian noticed me struggling and said “Whoa, man. You need to take it easy – we got this.”

  Walt pushed the back doors open, hopped out and checked over his rifle to make sure it was fully loaded and that the safety was off. “I think two of us watching Jessie’s back is enough.”

  I ignored them and made my way out – I needed to have a private conversation with Jessie.

  Brian leaned closer to Walt and quietly said “What’s his problem” as I stumbled out of the van and came embarrassingly close to falling… Fuck… Now I have to get back in…

  Walt slightly tilted his head and his brow eased its way down into a frown. At times, his crystal-blue eyes were so bright that they almost appeared to glow like those of the infected. His dark, brown hair, week’s-worth of stubble and the deep tan he’d received from being stuck on the roof only made them even more pronounced than usual.

  As I limped past them, I said “I just need to talk to him for a minute.”

  Jessie was a little on the shorter side, but light and quick on his feet, so he was already working on getting the gas out of a black SUV that had crashed into some trees on the side of the road. When he heard my footsteps, he turned back and said “What the hell are you doin out of the van?”

  I already had exactly what I wanted to say worked out in my head, so I bluntly replied “I know you people are really smart, and that you truly do understand what’s happening… but, just try to take it easy on Melanie. A lot of people follow a religion the same way you follow science.”

  Jessie lowered the hose, stood up and turned to face me. I didn’t really know him, and for a moment I suspected there was going to be a problem due to the way he seemed to be glaring at me.

  To my relief, his face relaxed and his friendly demeanor returned. If anything, he looked genuinely apologetic. “I don’t mean to be an asshole. I’m sorry, it’s just a sensitive subject for me… I come from a really religious family – they always used to give me a hard time about it.” He put his hands on his hips and looked off into the trees. “I’ll put it to you this way… My father permanently stopped speaking to me the day he found out I didn’t believe anymore.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that… and I understand. I just wanted you to know something.” I raised my hand and pointed at him. “I’m telling you this – not anyone else. If she wanted any of you to know, she would have said something.”

  “I gotcha.”

  “The night this started, she lost her two children. Then, on the third day, we all watched her husband get his throat ripped out by one of those things... And now, she’s taken it upon herself to care for those two children.”

  Jessie’s shoulders slumped as he looked down to the ground and sighed.

  “Just be nice to her. She’s a good person, and you’d be surprised by how strong she is… She deserves it more than anyone else here. And there’s no sense arguing beliefs at a time like this. That’s not too much to ask, right?”

  “Yeah, of course.”

  When I turned around to head back to the van, Walt and Brian were both staring at me. I could tell they were trying to listen in on our conversation and still confused as to what was going on. I knew I was acting oddly about the whole thing, I just didn’t want Melanie to hear us. I had a hard time believing she’d welcome the idea of someone else fighting her battles for her – no matter how small.

  I was so deep in thought that my eye almost didn’t pick up the movement behind Walt. For whatever reason, my guard was completely down. It took a moment for me to register that one of the shredders had come from the woods and was no more than twenty feet away from them.

  As I raised my rifle, I yelled out “Behind you – move, now!”

  Walt and Brian both ducked and went in different directions. Once they moved out of the way, I could see four more emerging from the tree-line. The sun was blazing, so they were moving slowly – it gave me the extra second I needed to steady my breathing.

  I pulled the trigger and watched as the nearest shredder’s head kicked back and it collapsed to the ground.

  I found myself fascinated by the way it worked… A tiny piece of hot metal hits the brain, and the body instantly shuts down... It was as if someone walked up behind it and simply flipped a switch – like watching a lamp suddenly turn off.

  However, it also reminded me of how easily we could be killed by other people. I imagined that someone could be watching us through the scope of a rifle at that very moment. Seconds away from trying to kill us and take everything we have… Some of Jessie’s comments when we first met suggested they’ve already had problems with other survivors.

  As I loaded another bullet into the chamber, Walt and Brian began firing. The feeling of a hand on my shoulder startled me and I whipped around – to my relief, it was Jessie. “Get back in the va
n now – we got this.”

  I was going to refuse – it’s my brother out there – but I understood Jessie’s reasoning. It was going to take me more than a few seconds to crawl back in the van because of my leg, whereas they can just hop right in.

  Limping to the van while the gunshots shattered my eardrums seemed to be a never-ending struggle. I could feel that I’d been using my leg far too much. It was weaker than ever, and I was convinced the pain was actually getting worse.

  Anthony and Melanie’s faces were pressed up against the window, watching as Walt and Brian continued to fire. There were only four other shredders the last time I looked, but the amount of shots being fired was a clear indication that more must have appeared from the woods.

  I was blocking out Brian’s assault rifle and focusing on how many shots Walt had fired – it was rather easy to tell the difference due to the way the sounds carried. The shots from the old rifle cracked like thunder in comparison to the M4. When I heard him fire for the fifth time, I knew he was out.

  Jenny was already on the way over to help me, but I turned back anyway and raised my rifle. They were slowly pouring out of the trees and clumsily running at Walt and Brian. So, technically, they weren’t in any real danger.

  Jessie was having to take his time getting back to the van. If he tried to run, the gas would slosh around and spill over the sides of the bucket. When he noticed that I was lining up a shot, he yelled out “James, get back in the van! They’re waiting on us! GO!”

  I fired and took another one down – just to help ease my worry for Walt. As Jenny grabbed my arm and forced me back into the van, she said “If you don’t heal, you won’t ever really be able to protect your brother.”

  I silently nodded and she ran off to help Walt and Brian keep the shredders at bay. Meanwhile, Jessie performed the difficult task of pouring the gas into the small filler hole for the van without spilling most of it. “New priority, guys! Gas can!”