Everything Dies [Season One]

by T. W. Malpass

  Emily’s eyes widened with a thought. ‘Are you scared the monsters might get you if you close your eyes?’

  ‘Something like that.’

  ‘Do you know why they’re here?’

  ‘There have always been monsters, Emily. They just weren’t so obvious before.’

  A voice suddenly interjected from across the room. ‘I-I don’t think Mr. Graham would want you to be doing this.’ It was Adam. He’d been listening the whole time.

  ‘Chill out, Kobe. We’re just talking,’ Ethan said.

  ‘I think you should listen to his advice,’ Raine added from her spot by the window.

  ‘When I used to get scared at night sometimes, or I had a bad dream, my daddy would tell me there were no such things as monsters,’ Emily said.

  Ethan turned back to face her. ‘You have to understand something about your dad. When he told you that, he was doing it to protect you from what the world is – for as long as he could. But it’s better now because the monsters don’t pretend to be something they’re not. Makes it easier to see them when they come for you… and they will come for you, Emily.’

  ‘Hey, hey! Stop!’ Vincent said, sitting up with a start.

  ‘I told him already, Mr. Graham,’ Adam said.

  Ethan smirked and frowned at Adam at the same time. ‘Do you still think you’re on the honour system or something?’

  ‘Lie down and go back to sleep.’ Vincent forced Emily to flip over and face away from Ethan. He then leaned over her to stare him down. ‘You don’t speak to my daughter again. You don’t speak to her, you don’t touch her, you don’t even look in her direction. Do as I ask and we’ll get along just fine. You got that?’

  Ethan reached up and gave him a lazy salute. ‘Aye aye, Captain.’

  Vincent broke his stare and lay back down to nurse his daughter to sleep again.

  4

  When Vincent woke, the daylight was starting to break through the windows. The guard rotation had changed and Salty was now on duty. Everyone else, including Ethan, was asleep.

  Vincent heard Emily cough like she was choking and he quickly got her into a sitting position. ‘What’s wrong, honey?’

  He found it hard to understand her because she hardly opened her mouth when she spoke. ‘Nasty taste.’

  ‘Get her to spit it out,’ Salty said.

  Vincent pulled her off the mattress and got her to lean forward. ‘It’s OK. Let it go.’

  Emily did as he asked, and a clear, slimy pus mixed with blood, like a disgusting kind of treacle drooled from her lips and splashed onto the hardwood.

  ‘Daddy?’ She started to sob, confused and frightened by the mess she’d made.

  ‘The abscess burst, alright,’ Salty said. ‘Don’t worry, kid. It’s a good thing.’

  ‘He’s right, Emmy. Just as well you didn’t swallow it,’ Vincent said as he stroked her hair.

  ‘Will it be all better now?’ she asked.

  ‘It should have relieved some pressure for sure,’ Salty said.

  ‘Does your face feel any better?’ Vincent said.

  ‘I think so.’

  Vincent reached over to grab a bottle of water, accidentally nudging Kristin in the process. He handed the bottle to Emily. ‘It will take the taste away and clean out your mouth,’ he said.

  As she drank, he noticed that Salty was assembling a small fire in the centre of the room using pieces of paper and broken bits of wood.

  Kristin sat up and saw him at work. ‘What are you doing?’

  Instead of answering her, Salty looked at Vincent. ‘Can I have a word with you in private?’

  Vincent kissed his wife and handed Emily over. ‘Can you watch her please? Her abscess just burst.’

  ‘Oh, Emily. Are you ok?’ Kristin gave her a hug while the child continued to sip from the bottle.

  ‘It doesn’t hurt so much now,’ she said.

  Vincent got up and walked over to Salty. ‘What is it?’

  ‘I’m gonna warm up some water and add salt to it. If she gargles with it, it will stop her wound from getting infected.’

  ‘What wound?’

  ‘The place I know of is at least a day’s drive from here – that’s if we find a vehicle. Even when we get there, there’s no tellin’ if we’ll ever find more antibiotics. Your daughter feels better now, but unless we remove that tooth, the abscess could always come back.’

  ‘You’re suggesting we remove it here – right now?’

  ‘Ideally, you’d want the swelling to go down first, but I can’t guarantee we’re gonna get this chance again.’

  Vincent thought about it for a moment and shook his head. ‘I can’t do that to her.’

  ‘It ain’t just about her. If she’s sick when we’re on the road, she could be a danger to us all.’

  As much as he fought to admit it, Salty was right. If he refused and it played out that way, he would be responsible for it. ‘How do you plan to do it?’

  ‘You’re gonna want to give her one of those painkillers first.’

  5

  Emily sat rigid and shivering in Vincent’s arms, gripping his hand for dear life. Salty slid the ream of string carefully through his fingers. He then pulled it taut so it tugged on Emily’s infected tooth.

  The little girl flinched and started to hyperventilate, digging her fingernails into her father’s skin. ‘It’s OK, Emily: it’s already loose. You’ll hardly even feel it,’ Vincent said. He was just glad she was facing away from him, so she couldn’t see the uncertainty written all over his face.

  Kristin stood with Raine. She wanted to say something to comfort her daughter, but couldn’t think of a single word.

  Adam had taken a walk downstairs, having decided he’d rather not be around when it happened.

  Ethan sat in silence with his hood up and his head between his knees.

  Salty wrapped the other end of the string around the handle of the open door to the bathroom cubicle, turning up his pointed nose when he smelled the cloud of stale urine coming from inside.

  ‘This is how they always used to do it back in my day, kid. Dentists were expensive. They weren’t for people in my neighbourhood.’ He laid his hand on the door. ‘Make sure you keep your mouth open, otherwise you could lose more than one.’

  On hearing his warning, Emily overcompensated, opening her mouth like she was letting out a silent scream, still shaking wildly.

  ‘No need to fret, little darlin’. The beauty of losing your first teeth is there’s new ones ready to grow back in their place… I’m gonna give you a five-count and then I’ll do it, OK?’

  Emily nodded and shut her eyes tight.

  ‘One… two… thr.’ Before Salty had finished the countdown, he slammed the door shut, and with a twang of the string, the molar flew from her mouth and bounced over to where Salty was standing, leaving a thin trail of blood and saliva in its wake.

  Vincent made her lean forward immediately. First, he passed her a bottle of water to swill her mouth out. Then he gave her the warm salt water that salty had made to help clean the wound. Once she was done gargling, she spat the now-frothy pink liquid onto the floor.

  ‘You tricked me,’ she said, catching her breath.

  ‘Hurts less when you least expect it.’

  She frowned at him all the same.

  ‘Did it hurt that much?’

  Emily thought about it. ‘Not much, I guess.’

  ‘There you go then. Now you keep swilling that salt water and it should heal up nicely.’

  ‘OK,’ Emily said. ‘Thank you, Salty Jake.’

  ‘You’re welcome, Missy.’ A brief smile broke across his face, softening his usually harsh features.

  ‘Thank you,’ Vincent said sincerely.

  Salty’s solemn look soon returned to him. ‘You can thank me by getting ready to haul ass. We’ve already wasted part of the mornin’.’

  The group gathered their things shortly after and then headed out. The dead had scattered again, so t
hey were able to slip away unnoticed. Salty led them west. They travelled through over a mile of open fields. Occasionally, they came across a few ragged-looking figures stumbling along in the distance, but they never got close enough that they needed to engage them.

  Adam continued to take turns with Vincent to carry Emily whenever he got tired. Raine did her best to support Kristin’s weight so she didn’t put too much pressure on her ankle.

  Ethan kept to himself, as always, and listened to his iPod beneath his hood.

  Salty insisted they were getting closer to the road, but in order to get there, they had to pass through a plot of cornfields. They entered with a great deal of caution. Eight-foot-tall stalks of green and golden brown rose up around them in every direction, above them the burnt-orange clouds of the breaking dawn.

  Every rustle or flap of a bird’s wings in the midst of the crops brought fresh concern, but Salty ploughed on ahead, sometimes slashing away with his hatchet to remove any obstructions.

  ‘We have no idea what we’re walking into,’ Vincent said.

  ‘We’re heading for the road,’ Salty said, never looking back. ‘Why don’t you put the kid up on your shoulders? She might be able to tell us somethin’.’

  Vincent hesitated. Salty noticed.

  ‘I doubt there are any snipers waiting to take a pop at her, but whatever,’ Salty said.

  ‘I’d like to, Daddy,’ Emily said. She smiled up at him. The swelling on her cheek was already starting to reduce.

  Salty gurned with satisfaction. ‘Well OK then. Tell us what you see.’

  ‘I will.’

  Vincent hoisted her up and placed her on his back. She shuffled forward to get comfortable and straddled his neck.

  Kristin almost fell over several times trying to navigate the uneven ground of the tilled earth. Finally, Raine made her stop and shouted to the front. ‘We need to stop for a while. She has to rest.’

  ‘Negative. We ain’t stoppin’ till we reach the road,’ Salty said.

  ‘I see something.’ Emily pointed excitedly to the north.

  ‘What is it?’ Salty said.

  ‘Errm, a truck!’

  ‘You sure?’

  ‘Yes. It’s a big green truck.’

  ‘It movin’?’

  ‘No, it’s standing still.’

  ‘OK, darlin’. You keep pointing at it and we’ll follow.’ Salty dropped back so he could let Emily guide them.

  Kristin ignored the throbbing pain in her ankle and pushed on too.

  ‘Tell us if you see any people, Emily,’ Salty said.

  ‘Aye aye, Captain,’ she replied.

  Vincent was about to laugh at her remark, but then he remembered who had used it on the previous night. He looked behind him and couldn’t tell whether Ethan was smiling beneath his hood.

  ‘Daddy?’ Emily tugged on his ears, causing him to face the right way again, so she could watch the static truck.

  Every now and again, Salty would have to adjust their direction based on Emily’s body language, keeping their voices down to a whisper.

  After a while, Salty asked ‘Are we close now, darlin’?’

  ‘Pretty close,’ she whispered back.

  ‘OK, Vincent. Take her down.’

  Vincent lifted her from his shoulders and sat her down.

  ‘Raine, you come on ahead with me. We’ll check it out – make sure there are no surprises. Everyone else stays put until I give the signal,’ Salty said.

  ‘Here. I won’t take no for an answer this time.’ Kristin pushed the Beretta into Raine’s hand. She closed her fingers around its handle and followed Salty into the corn.

  Once Salty shifted the last stalks aside, they emerged onto a road, about thirty yards behind the vehicle. He took one step back and peered around the swaying corn to get a better view. Just as Emily had said, it was a big green truck – a military cargo transport to be exact – extremely similar to those housed at the refugee camp.

  He felt a tap on his arm and Raine handed him the gun, a look of dread on her face. Salty examined her haunted expression with interest.

  She turned her gaze from his and released the weapon.

  ‘Hang back and make sure I don’t get blindsided.’ Holding his hatchet in one hand and the Beretta in the other, he crept up to the back of the truck. He slammed into the steel of the tailgate and lifted the canvas sheet to peek inside. The bed of the vehicle was empty. He moved around to the driver’s side and edged closer to the cab, eyes fixed on the glass of the side-view mirror.

  He ducked underneath the open window, and then popped up, wielding the gun. He almost squeezed the trigger when he noticed the soldier sitting at the wheel. The young man was still, his head resting back against the seat. His skin was bleached white and his brown hair soaked through with sweat. The name on his fatigues read ‘Hollister’.

  ‘Raine, get your ass up here.’

  Hollister suddenly lurched forward and let out a spluttered breath. Salty jumped back and raised his gun again. The soldier sat back after his coughing fit. His eyes roamed around the interior of the cabin before he noticed that he had company. ‘Who the hell are you?’ he said, trying to focus on Salty.

  ‘Seems to me – I should be asking the questions. Seeing as I’m the one with the gun on you,’ Salty said. ‘Where did you come from and are you alone?’

  Hollister let out a weary laugh. ‘Just down the road a ways.’

  Raine arrived at the driver’s window and locked eyes on the soldier. ‘He bit?’

  Hollister responded by reaching across his body and tugging open his shirt. A shallow bite mark on the top of his shoulder was oozing with blood and clearly infected. He let go of his shirt and slumped back into place. ‘We were on a recon in Westport; we got swarmed. Only half of us made it out. When we got back to base, I knew Spears would have someone put me down, so I stole this and got the hell outta there.’

  Raine noticed the man’s neck pulsating as he struggled to breathe. He threw up a hand to wipe the cold sweat from his brow, but his movements were so uncoordinated that he hit himself in the face and then gave up on the idea.

  ‘Now I think about it, I don’t know why I ran exactly. I guess I just wanted to keep going for as long as I could.’

  ‘You said Spears. Are you from Fort Pennalworth?’ Raine said.

  ‘That’s right. How did you know?’

  ‘We escaped from the FEMA camp.’

  Hollister instantly looked wearier. ‘Then you know. What we did.’

  Raine nodded.

  ‘I’m sorry.’ Hollister’s voice broke as his emotions bubbled over. ‘Seein’ as I’m heading straight to hell, none of that forgiveness shit matters now, right?’

  ‘That depends.’

  ‘On what?’

  ‘On whether it matters to you.’

  Raine’s remark seemed to stem the flow of his tears and he smiled. ‘The Major is gonna send men to look for me. He doesn’t give a damn about me. He just wants his truck back. You better take it and leave.’

  ‘And you?’ Raine said.

  Hollister glanced over to the medical kit next to an assault rifle that was propped butt first against the footwell and the inside of the passenger door. ‘Do me a favour, would you? Give me a shot out of there for the pain? My bones feel like they are on fire.’

  Raine rushed around the front of the cabin to access the passenger seat. She flipped the latches on the kit and opened it.

  ‘They’re in the—’

  Before Hollister could finish, she’d already located the drugs amongst the trauma bandages, tourniquets, surgery tools and Kirlex Gauze. She picked out the vials of morphine between the Narcan and Epinephrine and quickly loaded one into the auto-injecting pen nearby.

  Salty watched her closely through the opposite window as she held the soldier’s leg firmly and then brought the pen down into the flesh of his thigh.

  Hollister sighed and started to breathe a little more slowly, taking the sweet relief in
to his bloodstream. ‘Nice. That’s better. Now give me a hand getting out of here.’

  Salty opened the driver’s door and put an arm across his back and the other underneath his legs. Raine came back to help him carry Hollister to the side of the road.

  ‘Set me down over there in the sun.’ He directed them to a spot free from the shade of the corn so he could bask in the early morning light. When the light hit his face, he looked even sicker. His eyes were clouded by ruptured veins.

  Raine crouched down next to him and opened out her hand. In her palm were the remaining vials of morphine and their delivery device. But Hollister shook his head. ‘Keep ‘em. By the time this shot wears off, I’ll be gone anyway.’

  Salty looked down on him, still holding his hatchet and the Beretta. ‘Sure you don’t want us to take care of you?’ he asked.

  ‘Nah, I’ve got this.’ He reached down and placed his hand on the handle of his holstered sidearm. ‘Besides, I haven’t decided which way I want it to go yet. I’ve been thinkin’ maybe I wanna see what it’s like to come back.’

  ‘Why?’ Raine said.

  Hollister thought carefully before he answered. ‘Because I wanna know what happened to my mom, to my sister.’ Right then, his voice changed, became dual. One voice was his own, but the other was something else – something distorted and monstrous. It bled through into every other word he uttered. ‘Did they remember when they were gone? Did they think of me? Maybe I’ll find out. Maybe I won’t. You better go now.’

  Raine wasn’t sure whether he had noticed the change in his own voice or not, but it was clear he knew his end was close at hand.

  Salty strode to the edge of the corn and called to the others. ‘Hey. We need to move. Hustle up.’

  ‘There are more of you?’ Hollister said.

  ‘A few,’ Raine said.

  The others arrived shortly after they were summoned, Kristin lingering behind, using Adam as her latest crutch. They were startled by what they found on the road; all of them gathered around the fallen soldier.

  ‘What happened?’ Vincent said.

  In his feverish state, Hollister spied Emily holding onto her father’s hand. She stared at him with the intense curiosity of a child. Hollister smiled. He tried to raise his arm from the ground so he could wave, but could only wiggle his bloodied fingers.