by Crae, Edward
Jake grunted. He had never heard of it. “What’s there?”
Toni shook her head, shrugging. “Who knows? But it’s a small town in the big woods. Could be lots of places to hide. Maybe your friends went there.”
“I doubt it,” Jake said. “Dan isn’t much of a big city guy, but I think he would stick close to one so he could go on supply runs.”
“Then Nashville would be perfect,” Toni said. “It’s almost exactly between Bloomington and Columbus. He would have his choice of two major cities.”
Jake nodded, sticking out his bottom lip. Toni chuckled when she saw it.
She had a point, Jake realized. Nashville would be perfect if it was located between two cities. It would be a logical place to go. But would Dan know that? He had never heard Dan mention Nashville, or Columbus for that matter. Drew, either. What were the odds?
Fuck it.
“Alright,” Jake said, finally. “Let’s go to Nashville.”
Toni stopped, scanning the area around them. They had just left the confines of the city itself and had wandered into the outskirts. Though there were cars everywhere, none of them looked like they had simply been abandoned. Even so, if they found one with the keys in it, it would probably also have rotting corpses sitting inside.
“How far is it?” Jake asked.
“About twenty minutes by car,” Toni replied. “But it doesn’t look like we’ll be driving. I don’t imagine any of these cars have any gas left in them.”
“It wouldn’t hurt to check.”
Toni nodded, heading off toward the nearest car. It was a little VW something, compact and not very masculine. She inspected it, walking a full circle around it, looking in the windows, and kicking the tires. Jake opened the passenger door, seeing the tiny seats.
“No fuckin’ way,” he said. “My left leg wouldn’t fit in this.”
“No keys, anyway.”
“You can’t hotwire a car?” Jake asked.
Toni gave him that look again. “Can you?” she asked.
Jake shrugged. “Well,” he said. “Next…”
They turned to the next closest vehicle, a mid-sized Ford Taurus. There were two bodies inside, both of them leaning against their respective windows. Toni knocked on the passenger side window, standing back and placing her left hand on the revolver at her hip. The corpses inside began to stir. They moved their heads, leaving sticky trails of slimy flesh on the glass.
“Yuck,” Jake said. “Okay, not this one.”
“Do we leave them?” Toni asked.
“What else are we gonna do?” Jake said. “They can’t get out. They’ll eventually putrefy and be useless; you know, like a Ford Taurus.”
Toni’s grin was striking. Her teeth were perfect, Jake noticed. Now if she would only take off that headscarf.
“What’s under that scarf?” he asked.
She gave him a strange look. “My head.”
“No,” he said, smiling. “I can see a big braid underneath it. I know you have hair.”
She reached up and pulled off the scarf. Underneath, her hair was slicked back and tied into a braid that hung down between her shoulder blades. Jake smiled, rubbing his own bald head. Toni chuckled, tying her scarf again.
“I could use a shave,” Jake said. “Maybe I can use that knife of yours.”
“I don’t think so.”
As they chuckled, a single shuffler rounded a trailer ahead. It stumbled toward them menacingly, and Jake dropped his pack to draw his bow.
“I got it,” he said. “Watch this.”
He knocked an arrow and pulled back the bow without much effort. He loosed, and the arrow streaked right into the thing’s chest with a heavy thunk. It kept coming.
“What the fuck?” he said, scowling.
“Headshot,” Toni told him. “Trust me.”
He knocked another arrow, this time aiming for the head. When he released, the arrow struck the forehead dead center. The shuffler went limp, falling straight down, lifeless.
“Hmm,” Jake said. “That’s weird.”
“Not really,” Toni said as she went toward the fallen creature. “Look at it.”
Jake shouldered the bow and followed Toni to the corpse. He looked down, not really seeing anything interesting other than a dead body.
“What’s different about it?” Toni asked him.
Jake couldn’t tell. It looked like any other shuffler he had seen before, except for the lack of the usual layers of fungus. Even the eyes looked the same. Though it was aggressive, which shufflers usually weren’t, there was nothing notable. He shrugged.
“It’s not one of those mutants,” she said. “It’s a dead body.”
Jake shrugged. “Aren’t they all?”
Toni shook her head. “This is someone who died several months ago. Its flesh isn’t eaten away by fungus. It’s rot, that’s it. This person died in the initial infection.”
“Then why is it—or was it—walking around?”
“Don’t know,” Toni said. “But it’s happening. I noticed it a week ago or so when I was wandering around. There were areas with a bunch of dead all piled up that were empty again. I thought maybe scavengers had gotten them, or maybe the really weird mutants… but, no. They just got up and walked away.”
Jake grunted. What a strange revelation. Not only were there mutants, but now the actual dead were walking around. What would cause that? The dead can’t just get up and walk around. They were dead. Period.
Or were they?
“Maybe they weren’t really dead?” Jake said. Toni gave him a “you got it” look from the corner of her eye.
“Jesus,” Jake said, raising his palms to the sky.
It was dusk when they reached the edge of the city. They passed an Asian buffet on the right and were headed into curvy, wooded road. It was dark, as was expected, but Jake guessed that even when the power was on, it would still be dark. The street lights were few and far between.
“The darkness is creepy,” Jake said, munching on a jerky stick. “But I like it.”
“It makes it a little harder to see anything, though,” Toni replied. “We should probably find some place to chill out until morning.”
Jake looked around to either side of the road. “One of these houses might be alright,” he said. “Maybe one of them would even have some insulin.”
“Let’s find out,” Toni said, smiling.
Just as they picked a house to explore, the faint glow of headlights in the distance caught their attention. They immediately ducked and sprinted across the nearest lawn, hiding behind a row of hedges. The headlights grew brighter, but whatever vehicle they came from was obviously slowing down.
They heard the low rumble of an engine idling down the street. Then, a rusted, white pickup appeared, rolling slowly along, the beams of several flashlights shining from both sides of the cab. One of the beams moved in their direction, and they ducked as far down as they could. Jake felt nervous. His heart sped up, and the rush of adrenaline warmed him.
They stayed quiet as the truck passed them. But instead of driving off, the truck stopped. The engine still rumbled, and the flash of the tail lights told them that it had been put in park. They could hear several voices, all of them men, spreading out into the surrounding lots.
“Shit,” Jake whispered. “If one of them comes this way, we’re screwed.”
“If they’re assholes,” Toni said. “But what if they’re not?”
“We should always assume that strangers are, shouldn’t we?”
Toni shrugged. “Probably. You ever kill anybody?”
Jake shook his head. “You?”
Toni didn’t answer, but turned her head back toward the truck. A flashlight appeared at the edge of the lot, and the silhouette of its bearer followed. The man was fairly tall, wearing a trench coat, and carrying a shotgun in his other hand. He slowly stalked toward the house, crouching when he reached the walkway.
He was way too close.
; Jake’s heart thumped wildly. If they were discovered, who knows what would happen? They would either be shot, or the guy would just call to his buddies and then all hell would break loose.
Evidently, Toni was thinking the same thing.
Just as the man stepped onto the porch, Toni leaped up and grabbed him by the throat. She jabbed her knife into his chest from behind, and twisted it as she brought him down. Jake’s heart nearly exploded. He watched wide-eyed as the he stopped struggling. Toni looked up at him with one eyebrow cocked.
“I guess that answers your question,” she said.
“That was brutal,” he said. “I like it.”
“Sometimes you gotta just take the initiative,” Toni continued. “In this day and age, you can’t trust anybody you don’t know. He might have been an alright guy; who knows? But he could have been a killer, too. Better safe than sorry, right?”
Jake agreed. That was always a good policy, no matter what the situation. The fact that Toni would rather kill a stranger outright than risk being discovered showed him just how cautious—and ruthless—she really was. In a world of shit, she was definitely a survivor.
Toni went through the man’s pockets, finding a few shotgun shells and some candy bars. She took one and gave the rest to Jake. The two of them watched the other men as they scoured the small neighborhood. None of them appeared to be interested in the houses. Maybe they had already looted them, or they were just looking for something specific. Either way, the man Toni had just killed may have been investigating something he saw; probably them.
“They’re gonna wonder where their boy is,” Jake said.
“Probably. We should go around the back of the house, just in case they decide to investigate.”
“Hold on,” Jake said, stopping her with a hand to the shoulder.
Three flashlights shined in their direction. Evidently they were looking for their companion, who they obviously saw go to the porch of this particular house. One of them began to walk toward their hiding spot, shining his flashlight in every direction.
“Jimmy,” the guy whispered loudly. “Jimmy, where are you?”
He stopped, shining his light at the front door. He moved it slowly from side to side, still calling his companion’s name.
“Jimmy,” he called again.
“Bill!” another voice called from the truck. “Come on! We’re going. It’s not here.”
“I can’t find Jimmy!” the man called back.
“Fuck him!”
Bill shrugged, turning to join the other men. Jake sighed in relief.
“I guess they don’t give a shit about Jimmy,” he said.
Toni grunted. “I guess not.”
Chapter Three
Still miffed at why the occupants of the pickup had forgotten about their friend, Jake was a little sluggish in their ransacking of the house. Though he was eager to find lots of goodies, he just couldn’t wrap his mind around their indifference. Toni, however, was as focused as one could possibly be during a home invasion.
The house was stocked with quite a few useful food items. Being on the edge of town, there was also a propane tank out back, meaning the stove top could be used. Jake had found a lighter on the kitchen table, and had lit one of the burners. He warmed his hands over it as Toni looked for a good pan and some canned food to heat up.
“It’s getting cold out,” Jake said. “But it’s still not as cold as it should be.”
“If that’s the only strange thing you’re thinking about,” Toni joked. “Then you might wanna look at that bite mark on your shoulder.”
Jake grinned. He had actually forgotten about his bite. Toni had done such a good job bandaging it, he barely even knew it was there. There was no itching or stinging, telling him there was no infection, but Toni had insisted they look for antibiotics whenever they had the chance.
He rubbed his hands one last time, leaving the warmth of the burner. “I’ll check the medicine cabinets for antibiotics,” he said.
“Grab whatever you can,” Toni said. “No matter what it is. Pills are like money now. Trust me.”
Jake nodded as he left. That made sense. Money itself was no good anymore, but just about everything else was worth its weight in gold. Like Dan, he hoped there were some good pills in the house’s stash—for different reasons, of course. A nice bottle of narcotics would fetch a good trade price.
He pushed open the nearest door in the hallway. It was a half bath; probably for visitors and the kiddies. He opened the medicine cabinet anyway. There was some toothpaste, two toothbrushes, a small bottle of red mouthwash, and a retainer.
“Yuck,” he said.
He went further down the hall, checking all of the doors. There were two bedrooms for older children; one boy, one girl. Nothing interesting in either one, except for a Fender Jazz bass with a broken neck.
Too bad.
The third door was the master bedroom, with another door on the far wall. He passed the king-sized bed, noticing the leopard print blanket, and the dead cat. The far door was a master bathroom as he suspected. There was a large bathtub, a wall-length counter with full-sized mirror, and a giant mirror medicine cabinet next to the toilet.
Jackpot!
It looked like mom and dad were pill-poppers. There was a little bit of everything he had never heard of. He wasn’t much of a druggie. In fact, he never did anything. But with an expert hand, he gathered all of the bottles together in his fists, and carried them out in front of him.
Toni was there at the stove warming up a pan of chili.
“I found a few things,” Jake said, setting them down on the kitchen table.
There were a number of unopened water bottles there that weren’t there before. He took one and cracked it open, relishing the cool water.
“Read them off,” Toni said.
Jake cleared his throat, picking up the bottles one by one. “Amitriptyline. Metformin—I’ll take that. Hydrocodone/Apap? Um… Diazepam. That’s Valium right? Uh… Cipro—something or other. Wait, that’s an antibiotic. Naproxen Sodium—pttttttt! Percodan. And finally, some birth control pills, looks like.”
“It’s all useful,” Toni said, smiling. “Except for the birth control pills. Take a few of those Metformin before we eat.”
“Good idea,” Jake said, opening the bottle.
He washed down a few of them just as Toni began spooning some chili out into the two bowls she had found. She set one in front of Jake and they ate in the dim light of the stove burner. The chili was pretty good, better than Jake remembered. It must have been Ray’s. The best.
“So,” Toni began. “What did you do before all of this?”
“I was a healthcare worker for a while,” he said. “Doing home visits and shit. Nothing too exciting.”
When he looked up, he realized she was staring at him strangely. “What?” he asked.
“You were a healthcare worker?”
“Yeah,” he said, confused. “Why?”
Toni chuckled. “Oh my,” she spooned some chili in her mouth, shaking her head. “I bet you scared the hell out of those poor people.”
Jake grinned. “Sometimes. So what about you?”
“I was a personal trainer,” she said. “Weight lifting, aerobics, Pilates.”
“Ah,” Jake replied, impressed. “I bet you have some kickass abs, then.”
“Of course,” she said. “And I can run ten miles in one session.”
A slight flash of reflected light sparked in the corner of Jake’s eye. He stopped chewing, turning his head toward a door that was nearby. He squinted, keeping deathly still as he waited for the reflection to flash again. His heartbeat quickened, and he could feel the hairs standing up on the back of his neck.
“What is it?” Toni asked.
Jake held up his finger, keeping his eyes on the door handle; the only metallic part of the whole door that was visible. They both waited silently. Then, the handle began to turn slowly—very slowly. Jake’s heart thumped even h
arder, and he could tell that Toni was uncomfortable as well. She slowly reached down to her holsters, placing her hands on the grips of her revolvers.
The handle slowly slid back to its original position with a tiny, audible click. Jake’s eyes darted over to Toni. Her own eyes were wide, and he could see her bottom lip quivering. That thick, luscious lip that glistened in the…
What? Jake turned his eyes back to the door. The handle began to turn again, this time farther. The door squeaked open, just enough for the latch to catch on the outside of the jamb. Toni stood, drawing her revolvers. Jake reached for his shotgun, still sitting, and pointed it at the door.
Toni moved in an arc around to the front of the door, keeping her revolvers out in front of her like Lara Croft in sneak mode. The door opened about an inch, and Jake could swear he saw a hand drop away from the inside handle; barely lit by the dim light of the stove burner.
Fuck, he thought to himself. What the fuck is going on?
There was a thump on the other side of the door, far away as if at the bottom of a flight of stairs; wooden stairs.
“Something’s in the basement,” Jake whispered. Toni turned her eyes toward him, nodding.
Jake stood, slowly moving next to Toni, hoping the floor wouldn’t creak or pop with his weight. She holstered one of her revolvers and crept toward the door, reaching out to grab the handle. Jake shook his head. He didn’t want to see what was down there. His heart was already about to explode, and the look of horror on Toni’s face was enough to make him bite his own tongue off. She pursed her lips, flicking her head toward the door to tell him to point his shotgun at it. He did so, ready to blast a round into anything that moved.
Toni slowly pulled the door open, cringing as it squeaked. She stopped, scowled, and then quickly flung it open. Jake pumped the shotgun and immediately raised it to his eyes. Toni’s other revolver was back out in an instant. They both stood there bouncing at the ready, but there was nothing there but darkness.
“Jesus Christ,” Jake said, lowering his shotgun.
Toni leaned in, peering down the stairwell. She hung back as far as she could, straining to stretch her neck far enough to see down. After a second or two, she shook her head and backed away.