Matt was shaking his head. He waited for Rosilynn to get out of bed and start unhooking him, his grip was tightening on the bed rails with impatience. With the news of his non-fatal wound, his lease on life had been renewed and the resurgence in his physical bearing was a welcomed sight. “Just because they haven’t yet, doesn’t mean they won’t. At any moment one of them can float onto one of your beaches and believe me officer when I say, all it takes is just one of the monsters to make everything in your peaceful town go to shit real fast.”
The sheriff was shaking his head in disbelief. “We are not one of the main thorough ways for traffic; we’re pretty isolated out here. You big city dwellers usually stick to the larger interstates and never travel this way, that’s fine by me. Sure, we could use the summer business, but that time has passed and I was looking forward to the wind down and return to normalcy. If any of those things did come down the river with you, they beached long before now or we’d have seen one of them. Don’t think that just because I’m here with you that we’re not constantly patrolling our borders keeping our eyes peeled. Just because the people are ignorant of what’s going on doesn’t mean those that swore to protect them are as well.”
She had hesitated on removing the needle from his wrist. He needed to stay on the antibiotics. They would have to stop at the hospital pharmacy on their way out. Though, without a doctor’s prescription, they’d have to probably steal what she needed. She doubted the sheriff would go as easily on them if they did something like that. Their doctors weren’t likely to sign off on them leaving. Her mind raced to figure out how to sign them out AMA and still get the scripts her husband needed.
Then, there was the mode of transport. Too many things to worry about, better to focus on one thing at a time.
She hit the call button and a nurse answered. “Hello, could you send some discharge forms in here please?”
“One moment, I’ll call your doctor miss,” the nurse returned and she grunted. She had used that same tone herself and knew what it meant; they were going to have to get lectured before they’d even consider letting them look at those forms.
“Now wait just a damn minute,” the sheriff said as she reached for the clothing the hospital had provided after cutting theirs to shreds.
“Where are our weapons?” Matt asked the man, as her husband stripped off his gown, revealing his nakedness, and reached for the clothes they had prepared for him as well.
For a moment, the sheriff was a loss for words. “In the trunk of my squad car,” he replied finally.
“Unit 1, this is Unit 6, over,” came a voice from the sheriff’s walkie.
The sheriff hastily keyed the mic clipped to his shoulder, “This is Unit 1, go ahead.”
“We have a report of a 10-73 over at Windsor Beach, how would you like us to proceed, over?” the voice squawked.
A nurse was hovering near the door and the sheriff turned on her, his face working to try and stay calm. “Please get their discharge papers, Shanise,” he told her firmly, then not waiting for a response, toggled the mic on his shoulder once more. “Proceed with caution but do not approach. Wait for back up. Dispatch, did you copy all that?”
“Yeah Mike,” came a female’s voice over the walkie. “I’m alerting Unit 3, he’s 10-17 and not far from their location.”
“Make sure all units are aware of what’s going on and keep me informed. They are to proceed as if subjects are armed and dangerous. Approach from a distance, wait for back up, and shoot the damn things in the head if they show no signs of compliance to commands. Use of force is authorized, I repeat, use of force is authorized.”
“Uh, 10-5 to all units. Everything okay over there?” the voice asked and Rosilynn thought she heard a quiver in the young woman’s voice.
“That’s a 10-4, just keep me informed of the situation, over,” he responded, clicking off his mic. Then he glared at the two barely dressed patients hovering in front of him. “What the hell did you two do?” the man asked, as if all of it had been there fault.
She went to answer but was cut off by the PA system the hospital used. “Code Blue in room 344, Code Blue in room 344.”
So much for this place being isolated, she thought sourly as she finished getting dressed.
The sheriff glared at her for a moment, then moved to the door the nurse had exited just moments before. His gun was drawn and he quickly moved out into the hallway, disappearing from sight.
“It’s time to go,” her husband told her needlessly.
“And the man with our guns just walked out that door,” she replied.
Chapter 6
Unexpected traveling companions
Saint
Tucson, AZ
She had wanted to get on the interstate and get on the I-10 East as quickly as possible, but by the time they hit the road, traffic was bumper to bumper and the onramp was packed. From what she could see of the highway passing beneath her, it wasn’t any better there either.
So, she had made a quick decision and had turned onto Calle Santa Cruz, thinking that maybe Drexel would get them across town faster if everyone was focused on getting on I-19. The traffic stretched from the Harkins, which was a mile down the road, all the way back to Irvington and knew instantly that she might have made a mistake.
It seemed she wasn’t the only one that had come to the same conclusion.
Then her heart lightened as she reached the stop sign at Drexel, as most of the traffic kept going towards Valencia and the other onramp to the south. Maybe they were hoping to make it to Mexico. Would the Mexican government suddenly have their own illegal immigration problem?
That had to be a new one.
Saying goodbye to the interstate, she had turned left and headed east down the quiet side street. She was now parked at a light at 6th, happy with the sudden progress they were finally making. The previous day she had only gone maybe five miles? She was further along in just a couple of hours than the entire day before; maybe they might make it out of town after all.
Where once a supermarket had been to her left was now a Dollar Store. Those damn things were popping up everywhere. There were tons of cars in the parking lot and she had to try and think what they were possibly getting in there in the way of food. Had to be mostly junk food. People were rushing out of it way too fast and she realized the store was being looted.
Wow, people are getting desperate.
The light turned green and someone honked; snapping her out of her stoic stare. She eased forward and almost got hit as a squad car came flying through the intersection heading north. Her heart stopped, her head suddenly getting an overabundance of oxygen and making her dizzy. If she had gone when the light had turned green—
“Holy shit!” Erik screamed from the passenger seat. “That fucker almost hit us.”
“Wonder where he’s going?” Manny spoke up from the back. Neither one of them had felt much like talking since they left Caesar’s and with her heart thudding in her chest, she wished they’d go back to being quiet.
She eased through the intersection and continued following the other vehicles traveling down Drexel. “At least we have an idea where the shit is going down,” Erik observed. She yelped as her phone went off and she handed it over to him. She was too busy trying not to rear end the fucktards in front of her to try and check her messages. “Todd says, watch out for a cop car.”
No one said anything for a moment; it was just too much.
“Well thanks for nothing, Todd,” Manny commented, saying the name with a hint of sarcasm. He had taken his guitar out of its case and she had been surprised that there was actually one in there. She had wondered at that, thinking maybe he was hiding some liquor in there instead.
She almost wished he was, she could use a drink.
Her phone buzzed again and she wondered what other useless information she was about to get. “He says it’s congested but clear to the east,” the man next to her said. “Also, he wants us to stop off at his parent�
��s house on the way out to see if they’re there. What the hell? Don’t we have enough problems already?”
Manny started to plug away on his guitar and it oddly sounded like the theme to Superman.
“I get the point,” she snapped and he laughed. She threw him a nasty glance and saw that he was drinking out of a flask. “Seriously?” she asked him.
“What?” Manny returned, like he had just been caught jerking off in his bedroom by his mother.
“What the hell are you drinking? Give me that shit!” She reached out without waiting for him to say no and he reluctantly handed it over. She took a quick drink, making sure that she braked for the asshole that was slowing ahead of her, and it burned down her throat, making her cough. “What the fuck is this shit?”
Erik had his hand out and she passed it to him. Manny was chuckling in the backseat as Erik took a quick drink and nearly spit it out.
“Jäger, what else?” Manny grinned, plucking away some tune she didn’t recognize and watching the world inch by his window.
“Well it tastes like shit and you ain’t right holding out on everybody, what the fuck is wrong with you?” she returned.
“It’s fucking gross,” the man next to her replied, handing the flask back. It was still burning her throat and she had to agree. “He sent directions to his mother’s house.”
She sighed. “And?” She really didn’t want to do this, but what choice did she really have? Could she say no and still expect a welcome when they got to that compound of his?
“Actually, it’s only a few miles up the road,” Erik replied.
She didn’t respond right away. Traffic was hell and it was still early. What would happen when more people realized that their best chances lay in getting the hell out of town? What if this shit hit while they were stopped? They hadn’t seen much in the way of the military so far but most of Tucson was north of I-10. She felt certain that if they had gotten on the 19 they would have a full view of the rest of the city and the destruction being inflicted upon it. The south side had been held in disdain by those rich fucks on the north side her entire life, now they were fast food for zombies while the south fled ahead of the feast.
How ironic was that?
She noticed that she was passing a young boy standing on the side of the road. He was in the front yard of a nearby house, staring at the cars as they drove by; a Transformer held forgotten in his little chubby hands. She wanted to pull over and grab the kid, take him with her. What the hell were those parents thinking leaving him alone out here on a day like this?
They didn’t deserve him.
By the time she thought it through, he was out of sight and her heart tugged at the thought of leaving him. Though, all she had to do was look around at all the other people she would be leaving behind as well. Surely there were more children than just that lone boy that were being left abandoned in her wake.
She couldn’t rescue them all.
Todd had warned her about bringing too many people with her, that the supplies there were not designed for large groups of people. He wanted her to be careful of who she brought as well. If things went to hell, they’d all be living together for a long time, hopefully, and it wasn’t like they could just kick a bad seed to the curb; it would be signing their death warrant. And on the off-chance that person lived, word would get out that there was a relatively safe place hidden from all this shit, and there would be no stopping the flood of people racing to get to them.
“What do you want to do?” Erik asked, still holding the phone in his hand. He hadn’t sent a response yet and she knew that her coworker was waiting on the other side of that line for her to give in. It was his parents and if someone was passing within a couple miles of her own mother, wouldn’t she be asking them the same thing?
“Fuck it, we’ll stop,” she snapped, still upset over the little boy she had just abandoned. His fingers began to type and she made a disgusted grunt. Just one more thing keeping her from getting out of town—would this ever stop? She hit the gas and tried to divert her mind from the anger she was feeling. If things had stayed as they were, they would have been on the highway and out of town within the hour.
“You know I have parents too, right?” Manny spoke up again.
She sighed.
“Have you tried reaching them?” Erik spoke up, as she was about to snap at the man. “Mine are in Tallahassee, no way I can get to them.”
“Nah, was just giving her shit. My parents are on vacation,” he said, but something in his tone made her brows come together; he sounded defeated.
“Where at?” Erik asked and she had a bad feeling that she didn’t want to know.
It was a touchy subject for the young guitarist, and he muttered “Disneyland.”
She knew from Todd that the happiest place on earth was no longer happy for the living, but the for the undead that were probably even now eating Mickey Mouse. “I’m sorry,” she told him, trying to sound sincere. She didn’t know him and she tried to care, but all of them had family out there, possibly dying, and there was nothing they could do for them.
Traffic was slowing, then came to a halt at Palo Verde. People seemed indecisive of which direction they wanted to take and it was taking longer to move on than she was comfortable with. Most of the vehicles made a right and followed the others towards Valencia, where they’d get a straight shot at the interstate heading east out of town.
She wished them luck.
“Where are we going? You going to tell us yet?” Erik asked, leaning out the window and trying to see how many cars they were waiting on for their turn at the suicide dash across the street.
She just shook her head. She wasn’t ready to reveal that yet, actually. No point in getting their hopes up until they were closer—a lot closer. Some cars came to a stop on Palo Verde and a man was waving traffic through. With a sudden rush the vehicles before her, she ignored the honking vehicles on either side and flung herself across the intersection before traffic resumed.
“Where are all these people going?” Erik wondered out loud. “Surely all of them don’t have secret hideaways to escape too.”
“I don’t think they care as long as they get out of the city,” Manny replied, looking out the side window and playing Highway to Hell as they rushed towards the Benson Hwy crossing ahead. “Dude, are we any different?” he asked the man in the front seat.
Erik flipped someone off that was trying to squeeze in front of them from a side street. She had to slam her foot on her brake when the asshole managed to force his way in, hitting her bumper. The truck bucked from the impact and the jerk sped up, then braked once more, as if daring her to hit him.
She almost did it anyway, her aggression barely in check, but she braked at the last second and let the asshole get a little lead-time. “For fuck sakes,” she said under her breath. “Look, I’d be making a break for it too, but Todd assured me that his parents were freaks for camping and have more than enough gear at their house should we need to stop for the night. I don’t know about you, but I don’t see a Motel 6 in our near future. I’d rather camp in the desert than near a city, if you catch my drift.”
She drove through the light and coasted down Drexel, heading for Todd’s childhood home.
“You know, there was a sign for a Beaudry RV back there,” Erik replied wistfully.
She just shook her head. “If we had access to motorcycles I’d take it. Hell, at this point I’d take a bicycle. The bigger it is though, the harder it’s going to be to get anywhere.”
“True that,” Erik responded, contemplating.
They got to the street she was looking for and she took a hard right. A car nearly drove her off the road passing her and her hands were shaking from the violence of the trip. You had to be a careful driver on the south side of Tucson on any normal day; and this was not one of those. It was inconceivable, but it had actually gotten worse.
Must be the whole world ending and all.
“There it is,”
Erik said, pointing at a house nearby.
They coasted to a stop. She watched the houses on the street for any kind of movement, but the street appeared to be deserted, thank God. She gripped her rifle with her right hand and made to get out of the car.
The other two were following suit, then Erik suddenly stopped. There was an older man standing on the porch of the house with a rifle aimed at them. He had snow white hair and moustache, and the wrinkles on his face gave him a Sam Elliot look; an actor that Todd had insisted she look up at some point or else she’d never have that reference in her head.
It was before her time.
The rifle itself looked like something from World War II or maybe something older; by his age it could have been the Civil War. He had a dark blue shirt and jeans and there was someone in the doorway hidden by a security door talking to him.
“You need to move on, we don’t have anything for you here,” the man said, his gun never wavering.
That was exactly what she wanted to do and no matter how tempting, she couldn’t do it; she had made a promise.
She held up her rifle in her left hand and threw her open right hand up as well as a sign of peace. “Your son sent us.”
The man still held his rifle on them, searching their faces for deception, not willing to give in just yet.
“Oh, for God’s sake Henry, let them in,” came a voice from within the barred house.
Must be Todd’s mother.
The older man looked like he had something cross to say back but he held it in check. His right cheek puffed up as it looked like he was thinking it over, then the nose of the rifle slowly lowered. “How do I know you’re telling the truth?” he asked. “Been here forty years, everyone knows we have a son. He went to school just down the road from here.”
She looked to Erik, who had been lowering himself back into her car, then back at the old man. He had reached in and gotten the cell phone, which he tossed to her. She barely caught it with her open hand and for a terrifying moment, she thought she’d end up breaking it. Reading the last text Todd had sent, she tried to smile as she said, “he says to tell you that you need to make like Brer Rabbit and get to his Briar Patch.”
Charon's Blight: Day Two (the Rotting Souls series Book 2) Page 5