“They shot him while he was still looking over at us. He fell down holding his right leg. While he was there on his back...defenseless... they shot him again. This time in his left leg. One of them, what I guess was their leader, asked the teacher something. The teacher shook his head again. I couldn’t really hear him, but I could tell that the teacher was crying. And if I was to guess, he wasn’t crying because of the pain in his leg. He was crying because he couldn’t believe that people could be so ugly. And then that son of a bitch pushed that poor, good man over with his toe and stood over him for a second or two. Must’ve made him feel like a big man. Coward just stepped over him and had one of his toadies finish the job. I wasn’t at the window anymore to see where the bullets hit. Joan and I were running again. I hadn’t run that much in...well, ever. Joan was older than me by a few years but I think she was in a helluva lot better shape than me. We were a good team on the run together.
“We had to go through the main lobby to get to any of the first floor exits and those guys were already coming in through the front doors. It was as chaotic as when those monsters got into the school. Only this time, our attackers were a little more discerning. They were only going after the women. Any man they happened to grab or who happened to get in the way was stabbed or shot or beaten. I never knew that a gun could be that loud or echo in your ears for that long. It was terrible.
“We were starting to head down a hall...we were almost there, when one of them got a hold of Joan’s hair. She had this pretty red hair, pulled back into a long braid. He yanked hard, hard enough snap her backward and knock her off her feet. She fell with a thud and didn’t move. When I looked down at her, I saw a couple of the other girls already on the floor with those guys crawling all over them. They were screaming and begging for help but I felt helpless to do anything. Eric, Max’s owner, pulled me along. He kept saying that we had to get away. Just concentrate on getting away.
“Well, the joke was on the rednecks. I guess it was the screaming or the gunshots, hell, it doesn’t really matter what was responsible. Those things...those monsters started to arrive from both sides of the street. They just started to wade into the mayhem that was still erupting in the hotel lobby. I felt horrible for those girls who were on the floor. First to be brutalized and then to be butchered…it was too much for me to even think about. Who knows? Maybe those bastards had already killed the girls. I didn’t hear any truck engines getting away, so I’m hoping that the cocksuckers got theirs in the end.
“So, we were back down to five of us...actually six if you included Max. We ran away from the main road and back into a neighborhood. We just wanted to get away and find somewhere safe to rest. We didn’t see any more of those things for a couple of days but we did see some people back amongst the houses. Mostly we saw faces peeking over cedar privacy fences or folks scurrying like scared rats from place to place. I guess we must have looked like rats ourselves. We did finally get ourselves into a house to hide for a bit. There was still some food in the pantry too, so we all got a bite to eat other than junk food. I don’t think Chef Boyardee ever tasted so good.
“Locking the front door was about as far as we went in securing the house. I know that it was a mistake now, but we didn’t know what was happening yet. There wasn’t any cell service, no power, no nothing. We only knew that things just seemed to keep going from bad to worse every time we turned around.
“We had only been in the house for a couple of days...I think. I’ve gotta be honest here. I’ve lost any sense of time without my daily and weekly schedules. I think we were only there for a couple of days but, hell, we could’ve been there for a week for all I know. I know that I spent most of the first day sleeping and then eating and then sleeping again. I use the term “sleeping” very loosely. I think I spent as much time staring at the ceiling as actually sleeping. Every time I closed my eyes I either saw Joan with that filthy, greasy piece of shit on top of her or that poor young cop at the school as his head was gnawed from his shoulders. When I did sleep, it was because my eyes just refused to stay open any longer. I’d like to say that I felt rested after I got back up, but the truth was far from that.”
“Art was there, and me, Eric, another guy named Vic, and an older woman named Nancy. It was in the middle of the afternoon when we heard this horrible moaning outside. There were three of those things in the road outside. I guess Vic had had enough so he ran out with a baseball bat to...I guess take them on. He did alright too. He hit the first one on the side of the head and the thing just fell down. It didn’t get back up either. It just crumpled down and was done. The next one he hit in the chest and that one fell too. He started to square off with the last one but they were too close to one another for him to swing the bat. He jabbed at it with the end of the bat to put a little space between the two of them. He had just about gotten enough room when the one that he’d hit in the chest grabbed his leg and tripped him up. Vic fell over backward but kept fighting. From his back, he hit the one lying next to him with the bat again, but the thing just rolled over on top of him. The other one grabbed one of his kicking feet and started to chew on his ankle. What none of us could see was that there were some more of those things coming up the road and as Vic screamed louder and those things moaned deeper, the ones coming started to move faster. They weren’t necessarily running, but they were moving at a good trot. And now they knew where we were hiding. We ran into the backyard but there was another one of those things out there. It grabbed Eric and was trying to get a good angle to bite Eric’s neck or shoulder. Max wasn’t having any of it. He jumped onto the thing’s back and started to bite and claw at the thing. That was enough for Eric to break free. By then, Art had picked up a shovel and hit the thing in the head with the blade. He just split the thing’s head in half.
“Eric was okay and we were just about to make a run for it when Max started to yelp. He cried and moaned like I’d never heard a dog do before. It was terrible. The dog retreated into the corner of the yard and started to vomit. It looked like it was mainly blood that was coming up but I didn’t really get close enough to check. I was already following Art and Nancy over the fence. Eric was still with him though. He tried to soothe the dog but poor Max was beyond consolable. And then he just got quiet. He was lying on his belly with his snout buried under him. Eric was rubbing Max’s shoulders, and that’s when Max turned on him. Max let out this deep growl and snapped at Eric. He moved away from the dog, and tried to talk to him. He was speaking as softly and as tenderly as he could, but Max continued to growl. The dog shook his head like he was trying to lose a ringing in his ear or something, but he didn’t make any move to attack. Eric just kept talking and was still talking when Max got real quiet and then lunged at him. Eric was caught completely off guard. The dog tried to bite Eric’s face but Eric fought him off, but Max was able to latch onto his wrist. He tore into him, using his teeth like a saw. Eric’s flesh was just flayed open, and then Max stopped and backed away. He shook his head again. I think he was trying to fight it, ya know? Max started to whimper again as he struggled. Eric didn’t wait around though. He got himself over the fence and fell onto the ground. He was already getting dizzy from the blood loss.
“Max shook all over and ran over to the fence. It was Max again. You could just see it in his eyes and just like that, he changed again and started to bark. He started to throw himself into the fence. I think it affects animals differently than it does humans. I didn’t know it then, but now I understand that it’s some kind of virus or an infection or something that’s been spreading all of this. After seeing Eric, I guess it just kind of made sense to me that there was some kind of virus that killed the people and then something happened that brought them back. Only, it wasn’t them that got brought back. Because it wasn’t Eric that stood back up in the next house we found to stop in.
“We got to another place and hid upstairs. We tried to take care of Eric, but he just wouldn’t stop bleeding. He barely had any color in his face
and we were nearly carrying him by the time we got in. He was drenched in cold sweat but he didn’t have a fever. It was creepy. We laid him on a couch upstairs and tried to make him comfortable. There were some crackers in the kitchen and some odds and ends, so we grabbed a bite while he rested. Nancy grabbed a handful of cookies from a package and went back into the living room. She stood there for a second without saying anything. She was just looking down at Eric. I saw her whole expression change all at once. She just said, ‘Eric’s gone,’ and she started to cry. She barely knew him, but she was crying for him like it was her son or something.
“When Eric leapt back to his feet, she jumped back. Hell, we all jumped back. She called his name, but then he pounced on her like she was cornered prey. I guess that’s kind of what she was, really. She let out a couple of screams, the second one just turned into a hollow, wet noise that sounded like she was swallowing her own voice. I think it’s the worst thing I’ve ever heard. And on top of that to hear Eric chewing hungrily. He was kind of grunting with each bite.
“Art and I didn’t stick around to be second courses. We ran out the back door and through the yard. We ran the rest of the day and most of that night. I don’t know about Art, but I just wanted to get as far away from Eric and Nancy and Vic and Max as my legs would take me. I’m pretty certain that I saw more people here and there, but not a one did the slightest thing to help. It bothers me now, but right then I didn’t really concentrate too much on it. I guess those folks were just too afraid to do anything and I can’t really fault them for that. If I was somewhere that I thought I was safe and thought that maybe help would be coming, I don’t know for sure what I’d do either.
“We ended up here a couple of days ago. It seemed safe and no one seemed to be around. It felt a little like being on Mars or something. Like it was some kind of ancient civilization; one whose inhabitants had long since left.”
She paused to fish some more chocolate out of the jar she was holding. “Is this the end? I mean, I guess what I’m asking is, is this happening everywhere or just here? Does anyone know how it all started?”
Neil shook his head, “No. I don’t think this is happening anywhere else. At least not yet. And I’ve been told that it started with a small boy and a small bite that appears to have awakened something that’s been asleep a long time and probably should have just stayed that way.” He looked over at Jules and Danny who were barely listening. They knew the story and had heard it all before.
“What about you, Art?” Kim asked. “What’s your story?”
Art scarcely looked up at her when he said, “The beginning is a little different but it’s the same ending. What does it matter anyway? All that does matter is that we’re standing here in a parking lot when we should probably all be dead already. What does it matter where I started running from? I mean really, what difference does any of it make anymore? I was the fucking king of Siam.”
He threw his mostly empty jar of ice cream topping out across Raspberry Road. He walked over to the far side of the parking lot and stood there. It was obvious that he was crying by his body language. Everyone just watched him, an uncomfortable silence gliding amongst them as they stood motionless.
Chapter 13
Claire asked from the back seat, “Where are we headin’?”
Dr. Caldwell answered without taking his eyes off of the road in front of them and the houses, streets, and trees on his side, “We’re going to see about camping out at Kincaid tonight. With as little as we’ve seen on this side of the city and especially in this little corner, it seems safe over this way. We’re goin’ out to the Chalet looking out over the Inlet.”
She nodded. “Yeah, I know that place. I went to a wedding out there once. It was beautiful but a little windy. Do you think it’ll be safe?”
Dr. Caldwell turned around this time and said, “Nowhere’s safe anymore. You’ve got to understand that or you won’t make it through this. You’ve always got to be on your guard.” To everyone in the van he said, “We all have to be. And we have to watch out for one another.”
His cold seriousness chilled Claire’s warm memories. She resented him chasing away the single best memory and thought that she’d had in weeks. The wedding and raucous reception memories were replaced by the stark and unpleasant realities that she and everyone else had faced over the past few weeks. Of course the doctor was right, but still...why did he have to bring her down again?
They drove by the Kulis Air National Guard Base entrance. On the other side of the chain-link fence and wide open gate, the deceptive calm stretched out of view. Neil looked over at Dr. Caldwell as they passed but the doctor, sensing Neil’s hopeful glance and the slowing of the vehicle, shook his head and pointed to the parked vintage cargo plane further down the fence line. Its sides were shredded from people kicking through them. It appeared as if some people had taken refuge inside, only to be discovered and then trapped. The victims kicked their way through the thin sides of the aircraft and were most likely overwhelmed as they emerged. There were clothes strewn all around and other evidence of a horrible struggle around the stationary craft that suggested whoever had been there was there no more.
They passed a small stone marker announcing their entrance into the park. The straight road gave way suddenly to sharp turns cutting in amongst the trees, winding its way back to a clearing with a large parking lot and a two-story structure overlooking the lazy high tide of the Cook Inlet. It was normally a great view and the clear day, again under more normal circumstances, would have had them all excited for such a treasure of the late summer-early autumn weather. Next to the chalet, a fairly abrupt slope led down and away into a large open field.
Neil said, “I guess we’re here. Let’s see if we can get ourselves into the chalet. It’ll probably be warmer in there and I think we can bring one of those trash cans upstairs to light a fire on the balcony.”
“And burn what?” Emma snapped, her voice irritated.
Neil said without a pause, as if he was accustomed to the attitude, “Wood. What else?”
Emma looked away toward the tree line, which sat a fair distance from the chalet and asked, this time as much as a bark as actual speech, “You expectin’ one of us to gather wood from over there? There’s no knowing what’s out there, is there? We don’t know what’s out here at all.”
She was right. He was assuming gathering wood or any other once mundane task continued to be so. He couldn’t allow complacency to cloud his judgment. Was he willing to go in there to retrieve wood? There was no telling what dangers were waiting behind the trees. His casual assumptions could have cost a life.
He felt that familiar chill slither down the length of his spine and curl under, tickling his testicles into retracting for safety. They could just get inside and hope the closed windows and doors would be enough to keep them relatively warm through the night. It wouldn’t be snug, but they could probably make do. He tried to imagine the dark stillness of the woods but was stung with the wretched memory of his closest encounter with one of the zekes. It had held him close enough for Neil to be able to smell the stench of death clinging to its clothes and lurking on its wet, rotten breath. In the dense woods, it was unlikely Jerry would be able to deliver the same quality shot from his hunting rifle as he had on that occasion. Jerry’s precision was all that saved Neil that day not long ago. He physically shook as the next wave of chills coiled itself around his spine. How could he expect anyone to do what he himself was too terrified to do?
He was about to say as much when Dr. Caldwell said, “I can go. Malachi, you’re a hunter right? Familiar with the woods? How about lending a hand? Maggie, you’ve got room in your backseat. Can you bring your car a little closer so we can load it up? It’d make it so that we could bring enough wood to last us through the night. It’s going to be bad enough, no point in freezing if we don’t have to. You in?”
Malachi looked at Maggie and both nodded hesitantly.
Dr. Caldwell smiled and said
as soothingly as his bedside manners training would allow, “Look, Maggie, you don’t even have to get out of the car. You just wait inside your locked car and keep the engine running if you’d like. When we come out, unlock the back door so that we can pile the wood in. Malachi and I will keep an eye out for one another while we’re out of sight. It’ll only be a few minutes. Believe me, I don’t want to be in there any longer than we need. It’ll be okay. Trust me.”
Jerry was reminded of all the jokes in which politicians, attorneys, or even used car salesmen used that phrase. Trust me. He was able to stifle his chuckle, but decided to step away just to be safe. He and his hunting rifle found their way into the now opened doors of the chalet. He went out onto the second floor balcony, looking out over the sloped open field immediately to the north of the building. With the rifle raised to his shoulder, he peered through his hunter’s scope. He was amazed at the clarity of the images as they appeared to him through the magnifying lenses. As opposed to an indistinguishable line of trees, he was able to pick out specific trees and branches. He could read Maggie’s license plate as clearly as if he was standing next to the car: HLYRLR.
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