by Lee Argus
I thought about it, but it seemed like she was right. It would be difficult, especially if we have to go several days on foot.
“Like I said,” Step went on, “it’s my choice. I’m leaving here, and you can either come with me to help, or stay here by yourselves.”
Her tone made it clear that she had made up her mind, and wouldn’t change it. I had to admit; she either had a lot of guts, or was stupid. Rachel was rubbing her temples, and looked like she had a headache.
“Well, when did you want to leave?” I asked Steph.
“We’ve got enough stored here to load up the trunk of that car you have. Ours is nearly out of gas. I say we pack up now, and leave before it gets any later. If you’re tired, I’ll take the first shift driving.”
I nodded, but was unsure about what to think about all of this. Everything was happening too fast. Rachel had a resigned look which told volumes about who was really calling the shots between the two of them.
“I’ll bring the car around so we can pack it. Give me a few minutes to gather what’s over there, and clean up.”
Rachel didn’t say anything, but Stephanie nodded. As I crossed the street it I was greeted by an enormous pile of ash and debris on the lawn. It was hard to believe I’d kept it burning all night.
The sun was starting to beat down, and it was a relief to step inside. I’d picked up the sword I’d left leaning on the porch. The more weapons we had the better. The bare house was now gutted of anything resembling a home. It looked like a place where the homeless could sleep at night.
I went upstairs to get a few towels. I might not have a shower, but with water I could rub off some of the grime and ash that clung to my body. There wasn’t any men’s clothing I’d found in the house. The power suites and feminine things upstairs were too small even if I’d wanted to wear them.
Back downstairs I used the kitchen’s water dispenser to clean up. The white town turned grey then almost black once I’d finished with it. I tossed it into the corner without a second thought. I guess I was covered with more soot and smoke than I had thought.
There wasn’t much to take. A few cans of food, two bottles of wine, and the bottle opener went into a plastic bag that was under the sink. I did another check, but the kitchen was now empty. I’d dumped the drawers on the floor before burning them, and it was mostly utensils.
I took my bag to the car which was left untouched during the attack. They must not have been bright enough to tear it up. That would have kept me there, limiting my ability to travel.
The engine turned over, and the fuel gauge was now slightly less than an eighth of a tank empty. I’d backed into the street, and pulled into Rachel and Steph’s driveway. There was already a pile of things just off the porch ready to be loaded. I popped the trunk and loaded what was there.
It wasn’t an enormous trunk, but we fit what we could inside. Both of the sisters brought a backpack with personal items. Rachel offered me a set of clothes. They belonged to an ex-boyfriend, and she’d never thrown them out. I went into their house to change. The jeans and t-shirt fit well enough, but I kept my leather jacket over the sports coat. It would offer more protection.
When I went back outside I’d notice that both sisters had also changed. Stephanie was wearing a workout outfit which consisted of long black pants, t-shirt and a thin pink hoodie. Rachel’s looked like she was going hiking. Her brown khakis, white tank top and brown boots looked practical and comfortable at the same time.
We piled into the car. I wasn’t tired enough to sleep, so after flipping a coin Rachel won the front seat. Stephanie sat in the back next to the stack of things that wouldn’t fit in the trunk.
I backed out, and started down the street. Rachel turned on the radio, and tried the CD. The female singer continued belting out her vocals.
“I love this song!” Stephanie said, in an unnaturally happy tone.
It was going to be a long trip.
6 CARSICK
Rachel had my map, and directed me to go north, along the outskirts of the city. I had planned on taking the I-something. According to Rachel the major freeways were all jammed, and only a few of the highways were passable.
We passed through town without incidence, and began up the highway. It wasn’t difficult to drive around the few cars abandoned here and there. Most had been smashed in accidents too horrendous to let them drive. A few looked undamaged, except for windows that had been smashed. It made me wonder if the passenger had been torn out against his will on some dark night.
Rachel had turned off the radio so that we could all keep a lookout at our surroundings. I drove around twenty-five or thirty miles per hour.
“It looks like you still remember how to drive.” Steph said from the back seat.
“I wasn’t sure I would until I tried. It took a while to get used to it, but it was that or walk. I felt safer driving.”
“Do you think we’ll see anyone else that’s still unexposed?” Rachel asked, distracted by our constantly changing surroundings.
“I don’t know,” I said, thoughtfully, “even if we do, there’s no guarantee they’ll be friendly.”
“We trusted you, didn’t we?” Stephanie interjected, from the back seat. “You’re right though. Without anyone to enforce the rules some people might get it in their heads that they can do whatever they want. Kurus aren’t the only dangerous ones out here.”
The car remained quiet as we mulled over her words. I could defend myself against one of those savage beasts if I had to, but killing another person? It didn’t seem right.
“We’ll deal with that if it happens.” I tried to be reassuring, but didn’t know if it had worked. “Where do you want to stop?”
Rachel was still looking over her map, trying to decide. I could tell that it was a tough decision, she was biting her lip.
“There’s a town a few more miles up. We haven’t gone far, but it might take a while to find someplace safe.”
“What am I looking for?” I asked, keeping my eyes on the road.
I had passed a sign that said LYTLE CREEK 1 MILE AHEAD. The road had remained clear so far, but it might not be that easy in town.
“A house or building with bars would be the safest,” Rachel said, “After all, we still have a while before sunset. It should be the best one we can find.”
I slowed down once we got to the outskirts of town. A few cars were smashed, but the road was empty. It seemed odd that there wouldn’t be more impassable areas of road. The sky remained clear with the sunlight lighting up the whole town. I wasn’t worried about a surprise attack.
The town’s buildings were all smaller in size than what had been in Las Vegas. They were all one story high with a larger space between each house. There were few lawns and fewer gardens. Most had desert landscaping, or gravel for their front yards.
We settled on one that had thick iron bars on both front windows. The door looked like it was heavy enough to stop anything short of a police battering ram. There was a seven foot high brick wall surrounding the backyard, which would be difficult to climb over. The only thing we had to worry about was whether the house was already occupied by Kurus. If it was still home to the non-infected it might be beneficial, unless they were hostile.
I pulled the car in front of the house and shut off the engine. We had discussed how we would do this beforehand. I would climb over the wall, while Steph tossed the emptied shotgun over the wall followed by the shells (so there wouldn’t be an accidental discharge). Then I’d try to break into the back of the house. As a last resort, I could smash in the backdoor, but it would mean an easy entrance if any Kurus knew how to climb. Neither of them were quite sure about it.
I was about to start climbing when Rachel motioned me to stop.
“Let me check something first.” she said, before walking over to the front door. The door was locked. In a painfully obvious idea she lifted up the doormat revealing a shiny key she held up for our inspection. She waved it in a playful
way.
“Maybe going through the front door would be easier.” she said, mockingly.
I looked from her to Steph, who was shaking her head.
“She’s a real pain sometimes.”
I took the shotgun back from Stephanie. It took a minute to reload it. Rachel had thrown open the door by the time I got there.
I looked inside the doorway. The interior was dark in comparison to the brightly lit day I’d been accustomed to. The curtains had been left open, and the blinds were cracked enough to send horizontal beams of light across the living room.
“I’ll go inside alone. I’ll yell if I run into any trouble. You two do the same.”
Rachel and Steph didn’t look like they wanted to be left alone outside. Steph carried the sword from Planet Hollywood. The surprised expression they’d had when I’d shown it to them was quite evident. Stephanie was a fan of the film series, and examined it with great fervor. When she asked if she could carry it I was so taken with her genuine smile it was impossible to refuse.
She looked rather comical while holding it. She was tall enough, but looked too frail to do much damage with it. The only thing Rachel carried was a can of pepper foam. She’d said that it was the same as pepper spray, but came out in sticky thick green foam.
I turned on the flashlight that was still taped to the end of my shotgun. I could see well enough without it, but it was reassuring. The living room wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. A couple of couches, TV, entertainment center, and a wooden coffee table took up the majority of the room.
The kitchen was visible straight through the living room. It was empty, and the window’s blinds were wide open. There were four closed doors off the living room, three on the right and one on the left. I checked the single door on the left, which led to a bedroom.
It was a huge mess. Piles of clothes were scattered throughout the room. The large bed that was against the window was also buried in a mountain of clothes. The curtains and blinds didn’t let any light into the room. Swinging the shotgun left and right didn’t show anything else.
My footing wasn’t great in the room. The clothing was piled in a haphazardly fashion. I stepped inside, trying to be quiet. A large closet to my left was open and there was another closed door. There were no clothes hanging, so it was easy to see that it was empty. I edged around the bed which revealed nothing but more clothes.
Before I got halfway to check the closed door my shoe stepped on something that loudly crunched and collapsed under my weight. I looked down to see a plastic bottle.
My eyes jerked up when something knocked the door open hard enough to smash it into the drywall. A Kuru charged at me while holding a hand up to block the flashlight’s beam. I pulled the trigger which kicked heavily into my shoulder. The noise was deafening in the small room, and hit the Kuru hard enough to knock it a foot back before it crumpled to the ground.
I pumped the shotgun, ready to fire it again and waited. Nothing else burst out of the dark master bathroom. Now that the door was open a horrid stink emerged from the room. I saw old dried blood, human bones, and excrement everywhere. The door took some work to close, as it had been torn off one of its hinges.
As I finished closing the door Stephanie charged into the room with her sword held overhead. Rachael came in close behind her. She held her canister out with both hands like a pistol.
They stopped when they saw the body lying against the wall near the door. I stepped between them so that I blocked their view.
“You were supposed to wait outside.”
“We heard you shooting. We thought you might need help.” Stephanie said, defensively.
“If there was too many for me to handle, what then?” I asked. “You think a sword and pepper spray would save me? If you don’t listen to me, what’s the point of traveling together? If you don’t trust me, tell me now.”
“It’s not that we don’t trust you,” Stephanie sounded angry “We were worried.”
“We’ll listen next time.” Rachel said from behind. It sounded like she was a lot more abashed than her sister.
I shook my head but didn’t say anything else on the matter. They were two grown women. It was far too late in life to lecture them.
“I haven’t checked the other rooms yet. With the racket I’d made anyone else here would have come running. I still want you both to wait outside while I check them.”
“But -” Stephanie began saying before I interrupted her.
“If there had been too many for me to handle how would I run outside while you two were behind me? I would have had to cover your two running outside. Think about things like that before you decide to do anything. We have to trust each other now.”
It had felt like I’d said that sort of thing before. Like it was a familiar set of words. The rhythm and flow echoed a cord of memory, but I still couldn’t remember why.
I walked them back to the front door before I checked the other rooms. They were both empty. Both were bedrooms, but had smaller beds than the first one had.
When I came back to the living room both Stephanie and Rachel were waiting attentively.
“Well?” Stephanie asked.
“It’s clear. What do we do about our smell?”
“Let’s check for any cleaning supplies. I’d rather use what’s here than what we’ve brought.” Rachel said.
We found a half full gallon bottle of bleach and a full gallon of Pinesol. After bringing in food for the night, Rachel poured both around the car and up to the porch. It seemed strange to try camouflaging our very smell.
“Does that keep them away, or keep them from noticing us?” I asked her from the living room as she finished the porch.
“A bit of both. Either way it does work. We never had any snooping around the way they did where you were hiding.”
“What if they come here tonight?” I asked, curious.
“I don’t know.” she replied with a shrug. “I guess we’ll just see what happens.”
“That doesn’t seem very reassuring. I’ll go check the backyard if you two will be all right. We’re just staying here for the night, so stay away from the master bedroom. If you two each want a bedroom, I’ll sleep on the couch.”
I took the shotgun to the backyard while Rachel picked through our food supply and Stephanie wolfed down a box of cookies. The exit to the backyard was a door just as solid as the front one. Only a small window in the kitchen showed the bright sunny backyard.
Out of the window it looked as though grass had never grown. Only some weeds and dry dead plants were present. I unlocked the deadbolt and went into the backyard.
The sun’s head seemed all the fiercer from emerging out of the cooler interior of the house. My hand had to shield away the sun enough to look around. A large concrete block made up the porch. A garden hose was curled into a pile next to the door. On the other side was a small black grill.
The entire backyard was a dry arid wasteland. I imagined a desert would have a similar feel to it. The wind that blew across my skin was fresh but felt hot. The sun overhead added to the heat, making it feel like an enormous blow-dryer was aimed in my direction.
I stood there for a while to enjoy the quiet. When the sweat began beading on my forehead I went back inside. My eyes took a few seconds to adjust to the darker interior of the house.
Rachel fixed a dinner that was devoured by Stephanie with a little help from us. There was enough charcoal left in the grill outside to heat up the food, but not by much. Maybe we would try cooking on a fire next time we stopped.
We stayed up late taking turns watching out of the window. The moon was nearly gone leaving little visibility outside. The night was quiet. After they both fell asleep I kept an eye outside. Once or twice I might have seen something moving in the dark, but it could have been my imagination.
When my eyes started to burn and blur at the same time I knew it was time to sleep. The couch wasn’t very comfortable. I kept trying to re-adjust myself, but even
tually gave up. A sudden flood of tiredness washed over me, an accumulated strain that had built up since I’d woken up in the hospital.
Despite being so tired, it was difficult to fall asleep. I only had the memories of the past few days to dwell on, and none of those were very pleasant. Before I fell asleep my thoughts kept drifting back to Stephanie. Something about her captivated my attention. Thinking of her lulled my thoughts until they completely disappeared.
When I woke up my back felt like a pretzel. I was the first one up and the sun had already crested over the horizon. I lumbered out of the couch, massaging my neck with one hand. The crick in my neck faded to a light stiffness.
A light odor was now coming from the master bedroom. It wasn’t very noticeable, but I doubt it would stay that way. I yawned, rubbing the remaining sleep out of my eyes.