The Road to Nowhere: A post-apocalyptic novel

by Lee Argus

  The strap dug into my shoulder with its heavy weight. I overbalanced and put too much weight on my bad leg. My face contorted with the pain.

  The apartment was now filling with a light haze of smoke and heat. I coughed several times, my eyes burned and watered uncontrollably. By the time I had reached the window my head felt foggy and I was half hopping from the good leg to the bat.

  I tugged on the balcony window but it refused to open. I tried harder, then realized I forgot to unlock it. It opened, but the smoke poured from the window keeping me from the clean air.

  I struggled for a while trying to stop myself from coughing. The smoke in my apartment had started getting thick. Unbearably thick. Had I stood in there any longer I probably would’ve passed out.

  I couldn’t see how much smoke had filled the living room until it rushed pouring out into the fresh air. I stuck my head over the edge of the windowsill and peered down.

  There wasn’t anyone moving on the street, or anyone else trying to get out on the fire escape. The lower floors had smoke pouring out of several windows. I pulled my body out and landed hard on the metal grate.

  Disoriented, there was little I could remember about my trip down the fire escape. I had reached the ground level without falling or passing out, much to my surprise.

  I staggered, sinking down to my hands and knees. I couldn’t stop the rough, dry coughs coming from my throat. I gasped at the air until my head started to clear. There was no time for it, but I couldn’t just run. Not yet. I was still light headed and unsure as to where I was going.

  My head turned back and forth, eyes casting looks at my surroundings. It felt like something was coming. I didn’t see anything, but I had a really bad feeling while standing in the open street, especially since I was right below a brightly burning building.

  I took a few limping steps and realized how loud my bat was as it thumped into the sidewalk. I couldn’t move far without it, but the metallic clanging would easily give away where I was at.

  I swung the gym bag off of my back, and dug out two pairs of socks. They fit over the end of the bat perfectly and were thankfully black. I tapped the end on the sidewalk a few times. It could still be heard but it was almost as muffled as my footsteps.

  The first place I thought of going to was a small coffee shop across the street from the corner of my block. I decided to head there, take a look, and hopefully it was still standing in a habitable condition.

  I was almost halfway there before I thought about the last time I was there. It had been a morning pit stop, before heading to work. I sighed and thought back on the days just before the infection began to spread. I never would have thought that things could go so wrong, so fast.

  As I walked my neck and shoulder started hurting, due to the frequency of looking behind me, as well as the gym bag hanging there. I had to keep it hanging on the side with the good ankle. It would have been nice to have a backpack, but the tiny one I owned wouldn’t have held half of what I needed.

  While walking I looked back at the apartment. I hoped no one had been hiding in their apartment, like I had been. If I had slept a little bit longer, I might have woke up covered in flames.

  I looked around and noticed other places had gone up in flames at some time or another, even a few vehicles. Most other buildings that hadn’t been damaged by fire had their windows or doors broken. Nothing looked the same as before, not that I was expecting things to look the same, I just didn’t expect things to look as bad as they did.

  The condition of every block was overwhelming. I felt like it was already a year or two after the apocalypse with the way debris, char, and glass was scattered about, along with the clutter and disarray of cars on the street.

  By the time I had reached the end of the block my ankle had swelled up in my hiking boot to the point where it felt like a clamp. If I loosened the laces, It might have felt better, but it probably would’ve made walking more difficult.

  I felt light headed from the pain, and knew I couldn’t make it much farther.

  The wooden green door to the coffee shop was closed, and of course locked. I thought about smashing in the front window’s glass and just climbing in, but that would make a lot of noise. In fact, it would be too easy for someone to come inside behind me the same way.

  I kept going past the building until I turned around the corner and made my way down a small alley behind the coffee shop. I leaned against a rusty dumpster at the beginning of the opening and scanned the narrow space between the buildings.

  The smell from the dumpster was rancid. I did my best to ignore it and kept limping.

  There was scattered trash along the building, but past the majority of the filth was someone facing the far end of the alley. I could see that it was a woman. A tall woman.

  She was standing past the freight entrance of the coffee shop. She must have been a little over six feet tall, with dirty blonde hair, wearing jeans and a long sleeve shirt. Her hair hung down to her shoulder blades in curls, and contrasted sharply with her black shirt.

  I couldn’t believe that I had found someone else. I wasn’t expecting it to happen so soon. My weariness clouded my judgment enough to fixate on that one fact.

  I staggered towards her with mixture of exhaustion and exhilaration. I had approached her until I was less than five feet away but she hadn’t reacted to my presence behind her. Maybe she hadn’t heard my footsteps.

  I cleared my throat to draw her attention and mumbled, “Hello?” somewhat hesitantly.

  At the sound of my voice her head cocked sideways, as if straining to hear me. As she slowly turned the horror of what lay before me became evident.

  Her movements were jerky, like a puppet with tangled strings. Half of her face looked like something had been gnawing on it. There was a gaping hole through her cheek and bottom lip that matched the one where her left eye should’ve been.

  Her right eye was almost completely white and seemed to freeze at my feet, passing a sidelong stare near the ground where I stood. Bloody and chipped teeth were visible through her cheek as well as through her loosely hung open jaw. The jaw was sitting at a slight angle, as though broken. She jerked a few steps closer.

  I took a few steps back out of reflex, forgetting in panic about my twisted ankle until my weight had come down hard on it. I sprawled backwards, barely able to hang onto the sock sheathed bat in my hand as I lost balance and landed flat on my back.

  Before I could get back on my feet her disgusting form towered over me, and sprung down at me.

  I brought my bat up with both hands, holding her at bay. The bat was pressed against her throat. Boney hands wrapped around me like a morbid hug as nails dug into my back.

  The rough material of my Army jacket kept the hands from the skin of my back, but the arms pulled me close enough for that putrid smelling mouth to snap at my face. I pulled my good knee up to my chest to keep it back, which gave me the leverage to twist my hips and throw it off of me.

  I had a rough time pushing myself to my feet with the bad leg. I was surprised to find that it was still trying to get up. Before it could finish getting to its feet I swung the bat in time to knock its arm out from under it.

  The precarious balance it had was lost. The normal reaction of putting a hand out to stop hitting the ground seemed to be missing from it. It landed face first into the ally floor.

  Before it could start to get back up I brought the bat down against the back of its neck, which gave a sickening yet satisfying crack. I repeated the motion over and over again.

  I don’t know how long I kept swinging, until I realized that all that was left of its head was fragments of bone, splattered meat and flesh, like rotted hamburger.

  My hands were trembling so hard that my grip barely held onto the bat and my throat was raw and sore, like I had been yelling, but I couldn’t recall if I had yelled. I hoped I hadn’t made too much noise.

  Breathing was difficult, as each breath came in ragged gasps, and my whole
body shook with weariness and exhaustion. I looked back up the lit road, sure that something must have heard the ruckus I had made. I noticed the sun was setting, but in the remaining light there was nothing I could see approaching my direction.

  I tried the door, but it was locked. I didn’t want to destroy it, but I needed to get somewhere safe. It wouldn’t be very safe with a door that couldn’t close and lock. My bat fit between the doorknob and the frame. Using it as a lever in combination with my shoulder, I managed to pop it open. They must have only locked the handle and not the deadbolt in their rush to get home.

  My hands were still trembling like mad and my ankle didn’t feel like an ankle. It felt more like a blowtorch flame that had welded my foot to my calf. I took a few hesitant steps into the dark rear of the shop, still in shock from what had occurred only moments before. I hoped I wouldn’t have to run into another one inside.

  I closed the door behind me and bolted it shut. Thank God only the knob and not the deadbolt had been locked. I breathed in, the air was musty and flat. I could make out the smell of rot, the sort of smell a corpse would have. That was not promising.

  I stopped going in when I noticed that I didn’t have my gym bag. I must have dropped it in the scuffle. I didn’t want to go back out, but my supplies, especially my flashlight, were in the bag. I unbolted and reopened the door before I could convince myself not to.

  I limped a few feet back towards the entrance to the street, and saw that my bag didn’t drop far from the remains of the body. I made sure not to look at it, and as quickly as I could, I hobbled, grabbed the bag’s strap, and dragged it back into the dark coffee shop.

  Before I closed the door, I dug out my flashlight. It was part of the radio, and had an internal battery that was crank powered. It was a bit loud to run the crank, but it wouldn’t be much more fun to stumble around in the dark, looking for a few D cell batteries. Besides, once charged, the light would last quite a while.

  The small light illuminated the small back storeroom of the coffee shop. A few shelves of coffee beans and a great deal of flavoring syrup bottles were stacked everywhere. A thin layer of dust had built up on the surfaces of every shelf and table-top. I looked around hoping to find useful supplies. There were a few cases of cylindrical water bottles, which probably would have cost over five dollars each, if I wasn’t just appropriating them.

  I guzzled the first one down too quickly, and half of it came back up and all over the floor. I tried to clean up in the wash-sink, but the water was off there just like my apartment. I poured an overpriced water bottle over my head, and splashed what was left in it on to my face. This brought back some clarity, and washed off some of the grim.

  I wandered through the back of the shop, and found a small break room and bathroom. The over-sized windows in the front of the coffee shop had dark blinds drawn across them. I didn’t feel comfortable knowing glass was the barrier between me and the others, but there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it. I made sure to keep my light from shining in that direction to avoid unwanted attention. Who knows how the light would look from the street.

  There were some moldy pastries in the glass display case, as well as some rotten fruit. The whole world seemed to be turning into one giant garbage can.

  I was relieved when I finally found a few edibles. There were bottles of soda, iced tea, some trail mix and protein bars. I also found a plastic flashlight, the kind you could buy at a ninety-nine cent store. The batteries were dead, of course. It seems like no one likes to prepare. I tried smacking it a few times, but no light issued forth. At least the radio light wouldn’t have that problem.

  Being around the smell of coffee brought back some caffeine cravings, but the spoiled food helped curb the feeling. Caffeine would play merry hell on what little sleep I could get. There were a few gourmet chocolate bars that I snagged, as well as the clean tablecloths that had been left out.

  I set up a temporary shelter in the break room. Since I couldn’t carry all that water with me, I dragged a few cases back to make the toilet temporarily usable. It might be a waste, but after going into bottles and a plastic tub, I felt like I deserved it.

  I had pushed some of the heavy metal shelves against the back door. I used bags of coffee beans, and flavoring syrup to barricade the door that led to the break room from the front of the store.

  I then proceeded to move the wooden table and chairs against the locked break room door. They weren’t exactly heavy enough to stop anyone who really wanted to get in, but it was the best I could do.

  I don’t know if I was being paranoid or just cautious.

  I felt debilitated from exhaustion. All I wanted to do was sleep for the next seventy two hours. I stifled a yawn, as I laid out my bedding. I could have just curled up on the bare floor and fallen asleep, but I would sleep longer if I had a modicum of comfort.

  My sleeping bag was bright red and very thick. I crawled into it while it was zipped up before I realized how much it would have slowed me down if I needed to get up in a hurry. I unzipped it, but kept it folded over me for warmth and comfort.

  My bat stayed close at hand. I felt safer knowing I only had to reach out for it. It may be irrational, but I think a weapon will always have to be near me before I can relax.

  I thought it would be easy to fall asleep considering my exhaustion, but I was still too restless. I flipped from side to side. As strange as it might sound, I was too tired to sleep.

  Restless, I turned my radio on and spun through the different frequencies, hearing nothing but static. I gave up trying to pick up anything, and started to snack on what I had plundered. Plundered. It made me feel like a pirate.

  Once I had finished a chocolate flavored, but not tasty protein bar, half a real chocolate bar, and some trail mix I took two Percocet. The pain receded from my ankle, and I fell into a troubled sleep.

  CHANCE ESCAPE

  A LEE ARGUS SAMPLE

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  Table of Contents

  1 LOST

  2 QUICK DRIVE

  3 RESTLESS

  4 BURNING BRIGHT

  5 BEST LAID PLANS

  6 CAR SICK

  7 NIGHT TERRORS

  8 CHOICES

  9 AT A LOSS

  CHANCE ESCAPE SAMPLE

  BIOGRAPHY

  CONTACT INFORMATION