by Handle, Matt
Tyler was pondering this terrible question when he heard his father bellow wildly from the garage. He grabbed the gun and flung open the door before running toward the sound. Unnerved by what he was afraid he’d find, he hesitated for just a moment as he reached the thick door that led from the hallway to the garage and then he opened it with the gun held at his side.
It took his horrified brain a few seconds to comprehend what he saw. The garage door was open and his father stood crouched outside on the driveway, his shoulders hunched over and in awkward position. The afternoon sunlight cast a crooked shadow of the man across the cracked black asphalt beneath his feet. Roger’s bulging eyes reflected a combination of utter rage and agony and he was dripping wet from head to toe. Tyler saw the overturned red gas can a few feet away and it dawned on him what his father was soaked with.
“NOOOOOO!” Tyler screamed as he dropped the gun and bolted into the garage.
Roger took one last look at his son and flicked the lighter in his right hand before touching it to his chest. He was immediately engulfed in flames, the heat shoving Tyler to the ground before he could reach the edge of the driveway.
Tyler watched in stunned horror as his father fell to the pavement and burned. The first seconds of shrieking were terrible, but the following silence was even worse. The only sound was that of the fire as it crackled and popped as it finished consuming his father’s flesh.
Tyler lay on the floor of the garage and wept. Hours later as the sun dipped below the horizon outside, the boy was still in the same spot. The fire had burnt out and all that remained of Roger Gibbons was the charred skeleton and ashes that lay in place of where Tyler had last seen him.
He fell asleep with his face on the cool cement and woke up stiff –necked and completely alone the next morning. Tyler couldn’t stomach the thought of eating, but he made himself brush his teeth and wash his face before packing up his meager belongings in a gym bag.
He left the house via the garage, plucking up the shotgun along the way. Then he stopped beside his father’s blackened remains for a moment to pay his respects. He didn’t know where he’d go, but he knew he could no longer stay here. His parents had both died in this house that wasn’t even really theirs. Whatever fate awaited him, he’d meet it elsewhere. There were monsters out there and they’d taken everything that he loved. He patted the extra shells he’d stuffed inside the pockets of his jeans and looked toward the road that lay past the fence. It was time he took a few of the monsters out in return.
Part II
Even the Broken Ones:
Jenny’s Story
Renee Cooper watched her daughter’s fitful sleep by candlelight with a look of concern etched across her pale, freckled face. Jenny had already had two seizures in the past week. The second occurred not an hour ago and was so violent that Renee had feared the skinny little girl in her faded t-shirt and baggy cotton shorts might go into cardiac arrest. It was a small miracle that their family of three was still alive and together given the way that civilization had crumbled all around them, but it seemed there was no miracle to cure poor Jenny from the epilepsy she’d suffered from since just after her birth twelve years prior.
Curt walked up quietly behind Renee and put an arm around her slender shoulders before giving them a squeeze.
“How’s our baby girl doing?” he asked softly.
Renee turned toward her husband and gave him a one-armed hug, putting her head against his chest as she held the candle at arm’s length.
“She’s finally asleep,” she answered. “Poor thing must be exhausted.”
Curt led his wife away from the open doorway of their daughter’s bedroom and down the narrow apartment hallway to their own. He sat down on the edge of their bed and Renee followed after she placed the candle on top of the dresser. She grabbed a pillow to put in her lap so she’d have something else to hold onto.
“How much longer is this going to go on?” she asked with a tinge of panic in her voice. “What are we going to do if she doesn’t snap back out of it next time?”
Curt reached up and brushed a stray lock of Renee’s strawberry blonde hair off her forehead. “I don’t know,” he replied. “We need to get her more medicine. I don’t see any other way.”
Renee stood back up and moved to the bedroom window so she could part its heavy curtain just enough to peek outside into the Miami night. It was pitch black outside, the sky overcast, every street light and store front as dead as all the people the plague hadn’t turned into walking monsters.
The world had ended. There were times when Renee was convinced that she, her husband of 15 years, and their only child were the last remaining people on the entire planet. Curt assured her regularly that there must be others, but they hadn’t seen anyone that wasn’t a corpse or mindless and Hell bent on eating them in over six months now. The view outside the window didn’t do anything to refute that status. There wasn’t a single sign of movement or life.
Renee let the curtain drop closed again and looked at Curt in the faint amber glow of the room. The light flickered on his face, softening it around the edges and hiding some of the gauntness that had set in as their supply of food dwindled ever smaller.
“We’ve already talked about this, Curt,” she said as she stood in front of him with her hands on her increasingly bony hips. “It’s too dangerous. We’ve both seen what those things will do to you if you get caught.”
Curt reached up to take her hand and gently pulled her back down beside him.
“I know, honey. I know and I wish there was another answer,” he said.
“It’s too far,” she stated.
“I can make it,” Curt insisted. “I have to make it. Without the Carbatrol, she’s only going to get worse.”
Renee lay back on the bed and closed her eyes. She was silent, the only sound in the room that of her and Curt’s breathing. It remained that way so long Curt thought she’d fallen asleep. He got up to blow out the candle, the flame dying with only the slightest of effort. As he climbed back into the bed beside her, his wife said four words in the darkness. She didn’t say them very loudly, but they kept him awake for another hour all the same.
“I’m going with you,” she told him.
Despite falling asleep late, Curt was awake shortly after dawn. A bright sliver of sunlight peeked through the curtains and illuminated a thin strip of the room. He tried to rise from the bed and use the toilet quietly, but Renee was sitting up and waiting on him when he exited the bathroom.
He walked to the window and looked out at the blue sky and gray world. It was going to be another scorcher of a day. The Miami sun was already heating up the street two stories below to the point that he could see its ripple effect on the air just above the blacktop.
“Did you hear what I said last night?” Renee asked from behind him.
Curt nodded without turning around.
“It looks empty out there at the moment,” he said with as much hope in his voice as he could muster.
“We can’t leave without saying goodbye,” Renee replied. “Just in case.”
They both looked at the doorway to their bedroom in surprise at the sound of Jenny sobbing. Their little girl stood looking at them, her favorite stuffed animal clutched to her chest, as tears welled in her eyes.
“I’ll be better, I promise!” Jenny wailed as the tears streamed down her face.
“Oh, honey!” Renee exclaimed, rushing over to her daughter and embracing her tightly. “We’re not leaving you! And you didn’t do anything wrong!”
Curt crossed the room and put a hand on Jenny’s shoulder.
“We just need to get you some medicine,” he explained. “It’ll make you feel better and help keep you safe.”
Jenny took a step back from her mother’s hug in order to look her father in the eyes when she replied.
“You always said the pharmacy is too far away,” she responded. “That we need to stay within sight of our building.”
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p; Curt tried to offer her a smile. “That’s true,” he answered. “But this time we need to make an exception. You’re more important to us than anything else in the world, sweetheart. Your seizures are getting worse and we can’t take you to a doctor. We have to try.”
“I’m going with you,” Jenny stated fiercely, unknowingly echoing her mother.
Her father shook his head and replied. “It’s too dangerous, Jenny. You need to stay in here where it’s safe.”
“So you’re just going to leave me here all by myself?” Jenny asked, the tears now coming even faster. “What happens if the monsters get you?” she demanded, her voice rising toward hysteria. “Please, daddy! Please don’t go!”
Jenny clung to both her parents as desperate sobs wracked her thin frame. Renee started to tear up herself as she looked to Curt for a solution. There was no way she could leave Jenny like this, but she was terrified of Curt going out on his own too.
Curt took a deep breath to calm his self as he hugged his family close. He knew there was no good answer. Leaving either one of them behind felt like he was abandoning them; taking either or both with him was leading them into horrible danger. The world had become a nightmare and no matter what he chose, he could lose everything.
“Jenny if something happened to you…” he began, but his daughter interrupted him before he could finish.
“Then you’d be there to protect me,” she said, wiping at her eyes. “Which is why you can’t leave without me. I need you, daddy.” She looked up at Renee. “And you too, mommy. Please don’t leave me alone.”
And that settled it. As much as Curt wanted to do this on his own, he couldn’t stand the thought of leaving them petrified that he’d never return. The truth was, he might not. CVS was over a mile down the road and god only knew what they might run into along the way.
Half an hour later, the three of them stood in front of the barricaded door to their apartment and looked at each other for confidence.
“Remember,” Curt told them, “Move quickly but quietly. Watch where you put your feet and no talking. We go straight down the hall to the stairs, then directly down the stairs to the lobby. When I give the signal, we leave through the front door and go down the sidewalk to the right. It’s a long walk, but we can make it if we’re careful.”
Curt shoved the sofa that was blocking the door to one side and then turned to look at his wife and daughter one more time before he unlocked the deadbolt.
“Stick close and no matter what happens, don’t panic,” he said. “If anything comes after us, follow me. They’re deadly, but they’re stupid.” He smiled at Jenny in an attempt to boost her confidence. “And we’re faster.”
The three of them reached the lobby without a problem. The hallway was empty as was the dimly lit and stiflingly hot stairwell that led to the first floor. As they readied themselves to leave the building, Curt looked first at his wife and then Jenny. They were clearly scared, but they looked determined as well. He momentarily swelled with pride as it dawned on him how they brave they were. It was time to go.
He pushed open the heavy door and was immediately blinded by the sunlight. As his eyes adjusted, he scanned the street in all directions. As he’d seen from the window upstairs, wrecked and abandoned cars littered the two-lane road, but nothing was moving. The storefronts were dark, many of their display windows broken or covered in hastily nailed-up plywood. The formerly busy city street was a ghost town.
He moved at a pace just short of a jog, glancing backward every 10 or 15 steps to make sure Renee and Jenny were keeping up. Before the plague, at this hour of the morning, this street would have been packed with shoppers, joggers, and people walking their dogs. Cars would have been honking as they impatiently waited for the gawkers and the drivers that had the audacity to make a left-hand turn in front of them. Now there was nothing but silent rot everywhere he looked. Cars baked in the same spots they’d sat in for years, blocking both lanes of traffic. The street lights that hung from their limp wires were colorless, their bulbs long burnt out. The sidewalk beneath his feet was cracked, weeds growing everywhere they could take root. When Curt had moved his family here in the fall of 2010, this was one of the fastest growing areas in the country. Now it was all but gone. The plague had taken everything except the two people he cared about the most.
They crossed the first side street they came to, weaving between the vehicles that blocked their path. A pigeon sitting atop a No Parking sign squawked at them as they went by, startled by their interruption of its morning meditation. Curt glanced around nervously at the bird’s noise, worried that even something that mundane might awaken a hidden monster, but still, he saw no sign of the Afflicted.
They moved past the nearby stores that Curt was accustomed to visiting in his infrequent expeditions for supplies and the tension in him grew. They were too far now to race back inside their apartment building if they were attacked. His eyes darted this way and that, trying to gauge both the most likely hiding spots for predators while also looking for any potential places to hole up in case he and his family had to bolt for cover.
When he took another look back at Renee and Jenny, he realized his daughter had brought along the same stuffed bunny she’d been holding when she had entered their room this morning. She clung to it like a talisman. Renee was right beside her, their strides nearly identical. Mother and daughter were treading through the remains of the apocalypse and counting on him to keep them alive. Both of them were no more than eight feet behind him.
The first hint of danger didn’t arrive until they were nearly two thirds of the way to the pharmacy. As they walked past the old Pollo Tropical restaurant, its red and green sign broken into pieces and tilting precariously to one side, an inhuman bellow echoed from some place in the distance. Curt had no way of knowing whether the angry-sounding roar had anything to do with their presence, but he broke into a cold sweat the second he heard it.
Jenny looked in the direction the animalistic noise came from and instinctively leaned closer to her mother. All three of them moved a little faster, adrenaline pumping through their veins as they fought off the urge to forget caution and sprint the remainder of the way.
The big, blocky white building that housed the pharmacy was in sight when they heard the rage-filled howl again. This time it was louder and much closer. Renee grabbed Jenny’s hand and almost dragged her down the final stretch.
The front of the store was a wreck. The sliding glass doors that marked the entrance had been broken and the metal frame hung awkwardly from the surrounding bricks. The glass glinted on the outside sidewalk, shattered into a million pieces that reflected the bright sunlight overhead. Curt reached the opening first and stepped inside carefully. He took a quick glance around the interior of the store and then motioned Renee and Jenny to follow.
The inside of the store was even worse off than the exterior. Shelves were overturned. Dented and crushed merchandise was scattered all over the thinly carpeted floor. None of the overhead fluorescent lights were working and several had been pulled loose from the ceiling. A few clung by just one end of the bulb, hanging over the jumbled aisles like strange industrial icicles.
Curt led Renee and Jenny through the mess and to the back of the store where the prescription counter was located. As he’d feared, the shelves of drugs that stood behind the counter had been ransacked. It looked like half of the stock was gone and what remained was lying in piles of cardboard boxes and plastic bottles that littered the pharmacy floor. He bent down on one knee and began pawing through the remains.
“Look for a bottle labeled Carbatrol,” he explained to Jenny, knowing his wife was already aware of what they sought. “Chances are, whoever was here before us was interested in painkillers or antibiotics. We might get lucky, but we can’t waste any time.”
Renee and Jenny immediately joined the search, each taking a different corner of the pharmacy. After 10 minutes, they’d pawed through what seemed like hundreds of medicine bottl
es without any luck. Curt glanced up to look at his wife and he could see that she was beginning to get frantic. This was taking too long. However many Afflicted were out there, they could be getting closer. He knew if the things heard him and his family in here rummaging through this mess, they’d attack without hesitation. He needed to find some protection.
“Keep looking,” he said as he got to his feet and headed back out to the main section of the store. “I’ll be right back.”
Jenny looked worriedly at her father as he walked away and then to her mother. “Where is he going?” she asked in a whisper.
Renee just shook her head. “I don’t know,” she answered. “Do as he says.”
It felt like her husband had been gone for at least 10 minutes, but it probably less than five when Renee found what they’d been looking for. She pulled the white and red labeled box from a pile of dozens more that looked almost just like it and read the name printed on the front with a smile of relief. She held up the box to show her daughter and just as she did, Curt stepped back behind the counter. He had a can of soda in his hand and a trio of walking canes under the other arm.
“You found it?” he asked breathlessly.
Renee nodded and then pulled the bottle from its box, tossing the cardboard back into the pile it came from.
“What are those for?” she asked, nodding toward the red and blue colored aluminum canes.
“It’s all I came up with for protection,” he said. “But it’s better than nothing.”
Renee opened the bottle of pills and shook one out into her palm before offering it to Jenny. “Take this before we go, honey,” she instructed.