by Phil Maxey
Need to find a town, siphon some gas.
He drove up a slight incline and stopped at a junction.
A proud wooden sign sat opposite the car. “Briggs Estates - Where your future begins.”
No more future.
From his vantage point he could just about make out the roofs of newly built single-story homes, their pale brown walls looking even more pink due to the setting sun.
He ignored the optimistic sentiment and took the left exit, driving down a steep hill and around the first abandoned car he had seen for some miles. Another sign, this one higher up and dangling from a tree, announced he was entering the town of Coolstone. Population 12092.
Smart homes passed him by. Some had their front doors open, others had human remains on the front lawns. He smelled them even before the birds that were picking at the bones took to the air. His mind flicked to him sinking his teeth into his friend’s neck, but he shook his head to stop the image from taking hold.
Don’t want to drive too far into the town.
Since leaving LA he had successfully avoided any other big towns, at least that had been the plan until he met Russell, and the search for Russell’s family. But now that plan was as dead as his friend, and he could resume keeping away from civilization. The things like cities.
I’m one of them.
He shook his head again, then slammed on his brake when he almost ran into a dog. He could smell its unwashed coat, and the blood on its teeth. The canine stood looking at him, then ran, disappearing down the side of one of the cookie-cut perfect homes.
He went to pull off when something else wafted on the evening breeze to him. Sounds. Human voices.
He was still getting used to his heightened senses, and he guessed they were coming from down in the valley, in the center of the small town.
To his right sat a plethora of suitable vehicles. He could smell the gasoline was full in most of the tanks.
Ignore the people. Just fill your tank and go.
He glided into a driveway, pulling alongside a red sedan, got out, grabbed the tube from the trunk, and started the procedure he had already carried out tens of times.
He concentrated on his actions, ignoring the noises from a few miles off.
Pull the cap off, place the tube into the—
The dog was back, watching him again from across the street.
“Scoot! Go away!”
The dog remained fixed to the spot, its eyes not leaving him.
“Leave! You don’t want me to eat you!” It wasn’t an idle threat. Livestock, rats, rabbits, and other mammals were what got him through the early days.
Ignoring his unwanted guest, he sucked on the tube until he saw the gasoline running up inside the clear pipe, then quickly dumped the end into the open hole on his own car. The dog sat on the ground.
“I haven’t got anything for you!” Joel could still smell death on the dog’s teeth.
Could it be like me? Could it have ‘changed?’ Can that happen to animals?
It wasn’t something he had considered until faced with this strange German shepherd who found him entertaining for some reason.
He tapped on the grip of his handgun, which was on his hip, although he didn’t want to waste a bullet on a rabid animal. He needed them for the human types.
Air appeared in the tube and he pulled it out, letting the drips fall to the floor, then closed his gas cap, and threw the tube back in the trunk.
His gaze momentarily paused on his friend’s backpack, then he closed the trunk.
He then looked back at the dog that was so motionless he started to wonder if it had been replaced by a taxidermied version.
He slowly walked across the street and kneeled when he was a few yards away. The dog let out a small ‘woof’ then started to pant.
“You got a name? Err… Roy?”
The dog licked its nose, then continued panting.
“Not Roy then, umm—”
A gun shot echoed in the evening air. The dog and Joel both looked in the same direction.
Joel stood, then started walking back to his car. “Not getting involved.” The dog followed him. When he reached his driver’s door he went to open it and realized the dog was standing near the rear tire. “Seriously. The world has ended. I don’t want a pet dog!”
Another sound rang out in the distance. This one he recognized, it was the sound of a child screaming. For a moment he wasn’t sure if it was a flashback or it was really the sound of a kid in distress. But deep down he knew it was real.
“Fuck…”
He opened the rear door. The dog jumped in, then he did the same in the driver’s side. He turned around and pointed to the floor.
“Get on the floor.”
The dog dutifully obliged.
He quickly backed the car out of the driveway and sat with the engine idling in the street.
Shaking his head, he put the car in drive. “This is a dumb idea, Joel.”
He pulled off in the direction of the humans.
CHAPTER THREE
Marina twisted her neck as much as she could to see her daughter tied on the opposite side of the tree. “We’re going to get out of this.”
Jess sniffed. “But how…”
Marina pushed against the straps on her wrists, trying to swallow the pain as her skin ripped, so she could reach her daughter’s shoulder. “I’m here, Jess. You trust me, right?”
Laughter rang around the small crowd that had gathered on the courthouse steps.
Marina sneered at the older man, the one that called himself Jasper, even though she was sure that was bullshit.
He turned to the men around him. “Look boys, this one’s got real fire in her eyes. It’s almost tempting to let her go, so she can try and keep her little one alive from the biters.”
“Yeah, do it, untie her, let her try and—” said another of the greasy looking individuals.
“Fuck, they’re here,” said the older man, looking into the encroaching darkness at the end of the street, which was lined with shops.
“They’re coming earlier and earlier,” said another man.
“Everyone inside!” Jasper shouted, but most of the group were already running for the safety of the secure-looking double doors. Large cross symbols had been etched into the wood.
Marina tried to make sense of the shadows in the distance, some of which she was sure were moving.
“Mom!”
Marina strained against the ropes and cabling holding her to the tree, but there was hardly any give.
Not like this.
She thrashed her head from side to side, and her body, anything to loosen what was binding her to the trunk. “Pull against the ropes, Jess! Pull as hard as you can!”
Her daughter heaved at the cords. “I can’t do it!”
One of Marina’s wrists wiggled free. “I’m almost free, just keep going. Be a dragon for me, baby, keep pulling.”
The smell of blood floated on the evening breeze past Marina.
Jess screamed. “They’re coming!”
Marina quickly pulled her other hand free, then pushed the straps around her ankles down and stepped out of the restraints. Not bothering to look around her, she pulled the cabling from her daughter’s feet first.
There was no noise, other than the wind around them, but Marina could sense them moving near. She may not have been like them, able to see in the dark, but after a month of trying to stay alive, she knew when they were around.
She pulled Jess’s hands free, and for the first time looked into the darkness.
Humanoid forms staggered across the sidewalks onto the fading grass around the courthouse.
She looked back at the stone building behind her, it was sealed tight. But it still seemed the best direction to go in. Pulling her daughter’s hand, they both ran across the grass, then onto the stone path.
Jess tripped over a curb. “I can’t see!”
“It’s okay, just keep holding my—”
>
One of the man-shaped things stood directly in front of them. She could have sworn it was grinning.
“I’m… eat… small one first…” The words slithered from its mouth.
Out the corner of Marina’s eye there was more movement, but she ignored it, instead focusing on how to get around the current danger.
The creature in front of her walked forward, just as a dark shadow swept across it, taking it to the ground. This new thing was growling and tearing away at the would-be attacker that was trying to defend itself. Its frantic motion soon stopped, replaced by gargling noises.
Momentarily, Marina was frozen to the spot, then as this new demonic being turned its head towards her, she awoke and went to run in the opposite direction, when a car horn sound bounced around the stone walls of the building behind her.
“Come on!” shouted Joel, waving at her from ten yards away in the street.
“Come on Jess!” She pulled her daughter towards the car, its headlights illuminating more of the things walking towards them across the street.
Jess jumped in the back, while Marina jumped in the front.
She slammed the door shut, but the car remained motionless. “Let’s go!” she shouted to the dark haired man to her left.
Joel looked across the grass at his previous passenger. “You coming?” he shouted.
The dog sprinted across the park and jumped up into the back seat. Blood dripped from its jaws. Jess pulled herself as far away from it as possible.
“That thing’s with you?” said Marina her eyes wide.
“Yes.” Joel turned his head slightly towards the rear. “Little girl, you might want to close that other door.”
Jess shivered near her own door, shaking her head and not wanting to move near the dog.
Something slammed into the trunk making them all jump, then started to slide around to the open door. The dog started to growl.
Joel went to get out, but Marina beat him to it, opening her door briefly then shoving the rear door closed. The thing with its head covered in dark crimson blood lunged at her, but she tucked herself back into her seat and closed the door before it got to her.
Joel slammed on the gas pedal and the car shot forward, scything through three of the creatures that were almost on them. Others flailed at the car, but he neatly weaved around them.
Marina looked back at the dog in the backseat. “He’s trained, right?”
Joel flicked his eyes at the woman next to him who was a similar age to himself. “Err… yeah.”
Marina relaxed a bit. “What is he, like a police dog or something?”
“Umm… sure.”
Marina reached back, not being sure her hand wouldn’t be bit. Jess reached forward, and they held hands. “We’ll be fine. This man—” She looked at Joel. “— What’s your name?”
“Joel.”
“Joel is going to take us somewhere safe.”
He is?
“What’s your name?” said Joel.
“Mar—”
The rest of her words came out in slow motion as his reality threatened to collapse. Before she finished saying ‘Hopkins’ he had slammed on the brakes. Everyone, including Joel, fell forward.
After a second of recovering, Marina turned to him angrily. “What the hell?” She then thought there must have been a reason for the sudden stop and looked out at the motels and restaurants just visible in the headlights. “Did you see something?”
Most of what Marina was saying to him was eclipsed by his own thoughts replaying the image of Russell Hopkins, the man he had travelled and survived with for most of his journey from the city, lying dead in a gas station seventy miles to the west.
Marina started to wonder if staying in the car was the best thing to do. “Are you okay?”
Joel blinked a few times, then turned to her. “Umm… you’re Marina?”
“Yeah? Why?”
He turned away. “No reason.” Joel pushed the bad thoughts away, focused on the road ahead of him, and slowly pushed down on the gas pedal.
*****
Marina looked over her shoulder at a sleeping Jess, and a sleeping dog next to her. She sighed. For a moment, almost an hour earlier she hadn’t been sure she would see another sunrise, and the only comfort she had was that she and her daughter would be together in whatever came next. It had crossed her mind when they were leaving the town to try and find her previous vehicle, but not having much of an idea of where it was when they were taken, combined with the almost certain knowledge that those men took anything of value, meant she kept her thoughts to herself.
She looked at the man next to her. “Thank you.”
“For…”
“You know what for.”
“I just happened to be driving through. You got lucky.”
She looked back to the road in front of them. “Yeah, well thank you anyway.” Dark staggered shapes loomed ahead of them. “We’re going into the mountains?”
“Yup.”
“Do you know it’s safe there?”
“If you hadn’t already guessed, nowhere’s safe. There’s just, probable death and certain death.”
“And the mountains are ‘probable death’?”
“We’ll see.”
They passed over a cattle grid, making the car rattle, those in the back remained sleeping.
After a while, hills and fields gave way to steeper inclines.
Ever since Joel realized who it was who he managed to save back in Coolstone, he could not find any words to communicate with. Each time he went to open his mouth, he felt the guilt of what he had done to her husband would be obvious. And then what? Would she try and kill him? Better to stay quiet. But after an hour and a half, the silence was getting to him.
He briefly looked across to the woman whose eyes were closed, with her head slightly cocked to one side. “You awake?”
“Yes,” she said without stirring.
“So how you end up there. I heard gunfire. That’s why I drove down there.”
She sat up, opening her eyes. “You got any water?”
He nodded towards the glovebox. “In there.”
She pulled the glovebox lid down. Two plastic bottles looked back at her. As well as two handguns. She reached in carefully grabbing the bottle and being careful not to make any move towards any of the guns. She pulled the plastic bottle out, unscrewed the cap then took a few mouthfuls. Before resealing it, she looked back to her daughter, then smiled, and put the cap back on. “I was trying to make my way back to my husband.”
I killed him.
“Right.”
“You?”
The road they were on curved and climbed.
There was only the sound of the engine as Marina waited for an answer.
“What?” said Joel.
“How did you end up out here? You from LA?”
“Err… yeah. I was stationed there.”
“Stationed? You in the army?”
“No, I was in one of the FBI’s tactical units.”
“Guess that’s why you’re still alive.”
“Something like that… What about you? You must be pretty tough. The scourge killed most.”
“Scourge?”
“That’s what they were calling it in LA.”
“No, I’m just a mother… part-time housewife.”
Joel knew that wasn’t completely the truth, she had done a tour in Iraq before leaving to start a family with Russell.
She briefly checked again on her sleeping daughter. “LA looked pretty bad on the TV news…”
Joel didn’t want the images of the early days in his mind and tried to find a way to answer without dredging up the memories. “It was.”
He slowed the car to a stop on the narrow winding road, and pulled the large pullout map up from beneath his feet.
The cool night air drifted in through Joel’s slightly open window.
“I used to like going into the mountains with my family as a kid,” said Marin
a.
Joel didn’t respond, his eyes being focused on the map.
“You know where we’re going?”
“There’s a small town up ahead, former mining town. Looks like it’s all by itself, not much around it for miles. Maybe we can hole up there for a while.”
“You don’t think they will be there?”
“I don’t know… probably.”
“You got more guns?”
“I have.”
“Good.”
He pushed the foldout map back down and drove around the winding bend. In the night sky they could just about make out the shapes of roofs from homes built on the cliffs above them. As they progressed, larger buildings appeared as dark square shapes against the stars.
“Not seeing any lights in these buildings, if there’s anyone here they are keeping a low profile,” said Marina.
“Lights will draw them to you. If there are people here, we won’t know it until morning.”
The car arrived at a sharp bend. Ahead of them, the headlights caught another building, proudly announcing ‘Bellweather Fire Department.’ They slowly drove past, moving lower down the mountainside into a more built up area.
Marina looked at shadows residing in shop windows which lined the side of the road. “Doesn’t look like there has been any looting here.”
Joel stopped the car.
“Why you stopping?”
Marina then followed his gaze.
They were at a junction. Ahead and to their left were figures standing in the dark.
“Are they those things?” said Jess from the rear seat.
The dog started to growl.
Joel put the car into reverse and went to floor it but stopped. “Shit.”
Marina looked through the rear window. Similar human forms stood in the rear lights.
“Just drive through them!” shouted Marina.
Once before he and Russell tried the same tactic, they were lucky to get out alive.
“You don’t understand, they’re quick and strong, they will tear us apart…”
“Then what we going to do? We can’t just stay here.”
Joel looked at the doorway to his left, it was only a few yards away. A sign sat above it. ‘Bellweather Hotel.’
“We make a run for it, into that hotel.”