by Citroner, GW
Three
The station they’d been listening to went to a newsbreak and they listened intently.
“…Martial Law has been declared throughout Washington State, residents are advised to stay off major roads as much as possible to make emergency service response times as swift as possible. According to the CDC, the condition is caused by a retrovirus of unknown origin that has spread worldwide. At this point, experts estimate as many as one in twenty people may be infected. The disease causes severe physical symptoms and violent behavior. Doctor Gerald Petersen, head of the World Health Organization said in a statement that while there is currently no treatment available, there is an international effort underway to create a vaccine and treatment for those already infected. Please stay tuned to this station for further updates as they become available.”
“One in twenty infected,” said Ty. “That’s just five percent of the population. Poor Cade, he always had shit luck.”
“Getting infected may not be our biggest worry, but being eaten by one of them is,” Dan replied. “Bringing us to our next concern, I have enough canned food, rice, and pasta to last us a week if we’re careful. We have five extra gallons of gas I keep for the mower and the van has a full tank. I figure we can go about three hundred miles before we need to refuel.”
“Three hundred isn’t much on a two thousand mile trip.”
“We’ll find more. Even if every gas station between here and Louisiana is closed. I have plastic tubing to siphon it from any cars we find on the way if we have to.”
The announcer droned on in the background. “New measures expected to slow the rate of infection, allowing authorities to contain further outbreaks. Governor Campanella asks state residents to please delay unnecessary travel until local authorities give the all clear for your area.”
“Bullshit.” Dan had seen and heard enough to know there wasn’t any way they were bringing the local area or the world in general, back to normal.
“People survived the black plague. We’ll get through this.”
“The black plague made you lie down and die, not run around eating everybody.”
“The plague also killed almost everybody. This, whatever it is, isn’t anywhere near as contagious. Fear is what’s going to cause the most trouble.”
“Fear doesn’t kill you.”
Ty explained. “Fear is why police and emergency services stopped showing up for work. Fear is why truckers aren’t delivering food anymore. Fear is why everybody is hiding out instead of working. How many people will die from starvation, lack of medical care or being killed by a mutant because there is no military or law enforcement around to help?”
“It won’t get that bad.”
“It already is, and it will get worse.”
“I started prepping last month. We’ll make it no matter how bad it gets. You have Cade’s pistol, I have a shotgun and loads of buckshot. So we’ve got self-defense covered. We can always scavenge food and fuel. I say we head out now, while it’s still light out.”
“Sounds good, we’ll take advantage while the main roads are still open and the riots haven’t started.”
“What riots?” Dan asked.
“What do you think is going to happen when even emergency food and water deliveries stop? People don’t need a virus to get violent. Desperation works well enough.”
* * *
They’d been on the road for a while and traffic had gone from light to nonexistent.
Ty checked radio stations every fifteen minutes in case anyone was broadcasting live news. All they found was pop music on a loop. As the situation worsened, even those broadcasts would eventually stop. They listened to whatever they had on their phones for a while but the old songs just made them morose. They continued in silence.
It was another half hour before they ran into the first sign of trouble.
Smoke rose on the horizon for a few miles before they reached the pile up. A tanker truck carrying propane or some other flammable substance had rear-ended a dozen or so cars. Every vehicle they saw was a burnt out wreck. Slowly weaving around the still smoldering wreckage, they found a beat up little Ford that had miraculously escaped the fire a few yards away from the catastrophe. “It must have been shoved out of danger by the impact of the cars behind it.”
“Stop and take a look, Dan? We’re still first responders.”
“I think we’re over our heads. All the cars are toast except for this one at the end. But sure, let’s take a look.” He slowed to a stop just ahead of the little car. Shotgun in hand Dan stood guard as Ty approached the driver’s side door.
“Hey, there’s somebody in there!”
The girl was young, probably in her teens. She was curled up on the floor, half under the back seats, wearing a long paisley summer dress. It was dirty and crumpled over her heavily bruised knees. Long brown hair swirled wildly over a pale face. Her chest rose and fell regularly. She was alive.
“It’s a kid! Looks roughed up but she’s breathing. Come here and help me get her out.”
Dan lowered his gun as Ty put away his pistol and tried the door, but it was locked. He tried knocking on the window to wake her up.
They heard a trilling warble from underneath the car.
It was once a woman; still dressed in filthy jeans and a ragged denim shirt. Her few remaining strands of blond hair fell over blood red eyes and an impossibly wide mouth. She reached from under the car, swiftly grabbing Ty’s leg below the knee with corpse-white, razor-covered fingers.
It felt like broken glass being ground into the meat of his calf.
Drawing his pistol and yelling, he pulled against her painful grip. Quickly shooting a blood red eye before she could bite, the grotesque head thudded to the ground – hard. Ears still ringing from the shot, they heard a shriek and then a voice shouting from inside the car. “What happened? Mom?”
Dan looked sharply at Ty and mumbled “Oh shit.”
Glancing back at the car, both men saw the scared girl huddled inside, eyes wide and staring wildly. Dan spoke first. “Calm down little lady, we just stopped to see if we could help.”
Meanwhile, Ty shoved the still twitching body back under cover with his foot.
The girl shrieked. “Who are you, what’s going on?”
Ty tried reassuring the young girl. “We just got here. It looks like there was a big accident. The cars back of you were all burned up in a big crash. We’re just trying to help.”
Dan got a little closer and showed his ID. “My name’s Dan Foster and this guy is my friend, Ty Brantley. We’re firefighters from Hillsboro. We were on our way to get my wife and kid and then we saw what happened here and stopped to see if we could help anyone. Why don’t you open the door so we can talk easier?”
“You’re a fireman?” She brightened up suddenly, pushing the door open. “I’m Lily. Can you help me find my mom? I think she’s injured, she said her head hurt really bad after we got bumped.”
“What else do you remember?” asked Dan gently.
Calming down considerably, the girl went on. “Well, she told me to stay in the car and keep the doors locked. She said she was going to find help but I couldn’t follow her. She made me swear I’d stay out of sight until the police or an ambulance came to get me. That was early this morning; the sun was just coming up.”
“It’s nearing four o’clock now. You’ve been in there a while, are you hungry or thirsty? We’ve got supplies.” He glanced down to make sure Ty had hidden the body well enough under the car and then lied shamelessly. “Get in with us and have a bite while we drive down the road and see if we can find your mom.”
She left with them after first taking a minute to write a quick note to her mother explaining that she went looking for her with firemen that came to help, and that she’d circle back to the car soon if they didn’t find her on the road first.
Ty took a turn at the wheel while Dan asked Lily where she and her mom were headed, and what they’d left behind.
“I’m a senior at Fairview High, but they closed all the schools a couple of weeks back when the epidemic was announced. After that they closed the restaurant where my mom worked.” She paused a second to take a deep breath. “My dad was a long haul trucker. He caught it while driving through Minnesota.” She sniffed back tears. “He called us to say goodbye and told us we had to get to Gramma’s, my grandmother’s place in Abilene. He said it was safer than staying in Fairview ‘cause there’s good people he knows there that’ll keep us safe until the government figures out a cure.”
Sitting up and looking Dan straight in the eye, she asked a huge favor. “After we find my mom, can you help us get there?”
They were driving an agonizingly slow ten miles per hour to make sure they didn’t ‘miss’ Lily’s mom. Dan was desperate to be on his way and became increasingly impatient with the charade.
“Lily, we’ve gone about five miles now and we haven’t seen your mom yet. She could be anywhere, but she’s not here. Look, we’ll circle back to your mom’s car now and check for her. But if she’s not there, we’ll leave her a note that you’re heading to Abilene with us and she can catch up with you there.”
His guilt at what happened to the girl’s mother was forcing him to make hard decisions. He carefully considered the route in his mind and decided a detour to Abilene, Texas wasn’t going to eat up that much extra time; they’d have to pass near there anyway. He hoped Nancy and Jess could hold on that little bit longer.
Ty pulled up alongside the little, wrecked car and Lily quickly climbed out. They saw her staring at a pool of blood seeping from under the vehicle.
She screamed.
“Somebody’s under the car, they’re hurt!” Looking more closely, she recognized the clothing. “It’s my mom!” She dropped to her knees and reached for the body. Both Ty and Dan lurched forward to stop her. “Hold on, wait!” Dan held the girl’s arm and spoke sternly. “Do you know that you’re immune? Have you already been touched by one of them or come into contact with the virus in some other way?” Ty leaned over. “I know she’s your mom, but look at her. She was sick and must have left so she wouldn’t hurt you.”
The young girl fainted.
“Ty, let’s get her out of here. At least now she knows what happened and why.”
A wet, bubbling sound caught their attention.
The dead woman must have been a few months pregnant, because a little white fetus was clawing its way through a raggedly torn gash in the women’s belly. They heard a faint chirping as it rushed at them on tiny limbs, trailing its umbilical cord and bits of shredded meat.
Dan crushed it under his shoe.
Four
Lily was asleep in the back, having cried inconsolably for the better part of an hour before calming down. It wasn’t her first loss, and as the epidemic continued, she’d have a hard time finding anybody who hadn’t lost someone close.
“We’re gonna have to stop and fill up soon.” Dan rubbed his eyes as the sky gradually lightened into a new day.
“I’m not looking forward to it. Every place we passed leaving Oregon was dark, the map says we’re somewhere near Nampa. And I don’t think it’s as easy as rolling up and paying at the pump anymore.”
“We’re just going to have to be a little creative then.”
They found a small rest stop selling budget gas. Pulling into the parking lot, they looked over the situation. “No sign of life but the pumps are still lit. You check the convenience store and we’ll see if we can find a way to squeeze some juice out of those bad boys. I’ll check the perimeter.”
“Sounds good, Danny.”
Gun in hand he cautiously approached the entrance and peered through its clear glass. Daylight illuminated the short, wide-open aisles. The refrigerated display cases were on, but the ceiling lamps were out and the shelves were empty.
He called out. “Locked! I’m busting in the doors.”
Kicking hard, a waterfall of glass crashed to the ground before him. Dan walked up behind him as he took a tentative step into the barren shop.
“Looks like somebody got everything there was to get. Look in the back while I try to figure out the gas pump controls. It looks like the power’s still on, if this place hasn’t been sucked dry already, we should be able to get a full tank and be on our way.”
He was checking a back room door, when the sound of crunching glass alerted them to Lily as she stepped through the entrance.
She yawned. “Morning, guys. What time is it?”
Dan turned from the door to glance at his watch in the light. “About eleven, how’re you feeling?”
The back door exploded open, throwing him down to the floor. Two infected mutants rushed out. One leaped on Dan’s sprawled body as the other made a beeline for Lily and Ty. He shouted. “Lily, get out now!”
Ty fired three quick shots, missing each time. The creature hit him square in the chest; man and monster toppling into the low metal shelving. Holding its snapping mouth away from his face, blood seeped through his straining fingers as sharp scales cut into his hands. He watched helplessly as the creature raised a thin, misshapen arm. Pushing back with all his strength, he thought desperately; I’m gonna get shredded.
Then its leering face exploded, covering him in stinking blood and brains.
Lily dropped the bat she’d used to smash the monster’s head and looked around to see if Dan needed a hand. He was methodically smashing his attacker’s head with the butt of his shotgun.
Lily called out. “I think yours is already dead, Dan.”
After several failed tries, Ty figured out how to access one of the underground fuel tanks and siphon off what they needed into the gas cans without further incident. It took another fifteen minutes to clean themselves off, bandage up Ty’s hands, and get back on the road.
“That was quick thinking.” Ty looked over his shoulder as Dan pulled out of the gas station “I thought I’d breathed my last.”
“I heard the commotion and grabbed the first thing I could find. It was right behind the counter,” Lily replied. “The clerk must have kept it there in case he was robbed.”
“Well, thanks. I couldn’t stop that thing from tearing my face off.”
“Did you guys hear that?” Dan asked.
They strained to hear whatever caught Dan’s attention when a window shattered inward, spraying broken glass over the two seated on the backseat.
Its scaly arm was bloody, shredded by impact with the glass and groping for a handhold, a warped, white face followed it. Mouth wide, it gave a high-pitched, bird-like scream. Dan hit the gas, shocked by the creature’s sudden appearance. The van swerved wildly as surprise and fear made him lose control of the wheel. Then he slammed on the brakes, sending them into a spin. The unwanted hitchhiker flew against a guardrail. It blew apart on impact as the van came to stop. Bruised and bloody, Dan looked back to see how his passengers were doing. Ty was holding Lily, and her nose was leaking blood over both of them.
“My nose hurts!” Lily complained.
Ty looked the young girl’s face over. “It doesn’t look broken.” Dan rummaged in the first aid kit for a bandage to soak up the blood.
“Did you notice how that one burst like a water balloon? The one Lily killed was the same way.” Dan pointed at the dripping mess covering the guardrail. “It’s their blood pressure. Their insides are under immense pressure, I don’t know how their skins hold it in.”
“Well, that’s good then. That’s a weak point, like how single minded they are. When they’re feeding, they don’t notice anything around them. Now we know they pop when you hit them hard enough.”
“Guys, can we get out of here now? I don’t like just sitting around when you don’t know when one of them can come out of nowhere.”
“She’s right, Dan. We’d better get back on the road, and we should cover that broken window with something. Being exposed is a bad idea.”
Piling back into the vehicle, Lily called shotgun
first and sat next to Dan. They had hours to go before sundown and they’d likely need more gas before finding a place to hunker down for the night.
They found it an hour later in a little town called Caldwell.
Although small and rundown, the motel looked safe enough as they approached it, the parking lot illuminated by nearby high-mast lighting. Dan announced, “I’ll check out reception first. Ty, drive once around the building. Then wait for me here.”
Gun in hand he walked carefully toward the door. Boot heels clicking loudly in the quiet, he lifted the shotgun to his shoulder, scanning the area before him. Finding the door unlocked, he went in.
There was enough light from the parking lot to see inside. There was a long front desk taking up most of the reception area. Deep shadow to one side indicated a hallway. The space appeared orderly. Room keys hung from hooks on the back wall.
Checking near the door for light switches, he found them, and was surprised to find the power working. Dan waived to his friends from behind the glass doors. Pulling up, Ty shut the engine and they joined him.
Lilly was nervous. “Is it alright here? Did you check out the rooms? We found a schoolbus parked in the back, with some bags and stuff in it, but no people.”
“It looks empty here too. It also smells clean, room keys are on the board, and there are no signs of violence. Chances are good it’s just abandoned. Ty, lets grab a few room keys and look around. Lil, you can stay here and wait a bit.”
They walked down the brightly lit hallway.
“You’re right, Dan. It looks and smells clean. Maybe a little musty from the air conditioning being off, but that’s it.”
Dan smiled. “Yup, I think we’ll get to stretch out in actual beds tonight. You check the first door. I’ll check the one across and we can work our way down.”
Four doors down, both men had relaxed considerably.
Ty yawned. “There’s nothing but beds and bathrooms. The lights all work and toilets flush. I think we can crash here for the night.”