Since The Sirens Box Set | Books 1-7

by Isherwood, E. E.

  He turned around. “I guess it's just like in that Fellowship movie. We have but one way to go.”

  Blue surprised him, as she knew the movie he referenced. “Yeah, but they had Gandalf's staff to guide them. What do we have?”

  Liam had no retort.

  “We trust in God,” Victoria offered as she grabbed his hand.

  Behind him, the girls replied with a sound he interpreted as “wishful thinking.”

  5

  They walked about a hundred yards into the darkness. The faint light was adequate to that point because the floor was smooth and they could hold onto the parked cars. Once they'd cleared the entrance, with the destroyed cars, the line of traffic resumed. They walked in silence far into the tomb. Liam thought he heard banging on several of the cars here, but it was too dark to see for sure.

  Just keep walking.

  Behind them, far back at the lighted entrance, figures moved.

  “They're with us now. What do we do?” The question came out of his mouth, but it was directed at himself.

  “I guess we could find a car and climb inside. We might be able to hold them off for a while. Or maybe we could hide under the cars and hope they lose interest. Or we could just go into the darkness for as long as we can.”

  “I vote that one.” Victoria's voice drifted out of the deep shadows around him. He thought she was behind him, but she could be next to him, or on the other side of the line of cars.

  “Yeah, we aren't hiding and dying in here.” Blue seemed to have the most resolve of the twins, but Liam was curious why she even bothered to come if she was so frightened.

  “Blue, thanks for helping us get this far. Even if we don't make it, I appreciate that you got the captain to bring us up here.”

  “My pleasure, I guess.”

  “But if you don't mind me asking, why did you offer to help us at all? You could have stayed safe down in Cairo and we'd be none the wiser. We might even have found another boat up here.”

  “I don't know. Maybe it just felt like the right thing to do, after you saved me back on top of that truck.”

  And then you left me for dead.

  It was tempting to remind her of that, but now wasn't the time.

  “Well, I'm sorry if this is how our story ends. Dead inside a damp stone quarry tunnel, eaten by—”

  “Hey. We ain't dead yet. Just keep going. I'm not stopping, I can tell you that.”

  From behind him, a hand found his shoulder. Victoria's touch bolstered him in the darkness, which was now nearly complete. The tunnel had begun to turn to the right, cutting any remaining light to nothing.

  Sensing they had turned both a literal and figurative corner, Liam offered some advice. “Everyone move as fast as you can. There has to be some survivors, or at least some gear left by survivors. We might get lucky and find a flashlight. Or help. Or anything. Just don't stop.”

  They used the cars to guide them. He assumed as long as they followed the cars they were heading the right way, though he thought they passed through a few intersections because the cars were parked in different directions. They always went forward.

  A couple times, the tunnel was illuminated by the equivalent of starlight by the tiny LED blinking lights of car alarm systems. The soft blues or reds blinked on and off, giving them faint snapshots of the tunnel around them.

  One such car had movement inside. The repeating blinks outlined the zombie strapped into the passenger seat. They passed close enough they could see the thing's eyes were fixated on the only light in its world. Liam almost felt sad for it, but he drifted by slowly so as not to call attention to himself.

  Far behind, they heard the distinctive howl of another of the teen girl zombies.

  “Why do they do that?” Victoria asked. “Just to creep us out?”

  Liam searched his zombie lore and couldn't come up with an explanation. He'd have to rely on guesswork.

  “I think it's some kind of call to arms. When the other one did it, the zombies above started to jump on us. She alerted them to our presence.”

  His earlier theory on bloodhounds really troubled him though. He had begun to believe they were using their senses to follow the cars well beyond the ability of any zombies to follow them from outside, but if those howlers somehow tracked them in the dark, then no distance would be enough to get away. They'd be overwhelmed as more zombies followed those howls even if they made it to the center of the earth.

  Victoria whispered to him, as if unsure it was something he wanted to hear. “If we get attacked from behind, we'll never be able to fight back in the dark. We could turn on some headlights of these cars and maybe see where we are. At least we wouldn't be surprised.

  Liam stopped. With a slap, he smacked his own forehead. “Of course. Argh, I'm such an idiot. We're walking by two huge flashlights every time we pass a vehicle.”

  He gripped Victoria firmly and guided his lips to hers, hitting her nose first.

  “I love you,” he whispered. Louder, he said, “You may have just saved our lives.”

  They waited until they found another car with an LED. It was the only way to see the interior and ensure no zombies waited for a doorman to let them out. It only took a few minutes.

  Liam opened the door and fumbled with the steering column until he found the lights. When they turned on, the headlight beams deflected off the sports car in front of them and sent light in all directions. His eyes took a minute to adjust. He turned on the dome light so he could see into the rear seats, though nothing of any value was back there. Some baby clothes and a broken down cardboard box.

  He jumped out.

  “OK, this is our chance. Search the cars. Turn on the headlights of every car we can find. If we find a flashlight, we can run ahead and leave the zombies behind us.”

  Until we hit a wall.

  He kept his negativity in check, but at some point the mine had to branch off or end or do something. It couldn't go on forever like this.

  Then they'd have to fight. Him, his girlfriend, and two scaredy-cats.

  A thought flew into his funnel—too many years growing up on a British train show—and it seemed impossible, but he actually thought he'd rather have Grandma with him than these two walking colors.

  “At least she made me stronger.” He hadn't intended to say it out loud, but Victoria was close enough she heard him.

  “That's so weird, I was just thinking how much I miss Grandma.”

  More lights came on ahead as Pink or Blue found another car with working headlights.

  Behind, very close, he heard the familiar howl.

  “Grandma, I hope you're praying for us.”

  “Amen,” answered Victoria.

  Chapter 10: Grandma Dreams of Black

  Two days since the sirens.

  Indigo Hamilton woke up where she went to sleep. In the front seat of her mom's car, in traffic. She wasn't sure how long she'd been out, or how far they'd moved, but she took her nap in the middle of the day and it was now dark outside.

  When her mother saw her stir, she smiled. “I'm sorry, we haven't gotten very far.”

  Indigo looked around, gaining her bearings. “We haven't moved at all, have we?”

  She eyed the back seat of the small car, wishing the rest of her family was with them. They'd tried to get out of St. Louis when all the commotion started up—that's what her mom called it—and they'd been separated. The cell phone network had gone up and down, but after a long string of failed tries, they'd finally established the rest of the family was leaving St. Louis with other relatives. The message was short and clear: get out of St. Louis.

  They were facing east, toward Indianapolis—home to her relatives. But the highway had been stopped since last night. Her mom's face held back the fear. Only her eyes betrayed her. She was unable to squelch it completely, and Indigo had a sixth sense for the feelings of others.

  Ahead, many people had pulled over to the side of the highway and lay in the grass, waiting. She w
anted to get out and stretch, but something told her to stay in the car. It wasn't so much the rumors of vicious attacks by sick people, but more of a superstition. As if exiting the car would be the last thing she ever did, so she needed to make it count.

  Another hour went by as they sat listening to music on her smartphone. She had it plugged into the charger and the aux port, so they could hear the music through the speakers of the car. As one song bled into the next, the line ahead started to display brake lights in the night. It meant people were starting their cars, and finally, the line was starting to move.

  “Hey, lookie there. We're moving.” Her mom was genuinely happy. The veil of fear slid away for just a little while. People in the grass jumped up and ran to their cars before the line left them behind. Frantic merging followed, but people were mostly civilized about letting them back in. Her mom even let in a large passenger van, proving that the fear truly had receded.

  But a mile along and Indigo felt it return in a wave.

  “Oh no. What's this?”

  The highway was blocked ahead. The powerful red warning lights on top of the twin spans of the bridge laughed at them from above. They were so close to escaping the gridlock of St. Louis, and now they'd reached the end. In her head, Indigo imagined them smashing through the construction barrels guiding them all off the highway, but just in front of the bridge they could see piles of box-like containers stacked and arranged to create a makeshift wall across the entire eight lanes of highway. The bridge was closed in both directions.

  And those left on this side were being directed to an off ramp. When they reached the bottom of the ramp, they could turn left and follow the bulk of the traffic. Or turn right down a narrow road.

  “That way will take us back to St. Louis,” her mom was talking to herself as she pointed left, but Indigo offered her own suggestion.

  “Then let's not do that. Where do you think those people are going?” The cars turning to the right were continuing south along a dirty paved road. There were no road signs or other clues as to where they were going.

  “What's the worst that can happen? We all get stuck in traffic?” Her mom chuckled, as did Indigo, but she knew her mom was scared. She was getting there too.

  The traffic bunched up again, and soon she saw the same white van ahead of them.

  A man ran out of the weeds and up to the van. She was only half paying attention until someone in the van opened the door for a moment and then some kind of altercation took place. It ended with the man getting a kick to his chest. He tumbled back into the weeds next to the road, then got up and ran past Indigo without a sideways glance.

  “Did you see that?” She felt the panic in her voice, but her mom was in the driver's seat and didn't have a line of sight to the passenger door of the vehicle ahead. All she saw was some crazy guy run by.

  “Yeah, hardly the time to be out jogging.” Her chuckle was forced. She kept her eyes forward. Indigo fingered the door lock button, thankful it was already locked.

  Several minutes passed without a word. The music continued to drone, but she wasn't listening anymore. When one of her favorite songs came on—an upbeat anthem—she ripped the cord out of the radio. The music was replaced with that horrible emergency broadcast loop.

  “...we advise you find safer jurisdictions. No emergency services are currently in operation. If you have an emergency—”

  She shut it off.

  If you have an emergency, no help is coming.

  She willed herself to become invisible. She willed the car to become invisible to “the crazies” going for jogs outside.

  “There's another one!” She surprised herself and her mom at her exclamation. A man stumbled along the road in the same direction they were going. He was on her side, so she could watch him up ahead. As each car or truck passed, he tried to grab on. He more or less bounced from car to car like a sad version of Frankenstein until he reached the van in front of them. Those people, possibly angered by the last pedestrian, opened the door swiftly. It struck the passerby with a thud loud enough she heard it behind the closed windows of her own car. The man went tumbling off the road.

  As her car pulled alongside the downed man, she could see he was covered in blood. At first she believed the car door had done the damage, and indeed it had caused some blood on the man's forehead, but the man's neck was a neckerchief of blood. The top of his tan shirt looked like a red dickie. The thing—she couldn't call it a man anymore—looked up at her from the ground.

  She slouched in her seat, willing it to ignore her.

  Please go to the next car.

  Her car lurched ahead with traffic, and in time, she risked a look out her window. The man was no longer in view. It probably did go bother other cars. She thanked her lucky stars.

  As she turned forward once more, she was just in time to see the sign indicating where they were going.

  “A quarry? This whole line is going into a quarry? Really?”

  Her mom clutched the wheel in a vise grip. She rode the bumper of the van ahead of them. “We go where they go. Anywhere but here.”

  Indigo wondered if anywhere was always better than here.

  2

  At one critical junction, Indigo saw they had a chance to divert from following the crowd. There were railroad tracks going next to the mine, they shot off into the darkness toward a cliff face being lit up by the lights of the cars now entering the property.

  “Mom, maybe we could drive down those tracks? Get away, you know?”

  To her credit, her mom did look where she pointed, but the response was typical. “No, we have to stick with the crowd. Someone up ahead knows where we're going. Maybe they set this up to protect us?”

  Indigo felt the car tilt forward as it started down the slope of the mine's entrance road. Once she was into the event horizon, she could see the snake of headlights going round and round the spiral until they disappeared to some point below. Her panic was building.

  “Mom, we can't go down there. There's no way out!”

  “Oh honey, we have to follow instructions. All these people can't be going down there without guidance. It will be fine.” Her tone betrayed her words.

  That's the universal parent red flag for “I don't know what I'm doing!” Indigo recognized it, and her fear spiraled worse than the road.

  After they were committed, and had gotten through most of the first loop, Indigo was in five alarm fear territory. Several times, men and women had run by them in both directions. Some screaming to turn around. Others screaming the cars weren't moving fast enough. A couple times, she looked out her window into the rocky cliff face of the mine wall and saw dark shapes clinging to the shadows. She imagined they were sleeping.

  Yes, of course they're sleeping.

  Eventually she stopped looking out her window.

  “Mom...do you think A-Z and Saffy made it over the river?” The terms of endearment for her sister's sprang from their mom. The woman loved her nicknames. Her friends called her sissy. Even at the hospital.

  Indigo took a long time to respond. Her eyes stared into the back of the white van. She didn't know for sure, but she suspected her mom had a fear of driving along the cliff's edge, though it could also be a hundred other fears in the dark of night. When she did respond, she almost didn't recognize her mom's voice. It had become deep and husky, like she was straining hard to speak.

  “This isn't a safe space. This isn't a government help center. This is...a death trap. I've taken my daughter into a death trap.”

  “Mom!” Her mom jumped, as if she was asleep. “You're scaring me. Quit it!”

  She looked at her with sadness in her eyes. “I'm so sorry. I can't do this. I just can't.”

  Indigo felt the fear bubble over. Not just her, but the whole line of cars. More people ran by, in both directions. The traffic had stopped. The van ahead had gone dark. They turned off all their lights, apparently parking right on the road. Looking down into the pit, many others were shutt
ing off their lights. A great mass of cars at the bottom were already mostly off; they'd lined up to park at the bottom. She could see into a gaping maw at the bottom of the mine. A line of cars poked inside. Their lights remained on.

  “I can't. I just can't.”

  “Mom. I said quit it.” She was stern, but she didn't know where this was coming from. She'd never known her mom to act like this.

  “This was a mistake. We can't die like this. We won't die like this.”

  More people ran by, most went down the road now. Several screamed as if they were dying.

  Without warning, a man fell from the sky and slammed onto the front hood of their car. He didn't hit it square though, he hit the very front edge. Her mom began to scream. Indigo covered her ears, but couldn't look away.

  Slowly, the man got up. His face was a wreck. One eye...was missing. Blood covered his left side. Maybe it was all from the fall, but she didn't think so.

  The man was lit by the headlights of the car. With deliberate motion, the man walked to the inside edge of the mine. Without so much as a look either way, he stepped off the edge to points unknown below.

  That was enough to break her mom. In seconds, the hysterical woman had opened her door and began running back up the hill.

  “I'm not going in there. I have to get out. Go back!” Those were the last words she could hear from her mom before she became background noise among all the other screaming and shouting.

  Indigo sat in shock.

  The driver's door hung wide open. She stared at it, imagining that someone was going to see it and jump inside at any second.

  You have to move. Go follow her. Be a good daughter.

  She didn't listen to that voice inside her head.

  A minute went by. The door was still open. People ran by. One man clipped it and tumbled over the edge.

  Close it. Do something!

  The voice was insistent, but her body would not respond.

  Another minute went by. She began to imagine it would be her mom that came back through the door. Of course she would come back to save her daughter.

  Of course. But where is she? Run, girl.

  That voice was new. Could she run? Shouldn't she wait for mom? She imagined the trouble she'd be in if she didn't wait.