I pinched my fingers to zoom in on the map. It was like staring at a maze.
“Umm,” I said looking around to orient myself. “I think it’s still straight for a while.”
“Okay,” Blake said.
There seemed to be more and more houses the closer to the city we got. But still, everything was still and quiet. There were no cars or people out and about. It was a ghost town.
“This is so weird,” Whitney whispered. “The last time I came in this way, there was a traffic jam and I was stuck for like an hour.”
“When was the last time you came here?” Dax asked with a chuckle.
“A few years ago,” she said sharply.
Dax snorted. “I can’t even remember the last time you drove anywhere.”
“I don’t like to drive but I can,” Whitney said.
“Aw, shit,” Blake said interrupting their bickering.
In instantly saw what had caused Blake to curse. About six blocks ahead, barricades were blocking the road.
“Is it those guys again?” Whitney asked.
“That’s not possible,” Blake said. “These look more official. Something the city had put up.”
“But no one is here,” I said even though I knew I was stating the obvious.
Whitney shifted in her seat. “That’s because everyone is dead.”
“Probably not everyone,” Dax said.
“Helpful,” Whitney huffed.
Blake pulled the SUV to a stop about ten feet away from the barricade. He drew in a breath and pulled his mask up over his nose and mouth.
Dax placed his hand on Blake’s shoulder when he reached over to open the door. Dax pulled on his mask.
“I’ll get it,” Dax said as he sucked in a breath. “Everyone have their masks on?”
“Are you afraid the disease is going to just drift inside the SUV?” Whitney asked.
“Anything is possible,” Dax said checking to make sure we were all protected before he opened the door.
He walked quickly over the barricade. His eyes darted around in every direction as he grabbed the big wood and metal barrier and dragged it off the road.
“Are we the first people to come this way since everything happened?” Whitney asked.
“Seems that way,” Blake answered as he waved for Dax to return to the SUV.
“That can’t be good,” Whitney said softly.
Dax didn’t come back to the SUV. Instead, he turned away from us and stared at one of the buildings.
“What is he doing?” Blake asked. He pounded on the windshield. “Hey! Get back inside the car!”
It didn’t seem as though Dax had heard him. If he had, he was ignoring Blake.
“Oh, my God!” Whitney gasped as she leaned between the seats. She was pointing at something between the houses. “Does he see them?”
I looked down at the gun in his shaking hand. “I think he does.”
“Get back in the fucking car!” Blake shouted at him through the window.
“Beep the horn,” Whitney demanded.
Blake shook his head. “Could bring more of them.”
“Well, we can’t just let him stand out there like that,” Whitney said.
I reached for the door handle. Blake reached over and grabbed my hand.
“Don’t even think about it,” Blake said as he rolled down the window an inch. “Get in the car, Dax!”
Dax turned around as if he’d been startled. He looked at us for a moment as if he hadn’t even remembered we were there.
He turned away from the approaching sick people and back toward the SUV. Dax held up his gun and shook his head.
He opened the door and dove inside. Blake started to drive away before Dax closed the door.
“Please! Help us,” one of the sick said before the snap of the door cut off their mostly normal sounding voice. The pain and dread dried my mouth.
“They sound so normal,” I said trying not to look into their red eyes as we passed by.
“What the hell were you doing?” Blake asked. His eyebrows squeezed together as he looked back at him in the rearview mirror.
Dax looked away. “I thought they needed help.”
“Couldn’t you tell they were sick?” Whitney asked with surprise in her voice.
“I guess so but at first, I wasn’t sure,” Dax said.
Blake looked at him again. “It was like you were in a trance or something.”
“Yeah,” Dax said refusing to look up. It was like he was trying to make sense of what had just happened. “It kind of felt that way for a minute. They just sounded so normal. And in so much pain.”
I knew what he meant. I’d had the same feeling in my gut when they’d come up to the window begging me for help.
“Well,” Blake said shaking his head. “You can’t let that happen again.”
“Yeah,” Dax said. “I won’t.”
Silence filled the car for the next several blocks. My own breathing sounded distractingly noisy.
I looked back and forth from the map on my screen to the passing street signs. It was hard to keep track of where we were when my eyes would frequently get caught in the spaces between the buildings looking for wandering sick people that might get the urge to throw themselves on the SUV.
“Continue straight?” Blake asked.
“For about six more blocks,” I said. “At least I think.”
“I’m not very familiar with this part of the city,” Blake said.
Dax laughed. “You’re not very familiar with the city at all. All you ever did was work and go home.”
“That’s mostly true,” Blake said letting a smile flash on his face.
“I’ve never been here,” Whitney said. “But hey, there’s a Starbucks. What I wouldn’t give for an iced latte.”
“Your lattes are ninety percent sugar. I’ll make you one when we get back to Blake’s,” Dax said putting his arm around the back of her seat.
She kept her eyes on the window. “Promise?”
“I promise,” Dax said and he meant the words.
The only thing was that he couldn’t promise we’d actually get back to Blake’s house. Even if we managed to find Maddie and make it out of the city, who knew if we’d ever actually be able to get back to the house. The guys at the city limits weren’t going to allow it.
“There!” I said noticing one of the streets we needed to take to get to the apartment complex.
“Which way?” Blake asked as he slowed the SUV.
“Left,” I said. I chewed my lip as I studied the map. “Then two blocks before taking a right.”
My heart was pounding like a horse galloping on the dusty track of the Kentucky Derby. I needed her to be in the apartment. I needed to see her again or I didn’t know what I’d do.
There was no way I could go on living without her. Absolutely no way. Maddie was my heart… and without her, there would be no beating.
Chapter Twenty-One
Blake stopped the car in front of the red-brick apartment building. It was eight stories tall and only as wide as two houses smashed together. There was some kind of green ivy growing up the side of the building and black, oily stains from I couldn’t even guess what on the front of the building.
“Are you sure this is it?” Blake asked. The SUV was in park but the engine was still running.
“It’s the address Maddie gave me,” I said looking up at the building. “Fourth floor.” I sucked in a quick breath. “You guys wait here.”
Blake laughed. “There is no way in hell I’m letting you go alone.” He turned to Dax. “You two wait here.”
“Okay,” Whitney said. “But hurry.”
“Are you kidding?” Dax asked. “We stay together.”
Whitney rolled her eyes but she kept her mouth shut. Deep down, she probably didn’t want to get separated from Blake either.
“We go in, we get your daughter, and we leave,” Blake said staring at the front door of the apartment building.
“No problem,” Dax said with a half-grin.
I nodded and placed my hand on the door handle. Blake grabbed my arm before I could pull the door open.
“Ready?” I asked.
“Got your knife?” Blake asked.
“Yes,” I said.
Blake exhaled slowly. “Ready to use it if you need to?”
“I don’t know,” I said as my brow wrinkled. “I sure hope so.”
“Me too,” Blake said. “If we run into any of the sick, don’t look at them. Understand?”
“Understood,” Dax said.
Whitney and I both nodded. My palms were sweating. Hopefully, I wouldn’t need to use the knife because I was afraid it might just slide right out of my hand.
Blake’s shoulder rose with his inhale. He reached over and adjusted my mask.
We exchanged a quick look. The air in the SUV seemed to change.
Blake checked both of his mirrors and looked out of every window before he opened his door an inch. The squeaking of the door pulled on my nerves and my body tensed.
“Let’s go,” Blake said.
Before I was even able to fully open my door, he was on the other side of the SUV waiting for us to exit. I followed him up the small flight of stairs and into the building.
I shuddered when the door closed behind us. My hand shook as I placed it on my chest and felt my racing heart.
“Keep your masks on,” Blake advised. I hadn’t even considered removing it. I’m sure none of us did.
I did, however, check my back pocket to make sure the extra mask I tucked away for Maddie was still there. When I felt the roughness of the fabric against my fingertips, I didn’t relax… not even a little.
There was a row of buzzers with the apartment numbers listed beside them. I pressed the one to ring Maddie’s friend to let them know we were there but there was no response. We didn’t need a response to open the door that was usually locked because someone had propped it open with a hunk of wood.
Blake pulled the door open and slowly entered the hallway. Three of the six apartment doors were open. At both ends of the hall were the staircases leading up.
“Left, or right?” Blake asked.
I shrugged. “How about left?”
Blake led the way with his gun in hand. He held it as if he knew what he was doing. I didn’t feel safe but I was glad he was there.
Whitney was behind me and Dax was close behind her. He held his gun in much the same way but he looked a bit nervous.
We walked slowly trying to make as little sound as possible. Something rustled inside of one of the apartments behind us, and Whitney grabbed my arm, digging her fingertips into my muscle.
“Stay back!” Dax shouted.
“Oh, please don’t shoot,” an older woman with silvery hair said holding up her hands. The greenish stain from her vomit coated the front of her faded flowery nightgown. “I need your help.”
“Don’t come any closer,” Dax said. I could only see the back of his head but he moved from side to side as if he were afraid to look at her for too long. “I mean it, lady.”
She frowned and the red in her eyes deepened. “You’re terrible. Just awful. Can’t you see I need your help?”
“Dammit, Blake,” Dax said daring a quick look over his shoulder. “What do we do? I can’t shoot an old lady.”
“She’s not an old lady anymore,” Blake said but he didn’t raise his gun and shoot her either. “Let’s go. Fourth floor?” When I didn’t answer right away, he shook me. “Kit! Fourth floor?”
“Hmm? Yes, the fourth floor,” I answered in a shaky voice.
Blake grabbed my hand and pulled me along. I looked over my shoulder at the woman. Her eyes locked with mine for a second too long.
“Help me,” she said. Her lips seemed to move slowly. It was as if everything around us had disappeared.
Blake pulled me around the corner, breaking the connection. I followed him up the stairs finding it difficult to move my feet at the pace he wanted me to move.
At the top of the flight of stairs, there were wood and old doors nailed together, blocking our way. Blake pushed on it but it didn’t budge.
“What do we do now?” Whitney cried out.
“Help us!” another voice called out from below. The voice was that of a male.
“How many of them are there?” I asked.
Blake pushed and kicked at the wood. He hit the man-made wall with his fist and pushed past Whitney and me.
“We’re going to have to do this,” he said quietly to Dax. “You ready?”
“I think so,” Dax said.
“You have to be,” Blake said as he sucked in a breath that caused his shoulders to rise. “They aren’t like us anymore. Just remember that.”
Dax shook his head. “You’ve done this before. I haven’t.”
“Once,” Blake reminded him. It hit me that Freddie had been his first. Blake tapped me on the hand. “Your knife.”
I nodded and tried to fill my eyes with confidence. “I’m ready.”
It was mostly a lie. I wasn’t anywhere near ready to plunge a blade into someone that for the most part, looked just like us. They talked. They walked. They stood there begging for help as if they didn’t understand what was happening to them.
A noise at the wall behind me forced me to turn. A small thin strip of wood had been moved to the side.
“You’re not Deacon,” the man said looking at me through the opening.
“No, please, can you let us inside?” I asked.
“You don’t look sick,” the guy said squinting at me.
My eyes widened. “No, we’re not sick. But there are people behind us that are. Please, can you let us inside?”
“I can’t do that,” the guy said.
I pointed at my mask. “Look! We’re not sick. We’re protected.”
“Well,” the guy said looking over his shoulder. “I’ll probably get shot in the arm for this but fine. Come in.”
He slid a square of wood to the side which was only an inch or two wide enough for us to crawl through. The guy closed the opening and locked it into place.
“Thank you so much,” I said keeping my mask on. “You saved our lives.”
“What are you folks doing here?” he asked.
I looked around and noticed a similar door constructed at the top of the stairs. The second floor, for some reason, had been sectioned off from the rest of the building.
“Um,” I said unsure of how to respond to the man staring at me.
I didn’t know him. And the way he was looking at me made me nervous. I didn’t really want to tell him about my young daughter. Although maybe he already knew about her.
“We’re just looking for a place to hole up for a bit,” Blake said. “Didn’t know the place was taken.”
“Or infested,” Dax added.
The man laughed at Dax’s choice of words. “That’s a good one. The first floor is infested. Those damn things keep coming back no matter how many times we shoot them.”
“You have to decapitate them,” Whitney said with a shrug. “Or cut out their hearts.”
“Ooh. That’s cold,” the man said with a chuckle. His face turned dark. “I’m sorry to say we don’t have space. So, you can’t stay here. In fact, if Deacon gets back while you’re still here, it’s not going to be good for any of us.”
“It’s not going to be good for you either way,” a twenty-something with pigtails said stepping out from one of the rooms. She popped her hip into the man’s side. “I’m going to tell Deacon you let them in.”
The man laughed. She smiled at him and like a switch and flipped he stopped laughing and wrapped his fingers around her neck. He grabbed her like she was a flimsy doll and threw her against the wall.
“You’ll do no such thing, Tracy,” he said. His words were poisonous and slithery like a snake.
“Miles,” she said trying to smile. “I was only kidding.” Tracy choked out the words and coughed. Her
face was turning a dark shade of red as she struggled to pull in oxygen.
Blake twitched at my side.
Miles relaxed his grip and Tracy dropped to the floor. She forced a smile as she rubbed her neck.
“I think it’s time for you folks to be on your way,” Miles said. “You can choose between the fire escape or the way you came in.”
“Umm,” I stammered. I glanced at Blake over my shoulder.
A scream from one of the rooms at the other end of the hallway ripped through the air. The girl was terrified. But what made everything worse was the familiarity of the scream.
I’d heard it before when Freddie was holding a shard from his favorite glass that broke when he dropped it on the floor to my neck. Without thinking, I took off running.
I pushed Miles out of the way and ran to her. “Maddie!”
Chapter Twenty-Two
I couldn’t feel my legs as I ran down the hallway. Had the scream come from the room on the left or the right? I didn’t know. I couldn’t be sure of anything.
Where was she?
“Maddie?” I shouted again but she didn’t answer.
At the last door, I reached out and grabbed the doorframe to help slow my body. I looked into what seemed to be an empty room.
“Maddie, are you in there?” I asked. “It’s me. I’m here.”
It was almost as if I was afraid to step through the doorway. Afraid that if I did everything would change and I might lose Blake, Dax, and Whitney too. I didn’t want to be stuck in the apartment building alone when I wasn’t even sure if it had been Maddie screaming.
Soft whimpers fluttered to my ears. It was as if the sounds were being muffled.
I started to take a step forward into the room but the door was slammed in my face. My hand clenched into a tight fist and I pounded on the door. I couldn’t feel my fingers.
“Maddie, are you in there?” I said squeaking out the words painfully as my chest squeezed.
A hand landed on top of mine and I turned to throw my other fist into the face of whoever was near me. I wasn’t going to let anyone stop me from finding Maddie.
Blake caught my hand before it landed on his chin. He looked down at my hand.
“You’re bleeding,” he said.
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