Chapter 43
Jules was sleeping peacefully in a bed with pink sheets and flowered pillow cases. The dog, which everyone had taken to calling Lucky, was on the floor next to the bed and sleeping as well. Danny, however, couldn’t get himself comfortable enough to sleep. His mind wouldn’t stop turning over questions, and every time he did close his eyes for longer than a simple blink, he always saw that face from out at the glacier. That was where it had all started. That day seemed so long ago. He wasn’t even sure how long ago it was or even what day it was.
He sat up in bed and tried to think about something else. He tried to think about home and his parents. He tried to think about his own dog, a great Golden Retriever named Max, who was, hopefully, waiting for him back home. He even thought about his older sister, wondering if he’d ever see them again. He was crying before he even realized that the tears were streaming down his cheeks and wetting his shirt.
He didn’t like this one bit. He just wanted to be back at home. He knew deep down that all of these people were looking out for him and Jules, but nothing could take the place of his mother’s compassion. Her voice just made everything better for him. He needed her voice and her comfort. She could make everything all right regardless of the situation. He found himself getting upset that he had accepted the invitation to come to Alaska at all. His mom had said that it was up to him whether he went or not. She wasn’t going to force him, though she did say that she thought that he might regret it if he didn’t. Boy was she wrong.
He wondered if his family was still safe or if the whole world had been turned upside down by what was happening here in Alaska. Was this same thing happening everywhere? Jules stirred slightly and rolled over onto her side. The dog’s head rose from the floor to inspect the new noise. Danny caught the dog’s attention and motioned for him to join Danny on the bed. The dog hopped up eagerly, obviously a treat that he was not accustomed to enjoying. He circled three or four times before finally plopping himself down heavily next to Danny’s leg. Possibly sensing Danny’s unease, Lucky laid his head across Danny’s thigh and breathed a long, loud sigh. Lucky wasn’t Max by a long shot, but he was friendly and seemed to need attention. He was quite obviously a child’s dog and was missing his human counterpart.
Danny scratched him behind the ears, like he’d seen Jerry do, and then curled up next to him. The dog’s breathing, deep and rhythmic, helped to relax Danny enough to let him drift off to sleep. The dog too found his way back to sleep.
Chapter 44
“What’s up, buttercup?”
Kim looked back at her friend Tony, who was walking down the hallway toward her. “I thought I heard crying or sobbing coming from back here.”
“Looks like the kids are still asleep.”
“Yeah.”
“D’ya think they understand what’s going on?”
“God, I hope not. I mean, their family. It all started with them. Can you imagine?”
“No. No way. Who would have even thought this would be happening? I don’t even know that I can believe it and I’m living through it. Well, hopefully anyway.”
Kim cocked her eyebrow at that comment and answered, “Speaking of which…you’ve done your hero bit now, right? Can we agree to let the other heroes step up and do their parts now? I don’t think I can handle a repeat performance of yesterday. And I know that I can’t handle losing you after losing everything else.”
“You won’t get any arguments from me.”
“Tony, is everything going to work out? Are we gonna make it through this alright?”
“If we stick together, I think we’ve got a better chance than trying to do this alone.”
“That’s not really much of an answer, ya know.”
“What do you want exactly?”
“I want you to tell me that everything is going to be alright and that we’re gonna make it through all this and that there’s still going to be a world left to live in. Can you do that?”
Tony put his big arms around Kim and pulled her into his chest. She didn’t resist even a little. She melted against him and tried to claw even closer. With his cheek resting on the top of her head he said, “I’m not going to let anything happen to you, that’s for sure, because I can’t imagine a world without you in it.”
It wasn’t the answer that she wanted, but it would do. Kim, once again, damned her bad luck for having fallen in love with yet another man who didn’t want to have anything to do with her romantically. She’d loved boys with girlfriends, young men with fiancées, and men with wives. Sometimes there were brief moments of romance, fiery sweet, but all of those relationships had ended the same. And now, she was falling for a gay man. Dumb luck. Pure and simple.
Chapter 45
“What’s wrong sweetie?” asked Meghan, her blues eyes soft and concerned.
It was later in the day and the house around them was buzzing, albeit quietly, with life and activity. Jerry had found a portable DVD player with a charged battery pack and battery back-up; so he, Jules, Danny, and Rachel were all watching a Pixar movie in the front room. Kim and Tony were trying to scrape together a meal in the kitchen. A Coleman cook stove was busy heating a can of beans while peanut butter and jelly were being slathered on bread. Tony hummed while Kim quietly sang to the tune. It was all just too normal...too routine for Neil to take. He retreated to the garage and, of course, Meghan had followed him.
With the CD player in the minivan melodically making its way through a tune, the two of them continued their conversation. Neil just wanted someone to understand what he was feeling; the discomforting thoughts that just wouldn’t give his mind peace.
“I...I...” he looked away trying to hide his shame for the tears forming in the corner of his eyes. He wasn’t accustomed to crying. It just wasn’t something that he did. And yet, the urge to cry was a feeling that hovered so closely over the past few days that the feeling alone was enough to set him off at a moment’s notice. Finding the base root of his emotions, he tried to sum it up with, “I’ve never been this...scared before.”
“Oh, honey,” she tried to soothe Neil with a soft caress on the back of his neck.
He turned back toward her and tried to make her understand, “You didn’t see...you couldn’t have seen…”
“What sweetie?”
“...those eyes. And that smell. It was the most horrific odor that’s ever been, I’m sure. It was all the bad smells...rotting fish, decaying plants in the spring, body odor, shit...all of it put together and then made worse. And that sound that it made. It was as much a sensation that I could feel as I could hear. It rumbled down in the pit of my stomach and rattled my knees. But its eyes...I’ve never seen anything so empty and soulless but, at the same time, so angry and full of rage. All the fear in the world was there in the blackness.”
She nodded and started to speak but thought better of it and chose to let him continue instead.
“We can’t stay here indefinitely and I don’t think anyone is coming to help us. Hell, there may not even be anyone left out there anyway. We’re running out of options and I am petrified about going back out there again.”
“Sweetie, we’re all—”
“No! You don’t understand. I’ve never been this afraid of anything...ever. Not even when I was a boy and all things were possible was I this afraid. Back then, I knew that Mom in the next room would always come to rescue me from the Boogie Man in the closet or the monster under the bed. Just knowing that she was there was enough to hold the fear at least partially at bay. I didn’t know that fear like this even existed...was even possible.”
They were quiet for a few minutes while Jack Johnson on the CD sung about all the good people and wondered where they’d gone.
Meghan took Neil’s hand in hers. “Are you more afraid of what might happen to you, or about making a wrong decision that might lead to something happening to one of us...one of the kids maybe?”
He thought about that for a few seconds. At first, he
was inclined to say that he was terrified about his own well-being. After all, who likes to consider the prospect of being eaten alive? He remembered the curly haired blonde guy in the parking lot of his office building. He could still see the man flailing his hands about wildly trying to fend off his attacker. And then he remembered seeing the man’s hands, held in the air uselessly and coming together in weaker and weaker fists as he was disemboweled and eaten. Neil felt true nausea come over him when he imagined Meghan lying there instead. He couldn’t picture himself there, but seeing Meghan suffer such a fate was too much.
He lowered his head until his cheek rested against Meghan’s chest. Her heartbeat was strong and her breaths were deep. He tried to match his own breathing to hers so that he might be able to get control of his own heartbeat.
“I don’t know what I’m more afraid of anymore...losing me or losing you.”
She hugged him tighter against her, the way that she used to do to her fiancé when life was too much for him to bear on his own. She closed her eyes and let the tears come. They dripped down her cheeks and onto Neil’s back. “Oh sweetie, what are we going to do with you? My poor hero.”
Jack Johnson’s disembodied voice was still asking the world about the good people. The song had a light feel to it, but the question and the frustration were serious and ardent. It was the only sound in the minivan other than their breathing. Neil wondered too where all the people, both good and bad, had gone. He was going through options in his mind when the door from the garage to the house was opened, letting in a slice of light that cut into the darkness surrounding the minivan. It was Jerry.
“Guys, I hate to interrupt, but I think we’ve got company in one of the houses across the street.”
Neil, still feeling exposed and a little defeated, asked, “Yeah? And your point is?”
“I’m talking about people. You know, the live variety, and not the kind that wants to have all of us for dinner.”
Feeling excited and even a little hopeful, Neil asked, “What?”
“Yeah. I think we...well, Rachel saw someone across the street in one of the houses. And I think that they know that we’re here too.”
Chapter 46
Emma was back at the window again. She was sure that she saw movement at the corner of the drawn blinds in the house across the way. Maybe she was just being hopeful and seeing what she wanted to see as Ivanoff had suggested, but she didn’t believe that for even an instant. She was wondering if there was a way to get their attention without getting the unwanted attention of those things down on the street between them.
The ghouls, whose numbers had grown over the past several hours, had been gradually making their way down into the cul-de-sac. They were an impassable barrier...a sea that defied navigation. Emma knew that if there were people over there, then the barrier would have to be addressed. Until then though, she just had to find definitive evidence that there were people there so that Doc Caldwell and the cop would believe her and help her in coming up with a solution. As it was, the good doctor and the cop had spent most of their time resting and eating and waiting. They felt as safe as they had since that early morning when they had escaped the hospital. But if there was anything that she had learned over the past few days, it was that safety was fleeting and that it was dangerous to get comfortable and complacent. So she watched and waited and hoped for a sign from across the street.
Chapter 47
Why does she gotta stand there like that? Does she wanna get us caught? Maybe she’s just trying to tease me and the Doc with her ass. Slut. She knows exactly what she’s doing. Acting like she can see something across the way. What kind of fool does she take me for?
Why is it that she’s the only one who seemed to be able to see signs of actual life in that house? Just wishful thinking. He knew better. He was prepared...his soul was prepared. The End of Days isn’t about surviving; it’s about judgment and redemption.
It was probably that sense of judgment that had restrained Officer Ivanoff up until then. He had gone back and forth between wanting to strangle her and wanting to take her since they had started their flight. How many days ago was that? He’d lost count. As they settled cozier and cozier into the house though, he was starting to feel that restraint was pointless. And he started to get the sense that she even wanted him to take her. The way that she swayed her hips and shook her hair was full of temptation and she knew it. She was the sort who used her wiles to get her way. He’d come to that conclusion days ago. She was of low moral values and not deserving of respect. She probably didn’t want respect. He was starting to think that maybe he should show her a lesson and then maybe she would see the error of her ways.
He looked over at the doctor, who was asleep. The doctor turned on the couch and let out a long, slow breath that came from deep down. It was breath full of fear and doubt. The Doc was probably thinking about her too. It was probably going to be up to Mal to get things started. They’ll both thank him afterward. He just knew that they would.
The woman could sense some of what he was thinking. At least that was how he interpreted her impression when she looked away from the window back at him. In apparent frustration, she walked away from the window and went down the hall.
Sensing his cue, Officer Ivanoff stood up and very gingerly made his way down the hall after her. Yeah, she was going to appreciate this and so was he. It had been a long time since he had last been with a woman. This time though, it would be different. They hadn’t been drinking, so there were no doubts and no excuses for anyone.
Chapter 48
Seeing his shadow come down the hall after her, Emma shook her head and said, “If you’re coming down here to hassle me or to talk about God, then I have to admit that I don’t have the energy to deal with you right now.”
Standing in the doorway, he didn’t say a word to her. He walked through and shut the door behind him, startling her somewhat.
“What do you want, Officer?”
“I think you know what I want, and it’s the same thing that you want so just drop the act. Okay?”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“That mouth of yours...you’re just trying to get me riled aren’t you? Well, honey, I’m already there.”
He walked across the room as she retreated toward the closet. “I don’t know what you had in mind, but I don’t like the way that you’re talking to me.”
“You know perfectly well what’s on my mind.” He was leaned forward on the balls of his feet, like a predator ready to pounce. He narrowed his eyes and turned his lips up into a snarl.
“You had just better back the fuck off.”
“You say no, but I can see that you don’t mean it. You’re just like all women.”
Looking around for anything with which to defend herself, Emma saw nothing. She was in a child’s bedroom that was full of safe, soft toys, pillows, and blankets. She backed slowly into the closet and nearly fell over a wooden rocking horse that had been pushed off to the side by its previous rider. He stepped closer as she regained her balance and took her eyes off of him.
Desperate she said, “I said no and I mean no! Now get the fuck away from me.”
“Oh, sweetie, we’re gonna have such fun. You’ll see and then you’ll regret having made us both wait as long as you did.”
Tears of anger and fear started to spill from her eyes as she continued to back up. The clothes hanging in the closet welcomed her into their domain like the embracing limbs of a dense forest. She tried to get around him, but he was too close now. He was almost upon her. Her breathing was strained and frightened. His was deep and hungry. He grabbed her by the arm and forced her back farther into the closet. She fell backward, hitting her head on the back wall and sliding down to the floor. He tried to grab her blouse as she fell, but only came away with her nametag that was still on her chest.
Lying there and still desperate for rescue but too terrified to make any loud noises, she looked to both sides and t
hen she laid her eyes on it. Leaning in the corner of the closet was an ancient Louisville Slugger miniature wooden baseball bat. It was the sort of thing that professional baseball teams would give away at season openers and for special events to the first hundred or thousand or however many people to come into the park. It was primarily a toy but it was solid wood and just about the right size for the confined space in which she found herself.
She reached out and grabbed the small bat with her left hand and swung almost in the same motion. The bat found its mark on the police officer’s shin. He hopped up onto his other foot almost immediately as the pain registered. She didn’t hesitate and swung the bat, trying to hit him in the crotch. She missed and hit him instead on his hip. It was enough though to force him back on his heels. She got to her feet as quickly as possible and came at him, not satisfied with merely defending herself. She wanted to hurt him as much as he wanted to hurt her.
He reached to his hip for his pistol, but remembered that he’d taken off his belt in the living room before following her down the hall. Even his mace was missing. He gritted his teeth and held up his hand to try and calm her. She didn’t wait even an instant. She hit him on his upheld hand and then on his arm. He recoiled with the pain but then wheeled around with both of his fists up.
“You fucking bitch! We’ll see who’s gonna get who. Put that fucking bat down before I really decide to teach you a lesson.”
Alaskan Undead Apocalypse | Books 1 & 2 | Infection & Containment Page 17