by Fitch, E. M.
But the landscape had shifted. There were bodies everywhere, clogging the roads, collapsing rotted porches and decks. A nearby bungalow had been stomped to the ground, twitching bodies were impaled on broken siding and floorboards.
Kaylee sat on the curb and reached for the water bottle Andrew held out to her. They had passed a stream not far back and filled up. As she sipped, Kaylee had unwanted visions of an infected man rotting upstream, his innards black and floating like seaweed in the currents.
She swallowed quickly before her imagination wouldn't allow it.
"We can't be that far," Andrew said, his eyes out over the road. "There's so many of them here.”
Kaylee nodded and knocked back another gulp of cool water. She agreed that they were getting closer. The problem was, with the amount of infected laying on the ground, that was not a good thing.
Jack and Emma had very little chance of surviving a horde of this size.
"They could have gotten a car," Andrew mused as Kaylee stood and stretched. She didn't respond. He didn't need her to. He'd been replaying scenarios like that out for days now.
They couldn't find his father. They had found the Walmart, parts of it blackened with fires that had since extinguished. They rummaged through the aisles, calling out for Bill, searched the back exits. There was no sign of him. No trace.
Andrew thought that he would make his way back towards Emma and Jack, so they had been working in that direction, stopping at every store that hadn't been busted through, every home with boarded windows.
They hadn't found anything so far.
"Which way would Jack have taken her?" Andrew asked, kicking through the rubble of a store that had its whole front wall collapsed into a pile of bricks and glass. Kaylee shook her head.
"I have no idea.”
"Nothing? He hadn't said anything before? What about North, isn't that what he wanted?”
"Yes, but without us?" Kaylee said, stooping to pick through a dusty rack of magazines that had toppled on the floor. She could just see a bright wrapper underneath. "Honestly, Jack would be looking for me. If they made it, he's looking for us.”
"You don't think they made it.”
It wasn't a question and it didn't need an answer. Kaylee's stomach clenched. She wanted them to make it, needed them to. But the evidence that surrounded her just didn't support it. There were too many bodies. Part of her was afraid to look too closely, afraid she would see Jack, recognize his features even as sickness overtook his mind.
She knew that wouldn't be Emma's fate, it couldn't be. So she didn't worry about seeing her little sister; she worried instead about seeing the stains on the concrete, the evidence of Emma's last fight.
They shoved the couple of items they found into Kaylee's backpack and got back on the motorcycle. The engine ripped the still night air apart, the tires spitting out gravel behind them. The wind was cold on Kaylee's cheeks. It whipped her hair back away from her face, reached cold fingers down through the opening of her coat.
Neither was prepared for the explosion.
The sky to their right lit in a slow, fiery blaze. The glow was sudden and intense and a lick of fear sprung up in Kaylee's chest. Her eyes sought out the motionless forms on the ground surrounding them even as Andrew veered off the road and almost into a tree. They jerked to a halt, both faces up and to the North, towards the sky lighting red and orange in the darkness. Kaylee scrambled off the back of the bike and ran to the middle of the road, away from the trees that swayed dark and leafless yet still blocking her view.
The noise had reached them just as the engine to the bike cut, a steady roar of tumbling brick and disintegrating concrete. It was both terrifying and comforting. She knew this noise.
"It's them," she whispered.
The city that was falling apart was too far away. They could hear the crack of explosions and the fall of the buildings, but not the rumbling of death, not the snapping of jaws as the beings trapped in the dying city were brought to life in the light of the flames. They were too far to hear the cut of the motorcycles Jack and Emma and possibly Bill were on, too far to hear the cries of triumph and the groans of hunger.
But it was them. She knew it. Hope welled in her stomach and surged up, almost suffocating her with the pressure.
They were alive.
Chapter Eleven
Emma was screaming into the night, whooping and hollering like she hadn't done since she was twelve, barely containing curses as she and her father rooted for the home team at a local hockey game. She remembered there had been a fight, a smear of blood and a tooth that was knocked loose skittering across the ice. It had been cold in the arena, even though it wasn't outside, the air conditioning pumping. Emma and Nick had cheered and clapped and booed more for the fight than for the actual game.
Of course Kaylee and her mother had sat with identical grimaces of disapproval, looking down their noses until Nick had given in with a sheepish grin and tugged Emma back into her seat.
Tonight the wind was rushing, the top of the convertible was still down, and the heat of the explosion, the bombs she had set off, was pushing her further towards the spot Jack designated. She felt alive, really truly alive, like she hadn't for years. Her skin tingled with the rush of it, her heart beat firm and fast in her chest. Tonight, she felt anything was possible, maybe even that Kaylee was still alive.
She recalled for a moment, with perfect clarity, the disapproving scowl her sister always directed at her. She laughed, loudly and out into the crumbling night. She laughed loud enough for it to sound over the rush of the wind and the force of the toppling bricks behind her, loud enough to be heard over the groans and the scraping of fingernails on the side of the car as she whizzed past. Kaylee's face morphed into Andrew's, the scowl remaining and nearly identical, and Emma's laugh dulled to a fond smile.
To her left, just as Jack had planned it, another explosion sounded. A wave of heat washed over her and Emma felt sweat prickling over her skin as a response. She didn't slow. The creatures all around her did, stumbling in the direction of the noise and heat and light. They roused from sleep, staggering towards any promise of meat. A few bounced off the hood of her car as she drove passed. She swerved around them as best as possible, but only to avoid getting a flat tire and getting stuck in a city that was about to be closed off forever.
She could see the target building ahead, see that it mostly lay in shadows and that nothing was stirring by the back entrance.
Just as Jack had planned.
Over the crash and the noise and the roar of the fire that was leaping up behind her, she heard the soft, mechanical whine of an engine.
It should really have been her on the bike, if would have made the most sense. If one of them bit her leg, scratched her with filthy nails, it wouldn't have done anything to her. Not like it would to Jack.
But she didn't know how to drive a motorcycle. She would need to learn how. Maybe, when she found Andrew again-
Her heart stopped in her chest, her veins felt clogged and her breath came harshly as she realized. She really did think he could still be alive. Not just think it, want it. Desperately.
She had one moment before Jack's motorcycle and her convertible would swerve together by the last bomb and she used it to murmur a quick prayer.
Please, let them be alive.
And then she skidded to a halt by a pile of gasoline soaked fertilizer bags, a bundle of dynamite, and some propane tanks she had found for good measure.
"Ready?" Jack screamed over the roar of the dying city. She nodded, unable to keep the smile from her lips. He lit the fuse to the sticks of the dynamite, all twisted together, and jumped the door into the passenger seat of the convertible. She floored the gas before his body even hit the seat. He bounced a bit before he settled, twisting back to make sure the fuse had caught. She didn't bother, keeping her eyes on the road before her, the swirl of the infected bodies as they slowly woke and headed into the city. The ones who didn't make it wou
ld be crushed by the collapsing building, just as soon as the fuse Jack lit sets off the explosion.
She's happy for it.
Emma pulled the car to a stop just over the bridge that first took them into the city. They may blow that up too, Jack wasn't sure yet. He thought he would be able to drop the last building and block the bridge and the bank of small river it crosses. They were about to find out.
She slowed to a stop just underneath a billboard. They had slept on the platform throughout yesterday, both too tired from setting up the bombs to make it back to the house they camped in before sunrise. They used their time wisely though, covering the faded advertisement with a new one of their own.
A large smiley face, larger than any Emma had painted before, stick tongue hanging out of its stick mouth and all. Underneath that was a simple message:
Supplies here for those who need them. Keep heading North. We will find safety.
The smiley face was hers, meant just for Andrew and Kaylee. But it was Jack's message, his and Quinton's, left at every city they had demolished. Jack said they normally wrote them at intervals, supplies left below crude signs. But here, on the billboard, it would be seen for miles. Emma had even left baby formula, not so much because there wasn't other food they could leave, they had found a stash in the surrounding homes and had more than they could travel with, but as a sort of homage to Anna, who had insisted they leave that when they blew up her home city.
"Where do we sleep today?" Emma asked, the intoxicating feeling of hope and energy still bursting around inside of her. She thought momentarily of the vodka she had left in the house and dismissed it; it didn't compare to this rush. Jack looked up in answer and she nodded, they got out of the car at the same time and then paused, both leaning against their car doors.
The last bomb exploded. In a rush of heat and noise, the building toppled as though in slow motion, cutting off any last exit from the torn city. The moans and screeching of the infected trapped inside sounded muffled in comparison but Emma didn't feel the stirring of pity for them, except for maybe that she hadn't managed to kill more of them before trapping them in the rubble.
Even as she thought it, she heard the shuffled gait of a biter staggering up behind her. The glow of the city was enough to illuminate the suburbs surrounding it, not with brilliant flashes of light that could reach into the darkest shadows, but with enough illumination to wake the bodies left dormant on the streets. And there were more than a few surrounding the billboard.
She felt, more than heard, Jack head towards the ladder that would take them safely away from the creatures. And maybe it was the faint stirrings of pity from before or maybe it was the adrenaline pumping through her as though she was injected with it, but she didn't follow. She reached into the back of the convertible and took out the lightweight, aluminum pole that was once a ski pole but that she had sharpened into a kind of spear. She bent her elbow, letting the sharpened end rest just over her shoulder and then thrust her hand out, catching the man in the chest with her fist and the handle, sending him sprawling onto his back. In one fluid move, she had the sharpened point aimed at his yellowed eye, his sunken eye socket. She jabbed, felt the clunk as it hit the back of his skull, and then slide the pole out neatly, feeling him finally still beneath her.
She did the same to four more while Jack took care of those coming behind.
It wasn't the same rush of adrenaline, and as the last fell quiet, she realized that wasn't why she did it. It may have been the spur, the kick to get her moving, but the action was one of pity and of sorrow. She was sorry she couldn't do the same for the ones trapped in the city, sorry they would be forced to live their lives hunting and eating and killing. She wouldn't have wanted that for herself.
She took her pole with her as she climbed, Jack right behind her. The city burned with a heat they could feel even from the billboard platform, and as soon as she got to the top, she sat facing it, letting the warmth wash over her. The buildings continued to collapse, not in huge amounts, just parts toppling over, small structures collapsing under unexpected weights. The sun was starting to rise behind them, illuminating the mess they created in new ways, lighting pockets of darkness and waking creatures who had been sleeping.
"You don't mind killing them," Jack said softly. He had been so quiet, Emma almost forgot he was there.
"No, I don't," Emma answered. Her voice was soft but sure. "I think it's the right thing to do.”
"Kaylee wouldn't agree," Jack said. Emma flinched a bit, but not as much as she thought she would, as he spoke her sister's name.
"I know.”
"She thinks they're people," Jack continued, as though that explained it.
"I think they're people, too," Emma said. He looked at her questioningly. "Do you believe in a soul?”
It was random, even for their strange and stunted conversations, and she knew that. He frowned but didn't answer.
"Well, I do. I believe in good and evil, right and wrong. I believe some people are broken, that they can't help but do wrong. But that still doesn't make it okay. These people," she swept her hand in an all encompassing gesture, "what they do is wrong. They kill, they murder, and yeah, maybe they're sick, maybe they can't help it, but does that mean we should just let them?”
"I wouldn't say we let them do anything," Jack argued but Emma shook her head.
"Even if we fight them, even if we don't let them bite us, them existing? Allowing them to go on living when we know that they'll keep killing and eating people. It's wrong. Not for us, or for the universe, but for them, because they can't help but do wrong. And we could stop that for them, but we don’t!
"They have souls, all humans do, and what's happening to that part of them? All this murder and cannibalism. Why are we allowing them to destroy themselves like this?”
"They can't help it," Jack said softly.
"Even more reason then!" Emma said, turning to face Jack. "Look, if you were a murderer, couldn't help it, just kept murdering people, what do you think society should do with you?”
"Society? You mean just us?" he asked. He spread his arms in an all-encomposing gesture that Emma understood. She rolled her eyes.
"I mean society, you know what I mean.”
"Well, I guess jail," Jack answered, obviously willing to play along. Emma nodded. Jack gestured out to the collapsing city. "Like that one, isn't that what we just did? Put them away so they can't hurt anyone else.”
"Right, only they can." She continued at his puzzled look. "Even in a jail, the murderers can still hurt people. In that collapsed city, the infected will just go on hurting each other and themselves. I don't care if they can help it or not, it's not fair to let them do that, damaging their souls worse and worse, because we're too afraid to just end it for them.”
"You'd think God would let them slide on that," Jack said. Emma shrugged.
"Maybe. Maybe not. But a lot of people do a lot of bad things and say they can't help it. It doesn't make it okay to keep doing bad things though, it's not an excuse. And what if it were you?" she asked, veering off topic a bit but knowing Jack understood. "If you were bit, would you want to roam around like that?”
"No," he answered emphatically. "If it's me, you should kill me immediately.”
"I agree," she said. "I asked them to do just that when I was bitten.”
"Only it didn't work on you.”
"Right," Emma answered, her eyes now far away, scanning the broken city. "It didn't work on me.”
They were quiet for a long time. The smoke from the city rose in a billowing tower, high into the sky. It would be seen for miles. Jack was right. If Kaylee, Andrew, Bill, or Anna were still alive, they would see this. If they were anywhere in the area, they wouldn't be able to miss it, and they would know who had done it. They would come.
For the first time in a long time, the twist of anxiety that had remained coiled in her chest loosened.
~
Dawn broke fully and Emma yawned, her ey
es squinting shut against the bright day. She tensed as she felt Jack stiffening, turning sharply towards him as he jumped to his feet.
Her first thought was of her sister, that they had seen the smoke and come, come so quickly the fires hadn't even extinguished. But Jack wasn't going for the ladder. He stood, silent and still, peering down into the sunlit streets.
There were no infected people. Whatever had been left in the homes, the small number that that was, they had wandered long ago to the noise and light of the burning city. Instead a sight Emma never thought she'd see again materialized down main street.
"Is that a-" her voice trailed off as she stood.
"Beautiful," Jack murmured, not meeting her eye.
"Where could they have come from?" Emma whispered, inching closer to the edge to get a better look.
"Zoo, most likely. Got hungry and wandered out, I guess.”
The black, unmistakeable silhouette of a family of giraffe traveled slowly over the hill. They walked in calm, measured steps, their long necks stretched into the golden sky. Up and over the hill, from behind the group of giraffe, a giant beast emerged. Floppy ears, long trunk swaying casually, first one elephant, then a second.
Emma and Jack stood mesmerized, watching the procession as they picked through the suburban streets.
"Think that's all that got out?" Emma asked casually as the giant beasts meandered passed their billboard. "Or could there be some lions wandering around, too?”
"Lions and tigers and bears?" Jack asked, smiling. "Could be, who knows?”
"Amazing that the infected haven't gotten them yet," Emma said. The giraffe's head almost reached to the billboard platform. She watched as a long, black tongue flit out, seemingly to caress one of the last green leaves on the trees around them. It disappeared with his tongue, as he pulled it back through his lips.
"Yeah, but then again, they were used to being prey, weren't they?" Jack said. "I mean, things were chasing them down long before the world ended. And, as you pointed out before, animals can't get infected.”