The Seventh Day Box Set

by Tara Brown

  “I think everyone is tired. Why don’t we all calm down?” Mitch makes a mistake with the wording.

  “I am calm!” Bev and I shout in unison.

  Jeff stares at us both and we burst into tears.

  She reaches for me and I squeeze her hands, crying so hard I can’t see.

  Mitch is talking over us and Jeff is apologizing, and I don’t know why we’re fighting or crying, but I’m way too tired to try to figure it out.

  She climbs into the back seat while the car is moving, squishing Mitch to the side, and we hold each other and sob.

  It’s probably not the best road trip Mitch or Jeff have ever taken.

  Not even close.

  Chapter 13

  Day Eight

  The image of Lou’s house as a pile of rubble—ash and rubble—haunts me as we drive into Billings.

  Laurel was a mess.

  And everyone was dead.

  My heart ached in a new way as I stood out front, staring and praying Lou wasn’t in there.

  The ashes glowed, the fire was just going out, which to me meant if we hadn’t stopped in Butte to sleep and eat and get another car, I might have made it to her. But I was too late and she’s dead. Or she’s gone. And there’s no cell phones or internet or even friggin' snail mail. I will never find my friend. I will never know.

  Lou, Sasha, Jamie, and Joey join the ranks of Sharon and the old man. I won’t know if they’re okay.

  The drive from Laurel to Billings is silent. All of us are stunned at the damage done so close to home, scared of what home might look like.

  As we arrive in Billings, all our fears are confirmed. My stomach sinks lower and my chest tightens more.

  The first sign of a problem is immediate: there’s a car crashed through the food exit sign and Red Lobster is the only restaurant advertisement I recognize now. Bodies cover the ground in a way it’s easy to guess how this happened. They crashed avoiding the trucker in front of us who has stopped in the middle of the highway. Maybe it was at night and they didn't see until too late. They got out of the car and were attacked. Some fled but didn't make it far. Maybe they were already bleeding so the zombies smelled them easier. Either way, it looks staged, it’s so perfectly laid out.

  From there it gets worse and Jeff slows down the truck we stole in Butte so we can see it.

  Smoke rises in various places, as it did in Laurel. Spots in the city where maybe people fought back. Or maybe things left unattended got out of hand. Ovens left on and such.

  A plane has crashed in a field to the right, scattered to the winds. It’s not smoking, but it obviously burned at some point.

  Car accident scenes increase as they did on the outskirts of other cities the whole way home. Bodies on the ground, some still twitching, cars bent and crushed, and windows smashed. Zombies dead in random places around the car. Humans dead.

  And of course blood.

  There’s so much blood but the splatter is weird. I never noticed it until Bev pointed it out. The blood moves by itself after the person dies, it creeps along the ground like a horror movie, searching for its next target or host. Just like Mom said it would.

  But these scenes are old so the splatter is different, hinting that it crawled until it dried up like an animal trying to drag itself from the road after being hit. The sight makes me scratch my itchy bite wound that’s looking rough.

  By the time we get to the Econo Lodge, I’m pretty sure we’ve all given up hope that there are survivors here. It’s chaos, but more akin to the aftereffect of chaos. It’s what you see after, the leftover hell.

  The fires are almost out and the birds are picking at the bodies. The cold air is threatening snow, which will cover it all up and hide it until the spring.

  I gasp when Jeff takes the exit for the city center and slams on the brakes. There’s a train in the middle of the road. It’s a derailed mess and there’s no way around it.

  We sit and stare for a minute. It might as well be a cruise ship crashed on the moon. This is impossible to us all.

  Mitch speaks softly, “Lemme drive, I know a detour.” He climbs out and Jeff moves over as Bev and I have hesitation and worry plastered on our faces in the back seat.

  And as much as this is hell and chaos and I am terrified, one thought remains in my mind. “Can you drop me at the hospital, Mitch, before you guys go into the Heights?” It’s such a normal request, but he turns around and gives me a bizarre look.

  “What? No. We’re not dropping anyone off. We stay together.”

  “She’s there—Mom. I know she’s safe. I talked to her. She was fine.” I’m fairly convinced of this, but he isn’t. “She and Mason are waiting for me.”

  “Absolutely not. We go house to house together. We can start at the hospital, but we’re not splitting up.” He drives backwards for a minute, leaving the train behind, and turns onto a side road. The train is massive so going around it is a huge detour. Along the way we see something I’m not expecting. I don't think any of us are.

  “Holy shit!” Bev points past Jeff’s face to the right. There are four zombies eating something, remains maybe. They’re crouched on their knees and eating together like a zombie family might. A zombie picnic.

  They ignore us as we drive by. They don't chase the car.

  And even worse, they aren’t the last ones we see.

  “So much for it being over,” I whisper.

  “Never thought I’d ever say this sentence, particularly while in the US, but we might need to get some guns,” Jeff says as he stares out the window at the zombies still walking around.

  “That won’t be hard.” Mitch laughs bitterly.

  “Why?” Jeff asks.

  “In Montana, all the bodies here will have guns on them. Zombies too!” He points at a body of a man lying on the sidewalk with his legs bent at a funny angle. And of course, he has a gun on his hip.

  “Why wouldn't they have shot or fought back?” Jeff sounds confused.

  “Only thirty percent of the population actually has the ability to pull the trigger on another human being, and those studies are done on law enforcement and military. People with training. The estimation for the general public is that it’s less than twenty percent. Much less.” Bev did a paper on this last semester. I remember Louis saying he didn't agree with her numbers and went and looked it up for himself and she was correct.

  “That’s crazy. Why have all these guns if you’re not gonna use them?” Jeff is so Canadian. “Although, I doubt I could have shot a human before this. A normal one.”

  “Well, we all know you can shoot a zombie,” Mitch adds. “Thankfully.”

  Clearly, I’ve missed something, but I already knew that. They haven’t spoken about Louis or how things went so wrong for them. And why they never came back for us. But obviously something terrible happened and they’re all still upset.

  By the time we’re close enough for me to see the pinkish color of the hospital building, the zombie numbers are much higher. In the densely populated part of the city, it’s out of control how many are alive. The transmission had to have been wrong.

  Mitch parks out front of the emergency entrance and gives me a look in the rearview mirror. “We should hit a Walmart first, get some guns. I don't like this.”

  “Just stay here,” I say, staring at the building. “I don't need guns.” I grab the handle of the truck door and Bev reaches for me.

  “What are you doing?” she hisses the question.

  “Just watch.” I don't look at her. I don't want to see what they’re thinking. I just want to find my mother and brother and see if they know where Dad is. I’m not sure where the story goes from there, maybe Boulder.

  “Tan!” Mitch shouts, drawing the eyes of the nearby zombies to us. They rush forward, the hair on my body stands on end. I’m tense as I step out and close the door, leaning against it. The monsters that were once human drag and run and hobble to where I am. But they don't see me. They part, going around me; like th
e other zombie, they ignore me.

  They smash on the truck, rocking it and leaving behind bloody bits of themselves. I walk away from the truck so they can drive away. I turn just before they do, seeing the shocked expressions on their faces, how they’re seeing me differently now.

  Mitch’s eyes are wide in terror, but he puts the truck in gear, and with his fingers and mouthing words he tells me they’re going to drive around the block and park back here.

  I nod but assume they won’t come back for me. Not now.

  He’s going to be halfway around the block when Jeff and Bev convince him to leave me behind. And I don't blame them. While I’d be handy at getting supplies, I’m not one of them anymore. I might not have died but something happened and now the zombies have accepted me as one of them.

  I stare at Mitch for one more second, realizing I like him. I like him a lot. And the world has ended and romance is probably a fading thought in every mind, but I like him.

  Deciding to accept this fate, I offer the smallest of smiles, just a lip twitch really. I want it to be the last thing he sees of me, the last memory. A pleasant look that says maybe if the world had ended differently, this thing between us would have happened.

  Because I’m a weirdo I can stretch the invented memory of us a long way.

  Dating in high school.

  Then college.

  We break up for a tiny bit there, and I realize I made a huge mistake. I end up outside his dorm with my eighties boom box playing something indie because that’s the sort of music he enjoys, and he comes out and we get back together.

  Then we buy our first house after grad. It’s small and hot in the summer, but we fix it up and make it Joanna Gaines cute. Shiplap, I like shiplap.

  Maybe we get married somewhere cool, a hilltop overlooking a view I will forever remember, maybe the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland. Small wedding of course, because we’re still paying off student loans. And maybe we never have kids, maybe we’re selfish in our love.

  At seventeen that’s as far as I can stretch it, and as the truck disappears, I smell the sea air of Ireland and feel his lips kiss me every anniversary as the sun goes down.

  And it’s perfect, for one second. A whole life in a moment.

  Ignoring the ache in my chest, I turn and walk to the front doors. They’re barricaded and boarded up, exactly how she said they would be. I have to squat to peek through the gap in the wood. My breath fogs up the glass but as it clears, I pull back, covering my mouth.

  My heart feels like it’s stopped as I lean in again, focusing harder and trying to see what I assume happened before they locked it up. I’m praying it did.

  There are dead bodies on the floor and the blood is streaked exactly as it was with the other dead zombies, as if it tried to get away.

  “Shit!” I can’t figure out how to get inside. The doors are locked and as I run from door to window to door, there’s nothing.

  No movement inside at all.

  No lights.

  No noise.

  I’m gasping for air when I round the next corner to find the truck parked and my friends staring at the gaping hole in the wall of the hospital where someone has crashed a vehicle.

  Mitch winces when he sees me, and Bev presses her lips together.

  They’re all scared for me, with me.

  The zombies are gone. He’s lost them while I was trying to find a way in, so Mitch climbs out of the truck. “Maybe they’re hiding on a different floor.”

  “Maybe,” I agree and walk to the crash site.

  “Tanya!”

  “Yeah?” I answer, turning back.

  “How can you walk near them?” His tone suggests he’s scared, maybe of me. I would be.

  “I think the bite, the nanobots or whatever the hell it is, makes them think I’m one of them. They never attack each other. Have you noticed that?” It’s all I have for an explanation. A guess.

  “Right.” He nods and takes a step forward, suggesting he might come with me. “Do you want me to hel—”

  “No. Just stay there. They don’t see me, Mitch. I’m invisible. I’ll be back in a minute.” I wave him off and continue to the crashed vehicle. It’s a truck and the windshield has been kicked in. Someone did this on purpose.

  That makes me more uncomfortable.

  That means that a living person endangered all these lives for something they deemed important enough. Which means they might be crazy.

  The hospital is empty of life and noise.

  I shiver from the cold and the fear.

  Every exhale leaves a bit of mist in the dry air.

  I search high and low through the emergency ward, but she isn’t here.

  He isn’t here.

  Even the dog isn’t here.

  The disappointment sits in my heart for a second or two before I force myself to move on. There were two reasons to come to the hospital. And the second is vitally important.

  I make my way to the medical supplies in the children’s part of the hospital and find some amoxicillin mixed in a banana flavor. I take gulps of it, remembering when Mason had an ear infection, Mom made him double-dose the first dose. He had to take it for ten days. I grab a second bottle and hope it’ll be enough.

  Then I pull my shirt to the side and clean up the bite mark, scrubbing away the gross flesh and dumping antiseptic on it. It burns but it’s not as bad as I thought it would be. I cover it in antibiotic salve and pocket the rest of the tube. When the bandage is taped in place, I steal a few more of those.

  My hands are full when I leave the empty, dark hospital.

  The truck has attracted some undead, but Bev draws them to her side so I can climb in the other door.

  “Nothing?” Mitch asks as I close the door.

  “No. I got some antibiotics and cleaned my bite though.”

  “We can swing by your house on the way to mine. We’re only a couple of blocks apart, right?” he says as he gets the truck started again.

  “Yeah.” I notice the thumping of dead people on the windows and doors of the truck doesn't bother me anymore.

  Maybe that’s how I’m becoming a zombie, I’m numb.

  Chapter 14

  Day Nine

  “I can fly,” Jeff says as he finishes loading more of the food I got in the back of our new truck. “Just helicopters, and it’s been a while, but it could get us to Boulder a lot quicker. Is there an airport here with some?”

  “That might have been handy information in Canada, Jeff,” Bev says. She’s annoyed and bitchy again.

  Her family is dead, all bitten and on the front lawn like they tried to save each other and ended up killing one another.

  Mitch’s family is gone, no note or anything. It looks like they packed fast in the middle of it all. Escaped. But whereabouts unknown.

  Mine left the paper I’m holding in my hands with one word on it, written in my little brother’s shitty writing, “BOULDER!” I know what that means. But I don’t know anything else. Why did my brother write it? Is my mom gone? Did Dad come? Where’s the dog? How did they get to Boulder? Did they make it alive?

  So many unanswered questions. And the worst part is I’d placed all my hopes on Billings. I believed the end of the road, the end of this tiring bullshit, was here.

  But it’s not.

  “I did say I flew helicopters, Bev. We didn't see any.” Jeff’s getting zesty back at her.

  “You okay?” Mitch asks, standing in front of them as they bicker, maybe blocking them out for me.

  “I’m fine. I’m just worried.” The what-ifs have taken over.

  “I know. I’m worried too. I can’t even imagine where my family would go. My dad’s a techie and my mom’s a principal.” He wrinkles his nose. “Not much hope there.”

  “You never know. If this is a nanobot apocalypse, then the techies are the ones who caused it. They’re more powerful than anyone imagined.”

  “Oh, I don't doubt the powers that be knew all along just how powerful an
d important the techies were.” He puts a hand gently on my shoulder but it’s different now, as if he never told me his feelings for me. He hasn't held my hand since he saw the whole zombie bite thing.

  Though he’s reaped rewards from my being immune. I strolled right into Walmart and got us stuff: food, drinks, guns, clothes, and all the supplies we might need, like it was nothing. I came out with two carts filled to the brim, and I bagged my own groceries. And not one zombie, though I saw plenty in there, gave a rat’s ass what I was doing.

  It was crazy.

  Then we parked in the middle of a field and took turns having a ‘dump jugs of water over your head in a bathing suit’ shower and we all got our hair washed. It was magical to get clean again. Even if the water was cold and the air around us was freezing, it was refreshing. Like getting clean in a plastic scented waterfall.

  “Well, maybe if you hadn’t been so selfish, Louis would be alive!” The fighting has escalated, and Jeff shouts the thing that shuts Bev up. Her lower lip quivers and she turns, running into the field crying.

  She doesn't defend herself, leaving me to wonder what the hell happened.

  “Hey,” Mitch growls, leaving to scold Jeff. “We don't need to point fingers. What’s done is done.”

  “I know,” Jeff groans, running his hands through his hair. “Fuck!” He doesn't cuss much. In fact, he doesn't get upset much either, so it’s a bit shocking to see him this way. He turns and stomps after her.

  She’s sobbing so he wraps his arms around her and hugs her to his chest. He kisses the top of her head and whispers something. He’s visibly drowning in regret, and I feel awful for him despite what he said.

  “What the hell happened to Louis?” I whisper. “Why does Bev feel responsible?”

  “She’s not. He made his choices.” Mitch’s tone is gruff.

  “Tell me,” I insist quietly.

  “The day we left you guys, we made it to a shopping center Jeff knew about,” Mitch whispers back, his eyes on them but his soft words are for me. “Took hours to get there but we found a small bus that was locked. We were in the middle of trying to get it open when Bev said she was going to check out the Starbucks there. She wanted to get a Refresher and was pretty sure she could make us all one. Jeff told her no, to wait. She didn't listen. Louis said he would go with her to keep a lookout.”