by Tim Moon
April was such a brave woman, and strong too. She shouldn’t have been the one to fall prey to the infected. April should have survived. What right did Vanessa have to live?
Blinking hard several times, Vanessa tried to focus on the map again. She had intended to look for something. What was it?
“Damn it,” Vanessa muttered, rubbing her temples.
Her brain was a bowl of melted gelatin. Using it drained strength from the remnants of her will. Vanessa leaned back on the couch and threw her arm over her eyes, burying her face in the crook of her elbow. She was lost with no idea of what to do; adrift on the ocean like a piece of wood bouncing around on the waves.
She had been content to keep April company. Her long terms plans had died with Steve Edwardson, and then she had found April. Every day since then had been focused on the day-to-day slog of survival and the long wait for Mike to show up. It had suited her just fine; thinking too far ahead had felt overwhelming. That sense of being overwhelmed came crashing back with a vengeance. With no friends, family or civilization left, she had all the free time in the world and absolutely nothing to do.
Vanessa bit back tears and leaned back on the couch to stare at the ceiling. Sitting alone in such a large house felt weird, cavernous. She covered her eyes with her arm, hoping to block out the anguish flashing through her mind. Silence played weird tricks. It gave her brain room to work and a chance to process what it had witnessed – the stress of horror and loss.
She sighed.
Mike would never show up, she knew that. Not after this long. If he had somehow avoided the infected, then the bombs or the fallout had taken him. She would never get the chance to pass along April’s message.
Vanessa’s arm slid off her eyes and thumped onto the couch. She had an idea. Slowly, reluctantly, she stood and stretched her body. Her ass had fallen asleep from inactivity and the muscles tingled with renewed circulation.
She climbed the stairs to the office. The sound of her heavy breathing from just that small amount of work made her smirk as she rummaged through a desk for a pen and paper. When she had found what she needed, Vanessa plopped down in the leather desk chair and began to write a quick note, relaying April’s last message. Just in case Mike did show up. A note would fulfill the obligation to her friend.
The words Vanessa scribbled on the paper made her eyes sting with emotion. A tear drop splashed on the ink, smearing a few letters. With a heavy sigh, she finished and then folded the note. Mike’s name went on the outside in all-caps. She carried it downstairs, propped it up on the dining table and returned to the couch.
What was the map for again? Ah, right, where can I go? She thought. Where would I be safe?
She sniffed at the thought. It was obvious the Necrose virus had spread nationwide. Worldwide. Its reach was unavoidable.
Should I just stay here? Can I settle for merely surviving?
As far as she could tell, no semblance of order or civilization remained intact. She wouldn’t be going back to teaching class anytime soon. The FBI was unlikely to arrest her given the state of the nation. What else could she do with her life? Should she still be concerned with Black Tide?
Are they still hunting me?
Her jaw clenched at the thought. After uploading and sharing the documents, the media had picked it up and spread it far and wide. It had been too late though. The virus spread quickly, engulfing the nation in a fight to remain functional. The police and military had lasted only a week before heavy losses caused them to withdraw. That was the last she had heard of a coordinated resistance.
She couldn’t believe what the company had done. What the hell was the point of creating a deadly virus if you risked falling prey to it? Vanessa frowned. Unless Black Tide had an antidote. Was it possible?
Vanessa chewed her lip. It seemed unlikely that the company could kill everyone. No, the management team, or whoever was responsible, would have a plan to stay safe. They probably had security teams as well.
The clouds shifted and the light coming in through the front room window grew too bright. Vanessa squinted against the light to check the streets before pulling the curtains closer together. All she needed was enough light to read the map.
Where was Black Tide located?
Steve Edwardson had worked in Great Falls, Virginia near Washington, DC. He was a researcher which meant there had to be a lab there. They might have something useful. If not, she could at least make them pay for the death of her friends and family. She glanced at the pistol beside the map. Her nerves felt raw. Not just about Necrose-7A, but about them getting away with her brother’s death.
A fire seemed to kindle inside Vanessa, now that she had something productive to do – a purpose where she could focus her energy. If there was an antidote or vaccine, she would find it. If there were any surviving Black Tide executives, she would kill them. Not matter what; she would do whatever it took to make sure Black Tide didn’t get away with starting an apocalypse, unscathed.
12
Early morning sun filtered through a partly-cloudy sky. The trees had lost their leaves, the flowers had died away, and yet the frost-tipped grass glowed bright-green under the rays of the sun. A cold breeze blew from the Gorge, chilling Ben’s ears.
He stood on the porch surveying the neighborhood, as he often did, his AR-15 cradled lovingly in his arms. An old hiking backpack hung from his shoulders, filled with food, water, and ammunition. Everything they might need for the day’s raid.
“I’m all set,” Anuhea said as she pushed through the screen door.
“Great,” he said with a smile, grateful that someone had oiled the noisy hinges.
Chadwick was on guard duty upstairs, and the others were busy with their own chores. Ben and Anuhea strode towards the east end of the block, turning once to wave to Chadwick. Ben wanted to find a van, so they could transport all the supplies they would be collecting.
Anuhea had no problem keeping up with Ben’s pace. In fact, it seemed like she was slowing down for him. Her short legs moved quickly. Ty had always teased him about being slow, often referencing his last name as evidence. The fond memory brought a sad smile to his face.
“Are you looking out for anything in particular?” he asked her, hoping she’d slow her pace to chat.
“When we get to a store?” she asked.
He nodded.
“Not really. Almost everything is valuable now. You?”
“Medication for my mom,” he said. “She doesn’t talk about it much, but I know it’s a problem.”
“Is she already running low?”
“Not exactly, but her meds have an expiration date. I’m not sure how we’ll manage to get insulin in the long-term.”
“Damn. I’m sorry to hear that.” Anuhea began to adjust her ponytail. Ben watched her long, dark hair swing in the breeze. “We’ll figure out something.”
“I suppose,” Ben said. He felt his face growing hot against the cool breeze, so he looked away. He didn’t want to think about it.
They slowed near the car wall to scan for threats.
Ben checked the left side of the street. “All clear.”
“Same here.” Anuhea climbed over.
He was close behind her and after he landed in the intersection, they both dashed across the open road to the next block. They walked past the truck they had used to transport the bodies since their mission required something a little quieter.
And not drenched in gore. The lingering stench necessitated keeping it away from the neighborhood.
“I want to get a van,” Ben said.
“Ah, yes. A good old-fashioned grocery-getter.” Anuhea chuckled.
“We are going shopping.”
They walked up a driveway to check the first garage door. Four garages later, they found a white soccer-mom van. It had one of those stupid stick figure family stickers on the back and a “Baby on Board” bumper sticker. In Ben’s experience, those people were often terrible drivers. The van’s interio
r only affirmed his prejudice.
“Did they ever bother cleaning this thing?” Anuhea said with disgust, peering through windows marred by sticky handprints and smeared goop.
“No joke.”
Bits of cereal and cracker crumbs were all over the seats and floor. A toy car lay on the seat next to a chewed-up action figure and a tall sippy cup that appeared to still have liquid inside. Ben scrunched his nose up at a grungy-looking car seat with a myriad of questionable stains. Garbage filled the passenger side foot well, and that was just what they could see through the windows.
Ben lifted the garage door while Anuhea took a knee and raised her rifle. Once they could walk in, Anuhea went to open the door inside the garage. Ben gave a nod and rushed inside the house with his rifle raised, and she fell in behind him. The first room on the left was a laundry room. The right side was the kitchen. They moved through the rooms as quickly as they could.
The house was in only a marginally better condition than the van. The floor was a veritable minefield of toys and random pieces of clothing. In the hallway, Ben nearly rolled his ankle on an action figure. He gritted his teeth and kicked it aside.
“Can you believe this fucking mess?” Ben asked. “Who lives like this?”
Dirty hand prints stained the walls, which featured an impressive collection of scrapes, dents and deep gouges in the dry wall. The bathroom mirror was cracked, and the shower had a dirt ring that looked permanent. Ben felt dirty just walking through the house.
“Their field of fucks lies fallow,” Anuhea said.
Ben snickered until they came to a long-dried pool of blood in the hallway.
“Damn,” he said.
A wide streak on the floor led to the front door with several smeared hand prints on the walls. The hair on Ben’s neck stood up. They didn’t find any bodies or infected though.
In the backyard, Ben saw a dog’s body. It’d been chained to a dog house and its emaciated body was curled up at the end of the chain. Turning away, before he went into a rage, he began searching for the van’s keys. Ben was about to check the dining table when Anuhea yelped and ran into the room.
“What?” he asked as his heart tried to leap out of his throat.
“I saw a mouse,” she said, visibly shivering. “And I found these.” She held out the keys in one hand and covered her mouth with the other. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”
“Nice job, scaredy cat.” Ben smirked.
She punched his shoulder.
“What the hell?”
“Don’t tell anyone about the mouse,” she said, narrowing her eyes at him.
Ben held a fist to his mouth and bit his cheek to hide his amusement. It didn’t work. He had to jump back to avoid getting hit again.
“We should take the seats out of the van,” Anuhea suggested when they entered the garage.
“More space for supplies.” Ben opened the van and stepped back when the smell hit him.
She covered her nose. “And less… yuck.”
“Should we ditch this junk heap and keep searching?”
Anuhea shifted back and forth on her feet. “If we give it a cleaning it should be fine.”
Ben eyed her skeptically.
She motioned towards the van. “Come on.”
“Okay,” he said with a shrug.
After they removed the seats, it was easy to see the leftover gunk on the floor. The van was an ant’s wet dream. Crumbs and bits of cereal were strewn over the floor. Ben found a broom and began to sweep the van out. He uncovered an old grape rotting under an empty candy bar wrapper and a rotted apple hiding underneath a clump of dirty napkins. With the doors open, the stink began to fade which made it bearable.
Ben glanced into the back of the empty van. “There we go, less yuck.”
“I won’t say I told you so,” Anuhea said.
“May as well have,” he muttered as he plopped down into the driver’s seat, fired up the engine, and rolled the windows down for fresh air. “And we’re off.”
The van lurched backward, rolling down the sloped driveway. They exited the neighborhood in the opposite direction from their house. Ben set the old pharmacy store nearby as their first stop. It was the place his mom normally restocked her medicine.
Five minutes later, Ben drove past the small shopping center on the corner of the intersection with Mill Plain Boulevard. The shopping center was barren, not a soul in sight. The pharmacy looked dark inside but appeared to be untouched. None of the windows were broken and only a few cars sat nearby in the parking lot. That might mean infected or survivors inside though.
Circling around the building at a crawl, the power steering groaned in protest when he finally turned into the side entrance of the parking lot.
“Need something for your over-active bladder?” Anuhea asked.
“Don’t you need some feminine hygiene products?”
“Actually…”
Ben made a face that made her laugh.
He pulled up in front of the entrance, parking sideways so that the van’s sliding door faced the pharmacy doors. One tiny perk of the apocalypse was getting rock-star parking every time.
“Looks safe enough,” Ben said.
“Agreed.”
Satisfied, Ben reached behind the seat for their empty backpacks. He handed one to Anuhea and then climbed out of the van. The door creaked so loudly that it echoed softly off the nearby buildings.
Ben froze and looked around. He raised his eyebrows at Anuhea.
“Not a great way to start,” Anuhea said with a hint of amusement.
Rather than shut the driver’s door, Ben just left it open to avoid more noise and stalked forward with his rifle raised. He watched the darkened interior of the pharmacy as he stopped beside the entrance. Anuhea approached on the other side so they were flanking the doors.
They both carried guns even though they were weapons of last resort. Firing even one shot would lure any infected within earshot to their position. Anyone alive that long knew it for a fact.
However, they brandished the weapons as if they were going to use them. If they encountered zombies, they could simply beat them to death with the weapons rather than shoot them, or switch to a different weapon. If they encountered looters, or other survivors, then they would be ready to shoot. Or at least intimidate.
Anuhea nodded at Ben to signal she was ready. He slung his rifle as she covered him, stepping forward and grabbing the electric sliding doors. His fingers dug into the seam between them and he heaved, his back muscles straining. They opened slowly; reluctantly, like a dog that knows you’re trying to put a pill in its mouth.
Anuhea threaded the needle, moving quickly into the darkness. Ben gripped his rifle and followed. She had picked a smart line, past the cash registers towards the photo development center, which gave them a view down each aisle.
Ben’s eyes adjusted slowly to dim light as they prowled the perimeter. The aisles were clear of any surprises. The store was a dream-come-true, untouched and fully stocked. He stopped for a moment and gazed around the store like Bilbo Baggins surveying Smaug’s horde of treasure. He beamed at all the medicine, supplements and snacks they would return home with.
A hand on his shoulder pulled Ben from his reverie. Anuhea pointed to the back of the store. Other rooms still had to be cleared. He gave a nod and followed her lead.
The first stop was the bathrooms which smelled like bleach with a hint of piss. Further down the short hallway, they found the administration office. It was locked so they moved on and pushed through plastic double-doors into the stockroom. Ben noted the dusty cardboard smell that reminded him of when he worked at an office supply store in high school.
Anuhea let out a breath and relaxed a little. “We’re good to go.”
“The actual pharmacy area is the last stop,” Ben said, leading the way.
A memory flashed in his mind. Before moving to Korea with Ty, to teach English, Ben had shopped here to buy a few last-minute odds
and ends. The store had been busy thanks to their great location. The contrast to that moment was stark. Now, Anuhea and Ben were alone, walking through the quiet, darkened aisles.
The lack of people stung more than it had in Kona or Hilo, because this was his hometown. The loss felt personal. After all, this was his own backyard. Ben couldn’t help but wonder if any of his old friends were still around. Who had made it? Who had turned into infected?
I hope I never have to find out, he thought, jaw clenching along with his fist.
“Are you okay?” Anuhea asked, placing a hand on his arm.
Ben flinched and found that he’d stopped in the aisle, caught up in his own thoughts.
“I’m fine,” he said, taking a deep breath and continuing towards the pharmacy.
Anuhea looked at him with concern but didn’t press for more.
Shining his light into the pharmacy, through the pick-up window, Ben checked for unwanted surprises. All he saw were shelves filled with bottles and boxes of medication. No infected.
“Ready when you are,” Ben said.
She tested the door and to their surprise, it was unlocked and swung open easily. Ben led the way in, and they quickly moved through with ease as they had done so many times before.
“All clear,” Ben said.
“Let’s go shopping,” Anuhea said, jerking her thumb towards the main part of the store. “I’ll start out there. While you get what you need here.”
“Okay,” he muttered as he scanned the shelves of medication. He leaned close to read the labels of a few boxes. None of the long technical names sounded familiar. This was going to be a pain in the ass, he realized.
Ben heard Anuhea riffling through items on the shelves just outside the pharmacy. She had a list of things that Charlotte wanted for their medical supplies. There was no doubt she’d find a good portion of it right here. He marveled at how this place had gone untouched.