by Tim Moon
After loading the most critical supplies, Ben cleared his throat. “Hey, do you want to head home or keep going?”
She didn’t answer right away. A few seconds passed before she faced him. Her brow furrowed, and Ben read mixed emotions in her eyes. A swirl of sadness, fear and possibly anger.
“I can keep going,” she said softly.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, great.” Ben let out a heavy breath and gestured at the van. “We still need to check out the hospital to get stuff for Charlotte.”
Anuhea just nodded as she climbed into the van.
Ben glanced over his shoulder at the store. Plenty of useful items were still inside, but after all the gunshots, he wanted to get away from the area. He walked around and climbed into the driver’s seat. They would be back.
13
Three men were dead by his hand, yet Ben didn’t feel a twinge of regret.
What does that say about me? He thought, tightening his grip on the steering wheel. His own lack of reaction to shooting them concerned him more than his actions did. Ben replayed the conversation with the injured guy. When he remembered what the guy had said Ricky’s intentions were towards Anuhea, he scowled. He couldn’t feel bad for killing scum like that, or the people that enabled it.
As they cruised down the road, Ben glanced at Anuhea. She looked more relaxed.
“Where are we going now?” she asked, seeming to sense his gaze.
“The hospital, like I said. Charlotte needs stuff for Chadwick and general first aid.” Ben kept his eyes on the road, scanning. He spotted a small group of infected off to his left. They were no threat. Unless they were runners. He eyed them carefully, but nothing happened. “It’s not too far from here. Maybe ten minutes or so.”
“Anything else nearby?”
Ben thought for a moment. “There’s couple of grocery stores and a Super BigMart between us and the hospital.”
“Let’s stop at BigMart after the hospital.”
“Okay.”
They rode in silence. The van had a radio and CD player with a USB port, but the radio stations were dead, there were no CDs in the car, and their phones were at the house. Ben made a note to grab some CDs when they stopped at BigMart because the silence was deafening. If he also picked up chargers, they could power up their phones in the van.
Familiar places from his youth blurred by. Places Ben had kissed girls, restaurants where he’d been on dates, and gas stations where he used to fill up his car and buy MegaBall tickets. Now the buildings were dark, and abandoned cars sitting in their parking lots, left to weather the elements.
Ben rolled down his window, needing fresh air. Anuhea didn’t seem to mind. Crows cawed loudly, warning each other of the passing vehicle. Were they surprised to see two humans still alive, and still breathing? Other crows along the way picked at long-dead corpses, pecking sporadically at the rotting flesh.
Ben looked out of his side window towards Portland. The smoke had tapered off quite a bit, but a thin haze still marred the sky above the city. The fires that had consumed much of the city after the bomb, must have burned themselves out. He wondered who had pulled the trigger on that. China? Russia? North Korea?
Not that it mattered, he thought wryly. It wasn’t as if the US was in any condition to respond. That he knew of anyway.
“Zombies on the right,” Anuhea said, pointing into the distance.
A group of at least forty zombies, far down the road, lurched towards the sound of the van from a strip mall parking lot. It was the largest herd they had spotted in a while. Ben sped up to get past them before they could block the road. He didn’t think the herd would be a problem until he remembered…
Several infected broke through the crowd, before Ben could speak, and sprinted down the road towards the van. Anuhea cursed and fumbled to raise her rifle from the wheel well. The weapon was awkward to maneuver in the confines of the van.
Accelerating, Ben swerved to the far-left side of the four-lane road. They side-swiped a black sedan. He jerked the wheel on instinct and they skidded sideways like an angry bull trying to throw him off. Gritting his teeth against the tug of the steering wheel and wild screeching of the tires, Ben fought to maintain control of the van.
The infected ran at an angle to cut them off. Their mouths opened in terrible howls. He wouldn’t be able to avoid them. That realization made his muscles tense.
Anuhea buzzed her window down and took aim. He drove as steadily as he could, and she squeezed off several shots. Every single one missed.
Ben swerved around a car wreck, still trying to avoid debris in the road. Anuhea cursed and threw a hand out of the window, holding onto the roof to steady herself. Then they clipped another parked car on Ben’s side that tore the bumper off, sending it skidding away.
Thank goodness the airbag didn’t deploy, he thought.
“Come on,” Anuhea snapped.
“Shoot the damned runners,” he snapped back. The three infected were close now. Just forty feet and closing.
Anuhea steadied herself and quickly fired. One runner stumbled to the ground, but the other two were on them. Their screams pierced the air as they attacked.
One dashed in front of the van and leapt onto the hood. The other one dove at the passenger door, nearly head-butting Anuhea. She whipped back, slamming into Ben’s arm and sending the van into another swerve that nearly ran them into a light pole. Ben veered out of the way just in time.
“Damn it,” Ben cursed.
The infected woman on the hood managed to hang on. She began slamming her fist into the windshield to little effect. Ben hit the brakes, nearly throwing her off, and then he stomped on the accelerator. Her pale face whipped forward, stringy brown hair flying, and slammed into the glass. Her forehead split open, leaking dark blood down her face, but the woman clung to the hood like a magnet. Ben craned his neck for a view of the road ahead and noticed a small crack had appeared in the glass.
Anuhea managed to pin the man’s head against the top of the window with one hand and was reaching down for something with the other. Her hand came up with a knife that she plunged into his temple. His body went limp instantly. She pulled the knife out and the corpse fell out of the window.
“Great,” Ben shouted with a grin. “Hold on.”
This time he slammed on the brakes and held them. The woman’s body jerked back and she flew off the hood, as the van screeched to a halt, sliding at an angle. The acrid scent of burnt rubber wafted inside. She tumbled across the pavement like a rag doll and rolled to a halt.
“Smash that bitch,” Anuhea said, slapping the roof.
Ben hit the gas. The van growled in response and lurched forward. They bounced over the body like it was a giant speed bump. It jostled Ben sideways, smacking his head on the door frame. He eased off the gas a little to calm the screaming engine and they sped away, passing the front row of infected by a mere ten feet.
Ben stared at the poor souls shuffling after them. Something large and deformed caught his eye. It was just a flash, and when he looked back it was out of view.
“Did you see that?” he asked.
“See what?”
“I don’t know,” Ben said in a low tone. “It flashed by too quickly. Like a giant deformed monster, I guess. Holy shit!”
“No, I only saw the huge crowd of infected coming after us,” Anuhea said.
“It looked like an oversized version of the Baby Ruth guy from The Goonies, but with one big deformed arm.” Ben frowned. “If it wasn’t too dangerous, I’d circle back for another look.”
Anuhea turned around fully in her seat and stared back towards the zombies that marched after them. Slow and persistent as ever.
“Nope, nothing weird,” she said after a minute or so.
“Hmm,” he grunted.
Ben couldn’t help but question if he had seen anything at all. Shaking his head, he turned right at the next intersection and stopped.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Letting them catch up?”
“I believe you, Ben. I’m sure you saw something.”
“It’s not that,” he said. “I’m luring them away. We’re going to follow that road until we get to the hospital. I don’t want them to follow us the whole way.”
“Okay.”
I may be making sure I’m not crazy too, he thought as he scanned the crowd for the thing he had seen. The zombies had already begun to angle towards them, cutting across another parking lot in their relentless pursuit. An older zombie, in his late sixties or so, tripped on the curb and biffed it hard.
Ben guffawed at the clumsy zombie and Anuhea chuckled at Ben’s reaction. They watched, transfixed, as the zombie pushed up and rose to his feet. An eager zombie shuffling past bumped the old timer and sent him sprawling again. He disappeared under the slow-motion stampede.
“One less zombie to worry about,” Anuhea said in a dry tone.
Ben busted up laughing at the absurdity of it. His sides began to ache with laughter. He had to wipe his eyes just to see the road. Tense situations often gave him fits of nervous laughter, an affliction that had plagued his childhood.
The infected were closing in, so Ben cruised slowly down the road leading them on until the whole group were fully committed to the chase and had their backs to Mill Plain. He still hadn’t caught sight of the monstrous infected that he had spotted earlier. After creeping down another block, Ben sped away.
“One of these days, we can start hunting the dead. Lure them into traps, or hurl Molotov cocktails at them. Anything to thin their numbers,” Ben said. He envisioned them geared up with homemade body armor like the shin guards they took from Romero Elementary.
“I don’t know, those runners are pretty damned vicious,” Anuhea said.
“True. You could always take a rooftop and snipe them,” he suggested.
She was their best shooter, so it made sense. Eventually they would have to reclaim the city.
“I guess you’re right. Does that mean you’d be the bait?”
“Well…” he said, drawing out the word.
“Just something to think about,” Ben said.
He drove another two blocks before looping back around to get on Mill Plain. The horde couldn’t follow them to the hospital now. The loop brought them to the area they first encountered the infected.
“Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” Anuhea asked.
Bodies lay along the path of the horde. Decapitated bodies. Just like the ones they had seen in the neighborhood.
Ben’s throat was suddenly dry. “Yeah,” he croaked.
“It has to be whatever you saw earlier. The monster thing.”
“Yeah,” he repeated like a dummy.
They drove in silence for a few minutes.
Passing a 7-Eleven, where he used to rent from MovieBox and stock up on energy drinks for late-night gaming sessions, snapped him out of his thoughts. Ben beamed at the sight of Muchas Gracias, his favorite Mexican fast-food restaurant.
“That place right there had the best nachos and burritos in town,” Ben said. “Carne asada chips. Yeah, man. I’d fight through a hundred zombies to get an order of carne asada chips with extra queso.”
Anuhea’s laughter soothed his stress.
“I can’t believe you’re thinking of food right now,” she said.
“Those old memories are important,” Ben said. “We are constantly facing terrible danger and horrors. We can’t lose sight of what we’re fighting for. Someday these places will be open again.”
Anuhea reached over and patted his arm. “I hope you’re right.”
Their eyes met for a moment and Ben had the overwhelming urge to kiss her. He glanced down at her lips which curled into a slight smile. His eyebrows shot up, her golden-brown eyes beamed at him and he forced himself to look away.
Car wrecks and abandoned vehicles littered the intersection with Chkalov Drive, giving him the perfect distraction. He had to weave through some tight spaces, which wasn’t easy in the long van. He thought about stopping to raid the coffee shop on the corner, but he was still concerned about the monster and they could always pick up beans at BigMart on their way back.
When they started to cross the I-205 overpass, Ben pulled over onto the south side of the bridge and rolled to a stop.
“What’s wrong?” Anuhea asked.
“Nothing. I just want to look.”
He got out and stepped onto the sidewalk to look south. Hundreds of cars crammed the wide interstate. Vehicle pileups littered the freeway and he even saw a truck that had tried to bypass the traffic jam by driving on the shoulder incline. It had not worked out. The truck was on its side, having rolled and gouging out dirt on the sloped shoulder. Like a dead spider, it lay wheels up in the ditch.
From his vantage point, Ben couldn’t see Portland. A dark haze lingered from the smoldering fires ignited by the bomb blast. The first couple of nights following the explosion, they had seen the night sky glowing orange from the firestorm.
Anuhea joined him at the railing and together they looked out at the cars and bodies clogging the highway. Several emergency services vehicles were trapped in the gridlock. The rear doors were open on one of them and an empty gurney hung halfway out.
“I can’t believe how quiet it is,” Ben said.
“How long have you lived here?”
“All my life other than college,” he said. “Seeing all this destruction makes my stomach hurt. I guess that’s how you felt in Kona, huh?”
“Something like that,” she said softly. “How many people lived here?”
“Hmm…a hundred or hundred and fifty thousand people. That’s not counting anyone over there in Oregon.” He gestured south towards Portland. “I can’t even imagine how many died.”
“The infection came quickly. Being trapped down there certainly didn’t help anyone’s chance of survival.” She sighed. “I hate to say it, but I’m glad we weren’t here when it happened.”
“I thought the same thing,” Ben said, and a twinge of guilt pulled at his heart. He watched her looking out over the vehicles. “I mean we’ve hardly seen any survivors. It must have been horrible.”
Anuhea leaned forward, squinting into the distance. Ben’s brow furrowed. She pointed without a word.
Ben followed the direction of her arm and spotted a small group of infected, maybe a dozen of them, stumbling along, prowling the abandoned vehicles. Anuhea raised her rifle to peer through the scope. It wasn’t a high-powered scope like on a hunting rifle, but it did magnify the view a little.
“Anything interesting?” he asked.
“Not really.”
Ben looked both ways down Mill Plain to make sure nothing was sneaking up on them. The road was still clear.
“Are the infected chasing someone or just wandering?” he asked.
“I don’t see anyone.”
Ben sighed and turned around, leaning back against the low railing.
“Well, that’s the BigMart we’ll hit on the way back,” he said, pointing across the road and off to his left. Even from there, he could tell that the parking lot was a mess. When they returned from the hospital, they would have to be careful crossing through that maze of death. “This shit is depressing. You ready to go?”
“Yeah.” Anuhea slung her rifle over her shoulder. “How much farther to the hospital?”
“We’re almost there.”
14
The tall, white hospital building stood proudly, flanked by a collection of shorter buildings. It was a handsome structure that appeared as a beacon of hope in these dark times. Except that it appeared to be as abandoned as the rest of the city.
From the street, they scanned the parking lot and buildings for signs of trouble. Anuhea rolled down her window and stuck the rifle out so she could use the sight to get a slightly better view.
“All clear,”
she said.
The sky was overcast, threatening rain, or possibly snow, as they pulled into the parking lot. It would be extra dark once they got inside the building, so he brought the flashlight he had found on the guys back at the pharmacy.
His sweaty palms betrayed his nervousness. He wasn’t familiar with the hospital and there was no telling how many infected were lurking inside. The place could be packed with dead.
Over by the emergency room entrance, a car was smashed into a pillar. Ben pulled to a stop in front of the main doors and looked around. Both of the main glass doors were shattered.
“See any infected?” Ben asked.
“No. It looks clear. Are you ready?”
“Let’s do it.” He turned off the engine and climbed out.
They hurried towards the front doors. Darkness filled the hospital, giving it an ominous feeling. Every place was a potential death trap. This long after the outbreak, he hoped the zombies had wandered out of the building in search of prey.
Ben stopped at the side of the door to peer inside. It took a while for his eyes to adjust. He couldn’t hear anything suspicious. Anuhea scanned the parking lot behind them.
“Parking lot is still clear.”
“Okay, let’s move inside,” Ben said.
“Do you know where you’re going?”
“Nope.”
“Great.”
“Ladies first?”
“Get your ass in there,” Anuhea said with a soft chuckle. She stood with her rifle aimed through the door to cover him.
Ben grinned and stepped inside.
The metal frame of each door held two panes of glass. The doors themselves were locked and only one pane was broken. Ben managed to climb through the lower half of the broken door. Chunks of shattered safety glass crunched under his feet. He pushed open the second set of doors and then waved for Anuhea to follow.