by Young, D. M.
After a while, the tears subsided. She had no doubt there would be more, but she was cried out for now. So she stood up and filled the sink with hot, soapy water. Once the dishes were put away, she made her cup of tea, sat down on the sofa, and wondered what would happen next. Matt was gone. There should be some type of funeral, but how? There was no body, and his was hardly the only death to mourn.
She wondered if they should have some type of community memorial service. They had been given flyers detailing the temporary rules that had been put in place to prevent another outbreak. No one was allowed in or out of the town. There was a nightly curfew from 9 p.m. until 6 a.m., but she saw nothing about gathering in large groups. She wondered if that would be permitted. She supposed she would start asking questions later. Maybe she could find out where Matt’s body was being held and see about organizing something later.
She would ask Rose to help. She and Edward were staying at Matt’s place right now since their house was outside of the safe zone. Gracie was staying with them for lack of anywhere else to go. The others had gone their separate ways, as well. Margaret and Booger were back in their respective homes. Adam had been drafted into service at the makeshift clinic that had been set up at the pharmacy, but he wouldn’t start until tomorrow evening. She wanted tonight to herself, but he’d promised to check on her tomorrow before he went in.
For now, Melissa was alone, and she was not unhappy about the matter. After three days of constant company, the silence felt too loud, but it was also comforting. She needed time to process all that had happened – time to grieve. She thought about taking a nap, but decided against it. She needed to get back to her old schedule. The routine might provide some sort of comfort in all of this chaos.
She turned the television on and flipped through the channels. There was a lot of talk about the outbreak now. Even the national news shows were reporting on it, and there was certainly plenty to report. A bright red banner at the top of one of the stations read, “Disease spreading: Confirmed cases in twelve Arkansas counties.” She noticed no one was using the z-word, yet.
According to the news anchors, there were suspected cases in at least ten more counties. Mayors of several cities had already declared a state of emergency. The governor was asking for federal resources to help manage the outbreak. The program cut to a speech by a White House spokesperson who assured viewers that the President was monitoring the situation closely. After dissecting every word from that clip, they played another video. This one showed a FEMA representative promising to provide any assistance necessary.
Melissa flipped the TV off in disgust. As always, there was a lot of talk, but there didn’t seem to be much action. She figured every government agency had dozens of people writing reports, plans, and speeches. Still, nobody seemed to actually be doing anything about the problem. While they monitored and planned, people were dying, and the infection was spreading.
Melissa decided she could no longer sit and think about it. The whole thing was just too big, too awful. She went to the bathroom and ran a hot bath. Hopefully that would relax her a little. When she was done, she would unpack and do the laundry. Then she thought she’d straighten up the rest of the house. If she was still this disgruntled by then, maybe a nap would be in order after all.
* * *
Booger parked his Jeep in the small parking lot behind Merle’s Café. A lot of the businesses in town were still closed, but Merle’s was open. There were a few things about this whole situation that weren’t sitting right with him. Who were the men who saved them at the cabin? Why did the National Guard look so confused when they’d mentioned them? He was itching to know what all had happened in his absence, and he couldn’t think of any better place to get information than Merle’s.
He stepped out of the Jeep and made his way to the narrow alley that led to the front of the store. As he approached the corner of the building, he could see a young man leaning against the side of the building smoking a cigarette. The man looked up, and Booger recognized him as the soldier they had spoken to on their way into town. Booger wondered if the young man had anything useful to say.
“How’s it going?” Booger asked, smiling at the man.
The young man grinned back, “Ah, it’s going. That’s about all I can say about it.”
Booger held his hand out. “Clyde James, but everyone calls me Booger.”
The young man shook Booger’s hand, “Caleb Smith.”
“You was the feller that let us back in town this morning, right?” Booger asked.
“Oh, yeah where were you guys coming from?” Caleb asked.
“We got the hell outta dodge when this whole mess started. Ended up staying for a few days at a friend’s cabin further up in the hills, but the cabin got surrounded by those things. Lucky those men showed up and saved our sorry asses. Sure would like to thank ‘em. You know who they was?”
Caleb shook his head. “Your friend mentioned them this morning, but that’s the first I’ve heard of them. It wasn’t us. Maybe some local militia or something?”
As far as Booger could tell, Caleb was telling the truth about not knowing who the men were. Booger didn’t press the issue, but he was pretty damned sure they weren’t just some local boys. “Hmm, maybe. I don’t know. Least they’re helping to clear those things out.”
“Yeah, I’m not sorry to hear it. I haven’t had to deal with any of them yet, and I hope I don’t,” Caleb said.
“Oh, you get here after it was all done?” Booger asked.
Caleb looked around. Seeing no one, he spoke again, quieter now. “We all did. We were expecting a fight, but the town was clear when we rolled in. Even the bodies were gone.”
“Well, I’ll be,” Booger said. “Now that is interesting.”
Caleb cut his eyes toward Booger. “We thought so, too.”
“So, what exactly are y’all doing here then?” Booger asked.
“Mostly just keeping you guys safe and making sure those things don’t attack while you’re getting the town up and running again. Anyway, I better get going. Nice to meet you.” Caleb dropped his cigarette butt and crushed it under his boot.
“You, too,” Booger said and continued down the alley toward Merle’s thinking about what Caleb had said.
A tall, thin man stood on the sidewalk in front of the café yelling as people passed by. His wild eyes bulged from his sallow, bony face as he shouted his warnings. “God is visiting His judgement on this world. Look around you! We are living in the End Times now! Heed His call before it’s too late!” He spotted Booger and held out a small, folded pamphlet. “Speak with me a moment, brother! Let me tell you about God’s plan for this evil world!”
Booger sidestepped the man and ignored the pamphlet in his outstretched hand. “No, thank you, sir. I reckon I’ll just go on in and have my coffee.”
The preacher’s hand shot out and grabbed Booger’s arm. “Can’t you see the judgement God has visited on this world – on this very town? You are still among the living! God has a plan for you. He’s instructed me to gather the saints so that they may inherit this earth! Listen to His word, brother!”
Booger gave the man a hard stare and batted his hand from his arm. He turned his back on the preacher and opened the café door. Behind him the preacher pleaded, “Don’t turn your back on God! Join us. Join the chosen!”
Booger stepped into the café. The door closed and muted the preacher. He moved toward his usual table where Carl Jacobs was sitting with a half-drunk cup of coffee in front of him. Booger pulled the chair out on the opposite side of the table, and Carl looked up and smiled brightly. “Well, I’ll be damned! You’re still alive,” he said looking truly surprised.
“Course I am. I’m too old and tough to eat,” Booger said grinning. “Where are the other boys?”
“You ain’t heard?” Carl said, his smile disappearing.
“No, sir. Just got back into town early this morning. What happened?” Booger asked.
�
�Skip disappeared. Nobody’s heard from him since Tuesday morning, and Bobby was up at the hospital when all that mess started. I guess you heard about that part, or you wouldn’t have run off in the first place. Anyway, he got bit. Turned into one of them things the next night. His boy had to put him down,” Carl said.
“Well, hell,” Booger said.
They sat silently for a minute. For once, Booger didn’t know what to say. At this point in his life, he had seen more than a few of his friends pass on from cancer or heart disease or any other number of illnesses. Of course he’d lost a few to other things, accidents, even a few suicides. It was always sad, but this was different. This made no damned sense. He reckoned he should drop by and check on Bobby’s family some time. See if they needed anything.
Booger nodded toward the man standing on the sidewalk. “Who’s that feller out there?”
Carl looked out the window toward the man on the sidewalk. “Brother Wilkins? He’s the preacher up at the Church of the Living Word, that little place way up the mountain on the Marshall Springs side.”
“How long’s he been standing out there preaching?” Booger asked.
“I seen him yesterday for the first time. Stopped to talk to him. I ain’t ever been much of one for church, but he’s making some good points.”
Booger didn’t much care to hear what those points were. He had his own thoughts on religion, and he’d never found a church that lined up with them. He let the subject drop and the two men sat quietly for a few moments. Carl finally broke the silence, “So where were you hiding out while the town was going to hell?”
“Margaret’s cabin,” Booger said, and Carl raised his eyebrows and smiled.
“Not like that, you dirty old coot. Margaret’s young enough to be my daughter,” Booger said before filling him in on everything that had happened. He hoped Carl would have some information about the identity of the soldiers who had rescued him. He was not disappointed.
“Them boys in black’s the ones who cleared out the town, too,” Carl said. “By the time the Guard got here, there wasn’t much left to do.”
“So who was they?” Booger asked. “Edward Dennis flat out asked them, and they wouldn’t tell us. That got me all kinds of curious.”
“No idea. They didn’t say much to us either, except to warn us to stay inside. I heard they broke into a house up on State Street. Neighbors said the woman and man who lived there were bitten. Next thing you know, they showed up, killed ‘em, and hauled their bodies away,” Carl said.
“And nobody knows who those men are?” Booger asked.
Carl shook his head. The server came by and Booger ordered a cup of coffee and a cinnamon roll. When she was gone, Booger spoke again. “Well, all I got to say is the whole thing is mighty peculiar.”
“Yeah, all this just starts, and nobody even knows how. Then some kind of soldiers come sneaking around town shooting and dragging away the dead without no explanation. I got some theories, but I ain’t sure about ‘em, yet,” Carl said, clearly hoping Booger would ask for his thoughts on the matter.
Booger did not. He imagined that Carl had many theories, but he wasn’t much interested in hearing them right now. He wanted real answers or at least some information that he could work with. The server returned with Booger’s coffee and topped Carl’s cup off. Other people were beginning to wander in now. So the two old men sat back, drank their coffee, and listened to the conversations going on around them, hoping to learn something that would help explain this whole terrible situation.
CHAPTER 33
As the afternoon faded into evening, Margaret finally felt herself starting to relax. She and Plato were back at home safe and sound, despite the odds. She had cleaned up the broken glass and gore from her encounter with Josh Roberts. The house smelled awful, but she’d managed to air it out enough to make it bearable, and she’d covered the scent of death with candles and air fresheners as best she could.
Still, she didn’t think she’d be able to sleep in the master bedroom tonight. She’d stay in the guest room instead, on the other end of the house. Usually, she would have called Booger to put some plywood up over the broken window until she could get it replaced, but she figured he was just as worn out as she was. So she had Kevin Masters come by and do it instead. She didn’t know how long it would take for things to settle down enough for her to get a real window put in, and she wasn’t about to leave it wide open if there was any chance there might be more monsters wandering around anytime soon.
She had checked her garden this morning after she got home. It was a sorry sight. The rain that had fallen before all of this started might have saved some of the plants, but she thought most of them were goners. She’d water it for a few days and see what lived, but she didn’t expect much. She might be able to replant the squash, but it was too late for the rest. Well, at least she’d have plenty of room to plant pumpkins, but she’d have to get them in the ground soon.
Now that she had gotten the house in order, she made her way to the kitchen to fix herself a decent dinner. Plato was curled up asleep in the living room. He looked happy to be back in his own bed. She supposed she could relate to that feeling. As she stepped into the kitchen, Plato’s ears perked up. He trotted into the kitchen, his claws clicking on the linoleum, and waited by his bowl for his own dinner. Margaret smiled as she filled it for him. Tomorrow, she would need to reach out and check on her friends and see what all had happened while she was gone, but, for now, she didn’t have the energy.
After dinner, Margaret stretched out on her sofa and turned on the television. Plato joined her, and curled up behind her knees, as she flipped through the channels. A few news reports caught her eye, but she didn’t feel like hearing about that right now. Instead, she found a nice classic movie and settled in to watch it with a glass of ice tea on the table beside her. She was glad to be alone for the first time in days, and she was ready to get back to her nice, quiet, peaceful life.
* * *
When Adam’s alarm went off Friday afternoon, he sat up, startled. It took him a few seconds to realize that he was back home in his own bed. His heart was racing, and he shut the alarm off and lay back down, staring at the ceiling for a few moments and trying to calm himself. Yesterday was a blur. He’d spent the day trying to get back in the swing of things.
The first hour after getting home was spent explaining everything that had happened to his parents. Unsurprisingly, they’d tried to convince him to come home. When he refused, his father had gotten angry, and accused him of being ungrateful for the help he’d provided at the cabin. Adam had pointed out that, if Little Rock did have an outbreak, it would be much worse, but his father ignored him. Adam had finally hung up, tired and angry. So, basically, it was just another day in the Keeling family.
Before he’d even made it to bed, his phone had rung again. It was the clinic calling to work out his schedule for the next few days. When he hung up with them, he was hungry so he’d fixed himself a bowl of cereal and eaten it as quickly as possible. All he could think of, by that point, was sleep. He’d just about sleepwalked to the bedroom and set his alarm. Then he’d stripped down to his boxers and fallen into bed. He had managed to sleep a whole three hours before his body had decided to wake him up again.
He’d finally fallen asleep again this morning at 6 a.m. Though he’d slept through the day, he was still dead tired, but he’d promised to drop by Melissa’s house before work. He was worried about her. Now that everything had calmed down, at least for a while, he suspected Matt’s death would really hit her hard. Since they had no family in the area, he wanted to be there for her. While he was certain Melissa had many other friends, he wasn’t sure how many of them had survived the past few days, and that type of news would only make things worse for her.
He thought about Matt and wondered again what he could have done differently in that moment. He knew it was pointless to keep putting himself through this. It was done, but he thought that he might always blame
himself for not doing more. His thoughts turned to Ray, and he made a conscious effort to steer them away from that subject. He was still too angry, and there was no satisfaction to be had in rehashing those feelings right now.
Adam reluctantly pulled himself out of bed and stumbled toward the bathroom. When he was showered and dressed, he texted Melissa to be sure that she still wanted company. They had seemed to really hit it off at the cabin, but they had kind of been stuck together. He couldn’t help wondering if she would still be interested in him now that life had at least somewhat returned to normal. His phone beeped, and he checked the text.
“You better show up! Dinner is ready, and I cooked way too much for just me,” the text read. Adam felt the butterflies in his stomach again, and he felt himself grinning like an idiot as he grabbed his keys and walked out the door.
As he drove across town, he scanned the radio stations for news. He was not surprised to learn that the infection was spreading rapidly across the state. New cases had just been reported in West Memphis. The authorities were scrambling to get a handle on the situation. If the infection crossed the bridge into Memphis, it was going to get ugly very quickly.
Adam saw the sign for Melissa’s street ahead. He scanned the left side of the street for the white house with the red car in the driveway and saw it about a quarter of the way down the street. He pulled into the driveway, turned the radio off, and stepped out of the car. Adam stepped onto the porch and knocked on the door. A few seconds later, Melissa led him into the kitchen and handed him a plate.
“Have at it,” she said, picking up her own plate.