by David Spell
When the Tundra stopped in front of the store two minutes later, Chuck dove into the backseat carrying a black container the size of a small suitcase. He saw the question in Beth’s eyes in the rearview mirror but he also saw her relief that he was OK.
McCain directed his wife out of the parking lot, the group of Zs now shuffling back from other side of the shopping center. A mile up the road was a large convenience store, the doors and windows smashed out.
“Pull in there,” Chuck directed. “If it hasn’t all been looted, I’ll see if I can pick up some Gatorade. That’s what Diya needs.”
Beth pulled cautiously into the parking lot. A few cars and trucks were scattered around the area, all appearing to be empty.
“Grab your rifle and hop out,” McCain said. “Cover me and make sure nothing sneaks in behind me.”
“I’ll feel a lot better when we get out of this little town,” Elizabeth said, a slight tremble in her voice.
Chuck smiled and pointed at the girl in the front passenger seat. “This was your idea and it was a good one. Your instincts were right on. This’ll just take a minute.”
McCain carefully entered the store after kicking the doorframe to see if any Zs were inside. The business had been ransacked and the Gatorade and PowerAde coolers were empty. He moved down another mostly empty aisle, locating the Gatorade powder.
Just as he grabbed the last two containers, a gunshot exploded outside. Chuck spun to see smoke curling out of the barrel of Beth’s AR-15, a dead male zombie lying twenty feet away. As he rushed out to help, Elizabeth’s muzzle tracked another one advancing towards her. She fired a second shot from fifteen feet, a 5.56mm bullet punching through the left eye of what had been a small, black-haired teenage girl, wearing a cheerleading outfit.
McCain stopped beside his wife, scanning the area for any further threats. He motioned for her to get into their vehicle and then followed. He was also ready to get out of the little town. They saw a few more infected as they made their way through the small business district of Pendleton but ten minutes later, they were cruising again on empty rural roads.
North of Pendleton, South Carolina, Wednesday, 1340 hours
Ten miles later, McCain tapped Beth on the shoulder. “We need to find a place to stop and give Diya some Gatorade. It looks like there’s another church just up on the right.”
On his journey, he had found himself on more than one occasion, taking refuge in a house of worship. He couldn’t really explain it but he just felt safe there. The added bonus was that most churches tended to be deserted during the week.
Elizabeth stopped in the roadway in front of Faith Fellowship, she and Chuck scanning the area for any signs of zombies or human predators. Beth pulled in, driving slowly around to the rear of the building, grateful not to see any cars in the parking lot. She stopped behind the church, out of sight from the street, under a metal awning by the back doors. All of the entrances and windows appeared to be intact.
Beth climbed out and walked around to check on their passenger. Diya opened her eyes and tried to smile, swallowing water from the bottle that was held up to her lips. Chuck handed Elizabeth the plastic container of Gatorade powder to mix for their patient.
As Elizabeth prepared the drink, Diya Meena looked up at Chuck. “Did you…?”
“I did,” he said, softly. “I’m so sorry, but I took care of it.”
Tears poured down the young girl’s face. “They were sick for a long time. Thank you,” she said, quietly.
Beth gave her a few sips of the Gatorade. “How long has it been since you’ve eaten or had anything to drink?”
“I’m not sure; I kind of lost track of time. I don’t think I’ve eaten in over a week, and my water ran out two or three days ago.”
After drinking some more of the replenishing liquid, Diya asked, “Where are you taking me?”
Beth glanced at her husband who shrugged, uncertainty etching his handsome face. “Do you have any family in the area?” Elizabeth asked, putting her hand on the young girl’s arm.
Meena shook her head. “My aunt and two cousins live in Clemson but I think they’re sick, too. My uncle came to the store and said that his wife had gone crazy and attacked him. It wasn’t long before he started attacking my family.”
The sobs began again, the small girl’s body shaking as she cried. Beth leaned into the vehicle and held her tightly, knowing first-hand the pain of losing one’s family.
Why does helping people have to be so complicated? McCain asked himself. What were they going to do with Diya? He touched his wife on the shoulder to get her attention.
“I’m going to walk around the church and see what I can see. If it looks secure, I think we’ll stop here and spend the rest of the day and night. She needs to be taken care of and we can’t do that on the road.”
Beth nodded at him, watching him go. They both understood the dangers of stopping, knowing that there were zombies in the area.
McCain moved slowly around the building, staying close to the wall. He looked for signs of forced entry that might indicate someone else was lodging there. He didn’t like the idea of spending the night, but Diya needed to be rehydrated as soon as possible. After that, they would try to get a little food in her. What she really needed was to be hospitalized with an IV in her arm. For now, Gatorade and chicken soup would have to do.
Chuck also realized that Elizabeth would be crashing physically very soon. He was surprised that she was still functioning as well as she was. They’d been in a shootout that morning and then taken on a pack of zombies to rescue the young Indian girl.
The normal physiological reactions after a strong adrenaline dump are physical weakness and exhaustion for those who aren’t used to operating at a high level of intensity. That could be compensated for by intensive training, but in Beth’s case, a good night’s rest should take care of it.
As Chuck reached the front of the Faith Fellowship, the sound of an approaching vehicle made him slowly drop to the ground behind a large bush. A red Ford Expedition was driving north from Pendleton, where McCain and the ladies had just come from. As it went by, he counted four men, the two in the backseat pointing rifles out of their open windows. Leonard Skynard’s “Sweet Home Alabama” blasted over their sound system, the occupants clearly not concerned with attracting infected people.
The SUV continued past the church without slowing down. Chuck waited for two minutes and then crouch-walked in front of the church building, making sure that the main doors and windows were secure. He completed his circuit, working his way down the opposite side of the facility, finally ending up back where he had started.
Beth stood beside the open passenger door of the Tundra, holding her rifle in a low ready position. She exhaled audibly when she saw Chuck.
“I heard a car.”
He nodded. “I saw it. A red Ford Expedition coming from Pendleton. I counted four guys, two of them holding rifles.”
Anxiety filled Beth’s eyes. “So, what are we going to do?”
Chuck smiled, trying to put her at ease. “We’re going to break into this church and take care of our patient.”
“But what if those men come back?”
Her husband shrugged. “I’ll kill them.”
The crow bar hadn’t been of much use on the burglar bars at Bombay Jewelers, but it made short work of the rear door of the Faith Fellowship. Chuck was able to pop the door open while only doing minimal damage. He asked Diya to wait in the Tundra, locked for her protection, while they cleared the interior of the building, making sure it was safe.
McCain then carried the weak girl inside and laid her on a row of four padded chairs inside the first room on the left. They had chosen a Sunday School room for children complete with a painting of Moses standing in front of the parted Red Sea on one wall and the shepherd boy, David, confronting a giant on another. The rear entrance of the church had brought them into a small lobby connected to the children’s wing of the worship center, c
omplete with multiple classrooms.
After finding a small kitchen on the other side of the church, Elizabeth located several tablecloths. Two of the black ones went over the window of their room while the others would be used for bedding. A white cloth covered Diya as she rested. As Elizabeth held the plastic water bottle containing Gatorade up to the girl’s lips, Chuck worked on the back door, managing to re-secure it. After making sure they were as safe as they could be inside the building, he checked in on the two girls.
“You OK?” Chuck asked his wife.
Elizabeth gave him a weary smile. “All of a sudden I’m feeling really tired,” she yawned.
“The adrenaline is finally wearing off,” he told her. “We’ve had a pretty full day. I think you’re entitled to have the afternoon off. I managed to get the rear door locked again. I’m gonna go check the rest of the building and see if there’s anything that we can use.”
“How’re you feeling, Diya?” Elizabeth asked the young girl after Chuck left.
Beth had found a spoon in the kitchen and was sitting next to Meena, giving her some small bites of canned chicken soup, being careful not to let her eat too much in one sitting. It would be several days before she would be able to start eating normally again. Several cans of soup had been left behind in the Mitchell’s pantry and Elizabeth had helped herself when she and Chuck had left.
“So much better,” Diya answered with a smile, sitting up. “I feel so weak but the water, Gatorade, and that soup are bringing me back to life.”
“How old are you?”
“I just turned thirteen. My brother was only eleven.” The memory of her dead family brought another wave of sadness back and she closed her eyes.
“How long had you guys been in the store?” Beth asked, wanting to keep her talking. “Were y’all camping out in there?”
Diya nodded. “My father thought we would be safer there. He watched the news and said that our house was in path of the zombies. Papa was worried about our business, too. He said that people were going to be using the zombie crisis as an excuse to rob and steal and do other bad things. He and Mama set up the back room like an apartment. We’ve been there a few months.
“We had plenty of food and water and no one had bothered us. Papa had a shotgun but he’d never used it. I heard Mama ask him why we didn’t leave, go somewhere safer. She was worried about me and Sunil, my brother.
“They thought I was asleep but I was just pretending. Papa told Mama that the jewelry store was all he had to give us. They wanted me to be a doctor. Papa was going to pay for me to go to medical school and for Sunil to go to law school. I don’t know if my brother even understood what a lawyer was. Our parents wanted to help us, and we would do as they asked. That’s our culture.”
Elizabeth patted the grieving girl’s shoulder. “Your parents sounded like good people. I’m sure they were very proud of you.”
“But I couldn’t help them, Miss Elizabeth. When my uncle came to the store he told my dad that my aunt had jumped on him and started biting him. He thought that she had hurt their two sons, too, but he couldn’t get to them. Uncle rushed out of the house and drove over to get my father’s shotgun.
“But then Uncle just stopped talking and collapsed onto the floor. Papa and Mama tried to help him; my bother and I just stood there, wondering if he was dead. Papa yelled for me to get the first-aid kit on the other side of the room.
“Just as I grabbed it, Mama started screaming, my brother was crying, and Papa was yelling. I rushed back across the room and saw Uncle biting my brother’s leg. The blood was pouring out and he was pushing on his head, trying to make him let go. Papa started punching Uncle but he just kept biting Sunil.
“Uncle made a horrible growling noise as he chewed. I could even hear his teeth grinding. Then, he let go of Sunil and grabbed Mama and bit her on the face. Papa kept hitting him but Uncle wouldn’t stop. I ran over and hit uncle in the head with the first-aid kit. It was plastic and it just broke open and everything flew out onto the floor. Papa grabbed me and shoved me towards the door. ‘Go into the store! Get out of here and lock the door!’”
The tears were pouring down the young girl’s face as she relived the horror of that day.
“Shh,” Beth said, softly, pulling her new friend close and hugging her. “I’m so sorry. You don’t have to say any more.”
“But I feel so guilty, Miss Elizabeth. I ran away and left my parents and brother with my sick Uncle. I didn’t even try and help, but I could hear everything. It was terrible and I was so scared. After my family got sick, they started trying to get to me, banging on that door.
“I didn’t know what to do. All our food and water was in the back room. I found three granola bars in one of the drawers and four bottles of water.
“The zombies showed up a few days later. They smashed all the windows out as I tried to hide behind one of the counters but I think they could smell me. Every day I just laid there on the floor, trying to pray to one of our gods.
“All the days started running together and I hadn’t eaten in so long, over a week, and I’d finished my water. I finally decided that I’d open the back door and join my family. I was going to die anyway, either by starving or getting sick with my family. My mind was telling me that’s what I should do and my gods weren’t helping me.
“I was trying to get my courage to open the door and die when I heard a car horn. When I managed to stand up, I saw Mr. Chuck across the street shooting the zombies. I must’ve fainted because the next thing I remember was Mr. Chuck and you standing in front of the store.
“You saved me but I don’t know what to do now. My family is dead. I have no other relatives in America. I have no money. I feel so empty, so lost, and so guilty.”
Diya began weeping again and Elizabeth held her, letting her cry it out. After a few minutes, the girl’s sobs finally subsided and Beth began speaking to her, very quietly, about how she had lost her own parents to the deadly bio-terror virus. Elizabeth didn’t spare any of the details, describing how her mother had gotten infected and then attacked her father, ripping his throat out.
When Beth had tried to intervene, her mom had turned on her only daughter, wanting to devour and eat her, also. Elizabeth grabbed the first thing within reach that she could use as a weapon, a heavy crystal vase, and smashed it against her mother’s skull, killing her instantly. By this time, the virus had worked its way through her father’s body, reanimating him. He went after his daughter, as well, and Beth fled the house.
An ambulance and a police car had just pulled up to the residence in response to what Elizabeth had called in as a medical emergency. When the growling, bloody, infected man came charging towards the emergency personnel, the police officer fired several shots into the new zombie, a bullet to the head putting him down for good.
As Elizabeth continued to hold Diya’s small frame, she shared how guilty she had felt in the aftermath of losing her own parents. She had been the one to strike down her precious mother and had made the 911 call which resulted in her father’s death. Even though she hadn’t fired the shots, she still carried guilt and remorse for months because she hadn’t been able to help them. She even told Diya about the deep depression that she had sunk into, only coming out of her campus dorm room when she absolutely had to.
McCain returned after his search of the building. When he got to the doorway of the classroom, however, he saw his wife holding Diya, comforting her. It was clear that the Indian girl had been crying, and crying women always made the big man uncomfortable. Not wanting to intrude, Chuck backed out, seated himself in the hallway near the back door where he would have some light, and opened the Bible that he’d picked up from a seat in the auditorium.
Meena made no move to pull away from her new friend’s embrace, finding comfort in her touch. After a few minutes of silence, Diya said, “You don’t seem depressed to me, Miss Elizabeth. I think that you’re a happy person.”
Beth smiled. “That man o
ut there, Mr. Chuck, helped me work through it. He helped me to see that there was nothing I could’ve done to save my parents. It was a terrible thing and I miss them so much, but it wasn’t my fault.
“Something else that you should know is that Mr. Chuck saved my life, too. Some bad men had kidnapped me and were going to hurt me. Mr. Chuck showed up and rescued me. I’m telling you this because we want you to feel safe with us; we’ll take care of you. None of us knows what the future holds but God was watching over you today and must have some special plans for your life.”
Elizabeth’s vulnerability struck a chord with Diya and the young girl began asking her questions about her life. She was surprised to learn that Beth and Chuck had only been married a few days. Meena instinctively looked at Elizabeth’s left hand, not seeing an engagement or wedding ring.
Beth saw the look and shook her head. “Not yet. It happened kind of fast but I’m sure Mr. Chuck will get me something nice when things get back to normal.”
Diya gave a wistful smile. “I could’ve given you something from the store. My father let me help him. I’d go with him to the trade shows and wholesalers to pick out what we would sell. He always let me pick out the wedding sets,” she said, proudly.
Chuck couldn’t hear what the two ladies were talking about but it was clear that Beth had made a friend. She’s good, McCain realized. Diya had just lost her entire family and she and Elizabeth were talking and even giggling. The question now was what do we do with the young girl? No problem, he told himself. It’ll work itself out.
A few hours later, the sun had set, they had all eaten, and Diya Meena was tucked under the white tablecloth, sleeping on the four padded chairs that had become her bed. Chuck and Elizabeth walked around the inside of the worship facility holding hands and chatting quietly. Beth had supervised Meena as she had eaten some more soup, making sure she didn’t overdo it. Now, the couple was enjoying a few minutes by themselves before they also tried to get some sleep.