by Dead Road 02
John fell away, the force of his push as well as the sudden release of his shoulders propelling him backwards. He landed hard on his backside and felt the breath in his chest get knocked out of him. Gasping deeply, he suddenly felt a sharp sting in his right shoulder and the left side of his chest that hadn’t existed a second before. He ground his teeth, and exhaled through them, reaching to feel along his side, where he found the source of his pain.
A small puncture wound from when he hit the shelf bled into his hand. Sitting up slowly, he stared at the man once known as Ray, as he tried desperately to climb out of the broken door. His mouth opened and closed like a fish struggling for air, most of his teeth cracked from chewing on metal. The red hands, with their lengthy fingers reached out for John, but were nowhere close and instead flailed at empty air.
John shook his head and with a miserable expression watched the man from where he sat, barely a few feet away. “What happened to you?” he asked.
Ray’s only response was a frustrated, strangled moan.
The janitor’s hands clutched the frame of the shattered door and he slowly began pulling himself to his feet. Another moan burst from his mouth before an aluminum bat crashed into his face, slamming his head back into the shelves. He slumped and stilled, blood seeping from his swollen lips. The bat crushed Ray’s nose in with its next strike.
Darian sighed behind his Cat mask, letting the bat in his hand hang slack at his side. Cans and bottles rolled across the floor, spraying soda over their shoes as his calm brown eyes found John’s wide blues.
“You’re welcome.”
*****
John leaned on Darian, using him for support as the two trudged through the convenience store. With a hand pressed hard against his side, John felt a little blood slipping between the cracks of his fingers, soaking Natalie’s white shirt.
“So much for your golf club,” Darian stated derisively.
“Yup, there goes pretty much all of my game.”
“Yeah, along with all thirty of your handicap.”
“You annoy me,” John mumbled.
“You suck at golf,” Darian returned.
Ping
As they stepped outside the rest of the group rushed them, including, much to John’s surprise, Hiroshi. Everyone wore their masks and John couldn’t help but smile at the spectacle, as multiple adorable animal faces charged at him. The human eyes bursting with worry made for an interesting contrast.
“John!” Karen cried and slid to a stop before she accidentally collided with the injured man.
“Are you alright?” Natalie asked, eyeing the speckles of red spreading on her night-shirt.
“Been better,” he replied with a strained grin. “You okay?”
She gave a quick nod, shoulders shaking from her wracked nerves. “I’m okay.”
“Good. Anyone bother to bring some bandages?” John looked over the four people he wasn’t leaning on. “You know, ‘cause they’d be helpful right now.”
“On it,” Amy responded and dashed back to the cars.
“We’d better follow her.” John tipped his head, back toward the road. Heads turned in unison to see what had caught his attention.
“Yes, we should get back to the cars,” Hiroshi said with a somber nod.
From every direction they approached, stumbling across the street, dragging their feet as they moved, reaching out with their hands. There were at least fifty of them, all pale skinned, and splattered in blood, their jaws’ gaping in ravenous want.
Darian adjusted his hold on John, setting him straighter. “Yeah, we don’t have enough bats for this,” he said and the five quickly moved to the cars.
“Hiroshi, you take the wheel,” John shouted as he and Darian fell behind the other three. He looked to his friend, who was beginning to lift him in the air with each step. “Darian, you need to lead the way.”
Glancing down at John, Darian nodded in agreement. “Leave it to me,” he replied and for a few steps pulled John off the ground to hasten their pace.
“Come on! Come on!” Natalie was screaming, already inside of the SUV.
“Hurry!” Karen urged, bouncing up and down in the passenger seat of Darian’s truck. She had to grab hold of her glasses to keep them from flying off her face.
The horde closed in, the nearest ones stepping from the street onto the sidewalk. Their moans of hunger mingled together into a sullen hum, indicating how close they had come. They jostled one another mindlessly, like a herd of cows, as their proximity shrunk, having no interest in the multitude of others next to them. The giant mob craved fresh meat.
Reaching the SUV, John jumped into the car, with a little extra push from Darian. He fell into the back seat, head colliding with Natalie’s knee. Crying out, he covered his forehead protectively as Natalie did the same with her knee. She fell on his spine, knocking the wind out of him as she climbed over his body, lunging to grab the open door. It slammed shut, hitting the soles of John’s shoes as it did and the girl collapsed on his back. There was a moment of silence before John spoke.
“This can’t be good for my side,” he grumbled, rubbing firm against his forehead. “Or my shoulder.”
Pushing herself up, Natalie hurried to climb off of him. She threw herself over the back seats and halfway into the back, searching for the first aid supplies.
“Hiroshi,” John croaked, still trying to catching his breath, “just follow Darian.” Natalie returned with gauze and tape in hand. She stopped, hovered over his chest, unsure of her next move. He lifted his shirt, revealing the small, bloody opening in his side for the nineteen year-old to see. “It’s nothing too bad, just tape some bandages over it.”
Hiroshi revved the SUV’s engine and the vehicle rolled forward. He waited for Darian to take the lead and watched as the light brown truck jumped into the horde without hesitation. Dragged underneath, the SUV crushed them beneath its tires. It rammed more out of its way, throwing them to the side, and back into the crowd of people, knocking them over like bowling pins. Hiroshi’s jaw dropped, shocked by Darian’s brutality. He stepped on the gas and pulled the wheel to follow in the truck’s gruesome wake.
John groaned as the car jumped in the air, tossing him up with it. Natalie was struggling to apply the gauze over his wound and Amy had turned in her seat, reaching to try and hold him down as the SUV bounced over bodies. Body parts of those not run over banged and smacked against the sides of the SUV, like a riotous mob, but the three ignored it, focusing on the task at hand. He seized Natalie’s wrists and helped her place the bandage on his side. “Hold it there. Where’s the tape?” he demanded, searching for it on her lap.
“Hold on!” Hiroshi exclaimed and the car bounced into the air. Everyone left their seat, momentarily airborne, before crashing back down hard, Natalie losing her hold on the gauze. She hurried, hands shaking, to reclaim the wound under the cotton bandage.
The medical tape landed on John’s chest and he blinked in surprise, plucking it from his stomach as it tumbled toward the floor. He tore a strip off and sloppily pushed it over the gauze. Another strip followed and he slapped it on in haste before letting his head drop in relief and triumph. He felt Natalie and Amy’s hands leave his trembling body.
“We’re out?” he asked and swallowed heavily, pulling another line of medical tape.
“Getting back onto the highway,” Hiroshi replied, his voice cragged from stress. “The side of the road’s clear. I think we’ll be able to get to the Pacheco exit without having to stop.”
John grimaced as he applied the last bit of tape, securing the gauze in place. His eyes looked up at Natalie, brows creased in worry. “Rubbing alcohol?”
The blonde blanked for a moment. “Uh, yeah, yeah, hold on, I think there’s some,” she replied, turned in her seat and reached into the trunk again. She popped back a second later, bottle of isopropyl alcohol in her hand.
“Should’ve done this first,” he muttered, taking the bottle from her and unscrewing the
cap. He exhaled deeply and winced, then poured a little alcohol on the taped gauze. The liquid seeped through, slowly making its way to the puncture in his side. He gritted his teeth as it burned throughout the wound.
Natalie pinched her lips shut, humming in concern. Her hands hovered over the bandage, which had already turned red, but they were pushed away by John’s.
“Don’t worry about it,” he said. “It’ll be fine.” He tried to sit up, but felt his strength gone, so he let himself collapse, head resting on Natalie’s leg.
“I’m not comfortable with you laying on me,” the blonde stated and she lifted John’s head off her thigh.
“Come on, I just saved your life,” he countered in frustration, “again.”
“Did I ask you to?” Natalie shot back.
“No, not this time. I suppose I could’ve let that guy eat you and saved myself the trouble.”
A sigh of annoyance. “Fine,” Natalie muttered, dropping John’s head without warning. She tugged on her long hair in annoyance. “But don’t ask for anything else.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.” He closed his murky blue eyes, letting exhaustion take him. “Nice pants,” he added, complimenting the Heffernan Middle School sweats she was wearing.
Chapter 7
JOHN snapped to consciousness, his pupil’s dilating to absorb the moonlight as it shone through the car windows. His head was resting on the leather of the back seats, Natalie’s lap nowhere in sight. The car wasn’t moving.
He sat up in a hurry and cried out as the pain in his side stabbed at him. Collapsing heavily, John swore to himself and moved to sit up again, slower this time. “Hello?” he called out, seeing that Hiroshi and Amy were missing as well. “Guys?”
His shoulder felt better, but he could feel the ache of a bruise. The door behind his head clicked and he twisted hard to see who had opened it. It only made the pain worse.
“Well, have a good nap?” Darian asked, smiling brightly in the dark night.
“What’s going on?”
“We’re on Pacheco. Took us a couple of hours to get here, but it was otherwise easy driving while you were out.” Darian glanced at the blood spot on John’s shirt. “How’s your side?”
“Sore, painful, like something stabbed a hole into me.” John’s voice was irritable. “Where’s everyone else?”
Darian sat on the edge of the back seat, his legs out the door. “Getting fresh air, taking a bathroom break,” he explained. “This place is empty. Once we got out of Gilroy, there were no cars or people anywhere.
“The question becomes,” he continued, “where do we go from here?”
Running a hand hard over the back of his neck, John frowned. “Inland.” His hand moved up and into his messy hair, raking through it. “We’ll find some place far away from the cities to hole up in.”
“Sounds good to me.” Darian started to leave then paused. He turned back to John. “You need to go to the bathroom or something?”
John smiled and nodded, embarrassed by being asked such a question. Normally it wouldn’t bother him, but he felt like Darian was treating him like a child. “Yeah, actually, I do,” he said and slid toward the door. Darian offered him a hand and John took it, soon finding his feet hanging outside the car and over asphalt. As Darian fingers loosened, John’s tightened, gripping his friend’s hand tight and stopping him in his tracks.
Darian narrowed his eyes at their hands, confused. “What—”
“You alright?” John asked with a determination he didn’t know he could muster. His stomach knotted, a combination of nerves and pain tugging at his insides.
Pulling his hand from John’s grasp, Darian gave him a look of annoyance. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
His feet touched the ground, and John put a hand on the car to catch his balance. “What do you think I’m talking about? Everything that—”
“That I’ve done?” Darian finished, the accusation clear in his voice. “Yeah, I’m fine with it.”
“Those people, though. All of them.”
“I know and I’m fine.”
Silence reigned between them, only the crickets chirping in the night filled the void.
“Okay, I need to take a leak.” John pushed himself off the car and glanced up at the full moon hanging in the sky, the giant globe softly illuminating the San Luis Reservoir.
*****
He stood alone, down near the water. His hands were lost deep in his pockets as he stared at the placid lake that stretched miles into the distance. The night stars mirrored in its reflective darkness. A cool wind skimmed it, sending light ripples across its body.
“How’re you feeling?”
John didn’t turn at the sound of her voice, but instead continued to stare out at the dark water.
“Better. Sore, but I’ll live I think,” he said and tried shoving his hands further into his pockets. “Though I am starting to think you’re stalking me.”
Stopping beside the taller man, Natalie frowned. “Oh, and why’s that?”
“First you run into me at the mall, then you run into my car, and now you follow me out here while I’m trying to have a moment alone.” He finally acknowledged her presence, twisting his neck to look at her with a wry but worn smile.
“Don’t be an arrogant ass,” Natalie retorted, crossing her arms over her stomach. “Amy asked me to find you. Thinks it’s not safe for us to wander off by ourselves.”
“So she sent you to come and protect me if a sickie showed up? I feel safer already.” Natalie punched his shoulder and he winced. “Ow.”
Her arms went back to crossing under her chest, her shoulders hunching as a chilly breeze swept by. It whistled in the air, and her blonde hair drifted for an instant then fell, draping over her shoulders and across her forehead. She noticed John look away when it did. “What were you thinking about?”
“What do you think?”
“Family.”
“That’s about right,” John said softly.
“Yeah, when we’re not doing anything, like running from sick people, they’re all I can think about, my parents—” There was a twinge of sadness in Natalie’s voice. She found herself unable to speak.
John dropped a hand on her shoulder, squeezing it lightly. He opened his mouth to say something but stopped, really unsure what the right thing would be. The young woman had seen her parents become victims of the disease; he had no clue what had happened to his. He thought of his sister in Indiana and what she may have done, if she hadn’t gotten ill. Had the disease reached that far? He mentally cursed himself for losing his cell phone and tried to think of where it might be. Off the top of his head, he couldn’t recall his sister’s or his ex-girlfriend Heather’s numbers and there was the voicemail he hadn’t listened to.
His hand slipped from Natalie’s shoulder as he realized where he’d left his phone. A feeling of hopelessness washed over him and he let his head drop back so he gazed straight up at the twinkling stars above. All the way back at the school, in his Buick, sat his phone, his only means of contacting his sister and Heather. He hadn’t listened to a voicemail that could have been from anyone, someone he knew that hadn’t been infected, that he could save.
Frustration gripped him and he bent over, grabbing a rock with both hands. Much to Natalie’s surprise, he heaved the stone, yelling angrily. It flew briefly before plunking into the reservoir, sending ripples through the previously calm water. His voice echoed in the quiet night, and he dropped to his knees, covering his wound protectively. The strain of throwing had felt like a knife turning in his side.
Natalie dashed to him, crouching and laying a hand on his back. “What the hell was that, idiot?”
“That was me being an idiot,” John grunted in agreement. “Sorry.”
“I think we should go back to the cars.”
“Yeah, let’s do that.” John clutched Natalie’s elbow and pushed himself to his feet with her help. She moved to support him, but he brushed her off. “I
can walk on my own.”
Natalie glared at him in the dark. “Was just trying to help.”
“Sorry, just angry. Not your fault.”
The two started up the hill, back to the road where the cars and others waited. As they reached the top, Natalie stopped and looked over to the resevoir, then the full moon. “Beautiful moon tonight, at least that hasn’t changed.”
John followed her example, peering up at the moon. His eyes narrowed, as if spying something extraordinary. “That’s no moon. That’s a space station,” he stated and grinned weakly.
“What?” Natalie’s tone of voice revealed the real question on her mind; ‘Are you stupid?’
“Really?,” John said, “Star Wars?”
“I’m nineteen and a girl, what makes you think I would know anything about that?”
John groaned and shook his head. “Of all the people to be stuck with during the end of the world — I wouldn’t step there, that’s where I took a leak.”
“And you’re complaining about being stuck with me?”
*****
The beige truck and the black SUV rolled down the dark highway, headlights lighting the way ahead. They never topped 30 miles per hour even though they were the only cars on the road.
John shoved a potato chip into his mouth, crunching it noisily. He smacked his lips and slipped in two more before swallowing the first. This continued for another minute, John pushing chips into his mouth as fast as he could and chewing them loudly for the rest of the car to hear. He didn’t seem to notice.
“Could you eat a little louder, John? I don’t think the people outside can hear you,” Amy ridiculed from the passenger seat.
“I haven’t eaten since last night,” John shot back. “Gimme a break, I’m starving.” He reached into another bag, grabbed a couple of peanut butter crackers.