by Jack Hunt
He was black, middle-aged, and clearly infected. A rash had spread over the left side of his neck and face, and there was blood trickling out of his nose.
Pinned, the stranger reached for Josh, trying to touch him.
But he kept his distance.
Crying out loud, it took every muscle in Josh’s body to hold him. He knew he wouldn’t be able to hold the position for long.
Then it happened.
“Do it!” the stranger said.
From out of view a gun erupted and the stranger went limp.
Blood oozed from the side of his temple. For a second, he thought Ryan was back. Then the girl appeared. She looked at him then at Lily who was crouched, arms around her knees, hands over her ears. “Don’t you touch her!” Josh shouted. “Don’t you go near her.”
“Believe me. I don’t plan on it.” She looked despondently down at the stranger one more time before backing away. Josh released his grip on the floor lamp and hurried out of the room, down the stairs, and outside. The air was thick and humid. He made his way around to the front and raised both of his arms. She hadn’t moved from the spot and was staring at the stranger.
“Jump, Lily.”
She looked over her shoulder. “It’s too high.”
“I’ll catch you.”
She hesitated for a few seconds and then launched herself off the porch roof. Josh let out an “Ooof!” as he caught her. They crumpled. He ran a hand over her face. “You okay?”
She nodded. Josh looked up again, wondering where the girl had gone. She wasn’t on the porch roof anymore.
“Come on, we need to find dad.”
“You should put a bandage on that hand of hers,” a voice said.
He looked back to find the girl standing in the doorway of the house.
Josh didn’t respond. He tightened his grip on Lily’s hand and hurried to the truck.
“I’m not infected,” she said.
He stopped just as he was about to open the passenger side and put Lily in. Josh looked back and saw the girl had come out and sat down on the step. She lit a cigarette and blew out smoke. It drifted in the breeze. Under a starless sky, he still couldn’t fully see her features. Just her form. She was black. The same as the stranger. That he could tell from when he locked eyes with her.
Before he could reply, Ryan came running out of the field, rifle at the ready. He tossed the gasoline can down and lifted the rifle at the girl, unaware that Josh and Lily were on the other side of the truck. “What did you do?”
“Dad,” Josh said, coming around the truck.
“Josh?”
Lily ran toward Ryan and clung to his side. “You okay? You hurt?”
Lily showed her hand. He looked back up again at the girl who still hadn’t moved. She didn’t seem fazed by the rifle. She leaned back on the porch, puffing away, legs outstretched, ankles crossed.
“What happened?” Ryan asked.
Lily pointed up to the roof where the man’s body was hanging out of the window.
“No one was touched,” Josh said before he could ask.
“You shot him?”
“No, she did,” Lily said. “Josh’s gun was downstairs.”
“What?”
“We’re okay,” Josh said firmly, noting the look of judgment in his eyes. “Besides, where were you?” Maybe he shouldn’t have tagged the last bit on the end but he figured it would put things in perspective, especially since his father looked as if he was about to dish out a lecture.
“I came as soon as I heard the gunshot.”
“Yeah, well, obviously not soon enough.”
“And I thought my family was messed up,” the girl said without a hint of amusement as she rose to her feet and headed back inside. “If you’re hungry, feel free to come in.”
“Who are you?” Ryan asked.
Not even looking at him, she replied, “The name’s Ren. I live here.”
With that said she walked into the house.
Chapter Twenty-One
“Isaac. He was my younger brother,” she said, sliding a steel-framed family photo across the table. Ryan stared at it under the glow of a lantern and several candles around the kitchen. In the family portrait were the parents, whom he believed were hanging in the barn, then there was Ren, two other boys, and a younger brother that had to be three, maybe four years younger than Lily.
“How old?”
“In that? Seven,” she said, stopping to take a swig from a can of Coke before continuing to clean Josh’s gun. She was wearing latex gloves, an N95 mask, and goggles. She had a red bandanna around her head to keep a huge mass of hair in check. He noticed she was wearing a black crop top, and another bandanna around her neck to protect any exposed areas of skin. She had tight black jeans and ankle boots. There was an air of confidence to her, the way she dismantled the gun. It certainly wasn’t the first time she’d seen one. “He was that age until he got sick. By my estimate, he must have aged around thirty years in just over two weeks. Give or take. If the reports are right, people are aging around two years every day. He got sick a couple of weeks ago.”
Josh sat at the table, eating some of the food she’d offered. Surprisingly it was good, more than they’d come across in a while. It was packets of beef jerky. Her father had the good sense to run out and get as much as he could when the first wave of news hit outlets. She’d stored the supply outside the house in an insulated container that was hidden.
“How old are you?” Ryan asked.
“Is that a trick question?” she replied with a deadpan expression. “Seventeen. Give or take a few days.”
“Happy birthday,” Lily mumbled with a mouth full of soda pop.
“Lily. Not with your mouth full,” Josh said.
Ren’s eyes darted between them. No smile. It was to be expected. Only moments ago she’d had to kill her brother. “So, you all family?” she asked.
“That’s right.”
“Where you from?”
“Texas.”
“A little out of the way. What brought you to our neck of the woods?”
Neither of them replied.
“Ah, it’s secret. Okay. I can respect that. You don’t know me. I don’t know you.”
“So what’s the deal with your brother?” Josh asked. “I mean obviously he was trying to stop the aging in himself but it sounded like you two had been at it a while.”
“Hide and seek. Yeah, you could say it was something like that.”
“Why didn’t you just leave?”
“And go where? It’s not like there are any safe zones out there.”
“I mean, why did you stick around here?” Josh asked.
She stopped cleaning the gun and looked out the window, thoughtful. “I don’t know exactly. I thought about killing him sooner. But I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. Figured he’d eventually get too old and die.”
“And your other brothers?”
“My father killed them; Keith first, Martin, after that. Then when he got sick, he asked my mother to squeeze the trigger but she wouldn’t. She stuck him in the barn and told him that maybe they would find a cure. That didn’t happen. He hung himself. My mother lost it. After losing two of her sons in a month, she couldn’t bear the thought of living without him. Two days later I found her hanging beside him.”
“You mean she purposely killed herself?”
She nodded.
“But she still had you two?” Ryan said.
Ren looked at him. “She touched him. She was infected. Still, I think if she hadn’t, she would have hung herself anyway.”
“Why?”
“Does that surprise you?” Ren asked.
“It’s just not what I would do.”
He didn’t say anything so she continued. “You might not but others are doing it. Families. Taking their kids’ lives and then their own rather than face this. Crazy, right?” She chuckled but Ryan could tell that she didn’t find anything funny about it. It was a mechanism,
a response to dealing with the situation.
The problem was that she was telling the truth.
There were so many fears surrounding getting old as it was, but now with the virus increasing the speed, and the videos circulating online of the horrific and painful manner in which people died, for some that was too much of a gamble. They didn’t want to bury their kids any more than he did. He hadn’t considered what he would do if Josh and Lily were exposed to the pathogen. He’d been so focused on keeping them alive that this had reminded him — that even in the most isolated areas, danger could be lurking. Even though he wanted to trust Josh, he couldn’t drop his guard for one minute.
“After that. It was just me and Isaac. We kept the lights in the house off at night. I ventured into town for supplies and he would hide in the attic while I was away.” She stopped cleaning and got this faraway look in her eyes. “I came back from a trip to collect supplies and found him on the porch. They’d used rope to tie him to the main post. He told me that he saw from the attic a small girl crying. She was alone. At least he thought she was.” She clenched her hand and closed her eyes. “I’d told him countless times that under no conditions was he to leave the attic. No matter what he heard or saw. Anyway, that’s how they got him. Apparently, the young one was infected. As soon as he stepped outside, the father scooped Isaac up. And that… is that. I mean I get it. I understand. No parent wants to bury their child, but…”
They sat there listening intently as she resumed cleaning the gun.
“Anyway, I cut the rope and isolated him in the house. He asked if I was going to shoot him. I never gave him an answer. After a week, he was older than me, and that’s when the problems started. He wanted out.”
“So he chased you to transmit it?”
“Yes and no. He wanted me to kill him and I wouldn’t do it. At least not until today.”
“That’s why he said, do it,” Josh added.
She nodded.
Ren cast a glance at Ryan. “He didn’t have the nerve to take his own life. He felt it was only right that I take it because I’d left him behind. Left him alone.” She paused. “He blamed me. That’s why he killed Jasper. My dog.”
She splashed the gun with more bleach and continued cleaning.
“I’ve never seen a gun cleaned with bleach,” Josh said. He chuckled.
“You are aware of how the pathogen is transmitted, right?” Ryan asked.
Ren nodded. “Of course.”
“Then you know people are exposed to it through direct, not indirect contact.”
“Right. Blood, saliva, vomit, diarrhea, sweat, semen, breast milk, shit, urine, a kiss, and from anyone who has died. Yeah. I got the memo. Hence the reason assholes are chasing people instead of just vomiting on park benches, playgrounds, or over door handles.”
She continued scrubbing, not looking at him.
They offered her a puzzled look.
Ryan continued. “So then you would know it’s not transferred indirectly by way of touching contaminated surfaces, or objects that were held by carriers, or even through mosquitoes that have bitten an infected.”
“Well, that last part is still up for debate. I mean, it’s not like society has had the time to sit around on talk shows shooting the breeze and working out the fine details. My motto is when in doubt… don’t believe a damn word people say,” she said, continuing to scrub.
Ryan considered the dogs back in that grocery store. They had blood from the infected on their teeth. If Ella’s leg hadn’t been torn so badly, could she have survived? If any one of them had been bitten, would they have begun aging? It was food for thought. There was still a lot about the virus that they didn’t understand. Even Ella said it wasn’t a typical virus.
Ren finished and set everything out in pieces on a clean cloth. “It should be dry soon. You know how to put one back together?” she asked Josh.
He nodded as she walked out of the room.
Ryan nudged him. “Eat up. We aren’t staying.”
“Did you find gas?” Josh said.
“No. There was none.”
“I have gas if you need it,” she said, appearing in the doorway. Ren peeled off latex gloves and tossed them into a basket before squirting sanitizer over her hands, and rubbing them, then squirting more. She followed that by putting on another pair. It was like she had OCD. She was working on a whole other level and was making a point not to come near them even though they’d told her they weren’t infected. “The gas. It’s from the Sommers property. Our neighbor. Where you went, I assume.”
“So you took it?” Ryan replied.
“Well, she is our neighbor.” She leaned against the doorway, a smirk lingering at the corner of her lips. For someone who had just taken out her brother, she seemed a little too calm about it, almost removed. Was it shock? A form of PTSD from witnessing her entire family wiped out? “It’s yours under a few conditions.”
“What?”
“Where’s the safe zone?”
“What makes you think we’re heading to a safe zone?” Ryan asked.
“What other reason would you jeopardize the lives of your two children?”
Ryan stared back at her. He knew where she was going with this. Another hitchhiker, another one to think about.
“Josh. Lily. Get your things. We’re leaving.”
“But the gas,” Josh said.
“We’ll find some on the way.”
“And the gun? It hasn’t even finished drying.”
“Leave it. It wasn’t much use to you anyway.” The words slipped out without him thinking. It was an innocent mistake anyone could have made. He didn’t want to make him feel like an idiot but he had.
“I’m not going yet, it’s the dead of night,” he shot back.
“Josh. Get in the truck!”
He glared at him.
They collected their belongings and made their way out. Josh caught up with Ryan. “She’s just offered us gas. Food. Hell, even a roof over our head for tonight. We need it. Lily needs it. Why won’t you tell her where we’re going?”
“Because the next condition she’d have is to come with us. And that’s not happening.”
Josh looked back at Ren who was leaning against the porch. “Why not? She can go in the bed of the truck like Ella did.”
“Think about what you are asking.”
“I am.”
“No,” he said. He tossed his bag and the empty ten-gallon canister into the truck then made his way around to the driver’s side. Josh spoke to him across the back of the truck bed.
“You don’t want her to come because of what happened to Ella. Right?”
“Get in the truck, Josh.”
“No. Answer the question.”
“I said get in the truck. I’m not having this conversation.”
“Well, I am. If anyone should feel to blame for her death it’s me.”
“No. You don’t get to do that.”
“Yes, I do. I was on the other side with her. Not you. There were a few seconds I could have shot that dog before it latched on to her. I didn’t. I froze. That’s on me. Not you. Now, that girl saved us. Okay? If it wasn’t for her, there’s a good chance both of us would be infected. So I’m going to tell her where the safe zone is. And if she wants to come, she’s coming.”
He walked off. Ryan shook his head and let out an exasperated sigh. All he needed was to be responsible for one more life. It was hard enough as it was. He already felt like he’d let them down in the past, and almost lost them searching for gas.
Lily stood there, holding her small backpack in one hand, and a bear in the other.
“Does he argue often?” Ryan asked.
“Josh? All the time. I’ve just learned to tune him out,” she said with a flicker of a smile before climbing into the truck. That made him chuckle. “Well? Are we going?” Lily asked. Ryan looked back at the house to where Josh was talking to Ren.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Executions w
ere a daily occurrence.
The numerous dead bodies strung up with blame-filled placards draped around their neck served as a warning to anyone not to linger. It wasn’t the first time they’d seen it. This morbid display had become an all too familiar sight, dotted throughout the landscape, in cities and small towns.
As local radio broadcasts became the breeding ground for misinformation, the color of a person’s skin, sexual orientation, disability, religion, or race no longer mattered. No one group was blamed for the outbreak. Everyone was a target.
In the eyes of town lynch mobs, fear was the justification for hatred.
And in a pandemic, nothing spread faster than fear.
Now, fear was firing on all cylinders.
After spending the night at Ren’s home in Robert, Louisiana, they rolled out at the break of day, hoping to put in as many miles as they could before dark. The plan was to not stop until they reached Alabama, one state over. That was foolish thinking.
Mississippi proved to be far more challenging than he had banked on. It seemed they weren’t the only ones who were heading for the safety of the water. Interstate 12, which offered the most direct route east along the coast, was controlled by quasi-military and blockades. They were checking for those who were sick. With traffic bumper-to-bumper, the chances of his truck’s engine overheating in the soaring temperatures were high.
As drivers got out to see what was holding up the line, a slew of gunfire answered that. While he didn’t see the carnage unfold, he didn’t have to — word spread fast down a line of trucks, RVs, and cars. Those found to be infected were being pulled from vehicles and thrown into the back of wagons to be quarantined. Anyone who opposed was dealt with in a deadly fashion.
It was a sifting of the chaff from the wheat.
For better or worse, he saw his opening and took it before it was too late. Ryan swerved out of the traffic down an off-ramp and headed north on Highway 21 to merge with Highway 26. From there they would head south on US-98 which would take them across Alabama. The downside was the route led them away from the southerly shore and through an endless slew of small towns and rural settings.
