Sara shrugged. “I don’t know,” she said. “I’ve always been a city girl.”
“And I’ve barely left the city,” said Will. “I mean, I’ve done the odd hike here and there...that was different, though. Watch out.”
He pointed to a body that was lying on the sidewalk, draped across it, so that Sara didn’t step on it. There was blood all around the face of the corpse. The veins of the hands, which were visible, were extremely enlarged, almost cartoonish. The blood was still fresh and the face was visible. It was a woman in her early twenties.
“Too young,” muttered Will. “Far too young.” But he knew that it didn’t matter what he thought. And he knew that there’d be many, many more dead.
The houses that they passed were small, normal-looking houses. It was a working class neighborhood.
Just a few days ago, the houses would have looked pleasant and well-maintained. Now, they looked ominous and threatening. There wasn’t anything actually different in their physical appearance, but it was the simple knowledge that Will and Sara had no idea what was going on behind those walls.
Most likely, there were people dying, people hemorrhaging out over their carpets and furniture.
Or people were inside, cowering, terrified of an unexpected knock on the door, terrified of violence or of contracting the virus.
With the power off across the whole city, with the communications networks completely down, it seemed impossible that there were any holdouts, people who simply didn’t know what was going on.
They were walking by a small duplex made of faux-adobe, when the front door to one of the houses burst open.
A man in his early forties was shoved out onto the stoop by at least two sets of arms.
The door slammed in his face.
The man spun around, ramming his fist against the door. “You can’t do this to me!”
“Come on,” said Will, taking Sara’s arm and pulling her along faster. He didn’t want to be anywhere near chaos or trouble. He could barely wait until they got off the streets and found somewhere to go.
Maybe they should have stayed at Sara’s house.
In fact, why hadn’t they done that?
Out in the open now, with the threats of the unexpected around every turn, it seemed that they had possibly made a huge mistake. Why had it ever occurred to them to leave the safety and security of that home?
“It’s just a nosebleed,” the man on the stoop was shouting. He didn’t stop banging on the door. “You can’t do this to me! We’ve been together for ten years and this is the thanks I get?”
“He sounds mad,” whispered Sara.
“Shh,” said Matt.
They were almost past the house. A couple more minutes and they’d be safely out of view.
“I’m coming in through the window!” shouted the man, fury and fear in his voice. “You can’t leave me out here! I’m not going to survive out here!”
The man was at the front of the house, near some small windows, his eyes scanning the yard, apparently desperately looking for some sort of tool to help him break the window.
Will wondered how many times a similar scene had played out in New Mexico over the last few days. Or in the whole country? How many families and relationships were to be torn apart, not by the virus, but by suspicion and fear?
“You! Hey, yeah, you!”
Suddenly, the man who’d been kicked out of his home was standing there, staring at Will and Sara, pointing at them, violence and anger written all over his face.
“Come on, hurry,” said Will, tugging on Sara’s hand, urging her to continue on faster down the street.
15
Matt
“This is harder than I thought it was going to be,” said Jamie, breathing heavily. She was covered in sweat, despite the relatively cool springtime temperatures. It was nowhere near as hot as it would get later that year in the summer months, before monsoon season came rolling in.
“Tell me about it,” said Judy, who was clearly struggling as well.
They’d been walking for about two hours. There were still the occasional cars driving up and down the road, so they’d played it safe and walked across the uneven terrain, about half a mile away from the road, keeping parallel to it.
Matt wasn’t having quite as hard a time, despite carrying more. The functional training that he’d done before the virus had struck was really coming in handy.
But he did have to admit that by the time they got to Judy’s cousin’s property, he’d be quite tired. It was one thing to think and plan things beforehand. It was quite another to actually do them.
Even Matt’s “functional training” couldn’t quite prepare him for the realities that life would throw at him now.
“You think you’re going to be able to make it there in one go, Judy?” said Matt.
“I don’t know. Probably not. I’m not as young as you two.”
“You’re doing better than I am,” said Jamie, panting heavily.
“You’re carrying more than me.”
“All right,” said Matt. “Let’s take a break. Come on. We’ll drink some water.”
The three of them sat down, trying to catch some shade by sitting partially underneath a juniper tree.
The mountains were off in the distance, clouds hovering around their peaks.
The three of them rested and drank their water in silence for a few minutes, catching their breath.
“Maybe we should walk along the road,” said Matt. “I don’t know if we’re going to be able to make it across the terrain. It’s tiring us out too much.”
“You mean tiring me out too much,” said Judy. “I hate the idea of being a burden like this. If we head to the road, who knows what’s going to happen to us. People are losing their minds. Someone might just come along and run us over for all we know.”
“You’re not a burden,” said Jamie.
“Try not to be so convincing.”
“You’re not,” said Matt. “But we don’t have time to argue about it. It’s hard to anticipate or evaluate an individual’s contribution to the group. It’s not always the strongest or fastest that wins the fight.”
“Sometimes it is, though,” said Judy.
Matt didn’t say anything. “Come on,” he eventually said. “We’ve got to get a move on. I don’t think we have a chance of getting there before nightfall, but the less time we’re out in the open, the better.”
The three of them started walking again. The minutes passed in silence and eventually turned into hours.
The sun continued its arc overhead and the rays beat down on them.
Matt was covered in sweat and unexpected blisters appeared on his feet. They were quite painful.
Judy was doing okay. It seemed that as long as they kept an even pace, she could keep up.
Jamie, on the other hand, was struggling.
“You know I always went to the gym,” she was saying, between ragged breaths. “I did the elliptical and everything. It’s just...the sun...the...” She could barely string her words together. That’s how tired she was.
“Real-world conditions are different,” said Matt, trying to keep his tone even. He didn’t want to seem like he was berating her. He wanted to keep morale up. “A lot different from an air-conditioned gym with a flat floor.”
“Tell...me...about...it...” panted Jamie.
They were walking side by side, and Matt reached out to take yet another bag from Jamie. That was the last thing that she’d been carrying and now she had nothing to weigh her down.
“It’s too much for you to carry,” she panted.
Matt shrugged. “It’s all right,” he said, trying to figure out a comfortable position for the extra bag. He was pretty loaded down and it was starting to tire him out. But he knew he was the one best equipped to deal with the physical strain.
“Can’t we just dump...some...of...it?” she said, still completely out of breath.
Matt shook his head. “Probably not
a good idea.”
Judy was walking about ten feet in front of them. Suddenly, she stumbled over a small rock that was partially buried in the dry dirt. She fell forward, her face smashing into the sand, her hands useless at her sides.
Maybe she hadn’t been doing as well as Matt had thought. Maybe she’d been overly fatigued and hadn’t wanted to admit it, pushing herself through.
“Judy, you okay?”
Matt was too loaded down with gear to rush forward quickly.
Jamie, despite being out of breath, beat him to Judy.
“Judy? Are you okay? Talk to me, Judy.”
Jamie had her hands on Judy and was trying to pull her up so that she wasn’t lying face down. But she wasn’t strong enough and she had to wait for Matt to get there, dump all his gear down in the dirt, and help her.
“What happened, Judy?” he said, as he got her flipped over on her back.
He took his shirt off and used it as a rag to wipe the dirt and blood from Judy’s face. There was blood coming from her nose.
“She doesn’t have the...”
Virus was clearly the unspoken word.
“No,” said Matt. “I think she just broke her nose. You still with us, Judy?”
Judy nodded her head but she still didn’t speak.
“Judy, can you speak?”
“Yes,” she said, opening her mouth to reveal blood. “I’m not feeling good. There’s a strange sensation in my chest.”
“There’s blood in her mouth. And in her nose.” Jamie’s tone was clear. She thought she had the virus.
Matt took Judy’s hands and gently turned them over. There was no sign of enlarged veins. He looked carefully at her neck. There was nothing strange there either. Everything looked normal.
“Maybe I have the virus,” said Judy, blood pooling around her tongue as she spoke.
“I don’t think so,” said Matt. “Why would it suddenly show up now?”
“Remember we don’t really know how it works,” said Jamie. “Maybe there are differences in how it spreads.”
“What are you feeling, Judy?” said Matt, continuing to wipe blood off her face.
“A sort of strange feeling in my chest. A sort of fullness.”
“Fullness?”
“Maybe it’s a heart attack,” said Jamie.
“Do you have any pain in your arms?” said Matt.
Judy shook her head.
“That doesn’t mean anything,” said Jamie. “And women have different heart attack symptoms than men.”
“Different symptoms?” said Matt. “Like what?”
“Uh, hang on. Let me try to remember. I had this in a course once.”
“I’m not feeling good,” said Judy.
Matt put his hand against her forehead. She felt hot. Very hot.
“Do you feel hot, Judy?”
“I’m freezing,” said Judy.
And just then, Matt noticed that there was cold sweat all over her arms.
“You sure your arms don’t hurt?”
“Maybe the left one,” said Judy.
Jamie caught Matt’s eye and gave him an unmistakable look. She’d clearly remembered the symptoms of heart attacks in women and from what Matt could surmise, the symptoms that Judy was exhibiting exactly matched those of a woman having a heart attack.
What was there to do? They were miles and miles from anyone.
Not that anyone could have helped anyway.
16
Sara
Will was pulling on her hand. “Come on!” he shouted.
But he pulled her at just the wrong angle and she lost her footing, falling.
Her face hit the sidewalk. She tasted blood.
She looked up, half expecting Will to be long gone.
After all, she didn’t really know him. And, aside from her family, she’d had plenty of people, mostly friends, abandon her in her life. And now her family had left her as well. Sure, they hadn’t died on purpose, but they’d gone nonetheless, leaving her all alone.
To her surprise, Will was still there, his arm extended down to her.
She took his hand and he pulled her to her feet.
But it was too late.
She felt something collide with the back of her head and she fell once again, face-first to the pavement.
A foot on her back. Stepping hard.
It was the man. And he was heavy.
“You’ve got to let me in,” he screamed out, his cry now high-pitched and completely frantic, like a wild animal that had been trapped.
His foot was off her.
She picked herself up, tasting blood in her mouth. The blood didn’t bother her. She was used to it.
There was a kitchen knife in her pocket, a makeshift sheath of cardboard around it. She fumbled for it now, trying to seize it. Why hadn’t she been walking with it out? She should have been more ready.
The man had jumped forward at Will, swinging wildly with his hands.
The man’s fist hit Will’s cheek, glancing off and striking his nose. Blood appeared, pouring down. Just a bloody nose.
Will started to swing back at him, but he stumbled and fell.
She had the kitchen knife out, the makeshift sheath now lying on the sidewalk.
Sara didn’t know what to do with the knife. She’d always thought they’d make good weapons, but now, faced with the reality of stabbing or slashing someone, she didn’t quite know the best way to go about it.
So she held it sort of like a sword, ready to slash the man in front of her.
She swiped it down, toward him, the way an angry cat swipes at someone with their paw.
The knife’s edge struck him. She wasn’t prepared for the force of the impact, or the way it would feel as the knife cut through his shirt and dug into his flesh.
He screamed out and spun around, grabbing at the knife.
He was crazed. Sara could see it in his eyes. His bare hand wrapped around the knife’s blade and he squeezed, gripping hard. Deep rich red blood appeared between his fingers, thick and oozing.
Sara tugged on the knife, but he was too strong. He felt the pain of the blade. The pain was perfectly clear on his face. Easy to read.
“Help me!” she squealed, her voice much higher than she would have liked it to be. Even in the near-death moment, she was able to feel embarrassment.
Her wrists ached where she had cut them open, making her weaker.
Without a word, Will jumped on the guy from behind, wrapping his arms around his neck. Will pulled at the man, using his own weight like an anchor.
The two of them sank down to the sidewalk, Will’s head smashing into the concrete.
“Stab him!” hissed Will, as Sara found herself suddenly the winner of the tug-of-war game over the knife. “Stab!”
The knife had a definite point.
It would work.
Surprisingly, it wasn’t hard for her to do. She leaned forward with her torso, moving her arm in unison, thrusting forward with the blade, her grip as tight as she could make it with her injured wrists.
The blade went right into his stomach
He gasped.
Surprise came over his face.
Then he started to laugh.
Blood came out of his mouth as he laughed.
“I always knew it’d be something like this,” he said, blood gurgling around his teeth and tongue.
“Help get him off me,” said Will.
The man wasn’t a danger anymore. His limbs seemed to have gone limp. He was just lying on top of Will, laughing.
Sara managed to help pull him off Will, who pushed from underneath.
“Come on. Let’s get the hell out of here.”
He took her hand again. She seemed to be caught in some sort of daze herself, staring at the laughing, bloodied body on the sidewalk.
But he tugged at her and she started trotting after him, both of them jogging down the sidewalk.
Slowly, her heart rate started to decelerate, despite the fact t
hat they were continuing at a good clip along the road. She glanced over her shoulder, checking to see if they were being followed.
The next block, they passed three bloodied bodies lying in the middle of the road. It looked creepy.
“They must have died from the virus,” said Will.
“Yeah. Look at all that blood.”
“Blood around the nose and the mouth. A sight I’m wishing I’d never seen.”
“And check out the enlarged veins. Why do you think they’re holding hands like that?”
The three bodies formed a small circle, their hands linked.
“No idea. Looks like they were holding hands, waiting for the end. Maybe something religious?”
“Or spiritual?”
“What’s the difference?”
“I don’t know.”
“Come on.”
“I am.”
“Faster.”
“You keep saying that, but where are we going?”
“To tell you the truth, I have no idea. We’ve got to find a place to lay low.”
“Why? We’re immune from the virus, right?”
“Yeah, but as you can see,” his voice taking on a disbelieving tone, as if he couldn’t imagine how she couldn’t have noticed, “there are plenty of other dangers. Look at you,” he gestured to her wrists, “you’re a huge danger just to yourself.”
“Not anymore,” she said emphatically. “That was stupid. The stupidest thing I’ve ever done. My parents would be ashamed of me.”
“You should be ashamed of yourself,” said Will. “It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks. Not now. How are your wrists doing, by the way? Is the duct tape holding up?”
“I don’t know,” she said.
Truth be told, she hadn’t been paying much attention to her wrists.
Slicing them open was the worst thing she’d ever done. And she felt so much shame that she could barely bring herself to look at them, or even acknowledge that they were hurting her like crazy.
“Do they hurt?”
He had stopped in his tracks, forcing her to stop too, grabbing her wrists, and inspecting them.
“They’re bleeding,” he said.
Last Pandemic (Book 2): Escape The City Page 9
