Two Alive

by Jonez, Jeremiah W.

  “Rachel, get us out of here now!” Johnathan ordered the driver.

  She turned the key, her hand shaking as she did, and the engine came alive. She pulled away from the curb and went to the corner, where everyone inside the van watched the crazed people go running for the entrance to the school. The windows in front didn’t stand much of a chance and the wild people broke right through the glass. Johnathan turned away and told Rachel to just drive and she turned the corner.

  “Oh my god.” Brandon was stammering and mumbling to himself.

  “What about Ms. Michelle?” Grant was in the backseat with his mouth hanging open, looking around nervous and confused, uncertain what was happening.

  Many of the other students in their seats were in a panic and shouting incoherently while banging on the windows, trying to convince the driver to stop. Johnathan leaned forward from where he was sitting with Miles and Antonio and told Rachel to keep driving.

  “Where should we go?” Rachel was shaking and gripping the steering wheel tightly. “The police station?”

  “We have to go to the hospital.” Johnathan looked back and had to tell Grant to sit down because he was blocking the back window, still asking about the staff they left behind at the school. Johnathan took a knee on the floor of the van in front of Antonio and Miles’ row. “What happened to Sam? What…” Johnathan swallowed hard, thinking about Justine. He pressed his hands together and squeezed one fist until his knuckles popped.

  “I don’t know, Mr. Johnathan! He just got up and was actin’ funny!” Antonio was breathing hard and moving anxiously in his seat. “He was just movin’ around and shakin’ and we didn’t know what was wrong wit him or what we should do. Then he tried to bite Mr. Arthur and then Mr. Arthur ran! He just ran and he left us! He just ran off!”

  Miles was crying and big tears were streaming down his face. Johnathan used the sleeve of his sweatshirt to wipe the boy’s eyes.

  “Did… did he change like those people?” Johnathan asked the question but couldn’t believe it himself.

  “What was wrong with those people?” Brandon asked, shaking his head in the passenger seat and looking in the side mirror. The chaos was long gone but Rachel drove faster and even ran a stop sign.

  Johnathan shook his head, trying to focus on one thing at a time. “I don’t know. Just keep driving. We have to get Amber to a hospital.” He looked around at everyone in the van.

  A nonverbal student sat next to Grant in the back row of seats with his hands pressed firmly against his ears. He was rocking as he hummed loudly to himself. A girl continued pounding on the window and pointing back, trying her best to urge Rachel to turn around. The girl was speaking but little of what she was saying made sense. Two boys were crammed in next to Amber who laid her head against the window. One boy was crying hysterically and the other was just looking around frightened, repeating the words “calm down”.

  Antonio was trying to calm his own nerves but was on high alert. He jumped when he saw a car screech past at the stop light, playing loud music. Miles looked around the van at the other students and felt lost among them and in a daze. Francine was sitting next to Miles and tried to calm the students down behind her. It was proving to be a daunting task.

  “Does anyone in here use UGEN or LRS-10?” Johnathan asked.

  Brandon shook his head and Rachel said no from the driver’s seat. Francine shook her head too and wiped her eyes after buckling one student back into his seat. Amber didn’t respond, she was too busy with her arm wrapped up in her shirt still bleeding pretty bad. Johnathan narrowed his eyes on her scratches.

  “I don’t think… I don’t think any of these students take it.” Francine looked around the van confused. “Why… why…”

  Johnathan leaned closer to her, “I think this is some kind of virus or infection. And it’s spreading.”

  “What? What’s spreading?” Francine blinked rapidly.

  “Where are we going? What about Ms. Michelle?” Grant was still moving around in the backseat and spinning his head so many times you’d think he was an owl. “What about Mr. Arthur? Those men got Mr. Arthur.” Grant continued his rant. “We have to go back and save Mr. Arthur! We don’t know if he’s hurt or worse!”

  “Grant please, try to calm down.” Francine sat up trying to calm the boy down from where she was, “Everything is going to be ok. Ms. Michelle said she called the police and they’ll be there soon to help everyone.” She brushed at her eyes with the back of her hand.

  “What happened? Who were those people? What was wrong with them? Why were they attacking other people?” Grant just continued on, pulling at the mess of wild hair on his head, frantically. The boy next to him rocked even harder.

  “Shit! Please hurry, Rachel!” Amber was rocking too in front of Grant. She was going white in the face and was grinding her teeth so hard you could hear it.

  “But what about…” Grant turned around and pointed behind them.

  “Grant! That’s enough!” Johnathan shouted, and his booming voice reverberated through the van, even settling some of the other kids.

  “John…” Francine started again, trying to whisper, “What makes you think this is…”

  “My god…” Brandon was staring at his phone and the sound coming from it made Johnathan lean forward to look. “This isn’t just happening here. It’s happening everywhere! It’s all over Instagram!” Brandon scrolled through his timeline on the screen and videos were popping up from people all over the world.

  People were recording attacks at beaches, in malls, shopping centers and festivals. There were images of men being chased through a corn field in the middle of nowhere. A video started with a woman jumping from a two-story window trying to escape the vicious individuals in her office. Even after breaking her leg when she hit the pavement, she still tried to flee as people came crashing through the windows after her, with no regard to their own injuries. Another short clip showed two boys standing on the roof of some home, speaking Italian, and pointing down at a mob of demented people. It was a mosh pit of insanity and fighting.

  “What the hell is goin’ on?” Rachel leaned over to look but slammed on the brakes when she came to a stop light. A van was turned over in the intersection where a truck had T-boned it. It was one of the vans from the school. Rachel moved a strand of blond hair from her eye and pulled it behind her ear.

  “Holy shit!” Brandon was jumping around in his seat, frightened.

  Rachel pulled around the accident but couldn’t see anyone inside the van or in the truck. No other cars were in sight and no bystanders were trying to call the police or lend aid. The intersection of Havenscourt and International was vacant of life.

  “Oh my god.” Rachel’s lip was trembling.

  “Go Rachel. Go to Kaiser or Highland,” Johnathan said.

  “Kaiser, please!” Amber moaned from the back.

  The van turned right and sped down International heading northwest. Johnathan sat back down and wiped at his eye again; this time looking at his hand to see the bleeding had stopped. “It’s that LRS-10 shit.” His voice was low with contempt. “It’s turning people crazy and violent.”

  “The vaccine for UGEN?” Brandon swallowed hard, still watching the videos on his phone and feeling his stomach turn. The footage kept increasing in violence. He put the phone down and ran a hand over his brown face, now turning green with disgust.

  “They were talking about that vaccine on the news! People were taking the drug and having crazy side effects. I don’t know what the hell is going on, but this has to be that LRS-10 shit. Damn near half the world used UGEN for everything. Then when that started fucking people up, they shipped out LRS-10 and if fucked people up even more.”

  “And that shit turning people into zombies?” Antonio was catching up and asked Johnathan for clarification, his eyes fixed on the old man.

  “They aren’t zombies. They’re sick. They’re violent… incoherent.” Johnathan shook his head. “In the hallway,
Ms. Dottie didn’t even look like she knew who I was.”

  “Ms. Dottie got infected?” Francine’s eyes shined with tears.

  Miles started to wail again with his lip poked out. “Ms. Dottie was a zom-bee!”

  “No, she wasn’t a zombie. Those people aren’t zombies, they’re not the undead.” Johnathan grabbed the boy’s shoulder but locked eyes with Francine. “She took UGEN for her Parkinson’s.”

  “But what happened to Mr. Sam?” Antonio asked. “Ms. Dottie bit him and he went crazy like them other people.”

  Johnathan looked at Antonio but couldn’t say anything. The boy was right about that. “Sam wasn’t a zombie, and neither was Ms. Dottie. These people are sick and they’re spreading the sickness.”

  “Through bites?” Francine asked in a low voice, “Do… do you think that’s how it’s spreading? How it’s happening so rapidly?”

  Johnathan looked out the windows of the van. Rachel continued through the light on High Street, maneuvering her way through the busy traffic. From the looks of it, the streets were normal here. The chaos must’ve only been in the more eastern part of Oakland. Johnathan looked over his shoulder at Amber’s arm and for a full ten seconds, he didn’t look away. There was a pale-yellow glare in her eyes that made him nervous.

  “There’s some kind of facility in San Francisco where they quarantine people who got the side effects.” Brandon was flipping through his phone after googling “LRS-10” and “violent behavior.”

  Johnathan measured his words. “We should take Amber to get checked out there.”

  “You think I’m infected?” Amber’s eyes were paranoid and foggy. “Am I going to change into one of those people?!”

  “I’m not sure of anything right now, ok. But Hector was using LRS-10 too and those scratches of yours are pretty bad. We should just be careful and take you to get checked out.”

  “Oh c’mon.” Grant was in the back, flabbergasted. “You guys are just… you guys are just pulling my leg and I’ve had enough. There’s no such thing as zombies. You guys set this whole thing up.” Grant was playing with a shoestring and wrapping it around his finger. He kept looking out the back window every two seconds. “We… there’s nothing wrong at the school. We can go back now to get Mr. Arthur and go to the movies. Miles, you shouldn’t even be going. You’re not on level.”

  “Grant, please!” Johnathan shouted.

  “You know, zombies are only in movies, John. You’re not going to scare me.” Grant kept on.

  “Grant, shut up! Goddamn!” Antonio was fidgeting in his seat and getting more upset with each outburst from Grant.

  “No! You shut up! I have a right to talk!” Grant shouted back. “I have a right to talk!” He wrapped the string and unwrapped it.

  “Grant!” Johnathan shouted.

  “Shut upppp!” Antonio added, balling his fists and punching the air.

  “Antonio, please!” Johnathan tried calming the boy down.

  The van was struck from behind and fishtailed on 35th avenue. Johnathan fell to the floor and a few others fell from their seats from the sudden jolt. A Ford F-150 had hit them, with a savage man screaming and hollering behind the wheel. The truck stopped in the intersection and the man inside started smashing the driver’s window. A group of missionaries on the corner put down their megaphone and went to help the man in the truck but found it difficult to open the door.

  Johnathan jumped up and saw the people trying to help the wild man out of his truck. When they opened the door, the driver turned on them and started fighting and scratching them.

  “Rachel… get going! Go down 35th and we’ll take the 880 highway!” Johnathan called out.

  The van jerked but the vehicle didn’t move. Tires burned under them, but the van stayed put, stuck in the middle of the street. Johnathan saw people were running and screaming outside the van, trying to get away from more senseless people losing their minds down the street. These people were wild monsters. Some were scratching at their own faces to the point of tearing off skin. Others were attacking anyone within arm’s reach and didn’t stop until their target stopped moving.

  There were dozens of people running through the streets like frenzied animals, lashing out at anything that grabbed their attention. They swarmed their victims and beat the life out of many. Others were turning into those raving lunatics and joining the vicious masses.

  “Rachel!” Johnathan called again.

  “I’m trying! I’m trying!” Rachel frantically stomped on the gas pedal, but the vehicle didn’t budge.

  Johnathan pulled open the sliding door and saw the back tire was knocked off its axis in the collision. The van wasn’t going anywhere. “Damn it! Everybody get out! We’ll run down the street and get on the BART!”

  The children were frightened and nervous. Johnathan started grabbing kids and pulling them out of the van; Francine jumped out and made sure everyone stayed together. Antonio jumped out by himself and went to try and fight one of the madmen running down the street. Francine grabbed him and held him with the still wailing Miles. Brandon kicked open his door and tried to jump out so fast that he forgot to take off his seatbelt and was pulled back in. When he pressed the release button this time, he jumped down and stumbled, but joined Francine and the children. Johnathan turned around to grab Grant, but the boy snatched himself away and sat back down in his seat.

  “Grant, c’mon! We gotta go!” Johnathan went to grab for the boy’s hand again.

  “I’m not getting out of this van! Mr. Arthur… Mr. Arthur said we were going to the movies. Why aren’t we going to the movies?!” Grant pulled at the crow’s nest on the top of his head.

  Johnathan jumped when a woman went screaming past the van. He could see the carnage down the street intensifying. He reached inside the vehicle and grabbed Grant’s arm, yanking the boy out, kicking and complaining. Johnathan went next to grab the nonverbal boy still in the backseat and the boy hesitantly made his way to the exit. Right before stepping out of the van, Amber jumped on the boy’s back and pulled him down, hissing wildly before biting down on the panicked boy’s cheek.

  “No!” Johnathan saw the fevered look in Amber’s eyes and knew she was gone. Francine grabbed the old man before he could go back into the van and she pointed at the mob that was approaching them quickly.

  Johnathan turned his back on Amber and the boy and went sprinting towards the Fruitvale BART Station, calling for everyone to follow. It was a mad dash while psychos chased them for two blocks. Miles ran with a clumsy stride and tripped over his own feet. Johnathan helped the small boy up and told everyone to keep moving; fighting the impulse to look back to see how close the danger was. They ran to the BART entry gates, and just like many other people trying to escape the violent streets, Johnathan and the others jumped the turnstiles without paying.

  Antonio was the first to hurdle the barrier, doing it like he had done it before. The teenager almost kept running by himself but stopped and waited for everyone to jump the gate. Johnathan helped some of the students make it over and Francine tore her skirt so she could jump the gateway. When Johnathan hopped the orange barrier, he was the last to make it over before others were caught or grabbed right before getting through the turnstile.

  Johnathan ran with everyone up the stairs to the platform, still refusing to look back, even if he felt one of the fiends breathing down his neck. He shoved a snarling man out of his way and the man fell down the stairs. Then Johnathan put a foot to a woman’s chest and kicked her away. When he and the students reached the platform there was already a San Francisco bound train waiting with the doors open. Johnathan rushed everyone onboard, even people he didn’t know, and waited for the doors to finally close. Each second felt like an eternity and Johnathan gripped the handrail next to him tightly.

  Just as the sliding doors swished closed, dozens of fanatic people started rushing up on the platform. The people outside the train weren’t people anymore. Up close, Johnathan could see just how insane t
hey really were. Through the window of the BART train, Johnathan watched deranged people scratch out their own eyes and bite and snap at the air. A woman pulled her hair out in chunks while hollering and screaming at nothing. They attacked each other and fought like wild animals. They tore and ripped at each other’s bodies. They were unhinged and savage.

  As the train started to leave, the fiends went running alongside the BART, slamming themselves against the windows. The train picked up speed and roared down the tracks. Some sick individuals ran off the platform trying to continue after it.

  Johnathan was shaking. He was shaking so hard he had to grab his arms and focus to make himself stop shaking. He sat down in one of the seats, absentmindedly aware of all the other people on the train who were shook with terror. The train conductor’s voice came through the intercoms overhead, but Johnathan couldn’t make out anything that was being said and he didn’t care. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest and heard voices all around, retelling terrible things happening in different parts of the city.

  Johnathan inhaled and exhaled deeply and saw out the corner of his left eye, some hysterical woman crying on the floor. She kept saying, “My son, my son! They got my son!” Johnathan shook his head and wiped his eyes, feeling hazy after getting on the train and escaping the insanity. It was a nightmare from the school to here and the weight of everything was making his broad shoulders sink. After another rise and fall of his chest, he finally looked up to see who was still with him.

  Francine was on the floor, clutching all the children she could get her hands on. They were all crying. She had Miles, who just held his mouth open and made high pitched whines after every time he drew in a long breath. She held Antonio in a death grip while the teen thrashed around, losing his shit and threatening to kill one of them motherfuckers. Snot bubbles were forming around his nose as he blubbered.