by J N Wood
‘Is that a fact or are you just guessing?’
‘What? The smelling thing?’
‘Yep,’ Jack replied.
‘It’s obviously a complete guess. Pretty much all my knowledge comes from watching movies.’
‘Okay. And stop saying smell. I think we just said it a hundred times.’
Jack had decided we should go up the Interstate-25. Presumably that was the quickest route in an apocalypse. As we sped along at eighty miles per hour, I could see open grassland on the right and left. Houses were just visible on the horizon.
Shortly after seeing the first signs for Loveland, we also started seeing cars. Just the odd one or two at first, parked on the grass at the side of the road. However, the occupants of the cars were nowhere to be seen.
As we neared the outskirts of Fort Collins, the amount of abandoned cars had been rapidly increasing, now numbering in the hundreds. Not just on the grass, they were also parked across both sides of the road. All pointing in the same direction, the same way we were going. It was like the occupants of the cars had been dragged out and marched off somewhere. It was all very mysterious and frightening, very much like an early episode of The Walking Dead. We had been forced to drive at a much slower speed, and the new pace was incredibly frustrating.
‘In most apocalyptic films, the first few days are really hectic. It’s absolute chaos and non-stop action. Isn’t it?’ I asked Jack.
He rolled his eyes. ‘Yes, okay.’
‘Well, our first few days of the apocalypse…’ I paused.
‘Yes what about them?’ Jack asked.
‘Well they’ve been quite sedate really. Haven’t they?’
‘Fucking hell Chris, you just completely fucking jinxed us.’
‘Shit. Yeah, I’m probably gonna regret bringing that up.’
‘Thanks, if we die, it’s your fault this time Chris.’
A lot of the doors on the abandoned cars were still wide open, as if the occupants had made a quick exit. Numerous times, Jack had to get out of our car to close them, so I could squeeze the car through the gaps. He was very hesitant at first, and it was taking him longer to get out of the car each time. We had to drive on the grass that separated the two roads for a lot of the time. All of the cars were making it difficult to see any distance up the road, and it was unnervingly quiet. We had now been forced down to an excruciatingly slow pace.
Jack climbed back in after closing yet another set of car doors.
‘There was a dead body in there,’ he quickly said.
‘Really? Where?’
‘Yes, fucking really! There was a lot of blood. It was in that last car. I’m not getting out again.’
Jack’s hands were shaking. He saw me looking and clasped them together.
‘Was he, or she, definitely dead?’ I asked.
‘I didn’t check for a pulse but yeah, pretty sure she was dead.’
‘Was that the first body you’ve seen?’
‘No I saw my Grandma’s dead body, what the fuck has that got to do with anything?’
‘No, today, I meant today!’
‘Yes of course it was. Do you not think I would have told you if I’d already seen some dead people? I don’t have a minimum amount I have to see before I start telling people!’
He closed his eyes and took a long breath, before slowly exhaling. ‘We can’t carry on like this. It’s going to take us a week to get through at this pace.’ He sounded angry as well as terrified.
I was starting to panic. Being surrounded by hundreds of cars was suddenly making me feel really claustrophobic.
I leaned over so we could both look at the map. Fossil Creek Reservoir was apparently on our left, but all I could see was cars and green fields.
‘Shall we turn back and take the CO-392 to the US-287?’ I asked. ‘That way we’ll go through the centre of Fort Collins but it might be quieter, maybe people tried to avoid going through towns.’
Jack didn’t respond, so I turned my head to see him still studying the map. I looked out through the windscreen, the bright sun making my eyes squint. There wasn’t a single cloud in the sky.
Movement in the corner of my eye snapped my head to the left, something had definitely moved on the other side of the road. I could feel my heart rate rising as I leaned forwards and peered into the haze. Jack clocked me and followed my gaze.
‘What’s up? What are you looking at?’ he asked in a panic.
‘Don’t know.’ I pointed towards two cars that looked like they had crashed into each other. ‘I thought I saw something over there.’
A small dog appeared from between the two cars, it looked like some kind of little terrier. It had a collar around its neck, and its lead was being dragged along the ground behind it.
‘Just a dog, panic over,’ I said.
I almost jumped out of my seat when three loud bangs on the passenger door reverberated around the car. Jack had left his seat and was trying to sit on my lap, scrambling to get as far away from his window as possible. I looked around him to see a woman’s face staring in, her forehead pressed against the glass.
‘Hello, can you help me? I need a ride,’ she shouted.
Her head was drenched in sweat, if there hadn’t been a cloud in the sky, I would have sworn she had been caught in a rainstorm. Her bloodshot eyes were unblinkingly fixed on me.
Jack had calmed down slightly from the initial shock of someone sneaking up and banging on the window right next to his head. He climbed back into his seat and faced rigidly forwards. His and the woman’s faces were now uncomfortably close to each other.
I leaned forward and pressed the central locking button. All four door locks loudly clunked into their locked positions. I cringed and tried to hide behind Jack.
He turned and gave me an angry stare. ‘Fucking hell Chris.’
I started to apologise, but the woman was now trying to look into the back of the car.
Trying not to move my lips, I slowly whispered, ‘Jackie boy, do not open the door.’
Her blood filled eyes were fixed on me again.
‘Hello, are you okay? Where have you come from?’ I asked. My heart was still pounding.
She closed her eyes for a few seconds, before facing the ground and speaking quickly, her words almost flowed into each other. ‘I haven’t got the virus. Really, I’m fine. No need to worry about me. I just need a ride.’ Her face snapped back up, eyes open again. ‘My family is waiting for me in Cheyenne.’
She was maybe in her mid-twenties. Her shoulder length blonde hair clung to her sweaty face. She definitely looked sick. As well as the ridiculous amount of sweat, the whites of her eyes were almost totally red, and what looked like dry bits of blood, encircled her mouth.
‘We’re not—,’ I started to say.
‘I’m Madison. Can you give me a ride? Like I said, it’s just to Cheyenne.’ She tried to smile, but she just looked in pain. There was blood on her teeth, and her eyes were now quickly darting between Jack and me.
Jack leaned away from his window so he could turn his head towards her. ‘Sorry, but we were just talking about turning around and heading in a different direction,’ he said. ‘We’re not going to Cheyenne anyway, we’re going to California.’
Looking deflated, she opened her mouth, but before she could speak, I interrupted her.
‘Do you know where everyone is? Where are all the people from these cars?’ I asked, pointing out at the road.
She was looking around in a daze. All of a sudden, a surprised look flashed across her face, as if she had only just noticed the cars.
‘Oh right,’ she said. ‘The cars, yeah, the cars, the people…my boyfriend is in Cheyenne.’
‘I thought you said it was your family waiting for you?’ I asked her.
‘Yes and my boyfriend,’ she snapped, before taking a deep breath. ’Look, I just need a ride, can you help me please?’
‘You can take your pick of cars. Some of those will still have keys in the
m.’ Jack said, gesturing towards the mass of cars surrounding us.
Her eyes closed, and a pained look quickly spread across her face. She seemed to struggle to respond. A few seconds passed by. Jack and I exchanged confused looks.
‘I can’t drive,’ she eventually murmured, her eyes still closed.
She suddenly made a horrible rasping noise, took a step backwards, and then violently lurched forwards. I flinched, because I thought she was going to smash her head into our car, but she narrowly missed it.
‘For fuck's sake,’ I whispered, before raising my voice. ‘Okay sorry, we’ve gotta go now Madison, good luck.’
Jack stared at me. ‘Are we leaving her?’ He sounded desperate.
She started to stand, only managing to get half way up, before opening her mouth and projectile vomiting all over our car, covering the window by Jack’s face in blood.
I could no longer see Madison. My eyes were riveted to the incredibly vibrant and bright red window. It was just so red. I could hear Jack shouting, but I couldn’t tell what he was saying. It took me a few seconds to snap out of my stupor. I tried to focus on Jack’s face, his mouth was rapidly opening and closing, he looked petrified.
‘Fucking drive Chris, go go go!’
I put the car in reverse and turned us around, bumping against two other cars in the process. I could see Madison in the rear view mirror, down on her hands and knees. She was still heaving up blood, and there was a large red puddle spreading out on the tarmac beneath her.
Five minutes of silence passed as we drove along. We took the right turn onto the 392, a smaller road than the I-25. It only had two lanes. There were fewer abandoned cars, so I managed to get the speed up to forty miles per hour.
‘We couldn’t have done anything,’ Jack said solemnly.
‘Yes I know,’ I replied.
I really did feel guilty about just leaving her behind, but I knew there was nothing we could have done, apart from catch the virus ourselves. I resigned myself to the fact that I was going to have to experience a lot more guilt before we were safe.
I imagined us walking up to Marky Mark’s bedroom and finding a similar scene to the one we had just witnessed.
As we reached the end of the road I noticed there was a petrol station, so we took the left turn before a T-junction, and entered the car park. We slowly drove past a shop called Guns & Supplies, then a Veterinary Clinic, and Zippy’s Liquor Store, before we parked next to one of the pumps in the Shell petrol station.
‘You fill up, here’s my card. I’m going to attempt to clean the car without dying,’ Jack said, passing me his credit card.
‘Why don’t we just take another car? Those ones over there have been left behind,’ I said, pointing to the T-junction where five cars had been abandoned, some with their doors open.
‘Because the previous occupants of those cars could have been ill, and sneezed all over the place. They might be contaminated.’
I pointed around Jack’s face to the side of our car, now covered with streaks of drying blood. ‘I know for a fact that this one is contaminated.’
‘Only on the outside,’ Jack replied.
‘Okay, if you’re offering to clean it Jack, then it’s up to you.’
‘Stay in the car for a bit,’ Jack said, before he reclined his seat and very awkwardly climbed onto the back seats, almost kicking me in the face. He exited the car using the door behind me.
‘Very graceful Jacqueline!’
I watched him through the streaks of blood. He stood about six feet away with a bottle in each hand. He must have picked them up from the back of the car. He unscrewed the caps and squeezed the bottles, spraying the water at the blood splatters.
When the bottles were empty, Jack stepped back to survey his handiwork. I could barely see him through all the diluted blood running down the window.
‘Right, we need to change cars, I made it worse,’ he said. ‘You can get out now. We’ll just have to avoid using this side until we find a germ free car.’
I opened my door and climbed out. ‘Why do we still have to pay for fuel in the apocalypse?’ I asked.
‘I don’t think the modern pumps will work without a card. I’m off to the gun shop.’
‘Well that’s a bit shit…what? The gun shop?’ I asked, taken aback slightly.
Jack ignored my question and walked away, opening the door to the Shell station shop on his way.
‘Empty, nobody working today!’ he shouted.
Thankfully, the pumps were still working. I started filling the car up with petrol, or gas, I should probably say, and wondered if the pumps do get turned off. I realised we would have no idea how to start them up again.
There’s a lot of stuff we’d have to figure out, if this shit didn’t get sorted soon.
When the tank was full, I left the petrol station to find Jack. As I walked by the shop I had an idea, and went in to look for some road maps. I found a Utah and a Nevada road map, so we just needed California.
I walked past Zippy’s Liquor Store, and then the vets, finally reaching the gun shop. I got up close to the window and looked in to the gloomy shop, cupping my hands on either side of my eyes to try and keep out the glare. It was really dark in there, and the bright sunshine from outside meant I could hardly see anything. I tried the front door but it was locked.
‘Chris!’
I almost leapt out of my skin, and quickly spun around to see Jack with a big smile on his face. He was weighed down with three bulging brown paper bags.
‘Twat, I nearly shit myself. How did you get in there?’ I asked, before adding, ‘So you’ve become a looter in the apocalypse then?’ I nodded at the bags being cradled in his arms.
‘Needs must Chris, needs must. The back door was open, so there was no breaking in. I’m only guilty of a bit of entering.’
I tutted before saying, ‘A lawyer as well.’
‘I work in tax law, I’m not a lawyer,’ Jack replied.
We started walking back in the direction of the car.
‘Well, that’s alright then. I just stole some maps so we’re both guilty. What did you loot?’ I asked, taking one of the bags from him.
‘I got us each a gun, Sig Sauer P226 Legions. It was one of the most expensive hand guns in there, so I figured they must be good. Oh, and a shit load of bullets, or ammo, or rounds, or whatever you want to call them. I thought about getting us some AR-15 rifles but decided against it, we’d just end up killing each other.’
‘And these can’t kill us?’ I asked, pulling one of the hand guns out of the bag.
‘Whoa! Careful! It’s loaded.’
I flinched and dropped the gun back into the bag. ‘Fucking hell Jack.’
He was laughing. ‘Only joking, it’s not loaded yet.’
‘Yeah very fucking funny,’ I said.
‘No need to worry, I’ve been to a shooting range…once, so that officially makes me an expert,’ he assured me, with a smug smile on his face.
As we passed the vets I had a thought. ‘Disposable gloves and masks!’ I shouted, gleefully.
I jogged to the front door, tried the handle and found it unlocked. I opened the door a crack before turning back to Jack, who had almost caught me up.
‘Is it a good sign it’s unlocked, or a bad one?’ I asked.
‘Only one way to find out. Just wait two seconds though.’
Reaching into a paper bag, he took one of the Sigs, and quite expertly it seemed to me at least, loaded it with a full magazine.
Now with a gun in his hand, he said, ‘Right, I’ll go first.’
‘After you Terminator.’ I stepped aside and let him pass, gesturing him to the door with my outstretched arm.
The smell inside the vets was very similar to what we assumed was Marky Mark’s decaying body.
‘Let’s get out of here,’ I proclaimed.
Jack turned back to me. ‘Wait, wait, wait. Just don’t touch anything. I can see a box of gloves on the reception counter.
’
Jack tucked his gun into the front of his jeans, and walked over to the reception. Careful not to touch anything, he pulled out two of the disposable gloves and placed them on to his hands, before pulling out the rest of the gloves. He threw two to me, and stuffed the rest in his pocket. He bent over to reach something from under the counter, and came back with an unopened box of disposable masks.
‘Now let’s get out of here,’ I said, and pointed at his crotch. ‘By the way, you’ll shoot your bollocks off if you’re not careful.’
Jack thought about it briefly, before nodding, and very delicately removing the gun from the front of his jeans.
Back outside the vets, and walking towards the car, he said, ‘Maybe the smell in there was just a dead animal that had been left behind.’
‘Yeah maybe, I don’t want to think about all the pets that have been left behind to fend for themselves, and most probably die.’
‘What about all the people that are dying?’ Jack asked.
‘Nah fuck them,’ I replied. ‘People are probably to blame for all this shit,’ gesturing to the abandoned cars in the road. ‘I always preferred animals to people anyway.’
Jack asked that I carry on with the driving, while he loaded and familiarised himself with the guns. I gladly obliged, as picking up the Sig thingamajig ten minutes ago was the first time I’d actually held a real gun. So for that reason alone, I was happy for him to do that job. Also, I really didn’t want to sit on his side of the car, thinking that some of the blood might somehow seep through.
We had set off this morning at half six, and it was now half eleven. The journey here should have taken us an hour, making us already well behind schedule. In our haste to get out of Boulder, we hadn’t eaten anything, so we raided our bags of food. I wasn’t that hungry, so just had a Snickers bar and a can of Diet Pepsi. Jack must have been on a health kick, only eating a banana and an apple.
We drove out of the petrol station, turning right onto the 287, another bigger road with four lanes. It only took two minutes before we were again, driving slowly around abandoned vehicles. This time though, there were more residential homes and shops on both sides of the road, so if we needed to, we could easily drive off the road onto front lawns to get around blockages. This way Jack didn’t have to remove any obstacles and risk seeing dead people up close.
