The Road Trip At The End Box Set

by J N Wood

  Benoit shook his head, looking bewildered. His gun was still up, watching for an attack. ‘I do not know. Why would they shoot them? They did nothing. Elena did not have a gun.’

  ‘Do you think it was the Russians or the Chinese?’ I asked.

  ‘I do not believe in that particular conspiracy theory Christophe, but it was one man, not an army.’

  ‘Yeah I suppose. We need to get out of here now.’

  ‘I agree. Do you think Roy will be okay to walk?’

  ‘I’ll carry him if needs be,’ I said. ‘I’m not staying here any longer than I have to.’

  We both stepped towards Roy and Aurelie. They looked as distraught as each other.

  ‘We’re gonna have to make a move Roy,’ I said. ‘Are you okay to get going?’

  He raised his head, staring towards the ocean behind me. ‘I can’t go,’ he said through gritted teeth.

  Aurelie stroked his back. ‘We need to Roy.’

  ‘I need to get whoever did this.’

  ‘Roy,’ I said. ‘We really have to.’

  ‘I killed him,’ Benoit declared. I didn’t believe him, but there was definitely sincerity in his eyes. ‘He was in one of the windows,’ he added. ‘Shot him in the head. I saw him die.’

  ‘Don’t lie to me Benoit.’

  ‘I am not lying Roy.’ Benoit reached his hand down to Roy. ‘Come, we need to leave.’

  Roy and Benoit continued to eye each other, until Roy finally grasped his hand, and let him pull him up to his feet.

  ‘Okay,’ Roy said quietly. ‘Let’s get out of here. Thank you Benoit.’

  I let Roy and Aurelie take the lead and shot a questioning glance towards Benoit. He saw me and slowly shook his head. Sadness filled his eyes.

  Well done Benny Boy. I didn’t fancy hunting a sharpshooter.

  ‘Let’s just get any old banger we can find,’ I said.

  Benoit looked confused. ‘I am sorry.’

  ‘Any old car,’ I explained. ‘Break into a house and find some keys.’

  ‘Yes,’ he agreed. ‘I think that would be best. Who knows how many more shooters are around here.’

  ‘Have you got any bullets left for that?’ I asked, pointing to the AR-15.

  He hefted the gun up to his chest. ‘No. It is just a deterrent now.’

  ‘Do you think he or others like him killed all those people in the streets?’ I asked. ‘Maybe he thought Elena was a zombie.’

  ‘Maybe Chris. I do not know.’

  ‘Do you think the zombies are dead?’ I asked him. ‘The last time I saw them they were wasting away. All those bodies could easily be zombies.’

  He let out a long sigh. ‘Maybe Christophe. But I say again, I do not know.’

  Roy and Aurelie were understandably very quiet. I think Benny Boy was only talking because I was incessantly asking him questions.

  When we felt we were far enough away from the sharpshooter, we picked a building that looked residential and made our way to the front door. The ground floor of the building looked like a small bar, huge pieces of animal meat hung from the ceiling, like it was being cured. The building had eight buttons by the front door. I counted ten cars parked on the road.

  Hopefully one of these belongs to one of the apartments.

  ‘We need to be in the suburbs really,’ I told them. ‘It would be much easier.’

  ‘We’re not in the fucking suburbs though are we?’ Roy snapped.

  Aurelie laid a hand on his shoulder.

  I won’t take that personally.

  Benoit tried the door but it was locked. ‘Do we risk smashing the glass?’ he asked.

  I just nodded, not wanting to irritate Roy.

  ‘Yes,’ Roy answered. ‘Just be quick.’

  Benoit quickly glanced from side to side, and then thrust the butt of his gun into a stained glass panel in the door. The glass split into two pieces, still attached to the door but angled back inside the building. He leaned his gun against the wall and tried to force the glass away from the moulding.

  ‘Careful Ben,’ Aurelie said.

  The largest piece came away really easily. The thick black moulding also went with it.

  ‘It just has un loquet simple.’ His arm was through the opening, right up to his shoulder. ‘A latch,’ he explained. He pulled his arm out and opened the door.

  ‘Quickly,’ Roy said, his hands on both Aurelie’s and Benoit’s backs. ‘Get inside.’

  We entered the musty smelling hallway. The floor was made up of large black and white tiles, and the wallpaper was peeling away from the walls. There were no other doors, just the stairs leading up.

  Benoit pointed up the stairs and we all nodded. We followed him, all being careful where we stepped to avoid any unwanted noise.

  The musty smell was stale and old, but not the same as the deathly smell we’d first noticed outside.

  Hopefully that’s a good sign.

  The stairs doubled back on themselves. When we turned the bend, the next floor was visible. The sun shone in through the large window on the landing. Two doors were on either side, facing each other.

  Benoit stopped outside apartment number one. ‘Do we knock?’ he asked.

  ‘Yeah I suppose so,’ I replied.

  Four heavy knocks later using Benoit’s new utility tool, the AR-15, there was just silence.

  Benoit just shrugged and kicked the door. It didn’t budge. I stepped alongside him.

  ‘On three,’ I told him.

  I counted to three and we both kicked in unison. The door moved back slightly, a small gap appeared between the door and the frame.

  ‘Aurelie,’ Benoit said. ‘Could you check to make sure nobody comes? Just go down to the first turn.’

  Aurelie nodded and left us to keep watch. It took eight more kicks before the door opened.

  Benoit leaned in and said, ‘Hola.’

  ‘If they’re not gonna come running because we’re kicking the door in,’ I told him. ‘They’re not gonna pop their heads around the corner because you said hello.’

  ‘They might be afraid,’ he tried to explain.

  I stepped into the apartment. ‘Come on. Let’s find some car keys.’

  The hallway was almost empty, just two pairs of shoes on the floor, so I ventured further inside. Three plates of half eaten, mouldy food were still sitting on the dining table in the kitchen. The chairs were scattered around the room, as if they’re former occupants had left in a hurry. In the bedroom, drawers were open and clothes covered the bed. I went into the living room, noticing the television was on standby, the red light glowing below the screen.

  That must be a good thing. If the electricity is still working after all this time, there must be some kind of society intact.

  Maybe not in its entirety in A Coruna though.

  ‘Anything?’ Roy asked.

  ‘Nope,’ I replied.

  Benoit said the same.

  ‘Let’s move on to number two,’ Roy suggested.

  I checked my phone as we walked down the hallway. I had service. No messages or calls though. I rang Joanne’s number.

  ‘I’ve got signal,’ I told Roy when he noticed the phone to my ear.

  Straight to voicemail. I left her a quick message saying I was in Spain.

  Benoit spoke to his wife in French as we crossed the landing.

  ‘Still clear,’ she answered.

  Apartment number two was just as difficult to gain access. However, once we were in, we instantly saw a small telephone table just on the other side of the door. Two sets of car keys sat by the phone. Benoit picked up both. I picked up the old fashioned looking telephone, hearing a dial tone.

  That must also be good news. The phone lines went down in America really early. Maybe they got them back up and running here.

  Benoit dangled the keys in front of him as he made his way down the stairs and back to his wife. Half way down he threw them into Aurelie’s waiting hands.

  We stood outside in the wa
rm sunshine as Aurelie pressed the button on one of the keys. Half way down the road the headlights flickered on a maroon coloured car. We rushed down to it. I unlocked the phone again to check if the internet was working. Nothing was loading.

  ‘I’ll drive,’ Aurelie called out.

  Benoit still held the AR-15 up at his shoulder, scouring the windows above us.

  We threw our bags into the boot of the Nissan. Roy and I piled into the back. Benoit waited until we were all in before lowering his gun and sitting alongside his wife.

  ‘Come on Aurelie,’ I said. ‘Let’s get out of here.’

  She shifted her seat forward and adjusted her rear view mirror slightly. ‘Okay ready now.’

  She drove us out of the parking space and onto the road. I twisted around and looked out of the rear windscreen, desperately hoping not to see someone with a gun trained on us. At the end of the road we turned right onto an empty dual carriageway. We were still close to the tightly packed residential area, so I didn’t relax until we were on the outskirts of the town.

  The internet still wasn’t working.

  ‘Do you know where you’re going?’ I asked the Frenchies. ‘I can’t get directions to work on my phone, and I can’t zoom in to see which roads we need to take.’

  ‘We can figure it out,’ Benoit said.

  ‘How much petrol do we have?’ I asked.

  ‘Not much,’ Aurelie replied. ‘About quarter.’

  ‘See if you can stop at the next petrol station,’ I said, just as I spotted one up ahead.

  ‘Very good timing,’ Benoit said, also seeing it.

  We pulled up to the first pump. The place was empty of vehicles and people. Weeds grew from the edges of the shop, sprouting from the cracks in the concrete. Two large rats appeared from behind another pumping station and ran past our car.

  ‘Do you reckon it’ll work?’ I asked.

  ‘Only one way to find out,’ Aurelie said.

  ‘Let me get out first,’ Benoit told her. ‘If there is anyone here they will see the gun.’ He climbed out and walked in front of the car, scanning the area. He turned and nodded to his wife.

  ‘I’ll do it if you want,’ I offered, my hand on the door handle.

  ‘No I can do it,’ she replied, climbing out.

  ‘A switch normally has to be flicked on from inside,’ Roy said, his voice lacking any emotion. ‘Otherwise it won’t work.’ He still just gazed out of his window.

  Aurelie inserted the nozzle into the car and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. She looked to her husband and spoke in French. He said something and walked over to the glass fronted shop. A display of gas bottles still sat in front of the glass.

  He tried the door. Much to my surprise, it opened, and he wandered in.

  I opened my door and picked up The Smasher. ‘Just gonna make sure he’s okay,’ I told Roy, who didn’t acknowledge me.

  I left the car, glancing at Aurelie and pointing my baseball bat to the shop. Another rat scurried across the ground, barely aware of us, and without fear.

  Once inside, I could see the top of Benoit’s head behind the till. He quickly popped up and aimed a thumb at Aurelie outside. She looked down at the nozzle in her hand, and then lifted her head back to him, a big smile on her face.

  ‘I turned it on,’ Benoit told me.

  ‘So I see. How well can you read Spanish Benny Boy?’

  ‘Not good at all, but Aurelie is much better. It is not a language she is fluent in though.’

  I picked up a selection of newspapers and as many bottled drinks I could carry. The lights were on in the fridges. The papers looked like they were published last month. Some of the front pages had photos of rows and rows of body bags. Other’s just featured numbers, large numbers in big block capitals. The numbers had more than seven digits.

  I don’t need Aurelie to translate that.

  ‘Do you mind driving?’ I asked Benoit as we both walked back across the forecourt. ‘Hopefully Aurelie can translate some of these.’ I nodded to the newspapers in my hands.

  ‘Seven point two million dead,’ Aurelie told us from the front passenger seat, Benoit now driving. She had the newspapers on her lap. ‘Spanish citizens weren’t allowed to leave their homes for weeks. They ran out of money and food. The army was authorised to kill anyone they saw on the streets.’

  ‘When were these printed?’ Roy asked.

  She checked her watch. ‘Twenty six days ago.’

  ‘Do you think that was a Spanish soldier in A Coruna?’ I asked.

  ‘Maybe,’ Benoit replied.

  ‘What else does it say?’ Roy asked.

  ‘My Spanish is not good Roy. Give me two minutes.’

  Roy continued to gaze at the countryside.

  ‘Okay,’ she finally said. ‘I think the virus was released in France first, spreading out from there.’ She paused to look at her husband, fear in her eyes. He reached out for her hand. She took it and cleared her throat. ‘Russia downplayed it for a long time but they’ve also got it.’

  I looked to Roy when she mentioned Russia. He didn’t show any reaction, his attention still on the green and yellowing fields whizzing past.

  ‘When people stopped getting infected and the dead rose up, the survivors flocked to the cities,’ she continued. ‘They became fortresses to keep out the dead. But they wouldn’t let any more of the living in, so the army was deployed to a lot of the cities. Thousands more people were killed by the soldiers. It’s so bad here, almost like America. Now there are only pockets of people left.’

  ‘But the zombies seem to be dead,’ I told her. ‘Why don’t they go home?’

  ‘Maybe there are not enough people to go home,’ Benoit suggested. ‘Maybe there are not many left in these small groups, and it’s safer to stay together.’

  ‘Safe from what though?’ I asked. ‘There are no zombies.’

  ‘Fuckers hiding around corners and shooting people,’ Roy almost growled. ‘Is that not enough to be scared of?’

  I opened my mouth to say something, maybe apologise to him, but Aurelie spoke before me.

  ‘Millions dead across the whole of Europe,’ she said, and then frustratingly spoke in French to Benoit. Tears formed and rolled down her cheeks.

  I looked way, ashamed of my unwarranted frustration.

  We all sat in silence for a long time, passing towns and small villages. Goats with huge, curvy horns roamed the streets and stood on walls, fascinated by our maroon car as we passed. A pack of wild dogs, they actually looked like wolves, chased a red deer on the plain. Spain is visually very different to Canada, but it was like we’d travelled to another world. It really didn’t take long for nature to forget we ever existed.

  None of the places we passed looked like they’d been turned into fortresses. They just looked like ordinary, if empty towns. The roads were empty as well, which was weird. We did see quite a few burnt out cars, nothing like the traffic jams I witnessed in America.

  I was suddenly forced forwards, my seatbelt digging into me as we slowed to a stop.

  ‘Jesus Christ Ben,’ I groaned. ‘What are you doing?’

  Benoit opened his door and climbed out. ‘Look,’ he said. ‘There is somebody over there.’ He was pointing into a field next to us.

  Not far from the edge of the roadway, a woman was on her hands and knees, picking at something in the earth. Two horses stood nearby, both nibbling at the scraps of grass below them.

  I opened my door just as Benoit waved and shouted, ‘Hola.’

  The woman leapt to her feet, standing bolt upright. She had earphones in, the white cable snaked down to her faded jeans pocket. It took her a second to find us. Once she did, she bolted. The horses weren't saddled, but she leaped on top of one nevertheless. She dug her heels in and they set off, grabbing the reins of the other horse as she passed it. We watched them galloping away from us, straight across the field.

  ‘You’ve certainly got a way with the women Benny Boy,’ I told him.
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br />   He sighed. ‘That’s all it takes with me. A simple hello and they jump on a horse and ride away into the sunset.’

  ‘She’s gone,’ I said, climbing back into the car.

  ‘Yes I saw,’ Aurelie replied. ‘At least we know there are some people alive here.’

  I left Roy to his thoughts, not wanting to force him into speaking when he obviously didn’t want to. It must be hard for him to lose his wife, and then feel so guilty about finding someone else, only for her to also die.

  If I get home to find something has happened to Joanne, I don’t know what I’ll do.

  A few hours later we started seeing signs for Ortuella, Portugalete and Santurtzi, all places I’d never heard of. Then a sign for Bilbao popped up.

  Finally, a name I recognise.

  ‘I think we’re about half way home,’ Benoit told us. Aurelie turned to her husband and smiled.

  ‘Will we have to stop again for petrol before we get to yours?’ I asked.

  ‘Yes,’ he replied. ‘We are closer to a quarter full than half.’

  Up ahead red cones diagonally cut across the road, through a break in the central reservation, like we were being diverted. A large temporary road sign sat half on the tarmac and half on the rough concrete at the side of the road.

  ‘It must be old,’ I said. ‘From before everything went to shit. See if you can drive through a gap in the cones.’

  Benoit slowed the car down to as we approached them. ‘I can’t see anything wrong,’ he said.

  We must have been going no more than five miles per hour. It looked deserted.

  ‘Ben!’ Aurelie shrieked.

  Two men appeared from behind the sign, about twenty feet from us. They wore camouflage clothing and carried rifles, both aimed at our car.

  ‘Shall I drive past?’ Benoit asked.

  ‘No Ben, they could easily kill us,’ Aurelie quickly replied. ‘They are too close.’

  ‘Hopefully they’re just soldiers,’ I said. ‘Just asking us where we’re going and shit like that.’

  The two soldiers gestured for us to follow the angle of the cones. One of them took a hand off his gun and told Benoit to roll down his window, which he instantly did.