Dead Last (Vol. 1): Dead Last

by Quaranta, Marc

  "I can't do this anymore. I can't go out there anymore," Travis continued to panic.

  "Hey! Dumbass! You want to sit in the car the rest of the time?"

  "No," he said.

  "Then chill the fuck out, grab your bag, and let's get inside. We'll see what this guy wants."

  I stepped out of the car with one of the bags and let Travis carry the other two. I had both feet on the ground and closed the door before Travis had even begun to move a muscle. Maybe the guy did pull up after us because he didn't notice we were there until I closed my car door.

  "Hey!" he was startled. "Who are you? What are you doing here?"

  "Well...I guess I live here. Who are you?" I was much calmer than he was. And I meant it. As of Saturday, I guess this was my new place of residence. He was the guest. I wasn't going to let him question me when he was walking up onto my property.

  "Travis?!" he said with some excitement when Travis stepped out of the van...well more like fell out of the van. He wasn't handling the two bags very well. He better straighten up before he falls and cuts himself like Nick did.

  "Yea...who are you?" Travis said. I looked back and forth at the two of them as they began a conversation.

  "It's me. Kurt." the guy said.

  "Uhh...Kurt?"

  "Kurt Elkins, Travis. It's me. Kurt Elkins," he spoke very clearly with that mask on. I bet he was screaming under that thing.

  "Do you know this Kurt Elkins?" I asked Travis.

  "Uhh..." Travis' head bopped up and down. He was clearly scanning his brain trying to put a name to a face. I could tell he had no idea.

  "Travis, you idiot. I work at the station with you. I've been here for over a year. Kurt Elkins!!" he yelled.

  "I'm sorry, I don't know!"

  "Are you kidding me?!" the guy took a step toward us.

  "Easy, guy," I said to him. I held out my hand in case he couldn't hear me under all that gear.

  "I'm sorry! It's a big station. A lot of people work here."

  "You don't know him?" I wanted to make sure before we left another guy out under the sun.

  "No, I don't." Travis' expression worried me. He didn't look sure at all. The guy was completely covered and Travis and I had just been through a lot. Maybe he did know him and was just too nervous to remember. Maybe he didn't. I don't know, but Travis' answer was good enough for me.

  "Sorry, pal. Get out of the way. We're going inside."

  "Look, if I had my I.D. I'd show you I work here, but I don't have it. I can't get in the building. Do you have your I.D.?"

  "Yea, he's got his, but you're not getting in. We don't know you. Get out of my way."

  I moved forward but still kept my distance from him. I'm sure I could kick his ass, but he had a lot of gear on. Chances are he'd cut me before I'd do any damage to him. He was sealed up pretty good and all I had were a pair of purple latex gloves and a flimsy mask.

  I got to the door and opened it up. I held it open and waited for Travis to slip by me. Once he was in, I took a step back and let the door close.

  "I'm Haylea's fuck--"

  The door closed behind me. I watched Travis frantically pull his I.D. from his back pocket. Remember, there were three doors keeping people out of this place. Door one was a freebie, but it was door two and three that needed the WTIX I.D. card to get through.

  "What did he say?" asked Travis as he turned the card to swipe it in the right direction.

  "I don't know. Something about Haylea."

  He swiped the card and I pulled the door open. I stepped inside and waited for him to follow. Once that door was closed, we'd be able to strip off the mask. We should probably leave the gloves on until we can get the bags to the shower and drench them with water. Just to be safe. I turned around and Travis wasn't following. He stood in the small room before door two.

  "What are you doing?" I asked him. The stupid idiot closed the door and turned back to the heavily dressed guy waiting outside. "What the fuck are you doing, man!?" I shouted to him.

  I couldn't hear them clearly. I only heard Travis' mumbling voice. It sounded like he was asking him something but I couldn't make it out. Through two layers of glass and the mask Kurt was wearing, I couldn't begin to make out what he said.

  Then Travis closed door one and swiped his card again. He came into the room with me and once the door was closed, he ripped off his mask.

  "What the hell was that?" I asked him.

  "Kurt Elkins. Kurt Elkins is Haylea's fiancé."

  "Well...I'll be damned," I said.

  I turned around and, ironically, Haylea was walking by the glass carrying some blankets with Elyse. Travis quickly moved to the next door and swiped his card. I turned back to Kurt and waved him through the first door. He stood in the small room and reached for the next door. I waved my finger at him. I wasn't going to let him in just yet. I told him to stay there until I talked to the group.

  He banged on the window in frustration, but I didn't care. I wasn't going to let this guy in even if he did look like a futuristic soldier. I had to talk it over with the group. After leaving Nick out to die by my own decision, I didn't want this on my shoulders either. Whether they wanted him in or to stay out, it wasn't going to be up to me.

  Travis held door three open for me to walk through. Most of the group came to greet us.

  "What's going on? Who is that?" Scott asked me as he walked up. He seemed out of breath. Nervous almost. I thought nothing of it at the time. I had bigger fish to fry.

  "Travis, do you know where the showers are?" I asked.

  "Yea, at the end of the hall, to the left, and then at the end of that hall."

  "Take all the bags down there and let them soak under hot water."

  I handed my bag to Travis and watched him try to lift them all up off the ground. He managed, but he walked as stiff as a board. He used every muscle in his body to hold the bags. He walked quicker than normal, too.

  "Okay, look. We've got a bit of a dilemma on our hands. There is a guy out there who seems pretty clean. He's wearing a lot of clothes, a gas mask, but I don't know if he's breathed the air. He wants in."

  "No. Hell no," Sam said. He waved his arms back and forth and shook his head.

  "We can talk about it," Heather said.

  At that moment, Jenny walked up to the group. I think the lady math teacher told her where Travis went because she didn't stand with us long before taking off down the hall toward the showers.

  "No, we will not talk about it," Sam said. "We agreed earlier that nobody was going to come in here. It could kill us."

  "Look at him! He's sealed up tighter than the Pentagon," Heather argued.

  "He looks pretty safe in that outfit," Emily said. Seeing Sam's reaction to his wife taking a different stance as him was entertaining to me. Sam let out a small exhale of disbelief. He shook his head before walking off. Throwing his hands up in the air, but I think he realized he wanted to hear what others said because he turned right back around and stayed with the group.

  "Do we know who it is?" asked Scott.

  "Yea...Kurt Elkins."

  "What about him?" Haylea asked. Her and Elyse came walking up to the group. They didn't have the blankets with them anymore. They probably brought them to the kids. My mind took a quick side thought. I hope people do not plan on giving those kids extra treatment. Extra treatment meant extra food. I didn't risk my life to feed any damn kids.

  "What about Kurt?" she repeated.

  "Umm..." Scott began to talk but I don't think he wanted to break the news to her.

  "Haylea...Kurt is outside," it was Heather that spoke up.

  "What?"

  "Look," said Sam pointing to the lobby.

  Haylea came closer to me so that she could see her, supposed, fiancé standing outside the doors. When she was at an angle to see him, her mouth dropped. Her eyes got big and I could see for a moment her knees got wobbly, but she kept her strength.

  "What are you doing? Let him in!" she said. S
he moved for the door, but I stopped her.

  "Look, we can't just let him in. We have to talk about this. He might be..."

  "He is fine! Look at him! He is fine. We are letting him in right now! Anyone got a problem with that?" Haylea looked around the group.

  I wasn't going to speak up. The man should be allowed in just for putting together an outfit like that. At this rate, we were all going to die sooner or later. If he was sick he was sick. Either way, I wasn't going to be around him much longer. I was going to grab my food and go make a nice spot for myself on the other side of the building.

  "Heather? Do you have a problem with me letting him in?" Haylea asked her. I wasn't sure why she pointed out Heather, but I smelled a little girl drama. Maybe I'd get to see a cat fight soon.

  "No, Haylea. Let him in," Heather responded.

  "Anyone else have a problem with it?" Haylea's tone was almost barbaric. Not even I wanted to mess with that. When no one answered she said, "Okay, then. He's coming in."

  She pushed open the first door and sprinted up to the one Kurt was standing behind. I think for a quick second she hesitated. All we had was a name. It really could have been anyone under that outfit. He could have been a crazy guy. We could let him in and he could slaughter us all. But she let her heart decide. It was worth the price to pay for her. She pushed the door open and backed up.

  The guy stepped in and quickly closed the door behind him. Once the door locked, he let go and turned toward Haylea. I closed the third door that Haylea walked through and was going to wait to open it again. If something did happen, the third door would protect us.

  The guy pulled his hood down and unzipped the jacket. It must have been a hundred degrees under all of that crap. He lifted up the gas mask and pulled it over his head. Finally, we could see his face. But I didn't know Kurt. I didn't know what he looked like. I didn't know if this was Kurt. Everyone else in the room was silent, too. I tried to read their expressions, the ones that knew Kurt, at least.

  He dropped the mask on the floor and pulled off the gloves, the tape, and the jacket. I couldn't see Haylea's expression. She had her back to me and her body language didn't tell me anything.

  He took an aggressive step toward her, and for a brief moment, I thought she had the wrong guy. I thought he was going to drop her with a punch or a hidden knife. He didn't. He took a step to her and lifted her up into his arms. She wrapped hers around his neck and squeezed him. He had to have been fighting for air underneath that death grip of hers. It didn't look like he cared.

  It was Kurt. He was so excited. His hands didn't rest for one second. They started on her back, then moved to her hair, then to her back again before he pulled her off him to look into her eyes. Then they kissed. So passionately and intense. It wasn't like a kiss off of a porno video, but more like...okay I'm embarrassed to even say that I've witnessed this, but what the hell. It was like a kiss straight out of The Notebook.

  At this point, I'd usually be tasting yesterday's eggs coming up and have to leave the room, but not this time. After everything that happened with Nick out at the gas station, it was nice to see something survive. It was nice to see something make it through all the panic and destruction, through all the tragedy, there was still something that had the power and will to survive. It was nice to see...even if that thing was love.

  VII

  Kurt Elkins

  T here is one moment in everyone's life, that one point of no return, when everything from that point on will be different. That one moment, when you walk in one person and walk away a completely different one. Hopefully, it's for the better. Hopefully, after that moment you will look in the mirror and feel pride in the person you've become. We change every day. Most of the time, it's a change so minor that no one will notice, we don't even notice it in ourselves. But we're always changing. Make that change good.

  It was a few weeks before November 11th, 2011, I was still training on the morning shift at WTIX. I was coming into work around 8 a.m. and staying a couple minutes before five. It was a normal day job. I miss those days. A few weeks later, I was working on the overnight shift, but I can't jump ahead.

  It was maybe the second week into my job, late October, when I first met her. I was in the break room deciding between a bag of Gordettos or a bag of Lays potato chips. There are some important decisions in life. Getting married, buying a house, when to have kids, but when you are tired and hungry at work, choosing that mid-afternoon snack seems like the hardest choice of all.

  Anyways, I chose a bag of SunChips and headed out of the room. That is when I bumped into Haylea for the first time. And when I say bumped into, I mean I bumped into her. She stumbled back and I reached out to grab her arm so she wouldn't fall. I felt so terrible. I didn't apologize, though. It sounds rude, but I didn't mean to disrespect her. I was amazed with her beauty. I probably looked like a deer in the headlights. I smiled and she laughed at me. She later told me she thought I was so cute that day, but I believe she was biased at that point. Her first thought had to have been, "this kid is weird."

  November 11th, 2011. It was our first date. I was planning on taking her to Texas Roadhouse. It wasn't the most romantic of places. They didn't play romantic music, they didn't have candles, and the floor was covered with peanut shells. I didn't want to be someone I wasn't, though. Sure, I would do the occasional romantic evening. I would take her on a long romantic walk with a candle light picnic, but I wanted to be real with her. I wanted her to like me for me.

  So, we went to the restaurant and I put my name in except, it was a two and a half hour wait. I looked at her and she had a smile on her face as if to tell me it was okay, we could wait that long. But I didn't want to. I didn't want to sit around that long and put our evening on hold. I told her we'd go somewhere else and that she would be able to pick.

  We got into my car and sat for a few minutes waiting for her to pick a place. She gave me a couple options and, without me ever saying no to any of them, she gave me a couple more. I don't think she knew where she wanted to go. It started to rain. The minutes turned into a dozen minutes, and then a dozen more. The rain turned into thunder and lightning.

  We sat in my car talking all night. We never ate. Our conversation got so deep and comfortable that food didn't seem to matter anymore; dinner didn't seem to matter. We talked, at first, about dinner, but then the conversation went on to our families, our college lives, our dreams and career goals. We started talking about everything.

  We talked for so long that when I looked at the clock it was almost eleven. I had to be at work in an hour and she had to be at work in about five. She would have usually been asleep by now so that she could get a couple hours of sleep before waking up in the middle of the night to get to the station, but she wasn't even tired. After convincing her to go home, I dropped her off and headed to the station. I figured I would get there a couple of minutes early. There was no point getting home and relaxing for ten minutes.

  As I walked her to her doorstep, I thought about kissing her. I thought about leaning in and saying I had a lot of fun sitting in my car for three hours. I thought about telling her I hoped to see her again and then kiss her. I wanted to kiss her, but I liked her too much capitalize on it. I gave her a hug and then said goodnight. But she held my arms. She smiled and leaned in to me. She planted a kiss one me that, I swear, had me levitating off the ground for a moment.

  I got to my car and drove away knowing that I was in love. After just a few short hours, I knew I was in love. I didn't tell her that, though. I didn't want to pull a Ted Mosby and scare her away forever, but I knew I loved her. I knew at that very moment that she was going to be Mrs. Haylea Elkins.

  That is when my life changed forever. At that point forward, I wouldn't be happy until she was with me forever. She was going to be my wife and I was always going to have her next to me. Although the change was subtle, I was never going to be the same after November 11th, 2011.

  That was almost two years ago. I hav
en't been the only one to change since then. The world changed. Everything was gone now. There was no life in the world anymore. For three days, I was by myself. I sat in my house terrified to leave, alone. I listened to the news and report after report telling me to stay in my house and not to breath the air. My house wasn't sealed, so I got into the basement and sealed it up as tight as I could. I stuck towels under the door and duct taped the window edges so that nothing could get through.

  I sat in my basement for three days crying and hoping for an answer. I hoped that people were safe, that it didn't kill as many people as the news said. I prayed that Haylea was okay. After a while, I started to feel numb. I didn't feel the pain anymore. I was going to sit in my basement and wither away like a rose. I was ready to die.

  But I couldn't. I don't know what it was that got me up searching through the boxes in our basement, but I found everything I was looking for. I went through old clothes that my parents had sent us. There were things like suspenders and hunting clothes that I had never wore or planned on wearing in my life, until now.

  I covered myself completely. Taped my wrists so no air could get through and threw on a gas mask. I planned on going to the last place I knew she was; the station. I got to our garage, started the car, and drove like a bat out of hell until I saw the station doors.

  She was in there. I finally got into the building and had her in my arms. At first, I was worried about hugging her after just coming in from the outside, but it didn't seem like she cared. She wrapped her arms tightly around my neck and I lifted her up. As bad as things had gotten in my basement, I didn't forget her face. I remembered every curve of her body.

  "I'm sorry. I am so sorry," I said to her in between the kisses I planted on her.

  "Stop. You have nothing to apologize for," she said to me.

  "I should have never let you come into work. I should have been with you."

  "Did you know this was going to happen? Did you set something off into the air for all of this to happen?"