End of the Line

by Frater, Lara

  She walked up the stairs, the smell was even stronger. Three bedrooms upstairs, all but one had an open door. I assumed the body was in the bedroom with the closed door. It looked like the master bedroom which probably would have more stuff. The other bedrooms had stuff haphazardly thrown around. Tanya went into the bedroom and grabbed a couple of blankets and I went into the other one. It had been stripped.

  I didn’t want to go into that room, but Tanya, without saying anything opened the door.

  I turned around and headed downstairs where I threw up in the living room. Olive stayed with me and licked my hand while I barfed. Not that it mattered anymore the owners of this house: father, mother, sister, and baby were all upstairs dead. The father was dead of a gunshot wound. Guess he decided he couldn’t live without them.

  Tanya came down a moment later. She held another handgun which I assumed was the father’s.

  “I covered them with a blanket and closed the door.” She didn’t mention my barf. “You good Dave?”

  I couldn’t answer. I could only think of the shriveled up thing that used to be a baby.

  Downstairs didn’t look so bad. They set up the furniture in a circle, giving us enough room to either lie down or sleep on one of the dusty chairs. The chairs held down a couple of sheets on the dirty floor. The room was illuminated with candles. Olive immediately sat in the middle of the sheet.

  I dumped the two cushions and the blankets in the empty space. Nothing really looked comfortable.

  “What did you find upstairs?” Jim asked.

  I was about to say something but Tanya interrupted. “Nothing. I mean someone’s dead, but that’s it. No zombies.”

  “Can we stay up there?” Jake asked.

  “I wouldn’t,” she explained “There’s a broken window. The zombs can get in.”

  I sat on the floor on the sheet and took a sip of water. My pack still smelled of booze. I opened it to clean out the glass and see what I could salvage, then I hung it up to dry. No one asked me about it.

  “We should have dinner.” Jim said.

  “Good idea,” Annemarie said. “I’m starving.”

  “Let’s have a big one,” Jim said. “If we are moving to a car, we need to lighten our load. We can eat most of the canned goods, and keep light snacks.”

  Lightning lit up the basement and the rain got heavier.

  I always wondered how rain affected the zombs. What happened when all that water went into their pus filled wounds? No change in their behavior when it rained, they attacked the same. We were at an even bigger disadvantage because we couldn’t see them. Rain didn’t seem to affect their sense of smell. They always seemed to know where we were.

  Jim passed me some tuna and crackers, plus a can of green beans. I ate that and two milky-ways and put some out in case other people wanted them. That seemed to be our meals for the last two weeks. I gave some food to Olive. When I got back, I might apologize to Maddie. I missed her cooking. I guess letting in someone in who could cook was a good thing. Letting in Jim was a good thing as well. He did keep the place going.

  I didn’t like how pale he was looking. His back must be sore. Tomorrow we’d be back at the CostKing and he could rest up a few days. Rachel could look over his wound.

  A loud crash woke me up. It didn’t sound like thunder but breaking glass.

  Tanya was awake near me. I must have dozed off. Shit. I was supposed to be on watch.

  The storm sounded bad. I could hear the wind howling, lots of thunder and lightning and lots of rain against the windows. There were more crashes that I could only imagine were garbage pails and loose objects. No one around to take in the cans or trim trees. We were left to the elements.

  “What was that?” I asked.

  “Not sure,” Tanya said. She didn’t seem mad I fell asleep.

  What time is it?” I whispered.

  “Close to dawn. That storm is raging.”

  “We should go.” The basement felt damp and I wanted to stop thinking about the dead baby.

  “No,” she said. “You can’t drive. We don’t know if that car runs. We gotta wait.”

  She was right but the idea of spending even a minute more in this place with that dead family upstairs made me crazy.

  “Do you think we’ll have to stay another night?”

  “I hope not. The storm passes, we can move on. Maybe spend one more night elsewhere. I wanna get back to CostKing. I don’t think Jim’s looking good.”

  She was right about Jim. The last two days, he had been letting Tanya and I make more decisions and every day he looked more pale and sweaty.

  Olive barked softly, I think she needed to use the bathroom. I guess I could take her upstairs. I wasn’t looking forward to it but at least I could walk around and it wouldn’t be so dark.

  “Gonna walk the dog upstairs.”

  “I’ll come.”

  “What about the others?”

  “They’ll be fine for a few. I wanna check the weather.”

  I nodded and was interrupted by thunder. The wind was still howling. She was right, I couldn’t drive in this.

  I climbed the steps with an eager Olive at my heels. Tanya a few steps behind me. I opened the door. It was lighter than the basement but was still pretty dark. It was windier, but I didn’t hear any zombs, only smelled the dead. The kitchen window was still broken, but the living room showed the source of the crash.

  A tree collapsed against the house and the two living room windows. One window was now completely knocked out, the other had spider vein cracks. It was blocking the driveway and the only way to get the car out.

  “Fuck,” Tanya said.

  I looked closer out the window. There were dozens of down trees blocking the road. I wouldn’t be able to drive a car or anything off this block.

  We’d have to walk for a while.”

  “Walk?” Annemarie asked. “How far?”

  “I don’t know,” I admitted. “We don’t know how much damage the storm did.”

  “We’re 25 miles from CostKing.” Jim said.

  “We can’t walk 25 miles,” Annemarie said, her voice cracked. “We’ll be killed.”

  “I don’t like it,” Tanya said. “But right now we got no choice. We’ll find another car.”

  “We’ll walk to Jericho Turnpike,” I suggested. “It’ll be easy to spot a car we could use.” It was an open road and it lead straight to CostKing.

  “At least the rain’s let up,” Jake said. The tapping was still there but the howling wind subsided.

  Annemarie looked like she was going to say something. I didn’t like to see the scared look in their faces. I hoped that I wasn’t showing the same fear.

  “We don’t have options,” Tanya said. “Anyone who wants to stay here with them dead bodies upstairs is welcome to it.”

  “I think there’s a bike store on Jericho turnpike,” Jim said. “We could try biking.”

  There were some bikes back in CostKing. I know that without oil being pulled from the ground, combustible engines wouldn’t be around for much longer. We had to look into bikes and biodiesel. All the stuff I complained that hippy leftists wanted, now we needed.

  Except for the guns, we got to keep that.

  Bike riding would be treacherous but less than walking. We would be in the open, but at least we would be moving faster. Going five miles per hour we might be able to get home by tomorrow.

  The only one I was worried about was Jim who didn’t look good.

  “Jim, you okay?” I asked.

  He nodded. “Back’s still sore from all this moving around.”

  We should have given him more time to heal or I should have insisted we drop him off at the CostKing while we still had a chance.

  “Hang in there,” Tanya said, touching his shoulder. “My mamma always said one step ahead is one step ahead,” then she laughed. “At least I wished she did.”

  Jim didn’t laugh. He looked like he much rather be lying down then going on a long
walk or bike ride.

  It didn’t take us long to get to the bike shop. The bad news was we weren’t the first to think of taking bikes. The entire front had been smashed in. There were bikes left, but they were all in various states of disrepair. At least the storm was over but it left downed trees, power lines and utility poles. It was overcast but I wondered if it was going to rain again. I was only grateful not to see any zombs when we left. We carried what supplies we could, mostly the ammo. We carried about a day’s worth of food, one medical kit and two CBs. I didn’t ditch Barbara’s painting and picture and Jim kept a silk handkerchief for Princess.

  “I might be able to fix some up,” Jake said. He walked into the store.

  “Careful,” Tanya said. She followed him. “Dave, you, Jim and Annemarie stay outside and keep an eye out.”

  Jake picked up a bike with two flat tires. He rolled it out to me. He looked around. “I can’t work out in the open or in the store. Can you find a place for us to work?”

  I handed Olive’s leash to Jim. I looked around and found a nail salon two doors down that did not look seriously damaged. I swung the rifle over my back.

  The door wasn’t locked but it was shut.

  Inside was a gruesome scene. Three girls, all oriental, dead, they were chewed up and ripped apart so much that they didn’t come back. We couldn’t work here. I pulled the bike back out and was greeted by the sounds of screaming and gunfire.

  I dropped the bike and rushed to the store.

  Jim backed out into me. A moment later Tanya came out along with Annemarie they were dragging Jake with them. He now lay on the ground bleeding from a gushing wound on his leg and screaming holy hell.

  The zombies began to move out of the store into the light. I took a step back. Four zombies came out. Each looking gruesome as they were covered in all kinds of gore, some old, some new and some made by bullet holes but the smell was worse than anything. One was a man wearing bike shorts and covered with wounds and bite marks, the other a woman with torn clothes enough that I could see her black bra. The third was a bald black man with sores covering his head. The last was a kid, about 11 years old wearing a Yankees t-shirt and torn up jeans. All four made that horrible moaning sound.

  Tanya and Annemarie fired indiscriminately.

  Tanya got the kid in the knee and it fell to the ground. Instead of shooting it, she grabbed the crowbar and bashed its skull in.

  Jake stopped screaming. God help me, I was glad. I couldn’t take both his screaming and their moaning.

  Jim backed up a safe distance with Olive. He had a tire iron out but he didn’t look like he planned to use it.

  Annemarie got lucky and got the bike shorts guy in the head, leaving only the bra woman and the black guy. I aimed at him but missed.

  The bra woman was closest to Tanya. Tanya shoved the crowbar right into her eyes, pulled it out and down she went.

  She spun around and used the crowbar to whack the black guy in the head. He went down but wasn’t dead. Tanya got a clear head shot and took it.

  “Holy fucking shit,” Annemarie said. “Oh god, Jake.” She began crying. She reached over to touch him.

  “He’s dead,” she said, weeping.

  “What the fuck happened?” I asked.

  Jake grabbed Annemarie’s hand. She screamed. The virus could work pretty damn fast once you are dead. She yanked her hand away but Jake had it. He didn’t realize Tanya was right there. She put the end of the rifle right at his temple and fired. The sound was loud, deafening. Annemarie screamed again, backed up but stayed on the ground and began crying. Tanya grabbed the rifle from his back. She went back in the store and retrieved Jake’s bag.

  “Holy fuck,” I said. First Dot was dead, now Jake. I felt that anger raising. “You bastards!”

  I think they thought I was talking about the zombs. Maybe I was.

  “Do you think we got all of them?” Jim asked, his voice almost a whisper.

  “I think so,” Tanya said. Annemarie was still wailing. Jim went over and helped her up. He wore a new shirt but blood still stained his back.

  “What happened?” I asked.

  Jim helped Annemarie over to us. She had stopped wailing but still cried.

  “Nest or trap or somethin’. Parts of bodies in the back ripped up.”

  “A lot of people came here for bikes,” Jim said. “Maybe they figured out something.” “You god damn sons of bitches.” I didn’t like the idea of them learning.

  “Dave,” Tanya said. “Let’s go, before others come. They probably heard the shots.”

  I wanted to yell at them and the world but she was right. We had to get away from here.

  We walked quickly down Jericho Turnpike until we found a store that did not have smashed windows, dead women or zombies.

  “We can look for a car again,” Tanya said. “Just gotta take it slowly.”

  “Fuck this!” I said, my anger came to a boil. This was my fault. I was supposed to look after them, now Jake was dead.

  “This is your fault, all of you. That kid Henry didn’t know what the hell he was doing.”

  “Dave,” Tanya said. “Knock it off.”

  “You’re not the leader. You knock it off.”

  “Dave,” this came from Jim. “I’m the leader. Don’t be this way.”

  “Whose idea was it to get bikes?”

  Jim didn’t say anything and looked away.

  “You went along with it,” Tanya said. “You’re pissed. We got it, but it ain’t our fault.”

  She was right but it was too late. The anger was already there and someone had to get it. That someone used to be my wife and occasionally my daughter.

  “You don’t know what the hell you’re doing?” I shouted. I looked at Jim. “Why the hell did you let Ashley go on her own?”

  “We couldn’t stop her. Dave if you think you can do better why don’t you go on your own?” He sounded pissed probably because of what I said about the bikes.

  “Fuck you, Jim. Sick of you and Rachel dismissing me like I’m some five year old.”

  “You acting like one,” Tanya said.

  “You are too.”

  “Enough” Annemarie said, her face streaked with tears. “No one’s going on their own. Leaving CostKing meant a risk. We all knew it. Jake is dead, Dot is dead, Ashley probably is too. We can’t splinter now. We need to stick together and find a car.”

  I knew Annemarie was right. I was still mad but instead of arguing, I knocked over a display case.

  “You feel better?” Tanya asked.

  We walked down Jericho Turnpike, searching for anything that could take us home, bikes, a manual car or even a ride, some survivor who was looking for supplies. Someone who was handy who we could invite back to CostKing. A car did come by, a green Toyota Prius that we waved and yelled at, but instead of slowing down, it sped up. I barely saw the driver and his three passengers, all looking terrified of us. Didn’t they know the guns were for the zombies?

  The zombs weren’t out in force, but we occasionally had to shoot one.

  I don’t know how long we walked. My feet were killing me and Olive whimpered at the long walk, but I couldn’t carry her. We finally reached Commack when Jim collapsed.

  “Shit,” Tanya said and went down to aide him. I helped her pull him up.

  “I’m okay,” he said, his eyes woozy. “Can we stop for a break?”

  Chapter 23

  We picked the first house that looked secure, didn’t smell like dead bodies or have zombies. That turned out to be the third house on a tree line street two blocks from the turnpike. I placed Jim on the couch while Annemarie searched the bags for antibiotics. Tanya took Jim’s shirt off and removed the bandage. I could see his back. The major scratch looked ugly and puffy and had red lines around it.

  “We may have to stay here for a few days,” Annemarie said. She gave Jim a pill and one of the strong pain killers we found at her parent’s house. “Let the antibiotics take their course.”r />
  I didn’t want to stay here for that long but it was obvious Jim needed to rest and recover.

  “We gotta find a car,” Tanya said. “Search every fucking garage. I’ll walk back to CostKing and get a car.”

  I saw in Tanya’s face something I’ve never seen before—Worry. She was worried about Jim.

  “I’ll go with you. Annemarie can look after Jim.”

  Tanya nodded. She walked over to Annemarie to tell her, then touched Jim on the shoulder.

  “I can walk,” he said, and he shivered.

  “No,” Tanya said. “We’re gonna get you home.”

  Jim must have been really sick because he didn’t complain.

  I did not like the idea of wandering around in the day, definitely not at night and I hated leaving Annemarie and Jim alone.

  “Are you sure you’ll be okay?” I asked her.

  “Just be quick.”

  Tanya packed her crowbar and a few rifle rounds. I had one of Mike’s rifles. Not that I could do much with my lousy shooting. I grabbed Olive and put her on the leash. I wondered what we could do with her if we found bikes. We would have to find something to hold her. I was not leaving my dog behind. I’ll put her in a backpack if I had to.

  I didn’t want to leave. I was still tired, but we walked out of the house without saying another word.

  At least the weather cleared. The sun was beginning to come out from behind the clouds.

  Tanya started on this block first. No reason for us to go far. We used a crowbar to open garages. Some of the cars we found even had shiny keys nearby. But most of them either were dead or almost dead. None of the garages had portable jump starters although I have to wonder if those would be dead too.

  We walked down to the next block and three more after that. Nothing. Dead cars, no manuals, nothing. We managed to find one bike, but it wouldn’t do any good for Jim. We wheeled it along our search figuring the worst case scenario, someone rides to CostKings and brings back a car.

  Then a car drove by. A mother fucking car. I ran to the street waving my arms. This one didn’t pass us by. It screeched to a halt a few feet away from us. The car had painted black windows.