by Mark Tufo
“Do you want me to drive?” Tasha asked. “It doesn’t look that hard.”
“I’ve got it under control,” Sheila snapped. “I need you two to stay down back there.”
She drove for over a block before she saw the first sign of life: a shadow that disappeared behind a curtain. The shredded bodies scattered across the ground served as a warning for her to not stop. In this neighborhood, the houses were larger, homes of general and flag officers, and she wondered if they’d had more soldiers to protect the families. Not that it looked like it had done any good.
Movement out of the corner of her eye caused her to swerve. She lost control and slammed on the brakes.
The shape turned out to be a middle-aged woman who stopped in front of the Humvee, loosely gripping a shotgun over her chest. The woman’s T-shirt hung on her, and strands of her greasy hair draped her face while most was pulled back into a loose ponytail. She looked like she hadn’t showered in a week. More importantly, the woman seemed uninjured and—especially—uninfected.
The woman’s features were undeniably familiar, but Sheila gaped at her for a couple of long seconds before she recognized the woman. Sheila’s eyes widened, and she hurriedly rolled down her window and stuck her head out. “Alic? Is that you?”
Alic McGregor’s ramrod-straight form relaxed, and she rushed over to stand at Sheila’s door. “Sheila? Oh, thank God. I couldn’t see you through that grimy windshield.”
“Hi, Mrs. McGregor,” Tasha said.
“Hi, Mrs. McGregor,” Jenny echoed.
Alic smiled warmly. “Hello, girls. You don’t know how good it is to see your faces.”
“What are you doing out here?” Sheila asked. “It’s too dangerous to be outside.”
Alic held up a roll of papers.
“Are you crazy?” Sheila motioned around her. “You can’t be still trying to deliver newsletters.”
The other woman lifted her chin. “There are people still in hiding. They need to know that the tunnels are safe.”
She unrolled the papers so Sheila could see the page. Written in bold black marker was:
Fort Bragg has fallen.
Seek shelter in the tunnels. You’ll be safe there.
ALL ARE WELCOME.
Below the words was a hastily drawn map of the barracks area of Fort Bragg, with a large X marking the tunnel’s main entrance.
“People need to know,” Alic said simply.
Feeling deflated, Sheila self-consciously tucked a loose clump of hair under her cap. “We’re headed to the tunnels now. Why don’t you come with us? We can post the flyers along the way.”
Alic let out a deep sigh. “I’d like that very much.” She jogged around and climbed in the front seat. “Today hasn’t been going well. I lost my security detail before I had a chance to post any flyers.”
Sheila stepped on the gas pedal, and the vehicle hit the bumper of a car.
Alic gave an incredulous stare. “You can drive, can’t you?”
Sheila shot her an indignant glare. “I haven’t gotten around to getting my license yet.”
“How about I drive?” Alic offered.
Sheila didn’t hesitate to manhandle the shifter into park. “Be my guest.”
Alic hopped out and walked around the front of the Humvee. Sheila looked outside and chose instead to shimmy ungracefully across the front seats. Alic climbed behind the wheel and smoothly shifted gears.
That Sheila couldn’t smell Alic was a sign of how badly they all needed showers. She discreetly sniffed her armpits and grimaced. Hopefully, the tunnels have running water.
Alic covered the next couple of blocks in half the time it had taken Sheila to cover the first block. Alic swerved frequently to give wide berth to vehicles parked along the sides and to avoid running over debris.
“You drive like Daddy, Mrs. McGregor,” Jenny said, leaning as close to the front seat as she could get.
Alic’s brow rose. “Is that good?”
“Dad’s a great driver,” Tasha answered.
“He’s the best,” Jenny added, beaming.
Alic’s face softened, and she threw a glance in Sheila’s direction. “Any news on your husband? His name’s Parker, right?”
Sheila swallowed and nodded. “He was off base before they locked everything down.”
“Oh.” Alic veered around a car stalled in the middle of the road. “Well, Roy has spoken highly of him. If anyone can make it out there, an ACE man can.”
“Thanks,” Sheila replied. “How’s Roy?” She’d always known Alic’s husband only as Colonel McGregor, and using his name felt foreign on her lips.
“Roy is in the tunnels waiting for me. Or, at least, he’d better be in the tunnels. Can you believe that fool was going to send an entire squad to pick me up?”
Sheila shrugged as if she’d expect nothing different.
“Humph,” Alic added. “I already feel awful about what happened to Jemison and Rafter. I told him I’d divorce him if he risked the lives of any more of his men for me.”
“I bet he wasn’t too happy about that.”
“Not one bit. Nonetheless, he knew I was right. If he sent a team for me, then he should be sending teams for every family left out here. If he did that, there’d be no one left to hold off the Variants.”
“Variants?”
“That’s what they’re calling the ones that survived the poison.”
“Oh,” Sheila said without really listening, as she was too focused on scanning the landscape before them from left to right and back again. She expected to see yellow eyes watching her from behind every parked car and from within every house. Instead, it seemed as though the neighborhoods were devoid of any life.
“Everyone’s gone,” she said under her breath.
“What?” Alic asked.
“Oh, nothing,” she quickly replied. “Just talking to myself.”
Where everyone went was something Sheila didn’t really want to know. She’d seen what had happened to Kelli and what had nearly happened to her and the girls. She suspected the Variants were picking off families one house at a time because there weren’t enough infected to make a full-out assault.
Sunlight glistened off metal, and Sheila pointed. “Watch out. It looks like a lot of shrapnel straight ahead.” As soon as she said the word “shrapnel,” she frowned. Since when had shrapnel become a part of her daily vocabulary?
Alic leaned forward. “I see it. My God, this whole base has become a war zone.”
She turned to the left and brought the Humvee onto the sidewalk to avoid the twisted metal that looked like it had come off a military vehicle but was now blackened chunks.
“If we didn’t have this Humvee,” Alic said, “we’d likely have blown tires by now and would be walking the rest of the way to the tunnels.”
Sheila shivered at the thought.
“Mom, can we get up now?” Tasha asked from behind Sheila’s seat.
“Not yet,” Sheila answered. “The tunnels aren’t much farther.”
“How did you get a hold of a working Humvee?” Alic asked.
Sheila thought about the troops who’d come to her rescue, and her heart became leaden. “A couple of the Variants broke in and found us hiding in the attic.” She shivered. “Lucky for us, there were troops in the area who heard my gunshots. They took out the Variants and were going to take us to the tunnels, but…”
“But something happened,” Alic finished for her. “I know. Something always happens as long as those Variants survive. Roy said that whatever they sprayed across the cities was supposed to kill them all, but there seem to be plenty that proved immune. Roy said the ones that are left have changed. They’re more aggressive.”
Sheila chuckled drily. “How could they possibly get any meaner?”
Alic shrugged. “He also said they’re getting smarter.”
Sheila sobered. “Let’s hope he’s wrong.”
“Let’s hope,” Alic echoed before pointing at the clu
bhouse. “Let’s post the flyers here.”
Alic pulled the Humvee off the street and weaved it through the parking lot until she reached the bulletin board where folks posted flyers on events, lost-and-found items, and ads. She stopped with the bumper a few feet from the board and looked around. “I don’t see anything. You?”
“Nothing,” Sheila said.
Alic grabbed the flyers, and Sheila grabbed her hand. “I’ll do it. You stay behind the wheel in case we need to make a run for it.”
After a moment of thought, Alic nodded. “Okay. Be careful.”
Sheila glanced back at her girls, who were both watching her with saucer-sized gazes.
“Don’t worry, sweeties. I’m just hanging something on the board and will right be back. You can watch.”
“Be careful,” Tasha said. “I’ll watch out for the monsters.”
“Yeah. Me, too,” Jenny said.
Sheila smiled. Then, she turned, took a deep breath, grabbed the flyers and staple gun, and stepped outside. She did a full three-sixty first, smelling the air but noticing nothing but grass and trees. She then jogged over to the board and began to staple flyers over the other pages, making no attempt to have them lined up properly.
Every staple pounding into the board seemed like thunder to Sheila, and she felt her heartbeat crescendo in response. Movement at the tree sent Sheila racing back into the Humvee. “In the tree! Go, go, go!”
Alic snapped the vehicle into gear, and Tasha started laughing. “Mom, it’s a squirrel!”
“Squirrel!” Jenny belted out a laugh. “Mommy’s scared of a squirrel!”
Rather than accelerating, Alic kept her foot on the brake. She looked to where Sheila was pointing, then looked back at Sheila before bursting out laughing.
Sheila looked back at the tree to find the squirrel flicking its tail. “Well, it was a really big squirrel.” She started laughing. The Humvee filled with the pleasant sounds.
Alic sighed after she caught her breath. “Oh, thank you. I needed that.”
Sheila shot one more glance back at the squirrel. This time, the squirrel had disappeared. In its place clung a yellow-eyed Variant, and it seemed to be mouthing something intelligible to her. Her smile dropped. “Step on it, Alic! Not joking this time!”
The Humvee sprung forward, throwing everyone back in their seats. Sheila reached for her gun and readied it. The Variant gave chase, and Sheila watched it gain on them through the side mirror.
She snapped around to check on her daughters. “Stay down back there and hold on!”
Alic tore around corners and zigzagged down the street. The Variant hopped over cars to close the distance. When it was several car lengths behind them, it stopped cold and turned toward a house.
It was then Sheila saw the woman standing behind the large bay window. Sheila didn’t recognize her, but that made the punch to her gut no less painful. “Oh, no,” she said breathlessly. Sheila watched the Variant scream before crashing through the window.
Sheila clenched her eyes shut and turned away.
“I feel very sorry for whatever drew its attention away from us, but I’m thankful it gave up,” Alic said, her voice sounding hollow. She slammed her hand against the steering wheel. “Damn it!”
No one had anything to say after that.
The tension in the Humvee rose when Alic turned the corner. Before them stood haphazard rows of military vehicles, cars, trucks, and anything else that could congest a road.
A full-out traffic jam.
“It just keeps getting better and better,” Alic said drily.
“Maybe there’s another way,” Sheila offered.
“I’ve lived at Fort Bragg for over twenty years,” Alic said. “There’s no other way.”
The Humvee slowed to a crawl. Alic pressed against a car bumper. As she moved it out of the way, it complained with a metallic shriek.
“It’s too loud,” Sheila said. “You’ll draw attention to us.”
Alic scowled. “Everyone must’ve made a mad rush for the tunnels as soon as it was announced. Since your husband is off base, you wouldn’t have been notified. There must be hundreds of people who haven’t been notified yet.”
“How much farther to the tunnels?” Sheila asked.
Alic’s lips thinned. “About three blocks, give or take.”
Sheila thought of the Variant that had chased them, and felt the warmth drain from her face. “That’s a long distance.”
“We can’t stay here. We’re basically dinner in a can for the Variants as long as we’re sitting still. We can’t drive, because everything’s too jammed together down there for the Humvee to get through.”
Sheila took in a deep inhalation before turning to face her daughters. “Jenny, Tasha, we’re going to go for a walk.”
“But, I don’t want to go outside,” Jenny complained.
“We have to, sweetie. We can’t stay here anymore,” Sheila said, then swallowed as she looked over both her girls. “Now, I want you to hold each other’s hands and don’t let go, no matter what.”
— 8 —
Leaving the relative security of the Humvee was the second hardest thing Sheila had done that day. Once outside, Tasha and Sheila each took one of Jenny’s hands, while Sheila held the pistol in her free hand. Alic and Sheila shared a knowing look. The older woman took the lead, holding her shotgun level before her.
The street looked blocked all the way to the barracks. Cars, trucks, and military vehicles were slammed together, left in the exact positions where they’d collided. They were strewn on the street, sidewalks, and lawns. Car doors had been left open. Broken glass lay on the concrete. Blood splattered windshields. When she saw a butchered body lying on the hood of a car, Sheila sucked in a breath and turned away.
“Don’t look at the cars,” she ordered her girls. “Just keep your eyes on the path straight ahead.”
Except there was no path. They had to weave through the vehicles, sometimes climbing over one to make forward progress. Sheila was surprised they hadn’t seen more Variants by now. The infected prowled the night in greater forces, but perhaps that was because the uninfected were at a disadvantage during those dark hours. Regardless, they seemed to have little deterrence to hunting in the broad daylight as well.
Maybe she imagined the hair-raising feeling of predatory gazes upon her, but that didn’t make the feeling any less real. She threw quick glances at the surrounding buildings. They stood like tireless ghosts in the harsh sunlight. Every shattered window seemed to hide a specter in its darkness.
She shivered.
“Ouch, Mom,” Tasha said in a loud whisper, trying to yank away. “You’re squeezing too hard.”
Sheila looked down to her wincing daughter, then to her hand, realizing her fingers had formed a vise around her daughter’s. She forced herself to relax. “Oh, sorry, sweetie.”
A feral shriek shattered the air, and Sheila spun around to seek out the source while raising her gun. A Variant crouched on the hood of a nearby truck. It peered down at the four females. It howled again, echoed by a dozen more howls encircling them.
Sheila’s blood froze. “Oh, God, no. They’re everywhere.”
Alic fired her shotgun. The crouching Variant leapt to another vehicle with inhuman speed, effortlessly dodging the blast.
Alic yanked around. “Go! I’ll cover!”
Sheila gave Alic an incredulous look.
“I’ll catch up. Now, go!”
Sheila jumped into action and then tugged Tasha’s arm. “Don’t let go!”
Sheila led her daughters past Alic as the woman fired another shot. The two women made eye contact just long enough for Sheila to see the resolution in Alic’s eyes. Sheila hoped the other woman had seen the raw gratitude in hers.
Sheila fought against the urge to call for Alic. Instead, she ran, pulling her girls along as quickly as they could keep up. Tasha kept pace with her mother, but they’d made it only a few dozen feet before Jenny’s short leg
s began to lag behind.
The howls grew louder, and Sheila caught movement out of the corner of her eye. “Faster!”
They were proving nowhere near fast enough to escape the Variants.
Jenny tripped. “Mommy!” Tasha pulled her sister’s arm, and Sheila switched positions to carry her younger daughter. She picked up Jenny, but froze before she took a step. Sprinting directly at them was a Variant.
“Mom!” Tasha screamed.
Sheila dropped Jenny and tucked both girls behind her. She raised her gun and fired off shot after shot. The Variant dodged to the left and right, missing the bullets. When she fired her last round, she could’ve sworn the Variant was grinning with its horrifying mouth filled with shard-like teeth.
Gunfire erupted. The Variant screeched and twisted before lobbing off to disappear behind a tree.
“Head to your two o’clock. Get a move on!” a male voice shouted.
Sheila found the soldier waving at her from the front door two buildings down. She dropped the gun and grabbed Jenny and Tasha’s hands. She pulled them with her as she ran. A soldier stood scowling on the rooftop and laid down cover fire once she reached the building.
It was a small office building with shattered windows. She jumped first through the open doorway, dragging her girls behind her. She slipped. Her feet went flying out from under her, and her head slammed against the floor. She felt a thud, then saw stars. The pain followed immediately. Stings shot through her body from where she’d hit the floor hardest—her head, elbow, and butt. She forced herself to her feet, fighting to stand straight through the dizziness.
She then noticed why she fell. Fresh blood marks scraped the floors as though whatever had been attacked here had been dragged off into the darkness. Neither girl had fallen, and she reclaimed their hands to lead them down the hallway. Jenny was gasping for air, and Tasha had pink cheeks.
“You’re doing great, girls. Just a little bit farther,” Sheila said in between breaths.
A shape moved in front them, and Sheila froze. She reached for her gun, realizing she no longer had it on her.
“This way,” the shape spoke—a soldier wearing full impact armor and gas mask. He motioned Sheila and her daughters to the bottom of a stairwell, where he pointed to the stairs.
