Suddenly a growl came from Michelle's bedroom.
"Michelle?" Rachel asked, confused.
Katie heard the groaning of bedsprings and heard footsteps on the floor. Michelle, or rather what was left of Michelle, shuffled into the doorway. Her face was white and mottled with dried blood. She had a pained expression frozen on her face. And she had the same eyes as the other Infected, the same mélange of cold death and hot fury. She growled when she saw Rachel and staggered toward her, arms outstretched.
"No, it isn't Michelle anymore," Joel said, grabbing his crowbar. "Stand back, and please don't watch."
Katie pulled Rachel back and covered her eyes. She began to resist, so Katie whispered in her ear, "How do you want to remember her? I want to remember her as the goofy roommate who sometimes put DVDs in the DVD player upside down, who mistook peanut butter for mayo and ate a BLT with a thick helping of PB. I don't want to remember her as this."
Rachel relaxed. Katie closed her eyes and heard the whoosh of the swinging crowbar and heard a sound like the claw end of a hammer meeting a honeydew. Katie heard a thump on the floor.
"It's done," Joel said grimly. The crowbar clanked as it hit the floor. "Katie, can you help me carry her body outside?"
Katie turned and nodded.
Rachel said, "I'll clean up her room."
Katie grabbed Michelle's ankles and Joel grabbed her wrists and they carried her outside; she was surprisingly light. They set her down in the grass about twenty feet from the porch and Joel went to retrieve the shovel. When he got back he began digging a grave for her.
The afternoon sun was at 45° above the horizon when Joel finished digging. The hole appeared to be about five feet deep. He and Katie gently lowered Michelle into the grave and Joel covered her body with dirt, filling in the hole.
Rachel came out as they were finishing. "The cabin is clean."
"Okay," Katie replied walking to her. She hugged Rachel. "We'll get through this."
Rachel nodded. "I know." She rubbed her eyes. "It just hurts so much!"
"I know,” Katie said as they walked back into the cabin.
Joel stoked a fire in the fireplace as it got dark outside and they all reminisced about Michelle.
"Do you remember the first day of class when we found out she was going to be our roommate?" Katie asked.
"I do! I remember we thought she was just a hilarious ginger!" Rachel laughed. "She did and said the funniest things! Remember the time she got us temporarily banned from UB Stadium?"
"I do! Remember when she talked us into going to Niagara Falls on the hottest day of the year? Remember how she kept saying Canadian guys were hot?"
Rachel laughed, nodding. "I remember she kept saying American Falls was a rip-off compared to Horseshoe Falls."
They laughed until they were crying. Joel sat beside Katie, quiet the whole time. She looked at him. "Are you okay Joel?"
"Yeah, just processing what happened today."
She hugged him.
The next morning, Joel and Katie got up at sunrise and took a walk down to the Allegheny Reservoir. Rachel had told them about the reservoir and had said it was about a quarter of a mile east of the cabin. Sure enough, they reached the edge of an escarpment that sloped down to a small rocky beach. They ambled down to the rocky beach and sat on a large rock together. It was a little chilly out.
"This is beautiful," Katie said.
"It is," Joel replied.
They sat there quietly for a little while, watching birds fly south over the reservoir.
"I guess anyone who gets bitten by someone who's infected is likely to become infected themselves," Joel said thoughtfully as a large grey heron swooped down to land in water about thirty feet away. It landed with a splash.
"Yeah, I guess so. I guess that's how it spreads."
"Yeah, it would seem to corroborate what Rachel suggested about it being a blood-borne disease. Plus, it looks like the disease part of it, before you die, is pretty awful. If I get it, please kill me before it gets bad."
Katie didn't know what to say, so she quietly nodded.
"We need to see how much food is in the cabin. We also need to see if there is a rifle in it. If there is, we could go hunting over the winter to find food. If there isn't, we need to consider moving on."
"Yeah, I guess so," she said, watching as the heron stabbed its bill into the water, spearing a small fish.
After a while they walked back to the cabin. It smelled like pizza when they walked in.
"Hey guys, I made some pizza," Rachel said cheerily.
"It smells delicious!" Joel exclaimed.
Pepperonis and peppers and sausage and tomatoes covered the cheesy surface. It sat upon a circular black stone, which must have been a pizza stone. A case of beer from the fridge sat on the counter.
"You guys are just in time. I just took it out of the oven," she said, slicing into it with a pizza cutter.
Katie and Joel sat down and ate the pizza, which turned out to be delicious.
"Rachel, this is really good!" Katie said, mouth full of hot gooey cheese.
"Thanks!" She blushed a little.
"Rachel, we need to talk about our future plans," Joel said, before he took a sip of beer.
"Okay, can't we just stay here?" she replied.
"Well, how did you cook the pizza?" he asked.
"I used the gas oven."
"Propane?"
"Yeah, oh..."
"Is the heat in here propane too?"
"Yeah."
"And the electricity?"
"It runs on a generator."
"How will we get food? Eventually we are going to eat through what we have here,” he said.
"Well, my dad kept a rifle in the master bedroom. We could hunt. I think that's what I was planning on. We could make it work. We have a fireplace too."
"Rachel, spring won't come for five months. You know winters up here get really cold. And snowy," Katie chimed in.
"The fireplace will do a decent job of warming the main room, but it will take a lot of firewood to keep the main room reliably warm. Now, we still have maybe three or four weeks of bearably warm weather before it gets cold. If we stay here until the first snow, which by my estimate is an optimistic guess at how long our food and propane will last, we will be stuck trying to get mopeds out of rural Pennsylvania on unplowed, unsalted roads in the dead of winter. We won't have food. We won't be able to get medicine if we need it. I am fairly confident that if we stay here, we will die, whether it's in this cabin or in the woods. We need to leave as soon as we can," Joel said passionately.
"Where are we going to go?" Rachel asked, throwing her hands up in the air.
"Let's make our way south, toward warmer areas of the country. Look, we can pass through Pittsburgh and see if we can find Austin. He lives just north of the city in Summer Hill," he said, raising his eyebrows.
Rachel furrowed her brow thoughtfully. "Hmm."
"Rachel, I agree with Joel. It's a bad idea to stay here for the winter. This was a good place to hide out for a couple of weeks, but we need to get going soon," Katie said.
Rachel nodded.
"Tonight, let's have a feast and then tomorrow morning, let's head out. We should be able to make it to Pittsburgh by day break," Joel suggested.
"Sounds like a plan," Rachel said.
Rachel thawed some ground beef and Katie went to work cutting up vegetables for salad and sauce. Rachel began boiling a pot of water and started sautéing the beef. Katie prepared the salad and heated up some bread in the oven. A little later, Rachel stirred in the vegetables and spaghetti sauce with the browned beef. Then she started cooking some angel hair noodles.
Joel walked over to them. "That smells amazing ladies!"
"Thanks, it will be ready in a few minutes," Rachel said.
When it was done, they sat down to eat together. As they broke bread, Katie realized she was grateful for two friends she could rely on. She wondered if Joel and she woul
d be able to marry in this new frightening world. She wondered if Austin was still alive. She wondered what they would find in Pittsburgh. And quite unexpectedly she found herself wondering if her father was still alive.
The man didn't deserve to be. Yet Katie found a long dormant yearning rising within her. She wanted to see him again. Maybe it was time to finally forgive him.
She quickly dismissed such thoughts from her head. They had a busy day ahead tomorrow. After dinner she would pack their stuff. She had no idea what to expect, but realized she could face anything as long as Joel was with her.
Chapter Sixteen
Jim Gibson
Day 4
Jim passed the eighth floor and heard scratching behind the fire door.
As he reached the landing for the ninth floor the crescendo of feverish clawing peaked.
"This is creepy," Giselle said, panting.
"Thank you Captain Obvious!" Connor said sarcastically.
"Come on guys," Jeff said. "I know things are tense, but we have to keep going and pray those doors hold up."
Jim continued on. The tenth floor had no scratching behind the fire door. The eleventh was similarly quiet. The clawing faded below as he and his friends rose. He became aware of another sound above, but this wasn't the sound of feverish hands scratching at doors.
He stopped. "Hey, do you guys hear that?"
"Yeah, what is that?" Vik asked.
Connor laughed. "I guess someone's alive up there."
The pulsating sound became more discernible as Jim ascended the stairs to the twelfth floor; it was the bassy thump-thump of a well-endowed sound system.
"I like big butts and I cannot lie!"
The lyrics became decipherable as Jim reached the landing below the twelfth floor. He saw light filtering through the narrow gap below the fire door.
His friends all laughed as they realized they were improbably hearing the jams of Sir Mix-a-Lot. Jim was tired by this point and he knew his friends were likely exhausted too, having walked up twenty-eight flights of stairs.
He walked up to the fire door and put his ear up to it, straining to pick out something besides old school rap. He heard laughter and clinking dishes. He thought he detected a familiar voice but couldn't determine to whom it belonged.
He looked at the others and shrugged. "I guess I'll knock and see who's home." Jim turned and pounded on the steel door with his fist.
The music continued unabated.
He pounded some more, harder this time.
Still no response.
He pounded and yelled, "Hey!" as loud as he could.
Finally, the music quieted down and footsteps approached the door.
"Who's out there?" a familiar voice asked.
"Antoine? Antoine, is that you?”
"Maybe, who's asking?"
"This is Jim, Phil's brother. Please tell me Phil is still alive!"
"Jim Gibson?"
"Yes!" he yelled.
"You infected?"
"Infected with what?"
"Owasa Disease man!"
"Oh, the zombie virus? No!"
"How do I know that?"
"I feel fine!"
"That's not how it's measured man! Have you been bitten or scratched by a zombie?"
"No."
"Gotten any of their blood in your mouth, eyes or open wounds?"
"No!"
"Who's with you?"
"Jeff, Vik, Connor and Giselle."
"Who are Connor and Giselle?" he asked suspiciously.
"Connor is Jeff's roommate and Giselle is Connor's girlfriend. Now come on, is Phil alive?" Jim asked anxiously, growing tired of the interrogation.
"Are any of them infected?"
"No! Is Phil alive?"
The inquisitor grew quiet for a moment. Jim became anxious. Had Phil died? Had he become a zombie?
Suddenly Jim heard the tumblers turn as the door was unlocked. The door opened and he gasped. His brother Phil stood there, grinning. Antoine stood behind him.
"You're alive!" Jim exclaimed, embracing his brother.
"You’re alive as well," Phil said, hugging him.
"Come in guys," Antoine said, motioning to the rest of the group. He closed the door once they were all inside and locked it.
"Come on in," Phil said as he walked down the hallway.
"What is all of this?" Jim asked.
"All of what? We had to secure the entire floor because," he knocked on an apartment door as he walked by, "these doors aren't exactly secure. Somehow we managed to be the only ones on the floor who weren't living with people who became zombies. We killed all of the zombies and decided to just leave the apartments all open."
"How do you guys have power? And where are all the dead zombies?"
"You've got a lot of questions little brother!" He laughed. "We moved all of the dead zombies to the floor below us and sealed them in a couple of vacant apartments. It was a gruesome job, but it had to be done."
"And the electricity?" Jeff asked.
"Well, you guys remember how they put solar panels on the roof of the terminal a couple of years ago? It was as simple as getting into the electrical room up on the top floor of this building and flipping some switches. We had to cut the power going back into the grid, as that was drawing away useful electricity and we had to cut the power going to the other floors and the rest of the terminal complex. That part was as simple as flipping the switches on some breakers. Now, we have electricity! And, the battery system down in the attic of the terminal will provide extra power for cloudy days in the winter."
"Wow," Jim replied. "That's impressive."
"I thought so myself," he replied.
“What about the elevators?”
“We switched those off. We thought it made the building less secure.”
Antoine laughed. Antoine Hughes was Phil's roommate and best friend.
"Oh hey Jim!" a familiar voice said up ahead. Jim looked up and saw Sherry Walker saunter out of his brother's apartment.
"Sherry?" he asked, puzzled. Sherry had been Phil’s on-again, off-again girlfriend and had most recently been his ex-girlfriend.
"Yup, in the flesh!" she said, laughing.
Jim looked at Phil. He smiled and shrugged.
They entered Phil’s apartment and he motioned for them to sit on the couches. Jim sat down and stretched out.
"So, you guys walked from UB?" he asked.
"Yeah," Vikram said.
"Hmm, how many zombies did you encounter?"
"We encountered them in waves. There was a small wave at the VA, a large wave between there and Broadway, and a few stragglers between Broadway and here," Jim replied. "Of course, there were also quite a few in the plaza down there."
Phil nodded grimly. "Well, it's been a few days since any of us has heard from civil authorities. I don't want to rule out the possibility of rescue, but it seems pretty slim."
"Yeah, the government basically confined everyone to their homes without any further instruction. We encountered people who had been without food and clean water for days," Giselle said.
"Yeah, but from what I observed police were only around to arrest curfew breakers that first night. After that, they were incognito," Antoine said.
"So you guys are just holed up here?" Jim asked.
"Well, we have electricity still, and could for the foreseeable future. We still have food, although even with all of the apartments up here, we will run out eventually. And water, well, we have some miscellaneous means of obtaining it I guess," Phil replied.
"What do you mean, miscellaneous?" Jim asked.
"Well, most of the apartments up here have large supplies of bottled water. I'd imagine most of the other floors are in a similar state. Once those are gone, I guess we'll have to rely on rainwater and snowfall. We'll set up a rainwater catchment system on the roof of the terminal soon, between the solar panels."
"And what about us? How long are we welcome to stay here?" Jim asked.
/> "Jim, you're my brother. You and your friends are welcome to join our group and stay as long as you want or need to. You guys can all take an apartment and sleep in there. You're also welcome to join the three of us in our training regimen."
"Training regimen?" Jeff asked.
"Yeah. We watch zombie movies in the morning to analyze good anti-zombie strategies, we exercise in the afternoons, and we read in the evening."
"That sounds hardcore," Connor said flatly.
"It might be, but you never know. Right now this is a safe area, but it might get swarmed by zombies or something. Plus, we will eventually need to go find food out there. We might as well be in the best shape possible."
Later that night, after everyone else had gone to bed, Jim stayed up playing chess with Phil.
"So, you thought you might never see me again?" Phil asked.
"I feared that, yes," Jim replied as one of his pawns took one of Phil’s knights.
"I feared that for you as well. I'm glad you're okay."
"Have you heard from mom?"
Phil shook his head. "I missed her call, and by the time I tried calling her back, the phones were all down. I did talk to dad and Vicki though."
"Oh?"
"Yeah, I was talking to dad when the fiasco in Seattle happened last week."
"Oh yeah, what happened?"
"Washington's closing pitcher collapsed on the mound after giving up the tying run to Seattle. He actually died on the mound. They pulled the broadcast right after he died, but Twitter was filled with reports that he came back to life and attacked his teammates."
"Wow."
"Yeah, dad was pretty shocked too. I actually heard him express concern for mom when he told me about the game. You know, her and what’s his face were there with Tyler. Dad actually said he hoped they all were okay. And that was about the time the quarantine started. It was nationwide apparently."
"Wow, what did dad have to say about it?"
"He said it kind of reminded him of Nine-Eleven, just like the way people seemed to be panicking. He thought the government was overreacting and this would all blow over within a day or two."
They both laughed. "Dad was always optimistic at odd times," Jim said.
Darkness and The Grave: A Zombie Novel Page 17
