by Morris, SJ
“All right, I’ll do a once over of the surrounding area and go wash up.”
“Thank you... Stinky,” Lance teased.
“I heard that. Just get the tire changed so we can get back on the road before it starts getting dark, which will be in about forty-five minutes, an hour, tops.”
I walked the tree line next to the road in front of us and then walked all the way back to the crash to make sure no one decided to come back to life again. It was pretty creepy being around dead bodies. Let alone ones that should have stayed dead the first time they died and might be reanimating for a second or even a third time. The truth was, we had no idea what these things were capable of. I kept feeling like any second, they were just going to get back up again.
I went back to the inside of the truck and grabbed an empty coffee cup and walked to the stream that was next to the road. I started by dunking the top of my helmet really quick and put it back on right away. I wanted to make sure I was prepared if any surprise visitors showed up. Undead or otherwise. I didn’t really feel like explaining the scene to anyone right now. Plus, I figured where there’s one zombie, there had to be more, right?
After securing my helmet again, I poured the water over every spot of goo I could find, making sure not to pour anything into the breaks of my sleeves or pants. I still didn’t know how long the virus could last outside a body, and even though it was diluted with stream water, I didn’t want to take any chances.
What I really wanted to do was strip all of the leather gear off and burn it, but I was not going to worry about that now. I just needed to get as clean as I could so I could make it to the cabin. Once we were all safely there, I’d disinfect these clothes thoroughly.
I headed back over to the truck where Lance was tightening the lug nuts on the, thank God, full-sized spare tire, and Tyler handed me the wipes. I asked him to give them to me one at a time. I would hate to contaminate the entire bottle of disinfecting wipes.
Now, that would be shitty!
‘How’d you get infected? My Mom left dead person goo on the wipes, and I grabbed the bottle after biting my nails...’
Oh, the things that were going through my head about contamination now. It made me think back to washing up in the stream. What about any living organisms in that water? Were they now going to be infected and pass on the Z-Strain? What if fish ate stuff that came from the stream and then someone ate the fish?
Shit.
Troy better call me back and soon, or I was going to lose my mind thinking of all the possibilities. I’m sure my kids would kill me after a few days of my neuroticism. We’d be burning clothes after coming in contact with anything that was possibly infected and spending our lives looking for something to wear.
“Mom! Mom! I’m done. Are you ready to go? Do you want me to get your back since you can’t reach?” Lance asked, pulling me out of my psychotic thoughts of everything being contaminated.
“Yes, please, I don’t want to get in the car and get this crap all over the seats.”
“Ally, see if you can find a towel or something in the back to cover Mom’s seat with please,” Lance requested as he took a few wipes from Tyler through the window. He cleaned off my shoulders and under my arms, where I didn’t think to get. It was a little weird having one of your kids wipe you down. Typically, it was the other way around.
Then again, normal for us at the moment was an exceedingly relative term.
“I got the towel I was using to keep Lilly’s dog hair off the floor on Mom’s seat, so whenever you’re ready to go, let’s get out of here, please,” Allycia pleaded as she put her window back up.
“All good, Mom. I don’t see anymore... stuff.”
“Thanks. I can’t wait to get to the cabin and get out of these clothes. Let’s head out.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Lance said as he threw the wipes on the ground and hopped back in the truck. I guess I didn’t have to worry about finding a garbage can either. We were already leaving enough of a mess behind.
If you could call two infected, dead bodies something as ordinary as a mess.
I’d never been so happy to get in the front seat and throw the truck into gear. Still, I pulled away slowly, checking my mirrors to be sure I wasn’t going to run over anything else, and Lance looked at me funny.
“Are you all right? You know you can hit the gas, right? I did put the tire on correctly, so it’s not going to fall off.”
“I know. I just want to make sure I don’t run over anything and get us stuck again. I’m just trying to be careful. We only have the one spare.”
“Well, be careful more quickly, please. I don’t know how long I can sit in a closed car with you, and that smell,” Lance said as his face turned sour.
“So, open the windows, I’m sorry. This is all going to be a learning curve for everyone. Hopefully, that’s the last infected person we’ll ever see. With any luck, we get to the cabin and sit tight for a while, and the government or someone else takes care of this disaster.”
“I’ve seen too many zombie movies to know that’s not going to happen, Mom. You and I both know if that guy is infected all the way out here in the sticks, it’s out, and it’s spreading quickly.”
“Well, the guy with the suit was a flight attendant, so it’s not that bad yet. He probably got it from a passenger, which is expected since airports are Petri dishes for diseases. He went home since he wasn’t feeling well, and you know the rest. So, it’s not like it’s out, out.”
“Yes, it is. He made it out, out. Who knows how many people he came into contact with and infected before he ended up here? Even if it was only one person, that one could infect another one or more within an hour or so, and it just keeps going until it’s everywhere.”
“It does appear to be spreading a lot quicker than when I first saw it. We just have to get to the cabin and hunker down. We have to take stock of our supplies so we know how long we can go before we have to start worrying about food or water, but we get to the cabin first. Let’s take this one step at a time. I’m already driving myself nuts thinking about the possibilities this may present just in the form of how it’s spread and how long it’s transmittable for, among so many other questions I have. Let’s not think about all that now, though. Let’s leave all of that for when we’re all settled, please.”
“Okay, Mom, but I still don’t think this is going to have a happy ending.”
“Lance, it already doesn’t have a happy ending. That flight attendant is dead, and you had to kill that young man in the truck. That’s as far from a happy ending as you can get.”
The rest of the drive went along in silence for the most part.
Well, except for when Tyler farted, and we all had a good laugh about how it smelled better than I did. We hit the last gas station before we’d get to the cabin in about an hour.
By that time, it was dark, and I smelled to high heaven of rotten, dead something, so I was apprehensive about what kind of trouble this would cause at the gas station with the attendant.
I knew the virus was out, and there were infected in the surrounding area, so there was no way in hell I was going to let any of my children out of the car to pump gas into the cans. So, I’d spent a good part of the last thirty minutes trying to come up with a game plan for all the possibilities of what could happen.
When we pulled up to the station, there was no one there. The lights were on, but there was no one in the little booth by the pumps, and there was no one I could see from the windows of the small store that sold chips and other roadside crap available at any gas station. You’re in New Jersey, you say, you don’t have to pump your own gas.
Well, we were so far up north that you could say we were in New York State, and no one would tell you any different. So, at this particular station, I knew I’d have to pump my own, and typically, the guy in the shack would be available to take payment, but there was no one there.
I pulled up to one of the pumps and turned to
the kids.
“I don’t see anyone now, but that doesn’t mean anything. I’m going to get out and start filling up the truck at this pump and use the one behind us to start filling up the gas cans and the boat motor, so we’re done as quickly as possible. I don’t like being out here by ourselves, but I don’t like it in the dark that much more. Lance, keep your bow and arrow ready, but keep it down. We don’t want to draw any unwanted attention if anyone does show up. Lock the doors when I get out, okay?”
I got a collective head nod, grabbed my helmet, and jumped out of the truck. I heard the door locks engage, and I looked around again.
I still didn’t see anything, which was starting to really freak me out. It’s almost painful when you’re in high-stress situations, and your body is pumping adrenaline. It makes your mind race a thousand miles a minute in the wrong direction. By the time I got the courage to let go of the door handle, I’d convinced myself there were no more living humans on earth except for us.
I overthink everything, and have you noticed I have a flair for the dramatic sometimes?
But, in this situation, I believed that airing on the side of caution was necessary for our very survival. You can call it overdramatic if you want, but I was scared as hell.
I looked at my helmet and hastily decided to leave it off. It would make it entirely too hard to see in the dark, and without being able to see everything around me, I wanted my hearing to be as defined as possible.
I had my credit card out already strategically placed in the folds of my helmet, so I grabbed it and shoved it into the pump to fill up the truck.
I walked the length of the trailer to get to the pump behind us and I did another quick scan. Not a single soul was around.
Although I did notice that the crickets and other nighttime forest life were buzzing loudly, which gave me comfort. I slid my card into the pump and topped off the boat’s gas tank.
After the boat was full, I started with the twelve containers we had recently acquired. Filling gas cans is time-consuming and a pain in the ass if you need to be on high alert. I overfilled one or two of them and spilled gas all over my boots, which just added to my pleasant aroma.
I was just about done with the last can when I heard a noise like metal on metal. I quickly put the pump back in place and left the can where it was. I slid around the trailer and tried to melt into the back of the truck. The truck, as black as my clothing, helped camouflage me reasonably well, except for the silver duct tape that striped across various parts of my body.
Still, it was better than nothing. I slowly peeked my head around the corner towards the station and saw nothing.
Then, I heard it again. I stood there quietly, trying to listen for where the sound was coming from. It sounded like a door was being jiggled, and then there was a slam and a yelp.
A young and very ugly man in his early twenties practically fell out of the bathroom door on the side of the store, still zipping up his pants.
“God damn door! Fucking every time, man! I don’t get what is so hard about spraying some WD40 on the fucking hinges, Curtis!” After the young man finished his cursing tirade, he looked up and saw me peering out from behind my truck.
“Aw, sorry, ma’am. I didn’t mean to cuss in front of ya. It’s just this door gets stuck every time I gotta go.”
He started walking towards me to help since he saw the gas can lying on the ground.
“I’m good, thanks. Nothing I haven’t heard or said before myself. I don’t need any help. As a matter of fact, I’m done. I was getting ready to leave when you scared the crap out of me.”
“No problem. You sure you don’t need any help? Aw, man! What is that God awful smell?”
“Oh, ugh... I hit a skunk a while back, and I think there’s still some pieces stuck under the truck. You know how animals explode at high speeds?” I said nervously to try and cover up the smell.
“I surely do! Bastards nearly pop when I get ‘em with my pickup! You paying cash or credit?”
“Ugh, credit.”
“Okay, have a safe ride, then. Be careful of dem critters crossing the roads. It’s getting to be spring, so the deer are out, and they don’t explode. Well, with a truck that size, they just might!”
“Thanks, have a good night.”
He finally turned around to go back inside. I grabbed the gas can and shoved my card back in the pump to pay as fast as I could. I pushed the can under the boat cover, grabbed my card and the receipt, before heading back to my door. I knocked on the window so Lance would let me back in. He was distracted, watching the guy inside. I heard the door unlock and hopped in.
I looked at Lance with a questioning stare, “What’s the matter? What are you looking at?”
“The potty-mouth gas guy seems to be looking for something in the store. I’m just keeping an eye on him is all.”
Just as Lance finished talking, a scream erupted from inside the little store. The gas attendant backed up into the glass front door he had just entered, and blood sprayed everywhere.
“I guess he found Curtis,” I said.
“Who’s Curtis?”
“I don’t know, his buddy that he was cursing at when he came out of the bathroom door before.”
“So, what do we do now? We’re about a thirty-minute drive from the cabin, and we know there’s at least one infected within fifteen miles,” Lance asked.
“What are you getting at, Lance? Do you want me to go in there and kill them both?”
“Well, they’re infected, so we have to get rid of them, or they’ll just make more zombies. People will go into the store. They’re going to want to investigate why the front door is covered in blood. I’d use the bow and arrow, but they’re behind glass, so that’s out of the question, and you’re already smelly from the last one. So, where’s your ax? Hey wait, I packed the guns in the trunk under the floor. If you give me a few minutes, I’m sure I can dig Dad’s 9-millimeter out.”
“I am glad you brought the guns and that you’re thinking about securing our future with as few of the undead as possible, but I don’t know about this, Lance. I was able to surprise the flight attendant, but this one’s going to see me coming, and what if someone else shows up?”
“He won’t see you coming if we hurry up. He’s still feasting on his friend over there. I’m sure you’ll be able to get a jump on him. There haven’t been any cars passing, let alone stopping in the fifteen minutes we’ve been here. I think it’s safe to say we shouldn’t get any visitors anytime soon.”
I thought about this for a little bit. I needed my kids to be safe. I needed the cabin to be safe.
Eventually, I realized that Lance was right. The only way that was going to happen was if I got my hands a little dirtier than they already were, unfortunately.
“Fine, we go out together. You get the gun out of the back, while I cover you. When you’re done, you get right back in the car while I go in the store. Helmet on, and let’s go.”
We jumped out together and went to the back of the truck. Lance popped the trunk hatch and did some quick rearranging to create a small tunnel through all camping crap to be able to lift the flap on the floor where the guns were stashed. Lance pulled out the 9-millimeter and a small box of ammunition. He started filling the clip for me, and I sent him back inside the truck. I loaded the remaining bullets to total ten in the magazine and one in the chamber. I made sure the safety was off and closed the trunk as quietly as I possibly could.
“Deep breath, Abby. You got this,” I whispered to myself.
All I needed to do in order to muster the courage to head over there was to look into the truck where my family sat, waiting for me to come back to them. I had to keep my kids safe, even if it meant more bloodshed.
I jogged over to the far corner of the building and made sure I was alone first. The last thing I needed was to get broadsided by an infected I wasn’t expecting.
When I was sure I was by myself, I crouched down and did the crab walk t
o the front door.
I peeked in where the blood was the thinnest through the window.
There was Curtis, munching away on his friend. It churned my stomach to see this thing that used to be human ripping through his friend like he was a pile of cheeseburgers.
It looked like all the easy, soft parts like his stomach and intestines were ripped away. The organs underneath the rib cage, which were easily pulled out, were also shredded to ribbons, splattering the floor with shards of blackening carnage.
The side of his neck was torn out as though he had been ravaged by a lion. The flap of skin from the wound was just hanging there, flopping around on the linoleum floor by the aggressive tearing being done to his midsection by his friend.
The eyes on the gas attendant were still wide open, the way I imagined they were when he realized he was being attacked by his friend. However, after a moment, his eyelids started to flutter a little, and his head began to twitch slightly.
As I watched this happen, I neglected to notice that Curtis had stopped eating. He just kind of sat there, covered in his friend’s bright red blood, and what remained of his soft tissues.
I finally looked up and pretty much locked eyes with what used to be Curtis. His eyes were fogged over with a blue haze that I had seen many times on the corpses in med school. He didn’t seem to notice me, but I sat completely still, just in case he somehow could. Then, Curtis got up. He just stood over the destroyed body of what used to be his friend or at least coworker. My gaze was drawn back to the young man on the floor. His arms started to move slightly. His eyes were still open, except now, his head began to turn towards me, and his eyes began to roll around and stopped to lock onto me. His arms stiffened and reached out for me from his position on the floor. His mouth opened, and it looked as if he was trying to speak, but nothing was coming out.
His throat being ripped out, made sure that couldn’t happen.
Just then, Curtis turned towards the back of the store and began to shuffle away from where we were.
