by Hamid, Dean
It didn’t take long or too much to quiet them down. He pointed towards the elders up front. A woman with long flowing gray hair stood up. She was petite for a woman of age, but her body appeared very strong. She was well respected because as soon as she started to speak, you could hear a pin drop. She said. “My people. My people. As you know, it’s been a hard ten years. Ten years it’s been with this epidemic. But, for some of us, it was hard even before then.” The crowd nodded their heads in agreement.
But, even now. As soon as we get adjusted... well,” she sighed, “as adjusted as we can.” She’d lost many family members. She pulled herself together and said at the top of her voice. At least as loud as it would go. “These creatures are changing. Before we had them on the run, but now... now, something else has happened…” Her voice trailed off and then another man stood up.
“Thank you, Mama Eva.” He motioned for two younger men to escort her to a cushioned seat behind them. He started to survey the crowd, then said, “Yes. Things changed, but we had the feeling it would come to this.” He pointed to the windows. “It’s daylight and these... things, roam the streets now. Making it damn near impossible and definitely unsafe to even be out.”
“Well! What the hell do we do?” a woman screamed out from the crowd.
“Yeah. What the hell are we going to do now!” another hollered out.
That started a plethora of shooting and unrest among them. The woman who spoke earlier tried to quiet them down, but it wasn’t working. Ed got up on top of a table and hollered out, “Quiet down! Just shut up for a couple minutes. All this screaming and panicking won’t get us nowhere!”
“You say that, but you carry a gun. You’re safe!”
“And I’ve put my gun and my life on the line to help each and every one of y’all. So, right now, I deserve your respect! And I need you to listen!”
The crowd silenced and their attention was directed towards him.
“Now. Apparently, we don’t have enough guns for everyone. We’d catch pure hell trying to shoot them all anyway. But, we have to be able to move around. To get food. Right now, this is the best shelter we’ve got. They can’t get in, so far. From atop the building, we can contact other people to know where the food and resources are. We at least have that on our side.”
“So, what you’re saying is we’re trapped,” someone said.
“It could be worse.”
“My cousin was telling me about a place. A safe place. Protected by the Military.”
Ed had heard about this as well. The place was Roosevelt Island in the city. It was supposed to be safe. Granted, it was surrounded by water and all, but he knew from when he was on Rikers Island how dangerous that could be. If someone got sick, they’d’ catch hell trying to get off the Island. He wasn’t going through that shit again.
“You remember what happened on Rikers. It turned into a death trap.” He tried reasoning to them.
“But, this place is run by the Government. They’ve got guns. Boats. Food.” She turned around, telling the crowd, “I think we should go there.”
The crowd started getting unruly and restless again. Many were already panicking and the situation only made it worse. Ed tried to quiet them down again, but they just spoke over him saying things like, you’ve got guns, you can protect yourself, and maybe they followed y’all here in the first place. That was enough for Kalene. She stood up.
“Everyone! Just shut the fuck up! Yeah, no doubt it’s fucked up. But, trust me, panicking isn’t where you want to be going right now. Trust me, I know. My family was murdered by those creatures in Chicago. We got hit the hardest. The ones who panicked were killed quickly. The ones who kept their heads survived.” She turned towards Ed and said somberly, “And, we, at least I did relocate... here.”
Ed sighed. Looking over the crowd, he said, “It has to be done in groups. It would be too risky to move everyone at one time.”
An older man, also gray and his skin showing the signs of a man who had seen more yesterdays than he would tomorrows said, “He’s right. There’s no use in trying to take everyone. It would be risky to make a move like that,” he looked around at some of the elderly, “especially for some of us.”
Kalene stepped to him and said, “No, we wouldn’t leave anyone behind.”
He reached out and grabbed her by the hand gently and said, “Look. Realistically. We couldn’t make a journey like that if everything was normal. Just leave us some food behind. Little ammo. We’ll make it.”
The same woman who’d been yelling earlier walked up to him. “I didn’t mean anything-”
“No. You’re good. What you’re saying is correct.”
“But, now the thing is. Who goes on the first wave?” the woman from earlier asked.
Everyone looked at Ed.
The elder that sat down from earlier rose back up and stepped towards the front. Ed stepped to the side. “Women. Children. Those elders that can make it.” She looked around. “Are we in agreement?”
It came slow, but it came. Everyone agreed unanimously. This was the plan. It was a go. They had to leave. Ed walked over to Kalene and sighed, saying, “Across Brooklyn and across the Brooklyn Bridge. Making our way into Midtown Manhattan. Then, find a way to travel to the Island.” He looked around the room and did a mental count. “About what... three, four times?”
“We can do it.”
“You know. Some won’t make it.”
“Maybe. But, most will.”
“Yeah… most. But, I think everybody wants to be most.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Standing over the table was Ed, an elder by the name of Poochie and his partner, Curtis. Then, there was Kevin, Jamal, and Kalene. Poochie pointed to a route on the map on the table and said, “We take the Williamsburg Bridge and head up Second Avenue. It’s quicker.”
Ed scoped it out and said, “I thought that side of town was overrun?”
“It was. But, it’s slowed down since, I’ve heard.”
“He’s right,” Jamal chimed in. “Remember, we made a run over that way about a month ago.”
“Yeah. We had to go to the Precinct over there.”
“We got the guns and ammo. In and out. Didn’t see anything.”
“But, that was before they were able to come out in the day.”
“But, who’s to say that they’re actually out everywhere? We don’t know for sure,” Curtis said.
“We don’t.” Ed looked around at everyone. “But, are we willing to take that type of chance?”
Kalene looked out the window at the buses that they were going to use for the journey and said to them, “We might not have a choice.”
The buses that they were going to use belonged to the school across the street. They were parked in a lot across from it. They needed some repairs, but nothing major. When everything started happening, they were abandoned. Some tried to hide out inside the buses, but they were found and eventually slaughtered. No one had stepped foot in them since.
Right behind them was an abandoned building, and inside of there were creatures that had hunkered down. To commander the bus, they would have to do several things. One. Clean out the bodies inside. Two. Repair the damage to them. Quietly. And three. Get everyone inside the bus quickly and quietly and haul ass before the creatures knew and could react. But, not one time, but several times.
“So. Another question.” Poochie walked over towards the window looking out, then back at them and asked, “How do we decide who gets to go?”
“Good question,” Kalene replied. She looked over at Ed, then Curtis. “Yeah. Who decides?”
*****
Jamal had found three guys that were pretty good mechanics. He made a deal with them and relayed it back to Ed. They’d repair the bus, as long as their families got to go. They agreed to it.
Another issue they had was the fact that there wasn’t just one bus but actually two. And, it was also brought up that maybe they could go for both. Curtis disagreed. Ta
king a chance and fixing one with what limited tools they had was a stretch, and the other issue was fuel. In particular, diesel fuel, so Ed and Kalene went out searching for that.
They didn’t have to go too far. Curtis had told them that the hospital should have some. Probably stored for their generators in case of power failure. But, the whole thing was getting it. The hospital was a hot bed for the creatures. When they started coming to life, so to speak, the morgues were busier than a train depot. It was also where people that were infected had gone to. Many died and there was literally hundreds of bodies there. So, when they came back to life, the hospitals were worse than the cemeteries. When they ventured out at night to feed, they ended up going back there.
Ed and Kalene knew it was going to be dangerous, so they agreed that they should be the only two. The less, the better.
It would possibly take about three trips to acquire enough fuel for a few runs, so they started out early.
The hospital they targeted was not far at all. Woodhull Hospital. On Flushing Avenue and Broadway in Bushwick. A quick enough run. Starting early and real quiet, they made their way over there.
Once there, they kept the two five-gallon jugs they had secured to them, in hopes that the generators actually had fuel. They did. They quickly filled them up and hauled ass back to the projects. They were able to make two trips with no hiccups. The third time isn’t always a charm; they weren’t so lucky.
They traced their same steps inside the hospital. The back entrance leading towards the maintenance area and boiler room. Real simple, they figured. But, two of the creatures had started to drift. They came from the other end of the basement. The morgue area. Ed and Kalene spotted them and they ducked off, but it wasn’t the noise that attracted them their way. It was the smell of the diesel fuel.
Kalene had mistakenly spilled some pouring it into a jug, and it had gotten on her. It was getting late and she didn’t bother to change the shirt it spilled on.
The creature slowed down some where they were hidden. Ed and Kalene remained deathly still. They were just about to leave their presence when one got a little bit more curious and peeped a little more; then, he spotted Ed. It screeched. The other one turned and started screeching as well. Ed yelled at Kalene. “Go ahead and fill up the other jug. I’ll hold them off.”
“Ok!” Kalene said and ran off towards the generator and stared pumping fuel into the jug. One of them lunged at Ed and he side stepped and stabbed it in the head. The other was coming at him as well. It was too late to pull the knife out of the other ones head, so he kicked at it and it fell backwards. Giving him enough time, he finally pulled the knife out.
He started to go for the kill, then stopped in his tracks when he heard more screeching and screams. He turned around and saw more coming their way. He hollered at Kalene to hurry. She was just about finished anyway and picked up the jugs and ran his way. They ran up to the fire escape, upstairs where they came in, and that’s when the creatures started coming down in droves. They looked behind them and there were more coming into the basement. They were trapped.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Jamal looked up the street trying to see if he could spot Ed and Kalene on their way back. No one. He asked one of the mechanics, “Wonder why they’re taking so long?”
He lifted his head up and looked around. “Don’t know. It has been a while though.”
“You think something happened?”
“Don’t know. Maybe, we should check it out.”
“Give it a little more time.”
“Definitely, but before it gets dark.”
Ed spotted something. It was an old steam boiler. The Maintenance at the hospital never got the chance to remove it, he figured because he spotted three brand new boilers that piped into the existing system. This one didn’t. Maybe it could help them. On top of most of the older boilers was a man-sized hole used for maintenance inside of it. He stood up and looked. Yes, it has one, he said to himself.
He tapped Kalene on her shoulder and pointed towards it. “How do we get up there? And, what about these jugs?” she asked.
“Climbing on top is the easy part, just follow me. As far as the jugs. Leave them. We have no choice.”
They got down lower some more, planning their move when they heard some creatures coming.
“We’ve got to make a move. Staying in this spot… it’s not good.”
She nodded her head, okay. She secured the nozzle to the jugs and stuck them aside, out of the way. Ed pointed the way up top.
They made a break for it. Ed climbed on top of the cement foundation it was on. It was dug up, but it sat on three steel beams and they weren’t really secured. When he jumped on top of it, it kind of rocked a little. Ed steadied himself and, when it stopped, he climbed further up top. Kalene followed closely behind. Ed grabbed her by the hand and lifted her up.
Once on top, they had a good view of the basement and spotted another exit. But, they were also spotted as well. The creatures charged the boiler, trying to climb on top of it. Ed and Kalene found the hole and it was uncovered, but Ed needed a way to seal it to keep them from getting inside themselves. He saw something once he looked inside. Steel plates. They climbed in and he used the steel plates, along with some bricks and pipe, to keep it secured. They moved closer towards the back end of the tight enclosure and waited.
The creatures jumped on top of the old boiler trying to get in, but there were too many, causing it to tip over. It started to roll off the steel beam foundation, and then it fell on its side. In the process, the hole was covered from the outside. Ed and Kalene were stuck inside.
The steel pipes inside the structure kept the boiler intact, but the space, however, was confining. They could hear the creatures outside still trying to get in. Some had been squashed to death and the others started eating on them. Then, after a while, it got quiet. Ed tried pushing at the hole, but it was stuck. Something on the outside was pushing on it. “It’s getting late. I know someone knows we’re missing. Maybe, they’ll come looking for us.”
“That might be dangerous for them.”
“True. We’ll just wait it out at least until tomorrow. We’ll figure something out.”
“It’s cold in here.”
“The metal. Steel. C’mon, get closer. We’re going to have to keep ourselves warm tonight.”
Kalene moved closer to Ed. She could feel his warmth coming from his body. His heart was racing fast, more so because of the dangerous situation they were in. “Are you... scared?” she asked.
He looked deep into her eyes and said, “Since day one… day one.”
She looked back at him and felt a connection. She kissed him then pulled back, awaiting a response. He hugged her and started kissing her back. She pulled him closer to her, feeling his heartbeat against her breasts, kissing him passionately. She hadn’t felt this good in so long, and it had been awhile since she felt the touch of a man on her body, especially since the outbreak. Ed was a sense of security for her, and that was what pulled her to him in the first place. She needed that in this environment because she had no one else. She was alone.
Ed felt the same way she did but, in this environment, he knew it wouldn’t be wise to take something like this to the next level. He had to think logically. He had to think about what was going on, right now. They looked in each other’s eyes and stopped, knowing now was not the time. But, it still didn’t stop Kalene from imagining and wanting.
Jamal had strapped up. He loaded up his 12-gauge pump shotgun, threw some extra loads in his jacket, and took a long deep breath. Kevin stepped up behind him and asked, “Bruh. Where are you going? It’s getting dark out there.”
“Definitely. But, Ed and Kalene aren’t back yet.”
Kevin looked out the window facing the direction of the hospital and said, “They might be on the way back now.”
“It’s been three hours... it’s getting late.”
Kevin walked over to his homeboy and patted him on the
shoulder. “Bruh. They might be doing a little something. You know. You can see the way that chick looks at him.”
Jamal pushed his hand off his shoulder and said, “Naw... I don’t think so.”
Kevin knew that Jamal had developed some feelings for Kalene, and he was hoping it was just one of those things but, as he now could see, it wasn’t. “Alright. Hold up. Let me get my stuff.”
“Naw bruh. I got this.”
“You got this? Get the fuck outta here. I know you in your feelings, but don’t be no fool.”
“Fool? You calling me a fool!” He stepped at him with his fist balled up.
Kevin didn’t move and looked him square in his eyes and said, “Look at you now. How you’re reacting.” He backed away and said, “We been down together since kids. Been through all this crap and more. Coming down here from the Bronx when you wanted to check up on your peeps. Stayed here…” he sighed and continued saying, “but, if you go out there by yourself. Especially, all you’re thinking about is that broad, then cuz... yes, you’re a fool.”
Jamal unclenched his first and said solemnly, “I’ll wait for you…”
On the way up to the hospital, the sun had eased down some. It wasn’t a complete sunset but, in about another two hours, it was a wrap. They had enough time to look for them one way or another, and then make it back in time before the creatures came out full-fledged. With or without Ed and Kalene.
They eased into the hospital by way of the emergency room. Jamal asked Kevin, “Where do you think they went?”
“Looking for fuel, more than likely. Probably the maintenance area. Or, where they fuel up the vehicles.”
They looked around some and stopped inside the lobby, and that’s when they spotted the directory. “It says the boiler room is in the basement. That’s probably where they’ll keep fuel of some sort.”
Jamal looked around and pointed. “Right there. Those stairs.”
