by Hamid, Dean
Al walked up on their conversation. “You guys taking about that roadblock.”
“Yeah.”
“Creepy as fuck.”
Curtis agreed then said, “Is there another way? I mean, without going too far out the way and slowing us down.”
Al thought about it for a minute then said, “There is. Cut off Broadway and go down Hooper Street. Make the left, and then go about three-four blocks and make it back to Broadway.”
“But,” Ed added. “By that time, we’ll already be at the Bridge, so might as well keep it going and hit the rampway from there.”
“Yeah, that would save a little time.”
“Ok.” Curtis shook everyone’s hand and turned to go upstairs. “It’s a rap then. We’d better get some rest.”
Al and Ed watched as Curtis bounced up the steps. Al turned to Ed and said, “Don’t like switching up like this in the game, but I get it though.”
“Tomorrow will be the last run.”
“What about the rest of the people staying?”
Ed walked over to the window, looking out across the street at the school. “We’ll still leave them with the other bus, just in case they change their minds and want to leave.”
“Good deal.” Al yawned and said, “I’m tired Ed, see you bright and early.”
“No doubt.” Ed watched Al leave and then leaned up against the window looking out. He thought he should go upstairs and check things out. He also thought about going to sleep but, instead, went to where Kalene was staying to check her out. He walked up the stairway to the third floor where she stayed.
CHAPTER TEN
Most of the riders going into Manhattan were already up. But they wasn’t what all the buzz was about this morning. Ed and Kevin were going at it. Kevin also had a notion to see Kalene. He wanted to talk to her about the feelings Jamal had for her. He knocked on the door and Ed answered. In his shorts.
And, that’s really what triggered him. Ed asked why they went to the hospital that evening anyway. He knew he was wrong telling him he should have waited; saying that’s what he would have done, but it was done. Kevin mentioned that if he knew he was fucking Kalene, he still would have went. Ed said that he wouldn’t have, so Kevin punched him in the mouth, and Ed deserved that.
They wrestled around some on the ground until Kalene stormed out and came in between then, stopping them, but not the mean mugging. Kevin told her about Jamal, and she stormed back into her apartment and slammed the door behind her. Ed knocked hard, asking her if she was okay. She opened it some and handed him his clothes and said, “Please, go. This was a mistake.”
“Mistake? No!”
“Ed! Please go. I’ll see you in a few. I’ll be ready for the bus ride.”
“So, that’s it?” Ed said as he stood there with his clothes in his hand.
“This was a mistake Ed. A big mistake.” She looked over his shoulder at Kevin who was standing there and said, “Both of you... just leave.” Then, he shut the door.
Ed stood there for a minute, then turned and looked at Kevin smugly and said to him, “You got what you wanted!” and brushed past him.
Kevin said, “Naw. You got it fucked up. What I want is my homeboy back.” He looked at Ed going into the staircase and shouted, “Should have been you… and not him!”
Kalene opened the door slightly. She wanted to say something to Kevin but, instead, he just turned, looked at her, and said under his breath, “Fuck... ain’t no need to talk about it now. Enough has been said already and my boy still dead.” He walked off.
Everything was set in motion. Everyone involved in the move was up and ready to go. The bus had been fueled with the last bit that was left. The only thing needed to do now was load.
After the bus was loaded and everything mapped out, Ed, Curtis and the bus driver, Al, were ready to go. As soon as they got packed up, Kevin ran up to the bus.
“I want to go on this trip. I’m ready to go.”
Ed looked at him strangely and asked, “Why? I thought you were staying here. Why do you want to leave now?”
“I mean, why not?” He looked at them and said, “Why should I stay? Jamal is dead. I mean, this ain’t my hood, so I might as well move on. That’s enough for me.”
Kalene said, “I thought you wanted to help these people.”
“People? You stay and help them. Since you so much into…” he glanced over at Ed, “helping motherfuckers.”
Ed started to speak out, but Curtis cut him off and said, “Well, come on then. We can always use another hand.” He yelled out, “Let’s pack this bus! Let’s go! Let’s get this day started!”
Once they got the bus started and squared away, everyone said their goodbyes. They started moving out. By the time they got on Broadway, the ride was going smooth and it seemed like it was going to stay that way.
It was just around Hewes Street in Williamsburg right before they got to the bridge that something strange happened. They saw that the creatures were starting to move about out in the open, which was the norm, but not in broad daylight.
Al stopped the bus and pointed at them. “You see what the hell is going on. The fuck. Look like they coming out of the woodworks.”
Ed said, “Yeah. Like they trying to form some sort of blockade or something.”
“What the hell you think is going on?”
“I don’t know what the hell’s going on, but I know one thing. We need to stay low.”
Ed told everybody to get down. “Play the floor everybody and, Al, just go ahead... real slow and see what’s going to happen but, know that if we need to run through them, that’s what we’re going to do.” He turned and started telling Kalene and Kevin, “If we need to stop. Open fire on everything that moves. We’ll need to open the roadway, so just let go of everything you got until you run out of ammunition. Hell, this is the last run anyway.”
“You got it,” Kevin responded. He posted up towards the right-hand side of the bus facing the street. He poked his AK-47 out through the steel bars they had welded together and was cocked and loaded. He gave Ed the thumbs up.
Kalene played the backside in case they tried climbing on top from behind. Ed and Curtis stayed posted up front, loaded themselves. Ed told Al, “Let’s go.”
Al moved the bus slowly up the street at first. A few of the creatures stopped and peeped, then went back to their own business, wandering indiscriminately. They made it a few blocks and only had a half mile or so to go. Then, out of nowhere, one of the creatures ran straight at the bus. Then another. Then, two more. Al had to run over them, and it slowed the bus down.
Ed yelled at him, “Step on it!”
Al yelled back at him, “I’m trying.”
Kevin pointed to a building. “Oh shit. Check this out y’all!”
They looked and it seemed like hundreds were pouring out the building, running towards them.
Ed scrambled over his way and pointed his gun out the window and said, “Shoot!”
They started shooting and dropped quite a few of them, and Al eventually got the bus moving again. Curtis yelled out, “Damn it, they’re starting to come from the other side now!”
Ed turned. “It’s a set up!”
“Damn right it is!”
The creatures started to run at the front of the bus, and Al stomped on the gas. He managed to run over a few, but one of them dived at the window. It cracked some. Another one jumped and did the same thing. Curtis started shooting. Now, the windshield was compromised. It didn’t take long for one to jump through it. And when one did, it dove straight for Al.
Al yelled as he fought it off. Curtis tried pushing it back out, and then one of the creatures managed to take a bite out of Al’s arm. He was bleeding. “Damn!” Curtis yelled out.
The bus had stopped and more started rushing towards them. Al shook his head in despair as he looked at his arm and said, “It’s over with for me.” He got up and dove through the window and started fighting them off. They started to cha
se him. Next thing you know, he was covered with a bunch of them but, still, he managed to stay on his feet long enough to divert them away from the bus.
Curtis jumped behind the wheel and stomped the gas. They finally got away. A few blocks up Broadway, it was the same thing. “This is organized. Someone has to be setting us up,” he said.
“I think someone has been setting us up all along!” Kevin yelled. “Those things knew we were coming.”
“But, why didn’t they attack us until now? Why now?”
“Don’t know, but we’re almost out of ammo.” Kevin turned to Ed. “What do we do now?”
Ed looked down at the people on the floor scared and shaking. He didn’t have an answer. But, one thing he knew was that they couldn’t say there forever. He turned and looked at Kalene, then Kevin and nodded. “Fight… fight.”
Kevin nodded. He had to put aside his differences. He answered, “Well. That’s what Jamal would do.”
Kalene loaded the last of her ammo and said, “It is what it is.”
Curtis looked around at them, then told the passengers, “Keep your head down. Don’t look up.” He revved up the engine and said, “And, hold on to something because it’s going to get a little ruff from here on out.”
The bus swerved as it took off. Curtis stomped the gas and drove hard, running over and dodging past creatures as they made it to the beginning of the bridge. A couple of cars were partially blocking the entrance. Curtis yelled out and slammed into them, making a way through. Ed and Kevin fired round after round cutting down creatures as they ran after them, and some even hurled their bodies at the bus in an attempt to try and stop them. Kalene kept shooting as they tried hanging on.
Finally, they made it on the bridge. Kalene hollered at them. “Oh shit. Check this out.” She pointed towards a swarm of creatures coming from out buildings and making their way up Broadway, where they’d just left.
“Oh, my God, they’re about to raid the projects.”
“We should go back and warn them.”
Curtis kept driving. He said solemnly, “No.” He pointed to the gas tank. “We got enough to either go back or go forward. But, not both.”
Everyone looked at Ed. He couldn’t say anything. He was right.
Curtis stopped the bus and asked, “What is it? What are we going to do?”
Ed looked at the people on the floor. Scared. Shaking. He looked back watching the swarm head towards the projects, then at Kevin and said, “It never gets easier.”
Kevin nodded his head. “Yeah, I see.”
Ed said, “We go… forward.”
It is what it is.
The ride was slow. No one spoke. There was nothing really to say. Ed kept his head focused on going across. Kalene tried her best to comfort the people onboard. Once they made it on the other side, Kevin stepped to Curtis and said, “Stop the bus.”
Curtis asked, “Stop the bus? For what?”
Kevin looked over at Ed and said, “I’m getting off.”
“Getting off? What, are you kidding me?”
“Naw bruh. This is as far as I go.” He looked into Manhattan. “I got it from here.”
Ed moved closer to him and guided him towards a corner. “Look. I apologize. But, you don’t have to take it this far.”
Kevin said, “It’s not about you. Things happen bruh. It’s about me. Moving on.”
Kalene walked towards him. “Kevin, you don’t have to do this.”
Kevin smiled and hugged her. “Actually, I do. Look, everything is good.” He glanced over at Ed. “The big guy. He got y’all. He knows what he’s doing.”
“But,” Ed said, “I don’t have no ammo to give you. No weapons.” Kevin pointed towards Police Plaza. “Yeah. But, I’m sure that place does. Besides.” He pulled out his machete. “Jamal left me this. Hell, it worked for him. Shit, it’ll work for me.”
Curtis opened the door and Kevin jumped out with his bag, waved them off, and started walking off. Ed looked at Al bitterly and said, “Let’s go.”
Curtis cranked up the bus and took off towards Second Avenue and hoped like all hell that they wouldn’t run into another swarm of creatures.
Kalene watched as Kevin disappeared from out of view. Ed walked up behind her and said, “That’s what he wanted to do.”
“That’s true. But, I can’t help think that maybe it was my actions that caused it.”
Ed sighed and said, “Kalene, one thing’s for certain. We’re not God.”
“Yeah. What kind of God would create this type of madness?”
“A mad... God.”
*****
Kevin walked a few blocks towards the park leading towards Police Plaza. His mind heavy in guilt. He wasn’t quite sure if he should have gotten off the bus, but he made a stance; he tried reasoning to himself. He was still feeling some sort of way about the loss of Jamal, and he was feeling some sort of way about Ed. It wasn’t quite right the way he handled the whole situation. Maybe he was just jealous of Kalene too. Jamal paid her more attention than him. He saw that he was losing his friend. Now, he was gone forever.
He spotted a bench along the grass and sat looking around at the quiet. In silence. He wondered where would he go now. Suddenly, he heard a sound, then turned. He saw nothing. Then, another sound. He turned the other way, and they were already right up on him. One grabbed at him, and Kevin slid underneath him. He tried reaching for his machete, but another one grabbed hold off his arm and bit down. Kevin dropped it. Another creature jumped on him, causing them both to fall to the ground. Others hearing the sounds came running where they were. Screaming, shrieking in a mad frenzy.
Kevin managed to fight them long enough to get to his feet and run. He ran towards the bridge. His arm was bleeding heavily, but he fought through the pain. He figured he’d try to run underneath the bridge. Hide out. He ran down a gulley, but it was sealed off by a chain linked fence and they were hot on his tail. He climbed up the embankment and made his way to the top of the walkway on the bridge. Running, but he kept falling. He was losing a lot of blood.
One of them had managed to catch him from behind, and Kevin fought for his life. Then, before he knew it, he was surrounded. They started to swarm towards him and Kevin put up his good hand standing in a defensive stance, ready for anything. He’d wished he’d at least gotten close to the water. He’d dive off. He’d rather kill himself instead of getting eaten by these monsters, or even worse. Turning into one of them.
He never saw it coming. And, it was best for him that he had not. His head was pierced through by a 40 caliber round. He staggered some, then dropped dead to the ground. He wouldn’t be able to come back now. But, it still didn’t stop the creatures from devouring on his flesh.
Ed stood atop the bus. He lowered his rifle and his head. It needed to be done. He climbed down into the bus and told Curtis that it was done. He looked towards the back at Kalene and nodded solemnly. Curtis cranked the bus back up and keep going.
Kalene had begged them to go back and pick up Kevin. She didn’t want him to be on his own. Ed agreed. He also figured he could use a good man like Kevin anyway. They could always patch up their differences another time. But, by the time they’d reached him, it was too late.
A mercy bullet to the head. It was a decision that they all agreed on. A decision they’d want one of them to make if it was one of them. But, Kalene couldn’t swallow it, thinking it was all her fault. Another bad decision, she kept thinking over and over as she sobbed bitterly.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
The very sobering ride didn’t take long. Before they knew it, they were at the dock waiting for the ferry to arrive. The passengers exited the bus and hugged the others that they knew. For once in a very long while, it was a joyous day.
Ed walked off to the side of the pier in thought. Kalene spotted him and started to go over to him, but Curtis stopped her. “Give him some space right now. He needs it.”
Kalene nodded. She needed some space as well. Her headache
s were getting worse. She had taken the antiviral drug that they had given to her in Chicago. It was supposed to work against the bacterial infection. The coming back to life from the dead kind. She never found out the end results of it because the base had been overrun.
Other than the headaches, she didn’t have any other symptoms. But, now, they were more intense. She wanted to confide in Ed about them. At least give him a heads up. She held back, thinking that it might also be a result of stress.
Ed watched as the ferry docked. He waved at the ferry Captain. Turning towards the City, he watched the skyline as it turned a dull image. He noticed a lot of that lately. He figured it was a lack of clean air. Maybe it was from the bodies that had not turned and laid rotting in the streets. The fumes were horrendous.
Fires were still burning from cesspools of gas and methane still lingered in the air. More times than often, he and the others were forced to wear gas masks when they went out. He sniffed at the air and it seemed like it was about to be one of those times.
He had some stocked, but he wondered if he had enough for everyone or that they had enough on the Island. He made a mental note to inquire about it.
Something caught his eye. Towards one of the buildings. A window. He noticed someone was in the window. Could it be a survivor? He squinted, trying to get a better visual. A man. White man. He squinted some more. The figure moved, and he got a good look at his face. The features on his face were scarred. Ragged. His eyes were dark red. Ed’s mouth dropped. It was a creature. And it was watching them. Intently.
Ed turned to call Curtis and, when he came over, he pointed towards the building up at the window. It, or whoever it was, was gone. “I swear Curtis. It was just watching us.”
“I thought those damn things didn’t think. I mean, after all, aren’t they dead?”
Ed rubbed his chin. “Supposedly…”
Curtis rubbed his shoulder and said, “You need some rest Ed. Been through a lot of shit lately.”
Ed turned his way, acknowledging what he said with a smile. “You might be right.”
Curtis walked off towards the ferry. Ed did tell him he’d be there in a minute, and he acknowledged that he did need the rest. He figured once he got over on the Island he’d chill for a bit. It was time for him to chill anyway. He did all he could do. And, Jamal’s death kind of worked on him.
