by M. D. Massey
Melissa gave Jessica a gentle nod and then looked back down at Walt, stroking his hair as he rested. He was old, but in this moment looked older. The color in his face had begun to flush.
“Hey,” she said. Melissa looked up at her. “We are going to find him some help, okay?”
Again, Melissa nodded. She looked at the blood-coated shirt covering his arm. His eyes vibrated under the lids and his lips worked to match the rhythm. She knew that Jessica was trying to comfort her, but was unsure if it mattered.
Jessica looked out at the road and let out a sigh. “But it’s not going to be tonight.”
Melissa’s face went cold and she looked back and forth between Walt and Jessica.
“What do you mean it’s not going to be tonight? He needs help now,” Melissa said.
Jessica listened to the rain patter louder on the roof of the van, stared out at the road, and then looked back to Melissa.
“The closest hospital is another hour’s drive from here down this mountain. Before long, it’ll be dark. It’s pouring, and the roads up here ice over easily. On top of all that, we have no idea how bad things are out there, Melissa.”
Melissa was angry. Deep down she knew that Jessica was right. Knew that they should wait it out. But her husband was possibly dying in her arms.
“This place seems safe. The power still works inside, so we’ll have heat. We can lay Walt down somewhere flat and we will have plenty of water and food here. The van is already loaded and I’ll put gas in it so that we can leave first thing in the morning without delay.”
Melissa let out her breath. She stared into the back seat of the van, thinking.
“You’re right,” she mumbled.
“I know it’s hard,” Jessica said. “But there’s…”
Melissa cut her off.
“I know. You’re right.”
Jessica cocked her head and looked around.
“We should get him inside,” Melissa said.
Inside the gas station, they found a large storage room in the back to lay Walt down. Jessica grabbed some knock-off Indian-style blankets off of a rack and put them out on the floor, giving Walt something soft to lie on. They set him down first, then easily moved him back until his head rested on the blanket. He began to stir when his head hit the ground, but stayed asleep. Melissa grabbed one of the other blankets to cover him.
“I’ll grab more blankets,” Jessica said. “You guys can be in here. I’ll stay in the main part of the store and I can keep watch while you both get some rest.” She had taken the gun and put it in the back of her dress pants so that she would have something to keep watch with.
“Hey,” Melissa said.
Jessica turned.
“Thank you.”
Jessica smiled. “For what?”
“Helping us.”
Jessica looked down at Walt and then back up at Melissa. “He’s the one who pulled me in that room. He saved me.”
Melissa smiled and a few tears made their way down her cheek.
“Hey. Do you mind if I try that cell phone again?” Jessica asked.
Melissa shook her head, reached into her pocket, and handed the phone to Jessica.
“Thanks. I’ll let you know if I have any luck.”
She turned around and left the room, heading out the storefront.
Behind the cash register was a stool with a worn leather top. She sat down and, again, dialed her parents phone number.
And again, nothing.
For the first time since the hotel, Jessica allowed herself to cry. For hours, she had held herself together, trying to stay calm for the sweet stranger who was watching her husband lie in pain. But in her new moment of solitude, Jessica decided to let it go. And like Jesus, she wept.
When the sun set, she found herself yawning. It had been one of the longest and strangest days of her young life, and though it was still early in the evening, Jessica decided to call it a night.
At the front of the store, there was a rack with various t-shirts on it. She grabbed one that said North Carolina State Athletics across the chest, unbuttoned her blouse, and let it hit the floor. She pulled the t-shirt over her head, and then reached under the back of it to unhook the clasps on her wet bra, pulling it out from under the shirt.
She found a spot on the tiled floor in front of the front counter, where patrons would normally line up to pay for their potato chips and gasoline. Two blankets were leftover and she laid one out flat, and used the other to cover herself.
Jessica lay there, alone, and all she could think about was her parents. Were they trying to reach out to her? Were they trying to get to her? And most of all, were they even alive?
Soon, she was dreaming about them.
9
Gabriel
The sun had begun to fall, bringing a cooler breeze through the open field. It gave an ominous look to the cloudless sky, which rose above the downtown skyline, miles past the pasture where the plane had landed.
Dylan brought an additional blanket over to the body, leaned down, and lay it over the legs. He looked up to Gabriel with glassy eyes.
“Should we say something?” the boy asked.
Gabriel was looking at the wallet of Captain Leonard Savage. According to his license, he was fifty-three years old and from Baltimore. More than likely, Gabriel assumed that the flight to Washington was sending him home to his family—whom he also had a picture of in his wallet—a wife and two children in their late teens or early twenties.
He knelt down and tucked the wallet under the blanket, giving it two pats as he brought his hand back to the open air.
Gabriel kept his eyes down to the body and spoke to the boy.
“Yeah,” Gabriel said. “I’ll say something. Bow your head.”
Dylan abided, bowing his head to the ground and closing his eyes.
Gabriel wiped his mouth and cleared his throat.
“We are gathered here today to celebrate the life of Captain Leonard Savage,” Gabriel began. It felt awkward. Not only had he never given a eulogy, but he didn’t know the man. Such honors were supposed to be for a friend or a loved one close to the deceased. To Gabriel, it just didn’t seem right.
“He was a husband, a father, and apparently, one hell of a pilot.” He cleared his throat again, peeking down at Dylan to see him still with his eyes closed and head lowered. “We thank him for landing this plane and saving us.”
Dylan looked up. For the first time, he saw despair in the face of the stranger who had protected him during the crash.
Gabriel turned and walked away from the body. He stopped after fifteen yards and reached into his pocket for his phone.
“Shit,” he mumbled to himself. It wasn’t there.
“I’m hungry,” Dylan shouted.
Gabriel turned around, putting on his best fake smile for the scared child.
“Me too,” he said. “Let’s blow this joint, shall we?”
There wasn’t much to be salvaged from the wreckage. Gabriel wasn’t even able to find his bag. He joked with himself that it was probably on a different airplane, knowing the reliability of the airlines, not to mention his unfortunate luck. However, they were able to find a gallon-size bag filled with miniature packs of peanuts. The protein in the nuts would be enough to tide them over until they could find more sufficient food, as well as hopefully keep Dylan happy for a little while. Gabriel knew that if he was hungry, the boy had to be as well, and would have less patience for controlling the pangs.
Gabriel stood outside the plane, waiting for Dylan to make his way back outside so they could try to find food and appropriate shelter before the sun went down, taking the light and little bit of warmth with it. He looked up to see Dylan emerge from the plane with his backpack over his shoulder.
“Lucky,” Gabriel said, looking at the backpack.
“Didn’t your parents always tell you to carry on your bags? Mine did. My dad said the best way to ruin my first flight was for me to lose my bag,” Dylan re
plied, not an ounce of sarcasm in his voice.
Shaking his head, Gabriel turned and looked off into the downtown skyline. The sun was setting fast behind the buildings and he wanted to find refuge somewhere as quickly as possible. In the distance, he saw the black smoke coming off of the Jacobsons’ farmhouse. The heat polluted the air, giving the skyline in that direction a foggy and dull appearance. In the foreground, a group of about ten people stood at the edge of the farm, stumbling back and forth behind a fence. From a couple of hundred yards away, Gabriel could tell they were no longer living, breathing, people from their poor posture and slight limp. These beasts were no threat to him and the boy, too far gone to know how to get past the fence.
Gabriel turned back around and looked through the line of the trees the plane had come to a stop in front of. They appeared to only go for a few hundred yards before light peeked out again on the other side. He squinted, sure that he could see something on the other side of the trees.
Looking down to Dylan, Gabriel pointed toward the trees. “Let’s go.”
Dylan put his hands around the straps of his bag as they left the plane and the large pile of a steel graveyard it had become.
After walking a few hundred yards unscathed, they made it past the edge of the trees and came upon the parking lot of a shopping center. It was the middle of the day and Gabriel was surprised to see that it wasn’t busy. Normally, a shopping center like the one in front of him would be stirring with people. But now, it was calm, quiet, and abandoned. Gabriel saw a variety of stores in the mall, including two he would need to go into. There was a supermarket that he could only pray would have at least some food left, not totally raided by other survivors. Then again, he wasn’t sure if there were any survivors. They hadn’t seen any since the plane had come crashing down, even though they had only walked a few hundred yards away from a farm and through some trees.
A few buildings down from the supermarket was a sporting goods store. The captain hadn’t left Gabriel with very much ammunition, so he would need to go there as well to obtain some more and, hopefully, another weapon or two. Again, Gabriel wondered if there would be anything left to salvage.
They moved a little closer to where they could see the other stores in the shopping center, and that’s when Gabriel saw them.
He grabbed Dylan and ducked behind a nearby bush, putting his finger to his lips and signaling for the boy to be quiet.
There were at least twenty beasts limping around the lot and walking aimlessly around the abandoned vehicles. Gabriel wondered, even if he made it into one of the stores, how many more of the things would be inside. He looked down to Dylan.
“Stay right here, okay? Don’t move,” Gabriel commanded.
“No,” the boy cried. “What did you see?”
“I’m not sure if I saw anything,” Gabriel lied. “I just want to make sure it’s clear before we go over there.”
“Let me come with you. Please, don’t leave me here,” Dylan pleaded.
Gabriel shook his head. It was hard to look into the boy’s eyes, his scared eyes, and tell him that he had to leave him alone for a little bit. All in all, he felt fairly safe leaving the boy there. They had just come out of the woods and not come across any danger, and the infected limping in the parking lot were far enough away where they would be no threat to Dylan. Regardless, looking into the boy’s worn and tired eyes made Gabriel’s heart slow and weep for him.
“Where are you going?” Dylan asked, wiping tears away from his eyes.
Gabriel pointed toward the shopping center. “Just right over there. I’m going to try to find us some food and a car.”
He looked up and saw that the sun was dying fast. If he was going to do this, he needed to go now.
Gabriel reached down and pulled the gun out of the waistband of his dress slacks.
“Know how to use one of these?” Gabriel asked, praying that the boy had at least seen a gun.
Dylan nodded. “My dad takes me hunting all the time.”
Gabriel let out a sigh of relief.
“Good. I want you to hold onto this. If you feel threatened, at all, I want you to use it. Okay? And then you run back to the plane and I’ll find you,” Gabriel directed him.
Dylan took the gun, shaking his head.
“I don’t want you to go,” the boy said.
“I won’t be gone long. I promise. And when I get back, we are going to get the heck outta here and have food to eat.”
The boy looked down at the gun before tilting his head back up to Gabriel.
“But what if you need this gun? What if someone comes after you?” Dylan asked.
Gabriel smiled. He rubbed his hand through the boy’s hair and hinged at the hips to meet him face to face.
“In that case, let’s just hope I’m still a fast runner.”
Gabriel gave Dylan a pat on the shoulder. He could see the fear welling in the boy’s eyes, and second-guessed himself on whether he should leave him alone. But in his gut, he knew it would be much more dangerous to take the child with him.
He removed his hand from Dylan’s shoulder and stared down at him.
“Just remember to run if you get into trouble. Don’t try to be a hero. Just run. As fast as you can.”
With the tears continuing to gather in his tired eyes, Dylan gave Gabriel a nod.
Gabriel turned, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. He decided it would be best to try the sporting goods store first. He needed to find a weapon if he wanted to increase his chances of surviving. Unfortunately, the sporting goods store stood three suites further down the shopping center than the supermarket, creating a little bit further of a journey.
He scanned the parking lot again. The undead were spread wide through the parking lot, making it more difficult to find a gap to run through as a straight shot to his destination.
Once more, he took a deep breath. He thought of his wife, Katie; constantly wondering if she and Sarah were okay.
Gabriel opened his eyes and positioned himself into a sprinter’s lunge—a funny sight, considering his current business attire.
He pushed off his back foot.
And Gabriel ran.
10
Will
A couple of hours later, Will awoke, shivering. Fall nights in Nashville can get cold, and Will hadn’t meant to fall asleep on the roof, especially on the ledge. When he woke, he startled when he realized that that’s exactly what he had done, peeking over the side at a parking lot he could just vaguely see with the help of a couple of flood lights mounted to the front of the building.
He sat up, and as he looked down the industrial park and toward the city, he saw that very few buildings had power on. Beyond the immediate, Will could barely make out the smoke still floating in the distant air of the horizon.
For a moment, he stood still and listened. In the distance, he heard the howls of the undead, but it didn’t sound like there were any near the front of the building, though he did hear scratching to the rear of it.
Will patted off the dirt on his clothes and walked to the other end of the roof, where the ladder was. He looked over and, while the ground was encased in total darkness, he could hear the Empties below, still clawing at the bottom of the ladder. It sounded like it was still just the two of them. He tried thinking of a way that he could distract them so that he could get down. It would be difficult to shoot them from the top of the ladder, and he didn’t want to attract more of them, especially in the pitch black of night.
He looked around on the roof and smiled as he noticed the silhouette of a ball.
Many times while on their lunch break, Will and Jordan would go outside and throw the football around if the weather was nice enough. The last time they’d done it, Jordan was messing around and had punted the football onto the roof. Will was pissed at him at the time, but was more than thankful now.
He walked over and grabbed the football and walked back over near the ladder.
As hard as he could,
Will threw the football into the trees that lined the opposite side of the building. The Empties snarled and walked toward the sound. Will hopped over the ledge and landed quietly on the ladder.
Slowly, he made his descent, trying not to grab their attention.
His feet hit the ground, rustling leaves. He heard them stop, turn, and the spitting came closer to him.
Will ran, moving around the corner of the building and praying that he wouldn’t run into anymore Empties.
When he reached the front, the flood lights shined on a small horde coming at him.
His eyes widened.
Will hustled around the railing, his feet hitting the first step just as one of the Empties reached at him. It caught the bottom of his shirt, tugging it back for a moment, but he was able to move up the stairs and slip through the door, locking it just as the first Empty banged at the door.
He moved fifteen feet through the small lobby and went inside the main office. The front door was locked now, but he still feared that Empties would break through the glass and fill the lobby again. So, as a precaution, he moved the office furniture near the door back in front of it. Looking out the window, Will noticed that a group of no fewer than ten Empties was making its way to the front door.
He wasn’t going to be able to sustain himself here much longer. Meals would quickly become few and far between, only having whatever his co-workers had left behind. There wasn’t a lot, as most of the guys ate out for lunch on a regular basis.
The time was fast approaching that Will would have to leave Element.
But, not tonight. He needed to sleep.
Will walked down the hallway to the lunch room, turning the lights off in the rest of the office to conserve power. His stomach grumbled and sounded like clothes turning over in a dryer, so Will looked into the refrigerator and grabbed deli meat and mustard to make himself a sandwich before going to sleep.
