With the message sent, she put her phone away and then stared out the window, focusing on nothing in particular. She felt numb and empty inside right now.
Chapter 26
Star’s house
Richmond VA
Isaac had put his phone on vibrate earlier but jumped up startled when a text notification came from his pocket. I was from his Mom. He opened it and read it in a whisper to his grandparents. When he was done, they were all crying. “Oh no.” Star gasped, “My poor BB! I’m so sorry Mysaac.” Isaac just sat there in disbelief, thinking about all the fights they used to have. He truly regretted every mean thing he’d ever said to him and now he would never be able to apologize or make it better. He just hoped his brother knew how much he really did love him. As he sat there thinking, tears leaked from his eyes and snot ran down his face, but he barely noticed. He looked down at his phone again and started scrolling through his camera roll. Selfies he’d taken with his brother and his mom dominated the screen. “At least I have those,” he said quietly as he plugged his phone up to the charging cord. If it lost charge, he’d never see them again, so he made up his mind to print them out in a little bit, so he’d have them just in case. The power wouldn’t last forever.
Charles grabbed some Kleenex from the box on the table beside the couch without saying a word. He didn’t know what there was to say. He hadn’t spent much time with Bobboo, he didn’t know how to connect with little kids. He spent a lot of time with Isaac though, and it hurt him to see his grandson in pain. It was unfortunate that the little boy had died. “At least we’re safe for now,” he thought to himself.
The zombies that were at the front door had wandered away in search of something to chew on, since they’d turned off the furnace and had been quiet. Without movement or sound, they easily lost interest and moved on to the next sight or noise. Charles was cold, but he didn’t dare turn the furnace back on. He put a jacket on over his sweater and sat down on the heating pad he kept in his “special chair.” It was just a lazy boy recliner, but it was the most comfortable spot in the house. He sure hoped the power didn’t go out anytime soon. It was projected to get below freezing tonight and he didn’t know how long he’d last without at least a heating pad to help keep his core temperature up. If it got too low, he would start coughing and his heart would beat irregularly, and that could trigger another heart attack. With things as bad as they were outside, he would die without medical support and doubted an ambulance would even come.
Star sat there quietly with tears streaming down her face, trying her hardest to keep her emotions in check. She felt she had to be strong for Isaac. If he lost it, he wouldn’t be much help and as much as she wanted to scream and cry out how unfair it was that her 7 year old grandson died, in her heart she knew that what this world was becoming was no place for little kids. Hell, it was no place for her either for that matter, she thought. “He’s in a better place,” she said to herself. “No more running for him.”
Chapter 27
Amber’s truck
San Marcos TX
The drive had been a quiet one since Justin’s conversation with Madyson. No one knew what to say to him. There was no way to cheer him up and both Amber and Bobby were still grieving their lost little boy. Bobby broke the silence. “We’re not far from Austin now, I hope things aren’t as bad there as they were at Beacon Lodge.” Kirk said, “If they are, we need to be ready to plow those dead suckers down cowboy. Are you still ok to drive? I’ll take over for a while if you want, give you some time to hug your wife and such.” Bobby quickly agreed that he’d rather ride than drive, especially if they were gonna have to run folks over. The pain of losing his son was still too fresh and needed to comfort Amber anyways.
Bobby pulled the truck to the shoulder and they all played Chinese fire drill, getting out and rearranging their seating arrangements so Bobby and Amber could be together in the back. JC hopped in the front passenger seat beside Caesar, and Justin scooted over to the far side to give the couple some room together. The one in the truck to have the same seat, was the dog. No one spoke as Kirk pulled the truck onto the road and drove the 30 miles to the outskirts of Austin.
Austin was bad. Like really bad. Walking corpses were everywhere, and they heard lots of gunshots and screams through the closed truck windows. Kirk weaved around dead cannibals with their arms outstretched, trying to catch the truck. He did the best he could, but with the brush guard on the truck reinforcing the radiator, he ended up just driving over the ones he couldn’t avoid. The dead splattered blood all over the truck as they were hit, making the vehicle a red, nasty mess. No one inside cared about the mess though, they just all silently hoped that Kirk wouldn’t stop for anything. The ones he hadn’t killed, got back up and followed the truck. Soon, they had a following again. A parade of dead cannibals shuffled closely behind, attracted to the loud motor as it went down the street.
As they passed through Austin, they saw a woman on the second floor of an apartment building standing on her balcony and holding her sliding glass door shut. They couldn’t see her face, but they could hear her screaming “Frank stop! It’s me, Margaret. I’m your wife! I love you. PLEASE FRANK, DON’T DO THIS!” They heard the glass shatter and saw her get yanked through the now broken door. The screaming stopped and they knew she was dead. Well dead-ish.
This made Kirk drive a little faster. “Just gotta make it a few more blocks and we’ll be out of the heavy populated part of the city,” he said. “We’re gonna need fuel soon though.” That was a scary thought. Bobby said, “Let’s get out of the city first and then we’ll find a roadside gas station or something.” He continued, “We’ve all got weapons and there’s enough of us to watch from every angle while we’re stopped. Once we do, it’ll be enough to get us to your son’s house Pawpaw. Hico is a small town, so maybe it’s real safe there. I for one would love to get some sleep and I know Amber needs the rest too. It’s been a long day,” he finished with a sigh.
Chapter 28
Madyson’s house
Weatherford TX
Madyson had just gotten back from the urgent care center. She was indeed sick, and it was the Covid-19 virus. The vaccine only made the symptoms worse, and the Dr. on call there couldn’t do anything for her. He just sent her home. She was so bad by theme her mom drove up the driveway that her dad had to carry her into the house. She was just too weak to walk. As he laid her on her bed, she asked for her phone. She wanted to call Justin and tell him what was going on with her. She knew in her heart now, that Justin wasn’t joking about becoming a zombie due to the vaccine. She’d made up her mind that she wasn’t going out like that. She’d leave this world on her own terms. Just as soon as she talked to her husband one last time.
With trembling hands, she dialed his number. When he answered, she said “Honey, don’t say anything. I need to tell you some stuff and I need you to listen. I’ve got the virus. You were right, I’m gonna be a zombie soon, I can feel it. Terrell hasn’t moved this whole time; he might be dead already. I want you to know that I love you very much and you’ve made me a happy woman in the years we’ve been together. My high school sweetheart, the love of my life. You take care of yourself. Don’t come for me, I’ll be dead before you get here. I have my gun and I’m gonna use it on myself when I’m done talking to you. I don’t want to hurt my parents by coming back from the dead. They’d never be able to put me down. Don’t forget me.” She stopped talking and waited for a response from Justin. She’d said all she needed to say. He told her that he loved her too and she thought she heard his voice waver, but in all the time they’d been together, she’d never seen or heard him cry, not even when his father passed away. She felt her chest tighten and she wanted to cough SO bad. She told him she had to go and hung up, never hearing what his last words to her had been. She had heard that he loved her, and that was enough for her.
She dropped her phone on the floor next to the bed and grabbed the.38 snub nosed pistol from under her
pillow. She put the barrel into her mouth, cocked the hammer back and pulled the trigger. Her world went black, she did not wake up. Her parents had heard the gunshot and came running into the room. They saw her lying there, her brain and skull splattered across the headboard. They knew that she wasn’t going to put them through the ordeal of having to kill her for a second time, after the virus killed her first. As much as they would miss her, she had made their home safe by bravely taking care of the problem on her own.
Chapter 29
Amber’s truck
Austin city limits TX
Justin’s phone rang. It was Mady. He answered and she spoke, cutting him off before he could say anything more than “Hello,” He listened while she spoke, his face unreadable. After a moment, he croaked “I Love you too Madyson. You’ve made me happy too…” But she had hung up after he told her he loved her. She was gone. He tried to call her back, but it just rang and rang. He hadn’t cried since he was 10 years old. His father had always told him that tears were a form of weakness and real men weren’t weak. But at 24, he couldn’t hold it in anymore. He screamed loudly with tears streaming down his face. He’d lost both his wife and unborn baby with one prick of a needle.
Amber reached over and tried to hug him, but he shrugged her off and faced the window, closing his eyes and said in a gruff voice, “Mady got the virus. She killed herself. She thought the baby already died earlier today; he wasn’t moving at all in her belly… I’m fine, leave me alone for a while. Let me know when we’re gonna stop for gas. I need to kill something.” The rest of the people in the truck were shaken by news and didn’t know what to say. They all knew Mady, she sometimes came to spend time with Justin on the weekends. She came to all their parties, whenever they threw them too. She was a good friend to Amber when she was lonely, and on occasion, would come down for the day just to hang out with her. They would all miss her.
They still had a ways to go until they would be far enough away from Austin to even consider stopping for fuel. There were still lots of zombies roaming the highway. The ride would give Justin time to grieve now too. They rode in silence, each lost in their own thoughts, hiding their minds from the reality of the world as they knew it.
Kirk wondered if his broken friends would be able to perform when they needed to, heartache tended to screw a person’s head up. He decided to give them the benefit of the doubt, they were a strong bunch, but they’d already been through so much. People can act irrationally when they’re pushed past the limits of what their brains can comprehend. How much more could they take before one of them cracked? He said a silent prayer that they’d all live to see tomorrow morning and the mental burden wouldn’t last. He truly hoped the old adage was true. Time heals all wounds.
Chapter 30
Star’s house
Richmond VA
Night was falling down around them. It was almost 6:00 in the evening and the temperature was dropping rapidly. Charles sat shivering in his chair. The heating pad warmed his posterior, but the rest of him was freezing. Star noticed Charles shivering and asked Isaac go into their room and get the heavy comforter from their bed as to help keep Charles warm. Isaac obliged. When he returned, he had a quizzical expression on his face. As he handed the blanket to Charles, he asked Star, “Isn’t there a heater in your ‘yarn barn’ Nana? I could go out to the backyard and get it.”
“What?!? Go outside? No, you can’t do that! The monsters are out there,” she answered. “Sure, I can,” he said. “The backyard has the tall privacy fence all around it, and I can be really quiet. Plus, I’ll take my machete with me. You can stand by the back door and wait for me. Then, when I come back, you can lock the door behind me. I won’t let Papa get sick knowing I could’ve done something to help him.” She relented and he changed from the sweatpants and t-shirt he was wearing to some thick jeans, a hoodie, heavy boots and a leather jacket his father had given him. He picked up his big machete and held it expertly in his right hand. He was ready. Next, he motioned for his Nana to follow him to the back door.
At the back door, they both peered out the small window on the door into the backyard. Nothing moved, no sounds came either. It looked safe from what they could see. She quickly unlocked the door and Isaac slipped out into the cold night air. Once on the deck, he creeped down the steps and cautiously made his way across the backyard to the shed that he had helped Charles build for Star last summer. She did a lot of crafting and crocheting and had a lot of customers, so she needed a place of her own in which to work. He quietly opened the door, stepped inside and shut the door. He let out a sigh of relief that he’d made it to the little shed unnoticed. He had been shaking. He was scared, but he wasn’t going to let that stop him. Once he caught his breath for a moment, he felt around for the heater.
He regretted not grabbing one of the many flashlights they had inside the house but decided that a shining light might attract some of the dead. Searching in the pitch-black building, his hands fell onto what he assumed was the heater. He knelt down to get a better look at it in the dark. It was the heater, like he suspected. He set the machete down on a crafting table for a moment and picked up the heater. Balancing the heater in one arm, he opened the door quietly with the other, and then picked the machete up. He left the yarn barn door open and cautiously made his way back through the backyard towards the house.
On his way to the deck, he struggled to see his path and stumbled over a root that had been sticking out of the ground. He almost dropped the heater, but he managed to keep a grip on it as he went to one knee. He became aware of the sound the heater made as he jostled it around, which worried him. It was going to attract attention. A loud banging sound came from the privacy fence, followed by another and then more. He knew he had to hurry and get inside, or he was going to attract even more of those things. He had his machete, but he really didn’t want to have to use it tonight. He didn’t want to try to use it in the dark either. It didn’t take more than a few seconds before the whole fence was rocking. It was a nerve-wracking ordeal with the heater being so big, but feeling around, his foot finally found the steps. As he ascended the deck stairs and made his way to the door, he could see over the fence where the dead were pounding on it, trying to get to the fleshy bits on the other side.
One of the dead cannibals was their neighbor Mr. Wills. In life, Mr. Wills was a nice older man in his 60’s. He always had great stories about his life. He’d been in the Vietnam war, and since Isaac intended to join the military as well, he hung on every word the old man said. He also paid Isaac very well to cut his grass during the summer and would reward him with a popsicle if it was a hot day. Now, the old man was shirtless, with large bites taken from his chest, his nose had been bitten off and both of his ears were gone! The sight of the man in such bad shape made Isaac sick to his stomach and he almost retched. He looked away and composed himself as Star opened the door. He hurried inside and she quickly closed the door and locked it behind them. They both let out a sigh of relief. He had done it. He was back inside safe and sound. “I told you I could do it Nana,” he said “Now Papa can be warm. That’s one crisis averted.” He took the heater to the living room to where Charles sat shivering and plugged it in. With the heater warming the room, he and Star sat down on the couch and he told them about Mr. Wills. Charles shook his head saying “That poor man. He probably opened the door for the dead when they pounded on it. He loved to have company over, and he could’ve thought it was one of the other neighbors coming over for a cup of coffee and some conversation. Hell, it might’ve been one of the other neighbors that pounded on his door and he didn’t think about dead people being outside. I mean, who would? It’s not as if this happened all the time. If we make it through this alive, remind me to call his daughter and tell her about it.”
Star agreed to remind him, although she didn’t think his daughter would want to know that the poor man had been trying to get to Isaac. She thought his daughter would only want to know whether Mr. Wills was alive
or not. They sat quietly, listening to the dead pound on the backyard fence for a while, hoping they wouldn’t knock the damn thing down too.
Chapter 31
Amber’s truck
Gatesville TX
Kirk drove the truck to the outskirts of a little town called Gatesville. It was a small town with only 2,427 people, according to the roadside sign they’d just passed. It was far enough outside of Austin that Kirk thought might be safe enough to stop for fuel. The truck was basically running on fumes anyways, if they didn’t stop now, they’d be out of gas soon. Slowing down, he found a small sign advertising a gas station and turned right, following the directions printed on the thing. Pulling into the parking lot, the gas station looked deserted, but there were pumps. There was also a newer car parked in a space out front, so he knew that someone was around.
They hadn’t seen many zombies in the area, and those they saw didn’t seem to notice the truck, or so they thought. Kirk asked if the rest of the crew felt safe enough stopping here. They all did. Driving through Austin had been very scary for all of them and they were all still on edge. Justin just kept saying that he needed to kill something. He was still extremely upset about his wife and unborn son. Kirk pulled into the station lot and parked next to the pumps. Before anyone got out, they would need a plan to keep them all safe while he pumped fuel. “Everyone is going to need to get out,” Bobby said. “I’ve gotta piss and I’m sure Caesar does too.” Caesar whined when Bobby said the word ‘pee’, so that confirmed his needs as well. Amber spoke in a low voice, “Yeah I gotta go too.” The others in the truck agreed that this was the place to get that take care of too.
Made In Mexico | Book 1 | Day 1 Page 6
