Eves of the Outbreak

by Lilith Assisi

  They pulled over and Jason agreed to run in and see who was in the bar. Greg decided to go with him as back up, though Judy suspected it was because he had a desperate need to keep moving and get out of the car. He was so much more taciturn with the lack of being able to reach his son.

  Judy felt like an alien as she put on the gloves and jacket that Greg had extracted from the back of the car for all of them. They had packed several emergency survival kits when they left California. She had never lived anywhere with snow, let alone blizzards or even temperatures that ever frequented below fifty degrees Fahrenheit.

  It was still relatively pleasant in their vehicle, but the brief couple minutes when the doors had been open to get their winter gear and for Jason and Greg to head up to the restaurant had given her a taste of what it was like outside, and it was not something she was prepared for. She squeezed her arms tight across her body and laughed to herself as she thought of how she had originally thought the last couple days had been cold. She felt her teeth start chattering involuntarily for the first time in her life, and suddenly felt like she was a cartoon characters. She hoped that would be the case for the infected as well, not being prepared for this weather. And seeing people in a restaurant in town was a good sign that this area might not have been affected by the outbreak. She found herself thinking about how the cold would impact the infected. Would they freeze? Would the organism in them die, essentially finally killing them? Would they go in to a state of torpor?

  “It makes me think of Christmas.” Linda’s thinking out loud caused Judy to snap her mind from the images of frozen, reptilian like infected individuals.

  Linda was calmly watching the snowfall through the window with a content look on her face.

  “Don’t get me wrong, I love living in California. But I grew up in New York, and it wasn’t Christmas unless it was a White Christmas,” she continued turning to smile at Judy. “Of course, the first snowfall was the best. Curled up with hot chocolate and wearing extra layers of clothing as you sat by the fire. Going outside to make snowmen or sledding.”

  When she finished Judy was happy to end the conversation there, having no way to connect to Linda with regards to Christian holidays or snowy winters. But as was often the case Judy couldn’t get out of having to be social.

  “What about you Judy? What was your favorite part of Christmas?” Linda asked her.

  “We never celebrated Christmas. And I never lived anywhere with snow before. I hate the cold,” she replied.

  “Oh, sorry.”

  Not wanting to seem like a complete buzz-kill Judy continued.

  “It’s ok. So far seeing this snowstorm I am glad I didn’t have to deal with it growing up. And being from a Taiwanese family we didn’t celebrate a lot of the holidays that other American children did. My brother was so much older than I that we didn’t really play games together either, but he did use to read me stories. I loved it when he read me stories about Christmas since it was such a foreign concept. And I think letting him read me the stories let my imagination have more time to conjure various images of what it might be like.”

  Linda chuckled. “I guess you’re right that this is not the easiest introduction to snow for you. I swear, it can be quite pleasant,” she told Judy.

  They both jumped as Jason opened up the back door to the SUV and was getting inside.

  “In a different time, a different place, I would love to sit out this storm in some distant cabin by a warm fireplace,” Linda said as they looked at Jason.

  “Looks like you’ll be getting your wish Linda. Aside from the fact that we almost got our head’s blown off by a shotgun, that went quite well,” Jason said.

  Greg had joined him and was getting in the back seat of the car.

  “What happened?” Linda asked.

  “Most of the town has relocated to the bar there, or the surrounding buildings. They’ve not dealt with much of the outbreak, but with the coming storm and the rumors of break outs in nearby Minneapolis they decided they wanted to hole up together for the storm. Being in a group has helped them all feed each other’s paranoia and they answered the door by pointing a shot gun to my head,” Jason explained.

  “Luckily your brother is a smart talker and got them all to calm the hell down and listen. Thanks again Greg,” Jason said as he nodded towards him.

  “Any time bud,” Greg said. Judy knew he was being modest and wasn’t surprised in the least. Greg had completed the Army’s Ranger School when he was with the Navy so had inherent leadership as well as combat skills that far surpassed any general military attendee.

  “Well, they weren’t too keen on letting us join their little pow-wow session in there, but they did seem pretty happy that we could give them lots of details about what was happening in the rest of the country. And us being a cop and a veteran seemed to improve the hot shot’s opinion of us. One of the young lady patrons owns some cabins by the lake that she rents mostly during the summer. She was very kind and gave us a set of keys to the place, and told us where various supplies might be found. There’s no power, but lots of matches, candles, and hardwood for the fireplace.”

  “And hot chocolate I hope,” Linda said with a smile.

  “Look’s like we’ll have to find out for ourselves.”

  “Gotta love that Midwest mentality!” Linda announced.

  “But not the weather,” Judy said, hugging herself tighter.

  Chapter 36

  The cabin probably would have appealed to Judy in the summertime, but during this winter blizzard without heat or electricity she was miserable. She offered to help set up the place when they arrived, but Greg insisted she hang out by the fire once it was roaring in place. He knew she was struggling with the weather change. She had never felt so cold in her life. She kept thinking this must be what it is like to be an icicle, or to feel like your body parts aren’t your own anymore as they gradually start freezing off. Or maybe this is what people who had fibromyalgia felt. Just bending her fingers caused excruciating pain in her digits.

  Linda plopped down in a chair next to her with a book in her hands and a smile on her face.

  “They even have some crossword puzzle books and novels to kill the time, what a nice place! Got myself a non-fiction to read. Granted, I normally prefer some of the other authors over there like Charlaine Harris or Dean Koontz, but with life feeling more and more like a best selling horror novel I thought it might be best to leave the supernatural on the shelf,” she told Judy as she held up her copy of Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama.

  Judy wanted to look more in to the organism on her computer but couldn’t seem to stop chattering her teeth or move a muscle aside from the slight tremoring her whole body was experiencing. Besides, her computer’s battery was on empty and there was no way to charge it.

  Even with all the doors and windows shut up, the eerie candlelight flickered ominously and the winds howled outside their walls. There was already over a foot of snow when they had pulled up to the cabin. Jason and Greg had smartly grabbed lots of equipment from the campsite’s central cabin where the owner had told them they would find extra food, blankets, and shovels. Now they just had to wait for the snow to stop and figure out how difficult digging themselves out would be.

  Jason was setting up a portable kerosene stove.

  “Mac and cheese or chili?” he asked the room.

  “Mac and cheese,” Linda replied at the exact same time that Greg had said “Chili.”

  “Any preference Judy?” Jason asked from across the room.

  She shook her head.

  “Then chili it is,” he announced. “Sorry Linda, we can do mac and cheese for the next meal. But chili sounds like a better way to warm our bones tonight!”

  “As long as I get my hot chocolate,” she chimed back.

  Judy found herself wondering if this was something most non-west coast people enjoyed: being holed up in a cabin in a snowstorm, eating warm foods to try to thaw out your insides. Maybe
they thought of it as an adventure? Or some strange right of passage? Or maybe it just brought back fond memories from their childhoods. One time when she was still a very young girl her father had taken her to the zoo and stopped in Chinatown for lunch on the way back. There he exposed her to the Century Egg, an oddly preserved egg served as a special treat in Taiwan. Naturally none of her friends seemed to understand her affinity for this food when she was an adult, but she thought it was partially instilled in her thanks to the fond memories of spending time with her father before he had died. Even many of her Taiwanese friends did not understand her love for this odd food. Maybe Linda and Jason’s cheery attitude was because they were also reminiscing about fond childhood memories in the snow.

  “I’m going to go make sure the path is clear,” Greg announced.

  He was referring to the path between the cabin to the outhouse. Even in the regular, non-snowed in times of the year there were no working toilets at this campsite. Each cabin had an outhouse just a few feet from the side of the front porch, and everyone had agreed when they arrived that someone should try to shovel out a path to it every hour, trying to keep it clear for whenever someone might need to use it.

  The front door slammed shut behind Greg, and Judy thought of the creepy camp stories some of her friends used to tell about scorpions or spiders hanging out to bite your unsuspecting hind end in outhouses. But right now she was much more worried her hind end would end up frozen to the seat or that her pee might freeze mid-stream. She resigned in her head that she would just have to eat and drink as little as possible while they were here to hopefully limit her need to use the outhouse. Shivering she tried to close her eyes and think of better times and warmer climates.

  Part 8: Heartbreak

  “The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering,

  known struggle, known loss, and

  have found their way out of those depths.”

  –Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

  Chapter 37

  I could tell the sun was up before I opened my eyes. There was an orange glow penetrating my lids, and though my body still felt cold there was a hint of warmth hitting my face. I tried to keep my eyes shut and enjoy the feeling, but the rustling in the seat next to me was hard to ignore.

  Peeking through my eyelids I gazed out on a new site: snow covered fields.

  The night before Tracy and I had decided to head towards a highway. Just like many of the other highways we had seen before last night this one had been mostly empty.

  Being in the mid west had some advantages. Last night it had meant finding a rest area surrounded by corn or wheat fields, I couldn’t really tell the difference. In the past this would have been completely depressing for me. I always hated the monotony with amber waves of grain.

  But the advantage for this in the zombie apocalypse was that if you found a place slightly higher than all the fields surrounding you, there was a good chance you could spot any approaching threat before it was on top of you. Maybe this wouldn’t be the case in an alien apocalypse or even with a human being murderer in a horror film, but zombies didn’t have much brainpower. They weren’t too good at being discrete or sneaky. And they often came in groups, making spotting them an even easier task. I guess I could be glad we were dealing with zombies over other supernatural creatures. I chuckled to myself.

  “What?” Tracy asked.

  “Sorry, found myself grateful we’re dealing with zombies for a second. You know, in comparison with aliens or a nuclear holocaust,” I explained. Tracy didn’t seem amused. She had been quite querulous of late, and didn’t seem to harbor any interest in changing that. Guess I need to be more conscious of when I am laughing out loud versus in my head.

  “Did you sleep ok?” I asked her, changing the subject but expecting the usual negative response.

  “Fine,” she replied.

  Ok, in some ways that was worse than a no. It seemed now we were back to being in a broken relationship without communication skills. Tracy had made a major confession to me last night, and I was still mulling over how to deal with it, but her approach to difficult conversations was to not have them. I guess I could understand where she was coming from, not trusting anyone, with the past experiences she had suffered through. But I had still never been in her shoes, and it made it hard to imagine reacting the same way she had.

  I wasn’t really in the mood for prying. I turned back to gaze at our newly white washed landscape.

  We had pulled up next to the restroom building for shelter from the snow the night before, and even though that blocked our view of up the highway and past the underpass ahead, we had a clear route for escape in the truck if need be.

  The snow had started earlier in the night just before we had parked. All I can say is we were lucky we didn’t get hit harder.

  It had already stopped snowing and there was about four inches on the ground. Looking in the distance I could see a flock of crows hopping around in the cornfield across the highway, cawing and flapping their wings as they ate something on the ground in front of them. I couldn’t tell from this far away what they were picking at, but suspected it was a couple un-plucked husks of corn.

  “I’m going to the bathroom,” Tracy told me as she zipped up her bag.

  “Those toilets probably aren’t working,” since I didn’t have much else to say guess I might as well state the obvious.

  “I know, but it’s still a better idea to go there then freeze my ass off trying to squat in the snow,” Tracy said.

  “Point taken. Well, let’s come up with a plan when you get back. Where we want to go, where our supplies are at, the whole nine yards,” I suggested.

  “Fine,” she replied. She hopped out of the truck and Percy went with her, but River showed no interest in coming out from under the blanket we were both cuddled up under. She was pushed firmly in to my lap and I figured the only way I’d be getting her off of it was if I picked her up and got up myself.

  I closed my eyes again and leaned my head back in to the seat. Finding River’s head in my lap, I gently massaged her ears with my gloved hand as she nestled even closer to me. I felt the drowsiness starting to take hold again and let the sensation wash over me.

  I had probably only been dozing for a couple seconds when I jolted awake. River had scrambled out from her blanket fort with me and had jarred me awake in the process.

  I could hear Percy barking in the building that Tracy and he had just gone in just seconds or minutes before.

  Grabbing my crow bar from below my seat I rushed to get out of the truck and figure out what was going on, only to be stopped by the barrel of a rifle.

  Chapter 38

  At the end of that rifle was a pair of eyes and face I had seen before. The young girl, Anya, from the corner store the night before was bundled up so that all I would see was her eyes, nose, and cheeks. Despite her young age, she appeared quite fierce glaring at me.

  River had been trying to jump out of the truck after me but I had been able to get my hand on her and kept her from exiting.

  “Pick up your dog and step away from the truck,” she instructed.

  I did as she asked and starting walking away from the truck. Looking closer at her size she couldn’t have been more than twelve. My estimate of her being a teenager the night before had likely been wrong. Meanwhile Percy’s barking in the background continued and I could hear talking in the building. I assumed the girl’s partners had joined them there.

  I was wondering how and why they followed us when Anya started talking again.

  “Don’t even bother trying to negotiate. We don’t need help. Take the keys out of the truck and throw them to me,” Anya continued.

  I was turning to grab the keys, simultaneously trying to think of a way to get the upper hand, when a shot went off in the building. Almost simultaneously a person shouted and Percy’s barking was abruptly cut off. I couldn’t help but look that way as my stomach lurched and I suddenly f
elt nauseous and light headed.

  “HEY! Ignore them, get me the keys to your truck now!” the girl behind me barked.

  I must not have been moving quickly, as it felt like hours went by as my mind raced through what was happening and how I should react. Had they just shot Percy? And Tracy?! Were they going to shoot me? Should I have listened to Tracy last night and let her shoot these kids? If they shot me, what would happen to River? I squeezed her tighter as I thought about how she might be the only one to survive all this.

  I pulled the keys out of the ignition. We had left them there in the case of an ambush so that we could escape quickly. But we had been expecting an ambush of the undead type, not other humans. And certainly not the kids that we had run in to last night.

  It was in that moment that I could feel my trust of the world slipping away. My gut filled with guilt and a piercing sense of betrayal. I knew there were bad people in the world, but I had always been one of those people who thought the best of everyone. I didn’t deny bad people like Tracy’s parents had, but I always looked for the best in people. I felt there were explainable motivations for most bad behavior, and if you got to the root of that you could make people good. I also felt people had a deep-seated desire to be good.

  And here I was tossing the keys to a little girl who could have left us alone and instead went maliciously out of her way to track us down and attack us.

  “Don’t look so angry,” she said while picking up the keys, never lowering her rifle. “You stole from us, now we steal back from you.”

  A commotion behind me made me glance around my shoulder. Tracy was coming out of the building, followed by the teenage boy Max who was pointing a shotgun at her back. The younger boy, Danny I think, followed behind him, carrying the gun that Tracy had taken with her in to the restroom.