by Bell, A. E.
Years after Evie fled from the abuse of her step-father, she figured out that she was a survivor. She told herself many times that she was never going to be that victim again. She came to terms with the fact that one day she may have to take someone else’s life to prevent them from taking hers. She looked over at Creed and was so thankful that in this time of peril she had the most loyal man on the planet with her. Evie didn’t believe in soul mates, but he was her person. The only person that she had ever met that was just as dysfunctional as her. The only person that didn’t judge her for the strange, morbid things she said all the time. They had a strange relationship by most people’s standards, but it worked for them. They rarely had real fights, but they bickered quite a bit. There was no shortage of cussing at each other, but it wasn’t cussing out the other person it was just cussing. Evie used the word “fuck” as much as she used the words “and” and “but.” Quite honestly, he was strange and morbid himself. Although, he would die for her and the kids. He never placed his wants and needs ahead of the family’s.
Creed slept as soundly as a person could with someone waking them up every 30 minutes. He slept for about four hours. When he woke up, he sleepily asked, “Where are we? Are we there yet?”
She giggled, “Yea we are there. If by there you mean close to Sioux Falls, South Dakota.”
He opened his eyes to look out the window. On the horizon, he saw billows of smoke pouring out. He asked, “What the fuck is that over there?
She sadly told him, “I am pretty sure that is Sioux Falls. I wonder if it was bombs or people just starting fires. People are always so destructive. The first sign of something being wrong and people start looting and burning. It might be the government dropping bombs on every major city in the United States. All I know for sure is we aren’t going there to find out.”
Creed shouted, “Turn off the radio. I hear a strange noise.” She turned down the radio, and sure enough there it was, thud-thud-thud. “Shit, pullover I think we have a flat tire.” Evie did as he told her. Creed leaped out of the RV and Evie followed right behind him. Sure enough, the rear passenger tire was flat. Creed became annoyed, “I’ve never changed a tire on one of these big ass mother fuckers before. This is going to be hell.”
Evie went back to the door and told the kids, “Come on out. Don’t pay any attention to your dad. He’s going to be throwing some fits soon. You can play in this field over here.” Evie went over to her husband, “Honey, do you need me to help you?” He just shook his head no. She could tell by the annoyed look on his face that she probably just needed to leave him alone. He preferred to work alone.
Something caught Evie’s attention out the corner of her eye. She thought she saw movement. She turned her head and squinted her eyes to get a better look. She yelled out to her husband, “You need to hurry the fuck up!”
Creed became upset, “I am going as fast as I can. If you think you can do better, get your ass over here and try.”
Evie shouted, “We have company coming, and I’m pretty sure they aren’t coming to help change that damned tire.”
He turned his head and yelled, “Holy shit! Why didn’t you tell me?”
She felt like slapping him, but she refrained. She knew they had tremendous problems. Evie hurried the kids back inside. She instructed Ollie and Sylvie, “Get your guns ready. I’m going outside to help daddy get the tire fixed. Do not come out unless I tell you to.” The kids looked terrified, and Evie didn’t have the words at that time to calm their fears. She was too afraid of herself.
She went back outside and ran over to Creed. It seemed like the faster he tried to change the tire the less he was getting accomplished. The movement that she had previously seen out the corner of her eye had become very clear. It was a huge horde of the infected. They were headed directly towards them. She was guessing it was about 200 yards away. It was far enough that they could get away, but only if Creed was able to get the tire fixed quickly. She begged, “Please tell me that you almost have that tire done. We have a world of trouble headed our way.”
Creed nervously screamed back at her, “Look, I fuckin get it. I’m going as fast as I can. The more you are making me nervous, the harder this is.” She knew he was right, but she felt like their lives were going to end soon. She started trying to look and figure out a plan B in case he couldn’t get the tire fixed in time. The only hope she saw was some woods about 100 yards to the right of them. Worst-case scenario maybe they could climb a tree and hide from the horde until they passed. The other problem was Cinnamon. First off, he would bark at the infected, second off how to get that big ass dog in the tree.
She stared at the horde as it was getting closer by the minute. She heard Creed cussing, “Damn mother fucker, this lug nut is so fucking tight I can’t get it to turn at all. I don’t know if I can get it off period.”
Evie tried to remain calm, “We either need to get inside the RV and pray for the best or we need to go climb those trees over there or at least hide in the woods. Either way, I don’t know what to do about Cinnamon. He’s going to bark like hell, but we have exactly no time to decide. So, pick one.”
“Fuck, I don’t know. I guess we head for the woods, the last thing we want to do is get trapped inside this fuckin thing with no way out and hundreds of infected surrounding us. We need to conserve our ammo if possible.”, Creed tried to convince himself of the decision he was making.
Evie ran and got the kids out of the RV. She picked up her tomahawk and extra ammo. She put a leash on the dog and took off running. Creed wasn’t far behind her. They could hear the moaning and groaning of the infected getting closer and closer. Evie took a quick glimpse over her left shoulder and saw that a few stragglers were heading their way.
Ollie and Sylvie had no trouble getting into the tree, but little Cassie couldn’t get up by herself. Creed ran over to her and pushed her up into a tree. He put his finger in front of his mouth and whispered, “Shh. We have to stay quiet no matter what.” She started to cry. She didn’t scream, she just whimpered a bit.
Evie couldn’t figure out how to get the dog into the tree. She tried pushing him up in it, but that didn’t work. Creed ran over and stammered, “Get up the tree. I’ll push him up to you.” Evie climbed up the tree. She finally got securely on the branch and reached down to grab Cinnamon. The dog started whining. She could tell he did not like this one bit. Just as she was getting the dog into the tree, he started barking. She did what she could to hold his mouth closed. He was still growling even though Evie’s hands were both wrapped around his muzzle.
Creed began looking for a tree to climb. He was having trouble finding one with a low enough branch that he could climb. By the time, he found the right tree, the horde was directly in front of them. The moaning and groaning had become so loud it was more like the roar of a train coming at them.
Evie looked towards Creed and saw that there was an infected walking right towards him. She threw the tomahawk, it landed within inches of his feet. He looked up with surprise. She pointed behind him. He turned and looked, and that thing was only about two feet away. He reached down picked up the tomahawk and hit the thing in the face. A small amount of thick black goo came out. Creed raised the tomahawk in the air, again. This time he hit it in the top of the head. The blow caused the infected to fall to the ground, but it kept moving. It was reaching up trying to grab him, but Creed just kept hitting it over and over until it finally stayed down. He had hit it so many times in the face, it resembled rotten hamburger meat. It had a horrible stench. The smell was similar to the smell roadkill gets after several days.
The danger was not over though. He finally made his way up into a tree, and it wasn’t a minute too soon. Another straggler came through. It was clawing at Cassie’s tree. She started crying, the more she cried, the more that monstrous creature tried to get to her. She was so scared she was shaking like a leaf. Cinnamon saw that it was trying to get to his baby and he went crazy. Evie couldn’t hold him any longe
r. The dog jumped out of the tree and ran over to the infected. He pounced on top of it and started ripping and tearing at its face. Cassie was shaking so hard she looked like she was having a convulsion. She started to fall out of the tree but somehow managed to hold on she had her arms and legs wrapped around the tree. She was hanging like a monkey.
Evie jumped out of the tree without a second thought. She took her purple hunting knife out of her pocket and thrust the blade into the eye socket of the infected. She felt a pop as soon as her knife went in. The infected just laid there flaccid. She pulled her blade out of his eye. Even for this seasoned nurse, the disgusting brain matter that came out of this things head was almost too much to bear. She started to gag but somehow managed to keep from vomiting.
She didn’t know what to do next. She grabbed Cinnamon’s leash so that he wouldn’t cause any more trouble. He started pawing at Cassie’s tree. Evie looked up and saw Cassie hanging upside down. She wasn’t sure how to manage to get Cassie situated, plus dealing with the dog. She took the dog over to Creed, “I need you to do something with him.” He jumped down from the tree and grabbed the leash.
Cassie started to lose her grip. Her small hands slid off the tree branch. She was hanging from the tree with nothing, but her legs. She started crying harder and became inconsolable. Evie ran over and climbed up the tree. She reached her hand down and grabbed Cassie’s tiny little hand. She started to pull her up. The young child was safely back in the tree. Creed came over to the tree whispered to Evie, “I’m going to push him up to you. Then, I’m going to the edge of the woods and see if we are safe or not.”
Evie angrily whispered back, “I don’t think that’s such a good idea. We don’t need to get separated. What if something happens to you?”
He tried to reassure her, “It will be fine. I’ll go right over and take a quick look and then come right back.” He turned and started walking back the way they came. He got to the edge of the woods. He could see a few infected, but most of them were already passed the RV and more importantly already passed the family. He could still hear the low-pitched moaning and groaning, but it was at a distance. He hurried over to Evie and said, “The coast is almost clear. I think we can start getting everybody down from the trees. As soon as the last one passes we will run back to the vehicle.”
Evie lowered the dog to him. Then, she held on to Cassie’s arms and lowered her to Creed. Sylvie and Ollie saw that they were all getting down, so they hopped out of the tree. Ollie lost his footing a little bit and fell on the ground. Sylvie gave him a hand, and he was able to stand up. When he walked over to his mom, she leaned down to look at his ankle. It wasn’t swollen, and she didn’t see any deformity, so she patted his leg and said, “I think you are fine. It might be sore for a day or two.”
They all walked quietly to the edge of the woods. They stood watching as the last of the stragglers disappeared. They all made a run for it as soon as the last one was gone. When they made it back, Creed ran to the back tire and started immediately working on it. He took his foot and stepped down on the tire iron. The lug nut finally loosened enough so he could finish changing the tire. He yelled out, “Hell yeah, finally!” Evie was nearby and heard him yell out. She walked over to him and gave him a high five.
She joked with him, “You know it would’ve been better if you could’ve done this before we almost became zombie food.”
Creed was frustrated and annoyed, “Do you always need to have a smartass comment for everything?” He chucked the tire iron across the road.
Evie shook her head, “Well maybe if you weren’t acting like an uptight dumbass I wouldn’t need to have a smartass comment for everything. I think you need to get the tire iron that you just threw across the fucking road. We’re not going to do this in front of the kids right now, so get your shit together. I know you are frustrated. I also know that I could keep a few of my comments to myself. The thing is that’s why you fell in love with me or did you forget? So suddenly it’s the zombie apocalypse, and you think I’m going to change it. I’ll make sure to buy a self-help book on not being a smartass the next time we come across a bookstore.”
He walked over to her. He had the meanest look on his face. It looked almost as if he was going to smack her. Then he grabbed her pushed her up against the back of the RV and started kissing her, “You know I can’t stay mad at you and what good would it do? You are as stubborn as any human being I’ve ever met.”
She giggled in his ear, “I love you, but we gotta go.” She pushed him off her and ran towards the door of the RV.
He ran across the road to grab the tire iron. It had fallen into a small ditch with high weeds. He began digging around trying to locate it. He started muttering to himself, “Damn it, I’ll never live this shit down if I can’t find it. I hate when her ass is right.”
Chapter 11
Creed heard something he hadn’t heard in a while. It sounded like a vehicle coming towards them. He popped his head up and yelled, “Evie, heads up, somebody’s coming our way.”
She poked her head out the window and asked, “What did you say?”
He pointed towards the road, “I said, heads up.”
She saw a small blue car coming her way. She couldn’t tell the make and model or how many passengers were in the car. Evie started to prepare herself for whatever fresh hell was headed their way. She readied the children to be on alert. In the back of her mind, she wondered how these kids would ever be normal again. She couldn’t even begin to fathom the effects of living through this.
Creed was still on the side of the road because he hadn’t found his tire iron. He stood up tall to make sure that these people knew there were people with this vehicle and it wasn’t just an abandoned vehicle on the side of the road. The car came into better view, it was a newer blue Nissan Altima. The car started to slow down, the passenger rolled down their window. It was a middle-aged man with salt and pepper hair. He had a hardened look on his face like he had lived a hard life before the infection epidemic. The man yelled out the window, “Hey partner, do you need some help?”
Creed’s immediate gut feeling was that something was terribly wrong. He nodded, “Thanks for the offer, but I think we got it.”
The man tried to reassure him, “Dude, we don’t mean you any harm. My name is Steve.” He pointed over to the driver, “His name is Dean.” Creed glimpsed over to the man in the driver’s seat. He was a younger guy, maybe 20 or so years old. He didn’t have that hardened look that Steve had, but he still looked like he was up to no good.
Evie could tell by the look on Creed’s face that this was not a good situation. She stealthily climbed onto the roof of the RV. She just laid there in wait for a hint of danger. The man continued to attempt to make small talk with Creed. Creed spoke again, “Hey like I said before, we are good, and I think it’s time for us to go.” Creed started to cross the road in the front of the car.
Steve demanded, “No really I think it’s time you all come with us. We have a group of friends that we are meeting. They’re going to want whatever it is that you’re so protective of inside that RV.” Dean drew his gun out and took a shot at Creed as he was running to the rear of the RV.
Evie shot at the man in the driver’s seat. The shot hit him at an angle in the temple area. His brains blew out into the backseat. The remainder of his head fell on top of the steering wheel. She couldn’t get a good shot of the passenger. She heard Creed shout, “I’m inside, get down from there.”
She slid down the trap door yelling, “Go! Go! Go! I’m in, get the fuck out of here.” She looked out a window. She could see the passenger throwing his driver out into the road. He started driving, but he did not follow them.
She went up front and announced, “I think we are in the clear.”
Creed warned, “We are far from safe. They have a group somewhere. I am sure he is getting reinforcements.”
That thought scared her. She told him, “We need to turn off this road as soon as we can
. Maybe if we change paths it will throw them off. Look as bad as I hate it, we might need to find a new vehicle to drive.”
Creed was trying to concentrate on driving. He screamed at Evie, “Can you shut up a minute so I can collect my thoughts?” She just pretended that he didn’t say that and took off towards the back of the RV. She still didn’t see anyone following them, but she had no idea how far behind they might be. She went back to the front of the RV and sat down without saying a word. A few minutes later Creed muttered, “I’m sorry. But we gotta figure this shit out in a fuckin hurry.”
Sylvie came up front and asked, “Are we going to be okay? What are we going to do if those guys find us?”
Determinately Evie told her, “I can’t promise everything is going to be okay, but what I can tell you is that if those guys find us, we aren’t going with them. If we have to, we will fight our way out of it. I’m sorry to tell you this baby girl, but the time may come that you have to protect yourself. Do not give it a second thought. If someone tries to hurt you, you shoot them. If an infected tries to bite you, shoot them in the head.” It killed Evie inside to have to tell her daughter that, but she knew it had to be said.
Sylvie went back to her seat. The other kids wanted to know what Evie said, but Sylvie refused to tell them. She just laid her head down on the table, her brown curly hair fell over her face. Tears began silently falling from her beautiful blue eyes. She occasionally would wipe them away with the back of her hand. She was far too young to take on such an adult situation. Within a few days, she had lost her childhood, gone forever. She had seen things that could never be unseen.
