by Poe, S. B.
“Whatever.” She smiled. “Want one?” She tilted the bag towards him. He took one. He smiled at her as he chewed.
A few hours later he sat against the side of the couch and listened to her sleep. The day had turned to night and was starting to turn into day again. He had almost forgotten about the thing that used to be his wife in the back bedroom. He dozed in and out as the pain in his hand waxed and waned. He had taken the last two pills in the bottle from his dentist. The fog in his head was not quite as thick as the fog outside. He stood and looked at the ghostly sphere of the sun through the thick gray clouds that came up from the ground. He heard her stir.
“I think we’ve got everything packed.” He said.
“Do we need to load it into the car?” She asked.
“Not yet. I think we’ll stay another day. The fog is pretty thick. And I really don’t want to leave unless we have a clear morning. I think we’re safe here for another night.” He said.
“Why do we have to leave?”
“We could stay. But we’d run out of food. We’d run out of water. And then we’d run out of chances.” He said.
“How do you know what we’ll find out there?”
“The deputy said the army was setting up refugee centers. We’re going to get to one.”
“Where?”
“Towards Alabama. He didn’t say for sure. We’ll make our way on the back roads but we’ll be following the interstate. I know those roads pretty good and I’ve got a good map. If there’s a refugee center we’re sure to find it. And that’s where we’ll find help.” He said.
“So what do we do today?” She asked.
“Listen to the radio. Make sure we have what we need.” He said.
“How far is this place?” She asked.
“I don’t know for sure. But it’s only a few hours to the state line.” He asked.
“Why do we need all this stuff then if it’s just a few hours?” She asked.
“Maybe we won’t but I don’t think getting there is going to be as easy as it used to be. It will be dangerous so we’ll have to take our time. And if it gets too dangerous, we may have to think of something else.” He said.
“What else?” She asked.
“I don’t know. But that’s why we need all this stuff.” He said.
They spent the day getting their backpacks ready, adjusting the straps and moving things from hers to his until they both were comfortable with what they had to carry if they had to walk. Joel remembered the camping trips with his father and the excitement of getting everything together the day before. He didn’t feel excitement as he helped her take the pack off. He sat it against the wall and turned to her. “Get some rest.” He said. He didn’t feel excitement at all, he felt afraid.
The air was cool. He looked up at the clear sky and saw a few streaks of light. Nothing like the night before last. Or was it the night before that? So much, so fast. He sat the can down next to the side of the house and threw the blankets off his back onto the ground. Satisfied, he walked back around to the front of the house. He thought about Theresa. His knees weakened and he lowered his gaze from the sky. He felt warm tears on his cheeks. He looked up again. The sky was broken through the water in his eyes. He wiped them and turned.
He slid by the couch. Abby was snoring a little as he slipped down the hallway to the spare bedroom. More moving boxes were still stacked in the corner. He pulled the top box off and dumped the clothes on the floor and walked over to the window. He unlatched the lock. The last thing was to move the wooden chair in the other corner on top of the clothes scattered in the room. He stepped back into the hallway and closed the door. He stood in front of the door to the master bedroom for a few seconds listening to the sound of his own breathing. He opened the door.
The room felt colder. The thing stood in the same spot it had been in for two days. He stepped in front of it but the eyes were vacant and didn’t even move when he came closer. He reached his hand out and touched her arm. No reaction. He tilted his head a little as he closed his eyes. He gently stroked her arm. He tried to remember the smile on her face and the life in her eyes. Tears squeezed between his lids.
“I don’t…” His voice cracked. “I don’t know what this is, I don’t know what this means but I want to believe this is you. I want to believe she’s okay because you loved her so much you couldn’t hurt her. I want to believe that if there is anything left of you in there, it is fighting like hell to keep her safe. I want you to hear me. You don’t have to fight anymore. You can rest. I will fight for both of us now. I will keep her safe. I will fight just like you. Until I can’t fight any more. I love you.” He paused. The thing was still staring into nothing and had not moved. He leaned closer. “I love you.” He gently kissed the things forehead. “Goodbye.”
He turned and walked out the door. The hallway was a little brighter and he could see gray light coming through the windows in the living room. He heard her stirring.
“It’s time.” He said.
“I’m ready.” She said. “I want to say goodbye.”
“No.” He said. “That’s not your mother.”
“Can I see her?”
“Remember her like she was. Not like this.” He said. “Here, I took this from her nightstand. It’s from your birthday last year.” He handed her a picture of the three of them.
She looked at the picture. The smile on her mother’s face, a half crooked smirk, made a tear come to her eye.
“You’re right. That’s not mom.” She said as she hugged him. “Maybe one day when this is all over we’ll come back, and she’ll still be there. Just waiting.”
They loaded the backpacks into the backseat. He grabbed the box of tools from the bench in the back of the garage and a set of jumper cables hanging from a hook. He tossed it in the trunk. They climbed into the car and he backed out of the driveway. He paused and put the car in park.
“Hold on one second.” He said.
“What?”
“Just going to make sure the gas line to the house is turned off. It’s on the other side of the house. Just take a second.” He jumped out of the car and disappeared around the side of the house.
He tossed the blankets into the open window, draping the last one on the window ledge. He leaned through the window and doused everything he could with gasoline before pouring the last few drops on the blanket draped outside. He flicked the lighter and the gasoline caught. The fire leapt into the room as he jogged back to the car. He had never burnt a house down before so he wasn’t sure it would work. He pulled onto the road and accelerated. He didn’t tell her. He would let her always believe that her mother was forever in that room, in that house, waiting. The dark smoke rising above the trees in the rearview mirror told him the truth.
The Other End of the Road
The pickup truck blocked the road. Joel leaned forward and looked through the windshield at the four men standing in front of him. He looked over at Abby before he rolled down the window.
“Where are you going?” The man asked from behind the sunglasses.
“West. Trying to find the refugee center.” Joel said.
“Where are you coming from?” The man asked.
“Atlanta. North Atlanta.” Joel said.
“Going the wrong way ain’t you? Stone Mountain is east.” The man said.
“Yeah, but I heard there was a refugee center west. And I didn’t want to go through the city.” Joel said.
The man leaned into the car.
“Young lady, do you know this man?” The man asked.
“Huh?” She asked.
“This man, do you know him?”
“He’s my dad.”
“You sure?”
“He’s my dad.”
“What kind of question is that?” Joel asked.
“Bad times, bad people take advantage of them. Always have, always will.” The man said.
“And you think I’m bad people?”
“Didn’t say one way o
r the other, that’s why I asked.” The man said.
“I can just turn around.” Joel said.
“No need. We’ll take you through.” The man said as he turned and snapped his finger at one of the other men.
“Through?” Joel asked.
“Yeah, through. You get behind Willie here and stay behind him. He’ll take you to the other end town and you can be on your way.” The man said.
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“I don’t know, why are you escorting us? Why are you letting us through? A whole lotta why.” Joel said.
“We’re escorting you because we are letting you through. We’re letting you through because you need to get to the other side of our town. I would rather know you came and went than wait around for you to try another way to get through.” The man said.
“Why are you doing all this?” Joel asked.
“Where did you say you was coming from?”
“Atlanta.”
“Do you really need to ask why we’re doing all this?” The man leaned into the window.
“No, no I guess I don’t.” Joel said.
“You stay behind Willie and be sure to not come this way again. You understand?” The man said as he waved at the truck in front of Joel.
“Yeah, I understand.” Joel followed the truck.
The little town looked deserted. He could see curtains moving and little slits in blinds closing as they drove by. The truck passed by the courthouse and Joel could see a few people standing on the steps shielding their eyes in the sun. He followed the truck until the trees once again came to the side of the road. Another few trucks were parked in the road ahead but they parted as his car approached. The man he had followed pulled over to the side of the road. Joel watched the trucks pull back across the road in the rearview mirror as they drove on.
“That was weird.” Abby said as she looked behind them.
“Yeah, but it could have been worse.” He said.
“It was a little scary.” She said. He drove another mile, watching the mirror the whole way. Finally he pulled the car over and stopped.
“What are we doing?”
“Just a quick stop. Stay in the car. Just gotta get something from the trunk.” He said as he exited the car.
“Okay.”
He stood in the road and listened. The sound of sirens was gone. He could hear the wind, some birds and off in the distance the sound of helicopters. He looked up and down the road. Nothing moved. He opened the trunk and unzipped the bag. The pistol had been his father’s. It was an old 357 police revolver. His father had bought it at an auction at least ten years ago. He had given it to Joel for safekeeping when he started getting confused. Joel had shot it a few times and although he didn’t know much about pistols, the guys that took him to shoot seemed impressed both with the firearm and Joel’s natural talent for hitting the target. He knew how to shoot rifles, bows, shotguns and more but handguns had just never been his thing. He picked it up. It felt heavier than he remembered. He flipped the cylinder open. Loaded. He rummaged around the bag and found the half box of ammo. He slid the bag off the case underneath and undid the latches. It had been over a year since he had shot it but he hoped the scope was still close. He grabbed the box of rifle ammo and closed the trunk.
“Here.” He handed her the ammo. “Put it in the glove box.”
“What about that?” She pointed to the rifle on his shoulder.
“You remember how it works?”
“I think so.”
“Watch.” He worked the bolt half back. He could see the rounds in the magazine. “Just pull this all the way back and push it forward. Lock it down like this. This is the safety. It’s loaded now. So don’t mess with it.” Joel said as he put it across the back seat. “I’m going to keep this right here.” He shoved the pistol down between the seats. “Don’t mess with it either. Understand?”
“Understand.” She said. “Why do we need guns, Dad?” She asked.
“I hope we don’t. But I can’t lie to you. Things are getting really dangerous. People are going to panic. They already are. And people are dangerous when they panic. We’re going to try to avoid the panic.” He said.
“And if we can’t?” She asked.
“That’s what we might need the guns for.” He said. “Ready?”
“Yeah.”
They drove down empty two-lane roads. The map was a book of atlases of the south. It was a few years old but most of the roads they were on had been here for decades. Not a lot of updates to make on the maps. It even mapped some of the unpaved roads that wound through the wildest parts. He used those to avoid anything that looked like a town. He chose roads that crossed the interstate but didn’t access the interstate. He knew any road that accessed the interstate would go nowhere fast. Even on the mostly deserted back roads they had to turn around twice when wrecks blocked their way. They only stopped when he was sure there were no other people around. When they crossed a bridge over the interstate they stopped. The traffic below was all headed away from Atlanta but it was at a stand still. There were things moving inside and outside the cars. The smell was overpowering in the unusually warm autumn day.
“They’re all infected aren’t they?” She asked.
“Yeah, I think they are.” He replied.
“Were they all trying to go where we’re going?” Abby asked.
“I don’t know.” He said.
“Do you think it’s really out there? The place we’re going?” She asked.
“I don’t know.” He said.
“We’re going to keep trying aren’t we?”
“Yeah, we’re going to keep trying. We’re always going to keep trying.” He said. “Let’s go.”
She shifted in the seat. He looked over at her.
“You think there’s anything on the radio?” She asked.
They had tried when they first pulled away from the house but there wasn’t much but static and the constant Emergency Message. She scanned the channels.
“This is an emergency……Please stay tuned for…The President has been moved….”
“Wait, turn it back. That was new.” He said.
“…secure location. The Vice President is en route to Cheyenne Mountain according to sources familiar with the situation. Once again the Department of Justice has affirmed that protecting life and limb falls well within the right of self-defense. The National Institute of Health has determined that the infection is irreversible and that all efforts should be made to avoid any contact with the infected. Local authorities should use all necessary force to protect citizens from infected persons. The Attorney General, in a statement as he boarded an Air Force aircraft at Joint Base Andrews said, and I quote, ‘If anyone thinks I’m going to prosecute someone for killing one of these infected sons-a-bitches, they need to find another AG.’
An audible breath was heard through the radio
“Ladies and gentlemen of the listening audience forgive me a bit of editorializing right now but the statements I just read to you are remarkable. I am reminded of a quote from Lenin, ‘there are decades when nothing happens and weeks when decades happen.’ I don’t know what happens now but based on what has happened so far, I fear we are in the infancy of what is to come. Be careful and may we all stay safe.”
He turned the radio off. As they wound their way through the countryside, she drifted back to sleep. The clouds that hung low over the trees slowly turned gray. As the car came around the long curve, the trees fell away to a wide expanse of valley below. He slammed on the brakes.
“What?” She said after she snapped back in the seat. “What’s happening?” She blinked hard.
“Sorry. Sorry. Look.” He pointed to the valley below. A helicopter slowly lifted off the ground.
They both got out of the car. The interstate was a few miles in the distance on the other side of the compound. There was a road, hastily constructed that looked mostly to be red clay and gravel. It ran from the int
erstate exit ramp down to a big gate. The entire area was fenced.
“What is that place?” She asked.
“It was a warehouse farm.” He said.
“A what?”
“Just a bunch of warehouses all together. Bunch of companies rent space in them. It’s like a central distribution hub for businesses that don’t have a distribution hub in the area.” He said.
“How do you know so much?” She asked.
“The magazine did an article about who was buying land up and down the interstate. Kind of a ‘did you ever wonder?’ thing. I had to play editor on it. I guess the army took it over. Look.” He pointed at the road coming from the interstate. There were several military vehicles parked at the gate. He could see the fence around the warehouses but there was another fence beyond that. It formed an empty space around the whole compound and he could see soldiers walking in the space between.
