by Tahnee Fritz
“You okay over there, Bridge? You seem a little lost in thought.” Dad says.
“I’m fine, just thinking about stuff.” I reply
“You’re thinking about them, aren’t you?” he always knows when I’m thinking about the others.
I swallow the lump in my throat and nod, “I miss them and I really wish they were here.”
“Me too,” he says, “Although I’m sure right now your sister would be whining about her feet hurting from walking for so long.”’
I smile, “Yeah and she’d force Charlie to carry her for a while. Which he would because he was too sweet to turn anyone down.”
“Yep and your mom would be trying to get you to act more like a girl and stop shooting a gun.”
“I guess killing zombies and vamps for the sake of humanity isn’t ladylike enough for her.” I kid.
“She never was big on that. Always thought the humans were still alive in there somewhere. That someday they would come back and everything would be fine again. Even after Charlie, she always looked at them like they still had a soul.” Dad says, “I saw that same look on you right before you killed that third one back there.”
I glance over at him and he turns his head away from me. He only does this when he’s tearing up and doesn’t want me to see him cry. He has it in his mind that he has to be the tough guy for both of us. That he has to be the one who doesn’t think about what happened to our family and how we lost everything we care about in the world because of those damn monsters. He doesn’t realize that I’m plenty tough and he can let his feelings show every once in a while.
I turn away from him and think back to that female zombie, how she hesitated before coming at me. Maybe she did still have a soul somewhere deep inside that non-beating heart of hers. Maybe her hesitation was her human self trying to show up again. If there is still a soul in those zombies, what kind of soul would be left? The kind that knows what they’ve done and wouldn’t want to live with that knowledge or the kind that has been so deteriorated by the disease there’s not much soul left? Either way, I think I did whatever human was left in that woman a favor. Not just for her, but for my family. A sort of payback for what’s happened to them.
“I don’t think they have much of a soul left anymore, dad. Whatever they do have, isn’t human anymore and I don’t think they’d want to live like that. Killing them saves them in a way and I don’t think mom saw it like that. She was the kind who only saw the good in people and couldn’t see that there’s no good left in these creatures. Whatever good they might have had at one point, has been stolen from them and I don’t think they’ll ever get it back.” I finally say after a few seconds of silent walking. “And God help the man who comes up with the cure for all of this. Who the hell knows what would come next.”
I see a smile come across his lips and he looks my way. There’s a slight hint of red to his eyes and he wipes whatever tears were in them away with his hands.
“First vampires, then zombies, probably some sort of hideous mixture of them both if someone ever tries curing them now.” Dad says with a sly smile.
“Let’s hope we don’t have to find out any time soon.” I reply.
Another long day of walking practically over and my dogs are barking. I’ll never get used to walking nonstop for miles until we come to a stopping point that’s safe enough for us to spend the night. I’ll never get used to trying to find that safe place. Sleeping under the stars is what we normally do. We can get lucky enough to find an old shack or small house that we’ve deemed monster free. Still, I’d do anything for a few nights in a nice town, in comfy bed where I can sleep without worrying for once.
I’m sure dad can tell I’m getting a little excited about getting to this new town he’s been telling me about. I’ve only asked him a hundred times when we’re going to get there and he’s only told me a hundred times that we’ll get there when we get there. I don’t mean to be a constant pest about it, I just really want to get there. Being able to speak to another human being will be so rewarding after a walk that seems to be never ending.
We pass by an old green sign still sticking out of the ground on the side of the road. All three city names on the sign are crossed out with black spray paint. That’s a way for travelers to tell those places are not safe and empty of living humans. All of those places are still miles away and the place we’re looking for isn’t too far ahead, according to dad.
“How much farther did you say?” I ask, getting a little worried we won’t make it by sunset.
“The man who told me about this place said we’d be real close when we find the sign with the markings on the back. He told me all the cities on the front of that sign will be crossed out in black paint, just like the one we’re passing now.” Dad replies and both of us turn around to see the back of the sign.
A smile crosses his face when he sees the message painted against the silver back of the sign. I’m hoping he can figure out what it means because to me it’s just gibberish.
“What does ‘S4N’ mean, dad?” I ask as I read the back of the sign.
“It means there’s a safe place four miles north of here. They do it like that so the vamps won’t figure it out.” He says.
“Clever.”
He nods then we turn back around and keep walking, “What time is it, Bridge?”
I lift my hand and glance at my watch, “Almost five.”
“Okay, we should get there within the hour.” He says.
We keep walking, moving a bit faster than before. I know he wants to get there sooner than risk us being out after dark. It’s one thing to have zombies to deal with, they’re easy to predict and easy to kill. When the vamps come out to play, life gets a little harder to defend. They have advantages where we do not. I’ve heard they can see in the dark and can hear the sounds of humans coming from miles away. They can even smell us and catch us before we can even react. I’ve even heard of them jumping a few feet into the air and land on the humans who were trying to kill them. Like I said, things get even worse at night.
About twenty minutes pass by and we come across another sign on the side of the highway. This one just has a giant “S” scribbled on it and I can only assume it means we’re really close to the town. There’s an off ramp packed with abandoned vehicles leading down a slight hill. We take that exit. Out of habit, I keep my gun ready and peer into every car we pass just to make sure there’s nothing hiding inside. A few have their owners still decomposing in the drivers’ seat. They are so far gone, there aren’t even flies buzzing around them anymore. Doesn’t mean I’m not still going to be on edge.
We make it to the bottom of the ramp and stop at the sign. Dad looks both ways before we keep going. To the left isn’t pretty. What looks like an explosion has charred the way with a dozen burnt cars stuck under an over pass. Body parts, mainly bones, are scattered about in the street and in the grass. I can see a few black skulls lying about, their bodies are somewhere else in the mess. I can’t tell what the cause of the blast could have been, but I have a feeling it was planned out.
The way the cars are all shoved under the over pass, like they’re trying to block something. Maybe zombies or vamps were trying to get through and the humans needed a faster way to keep them out. A bomb seems to do the trick just about every time.
To the right looks much better. A few more cars are stranded in the middle of the street, almost like they’re still driving. I’m sure the people who once owned them were probably on their way to work or school or to visit their families. They most likely didn’t expect things to go array and they had to leave their vehicles in order to escape whatever madness came their way.
I follow dad along this stretch of road and start to notice a very odd smell coming from the way in front of us. Not really an odd smell, just not something you want to smell when you’re approaching a place you really want to be. It is the familiar smell of smoke, ash, and a putrid smell of death. As I inhale through my nose, I start getting a really bad feel
ing about what we are walking into.
“That doesn’t smell right.” Dad says, under his breath.
He completely read my mind.
He starts to pick up the pace and I follow close behind. We go around a slight bend in the road and are faced with a hill we have to climb up. The smell gets stronger as we ascend up the slope and pass the abandoned cars. Dad stays a few feet ahead of me and I nervously clutch my gun. Who knows what could be waiting for us on the other side of this hill.
Dad makes it to the top and stops moving. His head angled downward at whatever lay in front of him. I pull myself up the rest of the hill and get a good look at what he sees.
Black smoke billows from piles of charred wood. Trash and remnants of clothes and blankets are littered all over the place. Ash floats through the air like snow falling from the sky in winter. The few buildings that remain standing are blackened with smoke coming through the open windows. Burnt bodies are scattered all over the streets and in between piles of rubbish. We found the town we were hoping to find. There just isn’t anything left of it.
“Dad,” I whisper, “what do we do now?”
He doesn’t say anything. He simply swallows his pride and takes a step forward. I stay close to his side as we venture into the town. The smell is much stronger and I have to cover my mouth and nose with my hand in order to keep the stench away. I keep my eyes wide open, peering from left to right, keeping watch for any signs of movement. A few grey pieces of paper blow around in the wind and ash dances at our feet. My hands are shaking and my heart beats faster in my chest. I’m used to being afraid, just not afraid of a ghost town like this.
I move closer to dad, brushing my arm against his. All I can think about is seeing a half-burnt zombie bursting out of one of the buildings to come after us. There’s no telling if there are any hiding about in the rubble or lurking around the outskirts of town, so it really wouldn’t surprise me if we see one.
I hear a noise ahead of us and I jump a little. It sounds like a stick breaking under someone’s foot. Dad hears it as well and we stop moving. He lifts his gun up and aims it straight ahead of us. We hear the noise again, this time louder and definitely footsteps. They don’t sound labored, like a zombie, and it’s still too early for the vamps to come out.
“Show yourself!” dad shouts.
I keep my eyes staring at the empty road in front of us, expecting to see a whole army of monsters come out of nowhere just for us. Instead, we see a man walking out from beside a building with a rifle aimed right at us. The man is probably the same age as my dad and his clothes are dirty and covered in soot. His jeans are torn at the knee, but there’s no scratch or bite mark from what I can see.
After the man walks out, a few more people follow him. Six others to be exact. A young boy about the age of ten carries a baseball bat in one hand and a teddy bear in the other. Three other men around the same age as the first all come out wielding pistols as well. An older woman has her arms wrapped around the shoulders of a girl who seems to be the same age as me.
“You humans?” the first man who came out shouted at us.
Dad nods, “Yeah, and you?”
The man lowers his rifle and nods, “Yeah, we’re all human.”
My heart slows a tad and dad lowers the gun in his hand. The man starts walking toward us, the small group of people right behind him. The others put their weapons down as we approach one another. Finally, we find other living humans to have some sort of contact with.
“What happened here?” dad asks.
The man shakes his head, “I don’t know. We got here a couple hours ago and found this place burnt to hell. I think the vamps did it. The zombies aren’t talented enough to burn a small town down like this.”
“Shit.” Dad exclaims. “Those bastards are getting crafty.”
“Names Jim and this is my family.” The man motions toward the others. “My wife, Dena, and my daughter Sherry. My three brothers, Jack, Brian, and Wayne and my nephew Dillon.”
Dad nods, “I’m Phil and this is my daughter, Bridget.”
“Nice to meet you.” Jim says with a small smile.
“Same here.” Dad replies.
“You know, we’re actually going to camp right outside town here. There’s another place about half a day’s walk west of here and we’re wanting to get a fresh start in the morning.” Jim states, “The two of you are welcome to join us. We don’t have much food to share, but we have plenty of water and enough guns to keep us safe through the night.”
Dad’s never normally the type of guy to voluntarily stay with strangers we meet on the road. He’d rather not risk getting robbed in the middle of the night or wake up dead.
“I think we will take you up on that.” Dad says, totally surprising me. “We have a couple cans of soup we can spare for dinner tonight and it would be nice to sit down with other living people for once.”
“Thanks, that’s much appreciated. We have some chicken leftover and some old bread we got a few days ago. Not much, but enough to keep us healthy.” Jim adds. “Follow me and I’ll show you where we made camp.”
The small family turns around and heads back to the building they came from. I am still a little wary about going with them. I’ve heard about running into strangers on the road out here. The ones whom you think you can trust and they wind up literally stabbing you in the back and take everything you have. I can’t come up with a logical excuse as to why dad wants to go with them and camp for the night. I guess he’s still a little shocked about finding the town in shambles to make a clear decision for us.
Well, we didn’t get stabbed or shot or robbed, at least not yet anyway. This family is actually really nice. The kind of family I used to have before things went to hell and the world turned to turmoil. Jim, the one who introduced everyone, used to be a basketball coach at a high school in Atlanta. His brother, Jack, the bald one, he used to be a doctor. A good person to have around, especially out here on the road. Jack’s son, Dillon, is really quiet and only seven years old. Jim’s other two brothers used to be lawyers and even had their own practice in the city when the so-called cure came around. They had a lot of complaints when that cure decided not to be a cure anymore. Jim’s wife, Dena, was a stay at home mom who also ran a daycare out of their basement. Their only daughter, Sherry, with her long blonde hair, is a little on the eccentric side.
She sits next to me around the fire. It’s in the center of a circle made out of old wooden beams from the buildings. We use them as benches so we can sit while we eat our meal of chicken and a small amount of soup to dip our bread in. Actually, the best meal I’ve had in a while.
“So, Bridget, how old are you? I’m eighteen, just turned eighteen I think. Not real sure when my birthday was. We ran into this guy a few weeks ago who was trying to keep track of the days and months and whatever and he thinks it’s May and my birthday is in March and I was thirteen when this happened so that means I’m eighteen now. How old are you?” Sherry finally takes a breath after talking a mile a minute.
“Umm, I’m nineteen, but if it’s really May then I’ll be turning twenty in three months.” I reply, then take a sip of my soup, I talk much slower than she does.
“That’s so cool. You know I haven’t been around another girl my age for a long time. It’s so nice we ran into you guys out here. I can finally have someone to talk to about anything. Instead of Dillon over there,” she motions to the little boy, still clutching the teddy bear, “he doesn’t have anything interesting to talk about, ever. All he wants to do is hang onto the stupid bear he found a year ago in an old toy store. He can’t go anywhere without it in his hand. Even takes a bath with it, when we are able to do that.”
I force my best smile as I listen to her nonstop talking. I turn my eyes to dad who is sitting across from us with the other men his age. He sort of laughs when our eyes meet then goes back to talking to the others. I glance up at the sky and notice how dark it’s getting. Soon we’ll have to keep quiet an
d try to fall asleep with the ever present risk of being sucked dry by the vamps. It’s never easy to sleep with that on your mind.
“So, Bridget, is it just you and your dad out here alone? Where’s the rest of your family?” Sherry asks and I turn my eyes back to her.
“Uh, yeah, it’s just the two of us. He’s the only family I have left.” I reply.
“What happened?” she suddenly got really quiet and sympathetic.
I shrug, “They’re gone. I don’t really like to talk about it.”
She nods, “That’s okay, I understand. We can change the subject.”
“Okay.”
“So, tell me,” she begins, then gets quiet again, “when’s the last time you had sex?”
That’s one hell of a subject change. It catches me off guard and I’m sure I have the dumbest expression on my face as I stare back at her. Sex is never something my dad and I bring up on a normal day. He doesn’t ask me about it and I’d rather not talk to my dad about that sort of thing. I’m not a prude or anything, waiting for my wedding day will never happen, not only because I’ll probably never have a wedding, but I highly doubt I’ll ever find a guy out here in this wasteland that’s worth giving up my life for. Sex is something I would like to experience at least once in my life, but I don’t think doing it with some random guy on the side of the road is how I want to experience it.
I keep my eyes glued to Sherry’s and say, “I haven’t done it yet.”
She smiles, “Really? A hot girl like you has never had sex? The last town we stopped in for the night, I wound up finding this super awesome guy who showed me around town. We made out for a bit and I ended up staying the night in his little apartment. I know, it sounds worse than what it is, but I like to live on the edge and go for the things that I want. When I’m in the mood for it, I really like to find the right guy to fulfill my demands.”
I shrug, “I guess I just haven’t found the right guy yet. I haven’t found any guy really.”
