The Survival Pact

by Christy Sloat

  “Yeah. Getting my car out of the spot is going to prove difficult. You know we pay to park it here, right? And I can’t just leave my job to take a vacation to Tennessee, Lou.”

  The trials of city life.

  “Kami, remember when we all were sitting round the fire in Washington at Emma’s dads place?”

  How could I ever forget that? We were getting drunk off our asses. I had the best raspberry wine I’d ever tasted. It was the best vacation I had ever had. Being in the Olympic National forest was a dream come true for me. Growing up surrounded by forest made me appreciate all that nature had to offer, but Washington was different. It was better.

  “Of course I remember,” I said, dreamily. “Let’s go back there, Lou. Call Emma and see when we can book a trip.”

  I flipped through my calendar, finding a good weekend for a getaway.

  “June’s good. It’s not too hot or too cold out there,” I said, absentmindedly.

  “Dammit, Kami! Get home, now!”

  Her urgency scared me then more than ever before. Lou was tough as nails. She lived with her mom, taking care of her, and she was a force to be reckoned with. When she spoke you listened.

  “I can’t just leave work. I got here late…”

  And that’s when I looked up at the TV screen finally. I focused on the news channel as the camera man filmed something I never thought I would ever see. The news anchor was running, scared for his life. Fear written all over his handsome face.

  “What the hell?”

  “What is it? What do you see, Kami?” Lou asked, sounding more terrified than urgent.

  “I think I see a camera man running away from a… a dead man?” My mouth went dry as the phone slipped from my fingers. The man behind the news anchor was running at him, snarling and ripping at him. He was very dead, that was for sure. His gaunt face was the color of my Aunt Edna’s green couch, and there were parts of it that were no longer intact.

  People were laughing at my office, and some were screaming.

  “It’s gotta be a joke,” Todd said, as he shut off the screen. “Get back to work. It’s April’s fool’s day, idiots.”

  I looked at my calendar and it was April 1st. I felt a bit calmer now knowing that what I saw wasn’t real.

  “Lou, its April Fool’s Day. Nice joke.”

  She laughed a little, but it sounded more like she was laughing at how coincidental it was.

  “But this isn’t a joke, Kami. Get. Out. Right. Now.”

  2

  I unlocked the door and called out, “Sam, you home?”

  Silence.

  Where was my husband?

  I turned on my radio, too fearful to watch TV. I didn’t need to see anything, especially another joke like before. The music blared to life and calmed my nerves. No one on the train spoke about anything scary, so that calmed me a bit. Maybe it was all a joke.

  I sat down at my kitchen nook and stared out at the city life outside.

  I told Todd I was sick and felt like throwing up. He didn’t handle puke well, so he told me to go home. I couldn’t believe I lied to go home to an empty apartment all because Lou told me to. Boy, I was having a bad day.

  I picked up my cell and dialed Sam.

  After the third ring, he answered. “Hey baby-cakes. You at work?”

  Baby-cakes.

  He won me over with his sweet words when we first met at my friend’s party. I should have known then that meeting a guy at a party was bad news. He was kind, and gentle, and sweet for the first year. And then he got signed to play minor league ball in New York and he changed. He became less attentive and more selfish.

  It wasn’t long until he was signed to play for the Met’s and I realized I didn’t know him anymore. I didn’t even like baseball; in fact I hated it. I hated cheering him on as he waved to the crowd with what I knew was his fake smile. I hated hanging out with the other wives, as they told me how to style my hair and where to go to get my nails done.

  The fact was, I was a nerdy writer and I didn’t blend in with their crowd. With his crowd.

  It’s a real problem when you didn’t blend in with your husband. When you had absolutely nothing in common with one another.

  “You there, Kami?”

  “Oh, yeah. I’m at home,” I said, trying to hide my anger. “Where are you?”

  I could hear the traffic in the distance from the other line.

  “Catching a cab to come home to you, my sweet.”

  Liar.

  “Where were you last night, Sam?”

  He laughed, like I was being a panicky wife. I hated when he did that.

  “Is my boo bear jealous?” He laughed again, causing me to pace the apartment. “I was with Richards. I was too drunk to drive and I decided to sleep there.”

  Lie, again.

  I paced the apartment again cursing the small place. We had money now and we lived in a tiny tin can. And besides, he didn’t drive anywhere because our car was in the space all night.

  “Sam, why haven’t we bought a bigger place?”

  I wasn’t sure why we still lived in this apartment, but I felt trapped. Lou wanted me with her and she was scaring the ever living shit out of me. My husband was lying to me and I wanted out. I wasn’t sure what was going on.

  “I’m leaving, Sam. I’m going to see Lou for a bit.”

  Silence between us on the phone helped me build my confidence. He wasn’t here to tell me ‘no’ and I wouldn’t listen anyway. I dug through my closet and found the bag that Lou made for me ten years ago, right after our trip out west.

  Sam finally spoke, “Well, if you need to go, I’ll support you, Kam.”

  Of course he would, because that gave him the freedom to do what he wanted. It allowed him to screw whomever he wanted to.

  “When will you be back?” He didn’t sound worried, but curious.

  “Not, sure. But I’m taking the car,” I said. “And Sam?”

  “Yeah, babe?”

  I was brave. I could do this. “I want a divorce.”

  I felt an overwhelming sense of peace run through my body. Being free of Sam and his bullshit would be amazing. Being free of this tiny ass apartment would mean I could move back home. I could even move closer to Lou, my best-friend. I could do whatever the hell I wanted.

  “What? Kami, wait one second, now,” he muttered.

  “I know about the girls and the partying.”

  It was only all over his phone; photos of naked women that he photographed, and even filmed while he screwed them. I had known for over a year, but I did nothing about it. It was time to show him the Kami I really was; the girl who wouldn’t put up with his shit. I had put her away for the last four years of my relationship with Sam. Placed her on a shelf and told her, “Be quiet. Stay there.” Well, no longer. The real me was off the shelf now.

  “Don’t even deny it, Sam. I think this is best. I’ll get my stuff later,” I said. “And don’t come home. I need time to pack. Go see one of your sluts instead.”

  I hung up on him and yanked the bag from the closet. I ran my fingers over the green fabric. This bag was a bug-out bag in case of emergency.

  At the time, when Lou gave it to me, I thought she was being panicky and her usual prepared self. I tucked it away in the closet thinking that I would never have to use it. There must have been a reason why it wasn’t in storage with the rest of my stuff. Maybe I knew that someday I would need this.

  I shoved my clothes and toiletries inside the back pack. I wasn’t sure how long I would stay with Lou, but she needed me as badly as I needed her. As I packed I thought about the fear in her voice and how she was serious about what she said. She wasn’t joking around. Lou wasn’t one to prank people. I have known her since college and she never pulled jokes. Why would she do it now? Why would her jokes be
correlated with the prank on my news channel? A channel she didn’t even get in Tennessee.

  Pulling off my leather coat, I grabbed my favorite flannel and changed. I took off my flats and put on boots that laced up. I was tired of dressing for style. It was time to dress comfortably. It was time to be me again.

  My travel cooler was stored in the upper cabinet in the kitchen and I pulled it down, carefully. I was cursed with being short, so things were always hard to reach. That was one good thing about Sam; he could reach things for me. I laughed at the thought of the only good thing about him was his height.

  I placed waters, Gatorade, bread, PB&J, and some crackers in the cooler, along with some fruit. Driving made me hungry and I wasn’t going to waste time by stopping to eat. As I zipped up the cooler I heard Sam’s voice outside.

  My heart stopped. I looked out the window, scared that it was him. I hated confrontation and tended to run away from it.

  “Dammit!” I cursed as I saw him getting out of a taxi. He would come in here and screw up my plans. It was way easier to leave him with him gone.

  He would waltz in here and boo bear this and honey poo that to try to get me to stay.

  Nope. I didn’t care. He messed up. He broke us.

  I watched him saunter up the street, coming closer to the apartment.

  Just watching him walk made me sick. I would be sticking to my plans of leaving. Why the hell didn’t I leave him sooner?

  I didn’t have time to think about that now. I grabbed the keys off of the hook by the door. With the backpack on my back and bags in hand, I left out the backdoor. I came around the alley way and said goodbye to the city. I wasn’t sure when I would come back. I had things to sort out and to be honest, I needed a reason to leave.

  I peeked around the corner seeing if Sam was waiting for me.

  He was talking to someone. I waited and watched.

  “Hey, buddy. You sick or something?” I heard him ask. “Maybe I can call 911 for you, huh?”

  And that’s when I saw the same thing as I did on the news. The man talking to Sam was not a man. No, he was dead; really dead and he wasn’t talking to Sam. His face was rotting and his flesh was falling from the bone. His lack of clothing showed bone and flesh that looked like it had had time to decompose.

  What the hell is going on?

  He lunged for Sam, knocking him down and my eyes went wide with disbelief. Sam was a big guy. Six foot six, two hundred and twenty pounds of muscle, and this rotted person had knocked him flat on his back.

  “Yo, dude, get the hell off of me,” Sam shouted.

  I should help, I thought to myself. Fear and dread stopped me, and also rationalization. What could I do to help Sam from this guy? If Sam couldn’t fight him off, how could I? I was five foot three. I had muscle, barely. I was not going to be able to attack that thing, whatever he was.

  I could cause a diversion though.

  I rummaged through the trash to my left and found a glass bottle. I threw it across the street causing a loud shattering crash.

  Sure enough the thing got off of Sam and went running toward the bottle. As it did, I caught a whiff of it. It smelled like something that died. That wasn’t right. This whole scenario wasn’t right.

  I watched Sam get up and run into the apartment.

  I could have gone after him to see if he was okay, but I didn’t. Instead, I ran like hell to our parking garage and found my car.

  3

  I got out of the city with no problem, which was unbelievable to me. Still the radio said absolutely nothing about what I saw or anything I should worry about. I tried to call Lou back three times but she didn’t pick up, which scared the crap out of me more. I kept seeing the dead guys face as he walked past me toward the glass. It was like something out of a nightmarish movie.

  Sure I was a big fan of slasher films, zombie-horror and the like, but seeing that shit up close? No thank you. Chills ran over my body for the thousandth time and I looked in the back seat again. Still empty, thank goodness.

  As I got onto the interstate my phone rang. Without looking I answered it via Bluetooth.

  “Lou?”

  “Uh, no it’s me, your husband.” Sam. Friggin Sam! I was happy he wasn’t dead, but geez. “Why did you leave me, Kami?”

  I laughed, even though it wasn’t funny at all. “Sam, you’ve been cheating on me for years. Did you think I was going to put up with it forever? Did you think I would have a baby with you and everything would be okay?”

  It was something he always said, ‘We will have a baby and then we will have something in common.’ Like that would solve our issues.

  “No. But something bad just happened to me, Kami. I was attacked,” he sounded scared for once.

  “I know… I saw.”

  He went quiet for a second and then said, “You did? Where were you?”

  Hiding.

  “I was watching, Sam. I threw the glass bottle. What was that thing?”

  We could set our differences aside for a minute to discuss the dead thing that tried to hurt him.

  “I… I honestly don’t know. It’s still out there. Actually, there are a lot more,” he whispered. “Kami, I don’t know what to do. You have the car.”

  Shit. I wasn’t going to turn around and go get him. I couldn’t. Besides, did I trust the man who has been lying to me our whole marriage? Did I even want to rescue him?

  I was too scared to answer any of that so I tried to come up with a back-up plan for him.

  “Call your friend to come get you. Or call a taxi. Just get out of there.”

  It was the only advice I could give since I didn’t know what was going on. I only knew what Lou told me, and that was to get out.

  “Kami, I think they’re zombies or something. They’re like… hurting people.”

  “What!? Sam, are you sure?”

  I pulled the car over and turned on my hazards. My heart pounded and my hands shook. For a guy like Sam to say that, he must not be screwing around. I knew then that this wasn’t some April Fool’s Day prank. This was something else.

  “Am I sure that there is a girl being torn apart by one of those things? Yeah, pretty fucking sure.” My phone dinged and I looked at it. Sam sent me a text, which was a photo of the scene he just described. A girl on the ground being ripped apart by the same dead thing that hit him.

  “Fucking zombies!” he yelled.

  Suddenly, I was really nervous for Sam. Despite whatever, I didn’t want him to die.

  He began describing what else he saw out the window to me and something caught my eye on the interstate. A woman was walking in the middle of the four lane highway, totally oblivious to her surroundings.

  “Oh my God,” I said to no one in particular. Sam was still going on and on about people being attacked, while I watched as the poor woman got hit by a massive white truck. She flew over the truck end over end, landing behind the truck. She lay twisted and broken and moving slightly.

  She was fighting for life, still. The driver got out, a tall lanky dude, and went to her aid immediately.

  “Sam, I might have to use the phone to call—” I started to say. I stopped when the woman, somehow, grabbed the guy and slammed him to the ground. She pushed on his head over and over until his head exploded all over the road. Cars screeched to a stop, screams sounded out, and I stared in horrified silence.

  “Kami, what were you saying? What happened?”

  I tried to talk at first, but found my voice was hiding in fear.

  “Kami!” Sam yelled, breaking my trance. I looked away from the carnage and out toward the side of the road.

  “I’m okay,” I said, reassuring him. “I just saw something horrible. Something like what you’re seeing.”

  I couldn’t look toward the truck and I wouldn’t look. I had to get to Lou.
/>   “Sam, can you hotwire a car?” I asked, as an idea formed in my head.

  “Yeah, I think I can. My old man taught me when I was a kid.”

  I nodded, figuring as much. Sam’s dad was less than law abiding and I remembered him showing me how to do it once. “Go out the back door, sneak around the side of the building, and steal a car.”

  “Then what?”

  I knew what he was trying to say. He wanted to be with me; to survive together. But I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t involve Sam in my plans. I made a promise to Lou and Emma ten years ago, and I wouldn’t falter on it.

  Besides, they all hated Sam.

  “Then, survive. Do whatever you have to do to get out of the city, Sam.” My voice shook and I almost felt sad. “Just be careful, okay? No matter what, fight okay?”

  He sighed heavily and said, “Kami, I’m really sorry for hurting you. I’m a real asshole and you deserve better. If we figure this thing out with what’s happening, I promise that you’ll have a nice life, without me. For what it’s worth, I do love you. I just don’t know how to love only one girl.”

  I knew Sam was going to be a hard guy to handle from day one. He was always flirtatious and afraid of commitment and still I married him. Shame on me, I guess.

  “All’s forgiven, now get the hell out of there, Sam.”

  I couldn’t handle saying any goodbyes without tears, so I hung up on him and I dialed Lou again. Still, no answer.

  I was on my own for now.

  Instead of getting locked up in the massive traffic jam forming to my left, I drove around it, and got off at the next exit. I let all the idiots who decided to film the attack or try to help the guy do their thing. I had to get to Tennessee as fast as I could without getting killed or attacked.

  ****

  I had been on the Eighty-One for hours now and have had to pee so bad since leaving New York, and I couldn’t hold it anymore. I hadn’t seen anything weird while I was driving on the highway, so I felt a bit safer to pull off. I was in Pennsylvania at a small truck station. I filled my car with gas and went to the bathroom.

  Afterwards, I pulled my car off to the side of the lot and made a sandwich. After the gruesome scene had sort of left my head, I felt hunger inside me again. I tried Lou again and still, no answer. I was beginning to panic.