The Survival Pact

by Christy Sloat

  The only problem were the keys; there were none.

  I searched everywhere but found nothing. Hot wiring this car wasn’t going to be easy and to be honest, I didn’t feel like it. As I got out I shook my head to Emma and went down the row of cars looking for another suitable vehicle that fit my dear Lou’s needs.

  What we did for friends.

  As I approached another vehicle, I noticed it wasn’t unoccupied. A dead body lay haphazardly across the front seats.

  I hobbled over and opened the passenger side door, my gun pointed at her. The color of her skin showed me I didn’t need my gun and I put it back in the holster.

  They keys to her nice SUV were lying in her hand. I reached across, carefully and grabbed them free. She had been dead for a while, but not long enough to stink up the car.

  I waved Emma over and said, “Let’s get her out of here and we can use this one.” I waved the keys in the air and Emma nodded. She made quick work out of removing the body. My help wasn’t needed so I waved Lou down and she pulled up behind what I now saw was a major upgrade to our mom car.

  “It’s not a Jeep,” she said, as she opened the back.

  “Lou, be reasonable. It’s a fucking Range Rover,” I said, as I hauled food into it and our packs. “The girl looked like she had tons of money. She’d want us to have this car, trust me. She seemed charitable.”

  Lou rolled her eyes and snickered.

  “Fine. But you’re driving.”

  I would gladly drive it. I just wished I could have gotten my own car like this before the world ended. Goals didn’t matter anymore when the dead were stalking you.

  We loaded up the Rover and I hopped in and started her up. With a full tank of gas, I thanked the dead girl mentally and headed toward the back of the strip mall.

  “Um, the exit is that way,” Emma said pointing.

  That was it. It was time to say a few things.

  “You guys got to go to your hunting store. I’m going to the book store and you’re gonna let me,” I said, as I put the car in Park. “I have put up with your endless training. I’ve dealt with early rising and I’ve killed things and people. Let alone shot a man in the stomach. And let’s not even mention the fact that the two of you have been bosom buddies this whole time making me feel like the outsider just like always.”

  I slammed my hand on the steering wheel letting out my frustration.

  “Now I’m going in that bookstore and I’m not leaving until I find some books to get me through this fucked up mess we are now currently living in. And not one of you are going to complain while I browse. In fact you’re going to watch my back and help me carry them out. Got it?”

  They looked at me with mouths wide open. I wasn’t one for losing my shit but when I did, I really gave it my all.

  “Whatever you want,” Emma said.

  “Okay, gal. Let’s get you some books,” Lou said, patting my shoulder. “Wouldn’t want you to suffer anymore. I know it’s been hard on you. Sorry we didn’t see that until now.”

  I nodded and fought the tears that filled my eyes. For some reason when I lost it and got angry, I cried.

  They helped me get into the store and Emma watched the doors for us while Lou helped me grab whatever books I wanted and bagged them up, not in plastic, but the expensive totes that were for sale at the check-out counter.

  The smell of books and the fact that I had the whole store to myself was a dream come true. I would have been perfect if I could get a cup of coffee at the coffee stand. But beggars can’t be choosers.

  Lou found me on the ground browsing more books and she sat down with me.

  “You doing okay?” she asked.

  I nodded, even though I should have told her no.

  “It’s hard,” was all I could say.

  “Kami, I know that you feel a bit betrayed that Emma and I had this all planned out before it hit. And I wish that we would have told you sooner but you were focusing on your career, and with Sam and everything, we didn’t want to bother you with our theories. Just know that we always planned with you in mind. There was never a time we didn’t imagine our future without you in it.”

  I nodded, unable to speak now.

  If I opened my mouth I’d confess about Ida and this was so not the time to do that. We were all fragile and that would crack us into pieces.

  “I think I have all the books I want for now,” I said putting more books into the bags.

  “I have a little surprise for you,” Lou said as she rummaged around in a bag. She pulled out a French Press, coffee grounds and the nicest coffee mugs the store had to offer. I grabbed her neck and squeezed tightly. She understood me so well that she went off to find this while I was having my small melt down.

  “I can’t wait to get a cup of this,” I exclaimed.

  “I got ya some already waiting,” she said, as she helped me rise up. Waiting on the counter were three full cups of coffee. It was brewed cold but I didn’t care. I drank mine slowly, letting the flavor swirl around my mouth. This was heaven. I finally got my cup of coffee.

  “We gotta move, ladies!” Emma shouted, startling us both.

  I grabbed my bags and my coffee, as Lou let me hop while I held on to her. We made it to the doors and I saw that we had company.

  “Wow, that’s a lot of them,” I said, as I saw the largest group of Lifeless I’d ever seen before.

  I didn’t know how it went from deserted to overcome in a matter of minutes. I didn’t bother to ask, I just hobbled to the car with my many bags in tow.

  Emma left the Rover running while I shopped, and I slid into the driver’s seat as Emma took my bags and threw them in the back.

  “Hey! Gentle with those!”

  She nodded and said, “I’ll treat them like they’re my guns. It’s how I like to think of your little obsession.”

  “Whatever you need to do to understand,” I said, as I pulled away from the bookstore. I tossed the girls some treats that I grabbed inside the bookstore for them. Emma smiled and kissed the bag of dark chocolate covered berries and Lou squealed as she grabbed her peanut butter candies. I wasn’t the only one with an obsession.

  Farewell, my sweet. I told the bookstore. I drove toward the exit and knew I wasn’t going to get through that many dead with any car.

  We were stuck inside this shopping mall which wouldn’t be a bad thing if it wasn’t for all the lifeless who wanted to smash our skulls in.

  I put the Rover into Reverse and backed away from them as they ambled toward us. There was only one way out and that was to put this bad ass Range Rover to the test.

  I drove up over the rocky outer edge that some nice person had probably landscaped. I totally obliterated it as I crunched over all their work with my new awesome car. She maneuvered like a beast as I took it to the highest speed and crashed through the sign welcoming us to whatever mall we were just at.

  The dead were everywhere.

  “Damn, a lot of people died in this town,” Emma said in the back seat. Snack growled and scratched at the window ferociously. My demon hunting dog wanted out, but she was safer inside with us.

  Emma was right, the amount of dead that followed the car was outrageous.

  “We could really use a tornado right now,” I said, as I drove over the median in the road.

  But nothing came as the dead followed the car. I turned through another street only to face another wave of lifeless pouring out from everywhere. I turned fast to avoid them and narrowly missed a street sign.

  Not wanting to waste bullets Emma and Lou refrained from shooting anything. I finally saw a way out as I came to a small alleyway.

  I didn’t think our car would make it but as we slipped through the alley, I took a deep breath, silently thanking the big man upstairs. We were finally away from the lifeless when I saw a sign for the highway.
I didn’t ask permission I just took the exit and got out of the shitty broken town we were just in. I was happy to have my books but I would be glad to be out of Idaho.

  We were about nine hours away from Washington and I was itching to eat and stop the car. My legs were numb and my stomach was gurgling as we crossed the Oregon state line. I probably needed to change my dressing on my wound because it’d become itchy and runny.

  “Finally!” I exclaimed, so happy to be in Oregon.

  Lou handed me a mini cereal box to hold me over and I ate it happily. We hadn’t seen many lifeless since we got away from Idaho, but we did pass cars that were traveling in the opposite direction; which raised alarm but I couldn’t think too much about it.

  “Just stay the course, gal,” Lou told me as she patted my shoulder. “We’ll stop soon and stretch our legs. Besides, I think Snack needs to go.” The trees in Oregon were much like those in Washington and I was anxious to just get to the cabin. I couldn’t help but think about the bigger question of what did we do once we got to the cabin?

  It didn’t mean that the lifeless would stop, nor did it mean we were safe. We just had to ride it out and hope that we could survive long enough to find out what was happening.

  “Girls,” I said.

  “Yeah, what’s up Kam?” Emma asked, as she crunched on her cereal.

  “I was thinking, where do you think the military are? And why haven’t we seen any cops or ambulance helping people?”

  We had traveled a long way and in all that time we saw absolutely no military; just death and chaos.

  Emma bit her lip and nodded. “Yeah, I’ve noticed. Trust me. I’m not sure if they’re sticking to their bases and locking them down. Or if the first responders are all dead now. I don’t really know what the hell is going on. But we’ve also seen hardly any people either.”

  She was correct about that. The further we’ve come out west the less people we’ve seen.

  “Maybe they’re all dead,” I mumbled, but they both heard me.

  “I just find it hard to believe that everyone but us is dead,” Emma said quietly.

  “Let’s pull off,” Lou suggested, as we were nearing an exit to our right. I didn’t argue as I took it and we coasted into a small Oregon town. The smell of death was apparent here and something told me that we would be smelling that for a while now.

  I pulled the SUV into a small side street and killed the engine.

  “Let’s walk to the store up there,” I told them. “I’ll take Snack to the bathroom and then we can stretch our legs.”

  They nodded and grabbed their weapons. I took Snack and let her out of the car so she could do her business and Lou and Emma began their walk to the store.

  Snack’s nose was twitching as she smelled all that lingered in the air. I could smell something in the air that wasn’t death, and as I looked up and saw the smoke up ahead of me, I placed it.

  “Holy shit!”

  I turned toward the girls and Emma’s face was white as a sheet as she pointed toward a large hole torn into the earth. I hobbled toward her, scooping up Snack so that she didn’t fall inside the large canyon.

  As I neared it I saw it for what it was; the biggest sinkhole I’d ever seen. I wrote a story about a sinkhole that had destroyed a street in New York two years ago and this looked similar except that it was about the size of two football fields. Afraid to go too close, I stepped back and pulled the girls with me.

  “Not too close, the ground is fragile around it and could crumble under our very feet,” I warned.

  As if on cue, the ground began to tremble and I recognized the sound from my hotel room when this whole nightmare had begun.

  “Earthquake!”

  I ran like hell, despite the pain, away from the sinkhole, not wanting to be anywhere near it, but as I ran the earth beneath my feet started throwing me sideways. It was like running on a treadmill that didn’t go straight; I had no control. Finally we reached the car and caught our breath. The trembling ceased and the whole grew a little bigger. We had to get out of here and fast!

  I jumped in the Rover as Emma drove and Lou screamed for her to start it up because she felt it happening again. God was taking his children home, except for the fact that we weren’t ready to die just yet.

  Emma took us as far away from the hole as possible, through downed trees and bodies that lay scattered along the roads. Fires were burning through the beautiful forests destroying everything Oregon had to offer. It was sad to see the world in this way, but it answered a lot of questions as to where all the other people were. It wasn’t until we reached the center of town that we saw our first lifeless. She was dressed in a pearly white dress, that I’m sure made her look like an angel while she lay inside her coffin, but now, covered in blood she looked quite the opposite. She was young and her head was completely bald. My guess was she died from cancer and now she was taking her beautiful hands and smashing someone’s head against the pavement. After the person lay still, she looked right at our car. She stood up fast and started running toward us; which blew me away. Her blood red eyes honed in on us and she jumped on the hood of the car, grabbing at the windshield with her angry hands.

  “Holy fuck!” Emma yelled, as she put the car in reverse and then slammed on the brakes. The girl flew off but only for a moment, she was back to attacking our car in an instant. “Why is she so fast?”

  “Maybe because she died so young? And her body is younger and more agile than any of the other dead.” I could only guess. It did explain her intense lifeless behavior. People were running around the street holding their belongings and dodging other Lifeless. And then other people were looting the stores, taking all they could.

  “Look,” I pointed toward a huge shopping center at the end of the street. “I bet the freeway picks back up over there. Usually they do.” It was just something I had noticed on our travels and I noted in my journal.

  Emma nodded and drove toward it as the lifeless girl followed. We may have been saving people from her wrath by being a distraction. I didn’t really want to see the girl smash anyone else’s head in. I pulled my gun from the holster and pointed it at Emma’s window.

  “What the hell are you doing, Kami?” Emma screeched.

  “Just drive to the end of the street and roll down your window,” I said, staying focused on the dead girls red eyes. She was the thing of nightmares and the thing of sadness wrapped in one disturbing package. This poor girl probably died so young that she left a hole inside her parent’s hearts, only to wake up and kill others. There was nothing worse than that. I sure as hell didn’t want to die by her teenage demon hands, so I planned on taking whatever was possessing her and destroy it, so the body could rest once again.

  17

  Once we reached the end of the center of town, Emma stopped the car and rolled down the window just enough for me to put my gun through and in the girls face and pulled the trigger. I did not close my eyes. I did not blink. I did not weep.

  She was better off released from that hell. Sure she was young, but it didn’t faze me like killing a small child would.

  “Girls,” Lou said quietly.

  “What?” Emma asked, looking back at Lou who was also looking behind us. “That.”

  She pointed toward a group of cars behind us and a ton of dead who followed them closely. They too clung to the cars and they were visibly slowing them down. The driver of the first car must have been having a heck of a time seeing as he drove down the road. Tons of bodies clung to his car, leaving minimal visibility.

  “If they see us, we will be in the same shape,” said Lou. “We have to get off this street before they do.”

  The problem was this road only went straight.

  Emma hauled ass and tried to get as far away from the lifeless as she could, but there were road blocks up ahead. We were seriously screwed here. Why couldn�
��t things ever be easy? Seriously!

  “What now?” I asked.

  Emma nodded and said, “Hold on.”

  I did. She drove the Rover so fast, as if she was in the Indy 500. I had no idea how she planned on getting through the cement barriers without totally wrecking the car, but I didn’t ask any questions. Life was flying past us so fast as she brought the car to its brink.

  I quietly said a quick prayer and that’s when she jerked the wheel to the right driving the car right through a plate glass window. My hands instinctively went up to protect myself, except nothing happened to me. I threw them down as she drove through a store and right out the other side, through another window. I looked back at the wreckage and none of the cars or the lifeless followed. Sure enough the highway signs were posted and Emma passed it by as she went up and over a hill. We passed the shopping mall as well and she drove us across the town and into a new one. No one said a word until we rounded a corner and we could finally breathe.

  “Emma,” I began. “How did you know there was another window in that store?”

  She shook her head. “I didn’t.”

  “Oh great! So what was your plan then?”

  She laughed. “I don’t really have plans when I tell you to hang on. That’s usually a sign that I am just making shit up as I go. Just so you know.”

  I did not laugh. “Great. Thanks for informing me.”

  Lou cracked up in the back seat. I looked back at her and she was bent over holding her stomach, tears pouring from her eyes, she was laughing so hard. It was good to see her laughing again.

  “I knew it!” She said, through the laughter. “You have not changed, cousin. I swear.”

  “Well, I’m very happy you both were in on the joke. I on the other hand think I crapped my pants.”

  This only caused them to laugh harder and finally I gave in. Their laughter was infectious. It felt great to laugh again and to feel happiness for just one second. We drove on until the sun began to hide behind the trees and another day came to a close.