The Survival Pact

by Christy Sloat

  Then there was the huge question at the back of my mind that nagged me since we saw the tornado scoop up all the humans on the highway; why were we still alive?

  “Why not us?” I asked, simply.

  Lou turned to look at me and cocked her head to the side. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, why are we still alive? Why is that guy Doug alive? We saw people die, but we’re still here. I want to know why.”

  Emma stayed silent and Lou bit her lip. They were thinking.

  I knew my friends well and whenever I asked a question like this, they stayed silent as the cogs in their brains went to work. I knew Emma’s thoughts were wrapped around statistics and Lou thought about the amount of people in the world who probably wouldn’t be missed.

  “Do you remember when we took that trip to Georgia?” I asked, as I was brought back to a time similar to this one.

  “Which one?” Lou asked.

  “The one where we got the tattoos.”

  Both girls looked at me and we laughed. Like any of us could forget that trip. It was the dead of summer and I needed to leave the heat of New York behind for a while. Sam and I weren’t married yet and I needed an escape from planning a wedding.

  I had just been hired at the paper and had a sign on bonus that was burning a hole in my wallet. I wasn’t going to spend it on the wedding since Sam wanted to do something small and he was footing the bill. So, I called up my girls and told them to get their asses to Savannah.

  They both picked me up from the airport and I thought that I knew hot days, but it was nothing compared to Savannah’s heat. The saying they have about the Devil living there, well it must be true. It was hotter than any New York day by far, and I didn’t even care.

  I was with my girls and we were going to spend the best days of our life together.

  “That still was by far my favorite trip of ours,” Emma said with a smile. “It was right before my second tour to Iraq. I’ll never forget that damn sunburn I got; I itched the whole flight home.”

  “I tried to tell you that using baby oil would lead to bad things,” I laughed.

  I ran my fingers over the tattoo on my wrist that I got on that trip. Sure we got them while we were drunk, but thankfully it wasn’t one I ever regretted.

  We all got our initials, LEK stacked on top of each other with tree branches sprouting out from the L. Small leaves scattered the branches leaving the notion that we’d never be alone; we’d always have each other.

  “What if we are meant to be just like this tattoo?”

  I didn’t look up from my wrists, for fear of seeing their quizzical looks.

  “What if we are here still because we’re meant to preserve the earth and keep surviving until this fight between God and the Devil is finished. Like we’re the leaves and the tree is the earth and we will not falter.”

  “Or maybe we’re the tree and we’re going to help the earth grow anew,” Emma suggested, without surprise in her voice, but instead understanding. “Do you think that we’re special enough for that, Kam?”

  I looked up at my beautiful friend who had fought in wars and saved people countless times, and I smiled at her naiveté. How could she not know just how special she really was?

  “Are you kidding me?” Lou chimed in. “We’re super awesome and God was right by saving us. Look, you’re a Marine, and you can protect the earth. You can fight the fight better than anyone else. Kami is a writer and she’s been journaling this whole experience since it began. And me, well, I’m not sure why I’m here, but we’re together. And together we made one bad ass team. He did right by keeping us alive. Trust me.” She reached back and clenched my hand tightly. “You are so smart Kami! I never thought of it like that until now.”

  I smiled lightly. “You’re here with us because you’re the glue that holds us together, Lou. And you’re our momma bear who feeds us. No one can cook and scavenge like you can.”

  “I appreciate that and I’ll take it,” she said with a wink. “Now get back to writing in that journal, gal, so that someday someone will learn how this all happened.”

  And as they drove us out of Oregon, I did just that. I wrote until my fingers were numb and my hands were cramping.

  I wrote about who we were as people and what we each brought to the table as far as survivors of this beautiful land. And I didn’t tell the girls, but I wrote about Doug and why I thought he was still alive. It wasn’t because of his immense knowledge of the bible and how he loved God with all his life. No, it was because he was a prophet.

  19

  One week. One week in this car and I was going mad. One week and it should have only been thirty five hours.

  We stopped only when we had to and that wasn’t much. Once when Snack was whining to go potty and then once more when Lou’s hip was killing her.

  Lou’s car accident had happened before I met her but the ill-effects after the fact were well known and she’d been dealing with it for far too long. For someone as young as her, she shouldn’t have been suffering the way she was. But that was life with an HMO.

  “It’s like I can feel the rods inside it or something,” she said as she rubbed it. “I need some Advil to kill this pain before I shoot my leg off.”

  “Let’s not do that,” I said, as I searched my bug out bag. I tossed her some painkillers and she took them gratefully.

  “I’m just not used to sitting on my ass this long and having to fight so hard. And I hate it, girl. I wish I could keep up with you both and be so graceful like y’all. But my hip hurts something awful.”

  I nodded, but I hadn’t ever really had pain like she did.

  “Lou, you’ve been kicking some serious ass, trust me. I can’t tell that you’re even hurting. You are keeping up and taking this whole thing in perfect stride so be easy on yourself, ‘kay?”

  She nodded and grabbed my hand and gave it a squeeze.

  “I appreciate you, Kami.”

  “Well, you better because I’m writing my hands down to little nubs so that your weird after-demon kids can read it.”

  She snorted. “Why do they have to be my kids?”

  I shrugged. “I always saw you as the mother of the three of us. I really don’t know why you haven’t settled down and had kids yet.”

  She shook her head. “I have kids, my students are my kids. Or… rather were my kids.”

  Everything and everyone we knew were now to be thought of in past-tense. I saw the pain in her face change quickly to sadness.

  “Why didn’t you ever see me with kids?” Emma asked, distracting Lou. “Am I not motherly?”

  Now that was funny. Emma with her tattoos and her insane workouts that she used to do. Her ridiculous amount of love for the Marine Corps always kept her back from getting married. Besides, she was too picky.

  “Hey, I didn’t say that you couldn’t have kids, too.” I held up my hands in defense.

  I looked away and out the window. I wanted them, too—kids. I wondered if there would ever be a chance for that now that I left Sam behind. Would I ever be able to meet a man again?

  Would the world ever be safe enough for children?

  “If anyone was having kids, it would have been you,” Emma said, as she took a swig of water.

  The thought of kids would have to go away for now. We’d figure it all out another time. For now we had to survive this and get to safety.

  “One thing at a time.”

  “Speaking of that, let’s stop and add gas to this beast. It’s about time for it, again,” Emma muttered, as she pulled over.

  “Yeah and I’m starved,” I said. “I think I’ll see what we can snack on. If we’re going to be hiking, we’ll need the strength.”

  I jumped out and opened up the back of the Rover. All of the food had been carefully bagged up and labeled with dates and portions. />
  “Who did meal control?” I didn’t even need to ask, I knew it was Lou. Little Miss Organization herself. She waved and limped back to me, wincing as she leaned against the bumper.

  “Everything is in bags according to expiration date and how much it will serve for each of us.” She pointed out. “Like this bag has both breakfast and snack inside. And this one is dinner for all three of us for three nights.”

  She had bags for dinner, breakfast, and snack, and also for emergency meals.

  “What do I eat now?” I asked, squinting against the sun.

  “This,” she said, as she tossed me a bag labeled lunch.

  Inside I found a granola mix that she no doubt made herself, a small can of tuna, and a piece of fruit.

  “You gotta eat this stuff first before the fruit goes bad.” She pressed her hand on the pear and it gave a little. “See what I mean? We probably only have one more day with fresh fruit before I have to chuck it.”

  The thought made me sad. I wondered how long it would be before I ate another pear again, or another apple. I took my portion and took out the fruit from all the packs.

  “What the hell are you doing?”

  “I’m eating the fruit now, so we don’t have to throw it out. And then I’m going to save the seeds so we can regrow our own trees.”

  She pointed at me and winked. “The tattoos. The trees. You were right, gal!”

  She took an apple and closed up the other food for another time. “We can eat that stuff tomorrow. For now let’s dine on fruit.”

  We clinked our fruit together as if they were champagne and we toasted to the end of the world.

  After we ate the fruit, Lou rinsed off the seeds and put them in a towel to keep them dry. She placed them in her back pack and patted the pocket.

  “They’ll be in here, ‘kay?”

  I nodded knowing that she was telling me in case she didn’t make it to the end. I felt my stomach rumble at the thought and it wasn’t because of the fruit.

  We drove on until the sun went down and the darkness surrounded us. Lou was driving and my eyes burned from keeping them open so long. We had finally reached the Washington state line about thirty minutes before, but due to being so tired, Lou pulled the car into an abandoned parking lot.

  We saw many cars on the road without drivers or even passengers. But we did come across a large fire that had burnt up the center of town. It killed me to see so many homes burning, just imagining the families inside.

  It looked like first responders were there at one point but at the size and rate of the fire they were probably killed. As she pulled into the lot I saw just how high up we were. The fire burned down below us as I got out and looked over the town.

  Ash rained down on top of us as we watched it burn the small town to the ground.

  “I wonder how the fire started,” I said, breaking the large silence between us.

  “Probably an earthquake,” Emma answered. “Or who knows, maybe someone tried to get rid of the demons by setting them on fire.”

  Anything was likely.

  Not wanting to look at anymore destruction, I turned around and got Snack out of the car. I fed her and loved on her. She sniffed around at the smoke from the fire below and then went back to eating as if life for her was just that simple.

  I closed my eyes and listened to the quiet breeze blow through the many trees that surrounded us. I was happy to not hear any screaming or have to get up and run. It was peaceful for just that moment.

  When I opened them, I noticed where we had parked. The huge radio tower loomed over us and I wasn’t sure how we missed it.

  We were at a radio station.

  “Girls, look!”

  They turned away from the blaze and noticed the building that sat before us. Emma smiled and I knew she was up to something.

  “I bet I could break in there and get on a radio frequency and see exactly what’s going on around the US. I could probably contact my base and see, you know, if they made it. Just… just see how bad it really is.”

  “We know it’s bad, Emma,” Lou said to her. “Do you really want to know everything?”

  Emma bit her lip and then turned to Lou. “It’s my job to know how awful things really are. I don’t expect either of you to really understand that.”

  She grabbed her riffle from the car and went into the unlocked building.

  I turned to Lou and said, “Well, I guess we’re going in.” I pulled my gun from my holster and went inside after her, as Lou and Snack followed.

  The inside was dark and so scary it gave me instant chills. Although I could breathe better inside, I didn’t really want to be there.

  Emma was busting down doors and checking for Lifeless, and I suppose checking to see if there was anyone alive as well.

  “Clear!” she shouted, as she reached the first section of the hallway. She kicked down the second door and a body fell out onto the hallway floor. His head was twisted awkwardly and his eyes were dead.

  Emma closed his eyes and pulled him away from the doorway, dragging him down the hall. Lou went inside the office checking it and said, “That’s clear, too. Which is weird because something or someone clearly broke his neck.”

  Emma nodded. “Where that person is now, is the real question.”

  The next office was open and held three dead, killed the same way; broken necks. I helped them pull these victims into the hall with the other man and Lou closed all of their eyes.

  I wasn’t real excited about touching them after seeing all the lifeless that I’ve already seen and killed. How did we know that these ones wouldn’t wake up and start killing us?

  They both cleared the rest of the hallway and I kept an eye out for what killed these people; I knew it wasn’t a who since they were all killed so violently. I could only guess that the lifeless had already moved on.

  “We need to get to the control room,” Emma announced after she vowed the first floor was fine. She pointed upwards and we followed like good little soldiers.

  She took the stairs, since we all loved taking stairs so much. I realized how out of shape I really was once we reached the second floor.

  Before she opened the door, Emma listened. She closed her eyes and leaned onto the door.

  She nodded and turned toward us with a most serious face. “I hear something.” She held up a flat hand and said, “Stay here.”

  “Like hell,” Lou whispered. “We all go together.”

  Emma shook her head and silently opened the door as Snack sniffed the air and stayed right next to her. She crouched low, holding her weapon out in front of her, looking like the hardcore Marine that she was. I on the other hand, followed from behind with shaky hands. I didn’t like this radio station one bit, especially after finding all the dead bodies down stairs, but I went in after them regardless. The lightless hallway made me even jumpier as we passed open doorways, but Emma and Lou held up their flashlights and cleared them as I watched down the hall. It remained empty as Emma put her fingers to her lips. I listened and heard the noise she already had. It was an annoying scratching noise that filled the hallway. And as we got closer it got louder and more bothersome. Emma got down real low as we came upon a room surrounded in glass. I followed suit and crawled along the floor after both of them.

  Emma stopped and leaned against the wall, pointing up. “It’s coming from there.”

  She whispered so quietly I almost didn’t hear her. She motioned for us to stay where we were and she stood up fast pointing her gun toward the sound. My heart leapt as she said, “Don’t move!”

  The scratching turned into a pounding now and Emma entered the room. Snack began barking like mad but I held her back.

  “We just stay here?” I asked Lou. She shrugged.

  A few minutes went by and the pounding continued and then I heard voices. What the he
ll was going on?

  We remained still as Emma was inside alone, even after we heard gunshots and the pounding stopped.

  Emma finally came out but she wasn’t alone; she had a woman with her, probably about thirty-something. She was dressed in professional looking clothes that were now dirty and her hair was up in a high ponytail. Her make-up was smeared and her weak smile showed me how desperate she was for help.

  “This is Linda, she used to work here. She is going to help us get into the control room.”

  I looked at Lou and she at me and we were baffled. I never thought we would find survivors but I was proven wrong.

  As we entered the room I saw a Lifeless on the ground in the control room, which was at one point blocked off from where Linda was holed up no doubt. I saw food wrappers strewn around the room and bottles of water. It begged a question as why she would stay in this room and not anywhere else in the station. Why didn’t she just leave? Why would she lock the lifeless in the control room and sit there day after day watching it?

  “Thank you so much,” Linda said, with a hoarse voice. “I’ve been here for a week and a half.”

  “Why were you here still?” I asked.

  She looked at me with her swollen eyes, this girl went through troubled times.

  “There is another one walking around. It killed all my friends and co-workers. I didn’t dare leave this room. I have nothing to defend myself with. But I did have food.”

  She pointed toward a now empty food machine that had a big hole in it. I couldn’t help but think that she could have used the glass from that to defend herself.

  “How did he get inside there?” Emma asked pointing to the lifeless on the other side.

  “He came in after me and I shoved him inside the control room. I locked him in and the other one was just down the hall killing my… my boss. So I locked myself in here, until now.”

  Emma shook her head and I knew what she was thinking; that this girl was weak and defenseless.

  “We didn’t see another one,” Lou told Linda. “Where is it now?”

  “Um, I’m not entirely sure. It comes and goes. If I’m quiet, then it walks back that way.” She pointed toward the other end of the building.