by Kypers, Ryan
I was amazed at how desperate this group of contaminated was. Back in town, it was a much more organized group of the monsters, feeding in a certain order in compliance with their unwritten rules. This brand of contaminated were nothing of the organized sort. As far as my hearing could tell, there had been no successful attempt at a clean feeding by any of the contaminated, as they were ripped to pieces whenever one made a move.
Zach’s back was against the door when the third outbreak occurred. He dropped his bat and looked to me, holding the door back with all of his might. The thick but light door kept popping open and closed with the weight and forceful movement applied on each side. I quickly rushed over and pushed against the door, forcing it closed. Fortunately, none of the contaminated pushed back after the scuffle was over.
“We have to get out of here,” Zach whispered to me. His quiet voice was barely audible through the hissing and violent roaring coming from the opposite side of the door. “If there is another outburst near the door, they’ll get us.”
I nodded at Zach then looked over to Chelsea. She nodded back, her face hard and ready for what was to come. I waived her over, “Can you hold the door with Zach for a bit?” I asked.
She nodded without hesitation and sat down, her back to the door and her legs arched in order to apply closing pressure on the door.
I began pacing through the room, trying to think of a plan. If we tried to create a distraction, that would result in us having to open the door, completely giving away our position. That would not work. There were no windows to the room, and the air vent looked smaller than my head. That would not work. There were too many of the contaminated to fight our way out, though I had my suspicions on how the contaminated handled stairs. I imagined a whole set of them chasing me down a flight of stairs and rolling to their death. If only this room had stairs.
The hissing outside had greatly died down, but the chanting was still there. Suddenly an idea occurred to me. I ran up to the door and pressed my ear against the small opening between the door and the frame. My ears heard the hissing and groaning chant coming from the other side. I listened. I followed the movements of the contaminated. Chelsea’s hand rested on my leg, as if to inquire what I was doing, but I ignored it. I could not lose focus here, now. I almost had it.
My head was smashed backwards, jolting across the room. Another eruption came from the other side, and a contaminated must have been thrown against the door hard. I silently cursed and danced away the pain. My future cauliflower ear was pulsating and burning hot, but there was no blood. Chelsea and Zach had not moved from their position. Their faces were turning slightly red from the work that they were doing in keeping the door shut.
The raging was dying down outside, but the feasting was still active. I quickly pulled over a rolling marker board to the front of Zach and Chelsea and opened a red marker while grabbing a black marker and a green marker. Festive.
I began to draw to the best of my ability. The black marker represented the stadium specifically the floor that we were on. With the green marker, I drew a circle with arrows around the stadium, indicating the contaminated’s path. Finally, I used the red marker to circle our position. Fortunately, both Chelsea and Zach were paying silent attention to my artwork. Next to the green path of the contaminated, I wrote out ‘pattern.’ They both nodded in understanding. I then used the side of my hand to erase a small portion of the green path and used the red marker to draw a path from our location to the exit. I finished my game of Pictionary by pointing from my ear to the green path.
I had heard the convulsing revolutions of the contaminated. The revolutions occurred in the pattern of their movements. There was a small gap after sixty three seconds went by, and that gap lasted for about twenty seconds. Assuming that the contaminated would take about one step for every second, the break in the pattern would give us about a sixty foot gap in which to make our escape to the stairs and out into the parking lot. It was not a large margin for us to use, but it was something and probably all that we would get. Besides, I had full confidence that both Chelsea and I were faster than the contaminated and could make it out in time. Zach was strong enough where the three of us would be able to fight off any potential contaminated that were able to catch up.
I pressed my ear against the door again. The wave of contaminated was still outside, but I had to confirm that the pattern was still the same. My plan would be a complete failure if the pattern changed every time that the contaminated erupted in a feeding frenzy. I did not want to risk opening the door to be met in the face by a blood thirsty flesh worshiper all too pleased to be ripping out my throat.
Feet shuffled by, walking slowly but in a sure pattern ahead of them. The hissing ripped out from the other side of the stadium but was quickly quelled. A successful attempt at a bight to eat had just occurred. The shuffling continued. The hissing continued. The movements continued. It began to slow and seemed to fade. Just as it seemed as if the contaminated had moved on, the hissing and movement of feet was slowly growing louder. The gap was there. The pattern was sound.
I allowed Chelsea and Zach to sit against the door for another twenty seconds. Yes, I counted the seconds. I needed to time this perfectly. I quickly pulled them to their feet but had them place their body weight against the door. If another feeding outbreak occurred, we needed the doors to stay shut, but if it did not then we were in good position to run.
Forty-eight. Forty-nine.
I decided that fifteen seconds was close enough for us to prepare to run. I pulled Zach and Chelsea behind me, signaling for them to grab their weapons while I readied the door handle.
Fifty-three. Fifty-four.
It was then that I realized that there was a twist lock near the top of the door. My mind raced to the idea of locking it and waiting the contaminated out, but it was rusted and not well fitted, very little security there. I had no doubt that with enough force, the contaminated would be able to easily break through the poor lock and hastily make their way to our throats. This was not the ideal outcome that I was searching for.
Fifty-eight. Fifty-nine.
The sound of the contaminated had stopped. I suddenly second guessed myself. Was I off? What if my poor counting lead to our deaths? I was just about to back away from the door when Chelsea’s hand rested on my own atop the door handle.
Sixty-one. Sixty-two.
My body tensed. Only one second left before I met my potential doom. I felt my mouth go dry and my fingers began to slip on the door handle from the sweat. Was I going to slip on the handle and give away our position? No I couldn’t. I – no we could not afford to mess this up. This was it. There was no going back. I looked to Chelsea.
Sixty-three.
Chelsea nodded and we both pushed down on the handle, ripping the door back in the process. Not bothering to look to our right, we bolted to the left side, the rotation of the contaminated approaching us. It took them a few seconds to register what was happening. Fresh meat was basically running directly at the contaminated who could not decide whether to wait for it to run directly into their mouths or go and get it. Fortunately for us, the contaminated were split on the issue.
Two of the contaminated broke off of the pack almost immediately and sprinted towards us. Chelsea was in front of me, “Mine!” she yelled to me.
Zach suddenly appeared at my side, “Mine to the right!” he called the contaminated. “Daryl, cars!” he yelled as he shot passed me with surprising speed.
Chelsea came to a sliding stop, aluminum bat in hand. Her feet were planted and her arms raised. The weight of Chelsea’s body shifted with the force of her hips as the bat came whipping around her body. The aluminum rang out, colliding with the head of the contaminated with an explosion of head matter and ripples of blood.
Zach was at the next contaminated shortly after. He chose an over the head approach as he leapt about two feet into the air, bat raised directly over his head. The aluminum came crashing down on the contaminated’s
head but was deflected along the skull and onto the left shoulder. The force of the impact easily crushed the contaminated’s shoulder bones and sent it crashing to the ground, though still alive.
Not waiting to see the result, I flew past them and onto the stairs. I took them three at a time, and running on a decline made that very dangerous. My body carried me the entire way, legs jumping to every third stair, and never failing to regain balance. Before I knew it, I was at the bottom of the lifeless escalator, the two vehicles directly in front of me. I ripped open the door of the green sedan and turned the key in the ignition, the vehicle coming to an immediate start. I then made my way over to Zach’s silver car and turned the key. It didn’t start. Please don’t be like in the horror movies, I thought as the sound of hissing contaminated made its way closer.
I looked up to see Zach and Chelsea moving down the stairs as fast as their bodies would carry them, contaminated making their way to the platform at the top of the escalator. I forced my eyes away from the scene and tried the ignition again. Nothing. My hands fumbled around the car. The lights were off. Not a dead battery. The emergency brake was on, but that would not prevent the car from starting. Maybe Zach’s car had a busted starter. I tried the key again out of wishful thinking but still nothing.
Zach and Chelsea were more than half way down the escalator now, but the contaminated were nowhere to be seen yet the hissing was louder. “STAIRS!” Zach yelled, looking back. “They can’t handle the stairs! Falling!” he said through shortened breaths. Then I saw it. The contaminated were literally falling down the immobile escalator. They were able to handle the incline of going up stairs, but apparently the parasite virus was unable to move the bodies in a way that compensated for downward movement.
They were almost at the bottom of the escalator when I tried the ignition again. Still nothing. My eyes wandered from the lights to the emergency brake to the shifter back to the escalator. Suddenly I realized what I was missing. I put my full body into the car and placed my foot on the brake and my hand on the shifter. I pushed the silvery side button and slid the shifter into the park position. I turned the key and the car started right up, engine humming nicely.
I pulled myself out of the car just as Chelsea sat herself into the green sedan and Zach was in front of me, “Put it in park next time!” I said as he jumped into the driver seat. I placed myself in the green sedan passenger seat. Zach was already screeching away in his own getaway car. Before I even had time to close the door, Chelsea was already tearing the car into reverse, tires burning against the asphalt. The smell of melted rubber rose to my nose as Chelsea put the car into drive and sped after Zach.
Both cars were silent while we made our way away from the stadium, angry hoards of contaminated now appearing outside of the stadium gates, frustrated that they let a fresh meal slip through their grasp. Once we were on the highway for a few minutes, Zach’s voice came through the walkie talkie, “My bad. I’ll put it in park next time.”
“Please do,” I replied. There was a silence for a moment, only the sound of the engines churning breaking the quiet.
Chelsea grabbed the radio from me, “No more detours,” she said with the radio on so that everyone could hear. “We have a long road ahead, and we don’t need the company of any contaminated.”
“Agreed,” Zach and I said in unison.
Chapter 25
We drove in silence for a long time. After a short while our journey finally brought us to the interstate highway that we had been looking for. We started on it, silence still ringing out between the two vehicles.
Fortunately for our journey, i-70 was relatively clean. There was literally no traffic to be seen, which I was very worried that we would have encountered a high volume of parked cars. I only worried now because if the government was able to let people know about the contamination, people would have travelled to try and avoid it or to stay with other relatives in safe zones. It seemed as if the military and emergency services had gotten to them first, leaving us a clean and easy route to travel along.
It was a very nice way to travel. There was no lack of scenery. Huge fields of wintery expanse flooded either side of the highway. Barren trees stripped of their leaves and replaced with bits of snow covered mountains, turning them dark brown and white. They looked as if someone had taken a black and white picture of a mountain range and placed it against the window.
An overcast had darkened the day, grey clouds covering the entire expanse of the sky in all directions. I was afraid of snow coming down and slowing down our journey, but the days had not been too cold so even if it did snow, I did not expect it to stick around for more than a day.
I suddenly came up with an idea while admiring the scenery. I popped my seat back a little bit and reached into the back seat. My hands reappeared with Coal in my arms. She was feisty at this time of the day, especially since she was cooped up in the cage since we left. I held her up at eye level so that she could see out the window.
Coal’s yellow eyes went wide at the sight. Her black head started darting around looking from one place to another. She became so encompassed by the outdoors that her paws were eventually propped up against the car window in order to get a better view.
“Don’t let her loose,” Chelsea said, finally breaking the silence. “I don’t want her exploring strange wires or my feet. That’s not good for her health.”
I laughed to myself for a second. Coal had always had the inconvenient habit of chewing on wires and other stringy materials. My family had always thought that it was a miracle as to how she had never been electrocuted. One Christmas, she practically chewed through the entirety of the main wire of the Christmas lights that connected directly to the socket. It eventually became a wrap of electrical tape.
“Don’t worry, I’m only letting her out for a little bit,” I said as I placed Coal on my lap. She was still mesmerized by the passing scenery so she propped herself up against the door allowing her the vision to look out. My hand was caressing her back. Just in case Coal tried to jump down, or around, I had an easy way of grabbing her before she could start her mischief.
The silence returned for a few minutes, the only sound being Coal pawing at the window, her nails grazing against the cold glass. I was following the mile markers with my eyes, just encountering the fifty mile marker.
“I wonder,” Chelsea began, breaking the silence once more. “I wonder what happened to them, to the people, to everyone.”
I looked over to her, “What do you mean? The people at the refuge? Or people in general?”
“Well, yeah of course the people at the stadium,” she said. “But where did people go? I mean there are kind of a lot of people throughout the world. How does that all go away?” she exhaled heavily, her eyes growing somber.
I shook my head, “I don’t know, Chels. Humanity has never experienced a crisis such as this one. Even if there were plans for what to do in a global crisis scenario, it isn’t something that could be practiced. I guess that people were doomed from the start.”
“But where did they go? People don’t just disappear. I mean how do we know that there is no secret civilization of people displaced from the contamination hiding out in these woods?” she said, waving her hand around the car.
“You don’t,” I replied. I began to rub my hand up and down along the length of Coal’s back. “And we will probably never know. The worst part is that we know that people were alive during this crisis, but after what I saw at the stadium, I don’t expect to see my family again anytime soon, or ever.”
“Don’t say that!” Chelsea scolded me. “Don’t say that. Once we give up hope we give in to the contaminated. They have taken everything from us. They took our town, our friends, our family, our homes, but we cannot give in. Once humanity succumbs to the power of the contaminated, we will be forever lost.”
I could not stop smiling at her words. My back arched sideways as I leaned in to plant a big kiss on Chelsea’s cheek, “You’re bril
liant.” My mouth opened wide with a yawn breaking the conversation.
“Am I boring you?” Chelsea joked.
I shook my head, “Not at all. You are thoroughly entertaining.”
A smile poked through the side of her mouth, “Either way, you should probably get some rest. We still have a long way to go, and you did not sleep well last night. I don’t think that a lack of rest would be good for your cold.”
I nodded, grabbing Coal behind her front legs and placing her back in the crate. “Fine, you win. But you wake me once we stop or if anything happens, deal?”
“Deal,” She replied. “Sweet dreams, Daryl.”
I smiled to myself as I lowered the back of the seat and twisted on my side to become more comfortable. I could feel my conscious immediately bob in and out of short bursts of exhaustion. My mind began to wander. It did laps around all that we had learned about the contaminated. The head can kill, but is unreliable. Aim for the spine. They can bleed out. Why do they bleed out? I’m tired.
“Hey,” my arm began to shake myself awake again. I hated being woken up by means of a shaky arm. Not cool. “Hey, Daryl. We’re at our first official stop,” Chelsea’s voice coaxed me from my slumber.
My eyes opened wearily, taking their time to come into focus. We were stopped at a gas station that looked as if it had been abandoned weeks ago, which it technically had been. There were two sets of faded red pumps attached to dark pumping stations. It was at the edge of Pittsburg resulting in the surrounding area remaining the consistent cold tundra climate which we had been accustomed to. All of the trees were barren, save the evergreens as they had the uncanny ability to remain green, forever.
Zach’s car was set up next to our own one pump over. He had the gas nozzle in his hand and seemed to be cursing while providing the pump with numerous hand gestures generally frowned upon by numerous societies throughout the world.
