Aftermath

by Mark Lukens

  Max had his pistol in his hand. He rolled down the window as Petra shifted into drive and punched the gas.

  A gunshot sounded from the clubhouse.

  “Oh shit,” Max said, aiming his gun out the window, ready to shoot.

  Petra sped up the slight hill toward the clubhouse.

  Max saw Kate’s white Toyota still parked behind the clubhouse. There were two rippers on the back of it, clinging to it, slamming their fists at the back window. Two more rippers were almost at the front of the car. The Toyota lurched forward, speeding up quickly, hitting the rippers, knocking them out of the way.

  “I thought she said her car was out of gas,” Petra said, not bothering to hide her suspicion.

  “I’m sure it wasn’t bone-dry,” Max said. “Over there.” He pointed. “We’ll follow them out.”

  “Holy shit, look at that,” Petra said.

  Max saw it. Across the street from the clubhouse, a horde of rippers was coming their way. It looked like dozens of them, maybe even a hundred of them.

  Kate’s Toyota was in the street now, skidding into a turn, the front of the car now pointed to the exit that led past the clubhouse and out of the trailer park. Petra was right behind the Toyota now.

  Max propped himself up higher in the seat, leaning out of the window, his gun aimed. He shot three times at rippers trying to get to Kate’s Toyota from the passenger side. He hit two of them, but one was just a graze.

  “Way to go,” Petra said.

  “You want to shoot?” Max asked as he crawled back inside the window.

  “I can shoot better than you,” Petra said.

  Max didn’t bother arguing with her.

  “And I can drive better,” Petra added.

  “I bet you can’t replace an interior door,” Max said.

  “Ooh. You got me there, cupcake.”

  Kate’s Toyota slid out onto the street, the tires squealing, but she hadn’t lost complete control yet. If she could speed up enough, Max thought, they could get past this horde.

  “Where’d they all come from?” Petra asked.

  Max didn’t respond, knowing Petra wasn’t seeking an answer. It seemed to Max like this trailer park had already been picked over, so this must be a new horde of rippers, moving like a wave of army ants, devouring everything edible in their path. He could imagine so many other large groups of rippers, so desperate and hungry now that even the gunshots weren’t scaring them away or backing them up.

  Kate’s Toyota sped toward the entrance onto the street. The brake lights flashed for just a moment, and then the car slid sideways into the street.

  “Not bad,” Petra mumbled and then followed Kate’s car, right on her rear, the tires of the SUV screeching.

  Max held on. He didn’t even have his seatbelt on. He poked his arm out through the open window, shooting twice at the rippers that were running toward their truck. He hit one ripper in the chest, dropping him, and winged another in the shoulder.

  “Getting a little better,” Petra teased.

  “So happy you approve,” Max said. “Just keep your eyes on the road, please.” He turned and glanced into the back seat. Tiger was holding on for dear life, crouched low, his claws dug into one of the packs, his ears flat and eyes wide.

  “Seriously? You’re checking on the cat?”

  Max turned back around.

  “Get those two!” she shouted.

  At least a dozen rippers were rushing the street from the woods, but two men led the charge, three strides ahead of the others. Both of them carried metal pipes. Max aimed at them and fired. He hit the first one, spinning him around and knocking him down. He got the next one in the side of the neck, a spray of blood misting out from the wound.

  “Are you trying for a headshot?” Petra barked at him. “What did I tell you about that?”

  “I meant that shot,” Max said. It took some getting used to, but he knew Petra dealt with high-pressure and frightening situations with her morbid jokes.

  Rocks and chunks of cinderblocks pelted the side of their SUV from the other side of the street. But they were past most of the horde now, and Petra was still right on the rear of the Toyota.

  “Slow down,” Max told her.

  “I’m following her.”

  “I was talking to Kate.”

  “Talking to Kate?” Petra said, wincing. “What is that, some kind of Jedi mind trick?”

  Max waved his hand in front of him. “These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.”

  Petra gave him a blank look.

  “You know. From Star Wars. When the Stormtroopers stopped them.”

  Petra just shook her head and concentrated on the road again. “You’re such a nerd.”

  CHAPTER 41

  Kate drove for another mile before coming to a stop. She wanted to wait until the woods thinned out. There was a strip of businesses on one side of the street and a used car dealership on the other side. All of the buildings looked empty, but it could still be dangerous here. But at least the woods weren’t crowding the road and they could see what was coming.

  And at least the Toyota had made it another few miles, Kate thought. At least Max and Petra hadn’t ditched them. At least they’d found another vehicle. At least they’d all gotten away.

  She put the car in park and watched the dark SUV pull up right behind them. A few seconds later Max got out of the passenger side and hurried around the rear of the Toyota and up to Kate’s window. She rolled it down.

  “You two ready?” he asked.

  “Yeah,” Kate said, finally unclenching her fingers from the steering wheel. She’d been holding on so tight her fingers ached now.

  “I saw you get those rippers back there with your car,” Max said, still beaming. “Good job.” He looked around at the abandoned buildings all around them. “I think we should hurry.”

  “Do you hear any of them out there?” Kate asked him.

  “No.” He shook his head, looking at her again. He had his pistol in one hand, but it was down by his side. “I guess I’ve just got the creeps.”

  I always have the creeps nowadays, Kate wanted to say, but didn’t.

  “Let’s go,” Max said. “Get any stuff you want to take with you.” He leaned down a little lower so he could see Brooke in the passenger seat. “I’ve got a surprise for you.”

  Brooke just stared at him.

  “You’ll like it,” Max promised.

  “I’ve got the box of food in the back,” Kate said as she got out of the Toyota. She turned the car off but left the keys dangling from the ignition. She opened the back door and got the box out, handing it to Max who accepted it gladly. “I found some toilet paper and soap,” she told him.

  Max nodded and took the box back to the SUV while Kate helped Brooke.

  Petra popped the hatchback on the SUV so Max could shove the cardboard box into the back. He slammed the door shut and hurried around to the passenger side to open the back door for Kate and Brooke. He waited there as Brooke got to the door; she clutched her drawing tablet closer to her protectively and she had her pack of pencils poking up from her jacket pocket.

  She froze when she got to the SUV.

  “What is it?” Kate asked, looking past Brooke inside the vehicle, thinking for a second that something horrible waited for them in the back seat.

  Then she saw the gray cat staring at them.

  “I call him Tiger,” Max said.

  Tiger gave them a meek meow, still perched on top of one of the packs.

  Brooke climbed in and Kate was right behind her. Kate moved the packs into the back behind the seats so they had more room.

  Tiger jumped right into Brooke’s lap as soon as she sat down, already purring and trying to get comfortable. Brooke’s face broke into a smile. Kate almost lost it, fighting back tears. She’d never seen Brooke smile like this before; Brooke looked like a normal little girl for the first time.

  Kate closed the door and Max got into the passenger seat and clo
sed the door.

  Petra pulled away from the side of the road. She drove past the white Toyota, the SUV gaining speed quickly.

  Kate watched Brooke for a moment as she petted Tiger in her lap. Then she scooted up toward the passenger seat and touched Max’s arm. He turned around. His eyes were misting up a little as he locked eyes with Kate. Brooke wasn’t even paying attention to them, lost in her own world with the cat, petting him, Tiger’s eyes closing in content.

  “Thank you,” Kate whispered to Max.

  PART 4

  CHAPTER 42

  Three hours later they ate lunch in the SUV while still driving. Kate split a can of sardines with Tiger because apparently only she (and the cat) liked sardines.

  They’d passed through the edges of two towns on their way higher into the mountains. They tried to skirt around the towns as much as possible, marking out the route on the folded map that Kate always kept with her. Max gave directions to Petra as she drove, and she gave back snarky retorts.

  They’d seen a few rippers here and there along the way, a few small groups, some of whom threw pieces of concrete and sticks at their vehicle, but most of the rippers didn’t even bother chasing them. They even saw one massive group of rippers a few blocks down from the edge of the next town, but the rippers were too far away to chase them. They hadn’t seen any other survivors, and no sign of the Dark Angels.

  And now they were higher in the mountains, the towns farther apart, the areas much less populated. But the woods and mountains seemed to go on forever up here; there seemed to be a million places for threats to hide.

  The abandoned cars had thinned out along with the towns. A few of the roads in the towns had been blocked with the abandoned and wrecked cars and trucks, but they’d gotten around most of them. Only once did Petra have to turn around and take a different street before getting back on their route.

  After they’d eaten their lunch, Petra pulled over so Max could take the wheel. Brooke was nearly asleep with Tiger curled up right beside her, and Petra needed some sleep. Kate took the passenger seat as Petra got in the back beside Brooke, wadding up her jacket to use as a pillow and leaning against the door.

  Max pulled back onto the road.

  Kate laid her pistol on the dashboard near where Max had his, the gun she’d used to kill another human being only a few hours ago. She knew it wasn’t real, but she swore she could still feel the thrumming in her hand from shooting the gun, and she swore she could still smell the acrid gunpowder on her hands and in the air around her, like it was her aura now.

  But her stomach was somewhat full, her thirst sated, her skin warm from the Honda’s heater. She found herself getting a little drowsy, especially with all three of them sleeping in the back seat. You had to sleep when you could get it because you never knew when you’d get that chance again. She’d heard that somewhere, maybe in a movie, but she couldn’t remember where. Even though she was tired, she forced herself to stay awake so she could keep Max company and to help keep watch along the sides of the roads where the woods were so close now in some areas.

  Max drove more in the middle of the road most of the time to stay as far away from the edge of the woods as he could, but he veered back over to the right side of the road when they went around turns or up hills in case another vehicle might be coming. But there hadn’t been any other vehicles so far. And if there were vehicles, Kate imagined that they wouldn’t be friendly people; they would probably be a gang of some kind, maybe even more of the Dark Angels—people desperate enough to rob and kill.

  “Do you recognize some of this area?” Max asked her as he drove.

  Kate nodded. “Yeah. A little.”

  “Home,” Max said with a smile.

  “I haven’t been back here in quite a while.”

  Max glanced at her, surprised. “Why’s that?”

  Kate shrugged. She glanced back at Petra, seeing if she was still asleep. She seemed to be. She looked back at the grimy windshield and the woods all around them. They hadn’t come across an abandoned or wrecked car for a while, and no rippers within the last thirty minutes. Kate could almost fool herself into believing that the small town of Astorville had been untouched by the plague that seemed to have swept the world.

  “It’s a long story,” she finally said, answering Max’s question.

  “We’ve got a long drive.”

  She looked at him.

  He smiled at her. “Did you focus on your career? Is that why you haven’t been back? Or maybe you had a falling out with your family.” He lowered his voice just a bit. “Was it over a boy?”

  “No, not a boy,” Kate said. “I left when I was eighteen. As soon as I got accepted into college. Not the university where I teach now, but a much smaller school. But I got a full academic scholarship and that got me out of the house. Then I got a job. I worked as much as I could at nights, waiting tables, working extra shifts on the weekends. I lived in a small, crummy apartment, but I was saving my pennies.”

  Max nodded. “The career. I knew it.”

  “It’s more than that,” Kate said. “My family and I did have a falling out. I couldn’t wait to get away from my family. Away from my town. From their ways.”

  “Their ways?” He was obviously intrigued.

  “Their very fundamental Christian ways.”

  Max just nodded, keeping his eyes on the road, his speed at a reasonable forty-five miles per hour. “They weren’t like a cult, were they?”

  Kate didn’t answer right away. She thought about it for a moment, considering the definition of a cult. “Maybe. I guess you could say that. There was no give and take with them. It was either their way or no way. I guess it could be hard for someone else to understand it if they weren’t raised like that. My family, and this whole town, they took the Bible literally. They believed God made the world in seven days. They believed there was really a flood and Noah saved all the animals, boarding them on the ark two by two.”

  Kate paused for just a moment, and then more came pouring out. “They believed girls should wear dresses and never cut their hair. They believed men should have short hair, even though men in the Bible most likely had long hair and wore robes. It was those contradictions I rebelled against. Even at a young age, I didn’t believe in God or the Bible. Even then I knew there were scientific answers for things. We were homeschooled for years, but I finally convinced my parents to let me go to a real high school.”

  “How’d you do that?”

  “I kept running away. I refused to do any more school work. I wanted to see people my own age who weren’t in my community. I wanted to go to a real school.”

  “And they let you go?”

  “Yes. Reluctantly. I went to a public high school from ninth grade to twelfth grade. In ninth grade I was so far ahead of the other students in math and reading comprehension, but so far behind in science and history. I remember the science teacher I had in ninth grade—Mr. Diaz. He took an interest in me. He saw my fascination with science, my wonder, like some of the most basic concepts of science and history were so new to me. And they were. I remember he was the one who told me about scholarships and college. I knew right then that I wanted to be some kind of a scientist or a teacher. He spent a whole class period that day talking with me, giving the other students some kind of assignment to do. He helped me formulate a plan to keep a 4.0 average so I could get a scholarship. I’ll never forget the time Mr. Diaz took with me. He changed my life.”

  Max was silent, seemingly content to drive and listen.

  “I made some friends in school, but I never got too close to them, I never lost sight of my plan. A lot of the girls made fun of me, mostly behind my back, because of my long hair and the clothes I wore. I was the freak from the commune in the mountains. I didn’t date much when I got in eleventh and twelfth grade, a few here and there, but nothing serious. I worked after school and on the weekends for friends of my family, saving every dollar I could. And then I got a scholarship to a small
school on the east coast. My mom begged me not to go. My little sister and brother did, too. But my decision was done. And I left.”

  “And they turned their backs on you?” Max asked.

  She thought about it for a moment. “In a way, I guess. I always thought they had. But the older I got, I realized that I was the one who had turned my back on them. I hated them for the way they were, for their willful ignorance, for the freak they had turned me into.” She sighed. “I never talk about it with anyone. I don’t think people can understand that kind of suffocation unless they’ve actually lived through it, the dominance of it in your life, the poison they teach, the hatred of others who aren’t like them, the intolerance of others who don’t accept their ways.”

  “My mom and dad were Christians,” Max said.

  Kate looked at him, wondering if she had offended him somehow.

  “I wouldn’t say they lived in a commune or anything like that,” he continued. “But they were pretty strict. I guess you can imagine how they felt when I came out.”

  Kate just nodded.

  “It was a different time then, even thirty years ago. Society back then wasn’t as accepting of gay people as they are now. But my parents were horrified when they found out. It wasn’t like they didn’t suspect over the years, especially my father. We would get into arguments all the time. He would always pick at me. And then one time we were really arguing. I can’t remember what it was about, but he was yelling at me and he called me a faggot. I think it just slipped out in anger, but I knew that’s how he really felt inside. So I told him he was damn right, I was gay. He slapped me. I stood my ground, and then he punched me in the face.”

  “God,” Kate said.

  “He hit me again. And again. He called me a faggot and every other vile thing he could think of. He lost it completely. He beat the shit out of me. My mom even tried to stop him. She was sobbing, grabbing onto him. When he was done hitting and kicking me, he and my mother went to my bedroom and packed a duffel bag for me. They threw in a few changes of clothes and shoes, my toothbrush. A few other things. They said I couldn’t take anything else because they had paid for it. My dad set the bag by the front door and threw a crumpled fifty-dollar bill at me. He told me to get out. He never wanted to see me again. I was seventeen years old.”