by Gouge, W. B.
David headed for the passenger side door when he noticed Liz sitting in the seat, “Owen! I thought you were going to drop me off at Jen’s house?” she complained.
“Oh I’ll drop you off alright, just keep complaining and I’ll drop you off at the end of the driveway…” Owen laughed and trailed off.
“Hi Liz.” David mumbled as he climbed in the truck.
“Hey David,” she answered as she scooted over to the middle of the bench seat, “Are you feeling better?”
“Uh…yeah, I’m much better today…” he answered quickly.
“Good.” She seemed genuinely pleased.
“So! Let’s hear about the ladies out there…” Owen put on his sunglasses and made a kissing face at the rear-view mirror, then he reached up and grabbed the pair of plyers sticking out of the steering column and pushed them forward starting the engine.
“Wow… really?” David said looking at the ridiculous contraption Owen had improvised.
“What? It’s my security system, no one knows how to start this baby but me.” Owen said as he reversed the truck up the driveway toward the road.
“Nobody would want to, are you sure it’s safe to drive this thing like that?” David asked.
“Well its exactly like having a key except that there is no key” Owen said shrugging his shoulders, “now let’s ride!” he peeled out onto the pavement and headed west.
The pickup sped down the empty road, the bright sun baked the asphalt and the wind coming in the window was hot and smelled like exhaust. They had only been on the road a few minutes when David rolled his window up and readjusted in his seat. The bench seat was just big enough for all three of them to have space, but the gear stick took up a lot of room in the middle. Liz had to sit very close to David with her legs crossed, leaning into the floor board next to his. David sat straight up in his seat to give her plenty of room, but Liz scooted over closer to him. Her legs were up against his again, she looked at him and smiled before looking back to the road. She had grown up he had since he had been away. He remembered her as a little girl, always telling on him and Owen whenever she caught them doing something “stupid” and now she was a beautiful young woman.
She pushed her hair back behind her ear and glanced over at David again. He smiled at her and looked out the window. He felt like he should say something, but he couldn’t think of anything so he blurted out the first thing that came to his head, “Do you have a boyfriend?”
“Shit! Why did I say that?” he thought and tried desperately to think of something he could say to cover it up.
Her eyes were open wide now, surprised by the sudden question, “Ummm? No, I don’t right now.”
“What do you mean right now?” Owen chimed in, “When have you ever had a boyfriend?”
“Shut up you idiot!” Liz snapped at Owen.
“Oh yeah there was that one guy, from your vampire books. What was his name? Ed something?” Owen laughed.
Liz leaned forward and turned the dial on the radio. David was all too happy to end the conversation there, with his foot firmly in his own mouth. On the radio a reporter was asking questions to someone about how they think the situation might unfold, “So do you believe that the New York Police Department can handle this violent uprising?”
David looked out the window, still embarrassed by his question to Liz. “New York?” he wondered, “I thought it was Texas…”
“Bor-ing!” Owen shouted over the radio and turned it to another channel.
But when Owen settled on a station after switching through several others, he found that all of them were broadcasting reports of rioting and widespread violence, he became frustrated and switched the radio off. The three of them sat in silence after that, David was a little curious about what it was that was going on in Texas, and now New York as well. But Liz adjusted in her seat again and his attention was on her again.
They had been driving for a while, outside of town the empty backroads stretched out through the cornfields for miles. He had forgotten about the radio report and was feeling pretty good as the cold medicine began to subside in his system. David resolved not to take them again and focused instead on the here and now. He was hanging out with an old friend in his home town just like the good old days. Everything was familiar about this trip since they had made it several times in high school. They were on their way to the Country Store, an old convenience store on the outskirts of town. David and Owen’s old friend worked there and he would sell them beer even though they were underage. Owen and David were nineteen now, but that didn’t matter, their old pal never checked ID’s.
The road to the store took them down an empty stretch of Route 50 that followed the Ohio River on the southern border of Indiana. It was a single grey line running out in front of the truck into the horizon in a sea of green corn stalks taller than a person. David could see a tiny square up ahead on the right side of the road and the tall metal pole that used to support a sign. The line of electric poles that followed the road ended at the store and after that there were miles and miles of empty road. As the truck got closer they could make out the concrete parking lot that surrounded the small brick building. The two ancient gas pumps out front were rusty, dry grass stuck up between the cracks in the concrete and the paint was chipped on the sign that hung above the door. Owen pulled up in front of the building and turned the engine off. There was a blue sedan sitting at one of the pumps with a longhaired woman sitting in the front seat. Otherwise, the lot was empty and the area quiet.
“We’ll wait here for a sec until these people leave, then we go in and grab the beer!” Owen smiled as he watched the rearview mirror.
“I’m going to get some ice cream when we go inside.” Liz said fanning herself with her hand.
It was hot in the tiny cabin, sweat began to run down the back of David’s neck and his shirt stuck to his back like a second skin. He let out a sigh as he watched the sedan. The woman inside wasn’t moving, the windows were up and he started to wonder how the hell she was able to withstand the heat. David wiped the sweat from his brow when Owen spoke up, “Fuck it’s hot, I wish they would hurry the fuck up.”
Wavy lines danced off the concrete, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky and no shade over the truck. The three of them felt like they were melting in the hot cabin. The seconds dragged on when Owen finally broke the silence, “Screw it, I’m going in anyway.”
David and Liz didn’t argue. Instead they jumped out of the truck and strolled towards the entrance. David looked over at the sedan with the woman sitting inside and noticed that her door was open a crack and that made him feel better. “At least she wouldn’t die of the heat while she waited.” Owen reached the door first, flung it open and stopped just inside. Liz was behind him and David behind her, “Come on man, go! It’s hot as hell out here,” David demanded but neither of them moved.
Instead they stood looking into the store. David looked around them and noticed that the store was wrecked. Owen stepped forward allowing Liz and David to enter. The shade inside the store offered little relief, but their attention was fixed on the pop cans, bags of chips and candy bars strewn about the floor of the tiny store. All the items had been knocked off the shelves and were scattered around the floor. They looked around the store for Alex, their friend who should be here, but there was no sign of him.
Owen walked over behind the counter while David and Liz surveyed the damage. “It must have been a robbery,” David thought and instinctively looked back out at the sedan. But the woman was still sitting there, she hadn’t moved at all. A ringing sound from behind the counter broke the silence and Owen whispered, “The money is still here.”
None of them knew what to make of this but a knot was growing in David’s stomach as the seconds passed. Someone could have robbed this store and hurt Alex or worse, and they may still be here. David looked around and noticed a small pool of black liquid in front of the wooden door marked “Employees Only” and started to walk over to it
. As he grew closer he noticed a smell, an awful pungent smell like a dead animal and old plants rotting in the heat. He crinkled his nose up and stood in front of the door, the puddle at his feet when he heard a thump behind the door. He looked up at Owen and Liz with concern in his eyes. Both of them were looking at David and apparently they had heard it too. David’s heart was pounding as quietly put his ear to the door to listen. He wasn’t able to hear anything, but he did notice a faint hand print on the frame of the door. He leaned closer to see the rust colored print and noticed that it had a metallic smell, like a handful of change. Owen came sneaking over to the door with a baseball bat he had grabbed from behind the counter. David placed his hand on the doorknob, Liz stood behind Owen watching intently. “Maybe we should just get out of here…” Liz whispered.
None of them breathed as David slowly gripped the knob, held up three fingers, then two then one and finally jerked the door open. For a moment their minds refused to process the image before them. They were frozen, each one of them consumed by fear at the sight of the floor and walls covered in blood. In the large pool of blood lay Alex on his back, his face frozen in a silent scream, his abdomen ripped open with blood and entrails hanging from…from a man’s mouth! The figure looked up at them as it pulled its head back trying to rip the meat away from Alex’s body. It was a man crouched over Alex, but his eyes were blank, hollow as if he were some kind of plastic doll. Liz screamed and jumped back, David and Owen stood completely still. Then David then slammed the door on the gruesome scene and held it closed as a thunderous pounding began from the other side followed by a raspy growl from inside the room. Liz ran for the exit and David held the door tightly. “Holy shit!” What do we do?” he yelled to Owen.
Owen looked terrified and didn’t answer. Another loud bang on the door, then another and another until the wood began to crack from the assault. Owen held up the bat but stepped back, David shook his head and instead nodded toward the front door. Owen and David searched each other’s faces for a moment then made a run for the truck together. Outside the boys scrambled found Liz in tears and scrambled into the truck behind right behind her. David slammed his door shut, “Go! Go! Go!” he yelled.
Owen tried to pull his door closed but it was quickly jerked open again. The woman from the sedan gripped the door by the window frame, her face was slack and pale, her eyes dead and empty like the thing that was eating Alex. She opened her mouth and let out a raspy growl as she lunged forward to grab Owen. He tried to hold her back but she gripped his left arm and pulled it toward her mouth. Owen let out a yelp before he regained his composure. Owen growled back at her, then he ripped his arm away from her and kicked her in the chest so hard she flew backwards and landed with a hard slap on the concrete. Owen slammed his door, grabbed the plyers and pushed them forward. The truck roared to life and he punched the gas. As he reversed the woman scrambled to her feet and charged the truck. Owen rolled the window up just in time to see her pale face slam against it, blood spattered from her mouth onto the glass and somehow she didn’t seem to be fazed by it at all. “Get us out of here Owen!” Liz screamed her voice suddenly hoarse.
“I’m trying!” Owen yelled back, he turned the wheel and slammed on the gas again.
The woman was knocked down by the moving truck and David watched out the back window as she got up and chased after them, another figure came charging out the front of the store and joined her pursuit. David felt the sudden drain as the adrenaline left his system but he kept his weary eyes on the people who had tried to kill them, after a few seconds they both disappeared in the distance.
Four
David watched out the back window for a while, hoping the couple didn’t jump in the blue sedan and follow them. Liz had turned around as well, her knees in the seat with her head down on the back of the seat, every few seconds she would look up to make sure they weren’t coming with tears running down her face. Owen gripped the wheel tightly, his foot pressed firmly on the gas pedal, his eyes would flicker back and forth from the road ahead and the rear-view mirror. They drove in silence for many miles, all of them cautiously watching and waiting for what might happen next. David finally broke the silence, “What the hell was that? Did you guys see that?”
“Yeah,” Owen said determined, “I had to, she was crazy!”
“No! I mean Alex…” David’s voice broke as he said their friend’s name.
Poor Alex, David couldn’t even imagine what had happened before they arrived at the Country Store. The image of Alex’s body lying in a pool of blood was burned into his memory. David tried to shake the visuals away but he could still see the meat hanging from the mouth of the man who had killed Alex. “Why was he… eating Alex?”
“Just stop okay?” Liz begged.
“I’m not stopping out here! No fuckin way!” Owen shook his head.
“No, I mean let’s just not talk about this now okay,” Liz seamed exhausted all at once, David rested his hand on her back.
David wanted to say something helpful or comforting, “Okay, let’s just find the police and tell them what happened.”
Liz nodded and Owen pushed the pedal a little harder. Whoever those maniacs were, they didn’t seem to be following the truck for now. All David knew is that they had to find the police immediately and report this. As David finally started to relax he heard something and began to look out the window. Liz and Owen looked out their windows too trying to figure out which direction the buzzing sound was coming from when a helicopter flew over low and fast. Owen swerved as the aircraft crossed over the road what seemed like only a few feet above the corn stalks and continued west. “Damn! They’re flyin’ low as hell. I could see the pilots through the windows!” Owen said frantically looking out the windows toward the sky.
David watched as another helicopter flew over up ahead of them, and as it disappeared over the corn he flipped the radio on and turned up the volume. The reporters were at it again. Detailing the events in New York, Houston, Atlanta, Washington D.C. and Los Angeles. They listened carefully, the same story had apparently unfolded in each city, wide spread violence and rioting. David looked at Owen, then at Liz. The reporter went on before he started a recap on the story. “Over the past few days, hospitals and clinics have been overrun with people with flulike symptoms, many people have become violent with riots and looting breaking out in those areas. Police have been trying to contain the situation but have been unsuccessful so far. The National Guard has been called up to assist in several of the major cities but the situation seems to be getting worse as more and more areas show similar activity…”
Just then the signal changed, a series of loud beeps and tones began and was followed by a recorded voice. David had heard the emergency broadcast system before. Radio stations did tests all the time on the radio, but this wasn’t a test, he was sure of that. The broadcast instructed anyone who could hear this to stay in their homes, or if they were outside to return to their homes immediately. That was all David needed to hear, “Let’s go to my grandparents’ house, we can call the cops from there.”
The road to his grandparent’s house was empty, the three sat quietly in the cabin listening to the emergency broadcast play over and over again hoping each time that it would provide something new. David’s anxiety grew with each passing moment, he couldn’t remember a time when such a serious situation had occurred, at least a situation this widespread. As Owen steered the truck onto the road his grandparents lived on, David noticed a pillar of black smoke rising in the distance. David urged Owen to drive faster while a knot grew in his stomach. Owen pulled the truck into the drive way and slowed down. There was an overturned car in the ditch next to the main road with black smoke billowing out from under the hood. David couldn’t see anyone near the car and that worried him. Someone could be trapped in the car, perhaps an old person, or maybe a child.
Owen stopped the truck, “What do you think?” Owen asked.
“We should see if they need help over there.�
� David said.
“We already ran into two crazy ass people today, let’s just go to your grandparent’s house, call the cops and we can tell them about this too.” Owen said.
It wasn’t a terrible idea considering what they had just seen at the Country Store and the reports on the radio, but David’s conscience got the best of him.
“Owen, someone might be really hurt…” David said.
“I know CPR let’s at least make sure they’re okay.” Liz said, David nodded in agreement and was surprised by her bravery given their circumstances.
“Fuck man! You guys are killing me with this shit.” Owen sighed and cut off the truck’s engine.
“Okay, you two see if they need help, I’ll go call 911!” David said as he climbed out and headed for the house.
David panted as he jogged up the driveway, the high from the cold medicine had made left him weak and tired and the heat of the afternoon sun zapped what little strength he had left. He made it to the front yard dripping with sweat and stopped when he saw the kitchen screen door was hanging by a single hinge. The sudden reality struck him, “The people from the car! What if they are like the people from the country store? What if they came here?” he thought. He darted up to the door and burst inside not sure he was ready for what he may find.
The kitchen was a wreck! The table was turned over on its side, the flower vase was smashed on the floor and the water inside mixed with bright red blood. David’s heart sank and he heard the banging for the first time. Without thinking David headed toward the hallway and the origin of the sound. The frantic, loud banging continued as David rounded the corner to see his grandfather pounding the bathroom door with his fist. David stopped breathing, not from the bloody handprints on the door, but from the dark red wound on the side of Henry’s neck. Henry’s shirt was soaked with blood under the torn flesh all the way down to his waist, the very sight of it sent a chill down David’s spine. Henry pounded at the door a few more times before he suddenly stopped. Henry didn’t move for a moment, then he slowly turned as if he were some type of puppet on strings. Henry locked eyes on David, but David almost didn’t recognize his grandfather’s face. His mouth hung open in a silent roar, he bared his teeth which were covered in blood, and his eyes were wide, fierce and… hollow. Like the eyes of the man who had been eating his friend, and the eyes of the woman from the sedan. The two of them stood for what felt like forever staring at each other, David holding his breath and Henry quietly growling and slobbering. David watched the tendrils of blood and drool run down Henry’s chin and hang before dripping to the floor.
