She whispered his name and waited for an answer.
Then she got it. It was deep and wailing, a telltale raspiness to it. That same moan she had heard a thousand times, coming from the darkness in front of her. Then came the shuffling, the sound of feet dragging across tile.
Her heart pounded and she staggered backward. Her foot clipped an overturned wire rack and she crashed to the floor. David's shoe flew from her hands and was lost in the darkness. She spun around and scrambled over the rack, but not before a cold hand wrapped around her ankle. The skin was so rough and clammy that it sent a chill of disgust down her spine. She tried to climb over the rack, but the hand just kept pulling her back. Her head jerked around and she could see just the faintest bit of it lurking in the darkness. A glint of its wide eyes and its open jaw.
She felt drops of slimy wetness touch the skin of her legs as it salivated over her. Her hand lost its grip on the rack and she was dragged back into the darkness.
It opened its mouth wide, gnashing its teeth at her soft leg. It was so close to her that she could feel its cold breath blowing on her skin.
She kicked at it with her other foot until she connected and knocked it away. Her ankle came loose and she scrambled over the rack.
It got to its feet and emerged from the darkness. It tripped over the rack and sailed to the ground like a missile, hitting the tile floor hard with a sound akin to a leather strap slapping against something. Its rotting fingertips reached out for her and grazed along her legs before she was out of reach, hurtling over piles of mess in the semi-dark.
She ran out the exit and hid around the corner, just inside the entrance of the Food Way next door.
The zombie stumbled out of the Walgreens a moment later and ran several paces into the parking lot before realizing she was gone. It let out a long moan, almost as if in frustration or disappointment, then it looked around for a moment before turning back into the store.
She let out a sigh of relief and inspected her ankle to make sure the zombie hadn't injured her. But aside from the marks from tussling with the zombie in the courtyard two days prior, her legs were in fine shape.
She threw a nervous glance behind her in the Food Way, but there was nothing around, save for the dilapidated shelves that had long since been picked clean.
A huge parking lot sprawled in front of her outside, sizzling in the cool rain. Several abandoned cars sat in it like rusted relics. Off in the distance, there was an old gas station that was the first thing to be depleted when the apocalypse hit. The pumps were dry and the accompanying store had been picked to the bone, minus some cheap knickknacks or old maps. And a head bobbing around inside.
Sarah stood on her toes, trying to get a good peek. It was David, no doubt about it. She recognized his brown hair and the way that she kept it trimmed for him.
She ran across the parking lot, her clothes now fully soaked through from the rain.
"David!" she cried as she flung herself through the door.
He stood by a rack and looked at her like he'd seen a ghost. A black running shoe was fastened to one of his feet and only a soggy gray sock was on the other.
"What on earth do you think you're doing?" she demanded. Anger, worry and relief mixed together into a hot ball of energy in her chest. Her words shot out almost as venom to him.
"I..." he started.
"What?" she demanded again.
His mouth hung open, but no words came out. He was too stunned and scared to speak.
"Are you hurt?" She marched over to him and inspected him for bites or scratches. He seemed okay, and she checked the bottom of his shoeless foot to see if he stepped on something sharp, but he was fine. She noticed that he held something in his hand that looked like a small stack of paper.
"What have you got there?" she asked, snatching it out of his hands. It was a set of two folded Rand McNally maps, one for southern Virginia, and one covering the northern region of North Carolina.
"Are you kidding me!" she yelled, brandishing the maps in front of him. "You came over here and almost got yourself killed for this?" She looked at them in disgust then threw them on the ground.
She expected him to get angry and run off, but he just started crying.
"Don't do that," she said.
He kept crying.
"David, don't cry. We can't go."
"Why not?" he said as he snorted snot back into his nose.
"It's too dangerous. You lost a shoe just coming here."
"It snuck up on me. If I saw it, I would've been okay."
She knelt down next to him and stroked his hair, and he buried his head in her chest and kept crying. "It's okay, sweetie. It's okay."
When he calmed down, he pulled his head away from her and said, "I'm sorry I lost my shoe, Mom. I'll go back and get it."
"Don't worry about it. We'll find it tomorrow. Let's just get back home."
He nodded and she helped him to the door. He sniffled and looked as sad as she'd ever seen him. His shoulders were slumped and he looked utterly defeated. Watching him listen to Herb's stories of Noah's Ark was the happiest she'd seen him in years. By no means was she saying yes to going, but if looking at the maps made him happy, she figured she had to at least give him that.
She walked back into the store and picked up the two maps off the grimy floor. When she turned around, he had already gone outside.
"David," she said, exasperated. She walked out the door and froze.
He was standing a few paces ahead of her, and right in front of them by the pumps were three zombies. There were two men and one girl in the party. One of the men was bearded and baldheaded, and looked to be at least six and a half feet tall. The other man was of a medium height and middle-aged, and the girl was young, maybe sixteen, with blond pigtails and what must have been an adorably cute face when she was still alive. But that cuteness was long gone. Her cloudy eyes reflected the grim sky above her and her face was permanently twisted into a horrific grimace. Dark rings rimmed her eyes, set deep in her leathery gray face, and her skin was cracked like the earth of an arid flatland. A large gash ran down the middle of her rotted lip, splaying it open and showing an uneven row of grayish-yellow teeth behind. All three of them were sickly thin, like malnourished cancer patients, tattered clothing hanging loosely from them.
Their eyes went wide with hunger as they approached Sarah and David. They felt no pain, no fear, and had no concept of preserving their wellbeing. All they cared about was flesh. Fresh, nourishing flesh.
They lumbered toward them and Sarah knew they would break into a run at any moment. But she was stuck like a deer in the headlights. Adults could usually outrun a zombie, but three zombies chasing an eight-year-old child was a different story. She would have to distract them so he could get away. The terrifying thought that she might die crossed her mind, and she prepared herself for what she had to do.
But then something strange happened.
The zombies slowed down into a lazy shuffle. The crazed looks on their faces faded, and then they did something that absolutely shocked Sarah: they turned and walked away.
She was stunned as she watched them split up and wander into the distance.
David just stood there, calm. She asked if he was okay and he nodded, then she whisked him back to the townhouses and locked themselves in.
The rest of the night took on a surreal quality for her. As she lay in bed that night, the images of those zombies just suddenly giving up and walking away played over and over in her head. She couldn't understand it, and it stayed with her the whole night. They just walked away.
5
David's Gift
The next morning, David went out into the courtyard and played with his Transformers toy. His mood went back to sullen, and Sarah guessed that he realized her answer was still no. She could hardly stand to see him like this anymore, and the brief moments of happiness he showed lately had overjoyed her. All she wanted was for him to be safe and happy. But it was becoming i
ncreasingly apparent that she couldn't give him both of those things. She had to pick one, and the time to decide was running out.
She made them some breakfast and they both ate in relative silence. The weather was back to hot with a bright blue sky, but yet there seemed to be an invisible cloud of gloom that settled over the courtyard. David went inside after a while and she boiled herself some water over the fire and made coffee. She went inside to the shade of the dining room to enjoy it and sat down at the table, looking out the window. The street was empty and the trees swayed peacefully. Not a zombie in sight. It almost looked safe outside. And maybe it was, just to venture out for some supplies and then come back home, but what if you uprooted your home and had to take it on the road? When there was no guarantee of a safe place to retreat to when things got dangerous, what then?
She finished her coffee and went upstairs to check on David. He lay on his stomach on the bed, studying the maps unfolded in front of him. Her heart ached at the dilemma in front of her. She quietly went back down the stairs to the back door leading to the courtyard. She stopped and saw his one sad shoe sitting by the door. She went into the kitchen drawer and pulled a flashlight out, then went out the front to the parking lot.
She crossed the street to the strip mall and rounded the corner to the front, scanning her eyes across the parking lot. There was only one zombie far in the distance, just sitting on the ground, its dry skin baking in the sun.
The Walgreens stood in front of her and there was no sign of anything inside. She picked a stone off the ground and threw it into the darkness. It bounced and echoed into the depths of the barren store then came to rest. She waited.
There was silence.
She carefully stepped through the shattered glass of the doorframe and flicked the flashlight on. Huge and deformed shadows stretched and shifted behind the empty shelves and displays. They played tricks on her, appearing to have solid form and lunging at her from the darkness, only to twist and fade into benignity. The store was quiet.
She moved toward the darkness, scanning the floor with the light. She tried to remember which aisle she had gone down the day before, but it was too dark at the time to have noticed. She swept the flashlight up each aisle, then spotted the wire rack that she tripped over.
David's shoe sat on the other side of it in the middle of the aisle, hidden amongst some scattered boxes of junk that had fallen off the shelf next to it.
She moved through the aisle carefully, trying not to make any noise. Just as she approached the rack, her flashlight flickered.
She stopped and gave it a hard tap on her palm, and tried switching it off and on, but it didn't help; the batteries were dying. The light mostly held, but every few moments it gave a big flicker.
The rack on the floor in front of her was wide, and would take a big step to get over it. She put a hand on it to support her as she swung her leg over it. The metal creaked and echoed.
The silent darkness surrounded her, and her eyes darted in every direction, thinking that she had seen something.
But nothing else made a sound. She pointed the flickering flashlight at boxes on shelves, thinking she had seen and arm stretch out. The flashes of white light burned still images into her brain. Something could rush her from the darkness and she wouldn't even be able to detect its movement.
She made it over the rack and picked up the shoe from under the scattered boxes.
Something struck the floor behind her. She spun around and shone the light on it.
It was just a box that had fallen from the shelf.
Boxes don't just fall from shelves.
She swung the light onto the shelf and peered through, trying to see the next aisle over. She screamed and jumped when she felt something hit her back, not realizing that she had been slowly backing up.
The shelf rumbled and a few more boxes fell to the floor. The sound bounced around the store and the light flickered, and she saw figures coming out of the darkness all around her.
She gripped the shoe and turned to run, clipping her foot on the overturned rack again and almost falling over. She regained her balance and sprinted down the aisle, the light from the flashlight swinging sharply from the floor to the ceiling. Her footsteps echoed, and she knew she could hear something else hidden behind them. It was coming for her.
She didn't look back until she was out of the store and in the bright light of the day. She turned around and darted her eyes around the store.
But nothing was coming for her. The store was empty and silent.
She let out a stifled breath and let her nerves calm down. She got the shoe and she made it out. She was okay.
The lonely zombie at the other end of the parking lot was still sitting on the ground, leaning forward like a pouting child.
Sarah rounded the corner and crossed the street back to the townhouse. She put David's shoe with the other one and changed the batteries for the flashlight before returning it to the drawer.
David was passed out on his bed when she checked on him. The maps were spread open and he clutched a purple crayon in his hand as he slept. She crept up beside his bed and sat on the edge, gently stroking his head. She looked at the maps and saw that he had drawn a route to get to Durham. She couldn't help but smile, but with it also came a modicum of sadness. She gently pulled the maps out from under him and carried them outside into the courtyard. It was just a simple curiosity to see what her son had come up with.
As soon as she began scrutinizing his route, her brow furrowed and she made a disapproving sound. "No, you would never go that way," she said to herself. She fetched a pen from her bedroom, then sat in her squeaky lawn chair in the courtyard and got to work. She started with the Virginia map and began tracing the proper route.
David had them going through highly-populated areas and heavily relying on the interstate for most of the way, but it was way too risky. The interstate often cut through woods for miles at a time and would leave them exposed with nowhere to hide if they got attacked. They would have to go through isolated areas no matter which route they took, but they needed to keep them to a minimum.
She traced her pen along the paper, keeping in mind that they would have to stop for supplies from time to time. They couldn't take their garden with them and would have to rely mostly on what they could scavenge. They would also need to stay near decent sources of water for drinking, bathing and washing their clothes. A creek or a river would do. Bottled water would be a nice find, but finding a case of it was very rare these days.
She had gotten started on the map of North Carolina when David came out, squinting his tired eyes at the sun.
"What are you doing?" he said.
She started to fold up the map as if she had been caught doing something wrong. "Oh, I was just taking a look at the work you did."
His eyes lit up. "Did I do good?"
She had to admit it was fun to plan out the route in fantasy, but that's all it was. "Oh honey, you did a good job, but—"
"I made you this," he said, extending his arm. He held a necklace in his hand.
She took it and brushed her thumb across the beads that he strung along a thin nylon cord. Five lettered beads sat in the middle that spelled out "David", with some other decorative beads on the ends.
"I made it to say sorry," he said.
"Oh, sweetie, come here," she said, holding her arm out.
They hugged and she kissed his cheek.
"It's beautiful," she said. After several moments of silence she added, "I'm not mad at you. I just don't want you to run off on your own. You could've gotten yourself killed."
He pushed himself away from her as if in protest. "No I wouldn't of! That zombie just snuck up on me! I was fine after that!"
"I wouldn't call being stuck in a gas station with three zombies coming after us 'fine'," she joked.
"But I made them go away!"
"What did you say?"
"I made them go away."
"What do you mean
you made them go away?"
"I don't know... I just did."
She brushed off his comment, knowing it was akin to a child believing they had super powers. "Well you might not be so lucky next time," she said, giving his hair a brush before letting him go. She put down the maps and got up, stuffing the necklace in her pocket. "Come on, I'll make us some lunch."
As she started to walk into the townhouse, he mumbled, "It doesn't work when I'm scared."
She stopped and turned to him.
"I didn't see that zombie," he added. "He came up behind me and scared me. But I wasn't scared of those other three. It only works when I'm not scared."
She knelt down in front of him. "What works when you're not scared?"
"I don't know. I just think really hard that I want them to go away and they do."
This was going far beyond a simple childhood fantasy. She had a feeling in the pit of her stomach that he believed what he was saying.
"When did you know you could do this?"
He shrugged. "I always could."
"But you've never seen very many zombies. How did you know you could do this?"
"I've seen lots of zombies!" he protested.
"When?"
He paused, suddenly looking like he'd seen a ghost. He said something he shouldn't have, and she knew it.
"When?"
"When you go out to get water. I go out sometimes."
"Go out where?"
"I don't know... just exploring."
"How often do you do this?"
He stayed silent.
"David."
"Every time."
White-hot anger coursed through her veins. "Every time I've gone out?!" She couldn't believe it. All this time, she thought he was safe when she left. He'd been lying to her this whole time. The latest time she went out for water was simply the first time he got caught.
"But I could always keep them away from me."
"Go to your room."
The Fall of Man (Zombie Apocalypse Series Book 1) Page 4
