It All Comes Down To Zombies: Sarah

by Rayne Millaray

  “Hello, everyone.”

  Ralph had climbed atop one of the empty tables. Martha was standing on the floor next to him facing the community.

  “Sarah, Jimmy, you just go on eating, and never mind us. We just like to talk when things happen so everyone knows what’s going on. Keeps things calm and organized.”

  Once he had everyone’s attention, Ralph sat down on the edge of the table the same way he had sat on the edge of his desk in school. Sarah couldn’t help but laugh. A bit of mashed potato shot out of her mouth and landed on Jimmy’s shoulder, which only made her laugh harder. When she realized everyone was staring at her, she covered her mouth and ducked her head at Ralph, encouraging him to go on.

  “You haven’t changed much, have you, young lady?” Ralph grinned. “So, nothing eventful happened today. Except that we have these two visitors. I know them both. They were my students years ago. They were good kids, for the most part,” Ralph shot Jimmy an amused look. “I assume they’re good people now. They don’t seem interested in hurting anyone, anyway.”

  “I like Sarah. She seems nice.” Clarissa piped up.

  Sarah smiled, her mouth too full to offer thanks.

  “My wife tells me they don’t plan to stay. This is just a pitstop. Sarah’s looking for her husband. So Sarah’s going to bunk with Clarissa tonight, and Jimmy’s gonna stay with Mitch. In the morning, we’re going to set them up with some gasoline, and they’re going to head out. When they leave, the grocery team’s going to head into town.”

  “Who’s going?” Brad asked.

  “The list’ll be up in the information office in the morning. If any of you big, strapping boys want to volunteer, we’d appreciate it. Jeb, your family’s got breakfast duty. Any questions?”

  A woman Sarah hadn’t noticed before asked, “Have you seen anyone on your way here from New York?”

  “I ran into some military personnel a few days back,” Jimmy answered. “A guy and his dog. A family on their way to Texas.”

  “What about a woman and a little girl?”

  “No,” Jimmy said. “Sorry.”

  “He had a dog?” a little boy piped up. “And it wasn’t sick?”

  “Nope, it wasn’t sick. Nice dog, too. A golden retriever.”

  “Oh,” said the boy. “Our dog got sick. Daddy had to shoot him.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that, kiddo.”

  “Me too,” the little boy snuffled, wiping his nose on his shirt sleeve.

  The adults had to stifle a laugh.

  “What was the military doing?” one of the adults asked.

  “Uh, well,” Jimmy started.

  Martha cut him off with a pointed glance and turned to the teenager at her side. “Marcus, honey, why don’t you take the kids to the Play Place? Let us old people talk for a while.”

  Marcus rolled his eyes, and gathered up the kids.

  “Don’t forget your…”

  “It’s in my boot, like Mr. Ralph showed me. We’ll be fine, Mrs. Martha.”

  Martha smiled. “I’m sure you will, child.”

  The children, upon hearing their destination, began to shriek and argue over who got to slide into the balls first. When Marcus finally closed the door after the last one, Martha nodded at Jimmy.

  “I didn’t really stick around to find out,” Jimmy continued. “I heard gunshots, and screaming, and…there was a big line of cars between me and the checkpoint, so I turned off at the next exit, and found another way. That’s how I ended up at Sarah’s, actually. Weird twist of fate, I guess.”

  Another lie. Jimmy was definitely hiding something.

  “Our turn,” Sarah said. “Why are you all here? Why haven’t you headed to the outpost they’ve been chattering about on the radio?”

  “Same reason you found another way,” one of the dads responded. “We don’t trust the government.”

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t get your name,” Jimmy said. He always was good at pretending he was polite.

  “Tyrell.”

  “I think that’s a good judgment call, Tyrell. I don’t trust the government, either. But according to the guy on the radio, the outpost doesn’t belong to the government.”

  “We don’t trust those people, either. Why are they going to all this trouble to round everyone up? There’s about forty of us here, and we’re struggling to feed everyone, and keep everyone safe. And it’s only been a week and a half since this thing first hit the papers. A week and a half! They say they’ve got a hundred and fifty people within their walls. How are they going to support everyone without government involvement? How?”

  “That’s a very good question, Tyrell. I don’t know the answer. How are you folks supporting yourselves?”

  “Mostly by searching the stores. But Ralph is teaching us to hunt, and what to watch out for in a sick animal.”

  “I’m sure they’re doing similar things,” Jimmy replied. “Maybe they’ve started a garden in case they have to support everyone long term. They’d only need to stop in to Walmart for everything they needed.”

  “How do you defend something that big?”

  “You set up a perimeter. Have rotating guards at key points. Create a system for quick communication between posts and guards within the village. Everyone who’s able helps with all the chores, including guard duty. It’s not easy, but it’s doable if everyone pitches in.”

  “What about the kids?”

  “What about them?”

  “What do they do while their parents are on guard duty, and whatever?”

  “I mean, have you forgotten how our society worked?” Jimmy asked, exasperation plain in his voice. “In a week and a half? Keep the good, leave the bad. Want to set up a school? Set up a school. If you like the idea of daycare, set up a daycare. If you don’t, don’t schedule parents on the same shift unless they have someone who can take the kids. It’s not rocket science.”

  “Sorry, Jimmy,” Ralph said. “They’re all just really scared.”

  “It’s okay,” Jimmy smiled at Tyrell. “I understand.”

  “I still don’t trust it,” Tyrell grumbled.

  “Lucky for you, you don’t have to. Seems to me like y’all got a good thing going here. You’re on a main highway at the edge of popular hunting grounds and less than fifteen minutes from town. Hell, there’s even space for you to put in a garden. ”

  “Yeah. Thank goodness we found this place.”

  “Do all of you have weapons?”

  “All of us except the children,” Ralph answered. “We just don’t all brandish them at every visitor we have. You’d see them if we felt like you needed to.”

  “Ralph?” Sarah broke in. “Jimmy and I are gonna go grab some things from the truck. How long do we have till y’all are ready to walk home?”

  “Not long. And you shouldn’t be outside for long. They’ll smell you, and we’ll be dealing with a swarm.”

  “Okay, we’ll be right back.”

  ———————

  “Those people are kinda weird,” Sarah said, once they were alone. She angled their path toward the front of the building so she could collect the gun she’d stashed there.

  “They’re just scared,” Jimmy replied. “You wanna stick around tomorrow and make their grocery trip easier?”

  “Not really.”

  “Ha. Sarah’s not the white knight anymore?”

  “They don’t need a white knight. They seem to have things pretty much under control. And we don’t need any more responsibility. Besides, we’ve got somewhere to be.”

  “What’s that noise?”

  Sarah had reached the back of the truck. She opened the tailgate and pulled a duffle out of the bed. “What noise?”

  “Well, stop being so loud and you’ll fucking hear it.”

  “Oh no.”

  “What?”

  “Shh!” Sarah waved a hand at Jimmy. She whispered, “That’s the noise that Tom was making. I think it means they’re here. We need to get back inside.�
��

  “I see something moving.”

  “Where?” Sarah spun to see what he was looking at.

  Between them and the building, a few of the monsters were steadily making their way into their path to cut them off from the doors.

  “Oh, fuck. Now what?”

  “Where the fuck did they come from? I didn’t see them when we came out here.”

  Sarah fished around in the duffle for the night vision headsets for a second before remembering they were in the cab. Her hand closed on the handle of a flashlight. She pulled out the flashlight, zipped the duffle and swung it over her shoulder.

  “They’ll see you,” Jimmy whispered harshly.

  Sarah stared at him dumbly for a moment, then rolled her eyes.

  “They already see us. That’s why they’re cutting us off. We need to see them.” Sarah flicked the light on facing away from the monsters. The light gleamed off at least twenty pairs of eyes all staring back at her. “Jimmy…get in the truck.”

  Jimmy was standing next to the passenger door watching the monsters between them and the building.

  “What’s the matter?” he asked, without turning around.

  As Sarah watched, two of the monsters shot out of each side. Sarah lost track of them when they passed through the edges of the flashlight’s beam.

  “Jimmy, get in the truck.”

  “What is it, Sarah?”

  Two of the slower monsters from each side started ambling in the directions the last four had gone. Sarah pushed the suitcase back into the bed of the truck.

  “Get in the truck, Jimmy.”

  Jimmy finally turned around to see what Sarah was looking at. “Oh, shit!”

  “Get in the truck, Jimmy. Get in the truck. Get in the fucking truck, Jimmy!”

  Jimmy yanked open the passenger door. Sarah slammed the tailgate shut and ran for the driver side. She yanked on the handle, but the door didn’t budge. She pounded on the glass.

  “Unlock the door, Jimmy!”

  Jimmy just stared at her for a minute. Sarah looked over her shoulder. One of those things was standing less than five feet away from her.

  “Jimmy, what the fuck are you doing? Unlock the fucking door! Let me in!”

  Slowly, as if he were in a trance, Jimmy reached for the door and flicked the lock. Sarah snatched the door open. As she climbed into the seat, the thing behind her broke into a run. Sarah slammed the door behind her and locked it just in time. The rest of the runners surrounded the car, while the slower monsters stiffly walked toward it, angling themselves so that when they reached the truck, they could close it in.

  “The keys, Jimmy. Give me the keys!”

  “I thought you said you couldn’t drive,” Jimmy shouted as he fumbled the keys out of his pocket.

  He jammed the key in the ignition and cranked it. The second the engine sparked to life, Sarah jerked the truck into gear and floored it.

  “I lied,” she said, as the truck clobbered the runners in front and sped out of the parking lot.

  ———————

  When they’d put a few miles between them and the rest stop, Sarah finally let herself relax.

  “What the fuck was that?” Jimmy yelled.

  “A swarm, I’m guessing,” Sarah replied, almost calmly.

  “We need to find another place to stop,” Jimmy said. “That gas is only going to last about fifty miles. I can’t believe we just left. What about Mr. Bailey and the others? Those things are going to be a problem for them.”

  “They had weapons. Even that kid, Marcus, was packing.”

  “Yeah, but how many of them do you think are as good at shooting as you?”

  “What were we going to do? Stay in the parking lot and die? Lead those things right to them? All the runners followed us. The walkers seem to go where the runners go, so they’ll leave, too. But you know as well as I do that no matter what choice I made back there, we’re all gonna die if someone doesn’t figure out what the fuck is going on and fix it.”

  “It’s the zombie apocalypse.”

  “You keep saying that, but those things don’t act like any zombie movie I’ve ever seen.”

  “Where are we going, Sarah?”

  “I told you. Aberdeen.”

  “Right. Aberdeen, then Quantico. But we’re not military personnel.”

  “Khalid is.”

  “Khalid is married to your sister, not you. You’re not close enough relation. They’ll send you packing. They’ll definitely send me on my way. I’m not related to any of you.”

  Jimmy watched Sarah’s face for a moment. She locked her eyes on the road and tried to maintain a blank expression.

  Jimmy wasn’t fooled. “You know all this. We’re only stopping at those places to see if your family’s there. So what’s our end game. Where are we going?”

  “To Max’s parents’ cabin in Big Bear Lake.”

  “What? Sarah, that’s all the way across the country! Why don’t we all just go back to Khalid’s house? It seemed relatively safe.”

  “Because I have to find Max, Jimmy. Max is going to Big Bear Lake. And so is Khalid.”

  “Great. We get to rub elbows with all the muckety-muck zombie celebrities. That’ll be fun.”

  Sarah laughed.

  “If we don’t have to pick our way around blocked roads and search for gas,” she said, “we can probably get there in a week. We probably could have gotten there in four days before the…” Sarah grinned and glanced at Jimmy, “zombie apocalypse.”

  Jimmy rolled his eyes. “The dick’s parents have a cabin in Big Bear Lake? Lucky bastards.”

  “Yep. We’ve vacationed there a couple times. It’s beautiful.” Sarah said. Then, “Fuck.”

  Jimmy looked out the windshield. “Fuck. Where’d that come from?”

  Sarah jammed the car into park and dropped her hands in her lap. “I conjured it up in my mind about forty miles back. I wanted to spend an hour trying to find a way around it.”

  “You don’t have to be a cunt about it.”

  Sarah cocked her right fist and slammed it into Jimmy’s face with all the force she could muster in the enclosed space of the truck’s cab.

  Jimmy closed his eyes and took a breath. “I suppose I deserved that.”

  Sarah punched him again.

  “That, too.”

  The way Jimmy just took it, accepted it, infuriated Sarah. She wasn’t sure she’d stop if she punched him again, so she flung open the truck door, and leaped out.

  “Sarah, what the fuck are you doing? It’s dark out! Where are you going?”

  “The streetlights are on. Must run on solar. I’ll be fine.”

  Sarah snatched open the back door and wrestled the AK47s out of the backseat. She handed one to Jimmy over the seat, then put both the lock boxes on the front seat. She unlocked them both and shoved one toward Jimmy.

  “Go dump one of the duffles and put as many clips as you can comfortably carry inside. It’s important that you don’t overestimate. We have quite a walk in front of us.”

  “A walk? Sarah, are you insane?”

  “Nope, just sick of looking for alternate routes. Look,” Sarah tossed her head in the direction of the overpass while she stuffed fists full of ammo in her pockets. “We can see the front of this jam, I just don’t know how far it is. We take as much as we can carry, leave the truck here, and pick a car toward the front that has a full tank of gas.”

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea. I mean, we’ve got a lot of supplies. We’re just gonna leave everything here?”

  “What’s the matter, Jimmy? Scared?”

  “Frankly? Yes.”

  “Good.” Sarah squared her shoulders and looked Jimmy right in the eye. “You should be scared. You’re with your ex-wife, who you terrorized for three of the six years she knew you, she’s a gun expert, and she has a gun. You should definitely be scared.”

  Jimmy’s jaw went slack. “Well, I wasn’t scared of you until right now.”


  Sarah grinned. “You always were a little slow on the uptake.”

  “So you’re gonna kill me? Just like that?”

  Sarah rolled her eyes. “I’m not gonna kill you unless you give me a reason. I’m not a killer. Jesus, Jimmy. Don’t you think that if I was just going to kill you for all the shit you put me through, I would have done it when we were living together?”