by T. W. Brown
***
Jason felt that instant fear that comes when the breath is knocked from a person. There is a period of time when there is a sense that you may never be able to inhale again. The harder you try, the more that fear escalates. At the moment, Jason was at the peak of that fear. When something fell on him, he was certain that death was imminent. His only consolation came in the fact that he would not be letting loose with one of those horrible screams as he was ripped apart. He could barely make the weak croaking noise that was escaping his lips at the moment.
Then, another noise came and something shifted on his back. A head rolled over his shoulder and landed on its side just a few inches from his face. The head belonged to a man. Its shaggy and bedraggled appearance made it a logical guess that this man had been homeless. Through the involuntary tears that had started to fill Jason’s eyes, he could still see the mouth moving and the filmy, tracer-ridden eyes shifting back and forth.
There was another dull thud and a body fell right next to him, thankfully blocking the view of that head. Something gripped him by the collar of his jacket and tugged. Jason braced for the end.
“C’mon, try to stand,” Rose’s voice filtered in through the haze of fear and pain. That was when he began to realize that there was something wrong with his left ankle.
Jason was rolled onto his back and found himself looking up at Rose. There was just enough light in the sky to make the shadows partially hide her features. In that moment, she was amazingly beautiful.
“Erin took off. We need to get moving.” Her head popped up and the sun washed over all of it, chasing away those shadows for just a moment. And that was when he saw them.
Jason fought to move, but remained helpless for several seconds before some of the control returned. As he regained his ability to move and breathe, he was momentarily thankful. He had seen the tracers starting to work into the whites of Rose’s eyes. Yet, because he had been incapacitated for the most part, she had not seen his feelings of pity that were churning in his gut.
“Help me up,” he managed to croak at last.
“Erin left us.” Rose pointed up the street in the direction towards Legacy Hospital.
“Then we better get moving.” Jason took slow, painful steps at first with his arm slung over Rose’s shoulder.
Together they made their way to the corner. By now, the sounds of grenades and gunfire had ended. However, now the screams of the dying and the moans of the undead had filled in the silence of a city that was spiraling into the abyss of total loss. Portland, Oregon would fall to the zombies. Of that there could be no doubt.
By the time that they reached the entrance to the parking lot, they had passed at least a dozen people going the other direction. All of them were looking over their shoulders in horror. A few simply stumbled by in absolute shock, their faces void of anything resembling emotion. In many cases, they could have been mistaken for the undead.
“Stay close,” Jason whispered.
It was practically a needless request since Rose had pressed herself against him once they began to encounter the living stragglers. The symphony of pain and panic continued to come at irregular intervals from the gigantic hospital complex.
As they neared, strange lumpy figures became visible. It took Jason a moment to realize that he was seeing the broken bodies of people who had leapt to their deaths. His eyes tracked up to some of the top floors and noticed at least a dozen windows that had been busted out. He seemed to recall someplace that hospital windows were not just regular glass. He might have been wrong, but that did not diminish the fact that people had chosen to plummet to their deaths rather than face whatever was inside that large brick building.
The doors to the emergency entrance were gone. Actually, Jason corrected himself, that was only partially true. A small car had driven into the large double-doors. It had apparently backed out at least partway; presumably to allow the occupants the ability to exit the vehicle. Of course, if it had been bad when he’d left so many hours ago, he could not imagine that it had gotten better.
“Umm…” Rose was tugging on his sleeve.
Jason swiveled to look in the direction that the woman pointed. Coming across the parking lot were five individuals in some sort of body armor. They were coming at a sprint and waving for everybody to flee. In the midst of these people, Erin was running beside a woman with short red hair.
“Come on,” Jason urged as he tugged at Rose’s arm.
“But that’s Erin.” Rose tried to pull away as she pointed emphatically with her free hand.
“Yes, and she is waving us away. I have a bad feeling about—”
Before he could complete that sentence, there was a tremendous explosion from just down the gradual slope and around the corner of the hospital. A ball of fire rose straight up. It poked out and roiled from black smoke and a grayish cloud that matched the fire’s race skyward. Second later, huge chunks of rock and metal began to rain down on the parking lot.
The sounds of heavy impacts smashing the hoods, roofs, and windshield of the various cars in the lot added to the cacophony of ear-splitting noise. Jason gave Rose a yank and then started away as fast as he could limp on his injured ankle.
***
Rose sat in the back of the Volkswagen Beetle. If her car had been old, this thing was beyond ancient. However, it had been the car that Jason had hotwired for them. When Rose had asked why they didn’t try one of the newer, nicer vehicles in the parking lot of the brick Baptist church where he had led them as they fled the explosion and resulting fire that now raged a few blocks away at the hospital, his reply had been another in a string of revelations.
“Newer cars are not really prone to being hotwired as easily as older cars,” he explained. “I would not even know where to begin. Old cars are easy. Plus, they can take more punishment.”
That had been good enough for Rose. She turned her attention to Erin and the tall, much-too-skinny woman standing beside her. Her hair was that sort of orange that reminded her of Pippi Longstocking. It was cut short in a very fashionable style that hovered just above the shoulders. Her eyes were a hazel that swirled with flecks of gold and her skin did not look like it had ever seen the sun.
“Rose Tinnes,” she said by way of introducing herself once everybody had climbed in the car with Erin and Jason up front and her in back with this stranger.
“Cheryl O’Hara, but just call me Cherry.”
And then they were moving. The buildings whizzed by and it was not long before she was absolutely lost. She didn’t come downtown if she could help it, and this was just on the outskirts of the heart of the city.
Eventually they were back on I-5. That was when they passed the first military vehicle. Actually it was a six-truck convoy headed north to their south as Jason made for I-84. To the right, they passed the Rose Garden Arena. She knew it had changed names when some company had jumped in and bought the rights, but that had never seemed right. It had always been the Rose Garden. Smoke billowed up, pouring from the massive glass panels that were apparently missing in several places. The once-white exterior was smudged with black.
“So much for the FEMA centers,” Cherry sighed, looking out of the window past Rose.
“I can’t even imagine what hell must have happened inside that place,” Erin added.
“Probably worse than the hospital,” Cherry said. “With all that open space and the thousands of people who were already scared. Toss in the military, and I can’t fathom how anybody could make it out alive.”
The conversation continued, but Rose leaned back and shut her eyes. She could not shake the terrible headache. Also, she was probably being paranoid, but it seemed like everybody was looking at her funny. Erin’s friend Cherry was sitting with Erin’s machete in her lap for some reason.
She swallowed and tried to clear her throat a bit. That nasty taste had not gone away from the zombie slobber that had dripped into her mouth. She actually got a bit nauseous just thinking about
it, but the massive pounding in her temples and behind her eyes was even worse.
As they continued to drive, the conversation started to sound funny like her ears were stuffed with wet cotton. She began to shiver. The next minute, she would be burning up.
Maybe I will sick up that horrible slime that I swallowed and then feel better, Rose thought as she fell into a fitful sleep.
***
“I don’t see so much as a scratch on her,” Ken insisted. Still, he could not deny the signs of the dark tracers in her eyes when they peeled up her eyelid.
“I checked her from head to toe and back again,” Erin insisted, sounded annoyed. “I did not find anything. It doesn’t make sense.”
Jason stood across and was pinching his lip in deep thought. He had carried the woman in and laid her on the couch when he had arrived with Rose, Erin, and her friend. Ken noticed the man’s limp right away and called him out, asking if he’d been bitten. Of course, when Jason denied it, Ken had pushed the issue. He had been more than a little surprised when the convict began to strip off his clothing.
“You want a closer look?” Jason taunted as he dropped his pants to his ankles.
When he was told that it was Rose who actually needed checking, Erin had insisted that he and Jason wait out on the porch while she, Cherry, and Juanita inspected the unconscious woman. He’d been more than a caught off-guard when the black and white Border Collie had scooted out the door with them.
The dog had shown reluctance to return inside even after the inspection was complete and everybody now stood in the living room. The red Border Collie had reacted in quite the opposite manner. She had jumped up on the couch the moment that Rose had been laid down and was nestled in between the woman’s legs with her head peeking over and resting on one knee. The Golden Retriever seemed completely aloof and neither shied away from, nor paid any special attention to Rose.
“I think I might know,” Jason said. Every head swiveled in his direction. He seemed a bit uncomfortable all of a sudden and clasped his hands together in front of himself, his head rolling back so that he was looking up at the ceiling.
“Well?” Erin pressed after he had remained silent for several seconds.
“The gas station.” Jason let that statement hang in the air. Ken saw realization dawn on Erin’s face as she apparently recalled what had happened.
“What about a gas station?” Ken finally asked.
Jason went on to describe what had happened during the fill up, and how Rose had gotten a mouthful of slobber from one of the zombies. Ken listened and had to admit that the kid had a point. Nobody knew for certain how this stuff spread beyond a bite or maybe a scratch. So why wouldn’t it also be transmitted through something like getting a mouthful of zombie drool?
“That sucks,” Cherry finally said with a shake of her head.
“So what do we do?” Erin asked.
Ken was a bit surprised. Up to this point, the woman had been a freaking warrior. All of a sudden, she sounded tentative and…like a woman? He scolded himself mentally before he opened his mouth.
“We tie her down. Maybe she won’t die. Hell, maybe she will wake up in a few hours and be fine. Wouldn’t it be crazy if this worked like some sort of inoculation?” He knew that he was hoping for too much, but, to be honest, he had just gotten used to the idea of riding this thing out with these people.
“Sounds like a good idea to me,” Juanita said, leaning down and putting the back of her hand against Rose’s forehead. “And maybe some rags with cool water to help bring down the fever.”
“You women deal with that,” Ken said, hitching his pants and turning to Jason. “You and I need to deal with that hole in the fence.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
Ken was actually a bit surprised when the convict didn’t pitch a fit. In his experience, most convicts hated being put to work. Most of them would be happy to simply while away the days, months, and years, sleeping or watching television.
“Oh!” Jason pulled up and turned to the women. “When are your friends supposedly showing up?”
Erin shook her head. “Probably not for a while…if ever. They want to secure things at my house first before expanding. They think it would be foolish to try and defend more area than we are able.”
“That’s not a bad idea,” Jason admitted. “I understand how this place has a lot to offer, but maybe we shore up one dyke before trying to build another.”
“What did you say?” Cherry snarled.
Jason flushed and began to sputter. Erin’s scowl only seemed to fluster him more. Ken did not say a word and took in the whole situation. He knew damn well that the kid had not meant it as a nasty remark to the two women. He’d simply been trying to illustrate a point. He was actually considering the option of opening his mouth to defend the young man when Cherry broke out into a laugh.
“Ease up, convict,” she snickered, shooting a wink at Ken for good measure. “We ain’t that touchy. Bigger things to be worried about if you know what I mean.”
“So, are we leaving here?” Juanita asked.
“I think perhaps we should.” Erin gave a nod and looked around. “I think we should take everything we can load up, and make a few trips to transport what we can.”
“Umm…” Jason stepped forward and seemed a bit hesitant. Erin gave him a “go ahead” motion with her hands to get him to continue. “If you are suddenly so eager to ditch this place, how come you have stayed this long? You even came back with Ken after he took you home.”
Now it was Erin’s turn to look embarrassed. She glanced at Cherry and then turned back to Jason. Ken did not think that he was going to like the answer.
“The God’s honest reason is Cherry.” Everybody stood silently, waiting for her to continue. Now it was Ken’s turn to give the rolling hands gesture. “I went after her because I knew in my heart that she was alive. However,” she looked over at Jason and gave a sheepish bow of her head, “I also knew that I couldn’t do it alone. I’d have to have somebody there with me—”
“We were cannon fodder?” Jason exploded. “You just used us and put our lives in danger like that for your own selfish reasons?”
“You weren’t just cannon fodder,” Erin corrected. “You were back-up and support. I could not have done this without your help.”
“That’s bullshit,” Jason retorted. “You didn’t have to leave and come all the way back here. You could have stayed put and waited…you could have gone in after her.”
“When I lost contact with her, I had to assume that she was gone for good.” She looked at Ken. “When I got home, my friends told me that Cherry had gotten through to one of them and told them that she was doing her best to escape. When she called me—”
“You said to hell with us and put our asses on the line to save your friend.”
“She’s not JUST my friend,” Erin insisted.
“That girl…Rose?” Jason stepped up to Erin and glared down at her. “She is infected and probably won’t see the end of today because you needed to rescue your girlfriend or whatever the fuck you want to call her. That’s some messed up shit, I don’t care how you want to justify it.”
“I just—” Erin began, but this time it was Ken who cut her off.
“You need to leave.” Ken folded his arms across his chest. He did not have much common ground with the convict, but he was actually on the man’s side with this one. Sure, he had stayed at the house, but that did not excuse the woman’s actions.
She could go to her friends and do whatever it is they thought that they needed to do. He would get to work with the convict and shore up this spot. If nothing else, at least he would know who his neighbors were on one side. They could perhaps be there in support.
Or not.
After all, if this really was the end of the world and the zombie apocalypse was a reality, then there was no need to feel bad about taking care of number one. Hadn’t that Erin woman just displayed that in no uncertain terms?
Her motives were completely self-serving.
“Hit the bricks,” Jason snarled. He pushed past Erin and flung open the front door.
***
Jason stood on the porch. Erin and Cherry had left about an hour ago. He’d watched them leave. Despite his anger, he was torn. If some man had done the exact same thing to rescue his wife, Jason would have probably understood. He might have been a little miffed. If a mother had done it to save her child, he likely would have had absolutely no problem with it.
So why was he so mad? Why was Erin’s desire to save Cherry any different? Was he being a total hypocrite?
“We got a lot of work to do,” Ken’s voice called from somewhere deep inside the house. “I already checked the garage and that barn they have. We have some supplies, but we are gonna need to go out and find a few things.”
“We need to get busy,” Juanita whispered, causing Jason to jump. He hadn’t realized that the woman was right beside him.
“Was I out of line?” Jason asked as he turned to face Juanita.
She seemed to consider his question to the point where he was braced for an answer that he might not like. He’d certainly dragged enough doubt into his conscience.
“Not really.” Juanita gave a shake of the head, but then she levelled a gaze at him that let him know there was more to come. “However, she was only doing what she felt she needed to do. She wanted to save her loved one, and it is hard to find fault with a person in such matters.”
Jason gave her words some serious consideration. After all, hadn’t he been basically telling himself the exact same thing?
“How is Rose doing?” Jason asked, changing the subject.
“No real change. She opened her eyes and kept mumbling stuff about Violets or something.”
“That was her sister.” Jason had recalled hearing something like that when Erin had been around.
