“If it’s only affected people in this specific area, maybe they have a predisposition to the disease… or bioweapon… whatever it is,” replied Joe.
“But Wolf died, and he’s from Germany,” said Sara. Harper’s step faltered at the mention of Wolf’s name, but she continued to put one foot in front of the other. “I’m sorry, Harper,” said Sara, taking her hand briefly.
“It’s okay,” Harper replied. “You could be right, Joe.”
Ahead of them was a glass-fronted store that glowed brightly on the dimly lit street. As they got closer, Harper could see graffiti scrawled on the side of the building—foreign words she could not understand, written by people now likely dead. There were two overflowing dumpsters hugging the dirty wall, and several large, brown rodents scurried down the alley as they approached.
“It’s a small convenience store,” said Joe. “Let’s go in and get some food and water. Just in case. We don’t know how long we’ll need to walk before we get to a clear road.” Harper and Sara agreed and they stopped at the store.
The automatic doors slid open noiselessly. They stepped inside and began perusing the aisles, selecting snacks and stuffing them into their smaller backpacks. Harper picked up a bag of potato chips and opened the foil packet, before cramming a small handful of the salty crisps into her mouth. She was walking toward a fridge containing cold drinks when the lights inside the store went out.
Harper froze, her hands clenched in fists by her side. The sudden darkness caused fear to roil her body. She pushed down the terrifying memories.
He’s not here. You’re fine. You’re fine.
In an oddly detached way, she knew that the extreme stress of the situation was causing her flashbacks to be more intense, more real. But that thought didn’t help.
She shook her head, clearing her mind as best she could. Her eyes adjusted fast, and she spun around and ran to the front of the store where a small amount of light came through the glass. She bent low and took cover behind a rack containing glossy magazines. “What the hell!” said Joe in a low voice from behind her. “Are you guys okay?”
“I’m up front,” called Harper quietly. “Be quiet, stay down. I’m trying to see what’s going on.” She heard the others moving furtively behind her and she returned her attention outside.
All the street lamps up and down the road as far as she could see were out. The road beyond the store was completely dark. The lights in the concrete apartment blocks lining the road had also been extinguished. It was dark, but there were no threatening sounds coming from outside the shop.
Sara and Joe appeared by her side. With each slow, deep breath, her heart rate returned to normal. “I can’t see anything out there,” she said to the others. “Let’s wait a bit longer, just in case.”
After several long moments, Harper stood and crept to the automatic door. They didn’t move as she approached—the sensor was dead. Harper reached out and tried to pry the doors open but they wouldn’t budge. “The doors are locked,” she whispered to the others. “We’re trapped in here.”
Chapter Eight
Facing the locked doors, the space felt like it was closing in around her. It was almost like being underground in the cave again. Harper felt her senses sharpening. She could hear the others approaching behind her, but she didn’t take her eyes off the street outside.
“Stay here,” she said to them. “Keep a look out.”
“For what?” whispered Sara.
“I don’t know, but we don’t want to be caught unawares. The electricity has cut out, we are surrounded by a dead city… just keep an eye out.”
Sara pressed her face against the glass door. “I’m watching.”
Harper reached up and felt around the doorframe. Her probing fingers found a square box and a keyhole on the right-hand side of the doors. “I’m going to check for a key. We may be able to release the doors.”
“I’ll come with you,” whispered Joe.
Harper stepped lightly toward the cashier, Joe close behind. At the side of the counter they found a small gate that latched from the inside. Harper reached in and slid the latch back and the gate opened with a low creak. She slid her rucksack off her back and leaned it against the wall.
She felt Joe’s hand on her arm and she spun to face him. They were less than a foot apart. The darkness hid his features, but she knew every inch of his face by heart. After a beat he spoke in a low voice. “Do you want me to look for the key?” Her fingers found his in the dark and squeezed.
“Just wait here for me.”
Harper took a slow step forward, her foot feeling blindly. She took another step and her foot touched something soft and heavy on the ground. “I think there’s someone back here,” she whispered to Joe. In the small space, there was no way around. Harper winced as she trod on the body. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered.
She put one hand on the counter and tried to lean her weight on the counter rather than the person lying on the floor. Underfoot she felt firm leg muscles and then a soft abdomen. She felt for a key along the top of the counter as she went. Her hands found the cash register and a spiral notepad with a click-top pen, which she clicked out and in out of habit. “No keys,” she whispered to Joe.
“Is there a door behind you?” asked Joe. “There might be another room.”
Harper kept one hand on the counter for balance and reached out with her other until she found the opposite wall. She trailed her hand as she moved carefully over the body, finally finding a space where her feet could touch the ground. As she did so, her trailing hand found a doorway. “Yes, there’s a doorway. But it’s completely pitch black.”
“Your phone light!” said Joe. “Why didn’t I think of that before?”
“Good idea.”
Harper slid a phone out of her pocket and tapped the screen but it remained black. “This must be Wolf’s,” she whispered. As she said his name, the razor wire was back.
“Have you got your phone?” asked Joe. But Harper couldn’t speak. She inhaled deeply to stop her hitching breath.
“Are you okay?”
She pulled the second phone from her pocket and tapped the screen; twenty percent battery life left. She turned on the light and pressed her hand over it on instinct to prevent someone outside from seeing them—but is there anyone left to see us?—transforming the white light into a dim, red illumination.
“Harper, are you okay?” repeated Joe. She glanced at him and saw his chiseled, handsome face lit by the paltry glow under her hand.
“I’m not okay,” she replied. Her eyes dropped to the ground and she saw a young man’s head next to her hiking boots, twin rivulets of blood tracing their way from his nose to his mouth. She looked into the dark space beyond the doorway, “We have no choice but to keep going. I’ll check the back room for the key.”
Harper stepped through the doorway and found herself in a small storeroom lined with shelves that were stacked with surplus stock. On the far wall was a heavy wooden door with a deadlock. She crossed the space and twisted the handle; It opened with a satisfying click. She paused and listened. She couldn’t hear anything outside, so she cracked opened the door just enough to peer out into the darkness beyond.
Her breathing intensified and her heart was jack-hammering in her ears as she scanned the alley beyond. Across the narrow alley there was a row of two and three-story buildings which were lit only by the light of the moon in the inky sky above. Small concrete balconies, just wide enough to step out and stare at the building opposite, were imbedded at regular intervals in the buildings. There was no one out there, but she could still smell something burning.
Harper shut the door. “Joe,” she said quietly. She crossed the small space and stood in the doorway. She pressed the torch to her chest to dull the light. “Joe?”
“Yes, I’m here,” he replied.
“I found a door into the alley out the back.”
“That’s good news,” he said. “Sara, we’ve got a way
out.”
“Did you see anything, Sara?” asked Harper.
“No, nothing. It’s dark out there, but I didn’t see anyone.”
“Take some food and drinks before we leave,” said Harper. “Let’s move quickly. So much time has passed already.” She could imagine millions flooding the borders, the country going down like a sinking ship.
Harper shone her light on the ground and took one long step over the body, then walked with the others to the closest aisle. She kept the phone light low, her hand partially obscuring the beam. With her other hand, she grabbed bars and packets of food from the shelf indiscriminately, and dropped them into her backpack. Her mind flashed to the object they found in the cave which was now buried under candy bars.
“Are you guys done?” she asked.
“Almost,” replied Sara. “I’m just getting some water.”
Harper waited for the others by the cashier, her fingers drumming the countertop. She faced the wall of glass and continued to watch for movement outside. The others soon joined her and Harper hoisted her rucksack onto her back. “Watch out, there’s a dead man back there,” she said to them.
Harper went first, gingerly stepping over the body and waiting in the doorway for the others. She shone the light on the ground so they could see the man. Soon they were all in the small storeroom. “Hey, there’s a baseball bat,” said Joe, picking up the object from where it leaned in the corner, holding it close to him. “Just in case.”
“In case of what?” asked Sara. Harper could see her eyebrows knotting together, her frown.
“It makes sense, there could be wild animals,” replied Harper reassuringly.
Joe looked at the man on the floor. “Do you think he was a player, or it was just a rough neighborhood?” Harper could tell he was trying to keep his voice light, but he still clutched the bat tightly in his grip.
“Okay, let’s go,” Harper said. She twisted the deadbolt and opened the door. “I’m going to kill the light,” she whispered, putting her phone away.
Harper peered into the alley and looked first one way, and then the other. No one. She walked to the corner of the building and turned left. She could see the overflowing bins resting against the wall and beyond, at the end of the alley, was the road. She took a step and a rodent darted away from her foot, disappearing down a dark, narrow gap between two buildings.
“Those rats will have a field day,” said Sara. “The city is all theirs now.” They reached the road and stopped at the front of the locked, dark convenience store.
“What made all the lights turn off?” asked Harper. She pointed further down the road where another part of the city was still illuminated. “Over there the lights are still on. So it’s not the whole city that’s had a blackout.”
“I’m not sure what happened,” replied Joe. “Electricity pylons could’ve been damaged when this pandemic hit, or there might be a problem at the substation. If there’s no one there to fix the faults, the whole city will be dark soon.” He pulled his phone from his pocket. “I just want to check the route once more. Hold on.” He tapped his phone, but the screen remained dark. He swore. “Shit. My phone’s dead. Harper?”
Harper tapped her phone screen. “I’ve only got ten percent,” she replied, her brow furrowing at the battery symbol, which had turned red.
“Check the route,” urged Joe.
“We might need to stop somewhere with electricity and charge our phones,” said Harper. The image took a few moments to load, but soon she had a map of Bratislava on her screen. “Okay, we’re on the right road. We just stay on this one and it joins the highway. Then it’s north in a straight line to the border where my dad said the quarantine-processing center is.”
“Thanks.” Joe said, but then paused and looked between the other two. He reached out and touched them both on the arm. “Are you guys doing okay?” he asked.
Harper resisted the urge to put her arms around him and collapse against him. Joe had always been the dependable one. But now was not the time to fall apart.
“Define ‘okay’,” replied Sara. She tucked her hair behind her ears and looked up at the sky. Harper followed her gaze, and the stars above, smeared with a haze of smoke, felt heavy and oppressive. “I’d say we are decidedly not ‘okay’,” continued Sara. Her voice rose an octave, and she swallowed hard before staring at the ground.
“We’ll make it out of here, Sara,” said Harper. She took Sara’s hand in her own and stared at her, willing her to look up. Sara finally made eye contact, her green eyes wet in the moonlight, and smiled grimly at Harper.
They walked in silence for a while, each lost in their own thoughts. Over the sound of their footfall, Harper heard a faint hissing. “Do you guys hear that?” she asked, stopping by a pale blue sedan that had mounted the curb and crashed into a wall. Colorful bricks decorated with the remnants of graffiti had come down on the bonnet of the car.
“I can hear something, it’s coming from further up the road.” Joe tightened his grip on the baseball bat and they picked up their pace, walking quickly toward the sound.
They walked another thirty feet before Harper saw it. “Over there,” she said, pulling the others to the side of the road and pointing to the opposite side. A utility vehicle had crashed into an electrical pole which was bent at a forty-five degree angle. A wire had broken free and was dangling over a metal fence that ran parallel to the road.
“That sound is the electricity conducting through the fence,” commented Joe. “Walk wide of it. The ground itself can become electrified to a dangerous level.”
They passed the downed electrical line and continued along the dark road. “We’re almost out of the dark zone,” said Sara. About a mile away, small orange and white lights dotted the landscape.
“There are so many dead here,” said Harper. “It looks like this thing just washed over the city, killing everyone in its path.”
Sara nodded sadly. “It’s almost impossible to get your head around.” They came to an old, white minivan in the middle of the road, surrounded by cars on all sides. There were peeling stickers on the rear window and Harper’s eyes tracked backwards as they passed, trying to make out the images in the dark. But what she saw stopped her heart cold.
“There’s something watching us from inside that van,” choked out Harper, grabbing the others and pulling them behind the closest car. Joe peered over the bonnet and stared at the van’s black window. “I don’t see anything.”
“I’m not imagining it, Joe.”
“Well, what do you want to do?”
Harper released her grip on him and raised her face above the bonnet. The van looked empty. “Maybe it was a trick of the light.” She took a tentative step forward. “But I swear I saw eyes shining in the moonlight. I’m going closer.”
“I’ll come with you,” said Joe. “Sara, you can stay here if you like.”
Sara stood where she was, watching the other two approach the van. They were a few feet away from the rear window when Sara said, “Wait for me,” and covered the distance to them.
Harper smiled a tight, nervous smile at her, and they continued toward the van. “I don’t see anything,” whisper Joe. He moved his face forward until his eyes were only an inch from the glass. He raised his hand to peer through the window when eyes appeared on the other side and a loud growl emanated from the van. Joe jumped back, tripping over his feet and cursing. “It’s okay,” said Sara, sounding faintly bemused. “It’s just a dog.”
Chapter Nine
Joe laughed nervously, but his face was ashen and his hand shook as he brushed his hair from his face. “Just great,” he said. “I survive the fucking plague, only to die from a canine-induced heart attack.”
“We should let him out,” said Sara.
Joe grimaced. “Did you hear him growling? Give me a break.”
“I think Sara is right,” said Harper. She thought of her own dog back in Sydney. Rusty, the mutt she found on their street half-starved a
decade ago. “If that were my dog, I would want someone to let him out and give him a chance to survive. If we leave him in there, he’ll be dead by tomorrow. Especially if it’s a hot day.”
“What if he attacks us?” Joe picked up the baseball bat and swung it in one hand.
“He’ll probably run off scared. I’ll try to open the van.”
“Harper, be careful…” Sara warned, but Harper was already at the van and feeling around for a door handle. She found it and opened up the rear door, jumping back out of the dog’s path. In spite of her bravado, Harper felt nervous and she clasped her hands together.
They all froze, watching the dark, gaping hole beneath the rear door. No one said anything as they waited for the dog to make its move. Then, a low, squat shape jumped inelegantly from the van. He stood for a moment on the road, wagging his tail and looking at Harper with chocolate brown eyes.
“It’s okay, boy,” said Harper, dropping to one knee. “Come on boy, it’s okay.” She could tell instantly the dog posed no threat. She held out her hand and continued to speak in soft, sweet tones. The dog approached warily, his wet nose twitching as it neared Harper’s hand.
“Poor guy,” said Harper, reaching out and stroking the dog’s head. She ran her hand down his back, feeling his soft warmth. He thrust his nose into her chest, sniffing at her backpack.
“He looks like Aunty Bessy’s dog,” said Sara, coming closer. “Don’t you think, Joe?”
Joe crouched down too and let the dog sniff his hand. “Yes, he’s a beagle. What a good boy.” As he petted the dog, the animal rolled over and lifted one leg so Joe could scratch his stomach. Joe happily obliged and the dog wagged his tail harder, letting out a low woof.
“Okay then, now we’ve freed the beast, let’s go,” said Sara. “We need to get to a clear road soon, remember?”
“You’re right,” said Joe. “We’ll take this guy with us. I get a lucky feeling about him. Us survivors have to stick together, right boy?” The dog lifted his head and gave another quiet woof, as if in agreement.
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