Mass Extinction Event (Book 9): Days 195 to 202

by Cross, Amy

  “I know.”

  “It'd be awfully premature to have a festival like that, and call it Survival Day of all things, if there's even the slightest chance of zombies still being around.”

  “I know that too.”

  “It seems like the kind of thing that the governors would have looked into.”

  “It sure does.”

  “Which means...” He pauses. “If you're right, this ceremony is going to be a little premature, to say the least.”

  “I'm not against the ceremony,” I tell him. “I'm for it, honestly. I want this whole nightmare to be over, I just don't think that it is. When you consider everything that happened, doesn't it seem a little absurd that two hundred days later we're already supposed to celebrate things getting back to normal?”

  “Well, when you put it like that...”

  “I think they're up to something,” I continue. “The governors, I mean. Tonight I felt something under my feet, as if there was some kind of energy source beneath the city streets. That shouldn't be the case, should it? If there's something down there, it's something they're keeping from us. I know I'm starting to sound completely paranoid, but I felt this... thing under my feet while I was in the cinema!”

  “Was this happening at the same time that the zombie was chasing you?”

  “You don't believe me,” I say with a sigh. “That's fine. I'm not sure that I would in your position. Sleep well, Julius.”

  I turn and start making my way up the stairs.

  “It's not that I don't believe you,” he calls after me, “it's just that it's a lot to take in at once. And to be honest, if you're right... I'm terrified.”

  Reaching the top of the stairs, I turn and look back down at him.

  “Do you really think they're back?” he asks, and I can hear the fear in his voice. “Is it really possible? We're about to celebrate everything starting to get back to normal. Are you really saying that you think it might all... fall apart again?”

  “I don't know,” I reply, even though I can feel a sense of dread in the pit of my belly. “Let's see how the rededication day goes. Let's see what happens next. Maybe – hopefully – I'm completely wrong.”

  Day 201

  Thomas

  “Why are we still here?”

  Standing in the parking lot outside the Moolio's restaurant, I wait for either Riley or Katrina to answer me. They're working on one of the cars, trying to get it hot-wired, and at first they seem to be ignoring me. Finally, however, Riley sits up and turn to me, but there's already a faint smile on his face.

  “I get it,” I continue, “the weather was bad yesterday, so we extended our stay a little. But it's fine today, it's dry, and it's almost 8am. We should have set off by now.”

  “Katrina's convinced that she can get this car started,” he replies, but I can tell that he's not being entirely honest. “You'd rather get home in style, wouldn't you?”

  “I just want to get there at all,” I say firmly. “My sister might be waiting for me, but she won't stick around forever.”

  “Tommy, the odds of your sister just -”

  “I'm going to go and find her!” I snap. “If she's not there, and she hasn't left some kind of message, then I'm going out to California. I already signed up to work out there, and I'll look for her on my days off. But right now, standing around here, I'm not achieving anything at all!”

  “Tommy -”

  “So I'm leaving today,” I add, before I have a chance to change my mind. “You can stay here, but I have several more days of walking ahead of me, and I have to start now. I can't sit around forever at some rundown diner.”

  “I think you'll find,” Riley replies, “that it's a rundown diner that's absolutely filled with delicious burgers.” He pauses. “But I understand, Tommy. Listen, once we get the car up and running, we'll come up behind you and pick you up. Provided you walk in a straight line, that is.”

  “I'll be going via Scottsville,” I tell him. “After that, if I don't find Martha, I'll be heading out to California.”

  ***

  “I'm gonna miss you, Tommy,” Riley says a short while later, as we stand at the side of the road. “I've only known you for, what, five days? Something like that. But you know what? You're an okay kinda guy.”

  He nudges my arm.

  “Thanks,” I reply. “It's been good. Hopefully I'll see you again soon.”

  “If you do happen to bump into your sister,” he continues, “put in a good word or two for me, okay? Let her know that there's a handsome guy headed her way, and that she'd better get ready.”

  I raise a skeptical eyebrow.

  “Gross,” Katrina says, watching us from nearby. “I almost want to start walking with you, Thomas.”

  “You'd miss me if I suddenly got chomped on by a zombie,” he tells her.

  She rolls her eyes again.

  “See you around,” I tell her. “Good luck with the car.”

  “Luck's for losers,” she replies with a grin. “I'll get the damn thing started, just you wait and see. Then we'll come cruising up behind you and, well, maybe we'll give you a ride.” She pauses. “I'll miss you too. I guess.”

  Suddenly Mikey starts yelling inside the restaurant, screaming his head off with threats and insults.

  “He'll miss you as well,” Riley says. “In his own special way, of course.”

  I hesitate for a moment, wondering what else I might say, but in truth I guess the moment is kind of over. I wish I had it in me to be eloquent and inspirational and all that stuff, but I've never really had much of a way with words. Sometimes I envy guys like Riley, they're so charismatic. At the same time, I know there's no point trying to be something you're not.

  “See you guys around,” I say, before turning and hauling my backpack over my shoulders, and then setting off along the road.

  “Enjoy the burgers!” Riley calls after me. “Remember, if you can't find a way to heat them, they should be fine raw! Maybe. Hopefully. Just don't blame me if you get the squits!”

  I can't help smiling. And as I continue to walk away, I realize that I'm genuinely going to miss Riley. Sure, he reminds me of my brother, but that's not the only reason. Riley tends to make situations feel lighter, and that's useful when the world seems to be going straight down the drain. I had to set off today, I couldn't sit around at that Moolio's place any longer, but I hope that sooner rather than later Riley and Katrina catch up to me. If they don't, I'll always wonder what happened to them, but then again I'm used to that.

  Martha.

  Melissa.

  Katie.

  There are so many people I wonder about. Even Toad, sometimes. I mean, I know I saw him get swamped by zombies, and I know I told Elizabeth a thousand times that we have to accept that he's dead. At the same time, deep down, I sometimes wonder whether some kind of action movie style miracle might have happened. Maybe he's out there somewhere living some kind of Mad Max lifestyle while he fights his way back to civilization. The truth, though, is that he's most likely either dead, or – worse – wandering around as a zombie by now.

  Maybe it's better, sometimes, not to know how some stories end.

  ***

  I walk on and on, with all sorts of thoughts filling my head. I find myself thinking back to everything that's happened since all this madness started, and to people I've lost like Amanda Quinn and Sarah Carter and poor old George. I used to live a nice, quiet, boring life before all this madness began, and over the past six months I figure I've had more excitement than I ever expected to have in my entire life. If all this chaos is really starting to come to an end, I'm looking forward to things being a lot more boring from now on. I've had enough adventures to last a lifetime.

  And then, after walking for about half an hour, I stop as I see a figure in the distance.

  Someone is walking along a road that intersects this one. From my perspective, this person is slowly but steadily wandering from right to left along the horizon, silhouetted a
gainst the gray sky. I feel a flicker of concern, and – although I tell myself to stop worrying – I can't shake the feeling that I should be careful. These days, strangers can be extremely dangerous, and I watch with caution as the figure reaches the intersection and then keeps going.

  Okay.

  Cool.

  He – or she – didn't see me.

  I wait as the figure keeps moving, and then I start walking again. I don't mean to be unfriendly, but I could really do without having to stop and meet some new person. So many of the people I've met have dragged me into drama, and right now my only aim is to get back to the farm and see whether there's any sign of Martha. Deep down, I know there's very little chance of her actually being there, but I'm clinging to the hope that maybe she left a note, telling me where to find her.

  As I walk, I keep my eyes on the distant figure.

  He or she is sure walking slowly, and slightly awkwardly. Almost like...

  I stop again as I realize that the figure seems to be stumbling a little, like...

  I swallow hard.

  It's not a zombie.

  The zombies are gone, they're all cleared up. That's what we were told. Then again, Katrina swore she saw one the other day, and now there's this figure. At least he or she is heading away from me, although after a moment the figure stops and then heads off the road, stumbling instead across the barren wasteland.

  He's heading back the way I just came, toward the Moolio's restaurant.

  “No,” I whisper, determined that I won't be delayed again. “It's not what it looks like. It can't be.”

  The figure is a good mile away at least, maybe more, so it's not as if I can see too clearly. I could just walk on and let it go, and figure that Riley and Katrina and that Mikey guy can look after themselves. At the same time, the figure is looking more and more weird, and finally I realize that I can't just walk away and leave the others to some random fate.

  Sighing, I head off the road and start hurrying past some of the abandoned buildings, until I'm a little closer to the figure and I can see him more clearly.

  My heart skips a beat as soon as I see his haggard, rotten face. A moment later, as if he sensed my presence, he turns and starts stumbling straight toward me, and I realize with a growing sense of horror that I can't fool myself any longer.

  This thing is a zombie!

  Thomas

  “Zombie!” I yell as I race through the main door of the restaurant and stop to look around, hoping to spot some sign of Riley and Katrina. “There's a zombie headed this way!”

  A moment later I hear a bumping, scuffling sound, and Riley comes stumbling out from one of the storage areas. He's busy pulling his pants back up, and he looks completely flustered.

  “What are you talking about?” he stammers. “What are you doing here, Thomas? You said you were leaving!”

  “There's a zombie,” I say, still breathless after running all the way back here. “I saw it, it's not that far away now and it's coming right for us. I saw it with my own eyes, it's -”

  Before I can finish, Katrina comes out of the same storage area, and she too is adjusting her clothing. I stare at her for a moment as I start to realize what they were doing while I was gone, and then I turn to Riley again.

  “Seriously?” he says. “You think after everything that's happened, a guy doesn't deserve a little fun?”

  “I told you two idiots that there are still zombies out there,” Katrina says, sounding distinctly annoyed. “Did you listen to me? No. No-one ever believes the girl, do they? You just thought I was some impressionable, easily spooked idiot.”

  “Actually,” Riley says, turning to her, “I thought you were trying to scare us for your own gain. So you could, like, rob us or something.”

  “Well...” She pauses. “Okay, I'll take that. It's a lot better than being taken for a fool.”

  “Okay, Tommy,” Riley continues, stepping toward me, “let's figure this all out. What exactly did you see, and where did you see it?”

  “I'd been walking for about half an hour,” I explain, “and suddenly I saw this figure in the distance. Something about it seemed off right from the start, but I told myself I was just over-reacting. And then, when it changed direction and started coming this way, I got more and more suspicious and I went to take a closer look, and I swear it's a zombie. Then it saw me and it started coming my way, so I figured I'd better come back here and warn you guys.”

  “Sweet,” Riley replies. “Thanks for the heads up.”

  “You could have just drawn it away,” Katrina mutters. “Sounds to me like you led it right toward us.”

  “I'm gonna kill you all!” Mikey sneers. “Do you hear me? Let me out of these ropes and I'll crack your heads open!”

  “He didn't change much while you were away,” Riley points out. “He's still an absolutely terrible negotiator.”

  “I'm going to get back to work on that car,” Katrina says. “I don't know why I haven't managed to get it started yet, it's as if there's something that's just not quite working somewhere deep in the guts of the thing.” She sighs as she heads to the door. “I miss the days when cars were simple, when you didn't need a computer to start the damn things up.”

  “Be careful out there,” Riley cautions her. “If Tommy's right, the zombie might only be about an hour away.”

  “If I'm right?” I reply, shocked that he still seems to have his doubts. “There's no if about this situation. I'm telling you, a zombie is headed straight for us.”

  “Back in New York, they said -”

  “I don't care!” I yell. “It's out there! For all I know, it might be the last zombie in the whole world, but I promise you it's coming this way, and we need to have a plan for when it gets here!”

  “We need to take the damn thing out,” he mutters, and there's only one way to do that.”

  “I know,” I reply, as I realize that we're going to have to fight again. “We need fire.”

  ***

  “This should do the trick,” Riley says a short while later, as he holds up a plastic tub in one of the storage rooms. “It's a cleaning solution, I've used it in the past. It goes up like gasoline.”

  “And how would you know that?” I ask.

  “Let's just say that I had a misspent youth,” he replies with a faint smile. “That, and I got fired from a lot of jobs in the kitchens of shitty restaurants. Fortunately, a lot of that ill-gotten knowledge has turned out to be pretty useful in the post-apocalyptic world. And to think, my old school teacher Mr. Firman said I'd never go anywhere in the world. Who's laughing now, Mr. Firman?”

  “Should we -”

  “Do you know,” he continues, “that asshole used to give me detention every single day, even before I'd done anything wrong? He just said it saved time to have my name automatically put in the book each morning. Can you believe that? There was this one time when I was just tired and I -”

  “Later!” I say firmly, grabbing him by the shoulders. “You can tell me all about that later! Right now, we have to deal with the zombie situation.”

  “Sure,” he replies, “sorry. I guess I still have to work through some stuff.”

  “This way,” I say, leading him out of the room.

  “He had this stupid mustache,” he continues. “I mean, I'm not against mustaches, but you have to be able to grow them right. And let me tell you, Mr. Firman was no -”

  “It's here!” Katrina yells, suddenly bursting through from the parking lot and then turning to slam the double doors shut. “I saw it!”

  “I was pretty good at killing zombies when this all started,” Riley mutters, “and I don't think I've lost any of that ability. In fact, I think I'm actually looking forward to this.”

  We head to the doors, but Katrina blocks our way. She looks absolutely terrified.

  “It's close!” she says. “I was keeping an eye out, but it still got to within about twenty feet of me. It's quieter than most zombies, it doesn't make that shuffling so
und. It looks... fresher, somehow.” She sighs. “The damn thing arrived just as I was making progress. I finally figured out what I was doing wrong, I was about thirty seconds away from getting that car started, and then I heard a snarling sound. Thirty seconds!”

  “I don't see anything,” I say, as I look out through the large, floor-to-ceiling windows.

  “I'll kill you all!” Mikey shouts.

  “Join the queue,” Riley mutters. “Katrina, I have to get out there.”

  She shakes her head.

  “I have to kill the damn thing,” he continues. “Come on, what's the alternative? Just let it wander around? All I need to do is douse it in this cleaning stuff and then strike a match. It'll go up like a bonfire.”

  “We need to get eyes on it first,” she points out. “We need to make sure it can't sneak up on you.”

  “And how's it supposed to do that?” he asks. “Zombies aren't exactly known for their speed.”

  “We still have to be careful,” she replies, and she sounds as if she's really starting to panic now. “I've seen this too many times in the past, Riley. People get cocky, they think they've got the upper hand and then -”

  “There!” I yell, pointing toward the far end of the parking lot, where a figure is stumbling into view from behind the treeline.

  “That's not the one I saw,” Katrina says, after turning to take a look. “Guys, that's a different one.”

  “Two zombies at once?” Riley replies, sounding skeptical. “Seriously? We go months without seeing a single zombie, and then two of them show up at the same time? Doesn't that strike anyone as being a little -”

  “There's another one!” I point out, as I spot a third zombie lumbering into view.

  “Okay,” Riley says with a sigh, “but -”

  Suddenly another zombie slams into the double doors directly behind Katrina. She lets out a horrified yelp as she spins around, but then she grabs a mop and slides it between the handles so that the doors can't be opened. A moment later, the zombie starts pushing against the doors and snarling as it finds that it can't get into the building.