The Long Way To Reno

by Mix, Michelle

  “No, I understand,” I said with a nod. He made sense to me.

  It was really dark, and something clanged loudly to the right of us. Turning off the flashlight, I waited and listened for anything more. The silence and the darkness was immense, and made my breath catch in my throat. Even when I felt his shoe kick my knee as he shifted, the sound of his axe dragging on the floor as he picked it up, I still felt alone and vulnerable. When nothing more happened, and I felt my heart rate return to normal, I turned the flashlight back on, keeping it focused on the floor between us. He relaxed, but resettled with the axe settled over his lap. He kept eating the gummy bears.

  To relax somewhat, I unclipped my hair. It was waist length, my bangs cut bluntly over my eyes – I’d also had it colored a brownish-blonde. But since I’d started working here, my black roots were showing. It was skanky Nevada stripper hair, my mom had said. I loved her compliments. Thinking about them only made me miss her and hope that she and dad were okay. I examined the length of my bangs, absently telling myself they had to be trimmed – my eyelashes kept getting caught at the ends. Running my fingers through the length to detangle it, I let my mind wander once more.

  Harley stopped eating and set the bag aside. He looked sick.

  I wasn’t familiar or comfortable with him, so I didn’t say anything – just gave him a look that said ‘I Told You So’. Even though I didn’t say anything. My dad hated that look. Called it the skank with attitude look. I missed him so badly that tears sprang to my eyes, but crying wasn’t helpful right now. I blinked rapidly and tried to focus on something else other than my dad’s gruff voice.

  “So…” Harley wiped his hands on his jeans. He had to belt them in place. I missed my Halo shirt. “What are we going to do?”

  “I dunno.” I flicked aside the strands that had come with my fingers during the combing. “Hang out for awhile? Avoid those guys?”

  “The infected?”

  “The Rabid,” I corrected, to which he gave me a look. “They act rabid. All snarly and growling and frantic…the infected sounds too Left4Dead.”

  “What’s that?”

  It startled me when people didn’t know video games. So I went blank for a few moments before I recovered. “Nothing. Seen ‘28 Weeks Later’?”

  “Oh, uh…no. No, actually. What’s that?”

  Great. A guy that don’t know stuff like that was someone who wasn’t going to get me at all.

  “I was thinking,” he said, rushing through my silence, “maybe we’ll wait, like, two hours. Until things blow over. There’s nothing in Fernley for those things outside to be completely worried about – they should have moved onto Reno by then.”

  “Do you think this happened everywhere?” I asked, imagining cities being destroyed by zombies and aliens that looked like the Maxx.

  “Yeah.” Harley folded his hands atop of his lap. He had long, girlish fingers. His nails were kind of long. Ew. “It’d be stupid to think it only happened here. There’s nothing here in Fernley to have things from another planet invading it. This happened all over…”

  Just to clarify, I then asked, “ You’ll just let me out? Go on by my own?”

  Harley blinked, then looked at me. Looked rather startled that this was even a consideration, then proceeded to look really uncomfortable. “Er…well, ah, see – “

  “Because I don’t need your help. I mean, don’t take it the wrong way, I’m not making it on my own, but you don’t look the hero type,” I said, flicking hair from my face. “I don’t think I could rely on you to protect me. I’m just making sure there’s, like, so you know I won’t be needing your help after getting out of here.”

  Harley looked at me again, still with that startled expression. I stared at him, waiting for him to acknowledge this.

  “Er…sure. I mean…I mean, yeah, I wasn’t planning – “

  “’You over them’, remember? Okay, as long’s that’s clear,” I said, nodding. “I just need your help finding my keys and letting me out. I’ll find somebody else who can do the job so you can go home.”

  Harley looked as if he didn’t know what to say, blinking repeatedly, and I didn’t have time for this. I looked away and wondered where my stupid keys were and how long the aliens were going to take conquering Fernley.

  This weird silence fell, and it wasn’t because of the warehouse’s environment – something was awkward between us. Like I’d insulted him or something. He still looked like he didn’t know what to say to me. I was starting to feel like I shouldn’t have said that aloud, so I changed the subject for him. Asked him about his New Year’s plans.

  It took him a good minute to even answer. When he did, he cleared his throat and heaved it out, as if he’d been having a hard time even talking.

  “New Year’s….uh, I was sort of expecting stuff to happen later on. I had plans for this New Year’s Eve. Me and the guys were going downtown. Well, they were going downtown, and I was going to meet up with this girl – “

  “You have a girlfriend?” I interrupted, almost in relief.

  “No. I mean, I met her, we were talking …” he trailed off, and I could tell from the look on his face that she just wasn’t into him. “Anyway, I was hoping to meet up with her. Grace. That’s…that’s her name. Grace. Novowitz.”

  “Huh.” I could only imagine a matching, boring personality for this guy – a chick that had all the right things to say to a guy.

  He sighed heavily. “She’s…well, I don’t think that’s going to happen. I tried to call her when things started – I made it to the break room, on this side?”

  There were two break rooms – one in the 1st, one in the 2nd half.

  “And I got to my phone to call people. She didn’t answer. So I was just…y’know…wondering…None of our phones were working,” he added. “There were people trying to call, and nothing. No one could get a signal. That’s when those aliens started breaking in through the windows.”

  “What’d they look like?” I asked, straining to hear anything moving in the still silence around us.

  “Big. Like the Maxx. Hump backs, these long, buff arms, and they were, like, dark blue. Their mouths started from here, “ he indicated his own jawline, then dropped to the center of his chest, “to here, with these – jillions of tiny, jagged, crooked teeth. I remember those teeth. Big hands. Claws. Picked up one of the guys, the little Pilipino guys? From the Safety Squad? Bit him right in half. They kept huffing, like, words. Like….”

  I was amused as he dropped his voice and growled out something that sounded like ‘Hunger’.

  He crossed his arms and squinted at the darkness above our heads. “And it was weird because while they were inside, they would like…usher the…the infected – the Rabid – like…go on. Get ‘em. Like that, y’know?”

  I tried to picture massive alien creatures ushering rabid zombies ahead of them, encouraging them to eat and attack what they could. The picture didn’t work because I couldn’t imagine the aliens’ appearance just right. I guess I just had to see it.

  “I ran back in here. But…I noticed that they…didn’t come in, just the…just the Rabid.” He trailed off again, thinking about this. I played with the flashlight and noticed that my Reeboks were splattered with blood. I wondered when that happened. The bells of my pants legs were stained as well. “Maybe they couldn’t fit through the doors.”

  I lifted an eyebrow. The concept seemed ridiculous. “The Rabid got in easily. Maybe that’s all they needed to do. You think they did that at Walmart, too?”

  Harley shrugged. When he looked down at his hands on his thighs, he concentrated on them hard. “I don’t want to know. That place was always full of…like, little kids and babies.”

  I had compassion somewhere in me. I just had to find it. I shrugged lamely in response.

  “So…what’s your name?”

  “Edith Fitzgerald,” I told him.

  He gave me a startled look, and then searched for my name badge again. It sti
ll wasn’t there, so he fumbled. “Oh. Huh. You don’t look like a –”

  “What do I look like?” I asked. I know what my name did to people. It wasn’t that common to find an Asian with a name like mine. Harley stammered and did the hand in hair thing.

  “Well…I don’t know. Just…not…like the others. You …you have a boyfriend?”

  “No. I was working on that.” I exhaled heavily, frowning. Wanting my chapstick. “It’s hard finding a good man. I’m sick of boys.”

  He had an amused smile on his face. “What – “

  “Anyway, I don’t. Just my parents. 298 friends on Facebook, 296 of which I’ve never met in person, and 20 friends on Xbox Live, none of which know I’m a chick. I have acquaintances, but…no one close. I find it hard to get along with girls, and it’s hard to be friends with boys because they always think they have a chance to sleep with me. I have standards.”

  He had this look on his face, one I’d seen way too often on my dad’s face. The one that said, God, this ho is stuck-up. He said that once, to my mom, and mom and I had a great laugh. Dad says the funniest things, like he’s so updated, and really, he’s this short guy that laughs too loud and says the most inappropriate things at the wrong time. I missed him terribly. The tears burned, and I struggled not to sniffle, even when my nose itched with the efforts. I didn’t want to cry because I didn’t want this dork making things all awkward between us.

  I twirled my hair, used the octopus clip to pin it back into place. Arranged the flowing ends neatly so that it looked somewhat decent. Ran my fingers over my bangs to make sure they were still flat and straight.

  Harley recovered. He was giving his worn, ugly shoes a hard stare, and I realized he was politely ignoring my efforts not to cry. That actually scored him a few points with me.

  We both stilled at the sound of movement. Both of us only looked up with silent starts at the sight of this guy stepping out from behind one of the shelves, and a couple of others moving slowly into view from the stairway nearby. Another one approached us from alongside the conveyor belts, and at that point, both of us shot to our feet.

  “Jesus, you scared me,” Harley exclaimed in thick relief, while I struggled to get my heart beating from the complete scare I’d just had. Those guys just appeared in front of us like ghosts – I swear to God, I could have wet my pants with the way they just snuck up on us.

  “You made it,” one of them commented, while I swallowed and tried to wet my tongue. I think my eyes were still pretty rounded at this point, taking them all in and realizing that they were looking at me. Pretty intently, I might add. With the way they stopped, they were facing against us as a group, and I started to get uncomfortable with the proximity. Some of them had hammers, axes, huge wrenches – properly armed in a sudden zombie/alien apocalypse.

  “Yeah,” Harley said in reply, and I heard him swallow. Glanced at him and saw that he looked pretty tense. Like, his neck had these tendons showing, and his face was this stern frown. His fists were clenched, and he’d taken a step back, holding onto his axe with one hand.

  I watched the guy from the conveyors walk over, and saw the gun in hand. Oh, good, he could shoot the Rabid when they converged on us. I guess, if they did.

  “Troy…you made it,” he said, and I recognized that voice. It was the main speaker of the group, Jeff. He had this ugly expression as he looked from Harley to me. That onceover he gave me made me so uncomfortable that I unconsciously stepped closer to Harley, like he could somehow block me from view. It seemed rather pathetic that I used the scrawny guy as cover.

  “Jeff…Travis, John, Chael,” Harley said tightly in response.

  “We got this safe place for you on the other side,” Jeff then said to me. “John’s going to take you there.”

  “I’m not staying here,” I said, glancing at this John person when he indicated for me to join him. “I’m waiting to go outside. I’m going home.”

  “It’s too dangerous out there for you,” Jeff said, exhaling through his nose. “C’mon, we got one of the rooms outfitted for a few days.”

  “No…I’m – I’m pretty much ready to go, now,” I said. “I’m going home. I have to go to Reno.”

  “She doesn’t want to stay here,” Harley said, speaking up suddenly. “We’re going to leave.”

  “You open those doors, you’ll let those things in,” Jeff snapped, and his voice actually made me cringe. It was too loud. Those things would hear him, didn’t he get that? “We got all the girls in the hall by Red. We’ll be watching over them until it’s safe outside.”

  “I don’t want to stay in here,” I insisted. “As soon as Harley opens that door, I’m leaving! I need to go home!”

  “Out of the way, Troy. Just walk away,” Jeff said to Harley, ignoring me. “It’s not like you can do anything – you’re one person. You go on ahead.”

  I just thought – NO. No, I didn’t want Harley to leave at that moment. I knew these guys were up to no good – suddenly, it was like – I felt like these guys were totally messing up the rules of survival. They were using this catastrophe for something heinous, and was so blatant about it - ! And I couldn’t stay here, because I would be part of their ugly crimes, and - ! Really, what human being thinks this way? How could they just take advantage of this chaos just to get their rocks off like this?

  In spite of the rising anger and outrage I felt, I also felt terrified. It felt more real to face off with this monster. Because it felt like I couldn’t escape. Not with the men surrounding us like this, with me having only Harley to - !

  My mind was racing, fear made me sweat again. I didn’t know what to do while Jeff said a few other things. I looked at Harley because I literally couldn’t think or even force up enough survival instinct to tell me what to do.

  He glanced at me, battling some internal situation of his own – I could see it in his tense face – and the eye contact we made was a clashing force of…desperation? I couldn’t quite fathom it to understand what it was. But once our eyes met, something clicked. Something that wasn’t there before suddenly dropped down between us, like this physical weight. I felt it. And, yet, I couldn’t quite process what it was as stark terror continued to render me this voiceless person.

  But his face tightened again. I heard the sweaty sound of skin against wood as his fingers tightened on the axe handle, and he was holding it within both hands, lifting it in front of him.

  “No,” he told Jeff, in this firm and…well, rather manly tone. It didn’t fit him. It didn’t sound like it should have come from him, but it did because I saw him say it.

  Something like relief and yet horror filled me because even if he fought for me, he was still outnumbered by the other guys. I actually started to feel bad. Like, I actually felt my greedy selfishness hit me from the inside, reprimanding me for being this way.

  “Stupid,” Jeff muttered, lifting the gun, and both of us froze at that moment. I’d never looked into a barrel of a gun like that. It felt unreal. It felt like it wasn’t happening, and yet I was seeing this happen. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know what else to think. I could only stare into that barrel and –

  Chapter Four

  It was this tremendous crash of noise that made me scream, thinking that Jeff shot Harley. It filled my ears in a wave of never-ending sound, distorting and booming. Seconds later, it felt like I’d been crushed from behind, and I hit the floor face first, sliding as all this crazy sound deafened me. I opened my eyes, confused and disoriented, as white smoke caused me to cough, filling my lungs with heavy weight that made it difficult to breathe.

  Something exploded from behind us. I rose into a standing position, trying to breathe and cough at the same time. I heard this continuous sound of destruction, a roar of sound that made it difficult to concentrate. As I struggled to orient myself with what was happening, I realized I was looking up at this outlandish, massive figure surrounded by the night sky.

  It’s a Gundam! some crazed part of my
mind screamed. This face wasn’t human – its eyes were heavily hooded by some sort of metal, neon blue piping lighting this crazy alien face that was both robot and being. It had four wicked arms that were busy tearing through the warehouse’s north wall, rendering it into rubble, exposing us to the cold night. As metal twisted and screeched with the thing’s movement, I started to see that it was merely ‘opening’ the building to the horde of creatures that had been waiting outside to get in.

  This thing was gorgeous – it was massive. It wasn’t a human-shaped character that the anime mecha were recognized by – it was clearly outworldish. Neon blue piping flashed here and there throughout jutting shoulders, absurdly long arms with even longer fingers. Stubby legs – for something that size, its legs were really short – moved in a fluid motion like an animal’s. The giant robot crushed vehicles underneath each step, the ground rumbling with its movement – it had to be hundreds of feet high.