The Long Way To Reno

by Mix, Michelle

  But it was my way out.

  I booked it. I didn’t care how much I hurt, or that something was coming up to the doorway. I went to the door because I didn’t want to be the only female trapped in this hellhole with a bunch of guys. They shouted and scrambled, and I willed my short legs to run faster. Cold air bit me immediately as I stepped outside, and the scream was louder. It was still nighttime – though the horizon was starting to lighten slightly.

  I saw this lumbering black shadow against black once I raced outside, stumbling in the soft dirt. I turned away from it, and stumbled towards the pavement. The thing screamed, and it was very loud. But I didn’t look back. I ran blindly to get away from all of them.

  I didn’t want to be trapped with those men. That one want was stronger than my fear of the things walking around outside, of possible Rabid lingering in the parking lot. I ran, and the ground shook as something immense hurried after me. I heard the dirt splay under its tremendous weight, and I felt the vibration through my legs with each step. It breathed heavy, and it growled low – a weird sort of growl. It almost did sound like it was saying ‘hunger’ – I wondered if Harley was still alive.

  I found the pavement, the street that would take one to the home improvement store, and to the paint place beyond that. For some reason, I wanted to make it to Walmart. I ran straight for it, knowing that something was chasing me, still unknown to me because I didn’t look back. People who always looked back at their pursuers always fell in movies and died extreme deaths, so I didn’t dare look back. It was cold – I sucked it in, and it hurt my lungs. I coughed as I ran, the Fubar extremely heavy in my two hands. I wondered if the ladies had made it, and from the corner of my eye saw someone maneuvering through the parking lot through my left. I didn’t look long to see if it was one of them, or someone else. It was just a shape.

  I heard multiple gunshots behind me, growing faint – screams of humans. The ground continued to thump until I realized that another tall, dark shape was planning on intercepting me from the parking lot. Underneath the lights that illuminated the spread, I saw my first Alien.

  It was over eight feet tall, with a hunched back. It had thick, long arms, bulging with an absurd amount of muscle. A tubular style face with a maw that looked exactly as Harley described – wide open from jaw to chest, like a sagging mouth made of a plastic bag. Its legs were tree trunks, but stubby for its frame. Its feet were shaped circular, like an elephants’ – only with extending claws. Its eyes glimmered wetly – they were round and beady, possibly black. A moment after processing these features, I realized I’d already seen them – they were the same style as the massive robot that had taken down the wall, minus the four arms.

  It opened its mouth to scream at me, and the one behind me screamed in response. It was so high-pitched that I clamped my hands over my ears as I ran – the Fubar bounced against my ear and caused it to hurt terribly. I stumbled, but I picked up my pace and continued to run. The things weren’t that fast, but they were catching up to me.

  I dropped my clamp over my ears and made a sharp left, into the dirt leading to the parking lot. This caused both creatures to stop their pursuit, to turn as well. It was an awkward sort of turn, their bodies lurching to the side as they struggled to align themselves into the turn. Their framework worked to my advantage, because it gave me time to sprint and continue towards Walmart. By the time they were turned, I was already in the parking lot. I was going to make it.

  : :

  I entered the superstore from the cart entrance. Carts were overturned, groceries scattered. I bypassed it all and ran into the store. Bodies laid here and there – small ones that made me look away instantly. The store was very bright, but everything was out of line, scattered. As if people had raided the store and destroyed it purposefully. Clothes lay everywhere, food scattered. Aisles misaligned. Money lay here and there. Rows of food were fallen, toppled over each other like dominoes. The creatures outside screamed in outrage, and I remembered Harley saying they ushered the Rabid to do their bidding. So I needed to find a hiding spot before they overwhelmed the place. Maybe find someplace high to climb.

  My eye was swelling – no, my cheek. My vision was growing obscured, and I touched it with the hand holding tightly onto the Fubar. It was swollen considerably, mooning against that eye.

  I raced through the clothing aisle and headed for the garden section. I knew where I was going to hide. The bins holding garden and outside stuff were high, and I was now confident of my climbing skills. Once there, I settled the Fubar back into my belt loop, and took a few moments to examine the set-up. The bins were exactly like the ones at my workplace, only two stories smaller. It would do.

  Not long after I’d settled in between bags of wood pellets, managing to pull a couple of bags over me, the Rabid stormed into the store. Screeching, snarling, tossing things aside in their haste to find me. I watched from underneath the bag, barely able to breathe under a combined weight of 80 pounds, as they sprinted through the aisles. None of them looked up. None of them really looked down either. They were focused on a point ahead of them, and shifted like some animal flock when someone veered out of place. It was weird watching them move as they did – like they really didn’t have too much control of themselves.

  I don’t know how long I laid there, watching them canvas the store, but they left as one flock out the doors they’d come in. Just as sudden as they came, they were gone. None lingered.

  I waited, giving myself time before I could relax. I pushed a bag off me awkwardly, and the strain in my arm was an odd strain for such a weird movement. I don’t know if everything had finally caught up to me, but that stupid movement made me bawl. I cried hard and ugly – mouth open, eyes tightly shut, neck straining – I cried over that stupid girl I shot, over the violence done to me, that I’d lost my car keys, that I was not with my parents, that Earth had been invaded and I was all alone.

  Spittle dribbled over my chin, and my cheeks were wet with tears. I bawled like no one could hear me, uncaring at that moment. I hadn’t cried like this since I was a kid, bullied by this stupid older girl in eighth grade. At my age, I was crying like some frustrated toddler. The sound echoed in the empty store, made it louder. I was absolutely defenseless if something walked in on me. But I didn’t care. I just cried.

  : :

  I don’t know how much time had passed by the time I opened heavily swollen eyes. It took a few minutes for things to come back to me. I must’ve fell asleep. My body was so stiff, so freakin’ sore that I didn’t want to move. My eye was completely swollen shut. I touched it tenderly, and felt the abnormal swelling extending from underneath my eye, to over my cheek. I wondered if something was broken there. Couldn’t imagine what.

  My stomach freaking ached. It hurt. I couldn’t breathe very well because of it. My scalp hurt, from where that guy grabbed my hair. Everything hurt - !

  I lifted my head from the pellet bag – the store was still completely empty. Brightly lit. Nothing moved. I couldn’t hear anything beyond the hum of electricity. But judging from the broken doors nearby, it was daylight coming in through the broken glass. I wondered what the world looked like, now.

  Slowly, my body protesting, I rose from my splayed position. I was cold – my skin was cold to the touch. As in response to this observation, I started to shiver.

  Somehow, despite my aches and pains, I managed to crawl down from my position. Things had to be done.

  Some time later, I was in the women’s bathroom scowling at my black eye. It was a hideous purple color, my eye swollen to a thin slit. My vanity ordered semblance, and I’d spent a cautious amount of time searching the fallen racks for warm clothes. Matching ones, of course. Thermals, better shoes. Thicker socks. My tactical vest atop of the crewneck, the girlish camouflage jacket I’d found, with fake fur lining the roomy hood. I was washing up in the bathroom, listening for any noises – left my hair down because my scalp ached so much to put it back up. I had hair ties underneath
the gloves I wore, because I’d need them later, when it stopped hurting. I’d even found time to straighten out my bangs – had to reluctantly leave the straightening iron here, because I doubted I’d find some convenient outlet where I was going.

  Now I was looking at my reflection with an opened package of facial cleanser and makeup wipes at my disposal. I packed those in my vest pockets. I loved my vest. I’d found some ties and straps used to tie things down in truck beds that I used to carry my Fubar with; a sling across my back, easily maneuvered in case I needed it quick. I had on a new pair of jeans with my knife retied to my thigh. I still looked pretty awesome, like I knew what I was doing.

  Fifteen minutes later, I added the last of my mascara, and dumped the new tube into the makeup pouch I was going to take with me. There was nothing happening in this world that allowed me to let myself go during a zombie apocalypse. I was always a vain person, and that wasn’t going to die just because millions of people probably were. I was getting to Reno as pretty as possible, no matter how stupid it looked or seemed to anybody else.

  …if I ever met anybody else.

  I blinked at my newly done face and attempted to fix my hair so that I at least looked a little more attractive. I dumped my makeup pouch into the messenger bag I’d found in one of the abandoned aisles and slung that around me as well. I struggled for a few minutes with the fleece lined blanket I knew would help keep me warm by stuffing into the back of my vest, atop of my jacket. The messenger bag had some water and food in it, and a set of car keys. I was going to go outside and find the car they belonged to. It had a key remote on it, so things were looking up for me.

  It was mid-afternoon when I stepped outside cautiously. I didn’t venture out from the doorway just yet – I looked for any sign of Rabid or alien, and saw nothing. It was so freaking quiet. Nothing moved. The parking lot was empty and still, and the cold was biting and unforgiving. It made me cringe as the wind swept through, making the bag in the trashcan nearby rattle.

  Seeing nothing out of the ordinary – save for the general emptiness – I lifted the set of keys and aimed at the parking lot. I depressed the ‘unlock’ button of the remote, and strained to hear the telltale signal of an unlocking vehicle. I saw the flash of lights of a red car nearby, and depressed it again. It signaled to me that it was alert and ready.

  I hesitated at that moment. I don’t know why – just listening to the unnatural silence and observing the stillness of a town that, just yesterday, was bustling with activity, made me feel lost. Alone. I wasn’t used to being alone. If it wasn’t my parents I was talking to, it was the unknown voices over Xbox Live – where I lowered my voice to talk as ‘the gay dude with a gay voice – but still a dude’. I lived in Reno, near the Mount Rose elementary school, on Mark Twain. Plenty of people abound. Always surrounded by people. To not have any around was just…it made me feel like the only person in the world.

  I felt overwhelmed. And hungry. I went back inside to look for something to eat.

  : :

  I flipped the last page of an MMA magazine and dusted my hands off. I drank the last of my Rockstar – still cold – and belched loudly. It echoed throughout the store, and I laughed at myself. I had plugged in a microwave I’d found in the houseware section and had warmed up some pizzas, of which I enjoyed with my Rockstar. I felt like I hadn’t eaten in days.

  I was ready to go, now. Hit I-80 and attempt to make it to Reno in my newly acquired Chevy Aveo. I couldn’t wait to get home and find my parents. I pulled on my new pair of sunglasses – my cheek/eye area still so tender, despite the ibuprofen I’d taken – and headed cautiously outside. The clock above the bathrooms said it was nearly two – I had to get to Reno before it got dark. I didn’t want whatever else was out there to catch me in the dark halfway there. I didn’t want to be abandoned on the freeway, with nothing around me – I was afraid of the wildlife. I heard coyotes eat people.

  I let the car warm up, rubbing my hands together. It was really cold outside, and I turned the heater on full blast. Looking at the Superstore, I wondered once more if I should take a gun. But after what happened with that chick this morning, I really didn’t want to. Not like something like that would happen again, but I just…didn’t feel confident around guns.

  I looked around me – there was no sign of any movement anywhere, no creatures, no massive motherships cruising the skies. I looked back at the place where I used to work. I hoped those men were dead. After all that trouble, those bitches I’d rescued better have survived. I’d be so pissed if they didn’t. I looked at my eye again in the rearview mirror, having to turn it to do so.

  In doing so, the guy behind me gave a start at being discovered, and I stared because I wasn’t expecting to see him. He rushed to the door as I slammed the gearshift into Reverse. The doors had locked automatically when I did so, and he fumbled with the handle as I jerked backward. He was one of the guys from back there, and I wanted away from him. I was grateful he hadn’t caught me off guard while I was in the store.

  He had to let go of the car as I backed out, and even after I tried to run him over, he managed to get away. I frowned at him as I took off, tires screeching slightly as I took a turn too fast. That small event had my blood pumping, and I was extremely nervous as I guided the car towards the stoplights nearby. I still scanned the area for people.

  In the McDonald’s parking lot, Rabid flocked in a weird sprinting motion between cars. I wondered what they were chasing. After what had happened, I didn’t feel like being a hero to anybody else. I touched my eye, and cruised through the red light, my blinker ticking away merrily. There were cars abandoned here and there, and a semi-truck had driven completely over this sedan in the other lane. Clothes, various items laid scattered on the streets. I managed to get the car through the pile-up near the freeway on-ramp, and once I got up there, saw the abandoned line of vehicles on the road.

  I cruised to a stop, put the car in park. There were trucks in the middle of the lane; doors opened, abandoned. Various other vehicles were left either on the side of the road, or parked neatly in line in long stretches.

  I heaved a huge sigh – I-80 near Fernley never looked so used, so full. There was a huge pile-up somewhere that had caused this situation before me, and there was no way I was going to take this vehicle through that chaos. I drummed my fingers on the steering wheel. I had to take another route. I thought instantly of West Fernley, and then the Indian reservation that had another freeway on- and off-ramp. It couldn’t be that hard to drive out there, find the on-ramp, and hopefully bypass the pile up somehow.

  Mind made up, I turned the car around, and went back down the on-ramp and made it back onto Fernley’s main street.

  : :

  I abandoned the car near the rest area not that far from Fernley. The freeway was piled with too many abandoned cars. So much for taking a car back to Reno. I started walking, thinking I’d just settle for the night in a vehicle when it got too dark. Just hunker down with my supplies, weapon, blanket, and hoped nothing looked in the windows. It was so freaking cold that I had my hood up, and I was considering dragging out the blanket I’d stuffed within my vest.

  Nothing moved. There were so many abandoned cars that stretched for miles, beyond Painted Rock. Around that bend were probably more. I had to consider that this entire freeway was cluttered with vehicles left behind. But it made me wonder – what made people leave their vehicles in such haste? Did they look up at some point during the night, and see whatever it was that that man had seen, when he left the building? Were those things still around?

  I stuffed the ends of my hair into my jacket, as they kept whipping my face. I shoved my hands into my jacket pockets, and despite the fact that I was wearing gloves, my fingers were still cold. I walked briskly, taking the pace I would if I were picking at work. I yearned for some company. It felt so weird being by myself. Surely there were people still around – I couldn’t be the only one left in this world! There had to be others like me,
needing to get to Reno, needing to get home.

  I walked until the sun disappeared behind some mountains. I’d just barely reached Derby Dam when it happened. The lines of empty cars stretched on beyond my sight. I stared at the bends in the valley ahead and felt completely exhausted. The wind was picking up, and a dog barked in the distance. I couldn’t see it, and the sound seemed to echo, so I didn’t really know where it was. Hopefully it was friendly. Hell, I’ll take its company if I could find it.

  I had to look for some cover. A reliable vehicle with darkly tinted windows. Hopefully with keys inside, so I could use the heater. A motorized sound made me still – I thought I was hearing things until I realized that the sound I was hearing were moving vehicles.

  I turned, scanning the line of cars. I saw dust flying from down the hill, near the train tracks. My heart felt like it was going to burst when I saw the military Humvees. I was instantly filled with hope and life and exaltation because the military was here. They were safety, home base! I could hop in with them, and they’d be useful with guns, and get me to where I needed to go.