by Jeff Olah
“We are not going to that train station, if it’s anything like that freeway, we wouldn’t make it out. She left us remember, not the other way around. She doesn’t want us and never did. She’s a drug addict. She’s not worth it.”
“Sean… she’s our mother.”
“No she’s not, not anymore.”
Megan was just fourteen and her brother not yet in kindergarten when the woman who’d been emotionally destructive long before the physical abuse began walked out the door and never returned. The lies about her whereabouts were covered in more lies about what she was doing while she was supposed to be in her office. These cover-ups careened into blatant shows of disrespect to their father as her drug dealer began showing up at the house, demanding payment and threatening harm to her children.
Rehab had failed for the sixth time as she calmly packed a suitcase and walked out the door that sunny Friday afternoon. Sean was out on the deck and Megan was sitting in front of her middle school waiting for the ride that once again didn’t show up. The embarrassment of having to be driven home once again by the school’s principal turned to anger when she realized her four-year-old brother was left to fend for himself.
Social services were called by a watchful neighbor and the siblings spent the next four days in the care of the county, until her father arrived home from his business trip. He worked for months to convince the powers that be to give him full custody and absolute parental rights. His wife was gone long before she left the house that day and he turned his entire career upside down in order to be granted the privilege of raising his two children.
Their father set up a home office and two of the six bedrooms were used as his workspace. The large corporation he worked for at the time was simply happy he didn’t decide to quit altogether and made the necessary concessions to keep him on the payroll.
As his contract ended some years later, the military came calling. With Megan now an adult and Sean needing less and less attention from their father, the decision was made that he’d go back out into the world to continue his work. He spent as much time as he could at home with his children, although as time wore on, he was called upon by people he couldn’t say no to, so he hesitantly accepted the additional projects. He never spoke about his work and within the last few years the pair had only seen their father twice.
“Sean let’s go, I want to get out of the city before the whole world realizes what’s happening.”
Rounding the truck as his sister hit the button opening the garage door, Sean jumped in and Megan set her bag behind the seat, climbing behind the wheel. “I still don’t think stopping at the station is a good idea, if Dad said we need to get out of town don’t you think…”
“Let me do the driving Sean, I promise we’ll be okay.”
“If you say so, although…”
“Although what?” Megan asked.
“I just want you to acknowledge that she’s not worth it. She wasn’t then and she isn’t now.”
Megan didn’t respond. She adjusted the seat and mirrors, shifted into reverse and backed down the driveway. The neighborhood was still quiet and looked like any other day, with moms walking their children to school, and businessmen adjusting their ties as they followed one another out of the neighborhood.
The local crossing guard waved to Megan with a curious look as she pulled her father’s massive, jet black truck to a stop. Megan lowered the window, not quite knowing what to tell the man she’d seen at this corner since she herself walked Sean to the elementary school a few blocks away. There was no way to explain what she thought was happening, so she waited for him to speak.
“Nice truck young lady,” he said.
“Thanks…”
“You going four-wheeling?” The man said with a slight chuckle.
“No, just the usual. How long are you out here directing traffic?” Megan asked, hoping the man would be on his way soon.
“Bout an hour more. Gotta make sure the kiddos all get to school safe. Then it’s off to meet the wife for breakfast. Have a good day.”
“You too, take care of yourself.”
As Megan pulled away, she felt bad for leaving him here and not at least asking if he’d seen the morning news. She wanted to turn back and ask him to get in, to at least take him to his wife and make sure they made it safely to one another, although she couldn’t save everyone. Her priority at the moment was ensuring the safety of her brother and herself. If the things her father told her were true, they didn’t have long. Rounding the corner to the main artery out of their development, it became clear that the hell she witnessed this morning had already fallen on her city.
Sean was the first to speak. “Megan, it’s already here…”
4
The sea of bodies spanned the width of the highway. The creatures chased, cornered and hurled themselves at their unsuspecting prey. There were too many to count and at this distance, the ability to distinguish the attackers from those being savagely attacked became increasingly difficult. Megan pulled the truck to a stop and fought the urge to peer to her left to check her brother’s reaction, which she’d assumed was every bit as disjointed as hers. Fear paralyzed every muscle in her body; she couldn’t focus on what her next action should be. The thought of being overrun by the approaching crowd ran a close second to the terror she witnessed in the rearview mirror.
The friendly, if not altogether saintly crossing guard only made it to the opposite side of the street before he was pulled down from behind by one of those things missing an arm. The crossing guard was able to save four children and their parents during the initial onslaught. He’d closed the gate leading to the school after the last child stepped away from the sidewalk and ducked in behind the fence. Megan watched him struggle to push back against his assailant as three more peeled off the main horde and joined in the massacre of her friend. Within no more than ten seconds the battle was over and he was gone. “Ed…” was all she could manage.
Back to Sean, Megan noticed he’d also witnessed the action to the rear, although he quickly turned his attention back in the direction they were headed. He pointed at the baseball field to the right of the highway, as Megan pounded the gas pedal to the floor, narrowly avoiding a small group closing in on the truck from the driver’s side. “Sean, what do I do?”
“Go around them, use the field. That’s the area that looks clear.”
Accelerating quickly toward the side of the road and with less than fifty yards to go, the larger horde became aware of the speeding vehicle and started in their direction. A few looked almost normal, other than their milky white eyes. They were sprinting toward them as the other more devastated individuals walked slowly, most dragging one injured body part or another. Attempting to avoid a collision with the beasts that led the pack and reach the field before they did, Megan swerved into the ditch that ran parallel to the road and then back up onto the greenbelt running alongside.
“Sean, what about the fence?”
Shouting above the whining of the engine, Sean said “GO THROUGH IT! HURRY THEY’RE CATCHING US!”
Cutting the wheel to the right, the truck ripped through the chain link fence and for a few seconds drug the two sections it had pulled free. As the divided fence tore loose, the crowd began pouring out onto the field. Multiple bodies became entangled in the mess as others trampled over them and continued to follow the truck as it tore across the open grass.
With less than one hundred feet to make a decision, Megan focused her attention out the left side of the truck. The roadway was clear and it was a straight shot to the train station her brother so desperately fought to get her to avoid. She turned the wheel slightly and shot straight for the opening created by the large gate apparently left open for the early morning service workers that tended to the city parks. The rearview mirror still held the images they were running from, although speed and time pushed them farther away with each passing second.
Through the gates and bounding off the sidewalk, s
he again avoided eye contact with Sean and pushed the truck along the open boulevard. She was surprised at how unaffected the city was beyond the field. Not a soul on the road and no cars or pedestrians. Megan could almost make out the entrance to the miserable train station her mother called home for many years. There only appeared to be one individual between them and the turn she needed to make into the parking lot and whoever or whatever it was walked in the opposite direction. From this distance, it wasn’t yet possible to determine whether or not it was human or something much more destructive.
Megan slowed the truck in anticipation of the right turn she needed to make and watched the solitary figure make its way into the packed parking lot adjacent to the train station. Turning her attention back to the right and pulling to a stop along the curb, she took a deep breath and turned off the ignition.
“Feeders,” Sean said.
She was elsewhere, the parking lot to the right and the train station just beyond had already been devastated by whatever those things were and although only a handful of them moved about in the yard, her brother’s voice didn’t register.
“What did you say?”
“Feeders, that’s what they were calling these things on the internet.”
“I didn’t hear that on the news,” Megan said.
“Yeah, I heard people calling them Feeders because they seem to be eating the people they attack. Weird… I guess.”
“Sean, I want you to stay here with the doors locked.”
“What are you… you’re not thinking of still going in there, are you? If she was here when those things came through, I’m sure there’s nothing left to find.”
“I’m going. I’ll get in and out fast. Those things, those Feeders here in the lot don’t appear to be moving very quickly. I can get around them and back in just a few minutes.”
“Are you kidding? You’re not leaving me here, if you’re going so am I.”
The ten year difference between the two often resulted in Sean trying to prove himself and exert his physical dominance. After his father began his second career outside the home, Sean felt as though he became the man of the house, although Megan could always see the hint of hesitation in his eyes and the lack of confidence when he tried to assert himself. She knew the real Sean even if he didn’t. He was terrified and it showed clearly beyond his words.
Instead of answering him, Megan opened her door, fumbled around in the cab and came away with both handguns. As her brother rounded the truck, his head on a swivel and eyes wider than she’d likely ever witnessed, the question came as he started to back away.
“What are you doing… and do you even know how to use one of those?”
“Sean, there isn’t time for this. Look around, we have to survive and there’s no one that’s coming help us. It’s you and me… no one else.”
“What about the police, the military? They have to be coming.”
“The police? Look over there,” Megan said pointing to the intersection at the next light. “Does that look like help is coming?”
The black and white cruiser came to rest against another vehicle with one of the officers still bucked to his seat, obviously overcome by the horde. From their vantage, it appeared that the second officer was able to put down six Feeders that attacked from the front before he was pulled down from behind and annihilated by the ravenous crowd. Neither man ever stood a chance.
“Sean, I need your help. We’re gonna have to do this on our own.” Handing him one of the guns, she continued, “No one is coming for us. Can you do this?”
5
The voices in his head screamed for him to return to the truck. Sean was convinced after sidestepping the lifeless bodies that he should have listened to his sister and stayed put. He couldn’t help her and he surely had no interest in helping the woman that once called herself a mother to him and Megan. His sister led the way and weaved in and out of the parked vehicles, their owners he assumed were either already on the train headed out of the city, dead or worse. Leaving the cover that the cars, SUVs and busses provided out in the lot, he followed her to the oversized archway leading to the main platform.
She readied her weapon and stepped to the end of the wall looking around the corner and into the station. A small group of Feeders moved about near the tracks at the far side of the building where her mother and other homeless often loitered. Megan didn’t have a clear vantage through the mess of bodies and garbage that peppered the area she vowed never to return to. She knew for years where to find the woman who’d once been a mother and only twice came this close to trying to find her. Two sets of legs jutted out from the wall, the feet covered in women’s running shoes that at this distance appeared to have been nearly worn through.
Megan couldn’t be sure it was her, although she also couldn’t clear her conscience without the knowledge that it wasn’t her. The risk wasn’t worth it for her to find out and she knew it. It also was foolish to have let her brother follow along, although after witnessing what those beasts did to a few innocent souls stuck in their cars in this very lot, this was probably the safest place for them. She would get close enough to confirm her mother wasn’t here and then get herself and Sean back to the truck and out of the city. Thirty minutes and they’d be out of this mess and on with the plan her father mapped out. Just get through this; it’s going to be fine…
“You ready?” she asked.
Sean shook his head. “Not really. She’s probably not even here. We don’t know if she’s ever been here, just those weird rumors from the neighbors. If she’s been out here on the streets for this long, she’d obviously look much different.”
“We have to try.”
“We? Don’t pull me into this. I think you’re crazy for even trying to find her, although it doesn’t look any better back there,” Sean said.
“We’re gonna get in and get out… fast. Stay right behind me and do not pull out the gun unless I tell you to. Let’s go.”
Megan stayed low and moved along the wall and for the first fifty feet the two went unnoticed as they reached the alcove that housed the station’s restrooms. The unexpected horde moved in quickly as they circled the tracks and came within twenty feet of the two bodies being mauled, neither of which were the person Megan was looking for.
Sean stood eight paces behind her, peering into the growing horde between them and the exit. “Megan, this isn’t good.”
There was no other way out and without enough firepower to go through the crowd, Megan began to panic, her brother frozen stiff. She did what came naturally. She withdrew her weapon and raised it at the horde. This caught Sean’s attention as he reached for the gun in an attempt to redirect her attention. “Over there,” he said pointing toward the two bathrooms. “Follow me.”
With those things beginning to close in, she couldn’t think of a better option than to move to the only area with a door that could be locked. With her brother already headed in that direction, Megan cursed under her breath and started after him. Sean still held the pistol in his left hand and nearly dropped it as he fumbled with the door handle and pulled it open, waiting for his sister to pass through the threshold.
Slamming the door behind them and throwing the deadbolt into the locked position, Sean let out a loud sigh as Megan hurried to each of the two stalls and pistol in hand, kicked the doors open. With not a single one of those things occupying the space and no one else hiding out, Megan let her shoulders slump as the pounding on the locked door began.
“Really Sean… now we’re trapped. This was the dumbest thing you’ve ever done. I realize I don’t have quite the same IQ as you, although fear is no excuse for you to get both of us killed and that’s exactly what you’ve done.”
The growls on the other side of the door increased as did the incessant pounding. This door could hold out for hours, possibly days, although Megan wasn’t sure they could. At some point they’d need food and with no window to use as an exit, her mind began to tell her the story of whe
re she’d spend the last days of her life.
“Megan… I’m sorry, but we are going to get out of here. We’ll get back to the truck. I have a plan… I promise.”
“Seriously? You have a plan? Is this part of it? We are stuck behind less than two inches of metal and from the sound of it; your plan has less than a few hours. What happens then? Do all these Feeders as you call them just disappear? Will we just walk out of here?”
“I said I was sorry, although really I’m not. It was your idiotic idea to come looking for her and as I already told you, she’s not here. It was a waste of time and could have gotten us killed. You couldn’t figure out how to get us out of here and I did. You can thank me when we get back to the truck.”
There were four separate sinks and four liquid soap dispensers. “Get into the stall and stand on the seat,” Sean said as he removed the containers and sat them next to the door. He stuffed each sink with handfuls of paper towels and opened the faucets. As the sinks began to overflow, he took the containers of soap and began to shoot the contents under the door as the water flowed in around him.
