by SJ Morris
“I know. I just want to make sure I don’t run over anything and get us stuck again. I’m just trying to be careful. We only have the one spare!”
“Well, be careful more quickly, please. I don’t know how long I can sit in a closed car with you and that smell!”
“So, open the windows, I’m sorry. This is all going to be a learning curve for everyone. Hopefully, that’s the last infected person we’ll ever see. Hopefully, we get to the cabin and sit tight for a while and the government or someone else takes care of this disaster.”
“I have seen too many zombie movies to know that’s not going to happen, Mom. You and I both know if that guy is infected all the way out here in the sticks, it’s out and it’s spreading quickly.”
“Well, the guy with the suit was a flight attendant, so it’s not that bad yet. He probably got it from a passenger, which is expected since airports are Petri dishes for diseases. He went home since he wasn’t feeling well and…you know the rest. So, it’s not like it’s out, out.”
“Yes, it is. He made it out, out. Who knows how many people he came into contact with and infected before he ended up here? Even if it was only one person, that one could infect another one or more within an hour or so and it just keeps going until it’s everywhere.”
“It does appear to be spreading a lot quicker than when I first saw it. We just have to get to the cabin and hunker down. We have to take stock of our supplies so we know how long we can go before we have to start worrying about food or water and then if we need to, come up with a plan, but we get to the cabin first. Let’s take this one step at a time. I was already driving myself nuts thinking about the possibilities this may present just in the form of how it’s transmitted, and how long it’s transmittable for, among so many other questions I have. Let’s not think about that now. Let’s leave all that for when we’re all settled in, please.”
“Okay, Mom, but I still don’t think this is going to have a happy ending.”
“Lance, it already doesn’t have a happy ending. That flight attendant is dead and you had to kill that young man in the truck. That is as far from a happy ending as you can get.”
The rest of the drive went along in silence for the most part.
Well, except for when Tyler farted and we all had a good laugh about how it smelled better than I did.
We hit the last gas station before we would get to the cabin in about an hour.
By that time, it was dark and I smelled to high heaven of rotten, dead something, so I was really worried about what kind of trouble this would cause at the gas station with the attendant.
I knew the virus was out and there were infected in the surrounding area, so there was no way in hell I was going to let any of my children out of the car to pump gas into the cans. Thus, I had spent a good part of the last thirty minutes trying to come up with a game plan for all the possibilities of what could happen.
When we pulled up to the station, there was no one there. The lights were on, but there was no one in the little booth by the pumps and there was no one I could see from the windows of the little store that sold chips and other roadside crap available at any gas station. You’re in New Jersey, you say, you don’t have to pump your own gas.
We were so far up north Jersey that you could say we were in New York State and no one would tell you any different. So, at this particular station, I knew I would have to pump my own gas and normally, the guy in the shack would be available to take payment, but there was no one there.
I pulled up to one of the pumps and turned to the kids.
“I don’t see anyone now, but that doesn’t mean anything. I’m going to get out and start filling up the truck at this pump and use the pump behind us to start filling up the gas cans and the boat motor so we’re done as quick as possible. I don’t like being out here by ourselves, but I don't like it in the dark that much more. Lance, keep your bow and arrow ready but keep it down. We don’t want to draw any unwanted attention if anyone does show up. Lock the doors when I get out, okay?”
I got a collective head nod, grabbed my helmet, and jumped out of the truck. I heard the door locks engage and I looked around again.
I still didn’t see anything, which was starting to really freak me out. It’s almost painful when you’re in high-stress situations and your body is pumping adrenaline. It makes your mind race a thousand miles a minute in the wrong direction. By the time I got the courage to let go of the door handle I had convinced myself there were no more living humans on earth except for us.
I overthink everything and have you noticed I have a flair for the dramatic, sometimes?
Yet, in this situation, I believed that airing on the side of caution was necessary for our very survival.
I looked at my helmet and hastily decided to leave it off. It would make it entirely too hard to see in the dark and without being able to see everything around me, I wanted my hearing to be as good as it could be.
I had my credit card out already, in the top of my helmet, so I grabbed it and shoved it into the pump to fill up the truck.
I walked the length of the trailer to get to the pump behind us and I did another quick scan; not a single soul was around.
Although, I did notice that the crickets and other nighttime forest life were buzzing loudly which gave me comfort. I slid my card into the pump and topped off the boat’s gas tank.
After the boat was full, I started with the twelve containers we recently acquired.
Filling gas cans is time-consuming and a pain in the ass if you need to be on high alert. I overfilled one or two of them and spilled gas all over my boots which, just added to my wonderful aroma. I was just about done with the last can when I heard a noise like metal on metal. I quickly put the pump back and left the can where it was. I slid around the trailer and tried to melt into the back of the truck. The truck, as black as my clothing, helped camouflage me fairly well, except for the silver duct tape that stripped across various parts of my body.
Still, it was better than nothing and so, I slowly peeked my head around the corner towards the station and saw nothing.
Then, I heard it again. I stood there quietly, trying to listen for where the sound was coming from. It sounded like a door was being jiggled, and then there was a slam and a yelp.
A young and very ugly man almost fell out from the bathroom door on the side of the store still zipping up his pants.
“God damn door! Fucking every time, man! I don’t get what is so hard about spraying some WD40 on the fucking hinges, Curtis!”He looked up and saw me peering out from behind my truck.
“Aw, sorry ma’am. I didn’t mean to cuss in front of ya. It’s just this door gets stuck every time I gotta go.”
He started walking towards me to help since he saw the gas can lying on the ground.
“I’m good, thanks. Nothing I haven’t heard or said before myself. I don’t need any help. As a matter of fact, I’m done. I was getting ready to leave when you scared the crap out of me.”
“No problem. You sure you don’t need any help? Aw man! What is that God awful smell?”
“Oh, ugh... I ugh hit a skunk a while back and I think there are still some pieces stuck under the truck. You know how animals explode at high speeds?”I said nervously to try and cover up the smell.
“I surely do! Bastards nearly pop when I get‘em with my pickup! You paying cash or credit?”
“Ugh, credit.”
“Ok, have a safe ride, then. Be careful of dem critters crossing the roads. It’s getting to be spring so the deer are out and they don’t explode. Well, with a truck that size, they just might!”
“Thanks, have a good night.”
He finally turned around to go back inside. I grabbed the gas can and shoved my card back in the pump to pay as fast as I could. I shoved the can under the boat cover, grabbed my card and the receipt, and headed back to my door. I knocked on the window so Lance would let me back in because he was watching the guy inside. I heard the
door unlock and hopped in.
“What’s the matter? What are you looking at?”
“The potty-mouth gas guy seems to be looking for something in the store, I’m just keeping an eye on him is all.”
Just as Lance finished talking, a scream erupted from the little store. The gas attendant backed up into the glass front door he had just entered and blood sprayed everywhere.
“I guess he found Curtis,”I said.
“Who’s Curtis?”
“I don’t know, his buddy that he was cursing at when he came out of the bathroom door before.”
“So what do we do now? We’re about a thirty-minute drive away from the cabin and we know there's at least one infected within fifteen miles.”
“What are you getting at, Lance? You want me to go in there and kill them both?”
“Well, they are infected so we have to get rid of them or they will just make more infected. People will go into the store. They are going to want to investigate why the front door is covered in blood. I would use the bow and arrow but they are behind glass, so that’s out of the question, and you’re already smelly from the last one. So where’s your ax? Hey wait, I packed the guns in the trunk under the floor. If you give me a few minutes I’m sure I can dig dad’s 9-millimeter out.”
“I am glad you brought the guns and that you’re thinking about securing our future with as few of the undead as possible, but I don’t know about this. I was able to surprise the flight attendant but this one is going to see me coming and what if someone else shows up?”
“He won’t see you coming if we hurry up. He’s still feasting on his friend over there…I’m sure you’ll be able to get a jump on him. There haven't been any cars passing, let alone stopping in the fifteen minutes we’ve been here, so I think it’s safe to say we shouldn’t get any visitors anytime soon.”
I thought about this for a little bit. I needed my kids to be safe. I needed the cabin to be safe.
Eventually, I realized that Lance was right. The only way that was going to happen was if I got my hands a little dirtier.
“Fine, we go out together, you get the gun out of the back, while I cover you, and then you get right back in the car while I go in the store. Helmet on and let’s go.”
We jumped out together and went to the back of the truck. Lance popped the trunk hatch and did some quick rearranging to create a small tunnel through all camping crap to be able to lift the flap on the floor where the guns were stashed. Lance pulled out the 9-millimeter and a small box of ammunition. He started filling the clip for me and I sent him back inside the truck. I filled the remaining bullets to total ten in the magazine and one in the chamber. I made sure the safety was off and closed the trunk as quietly as I possibly could.
Deep breath Abby. I told myself.
All I needed to do to muster the courage to head over there was to look into the truck where my family sat, waiting for me to come back to them.
I jogged over to the far corner of the building and made sure I was alone outside, first. The last thing I needed was to get broadsided by an infected I wasn’t expecting.
When I was sure I was alone, I crouched down and did the crab walk to the front door.
I peeked in where the blood was the thinnest through the window. There was Curtis, munching away on his friend. It churned my stomach to see this thing that used to be human ripping through his friend like he was a pile of cheeseburgers.
It looked like all the easy, soft parts like his stomach and intestines were ripped away. The organs underneath the rib cage, which were easily pulled out, were also shredded to ribbons, splattering the floor with shards of blackening carnage.
The side of his neck was torn out, as though he had been ravaged by a lion and the skin flap from the wound was just hanging there, flopping around on the linoleum floor by the tearing being done to his midsection.
The eyes on the gas attendant were still wide open, the way I imagined they were when he realized he was being attacked by his friend. However, after a moment, his eyelids started to flutter a little and his head started to twitch slightly.
As I watched this happen, I neglected to notice that Curtis had stopped eating. He just kind of sat there, covered in his friend’s bright red blood and what remained of his soft tissues.
I finally looked up and pretty much lockedeyes with what used to be Curtis. His eyes were fogged over with a blue haze that I had seen many times on the corpses in med school. He didn’t seem to notice me, but I sat completely still, just in case he somehow could.
Then, Curtis got up. He just stood over the destroyed body of what used to be his friend or at least coworker. My gaze was drawn back to the young man on the floor. His arms started to move slightly. His eyes were still open, except now, his head started to turn towards me and his eyes began to roll around and stopped, to lock onto me. His arms stiffened and reached toward me from his position on the floor. His mouth opened and it looked as if he was trying to talk, but nothing was coming out.
His throat being ripped out made sure that couldn’t happen.
Just then, Curtis turned towards the back of the store and began to shuffle away from where we were.
This was my chance!
I needed to slip into the store and get rid of these two before they could make any more zombies.
I took my opening and slowly pushed against the door until there was just enough room for me to slip inside, still out of the reach of the man on the floor, and without hitting the cow bells hanging from the ceiling that was used to alert attendants that customers were entering. It was a blessing that his throat was ripped out, or he would be moaning up a storm, letting old Curtis know I was coming. It seemed like the longer they were infected the worse their eyes were, since Mr. Potty Mouth on the floor locked eyes with me and instantly knew I was there, while Curtis, poor ol’boy, looked right at me and never had a clue.
I decided to sneak up on Curtis while I could, since the half a person on the floor wasn’t going anywhere. With his middle ripped out, he was just flopping on the floor like a fish out of water, trying, to no avail, to get at me.
I stepped around him with ease and went down one of the aisles on the opposite side of the zombie known as Curtis.
Luckily, the shelves were the crappy ones that didn't have any walls between them, just bags of chips and pretzels. I crept up next to him and stuck the gun out through the shelf at ear level. I waited for the perfect moment where Curtis’s temple was in line with the muzzle of my gun and pulled the trigger.
A loud pop sounded and Curtis went down for good. I ran around the end of the aisle to make sure he wasn’t still moving and he wasn’t.
Also, the telltale sign I was beginning to notice was that the pool of black watery blood was spreading fast from his body and the room filled with the rank, sour smell of rotten death very quickly.
I ran back down the aisle I came from and skidded to a halt in front of the young man that used to be on his back but somehow had turned the top half of his broken body around to begin crawling towards me, leaving a huge trail of blood and gore in his wake.
I’ll give him credit, in the two minutes or so it took me to get rid of his friend, he had gone at least five feet. Goes to show you how determined these undead were going to be with food around.
Great!
He reached up with a filthy hand and bit in the air, aiming in my direction. It was a gruesome sight, but I got close enough to make sure I had a good shot at his eye and pulled the trigger again.
Another loud pop was followed this time, by the ting of the shell casing hitting the floor instead of nesting in a bag of BBQ potato chips like before, and this one was down too.
I jumped as far around the growing puddle of black blood as I could and rushed out the door.
The kids knew there were only two so if I didn’t come out quickly after the second shot I would’ve bet my last dime Lance was going to be coming in after me.
I opened the door and put
my hands up to show the kids everything was okay and I looked around before heading back to the truck. I stopped, just outside my door, and did a quick check of my clothes under the bright lights of the station's canopy to be sure I didn’t have any more zombie crap on me and I was good.
The gun was definitely much cleaner than the ax, even though it was much louder. Since I was clean, I opened the door and got in. I started the truck up again and slowly pulled out of the station, onto an empty road.
No one said anything about me leaving the gun on my lap as I drove, but then again, no one said much of anything after what I had just done. It was necessary, I knew that, but it didn’t make me feel any better about knowing I had just ended the lives of two young men.
Yes, they were already technically dead but my brain couldn’t necessarily make that connection yet. They were still moving around like they were alive. I tried not to think about what had just happened, which became very easy when I started thinking about what I would need to do once we got to the cabin, which should be very soon.
It was pitch black out, with almost no moon and we were driving on the long dirt drive that ended with our cabin.
I was taking it slow. The last thing we needed was an animal or a zombie to walk out in front of the truck and crash into us.
It was a good thing I was going slow too, because I was not expecting to run into an eight-foot-tall chain-link fence, topped with razor wire that looked like it belonged around a prison.
I rolled to a stop and looked around. I looked to my left and there was a silver box on the outside of the fence with a speaker and a red button on it. I looked around to make sure the coast was clear and rolled down the window.
I looked over at Lance and he shrugged his shoulders.
“Don’t look at me. I don’t remember this being here before.”
“Here goes nothing.”
I pushed the button and it flashed red. After a few seconds there was static and Justin’s voice over the intercom.
“That better be you, Abby, because if it’s not, whoever you are, you ain’t getting in.”
