“Five people left,” Nick said, turning back to Cody. “Wasn’t supposed to be like this man. Why did she bring us back? Doesn’t make any sense to let us live only to butcher us out here.”
“C’mon,” Cody said. “Just keep walking.”
Nick pointed over at Richards.
“I think the old man would be happier if we left him behind,” he said.
“Well we’re not going to,” Crazy Diamond said. “No matter what he says.”
They walked over to Richards. Cody heard the meowing again. Louder this time. There was also a high-pitched clawing sound, which suggested the cats were scraping frantically at the door of their crate.
“It’s the old lady’s cats,” Rachel said.
“I know it is honey,” Cody said.
“We can’t leave them in the box,” Rachel said. “They’ll die.”
Cody felt his patience wearing thin. It wasn’t so much with Rachel as with the situation. Why the hell weren’t they out of that place already? They should have been long gone. And why did he feel a pulling sensation in his mind, a voice that kept badgering him to look down at the butcher’s yard at his feet? He didn’t want to see it.
“Rachel, we…”
But Rachel had already let go of Cody’s hand. She was walking off, trying to locate the meowing cats.
“Kitty kitty,” she said.
“Rachel!” Cody hissed at her. “Get back here.”
He caught a glimpse of a bloody female corpse lying at his feet. A cold metallic smell shot up his nostrils. The woman’s dead eyes, half-open and glassy, were looking straight at him.
Cody stumbled forwards, keeping his eyes closed to block out the carnage. Without the sense of sight, the squelching noise underfoot got louder. When he opened his eyes, Rachel had found the cat crate. She was kneeling down just a short distance away from Cody. He could hear her talking in a gentle voice, comforting the frightened cats. Cody walked towards her. His feet connected with bits and pieces of the dead. They felt soft and squishy, like human slush. He wasn’t looking forward to taking his shoes off anytime soon.
“Rachel,” he said. “What are you doing?”
“They’re scared,” she said. “I’m just trying to help them.”
Cody looked inside the crate. The black and white cats were anxiously pacing back and forth, clawing at the plastic gate. Cody found himself thinking about the old lady. Where was she? Had he stepped on her remains on his way over?
“Let’s go Rachel,” he said. “This is giving me the creeps.”
“We’ve got to let them out,” she said. “It’s not their fault this happened.”
“Alright,” Cody said. He didn’t want to kneel down and touch the crate. That meant getting closer to ground.
“Lift the lever on the door and pull it open,” he said.
Rachel’s face was a mask of concentration as she studied the front of the crate. She lifted up the metal lever and the door squeaked hideously as she pulled it open. Both cats hesitated for a second, as if they could sense something was wrong.
“C’mon,” Rachel said.
They dashed outside, side by side, their sharp eyes taking in the sights as they galloped away from the carnage.
“You’re free,” Rachel said, watching them disappear.
“Can we go now?” Cody said.
She nodded and got to her feet.
Cody took her hand. They navigated their way back through the sea of dead bodies. Cody kept his eyes straight ahead, ignoring the endless wet sounds under his feet. Looking further along the apron, he saw that Nick and Crazy Diamond were standing over Richards, who was still slumped beside his dead wife’s remains.
“You’ve got to be kidding,” Cody said under his breath. “Hurry up old man.”
“You’re not watching your feet Dad,” Rachel said. “You nearly fell over something there.”
“Keep walking,” Cody said.
They caught up with Nick and Crazy Diamond. Richards was on his knees, tight up against the remains. Cody caught a brief and unfortunate glimpse of Marianne Richards’ green cardigan, still buttoned up neatly at the front. Her hands were covered in blood and lying stretched out at her sides in a crucifix pose.
Cody stood sideways on, so that he wouldn’t catch sight of her face.
“Can we go now?” he said.
“He doesn’t want to come with us,” Crazy Diamond said. “We’ve tried talking to him and he won’t listen.”
Nick squatted down beside Richards. It looked like he was giving it another try.
“Listen Richards,” he said. “I’m sorry for your loss. Truly I am, but we’ve gotta go now and I’ll be damned if I’m leaving you behind. Whatever passengers I’ve got left I’m hanging onto. That includes you.”
Richards glanced over his shoulder at Nick.
“Go away,” he said. “There’s nothing more you can do here.”
Nick looked at Cody and Crazy Diamond. He shrugged his shoulders and straightened back up again.
“I’ll drag him out of here if I have to,” Nick said. “By the beard.”
“Can’t we just cut him a little slack?” Crazy Diamond said. “Give him a few minutes. I don’t think anything else is going to happen here or it would’ve happened already.”
“I’ve given him plenty of slack,” Nick said. “Every second we stand here is a second too long.”
“I’m with Nick on this one,” Cody said. “We should be walking.”
Richards called over to them.
“I have to bury her,” he said. “Help me bury her and I’ll go with you.”
Nick shook his head. “There’s no time Richards,” he said, talking through clenched teeth. “Ain’t none of these people out here going to get a proper burial. But how about this? If we find the army in San Antonio then we’ll get back here and take care of her. You have my word – we’re not going to leave her here for long.”
Richards’ expression darkened. “No,” he said.
Cody saw Nick’s body stiffen. It looked like he really was bracing himself to grab the old man by the beard and drag him through the airport.
Crazy Diamond stepped in between Nick and Richards. She kneeled down beside the grieving widower, getting close but keeping a respectful distance.
Richards glanced at her briefly.
“John,” she said. “Please come with us.”
“Richards,” Richards said. “Not John.”
“Sorry,” she said. “Richards, please come with us.”
Crazy Diamond put a hand on the old man’s tweed sleeves. She tried to guide him back up to his feet but Richards resisted. He grunted, then moved closer to his wife, taking a hold of her bloody hand.
Cody and Nick were both getting restless. They were trapped in an open graveyard against their will. The reek of death was everywhere and all they had to do to get it out of their nostrils was to walk away. But the old man’s guilt and stubbornness was holding them back.
“I insist you come with us,” Crazy Diamond said in a calm, gentle voice. “We’re not leaving you here.”
“But I have to bury her,” Richards said, his eyes still on his wife. “I can’t just leave her lying on the ground like this. Not like I left her to die.”
“We’ll come back for her,” Crazy Diamond said. “But right now, we’ve got to go and check out that light in San Antonio. It’s our only chance and we can’t go if you don’t come with us. We won’t go. ”
“I’m a coward,” Richards said. “You’re better off without me.”
“You’re not a coward,” Crazy Diamond said. “And you’re not stupid either. That’s why you’re coming with us. Because you’re smart enough to know that our best chance of giving Marianne a proper burial is if we find someone to help us. You know that’s right don’t you?”
She tried to encourage Richards back to his feet again. This time the old man didn’t resist. His wrinkled hand remained locked around his wife’s fingers until his ar
m ran out of reach.
Cody rejoiced quietly at the sight of the old man standing up.
“Let’s get moving,” Crazy Diamond said. She put an arm around Richards’s shoulder and guided him towards the terminal. Cody hoped that Richards wouldn’t turn around for one last look.
The five survivors walked through the ruins of San Antonio International Airport. It was too dark to see much inside the terminal building. It felt like they were walking through a haunted house with no lights, waiting for something to reach out and grab them by the leg. Fortunately Nick, who’d been through the airport many times, knew his way down to the front entrance with no problems.
They approached the front doors of the terminal.
Cody looked through the entrance and stopped dead.
“Oh no,” he said. “Don’t let it be true.”
“What is it?” Nick said. “What are you talking about?”
Cody didn’t answer. He was already running forward, still holding onto Rachel’s hand and taking her with him. She ran alongside as he hurried through the open doorway and outside into the balmy air.
Rachel let go of his hand.
“Dad,” she said. “Is that…?”
“Yeah.”
Cody dropped the two backpacks onto the ground with a thud.
Father and daughter stood in silence.
Cody’s 1970 Dodge Challenger was still parked outside the airport. But it was a burned out wreck. It was a rusting, decaying monument from another lifetime. The body, which had been classic white, was now covered in ugly splotches of metallic gray, red and yellow. The doors were lying wide open, as was the trunk, which suggested the car had been ransacked before it was torched.
Cody trudged forwards. He felt lightheaded.
“What happened?” Rachel said, walking behind her dad. Bootsy the bear swung at her side.
Cody shook his head. “They got her,” he said. “They well and truly got her.”
“Who?”
He shrugged. “Somebody. It doesn’t matter.”
Cody could only imagine what had happened. Some mad bastard, their brain swirling with the Black Fever must have torched the car during the attack on the airport. Either that or it was the Black Widow herself – she could have done it after their last encounter in the airport just to spite him.
Either way, his beloved Dodge was a wreck.
“Damn this fucking city,” Cody said.
He looked at Rachel.
“Sorry kid. Your old man’s not supposed to swear, I know.”
Cody sighed and took a backwards step from the car. It had been hard enough leaving the Dodge sitting outside the airport. It had been like abandoning an old friend. But to come back and see it burned out and looking like a piece of scrap, barely fit for a junkyard – that was tough.
He touched the pocket of his pants. The car key was still in there – it was attached to the Swiss army knife keychain along with the house key and a few other remnants of the past. Useless items, all of them.
Nick, Crazy Diamond and Richards caught up with the MacLeods outside.
“Oh shit,” Nick said. “I’m sorry Cody. That’s gotta hurt man.”
Cody turned to face the other three adults.
“Don’t suppose any of you guys got a car?”
Crazy Diamond shook her head.
“I carpooled here,” she said. “Came in my uncle’s car with some other people. He’s got the keys on him somewhere back there. We weren’t super close or anything like that, but I don’t think I want to go back there and start rummaging through the bodies. If I found him…”
“I know,” Cody said. He looked at Richards. “What about you?”
“We shared a ride too,” Richards said. “Nick set it up for us.”
Nick stood beside Richards and nodded.
“Some of the other pilots were using my car to shuttle their families to and from the airport,” he said. “I thought an armed escort would be a good idea, seeing as how crazy things were getting in the city. I guess I should have gotten the keys back off them.”
Cody felt the black sky pressing down on top of his head. Pushing him down.
“Looks like we’re walking to San Antonio,” he said.
Cody turned around and touched the hood of the Dodge. It felt rough and alien to his skin. Rachel copied her father and put a hand on the car. It was a silent moment – a farewell to a dear friend, like touching the lid of the coffin that was about to be lowered into the ground.
Cody picked up the two backpacks. He slid the straps up both arms and around the shoulders. They were already starting to feel heavy. It wasn’t going to be pleasant hiking downtown with those weights strapped to his body.
He turned back to the others.
“We’re all agreed then?” he said. “We walk to San Antonio. Find whoever’s flashing that blue light and hope they’re on our side?”
Nick adjusted the rifle strap on his shoulder.
“I’m game,” he said, stepping forward. “What choice do we have anyway?”
“Agreed,” Rachel said, looking up at her Dad.
Crazy Diamond walked over and put an arm around Rachel’s shoulder. “I’m with Rachel on this one,” she said.
Richards was the most reluctant. He kept looking back over his shoulder like someone who suspected they were being followed. “I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t know if I’ve got it in me.”
“Sure you have John,” Crazy Diamond said. “You can’t walk any slower than me. I’m like a slug for God’s sake.”
Richards smiled. For a moment, his eyes forgot his troubles.
“Marianne always insisted on calling me John,” he said. “Fifty years of marriage – fifty years of asking her to call me Richards. My father – he was John, but I was always Richards.”
“Good for her,” Crazy Diamond said. “Sounds like she didn’t take any of your shit.”
“No,” Richards said, with a sad smile. “She didn’t take any of my shit.”
Crazy Diamond walked over to the old man.
“How about this Richards?” she said. “We walk to San Antonio together, nice and slow. And on our way downtown we can talk about how awesome Marianne was. Alright?”
Richards nodded. “I’ll try.”
Crazy Diamond bent down and picked Richards’ satchel up off the ground. She slung it over her spare shoulder while the other carried her own backpack. With a nod to the others, she led the old man away from the terminal building.
Cody heard her talking to Richards.
“So how long were you guys married for?” Crazy Diamond asked.
Chapter Five
The five survivors walked down the McAllister Freeway towards downtown San Antonio.
They passed several abandoned cars on the road. Upon closer inspection of some of these vehicles, Cody and the others found the occasional rotten corpse festering in the back seat. Usually there was a small army of flies buzzing around furiously in the glare of Nick’s flashlight, scavenging upon the shriveled human remains.
It was a strangely hypnotic sight, too devastating to fully comprehend with a single glance. How many other bodies were lying in between them and the rest of San Antonio?
It smelled terrible. They didn’t linger around the cars for long.
The surrounding area was a desolate sight. The three-lane highway, both northbound and southbound, was empty for long stretches in between these scattered four-wheeled tombs. Several looping overpasses towered above the group as they walked towards the city. The trees that lined the side of the road were tall and overgrown, some of them spilling over onto old advertisement signs that would have been hard to miss under a blue sky. Whatever great deal was being offered on these billboards was lost underneath the ravenous foliage.
Cody and Nick walked at the front of the group. Rachel was walking by herself in the middle, a couple of paces ahead of Crazy Diamond and Richards, who were bringing up the rear.
Cody looked over hi
s shoulder at Rachel. She didn’t look tired; on the contrary, there was a spring in her step as if the walk had revived her.
“You okay kid?” he said, trying to sound cheerful. “Getting tired?”
She shook her head. “Fine. Apart from the flies.”
“Yeah,” Cody said. “Hopefully it won’t be so bad in the city. You warm enough?”
“I’m fine,” Rachel said. She looked at him with an irritated frown.
Crazy Diamond and Richards walked at a slower pace. The old man’s body was limp, his arms long and ape-like at his side. His eyes were distant – his mind far from the grim reality of the McAllister Freeway. Cody had heard Crazy Diamond talking to him, valiantly trying to keep the conversation going. Even Rachel had joined in, doing her best to raise the old man’s spirits. Asking him about anything and everything – his work, where he lived and other aspects of his life. But it didn’t take Richards long to tire of conversation – his answers had become more blatantly gruff and grunt-like. At that point, Crazy Diamond and Rachel decided it was better to leave him alone.
“You guys okay?” Cody said.
Crazy Diamond waved over. “All good.”
Richards didn’t look up.
Cody turned back to the front. A black horizon stretched out before them. Nick’s flashlight was a feeble speck of light in its presence, a flimsy blade of yellow trying to cut through a towering wall of darkness.
“So this is what feels like,” Nick said.
Cody raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
“To be the last man.”
“Huh?”
Nick was staring into the emptiness.
“Don’t you feel it?” he said. “It’s like we’re hanging on by a thread. Humanity, civilization – all that crap.”
“Maybe,” Cody said.
“Strangest thing,” Nick said, his fingers locked around the rifle sling that hung from his huge shoulder. “I always thought it would be great. No one else around to tell me what to do. Just me, myself and I in the Garden of Eden. Because we live in the Garden of Eden, don’t ever doubt that Cody. You fly as much as I have, look down on the world – it’s Paradise. Except for us. But yeah, I thought it was going to be great. No people.”
Black Fever: A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Thriller (The Black Storm Trilogy Book 2) Page 5
