“Tob,” Elaine said.
“Tod?” Clay asked.
“No, Tob!” Tob said forcefully, picking up his head and scowling at us.
“Okay, Tob,” I said. “You ready to eat something and go for a ride?”
Tob nodded his head and put it back on Elaine’s shoulder.
“He can sit in the back seat with you,” I said. “I’ll let your dad drive and I’ll navigate.”
Elaine nodded and headed toward the van with Tob.
I was glad she was good with children. I was decent, but I was at a loss as far as bathing and clothing them. I would have handled it…but she seemed to take it all in stride.
“Let’s get to Washington Center,” I said, and slapped Clay on the shoulder.
Chapter 12
Clay had to mow down a couple zombies to get out of the suburban housing development. One of them was Mrs. Piscatelli. I pointed her out to Clay. He laughed hysterically for a moment, which I think relieved his guilt of hitting zombies with the van, zombies that had once been people.
There weren’t as many vehicles abandoned on the highway as I’d thought there would be. I think that was a misconception I’d had because of movies I’d seen. I figured it was a common visual in movies because of the dramatic effect. But I’m not sure if they wanted people to feel trapped and unable to travel or if they wanted to express in some way the futility of the situation and how many people had been lost. I guess I would never know since it wasn’t likely I would ever meet anyone who directed zombie movies, at least that weren’t future documentaries.
Once we were on the open highway, I looked back at Elaine and Tob. She was lying on her back, stretched the length of the back seat with Tob lying on her chest; they were both sleeping.
Tob had attacked the snack I’d picked out for him. I don’t know if it was because they were things he normally ate and enjoyed or if it was just his extreme hunger. I’d set out a few of the juice boxes I’d found in his house and a couple more of the cereal bars. I wanted to feed him more, but I didn’t want to make him sick. My main goal was to get liquids into him, and that’s why I’d given him four of the juice boxes. He drank two down and started a third. Two of the three cereal bars were consumed as well. I don’t know how much he ate or how much Elaine ate while trying to convince him to eat more. Either way, we were doing the best we could to get him nourished and feeling better. I once again hoped Washington Center was safe…and that it had some kind of medical help; the little guy needed it far more than the rest of us.
“There’s someone coming up behind us,” Clay said, sounding nervous.
I looked past Elaine and out the back window. There was a red pickup behind us and it was advancing fast. My stomach tightened with tension. I didn’t know if they were following us with the intent to do us harm or if they were simply going in the same direction.
“Don’t panic,” I said, and watched the truck. “Unless they make some kind of weird move or something, we don’t know they’re after us or anything. They could just be going to Washington Center too.”
Clay nodded, but kept glancing at his side mirror and then the rearview mirror.
I could tell he was even more nervous than I was.
“Keep your eyes open for exits or ways we can get off the highway quick if we need to,” I advised, trying to give Clay something to focus on that he could control. Mom had always done that with me when I started to freak out about random things. “Remember this van is low to the ground though and we have passengers.” I didn’t want to him freak out and stick us straight in a ditch.
The truck kept advancing and soon pulled up beside us. The windows were tinted so we couldn’t see the person or people inside. They stayed there for a moment or two and then gassed it and pulled in front of us; it was a smart move because there were a couple cars sitting in that lane a little ways off. They didn’t slam on their brakes to mess with us or anything, but kept accelerating and sped off in a couple of minutes.
I sighed with relief, but I was now on full alert. This was no longer a cute comfortable drive with Elaine and Tob taking a nap, this was survival. I had to keep that in my head. Somehow I got comfortable every now and again and forgot about the dangers all around us. I knew I had to stop doing that before I got myself or someone else killed.
“I think we’re good,” I said a few minutes later when there was no sign of the truck returning.
“Is there a secondary route we can take, just in case they decide to come back?” Clay asked.
“Good thinking,” I said. “We can get off a couple towns over and take a back road I know, if you want. We went on it a couple times when my mom or dad didn’t want to deal with bad traffic.”
“Nice,” Clay said. “You just tell me when to get off the highway.”
I looked at the green signs on an overpass we were getting ready to go under.
“It’ll be four more exits,” I said. “I’ll let you know when we’re getting close.”
I turned in my seat and checked on Elaine and Tob. They were both still asleep, blindly trusting us to get them where we were going safely.
<+>
“We’re getting close,” I said, leaned forward, and scanned the area. I didn’t see anything alarming. “The next exit is the one.”
I saw Clay nod his head out of the corner of my eye. He’d been griping the steering wheel with white knuckles ever since the truck had driven up on us. He hadn’t talked much and he’d been sweating like crazy.
I glanced back to check behind us. Nothing but what we’d passed driving. I noticed Elaine and Tob were still asleep. I was glad for that. At least neither of them was stressed out. They didn’t need to worry. Hell, I didn’t even know if me and Clay needed to worry. We could be all worked up about nothing. It was hard to tell. Hopefully we wouldn’t find out.
“This exit?” Clay asked.
I shifted my attention to the road in front of us.
“Yes,” I said. “At the bottom of the off ramp, turn left.”
Clay nodded silently, laser focused on driving.
“Pee!” Tob screamed from the back, causing me and Clay to jump, startled.
“I guess we’ll have to pull over once we get off the highway,” I said, and chuckled.
“Sounds that way,” Clay said. “Honestly, I could use a potty break too.”
“Hey, guys,” Elaine said. “What’s going on? Are we almost there?”
“We’re getting close,” I said.
Clay guided the van off the highway and onto the off ramp. At the end, he turned left.
“Where should I go now?” he asked me.
“There should be a service road up here leading into some tree cover,” I said. “That would be a good place for a bathroom break. It’s private.”
I think Clay understood what I was getting at because he smiled and nodded. He didn’t seem to be super talkative when he was afraid, which I appreciated. I didn’t need the extra chatter of a super talkative companion.
“Ah, I see it,” he said, and turned right onto the dirt road I’d mentioned. He pulled into the cluster of trees I was talking about that shielded the van and us from view of the road we’d come off of and the highway. “Time to pee!”
Elaine helped Tob open the side, passenger door and he hopped out. In moments he had his pants down and was peeing on a tree. I took it as a good sign that he had enough fluid in him to pee. I hoped that meant we’d found him in time.
“He has the right idea,” Clay said, laughed, and climbed out of the van.
I opened my door and climbed out too. I walked into the trees and found a spot to relieve my bladder. As I unzipped and got ready to pee, I heard a vehicle off in the distance. I sidestepped around a large tree so I could see the road and the highway a little ways off.
The red truck was back…with a small black 80s or 90s sports car. They sped along and then slowed down and then sped up again. I assumed they’d come back to get us with a friend and were loo
king for us on and off the highway. Clay and I had been right to be nervous.
We had literally just escaped danger…for now. We just had to make sure we got to Washington Center or another safe place before they found us.
I peed on the tree, watched for the vehicles to come back – they didn’t – and then headed back to the center of the tree cluster where the van was.
They had the back hatch of the van open and were having something to eat and drink.
“Everyone feel better?” I asked, forcing a smile.
“Yup,” Elaine said. “Want some trail mix and water?”
“Sure,” I said. “I think we should get going too, if we want to make it to Washington Center by dark.”
Tob was sitting in the cargo area of the van, propped up against the supplies, eating. I was glad to see this, but he was still very weak and I could tell he needed more rest; he was struggling to keep his eyes open and was chewing slowly.
“Let’s get all loaded up and on the road, shall we?” I said, clapped my hands once, and walked toward the van.
I took the trail mix and water Elaine held out to me. She picked up Tob. Clay shut the hatch and headed to the driver’s door. He opened the door, climbed inside the van, and shut the door. I slid the rear passenger’s side door shut after Elaine and Tob were inside.
I opened my door, climbed in, glanced back to make sure Elaine was occupied with Tob, leaned over to Clay, and whispered, “I saw the red truck with a black car on the highway. We need to get to Washington Center as fast as we can. And, there’s a gun under your seat with two bullets in the clip…if you should need it.”
For a moment I saw naked fear on Clay’s face. Then he tightened his jaw and nodded. He started the engine.
I was scared too. Every muscle in my body was tense. I wanted to panic, to freak out and have a meltdown like I normally did when faced with things too big for me to handle, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t scare Tob and Elaine, and I couldn’t fall apart when it seemed like Clay was depending on me to share this burden with him and be his strength.
As Clay turned the van around and headed back out to the road that would take us to Washington Center, the back way, I couldn’t help but think how much I’d grown up in the last couple days. Mom would have been proud.
Chapter 13
We encountered a slew of zombies on the way to Washington Center. We had a forty-five minute drive on a state route that took us through multiple little towns and villages. Each time we reached one, Clay slowed down so we wouldn’t slam into the shambling corpses that came out in droves to beat against the sides of the van. The slow but steady movement seemed to do well at getting through the zombies.
Grotesque faces slammed against the glass all around us to make smears of puss, blood, and black goo. It probably would have freaked Tob out if he hadn’t fallen into a very deep sleep. Elaine kept her eyes closed and covered her ears each time until we’d gotten through the hordes.
The forty-five minute drive took an hour and a half. The sun was setting as we crested the hill that would give us a great view of the shopping center. What we saw was shocking…
There was a wall fortifying the entire shopping center and the surrounding parking lots. If I hadn’t known that’s what they were, I would just think it had always been part of the compound that now existed in the space. There were tents and people everywhere inside the compound, as well as more walls that seemed to separate sections inside. There were large red crosses on some of the tents, and I took that to mean that was the medical section. Washington Center was safe and we had arrived.
Clay’s face was lit up with a huge grin, and I couldn’t help smiling in response.
Elaine leaned up between our seats and said, “Well, there it is!”
“Yup,” I said. “Let’s get down there.”
Clay nodded and drove down the road that led to the front gates.
There was one other car in front of us that was being inspected by armed, military personnel while the occupants waited and talked to other military personnel close-by. Once they cleared the car, a military guy got in the driver’s seat and drove it inside. The people were also taken inside and then split up. They looked a little upset about it, but said their goodbyes and waved at each other.
“I wonder why they’re being separated,” Elaine said, right in my ear because she was still leaning up between our seats.
“I don’t know,” I said, turning my head to look at her. “I think you should try to wake Tob up. We have no idea what’s going to happen next.”
Clay moved the van forward when one of the military guys motioned for him to.
The same guy stepped up to Clay’s window.
“I need you to cut the engine and have everyone exit the vehicle,” he instructed.
Clay killed the van’s engine and undid his seatbelt while the solider opened his door. Other soldiers had moved up to the other doors without me noticing – I’d been focused on the one outside Clay’s window.
“Step over here, please,” a female solider said, motioning us off to the right side of the van, toward the gate.
Once we were all there they searched us and took my gun. I didn’t want to let them take it, but I figured I didn’t have a choice. I also figured fighting would get me hurt or sent on my way without it. I didn’t want to piss off the military personnel.
The female solider proceeded to ask us questions. She started with personal information like our names and where we were from; it got a little complicated when we had to explain Tob, but they didn’t seem too surprised that we’d found him. Then she asked the question I thought might be coming.
“Have any of you been bitten by a zombie?” she asked.
“Yes,” Elaine and I said in unison.
“Tob, too,” I said, nodding at the little guy snuggled against Elaine’s chest and neck.
“What about you, sir?” the soldier asked Clay.
He shook his head no, looking grim.
“Show me the bites,” she said, and the three of us obliged. “It looks like you’re all healing nicely. When you go inside, you’ll be taken to our medical facility for testing.” She turned her attention to Clay. “You’ll be escorted elsewhere to get set up as a citizen.”
“She’s my daughter,” Clay said, stepping forward. “What do you plan to do with her? I want to go with her.”
The solider looked Clay in the eyes and said firmly, “She won’t be harmed. You don’t have a choice. Either you do as we tell you or you don’t come in. It’s your choice.”
Her statement confirmed for me that I’d made the right decision about giving the gun up willingly. I kind of felt like I was living in a video game and that was how I was dealing with making decisions. It had worked well for me so far.
The solider who’d directed us forward climbed into the van and drove it through the open gate. All our food and supplies went with him. If we decided to leave, I didn’t know if we’d get it all back. From the look on Clay’s face, he didn’t seem to either.
Clay sighed heavily, nodded, and hugged Elaine.
I could see his mouth moving as he whispered something to her, but I couldn’t hear what he said. He kissed her cheek before pulling away.
“Okay,” he said, turning back to the solider. “Let’s do this.”
With that we were escorted inside and separated.
Chapter 14
Me, Elaine, and Tob were taken to a medical facility that was inside one of the largest buildings in the shopping center; the store had been cleared out and now looked like a hospital in every aspect. The place even smelled like a hospital. One of the people from the car in front of us was sitting in a small waiting area. She was pregnant and looked distressed.
“Have a seat,” a nurse instructed. “You’ll be seen shortly.”
Elaine looked at me as if seeking direction; I smiled and nodded my head. I put my hand on the small of her back and led her over to the seating area. She sat down and I sat dow
n beside her.
“I wonder what they’re going to do to us,” Elaine said in a hushed voice.
“I have no idea,” I said, “but I bet whatever it is will involve a blood test.”
“That would make sense,” she said, shifting Tob since he’d fallen asleep again. “I hope they can do something to help him. I’ve been really worried about him. I’m glad he peed earlier. I still think he needs more fluids.”
“They’ll probably give him an IV and hopefully some nutrients or something that will help him get his strength back.”
Elaine nodded, rubbing Tob’s back.
A nurse came out and took the pregnant woman away.
We waited a few minutes and another nurse came out to take Elaine and Tob.
“I’ll find you later,” I said when she glanced at me nervously.
“Yes,” the nurse said. “You’ll see each other again after your examinations.”
This seemed to calm Elaine down enough to get her to go with the nurse and leave me. I was glad the nurse had reassured her.
I sat there wondering how many people had shown up that were immune to bites. That there were enough that they didn’t even bat an eye at the idea was somewhat unsettling. I guess there was a chance that I wasn’t as special as I’d thought, but then I started thinking about how many zombies we’d encountered on the way here. There were a lot of zombies.
I wasn’t left with my own thoughts long – another nurse came and got me.
“How are you doing?” she asked as she escorted me down a corridor.
“Tired, but fine, thanks,” I said, looking around curiously.
“We’re going to get your weight and height, draw your blood, and then you’ll talk to a doctor before being taken to your barracks for the night.”
That all sounded like what I’d expected. I wondered if me, Elaine, Tob, and Clay would be reunited for the night or if I wouldn’t see them again until tomorrow. Either way, I knew we were all safe for now, so there was no reason to stress about it.
It was nice to feel safe, but at the same time, I started getting the helpless feeling I always had when I stepped inside school or any other established part of our now dead society. I felt like I had no choice in anything. I felt like I was being controlled to fit into someone else’s plans for me. I felt invisible and like a puppet. I hoped I was overacting and things wouldn’t be as bad as my anxiety was making me believe.
Zpoc Exception Series (Book 1): Re-Civilize (Chad) Page 6
