Z1N1: The Zombie Pandemic: 2012 Was Just the Beginning

by Mitchell Layne Cook

  Since leaving West Virginia, Corbin had done most of the driving and navigating; he followed James’ directions in the old atlas whenever possible. Focusing on the road and the destination kept his mind off Megan – even if only for the briefest of moments. Kara had offered to navigate but seeing her brother’s handwriting and notes inside the old atlas was too much for her to bear. She didn’t have to see her brother’s final sacrifice back at the two boulders, but she knew him well enough to know that he would not have allowed himself to turn. Nikki slept most of the time never far from Megan’s soft pink blanket; the baby’s gentle aroma of innocence deeply saturated the wool comforter.

  The weather worsened as soon as they had entered Pennsylvania. Corbin continued to drive through the whiteout conditions until visibility outside of the van barely passed the rusted front bumper. He pulled the van to the side of the road between a burned out husk of a bank on the passenger side of the street and an elementary school on the driver’s side. He traced with his index finger an alternate route that James had marked. The old marine’s notes indicated that from their current position on the map – they would need to travel another six hundred or so miles before reaching Bangor.

  Corbin began coughing; he had felt lousy for the better part of the past three days. He knew his fever was quite high from the alternating periods of freezing and sweating his ass off. The long, cold nights stuck in the van plus the strain of the past many months combined with the loss of his beloved daughter was too much. He had not allowed his body to rest and now he was paying for it.

  “Are you OK?” Nikki asked from the backseat as Corbin continued to cough.

  “I’m not sure,” he responded. “I was hoping it was just a cold but I’ve had a fever for a few days now that I thought would pass…but I guess not.”

  Nikki sat up and folded the pink blanket into a perfect square laying it securely on the seat before walking to the front of the van. She placed her hand on Corbin’s head feeling the intense heat radiating from his body. She turned walking to the storage area in the very back of the van to get some rubbing alcohol and a dishrag like he had done for Megan a few days back…but she began to cry before she reached the backseat as images of Megan overwhelmed her. She stood there hunched over in the center of the van crying, but no tears fell from her swollen eyes; she had long since exhausted those watery reserves. She wondered if survival was worth the effort...

  “What are we doing?” she asked to no one in particular.

  “I thought we were going to Maine,” Kara answered only half paying attention.

  The death of her brother had numbed her mind, body and soul. She felt isolated, detached from the world around her; the willowy tendrils of depression had set in. She had scarcely eaten anything in the past week. She rarely slept as haunting dreams of her decaying brother frolicked around in her subconscious mind. She possessed the wherewithal to know she teetered on the edge of madness but wondered silently why she continued the struggle.

  “No, I mean why are pushing on? What’s the point? It seems like every step we take we lose someone we love…”

  Corbin bowed his head resting it on the steering wheel; he too had thought similarly. What was the point of living in a world like this? The days never got any better. Things from the old world meant nothing now. Who cares if it was your birthday? Who cares about saving money for retirement? Seeing your kids graduate from high school meant nothing now. He began coughing again and could feel the phlegm stuck in his throat and chest.

  “Let me see if I can find you something for that cough,” Nikki offered.

  “Don’t worry about it now,” Corbin replied. “We have a few more hours of driving before nightfall. Let’s just get back on…”

  “What the hell is that?” Kara shrieked as she pointed out the driver’s side window. “Did you see that?”

  “See what?” Nikki asked. “I’m surprised you can see anything with all of this damn snow that keeps following us around.”

  “I saw a little girl run inside that school building,” Kara said.

  “I think you are seeing things,” Corbin said as he strained his neck looking towards the school building. “I’m the one with the high fever here – if anyone should be hallucinating it should be me.”

  “She might be hurt or lost. Please can we help her?” Kara pleaded.

  “There’s no one out there,” Corbin insisted.

  Kara pushed open the passenger side door; Corbin instinctively reached out to grab her but she slipped through his fingers. She ran in front of the van and across the street into the alabaster soaked periphery. Corbin and Nikki watched in shocked awe as their companion struggled through the knee-deep snow towards the school.

  “Sit down,” Corbin yelled but Nikki had already taken a seat. Corbin threw the van into drive and slammed his foot on the accelerator but the van, embedded deep in the snow and ice, refused his heavy-footed prodding. He rammed the column-mounted shifter into reverse and then drive and then reverse again trying to rock the van free from the clutches of its icy prison.

  “I don’t see her anymore,” Nikki cried out.

  “Fuck!” Corbin yelled as he shifted into park shutting off the engine. “Grab your coat and gun. We have to go after her.” Corbin stepped out of the van adjusting his heavy coat as his feet sank deeply into the fresh snow. He grabbed his backpack and handgun from behind the seat and slammed the door. Nikki exited the passenger side of the van fully decked out in her thick winter coat with Kara’s rifle strung over her back; she moved to the front of the van with her husband.

  The malevolent breath of Old Man Winter scooped up snow and ice from all directions mercilessly pelting the young couple as they struggled across the road to the erstwhile school building. The gray stone walls that once enclosed bright minds and limitless futures now provided no real service except breaking the monotony of the wintery landscape. A patchwork awning, missing several sections of tin roofing, lazily sheltered a sidewalk winding to the front of the building; the remaining patches of the metal canopy offered no protection from the bone-chilling precipitation.

  “There!” Corbin pointed to the ground as he shouted over the blustery wind.

  Nikki could barely make them out, but sure enough two sets of footprints, now half filled with snow, led directly into the main doors of the elementary school. The couple followed the gradually evanescing trail into the Cimmerian antechamber. Abandoned text books, precariously perched within tiny metal lockers along the wall, peeked out partially agape doors at the uninvited guests. Sheets of liberated notebook paper and other miscellaneous school materials littered the hallway. While the temperature inside the building mirrored that of the outside, it felt much warmer without the constant bullying of the subzero wind chill beyond the thick stone walls.

  Corbin led the way down the first hallway encountering an empty cafeteria on his left. Farther down the hallway, they passed by the teacher’s lounge and principal’s office on the right. The main hallway branched left at the boy’s restroom. Corbin and Nikki hunched down stopping at the corner when they both heard a soft voice almost inaudibly whispering around the corner. Corbin began to inch his way to the edge of the corner but Nikki grabbed his arm pulling him back towards her. He stared deeply into her fear-stricken eyes knowing full well that his eyes too betrayed his bravado. They recognized the voice even though they had no idea what she was murmuring on about…Kara was around the corner.

  The couple concurrently rounded the corner. In the middle of the hallway, approximately twenty feet from them, Kara was kneeling, her arms wrapped around an unseen child – the child’s arms wrapped around Kara’s neck. The curly, dark brown hair draped over Kara’s shoulder clashed with the woman’s straight blonde hair. Kara rocked back and forth humming an unknown melody.

  “Kara?” Nikki spoke her friend’s name softly.

  “I told you I saw someone,” Kara said flatly.

  “Looks like you were right, Kara,” Corbin answer
ed. “Are you OK?”

  “You shouldn’t be out here without a hall pass,” Kara replied.

  “Kara,” Nikki said – a bit unsure of her friend’s off-the-wall statement, “that doesn’t make any sense. Why don’t you come back here where we are?”

  Kara released her protective embrace and stood up sluggishly turning towards her friends, her hand now locked tightly around the young girl’s hand. As Kara faced them, the couple could see a small girl, in her dirty blue school outfit with a ragged hall monitor’s sash draped over one shoulder. The girl languidly raised her head; her brown hair fell away exposing her dead rotting face and sinister hematic eyes.

  “Move Kara!” Corbin yelled as he pointed his gun towards the undead child.

  Kara staggered and fell to one knee as she continued to hold the zombie girl’s hand. She turned her head towards the child exposing two child-sized bite marks on her neck and face. “It’s fine,” Kara whispered to the undead girl. “They are the friends I told you about…” Dark viscous blood crept down the left side of Kara’s neck; her life slowly draining away with each erratic pump of her heart. The zombie juvenile stared blankly towards Corbin and Nikki.

  “No!” Nikki screamed as she advanced towards Kara. Corbin restrained his distraught wife by her shoulders; she didn’t fight him – she knew there was nothing she or anyone else could do to save Kara.

  Loud crashing from a room on the left side of the hallway that sounded like desks being knocked over snapped Corbin back to attention. The scuffling of feet sliding across the tiled floor made the hair on Nikki’s neck stand up. The couple stared at the slightly opened entryway leading into the classroom. The flimsy door violently swung outwards, almost detaching itself from the hinges, as a colony of undead children in matching blue school uniforms poured into the hallway. Angry, feral growls and moans erupted from their bloated desecrated faces.

  “Run, Nikki!” Corbin screamed.

  The duo glanced briefly in the direction of Kara for one final time as they turned running around the corner heading for the exit. Nikki slipped on some of the loose-leaf paper strewn on the floors crashing to the ground sliding head first into the wall between the principal’s office and the teacher’s lounge. The gaggle of undead school children descended upon Nikki’s outstretched body. Two of the children grabbed her ankles but she furiously kicked them away.

  Corbin stopped, spun around and fired off his entire clip of ammunition. Four of the ten rounds found a home wedged deep into the craniums and necks of the soulless terrors. He sprinted back to his wife and helped her to her feet. The smell of stinking zombie flesh crowded the hallway; the nauseating stench was unbearable. Both covered their mouths as they reached the doors leading outside to the van – the zombie gang mere seconds behind them.

  The couple, barely slowed by the fathomless snow, quickly reached the van. Corbin swung open the driver’s side door and Nikki dove through to the passenger seat; Corbin leapt into the seat bashing his head against the low roofline. Momentarily dazed, he fumbled with the keys trying to insert them into the ignition; Nikki steadied his hand and they both started the van. The van danced back and forth as Corbin again tried to free the behemoth from the icy ruts.

  The undead school children surrounded the van scratching and clawing on the sheet metal and windows. One of the larger zombie pre-teens climbed onto the hood of the van and began ramming his fists and head into the windshield trying to touch the human flesh within. Nikki watched in horror as the young dead boy’s decaying flesh splattered across the windshield with each successive blow. She saw more children coming from the school building. No! She thought to herself. Those were not children; they were zombies – undead corpses undeserving the label of children.

  The van’s futile struggle for traction finally paid off as tiny zombie bodies fell underneath the tires; the massive wheels gripped the rotting child flesh underneath propelling the van from its icy confinement to the middle of the street. Corbin struggled briefly with the steering wheel but regained control of the vehicle. The large zombie boy held onto the windshield wipers; his thick grayish-yellow saliva dripping from his mouth and freezing onto the windshield. Corbin swerved from side-to-side finally discarding the unwanted passenger; the airborne undead boy crashed sideways into a drooping street sign – the force of the impact eviscerating the tiny monster.

  And then there were two…

  January 14, 2014: Tuesday, 3:22 AM – a parking lot outside a small Methodist Church, Danbury, Connecticut …

  “Where are we?” Corbin asked as he pushed aside a blanket covering his face.

  “Connecticut,” Nikki replied.

  Corbin had taken a turn for the worse after their hasty exit from Pennsylvania. Nikki had taken over driving duties before departing the Keystone State. Corbin had tried to navigate for her from the passenger seat, but he was exhausted and couldn’t focus. They passed quietly through New Jersey and New York while he slept on the couch-like back seat. Nikki had taken frequent breaks to hydrate her husband and feed him soup whenever he was conscious.

  This evening, like the past few nights -Nikki had been unable to sleep. The traumatic, unnecessary death of Kara coupled with the ailing health of her husband kept her from any significant amounts of rest. He lay next to her shivering the entire night even though he was thoroughly wrapped in winter clothing and blankets. His fever had ebbed and flowed the past three days, but still whatever his immune system was fighting kept him delirious and strung out.

  “Go back to sleep, babe,” Nikki said as she draped her arm over his chest. “We’ll be back on the road in a few hours.” She rubbed his soft graying beard; it had taken her a good bit of time to get used to seeing him with the facial hair – she could barely remember what his clean-shaven face looked like.

  Corbin nodded off into a dreamless sleep.

  January 18, 2014: Saturday, 10:52 AM – parked behind an abandoned service station off of Interstate-95, Portsmouth, New Hampshire …

  Corbin sat up; his back ached from the lumpy backseat. Something had stirred him from his fitful rest. What was that noise? The van was not moving and strangely silent. He drank deeply from the canteen that had been placed by his feet. He glanced quickly around the van but his wife was not inside.

  “Nikki? Nikki!” Corbin yelled as he stood up. His legs complained from lack of use over the past week; needles of pain shot up and down his legs as the blood and muscles struggled to react as commanded. He hobbled to the side door balancing himself on the middle row seats; he slid open the bay door stepping out into the cold morning air.

  “I’m over here,” Nikki replied just loud enough for him to hear from her position at the front of the van. She motioned for Corbin to get lower to the ground as he approached her. She pointed towards a small cadre of men in camouflaged uniforms holed up underneath an overpass.

  “What’s going on?”

  “The van was overheating so I pulled over to refill the radiator,” she replied. “You should be resting – not out here in the cold.”

  “What’s going on down there?”

  Corbin counted twelve men dressed similarly in tattered camouflage fatigues. They were hooting and hollering as they taunted a man, a woman and a slender teenage girl that huddled behind one of the giant columns supporting the overpass. Corbin couldn’t make out what was being said but he knew the man on his knees was pleading for the lives of his wife and daughter.

  Two of the soldiers separated from the group moving towards the mother. She and her daughter dashed around the column just out of arm’s reach of the men. The father stood up from his kneeling position as he slugged one of the soldiers. The other soldier swung the butt of his gun smashing it into the back of the man’s head…he fell to the ground in a semi-conscious fetal position. Three more soldiers began jumping around laughing and taunting the family. The father reached out towards his wife and daughter but watched helplessly as the soldiers grabbed the mother and daughter dragging them across th
e rough pavement to the other side of the opposite support column.

  “Let’s go,” Nikki said as she turned away from the disgusting scene playing out below. “We can’t do anything for them.”

  January 20, 2014: Monday, 1:47 PM – Bicentennial Park, Augusta, Maine …

  The persnickety van continued its relentless protest as Nikki maneuvered through the empty streets of Maine’s capital city. Continued pit stops along the way to baby the radiator impeded their headway to Mount Hope. The van had been pushed well past its breaking point and through sheer happenstance the duo was able to glean a few more precious miles out of the antiquated vehicle. However, Fate had apparently decided that the old van’s final resting place would be this local state park just off the main thoroughfare.

  “That’s it,” Nikki announced. She threw her hands into the air as the idle van coasted slowly to a complete stop next to a medium-sized stone statue of one of the city’s founding fathers.

  “There are no other markings on the map,” Corbin replied from the passenger side seat. He had been feeling a bit better but his weakened body ached constantly. “I guess James must have figured that once we made it this far, we would just follow the street signs.”

  “Let’s grab all the supplies we can carry,” Nikki remarked. “We’ll get out and move towards Bangor on foot. Maybe we’ll find another car or something…” She didn’t want to overtax her husband’s enfeebled body but she knew it wasn’t safe to stay out in the open either. “We’ll rest whenever you need to.”

  They layered many levels of clothing and stuffed other items such as food, water and ammunition into duffle bags and backpacks. They piled all of their bounty on the ground on the passenger side of the van. While they tried to take only needed items, when they inspected the massive load of supplies – they knew there was no way to take all of the items with them.