by M. E. Betts
"Yeah," Daphne said, "if we can." She drew in a deep breath and let it out with exasperated force. "Whatever. If you think we can make it, then whatever. I just hope you're right."
Shari turned to face Hugo. "You've been to the campus before, right?" Shari asked.
"Yeah," Hugo responded, "a couple weeks before the zombies came."
Shari nodded. "I don't suppose you remember where the campus radio station is at?"
"Actually," Hugo said, "actually, I do. Me and my mom stopped to get lunch near there."
Daphne turned the idling ATV back in the opposite direction. "Well," she muttered, "let's do this, then."
Shari experienced an uncomfortable sensation in her stomach as she followed Daphne down University Avenue. The sensation intensified as they got within a half mile of route 45. Shari's breakfast churned turbulently inside her like a baseball glove in a dryer. The air was thick with the spoiled fetor of human meat decomposing in the brutal late summer heat wave.
Her discomfort was due to a combination of the odor assaulting her nostrils and the intense silence after turning off of 130. It's just too quiet. When was the last time I even heard the sound of birds? She realized it had been back on 130, at least a mile back. As she surveyed her surroundings, she observed an absence of most wildlife...no birds, no squirrels, no cats, dogs, or rabbits. There were only the ever-present clouds of swarming insects and the circling of turkey vultures and hawks in the sky above. Shari, Daphne and Hugo neared the intersection of University and Cunningham, which they realized would not be passable to the west. From 75 yards away, Shari thought it was packed full of wrecked cars, buses, and trucks. However, upon reaching the intersection, she realized somebody had intentionally jammed the road.
"No way that happened on accident," she uttered aloud.
"You're damn right, it was no accident," Daphne concurred.
"You think there are people in there?" Hugo ventured.
Shari shook her head. "Not fucking likely," she said.
"It's unnaturally quiet," Daphne mumbled, "and it has been for about a mile or so."
"That, and the closer we got to it, the more it smelled like Satan's asshole," Shari said, covering her nose and mouth with her hands. "That place has got to be full of death."
Hugo frowned. "Human bodies, you think, or zombies?"
Shari shrugged. "Why not both? Let's give a wide berth." They detoured south down Cunningham Avenue, realizing as they came to the next block that they would have to continue further south. Still barricaded, Shari thought, ain't that a bitch? I wonder how many people were in there before it went bad.
"I think we're close to the radio station," Hugo shouted up ahead. "Maybe another half mile or so. Keep going straight, we should see the radio tower to our right pretty soon." He turned his head to the side, forcing a sharp cough from his lungs. "Should we really be here? I mean, if there are no animals around, does that mean they know they'll get sick around all these bodies?"
"We're not sticking around," Daphne said, her eyes on the road. "It shouldn't be long enough to get us sick."
"Must really be a shitload of them," Shari muttered. "I've never smelled them from so far away." The buzzing of the cicadas radiated from all around them at near-deafening levels as they rode beyond the western boundary of the ill-fated encampment. After a few blocks, they saw the radio tower about a block down on their right. It occured to Shari for the first time that perhaps they were getting ready to walk into an ambush. Too bad we haven't had time to train Hugo, she thought, making a face. Traveling with newbies sucks.
Daphne spun on her ATV to face Shari, shrugging.
"I don't know which way to go to get in," she said.
"I don't know either," Shari said. "I guess try going around to the front."
They continued until they got to the next street that ran east to west, then turned left. As Shari's gaze panned across the front of the building, she saw a message spray painted across the doors in large, neon green lettering with an arrow pointing to a small panel beside the entrance. RING THE BUZZER TO TRADE, the sign read. Shari approached slowly while Daphne and Hugo hung back on the road.
"This is your little pet project," Daphne said. "I'll let you handle it."
Nice, Shari thought, a hint of irrationality sneaking into her consciousness. She better have my back if anything goes wrong.
As she reached the covered walk leading to the entrance, she peered through the glass doors into the interior of the building. She could see a stairway just past the foyer, jammed full of desks, chairs, and other office furnishings. The fortifying clutter stretched all the way down the stairway and out to the front doors themselves, filling the foyer of the entrance up to the ceiling. She ignored the slight trepidation she felt and reached her right hand out to press the button that would let her soon-to-be-acquaintances know that they had company. After a few moments, she heard a female voice come through over the intercom beside the buzzer button. Shari was fairly certain that it was the same voice she had heard over the radio.
"Can I help you?" the young woman uttered in a detached, flat tone.
"Yeah," Shari responded. "I heard your transmission on my radio. I'm interested in trading. I'm with a group."
"Where's your group?" the woman asked. "I only see you."
Shari glanced around the entrance, noting a camera just inside the doors. "Back on the street," she responded.
"Why didn't they come up to the building?" the young woman asked suspiciously.
Shari shrugged. "They hung back to keep an eye on my horse" she said. "Plus, we didn't know who--or what--we'd find here."
There was silence for a moment before the woman responded. "I guess I can understand that. I feel the same way about all of you." She continued after a moment. "To get in, you have to go around to the west side of the building. And sorry, but your horsie isn't gonna be able to come. I hope you can climb a rope ladder." The intercom went silent, and Shari turned back toward the road where Daphne and Hugo waited.
"We have a little dilemma," she said as she approached the ATV. "We have to climb a rope ladder to get into the building, so I won't be able to bring Eva in."
Daphne pointed toward the front doors, which reflected the light in a way that kept them from being transparent from her angle. "Can't you at least leave her in the foyer?"
Shari shook her head. "They have it jammed full of junk, it's how they fortified it."
Daphne exhaled sharply, then cleared her throat. "So...what exactly do you want us to do?"
"Well," Shari began, "I don't want to ask you to go in there while I wait--"
Daphne was already shaking her head, vetoing the idea. "No way."
Shari continued. "Like I said, I don't want to ask you to do that."
Daphne raised her eyebrows questioningly. "What then?"
"What if I go in by myself?" Shari asked. "Will you guys stay out here with Eva? Just long enough for me to make a trade real quick?"
Daphne shook her head again. "What if something happens and we have to run? I've never ridden a horse before. She'll probably buck me off."
"Hey," Shari said defensively, stroking and patting the horse's neck as she spoke, "give her more credit than that, okay? In all the time we've been together, have you ever seen her get spooked?"
"I guess not," Daphne muttered, "but that's with you. You don't panic, she doesn't panic. She'll sense the fact that I don't know what I'm doing."
"You'll be fine," Shari said. "You've seen me riding enough to get the gist of it."
"I can ride her if we have to," Hugo volunteered. "I spent a lot of time doing therapeutic riding as a kid," he said. "I kinda like it, actually."
"There you go then," Shari said, turning to Daphne. "You won't even have to ride her."
"What if something happens?" Daphne went on. "What if we get separated? I'll say it again, this is a really bad idea. We just don't need the radios that badly."
"It's not just the radios or the me
dical supplies," Shari conceded. "These are the first people we've run into besides Hugo since...since what, back in Kentucky? There are so few of us left...I don't want to miss the chance to connect with other survivors while I can."
Daphne nodded, her eyes on the ground. "I understand where you're coming from," she said. "I guess you need that a little more than I do." She gestured toward the building. "Go ahead. We'll be out here, but try not to take too long." She and Hugo dismounted the ATV, trading Shari for her horse.
"I'll be quick," Shari said as she straddled the ATV. She pointed to the saddle bag strung on Eva's left side. "My radio's in there." She gestured toward the building. "Considering the location, I'm less likely to need it than you are."
"Be careful," Daphne called as Shari crossed the lawn to the western side of the building. As the ATV passed Daphne's field of vision, she turned in a slow circle, taking in the various sounds around her. She heard the awkward shuffling of undead as they wandered the streets, bumping into objects around them and creating a clatter as they made their way toward the radio station. "They had to have heard us as we drove in," she told Hugo as he took Shari's binoculars from the right saddle bag. "There must not be any really fresh ones, or they'd have gotten here already."
"Yeah," Hugo said, "but they'll be here soon enough, all the same." He gazed eastward through the binoculars, along the northeastern border of the makeshift wall surrounding the lifeless encampment they had passed from the south earlier. His eyes focused on an object about 500 yards away, on the street outside of the wall. "Daphne, do you see what I see?" he asked, handing her the binoculars.
She peered through the lenses, looking down the road in the direction he was pointing. "What am I looking for?"
"That," Hugo said, pointing more emphatically. "There's one of those tow-behind horse trailers in the road down there."
"Huh," Daphne muttered, lowering the binoculars. "I wish we'd have seen that before Shari went into the building." She gazed back toward the west, where the presumably well-rotted undead were turning the corner and making their way languidly eastward, in the direction of the sounds they had heard from Daphne's ATV and Shari's horse. "But then again, that thing is still looking mighty useful."
"Yeah," Hugo said as he mounted Eva, "let's not look a gift horse in the mouth."
Daphne repressed a smirk. I'm really beginning to like this kid, she thought. She took a pen and notepad from her pack, scrawling a short note to alert Shari as to where they were going.
"Just ride over to the other side real quick, so I can leave this note on the ATV," she said as she climbed up behind Hugo. "Let's have us an adventure."
Shari climbed through the open second story window, confronted at once with the presence of a young woman, whom Shari presumed to be the one she had spoken with, and a late-middle aged man with a full, thick head of tousled, slightly overgrown hair that was solid gray.
"Hi," she said, "I'm Shari."
"You should know," the female said, her dark brown eyes fixed squarely on Shari, "that we've got a guy with his sight set on you right now, so you'd better not try pulling any brilliant little stunts. We don't like killing, but we've done it before and we'll do it again, if need be."
"Fair enough," Shari answered meekly, holding her arms out with her palms turned up to signify her lack of malice. "I'm just here to trade."
"I'm Phoebe," the young woman said. "And this is Professor Hewett."
The professor winced. "I don't imagine titles like that mean very much anymore." He smiled at Shari, his warm brown eyes twinkling briefly before a mask of weariness overtook his features again. "You can call me Henry."
"Nice to meet you both," Shari said. "And I really mean that. We haven't run into anyone alive since southern Illinois."
"It's been awhile for us, too," Henry said, gesturing eastward. "There used to be a settlement out there, but well...we haven't heard from them in awhile."
Shari nodded slowly, her eyes overcast with the somber realization that the professor was most likely referencing the necropolis she had passed earlier. "Were they in that walled-off area east of here?" she asked.
"Yeah," Phoebe said, her dozens of tiny braids hanging down to the small of her back, brushing the smooth, dark skin of her shoulders as she nodded. "It was a pretty big group, a bunch of them that managed to get away when they herded everyone into the stadium."
Shari frowned. "When they what?"
Henry nodded, his face sorrowful. "You heard right. It was the day after this started."
"Easter," Phoebe said in what was almost a whisper.
"They rounded everyone up," Henry continued, shaking his head and uttering a dark laugh. "I don't know why--I mean, they had to have known it wasn't a local problem. What good does a quarantine do, other than infect those who have managed to not be bitten thus far?" He rolled his eyes. "But anyway, me and Phoebe here, we weren't about to be corraled into that stadium with all those people, not knowing what the hell was going on, so...so we hid out in here until they were done clearing the town. The group that got away from the stadium showed up, and they had at least a few hundred people with them. Obviously, with that big of a group, we couldn't help them very much. We traded a few radios with them, but not as many as they would have liked. Other than that, we didn't have much to offer them, other than a little bit of back-and-forth over the radio here and there. We would usually share customers...if a group stopped here first, we'd point them in the direction of the settlement, and vice versa."
"Do you know what happened to them?" Phoebe asked.
Shari shook her head. "I don't know, but the smell coming from in there was unreal. We could smell it from over half a mile away...you guys never noticed it?" Phoebe and Henry shook their heads. Shari shrugged. "Must not have been downwind of it," she muttered. It's not something they'd forget.
"The last group to come through the area and trade was a little over a month ago," Phoebe said, her gaze distant. "They went to the settlement after they left here. I hope they got to leave town before everything went to shit in there." She turned in Shari's direction, snapping back into the moment. "So what have you got that's of interest to us?"
Shari nodded toward the messenger bag slung across her back, walking toward an empty table in the corner of the room. She opened the bag, taking out two sawed-off shotguns and a half-dozen boxes of ammunition. "A shotgun and some ammo," she said. She reached into the depths of the bag, pulling out two nine-millimeter pistols. "Two handguns," she continued, stretching the sides of the bag open to reveal the boxes of nine-millimeter rounds that filled the remainder of the bag. "And a shit-ton of ammo for them."
Phoebe grimaced, then conceded. "They're only nine-millimeters, but it' better than nothing," she said. "Besides, the shotguns won't be half-bad. Definitely worth a radio."
Shari frowed, then smirked slightly. "Two radios," she said. "That's four guns and a substantial pile of ammunition. It's worth at least two radios and some of those medical supplies you talked about." She and Phoebe stared one another down for the better part of thirty seconds before Phoebe buckled, sighing.
"Fine," she said. "Two radios and some of our first aid stuff."
"Deal," Shari said, taking the rest of the boxes of ammunition out of the bag.
Phoebe crossed the room, returning with the two hand-held ham radios and two first aid packs. Shari rummaged through the two packs, piling up their contents on a desktop. She took out a total of roughly two dozen bottles of various medications, including antibiotics, four large boxes of adhesive strips in varying sizes, several dozen packets of gauze, medical scissors, tweezers, and various other odds and ends.
"This will do nicely," she said as she began returning the items to the packs she had taken them from. "It was a pleasure to do business with you." She glanced nervously around her. "You wanna give your sniper some kind of signal before I go, lest he should blow my brains out?"
Phoebe waved her hand casually. "He only acts if he sees som
e sign of hostility from you," she said. "So don't do anything stupid, and you'll be fine."
Shari nodded, turning back toward the open window. "What frequency are you guys on?"
"98.3 FM," Henry said. "But we're not staying here for long...that's why we're trying to acquire more in the way of weaponry."
"We want to try to make it to Chicago," Phoebe said. "There's a huge settlement in McCormick Place, from what I've heard on the radio."
"Is it a recording like you guys have?" Shari asked, dubious.
"No," Phoebe said, "I've actuallly spoken to them."
"As recently as yesterday," the professor chimed in.
"Huh," Shari said, "I'll have to keep that in mind. My group and I are trying to make it to Wisconsin, so...who knows? Maybe we'll stop by there, although I must say--going into Chicago doesn't sound like an easy task."
"That's why we're not going through the city," Phoebe said. "We plan on going through northern Indiana, then hopefully getting on a boat from there. McCormick Place is right on Lake Shore Drive, so if we find a boat, we can avoid going through the city at all."
"Well," Shari said, putting one leg out the window, "best of luck."
"You as well," the professor said. "Thanks again for the guns and ammunition."
"No problem," Shari said, mounting the ladder outside the window. "I'm always glad to meet others, especially if they're not hostile."
"Amen to that," Phoebe muttered as Shari began her descent down the ladder.
That could have gone a lot worse, Shari thought as she rounded the corner, returning to the northern side of the building where she had left Daphne and Hugo. As she looked toward the street, she frowned, the first pangs of worry crossing her consciousness as she stared at the empty street.
Where are they? Her gaze panned down the street, from west to east, but she saw no signs of human life. She could hear undead stumbling along in the distance to the north and east. She furrowed her brow.
