by Silas Cooper
Her breath knocked from her a second, she managed to keep her hold. In the moment’s pause of their journey, Sherri managed to get her husband’s arm secured again. After the winded quick count of one, the three of them pushed on two. As Richard slammed the door closed, Sherri fell to the floor in tears. Jayda sat beside her, gathering the woman in her arms. Each wrenching sob that tore from her chest vibrated through Jayda.
“I love him,” she cried. “I need to see him one last time!”
Sherri jumped from Jayda’s grasp. In seconds, she tore from the room. Richard froze, but Jayda yelled at him to follow her as she got herself back to standing. She found Richard holding Sherri as she looked through the window. When Jayda got to them, Stan had gotten out of the blankets and raged around the room.
“Sherri, you need to do the kind thing and let us put him out of his misery,” Jayda said.
As something crashed inside the room and an animalistic cry rang out, Sherri nodded her head. As Richard moved to leave, she grabbed his arm.
“There’s a gun in the drawer by our bed. The lock to the drawer is hanging in the kitchen cabinet closet to the refrigerator. Please, use that. It’s quicker,” Sherri asked in a barely audible tone.
“I’ll do it,” Jayda said. “I’m an excellent marksman. It seems that the strike to the head seems the key. We saw on TV, in the background of one shot, a guy get shot multiple times and still attack a man. By the time the reporter realized, the live feed had gone too long to live edit it. I can make the shot. Richard, take her back to the house.”
He shook his head.
“Richard, I fought in a damn war. I can do this. Go. Take her now,” Jayda demanded and then stormed off.
By the time the horrible deed was over, she found her husband glaring at her with love in his eyes, sitting on the couch holding a sobbing Sherri. After telling him she just needed a minute, she walked upstairs to wash her hands and face.
Walking through her bedroom, she saw her cell phone light up. Someone was calling her. By the time she grabbed it, the call had gone to voicemail. Walking into the bathroom, she swiped the screen. She gasped to see Chase’s name come up. He’d called each year on the anniversary of the day she lost her leg. Today wasn’t that day. It had to be bad news.
Shutting the bathroom door, with a deep breath, she clicked the button to return the call.
Chapter Nine
“Again, there is a certain irony to the fact that we are attempting to exploit these cells against cancer. It’s like fighting fire with fire. Given the profound uncertainty of the stem cells and the narrow parameters within which they interact with the immune system, we are nothing more than two little boys playing with matches here,” Lucas exclaimed.
Chase watched him push his hand through his hair. His face red and his breaths in short pants, he knew he had to stop what he was doing and talk the kid down from his scientific failure ledge. His research on the living dead had brought about nothing but questions so far anyway.
“Now, you know that the history of biomedical research has shown frustrated scientists time and again that the most amazing breakthroughs, the most triumphant discoveries, have often come from half-baked ideas considered not in any way promising by most researchers,” Chase reminded.
“Sure. You’ve said so many times. But I don’t think that’s going to happen here, not in this lab, not with this mouse, no matter how special we keep claiming he is,” Lucas retorted.
“It is a useful exercise, still, to dissect the specific effects of stem cells and to determine how beneficial they could possibly be in relation to immunotherapeutic medicine we already have. In the spectrum of things, we’ve already moved far beyond what we currently envisioned. We’ve clearly indicated that—”
Chase left off. An arc of pain shot through his temple. His hand went to rub the area as his brain tied together loose pieces of two puzzles. He rolled his shoulders back. Tight muscles screamed their protest. Despite the jitters, he grabbed his mug. As the cold coffee slid down his throat, he nearly choked. The coffee had had nothing to do with it.
“Lucas!” he yelled.
“What?” the boy shrieked.
He’d jumped and now looked at Chase like he was a mad scientist. This only increased the pride welling up inside him.
“I think your special mouse there may just have found us a cure for this meningitis outbreak,” Chase exclaimed, his breathing faint.
“What? How?”
“It’s still developing in there, but I think it’s time to call on a friend from the military. Maybe what I have going could help whatever they’ve got going. Besides, we need to get out of here. Seems we’re never going to get through to the local authorities. I need to get to Jayda.”
Chase stepped into his office. A fleeting glance back at Lucas made him laugh. The boy stood there mouth open, jaw tense, and eyebrows furrowed. With a chuckle, he searched his phone for Daniel Sommers’ number. He blinked his eyes as the list of contacts blurred. Finding him, he dialed and attempted something similar to a prayer.
“Chase Douglas. What’s going on?” he heard Daniel answer.
“You sound about as good as I assumed you would. Rough out there?”
“It’s unbelievable and never-ending. We can’t catch a break. End of times shit. What do you need?” Daniel yawned.
“I think I have some research that might help. I assume some is already happening. I’ve been trapped in my lab by whatever these walking dead things are, and it seems in studying one of them I captured and the stem cell cancer vaccine my assistant and I were unsuccessfully working on has led me to a possible cure for this virus. It’s just in the beginning…”
Daniel cut him off, “We’ll take whatever we can get. Research here has become violent if you know what I mean?”
“All too well, unfortunately,” Chase answered through the lump in his throat. “So, were can we come, and by what route? From the news, nowhere looks safe.”
“Nowhere is safe. You still in UCLA?”
“Yes, but I need to pick up a few people first. They’re only about twenty minutes away at the most,” Chase added in a rush.
“Let me guess, Jayda? She’s your ex man. She has been for a long time,” Daniel chided.
“I have people to pick up. Just tell me if there is a safer route to take to the base?”
“Don’t come to the base. I can meet you in this obscure field about twenty miles out. You remember the one we called No Man’s Land? The highways have become mostly deserted. I’d stay on 1-5N as long as you can. The zombies follow those alive, are sniffing them out like dogs where they hide,” Daniel growled. “You’ll still encounter a few, but will be less likely to encounter a horde. You go get Jayda in a neighborhood and you’re toast.”
“I have to pick people up first,” Chase gave back as good as he’d gotten. “So, the government is officially calling them zombies now?”
“The government isn’t officially doing anything,” Daniel huffed. “Fine. You have three days man. You don’t show up then, I’m leaving without you.”
“Fine. Thanks,” Chase spat as he hung up.
He spurred Lucas into packing up what they’d need as he related the phone call. Lucas had secured the mouse in a micro freezer they could put behind the seats in the truck. The thing came with a car-lighter hook-up. As Lucas shoved supplies into a few small bags, Chase tried to shove his notes on both the mouse and the zombie into the bag with his laptop. It would die on the trip, but at least they could charge it back up at the base.
“We can’t just leave her like this,” Lucas sighed when the dead girl on the table made a moan louder than usual. “I think our faster movements are irritating her.”
“You should do it,” Chase directed.
“Why me? You’ve been the one killing them like Rambo. I’ve killed nothing bigger than a spider in my life,” Lucas choked out. “I wouldn’t even go hunting with my friend and his dad when they offered.”
“Exactly. What if we get separated? You need to know what to do. We’re going to have nothing better than the sharps we got here. You have to go in through the soft spot in the temple,” Chase encouraged as he placed a set of metal surgical scissors with long sturdy blades. “It’s going to take some arm muscle.”
“No!” Lucas stated, pulling his hands back.
“Take them now or die later,” Chase demanded, his hand outstretched.
Lucas did as requested of him. Chases watched the boy, scissors in hand, stand over the girl. Right before he plunged the scissors her way, his watery eyes closed. Blood spurted, but thankfully not nearly as much as if she’d been alive. He skin hung over her eyes where he’d sliced.
“All you did was piss her off. You have to keep your eyes open. Try again, and kill her. Then, ditch the lab coat. Not taking any chances with this blood, no matter how little is left.” Chase nudged him along.
A pang of guilt followed. Shaking his head, he focused in on the task at hand. He was determined not to let this kid down. Lucas, eyes wide with terror, this time slammed the scissors into the zombie’s head. Blood squirted rather than sprayed onto his hand, and the boy flipped out.
“You want to go down the hall and use the chemical shower?” Chase teased.
“Yes. So, not funny at all,” Lucas sighed as he scrubbed furiously at his skin.
Weighed down with bags, Lucas followed Chase out the back door. Their current perilous situation held back Chase’s laughs each time he looked back at Lucas. Chase had fallen easily back into active duty mode, and he knew how to take in a perimeter as he moved steadily along. Lucas tried to imitate behind him with all the grace of a toddler.
At Chase’s truck, they threw their stuff behind the seats and climbed in. No sooner had their doors slammed shut than a large group of moaning others came around a corner. They moved at a fast but unsteady pace right toward them. Chase only breathed again when the engine of the old truck roared to life. He left them in a cloud of dust as he took off to get out of Dodge. Only, it seemed the whole world now was Dodge, and they had nowhere good to go.
Chapter Ten
Richard started hammering boards to the windows with a force that hurt his arm. Still, he beat and beat on each nail with his fear fueling his power. His life and those of two women depended on it. He’d broken every piece of furniture they could spare trying to find enough wood to cover each of the downstairs windows. The cheap bookcases that they’d argued about a few years back had come in handy now. Thankfully, he’d bought more nails than needed when some friends helped him put a deck on the back last year.
“Why are we staying here?” Sherri cried.
At least she’d stopped actually crying in the last few hours. It seemed to help her to close up the windows. The house in a shambles, they sat in the dark despite the time of day. The world as they knew it just a day before had slipped away.
“Jayda is waiting for Chase, remember,” he spat as nicely as he could muster.
“And, who’s Chase again?” Sherri asked.
Richard knew that the woman knew, but she seemed not to be able to keep two rational thoughts together at the moment. She sat on the couch, now in the middle of the living room, wrapped in a thin afghan as he sweated in a short-sleeved shirt. She rocked as if frozen.
“A guy I don’t trust!” Richard grumbled in between hitting nails.
“Okay. But, how does Jayda know him?” her soft voice snapped.
Richard looked around him and listened for Jayda. Satisfied she was out of hearing range, he walked to the couch. His legs ached as he took weight off them. He’d been standing and bending and lifting for hours. His arms hurt far worse. He didn’t understand why it hurt worse to stop than to power through.
“Military. She lost her leg because of him. To hear her tell it, once she got injured he panicked and forgot protocol. Way I see it, he only cared about himself, and she lost her leg to gangrene due to his negligence. But she loved the guy at one point,” he huffed.
“So, both your stories are jaded by your own personal tie to the guy,” she sighed, her eyebrows raised. “I had no idea she lost her leg because of him. I guess I remember the name now as her ex, but she never blamed him. I don’t even think I realized he was there, just that she was married to him at the time.”
“I want to leave too. I’m sure we can find someplace safe. They’ve talked about safe houses, former military bases and hospitals, places they’ve secured that they are bringing in supplies to and guarding. I feel like a sitting duck here.”
* * * * *
Jayda sat poised on the edge of the toilet waiting for the little window at the end of the pee stick to show a plus or minus sign. It wasn’t the time to bring a baby into the world. But before the world had gone to hell, she’d told herself if she hadn’t started in another week that she’d take a pregnancy test. Today was that day.
Her breath caught when the sign began to show. Unable to register a proper response, she threw the stick in the trash and erased the result from her mind. Walking down the steps, she heard Richard and Sherri talking rather than the sound of nails being hammered. She couldn’t think on the state of her house either. With her dead neighbor in the bathroom still, she’d just as soon burn it to the ground and start over after anyway.
“Chase is no knight in shining armor, and I’d bet money the jerk never shows,” Richard grumbled under his breath.
“Sherri, ignore my husband,” Jayda said to announce herself.
She cringed though to see that the volume of her voice had startled Sherri. The pale woman with bloodshot eyes sat in a near fetal position on her couch. She watched as her neighbor blinked back fresh tears. She grabbed her a tissue and sat on a chair that now sat right up against the couch.
“Chase has connections still in the military, and he’s found us someone who can get us to a safe place,” Jayda soothed.
“There is no military!” Richard boomed. “There is no government.”
Richard stood. He shot out his finger and pointed to Jayda, to Sherri, and then to himself.
“We are the only military we can depend on now. We are fucked!” he fumed.
A sudden banging on the back door and wall surrounding it made them all jump.
“Great, you’ve alerted them that we are alive and well in here waiting to be eaten!” Jayda hissed.
“Yeah. I’m the bad guy. Let’s wait until our hero Chase shows to save the day. Let’s see how long it takes with him a no-show for you to give up on him too,” Richard spat as he stormed out of the room.”
Chapter Eleven
After going seventy or more at times down the interstate, by the time Chase’s phone told them to get off an exit, the car started to make a grinding noise.
“Damn it!” Chase yelled as he hit his hand on the steering wheel.
“Is that the brakes?” Lucas asked, clutching the dashboard.
Smoke started to seep out from around the hood, answering the question. Pulling over onto a thankfully empty side road, Chase tried to start the truck again. It made horrid noises, but wouldn’t turn over. Smoke impaired their sight out the front window within seconds.
“I’m afraid we’re going to draw them out with the noise. It’s not going to do us any good anyway. Let me get out first, and I’ll let you know if the coast is still clear,” Chase instructed.
Lucas just nodded as Chase grabbed for one of the dissection tools they’d put in the cup holders. Back in stealth mode, he scanned the perimeters. Luckily, houses were just past a thin line of trees.
“Grab all the gear. We’re going to hike it just through that tree line. Hopefully, it’ll stay empty, and we can find a car with gas to hotwire,” Chase barked out directions in a low voice.
“Shit. Great. Can’t wait,” Lucas sighed as he got out and grabbed the gear from behind his seat. “Wait, you can hotwire a car too. Anything you don’t know?”
“Now’s not the time for that long list,” Chase huffed.
>
Weighted down by bags containing a frozen dead mouse and laptop among other things, Chase had Lucas just a step behind him as they went. Luck holding out, the street was clear once they got to it. Looking in cars, old ones with a better possibility of not having an alarm, he made short work of finding nothing. Car after car either had a sticker about an alarm, which he could disable if necessary, but they’d be harder to hotwire anyway. The two older models didn’t have enough gas to get them to Jayda’s even. He doubted gas stations were safe or in working order. If empty, he had a credit card to try.
Finally finding a car that looked promising with a full tank of gas, Chase had Lucas keep watch as he used what they had to try to jimmy the door open. Sweat broke out all over him as he tried to work fast and quiet with his limited resources. A sigh expelled from both of them when the lock popped open.
“Hey!” a male voice shouted.
They turned to see a man with a gun coming out from the back of a house. Turning and raising their arms as if the guy was a cop, they said nothing.
“Get the hell away from my car or I’ll blow your heads off!” the armed man yelled.
Chase did a quick look for any zombies who could have heard the man a mile away. Seeing none, he ventured to speak.
“Listen, sorry. We thought the street was abandoned. My truck broke down just over there. We knew it wasn’t safe to just walk around unarmed outdoors. Really, I wouldn’t steal anyone’s car in a normal situation,” Chase offered.
“Yeah, right, man. You got the locked door open, didn’t you?”
“Well, I used to be military,” Chase said.
“Military, huh?”
“Used to be, over a decade ago,” Chase added.
“Still, I bet you have connections. Bet you know something about what’s going on?”
“Not really,” Chase said.
He’d finally lowered his hands since the guy had lowered his gun. He nodded for Lucas to do the same as the guy got closer to them.
