by RM Hamrick
“Sorry, Grandma. Guess they should have just left you at the old folks’ home.”
Audra reached to place a yellow tag on Diana’s ear. A pearl earring fell to the ground. Diana turned to bite in protest and Audra gave her a gentle punch, causing her dentures to fall. Audra had trouble placing the tag over her giggles. She locked the door behind her and hoped Grandma would calm down and return to her resting spot. At least her family would know her location if they ever inquired - in the red sedan where they had left her.
The second occupied car showed more promise. A teenage boy sat in the driver’s seat wearing baggy jeans and a grungy t-shirt. In the emergency evacuation, he had found the time to style and gel his hair. He may have run away and was hiding out in cars when he was bitten. Maybe his family had thought of him after the cure was announced. He was worth a shot and good practice for Dwyn.
Audra munched on chicken jerky, trying to pass the time while Dwyn tried her tool on the lock. She coached him over a few steps but mostly let him flail about as she sat in the shade of the car. He put pressure on the window, trying to gain leverage. It cracked. Audra shook her head and laughed. Dwyn shrugged and used the tool to finish breaking the window.
Name: Link Culpepper
Gender: Male
DOB: 1/6/2063
Status: Inquired
“Audra, an inquiry!” said Dwyn, jumping up and down.
It was his first. He used Audra’s reader per their agreement. Audra did not want to get her hopes up, though. An inquiry was far from credits in her pocket.
“OK, submit the find, tag him, and put him in here,” she said as she stood up and popped the next car’s lock in a fraction of Dwyn’s time and effort. “We’ll come back and get him if his parents want to pay up.”
“Parents?”
“I doubt his high school sweetheart was dating him long enough to care, nor do I think she has cash. I’m betting on parents.”
“Or, maybe a sibling?” Dwyn asked carefully.
“Yeah, maybe,” Audra replied with a shortness that ended the conversation.
Dwyn unlocked the car door through the window and tempted Link outside. The teen’s overenthusiastic desire for flesh and his poor processing skills tripped him over the car’s door frame. He tumbled and scraped his face.
“Link, man, please remember to walk,” requested Dwyn.
Audra’s tendency to talk to the zombies had rubbed off on Dwyn. At first, Dwyn thought she was taunting them, but he admitted that her teasing respected their dangerous nature while still remembering that they were, somehow, still human.
Link pulled himself up and mumbled his distaste in his prey. He leaned forward too much, then over-corrected back. The drunk-looking teenager eventually made it over to the second car with Dwyn’s luring.
This zombie could not chase people for a living. It was best if it stayed inside.
The door to the back seat was open and Audra stood on the other side of the car and banged on the window, trying to tempt Link with some girly flesh.
“I don’t know if he’s that discerning, Audra.”
“Are you saying I’m lacking femininity?”
“Of course not.”
Dwyn gave her a smile. His curly hair bounced with his movement and his blue eyes shone. He seemed to be enjoying their work. He pushed on the small of Link’s back. Link landed in the car.
“Link, sweetie, you stay here. We’re just going to run into the store,” said Audra.
She was already looking for the next zombie. Who else was hiding in these cars? They could wrangle a tiny herd for a large payout worth their travel time. Audra looked to the endless line of cars. Maybe they would not have to travel the long miles to Savannah to find what they needed.
Ten cars down yielded the find Audra was looking for, a young girl. Jackpot. Audra did not wait to let Dwyn practice on the lock. The girl with plaited hair was a poster child for tagging. Families were looking for lost children and missing spouses (unless they had already picked up another). Audra almost stabbed her with the reader.
Name: Unknown
Gender: Female
DOB: Unknown
Status: DNA not in database, no similar matches
“What does that even mean?” asked Dwyn.
“Well… I’ve never seen it, but her DNA isn’t registered.”
“How is that possible?”
“Guess she wasn’t born in a hospital. They did that stuff routinely. She’s off the grid.”
“How will her family find her?”
He watched her inside the car. She didn’t show interest in them. She was starving and tired.
“Similar matches would have been a parent or sibling, but she doesn't have any. Her whole family might be off the grid. If that’s the case, they probably don’t trust the corporation to find their daughter, anyway.”
“Maybe she ran off and hid here after she got bit. I hope they find her out here,” said Dwyn.
He pulled his pack up tighter and looked toward the forest.
“I’m sure they will,” Audra lied.
Audra decided not to tell Dwyn that no one was truly looking anymore. Sure, her job was based on finding loved ones, but it was a haphazard way to do things. Family members would toss in a request and if someone happened to find the person, then arrangements were made. No one was leaving the comforts of their new townships to search for lost loved ones. This little girl and thousands of others were discarded and forgotten. Dwyn’s ferocious optimism made her wonder. Would he show up on the DNA reader? Had he forgotten or been forgotten?
They saw nobody else for the next half mile and climbed on top of a tractor trailer to eat lunch. Audra lay out with an oat bar lazily in her hand. She felt safe up high and the heat coming off the metal felt good on her tired bones. Still, she knew she would regret falling asleep on the hard surface. Dwyn watched her with another goofy smile on his face as she fought her falling eyelids.
Audra spent a little longer on top of the trailer than she intended. They decided to run to the Savannah outskirts and camp there for the night. They could check vehicles on their way back and pick up Link, who Audra imagined was brooding in the car. In another life, she would be doing the same, not chasing zombies.
For a zombie chaser, Dwyn was becoming a talented runner, keeping pace with Audra as they pushed down the middle of the two lanes. Only a jutting side view mirror or mis-angled car slowed them down. Audra enjoyed the terrain change of flat asphalt and lack of thorns and brush. She inhaled with another right step forward and thought the slight breeze was what made the day’s running perfect. Dwyn led by a little more than a car length.
Her inhalation took a sharp and unintended escape as a car door kicked open with great momentum. Audra ran into it full force and it did not give despite its hinges. Her head lurched forward above the car door while her torso remained behind her. Her body and head fell backward onto the asphalt in unison. Her head took an extra bounce. She heard a voice which faded into darkness.
* * *
When Audra’s mind emerged, she felt cramped and on something structured and soft. After a few more moments, she realized she was lying in the back seat of a car. She did not believe a lot of time had passed. It was still daylight. She did not sit up but remained as still as possible. She did not want to alert her attacker she was awake as she assessed her pained body. Nothing appeared broken. The sound and pressure of her own pulse overtook any awareness of the back of her head. Audra imagined a big knot forming.
She tried to remember what had happened.
Someone had swung open the car door in front of her. They had braced it so it would not shut when she hit it. They’d known she was coming and trapped her.
Dwyn was up ahead.
Did they get Dwyn, too?
They had to have seen Dwyn. That meant he either escaped, or they had captured him, or worse. Audra tried to replay the visual moment she hit the car door. Was Dwyn also being hit by a door? Was there m
ore than one assailant? She couldn’t remember if she had seen Dwyn being attacked.
Audra closed her eyes to focus on a sound beyond the pounding in her head. She made out voices, two voices. They were arguing in hushed tones. Neither was Dwyn. Audra willed her pulse to quiet as she struggled to hear.
“Look, you can’t mess with her. Corp said — only steal her pack — this isn’t a level two op.”
Audra’s eyes widened. What the hell were they talking about? The other guy mumbled something that Audra could not make out.
“Dude. I ain’t got time for this shit. Grab the pack and let’s go. We gotta be gone.”
Audra heard cursing, more grumbling, and someone kicking cars and debris. Her heart sank. She expected to hear a scuffle next and then for someone to come for her. She wanted to run, to jump out of the car and sprint for it. Her body ached. Would adrenaline let her run into the woods or would her head double her over? She was in no shape to outrun anyone, but at least she had the element of surprise, awake in the car. Audra stayed slumped with her eyes closed, despite what all her instinct screamed.
The noises faded. Audra was not sure how much time she let pass before she dared to open her eyes. It was still light out. Had she passed out? Were they still here? She could detect her pulse in the distant part of her head, birds outside, and nothing else. Five minutes passed, then ten. Were they gone? There was nothing left to do but to sit up and gather more information.
Her body felt bruised and heavy, but responsive. She planted her hands and straightened her elbows to pull her torso and head up. As she strained her neck to the window, pain seared forward from the knot on the back of her head and bubbles of light filled her vision. To gather herself, she attempted a deep breath, but her ribs popped in pain. When the stars left her, I-16 materialized in the window - cars everywhere and no one in sight. She took her time to position her back against the seat. The car felt like it was moving, but it was not. She was alone.
Were they gone for good? If they planned to keep her, one would have gone out and the other would have stood guard. Instead, they had left her alone. Was Dwyn in another car? It was time to find out. Audra stumbled out of the sedan and into the road. A quick glance in both directions showed that her pack was nowhere to be found. She pursed her lips.
BANG BANG!
Audra’s body dropped to the asphalt without her permission, her eyes spread wide. They had come back for her. She wasn’t safe.
BANG BANG!
Audra came to her senses. The sound was coming from a car up ahead. She called out and recognized Dwyn’s voice. She raced to the muffled sound and popped the trunk that hid it. Dwyn barely sat up before Audra fell into his arms.
“Thank God, you’re alive,” she said in between the tears that overcame her.
All the fear bubbled up and threw Audra over. It threw her and wrecked her, much to her surprise. In just a few short moments, she composed herself. She let Dwyn emerge from the car trunk where he knelt. He struggled to swing his legs over the side, perhaps in as much pain as Audra.
“Do you remember what happened?” she asked.
He leaned up against the bumper and looked at a distant spot on the ground, willing his memories to form.
“I heard you hit something… I turned around and saw the car door. I ran toward it and got pushed from behind.”
“Yeah, there were two of them.”
“We fought, but I was already on the ground. He must have knocked me out and shoved me in the trunk. Are you OK?” he asked, suddenly realizing that he did not know what happened after that point. Anything could have happened.
Audra nodded, “I’m fine. They shoved me in the car. Stole our packs.”
“Do you know who they were?”
“I overheard one of them say they were from the corporation…” said Audra grimly, not providing all the information she heard. “They made it sound like it was a planned attack by Lysent. Would they do something like that?”
“You tell me, Audra. You’re the one who works with them. Maybe they thought you were getting too far in your contract. You found Link pretty quickly after Randy.”
Audra stayed silent. But how did they know where she was?
The reader. It sent her location every time she ran DNA. They knew she was running along I-16. She was predictable.
The two sat and leaned partially against the car’s back tire and partially against each other. They looked up and down the road, surveying their predicament. A small sigh escaped Audra’s lungs. That pack was her livelihood. Her tent, her food, the bit of money she had left, her spare clothes, her cooking pot, her photos of her family at Disney World and another one by the Christmas tree. Soon she would have to stand up and fight to survive, but for a moment she mourned for what she had lost.
The Christmas tree and the amusement park were gone. And now, their photographic evidence was gone, too. She stood as the last vessel that could recall those memories. And if Lysent prevented her from waking up her sister, they would fade forever.
Anger set in. And she stood up.
CHAPTER SIX
Audra smiled over the simmering pot. She caught a rabbit and had stretched it over three meals supplementing it with mushrooms and wild onions. As she scooped it into their tin cups, Belinda did not thank her for once again providing for her. Audra noticed Belinda eat the vegetables around the meat.
“I’m going for a walk. I’ll finish on the way.” Belinda was never a good liar.
She had not eaten any of the rabbit in the last three days. Audra watched her walk into the woods in the dusky light, ignoring her temptation to follow her. How would Belinda grow if Audra was always right over her shoulder? She needed space.
And so did Audra. She appreciated the few moments alone. Belinda required constant comforting, not to mention help to stay alive and fed. She had trouble accepting her new life. When can we go back to the city? When can I sleep in a real bed? Belinda was not content with survival. She wanted more.
A cry broke through the woods.
Audra jumped over the fire and into the woods where she had seen her sister disappear. Belinda wailed again and Audra adjusted the trajectory of her sprint. Not knowing what she would find, she pulled out her dagger. The woods seemed to have become so much darker in the few minutes’ gap between thinking it was OK for Belinda to wander and now fearing for her. She should have kept a better watch on her. This was her fault.
Audra spotted Belinda underneath a small outcropping and stopped when she realized that Belinda was not crying for help. Belinda knelt over a bloodied mass, crying over the animal she had been feeding. This was where Audra’s rabbit had been going.
Belinda’s back was to her and it felt, to their new world. Audra stood at a distance deciding whether she should leave Belinda to mourn or provide help. However, something else began to encroach.
“Belinda! Zombie!”
The animal blood mingled on his face and clothing. The zombie responsible for the death had returned. Audra ran toward them but stopped in her tracks as Belinda turned, reared up, and roared. Belinda grabbed her whittling knife from her belt and sprinted toward the shambler. Audra’s surprise wore off, but she remained back to observe. Belinda needed to learn combat.
“You killed them!” she shouted, shaking with anger as she came down on it.
It was on the ground before it could understand what was happening. Belinda was on top, screaming, stabbing and stabbing. What she did not have in accuracy, she made up for in enthusiasm. Eventually, the zombie stopped moving and Belinda grew tired. She sat in the leaves with her legs in front of her, panting to catch her breath.
Perhaps Belinda would get the hang of this after all.
After a few minutes, Belinda went back to the mama dog and her dead pups. She mourned for them like she mourned for all lost life.
* * *
Audra and Dwyn kept to I-16. It was a direct path and cars were available for shelter anytime they needed it. But, foragin
g for food and keeping water was difficult, and even Audra was forced to slow down. From I-16, they reached the rail line and a week later, arrived on Vesna’s doorstep with nothing to their names. Vesna fed them immediately. Despite Vesna’s secondary agenda, Audra struggled to name another who would have been as generous. Maybe Rosie if they had ever had any dealings outside the corporation. Rosie tried to look out for her. Or so she thought. Did Rosie know what was planned for her? Was she letting it happen? There was obvious truth in Vesna’s speech, but how much? Audra always felt uneasy about leaving her sister in their care, but now fear crept in. If they hired people to hurt their own contractors, how safe was her sister?
The next morning, she arrived in the second township that held Lysent and her sister. Lysent charged indentured taggers for family visits, citing transportation and safety concerns to justify the fees. She had last seen her sister in July - Belinda’s birthday. She was in no position to confront Lysent, nor ready to reveal what she knew, but she needed to make sure her sister was all right.
Audra waved to Clyde, who was wheeling a body outside the township fences to be buried. With a shake of his head, he confirmed it wasn’t a zom Audra had known, but it was a reminder that she was running out of time.
As always, Rosie greeted her from the desk. Audra tried to decipher whether there was a hint of surprise in the receptionist’s eyes. She could not tell.
“I want to see my sister.”
“Sure, the usual fee will apply. Did you… bring in a zombie?” Rosie asked, riffling through her paperwork for maybe a communication she had missed.
“No. My reader was stolen. I need a new one.”
Rosie stopped rummaging through papers and looked up at her. Her eyebrows came together and wrinkled with worry. She looked back to her papers as if she thought better of whatever she might have said.
“Sure, the usual fee will apply…” as she rummaged through papers again.
Rosie located Audra’s thick folder in the cabinet and matched it up against the pricing sheet she found on the desk. Her eyes furrowed when she saw some of the recent notes. Audra tried to catch a peek, but the papers were strategically positioned.
