Pierce ran his hands through his hair. “So I’m guessing you want us to come with you?”
“I know it’s a lot to process, and you probably don’t believe anything I’ve said. But you guys are my friends and I want you to be safe. Just think of it as a fall break trip. If we get there and there are no more zombie sightings and everything calms down, we’ll turn right back around and come home. We probably won’t even miss any school.”
Pierce sighed. “I don’t even know what to believe right now, Dal. And who knows, we might have to lock you up in a mental hospital, but...Jesus Christ, yeah, I’ll go with you. But just for the weekend, like you said. If we get to Tennessee — no, scratch that, if we get to Mississippi and there are no more zombie sightings, I’m turning around. Understood?”
“Of course.” She turned to the back. “What about you guys?”
Sam nodded. “I’m going too. I know what I saw. But...just for the weekend.”
Ashleigh shrugged. “Tennessee for fall break…why not?”
“It’s supposed to get warmer this weekend,” Dallas said. “We can relax outside. Maybe even sneak a drink or two.”
Ashleigh grinned. “Now you’re speaking my language. Tally, are you in too?”
Talia was looking out the window, not moving. She shrugged.
Dallas turned back around, not wanting to say anything else. The tears welling up in her eyes were dangerously close to falling off her cheeks. She nodded to Pierce, who cranked the car and headed out of the parking lot.
Chapter Three
Pierce’s GPS informed them that the trip from the House of Blues in New Orleans to the mountains of Chattanooga would take approximately eight hours and thirty-two minutes. Dallas spent the first three minutes of the trip looking out the window. It was nearly midnight, but several of the nearby restaurants and bars were still open, lit and loud. Jazz music poured from the doors as they opened and closed, and Dallas heard shouting inside. She watched people come and go, pouring onto the dirty sidewalks, laughing and stumbling. Would they be running for their lives instead in a few hours? Or would they have nothing worse than a hangover to worry about?
Dallas’s tears finally subsided a few minutes later. She started to dial 911, knew she probably should, but exited out of the call before hitting the talk button. Surely the police had already discovered the crime scene by now, and they’d be suspicious of the girl who reported a murder and then skipped town.
A police car drove by. Its lights weren’t flashing, its sirens weren’t wailing. Dallas had rocks in the pit of her stomach. Instead of 911, she dialed her mother.
“Mom?” she said.
“Dallas? Sweetheart, are you all right? There was something on the news about an attack at that club you and Tally went to. When you didn’t pick up your phones, I got worried.”
“Mom, we’re fine. But not everyone is.”
Her mother gasped. “What’s going on? Did someone get hurt? Where’s Tally?”
“Tally’s fine, mom. Tatum’s dead.”
“Oh my God, Dallas! What happened?”
Dallas hesitated. “She...someone killed her. And they killed a lot more people too. And mom...I’m not staying here.”
“Well, why don’t you come home a little early? You can start driving now and make it back before two.”
“Mom, no. I’m not coming home. I’m already on my way to Uncle Jack’s. Tally is with me, and so are Ash and Sam and Pierce.”
“Why on earth are you going all the way up there?” Her mother sighed, and Dallas knew she was trying to keep her cool. “Sweetheart, I’m so glad you and Tally are all right. But please, come home. I want you here with your family.”
There was no way Dallas was going home. It was too far out of the way and her mother clearly wasn’t budging. “No mom, I’m going to Chattanooga. I know you probably don’t realize how bad this is yet, or how bad it could be, but I wish you would at least listen to me. I want you and dad to come up, too.”
“Dallas, what are you talking about? I don’t realize how bad what is yet?”
“I mean, these people that attacked the club. They’re...well, they’re not really people.”
“What are you trying to say, Dallas?” She chuckled. “Are they aliens? Monsters? Vampires?”
“Zombies.”
“Zombies?” This time, she burst into laughter. “Oh Dallas, what on earth are you talking about?”
“Mom, you should have seen Tatum. She was really pale, and she just lashed out at me. She tried to kill me, mom.”
Her mother kept laughing. “Did you two get in a fight? Honestly, I don’t know how many times I have to tell you — you need to learn to get along with that girl. You see what happened now — it’s too late.”
“Mom, I’m sorry but there’s really nothing else to say. I’m scared and I’m going to Chattanooga. I really hope to see you and dad out there soon. I love you.”
“I love you too,” her mother said as Dallas quickly hung up. As soon as she put the phone down, she heard sniffling from the back seat.
Talia burst into tears. She covered her mouth, her eyes reddened and puffy. Sam reached over and pulled her in, and she continued crying into his shoulder.
Dallas’s heart felt as if it was being ripped out. She was no fan of Tatum’s, but she and Talia were so close. If someone had told her Ashleigh had become a zombie and subsequently killed (again), she could only imagine how she would feel.
Talia finally stopped crying and sat up, wiping her cheeks on a dark long sleeve. Her eyes were still red and streaked with black mascara. “Tally...” Dallas said. “Tally, I’m so sorry about all of this.”
Talia sniffled. “I don’t even want to talk about it right now,” she said. “Let’s just drive.”
A good sister, she knew, would have at least told Talia something different to soften the blow. Perhaps Tatum was never a zombie, instead killed by her evil manager or a disgruntled crew member. She knew deep down Talia had to believe her, that she had never lied to her about something so big before. But it had to be a lot to wrap her head around.
And a good daughter, she knew, would have made the two hour detour and picked up her parents. But there was no way in hell they would go, and no way they would believe her. They’re smart, resourceful people, she told herself over and over. They’ll figure out on their own that Chattanooga is where they need to be, and they’ll make it. They have to.
Ashleigh was the next to call home. The volume on her phone was loud enough that Dallas could hear her father’s voice from the other end.
“Ash? What’s going on? I heard about that attack at the House of Blues. Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. I’m on my way to Chattanooga.”
“Chattanooga? Why the hell are you going to Chattanooga?”
She bit her lip. “It’s kind of a long story. I can’t really explain it.”
“Ashleigh, tell me what’s going on right now.”
“I wish I could, but I really don’t even know. I’m going to Chattanooga for awhile, but I’ll see you again soon.” She hung up and peered at Dallas, who scratched her arm.
Ashleigh called her mother next, but the call didn’t last long. “Voice mail,” she said. “Probably working late. I’m sure she’ll call back.”
Ashleigh’s single mother had been laid off from a high paying job the previous winter. She found another job, but it required long hours away from home. As a result, Ashleigh spent less time at home...and more time out partying.
Sam called his dad and had a similar conversation with similar results. When he hung up, Dallas glanced at Pierce, who had his hands firmly on the steering wheel, his phone nowhere in sight. “Are you going to call anyone?” she asked.
He blinked. “No, I don’t think so. Not right now.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m driving. I’ll try to call my dad later.”
Dallas bit the insid
e of her lip. There were barely any cars on the road, and she had seen Pierce send text messages and attempt phone calls in rush hour traffic. Still, she said nothing and looked out the window. Ashleigh picked polish off her nails, and Sam fiddled with his phone.
Pierce shrugged. “It’ll be fine. We’ll all be fine.”
He drove for several hours down the barely-lit interstate, pulling over in the wee hours of the morning. “I’m exhausted,” he said. “We should stop somewhere, just for the night. I think we can spare a few hours.”
“There are some motels off the interstate,” Sam said. “I’ll get us all a room.”
“Are you sure?” Dallas questioned.
“Yeah, absolutely. Pierce, take that exit over there.”
They checked into the first motel they found — a seedy one story building with beer cans and cigarette butts littering the parking lot. The lobby wasn’t much better. The television looked older than most of them, and they had to wait several minutes for a gray haired man in a wife beater to appear from the back and check them in. Dallas worried what he would think of a group of teenagers checking into a motel in the wee hours of the morning, especially with Pierce’s arm so low on Talia’s waist. But he didn’t seem to care either way.
They ended up in a crowded room with two double beds. Pierce and Talia settled at the top of one bed, and Ashleigh sat at the foot, flipping through channels. Sam and Dallas took the other, and Sam watched the channels change as Dallas made a list of supplies.
Sam eyed the list, written on the back of a grocery receipt Dallas found in the car. “Non perishable food. Bottled water. Advil...caffeine pills? Dallas, how long are you expecting us to be gone?”
“No idea. However long it takes for this whole thing to blow over. If it blows over.”
“If? Do you really think it’ll be that bad?”
“I don’t know, Sam. I don’t know that much more than you. I just wanted to get out while we still could.”
“While we still could? Do you think everything will be abandoned by tomorrow or something?”
Dallas rubbed her arm and glanced at the TV as it went from a teen drama to some old movie. “I hope not. That would mean the virus spread astronomically fast and this is even worse than I thought. No, we probably have a day or two before anyone realizes something is seriously wrong. Which means we need to get out as soon as possible. Stock up on as many supplies as we can while things are still normal. Once other people catch on, it’s going to be chaos. If they catch on.”
“Dallas, do you remember the other day, when we went shopping and you agonized for an hour over whether you should buy a ten dollar shirt? Now you’re thinking about spending all your cash and forgetting about school and work because you think zombies might be taking over the world.”
“Bottled water is really cheap. So are most canned foods. We’ll divide it up and if this turns out to be a false alarm...well, we’ll have plenty of food for awhile. And maybe we’ll miss a few classes. Big deal.”
“Oh my God.” Sam held his head between his hands. “Who are you and what have you done with my friend?” She scoffed and turned away. “Oh come on Dallas, it was a joke. Lighten up a little!”
Her phone vibrated furiously and she picked it up. “Hello?”
“Dallas!” Uncle Jack’s booming voice echoed in her ear. “Hey there, kiddo. Got your message. Everything okay?” He chuckled. “Course not, you said something was wrong in that message. So when are you coming?”
“Um, I’m not sure yet. Maybe a couple of days?”
“Well, you’re coming from New Orleans, right? Shouldn’t take more than a few hours.”
“I don’t know. It might take longer.”
“Longer? How do you figure that? What’s going on there, Dal?”
“Um, well, that’s part of the trouble we’re in.”
“You sure everything’s all right? I mean, you’re not in any danger right now, are you?”
“No, not really,” she said. “Not right now. Just turn on the news or something. They might be reporting it. Oh, and mom and dad might be coming up later too. And a few other people. But I’m not sure.”
“Your mom and dad, huh? There some sort of family reunion nobody told me about?”
“Not exactly. See you in a few days.” She hung up quickly.
Ashleigh was still at the foot of the other bed, flipping channels. She stopped on all of the major news networks, but none of them were reporting any sort of attacks, zombie or otherwise. “Doesn’t seem like anyone cares much about this yet,” she said, yawning.
“Maybe it hasn’t spread,” Dallas said. “I mean, we only saw a few zombies and they were all in the same general location.”
“Maybe they’ll all be gone by tomorrow. Then we can go home.”
“Zombies don’t just go away, Ash. They have to be destroyed.” Ashleigh flipped the channel one more time and stopped on a local news report.
Breaking news out of New Orleans. A mysterious attack at the House of Blues has left eight people dead and over a dozen others with bizarre injuries. According to police, a mob at the club viciously attacked several crew members with their bare hands. The attack occurred just over an hour after a performance by pop singer Tatum Jones. It is not yet confirmed if Jones is among the casualties.
The reporter moved on to some story about the governor and taxes. No more details, no investigation. Just more big city violence that left a few people dead and got a blurb on a local news station. Ashleigh turned the TV off.
“I guess most of the people at the show were gone by then,” she said. “That’s good, right? At least all the fans got out safe.”
Dallas nodded. “I wonder what happened to the zombies. Surely they wouldn’t kill them since they think they’re still living people.”
“So what does it mean? That the...zombies are still out there?” Ashleigh said ‘zombies’ in the same manner she used to say the names of the reproductive organs in ninth grade biology.
Dallas looked around the room. Pierce and Talia were still propped against the bed frame, arms linked. Sam was to her right, fiddling with the supply list she had made earlier. Ashleigh propped herself up on her elbows. All of their eyes were on Dallas.
“Yeah, it means they’re still out there. They might have been taken to hospitals or something, but they’re alive and dangerous. Well, undead, but still dangerous. I don’t know if they’re like the zombies from the movies that can infect you and then turn you into a zombie just by biting. Or maybe the virus is airborne and everyone will become a zombie when they die. I don’t know anything about this.”
“Dallas?” Talia said softly from the other bed. Dallas realized both she and Pierce had remained mostly quiet since arriving at the hotel. “Dallas...I believe you.”
“You do?” Dallas inhaled slowly, but her heart pounded. “About the...zombies?”
Talia licked her lips. “Remember a couple of years ago, when we went down to New Orleans for a day? We were in some coffee shop, but they were shooting a movie nearby, and you told me that some actor was there. And I didn’t believe you, but then a couple of girls started screaming, and I realized you were right. He was right there in front of me, but I didn’t see him because I didn’t want to. I thought it was too good to be true.”
“So, you believe me because of some actor in a coffee shop?”
“I know it sounds dumb. But you’ve never lied to me, at least not like this, or tried to get me to believe anything this crazy. Not even when we were kids. And I know you wouldn’t lie to me about this.”
“Tally,” Dallas said, her eyes brimming with tears again, “I’m really glad you’re here. And who knows, maybe I’m wrong. I hope I’m wrong. I hope we get to Chattanooga tomorrow, get word that all the zombies are gone, and turn right back around.”
Chapter Four
Dallas and her comrades were a good three hours away from New Orleans by the time they stopped f
or the night. As they had already discovered, it could take hours for the virus to fully transform a human being, and even longer for said human being (now a zombie) to infect others, thus creating more zombies. But it’s amazing how much faster the process can go when nobody believes the zombie virus is the work of zombies.
Dallas was the first to wake up the next morning — with Sam’s arm draped around her middle, she noticed happily — and immediately turned on the news. The local station was reporting once again.
Injured victims from last night’s mysterious attack at the House of Blues in New Orleans refuse to rest. The survivors were brought to a local hospital and all showed signs of both sepsis and avian flu. Once at the hospital, the victims lashed out at doctors. Over a dozen medical personnel and family members of victims were bitten by the patients. Nearly all of them have come down with the same symptoms. The origins of this attack and virus that its victims carry are still unknown.
The news went to commercial, and she flipped the channel again. Now CNN was reporting on the story as well.
A mysterious attack in Biloxi, Mississippi has left fifteen people dead and nearly 100 more injured. Shortly after eleven o’ clock last night, a mob attacked beachgoers by biting them. That’s right, biting them. The victims were taken to a nearby hospital where many of them slipped into comas and appeared dead, but later awoke and attacked hospital personnel. Many of these patients have been killed in self-defense in the process. Other victims are being tested for various illnesses such as sepsis, avian flu, and chicken pox. Government officials believe the virus may be a work of bioterrorism.
Pierce stirred on the other bed and opened his eyes. “There are more news reports,” Dallas said. The announcer continued.
The Audubon Zoo in New Orleans, Louisiana has been temporarily shut down due to a mysterious illness that led to several animal attacks. Two elephants and three tigers were put down earlier tonight after attacking other animals. The animals all exhibited symptoms similar to those of human victims of a bizarre illness that cropped up at the New Orleans House of Blues last night. The infection is thought to be caused by drinking contaminated tap water and causes victims to physically attack others. Other symptoms include pale, gray tinted skin and dilated pupils. Those bitten also exhibit signs of the disease within hours and soon succumb to it. Nearly all victims of the disease, whether contracted from biting or contaminated water, have already died.
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