“Where the hell are we supposed to go?” Dallas asked. “I’m not getting back on the interstate.”
Pierce pulled out his phone and brought up the GPS. From the back of the gas station they were facing northeast, the same direction they needed to head to end up in Chattanooga. “There’s got to be a neighborhood or something around here,” he said. “Let’s keep walking.”
“What about all those people on the interstate?” Talia asked. Behind them, the undead were closing in on the crowds. Dallas could see one in the distance chasing a woman into the surrounding trees.
“Tally, there’s nothing we can do for those people.” He took her arm gently and led her away. “Come on, there’s a road behind the gas station. The GPS says it’ll lead us there.” Talia followed complacently, but Dallas saw her look back more than once as the screams intensified.
The road led away from the stretch of gas stations to just one or two buildings for half a mile. The screams eventually faded out of earshot and Dallas’s mind.
When Dallas and Talia attended their church’s youth group, they often studied the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. As Sodom was destroyed and Lot and his family escaped, they were commanded by angels not to look back. But Lot’s wife looked anyway and was transformed into a pillar of salt. Dallas couldn’t help but think of this story as Talia looked back at the destruction, even long after it had faded from view. If they had been fleeing from Sodom, she’d have turned to salt long ago.
The road was paved well enough, but the sky was gray and cloudy now and it was eerily quiet. Just a few hours earlier, the sun had been shining, the temperature had been twenty degrees higher, and the forecast said it would continue for days. The South and its ever changing weather never failed to amaze Dallas.
“So Ashleigh..” Pierce hesitated and fiddled with his backpack straps.
Dallas nodded but didn’t look up from the road. Tears brimmed in her eyes.
“It’s all my fault,” Pierce muttered.
“No, Pierce, it isn’t,” Talia said. “She chose to leave us.”
“But she left because she got mad at me. I’m the one who provoked her. I convinced her to leave.”
“You didn’t force her to do anything. And if we had followed her, we’d all be dead right now.” Pierce didn’t respond, and they kept walking.
The road continued for a few more miles and eventually transitioned from gas stations and grocery stores into wide fields and lush green farmlands. Wooden and barbed wire fences separated the road from the fields, some of them cut or torn in various places. The air was sticky and humid, even though it hadn’t rained in weeks, and sweat trickled down Dallas’s forehead. At least she assumed it was sweat; it was hard to tell sometimes between that and tears.
They spotted an occasional horse or cow, and Dallas even saw an old man sitting on his front porch. But other than that, there were no living things in sight. Fortunately, there were no undead things either.
“Look at the animals,” Pierce said. “They’re so still.”
“Animals in fields usually are,” Dallas replied.
“Do you think...well, we all heard that report about the animals at the zoo. But what about out here? If the virus got out here, would the animals turn into zombies too? And without anyone to put them down, would they be even more dangerous?”
“I don’t know,” Dallas said. “Look at how many people have already turned. I thought at least some other animals would have been affected too. But I haven’t seen any so far.”
“Neither have I. Maybe it’s only certain animals. You know, animals that weigh enough to be affected or something.”
After nearly half an hour, Pierce stopped in the center of the road and held his phone above his head. “Shit!” he cried. “I lost the signal again. How are we supposed to go anywhere when we don’t know where the hell we’re going?” He stomped his foot on the pavement.
“Pierce, calm down,” Talia said. “Dal and I have been this way tons of times going to Tennessee. This is the right way, I promise.”
“How many times have you been this way, Tally? Twice? Three times? How many times when you weren’t sleeping or playing games in the back seat? And what if we do keep walking but never get a signal back? Or what if we get it back and find out we’ve just walked ten miles in the wrong direction?”
“We’re not going in the wrong direction,” Dallas said. “This road leads through the state and into Alabama. Later on, it goes up to Chattanooga. I’m sure of it.”
Pierce muttered a few more swear words under his breath and rubbed his hands through his hair. “Fine, you guys are right,” he said. “At least I hope you are. I’m trusting you.”
“Hey, what kind of phone is that anyway?” Sam said. Pierce held up the phone for him to see and they began rattling off names and terms that went over Dallas’s head.
“Boys and their toys,” she muttered. She and Talia lingered a few feet behind the boys as they enthusiastically punched buttons on Pierce’s phone.
“It’s not just boys,” Talia said. “Tatum was obsessed with her phone. She was going through her bag once and couldn’t find it because it was buried underneath all her stuff. She was freaking out, saying somebody stole it. I seriously thought she was going to pass out or something.” She laughed and turned her head away from Dallas.
“I know you miss her, Tally. I miss Ash too. I’m still trying to process what actually happened to her.”
Talia nodded and looked the other way. “Yeah, I do.”
“She didn’t deserve to die like that. She didn’t do anything wrong.”
“You know...yesterday was the first time I’d talked to her in weeks. I don’t know what happened.” Tears formed at the corners of Talia’s eyes. “Maybe I should have made more of an effort.”
“Tally, come on. You can’t blame yourself for stuff like that. You guys grew apart. It happens.” She thought of Ashleigh and how the night before her death was the first time she had spent with her friend in nearly a month. That was why she had so willingly let herself be dragged along to a Tatum Jones show. She could put up with her least favorite person if it meant spending time with her best friend, who wouldn’t be attending school with her the next year. In truth, they probably would have drifted apart in college anyway. She felt tears in her eyes again.
Pierce pumped his fist in the air. “I got a signal!” he shouted. “And you guys were right. We’re going the right way!”
“See there, Tally?” Dallas smiled and speed walked to catch up. “Things are looking up already.”
Ten minutes later, Dallas stumbled and nearly fell over. It wasn’t until she saw black spots that she remembered how long it had been since she’d eaten.
“Dallas, are you okay?” Even though she was able to stand back up, Sam linked his arms under hers and steadied her. “Come on guys,” he said. “Let’s sit down for awhile.”
So they took a seat in a lush grassy area just off the road. Sam pulled out the few cans of mini ravioli he had salvaged from the gas station. Dallas took one greedily and didn’t come up for air until every last piece was gone.
“So,” Sam said as the rest of the group continued eating, “Why were there zombies in that last town, but nowhere else since New Orleans?”
“It was the water,” Dallas responded.
“What?”
“The virus was spread through the water. When we saw Tatum backstage, she was drinking water from the cemetery. It must have seeped into the ground, and that’s how Tatum got infected. It’s not like the chemicals could have seeped into the ground and actually brought dead corpses back to life. All the graves in New Orleans are above ground.”
“We talked about it this morning in the hotel room,” Talia added. “I think you were still asleep.”
“But that still doesn’t explain why some towns were infected and others weren’t,” Sam said.
“The towns that weren’t infected must d
rink filtered water. It varies by the town, and their water supply. When we lived in Tennessee, we never drank water straight from the tap. It was always filtered.”
“So, this virus could spread really fast. Even if there are only a few towns that drink the water.”
Dallas snickered. “Gives new meaning to the phrase ‘don’t drink the water,’ right?”
She leaned her head against a fence post and was about to doze off when she heard a ringing. She opened her eyes and looked up to all of her companions looking at Pierce’s backpack. It was his phone, and it was ringing loudly.
“It was her cell phone,” Dallas whispered.
“What?” Sam said.
“In the gas station. Ashleigh’s cell phone started ringing. She came in the store right after the zombies did, and they were going after us. But once her phone started ringing, they forgot about us and went for her. She didn’t have a chance.” A sudden breeze blew her hair to the side. She didn’t bother to brush it away.
The phone stopped ringing. Pierce stared at the backpack for a full minute before opening it up and looking at the display. “It’s my dad,” he whispered. He looked up briefly, then stepped a few feet away and placed a call.
“Why her cell phone?” Sam said. “Maybe it was just the noise.”
“But we were already making plenty of noise,” Dallas countered. “If they were just attracted to noise, they would have kept going after us. And when her phone started ringing again after she…died, they all reached for it.”
“So...they’re attracted to cell phones?” Sam shook his head. “Never would have guessed that.”
“Me neither,” Dallas said. “And if we don’t even know what attracts them, how much more is there that we don’t know?”
The back roads and farmland eventually morphed into another small town. This one looked like a repeat of the one they had just left: Plenty of gas stations, a line of cars on the interstate above them, and no other humans in sight.
“Looks like nobody is going anywhere today,” Dallas said.
“Easy meals for the zombies,” Pierce replied. “At least they’ll probably leave us alone.”
On the road under the interstate, Dallas spotted a car parked on the curb. She motioned her companions over to examine it. It was a black SUV, just like Pierce’s. There were no keys in the ignition, but Sam could probably hot wire it easily.
Hundreds of cars sat bumper to bumper on the interstate bridge. Several people lay sprawled on the hoods of their cars or leaned against the tires. “Look at all those people,” Talia said.
“Yeah, but hopefully they’re not looking at us,” Dallas replied.
Talia’s eyes narrowed at her sister. “Dallas...you’re not seriously thinking what I think you’re thinking. Are you?”
Dallas grinned. “Tally, how would you like to walk the rest of the way to Chattanooga?”
“No way. I’m not doing it.”
“You don’t have to do a thing. Sam is the car expert. All you have to do is sit and wait for him to do it, because I know he can. This is our best bet and we all know it. It’s safer and faster.”
“I am not stealing a car!” she said in a loud whisper. “Especially with all of these people watching.”
“Oh come on. By the time they realized what was going on, we’d be long gone.”
“Tally’s right,” Sam said. “This is risky. There are probably at least a few hundred people up there, maybe more. If this car was okay to drive, don’t you think someone would have taken it by now?”
“They can’t even see it. It’s under the bridge. And if they left, people would see them leave. Nobody has even noticed us yet. And remember the gas station? Nobody even went after us after we left. They didn’t come until later, when they realized there were zombies there.” She pouted. “Please, Sam? Come on.”
He laid his arms on top of his head, flashing his tanned muscles. “I don’t know, Dal. You really want us to steal a car?”
“We have to do it,” Pierce said. “There could be zombies anywhere out here, and we won’t always have hundreds of evacuees to distract them. Do you know how lucky we are that we even found a car? Look at all those people up there. What do you think they’d do to be able to actually drive their cars away right now?”
“A lot,” Sam said. “Which is why I’m worried. What if we get caught?”
“We just survived being cornered by zombies,” Dallas said. “I think we can handle it.”
Sam grunted. “We survived because we were lucky. One of our friends was really unlucky. How do you know it won’t be us this time? What if those people see us and decide to do something?”
“Well then,” Dallas said, “We just won’t get caught, will we?” She winked at him, and he blushed. She lowered her voice. “Come on, Sam. You know we need to do this.” She reached out her hand and brushed it over his forearm. She barely touched his skin, but shivered when she did and felt him do the same.
He nodded. “You’re right. We do need a car. But I have no idea if I can hot wire this one. I’d need tools...a screwdriver, maybe even a pair of wire cutters. And I’d have to do it quietly.”
They all shuffled their feet. Talia looked up and timidly raised her right hand. “I’ve got a pair of nail clippers. Well, not clippers. They’re those little scissors you use to trim your nails.”
“You know,” Sam said, “I think that just might work.”
He worked in silence for several agonizing minutes. Dallas opened the passenger side door and she, Talia, and Pierce sat on the middle seat with the door open. She pulled three water bottles from her backpack and handed them out. After guzzling hers, Talia dozed on the seat, her head resting on Pierce’s shoulder. It was much cooler under the bridge with no direct sunlight hitting them, and Dallas realized her shoulders were tinged with pink. She would have to keep her eye out for sunblock on their next venture into civilization.
Sam bent over the steering wheel, Talia’s nail scissors in hand. He stuck his tongue out like he was concentrating hard. Dallas watched him, letting the breeze from the open door blow her hair over her face. His white t-shirt accentuated his tan, which he had acquired from hanging out with Dallas at the pool that summer. It was at those poolside hangouts — which, she remembered with a pang of sadness, had included Ashleigh — that she realized she had feelings for Sam.
Ashleigh had been right the previous day at the House of Blues. Sam had been harboring feelings for Dallas for quite some time now, and Dallas knew it. But watching him work on this car now, bent over the hood, probably deep in thought, reminded her why she had never given a potential romance with him a second thought. This was what Sam loved to do. His father was a mechanic, and Sam would probably take over the family business one day, living in Baton Rouge for the rest of his life. Dallas had much bigger ambitions, and it was their desire for contrasting lifestyles that would have rendered a romance kaput.
But things were different now. Very, very different.
Out of habit, Dallas pulled out her phone. She opened up the gallery, but couldn’t look at the photos she had taken just hours before.
“Good God, what is that?” Talia peered over her shoulder and glanced at the screen. She looked like Dallas had felt after dry heaving over the photos. “It’s disgusting.”
Dallas pointed to the screen. She selected the picture of a zombie gnawing on a disembodied limb — still barely looking at it — and hit an upload button. “Now it’s on the internet,” she said.
“How the hell is that any better?”
“Because now people can see it.”
Talia frowned. “Still not following you.”
Dallas shoved the phone into her back pocket. “People need to see the reality of the situation, whether they want to or not. If this doesn’t convince everyone that this is all real and they should take shelter, nothing will.”
Sam had removed the covering behind the steering wheel to reveal se
veral red wires. He sighed and clipped one of the wires in two. “Can someone find me a cloth or something? And maybe some tape?”
Dallas reached into the backseat and grabbed an old tissue buried between the seat and the wall. She handed it to Sam, who made a face but took it gingerly. Leaning over the seat had caused her shirt to ride up, exposing her stomach. She saw Sam looking at it for more than a few seconds as he took the tissue. The unpleasant look on his face disappeared.
He held the tissue in his fingertips and grabbed the wires, pushing their exposed ends together. The car made a noise. “I think it worked,” he whispered as the noise died down. Dallas motioned for Pierce to close the door. He slammed it shut, and Sam quickly pulled the wires together again. The car sputtered a few times and finally started. He hit the gas and they sped away.
Dallas didn’t have to look back to know that people were staring from the interstate. She could only hope the ones who tried to go after them weren’t as fast as the zombies.
Chapter Six
A boil water notice is still in effect for Southern Mississippi and Louisiana. The notice took effect Friday night, when a truck crash in New Orleans released toxic chemicals into the water supply. Symptoms of drinking the tainted water include graying skin, chicken pox-like spots, and increased physical aggression. A film over the eyes is sometimes present. At this point, the symptoms have no known cure.
Miraculously, they picked up not only an internet signal but a few radio stations as they drove. They settled on a gospel station playing a hymn Dallas had grown up singing in church. Dallas found herself singing along out loud, softly at first, then increasing in volume. She stopped when she looked back and saw Sam staring at her.
“Hallelujah!” The DJ’s voice echoed through the car as the song ended. “Despite everything that’s going on in our neck of the woods, we’ve sure got a lot to praise God for.” Dallas saw Pierce roll his eyes, but nobody else responded. Another familiar hymn started to play, and Dallas hummed along, softer this time.
State of Emergency Page 6
