Stage 6

by James, Dylan

  He shook his head and replied, “Nope. So what do we get?”

  I looked around the store and shrugged, “Anything that looks useful I guess.”

  I opened all my jacket and pants pockets up, and stuffed them with bags of snacks and candy. Kevin appeared looking similar, and we crept outside to the car.

  We opened the trunk and un-loaded all the stuff, and Kevin said to everybody, “You know what guys? It’s dark, and that store still has electricity. There is lots of milk, drinks, and snacks and stuff in there. I propose we stay here for the night, locked up in the car where Infected won’t look for us. We can move all the snacks and stuff in here in the morning, but for now we can have a good dinner.”

  There were cheers of encouragement, and Ian drove the car around out front the convenience store. We split the food we found, -mainly beef jerky and chips- among us and made sure all the doors and windows were closed as tight as possible. Everything was locked up, and we all got as comfortable as possible. We set up a basic watch schedule during the night, but our minds were elsewhere. We were going to be free of this plague in the morning. It was all looking up. I fell asleep with this comfortable thought.

  Day 9

  I awoke with a start, as Steve shook me and said, “Jack! It’s the afternoon! We were fools to sleep this long!”

  I looked around groggily to see everybody else just now waking up as well, and I asked, “Well what’s wrong with that? Nothing happened did it?”

  He shook his head and said, “No but that’s not the point. We didn’t even set an alarm! Have we learned nothing from all that has happened??”

  I replied, “We were all just very tired Steve, it won’t happen again.” I said to the group, in a louder voice, “So are we ready to escape Texas!?”

  There were cheers and Steve excused himself to grab some milk and supplies from the convenience store. He came back out, hopped in the trunk with the stuff, and I turned the car onto the road and took off. We followed the main road around the Grasslands, and it was unnerving to imagine all the Infected animals and such peering out at us from the hidden forest. We came across a deer once, which stared us down from the middle of the road. Obviously in the grips of the Infection, it pawed the ground looking at us as I drove very slowly around it. It wasn’t long before we saw the signs of the containment up ahead, with small make-shift buildings and various assorted barbed wire and other tools of containment spread out for as far as the eye could see. There were even machine gun turrets at some places.

  I slowed the car to a stop and asked, “Well guys, what’s the plan?”

  Steve answered immediately, “There’s no way we’re going to be able to get through on a main road like this. The best bet we have is going off onto the gravel a ways to the left, and try and get between any main roads. They’ll probably only have a few guys set up there. But something I’ve been thinking about, these aren’t Infected. Are we prepared to kill, to murder the human guards to get past them? Opening up the way for Infected to get into the rest of the Country?”

  We were all still, as the implications of what Steve said hit us. I hadn’t thought about that, I always assumed we just had to make it here and sneak past somehow.

  I turned the car off the road and said, “Well first let’s see if we have to make that decision. If it comes down to it though, I don’t know.”

  I drove in silence for a while, going over the bumps in the dirt and shaking the car around extracting little “mmpphs” of pain from the injured in our car. I tried to drive as gentle as possible, but after all I was driving across hills at some points. Consulting the map somebody found under one of the seats, we managed to aim straight at the border to Oklahoma. I stopped, and turned in my seat to face the group.

  I said, “The guards have no doubt been told to shoot anything on sight. I really think the best thing for us to do, is to send one or two of us up there to scout it out. See where our best bet is at getting through. We WILL bring our guns, and if they discover us, we’ll have to defend ourselves.”

  Nobody objected, and I began to ask for volunteers when Steve cut me off and said, “I’ll go. I’m the best qualified person for the job, and besides I don’t know if I want to put you in that position Jack. You may think it’s easy, killing the Infected when they’re running madly for you with blood dripping from their mouth, but what about when they’re just human Jack? What about the lives they have, their dreams, their families depending on them? No, I’ll go. You guys wait here.”

  Steve gently handed Victoria to Sarah and told her something I couldn’t hear, and then hopped out of the trunk. He shut it securely, and began to creep towards the fences up ahead. As he got closer he dropped to an army crawl, and was hidden in the tall grasses. He disappeared, and we didn’t see him until a few minutes later when he popped out of the grass only twenty feet away from us.

  He jogged to the car, got in the trunk and then said, “I can’t explain it, but I don’t see anybody at all up there. I checked further, to see if maybe they have snipers trained on the barricades but I don’t see any evidence of people being here for a long time. I went ahead and cleared a path through so you can go on ahead.”

  I cheered and said, “Guys I think our luck is turning around! What a break!”

  Everybody broke out into smiles and whoops as I drove the van up to the barricades, and went through the small clearing Steve had made. We came out the other side, I drove for a bit to find the main road and then I pushed onto it.

  There was quiet for a few seconds, and then Lucy yelled, “We made it!”

  I laughed and yelled back, “Whooooooo!”

  We all started shouting and shaking each other’s hands, and I smiled knowing that we had made it through. The whole nightmare would never be forgotten, but it was finally over.

  Ian asked, “What do we do now? Just go to the nearest town? How do we start our lives over?”

  My Mom genuinely laughed, for the first time in a while and told Ian, “I don’t think we have to think so far ahead. We are ALIVE! Let’s celebrate!”

  I drove a bit on the state road 70, and our spirits dampened a little as we saw the roads empty and completely devoid of life. There were abandoned cars every mile or so, and we thought this looked almost as depressing as the traffic jam we saw earlier.

  Kevin, always the realist said, “Well this makes sense right? I mean think about it, Texas is under a massive quarantine from a deadly mysterious virus. No doubt there are going to be some strange circumstances near the border, we’ve only been out of Texas for less than an hour. Let’s wait to judge.”

  We all nodded, but there was no cheer. Instead we were all hunched over in our seats, straining to see the outskirts of the next town, which the map said should be called “Bennington.” We came upon it, and drove into town slowly, only find to our increasing distress, that there were still no signs of life.

  We drove through town, and Steve asked, “Maybe they evacuated places near the Texas border?”

  Kevin replied quickly, “Yeah... but that would imply there was a chance the quarantine would fail.”

  And suddenly, as I turned a corner of the town we stood staring in shock as Infected of all manners roamed the streets and buildings with abandon.

  My Mom slowly started to repeat the words, “No, no no no...”

  And Karen held a hand over her mouth as tears came to her eyes.

  I said hoarsely, “The Infection must have spread past Texas. That’s why we got through the quarantine so easy...”

  Horrified, we could do nothing but sit and watch as Infected searched and roamed through the streets. Victoria started crying, and Steve hurriedly shushed her.

  He then said, “Well there’s no use agonizing about it. What’s done is done. It doesn’t matter how it happened, but it DID happen and we need to plan accordingly. First, we need to find out where to go next. We need information desperately. How far spread is the Infection? Are there other sa-”

  Steve
was cut off as Lucy pointed and shouted, “Look! Look at the window up there by the mall!”

  We all strained to see what she was pointing at, and I quickly saw the object. It was a person. Well a group of people actually, and they had stretched a banner with all manner of things taped to it, obviously designed to get our attention.

  Ian asked, “Can anybody see what it says?”

  Steve moved around quickly and took a pair of binoculars out from his ever-important bag. Ian took them, and peered out.

  He then said excitedly, “The sign says ‘We are alive’!”

  Kevin said sarcastically, “Well whoopee let’s go on up there and have a party!”

  I glared at Kevin, but then reluctantly said, “Kevin’s sort of right. I mean the sign says they’re alive, who’s to say they don’t need even more help than we do? We can’t assume they are going to be helpful to us.”

  Lucy said, “I don’t know about you guys, but I’d feel safer with a larger group of people. Besides they look pretty safe up there in the mall. The Infected aren’t even going for them. For all we know they could be having a ball.”

  Kevin asked, “Well why would they have a sign up there asking for help if they’re doing all fine and dandy?”

  Steve cut in, “The sign doesn’t actually ask for help. It simply states they’re alive; perhaps they are looking out for other survivor’s well being? Additionally, they probably have the information we so desperately need. I vote we find a way in.”

  There was a chorus of agreement from everybody except Kevin, but I ignored him.

  I grinned and said, “Let’s go?”

  Everybody yelled, “Let’s go!”

  I nervously turned to look at the minefield of Infected in front of us, and started to slowly move towards them. I carefully avoided running into any of them, and they seemed to ignore us for the most part. The most any of them ever did was stop and look at us, perhaps wondering if we were prey.

  We began to aim towards the mall parking lot, and were almost there when suddenly Karen turned and said, “Look behind us! Some of them are following us!”

  I glanced in the rearview mirror to see that we had attracted a trail of Infected, curiously following the van. I drove in circles around the parking lot for a bit, not wanting to draw any Infected into the mall. Lucy burst out laughing for some reason, and I looked around to see that some of the Infected following us were growing confused and stopped in their tracks. It reminded me of how a cat will play with a toy for sometime, but then will eventually grow bored and leave it alone. They left without incident, and I pulled the van up by the front entrance to the mall.

  I asked, “So should we just go in?”

  Before anybody could reply I noticed something interesting, and mused aloud “Well would you look at that!”

  The doors to the mall were broken and smashed in, and there were Infected wandering around the inside.”

  Steve mused, “The survivors must have managed to secure off access to the second floor, so I’m guessing we might find it hard to reach them. Everywhere else in the mall is probably flooded with the Infected.”

  Karen wondered out loud, “So how do we get up there?” I asked with a grin on my face, “We drive?”

  I gunned the car smashing through the glass doors, and I screeched the tires turning it to face the map of locations in the mall.

  I asked, “So should we go up the stairs?”

  There was a chorus of agreement, and I drove the car towards the nearest stairs. We reached them and immediately saw that the stair case was entirely blocked off. There were whole shelves, desks, and mall-gates tied and locked down across the stairway.

  A face appeared across the barricade, and shouted something to us that I barely could hear through the car windows. I caught the world “elevator” and took the meaning. I started to back up when suddenly there was a thud, and then a bump. I looked behind us only to realize I had just run over an Infected. Suddenly the Infected around us were no longer just curious followers. They started moving towards us, fast and purposeful. I screeched the tires, heading across the mall towards the elevator on the other side. Infected from all sides began to break off from their aimless shuffling, and I quickly wondered what had caused such an interest in us. I performed a race-car-driver worthy move, and hit the brakes and spun the car to the side, crashing sideways into the elevator doors.

  Ian opened the sliding door facing the elevator really quick, and hit the button opening the doors. He helped my Mom out, and then reached in to take Lucy out. She fell as he was taking her out and he picked her up and moved her to the side of the elevator well she sat silently holding her legs. I knew she was in great pain but she didn’t show it. The first few Infected sprinted at full speed straight into the sides of the Van, and I could hear the sickening crunch as their bones met glass and each shattered. I jumped out of my seat and rolled over the middle row of the van and into the elevator, followed closely by Kevin. I quickly grabbed my shotgun after the floor, and then we collapsed the middle row as Infected began to reach through the shattered windows. Suddenly Karen screamed as they broke the window in the back. Glass fell and Victoria started crying, and Steve reached through the glass and grabbed the Infected with one massive hand of his. He thrust it backwards and it flew through the air until crumpling into a heap on the ground. Karen crawled into the elevator quickly, followed by Sarah and then finally Steve who held Victoria in his arms. We hit the last floor button, and the doors closed just as Infected began to force themselves through the windows into the car. I was breathing fast, I had just barely been able to grab my gun, and now I held it securely, giving me confidence. There was a few seconds where only Victoria’s crying broke the silence. Then a “ding” and the doors opened to greet us with a group of people aiming guns at us.

  We stood still for a second, shocked at this reception for people we just risked our lives to get to, until one of them stepped forward and said, “Drop your gun, and kick it over here. Then raise your hands all of you, and slowly step out.”

  Seeing no real choice in the matter, I complied. We stepped out slowly, and one of them, who looked to be about thirteen years old, warily walked into the elevator with a roll of tape, and used an obscene amount of it before walking out satisfied.

  Seeing my questioning look he said defensively, “Hey I tape the ‘hold open’ button shut to keep the elevator on this level. Might as well do everything we can to keep the damn zombies from getting up here.”

  Kevin shouted, “Yes! I LIKE this kid!”

  There were a few confused looks from their group, and it was my turn to do the explaining.

  I said, “Oh that’s just Kevin. He’s disappointed that we don’t view the Infected as zombies. I guess you guys do?”

  They all grinned, and the same guy who told us to step out of the elevator said, “No we didn’t really know what to call them so we’ve just been going with insults. Some days we call them jackasses, some days they’re stupid cannibals, but we all get the idea. Infected is a good name for them though.”

  Kevin and the guy with the tape spoke simultaneously, “So is zombie!!”

  They beamed at each other, and I smiled and said, “I hate to break up the moment guys, but can we lower our hands yet? Some of us are injured.”

  The stranger who seemed to lead the other group agreed, and said, “Alright you can lower your hands. Are any of you Infected with the virus?”

  We all looked at each other and laughed. I said, “Look, we just got out of Texas. None of us are Infected or we wouldn’t be here right now.”

  There were some gasps, and the leader whistled and said, “Well now I’m sure that’s a story worth telling. Why don’t you come on in, to our spacious living quarters! We’ll make introductions there.”

  I agreed, and we slowly moved into a store on the left which sold furniture. The store had been entirely cleared out, except for a bunch of couches and tables which were arranged like you might expect to find
in a large home.

  We all found comfortable spots, and then I reached my hand forward and said, “I’m Jack.”

  He gripped my hand tightly, and said, “Nice to meet you Jack. I’m Benjamin, but you can call me Ben.”

  He introduced the guy with the tape as Shawn, and the girl of the group as Emily. I made quick introductions with our group, which was quite considerably larger and took some time. By the time introductions were made, we were both anxious to hear each other’s stories. They asked to hear ours first, and I obliged seeing as we were guests in their mall floor level.

  Over the next few hours I told our story, while occasionally they would break in with questions. Finally, I finished with us arriving here, and I sat back, exhausted from the story-telling.

  Ben has a shocked look on his face, and he asked, “So you don’t know what’s happened out here?? You went through all of that just to get out of Texas?”

  I replied slowly, defensively, “Yeah but Texas was pretty bad man that’s where all the Infected are.”

  He exclaimed, “So you really don’t know! No man, that’s what we all thought, and that’s when the quarantine was put in place but the virus was other places also. All over the country there were small, isolated reports of people going crazy and quickly being put down, and we hoped we would get it under control while the majority of the problem was being quarantined in Texas. But almost overnight we started losing contact with people in other cities, other states. While the Infection was taking its slow time to reach you guys, it was ravaging the rest of us. You must not have known because the government was attempting to lock down communications in and out of Texas. With the internet and all obviously that is nearly impossible to do, but they did a pretty good job of keeping things under wraps. And then suddenly, a few days ago the Infected came flooding out from Texas and we got the news the quarantine had broke. Once it broke in one place, it began to break all over the place and the Infected spread out from Texas and over into the borders of every state nearby. We were pretty well prepared for something like this, and we managed to get to this mall while there was panic in the streets. We think there are quite a few other survivors holed up in their houses, but eventually they will all be Infected. Even worse, the last newspaper we got, right before the waves of Infected reached us from Texas, confirmed the first reports of the Infection from outside the United States. The paper referenced a bizarre incident where a plane flight to China had somebody turn Infected on board, and Infect everybody else on the plane before it landed. When it landed... Well let’s just say that airport was not a fun place to be in. It also said something about a water supply being contaminated, which brought the Infection to a huge amount of people in California. Combined with thousands of Infected flooding out from Texas, it just became too much. We had some success keeping the Infected at bay before the quarantine broke, but after it broke... We’ve been holed up here ever since, after blocking the staircase. There was one other, Zachary, but he got caught searching the mall for survivors yesterday, and, well you’ve probably seen what happens to those who get caught.”