by T. Gault
The man began to reach toward me just as I was close enough. I shoved him in the chest, sending him stumbling back and to the floor. The contact was enough to absorb my momentum and bring me to a stop. The man immediately started struggling to grab me. I turned and started to run in the opposite direction back to the other stairwell. I reached out for the door and pulled it open as my shoes squeaked to a stop. I glanced down at the man just in time to see him get to his feet again and start coming after me. I yanked the door shut behind myself and began to make my way out of the stairwell. I heard the injured man upstairs slam into the door and begin frantically pounding his fists against the door, trying to get through it.
I came down the bottom of the stairs and the exit door was in sight. I pushed the door open and ran outside. About a hundred yards in front of me I could see my pickup truck. I glanced to my left and saw the sick guy from the tutoring center standing outside of the other door to Hastings Hall. I tried to slow down, hoping that he wouldn’t notice me running to my truck, but by the time I slowed down, he had already seen me. I started to sprint toward my truck. I couldn’t help but glance over my shoulder every couple of seconds to see how close he was. The second time I looked, another two of them were close behind him.
I stepped down off of the curb onto the asphalt of the parking lot and almost lost my balance. Somehow I managed to stay on my feet. I looked back at the pack of sick people chasing me just as they reached the edge of the parking lot. Two of them lost their footing and hit the ground hard. I slowed for a moment until I realized that the third one was still running at me. I picked up my pace and began to dig in my pocket for my key ring. It was crammed in my right pants pocket with my cell phone. I had to slow down to get my hand into my pocket but I tried to speed back up as I felt my fingers wrap around the metal ring. I gave the keys a quick tug to get them out of the pocket. I could feel my face go pale as I heard the distinct jingle of my keys and clack of my cell phone hitting the blacktop.
I stopped as quickly as I could and saw that the sick guy was only about thirty feet behind me. My phone and my keys had landed too far from each other for me to get them both. The keys were closest and they were what I needed to get out of the parking lot. I grabbed the keys and continued to run for my truck, leaving my cell phone behind. When I finally reached the truck, the added weight of my book bag slammed me up against the driver’s side door. I scrambled to get the key into the door and could hear the sick man’s feet against the asphalt as he was coming toward me. Just as I began to panic, the key slid into the hole and I popped the lock open. I ripped the door open and jumped inside. As I tried to get completely inside the truck I felt my backpack being pulled back out of the door. I looked over my shoulder and could see the sick guy pulling my bag toward his mouth as he tried to bite it.
I turned sideways and began to kick him in the stomach. He didn’t seem hurt by the kicks, but he let go of the bag and attempted to grab my leg. I was able to land a good kick to his chest, and he stumbled backward away from the door.
I pulled the door shut and sat up in the driver’s seat to start the truck. Once again the reliable four-cylinder rumbled to life just as the man ran full force into the door. I let out the clutch and pulled off. I could see all three of them in the rearview mirror. There was no way they were going to catch me but they continued to lumber after me at a very awkward looking jog. I hadn’t had the chance to actually watch them move until I drove away from the campus. I had always been running away from them. They could run at a pretty quick pace, but there was a lack of control and a kind of desperation when they ran after me. They also didn’t seem to care if they got injured while running after me. It was almost as if they couldn’t feel the pain when they fell or ran into something.
The campus quickly vanished in my rear-view mirror along with the three people infected with whatever disease that was. I couldn’t help feeling an urge to go back and try to find Gwen, but I had no idea where she had gone—and, more than that, I didn’t know what would happen if the infected people caught me. For all I knew I was already infected from being close to them.
The stoplight at the intersection of Butler Farm Road and Magruder Boulevard turned green just as I came up to it. I was about to roll through, but I slowed to make sure there were no cars approaching from the other direction. I jammed on the breaks just in time to miss an eighteen-wheeler hauling a load of heavy construction equipment. He must have been going eighty miles per hour. As my eyes followed the truck, my attention was drawn to smoke rising in the distance. It looked like the dark gray smoke was coming from the hospital near the cemetery I had passed on my way to school, and it was definitely not on fire when I passed by.
At the sight of the thick cloud forming over the hospital, I realized that whatever was going on was not confined to the area surrounding Thomas Nelson. I needed to get home as soon as possible.
CHAPTER 3 - The drive homeless...
I tried to keep my eyes on the road, but the smoke from the burning hospital was constantly stealing my focus. As I neared the hospital I could see the chaos. The third floor had flames pouring from most of the windows. While watching the flames and smoke from the hospital, I nearly swerved into a ditch on the side of the road. I turned my head and saw the ditch just in time to avoid sliding down into muddy water.
As my eyes focused back on the road I saw a hearse half-folded around the light poll in front of the cemetery. I also saw what looked like blood streaks coming from the driver’s side door trailing on the ground and disappearing into the trees. Part of me wanted to keep looking, but my stomach could only take so much. However, with what lay on the road in front of me, my stomach was not going to catch a break.
Weaving between the abandoned vehicles in front of the cemetery, I could not help but imagine how each of them came to rest. Some of the cars had shattered windows; others were without a notable scratch on them. I could see a little further up the road, just past the cemetery, to where the motionless automobiles no longer cluttered the street. At the moment, I could think of nothing better than to be beyond the roadblocks. Halfway through the wreckage a Honda and a Mitsubishi had collided and were blocking both lanes. I had to carefully roll over the median to get around the heap. I couldn’t believe that all of this had happened in the hour or so that I was at the campus. I was just about out of the awful mess when I heard a horrible scream from behind, on the right side.
It was Gwen and she was running through the tombstones and small monuments, kicking over several flower bouquets as she ran. She most likely had seen me drive by and was trying to catch me. I quickly came to a stop, and as I turned to unlock the door to let her in, I glanced over my shoulder. About five of the sick people were following her, but something was wrong. She was able to outrun them, but she was injured. She had bloodstains on her right leg, around her knee. I leaned over to unlock the passenger’s side door. But she had grabbed the door handle at the same time that I pulled on the lock. “Let go of the handle!” I yelled as I struggled to pull the lock. I could see the look of utter fear in her eyes. At the moment, I bet she couldn’t have even yelled the word help. Instead of calmly letting go, she panicked and started to run further ahead of me.
Passing the last car in the line of wreckage, I attempted to catch Gwen. She ran until she came to the condemned remains of the old Christian school, and instead of trying for the truck again, she ran to try to get inside the building. I thought to roll down my window and try to get her attention. All of my efforts were in vain. She did not seem to hear a word I yelled at her. The front door of the school was boarded up, but still she tried to pull the door. Unsuccessful with the front door, she found a brick and threw it through one of the downstairs windows. She cut her hands up pretty bad, but she did manage to make it inside the window.
A few of the people following her first went to the door and started to pound and pull on it. About three of them went to the newly broken window and began to try to climb in. I saw
one or two of them make it into the building behind her. I started to drive into the school parking lot just as I realized that some of the sick people had not followed her to the school.
I looked in the rearview mirror just in time to see one of them slam into the back of the truck. I locked my eyes back onto the road ahead and pushed the pedal to the floor. I dragged at least one of them for about fifty feet before he let go. I could hear the sound of cloth and flesh grinding against the asphalt behind me as I drove. The weight of the truck shifted, as they couldn’t hang on to the bumper any longer. I looked in the rearview mirror again and could see one of them rolling across the road.
Once I had made the turn back onto Mercury Boulevard, the traffic was a little thicker, with close to thirty moving cars in sight. All of the fast-food restaurants and convenience stores were dark, no longer fast nor convenient. The parking lot of Wal-Mart was insane. I could see people and cars packing the lot to it’s limits. Gas stations were also extraordinarily busy; each one had its own little traffic jam. I nervously looked at my gas gauge, only to be calmed by the recollection that I had filled the tank yesterday. A few of them had signs outside stating they were out of gas, or closed due to pump failure. I began to notice a lot of things that I would usually drive by. Police were beginning to gather around certain streets, apparently to set up barriers, and they looked like they were wearing riot gear.
I pushed the gas a little harder at the thought of not being able to get to the house. I raced down Mercury Boulevard toward the overpass going over North King Street and, I glanced over to my right at the Food Lion. Outside, cars gathered and people were rushing inside, but quite a few of them were coming out empty handed.
A strange smell coming through the window snapped me out of my daze. Just as my eyes focused on the road in front of me, I saw the smoke from the huge car accident at the bottom of the hill right at the intersection at Mercury Boulevard and Fox Hill Road. There must have been six or so cars piled into a mangled mass of metal and glass. It looked like a milk truck had swerved into oncoming traffic flipped on its side. As I got closer to the bottom of the overpass more details were visible, and from the look of things the police and ambulances had already taken care of everything. That is what I assumed considering there were no bodies or spectators. However, it did seem odd that no one had taken any of the wreckage. It had only been moved aside to allow vehicles to move through.
It was hard to believe that this had all happened in the hour and a half I was gone.
After navigating my way through this second bloody, mangled parking lot, the road looked clear. As I turned onto my street, from Fox Hill Road, nothing seemed out of place. Today was trash day and most of the trashcans were still out by the road. No one was in sight. This was not unusual because of the large retirement community on my street. By the look of the area, it appeared that whatever was going on had not made it to my neighborhood yet.
I knew differently when I rolled up into the driveway.
CHAPTER 4 - The plan...
I hit the driveway faster than usual and nearly hit our garbage can.
I thought to myself, I forgot to put out the trash today. Thomas must have put it out.
I snatched my book bag from the seat next to me, shut the truck door, and walked across the wet grass. At the moment, so many unnecessary thoughts were rushing into my mind, thoughts like I need to trim the front bushes, and the grass needs to be cut again. When my eyes met the front door my heart jumped into my throat.
The dark-green front door was wide open, and the glass of the storm door was shattered.
“Thomas!” I yelled, as I pulled open the jagged frame of the storm door. I stood still for a moment to give Thomas time to answer. I stood quiet and still for a moment and tried not to panic. Waiting as calmly as possible for the sound of Thomas’s voice, I must have blocked out the sound on the game paused on the TV. It was the new game that I had told him not to play, but given the circumstances, I didn’t care. Then I heard a rumble off in the distance. As if the sky was about to open up and make things even worse. This was strange to me, because I didn’t recall the weatherman saying anything about a thunderstorm in the forecast.
I walked back to Thomas’s room to see if he had taken one of his usual midday naps. He was nowhere to be found in any of the bedrooms. I threw my book bag onto the light brown leather chair in my room and continued to ponder what may have happened. Confused, I walked back down the hall into the front room. It must have been the way the light reflected off of the floor, but I could see a trail of red drips leading from the front door into the den. I walked past the kitchen and down the hallway that lead into the den. The blood droplets were far apart and one of the fire irons was lying on the floor. There was an odd-looking stain on the floor. It didn’t look like the other bloodstains. It was darker, and more patchy. Those stains had not dripped onto the floor. They looked smeared.
The door to the mudroom was shut and so was the back door. If Thomas went out this way, he wanted to make sure that he was shutting the doors behind himself, I thought as I walked out into the backyard. I scanned the yard and saw no sign of Thomas in the yard or on the back porch. “I bet he went in the garage,” I said out loud. I quickly walked to the garage, but slowed when I noticed the blood smears on the knob and the door.
I tried the doorknob, but he had locked it after he went inside. I tried knocking, but he wouldn’t come to the door. I took a few steps around the left side of the building to look through the large side window. “Thomas!” I yelled. He was standing in the far corner of the garage, just staring at the rack of garden tools on the wall. I tapped on the glass to try to get his attention, but for some reason he wouldn’t acknowledge me.
I walked back around to the front door of the garage and again knocked, and again got no response. I needed to make sure that Thomas was alright and at the time I didn’t think Dad would mind, given the circumstances. I backed up, ran toward the door and kicked it as hard as I could. I left a good foot-sized dent in the white aluminum door, but the door did not move. Then I thought about the garage door opener in the mudroom and also how Dad was going to have my butt in a sling for putting a dent in his door. I ran to the back door of the house and grabbed the electronic door opener. I held down the button and the motor began to slowly pull the door open. I quickly ran back to the garage, ready to give Thomas a piece of my mind for not opening the door himself.
When I reached the opening, again I saw Thomas just standing still. “Thomas, that was messed up to let me kick that door,” I said as gruffly as I could. As I stepped inside I glanced around the room. I saw dad’s video camera sitting on his desk, and it looked like there were bloody smudges all over it. Dad’s hatchet was on the floor near to where Thomas was standing, and there was a pile of bloody napkins lying on the floor near the camera. “What...happened...Thomas?” I said, stumbling to think of what to say. Thomas turned to his right to face me. Then I knew.
Thomas’s face was pale, his eyes were empty, and I could see where he had been bitten on his shoulder. I could also see the dried blood on his face where he had been cut somehow. I stood still and so did Thomas. I glanced over to where the camera sat. He recorded something, I thought. Suddenly I ran for the camera and as I did, Thomas came at me faster than I have ever seen him run. I grabbed the camera and Thomas grabbed my arm with both hands. He tried to pull my arm toward his mouth, but I shoved him to the floor. Without a second thought I ran to the back door of the house with everything I had.
I flung the solid wooden back door open, ran into the den, and shut the door behind myself. I stood with my back up against the door for a few seconds, just trying to think of what I was going to do next. I looked back and forth around the room hoping that something in the room would help me. Suddenly I remembered the video camera that I was clutching so tightly. “I need to watch this,” I said to myself. I walked across the den and back into the front room where the game still remained in a paused state. I si
ghed and shut off the system. The regular TV station came up with the news. I began to unplug the game system to plug in the video camera, but as I did, I could hear a female news reporter talking about what was going on.
“I’m out here reporting from Mercury Boulevard near the intersection of Fox Hill Road.”
As I listened, I realized that the reporter was just on the other side of the pond in our back yard. I stopped trying to plug in the camera, to see what she knew about what was going on.
“As you have all seen there are numerous vehicle accidents all over the city. Many of these accidents, like this one you see behind me are not being taken care of because the police and fire departments are spread so thin at this time. The chiefs of both departments have called in every on-call unit available and have also called in the units that were scheduled to be off today.”
I thought to myself, Man, this is a lot bigger than what I thought. This thing must be going on all over the city. Everyone is getting sick.
The reporter continued, “Whatever it is that is making these people lose control of themselves, does not seem to be affecting the animals in the area. As you can see behind me all of the geese and ducks in this pond seem to be completely normal. None of them or any of the other animals are exhibiting the symptoms that people are. As of this moment, it is believed that the disease is spread by simply being in close contact with an infected person. So you don’t want to touch them, eat food they have touched, or even be in a room with them for any amount of time. Many of the people with the disease appear to have boils and sores, but some are saying that the wounds are actually the result of bites from other infected individuals.”
