“What if we don’t see anything?” Lisa asked nervously. “We can’t just drive away.”
“If I don’t see anything with the head lights,” Kevin said. “I’m not going to get out in the dark and rummage through the brush. Did you ever see a wounded bear? An injured animal is dangerous. I’ll call the police and report that we hit something, but we don’t know what it was. I’ll let them come and search the area. They have guns and spot lights.”
Kevin did a three-point turn in the middle of the road, aiming his headlights back down the road in the direction he had just come.
“Can you see anything?” Kevin asked.
“No, nothing,” Lisa replied. “Wait, what’s that on the road over there?”
Kevin moved the car, shining the headlights off to the left side of the road.
“I think that is a bloody mark on the road,” Kevin answered. “Whatever we hit, it must have been thrown over in that direction.”
“Can you shine the headlights over that way a little more?” Lisa asked as she pointed into the wooded area along the road.
“I’ll try,” Kevin said and began to back up and pull forward over and over to direct the light beams.
After four maneuvers, he pulled the car forward until the front of the car began to tilt forward.
The head lights were now shining down over the embankment.
“I still don’t see anything,” Lisa said. “What should we do now?”
“I’m going to wind my window down and call out and see if anyone answers,” Kevin said.
“Good idea, I’ll yell out this side,” Lisa said and pushed the button on her armrest to put her window down.
“Just part way,” Kevin said. “If there is an injured animal out there, I don’t want it crawling in through the window.”
“OK,” Lisa replied, and raised her window half way.
“Is there anyone out there?” Kevin shouted.
“Hello, are you hurt?” Lisa called out.
“If your hurt, yell so I know where you are and I can come help you,” Kevin shouted.
“Hello!” Lisa shouted again.
“Nothing,” Kevin said. “I think we should just call the police.”
“No, wait,” Lisa said cocking her head to the side, “I think I heard someone groaning on the other side of the road behind us. Turn the car around.”
Kevin put the car in reverse.
He swung the car around and aimed the headlights in the direction where Lisa thought she heard a sound.
“I don’t see or hear anything,” Kevin said. “Do you still hear it?”
“I think,” Lisa replied. “Turn off the engine.”
“OK,” Kevin replied and turned the key, shutting down the Subaru.
“What happened to the lights?” Lisa asked as everything went dark.
“It’s a safety feature Subaru has. When you turn your car off, the lights automatically go off too,” Kevin said. “I think it’s so you don’t forget and kill your battery.”
“Can you turn the lights back on without starting the car again?” Lisa asked.
“I don’t know, I’m sure there is a way but I don’t know what it is?” Kevin replied.
“Listen,” Lisa whispered.
They sat quietly in the dark for a few minutes.
“It’s creepy as hell out here without lights,” Lisa whispered.
“Yeah, especially when we know there is something injured out there,” Kevin whispered back.
“Shush!” Lisa whispered, “I think I heard it again.”
They sat in the dark silence and strained to hear any sounds.
“I don’t hear a thing,” Kevin finally spoke, “In fact it reminds me about the other day when I came home. I was talking to Bill, you know the dirty old man.”
“I’m sure he is a nice guy, but the way he kept showing up every time I went outside the last few days, he was starting to make me nervous,” Lisa whispered.
“That’s Bill,” Kevin replied. “But what I was getting at, he mentioned that he and my dad have been hunting the last few days and there doesn’t seem to be any animals around. Even at home I noticed, there weren’t any birds around the house like there always were.”
“That is strange for Bolivar,” Lisa replied.
“We should be hearing frogs or crickets or something, but it’s dead quiet out there,” Kevin said.
They sat as listened for a few more minutes.
Suddenly they heard a twig snap outside the car.
Lisa grabbed Kevin’s arm and whispered, “There is something out there.”
“It sounded close too,” Kevin whispered back, “I’m going to turn the lights back on. Make sure your window is up when I start the car until we know what it is.”
Lisa nodded in the darkness, but Kevin couldn’t see her.
“Here goes,” Kevin whispered.
He started the car and the headlights sprang to life, lighting up the area in front of the car.
Lisa screamed at the sight of the man now standing twenty feet away from the front of the car.
Twenty feet in front of the car stood a battered and bloody body.
Blood flowed down over his face from a large wound on his forehead. They couldn’t see the man’s eyes for all the blood on his face. His left arm hung limply by his side while his right arm waved wildly in the air, like a blind man trying to feel his way.
One trouser leg was missing, his bare leg, like practically his entire body was covered in blood.
The man’s mouth kept opening and closing, like he was trying to speak.
But no words could be heard.
The sound the man was making was now a loud groan.
“My God,” Kevin said, his voice barely above a whisper. “Did we do this to him? I only heard one small thump when the car hit him. He looks like a truck ran him over.”
“He did get thrown over the car,” Lisa whispered again. “Maybe all that happened when he hit the road and bounced down over the hill.”
“I better call an ambulance,” Kevin said.
“Don’t you think we should go out and see if we can help him?” Lisa said. “Maybe see if we can put a tourniquet on him to stop the bleeding.”
“Put it on where?” Kevin replied, “The guy is bleeding all over. I wouldn’t know where to start. Any ideas? Did you ever take any first-aid classes?”
“Yeah, I took one class my freshman year,” Lisa replied. “But all we did was learn how to give mouth to mouth to save a drowning victim. Maybe you’re right, call an ambulance.”
“Would you mind calling,” Kevin said holding out his cell phone. The pink phone glowed from the dashboard lights. “I know you gave me a lesson on how to use it, but I’m so nervous I forgot how to even turn it on.”
“OK,” Lisa said as she took his phone, flipped it open and pressed a button.
A second later, the tiny screen and the lighted buttons sprang to life.
Lisa pressed the buttons for 911 and waited.
She tried it again, sighed and closed the phone and handed it back to Kevin.
“I got the all circuits are busy message,” Lisa said. “It’s probably because we are in a dead zone, like the radio.”
“Shit, I guess I’m going to have to go out and try something,” Kevin said nervously.
“I’ll come with you,” Lisa added, “Maybe I can help.”
“OK, but don’t touch him, he is a mess,” Kevin said. “I hit him, I’ll do the dirty work.”
“It’s my fault too,” Lisa said, “I pinched your leg and distracted you.”
“You distracting me, I could use that as an excuse for everything I’ve messed up the last two days,” Kevin replied as he squeezed Lisa’s hand, “I can’t use that as an excuse for what happened here. I’ll do this.”
Lisa and Kevin were shocked when they looked back out the windshield, the man was now standing right in front of the car.
The gruesome looking man began to pound on the h
ood with his good arm as he left arm swayed back and forth with each thrust of the man’s good arm.
“I can’t believe he was able to walk that far.” Lisa said, “He should be in shock.”
“Whatever he is in, he seems to be pissed off,” Kevin added, “I better try to go out there and calm him down before he bleeds to death. You stay here in the car. He is obviously out of his mind. I’m big enough to handle him if he goes off on me, but I don’t want you to get hurt.”
“I can help,” Lisa started but Kevin cut her off mid-sentence.
“If I need you, I’ll wave, but for now, stay here, please,” Kevin replied.
He didn’t wait for Lisa to protest. It was creepy enough out here and he didn’t really want to go out there. This was the worst mess he had ever gotten himself into and something felt wrong about the whole thing, but he had to do the right thing.
Kevin pulled on the door handle, pushed the door open and slowly got out and stood beside the car.
He held onto the door to steady himself as he looked at the man standing in front of the headlights.
“What’s that smell, Kevin,” Lisa asked from the passenger’s seat.
“I think it’s coming from this guy.” Kevin replied as he studied the man. “Hey mister, can you hear me?
The man groaned as his face turned towards Kevin.
Kevin stepped around the door with the intention of walking up to the man for a closer look.
He also wanted to make the guy lay down.
Kevin couldn’t understand how the man was even standing with all his injuries, but until he could figure out what to do to help him, the first thing he guessed he should do was get him to lay down.
Kevin stared at the man as he took a small step forward.
“I don’t think he can hear me, or he is too far out of his mind to understand me.”
“Be careful,” Lisa called back.
Kevin took another step without taking his eyes off the man.
The man suddenly started staggering around the front of the car, coming in Kevin’s direction.
“Kevin,” Lisa called out speaking slowly, “Get back in the car.”
“What did you say?” Kevin asked.
“Please get back in the car,” Lisa repeated more urgently this time.
“After I see if I can help this guy.” Kevin replied.
“Kevin look up the road where the head lights are shining,” Lisa said.
At first, Kevin didn’t understand what Lisa was telling him to do. His mind was so fixated on the bloody guy that was coming his way.
Kevin slowly raised his eyes, hoping to take a quick glance down the road to see what Lisa was talking about, then get on with what he had to do.
When he finally looked past the man, he saw movement coming into the area lit up by the headlights.
Kevin took a second, longer look.
Six staggering bodies were now brightly illuminated by the car’s lights.
Kevin stepped backwards when he noticed the man that had been standing in front of his car, was now almost close enough to touch him. The man began to reach out for him.
Lisa shrieked as Kevin heard something thump against Lisa’s side of the car.
“Kevin, get back in the car,” Lisa shouted. Kevin could hear panic in her voice.
He turned and saw two more battered and bloody bodies banging at the windshield and Lisa’s window as they glared at her through the glass.
“Lisa,” Kevin started to call out as he turned, but something ran into him, causing him to fall to the ground as the car lights seemed to spin around him.
As he hit the ground, he felt something fall on top of him.
The object didn’t feel heavy, but the smell suddenly became overwhelming.
Kevin thought he was going to pass out for a moment.
When he heard a loud moan coming closer to his ear, he opened his eyes and saw an open mouth full of bloody teeth coming at his face.
Kevin grabbed the man and pushed him away as he tried to kick him with his feet.
Kevin was surprised how light the guy’s body was as the man’s body flew into the air and landed five feet away.
Kevin saw the mangled body struggle to crawl back towards him. He could now see the whites of his eyes, in fact both of the guy’s eyes were nothing but white.
Kevin quickly rolled over and jumped to his feet.
He was detecting motion all around him now, but he didn’t take the time to see what it was.
All he could think was he had to get back in the car.
Lisa was still shouting something at him.
He couldn’t make out what she was saying as he dropped into the driver’s seat, slamming the door.
The first thing he noticed was that the car seemed to be rocking from said to side.
The first thing Kevin did was to hit the power door lock button to lock all the doors.
The second thing he did was to look out through the windows.
As he turned, there seemed to be hundreds of staggering bodies in the beams of the headlights now and they all seemed to be coming towards the car.
Lisa grabbed Kevin’s arm.
“Are you OK,” Lisa asked.
“I think so,” Kevin replied as he looked past Lisa. At the two crazed figures smashing their faces into the side window.
“Where the hell did all these people come from?” Kevin asked as he stared at the blood and slim making it almost impossible to see out of Lisa’s window.
“They all look like the guy we hit,” Lisa said loudly trying to be heard over the thumping sounds.
“I don’t know what this is, but I don’t think we hit that guy,” Kevin said. “Even if we did hit him, I don’t think it made any difference. Something else did this. What the hell happened to these people?”
When Lisa’s side of the windshield began to crack, they both watched as the crack spread across the entire front of the window.
“We have to get out of here,” Kevin said as he reached for the gearshift and threw it into reverse.
The car began to move backwards as Kevin hit the gas.
“There are too many people around us, you’re going to hit someone,” Lisa said as her head swiveled on her shoulders, trying to look for a clear path through the mob.
“Right now, I don’t give a fuck,” Kevin swore. “I don’t think any of them will feel a thing if we hit them. If we don’t get away from these people, I think they will try to kill us. That guy we thought we hit, he tried to bite me in the face.”
Lisa just stared at the grotesque bodies that were illuminated by the headlights as Kevin slowly drove the car in reverse.
The sound of bodies hitting the car echoed through the interior.
“Did you see that poor bastard,” Kevin pointed out the windshield. That son of a bitch is dragging his guts around.”
“Do you believe in zombies?” Lisa asked as she stared. “Because these people can’t be alive, look at all of them. This is worse than the movie you took me to see at the drive in that summer. I think it was called Night of the Living Dead. I admit I didn’t see too much of the movie, but this looks like what little I saw.”
“I don’t know what I believe in right now,” Kevin replied, “But after this, I’m not ruling anything out.”
Lisa sat on the edge of her seat, using both hands to hold on to the console to balance herself.
When Kevin saw that the number of staggering bodies behind the car had thinned out, he turned the steering wheel sharply to the left.
When the car was sitting sideways across the road, Kevin threw the car in to drive, turned the wheel sharply to the right and hit the gas.
The pathway ahead on Route 259 wasn’t as crowded as what they had just been through.
Kevin hit the gas until the Subaru was up to thirty-five miles an hour, then he eased off and guided the car carefully down the road.
Staggering bodies could still be seen moving about as the headlights lit up
each new section of road, but Kevin was easily able to swerve around them to avoid hitting them.
“What the fuck just happened Kevin?” Lisa asked.
“I don’t know,” Kevin replied, “It was so fucked up, I don’t even what to guess. Why don’t you try to call 911 again? We need to have someone else see this shit or people are going to think we are crazy. Or worse yet, when my car is spotted covered in blood, I’m going to get arrested for hit and run or something.”
Lisa quietly took out her phone and dialed 911.
After a few seconds, she shut the phone and slipped it back into her pocket.
“Same thing,” Lisa sighed.
“We can try again when we get home,” Kevin said.
“It smells in here,” Lisa said after riding in silence for a minute.
“I’ll turn the dome light on, maybe you can see where that damn smell is coming from,” Kevin said as he reached up to the ceiling with his right hand and pressed the switch on the dome light.
“You’re all bloody,” Lisa exclaimed. “I think that smell is coming from you.”
“That guy knocked me over and fell on me,” Kevin replied. “That’s where he tried to bite me. That must have been when I got this shit allover me.”
“You can’t go home like this,” Lisa said as she put her hand over her nose.
“I don’t think I have a choice,” Kevin replied as he stared straight ahead, trying to be careful not to hit anything else.
“We can go back to the Pink Flamingo,” Lisa said. “The road to the Flamingo is up ahead in about a mile. I’m sure Mike will let us back in to unit 10 so you can take a shower.”
“I didn’t think of that. Good idea,” Kevin replied. “I would feel a hell of a lot better if I could get this crap off me. I’m sure Dad would appreciate it too.”
One Hour to Live Page 7
