by Lahey, Tyler
Jaxton resisted the urge to unstrap his rifle. The great green walls of the valley arced above them to the east and west, dotted with lonely houses. An armed man with an oily mustache stood atop a general deli. He stood with his hands on his hip, a rifle positioned against his leg. He called to them as they drew in. Jaxton didn’t even feel comfortable wiping another wave of sweat from his forehead.
Adira hissed out of the corner of her mouth. “Not a word.”
“Easy now!” The portly rogue spat and shifted his grip on the hunting rifle. Jaxton saw a flash of movement to his right, and noticed two tan and disheveled looking youths armed likewise across the street.
“How can we help you today?! You lost?”
Jaxton frowned at the man’s dialect. He didn’t realize they were so deep in the boonies already. Cold Spring would be close, nestled near the wealthier towns in the north.
“We’re just looking for some help, sir.” Adira shouted up.
The man eyed her slowly, and made no point of hiding that he liked what he saw. His lips curled into a friendly grin. “Well, how can we help?” His mountain-drawl got even thicker.
Adira smiled back, though she noticed three more men emerge from some shop down the street and begin pacing towards them. Jaxton shifted closer to her.
“Our friend is sick. We were hoping to see what your pharmacy had and-“
“Sick?! What kind of sick?!” The man’s friendly demeanor evaporated and he jumped up with a start, his eyes wide with fear.
“Just a sore throat! Nothing else. We would only need penicillin.”
“Where is your friend?” The new group had arrived. Three men, all armed with rifles, stopped within ten feet of the trio. Their leader was a clean cut country boy, who looked bulky under his plain T-shirt. Both his rough hands gripped his rifle.
“Back two miles along the road, just outside of town.”
The young man frowned. “Where are you heading?”
“Cold Spring.”
The man nodded thoughtfully, his eyes full of peering suspicion. “You from there? I know the place. You can’t pass through here.”
“What do you mean?” Jaxton took a step forward.
Raising his rifle, the man’s face became a mask of anger. “You can’t pass through our town, especially with a sick one.”
“You think this is the infection?! He’s got strep throat for fuck’s sake.”
Adira grabbed his arm hard, hauling him back.
The man indicated the hills behind with his gun. “Get outta here, and do it now. Don’t let me see you comin’ round here again.”
Adira turned on her heels and snatched Jaxton by the shoulder. His face was bright red, but he complied. “C’mon.”
They didn’t speak until they were back in the forest alongside the road. Jaxton was shaking his head violently, “We ought to sneak in, after dark, and raid the pharmacy.”
“Again with the hothead,” Bennett challenged. Staring Jaxton down, he continued. “These people have good reason to be suspicious. No one has any idea what’s going on, or how this infection spreads, or where it even is!”
Jaxton sneered angrily and set off back up the hill with a moody grimace. It was nearly dark by the time they had returned. “Where are they?” Jaxton paced around the rocky summit, seeing no traces of the other three. His hands immediately un-shouldered his rifle. In a roaring voice he cried, “LIAM!”
A twinkling of lights emerged in the valley below as the gloom settled in the vale. A light evening mist crept in from the north, blanketing the forest in a grey cloud. The lights shone through eerily. Bennett motioned his friend to be quiet. He had heard something.
“Yo!” They turned, their limbs quaking in subconscious terror. Had they been followed back?
There was a figure waving at them from a rock off to the east a hundred feet. Jaxton raised his rifle, and motioned them forward. Drawing closer, they saw it was Tessa. She beckoned them excitedly. “We found a house for the night! Totally empty! It even has power. And you have to watch the news, hurry.”
“Where’s the house?!” Bennett yelled nervously, the electricity of fear coursing through his words.
“It’s on the main road! Not five minutes!”
“Lead us, quick!” Jaxton jogged forward and indicated angrily. Tessa stared in disbelief. “They’re a bunch of fucking rednecks, they’re afraid and they’re armed! Go!”
She turned and ran. They followed, using the last vestiges of fading light to guide their path down the eastern side of the slope, and cut straight for the road.
They burst out of the forest and ran, their feet pounding hard on the rough pavement. The road stretched on ominously through the growing gloom, leading to the city center. Tessa banked a hard right, and cut through a field of tall grass. A two story colonial style house sat in the embrace of several massive oak trees.
“Wait!” Jaxton hissed. “Get down!”
Their figures crouched in the dark waves of gently shifting grass. “Were those there before?”
Two ATVs were parked next to the gravel driveway. Tessa shook her head fiercely, mouthing “no”.
Jaxton craned his head up. Through the holes in the clouds, he could see a tapestry of white stars. No one spoke.
There were two figures standing in the dark, though they could make out no more.
“Where are Liam and Harley?”
“Uhh, she had him in a bedroom, second floor. That one with the lights on, just there. Oh fuck, what are they going to do?”
“Let’s get a little closer.” Jaxton dropped to his hands and knees, and crawled through the grass. The little tendrils tickled his face as he moved. His stomach groaned in pain- it had been almost ten hours since his last meal. His pace thumped relentlessly as he scanned the shuttered home. He strained to peer through the boards of wood covering the windows.
“What do you want to do?” Adira hissed at him, realizing only after that she hadn’t even considered someone else to ask.
Jaxton dragged the rifle off his back and fingered the grip. He had only fired a gun a handful of times in his life, and he recalled the alarming power of the weapon he now held. Feeling in the total darkness, he flipped off the safety on the rifle.
Bennett drew up beside him, “Lets not do anything rash. Let’s talk to them first. It was a misunderstanding.”
Jaxton was breathing heavily, shaking his head. “I don’t like this at all. We should have heard something by now. We need to do something!”
Adira felt her own pulse quicken. She was terrified Jaxton would charge the house. “Bennett, come on. Tessa stay with Jaxton. We’ll call if something goes wrong.”
She felt a hand on her shoulder as she prepared to crawl forward. It was Jaxton. “Be careful.”
She looked back towards the house, and saw Bennett’s brow furrowed beside her. “We’ll be fine, I’m with her,” he said fiendishly.
As they approached, Adira heard the low murmur of voices and an answering crackle from a radio. She arced her neck backwards. The sun was gone. Half the sky was still awash with a light pale glow that faded more every second.
“Do you have a plan?”
“No,” she answered. “But did you see him? Jax was going to come up here and kick down the front door. He lost a little something at the river.”
Bennett shook his head. “There’s always been a little crazy inside him. It’s going to get us in trouble one day. C’mon.” Bennett rose silently with the grass blowing around him. Adira followed as he mounted the porch and paused in front of the wooden door.
Before he could knock, it burst open. There were crumbs in the man’s bushy ginger beard. The other’s camouflage baseball cap was stained and rested atop a round head at an angle.
Before Adira could take in anything else a shotgun barrel was three inches from her face.
“Where are your friends?” The portly ginger snarled.
Adira’s eyes rested on his mottled, ruby red cheeks. “W
e just want to leave.”
“Step back now y’all! I’m warnin’ you.” When the other spoke, his voice rattled. He strode forward, forcing Bennett and Adira back onto the grass.
Adira’s hands were in the air when Bennett stopped retreating. “We’ll get our friends, and be on our way. Around your town. We mean no harm, no harm at all.”
There was a muffled cough from somewhere upstairs, and the two men stared at one another with wide eyes. “I told you to check the fuckin attic!” Without another word the two men blustered into the house once more, with Adira and Bennett in close pursuit. The rogues raced up the stairs to a panel in the ceiling with a tiny draw-string. Yanking it down, Adira heard Harley’s scream from above.
The ginger hauled Harley out by her thick auburn hair and her hazel eyes flashed defiance. “Get the hell off me!”
“Come down real slow, now.”
Their shotguns were trained on the last figure to emerge, a sickly beast of a man. Liam stumbled down the collapsible staircase and tumbled onto the floor. When he rose, he stood a full head over his capturers.
“What do we do now?” The skinnier man in soiled camouflage whispered.
“Stay back! He might be tryna bite ya Timmy.”
Liam stared with vacant eyes. “I’m not sick like you think I’m sick. I’ve got the flu or something. Let us go.”
“We gon’ let the boys decide what to do wit chu.”
The ginger reached tentatively for his walkie talkie, and lowered his weapon. In that instant Harley leapt forward and bit his hand. The portly oaf dropped the device, shrieking, as Liam threw everything he could muster into a punch.
“Go. RUN!” They clambered down the stairs, leaving the howling rednecks lingering above.
When Adira burst through the front door, she could hear boots thudding on the second floor. Adira felt Bennett take her clammy hand as the grass tickled her through the holes in her jeans. A light bulb went off in her head. “The ATVs! Start them!”
Two figures sprang to life in the gloom and darted towards the machines.
As they approached, Adira saw Jaxton roar over the engines. “Where are they?!”
Adira shook her head violently. “Just go!”
“Oh, fuck.”
Adira jerked her head around, back to the house. Two shadows were stumbling towards them, shouting abuse in heavy mountain-drawls. There was only moonlight now, though faint shadows could be seen. Jaxton snarled beside her, and in one motion brought his rifle to bear. His breathing was ragged though he tried to control it. There was an intoxicating energy that flowed through him, heating his blood. He didn’t even have to think; his adrenaline had removed that need. Jaxton simply moved, without preamble. He took careful aim at the two figures barely illuminated by the soft porch light.
Adira saw his face contort into a savage picture of fear and confusion. He pulled the trigger. A single round exploded from the rifle and hit one of the shadows with a sickening thud. A fountain of dark blood erupted from the wound and he fell in the shadows. The sound echoed in the valley.
They could hear the second man scream and fumble with his shotgun.
Jaxton inhaled and squeezed the trigger five more times, willing himself to make the shot. The weapon thundered and spat its charges forth in quick succession, the rifle rocking back against his shoulder in a low recoil. Jaxton heard a screech, and he knew he had shot the man. The ATVs fired behind him, their engines exploding with noise in the previously calm night. They hopped on, three to a vehicle, pressing together to fit.
Adira leapt on behind Jaxton, to his delight. He could feel her body pressing up against him, and it filled him with delicious excitement. Jaxton twisted the handle of his ATV and they took off back down the gravel road, leaving a wounded man twisting and screaming in the night.
Jaxton flicked the headlights on. They tore down the main road, closer to town. He swung a left on a dirt road leading up the right flank of the vale. It wound up the hillside, cutting through great swaths of continuous forest, which were now mosaics of black leaves and trunks. Adira tapped his shoulder. He looked down to the left, back through the trees to the valley floor so far below. An army of headlights was moving fast through the trees, seeking their tail. The wind whipped Jaxton’s hair, and made it hard to keep his eyes open. He snapped the throttle back even further and felt the precariously loaded ATV snap forward, its large engine working frantically to keep them moving at high speed. The road took them to the very top of the ridge, where it continued north down the opposing arm of the valley. They passed the town of twinkling lights sometime in the night. At some point, Adira rested her chin on his shoulder, and leaned up against him. He prayed the road would never end.
Chapter Twelve
7 days after Outbreak. Appalachia
That night, they spent a restless six hours in a little field a ways off the road. The stars refused to emerge, staying hidden in a belt of low-hanging fog. Liam shivered, stuck in a restless slumber broken by fits of fever. They had been forced to leave the first duffel bag behind. As a result, their food supply had been cut in half. They spooned cold chili into their mouths before lying down in the wet grass. Jaxton kept his rifle close to hand.
Bennett leaned forward, and rested his hand on Jaxton’s shoulder. “Are you ok?”
Jaxton rose immediately, and stalked off into the mist. Without hesitation, Adira rose to follow.
“Where are you going?”
Bennett saw Adira bristle at his tone. “He just needs someone to talk to.”
As the two figures disappeared, Bennett could feel the eyes of the others on him.
Jaxton could hear someone approaching, through the thick fog.
“Bennett won’t like that you followed me.”
Adira drew up beside him, so her arm was pressed against his own. He turned to face her.
“I need to make sure you’re ok.”
Jaxton chuckled darkly. “I had figured by now, this thing would be under control. That we’d be laughing about how scared we all were. It’s just getting worse. And maybe that’s how it’ll eventually get better. I’ll just get used to it.”
“You’re a good man, Jax. I can feel it. This whole thing, the infection. It hasn’t changed you. Against all odds, you’ve remained the same person. I admire that.”
“I haven’t changed? Those two men, they’re likely dead, corpses in the tall grass.”
Adira clasped his hand. “You did what you had to do. So that your friends could make it out. You alone had that courage.”
“If I was a good man, I wouldn’t want to kiss you right now, but I do.”
Adira looked up at Jaxton’s chiseled, bearded jawline. “This is how these things go. We don’t know much about each other, do we? But we have strong feelings about what kind of person the other is.” She chuckled. “You just like the idea of me.”
Jaxton smiled sadly. “It’s all in looks, smells, little touches, huh. But damn, is it powerful.”
She rubbed his hand gingerly, and together they reveled silently in the shared touch, so long in coming. “Yes, it really is.”
Jaxton wrapped his arms around her shoulders, and felt the dampness working through their clothes. The fog hung all around them as they stood, listening to each other’s breathing.
“He’s still my friend. Until that changes, I can’t.”
Adira smiled into his chest. “I know.”
Near dawn, a thunder from the east awoke them. Looking out from their naked position atop the ridge, a scene near the horizon took their breath away.
The dawn was coming swift and strong. The lower quarter of the eastern sky was a smear of faint blue that was telling of the brilliance that would later fill its reaches. Its western counterpart was still a deep black, almost purple. At the eastern foreground, there was a conflagration of flashing thunder. Great plumes of smoke rose miles into the sky as enormous swaths of the horizon burned bright with hungry pillars of flame. It seemed the whole edge of
the world was on fire. Little flashes and burps of smaller flames popped up and faltered immediately. Explosions carried across the floor of the world, reaching their ears as faint pops and muted rolling thuds. There was blurred movement in the shimmering dawn. They sat awake, clustered together, watching in horrified fascination as the only reality they had ever known fell apart in a wall of ash and flame.
“We’re close. We’re close. Another few days, and home.” Bennett returned after prodding around the ATVs. He raised a giant black radio transmitter, with an extendable antenna from a forgotten age. It still had some juice. He tinkered with the dials, searching the AM radio bands for anything useful. A solitary voice cut through the mass of static, though its tone was muted and feeble.
“Urging all residents to visit the FEMA website for advice on how to put together a survival package. Please adhere to all……evacuation….martial law in several states including…..Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Dela-…..” Bennett changed the band.
This voice, female: “The President has finally made a full speech on the infection, acknowledging they have no idea what it is. And it seems he has been evacuated, but God knows where! Maybe out west, in those mountains the DoD has prepped for a disaster. Lord knows its time to use those holes….” It was changed again.
“The army has been deployed to contain the infection to the tri-state area. New York will be retaken.” A more shrill voice cut the stern drawl off-“Bullshit! The infected are nearly at the Delaware river in some places!”
“That is most certainly a lie. I can tell you unequivocally that New Jersey is under our firm control. The government is also in the process of making a vaccine for-“ “More lies! There’s no *BEEP* vaccine. New Jersey is overrun.”
The argument continued. “No, no sir that is simply not true. Our military is doing a fine job of containing any breach-“ “Then how come the whole seaboard is being evacuated as far south as Virginia!? And Pennsylvania?!” Static washed out the voices, and the connection terminated.
