by catt dahman
“No, I’m going to Hopetown as fully human,” Chase said.
Adam spoke, “Same as Chase. Danny, too.”
“I am already there,” Yuki smiled.
“Yes, for me. I want to be with Kee Kee,” Neal said, reaching for her hand. They traded warm smiles.
“No, it’s untested and creepy,” Jenny said. “I don’t like how the changes will be either, sounds painful.”
“No, not now, anyway,” Greg told them, “I want to be all human right now. I’ve fought too hard not to stay that way.”
“Yes,” Jamal said, “Jamaica Man will fight evil.”
They laughed. Raul said he was going to take the inoculation, too.
“I still don’t know,” Jeanette said.
“No, I’m not going to let them win,” Ernie was the last to speak.
They decided to move the five who would change plus Yuki to the neighbor’s house that they already had cleared so that Yuki could help them. She read the notes over and over to be able to do it right. There were a lot of tears as the six said goodbye to their friends. They intended to come back in a few days and see them before going out into the world, but in a way, it was still a final good bye, for they would be separated by prions.
Chase told the six that Jeanette was too upset to say goodbye and they could see her in a few days when she calmed down.
“I can’t believe Jeanette didn’t come out,” Adam remarked as they closed the gate behind their friends.
“She couldn’t decide what to so…so she went out on her own terms,” Chase said.
“Huh?”
“She cut her wrists last night. This stuff never stops taking victims in one way or another, does it?” Chase pointed out. “Six went into the unknown. Six of us are left.”
“We’ll be okay,” Adam told her.
“Unless ‘okay’ is dead or half zombie,” she remarked bitterly.
21
Through the City
In a few weeks, they loaded the Humvee with supplies and took a last look at where they had hidden for so many months. Chase hated to leave her home, but it was time that the six moved on and started rebuilding, especially since supplies were getting low.
The six who went to the neighbor’s house never returned.
When they checked on them a week after they were gone, signs were everywhere that they went through with the plan to take the inoculation: the place smelled of soiled linens, trash was everywhere, and no sign of any more raw meat was left. There was no break in or disturbance; it looked as if the inoculations went as expected, and the motorcycles and Thunderbird were gone as were most of the supplies.
There was no note. It looked as if their friends changed over and left without another word, but that wasn’t the plan.
The six who returned to Chase’s house discussed theories and ideas, but none made any sense when thought over. The six were just gone.
Shortly after that, they began talking of moving on and finding a place to rebuild a life.
Hopetown was their goal.
Chase came to, disoriented. She took several seconds before she figured out what the problem was, but then she understood that she was belted in the SUV but was upside down.
“Hang on.” Ernie supported her head and shoulders while she groped for the release, which had kept her from hitting her head, but she was still tangled in the wreckage. Both she and Ernie worked to get her out of the vehicle. Greg drove fast to avoid the shambling things, spun out of control, slammed into a pole, causing the SUV to flip over onto the street.
“Are we….” she tried to think of what she wanted to ask.
“Just us…we were wearing seatbelts.” Adam helped Chase to the sidewalk. Danny had a few cuts and a lump on his head, but other than crying softly, he seemed okay. Ernie’s knee was swollen badly, and his face was cut in deep gashes. Greg ‘s face and body were cut up, but he was able to stand. They ducked into a small building set in the middle of the store-lined block to take inventory of their wounds. So far, the shamblers hadn’t seen them.
Surprisingly, the little drug store wasn’t overly looted, so they quickly had bottled water, a few food items, and first aid supplies. Ernie’s knee looked seriously injured, so Chase fashioned a splint and wrap for it. Ernie wouldn’t be running on it or even walking on it once the adrenaline wore off.
She mopped away blood and doused the cuts with hydrogen peroxide, but they were almost bone deep and needed stitches. Without the time or knowledge to stitch him, she and Adam used super glue, which burned like crazy but bonded the cuts so that they could bandage and wrap him with gauze. His head looked like that of a mummy.
Greg had fewer deep gashes, but more shallow ones all over his face, arms, and hands. They cleaned the cuts, but his hands were so mashed and mangled that they were a mess. He bit on gauze to keep from screaming as they cleaned, set the broken digits as best they could, used splints, and finally wrapped his hands so he had round boxing mitts of gauze. “Wow. Talk about being useless,” he marveled.
Danny’s cuts were easily cleaned and bandaged, but the lump on his head scared them: he had double vision and a bad headache, was listless, and unable to follow anything said to him. Chase decided Danny must have a bad concussion.
Adam allowed Chase to wrap his arm. He had a sprain that was sore but not serious. “What about you?”
“Hmmm?”
“Get cleaned up; you have blood all over you,” he said, laughing.
Chase glanced down; her leg was covered with gore. She thought most of them hadn’t bled that much, and what blood she was around, it mostly covered her hands and arms. The dull ache in her thigh was worse as she moved her leg around, trying to figure it out. Cursing, she took the scissors and cut off her pants leg, finally handing Adam the tool to finish removing the fabric.
“Uhhh,” Adam moaned, “why didn’t you say anything?”
“I didn’t….” she wavered as dizziness hit her. Adam didn’t clean the wound but set his mind to taping it closed so the bleeding would stop. It was a long, deep gash with fat peeking out.
“I wanna get it taped, and maybe it will stop leaking; we need the blood to stop. Stay still and maybe drink plenty of sports drink…’k?” asked Adam.
She nodded as he finished taping and bound it with an elastic wrap. She gratefully took the pain reliever passed around. Now, two of them couldn’t run; one couldn’t hold a weapon, and Danny was confused and disoriented. If they were attacked, they wouldn’t be running away or fighting either, so the best plan was to stay quiet and hide until they thought of a better idea.
With cans of black spray paint, Adam coated the windows so nothing could see inside. After getting everyone into the back, he gathered supplies and blocked the door. “If we get a car, then we can load up through the back door; I just have to figure out how we find a car with keys in it.”
“You are not going out alone to look,” Chase stated, “it’ll be dark soon.”
They had food, plenty to drink, blankets, and beach towels that Adam brought them. They wished for a pharmacy and pain pills, but they had to make do with what they had.
“Danny’s pupils are different sizes; that’s really bad, isn’t it?” Adam asked Chase.
“Yes, I think that is very bad since we don’t have a doctor or anything…his head really hurts…maybe swelling or bleeding on his brain…I don’t know.” She watched Adam checking her bandages and noticed the wrap was soaked through with her blood. That was bad, too.
Ernie grimaced a lot, gritting his jaw as his knee swelled more. The bandages on his face soaked through, and the cuts gaped. Greg rocked back and forth, cradling his hands as they ached.
The sleeping pills helped; exhausted, they all fell asleep, despite the hard floor and their pain.
Everyone was groggy with the side effects of the pills which made Adam sure they wouldn’t be fighting any zombies, but they felt better after eating; the sugar rushes cleared their heads.
Danny
never awakened, and about noon, he died. While Chase cried, Adam wrapped his little body in a cheap floral sheet set he found and then secured it with a roll of duct tape. All he could think to do was to store the small corpse in a freezer section in the store.
“We have the pistol and other items; we can get to a car, I think,” Adam said. “We could just be really quiet….”
“I’d be on crutches, so I can’t swing a weapon; Greg can’t hold one,” Ernie pointed out. “Chase, can you walk at all?”
“I could, but I think I’ll start pouring blood and pass out,” she said. “What if all of you go on and leave me here? If you find help…then….”
“No. Fuck that.”
“Language, Adam,” Chase said.
“We’re not leaving you,” he said.
They slept, played cards, and ate. No one was sure what each waited for.
Early in the morning, Adam whispered urgently, “Where’s Greg?”
He wasn’t on his mat. Worried, Adam took the gun and a bat and slipped into the store where he searched. Greg wasn’t in the store.
Outside, Adam looked around and saw what happened. As fast as he could, he slammed a pole into a zombie, and as it fell, grabbed a concrete block and smashed at its head. It took a while, and it was hard work with a heavy, unwieldy object, but the skull cracked, and the thing stopped flailing. Its jaw and teeth were red with Greg’s blood.
Greg’s bandages were stained red with fresh blood, and beside one hand was a pair of Honda car keys, but as Adam looked all around, he didn’t see the car, nor did he know where the car was that the keys fit. Somehow, he had found the keys and brought them back to get the rest but was attacked by the zombie that Adam just killed. Grayish blue intestines lay around Greg, pulled out of his body through gaping bite wounds.
So why did he not turn yet? Was he immune?
He groaned.
Adam shivered with dread; the man was still alive.
“Greg, can you hear me?”
One final breath fouled the air as Greg died. Adam, while crying a little, sighed, while picking up the concrete block again and finishing him. He vomited as he finished and then went back inside the shop to the back.
“We were worried,” Ernie said.
“Greg went out to find a car; he didn’t make it,” Adam said, patting Chase on her shoulder. He knew she and Greg started liking one another. She cried a long time, and Adam noticed her bandages, while not soaked, still showed signs that she was bleeding. The wounds were not cleaned, either.
“What are the chances I’ll get a bad infection?” Chase asked.
“Pretty good with all of the things running around with shit and piss falling out of them…and blood…and corpses rotting,” Adam told her angrily, thinking of Greg lying out in the front rotting. “This blows.”
“Language.”
Chase was a role model, a warrior, and his best friend. He was worried about her. He thought about how on television, doctors cauterized wounds, but he would pass out before he could burn her like that. “I’m running out of ideas, Chase; give me some help here.”
“Leave us, and get out of here. That’s my idea. If you wait too long and the zeds come, then you’ll be stuck, too. I say get out and that Ernie and I can hang around and see how we do.”
“I vote for that,” Ernie said, “I mean, I’d love to hop into a car and split with y’all, but I’m gonna be slow on crutches and defenseless. That’s gonna set me up to be eaten alive and cause you to be in danger.” He gulped. “I know you know pain, but my God, I’m hurting something awful. I get that you cleaned my hurts, but I can feel infection; it’s hot, and I’m hot, and it ain’t good.”
Adam felt the man’s forehead and found he burned with fever; he needed antibiotics. “You want me to…I dunno…clean everything again and see if it helps?”
“I don’t think I could deal with the pain, son,” Ernie said honestly. “I’m a big baby about pain, and this is my limit.” He was eating pills as if they were candy. Adam wondered if he were trying to stop the pain or kill himself and thought it was about the same principle.
“I’m very proud of you, Adam; you are an amazing young man, and you are a survivor. If you respect me at all, you will at least pretend I have taught you a few things and get your ass out of here, ” Chase told Adam.
When she dozed, Adam listened to Ernie crying with pain, clawing at his face and the throbbing infection. Adam crawled to him, put something into his hand, met Ernie’s eyes, and gave him a nod. While he lay on his pallet, Adam cried for all those lost as he waited. He slept fitfully and only awoke when Chase shifted positions. Using a flashlight, Adam saw that Ernie’s eyes were glassy and clouded in death, and beneath him was a terrible pool of blood from where he bled out from his wrists.
Adam took the knife back and threw it away.
He told Chase that Ernie had passed; she again asked him to leave her, but he refused. The bleeding turned to a slight leaking as the tissues enflamed and swelled with infection. With so much nastiness all around, Adam realized that Chase’s wounds were that infected and with a start realized that Chase Malone was not going to make it.
“I can’t leave you here to suffer alone,” he told her.
“Give me plenty of pills; they’ll help the pain; you get out of here; how about that?”
“I can’t.”
“I’m not gonna get better, and I hurt, yanno? Give me a break, Adam; at least give me a happy goodbye, and let me feel good about sending you on to be safe. Can you do that for me?”
“I don’t know.”
“No hiding in a tree house…clean break. How about it? And I can rest and know you are going on to fight and make a life for yourself. Would you do that for me?” she asked. Her eyes were bright with fever.
“Right now?”
“Yeh, and don’t start crying, or I’ll feel bad.”
Adam stared at her. For some reason, he was absolutely sure this was what she wanted; it would give her peace and a kind of closure. “You be okay?”
“Right as rain.”
Adam nodded. “This is some shit, Chase.”
“Language, Adam,” she smiled, “get on out; see ya later, Kiddo.”
“See ya, Chase.” He turned and walked out the door, waiting to close it before he sank to his knees, weeping. This hurt way too much. After he was empty of tears, he was able to get up and keep walking. He would find that girl, Hannah, or maybe the super hero siblings or someone else. Maybe he would find Hopetown and see if he could join them.
There were possibilities.
He cried a few more times until he was wrung out and had to stop in a store to sleep and to hydrate. Smiling, he cursed, saying every bad word he knew and toasting Chase with a bottle of water. Yes, she taught him a lot, and he was going to do her proud.
Chapter 22
April, Z 10 Hannah
I went to Hopetown with my new family and friends after we left the shelter of the hospital.
Over time, some things were difficult for my family and me. I had known Kimball, whom Mom Beth was with; then, when he vanished a while and was kept by the Reconstruction Army, she grew to love Juan Dad whom Mom was with.
Then Kimball came back, and Juan was killed being a hero, and Kimball was the only Dad, and I loved him. I still missed Juan because he was good to us, loved us, and saved Jet’s life. If that is confusing, then imagine how it was for us. Yet, Mom taught us that love is endless, bottomless, and never runs out, and we can love many people.
I also had to deal with Andromeda’s drama and suspicions, but Beth Mom always defended me. Andie knew I killed Carol but didn’t know if it were a fit of rage or some kind of an accident, sort of. I really was a little off kilter back then, anyway.
Andie also knew that I was the one who gave the hybrid, Ponce, the idea about going into the Reconstruction Army and biting them to infect them. Who, except another hybrid, would have conceived such a terrible idea and then asked someone to be a
part of it? I think when I asked him, he must have guessed what I was.
Luckily, no one else guessed.
Even when Mom found out about the numbers on the backs of the necks of all who were given the inoculations and even had killed two of the hybrids, Carla and Robbie calling them monsters, she knew I had the curious numbers and what that meant. Yet, she never looked at me with anything but love and treated me the same as everyone else, not telling a soul but Kimball Dad.
I worried that I would become really crazy and violent, more like the Zs, but I met another hybrid and questioned him; he seemed pretty normal all around, despite the immunity to the infection, being potentially contagious, and craving raw meat.
During that time, I met my adopted big brother Jet who was very caring and protective of me, wore weird Gothic clothing, and was hugely brave. When we first saw him, some thought he was weird, but Mom knew at once he was a warrior at heart. She can almost smell it on a person. After Mom had the twins, Jet removed his piercings and cut his hair, but he was still the coolest brother ever, always watching out for me and going along with all my many crazy ideas.
Katie, my little sister, stayed the same sweet person she always was and is now studying to be a veterinarian. She has always loved animals and has a way with them. When chaos rules, Katie is a calming force that can smooth anything. She took to horseback riding far faster than I did. She is a beautiful, wonderful sister who has never done a thing wrong or even been selfish, and more than that, she trusts me a hundred percent. She is who calms me and can talk me down off the craziest of my ideas. Usually.
Georgie is one of the twins born to Beth and Kim and is brave and sometimes even careless, like I am. She is always ready to join in whatever might get us into trouble or be dangerous, and she follows every plan, especially any tricks on Kimball, laughing hard when we pull one over on him. She looks a lot like Beth but has Kim’s reddish hair. I think she is my most fun sibling but has surely picked up my smart-ass mouth.
Stevie is the other twin, the blonde, and is the thinker of the group, drawing and listing ideas like Uncle Len does. She is the cleverest and the funniest, too. She is more responsible than the rest of us and tends to think things over and point out potential problems. I always have depended on her logic, even when she was young; she always knows how to figure things out.
