Exodus from the Seven Cities

by Jay Brenham

  With a hiss of frustration, Sam grabbed the sledgehammer and stepped onto his porch.

  “Gloria, get inside before he sees where you went!” he said, holding the door wide.

  Gloria turned toward him without hesitating. The loud report of Jack’s shotgun echoed as Sam stepped back toward his door.

  Sam turned in time to see Bobby’s lifeless body, hands still bound behind his back, lying face down on the pavement. Jack stood on his front porch and chambered a second shell. He scanned the street for another target and, seeing none, glared in Sam’s direction.

  “Get in your fucking house!” Without waiting for an answer, Jack turned around and went inside.

  Gloria spun around, turning back toward the body of her dead child. She was screaming now, saying the boy’s name over and over again. “Bobby, Bobby, Bobby!”

  Sam stepped in front of her, lowering his shoulder to drive her back through the doorway and into the house. Gloria fell into the room, laid out on the floor the same way her son was sprawled on the pavement. Sam kicked the door closed with his foot, then reached behind him and locked it just as Gloria started to scream again.

  Sam shoved his hand roughly over her mouth, trying to make her quiet down before they were both dead. When she tried to rip his hand away, he knelt on her arm and held the other tight against her side.

  “Listen, Gloria, I just risked my ass out there to help you but I don’t want to get killed by those fucks outside, so you need to stay quiet. I’m not going to hurt you. If I wanted to hurt you I could have just left you out there and saved myself the trouble, do you understand?”

  Gloria’s eyes were huge, but she’d stopped struggling. After a moment, she nodded.

  “Good.” Sam cautiously removed his hand. “I want you to go upstairs and try to calm down. I have a few things to take care of down here.”

  Gloria nodded again.

  “There are chairs in the room on the left. Just hang out in there.” He handed her the rake she’d been carrying.

  It was time to barricade the second floor. The love seat fit perfectly when he wedged it between the bottom of the steps and the wall. He stood his larger couch on end and positioned it on the other side of the doorway. Then he took the chairs from the kitchen table and stacked them in the stairwell.

  Sam looked at the barricade with an appraising eye. It wasn’t perfect but it would hold some of the infected back. They would have to squeeze through one by one and he could hit those with the sledgehammer if it came down to that.

  He hoped it wouldn’t.

  It was 2:00 p.m.

  Sam pressed the button on the radio. “You there, Jack?”

  “Yeah, I’m here.” Even over the radio, Sam could tell Jack was annoyed.

  “I’m sitting upstairs and just barricaded my stairwell. How are things going over there?”

  “Barricading your stairwell was a good call. Why don’t you take a look outside and see what your hero stunt cost us,” Jack snapped.

  Sam looked out the window. Dozens of infected swarmed the streets, their expressions twisted, psychotic. Their eyes gleamed with madness and some of them carried makeshift weapons: baseball bats, knives, and table legs. Most of them still wore clothes, but bloody finger streaks ran across any place where skin was exposed like war paint on enemy warriors. Dog-like, they swung their heads back and forth, searching for the source of the noise.

  Sam saw a shadow move across the window of a house down the street. So did the infected. Within moments, the crowd changed, going from animals that were searching for prey to animals that had cornered it.

  Hands punched through windows as the infected rammed their bodies into the front door. It didn’t take more than a minute for the door to crash inward. Screams split the air. What was happening inside could only be guessed. He hoped the people had secured themselves in their upstairs like he had. That might give them a fighting chance but, given the screams, he doubted it.

  Sam sank to the floor, breathing hard. “Alright Jack, I get your point.”

  He knew Jack wasn’t happy about him rescuing Gloria, but Sam didn’t see it like that. Yes, it was reckless of him to run outside but Gloria’s screams would have alerted the infected and they would have come running no matter what. Once the infected were on the street it’s possible they would have seen the shadow in the window and attacked anyway. Then Gloria and his neighbor would both be dead.

  But, he thought, if he hadn’t gone outside, Jack wouldn’t have shot Gloria’s son and maybe less infected would have come running to the sound. Despite the irrationality of it all, he still felt guilt over the situation.

  “Sam, from this point forward, you cannot run outside like that. I have a wife in here and you have a family. I’m not going to save you if you keep taking chances. No matter how noble you are, no one will be there to raise your son for you if you die.”

  Sam leaned his head against the wall and shut his eyes. Jack was right. He couldn’t run around risking himself like this. Not for someone who was stupid enough to run down the center of the street screaming when she’d seen a horde of infected in the streets only a few hours before.

  A large group of the infected had collected a block away in front of the neighbor’s house. Sam felt guilty admitting it, but he was just glad it wasn’t his home that was surrounded. He walked into the other upstairs room and flopped into the chair next to Gloria. He needed to find out what she knew about the infection and where her other children were.

  #

  Gloria sat on the floor, her arms wrapped around her shins and her face buried against her knees. Sam poured a glass of water from his eight gallon emergency water container. It made a clinking sound when he sat it next to Gloria but if she heard the noise she didn’t acknowledge its existence or Sam’s presence.

  He sat down on the floor across from her. What was he supposed to say? About your son, I’m sorry Jack killed him but at least you’re alive and locked inside a house with a total stranger. No, nothing sounded good. Instead, he closed his eyes and sat across from her in silence.

  To Sam’s surprise it was Gloria who spoke first. “This is a horrible thing to say but I’m glad it’s over for him.”

  Sam shifted uncomfortably.

  Tears were running down Gloria’s cheeks but her voice was steady, as if she had already been through so much she couldn’t muster the energy to react to one more thing. “I knew that he wasn’t going to make it since this morning. If I’d been objective about it, I knew since last night.”

  It was more than a little shocking to hear someone speaking so bluntly about the death of their child, but maybe this was what she needed. Maybe she was in shock.

  “How’d you know?” he asked.

  “Because I’d seen it all before. Yesterday at the waterfront in Virginia Beach.”

  “What happened there? This whole thing took me by surprise. I didn’t know anything until Jack shot those two people last night. Jack is my—”

  “I know who Jack is. He’s been my neighbor since I was a little girl.”

  “Oh. I didn’t know. I’ve never seen you talk to him.”

  “Yeah, well, I didn’t say I was friends with him. But I should have known about Bobby because I...because I” Gloria paused, gathering her composure. The muscles in her neck constricted as if she was trying to hold back a sob. “I was at the oceanfront with my kids. It was a normal day on the boardwalk. A radio station was broadcasting live. My boyfriend Roger met us there and we were watching the band play. ”

  Sam sat quietly, listening as Gloria spoke.

  “This guy came from the back of the crowd and bumped into Roger. He coughed blood and snot all over him. But Roger didn’t turn away or get mad. He saw the guy and went to help. Roger wasn’t the type to turn his back on someone, even a stranger. That’s why I loved him.”

  Sam noticed that Gloria was speaking in past tense. Loved, not love.

  “The sick guy moved forward towards the DJ and kept coughi
ng. Blood was going everywhere. So Roger went to help him and that’s when the guy attacked him. It was like a switch flipped. One second the guy needed help and the next he was a rabid animal.”

  Gloria looked up. Sam nodded encouragingly.

  “The guy latched onto Roger’s forearm and bit him. I grabbed my kids and pulled them back so other people could run to help Roger restrain the guy. But that’s the thing, they couldn’t hold him down. It was like he was using every bit of energy he had to attack. All of the people trying to help got bitten or scratched and all of them got the guys blood on them. In the middle of the whole thing Bobby…” Gloria choked back a sob. Tears freely were rolling down her cheeks now and she made no attempt to wipe them away.

  “I wasn’t holding onto my kids because I thought they knew to stay away. But Bobby and Roger—fuck, why couldn’t he have been like other guys I dated? If he was a prick, Bobby would have hated him. But he didn’t; he loved Roger. When he saw Roger struggling with the guy, he ran to help. Bobby got a big scratch on his arm. I thought…I thought it was nothing.” Gloria stared at the wall for a second lost in thought before she spoke again.

  “Other people tried to get away but the man attacked the crowd. His arms and hands were so slick with blood people couldn’t keep hold of him. It didn’t take long for the cops to arrive. They tried using pepper spray, batons, and even a Taser, but nothing kept the guy down. A bunch of the cops got bit too. Eventually one of the cops drew his gun and shot him.”

  Sam wasn’t sure if he should keep pressing her for information or let her stop but he wanted to know more. “How many people did he injure,” he asked.

  “I dunno, one or two dozen? Plenty of people were hurt but only a few were hurt as badly as Roger.”

  “Damn.”

  “At that point ambulances arrived. Roger was really bad off so the ambulance took him first. There were so many people hurt that the cops were taking them to the hospital in their squad cars, even though I heard one of them say they weren’t supposed to. Bobby wasn’t hurt badly but he had a pretty good scratch on his arm. I told Roger we’d meet him there.”

  “What did they say once you got to the hospital?”

  “I called my mom on the way and she met me in the parking lot and took my other two kids. I didn’t want them sitting in the hospital all day but I took Bobby with me because he had been hurt. I wanted his arm to get cleaned up. When we got inside Roger was already in a room, arms bandaged, hooked up to an antibiotic IV. It was just a few minutes later when a nurse came in and bandaged Bobby’s arm.”

  “How did Roger seem?” Sam asked.

  “He seemed good.” Gloria smiled slightly. “He seemed happy, spirits were high.”

  “But?”

  “Well, I sat there for less than an hour. Roger was talkative, his usual self, and then he got quiet. He said that his head hurt and the bites felt hot. I figured it was just a side effect of the painkillers. He closed his eyes and told me that he was going to rest. I didn’t think anything of it. A few minutes went by and when I looked over, he was laying there with his eyes open. His eyes were glassy and he wouldn’t respond to anything I said.”

  Sam looked towards the window, not wanting to make eye contact with Gloria.

  “A nurse came in and said he had a 103 degree fever. Just then there was a crash and a man started screaming. The scream wasn’t like something you would hear in a movie; it was the scream of someone being killed. I stepped outside the room behind the nurse and saw one of the patients acting just like the guy at the boardwalk. He was attacking everyone. And, as if that wasn’t bad enough, I saw a second patient charge the staff members who were trying to subdue the first guy.”

  “That sounds…awful,” Sam said.

  “It was. IV tubes were hanging off the second guy and he was dragging the IV stand. He didn’t care about anything, he was in another world, one where he didn’t feel pain. He grabbed the nurse who’d been helping Roger and attacked her. That’s when I saw a third bite victim run from his room and join the others. Then it clicked; I knew what was happening.”

  “Knew what was happening?”

  “That this was spreading, it’s an infection.”

  Sam shook his head and let a sigh escape his lips. So it really was an infection, not a riot. That explained why the man driving the sports car shot himself. He must have known.

  “What did you do?” he asked Gloria.

  “I backed into Roger’s room and shut the door. I told Bobby to run to the car when I said so and not to stop. Roger was awake again. His eyes were different. He was suddenly very alert. I told Bobby to run just as Roger lunged and I kicked a chair at him. Roger tripped and I ran and slammed the door behind me.”

  “Shit, Gloria. I’m sorry.”

  “Thanks. I’m just glad we made it out of there.”

  “When did…uh…” Sam faltered, unsure how to ask his next question.

  “When did I know Bobby was infected?”

  “Uh yeah. I mean, that’s what I was going to ask, but you don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”

  Gloria shrugged. “It’s alright. I knew when we got home and he laid down on his bed. He looked tired…sick, like he needed to rest. Then he told me his head hurt and his scratch felt hot. It was exactly what Roger had said.” Gloria grabbed the glass of water next to her and took a large gulp. “Once Bobby passed out I blindfolded him and tied him to the bed. I knew what was going to happen and I needed to be able to take care of him. It sounds horrible…God, I’m horrible for doing that to him.” Gloria looked up at the ceiling and began to cry.

  “It doesn’t make you a horrible person because you knew what was going to happen to him. And it doesn’t make you horrible for making the hard choice and restraining him so he couldn’t hurt you,” Sam said quietly.

  She looked at him and shook her head. “What kind of mother could do that to her child?”

  “A mother who makes the hard choices,” he insisted. He needed to steer Gloria to a less upsetting topic. “So what about your mom and your other two kids?” Asking about the rest of her family was a gamble. Perhaps they were dead too.

  “Right when I got home I called my mom. I told her to go to a rental property she has on the Outer Banks, in Buxton. I told her I’d meet her there.”

  Sam pondered this for a moment. The Outer Banks were a set of barrier islands off the coast of North Carolina. They were a good choice. The islands had a lot of advantages: a temperate climate, plenty of seafood to catch, and some of the islands were only accessible by ferry.

  “Do you have a way of getting there?” Sam asked, hoping she had a plan he could piggy back off of.

  Gloria chuckled, “Nope, I’m as fucked as everyone else. But at least my mom and the girls are safe. They called me a few hours later to let me know they were at the house.”

  “At least you have that,” Sam said quietly, his mind going automatically to Jill and Grant.

  “Yeah I guess there’s some solace in that.” She sighed and spread her hand. “So that’s how I know it’s an infection. I saw it happen to two people I loved. Bobby got loose and attacked me and now here I am. End of story.”

  “I know I said it already, but I’m sorry.”

  She looked down at the floor. “I am too,” she murmured. “I am too.”

  #

  Sam and Gloria stared at the wall in silence for what seemed like an hour. “What’s your plan now?” Sam said eventually.

  Her smile was strained. “Do you mean how long until I get out of your house?”

  “No, I mean your plan for getting out of the city. You can stay here as long as you want,” he added.

  Gloria glanced at the open closet, where Sam’s extra Navy uniform was hanging.

  “Did you not get the message or did you decide not to report in?” she asked.

  “Neither. Yesterday was my last day in the Navy. So they wouldn’t have called me.”

  Technically Sam had been
in the Navy until midnight the day he was discharged but the likelihood of him being called in like that on his last day was slim to none.

  “Oh wow. Congratulations, I guess?” She laughed a little.

  Sam smiled. “I think ‘congratulations’ is what you’re supposed to say.”

  “So what are we gonna do? Throw Jack and Theresa in the back of your car and hightail it out of the city to your waiting Navy ship?”

  “I wish it worked like that but I think it’s more likely Jack would throw us in the back of his car and save us. He’s a tough old man. Tougher than I realized.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Last night two infected people attacked his house and he killed them both.”

  “Killed them?”

  “Shot them.”

  “Is he okay?”

  “He wasn’t hurt physically but he’s hard to read. I don’t think he’s too upset about it.”

  “And what about you? Do you have a gun?” she asked.

  “No. That’s why we need to be extra careful not to let any of them see us. I don’t think it’s safe to stay here. At least not long-term. We both have families and I plan to find mine before something happens to them. The bridges and tunnels are closed. And you’ve seen the streets. How are you going to get out?”

  “I hadn’t thought of how. Remember, I’m the woman who ran out of her house with no plan,” Gloria said, her mouth turning down bitterly.

  He noticed she didn’t say she was running from her infected son. Not that he had plans to bring it up; it was a topic he wanted to stay away from.

  “I have a plan, but I haven’t worked out the details,” Sam said.

  “What’d you come up with?

  “I want to put supplies in my car, drive to a marina, and then take a boat.”

  “Then sail off into the sunset?”

  He gave her a half smile. “No. Take it to Hampton or Newport News.”

  “Why? What’s in those cities?”

  “Well, they’re just across the water and the bridges and tunnels are closed, right?”

  “Yeah, so what?”

  “Think about it, Gloria. Why else would the government shut the tunnels and bridges unless it was to keep the infected on this side of the water? We’re being quarantined. They’re trying to stop the spread of infection into other cities.”