by Mark Tufo
“She’s just playing,” I said as I looked over sternly at Patches.
She glared back at me. “Fine I’m playing. Fat dog.” That last part she mumbled softly. I was glad Ben-Ben hadn’t heard it.
He dove back down, looking for more food remnants.
Patches pointed. “See?” she mouthed.
I shrugged.
“Footstool, that’s a funny one, Patches,” Zach said.
The cat turned quickly. “You’re another thing I don’t want to have to deal with, Baby-that-should-not-talk.” Patches lay down and curled her tail around herself.
I could feel the tension ease and hope rise as we passed through more imaginary boundaries the two-leggers had created. At least the scenery outside the wheeler was getting more interesting, from flat expanses to tree-lined, hilly roadways. We stopped two more times for the smelly liquid the wheeler liked to eat. I noticed the wheeler was almost as much of a mooch as Ben-Ben. Alex had driven after the last stop.
“Is everything okay?” Jess asked as she awoke.
Alex had stopped the wheeler and, with a small smile on his face, he pointed.
Jess rubbed her eyes and then did it again. “Is…is it really Maine?”
“Well, the sign says so. If it’s not, we’re screwed.”
“How far?” Jess asked, shrugging off the sleep in the span of a heartbeat.
“I think he said it’s about three hours from here.”
“I can’t…I can’t believe this. Thank you so much, Alex.” Jess’ eyes were leaking water.
“Stupid girl is going to dehydrate before we even get there,” Patches said. “And if this Henry tries to eat me, I’m blaming you.”
“Me? I don’t even know him.”
“You dogs are all the same,” she told me.
“Is three hours long?” I asked her. I forgot how much I didn’t want the cat to know what I don’t know.
“This day will still be light by the time we get there,” she answered. I think she was partly excited as well or she would have given me some sort of snarky response.
Alex had not driven far when he spoke again. “I…umm…need to pull over.”
“We out of gas?” Jess leaned over to look at the panel.
“Personal matter, I don’t think that beef stew from last night is sitting all that well.”
“I told you I thought it smelled funny.” Jess was smiling.
“He’s been releasing gas all morning,” Ben-Ben said softly from under his seat.
“Why haven’t you moved then?” Patches asked.
Ben-Ben looked at the cat like she’d grown two tails. “It smells like food is why,” was his response.
“He’s so gross,” Patches said to me.
The wheeler stopped.
“I guess this is as good of a place as any.” Jess opened the door to get Zach. Patches, Ben-Ben, and I got out.
Ben-Ben started following Alex who was heading to a small building.
“How about a little privacy?” Alex asked him.
“Okay,” Ben-Ben replied, still following.
“He means you,” I told him.
“What? I just want to watch. I won’t bother him.”
“You being there will bother him. Two-leggers don’t like to be watched.”
Zach was still fast asleep. Jess was able to change his diaper and get him back in his seat without him even stirring.
“I’ll be right back,” Jess said, patting my head.
Besides Zach, I found myself alone at the wheeler. That was when I got my first sniff of trouble. My immediate thought was Alex and his bad beef stew. How could he not have smelled the taint that came from the hard container it was in?
This wasn’t odor from offal though, this was…zombie! I started barking loudly. “Zombies, zombies, zombies!!!”
Patches was first back. “Where?” she asked as she jumped onto the front of the wheeler.
“I don’t know yet.” I was running around the wheeler trying to pick up from what direction it was coming.
Ben-Ben also started barking.
Alex and Ben-Ben came back around from the small building. “What’s going on?” Alex asked as he was struggling to get his fake leg furs back on.
My fur was bristled and my lips were pulled back.
“Oh, God,” Alex said, grabbing his nose. “Where’s Jess?”
She was where the zombie smell was coming from. Alex tossed the janglers onto the seat of the wheeler and we both ran across the hard path and down a small ravine.
“Help!” Jess screamed.
She was scrambling up a tree. Zombies were all around. Alex grabbed me around the waist and pulled me down so we couldn’t be seen. I was struggling to get away from him so I could go and help Jess.
“Riley, shh,” he said softly. “She’s okay up there for now. We need to figure out how to get her down safely. You running in there and getting yourself killed is not going to help.”
I understood his words and the sense behind them, but my first instinct was to do all I could to help her NOW!
“When are we going in?” Ben-Ben asked, coming up next to me.
“Shit,” Alex said looking over. “Riley, Ben-Ben. Come with me, I’ve got an idea.” He once again grabbed me to make sure I came with him.
“We can’t leave her!” I was whining.
“We’re going right back, Riley, I promise. I need to get more bullets.”
“What’s going on?” Patches asked once she saw us.
“Jess is treed with zombies all around and Alex is getting more bullets so we can rescue her.” I explained. My heart was breaking that we were taking so long.
“Okay, everyone in the car. Let’s be safe while I get ready.”
Patches and Ben-Ben got in quick enough. Alex had to physically force me in. He followed me into the wheeler. He placed the janglers in the wheeler and started it up.
“What…what’s going on?” I asked in confusion.
“He’s leaving without her, humans always only think about themselves,” Patches said. I could hear the alarm in her voice.
Before I could begin barking at him, he spoke. He said a small prayer to the Great Two-legger they worship, and then…
“I’m coming, Marta, I’ll be with you and the kids soon.”
He opened the door. I tried to follow, but he shut it quickly. “I’ll get her back here, Riley, you get her to Mike’s safely. This is where I get off.”
“What? What’s he saying?” I slammed my paws against the viewer.
“Sometimes humans surprise me. He is going to sacrifice himself for Jess.”
“NO, NO, NO! He needs our help. Open the window, cat!” Spittle was flying from my mouth.
“It’s a manual window, I cannot.”
I jumped all around looking for a place to get out. I was trapped. I was imprisoned as Jess and Alex fought for their lives—one to hold onto it and the other to give it away.
Chapter 17 - ALEX
Alex snuck back to where he had originally been. He arose and spoke, “When you see an opening, you run. Do not hesitate, do not stop, the Jeep is running. Get in it and get out of here. Do you understand?”
He started firing, not waiting for her nearly imperceptible nodded response. The zombies turned to look at Alex who was shooting as he moved to the left, pulling the zombies away from the front of the tree. His shots were ineffectual in that they weren’t finding kill zones, but they were wildly successful in garnering the zombies’ attention away from Jess.
“RUN!” He yelled, his hand shaking wildly as he tried to put more bullets in his pistol while he ran.
Jess wanted to cry out after him, to help him, to get him to follow her, but that had never been his plan from the onset. “Thank you,” she sobbed even as she was mid-flight.
Two zombies turned when they heard her loud thud as she hit the ground; the pursuit was on. She was grasping at weeds and small saplings to help pull her up the ravine quicker. The two zombies chasing her were
less than ten feet away. Alex’ screams of pain urged her forward.
A zombie stepped on her left foot as it slipped on a loose rock; pain rocketed up her leg. It felt a lot like the sprain she had suffered in last year’s championship soccer game. She’d gritted the rest of that contest out and she sure wasn’t going to quit now, not with the ultimate prize on the line.
An aching roar traveled up the length of her leg and lodged in the bottom of her skull with each step. She hardly noticed.
“Marta the kids look good.” Alex gurgled out with his last breath.
***
“It’s Jess!” Ben-Ben yipped excitedly.
“And she’s got company,” Patches added.
“She’s not going to make it! I need to be out there!” I thought I was going to go crazy. Jess was in trouble and I could do little more than watch.
“We can do nothing, Riley,” Patches told me.
“Patches, if she dies, we all die.”
Making sure she realized the dire straits that she was in personally was the only way I could sometimes get the cat involved. She got it; with no way out of the car, we’d die of thirst. I don’t think she’d die of starvation, though. I’m pretty sure she’d feast on all of us before she’d let that happen.
Jess’ head whipped back as a zombie grabbed a fistful of hair. She screamed out in pain and terror. She lurched forward, nearly losing her footing as she was losing her balance.
“Come on, Jess,” I said, watching.
The zombie kept a handful of her hair as she wrenched herself free.
“That’s it…RUN!” Patches was getting into it now. Whatever her reasons, it was welcome.
The wheeler rocked as Jess slammed into it. She had been running so fast that she hadn’t the time to slow down. The zombies were upon her as she opened the door and was sliding into the seat. Jess screamed. She was being pulled from the wheeler as a zombie gripped her shoulder and was trying to get her back out.
As soon as I saw daylight, I jumped out. I crashed into the chest of the zombie that had Jess, sending him to the ground, fingernails popping free from his hand as it was torn from Jess. I ripped through what remained of his fake furs on his chest before moving up to wrap my muzzle around his throat. His hands encircled my neck and simultaneously began to squeeze and try to push me away. His grip was so tight I was beginning to lose air. I felt something punch through the side of my muzzle; it felt like I was on fire. The second zombie had taken a bite of me! I heard the door to the wheeler close. All that mattered now was that I had given Jess enough time. That was my last thought as the world lost its color.
“George, is that really you? I’ve missed you so much,” I told my old friend. “Where are we?” He turned silently and led the way.
***
“Riley! OH, GOD, NO!” Jess was in hysterics.
“Let me out!!!” Ben-Ben was screaming. “I’ve got to help her! I promise I’ll never ask for bacon again, please, please just let me out!”
Patches watched silently, her twitching tail belying her calm demeanor.
“Oh, Riley, I will miss you.” Zach was crying.
The zombie that had ripped into Riley stood up, a large swath of fur-covered skin in his mouth. He turned his gaze on Jess. He lowered his head and ran into the Jeep window; the glass spider webbed.
Jess slid the Jeep into gear. It bucked for twenty or so feet before stalling. The zombie was running next to her window, when she stopped, he head-butted the glass again. The cracks widened and lengthened.
Ben-Ben had hopped onto the seat to look out the back window. “She’s still there!! Get her!”
“Ben-Ben, she’s gone,” Patches said in an attempt to calm the dog down.
“You’d like that wouldn’t you?!”
“Nothing could be further from the truth,” Patches said as she stood next to him.
Jess got the car moving. The zombie ran after them for a quarter mile before they could no longer see him.
Jess’ sobs dominated the remainder of the ride. “She gave her life for mine.”
“That is what friends do,” Patches said. “Goodbye and dog’s speed, Riley.”
***
“Nicole, tell Dad we have company,” Mark Talbot, Mike’s nephew, said from his lofty guard post.
Nicole had been bringing him lunch when they heard the crunch of tires on gravel. She shielded her eyes from the setting sun to see a red Jeep swing onto the long driveway.
“Dad?” she asked as she looked upon the truck. “It can’t be. We lost that in Colorado.” Nicole, even though she knew the impossibility that her father had gotten his Jeep back and had come home, was still inexplicably drawn to it.
“Nicole, what are you doing?” her over-protective Uncle Ron shouted out from the deck.
“Someone’s here!” she shouted, moving closer.
“I can see that, but we don’t know who it is!”
The door opened and a young female got out, tears streaked her face.
Nicole paused and hesitated. “Jess? Jessica, is that you?” And then she ran to the girl.
PULSE
Mark Tufo
This book is a work of fiction. Names, Characters, places and events are a product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual names, characters and places are entirely coincidental. The reproduction of this work in full or part is forbidden without written consent from the author.
Copyright 2013 Mark Tufo
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This is how the end began
“Hey honey, you’re home early. How was work?” Julie asked as she placed her gardening gloves by the sink. She had a large satchel full of tomatoes and cucumbers which she hefted onto the counter.
“It was good, normal stuff. You know, trying to create universes and God particles and such,” Sam said, he was the leading scientist at the Super Collider facility at the University of Colorado in Boulder.
“Any luck with that?” Julie asked, brushing the dirt off her knees.
“Well…no black holes, so I consider that a victory. How’s the garden?”
“We may get a melon or two out of it if I can get the bugs to stay off of them. Speaking of which, I think I gave a good pint or two of blood to the local mosquito population. Look.” She pulled her shirt up slightly so he could see the angry red welts.
“Whereas I am happy that you are showing me all that skin, I wish it were for other reasons.” Sam leaned down and kissed her stomach.
“Yeah, well maybe if you figured out a way to keep the bugs away from me, I wouldn’t have to go soak in an oatmeal bath to get the itch to go away. I’ll get dinner ready when I get out.”
“No rush,” Sam said as he headed to the garage.
“Hey! No weapons of mass destruction, okay?”
“It was one time.” He smiled at her. Sam opened up the door that led to the garage; Radio Shack would have been envious of all the circuitry and electronic tools he had warehoused there. Building and testing new types of gear was a hobby Sam had enjoyed since he was old enough to learn how to wield a soldering gun.
“Bugs,” he said aloud. “The problem is bugs. Do I build another giant bug zapper?” Julie had made him dismantle the last one when a sparrow had flown into it, the poor thing had vibrated and fried for half a minute before finally dying. “Yeah, that didn’t work so good, plus I think it only attracted more bugs into the area. So I don’t want an attractant…I want a repellant. How about somethi
ng that shoots out a citronella-based fog? No, I hate that smell,” he said to his muse.
“What about a pitch or a vibration?” He wondered if there would be a universal pitch or vibration that would cause bugs to move away. Some bugs, like ticks and spiders, were attracted to vibrations; that was their primary hunting technique. “Chemicals? No, Julie is allergic to DEET. Shit, this may be a little harder than I thought.”
Sam began to doodle on his iPad. What he absently drew looked a lot like an old RCA tower complete with the lightning bolts emanating from it—which in actuality signified radio waves.
“That’s interesting,” he said, looking at his picture. “What kind of current am I talking about to get that kind of signal? A few capacitors in series…hmmm I wonder.”
***
“Are you coming to bed?” Julie asked from the doorway.
“Bed? What happened to dinner?” Sam asked, looking up, his eyes red-laced.
“Honey, that was five hours ago. You said you’d come and get some in a minute. I’ve seen that look in your eyes before so I brought you some instead. It’s that full plate of lasagna next to you.”
Sam looked over at the cold dish like he was seeing it for the first time.
“Do you want me to re-heat it for you?”
“The what now?”
“I’ll see you in the morning. Try to get some sleep.” Julie closed the door.
***
“Sam, please tell me that at some point you came to bed last night,” Julie said with a yawn. The sun was streaming in from a window on the far side of the workroom.
“I did it, Julie!” Sam said excitedly.
“What did you do, honey, besides pull an all-nighter? You can’t go to work after staying up all night, you’re bound to create a vacuum in space or something that will suck the entire universe into it.”
“That’s always a possibility,” he said to her honestly.
Julie shuddered.” Sometimes I wish you had just kept that professorial position instead of going into applied sciences.”
