‘Nothing,’ Raine came back.
He lowered the walkie and looked at Kristin. ‘OK, last one. Let’s get this done.’
Kristin covered him, checking in front and behind, as he popped the truck’s fuel cap and inserted the rubber tube. He sucked on it until the foul gas flooded his mouth and placed the tube into the neck of the can he was holding. He spat the offending substance onto the asphalt and grimaced as its spicy taste hit the back of his throat. ‘Don’t get trigger-happy,’ he said. ‘If you see one, I’ll take care of it.’
He’d filled half of the can before he realised that Kristin hadn’t responded to him. She looked northeast, no further than the towering bulk of the next vehicle. ‘Do you hear that?’ she said.
‘Hear what?’ Salty could only hear the sound of the fuel splashing around inside the drum. He removed the piece of tubing and set the can down.
It was like static on the road at first, and then it got louder, heading their way. There was no other movement in the area, and they could feel the slight tremor under their feet. Then the collective sound became more defined – the shambling walk of the dead, the dragging of trailing limbs, the gentle sway of their monotonous journey.
Salty grabbed Kristin by the arm and dragged her under the red truck. They shuffled to the middle, huddled together, tucking their legs close to their bodies.
Kristin held her breath as the walkers were almost on top of them. She stared at the two gas cans they’d left behind and wondered if they would still be able to get away with them.
The smell hit their nostrils before the herd arrived. They covered their mouths, trying not to gag. When the rotting procession passed by, it blotted out the light that had crept beneath the truck. The feet of some of the creatures were twisted like tree roots, only attached by strips of muscle and splintered bone. One of the dead fell to the ground right in front of them and was trampled as it attempted to get up again. Salty reached for his hatchet in case it noticed them, but it never did. By the time twenty or so of its brood had walked over it, its body was too crushed to get up.
Kristin covered her ears to block out the moans. However unbearable it may have seemed, they had no choice but to lie still and wait it out.
Raine peered over the trailer to the pickup and watched the dead horde stagger through the truckstop, across the highway and around the motel on the other side. Everyone else was hiding next to her, except for Vincent and Emily, who were lying on the back seat of the sedan.
Wrapped in a blanket, the once-vibrant young girl tensed every muscle in her body. She twitched at the distant sound of groaning. Their numbers were so great that even as the first roamers were reaching the motel, the tail end was still passing through the truckstop.
‘Are you going to call them?’ Ethan whispered.
‘It’s still too risky. We haven’t heard any shots. That’s a good sign. We sit and wait a while longer,’ Raine said.
‘Why do they act like that? Like they know where they’re goin’? O.B. said.
‘Maybe they do,’ Darla replied.
‘Don’t know about that, but I do know where they’ll end up if they don’t change course,’ Raine said.
‘Same place as us,’ Darla said.
‘Then we better hurry up and get there,’ Ethan said. He glanced over to the sedan and the sick little girl under the blanket.
No one else said another word until the putrid parade had gone beyond the motel and into the forest. Raine stood up first, directing her cold stare at the rows of trucks.
‘Shouldn’t we go and look for them?’ Ethan said.
‘We wait.’
‘Where are they? Where’s my wife?’ Vincent said, hanging out of the back door.
‘She’s coming,’ Raine said. The stress lines in her forehead melted away, lifted by the sight of a man and a woman running from the opposite end of the service station, each carrying a can of gasoline.
Vincent emptied his lungs in relief and slumped into the car seat, barely able to raise his head.
‘Is Mommy safe?’ The voice that came out of Emily instantly chilled him and made his stomach flip over. It was pronged. She was there, but something else was there too, speaking in tandem. Something deep and alien to his ears. Not even a human pitch or tone – like an old cassette tape at half speed. ‘I’m thirsty. Could I please have some more water?’ She was too feverish to notice it herself, but the sound projected to ask her second question confirmed that he hadn’t imagined it. This thing. Whatever this curse might be, it was taking her over.
Won’t be long now, he thought.
4
Emily slept against her mother, a damp section of torn shirt draped over her forehead. It was the first time she’d dozed off since they had left the byway. When she entered the car, Kristin had heard the chilling way her voice was distorted. So had Ethan.
Vincent noticed his wife shuffle uncomfortably in her seat. ‘You OK?’ he said softly.
‘I’m fine.’ Kristin looked away, preoccupied by her thoughts. ‘Do you remember when we first brought her home from the hospital? It took us so long to get her to sleep. It didn’t matter how much feeling we lost in our arms. We didn’t dare move a muscle in case we woke her again.’
Vincent smiled. ‘I remember.’ He reached over the seat and did his best to massage the top of her arm, the one that Emily was pressed up against. ‘Kris, I…’
‘You don’t have to say it.’
Emily began to stir. Vincent withdrew his hand, but it was too late. Her eyelids flickered and opened. She turned and frowned at Kristin. ‘Mommy, I don’t feel…’ Her sentence was interrupted as she lurched forward and started to heave.
‘Stop the car!’ Kristin started opening the door before Ethan could pump the brake.
The couple jumped out of the still-moving vehicle and carried their daughter to the side of the road. Ethan immediately got on the walkie to alert the pickup in front of them.
Emily retched, and a stream of red bile projected from her mouth and splashed onto the concrete. The tail of drool from her violent purge hung from her bottom lip and reached down to the pool of blood and mucus.
The Grahams supported her from each side as she fell to her knees, clutching her stomach. ‘It hurts! It hurts!’ She cried out, her voice fracturing between plaintiveness and the sinister overtones of her biological intruder. ‘Make it stop! Make it stop!’
‘Vincent.’ Kristin looked to her husband in desperation, but he was just as helpless.
As they gazed at each other, Vincent felt the sharp pain of something cutting into the flesh of his right hand. Emily had emerged from her weakened state and latched onto him, biting down between his fingers and thumb.
Instinct caused him to pull away, but Emily was determined to hold on, opening his skin with her teeth and sucking on his blood like a baby feeding from its mother’s breast. When he met her eyes, he was surprised to see it was still his little girl staring back at him. Her eyes were bloodshot, her skin a dull grey, but part of her remained.
With each slurp, her eyelids grew heavier and her body more relaxed in his arms. He sensed that if he could withstand the pain, he would be able to nurse her to sleep.
Kristin wrapped her arm around Emily’s neck, yanking her back violently and forcing her to release her vice-like grip.
Vincent fell onto the road, cradling his wound. Emily gasped and then proceeded to lick the excess blood from around her lips. She didn’t struggle or double-up in pain anymore. She was passive.
Ethan approached from the sedan, confused as to what he’d just witnessed. ‘Is she?’
‘No, but Vincent’s hurt,’ Kristin said.
The others arrived at a sprint from the pickup to see Ethan helping Vincent to his feet and the trail of blood leading to Emily. ‘She bite him?’ Darla said.
‘He’ll be safe enough,’ Salty said calmly. ‘The infection don’t spread unless they bite you after they’re dead – after they’ve turned. What happened ain
’t no magic wand, Graham. It’ll just ease her hunger, help her rest, but when she wakes up, she’ll want more. They always want more.’
Kristin noticed that Emily had already fallen asleep in her embrace.
Conscious that everyone’s eyes were now on him after his remarks, Salty grunted and placed his hands on his hips. ‘Best get back on the road. Sittin’ out here with one of us bleedin’ is like presenting those bastards with a buffet cart. You can treat his wound on the move.’
He was right, of course: there was no time for an inquisition. They helped Emily and Vincent into the car, and Kristin bandaged his hand while they drove on.
5
They took the 40 and crossed the Susquehanna River, passing through Aikin. The roads into Delaware City were blocked by makeshift military compounds and armoured vehicles. Those soldiers not completely devoured by the dead littered the streets. The reanimated ones had been partially eaten and therefore were unable to walk. Most of them rolled around trying to get somewhere, only to be set upon by birds. Their flaking skin made easy pickings. The outskirts of the city seemed totally deserted, but the familiar hum of activity coming from its centre was clearly audible.
Raine directed the group away from the sounds. She wouldn’t even allow Salty to search for fuel and supplies. They were running on half a tank of gas and had plenty of food to last the rest of the journey. So they headed further north, sticking to the back roads, following the river into Delaware Bay.
As Salty had mentioned, Emily remained at ease and dozed between her parents.
Eventually, they discovered a small fishing village called Bower. Raine and Ethan scouted ahead and found that it was abandoned, most likely because its residents had escaped by sea when the evacuation first started. They brought the vehicles in and drove through the windy streets to the rocks overlooking the beach.
Raine saw O.B., Darla and Ethan scrambling up the rocks with too much enthusiasm. ‘Wouldn’t get excited. We’ll be lucky if we find a small row boat along the shoreline,’ she said. ‘Our best shot is to build a signal fire.’
‘And what makes you think it’ll make a ship come inland? Right now, they’ll be protecting themselves against being boarded and taken over, and I wouldn’t blame them. There’s no way I’d risk it,’ Salty said.
‘I’d just settle for some ammunition right now.’ Raine inhaled the sea air, hoping the hit of freshness would compensate for her lack of sleep. What she got instead was an intense smell of ash, carried on the breeze. When most of the group reached the edge of the rocks, she’d already guessed why they had nothing to say.
They stood in awe of the burnt-out carcasses bobbing on the waves. Hundreds of ships, not just in the bay, but further out to sea. From clipper ships to ocean liners – nothing more than charred ghosts slowly sinking into the depths.
‘They couldn’t do this,’ Ethan said. ‘They couldn’t.’
‘They could and they did,’ Darla replied. ‘I knew it was a mistake comin’ here. Fuckin’ retarded.’
O.B. shook his head, unable to process the mass destruction, the number of lives that must have been condemned by fire and water. ‘Why?’
‘Maybe they thought they could contain the outbreak in Europe. Chances are, there were people with bites on board,’ Raine said as she stepped to the edge.
‘You sound like you approve,’ Ethan said.
‘It’s a smart move if you’re thinking about containment,’ Raine said.
‘So what’s the bigger picture for us, besides drivin’ around and around until we’re up our own ass?’ Darla said.
‘There’s a few houses down there.’ O.B. pointed to a group of five houses on stilts above the beach.
‘They were built to withstand high tide, but if a herd finds its way on to the beach, they could tear those houses to shreds,’ Raine said.
‘We can’t relocate tonight. The kid don’t have much time left. It’d be insane to deal with that situation on the road,’ Salty said.
‘I don’t disagree with any of that.’
‘So what then?’
‘We need somewhere a little sturdier.’ Raine examined the landscape along the shore, eventually focussing on a small lighthouse situated where the sands ended and the reef began. ‘That’s the place. We’ll have a vantage point to see if we have company on its way.’ She turned to O.B. ‘You can come with me. We’ll scope it out. Make sure there are no surprises.’
‘Me? Why me?’ O.B. said.
‘You look like you could use a walk.’
‘I’ll tag along,’ Darla said.
‘No, you won’t. You’ll stay here with the others.’ After cutting the woman off, Raine leaned in to whisper in Salty’s ear. ‘Watch the Grahams. I don’t want it getting out of hand.’
‘I won’t let it come to that,’ Salty said.
As Raine made her way down to the beach armed with her assault rifle, O.B. looked back tentatively to the group.
‘You’ll be safe with her.’ Salty whipped his trusty hatchet from his belt and offered it to the frightened teen. ‘Take it. I know you don’t know the first thing to do with it, but it’ll make you feel better.’
Darla nodded to indicate it was OK, and O.B. turned and followed Raine’s path through the rocks.
‘I’ll go tell Vincent and Kristin what the plan is.’ Ethan slipped away to the car and left Salty to keep a watchful eye over Darla. His pointed nose twitched as he observed her expression.
‘For someone who’s been actin’ like the kid is just dead weight, you sure as shit seem awful concerned about him all of a sudden.’
Darla shrugged and her face soured like she’d caught wind of a bad smell. ‘I wanna hurry this up is all. Standing out in the open with our pants down like this ain’t how I’ve survived this long.’
‘Whatever you say,’ Salty said.
‘Hey, I ain’t the one keepin’ secrets about the enemy. How did you know that daddy of the year over there wouldn’t get infected?’
Salty raised his eyebrows until they disappeared behind his head bandage. ‘Think I’d share that with you? Maybe you’ve forgotten you tried to rob us.’
‘I can see Miller ain’t no charity worker. The only reason we ain’t dead already is cause she wants us to pitch in and be part of this group. If there’s somethin’ you got that can help us against those things…’
‘It can’t help shit,’ Salty spat.
‘Even so, it can’t hurt none.’
‘It’s personal.’
‘It happen to family?’
Salty moved nearer to the edge, watching the two distant figures enter the keeper’s house next to the light tower. ‘When the infection took hold, I headed to my ex-wife’s house in Chesterfield. Every road was fuckin’ chaos. By the time I got to her, she was bit. One of the neighbours did it. She was sick. I’d got sliced by this guy tryin’ to jack my car and she went for the wound. That’s how I know. And that’s how I know it won’t do that little girl any good.’
Ethan shifted his weight from foot to foot as Kristin emerged from the sedan and walked over to him. She looked strained. Her blonde hair had lost its body and gloss from back at the refugee camp. Even in those cramped, makeshift conditions, she still retained a certain glamour, a glamour that had no doubt worked to her advantage in the courtroom when the world used to be more complicated. She had been sharp and clean then, but no more. The constant struggle to survive and having had to watch over her daughter deteriorate before her eyes had taken its toll. The once-attractive and confident woman was a shell of her former self. She looked her age. The lines of her face seemed to cut deeper than before, and dragged her cheeks to the corners of her mouth. ‘What is it?’ she asked, hushed and unintentionally agitated.
Ethan rolled open the fabric case he was holding. ‘Miller asked me to give this to you when the time came.’ Five morphine pens were secured inside of it by small loops of material.
Kristin glanced down and hesitated. ‘I… I haven’t spoken
to Vincent about it yet.’
‘Would you like me to hold onto them for you?’
‘No. That’s OK.’ She snatched them from his hands before she could change her mind.
‘Kristin, you know we’re all here for you – both of you.’
Her eyes flickered and glazed over. ‘There’s three of us.’
‘Of course. I meant…’
‘I know what you meant. I have to get back.’
‘Sure,’ Ethan said.
She rolled up the case he’d given to her and returned to the car. She noticed Vincent was hunched over, virtually standing up in the back seat. Rather than call to him, she moved around to the open door. Her husband was holding up a knife dripping with blood and Kristin’s heart leapt, wondering what he had done in her brief absence.
A closer inspection revealed Emily had latched onto the open wound he’d sliced into the palm of his other hand. She was now able to feed more deeply than before, drawing more blood from him.
Emily became aware of her mother’s presence before Vincent. The whites of her eyes were blighted by a tapestry of veins that extended to her neck and chest, the dressing on her bite was hanging open, obviously unwrapped by her father.
‘Vincent, what have you done?’ she said, almost choking on her tears.
He turned around, his eyes dull with guilt and degradation. ‘Her bite – it’s getting worse.’ He was right: the area of Emily’s skin around the puncture wounds had turned a dark purple colour and the flesh was visibly throbbing in time with her weakened pulse.
‘I know, but what you’re doing isn’t going to make her better. Did you listen to what Jake said on the road, or did you just hear what you wanted to hear?’ Kristin said.
He laughed ironically, trying to temper the sting of Emily’s feeding. ‘Since when did you accept everything that uneducated redneck says as the authority on infection? I can feel her getting stronger with every drop she drinks.’
Emily paid no attention to their argument. She just continued to feed, taking bigger gulps until she started to gag and released her grip on Vincent’s hand. Then she lay back in his arms, blood rolling from her cheeks onto the leather seat, her low, wheezing breath softening as she drifted off to sleep.
Everything Dies [Season One] Page 26
