The Apocalyse Outcasts

by Peter Meredith

  “Then what do we do?” Neil asked, glancing back the way they came at the string of undead shuffling along in their wake. His eyes fell on a manhole cover. “What about the sewers? You’ve used them before.”

  Jillybean gave Neil an odd look. It was a partial smile, one that was as fake as Sadie had ever seen on the little girl’s face. “We should only go that way for an emergency,” Jillybean said.

  “It sure feels like an emergency,” Sadie said. “We can’t stay here, and we can’t…” She had to stop because a fit of coughing overtook her.

  “That’s why we can’t go in the sewers,” Jillybean explained. “You’ll attract every monster down there right to us.”

  “There can’t be very many down there,” Neil said. “At least not compared to all of these. Either way we had better come to a decision right now.” The zombies were closing very quickly now.

  “Come on,” Jillybean ordered as though she was in charge, which, in reality she was. Sadie’s head was pounding and Neil seemed out of ideas beyond hiding in the house and slinking around in the sewers. The seven-year-old led the way up to the house Neil had pointed out as being sturdy.

  Neil began spluttering, “But you just said we shouldn’t go in…”

  “Just go with it,” Sadie said. The drizzle was getting worse and so was her phlegm rattle and her head ached.

  The initial appearance of the house was deceiving. Though the front door was still standing, the side door to the kitchen was hanging off its hinge. Jillybean went right for it. They found that the kitchen had been ransacked, which was just as well since they made it in only a few steps ahead of the first zombies and didn’t have time to scrounge around.

  “Use your axe to hold them off for a bit, Mister Neil,” Jillybean directed. To Sadie she asked, “Can you push the table over here to act as a…blocking thing…right, I mean a barricade?”

  Neil hewed down the first two zombies that came up and then darted inside to help shove the table up against the door. “This is not going to hold very well,” he said from the far end of the table. “They’ll be able to push it back unless we get something to prop up against it. We could use the chairs.”

  “Yeah, do that,” Jillybean said, walking out of the kitchen with her head cocked as if she had heard her mother calling.

  “What the hell?” Neil asked. “Where’s she going?”

  Sadie’s cough had advanced to such a degree that she was practically speechless. She only shrugged her shoulders as she held the table against the door, something that she wasn’t going to do for much longer as the zombies stacked up outside. The beasts were also at the front door, hammering on it, and at the windows. Breaking glass was Neil’s background music as he tried to pile up chairs in such a way as to hold the table in place.

  “This wasn’t a good idea,” he remarked when he had the chairs positioned.

  Sadie had to agree with him. It wasn’t long before the door began to bow inward and groan under the force of the zombies. A grey arm crashed through the kitchen window ripping itself across the shards and sending black blood spraying.

  “It was your idea…in the first…place,” she said between coughs.

  “I know,” Neil said testily. “But you’d think that Jillybean would take into account…what is that? Is that smoke?” he asked. With a look of surprise they ran into the next room. The look expanded on his face as he found Jillybean building a fire with newspapers and old books on the living room sofa from newspaper and old books.

  “How is this going to help in any way?” Neil cried. “Not only will you attract every zombie in miles you’re definitely going to attract the bounty hunter.”

  “Yes,” Jillybean replied. She puffed out her cheeks and blew gently at the base of the fire as Nico had taught her weeks before. When the paper began to go up in flames, she stored her lighter back into her I’m A Belieber backpack which she slung over her shoulder.

  “The bad man is a noticing kind of person,” she said. “Like I said, he may not have seen us, but he has to have seen the zombies. Ipes says he’s on his way. But he’s slow and careful, and we won’t be. Come on.”

  Again, they followed after the little girl and, as they slipped through the house to the back door, Neil asked, “But what’s with the fire?”

  “The fire will keep the monsters’ attention, and the monsters will keep the bounty man’s attention. And, since he stolded all of our bullets he’ll probably think we are using the fire to fight the monsters. Now we gotta be mousses…I mean mice, and be quiet.”

  As the front door came crashing down and the chairs in the kitchen were finally thrust aside and the zombies came storming in ready to kill, the three humans scooted out into the back yard, which was zombie free, and, after climbing a six-foot security fence, they made their way stealthily to the next street over. Though they weren’t made up to look like zombies, at Jillybean’s suggestion, they adopted the odd shambling gait of zombies.

  “From far away we’ll look like monsters,” she explained. “Right. Ipes says we can’t be all bunchy. They don’t walk bunchy so spread out.”

  Neil had to let go of Sadie and she fell hard against a truck. “I’ll be alright,” she lied. Her head was like a room filled with banging hammers and all the strength seemed to have seeped out of her body. At some point she had begun shaking. Though the day wasn’t exactly cold she shivered uncontrollably. Still she fought on.

  They crossed the street and then went south, hugging the houses, killing stray zombies if they happened to get too close. After a half-hour they managed to put nearly a mile between them and the bounty hunter. The fire that Jillybean had started appeared now to be only a brown smidge in the air.

  Sadie was done in. She found that walking like a zombie was the only way she could move. She staggered, barely able to keep her head straight on her shoulders. “Can we take a rest? I can’t go on.”

  “Uh-uh,” Jillybean said shaking her head. She was totally fixated on her mission of escaping. “Miss Sarah could be passing the highway at any time. If we miss her she’ll be in big trouble.”

  Neil was torn. He stared south toward I-476 for a few seconds before turning to look at Sadie, who was glassy-eyed and only remained upright because she was slumped up against a Subaru. She tried to rally enough to stand, but she didn’t have the strength.

  “I’ll go alone,” Neil said, finally. When Jillybean opened her mouth to argue, he put up a finger. “I know what you’re going to say about separating, but if we don’t separate here and now, purposefully, then we’ll end up separating by accident later and with dire consequences. That fire you set won’t hold the bounty hunter’s attention much longer. You two get up in this house and don’t draw any attention to yourselves. No more fires, Jillybean.”

  She shrugged suggesting that she couldn’t promise anything along those lines.

  After divesting himself of everything except his axe, Neil ran off for the highway that Sarah and Nico would use on their way back home. Sadie watched for only a moment before heading straight for the front door of the house. Jillybean held her back. “Not yet. Let me go in first and check it out. There could be monsters and you don’t look so good.”

  How long the little girl was gone, Sadie couldn’t tell. She rested her head on the cool metal of the Subaru and, in what felt like a second, Jillybean was back shaking her and saying, “Wake up, Sadie. The house is clear.” She said more than just that, but the words were drowned out by the thumping in Sadie’s head as she staggered inside to fall down on a soft leather couch. The last thing she remembered was Jillybean covering her with a blanket.

  Chapter 6

  Jillybean

  Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

  The shoebox that contained Ipes’ broken body was set down on the coffee table next to the couch where Sadie slept fitfully, wheezing in a scary manner. She glistened with a fever-sweat and her skin seemed even whiter than normal, except for her face which had turned a hot red. When she moan
ed, Jillybean began to pace in fear.

  “Is there anything we can do for her?” Jillybean asked.

  Let me see her medicine, Ipes said after a glance at the girl. Jillybean looked at the bottle first, trying to reason out all the long words, and failing. She then held it in front of the zebra. It’s expired, but not by very long. Maybe it’s like milk and goes bad after a while. Sniff the bottle. Does it smell yucky to you?

  The pills didn’t smell like much of anything to Jillybean.

  Hold the bottle higher, I can barely read all of it, Ipes ordered. After mumbling his way from the top of the label to the bottom, the zebra laid back and sighed. She’s taking the correct dosage and at the right times. I’m sorry. I don’t know what the problem is. This should be working.

  “Maybe I should look around,” Jillybean said.

  Maybe you should also consider fortifying this place. It’ll be dark soon and we’ll need a place to hole up.

  “Yeah,” Jillybean said softly. She was already home sick. She missed her mom, and she missed her friend Todd the Turtle, and her dollhouse, and her pillow fort in the attic. She was also afraid for Sadie. She had never known anyone to be sick for as long as she had been.

  Shake it off, Jilly, Ipes said in his Daddy voice. Do what you need to do to live.

  “Yes, Daddy,” she said reflexively, and then went to take stock of what she had to work with.

  There was little to the house to recommend it in the way of safety—thin doors, low windows, a poorly situated rear entrance. As well, the creature comforts were few—no fireplace, only two bedrooms, and it stank of mildew.

  “Perfect,” Jillybean whispered. If the bounty hunter came by he would likely just keep on going.

  On the plus side of things, she found a portable grill, which she rolled into the kitchen. In a caddy next to the grill was a bag of charcoal, which she brought in as well. In the closets she dug out blankets, pillows, and sheets. In the garage she found a hammer and nails; mentally she assigned the task of covering the windows to Nico, because he was so much taller than Neil.

  The kitchen had long before been ransacked, but things had been missed. In a drawer right next to the sink, Jillybean found a smorgasbord of seasonings in little packets: taco, fajita, guacamole. Among them she found packets of dried soup.

  “Now all I need is water.”

  The toilets were bone dry. The rain was only an annoying mist and so the gutters were simply damp. She slunk about in the backyard looking for anything that held water, even dirty water. Two doors down, in the backyard of the only bi-level on the block, she found a little plastic pool that held a fair amount of brackish water. Back and forth she scurried with pots and pans each holding about a gallon of water, which was the most she could lift.

  On her third trip she happened to glance into the yard of the bi-level and wandered over to an area of thick greenery. Her mind tried to place what she was looking at, but it wasn’t until she squatted down that she found she was looking at a garden. The wet spring had caused the plants to go crazy.

  Among the weeds that were threatening to take over, she found all sorts of vegetables: little tomatoes, carrots, strangely shaped potatoes and turnips. Although she was only interested in the potatoes, she harvested as much of everything as she could. Neil seemed like the kind of guy who would go into a tizzy over turnips and Sarah was good at glomping odd things together to make a decent meal.

  Within thirty minutes of arriving at the house, Jillybean had set things ready. She would wait on nightfall to start the charcoal and hang the blankets. In the meantime she found a potato peeler and went to work skinning the carrots and the potatoes. These last were strangely orange beneath the brown skin.

  She took one to Ipes.

  Maybe it’s a sweet potato. Give it a nibble.

  Before she did she sniffed at it skeptically. “Do I like sweet potatoes?” From what she could remember she used to think they were weird.

  Taste buds change over time, Jillybean. By the way, how are you going to get anything done when it gets dark?

  Right. With the light already beginning to fade she set aside the question of potatoes and took to hunting about for candles. She found nothing in “their” house, but in the third up the block, next to the bed in the largest room she found candles and a lighter. And something that made her eyes go wide—it was a tiny gun.

  It was silver and stubby. Though it looked like toy, it was a real gun. She could tell by the weight of it; for something so small it was as heavy as a good stone. It was a revolver, which her mind associated with a policeman, however it didn’t look like a man’s gun. Because of its stubby barrel and short grip, it looked more like a woman’s gun. With a shaking hand Jillybean picked it up out of the drawer and had the illogical fear that it would simply explode without her doing anything. Hurriedly she put it back.

  Just that simple act allowed her to breathe easier.

  What good would such a tiny gun do? She wondered. Could it actually kill one of the monsters? It didn’t seem like it could. And how loud would it be? Would it be quieter than a normal gun because it was so small? And how was it loaded? How did she get the round part to open…

  Just then she heard a vehicle approaching. “Oh thank God,” she whispered. Mister Neil had come through for them. He had found Miss Sarah and Nico!

  What if that’s not Neil? Ipes asked. The question was so unnerving that Jillybean didn’t realize the zebra wasn’t even in the same house. His voice just registered in her mind.

  What if it wasn’t Neil? What if it was the bounty hunter coming after defenseless Sadie? Jilly’s eyes went to the drawer she had just shut. In a flash, she had it open again and grabbed the gun. It was big for her hand, but not all that big when she held it with both hands. Quickly she snatched up the box of ammo that had been sitting next to the gun and then ran for the back door. Keeping low, but holding the gun out away from her body—she couldn’t be too careful with the frightful thing—she sped back to the low ranch-style house where she had left Sadie lying in a sweat.

  Thankfully, it was Mister Neil and Miss Sarah and Nico in the truck.

  Before entering the back door, Jillybean stowed the gun in her backpack and wrapped the rattling bullets in her spare shirt. She came in wearing a big, guilty grin. “Hi,” she said.

  Sarah barely gave her a glance. She was standing over Sadie trying to hold back tears. Neil smiled wanly and looked sick himself, but he rallied and tried to pretend everything was ok. “Look at all this you did, Jillybean!” he said with a big fake smile. “Just incredible. I can’t wait to have some sweet potatoes. I’ve never had them grilled, but I bet they’ll be awesome. Thanks.”

  “We should wait until after dark,” Sarah said, over her shoulder. She bent down over Sadie and touched her damp brow. The young woman didn’t stir which was enough to bring the tears Sarah had been fighting against.

  “What should we do for her?” Jillybean asked, coming to stand next to Sarah. “Ipes doesn’t know how to fix her and neither do I.”

  Sarah shook her head. “I don’t know…maybe she needs a new medicine. Something stronger. The only problem is that every pharmacy we have come across has been looted down to the last aspirin.”

  “Can we get them anywhere else?” Jillybean asked. “Like at a factory? I saw a cartoon once…”

  “Do you mind?” Sarah asked, interrupting. “I want to spend some time with Sadie, quietly. Do you understand? So she can rest. Maybe you can help Neil with the barbeque. He’s not so good with mechanical things and I don’t want him killing us. Or you can play with Ipes.”

  Jillybean nodded and went to pick up the shoebox with Ipes, but was so preoccupied with what she carried in her backpack that she couldn’t think about playing at that moment. She scooted by Neil who was in the kitchen messing with a hunk of blue tarp and went out into the yard. There she went to stash the gun in the tall grass that bordered the house.

  Maybe you should keep that, Ipes said. T
his was so unlike the zebra that Jillybean didn’t know what to say. Normally he was all about safety. He seemed to read her mind. But you remember what Mister Ram said: Everything’s dangerous now, Ipes said. I think you should keep it.

  Jilly didn’t think she could. She worried she’d have nightmares about it. “It’s making me be freaked out,” Jillybean hissed. “And asides, you know what all the grode-ups would say, that I’m too young for a gun.”

  I know…but, never mind, he said. You were right to get rid of it.

  Now Jillybean was doubly surprised: she had never won an argument with Ipes so easily. There was a first time for everything, she figured as she pulled back the grass and gently placed the gun in the dirt before covering it.

  Relieved of the menace and the weight of the thing, she went into the kitchen and said to Neil, “Hi, can I help?”

  He appeared to be in the process of building some sort of shroud to channel the smoke from the grill out an open window. She saw it would be messy, and the smoke would permeate the house to some degree, but it would work. If she had her way, Jillybean would’ve used the hood from the stove, which was held in place with only a couple of screws and she would’ve added some venting from above the now useless water heater. But she didn’t want to seem like a know-it-all so she kept her mouth shut and held the tarp in place as Neil spun duct tape all over the room.

  Jillybean liked Neil a lot, but in some areas he made her nervous. Sarah was right about his mechanical inaptitude, however his inability as a warrior was shockingly worse. It was why she hadn’t wanted to venture down into the sewers with him, especially armed as he was with only an axe. An axe was no sort of weapon for fighting in a tunnel.

  “You were very brave today,” Neil said, “And Ipes, too. Just as soon as we can, I’ll get Sarah to look at him.”