by Young, D. M.
“I can’t go,” Matt replied. “If they do get this under control at all, they’re going to need police officers. I’m guessing we’re an endangered species right now. Plus, that’s a long drive. What if this thing gets there before we do?”
Adam’s head shot up. “Matt has a point. There’s a good chance that some people left town bitten after the hospital attack, and a lot of the people at the truck stop were probably tourists vacationing down at the lake. They could have gotten bitten and then packed up and headed home. For all we know, the next cases could pop up not in the next town but in the next state or three states away.”
“What do you think, Booger?” Margaret asked.
“Well, I’m not going to argue about it, but I’m staying here, ‘less you kick me out. I think this is probably as safe as anywhere, and I ain’t got the money to go nowhere else besides.”
With the issue all but settled, Margaret moved on. “So what do we do about food then?” she asked.
Ray cursed and stomped into the living room, sinking into the recliner. Margaret watched him go and then looked back at Matt, hoping he had an answer.
“Well, the truck stop is the only place nearby. We’ll just keep track of what we take and settle up with the owners later when this is all over. I figure we should try to round up enough to get us through a few weeks. Hopefully, it won’t take that long, but I sure don’t want to make more than one trip. I don’t think we should try it today. There will probably still be too many of those things around there,” he said. “We should probably go tomorrow, though. We don’t need to wait until we run out of food completely. If something went wrong, we’d be in trouble.”
“Yeah, and there will be other people trying to stock up on food, too. If there’s anything left in the store right now, it probably won’t be there for long. We need to get it before someone else does,” Alicia said.
Margaret grabbed the bag of dog food from the kitchen counter. “Alright then, we’ll work out the details later. Right now, I’m going to feed the little demon.”
Upon hearing the bag of dog food rattle, both dogs trotted toward the kitchen, tails wagging. “Ah, you think you need some food, too,” she said patting Sammy’s head. Plato barked. She shushed him. “Gracie can you come grab a bowl out of the cabinet and feed Sammy in the other room so Plato doesn’t get his drawers in a bunch.”
“Margaret,” Rose said. “Do you mind if I use the phone to call my kids? My cell doesn’t have a signal, and I’m sure they’re worried about us.”
“Sure, go ahead,” Margaret answered. “And everyone else is free to use it, too. In fact, since it looks like this thing might be spreading, I’d recommend calling anyone you want to warn about it now before it gets to them. I hope the Guard can get this under control, but, if they don’t, people should know what to expect.”
Gracie waited patiently while everyone made their calls. Then she picked up the phone and dialed her grandmother’s number. A man answered the phone on the second ring, “Hello?”
Gracie recognized his voice. “Uncle Chris, this is Gracie. Is Grandma there?”
“Gracie! We’ve all been worried sick, and we haven’t been able to get through to anyone to find out what’s going on. The news reports are crazy! What’s happening?”
“Um, hold on.” Gracie said holding the phone to her chest. She looked across the room and saw Matt sitting on the sofa talking to Adam. She called him over. “My uncle is on the phone. Can you tell him about what is happening? I know he won’t believe it if I tell him.”
“Sure,” Matt said, taking the phone from her. “Hi, I’m Matt Conner. I’m a sheriff’s deputy here in Mason County. Gracie asked me to talk to you.”
Gracie listened as Matt explained everything to her uncle. Eventually, he handed the phone over to Adam, who spoke for a while before handing the phone over to Rose. Finally, Rose handed the phone back to Gracie. Gracie put the phone back to her ear. “Uncle Chris?”
“Yeah, I’m here,” he said, his voice much more solemn now. “Look, I, uh, I don’t really know what to think about everything they just told me. I know they think it’s too dangerous, but I think I should come get you right now. If I leave in the next hour, I can be there before sunset.”
“No!” Gracie said, “I don’t want you to come here. It’s not safe.”
“Exactly, which is why I want you out of there,” Chris said.
“But I am safe right now, way safer than I would be out there. Plus, I’m with people I know. Please don’t come here. You might not even make it here. I’ll call you again when it’s safe, and you and Grandma can come then,” Gracie said.
There was a muffled conversation on the other end of the line, and then Gracie’s grandmother’s voice came on. “Gracie, don’t worry. We won’t try to come get you right now, but I want you to call me tomorrow and every day until we can get you back here.”
“I will. Just don’t come until we tell you to,” Gracie said her goodbyes and hung up the phone.
A while later, as the humans were finishing up their own dinner, Plato barked and ran to the door, demanding his after-dinner bathroom break. Margaret stood to take him, but Edward stopped her. “Let me go with you. I’m sure Sammy could use a break, too, and I think it’s a bad idea to go out there alone.”
Edward leashed Sammy and looked at Plato. “He not have a leash?”
“Sure he does, but he won’t do anything as long as he’s on it. If you want him to do his business before midnight, we’d better skip the leash,” Margaret said.
Edward frowned, but he grabbed his pistol and led Sammy through the door. Plato began barking before the door was even open. Margaret tried to calm him down, but he kept going. Finally, she flung the door open in frustration and ordered him outside. He ran a few feet into the yard and waited for Sammy to catch up, barking several more times to speed him along.
Edward looked around nervously, and Margaret knew that he was worried about the sound drawing something. She pointed to the little dog, “Go potty.” Plato barked. “Hush, and go potty!” Bark. Bark. Bark. She was getting worried now, too. If those things were out here, she could not have him doing this.
She watched as Edward led Sammy to a nearby tree, obviously hoping to inspire Plato to do his business and shut up. Sammy lifted his leg and Plato stiffened, watching him. Edward’s plan worked. When Sammy was finished, Plato ran to the tree, sniffed, and lifted his own leg. Margaret followed, trying to stay close to the little dog in case she needed to sweep him up quickly.
Both dogs were now sniffing the ground looking for the perfect spot. When they had finished, Margaret quietly called Plato to her. He turned to obey. Close by, a twig snapped. Plato stopped and growled. Sammy turned, peering in the direction of the noise. There was a rustling sound, and Plato began barking.
A figure stumbled from the trees, and Plato flew toward it before Margaret could get a hand on him. Edward transferred Sammy’s leash to the other hand, so that he could pull his gun, but Sammy began struggling against the leash.
Plato was standing at the feet of the infected man now, still barking. The man reached for him, but Plato dodged. Margaret tried in vain to call the little dog off, but he bit at the man’s pants, and the man reached for him again, grabbing the skin of his neck this time. Plato yelped.
Margaret screamed his name. Sammy gave one massive tug, pulling the leash from Edward’s hand. He ran toward the infected man, and launched himself toward the man’s chest. The man stumbled backwards and fell to the ground, releasing his hold on Plato. The smaller dog ran toward Margaret, and she scooped him up.
Edward took the opportunity to close the distance and pull the pistol from his belt. The thing tried to stand, but Sammy grabbed its arm and dragged it back down. It threw its arm out and rolled, reaching for Sammy. Its fingers grazed his tail, but the dog pulled away before it could get a grip on him. The infected thing growled as Sammy grabbed its arm and tugged again, pulling it across the ground and preve
nting it from standing.
Edward called Sammy toward him, and the German shepherd obeyed. He aimed his pistol at the dead man’s head and pulled the trigger. The zombie collapsed and lay unmoving on the ground. Edward looked around, afraid he would see more of them, but nothing moved in the trees. He picked Sammy’s leash up and pulled the loop over his wrist.
Edward looked at Margaret, “Let’s go!”
They hurried back to the cabin. The others were standing on the front porch. Matt’s weapon was drawn. Margaret waved them back inside, still cradling Plato firmly against her chest. Gracie saw the blood around Sammy’s mouth and bent down to check him, but Matt grabbed her arm and pulled her back inside. Sammy followed.
“What happened? Will he be OK?” Gracie asked, on the verge of tears.
Edward collapsed into a chair. “He’s not hurt. One of those things came out of nowhere. Sammy saved Plato and kept it down until I could shoot it. That’s where the blood came from.”
Gracie looked at Adam, “Can he catch it?”
Adam shook his head, “I don’t know for sure. There are a lot of human diseases that dogs can’t catch, so let’s not worry too much about that right now. We’ll just watch him. I’ll grab some gloves from the medicine bag and clean him up. Help me get him into the shower. I don’t know how dangerous that blood is to us, and I don’t want to find out.”
When Gracie was out of the room, Edward said, “We’re going to need to keep watch tonight. If those things didn’t know we were here before, they do now.”
CHAPTER 23
Several hours passed while they waited to see if the barking and shooting would draw any more of the infected to the cabin. By that evening, they had started to relax. Matt, Alicia, and Ray had moved to the loft to come up with a tentative plan for the next day. Downstairs, Gracie was sitting in floor playing with the dogs. Edward, Rose, Booger, and Margaret sat at the kitchen table talking. Adam and Melissa sat on the sofa. “So, how did you end up living in Hollow Springs?” Melissa asked.
Adam grinned, “Truthfully? I moved here because I knew it would irritate my parents. My dad is an attorney in Little Rock, and he wanted me to follow in his footsteps. He was less than pleased when I chose medicine instead.”
“Do you like being a doctor, though?” Melissa asked.
“Oh, yeah, I never wanted to go into law. As far as moving here, I needed a job, and I liked the idea of working in a rural, underserved area. I had offers in Little Rock, but, frankly, I didn’t care to be that close to home. My parents are…let’s say overly invested in my life.”
Melissa giggled, “Ah, so you ran off to the hills in search of privacy and freedom.”
“Something like that. What about you? I mean, your brother lives here so I take it you’re a local girl?”
Melissa’s face got more serious, “Sort of. Matt and I were born here, but we lost our parents in a car wreck when we were kids. I was six at the time. He was ten. We were shipped off to live with my aunt in Missouri.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Adam said.
“No, it’s been a long time. My aunt was good to us, but she wasn’t much of a kid person, and we lived on a big farm out in the middle of nowhere. There weren’t many kids around so, unless we were in school, we pretty much just had each other for entertainment.”
Adam grinned. “If my brother and I had been left alone very long, we’d have killed each other.”
“Yeah well, I’m not saying we didn’t fight. I’m four years younger. I annoyed Matt so much that he would run out in the corn field and hide from me until I tattled on him, and my aunt made him stop.” Melissa smiled, remembering, “But we became pretty close as we got older. Matt moved back here a few years after he graduated, and I came back to Arkansas for college. After I got my teaching degree, there was an opening at the high school in town so I took it.”
“You like teaching?” Adam asked.
“Oh, definitely. I mean, the state standards are a pain in the ass, and I wish we had more freedom to just teach and let the students enjoy learning, but, overall, yeah. High school kids can be crazy, though. It’s never boring.”
She ran a hand through her dark hair. Adam felt his stomach flutter as her eyes met his. They were a deep emerald green. He realized that he felt like a teenager trying to hold a conversation with his first real crush. If they made it through all of this, he thought maybe he would ask her to dinner.
“It’s the same with medicine,” Adam said. “You see crazy things as a doctor sometimes. I once had a guy come in complaining of abdominal pain. Turns out he’d been mad at his wife and swallowed a – ”
“Hey,” Matt said touching Adam’s shoulder. Adam looked up at him and Matt continued, his voice low. “You think you could come upstairs and look at Ray. Something’s not right with him. He looks a lot like Brody did last night at the hospital.”
“Was he bitten?” Adam asked.
Matt shook his head, “Not as far as I know, but I wouldn’t put it past him to hide it. Alicia did say he was covered in blood after killing the zombie last night, though. Either way, I don’t want to take any chances. Don’t tell him I asked you to check on him, though. That will start a war.”
Adam smiled. “Got it. Go ahead with what you were doing. I’ll wander up in a minute.”
Matt nodded and headed back up the stairs. Adam turned back to Melissa. “So, I don’t know any of these people, but Ray seems to be a bit…difficult, and Alicia seems so nice. How did she end up with Ray?”
Melissa grimaced. “Technically, they aren’t together, at least not anymore. Alicia was one of the first people I met when I moved back to Hollow Springs after college. We aren’t best friends, but I’ve always like her. Anyway, back in those days, she was still married to Ray.”
Adam raised his eyebrows, “Married?”
Melissa gave a tight smile, “Yep, Their marriage was never happy, though. When I started teaching, she was working as the school secretary. Ray was fond of throwing tantrums in public. Alicia was always embarrassed by his behavior, and he learned to use that. He called up to school drunk and angry several times, screaming so loudly that anyone standing near her desk could hear him. He even showed up in person one day.”
“Oh, wow,” Adam said.
“Yeah it was bad. Alicia almost lost her job over that one. A few months later, they divorced,” Melissa said.
“Yeah, but why did she marry him in the first place?” Adam asked.
Melissa shrugged. “Alicia was raised by her grandmother. God only knows where her parents were. Alicia never knew them. She once told me about how she went hungry on the weekends while her grandmother was passed out drunk or high. Sometimes there would be ten people in their little trailer. Alicia was left to fend for herself. It was a tough childhood. Ray’s was, too. His dad was an abusive drunk. He beat Ray so badly one time that he put him in the hospital for a week, but the state handed Ray right back over to him. Maybe they just sort of bonded because of that.” She paused, lost in thought, for a moment before continuing. “Alicia is smart, though. She’s a hard worker, too. She could have done so much more with her life if she hadn’t married Ray. It’s a shame.”
Adam sat quietly thinking about some of the abuse cases he’d seen. It could definitely mess a kid up, especially when the system failed them, too. He supposed that went a long way to explaining Ray’s behavior, but it didn’t really excuse it. He could see how two people from similar backgrounds could be drawn to each other, though.
“OK, well, I guess I’d better go check Ray out,” he said as he stood up.
He climbed the stairs and spoke to Matt. “Have you guys got a plan for tomorrow?”
“Nothing concrete,” Matt said.
Adam looked at Ray who was sitting in a chair on the other side of the room. His face was red, and he was sweating. Adam pretended not to notice for the moment. Instead, he sat on the sofa beside Alicia. “So, tell me what you’ve come up with,” he said casually.
&
nbsp; “I’m kind of thinking we head down tomorrow morning. I hope that most of those things will be gone by then, but we won’t know until we get there,” Matt said.
“Who all is going?” Melissa asked.
“I’ll go,” Ray said. “Just need to get rid of this headache first.”
Adam looked at him, pretending to notice his condition for the first time. “Are you sure you want to go?”
“Yeah, why the hell not?” Ray asked defensively.
“You look like you might be coming down with something.”
Ray smirked humorlessly, “I’m fine. Give me a beer or two, and I’ll be right as rain. I can pick some up while we’re there.”
There it was. Ray wasn’t bitten, he was just going through alcohol withdrawal. Lovely.
“We could pick some up for you, if you want,” Adam suggested.
“Oh, sure. You’ll grab a six-pack and call it good. No, I’ll go. That way I can make sure I’m properly stocked up”
Alicia looked like she was about to say something, but Adam laid a hand on her arm. He thought it best to leave it alone for the moment. He had seen enough alcoholics to know that there was no reasoning with Ray while he was in this state. Actually, Ray was right. A couple of beers would probably do the trick, though he wasn’t crazy about the idea of Ray going with them. They would need to be quick and quiet, and Ray wasn’t going to get any better until he got some alcohol in him.
Right now he was holding it together, but there was no way of knowing how long that would last. Ray obviously knew that he was an alcoholic, but Adam had no way of knowing how bad it was. Ray didn’t seem interested in discussing the matter. So Adam would drop it for now. No need to borrow trouble. If Ray was a mess in the morning, Adam would talk to him about it then.
“OK, then. I have some aspirin in the medical bag, if you want some for your headache,” Adam said.
