by Jeff Olah
“Yeah.” He wasn’t convinced even as the words left his own mouth. His only thought over the course of the last several days was getting to this place and finding his sister. Although he hadn’t for one second thought about the possibility that he may not get to her, but maybe that was a good thing, maybe it was what kept him going all this time, and just maybe it was what had kept him and his friends alive for the last fifteen days.
“I’m serious,” Shannon said. “I believe in you and so do the others. Give yourself some credit.”
A half smile returned to his face. “Where were you all of last year? I mean you never even once looked in my direction.”
“Yes I did look, but you weren’t ready. You can ask Emma when we find her, she’ll tell you all about our phone calls.”
“Really?”
Shannon began to respond, but was cut short by a voice from the backseat.
“Three miles.” Boone had pushed away from seat and leaned in over Zach. His voice was dry and heavy. “You’re gonna want to get to the right. It’s the second exit up ahead.”
Checking both side mirrors and then the highway ahead, Ethan pulled the SUV to a stop. He shifted into park, unbuckled his seatbelt, and turned to face the others. “Give him his phone.”
Boone shook his head. “I don’t need it, I know where we’re going.”
“You don’t need it?” Ethan’s voice rose as he stared back. “Do we even need you or is this another one of your—”
“Listen Ethan, I don’t really have the energy to get into this right now. Your boy here kept me awake almost the entire night, so if you want to find Emma, I suggest you just turn around and drive. We can debate everything else after I get a few more hours sleep.”
This was different. The usual sarcasm dripping from Boone’s every word was gone. In its place was something Ethan didn’t recognize and wasn’t exactly sure he was comfortable with. “You know where she is?” Ethan reached into the center console and held up Boone’s phone. “Without this?”
Boone sat back, looked around the interior and then to Ethan. “You said I needed it, I never did.”
Ethan was growing tired of the back and forth. “What are you doing here, Boone?”
“Second exit, three miles up. I know where your sister was last night, I can show you.”
As Ethan turned back to the road, his mother sat forward and quietly began to cry. She wiped at the tears beginning to run down her cheeks and avoided eye contact with the others.
From one row back, Boone took notice. He shook his head, turned away, and mumbled something under his breath.
With his head darting to the left, to the right, and then back again, Zach pushed up in his seat and leaned in to give Helen a hug. “Ms. Helen, it’s okay; Mr. Ethan is gonna find her.” The boy paused a moment before pulling back and offering her a smile.
Helen draped her arm around Zach, pulled him in close, and kissed him on the head. “Yes, I know he will.”
Less than a mile before the exit, Ethan slowed as the number of abandoned vehicles began to grow in direct relation to their proximity to the city. He drove along the shoulder, zigzagging through the random pattern of minivans, SUVs, and hybrid vehicles until he found an opening that put him on a path to the exit.
“This where we’re going?”
Boone didn’t respond, nor did he even acknowledge the question, and Griffin took the opportunity to give him a quick elbow to the ribs.
“Boone.” Ethan was nearly shouting “Is this it?”
Finally looking up, Boone leaned forward and squinted as he stared through the windshield. “Yeah, this is it. Go to the end of the ramp, let me get my bearings.”
“Ethan,” Frank said, “I don’t like this, we got no visibility on three sides.”
Boone sat back. “Hey, do what you want, but she’s out there and we ain’t gonna get to her without—”
“Enough.” Ethan let off the brake and maneuvered the SUV to the end of the ramp. He looked out at the street signs and then back at Boone. “Sixth and Central, what now?”
184
Emma took another lap around the chapel. It was the third time in the last several minutes. She moved from one window to the next, checking for anything she may have missed the time before and attempting to get an estimate on the numbers outside. Approaching the side door, she stopped, checked the lock, and then paused as if lost.
Seated opposite Emma and flipping through the book he had confiscated from the blue backpack, Tom marked his place and looked up at her. He narrowed his eyes, bit the corner of his lip, and waited for what seemed like minutes.
Finally, Emma shook her head and blinked her eyes. “What?”
“That’s what I’m wondering.”
“I’m just … I don’t know. I feel like I’m in a cage, like I need to get out of here. I mean like we need to get out of here.”
“Emma sit down and relax for a minute.”
“Relax? Hasn’t anyone ever told you rule number one when it comes to women?”
“Uh…”
“Never tell a woman to relax, ever.”
“That’s not what I was saying and you know it. I mean it’s only been a few hours. It’ll clear up out there and we’ll get to one of those cars—get the hell out of here. I promise.”
Emma turned to the window at her back and looked out over the lot. She estimated the short run to the highway would take them less than thirty seconds and beyond that the area looked to be free of the infected. “It’s been longer than that. The sun is already moving behind those buildings and I don’t really want to stay here tonight.”
Tom breathed out heavily, set the book on the floor, and stood. “At this point, we don’t really have a choice. Like I said before, we’re gonna have to wait them out. Once it’s clear, we can try to get to those cars.”
“Your friends, you think we might find them?” Emma had asked the same question in at least three different forms over the last few days. She could feel herself slowly being pulled into a hole that she was unfamiliar with. Depression, anxiety, and lack of self-awareness were things she had yet to experience, but then again, everything in this new world was different.
Tom leaned in behind her, put his hand on her shoulder, and looked through the wood slats. “I think we may want to stay away from the windows for a bit, let’s give it another hour and then we can …”
As his voice trailed off, Emma followed his eyes out through the parking lot and into the street almost two hundred yards from their door. A dusty black SUV sat idling at the corner of Sixth and Main. They both stared in silence and waited for the mysterious vehicle to make a move.
With her focus shifting rapidly between the crowd outside the door and the black SUV, Emma reached back and gripped Tom’s hand. “Do you know them?”
“No, I don’t think so. Why?”
Emma’s knees felt weak and she could manage only five words. “Because, I think I do.”
. . .
The right on Sixth took them parallel to the freeway and as far as Main before Boone recognized the building. He pointed it out to the group, offering two different routes in and out of the area. “Three blocks up, the entrance faces out into the street. It’s an old bagel shop, two levels.”
Ethan nodded and looked from Boone to Griffin. “We’ll circle the building a few times and then pull back a bit. See what we see.”
“Yeah, no need to stir things up. We’ll have enough problems with the ones already out there.”
Frank waited for Griffin to finish, looked around and when no one else spoke, he took the chance. “And what if we don’t see anything? We going in?”
“I am,” Ethan said. “But the rest of you don’t need—”
Griffin quickly interjected. “Ethan and I will check it out. Frank can drive around the building to distract the locals while we’re inside. In and out, no more than five minutes.” And turning to face Ethan he said, “You good with that?”
Ethan s
lipped his right foot from the brake to the gas and pulled around a small crowd beginning to gather near the intersection. He watched as they stumbled out into the street, gathering followers as they proceeded along Sixth.
Frank watched through the rear window as a second group of more than two dozen filtered out from behind a delivery van on the opposite end of the long block. “Ethan, this could be a problem.”
“I see them.”
His mother shouted from the second row. “WAIT!”
Ethan covered the brake, attempting to follow her gaze out through the passenger side of the SUV. He spotted a woman standing in the parking lot of the chapel a few hundred yards away. His heart raced and then sank as he recognized the woman as his sister and then realized that there would be no way he could reach her in time.
“EMMA!” Ethan’s voice blasted through the interior. He pushed the brake to the floor, shifted into reverse, and cut the wheel back to the left. Plowing into a group of four Feeders, the SUV came to a stop in the middle of the street. Ethan reached for the controls near his left hand and began to lower his window.
With one hand on the roof and the other on his door, Griffin called out to Ethan. “UNLOCK MY DOOR!”
“Frank,” Ethan said, “what’s it look like, we got time for this?”
Frank checked the rear, both sides, and then finally stared out across the parking lot at Emma. “We’ve got maybe two minutes, but Emma does not. We have to get over there now.”
The others all began to shout as Ethan drove up over the sidewalk and into the parking lot. Near the chapel door, a man appeared at Emma’s side. He was pulling her back toward the chapel door as she waved a bright orange backpack over her head.
Ethan cut the wheel hard left and narrowly avoiding a pair of Feeders, took down a “First Time Guest Parking” sign. To his left, Shannon was gripped tight to the handle above her door while attempting to stay back against her seat.
Frank reached into the cargo area behind his seat, pulled out one of the two black duffels, and laid it across his lap. “Griff and I will get out, cover you … okay?”
Picking a clear spot fifty feet from his sister, Ethan drove up onto the walkway that ran alongside the chapel and abruptly pulled to a stop. “Thirty seconds.”
Again Griffin yelled, “UNLOCK MY DOOR!”
Leaving the engine running, Ethan checked his mirrors, unlocked the doors, and stepped out. Before moving away, he leaned back in and looked to Shannon. “They get too close, drive out into the street. We’ll catch up.”
Ethan slammed the door, running off as his mother cried out his name. He was less than halfway to reaching Emma when he saw what he hadn’t before. A second much larger crowd was coming in from behind the chapel, and cutting off his path back to the SUV. Not more than a few seconds away, he’d reach his sister, but there was now no way to go back.
As Ethan approached, the man with Emma was no longer pulling her back toward the chapel, but now pointed toward the SUV. Emma’s expectant smile quickly faded as well. She now stared past him, shouting with everything she had.
“ETHAN!”
Moving to Emma, Ethan attempted to take her into his arms. Although as he did, her knees buckled and her face turned an ashen grey. She looked at his face, but her eyes were elsewhere. And before losing consciousness, she managed one word. “Mother.”
Guiding her to the ground, Ethan quickly scanned the lot. With no immediate threats, he turned back toward the others in time to see his mother struggling to outpace a half dozen Feeders that had overtaken the SUV. She was shuffling forward, although not quickly enough, as the horde pouring in from backside of the chapel began gaining ground.
Frank was a few steps behind, pistol in hand, but unable to fire off a clear shot. He called out to Ethan and dropped the black duffle near the front of the SUV.
On the opposite side, Griffin was in a battle of his own, fighting back another group of four that had taken an interest in the passenger side of the vehicle. Inside, Zach and Carly backed away from the window as he began dragging the riotous Feeders away from the door one at a time.
Shannon, now behind the wheel, was pinned inside. Feeders crowded the front and rear, rocking the massive SUV as she held her hands up and shouted. She revved the engine multiple times, but driving blindly forward meant also compromising her friends. Finding Ethan’s face through the growing crowd, she mouthed, “I’m sorry.”
To the man standing at Emma’s side, Ethan said, “Can you get her out of here?”
He nodded. “Yes, go help them.”
Ethan stood and started back toward his mother, although he knew he wasn’t going to make it in time. He put his head down and began weaving his way through the horde, although before he could get to her, she was grabbed from behind and taken to the ground.
Helen went down hard, slamming both knees into the asphalt and then folding into herself as she rolled onto the paved walkway. Just two steps behind, Frank came in quick and launched himself into the beast.
Tumbling over Helen, Frank gripped tight to the left arm of a large male Feeder, allowing his forward momentum to carry him and the former tow truck driver into the thick shrubs lining the walkway.
As Ethan drew closer, another pair of Feeders dropped to their knees and came in over his mother. He sidestepped one of his own, pushed it away, and within twenty feet of reaching her, he slowed to a stop.
The rear door of the SUV shot open and pushing away two feeders, Boone moved quickly to the bag of weapons. He rapped on the driver’s window and shouted over the sound of the increasing crowd. “DRIVE!”
Shannon shifted into gear as Boone knelt beside the bag and withdrew a pair of nine-millimeter handguns. He briefly eyed Ethan and then quickly moved in over Helen. She was attempting to slide backward as the smaller of the two Feeders had clawed its way onto her chest and lunged at her throat.
Time slowed to a crawl as Boone raised the pistol in his left hand, firing a single round into the head of the beast clawing at Helen’s legs. He then stepped in, clutched the smaller one by the back of its fast-food uniform collar, and tossed it to the side. With his boot on the struggling Feeder’s throat, he reached down and pulled Helen to her feet.
As Ethan moved through the crowd and finally reached his mother, Boone quickly exterminated the creature under his boot and handed Ethan the weapon in his right hand. “Your sister, get her in the car.”
Boone stepped away and hurried to the edge of the walkway where Frank had gone into the shrub. He parted the thick branches and quickly backed away. “Oh God!”
Ethan helped his mother back into the SUV and then ran to his sister as Griffin tossed the bag of weapons over his shoulder and guided Shannon through the parking lot, thinning the herd one by one.
The group came together at the south end of the lot and with his sister fading in and out of consciousness, Ethan turned back toward the chapel. Near the three-foot shrub on the far side of the walkway, Boone shoved the pistol into his waistband and knelt down. As he stood, the man he carried came into view.
Frank’s body hung limp as Boone carried him across the warm pavement. Blood ran from the older man’s neck and torso, a path of red velvet trailing behind. Ethan hurried across the lot and took Frank into his arms.
Beginning to weep, Ethan pulled the man he saw as a father figure into his chest and held him tight. He didn’t want to remember Frank this way. And although there wasn’t time, he felt the need to give him something more than this, something more dignified, something that measured up to the man who had saved his mother’s life.
With Griffin and Boone on either side, Ethan carried his old friend to the chapel door and waited. Once the others cleared the lot and then the interior, he laid Frank near the altar, said goodbye, and allowed him to leave this world with the respect he deserved.
Returning to the others, Ethan walked to the man he had yet to meet. “Hello, I’m Ethan, Emma’s brother. Looks like I owe you more than just a hand
shake.”
“Thanks, my name is Tom Whitlock, and I also owe your sister my life.”
Ethan looked into the backseat of the SUV and smiled as his mother cradled his sister in her arms. “Good to meet you, but we better get moving.”
Tom nodded and then looked around at the others. “I’m sorry about your friend, but I know of a place where we can go.”
185
Day Seventeen...
The air was crisp and filled with absolute silence as Ethan slowly opened his eyes and looked around the cramped room. Tom, the man who had saved his sister, sat in a chair along the opposite wall. He was covered with a green blanket that was stenciled with the letters LAUHS. To his left, his mother lay on a fold-away cot covered in the same type of blanket. Finally turning to his right, Emma lay on a similar cot reaching for his hand.
“Hey,” he said leaning in, “how’s my little sister?”
Emma squeezed his hand. “Better than you … you look like crap.”
“Yeah, but that’s nothing new.”
“I’m kidding.” Emma slid up, tucked a pillow behind her, and sat with her back against the wall.
Ethan also pushed back in his chair. “How you feeling?”
“My head.” Emma narrowed her eyes. “It’s just a bit fuzzy.”
“You’ve been down for quite a while, you probably needed the—”
Emma’s face changed. She took a deep breath and quickly turned her eyes away. “Dad’s gone, isn’t he?”
There wasn’t an easy way to break the news to her, even if she had already figured it out. Ethan still hadn’t come to terms with it, so how could he adequately explain what happened back in Colorado? He couldn’t. “Yeah, but it was quick … he didn’t suffer.”
Emma began to cry as she looked from Ethan to their mother. “Thank you Ethan, thank you for finding me. Thank you for saving me.”
“I’m just glad you’re okay.”
“What about the others, your friends?”
