by Maxey, Phil
She followed him and immediately spotted the children at the top of the stairs.
“What? You’re leaving?” said Sam. “But we just got here!”
“There are things in the town that we need Sam, I—”
“Then let dad get them!”
Landon looked down.
“It has to be me…”
Emotion flowed across her daughter’s face. “This is bullshit!” She turned and disappeared into one of the bedrooms and slammed the door closed.
Josh looked at his sister’s bedroom door, then ran down the stairs, throwing his arms around his mother. “Please don’t go…”
She looked at Landon with tears in her eyes, while stroking her son’s hair. She looked down at him. “I won’t be long. But if we’re going to be able to live here, I need to get more things. And Owen, really needs some things that only I can get… If there was another way, I wouldn’t go, but I have to…”
He looked up, his eyes glossy and red, and nodded.
Jess kneeled next to him, then nodded behind to the open front door and Meg who was busy placing chains on the second truck’s wheels. “I’m going with Meg, and she’s already killed like a hundred monsters. She’s a badass.” He nodded again.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
11: 54 a.m. Outskirts of Rocky Pine.
The pickup bumped along the descending track, flickers of snow hitting the windshield.
Jess looked at the scenic view that the gaps in the pine trees allowed of the town below. “This is not exactly the kind of house move I had in mind,” she said to Meg who was driving. Abby was in the back.
Each of the women scoured the landscape around them for the slightest movement.
“Rocky Pine usually has less monsters…” A wry smile passed between the two in the front.
“Hey, what’s on the radio,” said Abby.
Meg leaned forward. “That’s a good idea.” She tapped the station button, but each stop on the digital dial only produced white noise.
Abby looked back out to the forest, regretting suggesting the idea. “Doesn’t matter.”
They moved out onto a snow-covered road, this time Meg’s pickup finding it easier to navigate the winding turnings, due to the increased grip.
“The medical center is on the other side of town,” said Meg. “So we get the other things we need on the way there.” She looked in the rear mirror. “I get the sense you’ve fired a gun before?”
Abby continued looking out the window. “Few times.”
Meg looked at her passenger. “What about you?”
“Umm, never. No. Landon kept wanting to take me to the range, but… it never happened.”
“Well, the gun I’ve given you anyone can handle. Just point it at the monster and squeeze the trigger. Remember, squeeze. It’s not an on, off switch.”
“Got it,” said Jess. Her hand hadn’t left the small gun in her right jacket pocket, since she got in the pickup. She was glad to have it, but wasn’t sure what good it would do if they came across one of those things. She had seen bullets rip into them, and they still kept coming.
The road widened out and they stopped at an intersection which was elevated slightly above the town, allowing them a view over the roads, parking lots and roofs.
Meg nodded to the northwest. “This road takes us onto the main, which moves around to the east. That’s where the hunting and camping store is. We’ll park in the lot out front if we can, then go around the side and break the back door in, and loot what we need. Want to be in and out in a few minutes. Everyone got that?”
They did.
Meg eased down on the gas and they moved down the slope, driving over a small bridge. The water rushed between snowy clumps of stones and ice. They quickly arrived at another intersection and drove east. Brown and beige furniture stores, nail salons and restaurants slid by, their frail windows still intact, their offers of bargains still standing upright but slightly submerged in snow.
Meg shook her head. “If I hadn’t lived through the last ten hours, I would say it’s just another day in Rocky…”
She slowed.
“Shit…”
Jess and Abby strained to see the spindly shape moving across a rooftop half a mile away to the northwest. Meg pulled a small spotting scope from beneath her seat and adjusted the focus until she saw what the others couldn’t, then shook her head again. This time it was because she knew she hadn’t the words for what she was seeing.
“What is it?” Abby.
“Er…” In her enhanced view a mass of silvery tentacles moved across the roof of an apartment building. It appeared to not have a head, or perhaps one that was lost within the multitude of appendages. She wanted to say ‘octopus’ but the thing that was making its way across the top of the three-story building was not exactly that either. “Don’t matter. It’s moving away.” She eased down on the gas again, being thankful the road veered to the right, taking them in the opposite direction.
They were close to the heart of the small town now, stores sitting close to the twin lane road. These premises did not fare as well as the previous. Their windows were shattered and whatever they sold lay torn in pieces across the sidewalk and road, half buried under snow.
Jess thought she spotted at least three body’s half exposed to the elements, but kept the news to herself. She just wanted to get out of this cold, dead place.
“You think they’re sleeping or something?” said Abby.
“Let’s hope,” said Meg.
As the interior of the town passed by, Jess wondered how many people were in the town when the virus hit. A hundred? A thousand? Did they all change? All questions she couldn’t help wonder about, but did not want to know the answer to.
A yellow block-like building appeared on their right, and they drove into the lot, which consisted of two other vehicles, a red sedan and a black van. Meg drove up to the right edge where a small path continued beyond a wooden gate.
Each rubbed the condensation from the windows then looked out, scanning the trees and building opposite, but no danger made itself evident. Neither of them wanted to go back outside, to a town that only existed as a memory, inhabited by things made by a virus.
“Quick and quiet,” said Meg. “Grab everything you can. We do maybe three trips each, then we’re out of here.”
They agreed and opened their doors then closed them quietly, although even that subtle click appeared too loud in the silence which permeated the frosty air.
They followed Meg, letting her lead with her shotgun, past the gate, then around the path, crunching through the snow.
“Looks like others had the same idea,” said Meg nodding towards the door at the back which was half open, the wood near the handle splintered. “Have your guns ready, but don’t shoot me.”
They slowed, approaching the entrance, and she prodded the door further, exposing a corridor full of shadows, but none were moving. They crept forward, into the narrow space, past posters for local events and a door marked as ‘staff room’ and out to the main floor, which was covered in winter clothing. Ski helmets and jackets, together with hiking boots and scarfs. Colorful warm clothes scattered everywhere.
“I wonder how long ago they came here,” said Abby. She picked up a pair of boots.
“There might be other people still alive in the town,” said Jess.
“Who knows,” said Meg. She moved to the large glass doors and looked out to the lot. Nothing stirred outside. “The snow is falling heavier. Let’s get started.”
*****
Twelve miles away, as heavy clumps of snowflakes drifted to the ground, Daryl walked to a pile of frosted logs that were stacked near a small outbuilding at the rear of the Keller’s property.
He looked at the sleek white slopes that the trees and walls of rock ate into. The ground was pristine, no tracks of anything. That was good. He nodded to himself and bent down to get a log when a creak came from behind the weathered shack. He stopped all motion, then
slowly lifted back up, waiting for it to happen again. He was starting to regret not taking Meg up on her offer of a handgun, when Arlene appeared from around the back of the abandoned structure.
“You shouldn’t be out here!” he said.
She smiled, opening her arms and spinning around. “Ain’t nothing out here but us!” Her raised voice made him cringe.
“Keep it down! We don’t know what’s out here!” His eyes darted around them, making sure she was right.
“Anyway, I couldn’t stay in there any longer. I ain’t a babysitter. Did years of that growing up.”
Daryl leaned down and grabbed another log. “Help me with these—”
Another creak came from somewhere within the thicket of trees. Arlene jogged forward, fear in her eyes, moving closer to him. “Let’s get inside,” he said. They moved to a set of stone steps at the back of the house and descended. He turned his head before the bark and branches moved completely of sight and swept across the white and blue landscape once more, but nothing moved amongst the wintry landscape. He followed Arlene into the basement.
Two stories above, Sam sat on the floorboards, her backpack by her side. There was a wooden framed bed with a soiled mattress, but she wasn’t going to sleep in it, even if it were the end of the world. The battery bar on her phone pulsed red. But that was okay, for it still allowed her a few more seconds to look at photos. Cass smiled big in one of them, the image bringing with it tears which rolled down Sam’s face. She wanted to hope that her friend escaped the wave of death but was afraid to do so. Hope brought with it inevitable disappointment. Better to be resigned to the cold hard reality that her friend was now just a digital image in an almost dead phone.
She looked at the peeling wallpaper, blackened boards and wondered just how she was there, in a house that was almost lost to time, tucked away on the side of a mountain. And outside, amongst the trees and buildings of the town, were things which even though she had seen them, her mind still couldn’t explain. She was alone. They were all alone.
A board creaked outside her door, followed by a timid knock. “Are you alright…” said Josh.
She swallowed her tears. She wanted to shout that she wasn’t, that nothing would ever be alright ever again. That’s if they even lived long enough to carry the past twenty-four hours with them as horrible memories. But Josh was just a child. She was the older sister. If she was this scared, how afraid was he?
She got up, walked to the door and unlocked it, then walked to her spot under the window and sat back down. “You can come in.”
The door opened to a younger brother holding a wrapped piece of chocolate. Her eyes widened and she immediately stood back up, then started to speak, but held her tongue, pulling Josh inside the room and closing the door behind him. “I thought you gave all of them to mom?”
“I wanted to keep one for myself…” He held it up to her. “You can have it.”
She cautiously took it from him.
“It shields you from the monsters or something.”
She shook her head. “No, it doesn’t work like that. It prevents you from becoming like them. But we have already eaten some, so we’re fine.”
“Then… maybe we can give it to someone to stop them from becoming a monster too?”
She nodded, studying the small piece of candy. “Maybe.” She looked more directly at her younger brother. “You mustn’t tell anyone we have this. Okay?”
He nodded.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
12: 33 p.m. ‘Happy Outdoor Goods.’
Jess tied the final knot on her new boots and caught a glimpse of herself in the nearby full-length mirror. For a moment she genuinely felt she was looking at someone else. She was wearing a camouflaged winter jacket, replete with woollen hat and gloves. She also had a new pack, one designed specifically for hiking, with a netting design allowing her to hang other items on the back of it. It was full to the brim of everything she thought useful. An angler’s kit, rechargeable flashlight, hunting knife, extra socks, empty water bottles, high strength adhesive tape, first aid kit and a magnesium rod with a striker to start fires. She had seen a camping TV show one night, a few months back and these were the kind of thing’s the celebrities were told to have with them. By her feet was a sleeping bag and on her wrist a survival bracelet watch, which gave her the time and acted as a compass. She had already packed three other exact replica packs of items, and stored them in the back of the pickup for Landon and the kids. The idea she would need to use any of the stuff she had stolen was still insane to her, despite the events of the last twelve hours.
She couldn’t find any other radios though. Meg said they might find some further in to town. She held hers to her mouth, holding the transmission button then spoke. It had been the third time since arriving she had tried contacting Landon, but the result was she same. White noise.
Meg walked back into the store from the back corridor. “You ready to head to the medical center?”
Jess stood. “Yup.” She looked at her new watch. “Been gone about forty minutes. Ahead of schedule. Good.”
It wasn’t long before they were back on the road, heading back into town.
Signs for discounted liquor rolled by along with a motel advertising rates for rooms.
“How long you think it’s going to take you to find what you need?” said Meg.
“Ten… fifteen minutes tops.”
“Abby, I need you to wait in the truck. If you see any danger, you hit the horn.” The woman with the baseball cap, begrudgingly agreed.
They were soon back on Main Street. The one that ran near the restaurants. Jess paid particular attention to the alleyways and dark corners as the ruined stores moved past, and Meg drove them onto the hill which rose to the center. They had to slow nearing the entrance to the parking lot as a police cruiser blocked one half of it. Its driver’s door was open and there was no sign of any bodies, but the pickup’s occupants were more taken aback by what lay across the lot. Cars, trucks, vans and pickups, at least twenty sat at different angles, covered in snow. Some with doors open, others showing the scars of some deluge. As if a plague of locusts had swept through, taking pieces with them.
Meg stopped at the entrance to the lot. “You sure you want to do this?”
Jess nodded. “No. Really not. But if Owen is going to live. Kind of have too.”
“Okay then.” Meg eased them forward, steering left and right around the frozen abandoned vehicles, getting as close as she could to the center’s entrance, then stopped in front of the curb and turned the engine off. They all looked at what was left of the way into the single-story building. The large glass doors that Jess had moved through during the early hours were gone, their content now shattered, lying across the ground and inside was gloom, hardly lit with a pale gray light. The chairs were scattered, the TV on the floor with them.
Meg looked back to Abby. “I’ll leave the key in, so you can drive us out of here if things go south.” Abby nodded as Meg looked at Jess. “I’m going to let you lead, but if there’s anything in there, you need to get out of the way so I can shoot it.” Jess nodded.
They both got out. The air was icy cold but brought with it an odor, a stench Jess had sampled several times since the madness began. She looked at Meg who could obviously smell the same. They walked onto the snow-covered sidewalk and approached the hole where the glass doors were before, and stepped over the threshold, both doing their best not to crunch the glass beneath their boots.
As Jess approached the high counter, she half-expected something to rear up from the other side, but on reaching it, there was nothing there, just the chair the bored receptionist sat on. She looked at the two corridor options available. One marked ‘staff only’ the other ‘patient rooms’ then pointed towards the former. Meg nodded, the double barrels of her gun swaying left and right.
Jess looked into the dark corridor, wondering if whether she should use her flashlight, but then thought better of it. She walked for
ward, looking at the names and titles on the metal plaques attached to the doors, while trying to listen for the slightest of noises beyond them. They arrived at an intersection, and she immediately spotted what she needed and moved to the door with the ‘pharmacy and supplies’ sign.
The handle only turned halfway before stopping. “It’s locked,” she whispered to Meg. “We need to break it.”
Meg moved alongside. “Both of us, at the same time. Ready?”
Jess nodded and they both hit up against the wooden door at the same time, but it hardly shuddered in its frame.
“Again,” said Meg.
They slammed into it a second time, the impact sending a pulse of pain through Jess’s head, which she shook. “It’s no good. It’s too secure. You need to blast the lock.”
Meg nodded and slowly raised her two barreled gun as Jess stepped back, moving towards another—
Something heavy fell in the room behind her, making her instinctively spin and fall back against the opposite wall. She looked at Meg, whose gun was now pointing at the entrance to the new room.
Another noise came from behind the far flimsier looking barrier. This sound was quieter, more measured.
“Is—”
The woman’s whisper made both the women in the corridor jump, and Meg almost pull the trigger.
“— There anyone there?”
“Yes!” said Jess.
The door opened. A middle-aged woman with shoulder length gray hair and wearing a white coat looked back at Jess.
“Is it safe?” said the woman.
Jess glanced back at Meg. “We don’t know. We haven’t come across any of the creatures yet. You’re a doctor?”
The woman walked forward and peered left then right along the corridor. “Yes. I work here, my name is Grace, Grace Haynes. I was on call, when…” She wavered, placing a hand on the doorframe. Jess went to move towards her, but the doctor held her hand out, which has red streaks across it. “I’m fine. Just a little dizzy. After everything began, I hid in my office…” She produced a brief smile. “Not something I’m too proud about.”
