by Maxey, Phil
“Okay.”
In one movement, he did just that. Josh grabbed the top of the wooden fence and—
A noise echoed out, just as his son hit the ground on the other side. A sound Landon never thought he would hear again. Growling.
In one leap he grabbed the top of the fence, pulling himself up and looked down upon an angry shape that was jostling forwards and back as if it were tied…
A dog?
The question as to how it could still be alive was to be answered another day. Right now he was more concerned with the increasingly loud grunts and snarls it was producing. He dropped down near his son, who appeared terrified. “It’s okay, Josh. It’s tied up. It can’t hurt you. Come on, we need to get in the house and find any car keys we can.”
Both turned and ran as quickly as they could, leaving behind the growling animal.
As Landon’s outstretched hands hit the wooden planks of a back wall, something landed with a clump on the snow behind him. He looked back in panic, waiting for an attack, but then realized Josh had fallen. “Are you okay?” he said to the boy was getting back to his feet.
“Yeah.”
“Come on. The door’s just—”
A crash of something came from a few streets over, as if a wooden construction had just exploded.
Landon swung back towards the house, feeling along the wall until he found the door, and then handle, which turned but did not open the door. Not wasting any time he slammed into it, breaking it open. A rotten, putrid smell escaped out into the night, and he flung his hand out behind him, stopping his son in his tracks from following.
“I think it’s rotten food,” said Josh.
He was right. Nothing moved inside the small space across the threshold. Landon pulled Josh with him, and they moved into a kitchen. “Look for flashlights, matches and packets of food, or tins in the cupboards. I’m searching in the hallway.”
As Landon moved forward, feeling across the wallpaper then door frame, he was sure the silence in the streets was broken, and was in no doubt he and his son’s time was running out. He traced across the walls, finding frames of various sizes, then found a handle to a closet. He pulled it open, and quickly felt the pockets of the coats, but all were empty of any keys.
Suddenly he could see. He turned around to the glare from a flashlight that Josh was holding. “Well done.” He took it from his son and scanned the hallway, instantly seeing a set of keys sitting on a small side table. He grabbed them and looked back to the boy who was holding a can of fish and a box of dog biscuits.
“We shouldn’t leave him,” said Josh. “The monsters will get him.”
As if the animal heard itself be mentioned, the dog started to bark.
“We can’t take a dog with us, Josh! We have to…” The look of sadness on his son’s face was almost worse than what he knew to be bearing down on them outside. He ran forward, taking the box, and as he passed through the kitchen grabbed a large knife from a rack. “If he tries to bite me, I’m leaving him! Stay here!”
As Landon ran into the backyard, the sounds of hoofs or clawed feet, he wasn’t sure which, were stomping through the snow of the surrounding town, breaking things as they made their way towards him and his son. He looked at the dog, whose growl and shadow in the dark made it appear a lot larger than it actually was. He guessed it was a kind of terrier, with brown and white markings. It continued barking and growling, its head shifting between the imposter in front of it and towards the fence. Landon pulled the box apart clumsily, grabbing a handful of biscuits and threw them forward. The dog snapped one midair and munched on it, then went to do the same to the others on the ground, when its head and tail stood erect, and it growled towards the fence again.
Landon looked in the same direction, but moved towards the animal who now had no interest in him whatsoever. Carefully, he pulled the dog’s lead that was over a hook on its kennel and pulled it backwards, with him towards the house, while watching the fence. A smell started to drift on the light wind, which the dog obviously caught first. “Come on, we’re going.” Landon said. The dog turned and ran inside, almost pulling Landon with him. He closed the rear door with one hand, and moved quickly through the kitchen to the hallway, where Josh turned with glee across his face. “You got your dog,” said Landon. “And now we really need to leave.”
Josh held up a plastic bag. “I put some more food in here.”
“Great.”
The dog let out a subtle bark towards the back of the house, which Landon glanced at then turned his attention to the street out front, which he was watching through the small panes of glass in the front door. It looked quiet. Suspiciously so, but the block like shape beyond the lawn suggested a pickup of some sort. He had no idea if the keys were for it, but there were no other vehicles in sight.
Has to be it.
If it wasn’t, they would be stuck out in the street. An easy target for anything out there. He looked back at Josh. “These keys are for that pickup outside. We’re going to run to it. When I unlock the doors, you climb in, or just jump in the back. Don’t—” The wooden fence in the backyard exploded in a clattering of planks and splinters. Landon didn’t bother finishing his sentence. He slid the latch aside and pulled the door open. “Come on!” he shouted to his son. Both of them sprinted across the foot of snow covering the lawn to the pickup, neither getting a chance to fully check their surroundings.
Landon plucked the keys from his pocket, sliding them into the keyhole and with desperate hope in his mind, turned the keys. The door unlocked and he pulled it open, while Josh did the same on the other side. The dog jumped up inside, seemingly having done that before and Landon climbed in, placing the keys in the—
“It’s coming!” shouted Josh, but Landon’s focus was on one thing only. The engine fired up, the headlights illuminating dark shapes lumbering towards them. He put it in drive and slammed down on the gas. The wheels spun, then the whole vehicle jolted forward, quickly gaining speed, as he steered left around something which lunged at them from the dark, then the same to the right, but this time the creature clipped the back and the pickup slid to the side, pushing them into the side of a parked car. As they scraped along it, Landon kept hard down on the gas, breaking them free. He had no idea what direction they were heading, but the street ahead lacked any unnatural shapes and that was enough.
CHAPTER TEN
5: 57 a.m. Highway 70, heading east.
Jess’s sleep lacked dreams, being a void which she fell in and out of between glimpses of the four-lane road they were still driving along. Whispers at the edge of her mind talked of inconsolable loss and tragedy, but she flat out refused to listen to them. Her imagination was playing tricks on her, she would say to herself. Josh and Landon are ‘out there’, lost, but one day they will all be reunited. Meanwhile, she just needs to run, hide and survive. Be ready for when the virus had finished its course and the world could return to normal…
Never return… all de—
A green sign passed by mentioning another of the small towns they had already passed. She forced herself to imagine what it looked like. Not with unthinkable things living in the shadows, but when humans walked the sidewalks and drove the streets. Happy Sunday mornings with your children, or enjoying the evening, after a long day at—
“We need to make a decision,” said Meg.
“Uh? What decision,” said Jess.
Meg gestured towards the fuel gauge. “Reckon we can do maybe another twenty miles before we’re out. There’s a small town, pretty remote, coming up. There’s bound to be a gas station at the entrance to it. This will be our best chance to fill back up without being attacked.”
Jess heard Sam’s breathing increase. “Umm… yes, of course. That’s what we should do. We need…”
Run, hide, survive…
“We need to have fuel, so we can get to Missouri.”
Meg steered to the right, following the sweeping bend. The landscape was almost completely
flat, and the headlights on the old sedan allowed for a view of hundreds of yards. The flat, single story structures of a gas station soon became apparent. “There. Just what I thought. If we can’t get the pumps working, there should be some fuel in the store. Can get some water and food as well, hopefully.” She looked at Jess who smiled. The older woman was struck by the younger’s oddly detached behavior, but this wasn’t the time to pick over what was the right way to grieve.
Jess turned around to her daughter. “It will be okay. Like Meg said, this is very remote. There will probably not be—”
“Probably?” The word spurted from Sam’s mouth. “You want to risk our lives on a ‘probably?’”
Meg caught the young girl’s gaze in the rear mirror. “A few more miles and we’re running on fumes. Do you want us to be stuck out here? It’s a long way to walk to another town.”
“I… I…”
“We’ll be careful,” said Jess. “No need to worry.” She produced another of her smiles, which disturbed her daughter even more, but Sam stayed silent.
“Can I use the restroom…” said Tye.
“Yes! Good idea,” said Meg. “I need it too! I’m busting my britches!” Her enthusiasm was an attempt to make the boy smile, but he merely looked back out into the darkness.
Flag poles, their fabric hanging limp and frozen, quickly came and went within the main beams of the car, then signs highlighting the upcoming motorway rest stop, as well as a nearby inn. All were hardly noticed though by the occupants of the sedan, each person being too focused on the surrounding darkness.
Meg took a turnoff and drove onto the lot of the gas station, which looked as if nothing had changed in the world. The row of four pumps sat innocently, a brushing of snow covering their displays and roughly ten yards beyond, a wide building with a triangular roof and dark windows, which were in contrast to the sign above them.
“Happy eat time…” said Jess, mirroring the gold on white writing.
Meg stopped the car alongside a pump. “Everyone stay in here while I go and try and fill up the tank. If this works and it looks like we’re alone out here, then we can all go to the rest stop together.” Everyone acknowledged the plan and Meg got out, while a gust of cold air came in. They all watched her run around the back, pull the nozzle out and heard her remove the gas cap. The sound of flowing fuel then followed.
“It’s working!” said Sam.
“Yes. I told you. All will be fine,” said Jess. Sam’s brow tightened with a frown and she looked at the building they were about to head towards. She couldn’t see any movement within, but that didn’t stop the hairs on the back of her arms standing up regardless. The clang of the nozzle being replaced made her jump a little, so entranced was she by what could lay outside.
Meg pulled her door open, leaning in. “It’s darker than a bear’s tooshie out here, but I don’t think there are any—”
“We have to leave! Leave, and…” Everyone looked at Jess, who suddenly seemed lost. She looked at the others in the car. “We’re running out of time. We have to get to Missouri, to get the vaccine.”
Sam leaned forward, putting her hand on top of her mothers. “We will mom. But Tye needs to use the restroom, and we can get some stuff here.” Jess nodded, pulling her hand away and pushed her door open.
Meg turned the engine off, but left the lights on, so they would have at least some illumination of the route to the building.
Each was struck by how quiet it was around them. Even the wind which had been buffeting the car on the highway, had fallen silent.
“It’s very quiet…” said Tye.
Meg looked at him. “That’s good. Means we can hear if anything is coming towards us.” He nodded. She looked at the entrance, with its glass multipaneled double doors. “Okay, I’ll go first. Jess, you stay at the back, make sure nothing’s coming up behind us.”
They hurried past the other pumps, across the forecourt, each in the small group straining their senses beyond the few feet that the car’s headlights allowed them, and they were soon on a sidewalk, then path to the entrance doors.
Meg held her hand up, making those behind her pause as she walked forward slowly. The beams from the car hardly gave any clue as to what was inside, but she could vaguely see shapes which she thought were shelves containing chips and candy, and to their side, magazines on a wall rack. She Looked back at the others then the car, then turned back to the door and turned the handle. The door opened with a slight creak and she pushed it all the way, stepping over the threshold. Everyone waited for the inevitable rush of noise and fury from a creature… but none came. Meg turned and ushered everyone inside and then pulled the door closed behind them.
Tye wondered over to the sweets. “Can I have some of these?”
Meg nodded. “Yes, take what you want. Everything’s free today, kid. I thought you wanted to use the restroom?”
He looked into the gloom, beyond the racks of clothes, to where seats for an eating area sat. “I do, but it’s…”
She walked forward. “Come on. I’ll take you.” She looked over to Sam as Jess was already lost around the other side of an aisle. “Can you keep an eye on the car and outside?” Sam nodded, then continued pushing packets of crackers, breakfast fruit bars and bottles of water into a backpack she had pulled off a stand.
Jess had already found her own pack, but was filling it with different things. Her focus was on maps and guides to the way out east. She wanted to keep to the back roads. That would be the best way to hide and—
A noise made her spin around, while backing up into the shelf of books, knocking some to the floor.
Her daughter looked at her, holding a large plastic flashlight. “I found these…”
Jess shook her head. “Yes. That’s good. Umm, make sure we all have one.”
Sam walked towards her. Jess knew her daughter. It was obvious she had something important to say.
She wants to talk to you about what happened to Josh and—
She whirled away from Sam, making her daughter stop suddenly. “And we need some of these road guides. But, it can’t be a dirt track, because we’re running out of time, before…” She looked over the bookshelf, as Meg and Tye reappeared. “You should use the restroom as well.”
Tears ran down Sam’s face, but instead of telling her mother of the pain she was feeling, she wiped them away, putting the pack on the floor and walked past the older woman and the boy.
Meg handed Tye another of the packs. “Fill this with as much candy as you want. And drink, but not all soda!” It was the first smile Meg had seen from the boy. He turned and ran to the food section. She turned to Jess. “We got lucky with this place. We should grab as much stuff as possible. Might not get another chance. How we doing on time?”
“Umm, yeah, that’s a good idea. Er… Not good. We need to get back on the road.”
“You know exactly where to go, right? The address?”
Jess didn’t, but she wasn’t ready to tell anyone that and just nodded.
*****
6: 15 a.m. Highway 70, heading east.
Landon was glad to be able to turn the wipers off. The snowfall had decreased to a few infrequent pieces that melted on contact with the windshield. He looked at Josh and felt a wave of emotion that he quickly suppressed. It wasn’t so much for the close call they had back in the town, but that Jess must have thought they were both dead for her to leave. He couldn’t imagine what she was going through…
He looked at the converging lines of the road beneath the headlights.
She’s on this road, just an hour ahead. We’ll catch up. She won’t have to carry the pain for much longer… She’s strong.
He wasn’t a hundred percent sure that the few seconds he saw of the rear window, as the sedan disappeared into the darkness, also contained Sam’s silhouette, but his gut was telling him that she was with her mother. And that was enough for him to have hope.
He looked back to his son and the small dog layin
g at his feet and smiled.
Why haven’t you changed? Meg’s dog changed, but you… Ah…
It hadn’t occurred to him until that moment, that animals, perhaps certain species could also be immune.
What should we call you? he thought, racking his mind for a good dog name. Then realized there was a small silver disc hanging from the small canine’s collar.
Bet your name’s on that. We’ll I’ll find out next time we stop.
He wondered how much time they had left to get to Missouri. How many hours before…
Don’t think about it. Just drive.
His thoughts turned to Daryl and Arlene.
Stupid…
The chances they would both be alive by noon were slim, especially if they ventured out into the streets. They hadn’t seen the number of creatures that the small town contained. They didn’t know what was waiting for them…
He shook his head.
“Do you have a headache?” said Josh.
Landon looked to his right with a smile. “No, I’m good. Just a bit tired. It shouldn’t be too long before we catch up with your mother and Sam. Maybe another hour. How’s your new friend down there?”
Josh looked down at the dog who looked up. He patted his head. “Think he’s okay.” Josh pulled up the plastic bag, pulling out some candy and gave a piece to the dog.
“Not too much, it’s not good for them.”
“I know…”
Silence returned to the cab of the old truck, which lacked any bed, its back just being a chassis. But its V8 engine purred as they charged along the highway.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
7: 06 a.m. Trailstone.
Daryl laid his finger on the blind and applied the slightest of pressures to pull it lower. The street outside was serene. The snowfall was thick, covering everything in a blue-white smudge, but the sky above was clear, allowing the rising sun to get to work on melting the ice.
