by Maxey, Phil
It happened too quick… they had no time to pack and leave…
A large green sign hung over the highway and mentioned an upcoming exit, which would take him deeper into Topeka. A route he definitely would not be taking.
He pushed on the gas and came around a long bend. As with the previous five, his expectations were high, knowing there would be a view ahead for a few miles, but as before, there were no moving vehicles in front of him. Just an expanse of open road, bordered by beige spindly trees.
“Next one…”
“What…” said Josh, opening his eyes. “You see mom?”
Landon let out a breath then quickly produced a smile. “No, but soon! If you stay awake, I’m sure you will see their car around the next bend, or maybe the—” A man was standing in the middle of the highway, a few hundred yards away, waving his arms above his head.
“Who’s that?”
“I don’t know.” Landon slowed the pickup.
“He looks like he wants to talk to us.”
“Yup.” Landon’s muscles flinched as he started to move towards his handgun, then realized it wasn’t there.
Josh looked at him as they grew nearer. “Are you going to stop? What if he becomes a monster?”
Landon could now see the bearded man’s face. He looked younger than himself, maybe mid-twenties, wearing a heavy winter coat and he really wanted them to stop.
“If we stop, will we have time—”
“I don’t know Josh. Let me take care of this!” Landon immediately regretted his tone, but he needed to assess the situation, and he needed no distraction to do that. He stopped the pickup some twenty-feet from the man, who started to jog forward. Landon pushed his door open quickly, standing behind it, and held his hand up. “Wait there! I’m a law enforcement officer. Don’t come any closer.”
The man stopped. “I need your help! My wife is badly hurt.” He looked to the trees and a small dirt track to his left. “Our car is just over there. She’s hurt real bad, but we’re out of fuel. Can you get us to a hospital?”
The small dog in the pickup, barked.
“I don’t think there are any functioning hospitals…” His mind flashed back to Grace. “And I don’t know any doctors…”
The man looked exasperated. “Well… where are you going? Maybe—” The guy kept looking to his left, Landon’s right. Something was off. “— You can give us a lift to where we can get help?”
Landon looked to where the guy kept looking, but it was covered in a group of trees. There was something behind them, maybe a parking lot, but it was hard to see. He had to make a decision, his family or someone else’s. “I’m sorry buddy, but I have to...” He heard the click when it was too late, and let out a breath. A grin broke out across the bearded guy’s face. Landon turned around slowly to an older man, ten feet away, holding a handgun in his direction. He thought about diving inside the pickup and hitting the gas, but he had no doubt the balding man would start firing and who knew where those bullets would end up bouncing around. “I have a child with me!”
“You got any guns on you, lawman?” growled the old man, who Landon could see was missing teeth.
“No guns, but we got some candy and some tins of food if—” A solid fist struck his lower back, as Josh screamed, but the impact had claimed the use of his legs and he collapsed forward onto the concrete. Fighting the pain, he spun around as the bearded man dragged Josh from the driver’s seat and flung him to the ground as well. The small dog leaped forward, latching onto the man’s boot. Without breaking his smile, he shook him loose and gave his own louder growl back at the animal, who backed away, snarling. Landon staggered forward, covering his son while looking up. “Take the food, take what you want, just leave us be.”
The younger man stood near the open door, looking down, his grin not leaving his angular face. “What you think we should do with them, Clint?”
Clint looked across from the other side. “Ah, the things will get them. No point wasting a bullet. Let’s get out of here.” He climbed into the driver’s seat, the other man doing the same in the passenger’s and Landon and Josh watched the old pickup drive away.
“What are we going to do! We have to find mom!” cried Josh, as tears ran down his face.
Landon pulled his son to his chest. “It’s okay. We’re alive, that’s what matters. We’ll find mom.” He scanned the fields opposite then turned back to the nearby trees. “Come on, we need to—”
A distant roar came from where the pickup had gone, deeper into the city.
He touched Josh’s shoulder then picked up the dog’s lead and they ran towards the trees, which they quickly arrived at. “There’s a lot or something on the other side, keep running!”
They burst out to a largely flat beige-green field. Single-story block-like buildings sat beyond a parking lot on the far side, next to a large sign angled towards the highway which they could only see the back of.
Like the horn of a distant train the roar bellowed out again, this time deeper in tone. They continued running across the field, their boots sinking slightly in the wet patches of mud and were glad to make it to the concrete of the lot.
Landon handed the lead to Josh then immediately moved past the closest car, a white SUV. “Too modern,” he said under his breath and kept going, skipping the next as well then ran to the driver’s door of a black van. He tried the handle and on it being locked, looked around for something heavy.
Something crunched or collapsed on the opposite side of the building, but he ignored the metallic sound instead running towards what lay under a nearby wall which ran up to the double glass doors of the entrance. Grabbing the heavy pot, he didn’t even bother emptying it and ran with it to the left side of the van. “Stand back,” he said to Josh, who did and thrust the pot into the window which immediately shattered. He pulled the door open. “Get in! Crawl over to the other side!”
Josh let the dog jump first, then did the same, his father following, pulling the door closed.
“Dad!” shouted Josh, while the dog started to bark and growl again.
Landon flicked his head to his left. Something was emerging around the far left corner of the building. He didn’t have time to sit and stare and he ducked under the steering wheel, frantically pulling wires, then flicked open his pocketknife and cut one.
“Dad!”
“I know!” he said, stripping the plastic covering, then slid one exposed piece of copper wire against another with no result.
“Dad!”
The engine fired up and he threw it into reverse, hitting the gas and causing the van to surge backwards across the lot and the flat field. He caught glimpses of the brown, beige creature, which walked on heavy legs as the van bumped up and down, then swung it around, everyone being thrown to the side and pushed down on the gas once more, this time heading for the road which joined the highway. Bumping up, over and down a curb, he skidded onto the first of the four lanes and sped away. In his side mirror he saw the mass of limbs or perhaps tentacles flailing at the air. “Yeah, fuck you too.”
“Dad!”
Confused by the new shout from his son, he finally turned to his right. Josh was looking behind them both to the rear of the van. He looked in the rear mirror and almost slammed on the breaks. The sudden jolt threw the young woman holding a large knife forward until she caught her balance.
“We don’t mean you any harm!” shouted Landon.
“You’re in my van!”
“I know. I’m sorry… we didn’t know!”
She waved the knife again. “Where are Clint and Jay! What did you do with them?”
Landon glanced at his son then back to the woman. Several answers went through his mind in a split second, but that was okay, he was used to making quick decisions. “You mean the two men that just hijacked my car, then drove off, leaving you?”
Her eyes widened and she turned, scrambled to the back of the van to look out the small windows in the door. “No! Bastards!”
“Actually, they drove the other way… towards Topeka. Which is where we’re going as well.”
She whirled around. “You want to go to Topeka? Don’t you know what’s there?”
“We need to get to Jefferson City. So we’re just driving through. Can you put the knife down?”
She lowered it a little. “Why you want to get to Jefferson?”
He could have lied but thought better of it. “There’s a place. Its got a vaccine. Stops people from changing…”
His eyes caught hers and her hand holding the knife fell to her side. “Shit… you’re serious,” she said.
*****
10: 09 a.m. Highway 70, eastern outskirts of Topeka.
Jess looked at a sign that was leaned to one side, as they moved passed it.
‘Thank you for visiting Topeka! Come back soon!’
She was driving, giving Meg some much needed sleep and felt stronger than she had for a while. She avoided looking at her right hand, which she was sure felt heavier than before, and hoped no one else noticed how different it looked. Or maybe they had and didn’t want to mention her ‘deformity.’ Either way, she was alive.
Not like your son and husband…
It was the first time she had allowed the thought to fully form, but she still immediately dismissed the notion as insane. There was no way she was getting through this without her family. Her husband and son were out there, she… just did not know where. The Kellers would survive this plague.
A green sign flashed by, mentioning Kansas City was only some thirty miles away, but before that was another small city called ‘Lawrence.’ She had already checked the roadmap and the highway continued to cut through the center of Kansas City. If the road was clear, she would risk it. She now had maybe another day before the change would try to claim her again, but her daughter and Meg didn’t have that luxury. Something occurred to her and she looked in the rear mirror. “After I came home yesterday, when did you eat the chocolates in the bag?”
Sam looked down briefly. “Umm… pretty soon, I stole some. Tasted awful. Didn’t have anymore.”
Jess nodded. “Okay.”
She only has another hour at most.
“Why?”
“Oh, no reason.”
“Don’t do that. Tell me. Why? You think I’m going to change soon, don’t you?”
“You’re not going to change, Sam. And we’re not far from Amos’s home.”
“You don’t know that! I saw what you did. You were going to jump out when the change started.” Her eyes locked with her mother’s. “If I start to change, you have to let me—”
Jess shook her head. “Nope. No. You’re not going to change, so this discussion is pointless.”
Sam frowned, looking away and folding her arms.
Jess caught the boy looking at her and returned her view fully to the road ahead. Somehow it was easier to lie to her daughter, even when it was obviously not true. But the boy… he reminded her of Josh, and she couldn’t lie to him.
As she focused again on the highway, she could feel his eyes on the back of her head. He was judging her. He knew she had let her own little boy die… and her husband… he—
“I’ve been thinking about that…” said Meg.
Jess let out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding and glanced at the older woman as a parking lot full of semi-trucks passed by. “Oh, you’re awake. Thinking about what?”
“I think I was the last one to have the vaccine… in that chocolate you gave me… so that would mean the change will come to me last, and…well, I should know the destination. Your friend’s place, just in case… we don’t all make it.”
Jess had been looking at her while she was talking and almost forgot to look back to the road. “Oh, umm… yeah, that’s a good point.”
Stall Jess, Stall… think of something…
“So where is it? What’s the address?”
“But there is no need for anyone to know where it is right now, because no one else is going to change.” Her eyes drifted briefly across her hand, then looked away.
An awkward pause settled inside the car.
“You don’t know where it is, do you? Your friend’s home?”
Jess scrunched her face. “Of course I know where it is. It’s a few miles outside Jefferson City…”
Meg sighed, looking back to the highway. “Well… shit.”
“Look. He told me where it was and showed me some pictures. I can’t remember the address, but I’m sure once we get to the area, I’ll recognize something…”
“Of course you don’t know where it is!” said Sam, looking out the side window. “Why would I expect you to know where it was! That would be too easy!”
Jess shook her head then continued. It was too much. Half of her family had died and now what was left was probably going to die as well.
I should have jumped out… then Sam could have taken—
“Jess!”
Meg’s voice was distant and Jess saw herself driving off the road, crashing through a fence as if she was floating above the car, watching it all happen.
The sedan skidded to a halt, sliding sideways slightly. Jess blinked, her foot was on the brake and ahead was a sturdy looking trunk they were seconds from hitting. The only noise in the car was Tye crying.
“I think I should drive,” said Meg.
Jess nodded.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
10: 15 a.m. Highway 70, eastern outskirts of Topeka.
A sign flashed past Landon. He vaguely caught that it talked about leaving the city. For the past thirty minutes the girl in the back, who had straggly red shoulder length hair and freckles, sat silent. She hadn’t asked about them and they hadn’t asked about her. Landon wasn’t particularly comfortable with a stranger who was friends with the two that took their car, being just a few feet behind his head, but he was out of options. He needed to get to Jefferson City. No time for arguments. Just driving.
“What’s it name?” said the girl to Josh.
He briefly looked down at the dog. “It’s just dog…”
She scoffed. “You can’t call him just ‘dog.’ He has to have a name.”
“How about you tell us your name?” said Landon.
“What’s that got to do with anything?”
“Just be easier if we knew what we were all called. I’m Landon. This is my son, Josh…” He heard her sigh.
“Tracey.”
He wasn’t sure that was her real name, but it was something. “So, Jay’s your boyfriend?”
There was another hesitation before she answered. “Er… yeah. Clint’s his pa.”
“I’m sorry they left you Tracey.”
“Yeah, well. I wish I could say it was a big surprise, but…”
“Donnie…” said Josh, looking at the silver disc on the dog’s collar, who promptly sat up, his tail wagging.
“Means, ready for battle,” said Tracey.
“How you know that?” said Landon.
“I know all kinds of useless stuff. It’s a family curse. My grandmother was the same. People thought she was touched in the head, but she was like, really intelligent. Folks say I’m like her. Dunno.” She leaned forward between the seats, making Landon lean to his left slightly. “No, no, you can’t stay on this road, it takes you to where the monsters are.”
“It’s the quickest route to Jefferson,” said Landon.
She looked at him. “It’s the quickest route to get dead. Take the next exit. We need to get on the ten. Takes us south around Lawrence, then we keep on the small roads south of Kansas City. It adds maybe, another twenty minutes to the journey, but yeah, like I said, less certain death…”
Landon glanced at her. He was pretty good at reading people and he hadn’t believed much of what she had told them so far, but this, she was being honest about. The problem was would Jess have taken the more direct route? “Okay…” He steered them into the other lane and took the exit slope down, hoping his w
ife would have avoided the big city as well.
*****
10: 20 a.m. Highway 70, western outskirts of Kansas City.
Sam lifted in her seat slightly to see over the bridge’s barrier, to the river below. The brown-green waters had a silvery shine to them due to patches of ice on their surface. She had never been one for outdoor pursuits but as they drove towards the city, she would have given anything to be down there, on the banks, watching her father fish, while Josh squirmed at the bait and her mother explained that in every acre of land there could be a million earthworms, or another crazy fact. No doubt she would have been complaining about the lack of cell service and the flies.
The idea that she could change at any moment, becoming one of the things, left her indifferent. Which she didn’t understand. Perhaps it was the grief of losing her brother and father, something her mother obviously hadn’t accepted. Or maybe she just didn’t care anymore. Why care when your fate is decided for you? There was no fighting what had crept its way out of Denver, and crawled across the nation, ending life… or rather altering it. They had only lived this long due to sheer luck. What happened in the motorhome was real life, not the fantasy they had been—
“Do you want to play cards?” said Tye to her.
She looked at him as if he had just insulted her and he looked down. “Umm… you have cards?”
He pulled them from his jacket pocket. “I think there are some missing. I just grabbed a bunch when the monsters came.”
“Sure. Deal.”
A smile came to his face, which for a moment made her want to do the same, but then she realized her own brother was gone. She turned away. “No. I don’t want to play.”
Meg sighed. She had been listening while paying attention to the highway, which was devoid of vehicles. Beyond were beige flat fields, with some white farm buildings even further away, but the lack of cars or trucks made her uneasy. She couldn’t shake the feeling that they were the only people left alive, and were surrounded by a sea of unnatural things. Things that used to be people, but were now hideously deformed… worse, the people had been molded together into something else. She had seen enough of the things to know that the virus had the ability to break down the living to their basic elements and recreate them as monsters. And these things only had one intent, to find the remaining people and do the same to them.
