by Maxey, Phil
“No, there’s something back there,” said Sam. “We need to go.”
“Okay,” Joan pushed down on the gas and they quickly left the station, driving back onto the snow-covered road to the highway.
*****
8: 49 p.m. Heavercroft School.
Jess stood, looking down at the large fold-out map of Missouri. A web of ink lines covered it from Rockston, fanning out to the Southeast, avoiding the cities. It was the most efficient series of routes she could think of. If she left soon, she could cover most of it by dawn. She thought about telling Daryl or maybe Sheryl. But she knew they didn’t want to join her looking for her family. Daryl especially seemed lighter, happier now they had found others and with a small town descending upon the school, she had no doubt he would be feeling more at home. Perhaps her radio broadcast could be the start of something. Bringing people together to start rebuilding when the six days were finally up and the virus was just a nightmare of the past. She was thankful for that.
She carefully folded the map and placed it in her backpack, then checked the small vaccine bottles were secure. She had also reclaimed the keys to his pickup and gun from him, not that it had any ammo, but there was always the chance she should happen upon a gun store on her travels.
She looked at the candle burning on the desk, lighting the shelves of books around her.
“I’m going to find them…”
She blew out the candle and left the circular library room, closing the door and descended into a busy corridor alive with the noise of civilisation. Kids ran between classrooms, chased by their guardians, while small groups of people chatted. She ignored their sideways stares, keeping her head down and made her way to the exit at the back of the school, coming out to the frost-covered parking lot. She looked up into a sea of white falling flakes and pulled her collar up, then walked to the pickup, placing the key in the door.
The distant sound of an engine paused her hand, and she turned towards the headlights coming up from the woods at the bottom of the hill. She looked back to the truck, opening the door, placing her pack on the other seat then got in, closing the door quickly behind. A sorry excuse of a car, drove into the parking lot. It contained the shadowy forms of people, three, including the driver and parked near the school entrance.
She fired up the pickup’s engine, easing down on the gas while turning in an arc, reorientating towards the lot’s exit.
A muffled voice came from her pack. She frowned. She had forgotten to turn her radio handset off. She brought it with her, knowing they might panic when they discovered she had gone, and if she were still in range, she would reply to their message, but she at least wanted to be a few miles away before that happened. She applied the brakes, stopping on the street outside the parking lot, reached to the pack, pulled the flap open and…
For a moment she was sure she imagined Josh’s voice, her subconscious already being haunted with memories. But it happened again and it was coming from her radio. She plunged her hand in and pulled the device out.
“Josh!”
“Mom!”
“Josh!” Tears ran from her face.
“Mom! Don’t leave!”
She swung her head around, looking at the entrance. A small figure with two larger ones was standing there. The pickup’s door was flung open and she ran across the grass bank, then concrete towards the boy that was running towards her. With one movement she kneeled and threw her arms around her son, both crying.
Doubts shouted in her mind that it wasn’t real. It couldn’t be. She pulled back as Meg walked forward, holding a lantern, and flicked Josh’s hair away from his face, examining him. “Is it really you?”
Between sobs, he nodded and she hugged him again.
“The radio thing was real smart,” said Meg, smiling.
Jess snorted, looking up at the older woman, her eyes then widening. “The vaccine! I have it in my…” she noticed Meg looked unconcerned.
“Landon has already given it to us…”
“What?” Jess stood, looking around. “Landon’s here? Where’s Sam?”
The older woman’s expression stiffened and with it Jess’s heart skipped more than one beat. “She’s fine… don’t worry… she’s with Landon—”
“My husband is with her? How?”
“That’s a long story, but yeah, they are out scouting for supplies. Will be a while before they’re back because they have gone quite far…”
“Okay… that’s okay… and Tye?” This time there was no salvation from Meg’s reaction and words caught in Jess’s throat.
“He… changed…” said Meg.
Jess let out a breath, swallowing then nodded. “Yeah, I know. No one’s truly immune.” Now it was Meg who had questions. “I’ve also got a long story to tell.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
9: 36 p.m. Highway 63.
Jess held her son between her arms, he standing in front of her holding a lantern and both a few feet away from the new grave as snow drifted to the ground. He took a step forward and placed the flickering candle in the ice-covered dirt.
“This is so you can find us, if you come back,” he said then returned to his mother, Jess placing an arm around him.
She needed to see where Tye was buried to believe it was real. That he changed. “Come on. We need to get inside, or you’re going to get a cold.”
They quickly traipsed through the few inches of snow, along the path and towards the glows, then entered the kitchen at the back of Rufus’s house. He was seated at the table with Meg and Brad. Tracey was leaning against the basin.
“I’m tired,” said Josh. “Can I go sleep in the living room?” Jess looked at Rufus who nodded.
“The other children are in their as well,” he said to Josh. “If they’re not already asleep, tell them to sleep!” He smiled and Josh nodded, sheepishly walking into the hallway. Everyone waited for the living room door to open and close.
Jess let out a breath then moved to the basin, pouring herself some water, taking a few gulps while looking out at the falling snow outside the window.
Rufus shook his head. “So Biochron is behind all of this. A pharmaceutical company?”
Jess wasn’t sure if the question was aimed at her, but she replied anyway. “Yup… and maybe some government people, I’m not sure.” She turned around, the glass in her hand.
“Not demons,” said Meg. The comment came out more sarcastically than she intended and she noticed Jess looked slightly confused by it.
“Well… just because it is a scientist that has brought about the end times, it doesn’t make what’s happened, any less… Biblical.”
A memory of a word Lucas uttered pinged in her mind. “Occult…” she said under her breath.
All eyes in the small smoke filled room fell on her.
“Uh?” said Meg.
“Umm, nothing.”
“So a few more days, and it’s all over,” said Tracey. “We can go back to spending our days in empty shopping malls, and tapping three or more tiny fruits on a cell phone screen…”
“That’s if the creatures have gone,” said Brad.
“I… think they will be,” said Jess. “The ones I saw in Rockston were different than before. Decaying… slower moving… I think they’re dying.”
“Thank God,” said Meg.
“Yes you can,” said Rufus, with a smile.
Jess took another sip from her glass, placing it on the countertop, then unclipped her hand radio from her belt and held it to her mouth. “Landon? Are you there? Over.”
Static came from the speaker.
“He’s out of range,” said Meg. “The connection was bad when we spoke before.”
Jess sighed in frustration, lowering her hand.
“Don’t worry. I’m sure in a few hours they will be back in range, and you can speak to them…”
Jess nodded, but something felt wrong with the older woman’s words. She seemed too eager to say the right thing, and her heart
rate was faster than before. She looked back at her. “If something was wrong. You would tell me, right?”
Meg briefly looked away. “Yes, of course. What would be wrong?”
“I don’t know. But if there was something wrong, and if you didn’t tell me, when I could have helped…”
Meg’s eyes briefly diverted again. “There’s nothing you can do, Jess. I know it’s hard. It’s amazing that you guys have found each other, but you just have to wait…”
“Hmm.” She looked at Rufus. “Is it okay, if I stay here the night with Josh? I don’t want to drive him back, right now.”
“Yes, please do. I… don’t think there’s any more space in the living room, but if you don’t mind the cold, you can use the diner with Brad and Tracey.”
“It’s not too bad once the candles are burning,” said the young woman.
“What’s your view on this community at the school?” said Rufus to Jess.
“I don’t know if I would call them a community… not yet. It’s just a lot of disparate people, who somehow managed to survive until now. And they all appreciate there is strength in numbers.”
“You don’t think it could be the start of something?”
“Maybe… it depends…”
“On?”
“How many don’t change, before the next two days are up…”
Silence returned, with each lost in thoughts they would rather not have.
Brad awkwardly stood, his injuries still sore. “Anyway, I think I’m going to hit the sack. Start getting it warmer in the diner.”
*****
9: 52 p.m. Highway 70.
“Sam? Sam? Can you hear this? If you hear my voice at all, just click the transmit button twice. Over.” Landon held the radio close to his ear, listening for the slightest of deviations from the static. After a few seconds, he placed the radio on the dashboard.
“To hear you, they need to be listening to the right frequency at the right moment,” said Arlo. “In other words—”
“I know.” Landon looked at the fury of snow hitting the windshield. “If it wasn’t for this weather, we could get ahead of them.”
“We can’t be that far behind. Maybe forty or so miles. She’ll hear at some point.”
“I wonder if they found Jess…” He leaned forward, turning the volume on his wife’s message up slightly.
Arlo stifled a groan. He had her words stamped into his brain. Luckily Landon quickly turned it back down. “We’re only ten minutes out from the eastern edge of Kansas City. What’s the plan? Do we go north or south around it?”
“Neither.”
“What?”
“We need to catch up. We have to go through.”
Arlo prolonged his glance at his passenger. “Through? Landon. I was in the city just a few days ago with… well I was there. And it’s not somewhere you want to be.”
“We’ll be fine. Just keep the speed above fifty—”
“Fifty? I’m barely doing forty in this storm.”
“The creatures don’t like the cold. The storms good for us. Means they will be in buildings, not outside.”
Arlo sighed. The former detective had a point but if he was going to risk his life by going through a city full of the things, he wanted a more definite answer on what happens next. “What…”
“What?”
“What if we don’t catch up with her and—”
“Hey watch out!”
Arlo flicked his head back just in time to see the mound of snow and steel, a sedan, abandoned in front of them and hit the brake, but the heavy vehicle kept on moving in the same direction, the wheels failing to gain traction. “Shit… shit…”
“Hit the gas! Accelerate!”
Arlo switched tactics, the rear end straightening as he eased down on the gas. They slid past the obstacle with inches to spare. He applied the brakes again, this time gradually reducing their speed to around thirty. “That was a close one…” He briefly looked across to Landon. “It’s going to get worse the closer we get to the city. Last exit to go around is coming up. You sure you—”
“I’m sure.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
10: 16 p.m. Highway 63. Powell’s Diner.
Jess lay, looking up at the wooden boards across the diner’s ceiling, the view being interrupted by her breath forming a mist. The three candles only just kept the temperature above freezing, but that was okay, she didn’t feel the cold as she had previously. Another perk of being a freak.
Unlike the other three in the room, including one dog, she couldn’t sleep. Not that her body wasn’t crying out for her to relax, but her brain wouldn’t let up. An itch of a thought wasn’t letting go. This wasn’t the sensation she felt when close to the things, but a bonafide feeling that there was something she wasn’t being told. From how the conversation would become suddenly polite between people when she entered their room or just die completely to Meg’s reaction earlier. They were keeping something from her, and she was sure it had to do with Landon and Sam. And that terrified her. But at the same time, she trusted Meg. She knew the older woman wouldn’t keep something from her, unless she had to…
Landon…
Could he have told Meg not to say something to her? But if he was with Sam, then what… She felt as if the air in the room became even chillier and sat up. Her breathing was heavy, her heart beating out of her chest. A cascade of thoughts, each connected to the last flew through her mind.
Sam’s not with him… He’s looking for her… he doesn’t want me to come after them…
But the conclusions came with more questions.
But why has she run off… did they argue?
What she had discovered made complete and no sense at the same time. She needed to know more and Meg knew what was going on. She unwrapped herself from the sheets, being careful not to disturb Donnie, then crept across the room, stepping over the candles then grabbed her jacket. Finally she opened and closed the door quickly and quietly although the brief time there was a gap brought with it a rush of wind from outside.
She trekked across the foot of snow, stomping her way through and pulled open the front door of the main house. Meg and Rufus had been sharing the main bed, but she only needed the former. She went to pull the bedroom door open when a flashlight lit up part of the kitchen at the end of the hallway.
“Took you long enough,” said Meg.
Jess quickly entered the kitchen. Meg was seated with a cup of cold coffee in her hand. “Where’s Landon and Sam?”
Meg let out a long sigh. “He told me not to tell you.”
Jess pulled the other chair out and sat. “Please, Meg. I need to know what’s going on.”
“As far I know, they’re both fine… but Sam ran off, and your husband went after her. That was about four hours ago.”
Jess shook her head. “Why did she run off? Did they argue?”
“Hmm kinda… He was in an impossible situation. Sam wanted to go after you—” Jess’s eyes widened as the thought dawned on her of where her daughter might be heading. She placed a hand on her right temple. Her headache was returning. “— but Landon knew he couldn’t leave them, Sam and Josh, he knew you would have wanted him to stay with them…”
“He’s right. I would have.”
“But Sam didn’t agree. Problem is, she kept that to herself. Maybe it was because of what happened to Tye, or maybe it involved Lachlan—”
“Lachlan?”
“On the way down here, we rescued two people from a school. A woman called Joan and a strange kid called Lachlan, maybe a bit older than Sam. It would seem all three are missing. Probably together, heading west to—”
“Denver…”
“That’s what Landon thinks. Last time I spoke to him on the—”
Jess stood abruptly.
“Jess. You can’t go after them. You need to be here for Josh.”
In that moment she felt the weight of the dilemma her husband had been placed in.
“You have to trust he will find her, and bring her back.”
A throbbing pain flowed across her skull, reflecting how split her mind was. She reached out and leaned on the back of the chair. “There’s something you don’t know…” Meg looked up at her. “The change… did something to me… it made me stronger… and my senses are better… But it’s more than that, I feel… I mean, emotions are stronger… it’s harder for me to control my anger…”
“Okay…”
“And I think the same has happened to Sam. I don’t think Landon knows any of that about her, although I think he suspects about what happened to me…” She sighed then walked to the basin and poured herself some water, but instead of drinking it, she placed it against her forehead.
“Look, I dont know about the stuff you just said, but she’s still your daughter, and Landon’s. He’s going to find her. I’m sure it won’t be long before you hear his voice on the radio…” Meg gestured towards the window. “The storm’s real bad out there. You wouldn’t get far anyway.”
Jess shook her head. “And if he doesn’t find her, then she’ll go all the way to Denver, and perhaps…” She swallowed her fear. Memories of the parking garage under her apartment building were only less affecting than the memory of the Biochron headquarters and… Rackham. The true monster at the heart of everything. She stood up fully.
“Hell,” said Meg, knowing what was coming. Jess turned around facing her, but was beaten to the request with Meg’s response. “Yes, I’ll look after, Josh…”
*****
10: 38 p.m. Kansas City.
Arlo did his best to concentrate beyond the white out in front of the car. He knew all it would take is another abandoned vehicle left in the road and there would be no stopping the few tons of metal they were driving. The needle on the speedometer bounced around twenty while the heater worked overtime to keep the feeling in his fingers, that were wrapped around the large steering wheel. He glanced at Landon. “Hey, the good thing is, there’s no way they are driving through this. We’re probably gaining on them… They might be even holed up in a motel or something… yeah, we should keep a lookout… you know, in case.”
