by SM Olivier
They were trying to prevent hysteria but were only feeding into it.
“This will only take a moment.” Pete shrugged.
“Seriously, sir,” I stated firmly. “We have cash, and you won’t have to even use your credit card machine for us. If you don’t finish ringing us up, we’re leaving, and you just missed out on a large sale.”
Pete vacillated for a moment. “Stand by, guys,” he told his cashiers. “I’ll check out the issue in one moment. Let me finish with my customers.”
“We need to get home too!” one man loudly proclaimed from the back of one of the lines.
“Sir, if you can just be a little patient,” Pete hollered back. “I’m almost done here.”
“Why can’t they be patient?” a woman cried out. “You’re taking care of kids that probably don’t even have the money to pay for their stuff, while you have at least twenty of us waiting.”
“Ma’am, with all due respect,” BJ clipped out. “We’ve been waiting longer than you, and he’s almost done.”
Pete finished ringing us up, and I blanched at the total. Just like that, all my cash was nearly gone. BJ went to reach for his wallet, but I put a hand on his hand. “Save it,” I murmured as I handed him my cash.
Pete looked at us suspiciously once more as he counted the cash.
“Let’s go,” I muttered to BJ as he grabbed to carts, dragging them behind him.
Sylvia came running into the store. “I locked them in,” she explained, holding up the keys. “We should go, it’s getting loud out there,” she said quietly as she grabbed her carts.
I pulled one of mine behind me. It wasn’t the fastest way to move, but I didn’t trust anyone to leave it behind.
“Pete!” I heard someone cry out.
I turned around and watched as one of the customers collapsed into a seizure.
“Go!” BJ urged, and we took off as fast as we could.
I mentally calculated. We had five to twenty minutes before that person became violent, and I didn’t want to be here when that happened.
“Someone call an ambulance. He stopped breathing!” I heard someone yell behind us. Seconds later, chaos erupted.
֍
We were loading up the last of our carts when I noticed a younger family exiting the building. The man had blond hair, the woman had long dark hair, and the two boys resembled their Latina mother.
“I don’t know what to tell you, Rosa,” the man was saying irritably. “I have no cash. You know we don’t ever carry cash.”
“Luke, how are we supposed to get groceries?” Rosa whined.
“We’ll just go to the next store,” Luke said with a shrug.
“Excuse me, sir,” Sylvia called out. “We have some food we can spare just in case.”
BJ and I exchanged looks.
Yes, we were altruistic. We’d volunteered several times in the past. We were generous by nature, but did we really want to give out food in front of a store full of people?
We already filled Sylvia in on our hypothesis as the siren sounded in the distance. We could hear the fire trucks, ambulances, and squad cars. The closest city was less than five miles away, and we could still hear them.
The match had been lit; it was only a matter of time before everyone realized our dire situation.
BJ sighed but quickly started to give them some of our food. I watched as he loaded one of our empty carts and loaded it with a case of ramen, Chef Boyardee, tuna, a bag of rice, water, and a few other items. Admittedly it wasn’t that much, but I was starting to get antsy.
“Thank you so much,” Luke exclaimed.
“Why are you giving it to us, and why do you have all this food?” Rosa asked us with narrowed eyes.
Sylvia’s mouth dropped open at Rosa’s waspish tone. “You’re welcome,” Sylvia snapped.
“Family reunion. Pop-pop won’t notice it gone,” BJ said curtly. “Let’s go, girls.”
I could feel the same tension I was feeling roll off of him.
“Can’t you give us more?” Rosa insisted.
“Rosa!” Luke said in embarrassment.
“What? They have plenty!” she sneered. “I think they know something we don’t. It seemed awfully convenient they had so much cash. They look like college kids, and they have that much cash in their wallets?”
Suddenly I saw a calculating look enter Luke’s eyes. He was eyeing the truck and then us.
We needed to leave, like, now.
I grabbed Sylvia’s arm and started to push her towards her door as I noticed more people coming out of the store, looking unhappy and empty-handed.
“Give us some more food!” Rosa went to make a grab the tailgate of my truck.
I gently pushed her back, noticing the crowd that had gathered. “Please, you’re making a scene,” I hissed. “Just take what we gave you and leave.” I nodded towards the other people.
“Back off,” I heard Mikey’s small voice as he pointed his new sais at Rosa.
He’d gotten out of the truck?
“Don’t point that at my mom,” the little boy near Mikey’s age yelled with a balled-up fist.
“Please,” I insisted, trying to reason with her once again. “We gave you more than we had to.”
Some of the people exiting had stopped and was watching on with interest now.
“You have enough for all of us.” A tall, burly man started towards me.
BJ and I exchanged glances before he picked up Mikey and headed towards the passenger door at a run. I heard a shrill scream coming from the store.
I ran towards my door and dove into the front seat just as someone was pulling a few totes out of the bed of my truck. I put the truck in drive and pulled out, not bothering to buckle up as I watched the people converge over the three totes in the lot, fighting among themselves for the contents. In growing horror, I noticed people exiting the store covered in blood. Within moments, they attacked the unsuspecting looters.
I shuddered, feeling the contents of my stomach threaten to come up. I heard Miller and Mikey cry out and knew they had seen what I had seen.
Chapter 5
“Okay, here’s the deal, boys,” I finally said as we merged onto the interstate. “Something’s wrong. There are some very sick people out there, and they want to hurt us. We are going somewhere safe, but I want you to listen. Sylvia asked you to stay in the truck. Someone could have been hurt.”
“I’m sorry.” Mikey’s lower lip trembled.
“Mikey, I’m proud that you were trying to protect us, but there were too many of them and not enough of us. Sometimes we need to know what battles to fight and what fights we should run from,” I informed him gently.
Some might say I had mishandled the situation, but they weren’t little. They were old enough and mature enough to understand that things weren’t okay. I wasn’t going to go into great detail, but I didn’t want to keep them in the dark, either.
The moment we left the parking lot, the boys and Sylvia began to cry in earnest. I didn’t have the luxury to break down, but my hands wouldn’t stop shaking. I could see from BJ’s grim expression that he longed to unravel too, but like me, he was shoving it to the back burner. He had pulled out a road map and was currently highlighting it.
“I’m sorry, Avery,” Mikey apologized once more.
I reached forward and opened the box of pizza. I carefully grabbed the napkins from my glove box and handed it back to them. “I’m not angry, bud,” I reassured him in the rearview mirror. “I just don’t want anything bad to happen to you. Before you try defending us, let’s wait until you’re properly trained, okay?”
“Okay,” he sullenly nodded.
“Shit,” BJ muttered.
I ahead and cursed silently. The roads were locked up.
“The next exit is five miles ahead,” he said. “Take it. I wasn’t thinking. We should have taken the back roads, even if it took longer to get to the campground.”
I took a calming breath in as I joined
the queue of cars trying to get to goodness knew where. “No worries, B,” I reassured him. “We’ll get there.”
I was hoping if I said it enough times and believed it, it would come true.
“Can I call my mom?” Miller asked in a quivering voice. He was usually such a stoic, unaffectionate, and serious boy. I never expected him to have cried the way he had. He had clung to Sylvia like he’d been afraid to let go. In fact, he was still leaning against her and holding one of her hands.
I sighed as I handed him my phone. “You can try, but the phone stopped working.”
“What?” he cried out in panic. “We need to go back and get my mom and my baby sister.”
My brows rose in surprise. I wasn’t shocked that Miller was worried about his mom, but that he was concerned about his unborn sister. He had made it clear from the beginning that he was unhappy his mother had remarried and then had gotten pregnant. He had said on numerous occasions that he didn’t want any more siblings.
“Don’t worry, bud,” BJ hastily reassured him. “Do you remember Corbin?”
“The Army guy?” he asked skeptically.
“Joint Force,” BJ answered ironically. “But close enough. He’s getting her right now. He’s one of the best people to look out for her. She’s safe. We’ll meet her at the campground.”
I looked back to see Miller jerkily nod as he continued to tap at my phone.
“Is… is he by himself?” Sylvia asked hesitantly.
“No, Alpha Team and Bravo Team are together,” BJ said. “They combined and split up to meet us at the campground.”
“Joe and Cal will be there?” Sylvia asked excitedly.
I looked over at her in surprise. “That good, huh?” I asked her before turning my gaze back to the road again.
She rarely went back for seconds. Ever since she’d had her heart broken during our freshmen year of college, she was into no strings attached relationships. The fact that she was getting excited to see not one, but two guys, astounded me.
She gave me a dreamy smile in the rearview mirror. “Just wait until we’re alone,” she winked at me.
I groaned. “I’m afraid to find out.”
“Me too,” BJ muttered teasingly.
Honestly, I was beyond curious now. Who did Sylvia like more? Who had put that smile on her face this morning?
BJ suddenly reached out and squeezed my knee. I looked over at him and stopped the gasp from exiting my lips. “Miller, Mikey, on the floor. Don’t get up and don’t look out the windows unless we tell you to.”
I was shocked and pleasantly astounded when they both unbuckled their seat belts and sat down without protest. I expected them to argue with me the first few times.
“Syl,” I said quietly. “Can you reach into my bag and grab my sais, and can you grab those books for the boys to read?”
I’d had plenty of time to think as we were driving and knew if we ever had to enter an altercation with the infected, I wanted a weapon I was comfortable with. The knife BJ got me was great, but other than learning how to throw knives, I’d never mastered the art of using them in combat. My sais were an extension of my arms and gave me more peace of mind.
Out of my peripheral, I saw Sylvia moving to do my bidding. We’d purposely packed the front of the cab with items we might want or need for the trip. I hadn’t planned on giving them the books until they grew restless, but I needed them not to focus on what was going on in front of us.
There were infected weaving in and out of the vehicles, pulling people from the cars. I counted at least twenty of them, but what was even more alarming was some of the bodies seemed to… reanimate and join the infected.
Sylvia handed me my sais, and I put them in my lap.
“Hey, Mikey,” BJ nodded at me in understanding. “Can I have your sais?”
I had shown BJ how to handle most of the weapons I had taken up. He wasn’t an expert with the sais, but he was more than proficient with them.
Mikey’s sais appeared next to me and BJ grabbed them. “Thanks, little dude.”
“Welcome,” I heard his small voice reply.
“We need to get off of the highway,” I muttered as I pulled my truck over to the shoulder.
“There’s an access road for emergency vehicles up there!” BJ cried out excitedly.
I gritted my teeth as my tires bumped along the rumble strips. The sound and feel grated on my already taut nerves.
“I’m glad we didn’t take my Mini,” Sylvia quipped, her usual personality emerging.
“Good. I’m glad. Avery has little man syndrome,” BJ jested.
“Hey,” I bantered back. “One, no one could ever say I was little by any means, I’m five-eight, for Pete's sake! Two, I just wanted a real truck, there’s no harm in that. Ruth was over fifteen years old and on her last leg. I don’t have to worry about Blanch breaking down on me.”
BJ snorted. “Only you would name your vehicles.”
“Why not?” I blinked jokingly. “I believe in establishing a great relationship with my rides. After all, they get me from point A to point B when I need them.”
“Be honest,” Sylvia insisted. “You purposely purchased a vehicle Trevor would have salivated over.”
Funny how the end of the world put things in perspective. The thoughts of Trevor and Emery still hurt, but instead of the gaping wound I once felt, it was now just a mild sting.
I sighed. “Truth… yeah,” I said with a shrug. “But that doesn’t mean I didn’t always want a big lifted truck too. It was either a lifted Jeep or a lifted pickup, and I figured a truck would be more practical in the long run for my needs.”
BJ barked out in surprised laughter.
Sylvia giggled in glee. “Wow, you actually admitted it. Do you stalk Emery and Trevor’s Facebook too?”
“No,” I swore with a shudder. “I may be a masochist at times, but no. Just… no. Plus, you know I rarely scroll through any of my social media. The only reason I reopened my account was for my Tae Kwon Do stuff for Dad and family, and that’s it. Even then, you are my unspoken publicist. Why?”
I was thankful they were distracting me as I weaved slowly around the traffic on the side of the road. In some spots, my truck easily navigated the grassy and stony areas. I could see some of the disgruntled motorists glare at me, but I couldn’t focus on them. My focus was on the access road up ahead.
Sylvia and BJ started to laugh.
“They have his and her beamers now,” Sylvia said. “Hers is white, and he has a black one.”
My mouth dropped open. “Trevor hates cars,” I said derisively. “Like, absolutely, positively despises them. He always claimed it too was hard getting in and out of them with his long legs.”
I finally edged my way onto the access road and nearly breathed a sigh of relief. BJ was confering to his maps once more.
Trevor may have changed from the teenager I whispered my dreams to, but I never thought he would change in this respect, too. To me, it was the equivalent to deciding your favorite season. Sure, you could enjoy other seasons, but your first love was always one over another. There were just some favorites that were intricately embedded in your DNA.
It all just proved, once again, that I hadn’t really known him like I thought I’d had.
“Emery got her claws into him, and now she’s changing him slowly but surely.” BJ snorted.
I shook my head. “You know,” I voiced aloud, “It doesn’t hurt as much anymore, and maybe it took the end of civilization for me to make me realize I don't care. They deserve each other. Somewhere out there I’ll find someone who will love me and takes me as I am.”
“Amen, sister!” Sylvia cried out happily. I knew she had been waiting a long time for me to come to that realization.
“I know of at least two men who would,” BJ said cryptically.
“Make that three,” Sylvia said smugly.
“Who?” I asked in shock. No one came to mind off the top of my head. Who could they possibly kn
ow that was interested in me?
֍
I should have known it was going too smoothly to last for long. I prided myself in being cautiously optimistic in most situations. It would have been too simple to escape that jumbled up mess we left behind without running into another issue.
It became abundantly clear about a mile off the interstate that we weren’t the only ones who had decided to take the emergency access road. The problem was, this time we were blocked in from the cars ahead and the cars behind us. The ditch and forest on both sides of the thoroughfare blocked me in from going around the mess.
I heard Sylvia stifle a shriek and saw a group of infected heading our way from the thick stands of trees on both sides of us and from up ahead. She pulled out her knife and gripped it until I saw the white of her knuckles. The boys had been so silent, and I was thankful for their perceptiveness. I needed the silence to focus on my driving and to think.
I saw movement out of the corner of my eye as I realized that we were getting boxed in with the infected as they lumbered closer. I contemplated trying to force my way forward, but I didn’t want to be that person, and I didn’t want to damage my truck.
I turned my gaze back to the car in front of me and watched in dismay as a toddler's head popped up. His face was tear-streaked and red as he banged on the rear window. A young woman was being dragged from the driver’s seat, kicking and screaming. The two infected that had gotten ahold of her were biting into her neck and arm.
I barely registered my back door opening and slamming shut before I saw Sylvia streaking across my windshield.
“No!” I cried out in horror. I didn’t have time to think as I opened my door to chase after her. “Lock the doors and get in the driver’s seat!” I yelled at BJ before I took off running.
I gripped my sais in my hand and was aware of the two infected converging on me. I acted on pure instinct and from the theories of all the zombie movies I had watched.
I looked at the man closest to me. I tried not to think about who this person was before he’d become violent. He reminded me too much of one of my professors I had adored my sophomore year. I quickly shut those thoughts down as he lunged towards me, foam-like blood frothing from his mouth, and bloody tears pouring from his eyes.
