“I don’t get it,” I said.
“Get what?”
“Where is everyone? I mean, this virus or whatever it is couldn’t have killed everyone or turned them into those things.”
“Yes, it could have,” she said. “You should have seen Morgantown. One day it was fine, the next day the whole city was hit. We survived because my dad had us in the basement, sealed in. We weren’t exposed to it.”
“Okay, I understand that, but even though it seems like a lifetime, it wasn’t that long ago that we found out about sanctuary happening and our area was scheduled for fire bombing.”
“It was long enough that people left. When we did, there were a ton of people leaving. Roads got jammed fast.”
“Wait. Wait.” I waved my hand about to stop her. “I am really confused. Your parents have been gone for a month. They just told us a couple days ago about Sanctuary Sixteen.”
She paused in walking and squinted her eyes are me. “Wow. You must have been far away. The radio was reading them off for over a month.”
“A month?”
She nodded.
“There was no news, no television.”
“There was radio. It wasn’t a live person. It was a recording on the emergency thing.”
I stomped my foot and groaned. “Oh my God, I figured once the TV went so did everything else.”
“Nope.”
“No wonder we haven’t seen anyone and the gas station lady commented that it was a while since she saw anyone.”
“You’re behind. How did you find out if you didn’t hear it on the radio?”
“We…” I stopped walking and looked down. I didn’t expect to see one, not in such a small town. I lifted the paper from the ground. “Flyer. We got one of these. Shit.”
“What?”
“This place is getting firebombed in three days. We need to be far away. I don’t understand. Usually they clean a place that is overrun with Vee.”
“Maybe they all left,” she suggested.
“Maybe.” I took a few steps then stopped again. “Maybe not.”
As we passed the fenced in area of the City Water Company building, I spotted a block ahead with a massive amount of Vee. They were a sea of slow moving bodies and there was no way to get through them.
“Shit.”
“What do we do?” she asked.
“Turn around. We need to get out of sight fast.”
“That building.” She pointed to the Water Company.
“No. Too close. We’ll go back. Cross the tracks and get back to the main road. Let’s just turn around. If we move quick, they won’t catch us.”
“There’s nowhere to hide up there.”
“There’s no Vee either.” I reached for her arm and we both turned.
Leah was there, she lunged forward, mouth open. Before Hannah could scream, I pushed her out of the way, then shoved Leah.
“Move,” I ordered. I clutched Edward tight to me and yanked the wagon.
We moved quickly until we were at a safe distance. Leah was unable to catch us and we made it to the road, out of breath and a few less supplies. Nothing that we wouldn’t miss.
Back to where we left off, we continued on the road.
We moved blindly and I felt vulnerable. Even though we could see the road before us, we hadn’t a clue what truly waited ahead.
16
COMPANY
Daniel and Jennifer Harvey had a one story, rectangle modular home, two miles outside of Huntington. A line of trees surrounded the property and a fifty-foot gravel driveway led to the house. It was a great little house and it looked like Daniel did auto repairs in the large detached garage on the property.
I learned their names because I looked at the mail. I wanted to know who to mentally thank for the refuge that first night. It was the first building we had come to in a while and we had no choice but to stop.
They were a young couple, maybe in their late twenties. Their wedding picture was dated two years earlier. They created a safe haven of their home. Handmade wooden shutters blocked out the windows.
It would have worked had Daniel not left the house and been bitten.
They obviously were fine for a while. I didn’t know why he left. It wasn’t for food, there were stacks of it on the kitchen counter. Maybe he was getting a car ready.
It was a puzzle mostly easy to piece together when we arrived.
The blood soaked bandages in the bathroom along with ibuprofen in the bedroom told me of a bite and infection.
Bloody handprints decorated the outside of the home, a sign of relentless pounding. The front door was open and a trail of blood and insides led to a fly and maggot fest in the front yard where Jennifer had become one of those ‘twitchers’ that Hannah talked about.
Half of her face was missing and her head was attached by the neck body, her throat had been ripped apart. Her left shoulder remained along with most of that arm. Beyond that, she was nothing but mush and a few scattered bones. The smell was horrendous, worse than Leah was and at first I thought the sight of the flies made the entire thing more sickening, until Jennifer’s hand twitched.
Her fingers extended and her one eye moved. Her mouth opened and closed, biting at nothing.
“We can’t leave her like that,” Hannah said. “We have to do something.”
“I will. But let’s get you safe inside, okay?” I handed her Edward.
I went in first making sure it was Vee free. It was. Inside the light gray carpet was blood stained and a handgun was on the floor. The coffee table was busted. I could picture what happened. Daniel was bitten, he turned, but wasn’t violent. Jennifer probably moved him outside and contemplated on killing him.
Then Daniel got hungry and out of control. She opened the door to shoot him and was overcome. The poor girl fought for her life, probably stumbled out of the house, trying to keep her intestines inside of her when Daniel delivered one last blow.
The house smelled sour, but it was shelter that would do. The door was attached and I could lock it.
I told Hannah to come in, “It doesn’t look pretty, but it will work.”
When she walked inside, she saw the gun. “You can use that,” she said. “To help her out there.”
“Um, yeah,” I said nervously. “If it’s laying here, she probably meant to use it and it’s loaded.”
“It’s a Glock.”
I quickly looked at her. “How do you know?”
“It’s says it on the handle. You don’t know guns, do you?”
“Not really.” I reached for it.
“Careful picking it up. There’s no safety and it probably has a round in the chamber. Really all you need. Just go out there and use the one ready.”
“You make it sound easy. Like you fired a gun before.”
“I have.”
“You’re eleven.”
“More like twelve,” she argued. “Not very good. Only been shooting a year. Mostly rifles for hunting. My father made me learn all about guns and take that gun safety class.”
“Kind of insane to let a kid have a gun.”
“Won’t be saying that if we’re hungry and I bag us a deer. Want me to do it?”
“No!” I snapped. “Absolutely not. No. I got this. Stay.” The gun was foreign to my hand and I held it like it was poison. I shut the door and walked out to Jennifer’s body.
I didn’t want to do it. I had to keep looking at her to feel bad, remorse so I could end what she was going through. What if she knew? What if she had a part of her that remembered?
My hand shook out of control as I aimed, so much so I brought it within a few inches of her head.
I closed my eyes because I just couldn’t look at her. Then I fired.
After that I didn’t move, not for a few second, then I went back into the house. It was time to settle in for the night.