Leah had explained that for three days she was working on getting us passage in the truck. He would take ten people, hidden behind a phony wall of boxes.
I felt relieved when I saw it there, but unsettled because there was no one walking around.
“Let’s just get in the truck,” I said, shutting off the car. “Do we have a secret code, a pass, what?”
“I met with him this morning. He knows us.”
We both opened our car doors at the same time and stepped out. I reached in, grabbed the backpack and tossed it over my shoulder.
“Cal, something is not right.”
“I know.”
Where was everyone? The truck driver? The passengers?
I wanted to call out, but I didn’t. As we moved closer to the tractor trailer we saw the first body.
It was a man, a younger man. His lifeless body was contorted on the ground. His back arched with chest outward, his legs bent in different directions as if he fell from a huge building.
I knew the look; I saw it on the news enough. The white pasty skin with dark blotches. The bleeding from the eyes, nose, and mouth.
Holding out my arm, I stopped Leah. “Stay here. Get ready to run back to the car.”
I nudged the man’s body with my foot. He was hard. I walked closer to the back of the truck.
More bodies were in there.
“Shit.” I spun around to Leah. “The Storm hit here. Who knows when and how long we have. We have to get out.”
“The truck,” Leah pointed. “It has permission to leave. Are the keys inside?”
It was a good idea. Take the truck and roll out. The only problem was, what to do with the ten or so bodies in the back. Take a chance and precious time to move them out?
Again, I told her to stay back near the car as I moved to the cab of the truck.
I wasn’t short, but I wasn’t a tall man and I couldn’t see up inside the cab. I climbed on the side step and reached for the door.
Before I even opened it, a Vee suddenly appeared inside, snarling and biting the window. His hands smacked hard against the glass in his plight to get at me.
I stumbled and tripped in my shock, landing on my backside. I cringed in pain and rolled to my side.
“Leah,” I called out. “Get in the…”
Leah screamed. I was instantly hit with energy to get to my wife. I rolled to a stand, grabbed the backpack and headed toward the scream.
I expected her to be by the car, after all that was where I told her to go. Yet, she was near the truck, backing up as the Vee headed her way.
“Run, Leah, to the car.”
She was too scared to move, I could see it on her face. I barged forward, swinging the backpack, hitting the Vee as I did, until I made my way to her.
“Move!” I ordered, grabbing her arm and pulling her to the car.
She kept screaming, and her screams attracted more.
It wasn’t just the ten or so who came from the truck, Vee came from behind the warehouse and across the lot.
None of them were those passive ones I had heard about.
I shoved her in the car and raced around to my side, just as four or five Vee hit our car. One threw himself on the hood and began banging his head and hands on the glass.
I had to hurry, there literally was no time. After starting the car, I put it in gear, jerked the wheel, and hit the gas.
Hood ornament Vee flew off and I careened into another one sending her flying.
There had to be at least five that I hit. The bangs and thumps against the car as I connected and the jolt of the wheels, as if going over a speed bump, when I ran them down told me so.
We managed to get out of that lot. Leah was hysterical. Surprisingly, I remained calm.
“It’s okay. We’re fine.” I grabbed her hand. “We’re good.”
I had been holding my breath and released it slowly. My heart raced out of control, but for the sake of my wife I had to appear confident and unshaken.
We made it from the lot but we weren’t in the clear. Vee were in packs at every corner we turned. If we made a left, we had to back up or make another left.
It was as if we were in a maze, being led one place to another. That place was our home. We couldn’t go forward, we had to go back. We didn’t have a choice.
3
NAME
September 2
He was naked and prefect, probably cold and it broke my heart that I instantly loved him so much. I wanted not to. I didn’t want to feel a connection to my son. Not in this world.
I grabbed one of Leah’s shirt form the pack and after using the drinking water to clean him, I swaddled him tightly.
He’d need to eat soon. I was glad Leah and I came up with a contingency should he be born on the run, and Leah unable to feed him.
I’d break out that bottle soon enough, but he wasn’t fussy or crying. He kept staring at me, trying to focus. I could tell. His little mouth opening and closing, as he produced the quietest of newborn whimpers.
I just wanted to hold him and stare right back. Believe for a moment that all was right in the world. It wasn’t and I had another problem to face.
Leah.
She had been bitten and she had died. It was only a matter of time before she rose.
Leah was my wife for a decade; I loved her like no other and believed she was the heartbeat of my existence. Now, she was gone. I was angry because I couldn’t even mourn her. Couldn’t take time to break down and cry because I had to think about how to put her down.
She was still on her side, the lower half of her body naked and painted in blood. The umbilical cord extended from her and I could see the placenta partially expelled.
She died right after giving birth. Collapsed and died. I knew because not only wasn’t there a sound, there was no more free flowing blood.
A part of me believed I needed to do something before she woke up. It seemed wrong and like a desecration. Almost as if a part of me was hoping she wouldn’t wake up.
I didn’t even know how I would accomplish it, what I would use. How would I do it with a baby in my arms? I couldn’t put him down, what if she lunged and got him?
Whatever way I picked it wasn’t going to be easy.
Since the outbreak in my town, I had run from many Vee. I fought off and distracted more than I could count. Yet, I killed only a handful. It wasn’t for lack of trying, I did try.
Taking out the Vee wasn’t easy. Not emotionally or physically. The only way to kill a Vee was to destroy the brain. It was harder than it sounded. At the point when a Vee just turned, they were still solid. The flesh hadn’t rotted. Sharp objects didn’t go easily through bone and breaking a skull is not a piece of cake. An ax or hatchet was ideal, but they were difficult to maneuver or swing. If you didn’t get them the first time, your next delivery would lose strength.
I didn’t have a gun, even I if did, the shot would attract more Vee. Experts claimed the best weapon was a knife. Use it through the eye or temple.
Again, another situation easier said than done. The knife wasn’t ideal.
It plunges into the soft flesh with ease. It was creepy and caused me to get physically squeamish and shiver. Much like fingernails down a chalkboard. The movies had it all wrong. There was no aiming a gun at a loved one when you knew they were infected. You feel bad for a moment and then bang. It wasn’t that easy. Anyone you knew was hard to take out. It was hard to see that they weren’t anything more than sick human beings. Even a crazy neighbor, no one immediately went for the kill, it was instinctive to avoid them and run….
That was how it got out of control. No one wanted to kill someone they knew and loved.