Had they not been so engrossed in running and finding out the source of the perpetual horn beeping, they might have noticed they had stopped seeing bodies.
They were not expecting what they saw.
Instead of massive amounts of bodies, there were massive amounts of people. Their moans and cries had been drowned out by the horn. Some held their heads and sat on the ground, while most wandered aimlessly, arms extended reaching at the air.
Foster and Abby slowed down their pace and walked to the car where a man still beeped the horn.
His back was to them and Foster reached into the car.
“Sir,” Foster called to him. “Sir.”
The man kept beeping the horn.
Abby reached out her hand, laying it on his arm. The man quickly swatted her way.
Despite the beeping, he spoke and did so loudly, almost unnaturally loud. “Whoever is touching me, back off! I’m trying to get help here.”
“Help for what?” Abby asked.
He didn’t respond.
Foster grabbed hold of him. “Sir!” he spoke loudly.
The man stopped beeping the horn.
“Sir, what’s happened here?” Foster asked.
No reply.
Again, Foster tried, only this time he yelled. “What’s happened here?”
Slowly, the man retracted his hand and turned around.
His eyes were not only blood shot, but stained with dried blood. Blood that streaked his face like tears.
His hand reached out and his fingers trailed over Foster’s face. “Can you see?”
“Yes,” Foster said. Then he noticed the man wasn’t focusing on anything, his eyes just blinked and shifted about.
“Speak up. I can barely hear,” the man, who was barely older than forty requested.
“I can see!” Foster said. “What happened here!”
The man sighed. It sounded almost like a laugh of excitement and disbelief. “Thank God. Thank God.” He touched Foster’s face. “Help us. Please. We’re all blind.”
Hearing his words, both Abby and Foster turned around to look at the people. How did they not notice, how did they not put two and two together? Everyone whether reaching out or sitting still had blood streaked faces.
What had happened to them all?
Ben recalled when he first introduced his mother to Lana’s mother. He suspected they would hit it off and become the best of friends. He was not wrong. Both women came from the same stock, the same well to do families.
They lived only a few miles from each other in mirror houses.
Ben often stated their relationship was stronger than his and Lana’s. That was why it came to no surprise to Ben that when he arrived at his mother’s home, she had gotten a text from Lana’s mom.
“Pray our kids are fine. God be with you.”
Ben’s mother didn’t respond. Of course the time of the text was shortly after the train crashed, so their parents knew something had occurred.
But were they as much in the dark as Ben and Lana?
Ben’s mother had passed away. She exhibited the same flu symptoms as Lana’s mother and sister.
Ben expected as much.
But again, the bodies gave no clue as to what had happened and Beth hadn’t returned the text or call to Lana.
Lana just wanted to go home to their own house and mourn.
What else was there to do?
“Get answers,” Ben suggested. “Find Beth.”
Lana knew where Beth had lived and they turned around and headed back.
Beth lived in an apartment complex just a few blocks from the shore. Lana had been there a few times and it took checking the mailboxes to figure out what apartment was hers.
The security doors were locked and there was no answer at Beth’s apartment.
Ben broke the glass on the doors and they entered the building.
The alarm blared, but they didn’t care. They hoped it drew attention.
It didn’t.
On the second floor they found Beth’s apartment and knocked on the door. There was no answer.
Oddly the door wasn’t locked and they walked inside.
The smell was far from pleasant. Death lingered in the air and was putrid.
The three bedroom apartment had a hallway just to the right of the main door and Ben and Lana took that hall.
The first bedroom was Lynn’s. They entered.
The bed was unmade but there was no sign of the teenage girl.
Next bedroom.
Ben knew before opening the door they were going to find someone. The smell was predominate and strong as Ben turned the knob.
Lana gasped, turned her head and involuntarily vomited right on the carpet.
Ben only got a glimpse before began to shut the door, but then stopped.
“Stay here,” he told Lana.
Lana held up her hand and conveyed through her motions that she wasn’t going anywhere. In fact, she couldn’t stop heaving.
Lifting his shirt over his nose Ben stepped in the bedroom.
Beth’s husband Ray lay in bed under the covers. On top of the bed next to him, wrapped in a quilt was Lynn. The coloring, the dried mucus, was the same as they had seen in everyone.
But Beth was different.
She too was dead, but not like Ray and Lynn.
She sat on the floor, her head on the foot of the bed, her one arm draped on the bed while the other dangled. Both of her wrists had been slit and a pool of clotted blood had formed on the bed and floor.
Beth was the reason Ben entered the room. He hadn’t seen it at first, but he did when he started to close the door.
A note hung around her neck attached to a chain necklace and the words were big, obviously written in her distress. Ben retrieved it.
He covered Beth and holding the note, left the bedroom closing the door behind him.
“You found a note,” Lana said.
“She left one, yes.” Ben handed it to her. “It isn’t much.”
“It’s enough.” Lana took the note and read it.
It was simple, very few words.
But the words said a lot. The meaning behind them though was still yet to come to Ben and Lana.
‘For those of us who died… please fight.’
“Look here and we get a full tank of gas to boot,” Harry had told Tyler when they found the car. He knew it was going to be a gold mine or at least a viable means of transportation when he saw the man on the hood of the car. It was a repeat visual of what they had seen before.
They were moving now.
Harry was driving and had to admit he was tired. His legs hurt, his body hurt but he couldn’t let Tyler know he was wearing down. Tyler sat up straight and anxious in the front seat; Harry’s wrapped gift to Leo was perched on his lap.
Tyler played with the edge of the paper.
“Held up pretty good, didn’t it?” Harry asked him. “I’m talking about the wrapping paper.”
“Yeah. You wrap nice.”
“Thanks.”
“What’s the present?”
“It’s something old for an old friend. Something I know he has been wanting that I had.”
“Didn’t you like it?”
“Oh, I loved it. It is very priceless to me.”
“So why were you giving it to him?” Tyler asked.
“Because I knew he’d want it. But…” Harry sighed. “I’m just gonna hold on to it now. Leo has probably passed on. He was in New York.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m sorry too.”
“What is it?”
Harry was going to tell him but didn’t. “You know what? Let’s hold off on knowing what it is?”
“Why?”
“Because you never know what could happen. You and I may be bored one day and there’s a whole story behind the contents of that box. Let wait.”
“So after you take me to my mom, you’ll come back and see me?”
“Without a doubt,” Harry told him. “We’re friends now.”