“They’re burning it,” Lindsay whispers. “I don’t think they’ve found the door, but they’re burning the barn to the ground. I think it actually collapsed on us.”
“Jesus Christ,” Alexis gasps, her hand cupping her lips.
“Wake us up if it gets any worse,” I say. “We’ll figure out where to go from here after sunrise.”
The smell of charred wood and plastic fills the small shelter and makes it difficult to sleep, but we manage to drift off regardless.
Ehren and the others are already eating breakfast when Lex and I emerge from our room. “There’s pancakes,” Lindsay offers, pointing toward the counter.
I move to sit beside Ehren, and he grins at me.
“You okay?”
“I feel like a new man,” he replies, shoving his face with pancake. “I needed those few hours of rest.”
“Yeah, sleep felt damn good.”
“I’m sure that’s not the only thing that felt good,” he jokes.
“I will kill you.”
“I’m sad that this has to end,” he tells me. “I enjoy that comfy mattress even when I have to worry about a raging hell demon sucking the blood out of my body and burning the barn to the ground.”
I smile a bit and place my hand on his shoulder. “Well, cherish the feeling.”
The small room falls silent, except for the sound of simmering pancakes on the stove.
“Why do you say it like that?”
“In a few days, we’ll need to think about hitting the road again and getting out of the quarantine.”
Lindsay and Connor exchange glances, but remain silent. Ehren’s face falls, but he nods in agreement. “You think we can make it out of here?” he asks.
Alexis intervenes, “Well, we can’t stay here, waiting for them to find us. We need to try or at least die on our feet.”
Connor breaks his silence and looks hard at me, as if trying to judge my response to his query. “Where will we head from here? And how will we protect ourselves at night?”
“We’ll do what we can. All we can do is head north and try to make it out of quarantine,” I say, honestly. “We’ll have to improvise as we go. We’ll leave at sunrise and travel until nightfall, or at least until we find a suitable shelter from the dark. We’ve got plenty of weapons in our car, assuming it hasn’t been ransacked.”
“I don’t understand,” Lindsay replies. “The government will have to be here soon, right? Can’t we wait until they kill these things? How are we supposed to defend ourselves? Not all of us are Angel the vampire slayer…like Ryan.”
“I’m sorry, who?” I ask.
“Angel was a vampire!” Ehren intervenes. “Buffy was the slayer, and she had a vagina. Ryan doesn’t have a vagina.”
“No, he does not,” Alexis says in agreement.
“Oh God…anyway, it’s been almost a month,” Ehren says. “The government isn’t coming, and even if they do, we can’t afford to wait around, twiddling our thumbs. Right now, we’ve got food for the journey. We can’t afford to wait until we’re starving. I’m with Ryan—we need to move now.”
“Listen,” I say, not wanting confrontation. “We can rest a few days and make plans. We don’t need to do anything rash, but we do need to prepare. We have those things looking for us. They know we’re in the area, and supplies won’t last much longer anyway. We have to stay inside until we’re ready to leave for good. If we move the wreckage of the barn around or sift through it, they might figure out that we’re close, maybe even find the door.”
Four days later, we emerge from the safety of the bunker. Ehren and I lift the door, pushing aside the burnt remains around us. The world is quiet, and a gray fog covers the pastures surrounding us. The sound of morning birds echoes from the distant hillside. I smell something burning downwind, not far away.
Before we leave, I turn and address the group. “Everyone has everything they need, right? The jeep is a mile away, and we don’t want to waste any time.”
Everyone nods, and we begin the trip to the jeep. The weather is in our favor for now. “We’ll want to drive in shifts to make sure we’re all equally rested.”
After a while, we come up over a small hill to see the jeep resting soundly where we left it. We load up our gear and settle inside. I take first shift driving, and crank up the engine. The first few hours are uneventful. Ehren rambles on about comic books, which seems to bore Lindsay and Connor into a sleepy stupor, while Alexis sits beside me in the passenger seat.
“This isn’t so bad,” she says.
“It’s worse at night. Ehren and I had a few scraps on our way to you. The covens are scattered around. We won’t be safe until we’re out of here and back to the free world. I just want to get you away from this, Alexis.”
She smiles gently at my words. “I know you do.”
On the opposite side of the highway, a charred house rests in ruins, still smoldering. “That explains the smell,” I mutter.
“It’s so strange,” Alexis posits, staring out the window. “An entire piece of the planet overrun by monsters, all these people living their lives are gone, and the world still spins.”
“It happens every day, Alexis. Only it happens with guns and bombs, and it doesn’t happen here.”
Ehren takes over driving duty around midday. The sun shines through, making the interior of the jeep warm, and I slip into unconsciousness in the passenger seat. After half an hour, I wake to feel Ehren’s hand on my shoulder, shaking me awake.
“Ryan, wake up. Something’s wrong.”
“What is it?” I ask, looking back to see Alexis dozing in the back seat.
“There,” he points ahead in the road. “What are those things?”
In the road, nearly fifteen feet from the jeep, is a pile of bodies, maybe a dozen or more.
“They don’t look human,” I tell Ehren, stepping out of the car.
The stench is overwhelming as we approach. In front of us, a twisted corpse rests on the pavement.
“Definitely not human,” Ehren mutters.
The body is rotting in the sun, leathery, sallow skin caked in what appears to be dried blood. The eyes are lifeless, the head bald and jaundiced like the rest of the body. The pile smells of sulfur, putrid and nauseating. We pull our shirts over our nostrils.
“What the hell are these things?” Ehren asks in horror. “They aren’t vamps, and they aren’t dust in the sun. What the hell?”
“Jesus Christ,” I utter in confusion.
I approach the nearest specimen and push it over onto its back. Slowly, I use my foot to pry open its jaws and reveal a mouth of complete dagger-like teeth.
“Holy shit…”
“We’re in trouble if these things are all over. Aren’t we?” Ehren asks.
“Yes, we are. I can’t understand this at all. Why the hell isn’t this monster a pile of dust, and what made these things look like this?”
“Let’s get out of here, Ryan. I don’t want to sit still in the open like this.”
“I agree.”
Our heads snap behind us as a car door shuts. Alexis, Lindsay, and Connor are approaching slowly. Their faces are contorted in horror. Alexis walks toward me with her hand covering her mouth.
“Oh God!” Connor shouts. “Oh God, no…they figured it out!”
“Figured what out?” I ask.
My temper surges and I grab his collar, pulling him over to the body. “What the fuck are these things? Who did this?” I grit my teeth and squeeze hard on his shoulder.
“Ryan!” Alexis shouts, grabbing my shoulders and pulling me back.
“Who the hell made these things? Is this another goddamn science experiment?”
“They were just rumors,” Connor mumbles. “They were trying to figure out how to breed the undead. They knew that they couldn’t breed since they weren’t technically living. I don’t know how they did this!” he cries. “It looks like they succeeded, breeding the undead with the undead.”
L
indsay just stares at the pile of corpses in disbelief.
“Jesus Christ…how many of these things are there?” Ehren is nearly hysterical, gazing at the pile. “Sunlight is our only advantage, and look at these things. They’re not dust.”
“I don’t know,” Connor tells him. “I didn’t know about this. God almighty…what if I had a part in this? Goddammit.”
We all stand and stare, our faces glazed in contempt and disgust.
“Listen,” I say to the group. “I know Ehren and I are the muscle, but everyone needs to grab a weapon, and you all need to keep it on your person at all times. We don’t know how many of these things are out there, and we’re not as safe as we thought in the sunlight. We can’t take any chances. These bastards look fierce.”
No one speaks in the car once we’re back on the road. Connor stares out the window with a morbid look of fear painted on his face.
Lindsay whispers to him. “You didn’t know. It’s not your fault.”
Ehren and Alexis sit quietly, staring ahead, intentionally avoiding the horrors outside the vehicle. Not one of us is comfortable resting while those things are lurking in the daylight.
The remainder of the day is uneventful. We pass through decimated townships and shopping plazas, sticking to the passable portions of the highway. There’s no life to be found, only rotting bodies and abandoned machinery. Nearly an hour and a half before sunset, Alexis pulls off to use a gas station restroom while we pillage for supplies and gasoline.
“Look!” Connor points a few hundred feet up the highway at a large white sign. It reads: Quarantine Evacuation Route—Exit in 75 miles. Continue north and follow signs.
I smile, and Ehren lets out a cheer as we make our way inside the gas station. The windows are shattered, shards of glass scattered on the linoleum floor. Ehren and Connor collect water and some of the nonperishable items while the girls disappear into the bathroom.
“Oh God!” Ehren yells from the aisle behind me.
I sprint around the corner with clenched fists. He’s standing with his back to me, solemnly looking down at something in his hands.
“What is it?’ I ask. “Ehren, what’s wrong?”
“Those sons of bitches,” he growls. “Those nasty sons of bitches.”
“What is it?”
“They ate all the Star Crunch.” He turns around slowly, grasping an empty box.
“Jesus Christ…Ehren, I really don’t think they ate the Star Crunch.”
“They would do it… Those sadistic bastards.”
Ehren’s face falls, goes blank, and contorts to horror. Behind me, I hear a guttural gasping, almost as if someone were choking. I turn slowly to see Connor standing in front of the beer cooler, gasping and sinking to his knees, impaled from behind. He’s lifted into the air and thrown across the room. The beast responsible turns to me, growling and hissing. It doesn’t speak.
A shriek curls through the air, and I look over to see Lindsay and Alexis standing in the bathroom hallway. Alexis is shaking, eyes welled with tears.
“Alexis, take Lindsay and go to the jeep. Now!”
Alexis moves to pull Lindsay out the door, but Lindsay shrieks and charges the creature, wielding her kitchen knife. She pounces swiftly and wraps her arms around the creature’s thick neck, stabbing repeatedly. It howls in pain and clutches her neck, tossing her down the aisle. Alexis screams and Lindsay’s body falls to the floor.
“Alexis, go! Get her out, Ehren!”
My fingers grasp the handle of my machete tightly. The monster moves toward me, slowly at first, then gaining speed. It hits me before I can react, sweeping me off my feet and launching me into the cash register. Bottles of booze shatter on the floor. I collapse behind the counter.
Without thinking, I grab the nearest bottle of clear vodka and slam its neck on the counter, and pulling out my lighter, I ignite the alcohol on the floor. The flame spreads, slithering like a snake, climbing onto the counter, igniting the blade of the machete. I move around the counter and swing wildly at the creature as it attempts to move toward the exit for Alexis and Ehren. The blade sinks into its shoulder and it squeals, spinning around. I drive my foot into its gut and swing again, driving the blade deep into its head. It twitches for a moment and goes limp. I drive my boot into its torso and knock it into the flames. And I swing at the burning corpse until its blood covers the floor.
Meanwhile, the majority of the room has gone up in flames. The heat is causing me to grit my teeth in discomfort. I remove the machete from what remains of the skull and walk through the fire, scooping up Lindsay’s unconscious body. I stumble out the front entrance where Ehren is standing in front of Alexis, poised for trouble. He relaxes and crouches down with his head buried in his hands. Alexis is crying and gaping in disbelief at the building, now engulfed in flames. I approach her and she buries her head into my chest, crying softly and repeating over and over, “He’s dead.”
“I’m so sorry, Lex.”
“It’s my fault,” she cries. “They didn’t want to leave.”
I pull her back and lift her chin up until she meets my eyes. “They had a choice, Lex. They chose to come with us, and they knew the risk. It’s no one’s fault. Now, Lindsay needs your help. Let’s get her into the car and make sure she’s okay.”
Alexis nods gently at my words and wraps her slender arms between mine, pulling me closer.
I look at Ehren, who’s standing now, watching the fire rage. “Let’s go before more of those things show up, and Ehren, get a gun. If one of those things shows up again, shoot it in the damn head until it’s a puddle.”
“You don’t need to tell me twice.”
Lindsay’s breathing is normal, so we hit the road as soon as we load her inside. Alexis cups the other woman’s head in her lap, crying periodically. I pull off when Lindsay begins to regain consciousness, and we open the doors, letting the fresh air flow through the jeep.
“Where’s Connor?” she asks, barely opening her eyes.
She sobs for the first hour after we break the news of his death. Alexis holds her and constrains her when she reaches for the door handle, attempting to launch herself out in grief-fueled despair. Occasionally, I feel her fists pound the back of my seat as I’m driving down the highway. I just stare out at the road and fight back hysterics. I glance over to see tears sliding over Ehren’s cheek. His face falls and he furiously rubs his hands together, wiping away the damp moisture.
In the car, as I’m driving, I think of the surest route to safety, and I worry about the impending sunset. “We need to find somewhere to sleep if we can. If we can’t, we’ll just keep moving and try not to stop.”
Ehren and Alexis stare somberly out at the road, hardly nodding in acknowledgment. The further north we go, the more congested the highway becomes. We’re barely moving at all, dodging abandoned vehicles and debris: suitcases, garbage, pale corpses, all strewn about in the wake of this nightmare.
“Another day and we’ll be out of this hell,” I tell Alexis.
Just before sunset, we come across a seemingly abandoned motel on an outer road. There are a few cars in the small parking lot. The office windows are shattered, and the register and management office have been raided. I park the jeep beside one of the abandoned vehicles and kill the engine.
“No lights,” I say.
We gather our gear and some of our looted food.
Ehren speaks suddenly, causing Alexis to jump beside me. “We should find a room on the first floor. If we can find a room partnered with another room, we’ll have more options if we need to bail.”
“Yeah,” I say in agreement. “It’d be better to have more than one exit. We’ll check the rooms on either side and make sure we’re alone.”
We retrieve the room keys from the decimated office building and approach room number seventeen on the back corner of the backside of the motel, facing an empty field. The key slides into the lock, and I slowly push the door open. Upon examination, we see that the room
and the accompanying rooms are vacant. Ehren locks the adjoining doors while I lock the main entrance and barricade it, propping a small oak desk against it.
When the room is secure, Ehren curls up on the floor with a pillow and sleeping bag he brought from the bunker. He escorts Lindsay to a small pallet of blankets he’s crafted for her beside him. She doesn’t say a word before lying down and covering her face. Alexis and I lie together on the queen-sized bed in the center of the room. She doesn’t speak for the first hour, just stares up at the ceiling as she rests on me.
I imagine she’s afraid of dying, or maybe believes it to be inevitable. Her reaction to Connor isn’t unexpected. She’s never been around killing. She’s never had to see her friends die.
Periodically, throughout the night, she shakes beside me, clenching my forearm. She wakes me before sunrise, smiling slightly to let me know she’s regained her composure.
I kiss her forehead, brushing her hair behind her ears.
“We’ll be okay,” I assure her.
“You’re all I’ve got,” she whispers.
“You’re all I’ve got.”
She nods, running her fingers over my chest.
An hour later, we leave the hotel room. Ehren walks slowly with his arm around Lindsay, slinging his bag and sleep gear over his shoulder. The sunrise is nearly at its peak in the glowing skyline. Alexis walks beside me and we approach the jeep.
“According to the signs, we can reach the quarantine evacuation area today,” Ehren says, placing his bag in the trunk, reaching to help Lindsay load her supplies. She isn’t speaking, but doesn’t seem hostile, just hollow, filled with grief.
We’re all silent in the moving car. I had hoped, as I’m sure we all had, that the carnage would lessen as we traveled further north. Much to our dismay, the chaos and wreckage continue to litter the landscape surrounding us.
We pass an abandoned speedway early on in the day. The parking lot is full of vacant cars and corpses strewn about the bleachers. Racecars are piled on one another, bodies hanging out the windows. Crimson streaks painting shards of glass and plastic.
“What does it mean when you’re accustomed to seeing dead bodies?” Ehren queries.