Riley walked over to stand near them. Her vivid blue eyes were troubled as she stared between him, Al, and Xander. She tucked a strand of black hair blowing across her face, behind her ear. The freckles on her nose and cheeks stood out as some of the color had faded from her skin.
"I'll drive across first," she offered. "To see if it will support the car. I'm ok with going and coming back."
"Riley…" Xander started.
"It makes sense for someone to do it and I'm willing to go," she interrupted.
"I don't think having more vehicles pass back and forth over it is going to do any good," Peter grumbled.
Riley's eyes flickered toward him but she didn't acknowledge his words before she focused on Carl again. "I'll go."
"I know you will, but I don't think that's necessary and I don't think it's going to make much of a difference," Carl replied. She didn't look convinced but she didn't say anything further as she turned to look at the bridges.
"There's a chance we can find a place around here to hunker down for awhile," Al said. "The towns and cities around here are far more populated than the area we're heading for, but we can backtrack, or try and find some less populated places."
"Shit," Carl muttered as his mind spun. He knew what Al and Donald had said in the truck, but he really wasn't a leader. He didn't want to make these decisions and he definitely did not want to be responsible for other people's lives. It wasn't who he was, but even as he thought it, he could feel the weight of the stares from the others focusing upon him.
"Driving around trying to find something like you suggest could be just as bad as trying to find another bridge. This area wasn't affected anywhere near as badly as the coastline states. I think if the trees have held up than there is a good chance that these bracings have too," he said. "Plus you have a lot of knowledge of the area we're going to Al, that might be the best thing we have going for us right now."
"That I do," Al confirmed.
"That's good enough for me," Xander said.
"We might as well get this over with then," Carl said.
"Hope you can all swim," Peter muttered.
Carl's teeth clenched on the filter of his cigarette, he pulled it from his mouth as he turned to face Peter but before he could speak, John did. "Like a fish. I don't think swimming is our main concern though. I'm pretty sure the fall, and the debris crashing down on top of us, will do the job first."
Peter turned his glare on John but John simply smiled at the man before turning on his heel. John whistled as he made his way back to the truck with a spring in his step. Carl couldn't help but grin at Peter. "I would have to say he's right," Carl said and crushed his cigarette beneath his boot.
He walked over to the truck and opened the driver's side door. Rochelle and John were already inside. "You sure about this?" Rochelle asked.
"No," he admitted as he slid in next to her. "But I do believe we'll finally have a safer place to stay if we make it to Al's cabin."
"I like the sound of that," she said. "But I do not like having to cross this bridge."
"No one does." He started the truck and edged it toward the bridge. The urge to light another cigarette hit him but with Rochelle next to him, he couldn't. His knuckles were white as he gripped the wheel forcefully and hunched over it. The tension in his shoulders and neck made his muscles ache before the front wheels even hit the beginning of the bridge.
He believed he heard a groaning but he hoped it was just his imagination running wild. No matter how much he tried to get his imagination under control, all he could picture was the middle of the bridge buckling beneath them and the heavy metal toppling onto them as they plunged into the overflowing water below. He hoped John was right and the crashing bridge killed them before being swamped by the water. Drowning was not the way he would choose to go.
He shifted in his seat, the discomfort in his jaw made him realize his teeth were clenched. He forced himself to relax his jaw but he couldn't get his hands to ease on the steering wheel as the truck crept further across the bridge. He could feel the bridge swaying beneath them from the water rushing around the poles. The water became an actual evil entity in his mind as it pulled at the posts and tried to eat away at the river bottom that the beams had been planted in. The further they went the more convinced he became that he was going to have a heart attack before they made it to the other side.
Driving the car in front of them, Riley stayed directly in the middle of the bridge, a path that Carl followed closely. For some reason he felt safest away from the sides, as if being in the middle would somehow save them all from death if the bridge completely gave out.
They were more than halfway across the bridge when metal rafters began to arch above them to form an open roof. Carl craned his stiff neck to look up at the metal twisting above them. If the bridge collapsed, it would be now with all of that metal over them, he was certain of it. But they continued onward with the asphalt solidly beneath their feet.
His muscles eased a little when the metal roof above them ended. A small breath escaped him as the car in front made it to the freedom of solid road once more; he followed closely behind them only seconds afterward. He tried to relax but his muscles remained rigid.
Riley pulled the car over to the side of the road after a few hundred feet. Xander rested his hand on her shoulder as her head bowed in relief; Carl knew exactly how she felt as his trembling hand slid the truck into park. His heart continued to pound out a rapid staccato against his ribs as Donald parked the Caddy behind them.
Carl was a little concerned his legs might not support him as he opened the truck door and stood up. A pack of cigarettes might not be enough to get him to calm down right now, but even still, he didn't grab for his pack. He needed to move about for a few minutes and try to shake off the lingering tension in his muscles first. He walked to the middle of the road before turning back to the others. They were grouping together near the truck; their heads bent close together as they slapped each other on the back and exchanged words that he assumed were encouragement.
He stretched his shoulders out before walking over to join them. They had made a lot of headway today, more than they'd made on any other day since this had started, but the sun was now lower in the darkening sky. "How much further?" he asked Al.
"Normally about forty-five minutes to an hour. If we make as good of time tomorrow as we did today than we should be there by sunset."
"No more sleeping on roadsides or in abandoned houses," Rochelle said dreamily.
"If all goes well," Mary Ellen said and squeezed her daughter's shoulder reassuringly.
"We're going to have to figure out a place to stay for tonight," Carl said. "We can get off and try to find somewhere, or we can stay on the side of the highway again."
"I'm good with sleeping roadside," John said as he eyed the sparse woods beside them.
"This area was fairly well populated," Al said. "Getting off the road might not be the best idea, and I think we should try and go a little further away from here."
Carl didn't like the look in Al's eyes and he didn't like the buildings and roadways branching off of the highway they were on. There was too much development in this area for his liking and with more development came more people. "Ok, let's top the tanks off and go," Carl said. "If we get caught up in something the truck doesn't have enough gas to carry us far."
"We'll see if any of these vehicles have any gas left in them." Xander volunteered.
John opened the backdoors of the truck and pulled out two of the full cans. He passed them to Carl before grabbing hold of the empty cans. He gave one to Xander before seizing the tubing. Carl watched them walk over to the nearby vehicles on the road before taking the full cans over to the truck's gas tank.
Lifting the can, he fit the nozzle into the tank and lifted it so that the gas poured inside. He glanced around in order to keep an eye on his surroundings as he watched for some hint of approaching danger. The woods remained still, and so did
the roadways around them, but he couldn't shake the feeling of impending doom.
John, Riley, and Xander stood by a blue car, siphoning gas into one of the cans. John smiled as he propped an arm on the roof of the car and spoke with them. The others were gathered by the front of the truck where Mary Ellen handed out bottles of water. He finished with the can and lifted the other one to the truck as the minutes steadily ticked by. They'd only been there for about a half an hour but it felt like hours as the last of the gas from the can dripped into the truck.
He turned toward the bridge, and the back of the truck, but even as his eyes were taking in movement, Riley was stepping away from the car. "What is that?" she demanded.
Carl didn't have to ask what the that she was talking about was. On the bridge, a couple hundred feet from the end, figures had begun to appear. He remained immobile, staring as the figures became an encroaching wave of people moving relentlessly forward. He squinted and frowned as he looked at the figure's hands and tried to process what it was they were holding onto.
Revulsion curdled within him like sour milk when he realized they were holding other people's legs. It took the figures moving closer for him to realize that the garbled sounds he heard coming from them were cries and moans from the people they were dragging across the ground. His eyes focused on the rolling wave of creatures moving in their direction. Even from this distance, he could see their blistered, peeling, and disfigured faces.
"We have to go," Al said in a rigid voice from behind him. John and Xander stepped away from the car and moved closer to Riley.
"Now!" Carl barked at them. "We have to go now!"
He tossed the empty cans into the back of the truck. John and Xander ran awkwardly across the median with their full cans of gas bouncing against their legs. He waited for John and Xander to place the full cans into the back before slamming the doors closed. He didn't want to look back but his eyes were inexorably drawn behind him as the moans of the people being dragged became louder and the horde of at least fifty continued their approach.
"What are they doing?" John inquired breathlessly from beside him.
"Nothing good," Carl answered. "Let's go."
He spun on his heel and ran for the driver's side door. Throwing the door open, he glanced in the side mirror as the first wave of sick people stepped off the bridge with their victims still in tow.
CHAPTER 5
Al,
Al turned in the backseat of the car to stare out the window. At first he couldn't see anything other than the truck behind them, but then Carl moved to the side and he could once again see the crush of people stepping off the bridge. The first wave of them released their prey and bolted forward as the vehicles began to pull away from the side of the road. The fact that the people they released rolled to the side, but didn't climb to their feet, led Al to believe they were Lost Souls and not fully functioning human beings.
He didn't know why, but for some reason that seemed like an even more cannibalistic action to him. The Lost Souls, and the hungrier ones, were both sick. Each with something that was affecting them in different ways, but none of them had control over their bodies anymore. He tried to turn away from the window, but he found his hand pressed against the glass like a child waving goodbye to their best friend before moving out of town forever.
The second surge of the hungrier sick humans stepped over, and sometimes onto, the Lost Souls that had been left upon the ground. No humanity existed anymore within the people rushing at them, at least not within the ones that were volatile and ferocious. He was glad Riley didn't have her sights set on trying to help one of them in some way; there was no helping them, of that much he was certain.
Watching the scene, the feeling that the world was ending swamped him, even more so than when lava had been rushing toward them in that hotel room. It was as if the bowels of Hell itself had opened up and spewed forth a horde of demons upon the earth. Al shook his head at the idea; he knew it wasn't true. He'd seen firsthand the devastating effects of the illness that had spread across the earth when it had taken over Lee's body and turned him into a monster. Even still, he couldn't shake the notion of the devil's minions coming for them as the first wave continued to run for the Cadillac at the back of their line of vehicles.
They would never be able to catch the car but even still, Al held his breath until the sick ones began to falter and the car was well out of their reach. He found himself staring out the window long after the bridge and horde of sick people had faded from view. Reluctantly, he finally turned back around in his seat.
Nancy's bi-colored eyes were troubled; she chewed on her bottom lip as she studied Al. "What's wrong with them?" she whispered.
Al took a deep breath before revealing to her what they all suspected was wrong with them. Nancy kept her eyes fixed raptly upon him as he spoke, but her attention shifted to Riley when she turned in the passenger seat. "We're hoping that maybe we can help the ones that just wander around aimlessly," Riley said.
"The ones that have become the new favorite meal for the others," Xander expanded.
Nancy tugged at her tangled hair hard enough that Al became concerned she might actually pull it out. "Do you really think you could help them?" she inquired.
"I think we have to give it a shot," Riley answered.
Nancy's hand dropped to Spooky in her lap as she turned to look out the window. "Yeah, I guess you do."
Riley glanced at Al but he didn't know what to do to calm Nancy right now. He was tempted to touch her arm, but he didn't think she'd accept the gesture of comfort. His hand slid to his gun as he studied the woman. She'd been a lot calmer since they'd left the police building, but he didn't trust her and there was something a little off about her. Whatever she'd been through had left her more than a little damaged and he'd be damned if she injured anyone in this car. She acted docile, and pleasant enough, as her hand continued to stroke over the purring cat, but people had said the same thing about Ted Bundy before they'd uncovered the truth about him too.
Al reluctantly turned his attention away from Nancy and to the night pressing closer against the windows. Xander hunched over the steering wheel. From behind, Al could see the dim lights of the Cadillac as they automatically turned on. "We have to get off the road," Xander said.
Lifting his glasses, Al rubbed at his strained and tired eyes. "Do you think we're far enough from the bridge?" Riley asked.
"We don't have much of a choice. There's an exit ramp ahead."
"Take it," Al told him. Xander's eyes met his in the rearview mirror. "We've put some distance between us and the bridge, but those things are fast and I'd prefer not to be on this highway if their plan is to keep coming this way. They probably have a home base closer to where we just were, but I'm not willing to take the chance."
"Neither am I," Xander said and switched on the blinker.
He crept down the exit ramp and stopped at the end to study the signs. To the right were a Best Western and a Pop's Pizza; to the left were a handful of gas stations, a motel, and a couple of restaurants. Xander pulled out and went to the right but he only made it a few feet before almost crashing into the telephone pole blocking the road.
Jarred forward when Xander hit the brakes hard, Al barely managed to brace his hand against the back of Riley's chair before crashing into it. Xander cursed loudly, the truck halted so closely on their rear end that Al heard the metal bumpers kiss against each other. The Cadillac remained at the intersection, unable to make the turn with the truck and car blocking the way.
"We better find someplace before we all kill each other," Xander muttered. He shifted into reverse as the truck pulled off of his bumper and turned around.
Al hadn't wanted to go to the left, something Xander seemed to have agreed with, but they were now forced to drive into the area with the heavier number of businesses. A feeling of dread slid through him as he glanced back at the fallen pole. He couldn't see it anymore. There were thousands of downed poles around th
e world; he'd seen more than a couple dozen of them himself. This one wasn't special, he told himself, but he wasn't sure he believed it.
"I have to turn on the headlights," Xander muttered. "I can't see anything anymore."
Al tensed as the headlights clicked on and spilled across the roadway. He felt as if the clouds themselves had parted and a giant spotlight blazed down upon them painting them with a great big bullseye.
The first motel they passed looked much like the one where they'd spent the night with Lee. Lee had woken up sick in that motel and things had spiraled even further out of control from that point on.
Riley's thoughts must have traveled along the same line as his, she seized Xander's arm when he went to turn into the motel parking lot. "Not that one," she said.
Xander glanced at her before nodding and driving past the motel. A fast food restaurant went by on their right, followed by a country store and a pharmacy. All of them would be good places to search, in the light of day, but now they all appeared as threatening as the darkness enshrouding them.
Every one of the shadows could be hiding something menacing and ominous. He couldn't shake the image of those creatures dragging their helpless victims behind them from his mind. A shudder racked through him, his hand tightened around the gun in his lap.
"Pull in there," Riley said and pointed to the small building ahead of them.
Al frowned as he tried to bring the words on the side of the building into focus. It wasn't until they were next to the building that he realized the words were nothing but a smiley face and some intricate symbols spray-painted onto it. Xander drove around the front of the building and Al spotted the florist sign hanging outside. There were also a few barrels by the front door with brown and wilted flowers drooping over the sides. The windows and doors in the front were intact. Xander parked adjacent to the stairs.