After the Bite (23 page)

****

They spent the night in the van, by the side of the same road near the woods. It was all they could think to do. When morning came and they woke up and realized that the events of the previous day had not been a dream, they waited in the van, thinking about what to do.

“We need food,” Harry said, the first time he
’d spoken since the garage the day before.

“Yeah,”
Sam said. “We’ll go to the gas station on the edge of town. See if we can find anything.

The van began moving, and on the way, they said little.

The streets were a bit more vacant, but the damage was clear. There were more bodies lying around, but the van kept moving and could stand up to the slowly moving creatures when it had to. Finally, they reached the gas station.

The front doors had been
smashed in, and a body lay halfway out of one of them, propped on the jagged glass, blood now dry all around it. Even from the van, they could see that the cash register had been emptied, but the shelves were still heartily stocked.

“I
’ll grab some food,” Sam said. “Can you guys fill up the van? We’re running low.”

“Yeah,” Harry said, unbuckling himself. “I
’ll do it. Try to hurry, okay?”

“Yeah
.” The two left the van, closing the doors behind them, and split up.

The station was empty, which made things easy for
Sam. He filled several bags with various foods, mostly junk, but a few pre-made sandwiches as well. He checked behind the counter and saw the body of one of the clerks, but also found a shotgun mounted below it. He took it as well as the lone box of ammunition and headed back to the van. Harry was filling it up, and one of the creatures was slowly making its way toward him.

“Hurry up, Harry!”
Sam said.

“I
’m only halfway!”

Sam
opened the side of the van and handed the food to Eddie, then closed the door, checked the shotgun to see if it was loaded, and aimed at the approaching thing.

“Don
’t come any closer!” Sam said. If the thing that used to be a woman had heard him, it showed no sign. Sam squeezed the trigger, and a loud shot rang out as the gun recoiled in his hands. A big bloody mess appeared on the woman’s midsection, and she dropped to the ground and moved no more.

“Where
’d you get that?” Harry asked.

“It was behind the counter. I figured we could use it. There isn
’t much ammo, though.”

“Hopefully it
’ll be enough to get us by. Wherever we end up staying, anyway.”

Sam
stopped for a moment. He hadn’t even begun to think about what the four were going to do, or where they would go. By now their homes were little more than bad memories, and they had no safe haven, nothing but each other and the van. Sam said nothing about it, but this got the gears in his head moving, and he began to think about something he wasn’t sure would work or go over with the others well. He decided he would wait for the appropriate time to present it to them, but even now he felt joy, something he hadn’t felt in a long time.

****

When the van came to rest near the woods again, Eddie said, “Well, what now?”

“Guys,”
Sam said, “I think it’s time for us to tour.” The others looked at each other, then back at him.

“Are you
insane?” Wilder said.

“Think about it. There
’s nothing left for us. It’s just the four of us and this van.”

“This can
’t last forever,” Eddie said. “Whatever’s going on, I mean.” Harry remained quiet and stared at the floor.

“You saw what happened,”
Sam said. “What people have become. Look around, Ed. Do you see any police? Any military? Does it look like things are getting better?”

Eddie didn
’t reply.

“Yeah, there are no police, and no soldiers
,” Wilder said. “So let’s go out, make a bunch of noise, draw those…
things
to us with loud music, and get eaten. Sounds like a great plan.”

“I think it
’s a good idea,” Harry said. Even Sam was shocked.

“You can
’t be serious!” Eddie said.

“Why did we start making music?” Harry asked. Eddie and Wilder exchanged glances. “Because we loved doing it. All of us, we
’ve always said that music was our lives.”

“Yeah, but
—”

“Every problem we
’ve ever had, every heartbreak, through anger or happiness, music has been there for us. For a lot of people. What else do we have? What else does
anyone
have?”

Sam
began to smile.

“People need music now more than ever,” Harry said. “And there isn
’t going to be anyone willing to bring it to them. We may not be the best, but we might be the last. We should do it.”

Wilder looked up,
sighed, and closed his eyes. “Okay,” he said. “I’m in.”

“Eddie?”
Sam said.

“Well
,” Eddie said. “You guys never could pace yourselves out of a cardboard box without me.”

Sam
laughed. “Then it’s settled. We’re going on a tour.”

“We need something first,” Harry said.

****

The van rested outside of Harry
’s house. The garage door was still wide open, but it was too dark to see into it. Besides a small trail of long-dried blood curving down the driveway, the four couldn’t see anything.

“You sure this is a good idea?” Wilder
said.

“We can
’t tour without instruments,” Sam replied.

“Yeah
… but can’t we get them from somewhere else? I mean, Harry’s going to need some new drums anyway.”

“This will probably be easier, actually
. We know exactly where they are, exactly what we want. We can go shopping later.”

“All right,” Eddie said. “Is everyone ready?”

“Yeah,” Sam said. “Harry, you should probably stay here.”

“Gladly,” Harry said. “I
’ll wait in the driver’s seat so we can get out as quickly as possible.”

“Good plan,”
Sam said. Everyone shifted around, Sam took the shotgun, and the three gathered by the back door of the van.

“Ready
,” Wilder said, “…go!” The back door opened and the teens rushed out. Their eyes took a moment to adjust to the sun, and then they headed for the garage. Sam shot a nearby zombie, which fell to the ground, and then they were at the driveway. Harry started the car and backed up toward the garage.

“Careful, we don
’t know what’s in there!” Eddie said. Sam entered the garage first. His eyes took another moment to adjust to the darkness, and then he looked around.

Harry
’s mother was nowhere in sight, but Andrew stood in the middle of the room, staring at the wall.

“Sorry, mate,”
Sam said. He shot Andrew in the back, and Andrew fell to the ground.

They took only a few
minutes to load everything into the back of the van, with the drums taking the longest. They left the ones that had broken, and when everything was loaded up, they climbed into the van, closed the doors, and drove away.

****

“Guys,” Sam said, “that was badass.”

“Yeah, well, we still have a lot to figure out,” Wilder said. The van was cramped with instruments and equipment, the four barely fit into it.

“Yeah,” Eddie said. “Where the hell do we play a show? And how do we get people to show up?”

“And how do we keep those things from getting in?”

“We’ll start off small,” Sam said. “An acoustic show, really. Just find some people and an enclosed space. Have someone guard the door.”

“Then what?” Harry asked.

“Word of mouth, my friend,” Sam said.

“Word of mouth. That
’s it?” Wilder said.

“Don
’t underestimate it.”

Setting up their first gig proved to be
simpler than they thought. They found a coffee shop with a stage and sound equipment, barricaded the doors and windows, and cleared the bodies out. It took them two days, and they slept inside the shop.

“Now we just need an audience,”
Sam said, once their work had been finished.

“Where are we going to find one?” Wilder
said.

And so the graffiti campaign began. They made signs and flyers,
tagged billboards, painted on boarded-up windows and doors, announcing their show. They set the date three days away to allow time for people to catch wind. On opening night, they waited anxiously as showtime approached.

“Something
’s still not right,” Sam said.

“Yeah,” Eddie replied. “We don
’t have a bassist, and we don’t have a name. How are people supposed to believe a flyer announcing a show by a band with no name?”

“They
’ll come regardless,” Sam said. “We offered protection.”

“Yeah,” Harry said. “In the form of you handing one of them a shotgun and telling them to guard the door.”

“We barricaded this place pretty well, what could possibly go wrong?”

“We could all get eaten,” Wilder said.

“Nobody lives forever.”

A half hour before the show was scheduled to start, there was a knock on the door.
Sam readied the shotgun and opened it slowly. A group of teenagers stood outside, looking around anxiously.

“We read there was a show here?” one of them said.
Sam opened the door.

“Indeed there is. Hurry up, come in!”

The group entered the coffee shop, and Sam closed the door behind them.

“We
’re a little early, right?” one of them said.

“Yeah,”
Sam said. “Make yourselves at home. There’s a full coffee bar, help yourselves.”

As the half hour went by, several more people showed up.
Sam guessed the crowd to be around a dozen. Finally, he took the stage and picked up his microphone.

“All right, hello everyone, and thanks for coming
.” There was a bit of feedback as he stopped talking, finding himself speechless for the first time he could recall. “As you can see, we’ve spent some time boarding this place up. The front door should lock pretty tightly, but we want to make things as safe as possible. Can we get a volunteer to stand near the door with our shotgun?”

The crowd whispered among themselves.

“I’ll do it,” said a young man standing near the back of the room already.

“Thanks, mate,”
Sam said. The man approached the stage, and Sam handed him the shotgun. He looked to be about Wilder’s age.

“And can you put up this sign, too?”

Sam handed the man a sign that read:

Terribly sorry, but the show is already underway. To maximize security, we will not be opening the doors for any reason once the show starts. If you were here to see the show, we apologize. Try to catch us next time, and stay safe!

“Sure,” the man said. He headed for the door and started to set things up. Sam returned to the mic.

“Also, and this is a bit embarrassing, but our bassist got eaten by a zombie. If any of you play bass, or know someone who does, and want to come along in this little adventure with us, that
’d be grand, yeah?”

The crowd laughed quietly.

“You don’t even have to be good. God knows the rest of us aren’t.”

The crowd laughed louder.

“All right,” Sam said. “Here goes.”

He looked at his bandmates, who nodded. They were ready for their first show.

****

As the sound faded and the ears in the room
rang, the crowd cheered. The band had played both of the songs they’d written as well as some various covers they’d done, with a grand total of about seven songs. It was a short set, but the crowd was incredibly receptive. The band members mingled with the crowd afterward. Nobody was willing to say that the band was great, but they were good enough, and they were the only band touring. Sam was ecstatic.

The man guarding the door returned
Sam’s shotgun.

“Thanks again, mate,”
Sam said.

“I
’ll do it,” the man replied. Sam eyed him curiously.

“Do what now?”

“I’ll play with you guys. I play bass. And better yet, I got nowhere to go.” Sam’s face brightened immediately.