Alaskan Undead Apocalypse (Book 3): Mitigation Book 3) (20 page)

Jerry was helping Claire, who was struggling to both walk and breathe. Danny and Alec were walking with their rifles at the ready, looking almost like a pair of boys playing war. Jules, meanwhile, was becoming quite the “little mother” to Nikki and Paul. She led the two of them and warned them not to get too close to the cars on either side and to watch in the windows in case of
them
. She didn’t want anything to happen to either of them after all.

Jules appeared to be coming out of a shell and re-engaging with all of them. Many of them had caught Jules smiling and even giggling recently, both of which were welcome changes. Since Alec had reappeared, her mood change seemed to be accelerating more. She seemed much more comfortable and secure. She spoke more and always had a story to tell to the younger kids. Jules was clearly in her element and thriving in it.

Meghan’s death had quieted her somewhat, but she was still mothering and protecting the younger kids. She was careful to keep all of them well behind Neil. She knew Neil was sad. She was sad too. She really liked Meghan, who always made certain she and Danny were warm on cold nights and had plenty to eat. She was a very nice lady and awfully special to Neil. Jules wished there was something she could do but no ideas were forthcoming. Instead, she just thought it was best that she and the other kids stay out of Neil’s way. It’s probably what her mother would have told her if her father was having a bad day. And thinking like that only made her miss her mom and dad.

She was teased with a little guilt about not having cried for the loss of her parents. She missed them terribly and was sad that she would never see them again, but the true revelation of their fates over a long stretch of time being largely pieced together by what others said around her had softened the news of their deaths. She sighed heavily and looked over at her brother and Danny.

What a pair. Two boys trying their utmost to be young men. Even to young Jules, the disparity between their perception of themselves and reality was evident. Of course, this wasn’t unique to Alec and Danny. The circumstances, however, made the transformation much more necessary. Jules too was being expected to abandon much of what it was to be a child. Most of this was lost on Jules and the boys; the new expectations of them were simply the consequences of their new reality. When Jules looked at her brother and Danny, she still saw two boys with whom she liked to play. It just seemed they didn’t have many opportunities to play these days.

Further up the road, a large Gray Line tour bus was partially in and partially out of a ditch. The behemoth was not quite on its side, but it was listing badly due to its position and threatening to capsize at any moment. In losing control, the driver had laid its weight across the road, effectively blocking anything but travel by foot to both the Begich Boggs Visitor Center and the tunnel leading to Whittier. The long ago accident involved several cars and a panel truck as well, all of which were snarled both in front of and behind the stuck mass transit vehicle in a tangled impasse. Hence the reason for all the vehicles packed so tightly together on the road behind them.

Several cars had attempted to drive around the roadblock, but had become stuck in the soft, damp earth to either side of the road. There they sat in frozen mud up to and above in some instances the vehicles’ wheel wells, extending the obstruction for several feet and apparently ending any other attempts by motorists to skirt the blockage.

The bus was like a great barrier wall separating one world from the next. Anything...absolutely anything could have been on the other side and there was only one painfully obvious way to find out what awaited them. And given the extraordinary times through which they were all living, the possibilities were simply frightening to all of them.

The paralyzing fear stopped their progress dead in its tracks. No one was willing to commit to taking the plunge. There were no heroes standing on that seemingly deserted, cold highway in the middle of nowhere Alaska. They were just tired and hungry people flirting with helplessness and hopelessness.

They looked each to the other, searching for willing eyes waiting for someone to propel them forward. There was no such will amongst them. This revelation to Neil elicited a weary and defeated smile. He muttered to no one in particular, “I guess I’ll go have a look. If anything...” He cut short his directive. It was unnecessary and understood. It was also just as likely to be ignored as followed, so there was little point.

“Can...uh...someone help me up onto the side of the bus? The slant seems like it’s maybe climbable. Probably a little safer from there in case... Well, can someone give me a lift?”

Jerry lowered Claire to the ground, using the side of a car against which to prop her. He and DB knelt with intertwined fingers each making a stirrup for Neil to step up, and they would lift him even further.

From his perch, Neil took just a moment to survey the area immediately in front of them. He said after a few seconds, “Yeah. I think it’s safe.” And that was all he said, but he smiled, indicating that it was at least, as he said, safe.

Cautiously, they rounded the bus and picked their way over the now frozen, deep, muddy ruts around the bus’ front end. Feeling like astronauts about to behold the dark side of the moon, they didn’t know entirely what to expect. One could almost hear their collective breath being held in anticipation.

On the blind side there was...nothing. Well, nothing was a bit of an exaggeration. There were more empty parking spots than there were cars. There was garbage, some of which was stirring in the gathering breeze. There were also what appeared to be two empty buildings.

Closer to where they were standing sat a small retail shop doing its best to resemble a residential home and not a business. There was an unlit and silent neon
Open
sign in the window next to the door and a bygone
Daily Specials
sign lying on its side.

It was in front of the nearer building where most of the refuse was amassed: empty cardboard boxes, swirling plastic shopping bags, discarded Styrofoam coffee cups, and some odd and end scraps of cloth from blankets or clothing. There was ample evidence of people having been there, but no people currently. Nor were there any zekes or evidence of them; except, of course, the empty desolation left in their consuming wake.

A little further away was the Begich Boggs building. It sat there with its modern, efficient design and looked out over the frigid Portage Lake. The building’s lines were rigid and straight, with no frivolous angles or superfluous shapes. The gray stone facade resisted all mirthful attempts by its silver metal trim, electing to instead drape the silver with a muted matte finish. The building was not ugly, but was instead a vision of engineered efficiency.

The only zombie they could see in the entire area was near the larger building. It was a man in a former life. He was wearing casual clothes, a green Alaska sweatshirt and blue jeans. His skin, like the other undead they had encountered, was fast becoming a deathly gray pallor and blending into the dark hue of Portage Lake behind him. He wasn’t moving or exhibiting any other signs that there was a suggestion of life to his limbs. He appeared to be as animated as a stone monument dedicated to days gone by, just waiting outside the main entrance to the visitor center as if his party would join him in the parking lot at any moment. He seemed to be oblivious to the fact that he was being watched.

To Neil, the creature was pitiful. He couldn’t imagine being any more alone. Like a dog waiting in vain at the door for its deceased master to return home from work, it merely stood and watched and waited. Neil found himself feeling conflicted.

Perhaps it was Meghan’s death or Dr. Caldwell’s death or...there were just so many deaths for which he felt at least partially responsible and indelibly connected. His sadness ran very deep; so deep that he was barely able to sense it. With all the death that seemed to hover around him and his thoughts, he couldn’t help but succumb to the existential acceptance of his plight. And that acceptance only made him feel pity for the beast that stood so close to the building and yet so far from his stolen humanity. Neil wondered, as he looked at the pitiful creature who had once been a son, a husband, a father, and perhaps more, if there was any more hope for him to hold onto his fading humanity than there was for an infected victim. He was seriously beginning to doubt his fate.

And up on the side of the bus still, Neil finally began to cry for Meghan. He realized that he was likely crying as much for himself as he was for her, but his silent tears felt refreshing...felt human. The salty drops filled his eyes as he thought back on the weeks he had spent with Meghan. He remembered that hectic first morning at the Fred Meyer and seeing her for the first time. He didn’t think about the reason for his being there or the terror from which he was running. He only thought about talking to her and remembered how glad he was that it was Meghan who had drawn the short straw and was working the early shift that morning. He envisioned the long nights of talking and sharing their lives with one another in the house in South Anchorage, but he couldn’t hear the moaning from the undead outside or their horrific smell anymore. Neil was tortured with the memory of their first kiss and how sweet and perfect it was despite its awkwardness.

This last remembrance brought a smile to his face. He removed his glove and touched his chapped lips softly with his cold finger as if doing so might somehow help the memory to become more real. He exhaled a long, cleansing breath and wiped the tears from his eyes. He knew that the pain would not recede; not yet anyway. Like the tides, the waters of his grief would ebb when it was time to do so and not before. Anyone who claimed to have control over those powerful emotions was kidding himself and had never actually felt true sorrow.

Neil whistled quietly to get Jerry’s attention. “There is one zeke over by the visitor center. I think he’s alone, but let’s keep sharp just in case.”

Jerry was no fool. He could see Neil’s struggle. He asked, “You okay my friend?”

Neil smiled and looked up at the morose sky but said nothing.

The fading afternoon light yielded to the mixed advances of evening and a gathering drizzle. By morning, the rain had become a blowing and growing snowstorm. It was obvious to all of them that winter was set to pounce.

Though the cold was pervasive, it was somewhat mitigated by the four walls and solid roof of the shop, in which they had elected to stay for the night. Those base comforts, unfortunately, were all that remained to be had. All of the food, including even condiments, had been eaten, the furniture had all been broken down and burned for heat, and the toilet, much to Emma’s disappointment, yielded no toilet paper and a mess so aggressive that none of them dared to go inside. They were, however, mostly dry and not nearly as cold as they would be if they had been forced to sleep outside.

That first morning, as early as they dared, Emma and Jerry wandered out into the gusting white. They had decided the need to eliminate the ghoul stalking near them was enough of a priority to justify venturing out into the storm.

As they were leaving, Neil, sitting silently and motionless in a dark corner, caught both of their eyes. He rasped from the shadows, “Make it quick. Okay?”

Emma smiled and Jerry nodded, but neither spoke.

Once outside, Jerry said to Emma, “I’m real worried about Neil. He’s taking this awfully hard. I mean, I get it but...”

Wincing against the blowing wind and snow, Emma said, “I think you should be worried. We all should be. We’ve all expected so much from Neil and he’s always delivered and been willing to step up for us when no one else was. But losing Meghan is gonna take a lot out of him. Believe me when I say that I know where he’s coming from.”

“Yeah, I know.” Jerry was going to ask how Emma was doing considering Dr. Caldwell’s death was still only a handful of days in the past, but Emma spoke first.

“No. I don’t think you do. Meghan wasn’t just a girlfriend to Neil. I’m not sure what you would call her after all the changes to what we call a normal life. No. Neil had been kicked so hard by life in the past that all he knew was how to be down...how to be depressed and lower his expectations for what life had to offer. He had given up on himself and his world. Meghan changed all that. Meghan gave him a reason to care and to want to be alive when it probably would have been just as easy to not be. For Neil, Meghan was his renewed belief. And with her gone now, that belief has been rocked once again. I don’t know if Neil is going to be able to find a new reason to keep going and if we keep leaning on him the way we have, well...I just don’t know that we’ll still be able to, I guess.”

Their discussion came to an abrupt end when they beheld the ghoul. It appeared as if he hadn’t even moved from where he stood the previous day. The weather didn’t seem to have the slightest effect on him. He was still waiting for whatever had stood him in that position in the first place.

As opposed to Neil who saw sadness and loneliness when he looked at this particular creature, Jerry saw only a monster. He understood Neil’s current sentimentality given his recent loss, but Jerry was not equally affected. He didn’t hesitate. He hefted his trusted rifle to his shoulder, took aim through his scope at his target’s head, and fired.

The echoing report surprised Neil. He reached over for the shotgun leaned in the corner next to him. He hadn’t expected Jerry and Emma to shoot the zeke, so the gunshot did raise an alarm in his head. When the first shot was not followed by a second, his concern retreated. Given the weather conditions outside, it may have just been a prudent decision by Emma and Jerry to not approach the monster and give it an opportunity to surprise them.