End of the Line (22 page)

             
I smashed it again and again, gore from the head splashed all around me and on me but I didn’t stop until it stopped moving and released its hand. I wacked a few more times after that. I took a deep breath and pulled my ankle away from its cold fingers.

             
“Jim,” I felt a hand touch my shoulder. I screamed like a little girl and swung the shovel around nearly whacking Annemarie.
             

             
“Jesus,” she said. She looked at me, covered in gore, then looked at the zombie with its head bashed it. “Oh shit, Jim, are you okay?”
             

             
“Had better days,” I said, dropping the shovel. My heart beat so hard and so fast I would have a heart attack.

             
“Come on,” she said, taking my arm. “Come upstairs. Let’s get you cleaned up.”

             
She took me back into the garage and closed the door. I let her lead me upstairs and into the kitchen.

             
I heard Tanya, Jake and Dave calling out Ashley’s name.

             
“What’s going on?” I managed to croak out. I couldn’t get my heart to stop dancing. 

             
“That’s what I came to tell you, Ashley’s missing.”

             
“What?” I said, trying to make coherent thoughts.

             
“Her backpack is gone. I think she left.”

             
How could she have gone? I was on watch most of the night. How did she get passed me?

             
Annemarie took me to the kitchen where she used bottled water and wipes to clean me up. I still couldn’t get my heart to slow down and now I was shaking.

             
Tanya came in a moment later followed by Dave. “She’s gone. You okay, Jim?”

             
“Bashed one of their heads in—“

             
She didn’t respond.

             
Despite what I said, Dave looked angrily at me. “She’s gone and I blame you.”

             
“What?” I said. My fear turned to anger. “I didn’t toss her out of the house and I tried to talk her out of it.”

             
“You wanted to be in charge? You aren’t keeping your people together. You’re letting the zombies in on us.”
             

             
“Hey, what’s with all the shouting?” It was Dot, she had woken from her drunken stupor.

             
“Ashley’s gone,” Dave explained.

             
“I know.”

             
I looked at her. “You know?”

             
“Yep, she left through the basement.”

             
“And you let her go?”

             
“Should I have stopped her? Roped her up or something?”

             
“I was going to teach her how to drive. I thought you said you wanted to go with her?”

             
“Changed my mind, not feeling so great and I like this house,” she said and gave a long cough. “Found the pantry, saw that the master bedroom’s got a fire place.” she started coughing, a loud yakking sound then she spit on the ground. I would have said something but I noticed the saliva was bloody.

             
“You all right, Dot?” Dave said.

             
Dot smiled. “Fit as a fiddle,” she paused. “I told her not to go.”
             

             
“How long ago did she leave?” I asked.

             
“Don’t know, still dark, couple of hours.”

             
I looked at Dave. “We can try and find her.”

             
“She has a head start.”

             
“We can grab the convertible in the garage. It runs.”

             
“You sure you wanna look for her? Nothing to make her get into the car,” Tanya bought up.

             
She was right. Ashley wanted to leave, I couldn’t stop her. Was it worth looking for her?
             
“At least we can try,” Annemarie said.

             
“What a beaut,” Dave said from behind the wheel.

             
Jake and Annemarie would remain behind with Aisha and Dot while Tanya, Dave and I would search or an hour and if we didn’t find her we would come back.

             
I realized we were looking for a needle in a haystack. Ashley could have gone in any direction but I hoped she would stick with the familiar.
             

             
We weren’t far from the Long Island Expressway, the easiest way to get across the island. The hardest part was getting on route 106. It had cars blocking it, but someone who could walk could get through it without a problem. We ended up riding a lot on the shoulder or the grass. Thank god Harold Goldstein kept his trophy car filled with gas. Plus I think Dave fell in love with it.

             
“She could be miles ahead of us. Or she could have taken a car or a bike. Or she could be dead.” Tanya said.

             
I didn’t respond. I watched the road for movement. I didn’t see any zombies, so that was good at least.

             
The LIE was near impossible to navigate. Dave looked frustrated. I knew he wanted to find Ashley but the expressway was covered with broken down vehicles, accidents with bodies in the cars, on the road, and of course zombies.
             

             
We had driven for thirty minutes when we saw a tourist bus, one of those Hampton deals on its side surrounded by several zombies. The bus was in a pile up that would be difficult but not impossible to get around but it required us getting very close to zombie bus.

             
Dave stopped the car.

             
“Gotta figure out how to get around them.”

             
Tanya didn’t respond. She stared at the bus.

             
“Tanya, what is it?” I asked.

             
“Ashley’s on that bus.”
             
             

             
She was right. I should have seen it. Zombies always wanted us. No higher brain function left except to somehow smell us.
             

             
“Look at them, they smell somethin livin,” Tanya said. “I ain’t got enough bullets to kill them all.”

             
I looked at the zombies. There were at least eight I could see. If Ashley was inside, I couldn’t let her go like that.

             
“Any ideas?”

             
“Distract them,” Tanya said.

             
“Thought we might drive passed them and double back,” Dave said. “I’ll drive slowly pass them, honk, pull them to the next exit then jump the divider and come back. You all get your seatbelts on.”

             
“I’m getting out here,” Tanya said.

             
“What?”

             
“You pull 'em away, I’ll get her out and we’ll run to the other side of the divider where you get us.”

             
It was a good idea and it was stupid. Not all the zombies would go after the car. What choice did we have?

             
“Good luck,” I said, as she got out of the car. I noticed that Dave didn’t object or say anything.

             
“Hold on tight,” he said to me. I was strapped in but I held on to the door handle as well. I don’t know which place was safer, in a slow convertible being chased by zombies or dealing with the ones that stayed behind.

             
Dave got to the bus and was so slow I thought he was going to stop. He blasted the horn. He honked it repeatedly until most of the zombies looked up. Their gruesome faces staring at us, two of them were kids. A little naked boy moved towards us with most the skin from his upper torso gone. A few began to head to the car. They got to close for my comfort. I still felt tense and nervous from my encounter before.

             
“Go faster,” I said.

             
“I don’t want to lose them.”

             
I held on to the handle for dear life. I could hear the zombies’ moans, the inhuman shrieks of anger or hunger. I hated that sound. It sounded like of the end of the world. I thought of the zombie I killed in the garage. How Tanya moved the body so we could get the car out and how it left a trail of human decay.

             
“Hold on,” Dave said. I think he noticed how tense I was by the way I held on to the door handle.

             
It seemed like forever before we got to next exit. We managed to keep most of them following us. Dave did a massive K-turn and jumped the divider. The car hit it so hard, I almost hit my head and I lurched forward. Harold Goldstein was going to have a large bill for his muffler.

             
We crashed down with a massive bump. I held on to the seat belt as we landed, praying it wouldn’t break, and we were on the road again. Dave hit the gas and went as fast as he could around broken down cars. I heard the grind of the top coming down. Ashley and Tanya were already running towards us. I didn’t count how many zombies were staggering behind them but it was a lot. The one foot divider seemed to be giving them trouble.
             

             
Tanya slowed down because Ashley couldn’t keep up. She grabbed her hand and pulled her forward. When we got to them, Tanya practically leaped into the car. Ashley had a little more trouble and I physically carried her over. She sat in the seat, so out of breath she couldn’t talk.

             
As soon as we were all safely in, Dave hit the gas, clipping a parked car as we sped away. Dr. Goldstein was not going to like the condition of his car.

             
“Jesus,” Tanya said. “I only killed one, and got one in the knee caps.”

             
I heard the grind of the top coming back on. I looked out the windows. The zombies were giving chase but even they couldn’t go 30 miles per hour and were soon dots in the background.

             
“You’re going the wrong way,” Ashley said, after she finally caught her breath. Dave slammed the brakes of the car. I didn’t want him to stop, even though we had gone some distance from the remaining zombies.

             
“Goddamn Ashley, I’m sorry about your fucking daughter, but we all lost someone. Do you think my kid is still alive? You don’t see me running off half-cocked.”

             
“I didn’t ask you to come.”

             
“If we hadn’t that bus would have been your tomb.”

             
“My decision to make.”

             
“Ashley,” I said. I sounded desperate because I was. “Please don’t do it this way. I have—“ I stopped in mid-sentence. I realized something I had to do.
             
             

             
“Jim, what is it?” Tanya asked. By instinct, she turned around and looked for zombies but there were none.

             
“Ashley, I’ll take you to where you can pick up I-90 that goes all the way across the country. I’ll find a car and send you on your way.”

             
“What?” Dave asked. “Have you gone crazy too?”

             
“No,” I said. “After I drop Ashley off, I’m going into the city.”

             
Tanya looked at me, sharply. Her look was angry but some fear, for me.

             
“I need to find what happened to Cameron.”

             
“Jim,” Tanya said. “Ashley’s got a slim chance, New York’s a death sentence.”

             
“Knowing I never tried to get to Cameron—I can’t deal with it. Dave, let’s go back to the house and I’ll get the Prius working and take Ashley to I-90.”

             
I figured Dave would explode. Call us irresponsible and crazy.

             
“I’ll go with you,” Tanya said.

             
“You don’t have to.”

             
“I do,” she said. “A year ago, life left me nothing, but now I got you all.” A surprisingly sentimental statement from Tanya.