Evolution of the Dead (11 page)

“That’s just a coincidence,” Nick broke in.

“No, I don’t think so, Nick.  There was another time where I felt like something weird was going to happen – and again I didn’t know why or how; but later
that
night, me and my boyfriend went to dinner…and sitting three booths down from us was his ex-girlfriend.”

“Oh Jesus, that was just a coincidence, too.  There’s nothing weird about it at all.”

Kim said, “It’s weird that she has the feelings
before
anything happens.”

Carmen nodded, “Right.”

“They call those premonitions,” Scott volunteered.

“I don’t know what it is, but I had a feeling earlier that I was going to be locked in a room somewhere and I'd smell mistletoe.  I thought it was weird because this is June.  Why would I smell mistletoe in
June
? Well, there were Christmas candles in the box.  Mistletoe scented candles.”

“That's quite a coincidence,” Kim said, shocked.  “How were you able to do that?”

“I don't know.”

Nick was shaking his head.  He didn’t believe any of it.  “Ok then,” he said.  “What do you sense now?”

“That we’re in trouble and -”

“Well no fucking shit,” he interrupted, nearly shouting.  “I could’ve told you
that
.”

“Alright, Nick - calm down,” Scott said.  “Listen, maybe Carmen has a gift of foresight.  Who knows? Right now, let’s just try to figure out what these spitters don’t like.  If we can figure it out, then we can use it as an advantage over them.”

“They don’t like liquids,” Janet said.  “They squeeze it out of your body when you die.”

Nick quickly sat up on his knees.  “Tell us, Carmen.  Why don’t they like the liquids in our bodies?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well what do your visions tell you?”

“I don’t know! I’m not an expert.  I just told you sometimes I get feelings about certain things.”

“Well what does it tell you about the liquids?”

“I don’t
know
I said.  Maybe it’s squeezing the life out of you.  Maybe that’s the only way it knows how is by infesting you and then expanding so that everything gets squeezed out.”

“
What
expands in you?”

“I don’t know!”

“Well whatever it is, we need to stop it,” Scott said.  “And Nick, why don't you lay off of her? She's just guessing.”

Nick didn't say anything.

Kim asked, “What else doesn’t it like?”

Nick looked at Carmen, expecting an answer.

“Would you back off, please Nick?” Carmen said to him in a loud voice.

“I’m just looking to you for an answer.”

“Well I don’t
know
all of the answers.”

“Blood!” Janet said.  “They don’t like blood.”

“That’s a liquid,” Scott said.

“Right.”

“Well, they don’t like
solids
either,” Nick admitted.  “It’s pretty sick but, the lady inside the office at the Rent-A-Center had a fetus hanging out of her mouth like it got squeezed out of her.”

“Oh God,” Kim said.  “That’s nasty.”

“Poor Maria,” Carmen said quietly.

“Ok, so basically the disease squeezes anything out of you as it kills you,” Scott said.  “It’s like you get crushed from the inside out – so really, it’s not that the disease doesn’t
like
liquids or solids, it just needs to get them out of the way so you die.”

“But why does it need to get your – guts out of the way?” Carmen asked.

“Maybe it really doesn’t need to get anything out of the way.  Maybe it’s just the body’s natural reaction to it,” Kim said.

Scott asked “What are you talking about?”

“Well, kind of like a cut, I guess.  I don’t know, I’m just thinking out loud here.  As a teacher, I had to take, you know, first aid classes through college.  You guys know about anti-bodies, right?”

“Sure,” Scott said.

“Well anti-bodies attack any kind of infection.  Maybe this infection is too strong for anti-bodies.  Maybe the body revolts against it, and as it does, it rids itself of anything that gets infected.”

“That’s pretty extreme,” Carmen said.  “I don’t think anti-bodies have that much control.  They’re just like ‘cleaners’ I guess.”

“Well the body gets
cleaned
out,” Kim said.

“Totally,” Janet added.

“Let’s just look at the facts,” Scott said.  “The disease kills people.  It causes people to eject all blood and liquids out of the body.  Then the disease takes control of the empty body.  It enables the body to become mobile so that it can walk and touch and then infect another person.”

“K, what
doesn’t
it like?” Nick asked.

“Fire,” Carmen said quietly.

“You burned one?” Kim asked.

“I ran into some after hitting a car that was on fire. I was driving a hotel bus.  Some of the spitters got caught between the car and the bus and caught on fire.”

“They didn’t like it?” Kim asked.

“No.  I mean, they didn’t look like they were in pain or anything, but they burned up real fast, like paper – and they aren’t heavy at all.  They were real light.”

“With all of their body liquids gone I can see why,” Scott said.  “Maybe we can use it to our advantage.”

“What? Fly them like kites?” Kim asked with a short laugh.

“No, they’ll burn like leaves, and it will spread quickly.”

“Oh shit,” Carmen said, her jaw dropping.

“What?” They all looked at her.

“I had a feeling.  Earlier.  I had to push some of the dead people away with the back door of a hotel bus.  When I shoved them, I thought to myself that they felt like they hardly had any weight…they felt like leaves.  I hope it doesn’t get windy.  Oh
Jesus
…if it does, they’ll lift up in the wind…
they’re that light
! - they’ll be able to soar on the wind…like a bird…and spit at us from above.”

“I don’t think we need to worry about that,” Scott said with a laugh and a shake of his head.  “That seems a little bit too crazy.”

“You never know,” Carmen said.

“Yeah, I think
I
do,” Nick said.  “Actually, the idea sounds pretty damn stupid, Carmen.  There’s no way those things out there are going to learn to fly.  Come on.  Get real.”

She shrugged.  “Hey, I don’t know.  I’m just guessing.  You don’t need to call me stupid.”

“I didn’t call
you
stupid.  I said your
idea
was stupid.  Next thing you’ll be saying that they can drive these trucks.”  He was looking at her like she was an idiot.

Carmen looked at her swollen foot.  She decided to keep her opinions to herself.  She didn’t need any of this extra backlash.  It was already bad enough.

It’s not your fault,
a voice told her in her head
.  You’re just being silly.

“Silly?” she repeated.

Scott asked, "What?"

“Nothing. I think I’m going to get some sleep,” she said as she laid down on her side on the mattress.

“Good idea,” Scott agreed.  He laid down too.

Nick was still looking at Carmen.  He shook his head and stretched out on his mattress as well.

Kim snuggled up to Scott’s back.  He was warm.

Janet stayed sitting up.  Her mind was miles away.

It was a long time before any of them could sleep.  Carmen stared at the wall for a long time.

Being silly.  Where did I hear that before?

At dawn, Nick got up with the raging need to piss.  As quietly as he could, he slowly opened the overhead door of the truck.

Janet was sitting up, sleeping.  Scott had rolled over and now Kim was laying in his arms.

Looking outside, the whole bridge was covered in tiny waving worms. Only a small half-moon area near the back of the truck was clear.

Leaning out the driver’s side of the rear of the truck, looking toward the Rent-A-Center, Nick saw that the side of the truck he was in, as well as truck number two, was completely covered in dripping red spit.  Beyond that he could see the roof of his car near the store.  His car and the road around it had no spit on it at all.

All of the sick people were still standing in the exact same places as the night before.  None of them had moved an inch; except for a few behind the truck on the left side of the bridge.  Some of them had moved out of the way.  Had they been pushed by something? Had another car come through and shoved them to the side?

Curious, Nick leaned out the other side of the truck.  The people on that side looked the same.  He wondered what had caused the people on the other side to move.

He leaned back out the other side again.

There was no way to really get a good look at it unless he got out of the back of the truck.

He had to piss badly.  He climbed down out of the truck.  Carmen’s back was to him. 
She got a fine ass, too bad she’s such a psycho
, he thought.  Turning, he stepped closer to the edge of the spit, unzipped and took care of business.

The worms didn’t like the urine hitting them.  Some shrunk down into the muck, others started to climb his urine stream but the pressure was too strong for them to climb very high.

There was a slight shuffling sound to his right.  Small dead children had ducked under truck number two and were slowly crawling toward him.  One of the kids, a little girl with pigtails who was no more than four years old, led the group.  Worms were interlacing with their fingers as they crawled.  She had blown out eyes.  Nick realized that her other pigtail was a writhing bundle of worms. Seeing it gave him the chills.

The little girl reared her head back to spit at Nick.  A glob came dangerously close to hitting his right elbow.  He quickly zipped up his pants and jumped up into the truck.  He slammed the overhead door down waking the rest of the group.

“
What
the hell?” Scott said sitting up.

Carmen opened her eyes.

“There’s kids out there!” Nick screamed.  “Dead kids and they’re spitters! They’re coming onto the bridge!”

Scott yelled, “What the hell were you doing out there?”

“I hadda take a piss!”

“We’re screwed now,” Carmen screamed.  “We won’t make it by them.  Nick, you just killed us all!”

“I hadda piss! I’m sorry! I hadda go!”

“You son of a bitch!” Scott said as he got to his feet.  “Now what the fuck are we gonna do? You got us trapped in here!”

Carmen was struck by another vision.  She saw Nick lying on the ground.  His face was badly beaten.

“I’ll run for it,” Nick said.  “I’ll run to the truck behind us.  I’ll open the fucking door.”

“That will
kill
you” Janet shouted.

He pulled his shirt off.  His chest was covered in Roman numeral 4 and 5 tattoos.  “I’ll use my shirt to open the door.  It might be enough protection.”

“What if they spit on you?” Kim asked wide eyed.

“Then I’ll be gone.  This is the least I can do for fucking up.  I’m sorry.”

He opened the overhead door.

Right outside, the top of their heads barely visible, six dead children stood looking up at the truck.  Immediately they started to spit.  They were too short.  The spit was hitting the bottom side of the truck.

Nick leapt over them.  He landed in the bloody spit, nearly lost his footing, got back his balance and ran to the driver’s side door of the truck behind them.  Using his shirt, he pulled the door open.

Throwing his shirt to the side, he started the truck.  Closing his eyes, he turned on the windshield wipers.  He shoved the truck into gear.  Slowly he drove forward.

The front of the truck crushed the children’s heads.

“Oh God,” Kim mumbled.

“They’re already dead!” Scott shouted.

“Now what do we do?” Carmen yelled.

Nick backed the truck up. He started to turn it so that the rest of them could get in the passenger side.

“This isn’t going to work,” Carmen yelled.  “I’ll never be able to walk across this.”

“You have to,” Scott yelled.  “Just forget about the pain.  You have to do it!”

“I can’t!”

“
Yes you can
!”

Kim yelled, “There’s no way we’re all going to fit in there!”

“Some of us are going to have to stay behind until we figure something else out,” Scott yelled.

Nick had the truck sideways on the bridge.  Bloody spit was flying everywhere.  The windshield wipers were on full speed.  He reached across the seat shoving the passenger side door open.