Infection: Alaskan Undead Apocalypse (14 page)

Two quick cracks rose above the beast’s bloodthirsty growl and then the thing fell forward, its own momentum carrying it against the side of the Subaru. There, standing in the middle of the street, was Officer Ivanoff, his sidearm raised and still at the ready. “We clear? Is he dead?”

The doctor inched a little closer to make sure and then said candidly, “He’s dead enough for me. Come on and get us the hell outta here will ya?”

Emma, furious, shouted, “What d’ya mean, ‘Get us outta here’? It’s his Goddamned fault we’re on the run again. Why don’t you drive?”

Dr. Caldwell could sense her disapproval and tried to cool the situation with simple logic, “He has been professionally trained to drive in heated conditions. Am I not correct in assuming that?”

The officer nodded.

“So it merely makes sense that he should drive. Let’s let each of us do what we’re best at and maybe we can all get out.”

Not entirely placated but wanting to get away quickly, Emma threw open the passenger door and slumped into the seat heavily and unhappily. Dr. Caldwell climbed into the backseat and Officer Ivanoff sat in the driver seat. The doctor watched out the back window as the first wave of their pursuers was just emerging from the unfenced yard through which the three of them had come.

Immediately after the gunshots, there was a temporary pause in the riot sound coming from the house they had just vacated on the other side of the trees. And then the sound changed and became even more furious, as if they had been provoked by the sound...aroused.

The good thing about the vehicle was that there were actually some supplies already in it. Bottled water, bread, canned foods, and several blankets were piled neatly in the trunk area along with some beautifully decorated personalized family scrapbooks.

Still fuming, Emma finally couldn’t hold back anymore, “Why’d you do it? You led them right to us. Why?”

Not taking his eyes from the road, he answered, “Those things were after me. What’d you want me to do? They were coming for you, too. You oughta be thankful that I shot that thing before it got the Doc. Where’d you be now if that thing got him and then went after you? You’d be on foot right about now.”

Nodding her head and laughing, “How many of those things did you run into while you were running back to us? I bet it was a big fat zero because we weren’t even on those things’ radar. And you had to lead them right to us. We might have been able to stay there until help came for us but now we’ll never know because you led them there. What the fuck were you thinking? Did you have a fleeting thought about the jeopardy that you might be putting us in...the people that you are supposed to be protecting and serving? Or were you only thinking about your own ass? “

From the backseat came, “Emma, give it a rest. He was only scared. We’re away now and maybe in better shape than staying there. We’re on the move and maybe we can find help.”

“Yeah, or maybe we’ll just get backed into a corner. Trapped.”

“It’s probably not that bad. Let’s just figure out the best...” Dr. Caldwell trailed off.

Emma had turned and was facing him, and Officer Ivanoff was looking at him in the rearview mirror. He exhaled a sigh. “Let’s just stick together. We have to watch out for one another so that we all can get out of this. Right now it all looks bad, but we can make it if we work together.”

Emma nodded but shot an accusatory glare at the police officer.

Officer Ivanoff didn’t say a word. He looked out of the corner of his eye at the woman sitting next to him. Who was she to question him like that? He’d never let his wife speak to him like that. Of course, he and his wife were separated and hadn’t spoken in years, but when they were together, you better Goddamned believe that she wouldn’t have been permitted to speak like that to him. He chewed his bottom lip while he imagined the things that he could have said or should have said to save face in front of that doctor. Officer Ivanoff was concerned what the doctor thought of him. He didn’t want to seem weak or afraid, like that woman suggested.

He didn’t think he had been afraid now that he thought about it. After he left the house, the doctor, and that woman behind, he went out to the main road, where there were some cars here and there but there weren’t any people at all. He felt like the last man on earth. He could only think that he was feeling how Adam must have in Eden. Despite all that had happened today and all he had seen, he felt at peace. Dr. Caldwell and Emma weren’t going to save that woman, Dana, from her horrible mistake. They refused her any chance at salvation because it was just more convenient for them. That woman, Emma, said it was what Dana wanted and to let her be. He was certain it was just because she didn’t want to be hassled with having to help her in her time of need. And that doctor...he obviously wasn’t moving to help either. Emma probably bewitched him.

Officer Malachi Ivanoff didn’t believe in witches spells or magical hexes, either positive or negative. His belief in the paranormal was limited to his knowledge of the Holy Ghost as part of the Trinity. He did, however, believe that there were women and even some men out there who knew how to manipulate and control others. And in so doing, these manipulators could change the minds of some very smart people just through their wiles. He could see it in the doctor’s eyes already and the doctor had no idea. So, he knew that the other man was going to do exactly what she told him to do. Officer Ivanoff just couldn’t bring himself to stay with and protect people like that who had no care for the immortal soul of others. So he ran.

As he made his way east on the road though, these thoughts and justifications rambling through his head, he looked out and saw a line of cars that extended several car lengths in either direction of a railroad crossing. It was then that he could hear the thunder of an approaching train. The road in that direction appeared to be blocked to vehicle traffic. He found it odd that the trains would still be running and then began to wonder how the locomotive would get through the intersection with cars across the tracks as they were. He still couldn’t see the train coming, but he could certainly hear it. It sounded as if it were coming from the north. His sense of civic duty, still a driving impulse within him, led him to start running toward the crossing to see if he might be able to move the cars himself.

He ran hard, trying to close the distance between himself and the cars quickly. His surprise registered immediately on his face and his feet struggled to stop when he realized his error. He saw the throng round the corner of the main road, which was still about a football field’s length further on than the railroad tracks. The mass of people, roaring like they were going into battle, spilled across the road and the parking lot to the convenience store on the corner. In front of the bloodthirsty mob, there were three people who were obviously being chased by the others.

The two men and one woman were strained to the point of breaking and still they ran. One of the men took a bottle from the pack of the other. He did something to it that Officer Ivanoff couldn’t quite make out and then tossed it over his shoulder without even looking. In flight, the officer could see smoke and heat waves coming from the bottle, then it exploded on the pavement into a ball of fire. A Molotov cocktail. Maybe it would be enough to discourage the pursuit.

His stomach sank, though, as the beasts simply ran through the fire as if it wasn’t even there. Several of them smoldered and burned as they continued their pursuit. The Molotov cocktail thrower was falling behind the other two. It wouldn’t be long for him.

The two survivors ran harder. They saw him. The survivors, the man and woman, spotted Officer Ivanoff and screamed for him to help them. He couldn’t understand their words, but he could register a sense of relief in their voices. They’d made it. Perhaps they were saved. His hand went to the pistol on his hip. He remembered that he only had four rounds left. What help could he possibly be?

He wasn’t even in control anymore. He turned, their pleas still echoing behind him, and started to run. He needed to get back to that house with the doctor and the woman again. He couldn’t save the man and woman on the road, but maybe he could save the other two. Maybe if he saved them, he might be able to Save them. That woman might be willing to hear him. Maybe.

He just had to run. He had to get away. He moved his legs as quickly as he could, which wasn’t very fast, but the distance already between himself and the crowd helped his confidence. He stayed on the road, using the flat and predictable surface to help him maintain a consistent pace. He just had to stay in front of the locomotive sound that was forever approaching him from behind. Was this how those other people felt? He thought briefly about hunters and their prey. He thought about himself and the times that he had stalked a moose or caribou. Had they felt the same fear that was damned near paralyzing him? It was a fleeting thought that barely registered as at the same time another thought flashed through his mind with the brightness of a neon sign: RUN.

That was exactly what he did. He ran and ran, making his way back toward the doctor and that woman. He needed to get back to them to warn them. He owed at least that much to them. They needed to know about this flood that was approaching. Besides, there was safety in numbers, and that was why he returned. He wasn’t afraid and looking out for his own hide as Emma suggested, he was just doing his duty and once again he was being criticized for it. Typical. He let Emma’s harsh words roll off his back and tried to remind himself that women can sometimes be irrational in tense situations. His wife was an exceptional example of irrational behavior. He was guessing that Emma was too. For that reason, he tried not to take her criticism personally, knowing that it was just her fear talking. Who could blame her really? It’s just a lucky thing that he came back for them when he did.

Their car screeched straight up the road until Officer Ivanoff realized he had run them into another cul-de-sac without an outlet. He swung the vehicle around in the large tear-shaped housing court and quickly found another road leading away. He was able to put some distance between them and their pursuers, but between dead end streets, exits blocked with cars, and more cul-de-sacs, they weren’t able to find a good way out of the neighborhood. Shifting their focus from trying to get away to merely trying to find some safety, they eventually elected to pull the car into a partially fenced backyard that was more or less out of sight. They hoped that being out of sight might help them to be out of mind as well.

They waited for several minutes in complete silence. They barely breathed so as not to draw attention to themselves. Their hope was that they could become invisible and simply melt away when the time was right.

Dr. Caldwell handed Ivanoff and Emma a bottle of water each. Emma drank from hers greedily and watched out the window intensely. Before she realized it, silent tears were spilling from the corners of her eyes. She didn’t consider herself one of those emotional women that cry with the slightest provocation, so she was surprised by the tears. She wasn’t even quite sure why she was crying at all. Not that she hadn’t seen and felt things all day long that wouldn’t justify a few tears.

Officer Ivanoff, still perturbed with Emma’s verbal assault, finally looked over at her and saw the tears. That was more of what he expected from a woman: vulnerability. He felt himself ease up on his feelings toward her. Maybe he was right after all. Maybe her attack on him was merely a product of a very tense situation. Maybe there was hope that she could be a good person. He undid his seatbelt and started to lean over to her as if to embrace her and comfort her.

Emma’s reaction was not what he expected at all. She immediately withdrew, plastering herself to the window and door of the passenger side. “That’s why I don’t cry. Because people like you think that you can console me somehow. You look at it as a sign of weakness and think that because you sit there stoically unmoved by events that you’re somehow stronger than me and can comfort me. I may need a lot of things, but your pity isn’t one of ‘em.”

“Emma!” again Dr. Caldwell tried to play the role of mediator from the back seat.

She turned to face him and continued, “Try and see it from my point of view, Doc. Here is a guy who ran out on us because we hurt his feelings...sorry,
I
hurt his feelings. And keep in mind that he isn’t just some guy. He’s a police officer. So he ran out on us and then brought bad guys back to us. And why? Because he’s not willing to live by the power of his own convictions or his own pledges. I think I’m allowed a bit of a gripe with him.”

Officer Ivanoff, stung again, asked, “What the hell are you talking about? Convictions and pledges?”

“You’re a fucking cop. What were you...?” The tears were coming uncontrollably now, but these tears were heated with anger and not lukewarm from despair. They filled her eyes and obscured her vision. Her frustration and resentment boiled over and took control. She couldn’t even verbalize herself anymore. She did the only thing she could think to do. She got out of the car and went into the unlocked back door of the house behind which they were parked.

Completely surprised, Dr. Caldwell unlocked his door and was set to get out but the door wouldn’t open. He pulled and pulled on the handle to no avail. The lock was disengaged but the door just wouldn’t open. Finally, he realized his mistake and asked, “Hey, Malachi, can you open my door from the outside please? I think the child lock is on.”