Stage 6 (13 page)

There were murmurs of agreement as we heard the sounds of war in the streets. I motioned everybody to the door, and there was some shuffling as things were traded off and guns and weapons were prepared. There was a moment of silence, as we all made our mental preparations for what lay out there.

Then I said, “Alright. Let’s go.”

I opened the door and moved out quickly, swiveling my gun back and forth pointing towards the streets. Ian had the keys and bolted to the driver’s seat while my Mom ushered everybody into the car. In about twenty seconds we had everything and everybody loaded into the car, as efficient as any military operation I could imagine. Without incident, I hopped in the passenger door and had a grim thought to myself about calling shotgun. Ian turned the car off and we quickly backed up and headed towards the road.

Ian flicked on the headlights to see a battlefield in front of us. Animals were sprinting around in the streets fighting not just each other but anything that looked edible. Since in my experiences I had never seen Infected try and attack each other, I assumed that most of the animals were actually not Infected and that only a small % of them were. But those small percentage that were Infected were trying to eat the normal animals and from what I could see that wasn’t going over too well.

Ian slowly pulled out into the road and turned left, heading towards Alex’s house. The animals weren’t bothering us when we were closed up in the car, thankfully and we all nervously held our breaths as we powered through the turmoil. About fifty feet on, we suddenly saw a group of people with some lights among them, standing in front of a house.

Shocked that anybody would be out amid all this, I told Ian to pull over near them and I stepped out of the car and asked them, “What’s going on? What’s happening?”

They ignored me, crowding around something on the ground, but one recognized me and I knew him as Bob from Joe’s house the day before. He saw me and walked over to shake my hand. I greeted him and repeated my question, “What’s going on?”

Dimly I heard another car door open, and saw George step out of it from the corner of my eye. I turned and yelled as George suddenly began to sprint in the opposite direction.

Confused I took a few steps after him when he yelled, “No! I’m not leaving my home!” Hunter jumped out of the car and ran after him, barking madly. They both disappeared into the darkness quickly, to my shock, and Bob completely ignored this most recent predicament. I began to run after Hunter, when I suddenly realized it was hopeless. Hopefully he would be ok with George.

Bob replied to my previous question slowly, obviously still not sure what was going on, “It’s... Not explainable. You were here yesterday, you saw Joe. He was barely able to move, and some of us were wondering if he’d even recover. Well that scream you may have heard a while back which brought us out here to see this,” he waved his hand at the animals in the streets as he said ‘this.’

He continued, “We came out and heard a bunch of screams and ruckus from Joe’s house, so naturally we came over to help. But just as we came to the door to see what was going on, Carey, Joe’s wife, came running out and slamming the door behind her, sobbing! We asked her what had happened, and she told us that she had heard some noise while sleeping so had gone up to check on Joe, and that’s when. He attacked her! She says he tried to kill her! So she screamed and ran around the house for a bit before running out here with us and collapsing shortly afterwards. We would have dismissed this, or even gone outside but as you can see...” he gestured towards the door where for the first time I saw what some of the people were staring at.

The outline of a man inside the house was repeatedly slamming into the front door, splintering it and trying to get out. Bob continued, “Nobody wants to go in there with Joe in this state of mind and Carey isn’t much help either.” With a sinking feeling I pushed my way into the circle around Carey and gazed down to see her bleeding in multiple places from scratches and bites.

Horrified I backed up, and ran towards the car as Bob called after me, “Hey! Where are you going??”

I jumped in the car and feeling revolted, I simply said, “Joe was Infected we were right. He got Sally, and they don’t know what’s happening. If we stay here much longer the whole town will be overrun.” I looked at Ian and told him to go.

My mom spoke up, “Hey, if she’s Infected we need to warn them! She’ll kill them!”

I turned around and faced my mom and yelled, “They won’t listen! We tried to explain to Alex yesterday and he thought we were crazy!”

She raised her voice and replied, “Well, yesterday, he didn’t have animals fighting each other in the streets and husbands trying to eat their wives! They’ll understand if we just tell them! And what about George, what do we do about him? What about Hunter!?”

Ian began to stop the car and I ushered him on and said to everybody in the car, “We don’t have time! We need to get out of here now! George made his decision, we can’t spend time looking for him. And Hunter... Well we don’t have time.”

As I spoke we heard another bird screech and a person cry out behind us. Grimly I turned back in my seat and said, “We don’t have time. It’s already begun, this town is doomed. Let’s get to Alex quick.”

Ian hesitatingly started moving the car forward again and the whole car was quiet for a moment. We pulled down the long dirt road towards Alex’s house, and almost as soon as we did we could hear the fighting sounds increase greatly. Screams, human screams began to sound out and shouts as people began to realize something was not right. The one thing first and foremost on all of our minds at that moment, was the thought that Joe must have just gotten out of the house. They weren’t prepared to deal with this. A flicker of doubt crossed my mind as I wondered if I had made the right decision to leave them, to not look for George, but I pushed it away. All that mattered was our survival. Ian stopped the car and I got out. Steve handed Victoria to Lucy, who was becoming used to the routine of baby-sitting by now. Steve and I jogged quickly up the steps to the door, and I took a deep breath and knocked.

Sounds of someone scrambling inside came, and a voice cautiously said, “What do you want? I warn you, I’m armed!”

I sighed and said, “Look, Alex, it’s me, Jack, we came by to get gas yesterday?”

The door remained motionless and he didn’t speak for a moment, and then, “What do you want?”

I opened my mouth to answer when suddenly I heard Ian shout out, “Jack there’s more of them! The commotion must have drawn the Infected from nearby!”

I turned to see that they had turned the car around and the lights were pointing towards the town, illuminating a horde of Infected running amid the streets and houses ravaging anything they could find.

Angrily I screamed, “Turn the damn lights off it will bring them over here!” I turned back to the door and hurriedly said, “Look Alex, we weren’t lying yesterday! The Infected are HERE, in this town! That’s what all the noise is about! And we need your gas NOW! You can come with us if you want but we have to leave!”

There was a horrifyingly still silence for a few seconds, and then the door opened and Alex looked into my face and said, “I’ll let you explain yourselves again but I’m not promising anything.”

We walked inside and he led us into the same room as the previous day, where I didn’t bother to sit and immediately said, “Where’s the gas Alex?”

He replied brusquely, “Now hold on a second, I haven’t decided anything yet. I’m just willing to listen.”

Irritated, I was about to reply when I heard another scream this time from Lucy, saying “JACK WATCH OUT! THEY’RE COMING!”

I bolted to the door and peered outside to see a swarm of Infected rushing past the car and heading towards the house. They’d be here in seconds. Panicked I moved back into the living room and looked at Alex, “Dammit come on! Where’s the gas!?”

Alex took a step back, nervously, and I saw his gaze flicker past a door leading into a bedroom. I moved towards the door and he got in my way, and said, “I can’t let you take the gas Jack!”

Then pounding on the door, and a shattered window a few seconds later as the Infected tried to force their way into the house. Alex’s attention was diverted, and I quickly slipped past him and shoved him into the wall. He sprang up and Steve moved fast, putting a solid two hundred pounds of muscle between Alex and me.

Alex looked desperate, and asked, “You’re not going to take it!?”

Then the door fell flat, and Infected rushed in. Alex looked at these ravaging psychopaths heading towards us, and then looked back towards me, terrified. Steve took out his gun, and violently pulled me into the bedroom and shut and locked the door. Alex screamed a few seconds later and I could only imagine what they were doing to him.

I turned on Steve and swore, “What do you think you’re doing!? We’re leaving him to die!”

Steve replied calmly, “He’s already dead Jack, all we can do now is get back to the others.”

Still shocked, I stumbled around for a bit listening to the ravaging sounds of the Infected as they feasted outside the flimsy door separating us from them. Steve grabbed my shoulders and said, “Quick let’s search the room. The gas HAS to be in here somewhere!”

He overturned couches, and tore open shelves while I asked, “What makes you so sure?”

He replied, “Call it a hunch.” I angrily said, “I don’t want to bet my life on a hunch!”

We could hear flesh-ripping sounds from the other room, and Alex’s screams had died down. Suddenly they started attacking the door, as evidently they had found where we had gone. I quickly searched through the room, not finding anything. Then I had an idea, where could one hide a bunch of gas cans in a bed-room? I ran to the closet and started tearing clothes left and right. Eureka! There in the middle of the closet lay FIVE three gallon gas cans. Excitedly I dragged them out and called Steve over.

He asked, “How are we going to bring them all?”

With a sinking heart, as the Infected began to break through the door, I realized he was right. The most we’d be able to bring would be four cans. I said, “It’ll have to do. Here,” I picked up two and moved over to the window. I unlocked it and opened it, and then gingerly lowered the cans outside. I took a look around and then hopped out, and gestured for Steve to come over. He carefully lowered the cans to the ground just as the door burst open behind him! Shouting, he dove out of the window shattering glass and rolling as he hit the ground. He picked up two gas cans and started sprinting around front, and I blindly followed him as Infected began to force their way out the window after us. As I rounded the side of the house I saw a terrifying sight: Infected were still coming towards the house, obviously attracted by the sounds we were making. Steve dropped a gas can and pulled out his pistol shooting the nearest three Infected to him clean through the head, killing them instantly. Suddenly our car turned, and faced its headlights towards us, and quickly pulled up to Steve who was closer. I ran over to the car as I watched Steve unload his gas cans in the passenger door, and then glance over at me. From the shock on his face, I knew something was wrong just as a hand viciously gripped my shoulder and threw me to the ground. The gas cans dropped and I fell with an Infected on top of me! It flailed about, grabbing my arms and pinning them to the sides while looming in to bite my chest. In sheer panic I found the strength to throw it off of me, and grimaced as it landed hard on the ground. Then, BLAM and a bullet from Steve’s gun lodged itself in its brain, and it stopped moving. Shocked I turned to look towards Steve, who was motioning furiously with his pistol for me to pick up the gas cans. Time seemed to slow down as I picked them up, and the car sped quickly over to me. I opened the passenger door and jumped in, placing the cans on the floor. Tires screeched as we sped off, and I looked ahead to see a scene of destruction. What had been a fine, peaceful town just a few hours before had been turned into a raging, burning village. Yes, burning, one of the houses had a major fire and it was spreading fast. I guess some of the Infected must have knocked over something.

Ian turned onto the main road going at least forty miles an hour and my mom yelled, “Slow down Ian! You’re more likely to hit one of them and wreck the car then get us away unscathed!”

Chastened, he slowed down but just a little. And a few minutes later, the car slowed down a LOT. We ran out of gas. Laughing at our foolishness, Steve and I got out of the car and filled the tank up with every drop of gas we had left. Then we stowed away the cans in the back of the trunk, just in case we needed any containers later on. Suddenly Steve’s face turned white, and he gripped my arm and turned it over.

Surprised, I asked him, “Steve what’s wrong?”

He pointed at my arm, and looked up at my face. “You’re bleeding.”

My gaze slowly dropped down to my arm to see he was right. Suddenly panic began to overtake me, and my knees became weak. My vision blurred, and I slumped to the ground while Steve shouted for help. Then all went black.

I awoke, sweaty and breathing fast to the sounds of rapid discussion around me. I dimly became aware of my surroundings, and realized I was in the trunk, with my hands tied behind me. My cuts stung from some sort of antiseptic placed on them. I could see the sun was rising so I knew a few hours had passed, and gazing out the window I could see we were stopped in the middle of the road. I had only been unconscious for a little while, and we had probably only gone a few miles in that time. I strained to hear the conversation.

Mom: “Are you kidding me!? It’s just a scratch; he probably got it climbing out of the window! Right, Steve?”

Steve: “Now we can’t be too sure about that. I literally dove out of the window and there’s not a scratch on me.”

Kevin: “We can’t just sit around for him to become Infected; we have to do something now!”

Lucy: “What do you mean do something now!? He’s tied up in the trunk for God’s sake, and we don’t even know if an Infected got him!”

Sarah: “I’d just like to point out here, that we don’t even know if a scratch transmits the virus. Actually, it really wouldn’t unless some of the virus was on the Infected’s fingernails or on Jack’s arm in the first place.”