The Infected (Book 1): Jim's First Day (20 page)

“You
don’t get to quit!” Sara pulls my backpack around so I have to face her. “Maybe
they left,” she steadies Devon.

“How?
The car’s still out there!” I can’t look her in the eyes.

“We
need to go!” Frank grabs my spear and hands it to me.

“I’m
not leaving! I can’t leave without my family!” I pull my prized high definition
plasma TV down off of its stand. It is pulverized when it hits the floor. Frank
slaps me across the face. My Krav skills have failed me again. He didn’t do it
fast, but I couldn’t stop him.

“My
family is gone! I am still standing! You will stand too. You don’t have a
choice,” Frank’s eyes breathe fire at me.

“My
family is dead too!” Sara looks at me like I am a selfish child.

“Hey!”
There is a voice from outside. Frank pulls out his revolver and quickly reloads
it. I step closer to the door and out onto the little chunk of concrete we call
the backyard.

“Hello?”
I call out.

“Up
here,” the voice comes from above me. I look up. It is the family that lives kitty
corner from us.

“Climb
up,” the guy says. I wish I could remember his name. I know he has told me it
like three times.

“What?”
I step a little further onto the grass. He rolls down an emergency rope ladder.
It drops down and the bottom rung touches the freshly clipped lawn.

“Come
on!”

“Have
you seen my family?” I beg. Please, please, please, a glimmer of hope ignites.

“Yeah.
They left with a guy in a red truck. About an hour ago.”  My
brother-in-law, Troy, drives a red truck. The flame of hope flickers brighter.

“Did
he have a beard?”

“Yeah.
Now, come on.”

My
eyes clear up. My heart lifts. Maybe they are not dead. I have got to regroup
and regain focus. 

“I
have to grab some stuff.” I step back into my place.

“You’d
better hurry. They’re coming!” he yells after me.

“He’s
got a ladder up to his place,” I head straight for the Ernie doll. I grab it
and look around for the Bert I got Robin on her first birthday.

“Can
we trust them?” Sara moves Devon towards the door.

“Yeah.
I guess. I don’t really know him, but he’s got a family and he always seemed
nice,” I dig through a pile of toys.

“My
names Cliff, again,” Cliff calls down to us. 

“What
about Devon?” Frank puts his revolver away.

I
find the other doll and pick it up. I let myself hold them tight for a second. “We’ll
lift him. Please put this in my bag.” I hand the toys to Frank and turn my back
to him. He unzips it and forces them in. There is not much room left. I step
into my bathroom and open the cabinet under the sink. There is one of those ten-dollar
medical kits and a bottle of hydrogen peroxide. I take both. In the hallway
closet is another backpack I have had since college. I throw the medical stuff
in it. I run back to my bedroom and find my Maglite, and a change of underwear
and socks. In the junk room on the bookshelf I grab a book my Mom got me when I
joined the Boy Scout’s. The book is a field guild to survive outdoors. I cram
it into the bag. I look at the dead body on the floor of the room and I notice
it was killed with a knife. It sticks out of the side of its skull. I recognize
the handle. It is a knife Karen got from her Dad when she was a kid. I pull it
out of the dead man’s head and wipe the blood off the blade. I put it in my
pocket. The last thing I grab is my Dad’s old leather jacket. It is a heavy-duty
jacket that he wore when he was a young man and rode motorcycles. It has
sentimental value. Plus it looks badass. The bag is almost full. Back in the
kitchen I pull cans of food down out of the cupboards and fill the bag the rest
of the way. On the counter I see a note. It is my wife’s handwriting. “WENT TO
MOM’S” is all it says. Her brother took her home to her Mom’s house. He is a
big strong guy and my mother-in-law has a tall fence around her house. If they
made it, they could be safe. My mother-in-law, Penny, stockpiles food. She is a
food hoarder. It is a good place to hold up. I have to make it there.

I
get outside and Sara is already up the ladder. Frank goes next. I toss the backpack
up onto the porch and hand up my spear. Cliff already has Devon’s spear. Frank
gets to the top and they pull him over the rail.

“Alright,
you hold the ladder. When I get to the top I’ll pull you up. Okay.”

Devon’s
skin is pale and he has dark circles under his eyes. Somehow we have to get him
some blood and medication to stop any infection. I start to climb. It is not
that high, so I get to the top fast. The group helps me over the rail. I look
back and Devon is barely holding on to the ladder. From around the corner of
the apartment the old person horde has found us.

“Devon!
DEVON!” I call down to him. Finally he looks up. “Step onto the ladder and hold
tight.”

He
tries to put his hurt leg up on to the first rung and screams out in pain. The
noise excites the infected.

“Devon!
Come on!” Sara begs. He fights to pull himself up fully onto the ladder. The
infected are ten feet from him.

“Pull
yourself up boy!” Frank slaps at the rail. He tries again and screams at the
top of his lungs but he gets both feet up onto the ladder. The monsters are so
close. Frank grabs one rope and I take the other. We pull at the same time.
When we get a rung up and over the rail I pin it down with my body. The
infected reach out. Their fingers brush Devon’s legs. He panics and spins
around on the ladder. I am about to lose my grip. If they get a hold of the
ladder they will pull him right down.    

“Pull
me up! Pull me up!” Devon cries out. Sara joins us and helps pull on one of the
rungs. We get him above their reach. One more rung and I grasp his hands. The
three of us pull him over the rail. We all fall to the floor of Cliff’s porch.
We can’t help ourselves, we cry. The four of us lay out on that concrete porch.

“You’ve
been shot,” Cliff opens his sliding glass door. “Tina, someone has been shot,”
Cliff steps into his apartment. We get out from under Devon and I notice six
eyes on us. It is Cliff’s little girls. Tina enters the living room.

“Girls!
Get away from the door,” she has only a touch of an accent. She is originally
from Mexico. The girls take off and run back to their bedroom.

Cliff
has a yoga mat out and on the floor, “Here, lay him on this.”

We
drag Devon in and lay him down onto the mat. Tina goes to Devon’s side and
opens his eyes. She looks at his pupils and then holds two fingers to his neck.
After a few seconds of counting, she pulls back our bandage job and takes a
look at his wounds. Sara kneels down on Devon’s other side.

“Do
you know what to do?” Sara takes Devon’s hand.

“I
am working on my second year of nursing school. I know enough to be dangerous,”
she winks at Devon.

“What
a crazy day. It got biblical out there. You want a beer? Hi, I am Cliff and
this is Tina.” Cliff holds out his hand for Frank.

“Frank,”
he shakes Cliff’s hand, “This is Sara and Devon,” he points at them, “Yes, on
the beer, please,” Frank lets go of his hand and finds a place to put his bag
down. He goes to work right away at reloading his guns.

Cliff
heads into the kitchen. My eyes follow him and there are four cases of beer in
there.

“You
made it to the store?” I ask.

“We
were at the store when shit started going down.”

“When
Karen, my wife, left was…”

He
cuts me off. “Yeah, they are all fine. Kids, wife, they looked good. Some guy
showed up in a truck with a shotgun. He took out some of the…what did you call
them, honey?”

“Zombies,”
Tina says without looking up from Devon’s leg. Cliff is back from the kitchen.

“Zombies,
that’s right. Yeah, he gunned down a bunch and they took off,” Cliff checks out
my wounds and bandages, “You look like you have been through hell,” he has
three beers in his hand. I don’t recognize the brand. Some kind of Mexican beer.
He hands one to both of us.

“Yeah.
It has been a day,” I pop open the beer and drain it in one long swallow. Best
beer I have ever had.

The
End…or is it?