The Plague Unto The End (15 page)

“What?” said Jim as his happiness vanished.

“Who?” said Matt from behind me, changing his posture.

“Was there someone else at the store that didn’t make it?” asked Matt.

Beth looked confused and said, “I’m fine they didn’t…” She looked over at Curtis.

“No...no...I protected her.  She’s fine...they didn’t...they couldn’t have,” Beth struggled to get out.  Then she saw the blood and saw the bloody sleeve of the girl’s shirt.

“Maybe she cut herself on something,” I blurted out.

Curtis suddenly caught onto what we were talking about.  He put the girl down and looked at her sleeve.  With scared eyes he looked around the room at everyone else.

“I picked this out for you,” said the girl in a very small voice, holding up the plastic bag from Game Stop.

Curtis took the bag as she handed it to him and looked inside.  It was a game that he had been asking his mom to get him.

“I’m sorry it’s not wrapped and I think I missed your birthday.  It was yesterday I think,” the girl said.

“Oh, Frannie...” he sniffed, “it’s okay.  It’s just the one I wanted.” He tried to keep himself under control.

“Okay, let’s not panic,” Beth said while she walked over to Curtis and his sister.

“What do you mean let’s not panic!” yelled Curtis.  “You’ve seen where this leads.  We all have.”

All of us were a little thrown aback by Curtis’ outburst.  None of us had seen this kind of personality out of him.  The infected outside the door began to pound more violently when he yelled.

“Look, keep your voice down.  We’ve got first-aid kits in this place.  We can patch her up good as new,” said Jim, trying to calm Curtis down.

“Good as new?  She’s dead...she doesn’t have a chance!” screamed Curtis.

Francine began to cry and pulled away from Curtis.  She ran over to Beth and hugged her around the waist.

Curtis’ anger disappeared and was replaced with surprise at his sister having just run to someone else for comfort.

“I...I’m sorry Frannie.  It’s just...I don’t know what to do,” mumbled Curtis.

“Let’s start by taking a look at it,” said Beth as she walked over to Jim with Francine.

“The kits are over here on aisle twelve,” Jim said quickly.

Jim kept his eyes on the shattered windows of the front of the store and stayed low as he moved.  Sid and Curtis walked quickly behind them as they rushed off to examine the wound.  I started to follow them, but Matt grabbed my shoulder just before I was out of reach.  I looked back at him with a puzzled look on my face.

“What’s up?” I questioned.

“I had a little talk with Curtis just before he fell asleep earlier, when we were on the roof.  I found out why he was flying down the street when he wrecked,” said Matt very seriously.

“Is this really the time to...” I started to speak but Matt cut me off.

“He was looking for her...and his mom,” said Matt.

“So, his mom is still out there too?” I replied.

Matt looked slightly ticked off for a moment, “I doubt it.  What mother would let her eight-year-old fend for herself out there?”

“But there is a chance that she’s out there?” I questioned.

Matt was clearly beginning to lose his temper, “Okay, this is not why I brought this up.  I’m not purposing that we set out another rescue party in the morning.  I’m saying that this guy is reckless when it comes to his family.  Alright...his mom and...what is it, Frannie, went to the shopping center to buy him some birthday presents.  That was the day all of this started.  They never came back.  He sat at home...and didn’t do anything for the first couple days.  He saw all of the stuff on the news, but when the news cut off he just couldn’t take wondering what happened anymore and jumped in the car.  Did you see any weapons in his car? Or any kind of self-control when we first ran into him?”

“Well, no, but...” I tried to get into the conversation.

“There’s just something about him that makes me worry.  I’m not sure what it is.  I know that right after...they got Jenny, I thought about just giving up, walking out into a crowd and letting it happen.  I had to make the decision to fight and he will too,” Matt said.

“We don’t even know that she was bitten and if so, we’ll deal with it,” I replied.

“Whew!” I heard Sid exclaim from the middle of the store.

I looked at Matt and started walking over to where everyone else was gathered around Francine.  As I walked I glanced back at Matt, but he just stood there with his arms crossed, slightly shaking his head.

Curtis was holding Francine again and...looked happy.  Beth was trying to wrap Francine’s arm with gauze while Curtis was walking around holding her.

“Hold still, I still need to clean it up,” said Beth, trying to hold onto Francine and the gauze.

“It ain’t no bite,” said Sid, wiping his forehead with his arm.

Jim looked pleased but didn’t say a word.

“What was it then?” I asked Beth.

“I guess that thing had some nails and cut her through her sleeve,” replied Beth.

“Oh, good.  That’s great news.  We just need to clean it up and bandage it then?” I asked.

“Yeah, I put some peroxide on it and I’m trying to wrap it...if THIS CLOWN WOULD PUT HER DOWN!” Beth raised her voice.

“I’m sorry,” muttered Curtis and he put Francine down.

I looked back to where Matt had been standing, but he had walked off somewhere.  I stood with the group for a few minutes and smiled.  I was happy for Curtis.

CHAPTER 12 - Our castle...

The rest of the group sat between the aisles, filling each other in on their story.  We had grabbed a couple bags of beef jerky from the front registers and a few bottles of soda from the coolers next to the registers.  We all made sure to keep quiet and we would say something if we heard anything.  This night was a little different than the night before in the thrift shop.  For some reason this night almost felt like a lock-in.

Frannie sat on Curtis’ lap.  Beth had found a big fluffy sleeping bag to lie on.  Sid sat picking at his nails with a big hunting knife.  Jim sat watching the front doors with his hunting rifle in hand.  I sat leaning up against the shelving, watching the back door and occasionally I would glance over to see if Jim was still watching the front.

I listened to Beth and Curtis talk about everything they had been through and learned a little more about Sid than I wanted to know.  But I kept wondering where Matt was and when he was going to join the rest of us.

Beth “Bethany Cartwright” said she was not from this area at all, originally.  She was from Michigan and she had four brothers.  That’s how she learned how to take a solid swing at someone.  Derrick Loper was Beth’s friend from work.  She knew that he had been trying to get the courage to ask her out for several weeks, but he just never did and now he never would.  Beth heard from her brother Frank right when it all started.  He told her to go to the police and stay away from hospitals.  After what I had seen, this sounded like good advice, except none of us had really seen a police officer anywhere yet.  She said she was at home when she first heard about it.  She had watched the same reporter get run over by the truck as I had.  It was kind of strange yet we all laughed about it when we both realized we saw the same thing.  I was reminded of recapping a new movie with a friend.  When we realized that we were laughing about someone dying, we stopped suddenly.  We all sat in silence for a few moments.

Curtis started talking about sitting at home for almost two days.  He said he paced back and forth for a while trying to convince himself that his mom and sister would be back any minute.  Curtis told us that his dad had left his mother when he was really young, right around the time his sister was born.  Curtis was heavily into video games and told us that he didn’t really notice that his mom and sister were late coming home until about four hours after they should have been home.  He was in his room playing online and only stopped playing when one of his friends was “AFK,” which he said meant “Away from the keyboard.”  He said his friend Mike told him to hold on because someone was at the door.

Curtis heard Mike put down his headset and then...nothing for about an hour, but Mike never logged off.  Curtis tried calling him, but he wouldn’t answer the phone either.  Curtis saw someone walking in his backyard and he tried to tell them he was going to call the cops.  The man ran after him and Curtis quickly backed into the house, and slammed the door.  He knows now that the guy was a carrier, but he said the guy banged on the back door for about the next two hours.  Curtis couldn’t wait any longer and he ran outside and drove off in his Mustang. 

Frannie started to talk and everyone else immediately halted what they were doing and listened.

“Mommy and I went to get Curtis’ birthday present.  The police were fighting with a man in the parking lot.  I saw them spray something on his face and they shot these wire things at him and they even hit him with these metal sticks.  He wouldn’t listen to them.  They got him on the ground finally and put his hands behind his back, but he was still fighting them.  Mommy said the man needed some help at the hospital.  An ambulance came and took the man away.  Me and mommy walked back to the van and she bought me a new dress and a new shirt too.  I wanted to hurry home to try them on.  She helped me into the back seat.  She wanted to put my seatbelt on, but I told her I could do it.  She walked around to get in and sat down.  She put on her seatbelt...”

Frannie stopped.

“Where is mom?” asked Curtis.

Frannie didn’t answer.

“Frannie you’ve gotta tell me where mom is.”

“...She was in the van,” replied Frannie quietly.

“What, where did she drive to?  Why did she leave you?  That’s not like mom.”

Frannie looked at Curtis with tears flowing from her small eyes.  “The man...before she shut the door.  He started grabbing her.  I screamed.  He was hurting her.  I was scared.  I got out and ran.”

Curtis started looking sick, “I’m sorry Frannie.  I didn’t know.  Did mom...get out of the van?”

“I don’t know.” Frannie sobbed.

“She never said anything about this to me,” added Beth.  “We found her...Derrick and I found her inside that clothing store where we were hiding.  That’s why we were in there.” Beth glared at Jim.

“What, we were all a little on edge and I said some things,” blurted Jim.

Beth looked back at Curtis, “She was sitting on the floor inside the store in the children’s section.  I guess that’s where your mom bought her that dress.”

“Wait, I thought you said you had to fight your way into that store,” I asked.

“We did.  She was sitting so still on the floor that the ones inside the store didn’t even notice her, but when we were moving past the store, I looked inside and she looked at me.  I told Derrick we had to help her and we went inside.  They came at us just like when we left the store and Derrick did his best to fight them off, but...well you guys know how it turned out,” responded Beth.

“I’m thankful that you did that for my sister,” said Curtis to Beth.

Beth just looked at Curtis and nodded.

“I know you guys don’t want to go out on another rescue party, but I have to find out if my mom might still be alive.  I think if you guys had any idea where the rest of your families were, you would want to look for them too,” said Curtis, looking at all of us.

“I’m not real fond of the idea, but I can understand where you’re coming from,” I said.

“No offense to anyone else, but I’m not going,” Beth said.

“That’s understandable.  You’ve just gotten out of all of that out there.  I wouldn’t want to jump right back in either,” I replied.

“That’s not what I’m saying really.  Again, no offense to anyone, but with what she just said...your mom probably didn’t make it,” Beth said.

“I’m always game, bud,” said Sid, proudly tapping his shotgun on his shoulder.

“You know this guy wouldn’t stand a chance without me,” said Jim, pointing at Sid.

“Hey there, big fella.  If I recall, I was the one that saved your lousy shootin’ tail at the store,” said Sid raising an eyebrow.

“Eh, whatever,” responded Jim.

“Well, we’re not going out tonight anyway.  They’re too agitated outside and I’m still not sure what condition my truck is going to be in tomorrow morning,” I said.

“What the heck happened to your truck?” asked Sid.

“Oh, right, you guys were already inside.  One of them got into the back and tried to crawl through the window to the bed.  Last I saw, he was hanging out inside the cab and I left my door open.  The dome light is probably on and if I don’t get the door shut before the battery dies, we’ll need another vehicle tomorrow,” I responded.

“What, you just need to get the door shut?” asked Jim.

Jim walked over to the rack of baseball bats and picked out a bat.  He swung it a few times and walked back over to the rest of us.  Sid looked at Jim and shook his head just before he walked over to the same rack and selected his own bat. 

“Ok bud, me and Jim are gonna take care of them while you get that door shut,” said Sid, swinging the bat in his hands.

“Yeah, well, worry about old rotten face inside the cab tomorrow,” added Jim.

“Alright then,” I said as I led the way toward the back door.

I put my hand on the door handle and looked at Sid and Jim.  They each gave me a nod and I readied my pipe sword.  I opened the door and was greeted by about ten carriers.  They all started grabbing and reaching at the same time.  I began shoving them back and kicked them in the chest when I could.  Once I broke through the clot outside the door, I sprinted to my truck.  The door was still open and there was my unwanted passenger still trying to get out of the window.  I grabbed onto the door and started to shut it, but the thought of how disgusting the inside of that truck would be in the morning made me think twice.

I pulled the door back open and jabbed the point of my sword through the eye socket of its skull.  I tried to bash it in the head several times, but I couldn’t get the leverage to produce a kill shot.  I glanced back at Sid and Jim.  They seemed to be taking out the ones around the door.  I dropped my sword to the ground and took hold of the carrier around the neck just under its chin.  I pulled and yanked at it until I felt something starting to give.  I thought just maybe I was getting it to come through the hole.  Then I felt something pop and the upper torso came flopping out onto the front seat of the truck.  It had ripped in half, spilling a brownish goo all over the seat and it was still trying to get me.  I looked back at the other two guys and realized that even this little bit of commotion was enough to capture the attention of other ones close by.  They were starting to crowd around the door again, even with the two of them fighting them off.  I picked up my sword and caved in the cranium of the carrier hanging half out of my truck, dragged it onto the asphalt and threw the truck door shut.

I turned and ran toward the back door of the building and yelled to the others to get back inside.  I shoved and kicked my way back through the wall of walking, decayed flesh and forced my way back inside.  Sid and Jim stumbled in with me, but we weren’t able to get the door shut before one of them slid in through the crack in the door.

Beth had been waiting on the other side of the door when we came back inside.  She slammed the corpse up against the cinder block wall and destroyed its face with the mannequin’s arm.  We managed to get the door closed and we all sighed in relief.  I stared at the remains lying motionless on the floor at our feet.  I had not really had the opportunity, if that is the right word, to see one of them without having to worry about the twenty others coming after me.  This one looked like it had once been a male, but none of us were sure about the race.  Most of its hair was gone and any distinguishable features were sunken in, faded, or just rotted away altogether.  Its skin was a greenish-gray color and we could all see the fatal wound that ended this person’s life.  The left side of its neck was ripped to shreds and dried brown blood ran down its shirt.  I also suddenly noticed the horrible smell hovering about the body.  I guess I had never really noticed it because of the bursts of adrenaline.

“We need to get rid of this somehow,” I said to the others.

“Well, I don’t recommend getting rid of it the same way it came in,” said Jim.

“We could throw it off of the roof,” I said as I pulled out my portable radio.

CLICK
,
“Hey, Matt.  You still up on the roof?” I radioed to Matt.

PFFFF
, “Yeah...why?” Matt responded.

CLICK
, “Stay up there, we’re going to need your help with something,” I said.

PFFFF
, “What, the carrier you clowns let in when you went outside?” Matt asked.

CLICK
, “Yeah, that’d be the one,” I replied.

Jim picked up a pack of climbing rope and Sid grabbed a tarp from the boating section.  We rolled the corpse up inside the tarp and tied it up with some of the rope.  Jim reminded me of one of those New York mobsters getting rid of a body in a piece of carpet.  Sid and Jim seemed to be fairly comfortable moving the corpse around from the previous bodies they had moved.  We dragged the remains to the bottom of the ladder leading to the roof and I climbed up to help hoist it up.  Jim tied the rope around the carrier’s waist and helped to push it up from the bottom while Matt and I pulled it up to the roof.

Once I was on top of the roof, I figured out why Matt liked it up there.  Aside from the shadows moving down below us and the occasional gunshot in the distance, it was very peaceful.  You could see most of the surrounding area and it was easy to just look up at the sky, blocking out everything else.