When They Come (5 page)

Silence.

Mr. Fontaine turned on the radio to break the silence.

Static ruled the airwaves. He pressed the “SCAN” button.

Eventually, a news station came up. They made no effort to hide the voices of the scared crew members. The anchorman was just audible enough to understand.

“The president has been taken aboard air force one to an undisclosed location. If you are in an area of much civil unrest, stay at home, do not unlock your doors, barricade your windows, fill your bathtub or any containers with fresh water, keep a radio handy. If you see anyone bleeding or with bite marks, avoid at all cost, they are infected…”

The broadcast continues. It only made the car ride a bit tenser. Margie put her father’s revolver on her lap. It made her feel a little safer.

“Whoa, nice piece, Margie! Didn’t know you had it in ya!”, Paul said.

“Well, it was in my dad’s office. I’ve never shot one of these things before.”

“It can’t be that hard. Just point and shoot. Pow, pow, pow!” Kara said jokingly.

Paul brought up his wrench. “It’s more like, whack, whack, whack, with me, right guys? Right?”

Margie smiled at Paul’s attempt. Kara smacked the back of his head.

“Ew! You’re gross! I’ll let that slide though, Paul”, Kara laughed at him. The ride seemed to be a little less tense afterward.

“Well, I’m glad you kids are feeling better. How are you hanging in there, son?” Mr. Fontaine looked over at Tommy for a second. His silence made everyone a little bit on edge again.

“How do I feel? God has left us. He hates us. He didn’t take us with him because we sinned, dad. We made God angry!” Tommy punched the window in rage. He began to bob his head up and down and muttering words to himself.

Mr. Fontaine shook his head in sadness. He slammed the brakes as hard as he could. Everyone jerked forward and then back. Paul’s wrench hit the floor with a heavy thud.

Margie’s mouth opened and she froze in terror. The scene was terrible.

There, on the highway, were cars stopped in an eternal traffic jam. Some of them were still honking. Many of them were dented and left open.

“Oh my God”, Kara said to herself

“Shit, shit, shit!” Paul was getting nervous. He bent down and grabbed the wrench.

Margie held the gun tight.

Many of the cars were smeared with blood and had broken windows. In some cars, limbs were sticking out of them with some meat still attached to the bone. There were dozens, if not more, walking dead limping around the cars. The stopped traffic provided a near endless feast to the ghouls. The group saw a ghoul smash a car window and force it’s upper body inside. The screams of the couple inside rang in everybody’s ears. They all shook when they heard the scream get louder, almost certain she was being eaten alive.

“Canned food”, Paul said.

Kara slapped him upside the head again.

“We need to move, fast. We’re not gonna become like one of them.” Mr. Fontaine’s voice carried much urgency. Slowly, everyone got out of the car. They were standing on the highway and looking at the near endless line of cars and the horde of undead limping around trying to get at their next meal.

“Where are we going?”, Kara asked.

“Anywhere but here!”, Margie instantly replied.

“Just like your father, aren’t you? You know how to use that thing, Margie?”

“Yes, Mr. Fontaine. Just point and, pow, pow, pow. Right, Kara?”

“Yes! Just like that”, Kara smiled.

Margie felt a little safer in her group. Kara stood behind Margie and Paul. Mr. Fontaine reached under his seat and pulled out a lead pipe.

“Dad?”, Tommy asked.

“What?! You know how many times this thing’s saved my bacon, son? Now let’s go. We need to get to wherever we can that’s away from here.”

“A few exits down is the Happy Oak gated community! We could check that out!”, Paul seemed excited at this.

“Good idea, Paulie. We have a destination, now we need a path. Everyone, stay close and look after each other.” Mr. Fontaine held the pipe out slightly, looking ready as ever, the group walked slowly between the cars. The highway was very high up above the ground, with little space to move around. Between the cars seemed best.

Margie seemed to be the only one who bothered to look off into the horizon, all she could see were destroyed cars, people trying to hide inside of them, people trying to get out of wrecked cars filling with smoke, smoke off in the horizon, corpses on the floor mangled, bones popping out of them, and more importantly, several of the walking dead milling around. They were trying to get at the delicious canned food on stalled wheels.

Margie wondered how a gated community would hold up in a situation like this, but she couldn’t be choosy. Right about now, she was counting her blessings that she wasn’t alone. Having a goal is better than just walking around aimlessly, especially in a time like this, she thought.

“Come on, Margie, we need to move,” Kara said worriedly.

Margie trudged on with the rest of them, moving at a slow and steady pace between the cars. They tried not to disturb the dead that were banging on the windows, trying to get at the people inside.

“They’re plenty distracted. We just have to keep cool and we should be alright”, Paulie said quietly.

Everyone took special caution to watch for bodies that were crawling around under the cars. If the smell was any indicator, the dead have been here for at least a few hours, and given the circumstances, these legless bodies are more dangerous.

You can’t hear them.

Mr. Fontaine led the group through several more rows of cars. They stopped when they heard banging coming from inside one of the cars and a muffled voice.

“Please, please, get me out! I can help you, please!” The voice came from a young woman who was obviously struggling with something in her car.

“Oh my God, I’ll help you miss, we won’t..”, Kara interrupted Tommy.

“What the fuck did you do that for?! Can’t you see she needs us!?” Tommy started to raise his voice and Paulie covered Tommy’s mouth with his hand.

“Dude, come on! This isn’t the best time!”, Paulie said in a hurried whisper.

The group froze for a second. They suddenly became aware of dozens, if not hundreds, more people trapped in their cars, banging the windows and begging for help. It was mostly in vain as the banging only served to attract more undead to them.

“Look”, Kara said, motioning to the woman’s arms.

It was hard to see past her wide open blue eyes. Her blonde hair was a mess and her clothes were torn.

“Oh shit…”, Paulie said.

Tommy grew silent. “L-let’s just go, I’ve seen enough”.

In the car with the woman was a baby wiggling around on the floor, the baby’s mouth had blood pouring out, it almost looked happy. The young blonde mother’s leg was covered in small, but deep bite marks. Her wide eyes not only showed fear, but knowledge of what the infection does to it’s victims. It was only a matter of time.

She became aggressive.

“PLEASE! LET ME THE FUCK OUT! PLEASE HELP ME, HELP MY BABY! YOU CAN’T LEAVE US LIKE THIS!”

A few of the undead turned towards the noise.

“Oh shit, shit shit.”, Paulie said in a normal voice.

Margie held out her gun and shifted from target to target. They began to limp towards the group. Mr. Fontaine smashed the infected mother’s window with his pipe.

A loud crash was the desired result.

“Perfect, let’s go , LET’S GO!!” Mr. Fontaine hoped his plan would work.

“NO! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING! NO, DON’T LEAVE ME HERE!”

The undead turned away from the fleeing group and began to make their way towards the louder source of noise.

Marge saw Mr. Fontaine biting his lip. He regretted his choice, but when it came to preserving his and the groups’ lives, he had to be ruthless sometimes.

“I’m sorry.” He said under his breath. Margie was the only one who heard it.

The group heard the infected mother screaming as her flesh was torn away from her body.

They tuned it out as best they could. Tommy was most shaken by it. He froze in his tracks and turned around. There were still a few undead in pursuit of the group.

“Tommy, let’s go! What’s the matter with you!”, Kara pulled at him. He turned around and followed, lagging behind.

“Just a few more miles and we’re golden”, Paulie said with confidence.

The screams stopped.

The shuffling of more ghouls urged the group to proceed a little faster. Mr. Fontaine went on ahead of everyone keeping an eye out for anything. He prided himself on being a bit older, as well as a bit wise as the rest of the group.

“These kids need me”, he thought, as he went on several feet ahead of them.

“Dad, slow down!”, Tommy spoke loudly. It wasn’t quite a well, but it was higher than his normal voice.

Mr. Fontaine heard him but kept going. The group was fine so far. Kara jumped at corpse inside of a car banging on the window.

Margie noticed the creature and quickly thought to herself, “How long would that person be in the car for?”

It was a teenage girl, just like her, but faced with unfortunate circumstances. Margie didn’t know whether to pity or envy her at that moment. She was safe where she was, and she was also put out of her misery. She would not have to deal with this new world anymore. She got out early.

The banging of the teenage ghoul became more and more distant.

The cars began to rock around and the windows were now being slammed with the undead fists of their recently deceased hosts. Mr. Fontaine was barely in sight of the group. He was on the lookout for the exit to safety as well as other walking corpses that would threaten the safety of his pack.

He clutched his lead pipe hard. It took some of the edge off.

Margie held her gun tight, safety off, finger off the trigger, and pointing to the ground. She figured that with the speed of their enemies, she wouldn’t have any need to draw it out quickly.

“FUCK! FUCK! HELP ME!”, Mr. Fontaine screamed. Everyone looked around for him. He was so far ahead that Kara looked one way when he yelled and Paulie looked another.

“DAD!”, Tommy yelled, “Where are you?!”

A corpse was twitching on the floor with a crack in its’ face lay at Mr. Fontaine’s feet. However, he was being grabbed and pulled against a car as another ghoul pushed him and began to bite at him, desperately trying to get a snack.

Mr. Fontaine tried to wrestle himself from the corpse’s grip, but it’s freshness made sure that most of it’s muscles were intact and they were more than enough to pin an old man down.

It was a young man in a dress shirt and tie. He was trying to evacuate straight from his job, however, he was unlucky and became the enemy.

“For fuck’s sake! Help me! Tommy!”, Mr. Fontaine saw the group running towards him.

Margie saw something in the corner of her eye.

“Shit”, she said to herself. “All of his yelling is attracting a bunch of them.”

“Dad! Hang on!”, Tommy was getting close to him, jumping over corpses and weaving through cars, with tears in his eyes he ran to his father.

“Tommy! Get this guy off of me!”, Mr. Fontaine yelled desperately for his son, but the distraction was a foolish mistake.

“Tommy! Aaah! No..”, Mr. Fontaine had taken a bite to the throat. Tommy watched as the hungry ghoul tore off a piece of his father’s throat. He and his mortally wounded father both watched the creature greedily chew and swallow a vein that kept blood pumping to his head.

“Dad. DAD!”, Tommy whined, kicking the ghoul over and letting his father fall to the ground. Tommy stomped the creature with angry tears in his eyes. Mr. Fontaine tried to get himself up, but was grabbed by a crawling ghoul. The creature grabbed his forearm, making his efforts to get up futile and proceeded to take a bite out of the weakened man.

Tommy was too busy kicking the young businessman to notice his father gasping for attention. One of Mr. Fontaine’s arms was at his throat, desperately trying to keep the blood in his body. The other was being torn apart by the hungry beast.

Another crawling ghoul, smelling the blood, slowly made his way to the dying Mr. Fontaine and began to chew on his leg. Mr. Fontaine just watched the abomination chew off pieces of his leg through his trousers. He laid his head back and let himself die. It was far too late for him.

Mr. Fontaine was the first to go. His last thought was that he wished he could have seen his son and his herd make it to safety.

He breathed his last breath and left this world.

“Dad! No, no, no, come on, get up!”, Tommy, so filled with grief, did not even notice the monsters still eating his father.

Paulie made it to the scene and kicked the ghoul off of Mr. Fontaine’s leg.

“Tommy! What the fuck is wrong with you! Get that shit off of him!”, Paulie yelled to Tommy.

Tommy could only look at his father’s mangled body and weep. He fell to his knees.