The Last Days (21 page)

“I hope its Mike and not Trac-fone. I still haven’t bought those extra minutes at that new low price. I’m sure they are wondering what I’m waiting for.” John smirked as he pushed the app to take him to his text page.

John read quietly.

When John didn’t say anything and just sat their quietly staring at his phone, Barb spoke up. “Is it Mike? What did he say?”

John looked up at Barb. Mike’s message had just confirmed John’s worst fears. He had suspected the invasion of the dead was more than just a local phenomenon. Something this horrific couldn’t just have sprung up out of nowhere in Ligonier. But regardless of where it sprang up, the implications were clear, they were all in trouble.

“It’s from Mike.” John replied softly.

Barb looked at John waiting for him to go on.

“It’s not good news.” John said.

“Are they OK?” Barb asked. By John’s expression, she was worried something had happened to Mike or his family.

“He said they are OK. The dead destroyed their RV. They were able to escape. He said he stole a Prius to try to get them all home.” John replied.

“He stole a car?” Barb said looking startled. “He could get arrested and go to jail! Why did he steal a car?”

John hesitated. “I don’t think he is too worried about going to jail.”

“He should be, that’s against the law!” Barb replied. “Why would he tell you he stole a car? Police can use the text message as an admission of guilt.”

Barb studied the blank emotionless stare on John’s face. He didn’t seem too concerned that his brother had just stolen a car. “What else is going on John? What else did he say?”

John looked up. “I was worried what was going on here in Ligonier was happening in other places too. Mike’s last message said the dead were there too. I still didn’t want to believe it.”

“Believe what?” Barb asked. She was now starting to worry.

“Mike said he talked with a guy that was in the Army. The guy told him that some virus has infected the entire country. He said the cities are all gone. He said that everything is gone!”

“What does he mean by everything is gone?” Barb almost shouted.

“I don’t know. I guess he meant the government, the police, maybe the whole country is gone. There is nothing left anywhere. The dead have overrun everything!” John replied looking solemn.

“He can’t mean that?” Barb said incredulously.

“What else could he mean?” John replied. “You have seen the dead. If they are everywhere, what could still be left?”

“Call him!” Barb said. “This is important!”

“I’ll try, but he probably still doesn’t have any cell reception. He said he has been on the road for two days and has only been able to go about ten miles.”

“Try him anyhow!” Barb insisted.

John closed the text box and went to his contact list. He selected Mike and pushed dial.

He held the phone up to his ear and listened.

“It’s ringing!” John said.

Barb sat anxiously, staring at the phone.

The phone stopped ringing and clicked. “Hi this is Mike. Sorry I can’t come to the phone. Leave a message and I will call you later…..beep!”

“Mike, this is John. When you get cell reception please call me. Your last text was scary. Call and tell me what is going on.” John clicked off.

“Damn it. It went to voice mail. He mustn’t have been able to get into an area with reception yet.” John said.

Barb sat silently. She looked up at John. He could see the fear in her eyes. “If everything is gone, what are we going to do? Where are we going to go?”

“John said we should try and go down to the farm. He said he has enough food and weapons stashed there for us to hold out for maybe six months.” John answered.

“What are they going to do? Are they going to be able to get back home?” Barb asked.

“He said they are trying to come home but he doesn’t know how long it will take them. It must be really bad.” John said.

He sat quietly for a few minutes, then held his phone up to his face and hit the text app.

He read as he typed. “Mike, when you get cell reception, call me. What did you mean by everything is gone? It sounded like you meant the entire country is gone. Is the Army still active? How about the police?

I’m hold up in the old Harbaugh Chevrolet building. I guess I will try to steal a car today too and see if we can get to the farm. Tell me what is going on. I hope this doesn’t mean what I think it does.”

John looked up at Barb. “Anything else?”

Barb thought. “Ask him if he knows how long this will last? When will it be over?”

John read as he typed on his phone. “Mike. Any idea how long this will last? When will it be over?”

He looked at Barb. She nodded nervously.

John pushed send.

When the “message sent” notice flashed across the screen, John held the power button and the phone powered off.

“Why are you turning off your phone? Mike might call.” Barb asked looking confused.

“Mike suggested we save our power.” John said. “Since we don’t have any way to charge our phones, when the battery is dead we won’t have any way to stay in touch. When he gets in range of a signal we will arrange a time to call each other.”

“Oh, OK.” Barb replied. After a minute she looked back at John. “Are we really going to steal a car?”

“It’s too far to walk down to the farm and a car would be a lot safer than walking. The sooner we can get to the farm the better.” John said.

“What about our truck?” Barb asked.

“I’m not even going to try to go back to the house.” John said. “We should be able to find a car in Ligonier we can hot wire.”

“I didn’t know you knew how to hotwire a car.” Barb said. “You and your brother didn’t go around stealing cars when you were kids did you?”

“No we didn’t steal cars!” John smiled. “And I don’t know how to hot wire a car either, but I am a car mechanic. I think I can figure it out.”

“I was just thinking.” Barb said. “I don’t know about you two when you get together with him.”

She stared at John looking serious for a minute, but then started to grin. “Just joking.”

“I would hope so.” John replied. “But I guess I should warn you. If the whole country has gone to hell, we might find ourselves doing some things that we would have never thought we would do before.”

Barb nodded.

“If we have to do something in order to survive.” John looked serious. “I say we survive first and worry about whether it is legal or not later.”

“I don’t want to become a criminal.” Barb said.

“Neither do I, but I think the rules have all changed.” John said. “How much they’ve changed? I guess we will find out.”

John decided to break their solemn mood before they all became too depressed. Cindy wasn’t depressed. She didn’t know what was going on, but kids had a way of knowing when something was bothering their parents. She just watched John and Barb nervously.

“What do you say we get started?” John asked.

“Where we going?” Cindy asked.

“We are going to go down to Uncle Mike’s.” John replied trying to sound upbeat.

“Can I play with Kimmy?” Cindy’s eyes lit up.

“Kimmy won’t be home for a few days. We are going to go down and wait for them.” John smiled. “But when she gets home, I’m sure she will want to play with you.”

“Do you think Uncle Mike will let us play in the tree house?” Cindy asked. “He let us play in it last time. That was fun.”

“I’m sure you can play in the tree house.” John answered. “But it is going to take us a while to get there. We have to be quiet if those bad people are still out there. OK?” John smiled.

“OK. I’ll be quiet.” Cindy said. “Do you think I can play in the tree house today?”

“We’ll see.” John answered.

John was happy to see Cindy was satisfied with his answers. It was good she now had something to look forward to.

John only hoped that there would be more than playing in the tree house for her to look forward to.

He hoped they would all have something to look forward to. If they did, John knew they would have to lower their expectations.  The Steelers playing in the Super Bowl or that new computer he had been wanting probably wouldn’t be on his list of things to look forward to for some time.

“Make sure you have your snack in your pocket for later, then we are leaving.”  John said.

Cindy checked her pocket, then walked up and tugged on John’s arm. He looked down. She looked up, smiled and wiggled her finger for him to bend down so she could ask him a question.

John didn’t have to bend down. “Does anyone have to go to the bathroom?”

Cindy’s hand shot up in the air.

“Barb?” John said. “I think the next door down is the bathroom. There isn’t any water to flush, but I don’t think anyone will complain.”

“Here we go, breaking the rules already and we haven’t even left the building.” Barb smiled.

“We already broke the rules.” John smiled. “Did you forget about the vending machine?”

“I guess we are becoming a regular Bonnie and Clyde.” Barb grinned.

“Who is Barney and Clyde?” Cindy asked. “Barney is a purple dinosaur. Is Clyde the green one?”

“Yes, he is the green one.” John said. “Come on. Let’s go find the bathroom.”

John led them down the hall and just where he had thought, he found the bathrooms. He propped the door open to the ladies room so the girls would have some light. They went inside and he went to the men’s room.

He was waiting in the hall when the girls came out of the bathroom.

“Mommy says it’s going to stink in there because we didn’t flush.” Cindy said. “Why don’t they have any water?”

“Because the building has been shut down.” John said.

“Couldn’t they have left the water on so people could still flush?” Cindy asked.

John thought. “Candy bar for breakfast….why me?”

“They didn’t think anyone would be using the bathrooms after they closed the building.” John replied.

Cindy smiled. “They are going to be surprised!”

“I bet they are!” John laughed.

When they arrived back at the door to the room where they had spent the night, John indicated for them to be quiet and listen.

“We are going to go down the steps and walk back the hallway towards the front of the building. That should take us out to the showroom. We should be able to see out to the road from there. If it’s clear, we’ll try to go out front. Maybe I can get out of here without ripping up what’s left of my shirt.” John whispered as he rubbed the deep scratch on his stomach. “Stay close to me. Everyone ready?”

Cindy nodded and smiled up at John as she reached out and took his hand.

Cindy nodded, but unlike Cindy, she wasn’t smiling. She was scared.

John led them up the hall. The railing on the balcony was fifteen feet in front of them.

They moved quietly.

John stopped them a few feet before they were in position to see down into the service area. He smelled the air.

It smelled different than when he had gone down earlier this morning to get the crowbar.

The smell wasn’t as strong as it had been back at his house, but it was a smell he recognized.

It might be coming from outside. The dead could have found a way inside the fence and were outside the door. After breaking the lock on the door, it wouldn’t close.

He had just blocked it shut with a concrete block. It wouldn’t have been too difficult to push open.

“Stay here?” John said. “I’m going to crawl up and check out where that smell is coming from.”

Barb took Cindy’s hand and nodded.

John dropped down on the floor and crawled to the top of the steps. He could see the door before he reached the top of the steps.

The door was still closed like they had left it last night.

The smell was stronger here at the edge of the balcony.

He listened.

Shuuuup!   Shuuuup!   Shuuup!

Something was moving below. It sounded like one of the dead, moving slowly dragging its foot.

Most of the dead John had seen were mangled in one way or another. They all drug some part of their body.

The sound was not very loud.

There couldn’t be more than one or two of them below.

John crawled carefully to the top of the stairs until he could see the entire floor in the service area.

He didn’t see anything, but he could still hear the dragging sound and the smell was getting stronger.

Then John saw movement down to the left. Coming out of the hallway that John was going to take his family, a lone zombie slowly moved into the service bay.