The Last Days (23 page)

“Barb!” John called out softly.

He turned to see Barb walk over to the railing on the balcony and gasp as she looked down at John and saw the girl lying in the puddle of blood on the floor.

John pointed to the balcony that overlooked the corner of the hallway.

He moved over to the corner and looked up at Barb.

He could hear it. Thuuup!    Thuuup!    Thuuup!

Barb moved, holding onto the railing to steady her shaking body. By the look on her face she was terrified.

She moved to the end of the balcony and stole a quick look.

John watched as she looked back down at John and raised a shaky arm. Finally she held up one finger.

Thuuup!    Thuuuup!    Thuuup!

John raised the crowbar and waited.

At the first sign of motion, John stepped out and brought the crowbar down hard.

It connected with the head of an older man.

John stared. It had been the man that had sold him food a few days back at the little store in town.

He had both arms and legs, but the dead had obviously feasted on everything in between.

John moved back to the corner, hitting the wall hard as he pushed his back against the wall and breathed quickly, trying to settle himself down.

Thuuup!    Thuuup!    Thuuup!

John tried to control his breathing.

This was the first of the walking dead he had recognized. A kind man that had sold him food for his family. A man that had seemed at the time, like he wouldn’t hurt a fly.

A man that would have now killed him without hesitating.

A few minutes later, John was now looking down at the body of an elderly woman.

He wondered if this had been the man’s wife.

Did they both get killed and infected at the same time. Had they recognized each other as they staggered along together? Did the dead have any memory of what they had been before? If they did, it had to be torture, because they didn’t have the ability to express themselves.

Were they able to watch each other and see what their spouses had become and what they now were doing?

It would be like being locked in prison, watching a closed circuit view of what had happened to their loved ones.

It would be agonizing to be forced to watch helplessly as your body too did horrendous things that were beyond your control to stop.

John hoped not. He hoped they were just dead unthinking robots.

He didn’t want to believe the world was as unbearable for the dead as it was for the living.

If it was, Hell had just won the battle of good versus evil.

Evil had won and he was now in Hell.

“John!” Barb called down. “John!”

John slowly looked up.

“Give me a minute. Wait for me to call you!”

Barb nodded and disappeared, moving back to where Cindy sat trembling on the floor.

John first grabbed the man by his shoes. He was happy he didn’t have to touch the man’s cold gray flesh.

He dragged his body and left it by the teenage girl’s body.

Next he moved the old lady next to the others.

“Barb!” John called.

He waited until Barb and Cindy appeared at the top of the steps. Cindy had her eyes closed as Barb led her along the balcony.

John waved them down the stairs.

When they reached the bottom of the steps, Barb stared at the pile of bodies in the center of the service bay.

John tapped her on the arm.

When she finally looked over at him, he motioned for her to follow him.

He listened until he was sure nothing was moving, then led them down the hall towards the front of the building.

The far end of the hall was brightly lighted.

They stepped out into the showroom.

John walked over to the broken window. He could see the road. Two of the staggering dead moved towards town and disappeared behind the houses on the street out front.

John surveyed the area around the road.

“It looks like we have an opening. Stay close. We are going to run through the hole in the fence and go into the trees behind that house on the corner.”

John looked at Barb as she held Cindy’s hand. Cindy’s eyes were now open wide.

John grabbed Barb’s hand and led them through the broken showroom window. He pulled them along quickly.

They had just ducked into the trees when the heard the groaning start to get louder again.

“They’ve seen us!” Barb said frantically as her eye’s darted over the area.

“Come on, if we stay behind the trees and shrubs, maybe they won’t be able to follow us.” John said and started to pull the girls through the back yard of the house. They ran through the yard and pushed through the shrubs that separated the house from their neighbor’s yard.

They traveled a few blocks into town.

They were paralleling the main street that led into downtown Ligonier.

Barb pulled on John’s arm.

He looked to see her pointing through the yard towards the street in front of the house. On the other side of the street was the town’s small Ford dealer, Laurel Ford.

“Can we get a car from there?” Barb asked.

If there situation wouldn’t have been so dangerous, John would have teased her about who now wanted to steal a car. Maybe later when they were somewhere safe. He didn’t have time for humor now.

He looked at her and shook his head no. “I don’t want to take a new car. Too many security features. They are too hard to steal. I would probably set off the alarm and alert every one of the dead in Ligonier. Look for an old car. It will be easier to start.”

They weaved around through the back yards for two more blocks before John spotted an older vehicle. John nudged Barb. “Over here. A 1998 Chevy Cavalier. That one will be easy if it isn’t locked up.”

John led them over to the car. He tried the driver’s door while Barb pulled unsuccessfully on the passenger’s door.

John and Barb looked surprised when Cindy pulled the back right door open.

“They must have kids!” John said as he looked at Barb.

Barb reached inside the back door and unlocked the passenger’s side front door.

She hurried Cindy into the back and closed the door. She jumped into the front, locked the door then reached over and unlocked the door for John.

“Lock your door!” Barb said as she turned around to look at Cindy.

She turned around to see John pulling wires out from under the dashboard.

John started twisting wires together.

Barb breathed a huge sigh of relief as the engine started.

John sat up as the engine started. His eyes darted over the gauges on the dash.

“What’s wrong?” Barb asked.

“Nothing. I’m just checking the gauges to make sure this thing will run.” John replied as his eyes landed on the gas gauge.

The car only had a quarter tank of gas. John dropped the car into drive. A quarter tank of gas could be a problem if they had a long way to drive. The farm and New Stanton was only twenty-five miles away. They could make that trip with a lot less.

The more immediate threat was the dead that were now on the street in front of him.

He hit the gas and plowed through the dead on his way towards the main street.

Barb screamed as one of the dead bounced off the hood and hit the windshield. Blood splattered across the windshield as a large crack spread down the window.

John started down the main street that led into the center of town. He could see the street three blocks ahead was packed with the dead.

Barb gasped. “That’s Ben Carson!” She screamed as he dove into the front of the car.

John quickly swerved onto a side street.

He worked the side streets trying to get to Route 30 on the other side of town.

But the dead were everywhere. The side streets weren’t as bad as what he had seen further into town, but they were still bad.

John collided with the dead as he drove from one side street to the next. He had to hit two or three of the dead to get through each street.

After fifteen streets, John finally pulled down the street that passed Giant Eagle Foods. At the end of the street, a now nonfunctioning traffic light hung over the center of Route 30.

John didn’t bother to stop to be sure the road was clear, because it wasn’t. A large horde of the dead moved down Route 30 from Ligonier towards him.

He roared out onto Route 30 and headed towards Latrobe, the next town on the highway on their way to New Stanton and the farm.

More of the dead bounced off the sides of the car as they staggered out onto the road reaching for the moving vehicle.

“Go faster!” Barb screamed.

“I can’t go faster!” John called back, holding onto the steering wheel to keep it from being jerked from his hands. “If I hit these things any harder I’m going to wreck the car. As it is this thing is going to be beat all to hell long before we get to the farm!”

John continued to drive.

There were fewer of the dead going in this direction, but there were enough that they continued to bounce off the car every few minutes.

Chapter 20

Mike drove slowly down Route 182. He drove the small car no faster than twenty-five miles an hour.  It would take forever to get home at this speed, but he was afraid to go much faster.

There didn’t seem to be many of the dead in this direction, but the occasional dead would still come staggering out of the brush and onto the road and lunge at their car.

Mike would swerve, but couldn’t manage to avoid hitting all of them. So far he had managed to limit most of the contact to the sides of the car.

Enough to keep from damaging the radiator or the small engine, but not enough to miss them all together. The loud crunching sounds against the door and fenders, along with the dull thuds against the windows still was enough to scare the hell out of Kelly and Kimmy. They nervously screamed and gasped at each noisy contact.

He was doing his best to avoid them but more importantly he had been able to successfully avoid seriously damaging the car. He couldn’t damage the car.

There didn’t appear to be many options to replace the Prius on this small winding road.

Occasionally he would see a car parked by a little house back off the road. If he had to find another car, trying to take a car parked next to someone’s house could end up getting him shot.

He wasn’t sure how many people were still alive out here, but there was a better chance out this way there could still be an armed living person hiding in one of these houses.

He was sure most of the residents were staggering around out on the road trying to get at his car, but he hoped to avoid finding out.

Driving twenty-five miles an hour might help him avoid damaging the car, but it would take forever to get home. He could probably live with the slow pace, but he didn’t know if all of them could survive the trip with their sanity at the constant sound of the dead bouncing off the sides of the car.

If the dead managed an unlucky collision with the radiator, they could soon find themselves in deep trouble.

Either way, the trip home would leave them changed forever.

They had already changed in many ways.

Seeing what they had seen the last few days would change anyone.

Their future had become a possibility of two bad options.

Their worst case option would be that they would die, probably a horrible death.

Their best case outcome would be that they would live, but what kind of life would they have?

It wouldn’t be a life, it would be a continuous struggle to stay alive. A life of relentless pursuit by the dead. If Dave’s information was accurate, this madness would continue on long after they were gone.

Their dreams of watching Kimmy grow up, graduate, get married and give them grandchildren to enjoy during their retirement years were probably not going to happen.

The best they could look forward to at this point was to live another day.

If all went really well, they might live long enough to see Kimmy grow up. But grow up to what?

What would the cost be to their morals, to who and what they were, to live that long.

What kind of people would they become in order to survive?

Was it worth it?

Right now their best hope, was the idea that they were wrong. That Dave was crazy or at least wrong.

That whatever this nightmare was, maybe it would all end soon.

Mike had always been told that all good things must come to an end.

His dog King was his best friend when he was growing up.

King got old, became ill and died. Mike was crushed when King died. But he had to accept that all things eventually died. All good things came to an end.

When he got his driver’s license, his Dad gave him an old 1959 Chevy Impala.

He liked the big fins and the cat’s eyes tail lights. He spent a lot of time visiting the local junk yards to find parts to keep the old car running.

Eventually the old straight six cylinder engine just gave out. Between the engine dying and the body rusting to the point it became too expensive to keep patching the holes in the floors and fenders, he had to let it go.

Ever since, whenever he bought a new car, he always thought fondly of his first car. Of course compared to his old car, the new cars had become so technically superior to that old Chevy it was unbelievable, but they could still never come close to the memories he had of that old Impala.

All good things had to come to an end.

Mike hoped the reverse was also true. All bad things would also have to come to an end.

He only hoped he had the will power and ability to keep his family safe until they reached that point.

Hopefully they would find some enjoyment in what life would be like until that time.

The other horrific option was enough to keep them pushing forward.

At least for now.

Mike slowed the car to a crawl. He looked around. For now the road ahead was clear. The fields on either side of the car didn’t appear threatening.

The dead on the road behind him was far enough back to not worry him too much.

Mike stopped the car.

“What are you doing?” Kelly asked nervously. Her eyes fixed on Mike.

Mike pulled the map Dave had given him out of his pocket.

“It looks like Route 182 intersects here with Route 1. I think we have to turn here. I just want to check the map.” Mike replied.

Kelly looked around and was nervous when she saw the dead coming down the road behind their car.

“Hurry Mike. They’re coming.” Kelly pleaded.

Mike looked in the rearview mirror. “Those ones don’t worry me yet.”

His eyes darted off to the sides of the car. “It’s the ones we don’t see that I’m worried about.”

“They all worry me. I just want to keep moving.” Kelly said.

Mike studied the map.

“Here we are. Yes, we have to turn right and go south on Route 1. It will get us down to Route 23.” Mike said.

“Do we have to go through anymore towns?” Kelly asked. “God I hope not, not after that last town.”

Mike quickly glanced at the map and followed Route 1 down to Route 23. “It looks like there is a place called Webville along Route 1 before we get to our next turn. Most of the towns have a big dot next to their names, but Webville doesn’t have anything next to it. Whatever it is, it mustn’t be very big. Hopefully it’s nothing.”

“What kind of name is Webville?” Kelly asked. “It doesn’t sound like a place in Kentucky. Moonshineville, Hickorynutville, or pickuptruckville maybe, but not Webville. Maybe it was the first place in Kentucky that had an internet connection so they could get on the web?”

Mike half smiled. “Or maybe Paw Kettle was delivering some moonshine down that way and ran into a cobweb and decided to name the place Webville.”

Kelly looked behind the car at the approaching dead that were slowly catching up. She looked at Mike. “Smartass! Can we start moving again, please?”

Mike folded the map and put it back in his pocket. He pulled out, turning right and slowly drove south on Route 1.

Route 1 didn’t look any different than Route 182. The route took them up steep hills and down the other sides. The road was a small winding two lane road surrounded by wooded hills and an occasional field.

It was difficult with all the twists and turns to see very far as the trees hid what was around the next bend.

Mike continued on at the same slow pace.

They still saw the dead moving around along the road, but Mike began to notice a pattern.

The dead were mostly in the small valleys at the bottom of the hills.

Any of the dead walking on the hills were going down the hill and not up.

“It looks like they can’t go up the hills.” Mike said. “We need to be careful at the bottom of the hills. It seems like they get in the valleys and stay there.”

Kelly looked worried as the descended another hill.

At the bottom of the hill, a half dozen of the dead rushed out at the car.

Kelly screamed as they bounced off the front fenders.

As soon as they were past the dead now scattered around on the road, Mike sped up to start up the next hill. He looked in the mirror. The two that he had managed to avoid tried to follow but didn’t go very far before they fell.

“I don’t think they can follow us up the hill.” Mike said. “Dave was right. He said if we had a problem to get someplace high because the dead can’t climb.”

“That’s good.” Kelly said. “Too bad we have to keep going back down the other side of these hills.”

“Yea!” Mike sighed. “But at least we know when we have to stop for a break or for the night, we need to stop on a hill.”

Kelly shuddered at the thought of spending the night anywhere out here in the middle of nowhere.

For the next ten minutes the road wound around through the trees on an upward climb. They saw a few dead try to come out onto the road to get at the car, but over all this part of the trip had been less eventful.

The tension Mike had felt in his neck and shoulders eased.

For few minutes, Mike felt that maybe the trip to get home just might be manageable.

“If the road stays like this for a while, we might just be able to get somewhere today.” Mike said.

“That would be nice for a change.” Kelly said. “How far have we been able to travel in the last two days? Twenty miles?”

“That sounds about right.” Mike said. “But it is twenty miles closer to home than we were this morning.”

“That still leaves us about two hundred and eighty miles to go.” Kelly sighed sounding frustrated.

“If we would have gone to Sarasota this fall like we had talked about, we would still have twelve hundred more miles to go.” Mike said.

“With all the dead out there, it feels like a million miles.” Kelly said as a tear ran down her face.

“Think positive!” Mike smiled, looking a hell of a lot more optimistic than he felt. Even if he felt like this trip was going to be impossible, he wanted Kelly and Kimmy to at least believe they could make it.

He felt helpless with everything he had learned. He needed them to be hopeful. If they felt they were on a suicide mission, it would crush his spirit. They were the only thing that was keeping him going right now.

They were his only bright spot in a vision of horror, death and doom.

The road soon began to level out as they reached the top of the mountain.

“Keep an eye on your side of the road. It looks like we might be on level ground for a while. There will probably be some of those things out here in the flats.” Mike said.

“Yea and what goes up must go down!” Kelly said sounding worried.

Mike slowed down again as they drove on.

So far things were quiet. Mike hoped there hadn’t been that many people that had lived up this way. The less that had lived here, the fewer of the dead they would have to worry about.

He didn’t know much about this area, he just hoped it was as sparse as Dave had said. If he was going to make it home, he could use a little luck.

Kelly grabbed his arm. “Mike, up ahead!” She said loudly. “What’s that?”

Mike focused on the road ahead. About a quarter mile ahead, something was happening on the road. Whatever it was seemed to have both sides of the road blocked.

Mike slowed down and hit the EV button. The little engine stopped as the car continued moving forward. The low whine of the electric motor was the only sound coming from the car.

When they were two hundred feet from the roadblock, Mike stopped and stared at what was going on in front of him.

“It looks like a car is stopped on the road.” Kelly said nervously.

Mike stared at the dead that surrounded the car. They were banging against the windows on the car. Some thrust their faces into the windows.

“There must be someone in the car the way they are going at that car.” Mike said.

“Can we help whoever is in the car?” Kelly asked.

“I don’t know?” Mike replied. “We need to get closer to see who is in the car. It might be too late.”

“Too late?” Kelly asked not sure what Mike meant.

“If whoever is in the car has been injured. They might already be infected.” Mike answered. “If they look like they are infected we can’t take the chance. It would be better if we just got out of here.”

“How will we know?” Kelly asked as she watched the frenzy going on around the car.

“They haven’t noticed us yet.” Mike said. “We have to knock a few of them out of the way to get past. I’m going to try to sneak up on them before they see us, then I’ll try to knock down the ones on the left side of the car. You look to see who is inside while I try to get by the car.”

“OK.” Kelly said as she turned sideways in her seat so she could get a better look inside the car as they got closer.