The Last Days (9 page)

Mike tried to avoid them, but he hit four more figures as they staggered out on the road trying to grab the RV.

He didn’t want to hit them as he started to be concerned about damaging the radiator, but he also didn’t want to run into the creek that ran along the road. If he ended up in the creek, that would be the end of their escape.

A mile down the road, the park road intersected Route 182.

Ten or fifteen miles down Route 182, they would come to Interstate 64. That would get them back to Pennsylvania.

Mike decided he didn’t want to get on the interstate at night. Driving at night with these things darting out in front of him out of the dark was too dangerous. If he had any hope of getting home, it all rested with the RV staying in running condition. A body through the radiator or the windshield would be a problem.

He needed to find a safe place to ride out the night. Tomorrow he would see what it was like in the light of day.

Right now he just wanted to put a safe distance between Carter Caves State Park and his family.

If there was a safe distance? He had no idea what to expect once he got out of the park and on the highway.

He drove on for another five minutes. His lights flashed across a sign that said, “Route 64. 5 Miles”.

He slowed the RV and looked at the shadow of buildings along the road. The last few miles had been quiet. No more figures had lunged out at the RV.

The lights once again lit up an object up ahead.

“I see a barn up at the next bend. I’m going to check it out. We need to stop and get some rest.”

“Maybe we should keep driving?” Kelly asked. “I want to get away from here and in case you were wondering, we’re not coming back here again next year.”

Mike almost laughed. “I’m with you on that, but it’s too dangerous to keep driving in the dark. Besides I don’t think I can drive much longer.”

“Do you want me to drive? I can drive.” Kelly replied.

“No. We need to stop.” Mike said.

Mike slowed to a crawl as the RV reached the bend. He let the lights shine on the old barn. He drove off the road and followed the old dirt drive seventy-five feet and stopped in front of the barn doors. He shut off the engine, wound down his window and listened.

After five minutes he whispered. “I think it’s safe. I’m going to get out and open the doors and see if we can pull the RV inside and get it out of sight.”

Kelly reached out and squeezed his arm. “It will be OK.” Mike said as he picked up the flashlight off the floor next to his seat. “Just pay attention and when I come back, let me in.”

Mike got out and listened. He walked up to the barn doors. He reached out and pulled on the right door. The hinges groaned loudly, but the door swung open.

Mike turned on the flashlight and shined it into the empty space left by the open door.

It smelled musty, but the old barn looked empty. It appeared the barn had been deserted years ago.

Mike shined the light around the empty barn. A few of the boards were missing on the back wall and there were holes in the roof, but none of that mattered. It was empty and large enough for the RV.

Mike turned off the flashlight and pulled the other door open. Kelly let him back in when he walked back to the driver’s door.

“I think this will work.” Mike said. “Just watch out that side and let me know if I’m going to hit anything?”

Kelly was confused, but understood as soon as Mike started the RV and swung it around then started to back into the barn.”

“How’s it look on that side?” Mike asked.

“You have about two feet.” Kelly replied.

Mike straightened the wheel and backed the RV into the barn and stopped when the backup light brightly lit up the back wall.

“One more thing to do. Stay alert.” Mike said as he got back out of the RV. He walked up to the barn doors and pulled them closed, one by one.

He breathed easier after he returned to the RV and locked the door.

“OK. You guys can go in the back now.” Mike said as he shined the flashlight back into the living area.

He followed the girls into the back, pulling the window blinds down as he went. After all the blinds were down, he flipped the light switch on the wall and turned off the flashlight.

“Mike, you’re bleeding!” Kelly gasped as she saw the blood on the front of his shorts.

Mike looked down. His face turned pale as he remembered the blond girl back at the campground. “It’s not my blood.” He said as he removed the shorts.

He reached up into the cabinets that were attached on the wall near the ceiling and pulled out a clean pair and pulled them on.

“Let’s get up in bed and get some rest.” Mike said.

“Me too?” Kimmy asked. Her voice trembled.

“You too short stuff. We are all going to sleep together tonight.” Mike said.

Kimmy quickly scurried up the ladder to the bed that extended out over the cab.

“I can’t believe what happened!” Kelly whispered to Mike before climbing up into bed.

“There’s more.” Mike said quietly. A lot more. I’ll tell you after we get some rest.”

After the girls were both up in bed, Mike switched off the light and climbed up next to them. Everyone was too stunned to talk. They laid still and nervously listened to the silence around them.

Despite the horrific visions that flooded Mike’s mind as he closed his eyes and listened for any threats to his family, he soon fell asleep.

Exhaustion from everything he had heard and seen the last few hours. Confusion and disbelief from everything that hadn’t made any sense, but terrified him all the same, pulled him under.

Mike slept. He didn’t sleep very well, but he slept.

What would they find tomorrow when the sun would show them the things they were unable to see tonight in the dark of night?

Chapter 9

Mike had slept lightly on and off during the night.  The slightest sound woke him, causing him to hold his breath as he laid tensely listening, waiting for someone or something to start attacking the RV to get inside.

The old barn made a lot of creepy noises during the night as every board and post creaked with the slightest breeze.

Besides everything that haunted his dreams during the night, there was just something unsettling about sleeping inside someone’s barn without their permission.

Given the circumstances last night, Mike had no intention of searching the area in the dark to find someone to ask if it was OK for him and his family to hide out from zombies in their barn for the night.

Still he knew that mountain people did not take kindly to people trespassing on their property. The image of some mountain man, a long beard and coveralls, a jug of moonshine slung over his shoulder, coming in the barn to confront the intruders in his barn with a loaded double barrel shotgun was another real possibility Mike was worried about.

Camping was supposed to be relaxing.

Kimmy had slept soundly during the night. Mike had heard her deep slow rhythmic breathing each time he woke up. Fortunately she had missed most of what Mike had seen last night. What she had seen, Mike was sure she had not understood. He hoped she would not have to see any more of this madness today.

Kelly had not slept very well. Mike could tell when she was awake because she clung to his arm more desperately than when she was asleep. Her grip on his arm during the night had cut off the circulation and his arm felt numb and heavy this morning. He was sure, Kelly like him, had spent most of the night listening.

Listening for the unknown to attack was terrifying. What they knew was at best unknown and confusing. It all was all scary as hell.

Mike knew it was morning. The sun was shining today as if nothing had happened yesterday. It was shining in through one of the many holes or missing boards in the barn. One bright ray of sunlight had found its way through a hole in the barn and around the curtain on the tiny window next to his pillow and directly into his eyes.

He didn’t want to move. The girls were still resting and he wanted them to get another hour’s rest before they ventured out into whatever waited for them outside.

Mike turned his head and was surprised to see Kelly’s eyes staring at him.

When she saw he was awake and looking at her she whispered. “Good morning.”

“I hope so.” He whispered back and tried to smile.

She pushed closer to Mike. “Now that we have had time to catch our breath, what happened last night? You said you saw Chuck and he told you something. I don’t mind saying last night scared the hell out of me.”

“I don’t know where to start.” Mike whispered back. “I don’t know if I can believe anything I heard or saw last night.”

Kelly just stared at him and waited.

Mike started. “What I do know for sure is that Chuck and Sue are dead. They both died some kind of horrible death. I don’t even want to try and describe what kind of injuries they had. It was something out of one of the worst horror movies I have ever seen. I also know that a lot of other people died in the campground last night too.”

“What did Chuck tell you? You said he told you something last night when you saw him.” Kelly asked.

Mike thought for a minute. “When we pulled into our site last night, I saw Chuck and Sue lying on the ground outside their trailer. Sue was dead and Chuck was barely breathing. I shined the flashlight on his face. Both of them looked like some animal had chewed them up and spit them out. Chuck’s eye looked at the flashlight.”

“His eye?” Kelly questioned.

“He only had one eye left.” Mike whispered.

Mike could see the horror Kelly felt show in her sudden change of expression. Mike continued.

“The first thing he said was to run and get the hell away from the campground.  Then he did his best to tell me what had happened. He said soon after we left to go to dinner, hundreds of zombies came across from the woods and into the campground. All the campers laughed and enjoyed watching. They thought it was the kids from the haunted trail coming over to entertain the campers. Then the zombies started attacking the campers. Chuck said they started to tear people apart. They were vicious. People were screaming, there was blood everywhere.”

Kelly’s eye’s got wide.

“Chuck said someone attacked Sue and mangled her pretty bad. He was able to pull her away and get her inside their trailer. He said she died soon after they got inside. He said she had stopped breathing and her body was getting cold.”

“Poor Sue.” Kelly’s voice barely a whisper.

“Then the really bad part.” Mike started to say.

Kelly’s face looked shocked. “The bad part?”

Mike nodded his head. “Chuck said within ten minutes she had turned a sickening gray color, her eyes glazed over a milky white and then she started moving.”

Kelly sat upright in the bed next to Mike. “Wait! You’re not going to tell me she came back to life and wanted to eat his brains. After what happened last night you’re not going to pull one of your damn pranks on me, because I don’t appreciate that right now. Last night scared the hell out of me. This is pretty shitty of you to do this to me right now. You’ve done some lame things Mike, but this really pisses me off.”

Mike didn’t move. The expression on his face didn’t change.

Kelly expected to see one of Mike’s little boy ornery grins appear on his face. That “You caught me and I’m sorry” sheepish look he always got when she caught him trying to slip something past her. But he wasn’t reacting the way he usually acted when she went on one of her rants. He just looked at her.

She slid back down to his side and stared at him.

Mike spoke again. “She attacked him and ripped off half of his arm. He had to bash her head in with a rock to stop her.   Look, I know this sounds like a bunch of shit. I didn’t want to believe it myself. But when we pulled into the campground and I stopped and got out. There was this blond girl lying on the road. She had been torn apart but I could tell she had been a pretty girl. She had blue eyes and the soft glowing skin that you see in TV commercials. In front of my eyes she turned gray and her eyes glazed over. She started to move and growled at me. She was dead, there wasn’t enough of her left to be alive when I found her. Then there were all the other bodies lying around the campground. They were all getting up and staggering around.”

“You’re telling me they were real zombies?” Kelly asked. She had calmed down but was still leery of what Mike was telling her.

“I don’t know what they were. I only know what I saw with my own eyes. It fit with what Chuck said.” Mike added. “For lack of a better description, yes I am telling you they were like zombies. Why? I don’t know. I can’t even begin to explain what I saw last night out there. All I know is what ever was going on, people were dying. Zombies, crazy out of their mind people, whatever, they were killing anyone they could get their hands on.”

Kelly looked in Mike’s eyes. Either he was crazy or he was serious. After what she saw last night, she wanted to believe he wasn’t crazy. If he was crazy, at least he wasn’t violent crazy like those that had attacked them last night.

If she was going to believe and depend on any crazy person to protect her and her little girl, it would be Mike.

“OK.” Kelly said taking a deep breath. “I’m sorry. I’m really scared. I didn’t mean to jump down your throat. I guess my subconscious thought that if I could get you to say you were joking that it would all go away.” A tear ran down her cheek. “Something really weird is going on, I can see that. I guess we don’t really need to know what they are to know they’re dangerous. What do we do now?”

“We go home and hope whatever is going on, that it is just going on here.” Mike said quietly. “With Milly’s story about emergency alerts, war and rioting in the cities, I don’t know what to expect. But I have a feeling what we saw last night might just be the start of it.”

“Or the end of it?” Kelly said seriously.

Mike and Kelly’s serious thoughts were interrupted by Kimmy’s head appearing over Kelly’s arm.

She had a big smile on her face. “Can I have some apple pie?”

Kelly frowned. “Good morning to you too!” She paused. “I don’t know if apple pie is good breakfast food?”

Mike lifted his head off the pillow. “I think we should all have apple pie and Mountain Dew for breakfast this morning. We might need the energy.”

Kimmy’s smile grew larger.

“I don’t know why I even bother to try and make you two eat healthy.” Kelly smiled, then the smile faded as she thought about today.

“Let’s get up and get dressed. I’ll make coffee and we can eat before we start home.” Mike said as he pulled back the covers and threw his leg over the ladder.

“Dad, we are already dressed!” Kimmy smirked.

Mike looked at his shorts and t-shirt. He had forgotten they had stayed in their clothes last night in case they had to make a quick getaway. “Hmmm. Well that makes it easier. All we need to do is get up!”

Kimmy giggled.

There wasn’t as much pie left as they thought, so they let Kimmy have all the pie. She didn’t have a problem with that decision.

Mike made hot coffee and toasted bagels for Kelly and him.

With what they knew and were worried about, they didn’t have Kimmy’s appetite.

After breakfast, Mike had them pack away as many things as they could in the cupboards and under the seats. Just in case Mike had to do some more creative driving.

After putting up the blinds, the inside of the RV was ready to travel. They looked out the windows of the RV to look around the inside of the barn. The barn was completely empty except for an old wagon that had been parked against the side wall. One of the large wooden spoked wheels was gone. A long time ago the farmer must have taken the wheel off to be repaired. A repair that was never completed.

There were no unwelcome visitors inside the barn with the RV. However, if they would have had the opportunity to see the barn like this last night before pulling the RV inside to hide, there was a very good chance they would have decided to park behind the barn instead of inside it.

A strong gust of wind would have been all that was needed to bring down the entire building. Fortunately the gentle breeze that rattled the barn’s wall boards and joints was the worst that happened. The barn had been sitting neglected many more years than what they had originally thought last night.

Mike put the keys in the ignition but he didn’t start the engine. He didn’t want to start the engine and alert anything outside that they were in the barn until he had a chance to look outside first.

On the other hand if he opened the barn doors and something spotted them and the RV didn’t start, they would be screwed that way too.

Trying to think like this made Mike’s head hurt. His normal daily routine never required these type of life and death decisions.

“I’m going to make sure it is clear outside then open the barn doors. Keep the doors locked until I come back.” Mike said before he started to open the door.

“Why do we have to lock the doors?” Kimmy said innocently. “We never lock the doors at home.”

Mike smiled. “We are being careful. We think there are some bad people around, so we are just being careful.”

“OK.” Kimmy said, then went back to playing with her doll.

Mike was glad to see she wasn’t in one of her “Why?” moods. She could grill you to total frustration sometimes. In that department, Kimmy was Kelly’s daughter.

Mike smiled and got out of the RV. He slowly moved to the front of the barn and looked out between the gap in the doors. Blue sky and sunshine lit up the area’s mountain sides. The brightly colored red, yellow and orange leaves covered the trees. The colors blanketed the mountains for as far as he could see. Kentucky was beautiful in the fall.

It looked so peaceful out there. An old saying came to mind. “The calm before the storm.”

The fall leaves was the quiet beauty that came before the leaves died and dropped to the ground before the dead of winter took over. He hoped that the quiet beauty before their trip wasn’t a quiet before a stormy trip home.

With all Milly’s talk of war and riots, with all they had seen last night, Mike hoped this wasn’t the quiet before a larger storm of a different kind.

Mike slowly pulled the doors open. The groan of the hinges seemed even louder this morning. He stuck his head out of the door and looked off to the sides where he wasn’t able to see by looking out the narrow crack between the doors.

It was still clear. So far so good.

He went back and got in the RV. He wound down the window to let in some fresh air. He reached down on the floor and grabbed the shorts he had taken off last night and tossed them out on the barn floor.

He was happy to get rid of those bloody shorts. They were gross and he wanted rid of anything that would remind him of last night.