The Rabid (11 page)

I
fucked it up.

From the
Desk of Dr. Lisa James

It
wasn't the sun that woke me the next morning. When I was able to muster the
strength to open my eyes, I noticed Jack had covered me with a blanket at some
point during the night. He was lying next to me, on his back with one arm above
his head. He was going to wake up to it numb.

The
giggling caught my attention again. It was Rex. I sat up and tried to rub the
sleep from my eyes. I was having an incredible nights" sleep so I was slightly
upset that it had been interrupted.

"Peek-boo!"

Rex
was ready to get out of bed. My hair had dried naturally overnight and was in
messy waves. I tried to smooth it down before I reached for my clothes.
Perpetual mornings without coffee weren't conducive to a productive day, but I
fought through it, lazily slipping on my jeans and pulling my t-shirt over my
head.

"Peek-boo!"

I
sighed. "I'm coming, Rex." As I stood, I felt the overwhelming urge to just
flop back onto the futon and sleep for twelve more hours. But that wasn't going
to happen. I turned to see Rex standing on the arm of the other sofa, looking
out the dingy window giggling.

"Oh,
my God."

"Peek-boo!"

Rex
was playing peek-a-boo with a rabies infected man clawing at the window outside.
Bloody streaks followed his fingers. His moans were barely audible.

"Jack."

I
inched toward my son while keeping one arm stretched toward my sleeping
partner. Alex stirred in the next room.

"Jack."

Rex
giggled louder as the diseased man outside seemed to be getting more desperate.

"
Jack
."
I raised my voice the slightest bit.

"Peek-boo!"

The
man outside pounded hard against the window with a closed fist. The glass
rattled in its frame, a crack stretching across the bottom pane.

"What
the fuck?" Jack had heard the sound and bolted upright. Alex let out a tiny
shriek.

"We
have a problem."

He
turned around and looked at Rex giggling happily and banging a tiny fist
against the wall. Jack smiled. But that faded when he saw the bloody
near-corpse clawing to get inside.

"Holy
fuck!" He scrambled out of bed and began furiously gathering his clothes. In
his haste, he banged his right arm against a door jamb. "Fuck!"

"it's
numb."

"Yeah,
what the fuck?" He wiggled it around after making a frustrated sound in his
throat. Alex jumped out of the cot and ran to him.

"You
slept with it above your head." I grabbed the numb arm and dragged him to the
middle of the room with Alex still attached at his waist. "Hold still." I stood
him up straight and paced two fingers on either side of his neck. While trying
to coax Rex away from the window, I massaged Jack's neck lightly.

"Rex!
Rex!"

My
son finally looked at me. "Peek-boo, momma!"

"Yes,
peek-a-boo, sweetie. But right now we have to go, okay?"

He
shook his head. "No."

"Jesus
Christ..."

Jack
stomped a foot on the ground. His face was twisted into a grimace. I let him go
and he hopped over to my son.

"Pins
and needles..." he muttered. "Hey, buddy, wanna play an even better game?"

Rex hesitated,
but eventually nodded. The man outside continued to claw and bang on the
window. Jack instructed me to grab the shotgun he'd put in the cabinet the
night before. While I did that, he explained the rules of his game with my son.

"Okay,
so this game is called Burn or Bust."

"Yeah!"
Rex jumped up and down.

"The
rules are all three of us have to get out of here because the floor is turning
into hot lava," Alex said.

"Oh
no!" Rex stopped jumping and listened.

"Yeah.
Also, that guy out there..." She pointed out the window. "If you touch him, you
lose automatically!"

"Fun!"
Rex clapped his little hands together.

I
handed Jack his shotgun. He grabbed it and winced. "Pins and needles..."

Rex
ran to me and I picked him up in my arms. For a moment, I envied him. Ignorance
was bliss. He wasn't frightened at all.

"Do
you think there are any of them in here?"

The
four of us backed slowly out of the room.

"No
way. I blocked us in tight."

"So
where's this other way out?"

The
man pounded against the window a final time and the glass gave way. Pieces hit
the floor as his hand made its way through. The shattered edges of the broken
window cut through his arm, but he didn't seem to mind.

"Ok.
Time to go!" Jack grabbed me with his free hand and dragged us out of the room.
We didn't have the luxury of taking our time, so we had to fumble down the
stairs and through the dark hallway. A crow cawed and flew over our heads to
the second floor.

"Fucker"s
gonna get eaten." Jack skidded to a stop just outside a metal door with a large
padlock on it. "All right, guys...cover your ears!" He aimed and shot the
padlock. The deafening sound rang through the hallways of the school. It was
quickly followed by the howls of what sounded like hundreds of diseased people.

"Fantastic."
Jack kicked at what was left of the padlock until the chain fell to the floor
with a loud clatter. He looked at me briefly before pulling the door open a
crack. "Fuck."

"that's
not good. What?"

"they're
all over the car."

"Jesus."

"Wait."
He held a hand back and scooted forward, opening the door wider and letting the
sunlight in. "Look at this."

I
approached him with caution. Rex began to squirm. I held him tighter. When I
stopped next to Jack, I followed the nose of the shotgun. My gaze landed on
three vehicles sitting vacant in another part of the lot we didn't see the day prior.

"we'll
take one of those."

"Who
knows where they came from or if they even work. They may have been abandoned
because they were out of gas."

He
shook his head. "Cars can run on fumes, man... My bet is on the Toyota over
there." He pointed to a blue sedan about a hundred yards ahead.

"How
do we get to it?" Alex asked.

Jack
was silent for a moment. I studied his features. He was thinking hard. "Ok. I'm
gonna sneak around the side of the building this way toward our car. I'll get
within range and set off the alarm. If there are any more of them around,
they'll all swarm to it. When you hear the alarm go off, you high-tail it over
to those vehicles and if the Toyota isn't unlocked, find one of them that is.
I'll run over and hotwire it."

I
didn't like the plan, but I logically knew it was the only way to get out. I
nodded and set Rex down. "Okay, Rex. Ready to play for real?"

"Yeah!"

"Okay...when
you hear the car alarm go off, we're going to run."

"Yay!"

I
looked back at Jack. He was surveying the outside, trying to find an opening.
When he'd found one, he looked back at me.

"Here
I go." He grinned, but it was weak. He was scared.

I
took a deep breath and grabbed the back of his head, pulling him into a kiss.
"Be careful."

His
eyes were wide with what looked like surprise, but he nodded before slipping
outside into the bright sun. I watched him for as long as I could until he
disappeared around a corner of the school.

"When
we go, momma?" Rex was bouncing slightly on his feet.

"Soon,
honey." I pulled Alex close to us. She was shivering.

We
waited in the dark for what seemed like days. I was sure thirty minutes had
passed when I heard the car alarm and the howls of those things. I grabbed my
son and Alex and ran as fast as my legs could carry me over to the group of
cars at the other end of the parking lot. I didn't dare looked behind me.

I was
nearly out of breath when I reached the Toyota. With my free hand I pulled at
the passenger side door. It was locked.

"Fuck!"

"Bad
word..." Rex mumbled the sentence.

"I
know." I swung around. The next closest car to us was a brown van with no
windows in the back. I hesitated. There was no way that thing had gas. An
ear-splitting howl startled me out of my thoughts.

When
I turned my head, I saw the one that was banging against the window dragging
itself toward us. I spun around as fast as I could and launched myself at the
brown van. By the grace of whatever god I believed in that split second, the
door was unlocked. I threw myself and Rex into the passenger seat. Alex
scrambled in after us, shutting the door as hard as she could.

"Game
over?" Rex asked.

"I
don't know." I was busy looking out the window for the creature following us.

The
driver side door flung open and a scream escaped me. Jack hopped in, locking the
door behind him. Then he wiggled under the seat and tore off the panel beneath
the steering wheel.

"didn't
think you'd be
that
excited to see me."

"I'm
just glad you're in one piece."

A few
sparks lit up his face before the engine roared to life. He jumped back into
the driver"s seat like it was nothing, put the van into gear, and floored it.

"Wee!"

Rex
ran to the rear of the van where there were blankets and discarded clothes. He
plopped himself in a pile of them and giggled.

Jack
finally let out his breath and looked to me to grin. But the smile faded
quickly. "What?"

"You
just did that like you've done it thousands of times before."

"I
have."

***

The
sun was setting as we crossed the Utah border. Another night doing nothing but
driving. I wasn't looking forward to it. Jack had been anxious all day about
something. I had to figure it out because the incessant drumming of his fingers
on the steering wheel was driving me crazy.

"you're
anxious."

He
glanced sideways at me as though I'd startled him. "No, I'm not."

"Yes,
you are. What is it? Would you like to talk about it?" I tried to use my
softest, most sincere tone.

"You
getting all shrink on me? Because if you are..."

"I'm
just concerned." The accusatory tone behind his voice had hit me hard. I didn't
want him to be upset with me. Why was he upset with me?

After
a few moments of excruciating silence, he said, "Okay, look... I know you've been
waiting all day to break it to me and I've been waiting all day for it to come
too, but I'll just put it out there to take the stress off of you." His
sentence leaked out in one breath.

"I'm
listening," I said after another pregnant pause.

"I
know you're thinking last night was a mistake and that's totally okay. I've
been through it before and it'll hurt my feelings, but I'm a big boy and I'll
get over it."

I
scrunched up my face for a moment, soaking in what he'd said. He may have said
he'd get over it eventually, but there was already mild hurt in his voice.

"Last
night wasn't a mistake."

"What?"

"Last
night wasn't a mistake. I want to have sex with you again."

"Shh!"
He straightened and looked in the rear view mirror.

"It's
ok." I heard Alex's voice. "Momma used to talk about the men she'd bring home.
I know what grown-ups do."

"She
understands perfectly well. I'm confident there will be more."

Jack's
brow furrowed. "What...are you talking about right now?" The question began with
his voice at a high note, but made a decrescendo back to tenor at the tail end.

I
took a deep breath to still my frustration. It felt almost as if he were
playing a game of sympathy. Maybe he was. I didn't know much about him after
all.

"I
plan on having sex with you again."

"Why?"

"Are
you serious?"

"As
the holocaust."

"That's
not very nice," Alex said.

"Well,
the holocaust was
indeed
serious." I sucked in a breath and pursed my
lips, trying to take the emotion out of my next statement. "Last night was
amazing. You were amazing and I'd like to continue if that's all right with
you."

He
looked at me with one eye squinted. "You don't want to do that."

My
frustration deepened. "I'd really appreciate it if you stopped making my
decisions for me."

"Women
of your caliber don't go for a guy like me." There was pain in his voice. he'd
been hurt before.

"What
do you mean?"

He
sighed. "you're smart. Really smart. You finished college. you're gorgeous. I'm
just a dumb mechanic."