The Returners (2 page)

Until now the realization of how hungry he really was hadn't been obvious to him. In no time he'd finished cleaning every scrap of meat off the fish. Grabbing a second fish he made quick work of it, his hunger beginning to subside. It didn't take long before he felt energy returning to his body and filled him with a strange sensation. It had been so long since he'd consumed a decent amount of food that he almost felt as if he were drunk. The body had a weird way of responding when it had gone so long without nourishment.

Leaning back against the log facing the stream Jacob fought to keep his eyes open and soon could fight it no longer. The comforting sensation of his full belly and the warmth of the noonday sun engulfing him. Forcing him into a slumber his body and mind so desperately needed.

Looking out the dirty glass window of the small cabin Jessica Alberts could see a light wisp of smoke rising over the treetops. It looked to be down near the stream where she gathered water for her and her daughter. It had been a long time since she'd seen another person other than her daughter. Nearly four months ago, in the middle of the winter she'd made the decision to come to her family's old hunting cabin.

The only reason they managed to make it to the cabin in the first place was the old snowmobile she had taken from her neighbor's house. It wasn't like they were going to need it. The couple had either fled Greenstone or been killed when the outbreak happened. It was a decision made in a moment of desperation. One she felt was the only way her and her daughter would be able to survive. 

When the outbreak first happened just over two years ago, the last places to be hit hard were the small towns and rural areas. The town she lived in was called Greenstone, it was on the edge of nowhere. You had to drive almost forty miles to get to the nearest city. Like much of Northern Maine most of the surrounding towns were ten to fifteen miles away and not much bigger than hers.

Greenstone had a population of just over a thousand people. It was one of those small towns where everyone knew everyone else. The type of town were people helped each other out, the kind you grew up watching on old television sitcoms.

At first the news reported it was some sort of drug-induced craziness that was making people attack one another. The reports were vague at best. It started out as just a few random attacks throughout different cities over a few weeks. Gradually the reports became more and more frequent. It was actually three months into the epidemic before the first attack happened in Greenstone.  

One of Jessica's neighbors, an elderly man by the name of Roger Mills was returning home from the local drug store. When he pulled into the driveway and got out of his car he noticed his wife Martha standing in the doorway of the house. She was clothed in only her nightgown, staring blankly ahead.

Roger took a few steps towards the house knowing something was wrong. Before he'd made it half way there Martha leaped from the doorway and came running at him. In a state of panic he dropped the bag he was carrying and screamed.              

"Martha, what’s wrong?" Rogers voice filled with concern and fear. An odd blend that made his voice come out in a raspy croak.

Martha never answered, never stopped, hitting him at full speed and knocking him to the ground. She herself fell from the impact. Scared and confused Mr. Mills got to his feet and looked at his wife with tears streaming down his face. With little effort Martha Mills pushed herself up from the ground and let out what could best be described as a snarl. It was then Roger noticed her lifeless milky-white eyes.

Again he spoke to her, his voice breaking up as tears continued streaming down his face. "Martha, what’s wrong? Martha, Martha can you hear me?" She still didn't respond. Horrified at what was happening he turned and ran towards Jessica's house.

Jessica was just coming out the front door to leave for work when this all took place. She watched the whole thing, frozen in fear. When she saw him running towards her with Mrs. Mill's not far behind. The only thing she could think to say was "Mr. Mills is everything okay?"

Everything else after that was a giant blur. The next thing she remembered was sitting in the front seat of her car. Mrs. Mills was leaning over the top of Mr. Mills smashing his head off the pavement in her driveway. Mrs. Mills stopped and looked up at Jessica, her eyes lifeless and void of any emotion. She then stood up and began pounding on the window of her car.

Jessica took her key and opened her glove compartment and pulled out a 9mm pistol. The gun had been a gift from her late husband Danny. He'd bought it for her for protection. She often worked late night shifts at McDaniel’s, the local truck stop and cafe in town. Danny always told her because of that he felt more comfortable knowing she had a way to defend herself if the need arose. He'd always feared some creep would follow her to her car and it gave him peace of mind.

Growing up in a family that hunted her father had taught her how to shoot and use a gun safely at a young age. Handling the gun was something she was comfortable with and she had confidence she could use it to defend herself if necessary. That situation was happening right now.

Mrs. Mills continued to pound on the window as Jessica chambered a round into the gun. The old lady was hitting the window with such force it shook the whole car. Jessica feared she would break through the glass if she kept pounding on it like that.             

"Mrs. Mills, please stop." She looked down at the ground where Mr. Mills lay face down and unmoving. An expanding pool of blood was forming on the pavement under his head. 

"Mrs. Mills, please Stop!"

Jessica had no more than gotten the last word out when the window shattered and Mr. Mills grabbed her. She remembered firing two shots from the pistol while struggling to get free of her grasp. The bullets struck, making her stumble backwards and fall to the ground. Blood spattered across Jessica's face and the interior of the car as bullets ripped into flesh. For a moment she couldn't move, frozen from what had transpired. That brief moment of stasis didn't last long as an overwhelming feeling of survival and self preservation took over.

Opening the car door she cautiously stepped out, keeping an eye on Mrs. Mills who lay motionless. The sound of police and ambulance sirens could now be heard approaching from the distance. She knelt down to examine Mr. Mills and heard faint raspy breathing emanating from his throat. He was hurt, but alive and bleeding heavily from his head wound. He wasn't going to last long if he didn't get medical attention quickly.

The sound of sirens screamed in her ears as the ambulance and police cruiser stopped at the foot of her driveway. Turning her head towards the vehicles she recognized the cop as Mark Stepson, a friend she had known for years.

"Mark! Mark! Mr. Mills is hurt bad and I think Mrs. Mills is dead." The words came out of Jessica's mouth so quickly she wasn't sure they made sense.

Mark's hand was on his gun. He was looking at her with a fixated stare while slowly approaching her. Airing on the side of caution, unsure of what had transpired.

"Jessica I'm going to need you to slowly put the gun down on the ground.” Jessica complied. “ Good, now put your hands behind your back and lean across the hood of your car." Again she complied.

She hadn't realized she had still been clutching the gun. Jessica couldn't help but let the tears flow as she leaned across the hood of the car. The chaos of the whole situation finally registering in her brain. Hitting her with a flood of emotions that couldn't be controlled. Mark placed handcuffs on her and turned her to face him as two men from the ambulance crew rushed towards Mr. and Mrs. Mills.

Mark had known Jessica since high school. In fact they had dated for a short period of time their senior year. She was one of the most honest people he'd ever met and knew she would tell him the truth, no matter how bad it was.

"Jessica, I need you too calm down and tell me what happened," Mark said in a calm reassuring voice. Something his training had taught him to do when dealing with distraught subjects.

Fighting through her tears and emotions she managed to tell him what happened, at least what she could remember. So much of it already a complete blur. The look on Mark's face told her for some weird reason he believed her. He didn't respond, but listened to her story until she was finished.

“That was everything you can remember?” Mark asked.

“Yes, Mark what's going on?”

Mark looked down at the ground. He wasn't sure now was the right time to explain what was going on, and freak her out anymore than she already was. “Give me a second okay?”

Jessica nodded her head as she watched the paramedics load Mr. Mills into the ambulance. Several people had gathered in the street and were now watching what was going on. Mouths agape, fingers pointing in Jessica's direction. It made her angry to think these people had nothing better to do and almost said something, but decided against it.

Mark had noticed the gathering crowd as well. "Stay right here for a second."

Jessica watched Mark go to his cruiser and grab a sheet from the trunk of the car. He walked to where Mrs. Mills lay and placed the sheet over her body.

Mark turned and looked at the small crowd who had gathered from the neighboring houses. "Everyone needs to go home and stay inside!”

His voice was raised and filled with an odd nervousness. One Jessica had never heard in all the years she'd known him. It almost seemed he wanted to say more, but didn't want to cause a panic. His body language projecting a similar signal.

People looked at each other with confused looks, but did as they were told and began to disperse. When Mark was confident there wouldn't be any stragglers and everyone was headed home, he turned and walked back to Jessica.

"I'm gonna take those cuffs off you now. I trust you won't do anything to make me regret that."

“I won't.”

She turned so he could unlock the cuffs and he unlocked them, taking them from her wrist. Tears began to run down her face again as she turned back towards him. Jessica stood there unable to speak through her sobs. After several minutes she finally managing to subdue her emotions and calm down enough to talk.

"Mark, what’s going on?" She asked again.

As worried as Mark was about giving her the news right now, she needed to know. If this was what he thought it was, she would find out soon enough anyway. It wasn't likely what happened to Mrs. Mills was going to go away anytime soon. In fact, it was likely to get worse, much worse.

"We've been hearing for a few days about stuff like this happening in some of the other towns around here. We've been trying to keep it quiet so people wouldn't panic and overreact. We're not sure what's causing it, but it's bad." His face was sullen as he answered her question.

"Is this like what's been going on in the cities? I remember hearing about some strange events a few weeks ago, but it seemed to have stopped. I'm so confused right now. They were such nice people. Why would she attack her husband and I?" Emotion overwhelmed her. Despite her best efforts to fight back them back, tears began to fall again.

Mark stepped forward and pulled her towards him, hugging her and trying to offer some sort of comfort. There wasn't much else he could do, sometimes a simple gesture of kindness was worth more than empty words. When she had calmed down he let go of her. Giving her a chance to compose herself before he spoke again.

"I'm gonna have to bring you down to the station with me. At least until we can get this all straightened out. I'm not charging you with anything, but we need to be sure you didn't miss anything that could help us."

“I understand,” Jessica said.

A second ambulance had arrived shortly after the first one. It's sirens now filled the air as it pulled away with the body of Mrs. Mills. Both Jessica and Mark stood watching it disappear down the road. A strange and eerie silence now taking place of the chaotic noise.

“We've need to go so we can get this over with,” Mark said. 

They walked to the cruiser without another word spoken. This was Jessica Alberts introduction to the plague of the 21
st
century. Life almost seemed to get back to normal in the weeks following the incident. Nothing else happened until about a month later when all hell broke loose. The plague began hitting everywhere. Nowhere was unaffected, small towns, cities, it didn't matter.

Whatever this infection was it was fast moving and didn't discriminate. Young or old, black or white, rich or poor. All walks of life were affected by it. People weren't calling them zombies or undead, which is exactly what they were. It seems even in this time of crisis the media tried to gather ratings and create a buzzword. A news reporter from Boston had taken to calling them Returners. It had stuck and that's what all the media outlets began to call them. The plague seemed to affect people differently depending on how you died. It seemed if you died of natural causes it took you longer to return. You came back able to run and move with quickness, at least at first, but over time slowed down. If you were bit you returned quickly, but moved slow right from the start.

In the early days, those who remained largely avoided each other and didn't leave their houses. Fear of the dead, and distrust of the living keeping them isolated and alone. Most people chose not to stay and fled Greenstone to find family or safety. Holding out some sort of hope things were better elsewhere.

Within six months it had wiped out half the population of the United States. Within a year who knew? The last news report Jessica had heard said the plague had gone global. That was fifteen months ago, shortly after that the power went out and never came back on. No cell phones, no computers, there was nothing to communicate with.

Eighteen months after the plague first hit, Jessica's small town was empty, at least from what she could tell. It had been months since she'd last seen signs of another living human being besides her daughter. All that seemed to remain was the Returners and they were growing in numbers by the day.