Survival Instinct: A Zombie Novel (64 page)

Kara finally turned and saw that no one was looking at her.  Or at least no one was looking at her anymore.  The stranger began to move through the crowd, away from the Jeep.

“Good luck to you!” McGregor called out to the man before closing his window again.  It was unfortunate they couldn’t also close Walter’s.

The man waved a brief gesture over his shoulder before being swallowed up by the throng.

“Look at them all.”  Danny had unbuckled his seat belt and was kneeling backwards on his seat, looking out at all the people and cars behind them.

“It’s like everyone in the city,” Walter commented.  Due to his broken window, he had shuffled in his seat as far right as he could.  It was obvious he was frightened of someone reaching through.  The exhaust smell was expected, as was the sound of rumbling engines, but the lack of voices coming from the crowd was unsettling.  Hardly any of them were having conversations with one another, opting to travel silently.

“No,” McGregor shook his head.  “This is just the suburbs.  The city wouldn’t have gotten this far yet.”

“Well it’s looking like we’re not going to get much f
arther.”  Walter pointed ahead.

They had begun to creep their way up onto the
bridge that spanned the highway.  Although a lot of cars were getting on the southbound’s ramp the wrong way, Walter had headed across the bridge to the proper onramp.  They could see the highway and clogged congestion of cars upon it.

“Fuck.”  That was the first time Kara had used a swear word since she was in her twenties.  She had learned to use several other words in its place over the years, but at this present
moment, she couldn’t think of any that would adequately cover the situation.  Just that one crude syllable and even it couldn’t properly convey her feelings.

“Can you get to the other side of the bridge at least?”  McGregor pulled himself forward with the back of Walter’s seat, trying to get a better look out the front windshield.

“Maybe.”  Walter started focusing entirely on driving again.

So many people were around them now that they had to keep pace with the pedestrians in front of them.  It was the only way to keep moving without running someone over.  Kara was afraid that Walter would touch the gas pedal a little too hard and they would ram into the people.  One of them was a pretty
blonde carrying a swaddled baby up against her shoulder and nothing else.  Inch by inch they crossed the bridge.

“What now?” Walter sighed out the words when they finally reached the other end.

“Drive through that,” McGregor pointed ahead.

Kara looked and noticed he was pointing at a flimsy rail made of wooden posts with wire strung between them.  On the other
side, it looked like the ground went down a fairly steep grade.

“What if I hit someone on the other side?” Walter frowned.

“There won’t be anyone over there,” McGregor assured him.  “Everybody getting on is going down the ramp, and those that are already on the highway are going under the bridge instead of climbing up and down the hill.”

“You’re sure?”  Walter turned and looked McGregor in the face.

“Positive.”  Kara had always been able to spot liars, and McGregor was a good liar.  It was something to keep in mind.

“All right.”  Walter turned to face forward again.

He inched the Jeep out of the cluster and started toward the barrier.  The area around it was clear, so Walter was able to give the Jeep some gas before they crashed into it.  At first, they just hit into the wire and were stopped.

“Keep giving it gas,” McGregor encouraged.

Walter continued to work the gas pedal, the four-wheel drive skidding and digging at the pavement.  They inched slightly forward, and then slightly more.  The front tires eventually pushed their way over the edge of the drop.  The car hung suspended at a level height for a moment due to the wires, but they gave a little more and the vehicle tipped forward.  Once the car tipped forward enough for the back end to start lifting, the posts couldn’t hold out any longer and popped out of the earth.  The Jeep tumbled down the hillside, bouncing and jolting everyone inside, but managing to stay upright.  Someone whooped from the backseat, but Kara couldn’t tell if it was McGregor or Danny.  It might even have been Alice.  Shoes barked in protest.

The ground levelled out again, and Walter had to pull hard on the wheel to keep from slamming into some trees.  They tilted up on two wheels and Kara squeezed her eyes shut, one hand gripping the armrest tightly and the other holding onto the handle above the door.  Then the wheels came down again and they shuddered to a stop.  She opened her eyes slowly as if expecting to see a chasm before them.  Instead, it was just a clear line between the trees and the hill back to the highway.  Walter started down it.

* * *

The ground was very uneven, and sitting in the Jeep was a jarring experience.  Kara wondered if her fillings might pop out as they rattled along.  Once they neared the highway again, things smoothed out a little, but not much.  It was probably because they had to slow down that it seemed smoother.  Crowds of people walked along the highway, and next to it.  The ditch beside it was filled with people who looked like they were marching through an old World War I trench.  Everybody looked tired and scared.  If one of them was sick, it was impossible to tell.  Walter wasn’t as careful and kind as he was up on the road.  He drove slightly faster than the people, who scurried out of the way.  Those who didn’t notice him got honked at.

“Take it easy, Walter,” Kara frowned at him.

“I just want to get out of here,” Walter sighed
,  “away from all these people.”

Kara could understand the sentiment.  She glanced up at the rear-view mirror, then turned fully around to look behind them.

“Looks like we started a trend.”  She gestured with her head.

McGregor turned and looked behind them as well.  The path that Walter was clearing filled in quickly with people, but those same people had to move aside again as another car made its way through.  It looked to be in much rougher shape.  It probably hadn’t gotten down the hill as smoothly as their Jeep had.

Shoes began barking from Alice’s lap.

“Hush
, Shoes.”  The girl tried to soothe the dog.  He wouldn’t stop though, he just kept woofing away.

Kara unbuckled and turned completely around to look at the dog.  Shoes was looking up in Walter’s direction.  Kara then turned to face him.  Walter wasn’t looking so good.

“Could somebody shut that damn dog up?” he groaned.  His eyes were looking a little sunken, and his skin had taken on a pale sheen.

“Walter?” Kara became concerned.  He had never used the words ‘damn’ or ‘shut up’ in Kara’s presence before.  “Are you all right?”

“I just want to get out of here.”  He sighed again.  His driving became more aggressive, and he revved the engine to scare people out of the way.  Some were even bumped by the side mirrors and edges of the bumper.  Kara feared one of them might be carrying a baby like that woman on the bridge.

“Walter, just calm down.  We’ll be out of here soon enough.”  She placed a comforting hand on his arm.  He was burning up.  “Maybe I should drive for a little while.”

“I’m fine!” he snapped at her.

Kara withdrew her hand in a hurry and scrunched herself up against the door.  She looked around the edge of her seat and met Alice’s frightened eyes.  She could just make out Danny grabbing hold of her hand.

“Finally!” Walter cried out.

Kara turned and saw that they had broken free of most of the swarm.  Walter gave the Jeep some gas.  The bouncing got a lot worse as they sped up and began swerving around the rest of the pedestrians, many just barely getting out of the way in time.  Kara tried to put her seat belt back on, but the bouncing was too much, constantly pulling it out of her hands.  She could only brace herself and hope for the best.

“Walter, slow down!” McGregor shouted from the backseat.

Alice started to cry.  Danny grabbed her by the shoulders, and the two children clung to each other.  Kara glanced over at Walter.  He was sick.  Very sick.  Whatever it was that was going around, that Mr. McGraw had had, Walter now had as well.  She remembered
a crazy man had bitten him on the shoulder.  A sick man.

A pedestrian couldn’t get out of the way fast enough.  He was struck in the side by the Jeep and sent spinning.  Kara had no idea whether he survived or not and didn’t dare look backward again.  Her focus now lay solely on what was right in front of them so she didn’t notice when they roared past the overturned tanker.  She did notice when they went careening off into the woods however.  The branches of bushes and low trees snapped across the roof and windshield.  With a crack, a spider web of fractures spread across the windshield.  Kara didn’t notice when they struck the tree head on.

* * *

Kara woke up not long after, but couldn’t remember how on earth they had stopped.  McGregor had already pulled himself out of the car and was helping the kids and the dog get out.  She wondered how his busted legs were managing to hold him upright when he was just holding onto the top of the
doorframe.

“You’re awake,” he said this in a tone that Kara couldn’t quite identify.  It might have been worry, or surprise.

Kara shook her head and tried to open her door.  It took a few shoves but it finally popped open and she stumbled out.  Her head swam and suddenly everything went off kilter and she fell over sideways.  When her hand hit the ground, she drew in a sharp breath of pain.  Looking down at her stinging hands, she remembered the wound she had received earlier from the broken window.  It appeared her paint-on bandage had worn off because her hands were covered in blood.  Kara managed to get back up on her feet, and when she became unsteady again, she grabbed hold of the door.  It swung closed, but she stumbled after it and kept upright, and leaned on the Jeep.

The feeling passed and she took a deep breath.  Her head also stung, and when she touched it gently, a sharp pain alerted her that she had some sort of gash.  She turned and looked in at Walter.

He wasn’t moving.  Blood was all over the inside of the car.  Kara thought it must be his, although she could only see his bloody shoulder wound.  Then she looked down at herself, and saw that she was covered in blood as well.  Was it his or hers?  Head wounds were known to bleed a lot.

She heard a loud popping noise and turned to the back of the Jeep.  The noise was just the trunk slamming shut.  McGregor stood oddly up against the car, not bending at all at the knees, only at the waist.  He and Danny opened up his wheelchair and he collapsed into it.  His legs stuck out straight in a comical manner until he did something with his knees through his pants.  It took Kara quite awhile to realize that he must have braces on underneath that allowed him to lock his knees.

“Kara?”  McGregor looked at her.

“Yes, McGregor?”  Her voice was slurred, and she was so tired.

“Are you all right?”  He didn’t make any moves toward her.

“No.”  She shook her head causing it to swim a little.  It was terribly difficult to focus.

“What’s wrong?”  Although that should have been fairly obvious.

“You mean besides the grievous wound on my head?” Kara smiled sarcastically.  “I think I might be infected.  I think I got Walter’s blood in my wounds.”

“You’re probably right,” McGregor didn’t argue.

“You should go.”  Kara waved her arm in the direction she thought the road
was.

“We could find you some help.”  McGregor knew as well as she did there would be no such help, and he didn’t try to hide that in his voice.  He was just saying that out of courtesy.

“Just go,” Kara nodded, “I’ll only slow you down.”

McGregor just looked at her.

“The children need you,” she nodded again.  Everything was so swimmy, blurring together in unusual ways.  “I couldn’t take care of them, but you could.  You will.  Take them and go.”

This time McGregor was the one to nod.  “Goodbye, Kara,” and with that, he turned and left.

It wasn’t a long goodbye, nor was it sweet.  But that was just like Kara.  That was the kind she wanted; brittle and harsh as she had always been.  McGregor didn’t say he was sorry for something he didn’t do; he didn’t say nothing was her fault.  He just said goodbye and went.

Kara turned and looked into the car.  Walter was beginning to twitch.  She knew that soon he would come to and try to attack her.  No matter what else was going to happen, Kara did not want to be eaten by her hired help.  She turned to the woods and began stumbling forward.  She decided she wanted to be as far away as possible from McGregor, Danny, Alice, and even Shoes when she changed.  And she was sure she would change.

Everything was so vivid.  The greens were greener than Kara had ever imagined them to be.  The browns so much more diverse.  She became lost in the sea of colour.

Ever since her mother and twin sister had died in a car crash, Kara wondered when it would be her turn.  She had become consumed with death, even though she never showed it on the outside.  Her sister had been her best and only friend, and at
seven, she lost her.  She never made another friend after that.  Always there was the question of why she had survived the crash when they had not.  Now she knew.  She was supposed to bring about the end of the world, only to die because of another car crash sixty-three years later.