“I’m
going to stay here with Nicky and keep watch for a while. If she wakes up,
we’ll move to the bedroom. And I’ll keep the lights off,” I replied as Tony
handed me the flashlight. He and Greer disappeared down the hallway as I turned
the chair to watch out the front window. The bars gave me a false sense of
security. I was sure if the dead figured out that we were here, they’d find a
way to get in, bars or no.
As the
light faded I could see more and more of the dead drift into the streets. They
must like the nightlife, I thought. Do they like to boogie, too?
The
events of the day wore me down until I drifted off to sleep in the chair with
my rifle cradled in my arms. I must have slept for hours for when I woke up the
room was completely black except for light shining in through the curtains
coming in from the outside. I sat up straight feeling my pulse pounding.
Something must have woken me up but the room was filled with silence. I looked
over at the couch where Nicky had woken up as well and was sitting straight up
on the edge of the seat. The pale light made her face look indistinct and
faded, her eyes lost in shadows, her lips a thin straight line. Then a stream
of figures passed between us and the light, “Jesus Christ!” I said and jumped
up off the chair and looked out the window. A second later Tony and Greer came
down the hall and looked from me to Nicky.
“Did you
guys here that?” Tony said holding Greer’s hand.
“No, I
was dead asleep, but those things are getting mighty rowdy out there,” I said
as I watched more of the dead stream by, running towards something to the south
of us, “Nicky?”
Nicky
just nodded her head and replied, “I heard it. One of those things screamed
nearby.
Tony
moved to the window and peeked out the curtain, “Jesus, there’s a lot of them,”
he said, “The streets are packed from one end to the other.”
Then we
all heard the scream that had awoken us, “God, that thing is close,” I said
looking out the window. Doesn’t sound right, though.”
“What do
you mean ‘sound right?’ Do those things sound a certain way? Sopranos maybe?” I
asked looking over at Tony.
“No, not
like that. Well, you know. It doesn’t sound so pissed, infuriated like the
others we….uh….heard,” he said glancing at Nicky. Nicky wasn’t listening though
but was looking out the window, “It sounds like it’s searching.”
“Do you
think it knows were here?” Greer asked as she looked out the small peep hole in
the front door.
“I don’t
think so. If it knew we were here. It’d be bearing down on us,” Tony said, “If
those things figure out were here, they’ll get into the house bars or no.”
We all
watched out the front windows waiting to see if the dead were going to come
swarming over the walls and start tearing off the bars and smashing down the
door to the house. As I watched the dead running by the house it occurred to me
that with the sun down and the power out, I shouldn’t be able to see anything
but instead I could see the whole street lit up for a few blocks. There was
light coming from somewhere to the south. I peered out the window down the
street and spotted the light source and said, “Tony, look. The lights are on
down there.”
Tony
looked down the street to the south of us, “It’s a gas station,” he said, “If
the lights are on that means that the pumps might have power to them and we
could get gas.”
Then the
thing screamed again, and this time it was filled with all the rage and hatred
we had heard before. Down the street we heard a woman scream in terror, then I
saw two figures race across the empty parking lot of the gas station followed
by a horde of dead coming from the west down the street. The thing nearby
screamed again as it spotted the two fleeing people then shot down the street
after them passing in front of Tony’s gate followed by hundreds of more of the
dead. The two people quickly vanished out of sight but the flood of dead
continued to race by the house in pursuit. That went on for nearly fifteen
minutes before the stream of dead slowed down, then tapered off until only a
few stragglers trotted by. After a full thirty minutes, the street finally
emptied out of all but a few drifters that had returned to their wandering around.
“My god.
There are so many of them,” Tony said closing the curtains, “We’ll see how the
streets are in the morning then try the gas station and head for the tram,”
then he and Greer went back to bed.
“You
want to stay out here? We can go to the spare bedroom,” I asked Nicky.
“Let’s
just stay here,” she said and lay back down on the couch, “I don’t think I’m
going to get much sleep tonight anyway.” I agreed and sat back down on the
chair. I dosed off and on through the night. When I’d wake up, I’d check on
Nicky then look out the window. Sometimes there’d just be a few dead walking up
and down the street, other times there’d be a whole parade of them, and
sometimes a flood racing in one direction or the other. Sometime around four I
heard another one of the Sprinters close by and when I looked out the window,
my heart froze. It was standing at the gate, looking into the yard. I froze not
wanting even to put the curtain back down for fear of attracting its attention.
I couldn’t see its face backlit as it was by the light from the gas station, so
it appeared only as a silhouette, a dark shape against a bright background. It
weaved its head to the left and right as though trying to pick up our scent. It
grabbed the iron bars of the gate and shook it a few times and seemed to be
looking for a way over the fence. I held the rifle tightly and got ready to
wake the others if it jumped over the fence.
For a
few tense moments it stood there by the gate as I stood by the widow watching
it. Then suddenly, its head jerked to the left and it bolted down the street
and away. I dropped the curtain and slumped back into the chair. This night was
never going to end.
*
*
*
The
night did end, however, as the light of dawn filtered into the house. Tony and
Greer drifted in both looking like they hadn’t slept much either. Nicky got up
off the couch and I stood up from the chair. We walked into the kitchen sat
around the small table looking at the map of Albuquerque and eating stale
cereal. We were all exhausted, emotionally burnt out, and physically beat to
the bone. I looked at Nicky. She looked like hell. Even in the dim light of the
kitchen she looked pale and draw, her eyes had dark circles under them like
bruises.
She saw
me looking at her and smiled back, squeezing my hand before letting it go,
“It’ll be, OK, Nicky. Tonight we’ll be far above all of this,” I said.
She
smiled at me and whispered, “I just want this to be over with.”
“Soon,
soon,” I replied. Nicky smiled weakly and nodded her head. Tony and I traced different
routes to the tramway station, all of them bad with each one taking us deeper
into the city suburbs. We mapped out the best route we could to get to the tram
trying to avoid the areas of highest population density knowing that no matter
what way we went, the dead would be there waiting.
“What do
you think, Casey? I’m thinking McMahon to Ellison drive. Ellison to Alameda,
Alameda to 2
nd
street to Roy Avenue. Roy avenue becomes Tramway. We
follow tramway up to the station. Yeah?”
“All
roads lead through hell. Seems like the best route,” I said picking at a can of
tuna. Like Nicky, I was burnt out and just wanted this to be over.
“If we
leave now, the sun’s going to be in our eyes the entire way, Greer said, “It
seems like the dead don’t like the daylight as much either. Might be fewer of
them if we wait until noon. Maybe we could get a little sleep.”
I agreed
with Greer. With the sun up I somehow felt better about closing my eyes to
sleep. Nicky and I retreated to the back bedroom while Greer and Tony slept on
the couch and chair in the living room. Nicky crawled on the bed and fell
asleep immediately. I crawled beside her and lay flat staying focused on the
idea that tonight, one way or the other, it would be over. I drifted off into a
light, dreamless doze opening my eyes what felt like every few minutes, looking
at my watch, then dozing off again. It wasn’t the most restful sleep but it was
better than what I had gotten last night and soon it was time to go.
I got up
off the bed and pulled my boots on. I shook Nicky who slowly sat up on the edge
of the bed and looked at me over her shoulder, “Time to leave?”
“Yes,” I
replied. I kissed her on the top of the head and walked out of the bedroom. In
the living room Tony and Greer were just waking up. We all gathered back in the
kitchen, drank water out of the few plastic bottles Tony’s folks had in the
cabinets, then began checking our weapons. Nicky joined us a few minutes later
and sat next to me. I finished loading a pistol and handed it to her. She took
it without a word and slipped it into the waistband of her pants. And then it
was time to go.
“Ready?”
I asked. Greer, Tony, and Nicky all nodded and we got up and headed for the
door. I peered out the front window looking down the driveway and out the front
gate, “All clear,” I said as Tony unlocked and opened the front door. We
quickly filed out and made our way to the truck. I unlocked the door and got in
with Greer and Nicky as Tony jogged to the front gate. I could see him looking
up and down the street before unlocking the gate and swinging it open. I
started the truck up, put her in reverse, quietly backed out of the driveway.
Once out into the street, I could see that up ahead of us were a few dozen dead
a block or so away. Behind us, more of the dead drifting randomly in the yards
and streets of the houses. Tony quickly closed and locked the gate, then jumped
into the truck.
“Let’s
go,” he said.
I put
the truck into drive, eased on the gas and…the engine died, “Oh, fuck,” I said
turning the key. The truck sputtered once, then twice, and died, “I think we’re
out of gas.” A few hundred feet to my left one of the dead drifted out of an
ally and started looking around.
“Fuck!
What do we do?” Greer said leaning up into the front seat.
“Go back
into Tony’s house, take the gas cans, get them filled, and bring them back?” I
said looking at Greer, then at Tony.
“I don’t
think we have time for that,” Tony replied pointing down the street. The dozens
of dead down there were slowly drifting our way.
“Push
the truck,” Nicky said from the back. We all turned and looked at her, “Push
the truck to the gas station. It’s only a block and the dead around here seem
pretty far gone to notice us.”
Tony looked at me and Greer then said, “We’ll
have to do it now. We might be able to get the truck to the station before the
few drifters notice us but once the crowd gets here, one of them is bound to
notice three meat sticks pushing the truck down the street.”
“Let’s
go. Geer, you’ll need to steer while the rest of us push,” Nicky said. We all
jumped out of the truck while Greer climbed up into the driver’s seat. Nicky,
Tony, and I got behind the old girl and began pushing. Slowly, so slowly the
truck began to roll forward. Once again I was reminded of the Smart Car in the
parking lot of the mountain and wondered if that guy had the right idea.
We
started picking up a little speed as we pushed the truck down the street. To my
right I could see two dead people standing in the yard of a house. One was
looking intently at the front door while the other seemed to be staring at the
rapidly dying grass. It looked up at us as we rolled by with a confused look on
its face. I focused on pushing the truck. If it came after us, I’d deal with it
then. We passed by it quickly and when I looked back, it had returned to
looking at the grass beneath its feet.
We
passed the first intersection letting me know we had only a few hundred more
feet to go. So far so good. As we went through the intersection, I looked down
the street towards the west and saw a large horde of dead moving north. I
decided not to tell the others when Tony whispered from my left, “Look at that
fucking mob!” Nicky turned her head and looked and let out a small sob.
“Just
keep pushing,” I whispered, “We’re almost there.” I caught a glance of the
other side of the intersection past Tony’s shoulder and saw more dead. These
also seemed to be heading north. I looked around the end of the truck to see
what the dead were doing ahead of us. The gas station was only a few yards away
now but the dead, maybe a quarter mile away, were moving more quickly in our
direction. It was going to be close.