Dahmer Flu (13 page)

I continued, “The medic, the man was good. Soon as he couldn’t feel a pulse, he started CPR, pushing on her chest and forcing air into her lungs and all that. No one said a word; all eyes were on this man as he struggled to save her life, as he refused to give up on her. And the rest of us, we’d seen enough death that day. When her eyes snapped open, we all cheered, like it was some ray of fucking sunshine or something.” I was too deep into the memory to catch myself.

“It was quick- seems like some people turned a bit faster than others, don’t know why- her eyes snapped open, she took a raspy moan, but before the man could lift his head, her hands were already around it, clutching his hair and pulling him close. She bit him; I don’t know where on the face, but he had room to scream, just about everyone else was by then anyways. She chewed greedily, her mouth filled with his blood I covered Madi’s eyes, and Aimee…”

“I’m sorry, who’s Aimee?” Henry asked.

“She was my wife,” I said simply. I didn’t explain. He didn’t ask.

“Oh. I’m sorry,” he said.

“You didn’t know. It took two men to pull the medic out of her grip, and he left a good-sized chunk of his face with her. The meat, it just dangled from her mouth like she was some kind of animal. Her wild eyes ignored everyone around her, all she could focus on was her meal. She pulled herself to her feet and began to come after him again. When she passed the open door, someone just… pushed her. I don’t know, I guess it was the right thing to do, but no one knew what the hell was going on, if these people were dead or sick or what was happening. It was an old lady, looked like anyone’s grandma. She was the only one with the balls to do what had to be done, I guess. She watched, we all watched, as the young woman fell. She landed on a rooftop… She didn’t move.”

“No one knew what to say. The injured man whimpered softly while other passengers tried desperately to stop the bleeding with a blood-soaked t-shirt. It wasn’t working. Then there was another scream, it was too late for anyone to react. The old woman, she hadn’t moved since she did… what she did. She ran straight for the door and jumped out. She screamed as she fell, desperately clawing at the air. I didn’t watch her land; I couldn’t, she was a person, there was something different about it. Everyone was crying, there was screaming; it was hell.”

I paused for a moment; I could still hear the screaming. I heard it most nights, too, when I fell asleep.

“What happened next?” Henry asked, rapt. It was cathartic to talk about it, the closest I’d gotten to confession in years.

“We landed at some compound; I think it was a National Guard post or something, I dunno. By the time we landed, a bunch of green-suiters were waiting to take the medic into an ambulance. They weren’t wearing the gas masks and everything like they were later on, when things started to get really bad, when you’d see them guarding hospitals or clearing houses. These guys were polite, but rushed; they were really just a bunch of kids, hell, they were as scared as we were. They brought us to some gym or something, where soldiers were still setting up cots. It was like something after Katrina, something from the news.”

“Who’s Katrina?” he asked.

“Never mind,” I replied, before continuing, “That was the worst part, I think. Helicopters and busses kept rolling in, and they kept packing us tighter and tighter. All the soldiers were armed, and they watched over us- no one could leave. That just made the paranoia worse. The stories were wild, no one knew what was really going on. People were saying that it was a terrorist attack of some kind, or that the same thing was happening all over the world, or that the ‘gub’ment’ did it. Shit, we still don’t know; still don’t know what’s safe, or what’s not.”

“It was that night, just when we were all starting to fall asleep, when we heard the first shots. It was just one at first, close, like right outside the windows. Then another, and panicked screams and shouts. In just a few minutes, it was like a war zone. Inside, babies were crying, people were shouting; the soldiers tried to keep order, but even that was lost when someone ran inside. It was a soldier, bruised and sweating, blood running from a fresh wound on his neck. ‘Get out there!’ he shouted to the two soldiers, and the men, reluctantly, left with a final shout to the rest of us, ‘stay here!’ they said. There were some of us, we didn’t stay. Whatever was going on, we wanted to be as far away as possible from it. About a dozen of us bolted for the door right then and out into the night, carrying whatever we had with us, which wasn’t much.”

“That was when I got my first look at a horde. We left the building and were passed by a group of soldiers sprinting to the fence-line. ‘Get inside!’ one of the men shouted as he passed, but we didn’t listen. In the distance, a small group of men fired wild at a steadily advancing mass of figures. I could barely make out individuals in the moonlight, it was just like a sea of bodies, easily hundreds, maybe more. Once in a while, one would fall, but for all the gunfire, it wasn’t very often. That was the strangest part, then at least. And when one would go down, the rest would just trample over it without emotion. The worst part was the moan, though, we could hear it clearly, like some sort of hellish chorus or something.”

Henry’s face fell. “I’ve heard that sound,” he said after a moment, “I heard it not too long ago, not too close, but close ‘nuff I could hear it. I didn’t know what it was, but I noticed that after it stopped that all the animals in the woods were gone. You notice that? There’s just none out there, like they were afraid of it or somethin’. I ain’t seen nothin’ bigger than a bird since then.”

“That’s about right,” I answered, “Animals; they seem smart enough to keep away from those things, especially when there’s enough of ‘em. The group of us, we ran the other direction until we hit a fence. It was quiet, no one was around, so we helped each other up and over. By then, the gunfire had stopped, and then the screams began. I s’pose God only knows what that means, but it’s not something I wanted to think about. I was just glad that we were out of there.”

“We stayed together for a while, doing our best to pull together, but the group dwindled pretty quick. We lost a couple to suicide; there was a lot of that at first; and a few more when they wanted to stay put in the first town we came across. Before long, me and my family were on our own. Roundabout way, me and Madi ended up here. We’re trying to go north, figure that if anything’s still in place it’ll be up there.”

“It’s amazing,” I continued, “one day, I’m worried about bills and Brownie Scouts, playing metal in my car on the way to work to pump myself up for the day… the next, everything’s changed. Easier, in a way. Now there’s only two rules; don’t die, and if you do, don’t come back.” I laughed cynically at my own joke.

He didn’t ask what happened to Aimee, and didn’t know about Jacob. I didn’t want to talk about them, and he seemed to understand- he wasn’t going to pry.

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t imagine…” Henry began, but stopped with the sound of the bathroom door opening. Madi strolled out, refreshed with wet hair and clean clothes. She was smiling sincerely as she crossed the room to sit next to me.

“Thank you for the bath,” she said.

“Young Madi, you deserve that and more, my dear,” he choked on the last word as tears welled in his eyes; he began to sob, his head in his hands, with the knowledge of the horrors in this new world heavy upon him. The youthful innocence of Madi, compared to the awareness of what she’s been through, had broken his heart.

Without a word, Madi walked over to him and threw her arms around his neck in a tight hug. That always worked for me, and it seemed to for him as well. He hugged the small girl and wiped his eyes dry. “Thank you, child,” he croaked, clearing his throat, “please excuse me for the night, it’s getting late. My home is your home; there’s food in the kitchen if you’re hungry, and an empty guest bedroom next to the bathroom. Good night.”

“Good night,” we echoed. He smiled unconvincingly and padded down the hallway, closing the door on his restrained sobbing.

Shortly afterwards, Madi and I closed ourselves in the guest bedroom, and she quickly fell asleep, with a full stomach and a clean body. I took a moment to clean myself in her old bathwater before finally draining the tub, then lying, satisfied, in the bed.

For the first time in far too long, my dreams were peaceful.

I woke naturally, with sunlight streaming through the window. Madi looked up from the chair next to the bedside; she had been reading one of the books that she collected after Oak Bridge.

“Good morning!” She chirped.

“Morning,” I replied, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. “How long have you been up?”

She giggled, “About 20 pages.” I smiled; time really didn’t mean much on its own any more. “I think that Mr. Evans is awake,” she added, “I heard noises from out there a little bit ago.”

I opened the bedroom door and peered out cautiously. Henry saw me and waved. “Good morning!” He called from the kitchen. “You’re just in time for breakfast!” Before he could finish the sentence, Madi was already passing me through the doorway.

He was setting plates on the table as Madi and I came into the room. “Mornin’ Henry,” I said. “You sleep okay?”

“Oh, not bad, I guess,” he answered. It was for Madi’s benefit, I was sure; the dark circles under his eyes gave him away. “I hope you don’t mind a ‘rerun’ breakfast,” he smiled, “I got plenty of pig and not too much storage room, so I gotta use it up.”

I was fascinated by the man’s ingenuity. It felt like he belonged in a different era. “I know you’re not gonna tell me you have a fridge out back or something,” I asked with a smile.

He laughed, “No, I’m not. Like I said, it’s salted, which helps it last. Boil it for flavor, it’s a bit tough, but, hey, it’s meat, right?”

“No argument there,” I answered. Madi was already working diligently at her slice.

There was a moment of silence. “So, what’s your plan?” Henry asked, “Are you going to stay a while, or keep moving on?”

I’d asked myself the same question last night; there wasn’t an easy answer. Henry’s revelation, that the horde had been nearby, apparently recently, had convinced me that this place wasn’t entirely safe. “We appreciate everything you’ve done for us, but we’re gonna keep moving. North, it’s safe up north.”
So I hoped
, I thought to myself.

“Yes, yes, I’m sure you’re right, especi-” he was cut off by a crash from down the hallway. Madi and I sprung to our feet, my chair falling overturning with a dull thud, but Henry remained seated, looking down at his hands.

“It’s my wife,” he said, finally, “She’s in the room down the hall. She… she must have gotten loose.”

“What the hell do you mean, ‘your wife’?” I demanded, but I already knew. I’d seen it before, where people kept their loved ones close, even after they had turned. The realization that we slept in the same home as the creature was nauseating.

“The door’s shut, she can’t get out of the room,” he said. “My wife and I, we never had any children. We couldn’t, she had a condition the doctors called polycystic ovary syndrome,” he recited the name from memory, as if he had heard it many times. “So our dreams of a family died quick. I never had a family other than her, I ran away from a father that beat the crap out of me when I was just a kid, so she was all I ever had.” His eyes were flowing freely as he spoke, although his voice didn’t reflect the tears.

He continued, haltingly, “She was the last one to get sick… to turn into one of those… things. But she was still my wife, and she still had a place in this home. She’s in her sewing room, she used to love it in there. She made this,” he said proudly, pointing to a framed needlepoint above the kitchen, ‘God Bless this home and all who enter’, it read. He sighed, “Of course, things made a little more sense before yesterday. I don’t know anymore. You know the last thing that she said to me, her last words?”

I didn’t answer, but waited for him to continue.

“She was hurting; she grabbed my hand and held it as tight as she could- wasn’t too tight, but it was the best she could manage. She looked at me and she said ‘I’m cold’… after that she passed out, and wasn’t right when she woke up again. She was an amazing woman, and she lived a great life- and that’s how she ended it. It didn’t seem… fair. It’s not fair.”

I flicked my coat to the side, showing the revolver- I never parted with it anymore. “Do you want me to…?” I trailed off, allowing the question to hang in the air. These days, such an offer was the greatest form of charity.

Henry looked towards the closed door. “No,” he said finally. “When the time comes, the burden will be mine. Until then, she still has a place in this home.” Our eyes met. “Sincerely, thank you.”

Madi and I had a brief unspoken conversation. “Henry,” I started, “listen, you know we’re headed north. It’s a lot safer than it is here. How about you come with us?”

He smiled dryly, “My place is here with my family, and my flock, whatever they are now. I’m sure you want to get a start, you have a long way to go.” He turned to Madi. “Sweetheart, can I talk to your daddy for a minute?”

She looked at me, the question in her eyes. “You stay here for a moment, honey,” I said.

“Yes, daddy.” She settled into a chair as Henry and I walked into the living room. The periodic clatter from the closed sewing room door reinforced my apprehension. 

“Listen,” Henry spoke softly, “There’s nothing more for me, anywhere. I’ve no reason to go with you, and every reason to stay. I’m an old man,” he smiled, “I’m slow and my eyesight ain’t what it used to be. I’d do nothing but put you and Madi in danger. The most important thing in the world, in this new world, is to keep that little girl safe. She’s… like the daughter my wife and I always wanted.” He paused. “Whatever it is, I think heat kills it. Maybe a virus or something.”