Family Reunion "J" (29 page)

Whatever was chasing him, the truck driver made it as far as the cab of his tractor. He scaled the two steps and opened the door in one smooth motion. He swung the light up as he pivoted into the cab and saw the creature leap at him. He swore as the thing latched onto his leg. He leaned back to reach for the glove box—if only he could reach the glove box. He felt the thing rip his pant leg trying to get at the flesh underneath; he strained and pushed against the doorframe with his other leg. Fingers outstretched, he made one last shove and hit the button on the glove box. It opened and he grabbed at his pistol.

Jon heard the shot but didn’t slow down. He ran into a pickup truck’s sideview mirror, nearly knocking him off his feet. He wondered if he broke his arm but kept running. He could hear Gwenn yelling for him. He yelled back at her, “Go Gwenn, go!” hoping she would get into the van and close the doors. He heard another shot behind him.

Gwenn heard “No Gwenn, no!”
Oh my god! Whatever it is, it has him.
She jumped down from the car and ran toward where she thought he was. She made it three cars before she saw Jon running straight at her. “Go Gwenn, go!”
Shit!
She slid to a stop and reversed course. She lost a sandal and burned her foot on the pavement, still hot from the day’s worth of South Carolina sun. She put her head down and ran, limping for the van. She heard Jon’s breath right behind her, or at least she hoped it was Jon.

Jon had to slow a bit to avoid running over Gwenn as she hobbled along in front of him. He risked a glance over his shoulder but could see nothing. As they approached the van, he yelled, “Go Gwenn, in the van, in the van!” She dove head first into the back of the van, crashing into a heap. He swung the passenger door closed as he ran by, then stopped and turned. Afraid of what he might find, he prepared himself for the impact of the thing chasing him. Instead, he heard three more shots. He slammed the sliding door shut and ran around the van. Closing the hatch on his way by, he made for the driver’s side.
I’m going to make it
he thought as he reached the open driver’s door. He jumped in, bashing his knee into the steering wheel, fighting to breathe, gulping down air but not getting enough oxygen. As he pulled the door closed, he heard one more gunshot.

When daylight broke the next morning, they worked their way back to Sparky’s. They found the truck driver. What was left of him. Five bodies surrounded his remains. All of them with gunshot wounds, they had a pinkish hue to their translucent skin, and clumps of their hair had either fallen out or been torn away.

They saw many more bodies along the way. Those that became… whatever these things were… while locked in their cars, had eaten their loved ones. Weird Rorschach images in splattered blood covered the windows. Jon stopped and peered into one car. A little boy had eaten his parents, then tried to hide from the sun by crawling under the dashboard. Its legs were visible, unmoving, the gray skin now turning red. Gwenn bent to look but he blocked her way.

He stood back up and almost peed his pants when the door of the next car opened and a man stepped out. Gwenn let out a surprised scream and Jon raised his fist as if to hit the guy when the man stammered, “W-w-wait!” John lowered his fist, relieved. The man spoke. “What the hell is going on here?” he asked.

Jon pointed to the car next to him. “For some reason, people have turned into some kind of flesh-eating animals. How are you feeling?”

The man looked a little pale. “I feel fine. You mean like in those zombie movies?”

Jon shook his head. “No. Whatever they are, they aren’t dead. I didn’t get a good look at them last night, but I think they are people who have become sick and lost a hold on reality somehow.”

The guy shook his head. “What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know. For now I think we’re going to go see what’s happening up at the store.”

“Mind if I tag along?”

“Last time I looked, it was still a free country. What’s your name?” Jon stuck his hand out. The man accepted the gesture hesitantly. “Francis Jenkins,” he replied. Jon didn’t really want to have to look over his shoulder, so he gestured for the man to go ahead.

On the way back to the store, their numbers continued to increase. Jon got tired of repeating himself and just started to tell people, “We don’t know what’s going on, but you’re welcome to come with us to Sparky’s if you want.”

By the time they got close to Sparky’s there were thirty-six people in the group. Jon held up his hand and the group stopped and quieted. “We have no idea what is going on. I recommend that we send two people up there to talk with anyone left at the store.” Several people nodded their agreement, but no one volunteered.

“Okay, wait here. Gwenn and I will wave you up if it’s safe.” With that, he turned and started walking. Gwenn followed suit and fell in step with him.

“Do you think this is a good idea?” she said, looking up at him.

“We don’t have a lot of options here. It’ll be okay.” He tried to sound confident.

The scene at Sparky’s looked like a Hollywood horror movie. The smell was a mix of feces, urine, and the beginnings of rotting human flesh. Gwenn started gagging when the wind shifted and blew the smell directly at them. Bodies littered the area, some horribly disfigured. Others looked intact but had the same gray opaque skin with what looked like sunburn that they’d seen on the remains of ones that attacked the truck driver last night. Gwenn’s gagging turned into full-fledged retching and she lost what little contents she had in her stomach. Jon held her hair back and tried to keep his feet from getting splashed. “Oh jeez, Jon,” Gwenn said between heaves. “You’re worried about your shoes?” He shrugged, dropped her hair, and turned toward the store.

“Anybody alive in there?” he shouted.

In answer, a rifle barrel slid out an open window. Jon turned and was about to yell at Gwenn to run when a man stepped through the door. “Hello, I’m Ben. About fifteen of us made it through the night,” he said, taking the steps down to where Jon was standing. Jon noticed that the big man was careful not to block the line of fire of whoever was aiming the gun.

Jon pointed down the road. “There are another thirty-four people with us. We kind of got elected to come up here and see what was what.”

“Any of them troublemakers?” Ben asked.

“Don’t know, we met all of them within the last hour,” Jon replied honestly.

Ben put his hands on his hips and looked in the direction of the group. “Any of them have weapons?”

“Again, I don’t know. None are carrying rifles, and I didn’t see any handguns, but I couldn’t swear to it.”

“Okay, go on back down there and tell them to come up, but explain that we have weapons and we will use them if we feel threatened.”

“Yes sir.” Jon took Gwenn’s hand and they returned to the group.

“They’re armed, and asked if any of us had guns,” Jon told the group when he got to them. “I won’t promise you that things will work out, but I think they’re decent people. He did say that if they feel threatened, they would use their guns. So, it’s up to you if you want to come along, or you can go back to your cars. It makes no difference to me, one way or the other.”

The first guy they met this morning spoke up. “What are you going to do?”

Jon looked at Gwenn. “I think we’re going to go up there and wait for the National Guard to show up. We have no water, and no food to speak of, though I’m sure we could scavenge some from cars.”

Everyone in the group nodded except the man who had yelled at Gwenn and Jon to stay away from his car the night before. “You people are idiots. You think those guys are going to share their stuff with you? They’re probably planning on killing the men and raping your women.” He turned to his wife. “Come on Doris.”

Jon watched as the middle-aged couple headed back to their vehicle. “Well, I’m going to the store now. If you follow me and you have weapons, leave them behind. I’m not dying because one of you thinks he’s Jesse James.”

They all stood in front of the porch attached to the gas station portion of the sprawling store. Ben stood above them, giving them the once-over with a discriminating eye. “Thought you said there were thirty-four. I count thirty-two.” He directed this at Jon, so Jon answered. “A couple didn’t feel comfortable with the idea, so they went back to their vehicle.” Ben just nodded in response.

“Okay folks, here’s how it is. You are welcome to stay here until this situation is over, or at least until we know more of what’s going on. However, if you stay, you will work. We have some food, and we can get more, but there is no free ride. If you don’t like the idea, then you can keep on walking. Now, raise your hand if you understand and agree, or get to walking.”

The entire group raised their hands, some immediately, others after a moment of consideration.

“Good. Now raise your hand if you have food preparation skills.” Several of the group raised their hands. Ben picked two of them and asked them to come forward. They did, and he asked them again if they understood the rule, you work or you walk. They both agreed and Ben sent them to see Tami, his wife, as she was in charge of the kitchen.

This continued until he had assigned everyone a task and sent them on their way. Ben asked Jon to help haul the bodies to a burn pit and Gwenn to help with the cleanup of the remaining mess.

It took two full days to clean up. Jon had gone back to the couple who left for their car to try to convince them to come up to the store. When he got there, he found both of them sitting in the car. Their bodies were unrecognizable, but Jon was sure that this was the car. They must have left the windows down. The turned had reduced them to a pile of bloody clothes and bones.

Jon had been standing watch the night Jay arrived from the north, but it had been too dark for him to recognize her. Jon helped Ben light the fireworks that night when they lured in the turned and fried them with the lights or shot them down. It wasn’t until the next day that he’d found out that their visitor was his best friend’s wife. She left the next day to look for her daughter at the beach. She returned with Auddy two days later.

The radio clicked and he heard Jay checking to make sure it was okay to head to the root cellar where he and Gwenn were helping Tami inventory the food. He figured she was coming to discuss their plans to leave for West Virginia.

The wind was picking up and the air smelled like rain as Jay hustled from the store to the root cellar. A large garage with no doors sat a hundred feet from the main building. They kept several vehicles in it but it also housed Ben’s shop. This is where he’d modified Jay’s SUV. She checked out Jon’s 4x4 extended cab Silverado as she went to the back of the garage. Jon must have retrieved it and Ben had worked on it while she’d been gone to Surfside. It looked ready to go.

At the back of the shop were two doors. One led to the small bathroom, the other down to the root cellar. She opened the door to the bathroom by mistake, thought about it, then dismissed the idea. Jon would have heard the radio and would be expecting her. If she spent some quality time in the bathroom, he would start calling her over the radio. There was only one thing she hated more than large groups of people, and that was public acknowledgment of her bathroom habits. No, that could wait.

She shut the bathroom door and opened the one that led to the root cellar. The stairs were steep and the clomping noise her boots made as she descended would have awakened the dead. She found Gwenn at the bottom sitting in a folding chair. She had a clipboard and was writing down the types and quantities of supplies as Tami and Jon called them out to her. “Three cases of whole tomatoes?” she yelled around Jay. “Yeah, and six cases of kidney beans,” Jon yelled back.

“Hey guys, how much longer are you going to be busy here?” Jay asked as Jon stuck his head out of the back room.

“Probably another half hour at least,” Jon replied, not quite yelling.

“Okay, would you come find me when you get done so we can make plans for tomorrow?”

Jon came all the way into the front part of the cellar, brushing the dirt off his pants. “Absolutely. You’ll be in the main building?” Jay nodded. “Okay, we’ll see you in a few,” he said, and disappeared into the back again.