Into the Badlands (7 page)

“A long time ago,” Zach replied. Jeremy nodded in agreement.

Ed smiled. “Say cheese.”

Both Zach and Jeremy smiled their best and said 'cheese'. Ed raised the camera to his eye and snapped the picture. Surprisingly the flash still worked. He rolled the film forward, then dropped the camera into his backpack. He doubted the film would ever be developed, but it was more a gesture of hope than anything else. An old ritual that brought comfort.

“I wish Mommy was here for the picture,” Jeremy said.

Ed looked at his youngest son and smiled. “Me too, buddy.”

They spent a little less than an hour in the store, gathering what they could. They found many items they had no use for, but they'd found at least enough to get them by for a while. They remained vigilant, keeping the front door and other exits in sight at all times. The near miss in the sporting goods store more than a week prior was still clear in their collective memory.

Being on the go meant they had to be able to carry everything on their backs. There was no snow in which to pull a sled, and a cart slowed them down too much to be useful. Ed tried not to think about the things they had been forced to leave behind in the past simply because they couldn't carry it all. But what was gone was gone, and what was done was done. Living in the present was all they had; it was what kept them alive.

Having gathered about all they could reasonably carry they headed back toward the store entrance. Ed was feeling more and more exposed the longer they remained in the store. He wanted out. He was considering taking a quick look in the grocery store they'd seen, just to see if they could shore up their food supplies a bit more. He never got that far.

As they neared the front doors of the store, Ed noticed movement. He drew his gun, flipped the safety off, and ushered both boys behind him. His body buzzed with the surge of adrenaline; his pupils dilated, his heart raced, and his senses focused.

He caught sight of the movement again. A female carrier, lying on the floor, rolled onto its stomach, then tried to get up and walk. It stood up, slowly, then balanced precariously on unsteady legs. Ed noticed the body was in good shape; the infection must have been recent.

The carrier took a step forward and Ed leveled the gun, lining the front sight on the thing's chest, then the back sight with the front sight. If the thing charged he'd have to shoot; there was no time for the bat. His finger squeezed on the trigger.

Then it spoke.

“Help...please,” she said, before collapsing to the ground.

Ed removed his finger and raised the pistol. This wasn't a carrier; this was a survivor.

And he'd almost killed her.

He stood with his children, gun still in hand, watching the girl, unsure what to do next. They couldn't help her; they didn't have enough supplies to share. Plus she appeared ill. Was she infected? He wasn't a doctor, so how could he know? He would have no other choice but to leave her behind to focus on the boys.

But that would be murder. And how could he leave her behind after the boys had seen her? Even if he wanted to leave her it was too late to do that without them knowing. He'd taught them it was wrong to kill and that it was wrong not to help people. They'd never be able to understand how it was necessary to leave her behind in order for them to survive. And he wasn't exactly sure how he'd explain it to them without them losing their faith in him. He looked down at them; they were both watching him intently.

Watching and learning.

“We have to help her Dad,” Jeremy said from behind him.

“I don't think we can, buddy”

“But we have to try.”

“We don't have the supplies. She's sick, and we don't know what's wrong with her. She might be infected with the virus.”

“But we can't just leave her. She'll die,” Zach said.

“I think she might die anyway.”
She'll also slow us down
, he thought.
She could be the death of us all.
He hated himself for thinking that, but truth was always truth.

“What if it was Mommy?” Jeremy asked.

Ed sighed. He knew the decision had already been made.

They found some long boards amongst the garbage lining the floor and used part of a thin, sheet metal shelf in order to create a makeshift stretcher. Ed used some rawhide shoelaces from their packs to tie the whole apparatus together. The structure proved strong and lightweight.

Ed told the boys to stay back, then slowly approached the girl. She was unconscious. It was impossible to tell if she was infected with the virus, so they had to be extremely careful around her. They'd know within a day or two if she had it. The masks and gloves would be used until then.

They lifted her onto the makeshift stretcher, with Ed on one end and both boys on the other end, then they carried her out of the store. They had to shove the door open wider to fit the girl and the contraption through, but they made it. She moaned occasionally, but made little other movement or sound. Ed thought she probably had a fever, but couldn't risk touching her with exposed skin just yet.

If she was feverish, then at a minimum she needed some fluids and rest, and probably some antibiotics. Ed had used up the last of the antibiotics they had six months prior when Jeremy had been running a high fever. He anguished for days until the boy's fever finally broke.

Ed felt in his gut that she wasn't infected with the virus. If she had then she wouldn't be unconscious, she'd be raving mad. He still made Zach and Jeremy keep their face masks and goggles on, just in case. He kept his own on as well.

If what the girl had was bacterial he could do some good with the antibiotics, provided he could find some. If it was viral it would have to run its course. Any antivirals were surely gone, raided after the pandemic started. They were useless, but many had tried all the same.

They needed a place to keep her until she got better, or until she died. Ed remembered passing a few farmhouses just before the exit. In this part of the Midwest the highway cut right through mile after mile of farmland, so farmhouses weren't that hard to come by. He thought it was their best option.

He and the boys carried her almost a mile on the stretcher. The lacing between the bars and the board loosened along the way, but ultimately it held. Progress was slow, and they had to take a few breaks along the way, but eventually they spotted a suitable farmhouse and headed toward it.

Here the highway was level with the ground around it. They maneuvered the stretcher with the girl atop over a fence then trudged through the frozen, brown vegetation underfoot. It crunched with each step they took. The girl stirred, but continued sleeping. Ed wondered if she'd even make it through the rest of the day.

The plowed terrain of the farmland was bumpy, filled with dirt clods, dips, and divots. Jeremy fell once, but Ed and Zach were able to keep the stretcher relatively steady until he could regain his footing.

They scanned their surroundings for carriers as they walked, but saw none along the way. Ed tried not to think about what they would have to do if they did run across any. The thought of leaving the incapacitated girl behind to be devoured alive felt inhuman. The boys wouldn't understand that they might not have any other choice. The best he could do is shield them from it and hope they kept their sanity. He couldn't dwell on those thoughts though; if they had any hope of bringing this girl back from the brink of death they had to first get her stabilized.

The farmhouse sat about a quarter mile from the highway, so it didn't take Ed and the boys long to reach it. They reached the front yard of the farmhouse, then gently sat the girl down on the ground. “Get behind me boys,” Ed told them. “Zach, get your gun ready.” Ed drew his own gun, chambering a round.

“What about the girl, Dad?” Zach asked.

“She'll be fine there until we get back. We have to check this house first.”

“But what if any carriers come while we're inside?”

Ed looked at Zach, raising his eyebrows. Zach seemed to not understand. Jeremy did. “Hurry up,” he told his brother, then nudged him into the house.

Ed was leery of bringing the boys inside; he had no idea who or what he would find in there. Leaving them outside in the front yard, however, felt more dangerous. He had them stay behind him as he walked to the front entryway, facing backward to keep a lookout. The screen door was torn off its hinges and the house's wooden front door was ajar. Aside from one broken pane of glass the windows in the door were intact.

He rapped three times on the door, then stepped back onto the porch, pistol ready. Zach had his pistol drawn, Jeremy held the machete. Ed heard nothing. He knocked again, this time a bit louder. Still he heard nothing from inside. If there were any deadwalkers in there they would almost definitely be stirring by now.

Murderers and thieves, however, would not.

He motioned for the boys to come forward. “Stay close,” he told them, and they carefully walked single file through the front door and into the farmhouse. Zach and Jeremy both glanced at the helpless girl lying on the stretcher, then they followed their father inside.

The inside of the house was in good shape overall. It had been raided at some point, but since the roof and most of the windows were still intact the weather damage was minimal. Some of the wood floor was warped where water had blown in from the outside, but aside from that the place was still structurally sound.

They checked every room, including the upstairs bedrooms, and the cellar, and found the house to be free of threats. There were three bedrooms in the house, all on the second floor. They could keep the girl there. Ed didn't like using the second floor but moving the beds would mean taking them apart, noisy work he didn’t want to undertake. The doorways were just too small to fit the beds through assembled.

When they got back down to the stretcher Ed noticed the girl hadn't moved at all. He still felt it was very doubtful that she had contracted the virus, with all the sleeping. The virus created maniacs, not narcoleptics. Another twenty four hours and he'd know for sure.

He knew they'd never get her up the inside steps on the stretcher, so he picked the girl up and tossed her over his shoulder. Being so thin she was light, but he doubted he could have carried her for a mile on his shoulders. He wasn't as strong as he used to be. None of them were.

He carried her to the top of the steps and into the bedroom, with the boys following close behind, then placed her gently on the bed. The bed was still made; undisturbed for the past three years. He checked her forehead with the back of his hand. Although she was still very hot Ed noticed goosebumps on her skin. She was definitely feverish.

He covered her with the blankets from the bed then took the boys back downstairs to check the kitchen faucets, which didn’t work. He peered through the windows above the sink and into the back yard; there he spied a lever-style water pump. He grabbed a pitcher from the kitchen and walked to the pump with the boys.
Sometimes you're just lucky
, he thought to himself.

After almost five minutes of priming work the pump began producing clean water. Ed gave the boys a high-five then rinsed and filled the pitcher he’d brought with him. He sent Zach and Jeremy back inside to fetch more containers. They drank some of the water straight out of the well; Ed thought it might very well be some of the most refreshing water he'd ever tasted.

They washed and filled as many containers as they could find, then they returned to the house. They brought a cup of water upstairs for the girl; she moaned and her eyes fluttered when Ed attempted to give her a drink. He managed to get a little down her before she closed her eyes again and went silent. He checked the girl's pulse. She was still alive, at least for the time being.

Ed sat with the boys on the front porch of the farmhouse, watching the highway. Strings of abandoned cars littered the road. There was no movement aside from some birds searching the cold ground for food. The air was chilly; only the sound of the wind broke the silence.

He wondered what he was going to do with the girl. She was very sick. Ed wasn't a doctor, but he guessed the fever was probably due to an infection. Viral or bacterial he couldn't be sure. Administering an antibiotic was the only course of action he felt might save the girl.

The problem was, he didn't have any.

He could likely find it though, if he tried. If he could locate a drug store that hadn't been completely raided it was a possibility. With a Walgreens or a CVS on every corner it became an even better possibility. Unfortunately he couldn't surf the Internet for store locations anymore. He had to do it the hard way; searching on foot.

But that would mean leaving the girl in the farmhouse alone while he and the boys searched. It would likely take them a day to retrieve the drugs, if they could find them at all. She'd be without water and protection that whole time. He reminded himself that she'd been worse off lying on the floor of the Target. At least this way she had a slim chance of survival, and better than most.

It was too late in the day to start the search; night would be falling soon. They could begin the following morning at the break of dawn. That would give them the better part of the day to find the drugs and return. It was still winter, so the amount of daylight they had available to them was reduced. He could provide warmth and water to the girl overnight, provided she made it through at all.