Rabid (16 page)

Taylor hadn’t taken into account the uneven terrain and the fact that the bottom of his shoes were laden with mud.  The extra weight caused him a noticeable increase in effort.  A distance that should have taken him ten minutes at a rather leisurely jog ended up costing him nearly twenty. 

The Ford was there as they had left it.  He unlocked the driver’s side door and removed the Glock from his waistband before sliding into the seat.  He started the car, listened to the engine idle, evaluating his choices.  Which way?  The road ahead of him led to a dead end; he could see where it abruptly ended and turned into nothing but hills and forest.  The only way was to backtrack.  Turn the car around and take the first right he came to, and hope that it either curved around or that there was an intersecting road that would cross paths with the one Carl and Tina had taken. 

You should know this kind of stuff,
he thought.

Taylor turned the car around.  Half a mile later, he turned right on a road that eventually formed a gradual curve that took him in a northerly direction. 

The road ended at a T intersection.  There was a sign posted in the road just before the intersection, blocking him from going any farther.  ROAD CLOSED: September-April.

He exited the car. 

The sign had a heavy metal base.  He grabbed the sign from the side and began tugging it toward the side of the road, creating enough room for him to maneuver around it.

Man, I hope it’s this simple,
he thought. 

Carl slowed his pace when he noticed Tina falling behind.  He tried the walkie-talkie every minute or so, and it was all he could do to keep himself from breaking into a run.  Not that running would have done him any good.

Angie was out here somewhere.  And, most importantly, she was
alive
.  A queasy feeling erupted in the pit of his stomach. 

When Tina caught up to him, she said, “Thanks.  You were walking too fast for me.  I couldn’t keep up.”

“It’s all right.  Just anxious I guess.” 

That’s the understatement of the year isn’t it?

“I don’t blame you.”

Carl tried the walkie-talkie again.  He received a momentary hiss of static in response. 
Might be a good sign,
he thought.

He spoke into the radio.  “Angie, if you can hear me, we’re coming.  If you can, try to find a way to signal us.  I love you, baby.”

Another hiss of static.

“Is that her do you think?”

“Could be.  Or it could just be static.”

The dirt path curved to the left and then to the right again.  Gradually, the ground became less muddy, and in places it became difficult to make out the tire tracks.  He figured they had been following the tracks for nearly a mile, never falling below a rapid walk unless it was to allow Tina to catch up to him.

“How far does this road go?”

“A few miles, I guess.”

The prospect of walking several miles exhausted her completely.  She hoped that Taylor would catch up to them in the car sooner rather than later.

“I wish she would answer,” Carl said.  “That we were getting more than static.  We’ve got to be getting closer right?  So why isn’t this thing working?  We heard her when we were by the lake.  Why not now?”

“Taylor thought it was interference of some kind.  She might be moving the same way we are.”

“It sounded like she was talking about those things.  Something about being separated.  What if they’re after her?  What if we’re too late?”

 “We haven’t seen any of the rabid things since the ones on the interstate.  That’s a
good
thing.”

The path seemed to narrow as they went.  Huge stones peppered the landscape.

In a feeble attempt to distract Carl from his thoughts, Tina said, “It’s pretty up here.  How long did you say it’s been since you were up here last?”
Carl pointed to the ground.  “Look.  The tracks leave the road here.  See?  They curve and head that way.”

So much for that idea,
Tina thought.

“Do you see them?”

“Yes.”

“They must have headed for those rocks over there.”

“Could they get a car through there?  It looks rough.”

Carl followed the tracks.  The ground was solid, rocky, and strewn with leaves.  The tracks became faint.  Fifty yards later, they vanished completely.

“They can’t just disappear can they?”

Carl stomped his foot on the ground.  His foot didn’t leave a mark.

“There’s no give to the ground.  Not like there was when we were closer to the lake.  And it doesn’t look there’s much rain up here.  The ground is hard and rocky.  The tires didn’t leave marks.”

“What do we do?”

“Keep heading this way.

“How far away is that?”

“Maybe a mile, maybe a little more.”

Tina felt like her legs might give out at any moment, but she continued to trudge onward.

It didn’t take him long to realize why they kept that particular road closed.  It hadn’t been properly maintained.  Taylor thought it probably bore some similarities to what it would be like to drive across the cratered surface of the moon.  The Escort wasn’t faring well.

He had to take it at a crawl.  The needle on the speedometer hovered anywhere between five and twenty miles-per-hour.  It felt like an eternity.  Taylor was frustrated at having to move at such a slow rate when every fiber of his being was screaming at him to hurry the hell up.

But there was always the reality of it: if he hit any one of the potholes going too fast, Tina’s car would be finished. 

I’ve got to be close to the lake by now,
he thought. 
It wasn’t that far.

He was hoping to see it up ahead, but the trees were distributed densely in the area to his right, making it impossible to see anything past them. 

The road curved slightly to the right.  He skirted another pothole. 

His mind was preoccupied with the mystery of the boat.  It was hard to grasp.  In his mind, he saw the image of it sitting forlornly in the middle of the still lake.  His theory had been wrong.  There was no evidence suggesting that it had floated out there by accident.

Admit it.  They abandoned the boat.  That’s the only explanation.

It went against everything they knew about the rabid things.  If his parents and Angie had been in danger from them, then the
safest
place would have been inside the boat.  Those things wouldn’t go in the water.  

Or had they purposely left the boat there so that the walkie-talkie could be found.  It was such a small lake, a solitary boat floating in the center of it stuck out like a sore thumb.  Had his father known they would come to find them and that the boat would catch their attention?  Wasn’t it also odd that there had been nothing else in the boat other than the walkie-talkie?  Almost as if it had been left on purpose.  If all of that had been part of his father’s elaborate plan, then it had worked. 

The only reason to leave the walkie-talkie was to communicate.  Maybe his father had a hiding place and leaving the walkie-talkie for them to find was the means by which he could give them directions.  Somehow his mom and dad had been separated from Angie, and Angie had the walkie-talkie.  He had been able to figure that much out from Angie’s static-filled transmission.

These thoughts reminded him of the urgency of the matter.  Driving along at fifteen miles-per-hour was agonizing, but it couldn’t be helped.  He couldn’t take the chance of losing their only means of transportation.

 Then, to his right, the lake was visible through the trees.  As the trees fell away, he could see the boat exactly where they had left it.  The dirt road followed the northern side of the lake and then curved to the left, unwinding to the north.  He had to squint to make out the tire tracks from inside the car.  He rolled down the window. 

Almost there,
he thought.

The terrain had grown more rugged since they had left the path.  The ground was rocky, and Tina’s slip-on shoes were thin enough to make it seem as though she was walking barefoot over every branch and rock.  The pack on her back was growing heavy. 
Don’t complain.  You asked for it.
  With a sense of purposefulness, she pursed her lips together and carried on, watching Carl’s back as she followed behind him.

The two of them hadn’t spoken since they had diverged from the road.  She was afraid that if she opened her mouth to speak, she would only end up complaining about the weight of the pack or the condition of her shoes.  She didn’t want to come off as whiny; she didn’t want to sound like most other girls she knew.   

A change had come over Carl since he had heard Angie over the walkie-talkie.  He had become solemn and preoccupied.  His withdrawal scared her a little.  He kept talking into the walkie-talkie.  He would say different things, but it was almost like he knew he was only talking to himself but doing it anyway.  He would say things like
It’s okay, baby.  I’m coming for you
or
I love you so much, honey.
  The constant repetition of it gave the words a chant-like quality that Tina found disquieting.  Especially since the only response was a transitory burst of static.  

As part of her studies, she had been required to take a course in psychology.  They had covered stuff like this.  In certain extreme conditions a person’s mind could snap as easily as someone stepping on a twig.  She wondered if that was what was happening to Carl. 

“Can you slow down a little?” she asked.  “I can’t keep up.”

Carl didn’t respond, but he slowed down until she caught up with him.  Tina came up beside him, looked at his face and tried to judge his condition.  His face was blank.  He brought the walkie-talkie up to his lips and whispered something into it. 
Pretty soon he’ll start hearing voices coming back through that thing when there aren’t any,
she thought. 
When that starts happening, that’s when you’re going to have to be on your guard.

Despite having covered another half mile, the looming rocks appeared as far away and unattainable as they had twenty minutes ago. 
It’s like they’re moving away from us
. 

“They don’t seem to be getting any closer,” she said, once again trying to spur him into conversation if for no other reason than to gauge his state of mind. 

Carl said, “It’s always like that.  But we’re making progress.  Trust me.”  He picked up his pace.  “It’s a kind of illusion.  You can’t focus on the peaks.  The highest ones are actually the farthest away.  The trick is to let your eyes follow the ground.”

Tina trailed a few behind him, focusing her gaze on the ground directly in front of her.  The rocks still seemed a long way off, but she trusted that he knew what he was talking about.

“Maybe another mile,” he said.  “Tops.  From here it seems pretty open, but up close there are plenty of hiding places.”

“Caves?”

“No caves.  Not that I know of anyway.”

She was glad to have him talking again.  It helped to keep her imagination in check.     

Carl tried the walkie-talkie again.  When there was no response, he fiddled with the volume knob.  He tried a second time, and this time the burst of static sounded oddly like a high-pitched human voice. 

“Baby?  Was that you?  If you can hear me, say something...anything.  Even if it’s just one word.”

Nothing.

Carl brought the arm holding the walkie-talkie back, looking as if he were about to launch it into space, but then thought better of it.

“This is bullshit!  She’s alone out here and I’m too dumb to know how to find her.”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself.  You’re doing the best you can.”

“Yeah?  And what if that’s not good enough?”

“It has to be, Carl,” she said.  “That’s all there is.”

He made a disgusted look and stuffed the walkie-talkie into his back pocket.  He said, “Let’s just concentrate on getting there.  We don’t need to talk.”

I think he’s losing it,
she thought.