Stage 6 (7 page)

I asked, “Well... what do we do then?”

That question rang out and played around in our minds for a good twenty minutes while I pulled the car out of the line and drove slowly around the city inspecting the area.

Traffic was bad in the city, almost as bad as on the highway, but here the presence of the Infected was definitely known to all. They swarmed the streets, attacking anybody out in the open. Most kept from the cars though, giving them a wide berth. Possibly they didn’t recognize them as a food source. We also saw birds falling from the skies, and squirrels and other small creatures running wildly around.

I then made my choice. It was obvious after all.

“We’re going to have to get out of Texas.”

Steve shook his head and replied, “Not going to work, man. The containment may have failed around Austin, but they got the whole army out there blocking the state border. There’s no way we’ll get through them, they shoot anybody they see on sight.”

Exasperated I raised my voice, “Well does it matter!? Either we stay here and wait to die, or we find a way out. Look at this madness! It’s only going to get worse and I’d rather take my chances getting past the army and getting shot in the head than getting eaten alive by the Infected.”

Lucy and my mom looked shocked at the notion of both, but were nodding their heads in agreement. Karen and Ian were motionless, along with Steve but I could sense his disapproval.

Nevertheless, I then said, “Alright Steve. I’ll check the maps and with your help hopefully we can figure out what area might be the least guarded.”

After ten minutes or so of quickly checking our maps in the dashboard, and Steve guessing the best place to go, we began to move.

Our destination was freedom, our route was Interstate 35. We were going to head along the main road until we reached Dallas, upon which instead of continuing along any of the main roads we would head in-between any inhabited places and stay as far away from possible soldiers maintaining the quarantine.

It was just as hectic coming out of the city as into it, but after a few hours of driving the traffic slowly began to dwindle in size allowing us to speed up just a bit. However, because the Infected were wandering all over the roads, they served as quite dangerous obstacles and they forced me to drive slow enough around them so if we hit them it wouldn’t hurt the car and fast enough they wouldn’t try to tackle it.

This and the already bad traffic were made worse by the fact that every few miles there was something blocking the roads. Sometimes it was something like a mattress fallen out of a moving truck or something equally easy to get around, but often it was the result of a massive car wreck. Sometimes the traffic slowed down so much, that we were within arm’s reach of the Infected on either side. Mysteriously they never bothered us, and very rarely would we ever see them attack a vehicle.

Because of all these problems, we drove at a wildly fluctuating speed averaging only twenty five mph. My comrades, as I now liked to think of them kept up a great conversation the whole time, often speculating on our chances of getting out. Steve was not optimistic, and Karen remained noncommittal but Ian, Lucy, and my mom were now all for the plan.

We arrived at Dallas at about eight o’clock at night, to see it in even worse condition than Austin had been. Buildings were literally on fire around us, collapsing from within. Knowing that the Infected could never cause this, I realized that the majority of the damage was caused by perfectly healthy individuals in a panic from the outbreak. This city probably fell to ruin because of the “every man for himself” philosophy that we instinctively adapted in danger.

As we drove through the city, often on the sidewalk because of the pileups blocking the road, we realized the danger this city posed to us when a rather large piece of some building broke off and very nearly crushed us. Weirdly, in the city there was far less cars than on the highway. Everybody wanted to go somewhere, but upon arriving most realized where they came from was better.

Everywhere we looked there were Infected roaming the buildings and streets, and suddenly when rounding a corner we came upon a terrifying scene of survival. There were three people standing on top of an overturned truck in the middle of the road, fighting off a horde of Infected surrounding them. One had a shovel and was in the midst of carving a neat slice out of the nearest Infected skull; another was using a fire extinguisher like a flamethrower (which had little effect on the Infected other than to repel them), and the last had a small handgun that was obviously low on ammo.

Karen immediately came out of her day-long silence to yell rather shockingly, “We have to help them!”

Surprised, I stopped the truck, and my eyes met with the survivor holding the gun. I could sense in that moment, that he had seen other cars stop as well, only to leave and pretend they had not seem him.

I knew right then, I couldn’t let this go on.

I had to help somebody; I had to risk myself for these strangers just to keep from going mad. I knew what was right; it was just harder to figure out than before. In my normal life I could always tell myself I’d sacrifice myself for my family, or people who needed me. But when it comes down to it there is no comparison between imaginative heroics and real action.

In that moment, every part of my body was telling me to back up and go the other way, to save myself. But I remembered when we were in a similar desperate situation, and Steve had saved us, and I remembered the amazing happiness and relief that came with being saved. Steve saw my hands tighten on the wheel and he muttered some expletive under his breath.

He turned around and said, “Lucy, grab Victoria and hold her tightly we might be in for a quick ride here. Ian, pass me my rifle.”

I waited until Steve was ready, my fingers trembling on the wheel. I could see these people weren’t going to last much longer.

Steve rolled down his window, stuck the rifle out and aimed down the sights.

He then yelled, “Hey! Get down!”

They looked confused in our direction and then the man with the gun pushed them all down on the car. Steve opened fire. Steve fired a series of rapid shots, putting a quick three bullet spread into the chest and head of each Infected. In less than fifteen seconds the crowd of Infected was cut down to less than half of its original size, and the remainder began to sprint towards us. Steve dropped each one as it ran towards us, and it all looked to be going quite well. Then I saw the commotion we were attracting: hordes of Infected were running towards us from all directions.

I yelled, “Hold on! We got more incoming!” And I slammed my foot down on the gas screeching the tires.

I pulled up to the side of the overturned car and my Mom opened the side door and said, “Get in quick!”

With looks of incredulous disbelief on their faces, they hesitated.

I yelled, “Get in the car quick! We gotta go!” They moved towards the edge of the vehicle, and slid down into our car while Steve climbed half way out of the window to get a better aim at incoming Infected. Lucy hurriedly moved to the back with the baby to make room, and the last of the survivors climbed in.

Steve slipped back in the window as my Mom slammed the side door shut and screamed, “Go!”

An Infected smashed up against our back window screen, cracking it, and I punched the gas making the car’s wheels scream in protest. I swerved narrowly avoiding a group of Infected in front of us and made a beeline for the nearest freeway. There were now Infected breaking off from the sidewalks and running for us in all directions. I was confused as to why they were all trying to attack the vehicle now when they used to completely ignore it, but I didn’t have time to think about it. Then suddenly there was a loud thump and the ceiling in the middle of the car caved in. Steve swore as my mom screamed and we could hear something scrambling around on the top. I swung the wheel back, and forth, dodging Infected making a beeline straight for us and at the same time trying to fling whatever landed on top of us off. Up ahead there were two groups of Infected running diagonally towards us, as we sped straight towards a collision course. At the last second I tried to spin the car to go around the left group and then back in to the right when as we passed them two jumped on the vehicle. They clung to the outside with superhuman strength as I increased speed to forty, fifty, and then sixty miles per hour. Steve yelled something I couldn’t hear over the yelling in the back and the tension of the moment, and then he suddenly opened his door flinging the Infected on it off into the road. Then he aimed at the Infected towards the back and fired, knocking him off as well. I turned to look back towards the road when all of sudden a face appeared looking down into the car. I slammed on the brakes, involuntarily springing Steve’s door outwards and out of his grasp with the inertia of the stop. I heard Steve yell out in pain while I watched the face on top of the vehicle fly forwards and collapse a good fifty feet away in between a mass of concrete and a three-car pileup. It slowly got to its feet and stood in our way. I could see in the rear-view mirror there was still a horde of Infected chasing us. I gunned the engine and started yet again from a stop, and I could tell it was taking its toll on the car. The car wasn’t responding very well anymore. I couldn’t stop to figure out what was wrong though, so amid Steve’s cursing and yelling something about his foot I aimed the car straight towards the Infected.

As we got closer, my mom raised her voice on each word, “What the hell do you think you’re doing!?”

Then the man with the gun rolled down his driver’s side window and stuck his head out. I gritted my teeth as I prepared for the imminent crash into the Infected. Then a shot rang out and the Infected dropped, a clear bull’s-eye marked on its forehead not two seconds before our car would have slammed into it. The whole vehicle jumped and swerved as if going over a speed bump too fast, and I fought to maintain control. I took the car back into our lane, and pushed the gas to the max. We didn’t see any other cars on the freeway, and I quickly sped up to fifty mph, the fastest I felt comfortable going in a time like this. The car was surprisingly silent for a few minutes, while everybody was just no digesting the lightning moments that had preceded this.

Then my mom forced a smile and asked the survivors, “Well hello there! How are you? I’m Jane, what are your names?”

The man with the gun replied simply, “My name is Kevin.” Obviously he was the leader of the group, whether assigned this position or not this is how it stood. Kevin then went on to say, “This is Debbie,” pointing a little violently I thought, to a middle-aged woman holding her sides and shaking back and forth probably from hysteria. Then he gently touched the other survivor’s arm and introduced her, “And this is Sarah. She and I went to the same college.”

Sarah smiled weakly and shook my Mom’s hand when proffered to her. Karen quickly struck up a conversation with Sarah and asked her what is was like being in college. Sarah laughed, a little surprised, but nevertheless obliged Karen and started to talk to her.

Steve reached back and shook Kevin’s hand, and asked him, “So what’s your story?”

Kevin replied brusquely, “Just like anyone else I guess. They came from nothing, suddenly taking over the city. I was in the grocery store when I first saw an Infected, which came in and started attacking people. As I started to run out of the store, Sarah recognized me and yelled me over. After that we just started moving around from place to place, eventually stopping by my place to get my gun. We survived there for a few days, because we were on the third floor and I don’t think any of the Infected even knew we were there. But a few hours ago they started trying to get through the door, and we fled through the back window. We took my truck, and drove through the city, when Debbie,” he paused to look angrily in her direction, “Ran in front of me and caused me to flip the truck. We just stood up top for a while, surprisingly easy because these Infected don’t know how to climb. Then you found us, and here we are. We think that Debbie is suffering from shock or something, because she’s been totally out of it.”

Ian, who had been staring at Debbie for a while now spoke up calmly, “Jack I think you should stop the car.”

I hesitated, but heard the barely noticeable strain in his voice, and I agreed. I checked to make sure there was no one in sight, and I stopped. I asked, “Why Ian?”

He just replied, “Everybody please get out of the car for a second, I want to check the wheels, I think we may have blown them back there.”

I glanced back and saw fear flash in his eyes, and once again I agreed.

Kevin protested, “What the hell are you doing man? Don’t stop the car for this moron! We could be attacked!”

I opened my door, got out and threw his door open. “Ian’s not a moron. He’s part of us.”

Steve came by and pulled Kevin almost bodily from the car as he reached in and grabbed his baby. My mom coerced Debbie to get out of the car and for a minute we all stood outside the car standing there. Kevin was swearing angrily, but Debbie and Sarah just looked confused.

I walked over to Ian and asked, “Dude what is it?”

He whispered back, “Debbie has bite marks on her arms, I think she was Infected a good while ago and that’s why she threw herself in front of their truck and is acting so strange now.”

A moment of terror went through my mind and I fought every urge to turn and stare at her, or run for cover. I replied, “Are you sure!?”

Ian told me, “Shhh! Yeah, man I’m sure. What are we going to do?”

I looked back at the group, whose faces were all centered on mine. Debbie started shaking a little bit, and I said, “Alright everybody except Debbie come over here.”

Her expression didn’t change, so I figured she was already so far gone she couldn’t understand what we were saying.

Kevin walked over to me and demanded, “Tell me what’s going on!”

I replied quietly, “Ian saw bite marks on Debbie.”

He said, “So?”

Incredulous, I told him, “That’s how the virus is spread. The bites transmit it and it takes effect within eight-twelve hours.”