This is the End (Book 2): Not Dead Yet (2 page)

Nodding his head, he shook his pack and ran his hand across Roscoe’s nose.  The dog wagged his tail so hard I thought he might become airborne as his tongue hung further out the side of his mouth.  Guess he was ready to go.

I took a deep breath and started towards the tangle of cars in front of me.  As I walked, I made sure one of the Rugers was already in my left hand and the short sword I normally kept in a sheath at my thigh was out and ready.  I glanced behind me to see everyone else had followed suit and had weapons at the ready.  I also noticed I was still in the lead, which I wasn’t entirely sure was the best idea, but felt better knowing Jack was behind the kids.  They were great shots, but I didn’t want them to be the brunt of a sneak attack.

Jack cleared his throat quietly, “So what’s the plan, Angie?  Are we walking to the coast?”

It was a great question; one that I had no answer for.  I stopped walking and turned to face him.  “Not likely considering it’s over a hundred miles.  I figured with it getting dark we could look for somewhere safe to hole up for the night, then tomorrow try to get as far from the city as possible.”  I faced forward and focused on the sound of my breathing and our footsteps.

“What kind of place?”  Ty asked, jogging to catch up with me.

“Uhhh…” I looked back at Jack, hoping he’d have a good answer. 

Jack shrugged his shoulders at me and continued looking around.  After a few moments he finally answered, “Anywhere that looks like it might be defensible,” he cast his eye to the horizon before finishing, “And soon, the sun’s about to go down.  We have maybe half hour, tops.”

Ugh.  That would be tough considering we were still on the interstate and knee deep in cars.  I slowed down as we approached a group of cars clogging the road so that we could slide around them.  “Should we get off the next exit then?”

I was sideways, belly against the passenger door of a dirty, what used to be white minivan and trying to not get caught on the suburban behind me.

“Yeah, sounds good,” Jack said as he brought up the rear of our train squeezing between the cars.

No one spoke for a while as we all focused on navigating the motor graveyard.  It reminded me of Denver; lots of abandoned cars, lots of blood.  I wasn’t moving as fast as I would’ve liked so that I made sure the group stayed together.  I was tired, but I felt strong and it wouldn’t have been farfetched to think I could just run to the coast.  But I sort of loved those slowpokes so I kept pace.

Darting glances in every direction at once, I noticed the ashes drifting by from the fires were getting thicker; I assumed it meant the fire was losing momentum and the breeze was picking up.  Or it was burning fiercer and had simply found more ammo.  I didn’t really know enough about fires to tell one way or the other.  What I did know was trying to shimmy through the throng of vehicles to the first exit which was still a quarter mile out was taking forever.  My pulse sped up just thinking about the shitstorm we would have on our hands if we were caught out here after dark.  I didn’t think zombies were nocturnal and more active at night, I just knew that darkness would make it harder for us to see
them
.

The silence was nerve-racking.  It seemed weird to not at least have Chloe going on about something, but I figured we were all too busy being on high alert to make small talk.  It did give me a lot of time to look around and listen to the sounds of the city, or lack thereof in this case, which made it all the more unsettling.

Living in a city, you grow accustomed to the sounds of traffic and sirens, noisy neighbors, cars backfiring, dogs barking…there was nothing here.  The only sound was our footsteps, Roscoe’s paws tapping out a staccato on the pavement and the burning of not just the Dome, but the various other fires still going strong around the city.  Also, I could hear the raspy screams of the infected somewhere in the distance, which freaked me out.  The overpass was a good 30 feet high, there was no one in sight and yet I could hear them clear as if they were a few feet away.

I veered left and headed towards a gap in the side rail where a car had taken out the fence and went over.  Trying to see over the side but not lean too far in case I was spotted, I searched the ground below for the source of the noise.

Sure enough, down on the ground was the car that had gone over and hanging out the sunroof moaning were a man and a woman trying to claw through the metal.  From my stance I could see they were both infected, had the groans not been a dead giveaway.  A chill started at the base of my neck and worked its way all down my spine watching them.  It wasn’t just the sight; it was that the woman looked so much like me we could’ve been related.  Had things gone in a slightly different direction that
would’ve
been me.

Backing away from the edge, I tried to put the sight out of mind.  It wouldn’t do any good to lament on what might’ve been while I was still breathing and able to keep going. 

Sneaking a look to the west, the sun was a burning flame partially distinguished by the horizon and I knew we didn’t have much time left.  I glanced behind me to make sure everyone was still there and sure enough, 3 dirty, tired faces were squinting in the sunset a few feet behind me.

I started to slow as we approached a massive pileup blocking the exit ramp.  At least 30 cars were either completely crushed or shoved against each other to the point we would actually need to climb over several of them to get off the interstate.

I stopped and stared, waiting for the others to catch up.  Twisted metal and blood marred the various shapes of blue, white, black and red stretched out before me.  It looked like the ghastly aftermath of a demolition derby gone wrong and I just hoped there weren’t any zombies hanging around.

“Whatcha waiting for? Let’s go!” Ty said and he bumped my shoulder in passing.  He tossed me a ‘let’s have fun while trying not to die’ grin as he climbed onto the back of an old Chevy and proceeded over the top to slide down the hood.

Chloe and Roscoe were hot on his heels as I continued to stand there.  I don’t know why I didn’t just jump up there with them, but something just didn’t feel right.  With all of these cars just sitting here, where were all the people who had been in them?

Blood was certainly present, if the hand prints marring the windows were anything to go by, but where was the cause?

I was scratching at a particularly pesky itch that was getting worse on my left shoulder when Jack came to stand next to me.

“You ok?” He took my chin in his hand and proceeded to stare intently at the bruises on my face.  I knew he’d figured out that I wasn’t going to talk about what had happened, but I had a sneaking suspicion he was on to the fact that there was way more than just getting the shit beat out of me.

Staring into his eyes, my heart started to hurt even as I continued to scratch.  I wanted to tell him everything, I needed him to hold me and tell me it was all over and we’d live happily ever after, but when I caught the helpless concern radiating back at me from those beautiful hazel depths, I reigned that shit in faster than a big game fisherman.  He just didn’t need to know.

Scratching harder, “I’m good,” I said with a fake smile and nodded towards the kids. “We’d better catch up before they leave our asses.” I finished while still scratching in earnest. 
Damn, why does this itch so bad?

  Jack’s face went from concerned to closed pretty fucking fast.  He knew I was keeping something from him and he wasn’t pleased about it, but what was I supposed to do? “Fine.”  With that he turned and started to climb after the kids.

Heaving a sigh, I let my level of douchebaggery set in and marinate.  I wanted to think he would understand and still like me, but the insufferable coward in me just wouldn’t let the words out.

I started towards the pileup and pulled my shirt sleeve up to look at the offending itch.  I almost tripped when I saw the definite teeth marks and tracks of blood that had already clotted and started to scab over. 
I had been bit
.  Well
, fuck
.

How long ago was it? I thought desperately as my chest heaved from panic and I mulled over my options. I knew it must have happened when I’d been caught on the door and Austin had freed me, but wouldn’t I have noticed teeth actually making contact and breaking skin? Well, maybe not.  I still didn’t know the full effects of the fucking serum and for all I knew, it could’ve affected my ability to feel pain. 

Think, Angie, think.
I looked back to the sun, which was now almost completely dipped below the city and thought about what time we’d escaped.  I turned around and looked back at the expanse of highway and cars we’d passed since we left and figured it had to have been about 2 hours since I’d been bitten.

From my time on my balcony, I knew that it took about 20 minutes, give or take, to turn after being bitten.  Granted you weren’t ripped apart in the interim, which means I should’ve been a goner a while ago. 

The bite was angry and festering, but I didn’t see any tell tale signs that I was infected.  The flesh surrounding the wound was pink, but the veins weren’t popping out and my skin was still its usual color. Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck,
fuck
!

Was it just taking longer because of whatever shit they’d pumped in my veins or had those sadistic sonsofbitches actually found a cure?! They were all dead now, so I’d likely never know. 

I pulled my sleeve down and grabbed the bumper of the Chevy, hauling myself up and over it.  The others were a few cars ahead of me and I could hear Chloe giggling at something Jack said.

Sliding down the windshield, I thought about what to tell them.  I could only guess at how long I had left, and felt cheated that I’d come so far only to go out like this.  I got angry at the whole thing and felt like breaking shit.  Coming up to the Ford F150 in front of me, I slammed my fist into the tailgate for all I was worth.  Pain shot up my arm as my knuckles split open and bled and the now mangled metal made a satisfying ‘crunch’ on impact.

It wasn’t fair.  After so many years alone I had finally found people who seemed to give a shit about me and I was going to try to eat them.  Fate really was a cruel, vindictive bitch. 

Still trailing behind, I began to come up with a plan.  I would find a safe place for them to hole up the night and then disappear.  I decided not to tell them I’d been bitten so they wouldn’t freak out, but knew I had to say something, lest they follow.

I had almost caught up to them when I decided the best thing to do was make up some shit about not wanting them to drag me down and how I’d rather go it alone.  It was going to break my heart and just thinking the lie left a horrible taste seething down my throat, but I couldn’t think of anything better.  It was better this way.  I’d rather die knowing they wouldn’t come after me than see the pity and terror on their faces when they found out I was little more than a ticking time bomb.

I climbed over the mountain of twisted metal in the direction of the others, one eye on the fading light, the other on everyone a few cars ahead of me.  They had made it over the main part of the pile, and were sliding down the last few cars blocking the off ramp we had finally found.

Wanting to stop and just cry and break shit, I took a deep breath and tried to calm down.  I couldn’t let them know anything was wrong besides what they’d already guessed at and we were fast running out of time to find a spot for the night.

Hauling myself up and over the last car, I caught up with everyone as they had stopped and waited for me on the street while trying to catch their own breaths.

Trying to appear winded I looked around and my eye caught a small building less than a block ahead.  Pointing in its direction, “Hey, what about there?” I panted.

Jack had been bent over, hands on his knees as he heaved and looked to where I was pointing.  His eyes squinted and his head tilt in consideration.  “Looks as good as any other at this point.” He looked at the sun, which had completely sunk below the skyline before peering back at the building in the now near-darkness.  “Think we can get in?” He looked back at me, the question on whether my resume included B&E apparently being presented.

I walked over to him until I was within reach and punched him in the shoulder. “I should assume the same of you, asshat.”  With that, I turned and started towards the building, hearing the kids snickering behind me and Jack mumbling something about bruises under his breath.

As we neared what I hoped was an abandoned building, I reached into my holsters and pulled out a gun, clicking off the safety as I walked.  Smoke was in the air and the eerie silence was unnerving.  It was a one-story setup on about a half-acre of property, fenced in all around.  Trucks were scattered around the front and I could make out piles of building materials around the lot.  It looked like it had been some sort of manufacturing operation, but the sign above the fence was old and rusted and I couldn’t make it out in the dark.

I stopped at the gate and listened.  Jack and the kids had stopped and the only sound was Roscoe’s panting and my heartbeat
.  At least my heart was still beating.

Ty walked in front of me and grabbed the latch on the gate testing it.  The metal protested with a loud creak, but it was unlocked so getting in wouldn’t be too hard.

He walked through, with the rest of us in tow.  Glancing around, Jack had a gun out, and Chloe had a gun in one hand and Roscoe’s leash in the other; it was like a messed up family outing with the dog.