Trying to Survive (Part 1) (2 page)

   He had the same wavy brown hair, broad jaw and the lightest ice-blue eyes – not at all resembling the darker pigments of blue that the large majority of people possess. They were even the same height – about 6’2’’. I barely hit six.

   Almost every time I looked at Walt, it made me miss our father...
Though I suppose I’m glad they aren’t alive to see any of this.

   “Are you listening to me?”

   “Sorry, I was thinking about something.”

   He scoffed “Now’s not the time to be drifting away.”

   I wanted to tell him what I was thinking about – to ensure him I wasn’t losing it, but I just let it go. “I’m fine.”

   “I guess there’s not that much to talk about anyway. It’s like you said – let’s get them all gathered together with the small ones and then throw those roman candles down the road to lead them even farther away… Oh, and you should let me throw them.” He smirked. “You know I’ve got the better arm.”

   “Yep.”

   “Let’s go upstairs and see if we can get a better look around the block. There might be even more of them than we think.”

   Without saying anything, I stood up and headed out of the room. I was beginning to worry about what would happen if we did actually make it to the car and escape…
We could be making a horrible decision
.
There could be thousands of them waiting for us beyond this little neighborhood…

   Walt roughly nudged my right soldier as he followed behind me. “Come on, man, what are you thinkin about so hard?”

   “I’m wondering if we’re making the right decision.”

   “What do you mean?”

   “Look how many people have turned – just in this small area. Once we get to town there could be thousands roaming the streets. We could be overwhelmed before we even make it a few miles… If enough of them jump at the car and get caught underneath it’ll stop and they’ll break through the windows and pull us right out.”

   “Yeah… I thought about all that too, man, but I don’t think we really have a choice.”

   I came to a stop and faced him. “What if the military is on the way to start clearing them out and saving people? If we just hold up for a few more days, something could change. These things might even start leaving when they can’t find any more people to eat. Then we can get out there and search the other homes for food and water.”

   Walt bleakly replied “Do you really think anyone’s coming to help us, James?”

   I closed my eyes and let out a long sigh. “…No, I don’t.”

   Walt walked past me and started heading up the cherry-wood lined staircase near the front door. The second step loudly creaked and he slowed his pace. “Well, then push all that shit outta your head and let’s do this.”

   As we both eased our way up the stairs, doing our best not to make any noise, I whispered “If we don’t see anything promising in town, I think we should try and get to the highway and head towards Daytona. There’re a lot more people there… Hopefully, cops too.”

   “I highly doubt there’s an organized police force anymore... I haven’t heard any sirens since last night, have you?”

   “No… I guess we just have to get out there and go with our best options as they present themselves.”

   “Exactly… And I have a feeling we’ll run into a large group of people working together to survive – or something like that… Actually, do you know where the police station is?”

   “Not a clue.”

   Neither of us spoke again until we reached the front bedroom upstairs. It felt strange to walk through my dark home, knowing that once we leave I may never see it again. The life I’d worked so hard to create no longer had any meaning. Everything I own, everything that’s precious to me would have to be left behind.

   When we entered the room, I noticed the moonlight coming through the window and casting a glare across the picture of our parents I kept on the nightstand. When I walked over to remove it from the frame so I could take it with me, Walt asked “What are you doing?”

   I didn’t reply. I simply finished taking it out of the frame, turned around and showed it to him. His face softened for a moment, and he said “Glad you thought of that.” Then I joined him by the window and handed him the picture so he could put it in the duffle-bag.

   Walt peered out to make sure they weren’t looking in our direction, then flipped over the horizontal latch and slowly pushed the window open. “What do you think? I’m not sure it can get much darker than this... All the street lights are still working.”

   I took out one of the large firecrackers and began searching for my lighter. “This one just sits still and puts off a bunch of tiny explosions for about a minute. It should draw in all of them within a mile radius... Judging by how fast they are, it shouldn’t take long.”

   Just as I was about to light the small fuse I stopped and took out a cigarette. Walt tilted his head in a questioning manner, so I proceeded to explain myself. “It’ll be easier this way and it’ll save lighter fluid. I’ve had this lighter for a while – it could be close to dead.”

   “I’ve got one too.”

   “Still better to conserve.”

   I lit the cigarette and took a heavy draw, purposely prolonging the exhale as I temporarily blinded myself with the smoke. Walt started shaking his head as he leaned left and looked down the street. Any confidence in his voice had vanished when he said “Holy shit, man… Come over by me and look down the road... There’re hundreds of them.”

   I clenched my jaw, slightly crushing the filter with my lips before I took another long drag. I honestly didn’t even want to look, but I forced myself to walk over by him and peer down the road… To my dismay, he wasn’t over-exaggerating at all…

   My house was at the end of a dead-end street. We’d have no choice but to make our way through the small maze of homes before we reached the main road that led to town.

   As I looked at the cars and trucks littering the street along with the hundreds of infected people pacing back and forth, searching for their next feast – a new question entered my mind. “Look how many of them there are… It’s like 90% of the area is infected with whatever this shit is.”

   “I was just thinking the same thing. So, why aren’t we sick? Or… whatever you wanna call it.”

   “I’m not gonna pretend I know anything about this… but for it to infect so many people at once means it has to be some type of airborne, fast-spreading virus, right? Or maybe it’s something in the water… and some people are just immune to it?”

   “Sounds like some zombie movie shit.”

   “Well, what the fuck else do we have go on? It’s not like there’s
anything
else out there that ever covered this particular subject.” I said portraying annoyance.

   “All I know, is that once we get in that car you need to keep your foot to the floor. Otherwise, they’re gonna swamp us.”

   “So, you think all of Palm Coast is infected? You think the whole state is infected?”

   Walt snapped back “I say we assume the whole world is crawling with these damn things – might as well prepare for the worst... Whatever this is, obviously spreads really fast.” He gave me a quick nod and pointed to my cigarette. “That’s gonna go out soon.”

   I took a deep breath and blew away the long ash that had collected while I stood there procrastinating. My body tensed up as I quickly lit the fuse and hurled it to my left. “If we can draw them all to the left of the house they won’t be in our way when we pull out.”

   The second the firecracker hit the ground, before it even went off, most of them reacted and started running towards it. Once it began loudly popping and crackling, we both watched in amazement as the rest formed into a large mass and viciously ran at the noise.

   They were pushing, clawing, biting and even knocking each other to the ground – all trying to get there first. It wasn’t long before some of them started breaking away to fight and others lost interest.

   Walt barked “Throw another one, then wait ten seconds and throw another. It’s working.”

   I did as he said and watched as they all continued to gather around the noises in confusion and then start attacking one another out of anger. They were biting and drawing blood, but spitting out the small chunks of flesh instead of eating them.

  
They only want us…
 

   I handed Walt the Roman candles. “Get them as far left as you can... As soon as the last one leaves your hand we run as fast as fuckin possible – don’t even wait for it to start going off.”

   He nodded, arranged them evenly in his hands and held them out to expose the fuses. We locked eyes and I said “You ready?”

   Walt put on a half-smile and sarcastically responded “You
do
have the car keys, right?”

   I lightly laughed before I said “Yeah.”

   The moment he threw the third Roman candle down the road, I tossed him my rifle, grabbed the duffle bag and rushed downstairs.

   We both hesitated for a split-second when we reached the front entrance. Walt put his hand on the large brass handle, said “We can do this” and flung open the door.

   As we sprinted towards the car, my heart was racing and I’d never been more frightened in my entire life. The moment I opened the driver door I saw several of them turn around and start looking at us. By the time we made it inside, dozens of them were already charging in our direction.

   Walt loudly whispered “GO! GO! GO!” as I nervously struggled to get the key into the ignition and fire up the engine. Just as they got within a few feet of the car I was able to get it started and peel out of the driveway. I had no choice but to run some of them down and watch as they rolled over the hood and began cracking the windshield.

   “Fuck!”

   I looked to my left as I turned onto the street – the angry hoard gathered around the roman candles had turned its attention to us. Before I even realized it was happening, one of them had smashed through the side window and clawed at my face. I could feel the immense strength of its grip as it tore bits of skin away from my cheek.

   The shock staggered me. My head began to feel heavy and my grip on the steering-wheel loosened up. Within seconds, I discovered that I was blind in my left eye. I could feel the blood all over my face, now starting to make its way down my neck and collect at my collar. Walt yelled out “Are you okay!?”

   I sat up straight, tightened my grip on the wheel and decided to lie. If we stopped the car, even for a moment – they’d pull us right out. “Yeah, I’m fine!”

   I felt no pain, only a dull throbbing starting at my face and radiating throughout my entire body. But I knew whatever had just happened to me was simply being masked by adrenaline and fear. I could feel that something was very wrong with my left eye – that it wasn’t just blood blinding me. All I could do was keep it closed.

   I did my best to avoid them as they jumped at the car and cracked the windshield even more. The abandoned and wrecked vehicles were forcing me to follow a weaving and narrow path through the already thin streets. At one point, I had to swerve so violently to avoid a flipped over ambulance that I almost lost control.

   As I fish-tailed the car around the next corner, I noticed their numbers were beginning to shrink. Just as I felt a wave of relief wash over me, I began to feel dizzy as well. I glanced down, only to see that my light-blue shirt was almost completely red.

   Walt saw the blood and noticed that I was starting to nod off again, so he grabbed my arm and yelled out “Stop the fucking car now! You’re not okay – we need to switch places so I can get you somewhere safe!” He slammed his fist down on the dashboard. “FUCK!”

   I looked in the rearview mirror, then to my left and right – they were too close. I said in a shaky voice “I can’t, they’re all around us and the window’s broken. They’ll get right in… I can keep going!”

   “James, you’re covered in blood! STOP THE CAR, NOW!”

   I ignored him, put my foot hard down and kept going. As I watched them fearlessly bunching together in the attempts to jam up the car and make it stop, I knew we weren’t as afraid as we should be. That we were greatly underestimating them.

   When we turned onto the last street before the main road, it was almost completely clear…
The noise must have drawn them all to my house…

   Walt was still begging me to stop, but I didn’t want to take the chance. They were just so fast, and I could still see them chasing after us in the rearview mirror... Even if one was fifty feet away – I knew we wouldn’t be able to switch places in time.

   “We’re almost to the main road and everything seems to be clearing up! Just give it another minute and I’ll stop!”

   The windshield was almost completely spider-webbed from so many of them rolling over the car. I was struggling to keep my head up, and what little vision I had in my right eye was beginning to falter. The wobbling and shaking from the damaged front end of the car was probably the only thing keeping me awake.

   Just as we got to the end of the last street, I looked to my left again and noticed a young girl pressed up against a window on the second floor of a house. She was tirelessly banging on the glass with open palms as she watched me speed by. Tears were streaming down her face and I could see her begging for me to stop and help her.