U.G.L.Y (19 page)

One
camera
showed
a
group
of
people
who's
car
had
broken
down on a crowded freeway,
get
overrun
by
a
hundred
infected
.
It
was
horrible.
O
n
occasion
you
could
hear
the
screams of the hosts carry all the way to the microphones on the helicopters.

“
Hey,
how
about
a
drink
”
A
young
woman
was
standing
next to me. I hadn't
notice
her
walk
up
as
I
was
staring
into
the
monitor.

“
What?
I'm
sorry,
what
did
you
say?
”
,
I
felt
sleepy
and
was
having
a
hard
time
focusing.

“
Can
you
buy
me
a
drink?
”
She
said
again.

She
was
pretty,
very
tanned,
wearing
short
denim
shorts
and
a
tank
top
showing
just
enough
cleavage
to
draw my eyes unintentionally to her breasts
.

“
I,
uh,
I'm
not
really
interested
in
a
date
”
It
was
Nevada
,
I
thought
maybe
she
was
a
hooker.

“
Ha
”
She
chuckled
“
No,
I'm
not
a
whore,
just
stranded
and
broke.” She smiled at me “I
thought
I
would
try
to
get
you
drunk
and
take
all
your
money
”
she
was
joking
and
I
knew
she
was.

“
Yea
pull
up
a
chair
” I
signaled
at
the
bartender
“
My
name
is
Duncan
”
extending
my
hand
to
her.

“
Eve,
thanks
for
the
drink
Duncan
”
she
said.
She
sat
down
and
looked
at
me intently “
You
look
rough dude,
what
happened
to
you
”

I took
a
long
slug
off
my
beer
and
began
to
tell
Eve
what
had
happened
over
the
last
couple
of
hours.

“
I
would
call
you
a
liar
if
I
couldn't
see
it
on
the
TV” She sighed
“
I'm
from
La
Puenty,
just
here
for
the
week,
but
my
friends
took
off
this
morning
all
freaked
out
and
I
am
stuck
here
with
no
money
and
apparently
nowhere
to
go
”.

“
Well,
neither
do
I
” I
said
“
Sitting
here
getting
drunk
and
waiting
for
our
turn
to
die
seems
to
be
as
good
a
plan
as
any
”

She
looked
at
me
and
frowned.

“
Fuck
it” she said,
“
lets
raise
our
glasses
to
the
end
of
the world”

     We
sat
there
for
an
hour
before
the
TV
signal
went
out.
The
last
word
was
that
most
major
cities
on
the
west
coast
were
showing
infection.
San Francisco
was beginning to report infection.

There
were
several
flights
that
had carried
hosts
on
them.
P
ilots
managed
to
land
at
their
destination
airport
without
the
cockpits
being
compromised.
Post
9/11
FAA
regulations
had
required
armored
doors
to
be
mandatory
on
all
commercial
flights.
Infected passengers could not get into the cockpits and harm the pilots so they were able to land.

In
this
case,
however,
this
only
helped
to
spread
the infection
beyond
the
restricted
mobility
the
hosts
had,
without the cognitive ability
to
drive a
car
or
any
other
transportation.
They
had
no
cognitive
functions,
they
couldn't operate a car,
or
fly an airplane
themselves.
If they had gotten to the pilots in the cockpits, maybe the planes would have crashed and not made it to populated areas.
Once
these
flights
landed
they
couldn't
keep
the
infected
passengers
on
the
planes,
and
the
infection
spread
into
new
locations
quickly.

“
Shit
” I
said
under
my
breath...”Sigh, I
need to leave” I had considered over the last hour that I would rather make a run for
Friday
Harbor
, a small town on an island in the Pugent Sound in
Washington
. 

     It
had
donned
on
me
to
go
into
the
hills
and
hold
up.
M
aybe I would
try
to
survive
until
this
problem
passed
but
I
knew
it
wouldn't.
I
f
I
couldn't
be
with
my
kids
there
was
no
real
reason
to
survive anyway.
I
didn't
have
the
will
to
do
it
for
my
self.
T
hey
were
the
only
reason
I
had
survived
this
long
as
it
was.

Through
deployments
to
war
zones
while
I
served
in
the
Navy,
to
bouts
of
depression that occurred over the years,
and eventually
through
my
most
recent
breakdown,
I
decided
that
I
didn't
get
to
make
the
decision
to
end
it myself.
God
or
life
could
take
me
but
not my own hand.
So I had to live as long as I could, and do what ever it took to do that.

I
got
up
everyday
through
recovery
because
my
kids
needed
me
to.
I
needed
to keep
working
and
make
enough
to
take
care
of
them.
I
knew
I
had
to
live
long
enough
to
get
my
youngest
son
off
on
his
own.
T
hen
I
could
die.

But
what
if
I
never
found
them?
W
hat
if
they
got
killed
because
their
mother
was
a
self
serving
asshole
that
only
thinks
of
herself?
There
was
no
reason
to
hide and I
decided
go
for the island since I had no trail now to follow to find the kids
.