A Dark Evolution (Book 2): Deranged (6 page)

“It’s that house, there.”

“Wow,” Kala said, looking up at the burned out two-story.

“Yeah, I know,” Dylan said, looking out the window sadly. His smooth dark skin twitched a little, then he shrugged. “It is what it is,” he said, pulling his cap down lower onto his forehead. The shadow it created hid his beautiful eyes.

A lot of girls would kill to have those eyes,
Kala thought, soft brown with extra long lashes. He was a beautiful boy.

“When were the fires?” she asked, referring to the dozens of burned out houses up and down the neighborhoods they wound through.

“A while ago. Maybe a month, I’m not sure,” he looked at Kala with the impatience of a parent informing a child of something for the fifth time, only Kala hadn't been around to see any of this.

“The west and south sides of Miami are all burned.”

“Shit.” That’s where her house was, south of the city. She was hoping to retrieve some weapons.

“We don’t know who started the fires, whether it was people busting in places to rob them, or if one of the zombies knocked over a lantern or something.”

“Wait, a lantern? Ha! Come on, this isn't Chicago, Miss O’Leary’s cow didn't start the city on fire.”

Dylan shrugged, “Whatever. Let's go."

Kala and Dylan climbed out. She followed him to the house, observing his nervous behavior and the way he didn't like being in the open.

“Are there any of them still around here?”

“Some, they kind of sneak up on you. But honestly, the living are just as bad.”

“The living?”

“Yeah, people have gone crazy. It's dangerous to leave cover, someone might attack you just to take what little you have.”

“Everyone’s got to take care of themselves, right?” she said mockingly.

She thought she saw a flush rise up into his brown cheeks.

Instead of entering the burned out husk of the house, Dylan led her to the back. He lifted a wood cover next to the house, the kind used to cover egress window openings, only to her surprise, under the grate, which had been camouflaged with ivy, was a set of stairs leading to a steel fire door below the foundation line of the house.

“Wow, what is this?”

“The people we bought the house from were like doomsday preppers. We just used it for storing bikes and sleds and stuff.” He chuckled. “Ironic though, isn’t it?”

Kala agreed. “Unexpected yes, but unexpectedly fortuitous.”

Dylan raised an eyebrow at her before leading her down the stairs. He reached up and closed the grate behind them. “What are you, some kind of brainiac?” he said snidely.

“Brainiac? How old are you, Dylan?”

He ignored her and knocked softly on the door five times in quick succession. The door creaked open a few inches and a small black face peeked out. She had tiny braids sticking up all over her head, each secured with a brightly colored band. Her big eyes watched Kala nervously, but were obviously relieved to see Dylan.

“Come on,” he told Kala, and she followed him into the cluttered room. She understood his lantern comment right away when she saw two old kerosene lanterns on the floor, each with a tiny flame burning in them. There were no windows in this room, just cinderblock walls, so without the light, it would have been black as night in here. Kala took in the room. It was certainly no place to live. It was damp and smelled of mildew and bicycle grease. But they had pieced together a bed out of some yoga mats and blankets.

“It’s pretty dingy in here, but it stays cool so we don't have to worry about dehydration.”

Kala nodded, she knew all too well about dehydration.

“Who are you,” the girl’s tiny voice rang out like music in the gloomy space.

Kala knelt down next to her. She was so young, she couldn't have been more than five. “My name is Kala.”

“Kayla?”

“Kala, like the flower, calla lily.”

“My mommy loves those flowers!” the little girl said, suddenly excited. “We’re going to go find my mom,” she continued, pointing at Dylan. “Me and Dilly!”

Dylan cleared his throat, “Stay quiet Sophie, remember we always have to stay very quiet.”

Sophie looked dejected, “I’m tired of being quiet all the time.”

“I know you are, but you don't want to see another one of the scary people do you?”

Sophie shook her head vehemently.

Dylan looked over to Kala. “She had a fit once when I took her with me to look for food, started crying for her mom. It drew a couple of them in, it wasn’t pretty.”

“I guess not. Sophie, are you hungry? Do you want a candy bar?” Not thinking she could get more adorable, Kala was surprised when Sophie jumped up and down, mouthing a silent scream of joy.

“Good, here you go honey.”

“You’re a nice white person.”

Kala snorted, the comment caught her so off guard. She had no idea how to respond, so she just tore the wrapper from the candy bar and handed it to her.

Dylan dragged a camping chair over to her. “Here,” he said.

Kala sat on the chair and Dylan sat on the floor. There were some cans of unopened vegetables and a half dozen bottles of water, but nothing else. It wasn't sustainable.

How long have you been alone?

“Since the beginning,” he said without affect.

“Are they dead?” she asked quietly.

Dylan nodded.

“Did you have to -”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” he murmured, cutting her off.

“Sorry.”

Kala watched Sophie happily munch on the candy bar and leaned her head back against the chair. She was suddenly very tired, the adrenaline rush of this morning was wearing off, being replaced by the crash that always followed. She set her axe across her lap and touched her pocket, to make sure her car keys were safely in there.

“Here,” Dylan said, handing her two cotton balls that smelled like bleach. He had dragged a jug of the foul smelling liquid from the pile of junk.

“What?”

“Wipe off your weapon before you get one of us sick.”

“Oh, good idea.”
Damn good idea,
she thought. It wasn’t often someone outthought her. She took the offered cotton balls and cleaned the blood off the blade and spike of her axe, so if she accidentally poked herself she wouldn't end up a zombie freak.

“Thank you,” she said, and replaced the axe on her lap. “Have some of the peanuts honey, the protein will be good for you.” She noticed that Sophie had been nosing into her bag. Sophie smiled at her.
Nice white person,
she thought, and chuckled again. It was quiet except for the sound of Sophie's snack wrapper crinkling, and Kala’s eyes closed. Just for a minute she told herself, and then sleep took her.

Sleep took her but was not kind. She woke in a dream, in her old bedroom. Her posters still adorned the walls, and her desk was there, with its long row of books and tech manuals. A light was left on the desk, next to her microscope. There was a butter container there, too. The butter container moved, thumping on the desktop. Kala approached and picked up the container, feeling its resident jumping around inside. This was the container where she had trapped and killed the big spider, the one that almost attacked Abigail. How could it still be alive?

Then she heard a squeaky voice calling out her name, it was coming from inside the butter container.
What the hell?

“Kala help me please, please Kala help me,” the little voice said. She absently removed the top of the brown butter container and looked in. The big orange and black spider was there, it was moving around on its long angular legs. Then it looked up at her, right into her eyes, and Kala dropped the container. It clunked to the desk, and the spider crawled out. It stood on its hind legs and gawked at her.

“Kala,” the small voice came from the spider. “Kala, why did you kill me?” The spider’s horrible little hairy face started changing, then melted into the face of her father.

Daddy.

“Kala, why did you shoot me Kala? I’m your father.”

“You were going to kill Abbie!” she cried. “You killed Lukie.”

“I never would have hurt you Kala, you didn't have to do it.”

Tears were pouring down her face now and her chest started hitching.

“Give me a kiss, Kala,” the father spider said, opening its chelicerae wide until a black hole emerged, it was its mouth. Then the spider jerked, wretched, and started regurgitating something.
No, no, stop, no!

Kala was trying to cry out but her voice did not work. The object being regurgitated grew larger and larger.
No no no!
Kala tried to run but her feet had been sewn into the carpeting. At last the spider finished its regurgitation of her brother, who lay in the fetal position on top of her desk. His eyes were open but still and cloudy, and part of his head was caved in where he had struck the wall. Kala couldn't breathe from the enormous pressure in her chest and the constant stream of tears pouring down her throat and face. At last she opened her mouth and loosed a crazed, piercing scream. Over and over she screamed.
God save me, god make this end!

“Kala! Kala! Kala!” Dylan was on top of her, staring her dead in the eyes from only inches away. One of his large hands was clamped over her mouth. “Kala, shut up! You're going to bring them all here!”

“Oh my god,” Kala gasped. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.” Her chest was heaving. She came out of the nightmare hard, like she had just run a race.

“It's okay,” Dylan said, moving away. “We all have nightmares sometimes.”

“Sometimes I cry when I’m sleeping,” Sophie chimed in.

Kala scooched herself into a sitting position. The axe was still on her lap. The car keys were still in her pocket.

“So we need to talk,” Dylan said.

Kala set the axe on the ground and leaned forward, elbows on her knees.

“I have to get Sophie out of Florida. I want to head north, as far as I can get.”

Kala nodded, her head finally coming clear of the ruinous nightmare that had fuzzed it up.

“Is it better up north?”

Dylan cleared his throat. “Well, we haven’t had any news since the power went out, but at that time, Florida, Alabama, and Louisiana were the worst off, but it was popping up everywhere.”

“So you figure it will be at least better north of us?”

“It makes sense doesn’t it? It started here, then they quarantined the state, which failed, but served to get as many of us infected as possible. You can't go down the street and find a real person, but the dead ones are wandering all over, just looking for something to kill.”

Kala was quiet for several minutes as she rolled the situation around in her head. Dylan waited patiently for her, his long arms draped over his knees, his brown eyes watching her.

“I agree with you that this epidemic is worse here in the south, but not necessarily for the same reason. Sure it started here, but the real reason is that the disease vector is the mosquito, and the southeast United States has more mosquitoes than any other part of the country. So, more vectors to carry the disease, more infected. You follow?”

“Yes. I know you were out of it, but before we lost TV, they had identified some other bloodsucking bugs that were carrying the disease too, body lice and a couple other ones.”

“Awesome.”

“So I was thinking that if we head north, get out of the Florida heat, maybe we could find help, maybe -”

“We? Look, Dylan, aside from the fact that I don’t trust you, I’m not looking for any travel companions. I would rather be alone. I can move faster that way, besides, my last companions didn’t work out so well.”

Dylan sighed, looking desperate. He looked over to Sophie, who was playing with some broken and dingy Barbie dolls.

Kala watched her too. She tried not to let her feelings get in the way of logic. But she was just a little girl, and Dylan, well he was just a boy, probably not more than fifteen. How was he going to take care of them both? There’s no way they would survive.

“Look, you can ride with me until we hit the state line, then you find another car, deal?”

Dylan looked from her to Sophie again, and nodded his head. “Thanks. Just don't leave us at some redneck truck stop or something okay?”

Kala laughed, “I think there's more black people in Alabama than white people, you shouldn't have to worry. Still, we will have to be careful where we go. I don’t know how desperate people will be for an automobile or anything.”

“Okay, cool, whatever. Thanks.”

“When do you think we should leave?”

“It's evening now. Do you want to wait until morning, get some sleep first?” he asked.

Kala looked over to Sophie then at their makeshift beds. “Do you think she would sleep in the car?”

“Definitely, my parents used to have to drive her around just to get her to fall asleep at night.”

“Then let's leave now. I’ve done all the sleeping I want to do for a while.” Kala rose and stretched her legs, pushing up onto her tiptoes to stretch her calves. “Pack up all the food and water into our bags. Grab the lanterns and anything else that might be useful.”