Broken Dreams (32 page)

With the Sig in one hand, and keys in the other, I took a few deep breaths and opened the door. The truck wasn’t too far away from the entrance steps. I made a mad dash for it, and hopped in the driver’s seat. My nerves were dancing the jig all over my body. The first thing I noticed was that the truck smelled like Henry. It was that spicy body wash scent he had. He always smelled so good. I let out a long, staggering exhale.

“Calm down, Elaina…” My heart was racing, and I began sweating. The air was thick, and it felt muggy. It was so uncomfortable. I don’t remember it ever being that humid that late in the year. The only thing I could think of was that a killer storm was coming in.

Looking up to the sky through the windshield, I saw nothing but stark blackness. No stars, no moon…just blackness. It was creepy. I looked back down at the dash, and hoped there was enough gas to get out to my parent’s home. I closed my eyes and started the truck.

“Come on, please. Let there be gas in this beast.” I opened one eye and peeked at the gas gauge. “A half-tank.”
Shit
, I thought. I really wished there was more. It wasn’t enough, but it was more than I had expected.

There had to be less in Sophie’s. She had driven her truck a few times more than Henry had driven his. I’m sure her keys were hidden in her cleavage, where she hid all of her other valuables, and I wasn’t about to go hunt them down. I wasn’t sure what Henry’s plans were for gas. I assumed he had already siphoned from every vehicle around his apartment.

I quickly unzipped the pack to check its contents. “Water, fruit leathers, ammo, a couple knives, bandages…vials? Needles? What the hell?” I paused for a moment, examining the vials and needles before I dug through the rest of the pack.

“A siphon still in its package. Boy Scout Henry comes through again.” I held it up and looked at it. I had no idea how to use one of those things, nor did I have the patience to read the directions. I jammed everything back into the pack and tossed it into the passenger seat.

I put the truck in gear and crept down the street, avoiding rotting true deads in the road. The smell was nauseating. My stomach became uneasy, and my mouth filled with saliva.

“Calm down, calm down,” I said to myself. Concentrating on my driving seemed to help some.

I made it to the end of the street. So far, so good. Somehow, I needed to get on the highway. I remembered Henry saying he had to make a few roads of his own when he went to mine and Claire’s apartments. The only way I could get to my parent’s home was the highway. I had to try.

Slowly, I inched my way toward the highway on-ramp. Weaving around undeads, true deads, and randomly parked vehicles in the middle of the road was taking forever. I couldn’t wait to get to my parent’s home. After my dream, I just knew she had to be there. I could feel it. Huge droplets of rain started hitting the windshield.

“Shit!” I yelled. It seemed the closer I got to the highway, the harder it rained. The wipers were not doing a great job clearing the windshield. The truck was filthy and the wipers were just smearing the dirt and undead goo.

“Ugh! Come on! It would be helpful to be able to see!” I turned on the washer fluid and it was empty. “Of course! Damn it!”

I stopped where I was, turned off the wipers, and let the rain come down on the windshield for a couple of seconds. I turned on the wipers again, and it was a little better.

“Stupid fucking cars. Ugh!” I threw it back in drive and continued creeping toward the on-ramp.

The lightning and thunder were close together. I hated thunderstorms. The lightning always made me nearly piss myself. When I was a kid, the next door neighbor’s house went up in flames after one of our crazy storms. Ever since then, I had a real fear of lightning.

I tried to pick up the pace, but there was too much debris scattered everywhere. Plus, the rain was making it hard to see.

“Stupid fucking rain!” I yelled.

There were a lot of undeads just wandering about. I will admit that I was scared out of my mind. I worried what would happen if I needed to stop and get out. It was quite probable that I would get overrun by them. Maybe taking off wasn’t such a brilliant idea, after all. I kept thinking I should have thought this through, instead of acting on impulse. Then I saw the sign for the highway.

“Yes! Wait… What the fuck?” I couldn’t believe my eyes. “Oh, my god,” I whispered as I stopped the truck and put it in park.

Both lanes of the on-ramp were packed with cars. There were cars backed up right down to the street.

“Fuck me! How the hell am I supposed to get to my mom now?” I hadn’t anticipated anything like that. I knew I would have some issues getting there, but I hadn’t thought that I wouldn’t even be able to get on the highway. My plan was well thought out.

“Damn it, damn it, damn it!” I pounded on the steering wheel. I couldn’t stop my tears from falling. The thunder and lightning was directly on top of me. It was raining harder and harder by the second. My thoughts were scattered and scrambled.

There was a small pack of undeads looming around the cars. I felt hopeless, lost, and confused…like how my mom was feeling in my nightmare. I put my head on the steering wheel and cried. I was about to give up.

***

Henry jumped out of bed, scaring the shit out of Sophie. “Are you mental? What the fuck is wrong with you?” She was pissed. “I’m trying to get some rest here, jackass.” She rolled back over and snuggled back under the blankets.

“Something’s wrong.” He pulled his pants over his boxers, and grabbed his shirt and vest, putting them on.

“Something’s wrong?” Sophie propped herself up on her elbows. “What could possibly be wrong in this fabulous fucking paradise?”

“Elaina. Something is wrong with Elaina. I can feel it.”

“You need to gear up to go into your bedroom?”

Henry bolted out of the guest bedroom, and barged into his bedroom. Claire jumped up and screamed. Luckily, she was fully clothed. “Shhh! It’s just me.” He grabbed the small flashlight out his vest.

“Good Lord! You scared the shit out of me!”

“I seem to have that effect on women at the moment.” The bed was empty. He scanned the room. No Elaina. “Where’s Elaina?”

“What do you mean where’s Elaina?”

“She isn’t in here!”

“Maybe she’s in the bathroom.” Claire pushed past Henry and ran into the master bath. Empty. Henry ran down the hallway to check the other bathroom.

“Elaina! Where are you? Elaina!”

“What the fuck? What’s all the yelling about?” Nick rubbed his eyes, trying to make sense of what was going on.

“She’s not here!” Claire was panicking. Nick jumped up. He realized he was just in his boxer shorts and, apparently, was having a rather lovely dream. He tried to grab at the blanket and pull it over his lower half.

“Ahh… Give me a sec.” Claire gawked at him. She couldn't take her eyes off his exposed self. She licked her lips.

“Ye-yeah, okay.” She turned around, blushing, but she was very interested in what she saw. Claire just had seen more of him than she ever thought she would.

“Just get your pants on, boner boy! We have to find her!” Sophie said as she came strolling out of the guest room in her spiked heels. She was putting her bleached blonde hair up in a purposely messy up-do. Nick found his pants and shirt.

“Where is she?” Nick asked, while pulling his shirt over his head.

“I don’t know! You were in here. You should have heard her leaving!” Henry snapped.

“I was sleeping!”

“Get a pack on,” Henry barked. “We’re going out to find her.”

“I’m going, too,” Claire quietly said, and Henry looked at her.

“We can’t risk all of us. You and Sophie stay.”

“No! I’m going, too!” Sophie protested.

Nick blew his top. “What do you fucking care?! You have been nothing but trouble for Elaina since you and your hooker-looking ass arrived here!” He pointed to himself, “Her brother,” then he pointed to Henry, “and her fiancé are going to go track her down! She means nothing to you!” Henry flinched at the word fiancé. He wasn’t sure if they were even together, let alone still engaged, seeing as her ring was in his pants pocket. Nick struggled to get his boots on through his anger.

Sophie clenched her jaw. “Regardless of what you think, I do care about her because I can see how much Henry loves her.”

“Enough!” Claire yelled. “This is no time to argue about who loves her more!” She was pissed. “If we all go, it’s more eyes looking for her. Now, let’s move!”

“Fine! Whatever. Everyone grab a pack so we can get the fuck out of here.” Henry went to the dining table, only to see that his pack and his keys were missing. “Bloody hell!” He pounded his fist on the table.

“What?” Sophie asked.

“My pack and keys are gone. She must have taken my truck.” He went to the plastic bag-covered window and peeled part of it back. “Shit! She took my truck! Damn it, Elaina!”

“Where could she have gone?” Sophie sounded genuinely concerned.

“I don’t know!” Henry snapped again. He was angry and worried.

“Well, let’s quit fucking around, discussing the where’s and how’s. Let’s get out of here!” Nick whipped open the apartment door and stormed out. The rest of them followed closely behind. They didn’t even bother checking for undeads when they threw open the main entrance door. As they ran to Sophie’s truck, the rain had started to come down pretty hard.

“Toss me the keys!” Sophie threw them at Henry. They all hopped in just in time to avoid an undead staggering right for them.

Henry stared at the cracked windshield for a moment, then looked at Sophie. She shrugged and he shook his head at her.

“Everyone, please save your ammo. We may need it.” He started the truck and slammed it into drive, pushing the pedal to the floor. The tires roared on the wet streets.

Henry weaved left and right, avoiding cars and true deads. He stopped at the end of the street. “Give me an idea of where any of you think she might have gone.”

“Clueless,” Sophie said.

“Obviously.” Claire rolled her eyes. “I don’t know. Maybe her apartment?”

“No,” Nick said. “Our parents’ house. I bet she’s trying to head there.”

“Shit! She can’t go that way! It’s blocked. Cars are clogging the on-ramp!” Henry gunned it. It was raining heavier by the minute, and there was constant thunder and lightning.

“Watch the gas. It was about a quarter tank when Nick and I came back.” Henry looked at the gauge. Sure enough, it was just a hair below a quarter tank.

“I have a siphon… Shit! She has my pack. I have a siphon in there!”

“Relax, Captain Anxiety. Take your finger off the panic button for a moment. Remember, I have one, as well. The trick is finding a car we haven’t siphoned off already.” Sophie dug through her pack, looking for her siphon.

“Sorry. I’m just worried sick about her. I don’t know what I would do if something happened to her.”

“I know. Just calm down.” Henry nodded. She reached up and tenderly rubbed his ear with her thumb and forefinger. “Deep breath. She needs you to focus right now. We will find her.” He closed his eyes, while inhaling and exhaling.

***

I looked for tissues all over the front of Henry’s truck. Yet again, I was on another crying jag, and was without precious tissues. I needed to start carrying something if I was going to be fucking crying all the damn time. I pulled up my shirt and wiped my nose on it. I kept thinking I was crazy for trying to go to my mother’s house.

The lightning was striking all around me, and the thunder was vibrating the truck. I just wanted to get to my mother. I turned the truck off so as not to waste gas. I pounded my fists on the steering wheel a few more times just for good measure, only to accidentally hit the horn.

I screamed until my throat burned. It made me feel alive for a brief moment. It was raining so hard, I couldn’t even hear myself. I felt a thud on the left side of the truck. I didn’t want to look, but I had to.

“Oh, my god!” I screamed. There was an undead throwing himself into the driver’s side of the truck. I turned on the ignition again, and hit the lock button.

“Fuck!” I yelled. He was clawing at the window, leaving nasty bits of rotting flesh on it. I screamed again. I felt more thuds. I looked around the truck. There were four more climbing over one another, trying to get at me.

I froze. I wasn’t sure if I should throw the truck in drive and try to do a U-turn, or if I should throw it into reverse and blindly floor it in hopes that I didn’t hit anything substantial.

“Think, Elaina, think!” I was scared out of my mind. I decided my little adventure ranked as the number one dumbest thing I had ever done. I felt like giving up again, and I thought maybe I should just open the door. Henry would move on.

No, he wouldn’t. He would die alone, and I couldn’t do that to him.

Everything was falling apart. Henry wasn’t my Henry anymore, some hooker-looking ex of his was trying to intimidate me, my best friend was lost emotionally, my brother was no longer himself, and the rest of my family was probably all true dead. Let’s not even get into what state the country is in.

The undeads continued to beat themselves against the truck, as I wallowed in my depression. I saw a bright light come up behind me. At first, I thought it was lightning. The thunder was so loud right then that I barely heard the gunshots. I looked around me and there was rotting undead goo all over the driver’s side.

I wasn’t sure who was shooting back there. No one knew I had left so it couldn’t have been Henry. I wasn’t going to open the door, just in case it was some sort of freak.

My head was spinning, dizzy with thoughts and fear. There was a banging on the passenger side window. I screamed again, as I looked over. “Henry!”

I couldn’t believe it. I had never been so glad to see him. He was waving at me to come out the passenger side. I scooted over and, as soon as I unlocked the door, he whipped it open and pulled me out of the truck. He held me tightly, spinning me around in the pouring rain. I wrapped my legs around his waist. For a moment, I forgot what was happening right before us.

“Elaina! Oh, my god! I thought I lost you forever.” We were both drenched in a matter of seconds. I let go and stood on the sidewalk.