Dark Recollections (22 page)

Heh. I told her that I was going to clean out the school campus, one building at a time if I had to. I was going to make it safe to live in, and that she was more than welcome to help, or to sit still and stay here until I was done. She considered it for a few minutes while I pissed and shit finally, but when I came back she declined. She wanted to head back home and find her parents. She said they lived an hour away or so, due west from here. She couldn’t live without finding out if they were okay, and I totally understood. I totally disagreed with her though. Young girl leaving all alone with the world the way it was seemed pretty fucking dumb to me, but she was old enough, I didn’t want the baggage. Speaking of pissing and shitting, do you find it irritating Mr. Journal when you pee standing, then just as you flush and start to leave, you have to poop? Drives me nuts. I mean seriously.
 

We chatted for a bit, I told her the basics of what I knew, and we exited via the front door. Just outside 25 feet away there was an undead student milling about. It probably heard us moving the barricade aside as we were leaving, or was drawn to the sound of the gunshots earlier. He immediately snapped to attention when we walked out, and started striding at us. I handed the .22 to her, and drew the sword.

The fresh ones are always more dangerous. They’re a little quicker, and I think they’re almost a little smarter. They are still pretty slow, really dumb, and I took him down. I made an example of him to her while she watched.

I walked at him and dropped low and to the side, swinging the sword at knee level. The force of the blade sent it right through the gristle at the knee and lopped his leg clean off. With little balance anyway, the dead kid face planted. I circled him, watching her horror as he rolled around trying to get at me. It hurt to be so cruel, but she had to see here what would be everywhere out there. Eventually the zombie got on his stomach. I stopped moving, and allowed it to come straight at me. Once it was close enough, I swung down hard, and cleaved his head in two. Once again the sword lodged firmly, and I had to pull it out holding his head still with my foot.

She threw up and dropped the .22.

I calmly explained how only destroying the brain would kill them. I told her about fuel, food, water, and safety. I told her to go straight home, and find her parents. Then come straight back if they didn’t have a better plan.

We picked out a car on the side of the street that had keys in it still, and she got in. I wished her good luck, told her to be safe and smart, and she drove out.

She never came back. I guess they had a better plan.
 

After that, I started my building to building sweep of the entire campus. Most of that is pretty mundane by my standards now, but there was a couple of interesting… occurrences. I’ll detail those last few things in a journal entry shortly. I’m not sure, but I think my next entry will be my plan.
 

No promises though Mr. Journal. I have a hard time keeping those lately.

-Adrian

Soccer Mom

Stacey closed her eyes and leaned back, resting her head against the park bleacher bench behind her. The sun was still coming down on her face and it felt good to be outside.
 
She could hear all the kids running around on the soccer field right in front of her, and with all the other parents right here she could let her guard down and relax for a minute. She hadn’t gotten a break all day, which was usual for summer when you have two little ones at home. No school for the summer meant no rest for mom.

Stacey felt something small and soft hit her in the stomach, and she sat back up again. On the grass directly in front of her was bright yellow spongy football. Her six year old boy Tommy was running straight at her full tilt, eyes fixed on the ball he had just likely thrown at his mom.
 

“Mom! Throw me the football!” Tommy stopped ten feet away and threw his hands up like pro receiver, waiting for an incoming missile.

“Brace yourself buddy!” Stacey hollered, and gunned the football as hard as she could at her son. It left her uneducated hand like a banana being shot out of a cannon. It tumbled end over end and sailed ten feet above her son’s head. She laughed at her attempt, but Tommy yelled in dismay and ran after the ball. Moments like this were the reason Stacey had kids. She could re-experience the world through their innocent eyes every day, and be rewarded with their triumphs almost more than they were.

Her little daughter, only 4 years old this month was one town over at her husband’s mother’s place. Little Sarah just loved grammy, and today they were exploring one of the area’s most enticing tourist traps, the Butterfly Museum. Sarah would be talking about butterflies for a month nonstop, but at least it gave Stacey a break, and it gave grammy some precious time with her granddaughter.

Stacey looked around the field and saw a dozen kids all frolicking in the summer sun. It was late June, midweek during the waning summer vacation, and these kids were enjoying every second. In another week the parents would start the back to school shopping, and not long after that the little ones would be marched right back to their educational prisons to learn how to be bigger kids someday. As much as Stacey loved her kids, she craved some peace and quiet at the house. Normally when the kids were at school or daycare she had the run of the house. She could do laundry, clean, prepare some food, and maybe even sit down and read a decent book. Summers meant all of that was either off limits until the kids were asleep at night, or done with two kids hanging off of her like barnacles during the day.

She laughed to herself quietly and shrugged. It’s not like she didn’t know what she was getting into. Just then her cell phone went off in her purse, and she pulled it out and answered it. It was her husband.

“Babe, where are you and kids?” He asked her seriously.

“I’ve got Tommy at the park playing ball with some kids, and Sarah is with your mom at the Butterfly Museum. What’s up? Something going on?” Stacey could sense some anxiety in his voice. This scenario happened a lot, especially when something was happening around town. He was the Chief of Police after all, so he always knew when something was up. Frequently he would call and fill her in on the dangerous happenings around town.

“Something very bad is going on. You need to get Tommy, head to the grocery store, and buy as much food as you can. Food that’ll last too. Canned stuff. Buy lots of water too.” His voice broke suddenly and he went silent.

“Honey what’s wrong?” Stacey leaned forward on the bench after hearing her husband’s voice crack. Something was VERY wrong.

“Dad’s dead.” He choked out.

Stacey remained silent for several moments, tears welling, looking at her son playing, trying to figure out what the hell to say to her boy or her husband. “I’m so sorry David. I don’t know what to say, what happened?”

“You watch the news at all today?” He asked after sniffling.

“No, been busy with the kids, was there a shooting at the shop?” Stacey dug a tissue out of her purse and dabbed at her eyes to clear the tears away.

“Well yeah, but that’s the least of it. There’s some kind of sickness spreading all over the place. It makes people all kinds of crazy, and they attack everyone around them. Someone infected came to the store, and long story short, Dad got bitten. The bites of the infected spread it.” David sounded like even he didn’t believe what he was saying.

“That’s crazy. Your father died of a bite? Is this like rabies?” She was just about back together emotionally now.

“Not exactly. Danny shot one guy that was sick, but that guy’s son had been bitten earlier. The kid bit two of the EMT’s who responded, then he bit Dad. It was damn horrible Stacey. Phil, Dad’s best friend wound up shooting Dad so he wouldn’t get sick and bite anyone else.”
 

Stacey shook her head in complete confusion. This wasn’t happening. This was something that happened in bad horror movies, and books written by people from Maine. She just exhaled in response to the news. Her mind couldn’t work fast enough to think of something appropriate or useful to say.

“Look honey,” the Chief said to his wife, “this is spreading like wildfire. The state police are blockading the interstates, and the major hospitals are now quarantine zones. Things are going to get really bad, much worse than just Dad dying. This is end of the world bullshit. We need to get a bunch of food and water, and get the kids home immediately.” He was back in cop-mode now. Authoritative, and strong.

“Okay, I can go get Sarah and your mom, then go to the store, then go home.” Stacey gathered her stuff up and started to wave at her son, but her husband cut her off.

“No. You get Tommy and go to the store. I’m headed to the museum to get Sarah and mom. I’ll meet you at the house. Once you get to the house, you lock all the doors, and you get the kids and yourself upstairs, and you lock yourselves in a room. Don’t answer the door for anyone. And you know what? Get the spare pistol out of the gun case in the closet and load it.” David sounded sure of himself. That made her feel a little better.

“Oh…. okay.” She said back to him. She didn’t like guns at all.

“I just cut the entire force loose. Everyone needs to get home and take care of their families. That’s the priority right now. Stacey I love you, and I will see you in an hour or so. Once I get Sarah.” The Chief said.

“I love you too, you be careful.” Stacey started to crack a little again. They both hung up at the same time.

*****

Stacey did everything she could to hide the phone call and all the bad news it contained from Tommy. He was a little peeved they had to leave the field so suddenly, but this wasn’t too unusual with his Dad being Chief. Frequently David would call Stacey and interrupt their plans so this wasn’t all that out of the realm of normal. Today was a different situation though.

Stacey drove her small SUV confidently down Main Street to the grocery store. She noticed traffic seemed a little heavier than normal, and people were certainly driving a little more recklessly. At the main lights in town she watched two cars run the light, and it set off the policeman’s wife in her. Stacey had half a mind chasing them down and giving them hell for driving so ignorantly. She also saw several homes along the way with boarded up windows. It reminded her of the vacation David, her, and the kids took to the Florida Keys a few years ago. They had a hurricane warning and the whole resort area was boarded up in hours. The storm missed them, but she never forgot the feeling of panic as the world seemed to come to a complete stop from something she couldn’t control. Stacey was getting that same feeling again right now. She wondered to herself how all this had happened right in front of her without her knowing. Ignorance certainly wasn’t bliss today.
 

Despite the jerks on the road she made it all the way to the grocery store unscathed and parked in a decent spot near the front. She got Tommy unbuckled and out of the car seat and kept an eye on everyone around her. It was late afternoon, maybe 5ish, and the parking lot was super busy. It was like the Saturday before the Super Bowl, or right before Thanksgiving or Christmas. Very unusual for a late June day. She took stock of all the people pushing overloaded carts out of the store to their cars as she and Tommy walked across the parking lot and into the store. Apparently she and David weren’t the only ones with this plan.

Stacey swung her son’s hand as playfully as she could and chatted about his time at the field with his friends. It helped her forget what was going on, and also served to keep her son from noticing the subdued panic going on all around them. They jumped on the sidewalk, hands held in unison near the entrance to the store, and started towards the automatic doors. Just as they finished laughing at their silliness, there was a loud yell from the parking lot.

Stacey only had to take one large step backwards to get a good look at what was happening. A middle aged man was walking across the parking lot only 50 feet from where they were, and he was frozen solid, hands up in front him as he yelled for a minivan to stop. The driver of the minivan, a woman Stacey recognized as a local, didn’t even hesitate or try to stop. The minivan hit the pedestrian square in the legs, and plowed over him like a speed bump in the road. The van lurched up and down as the wheels rolled over the poor man, crushing his body, breaking the limbs and twisting them into awkward angles. The driver didn’t stop after either, and sped away onto Main Street.

Stacey immediately covered Tommy’s eyes before he realized what was happening. She stood there slack jawed, completely in awe of what just happened. Unconsciously she reached for her phone to call 911, but then she remembered that her husband had already sent the other officers home, and said two paramedics were either bitten or dead. What point was there at all in calling for help, who would answer now anyway? Multiple people in the parking lot immediately ran over to help the mangled man, and with Tommy with her, she was thankful for that. She had to get some food, and get out of downtown before this thing got any worse. More than anything though, she just wanted to get home and see her husband and daughter as soon as possible. She ushered her son into the store, and grabbed a cart.

Inside was worse than the parking lot. There had to be three hundred idiots moving around the store at top speed, filling their carts with everything under the sun. She saw one older lady pushing a cart filled with cheap beer with all her might towards the checkout. No food in the cart at all, just cases and cases of the rotgut beer. Some people just have different priorities Stacey thought to herself. She had much different plans. David said get durable food, and that meant food in cans, so she put Tommy in the cart, and started to weave her way in between the mobs of people in the store, trying to get to the canned food aisle.

As she passed the handful of aisles on her way there she grabbed some boxes of cereal, and some crackers. They’d stay fresh some time, and would be a good snack food for the kids. She also picked up a few bottles of juice on a display. The kids loved juice. When she finally reached the canned goods aisle, she had to wait. It was so packed with people trying to load their carts there was almost no space to move. After waiting nearly ten minutes she finally started to lose her nerve. In front of her, and at the end of the aisle, she could see that people trying to get into the aisle were preventing people from getting out of the aisle. She snapped.