End of the Line (8 page)

I heard a moan but it wasn’t coming from inside the bathroom. A zombie outside the window. My heart inched up a notch, but I wasn’t as scared as I ought to be. It couldn’t break through the barrier. Besides what’s the worse it could do? Kill me?

I knew I should leave. It would stay here as long as I remained. It moaned again. Probably confused on why it could smell but not see me.

I opened my pack and pulled out my radio.

“Princess,” I said, “One by the bathroom.”

She didn’t respond.

The zombie didn’t move.

I didn’t call Princess back. She heard me. Less than a minute later, a single rifle round went off and the moaning ended.

I didn’t thank her and I hadn’t planned on telling, instead I left the bathroom.

             
I got back to my aisle a few minutes later and settled into bed with only one blanket instead of two. The tabby ca
t slept on one of my pillows.
             

             
I looked at my watch. It was a little after 9, later than I usually go to sleep. I closed my eyes but doubted I could sleep.

             
That’s what I was thinking when blackness took me.

             
We were having a party. Dan, his wife, Carl and our kids were in our living room. Loud music played on the stereo. Jim and Maddie were also in the living room dancing up a storm. Princess stood in the front of the room at attention with the rifle aimed up.

             
I watched them have a good time. My husband looked at me and beckoned me to come over but I didn’t. I walked to my kitchen. Debra was there with her bashed in head.

             
“Don’t let him get to you,” she said.

             
I turned around and ran back to living room. All my guests were gone but Abe stood in the middle of room, holding my daughter’s hand.

             
“I saved her just for you, Rachel,” he said.

             
And I looked at my daughter’s face and screamed.

             
Screaming rang out in the night followed by several shots. I didn’t count. Adrenaline and my heart pounding got me out of bed. I grabbed the baseball bat and flashlight by my bed. I waited for a moment, wondering if I had dreamt it, until I heard another scream—a woman, then another shot coming from the front. My flashlight served as the only illumination to the pitch-black store. I switched to a battery-operated lantern and left
my aisle.

             
I heard no more screams or shots. People began coming out of the aisles, with some standing at the edge and not going further, but I couldn’t see who they were in the darkness. Dan, Jim and Robert came to my aisle, each carrying a flashlight in one hand and a tire iron in the other. I didn’t think we’d need it. I think someone committed suicide. This place was fortified with boarded up windows and Princess on watch. Still we had to be careful. “Jim, go find Harlan, quickly,” Jim didn’t respond, instead he
dashed off into the darkness.

             
I headed to the front followed only by Robert and Dan. We checked the two vacant aisles between mine and the infirmary. Several scenarios went through my head. I thought it was suicide, possibly one of the new people, maybe Sachi. When both aisles were empty, I realized it came from the infirmary. I wondered if one of the new people tried to break into the pharmacy and I thought of Tanya. Had she been the one who screamed? Had Eli caught her? Shot her?

My heart thumped so loud that I could hear it. I pulled the sheet away, terrified of what I would find on the other side.

Darkness. The floodlights were off and inky blackness greeted me. Only my flashlight made a dent in the murkiness. No lights or signs of life, but I heard far off scratching and a low pitched female crying.

             
I flashed my light on the scene figuring the crying person was Annemarie. I tried to locate her when I came across Eli.

My heart stopped.

“Dear, mother of god,” Robert said.

I was wrong on all counts. No suicide or attempted robbery.

One of them had gotten inside.

Eli lay on the ground, dead, blood soaked the floor from his wounds -- bite marks. His chest and stomach had been torn opened, ripped apart so badly that even I, a nurse, wanted to vomit.

Robert did. I heard him flee the room then heave outside.

             
I couldn’t breathe. I don’t know how it got in or where it was or if whoever had done the shooting managed to kill it.

             
I heard the crying again.

             
“Doctor—“ said a voice. It’s wasn’t Annemarie, but Mindy.

             
“Mindy, where are you?” I shined the light around until I find her sitting on the floor next the shampoo display. She nursed a bloody wrist and had a rubber strap around her arm. My heart started beating even faster.

             
“It bit me, oh god, it bit me.”

             
I didn’t stop to mourn for Mindy or Eli. We had to find the zombie before it hurt anyone else. “Where is it?”

             
“It’s the girl—the little girl, Jennifer. In the dark I first thought they were hugging but she was eating him. I shot at her a couple of times. She came towards me-- she bit me and I flung her across the room. I don’t know where she landed—Oh god. I don’t know where she is.”

             
“Did you kill her?”

             
“I don’t know— it happened so fast. I shot again but I couldn’t see her. Please help me.”

             
Nothing I could do to sav
e her. I had to find the girl.
             

             
“Do you still have your gun?” Dan asked.

             
“Yes, but there are no bullets—I did a tourniquet on my arm, will that stop the virus?”

             
No. Plenty of people tried. The virus acted fast. Dan and I ignored Mindy because we both knew the answer. Instead we flashed our lights around trying to locate the girl.

             
Finally, I spotted her. She was at the opposite end of the room, trying to claw her way out through the blanket we put up for privacy. When she saw the light, she turned around, screeched, and rushed after me as fast as zombie could. Since she was newly dead, she moved quicker than her decaying brothers. Her face looked almost alive due to her recent death but her eyes had sunken in and she had pieces of ripped flesh, probably from Eli, surrounding her bloody red lips. Mindy had gotten a shot in, but not a head one. A hole was in the girl’s arm, ripping her clothes and the flesh underneath, but it didn’t deter her. Several of her nails had been ripped off, possibly from trying to claw through the blanket. When she got closer, I didn’t move. I could only stare at her face and those glazed over eyes. I remembered those eyes in my dreams. I had spoken to this child only a few hours ago. Her name was Jennifer, a scared little girl, who only wanted her mother. Instead of raising my tire iron, I lifted my hand almost as to wave hello. It wasn’t like I was frozen. I could easily raise the tire iron and bash her h
ead in. I just didn’t want to.

             
Dan stood next to me and didn’t see my reaction. He took his tire iron and swung it hard against her head. It connected and sent her little body flying off and smashing against a display of antacids. A bunch of bottles fell to the floor with a clang. I kept my light on her
the entire way.

             
The girl got up again, the bottles on top of her falling and making more noise. Her head had a large dent in her formerly cute little face but no blood covered it, only decaying matter. Dan hadn’t hit her hard enough. She planned to charge again. She made the moan. The sound they make when close to a kill. Despite that Mindy was crying and Dan had hit her, the girl had her dead heart set on me. She moved in my direction. Her month open with flesh and blood dribbling out of it. I wasn’t afraid, not of the pain or of me dying because if she killed me, I died for keeps.

A loud bang and the girl flew back with a bullet in her throat. She didn’t die but it was enough force to knock her down.

I turned around and to see a startling sight. Tanya, clad only in underwear and a tank top, her dark skin a contrast to the white clothes. She held out her handgun in front of her.

She went over to the girl who was down but not dead. The moaning returned but whether it was the constant flinging, the dent in her head or the bullet in her throat, she couldn’t get up. The girl reached out to Tanya almost as if she wanted to hug her.

Tanya didn’t fall for it. She shot her once more in the head. The sound reverberated all around the infirmary and probably the store. No blood splatter because the girl was already dead. This time for good.

             
I felt lightheaded. I gathered my wits or I would faint. I didn’t want to do it here. I kept thinki
ng about the glazed over eyes.

             
“You good?” Tanya said to me and then looked to Dan, still holding his bloodied tire iron. He dropped it to the floor with a clank. He was always a good hunter, better than me, but he hated killing kids. I looked at him and knew he thought about his own daughter. He didn’t seem to notice Tanya’s lack
of clothes.

             
“Boss lady,” Tanya said. “You okay?” She spoke the wo
rds slowly so I finally nodded.

             
“How many of ours dead?”

             
“One for sure, Eli—“ My voice trailed off.

             
“Come on boss lady,” she said, her voice still slow but stern. “Don’t fall apart. Tell me what’s going on?”

             
“Mindy—it bit Mindy.”

             
“I put a tourniquet on,” she called from the dark. “I’ll be all right.”

             
The flood lights came on illuminating the room and revealed Jake, wearing only pants, and Dave. Robert had returned but stood far behind them looking sickly.
             

             
“Shit,” Dave said, looking at Eli, his best friend. “What the fuck happened?”

             
“The girl-- Jennifer,” I said. “The girl—must have been infected.”

             
“She dead?”

             
“Tanya killed her.”

             
Dave looked at Tanya with wide eyes not in a sexual way but in surprise and shock. Tanya didn’t look embarrassed but she must be freezing. I shined the light around the infirmary and saw the cot that held Annemarie was empty.

             
“Annemarie?” I said. “Mindy, where’s Annemarie?”

             
“How the fuck should I know? I need you to come here and look at my wound.”

             
The floodlights revealed Mindy, Eli and the dead girl, but no sign of Annemarie.

             
“Annemarie!” I screamed. 

             
Jim finally brought Harlan. His rifle pointed up as he looked around but it was already over. Not that there was much he could have done.

             
“
Fuck,” Jim said.

             
“Rachel,” Dan said. “You look after Mindy, Tanya and I can search for Annemarie,” then added. “After Tanya gets dressed.”

             
“I’ll come with,” Harlan said.

             
“Check on Maddie and the kids.”

             
“Will do.”

             
I grabbed the first aid kit and I went over to examine Mindy even though I thought it was futile. I gathered my wits. I took her wrist and cleaned off the bloody wound to find it messy but not so deep. Ironically the bite wasn’t that bad and if the girl didn’t carry the virus, Mindy would be fine. I bandaged it up because I didn’t want her bleeding infected blood everywhere.

             
“I put on a tourniquet,” she repeated. She still held it tightly as I cleaned out the wound.

             
“I’m sorry, Mindy.”

             
“Come on, doc, you gotta to help me,” she went from the slight weeping to
sobbing.

             
I doubted Mindy had immunity like me.

             
“You know I can’t. You know your choices.”

             
“You fucking bitch. After all I went through, after that monster raped me, this is what I get?”

             
I wanted to say I understood what she’s going through. I remembered when I was bitten. How Joel wanted to shoot me, insisted on it, but I wasn’t ready to face my own death, so I took
a gun and left. No goodbyes.