Mind Slide (40 page)

Anthony moved his head from side to side, like he was confused. Brian saw his bandaged arm and what looked like a huge amount of blood under the gauze.

“
Yo Anthony?” Brian whispered.

Anthony whipped his head around to look at Brian. The sudden movement scared him, but not as much as what he saw.

Something was very wrong with Anthony.

His skin was pale white. His eyes were sunken with huge black circles around them. Brian could see very little of his eyes at all, almost like he had milky white contact lenses over them. His head just moved around like a baby's, like he couldn't control it.

Anthony let out a deep groan and reached out to grab Brian. He pushed against his still-attached seat belt and bit Brian right on the arm. Brian yelled and his legs slipped out from under him. He was hanging halfway out of the truck. Anthony didn't bite like a child. He sank his teeth into Brian's flesh and twisted like he was biting into a juicy steak. Brian ripped his arm away while Joe and Danny moved behind him, pulling him out by his legs. Brian cradled his arm as blood dropped to the street.

“
He fucking bit me!”

Joe remembered what he saw on TV, about whatever it was being passed around by bites or open wounds.

He also remembered the part about cannibalism.

He searched everyone's faces. Some people were thinking the same thing, as they started to back up. They kept an eye on Anthony.

Joe didn't back up. He pulled his shirt off and wrapped it tightly around Brian's arm. He winced in pain and just clutched his arm close to his chest. Joe grabbed him by the shoulders and led him to the curb.

“
Alright man, just sit here. Keep as much pressure on it as you can. The ambulance is coming.”

The crowd was divided as they watched Anthony from both sides of the truck. Joe stood next to Danny and watched from the open passenger's side door.

Anthony thrashed around wildly in his seat. Brian's blood covered his mouth. He chewed on the piece of flesh from Brian's arm. Joe almost lost his breakfast. Every time someone would say something, Anthony would look at them and let out a noise that shook Joe to the bone. Anthony didn't even try to form words. He just moaned and struggled against his seat belt. He didn't seem to realize that with just the press of a button he would be free.

Danny leaned close to Joe. “What the hell is wrong with him?”

“
I don't know, but look at him. Something's really off.”

“
Oh really? You think so?”

Joe ignored his supervisor's sarcasm. “No, I mean, just
look
at him. It looks like he's-”

“
Dead,” Danny finished.

“
Uh, guys,” someone said from the other side of the truck. “You'd better get over here.”

Everyone jogged around the trailer and joined the group on the other side. Joe stopped just a few feet away from the driver's side door. He could hear Anthony, still moaning and reaching out for them. But he almost seemed like an afterthought now.

The woman who drove the Civic, dead just a few minutes ago, slowly crawled out of the broken window of her car. She let out a moan just like Anthony. The entire group winced as she fell to the ground hard. She didn't hold her hands up, didn't try to break her fall. She just fell face first onto some shattered glass. She didn't let out a single cry of pain. She didn't even flinch. She just kept letting out that dreadful wail.

“
Uh, ma'am,” Danny said. “You've just had an accident. You might want to take it easy.”

He took a step toward her. Joe reached out and grabbed him. He didn't think it was a good idea to even get near her.

She slowly climbed to her feet, an act itself that looked odd. It almost looked like her muscles didn't want to work. She stumbled a few times, falling against the car. Her eyes were just like Anthony's, milky white and lifeless. The piece of glass that was in her neck had fallen out, leaving a huge cut. But blood didn't gush out. It simply dripped down her neck onto her dress, like her heart wasn't even beating anymore.

She surveyed the group quickly, then lunged toward Danny. She was surprisingly fast now that she was on her feet. Danny and Joe both ducked out of the way barely in time. She stumbled and fell once again to the ground. Danny and a few guys from the electrical department jumped on her back. She struggled to move and reached for anyone to grab.

“
Lady, you have to calm down!” Danny shouted.

Joe looked up at Anthony, still trapped behind the seat belt. He let out another agitated moan and reached out through the broken window.

“
I don't think they're gonna say anything. They're crazy now or something.”

They heard a voice from the other side of the trailer.

“
Uh, guys.” It was Brian. “I'm not feeling so good over here.”

Joe and a few others ran back to the other side. Joe didn't mean to, but he gasped when he saw Brian. He looked terrible. He still sat on the curb, cradling his arm in his lap. His face was pale white and covered with sweat. Joe could still see his eyes, unlike the woman and Anthony, but they had huge black circles around them.

“
I think I'm gonna be sick,” he said.

No one stepped toward him. Joe pointed at the ground behind him. “Just lay down, on the grass there. Help's coming.”

Joe had doubts that help was on the way. If there were riots happening all over the world, would ambulances care about one little phone call at a warehouse?

He grabbed his cell phone and called his wife. It took three tries to get through. He wanted to tell her to get in the house and lock every door and window. A woman answered the phone, but it wasn't Sarah.

“
Hello?”

“
Margie? Is everything okay?”

“
Yeah, Joe, everything's fine.”

He felt panic, then quickly shoved it aside. “Where's Sarah? What's going on?”

“
Here, talk to him a sec,” she said.

Margie handed the phone over.

“
Joe?”

It was Sarah. Joe closed his eyes with relief.

“
Sarah. Honey, what's happening?”

“
Well, uh, we're getting ready to have a baby. I tried to call you, but I kept getting some message about all circuits being busy.”

“
The baby? But you're still two weeks out!”

“
Yeah, well, tell
her
that.”

Joe had waited for this moment for months. He knew it would be one of those moments he'd never forget. He often wondered where he'd be when it happened. Maybe at home in the middle of the night, at the store, or outside doing the lawn. He even prepared himself for that phone call when he was at work. He had his drive to the hospital all planned out. They had a bag packed near the front door of every possible thing Sarah would need. Spare clothes, a camera for pictures, a list of every single friend to call. They had a car seat already installed in the back of Sarah's car. They had planned for everything.

Now, as Joe held the phone to his ear, Brian leaned forward to vomit. Danny was struggling keeping a violent woman pinned to the ground. Anthony lashed out at everyone within ten feet of the truck. They were in the middle of an emergency.

“
You're going to the hospital?”

“
Yeah. I tried to call Doctor Rivers, but couldn't get through to him. Meet us there. But Joe, please, be careful. There's some really weird shit happening on the roads.”

“
Fights?”

“
Yeah. It's really scary. We just missed having an accident. Some guy knocked someone down right by the car. We almost hit him. It looked like he was trying to
bite
him.”

They lived in the suburbs. The riots that Joe had seen on the news hadn't spread that far yet. But it sounded like it wasn't far off. He looked up at Anthony once again. What could possibly be going on?

Joe tried to think positive, but it wasn't working.
Sarah and Margie are going to the hospital, where no doubt everyone else is gonna go. But they have no choice.

“
Okay, I'm leaving work now. I love you, Sarah. Put Margie back on.”

A brief silence. He heard Sarah breathing uncomfortably in the background. He wanted to be with her desperately, to shield her and their child from the things happening around them.

“
Joe? What's up?” Margie asked.

“
Listen. Don't stop at any red lights. Take it slow, but don't stop for anything, okay?”

“
Yeah, no problem there. Whoa! Joe, we just passed three people beating the shit out of some guy against a van? What the hell is going on?”

He took a breath. He wanted to tell them what was happening on the news and at the plant. But it would take too long.

“
The news isn't quite sure yet, but it's bad. Just get to the hospital. I'll be there soon.”

“
Okay. See you soon.”

He put his cell phone away and jogged back to Danny. He was still struggling with the woman. He had his knees driven into her back now, but she still fought and wailed.

“
I have to go. Sarah's in labor.”

Danny nodded. “Get out of here. Be safe out there.”

Joe ran across the parking lot and climbed in his truck. He sped away from the warehouse back toward the suburbs.

Two minutes after he left, Brian's heart stopped beating. Four minutes after that, he stood back up. He bit Danny and a few of Joe's coworkers. Not long after, everyone that worked with Joe that Saturday wandered the parking lot without a purpose, with no memory of their previous life. It was only when a few other delivery trucks arrived that they perked up.

Brian, Danny, Anthony, and the rest of Joe's coworkers feasted on the truck drivers until there was barely anything left.

*****

Joe sped through the streets toward the hospital as fast he could reasonably go. He kept his emergency flashers on and slowly cruised through the red lights. For a while, he drove without incident, and it looked like whatever was happening across the world had skipped over his town. But then he saw police cars with their lights on stopped at a corner. They were trying to pull two women off of a child while a crowd gathered to watch. He drove another block, and saw what looked like a riot inside a corner Starbucks.

He didn't know what was going on. But in the back of his mind he knew it was huge, world-changing big. But he didn't care about the world. He cared about Sarah. He had to get to her. He had to be there for the birth of his child. Then they would figure this whole thing out. All he needed was his family, and he could survive anything.

He narrowly missed hitting a woman as she fled from another man. He saw a motel just off the road on fire. He had to weave his way between a few cars that had stopped to look. The firemen, instead of putting out the fire, were trying to pull a woman off of one of their own.

He was a block away from the hospital when he decided to call Sarah. He didn't know anything. He didn't know what room she was in, if she went through the main entrance or emergency room.

The phone didn't even ring. It went right to a recording saying that all circuits were busy.

“
Dammit!”

Joe tried to keep calm. He would park his truck, and go to the main entrance. He would ask whoever was working the front desk where his wife was. Then he would kiss her and everything would be okay.

His jaw dropped as he slowly pulled up to the hospital.

An ambulance had crashed into the front, near the main entrance doors. Fire danced from under the hood, throwing black smoke everywhere. No one was trying to put it out at all.

He didn't even bother looking for a parking spot. He pulled his truck onto the curb and killed the engine. As he climbed out he heard gunshots and a few screams off in the distance.

He didn't move for a second. Fear and confusion just locked his legs. It was only a picture of Sarah in his head that got him moving again.

“Alex, you’re not really human.”

The words still haunt me in my sleep. Whenever I start to think I’ve got a hold on everything, on the wild direction my life has taken, I end up doing something creepy. Creepy enough to actually make me stop in my tracks and go “What the hell?”