Rabid (5 page)

A sound came from behind them. 

Taylor instinctively dropped the sack, listening to the heavy thud and sloshing of water as the contents hit the floor.  In a flash, he was squatting down, grabbing for one of the spray bottles.

Carl had twisted around, unsheathed the machete and had it raised above his head.  He had nearly screamed.  When he saw what had made the noise he was thankful he hadn’t.

“Take me with you,” the girl said.  “If you’re leaving, please take me with you.”

One of her hands was up, shading her eyes from the beams of the flashlights.  She had something in her other hand and she held it out to them.  Taylor shined his flashlight on it.  Keys.  “That’s your car out back?”

The girl nodded.  She wasn’t crying now, but looked as though she had been recently.

“What are you doing
here
?”  Carl asked.

“This is my father’s store.  I go to the university and came home to visit for the weekend.  I got here and everyone had, well, you know…everyone had
changed.
  This is the only place I could think to go.”

“How long have you been here?”

“What time is it now?”

Taylor looked at his watch.  “Nine-thirty.”

“Almost seven hours.”  She pointed to a ladder leaning against the wall.  “I used that to climb into the ceiling.  There’s nothing up there but rafters and that insulation that looks like cotton candy.  It’s dusty and smells weird.  I listened to the two of you talking and realized you couldn’t be those…things.”

“You forgot to lock the back door,” Taylor said.  “That’s how we got in.  You’re lucky we’re the
only
ones that found our way in.”

“I was in a hurry.”

“But you remembered to lock your car doors?”

She showed him the black fob that dangled from her car keys.  “You use one of these things for a while, it becomes a habit.”

“So you come back to town, and all you find is a bunch of crazies,” Taylor said.  “What about your father?  Where’s he?”

The girl cast her eyes to the floor. 

Dumb question,
Taylor thought.

She shrugged.  “I thought he’d be here, but he wasn’t.  Do you think anyone is still
normal
?”

“I’m normal,” Taylor said.

“Some days,” Carl said. 

“My brother is normal, and you look like you’re normal.  I imagine some people made it out of here.  Either that or they’re holed up in their houses doing the same thing we are.  Laying low so they don’t draw the attention of those crazy fucks.”

“Maybe they’re gone by now,” the girl said.

Carl shook his head.  “We just saw them run by a few minutes ago.  They run a lot.  Doesn’t seem like they ever get tired, either.”

Carl thought the girl was attractive.  Skinnier than he liked, but even through her blue jeans and tight sweater he could tell that she had an athletic build.  He wondered if she had ever been on the track team. 
Strong shoulders,
he thought. 
Probably a swimmer.
 

Staring at the girl and seeing how vulnerable she looked standing there in front of them, and noticing that she had obviously been crying, made him think of Angie.  Alone somewhere - hopefully, locked up in the house - in a town that was mostly a carbon copy of this one.  He was disappointed in himself for spending so little time thinking of her safety.  Almost like he had forgotten about her.  He justified this by telling himself it was natural to put pain and worry from your mind in order to continue functioning; that Angie had been there in his brain all along, but that he had set those emotions aside temporarily while they searched for a safe place.

And he felt guilty for finding this girl attractive. 

Taylor’s right.  Why the hell
haven’t
you proposed yet?  Because you figured you could take your own sweet time.  Now look.

Taylor said, “I wouldn’t feel right leaving you here, but are you sure about going with us?  I can’t guarantee it’s going to be any better.  We’re just trying to get home.”

“Where’s that?”

“Coldwater.  It’s about a hundred miles from here.  About the same size as this.”

“Maybe this is only happening
here
,” she said hopefully.

“From what the radio said, it’s happening everywhere.”

The girl pondered the situation for a moment, eyes going to the ladder and following it up to the panel in the ceiling.  “I can’t stay up
there
forever.  So I guess I really don’t have a choice.”

Carl considered how he would explain returning home with another girl.  It was a shame what a selfish thing the human condition could be at times. 
Find Angie first.  Worry about explaining things afterwards.

Taylor took the keys from her and said, “My name’s Taylor.  This is my brother, Carl.”

“Tina,” the girl said.

“Well, Tina, that’s about all I’ve got in the way of formal introductions.  If you don’t mind, we’re in kind of a hurry to ditch this place.  What do you say?  Road trip anybody?”

Tina nodded.  A smile briefly lit her face.  Taylor could see himself ending up with a girl like this. 
Name a girl you
couldn’t
see yourself ending up with.

Taylor handed one of the full spray bottles to Tina before folding the drop cloth and swinging it over his shoulder. 

“What’s this for?”  Tina asked.

Carl said, “He thinks they have rabies.  That’s why they’re acting crazy.”

“Something
like
rabies.  That’s what the radio said.  That a strange disease is spreading rapidly and that the symptoms are
similar
to rabies.  So this virus or whatever it is might be related to that.  A symptom of rabies is hydrophobia.  They have difficulty swallowing, and have a strong aversion to water.”  He looked at Carl.  “Make fun all you want, these things already saved our asses once.”

“I happen to know quite a bit about rabies,” Tina said.  When Taylor raised his eyebrows in surprise, she elaborated.  “I’m studying to be a veterinarian.  I’m a sophomore right now, so I’ve got a ways to go, but it’s some interesting stuff.  I guess I never put it together.  It makes sense.  Large quantities of saliva.  No wonder they drool the way they do.”

“How’s your car doing for gas?”

“I think I’ve got half a tank.”

Taylor opened the back door a crack and froze.  Tina’s Escort was less than three feet in front of them, but beyond that stood the mob of crazies.  They stood there still and silent as though they were in a kind of mass trance.  He scanned their faces.

What are they doing?

“Shut the door!” Carl yelled.

The mob rushed forward.  Carl nudged Taylor aside and pulled the door shut, holding the handle with both hands.  “Lock it for God’s sake!”

Taylor stood there looking at him until he remembered that he had the keys.  He looked at them and handed them to Tina.  “I don’t know which one it is.”

Tina sifted through the keys, her hands shaking so violently that Taylor was certain she was going to drop them. 

The door shuddered.  The pounding of many hands on metal.  Carl was yanking back on the handle, one leg up with his foot braced against the wall.

“
Hurry!
  I can’t hold this thing forever!
”

Tina fumbled with the lock, aiming for the keyhole and missing on her first two tries.  On the third, she managed to insert the key and twisted it.  “Got it!”

Carl removed his weight from the door slowly, making sure it would hold on its own.  “Will it hold?”

“I don’t know.  It is for now.”

“What do we do?”

“They don’t seem to be very smart,” Tina said.  “They must lose something during the change.  That might work in our favor.”

Taylor said, “How long before they give up and find their way around front and smash in the glass?  Those windows aren’t going to keep them out.”

“You heard her,” Carl said.  “They’re not very smart.”

“They found us in here didn’t they?  They may be dumb, but they obviously don’t quit.”

“What if we boarded up the windows?”

“They’re
huge.
  It would take forever.  And the minute we started hammering nails in they’d hear it and come running.”

The pounding continued.  The sound of it was almost deafening; flesh on metal. 

 “I saw one of those things catch a squirrel.  When I first got back into town.  Mr. Sullivan was standing on the sidewalk, just staring at this tree.  At least that’s what I
thought
he was staring at.  When I got closer, I saw that there was a squirrel next to the tree.  And then he pounced.  It happened so fast.  He caught it and had this squirrel in his hands, squeezing and twisting it like he was trying to wring out a wet sponge.  Then he tore its head off.  I screamed.  My window was down and he heard me scream and looked right at me.  He yelled back at me and all this spit flew out of his mouth.  I slammed on the gas and got out of there.  They’re all like that now.  The entire town.”

“I think whatever’s happening goes beyond this town.”

“I hope not.”

“Does your dad sell lumber?” Carl asked.

“Maybe.  A little, I think.  Most of it he keeps at the warehouse.”

“We could use the lumber up front,” Carl said.  “We’ve got everything we need to board them up.”

“It’ll make too much noise.  That’s a guaranteed way to bring those things around to the front.”

“They could figure out to do that anyway.”

“What do you want me to do?  I said leave them for now.  We need to think about this.”

Taylor wheeled the chair from the office into the back room.  He sat down in it.

“That’s your answer?  To sit down?”  Carl said.

Taylor nodded.

“I think he’s right,” Tina said.  “Trying to board the windows would only bring them around to the front.”  She sat down on the linoleum, positioned so she could still see down one of the aisles to the front of the store.

Carl followed suit.  “I can’t believe this is your answer.  That we’re just going to sit here.  Especially while we have to listen to
that.
”  He motioned at the metal door and then covered his ears with the palms of his hands for a moment.

“Wait a minute.”  Tina hopped up and disappeared into the office.  They could hear her shifting things around, and when she returned she was holding an old-fashioned kerosene lantern.  “Believe it or not, this thing actually works.  It belonged to my grandparents.  It’s kind of an antique, but my dad liked to use it whenever the power went out.”

She pulled a lighter from her front pocket and lit the wick of the lantern.  She adjusted the metal dial on the side of the lantern and watched the flame lengthen.  The room was filled with a flickering orange glow.  Carl turned off his flashlight and rested it upright next to the wall.  He laid the machete across his lap, gazing at the blade.

Taylor said, “Right now I’d prefer them banging on the door rather than tearing up the only working car we’ve seen since getting stranded in this town.  He held Tina’s keys in his hand, sorting through them until he found one with the Ford logo on it.  “You said you’ve got half a tank?”