Stage 6 (14 page)

Mom: “Well would you look at that! Sarah you’re talking!”

They all shared a nervous laugh, while discussing my fate. Then a thought hit me,
what if I was Infected?
I quietly repositioned myself, and looked at my arm to see it was bandaged up. It had probably been a few hours, and from what we’d seen so far I could be reasonably sure I would turn into one of them around eight or so hours after first being Infected. So, I reasoned, wouldn’t I being showing some symptoms by now if I was indeed Infected? I listened back in to their conversation.

Kevin: “So, let’s review the current situation. It’d been three hours since he MAY have been Infected. And he’s tied up in the back. We still don’t know everything about this virus though, so my vote is we don’t tempt danger. We find somewhere nearby, put him outside of the car, clean the car which we need to do anyways, and then wait there until morning with him under guard. If he turns, we kill him. If he doesn’t, we will still keep an eye on him but it’s probably ok by that point.”

Steve: “While that is certainly a sound idea, I don’t like staying in the middle of the road overnight. Especially considering that if he IS Infected he may be attracting others even as we speak. It’s a possibility we have to consider.”

Mom: “So you don’t want him inside the car, but we have to travel. You don’t want to shoot him, but you don’t want to trust him. You guys are ridiculous!”

There was silence for a few minutes and then,

Steve: “Well, we could always just...”

I flinched involuntarily at this rather dire statement, and grasped that no matter if I was their supposed leader or not if they thought I was a threat they wouldn’t hesitate to kill me.

The others heard the noise and Kevin poked his head back and said, “Hey Jack, you’re awake! How long have you been listening?”

I gritted my teeth and sat up straight, “Long enough to know you’re considering killing me.”

There were nervous glances between the two of them, and I struggled to untie my hands and get up when Kevin reached over and shoved me back down. Indignantly I tried to get up and said angrily, “What do you think you’re doing?”

He replied bluntly, “You’re tied up for a reason Jack. You could be Infected and we can’t take that chance. Now sit there and be quiet.”

I opened and closed my mouth a few times trying to say something but the seriousness of my predicament prevented me from coming up with something.

Then Lucy yelled, “Wait! I got it! We can’t stay still, but we can’t have him inside the car right?”

There was a unanimous “Yes!” from all of my treacherous companions, and she continued, “It’s simple! We just tie him on top of the car!”

I opened my mouth in shock, and was about to say something when I noticed my mom about to reply and figured she’d take care of this nonsense idea for me.

She said, “Great idea!”

I sputtered in outrage, “What do you mean great idea? You’re going to tie me up on top of the car in the cold, left to deal with the elements while there are bloodthirsty monsters running around trying to kill us?”

Kevin cut in viciously, “Don’t forget Jack, you might BE one of those bloodthirsty monsters.”

There was an ominous silence, and then Steve said, “Well, let’s do it. We can’t stay in the middle of the road forever.”

Steve and Kevin got out of the car and moved around to the trunk. Steve opened the trunk and told me, “Now Jack this is for everybody’s good. There’s no point in fighting us, because we’re going to do it anyways.”

Grudgingly I let them help me to my feet outside the car, although Kevin was keeping his guard up like he expected me to attack him at any time. As he was backing up I snarled and stamped my feet towards him.

He jumped backwards and yelled, “Somebody shoot him!”

I started laughing uncontrollably at my little joke and Steve even grinned a little.

Kevin realized what I had done and yelled, “It’s not funny man! If I would have had my gun-”

I replied back violently, “Yes Kevin! We know what you would have done in your idiocy! That’s exactly why you don’t have your gun!”

Steve intervened and said, “Alright let’s get him up on the car Kevin. This can be your little revenge; we’re going to have to tie him up there after all.”

They lifted me on top of the car, and rolled me over on to my back. Then Steve took some rope, and tied my legs to the bars on top of the car, and then threw over the rope to the other side and pinned me down to the car.

I asked, “Is this really necessary?”

Steve simply replied, “Yep,” and continued.

After I was sufficiently restrained, Kevin got into the car. Steve opened his door and took a step up to be at face level with me.

He said, “Look Jack honestly I don’t think you’re Infected and if it were just me you’d be down there with us right now. But Victoria...”

I replied, “It’s good man, I understand. I’d do the same thing in your place.”

He placed a large hand on my shoulder, and said simply, “Good luck Jack.”

I nodded at him, and he crouched into the car and shut the door. We started to move again and I quickly realized just how cold it was up there going at what felt like five hundred miles an hour. The wind was whipping all around me and they had taken my jacket from me earlier to look at the scratch. I was cold.

As the Sun slowly rose in the sky, giving me some manner of warmth I thought to myself how terrible it would be to be Infected. I wondered what it would be like. Would I still be able to think in the back of my mind, just a helpless passenger in a psychotic body? Or would I truly lose all my memories and knowledge, and become a mindless killer? I made up my mind; I didn’t want to find out. If I began to show symptoms of being Infected, I was going to ask Steve to shoot me. I wouldn’t become one of them. No matter whether they were people, or monsters, or what, I would never become one. I would die first.

Every once in a while I would see signs of the Infection along the road. There were dead animals lying in the grass, and Infected roaming across the fields and roads. I briefly felt a pang of despair about the loss of Hunter. He had been a best friend to me for what felt like so long, and now suddenly he was gone. I hoped George made it out with my dog. Somehow, I hoped they’d be ok.

We drove slowly through a few towns, but we would always see Infected wandering amidst the houses and the car would continue onwards. The wind ruffled my hair and the clouds gave the landscape a sad, desolate look. There was slight warmth in the background from the sun, but to all appearances it was just a bleak, cloudy grey day.

We continued on for what felt like days, and I watched the clouds above me spread out in swirly, unique patterns. I wondered where we were going. Normally I was foremost in the decision making process, and I felt nervous knowing that somewhere a few feet beneath me these people were not only deciding my fate but also deciding their own as well. Kevin was too rash, but he was smart and had good survival instincts. If he stepped up to take charge, he would probably lead the group to safety but who knows how many would die along the way. If Steve took charge, a military like operation would ensue, and everything would be perfect however he probably would cause the group to lose their moral. Plus, Steve was only interested in Victoria’s safety. No matter how nice and helpful he was, I couldn’t help feeling like as soon as he saw a better opportunity he would leave us, no matter what the cost. If my Mom took charge, she would most likely try and stop the car for every Infected we saw and attempt to “help” them. I felt like screaming at this point, I NEEDED to be in there helping them.

I calmed myself down and thought logically, where would they decide to go? With gas as a limited resource, there were really only two options. We could try and find a safer place within Texas to ride the Infection out and wait for government help, or we could try and get out of the much larger quarantine around Texas itself and be free once and for all. I felt reasonably confident that the vote would weigh towards getting out of Texas, but it would be Steve’s vote that most counted since he seemed to have a knowledge of how these quarantines worked. Previously he had thought that the Texas quarantine would be much too large to get past, and I doubt he had changed his mind. He would vote to find a safe spot somewhere in Texas, and the rest of the group would likely follow his decision.

“Dammit!” I yelled out loud.

We needed to get out of Texas. Only once we got out of the quarantine would this nightmare truly be over, and every day we spent here just increased our chances of being eaten alive. I began to scramble around, trying to free my legs enough to slam them down on the roof. Steve had tied me securely down, and in a moment of panic I wondered if this had been a plan of his all along. The hysteria passed, and I stopped, shocked that I was panicked enough to think so irrationally. I slowly worked my leg around the bonds that held me, and carefully wiggled my foot back and forth against the rope, eventually loosening it enough to get it free. Then I took a deep breath, lifted my leg up high in the air and used all of my might to slam it down. The wind whisked away the noise almost immediately but I could see the dent my foot caused, and the car immediately began to decrease speed. It slowed gently to a stop, and nothing happened for a few seconds.

Then I heard the sound of a window being rolled down just a bit, and Lucy haltingly asked, “Jack is that you?”

Bewildered I replied, “Umm, yeah Lucy it’s me, just Jack the guy you tied up on the roof a few hours ago. Who else were you expecting exactly?”

I could hear Lucy sigh in relief, and my mom shrieking inside the car. Then I realized they had probably assumed that the noise of me kicking the car signaled me turning into an Infected and becoming enraged.

Kevin stepped out of the car and looked at me closely, and I turned my head to look at him and I smiled and said, “Kevin don’t worry man, I’m not a zombie yet.”

He cautiously nodded, and then asked, “So what’s the deal with the kicking?”

I replied, “Well how long has it been? I mean if I was supposedly Infected at about four in the morning, I should definitely be in the clear if I’m not showing any symptoms right? What time is it?”

Kevin took a quick look inside the car, and then said, “It’s only about 8:30 Jack... We don’t want to take any chances. If by tonight you still aren’t showing any symptoms then we’ll let you join us again, but under guard. Than if in the morning you are still not showing any symptoms then and only then will you be trusted.”

I sighed, and said, “Well OK that sounds smart, even if it’s a little ridiculous. I also want to know, where are we going?”

Kevin replied, “Well we haven’t decided for sure yet, but the general consensus is we are heading towards Caddo National Grasslands, a protected forest area near the border where we think the security will be least. We will try and sneak out of Texas through that area. But, along the way if we see any safe-looking areas we will make an attempt to see if we could live there. And if we don’t want to get through the border when we get there, we will drive around Texas in a circular pattern near the border where we think there will be the least number of Infected and hopefully the most number of safe areas.”

I nodded slowly, and said, “Ok... It’s a good plan. Thanks!”

He nodded, and got back in the car and shut the door. Before Lucy rolled the window back up I heard a concert of voices asking how I was, and I smiled to realize no matter how much danger I was in they still cared about me. Then that small sentiment quickly vanished as the car sped back up rapidly and the skin was stripped from my bones by the blitzing wind.

I tried to recall where the Grasslands were in relation to the small town. If I remembered correctly at the pace we were going it would only take maybe a couple hours at most. Some time passed, and then the car began to slow down yet again.

Confused, I strained my neck to try and see behind me, what was causing us to slow down. I looked to see miles and miles of abandoned cars, trucks, furniture, and trash littering all over the road and off to the sides. There were two lanes going our direction, and two lanes
supposed
to be going the other direction; however it was obvious as the traffic became more and more frenzied that many cars had tried to drive on the other side of the road. From the massive amount of wreckage on both sides of the road it was easy to imagine the pandemonium that must have gone on.

Our car stopped to a standstill, and I imagined the conversation going on down below. No doubt they were wondering whether they should try and forge their way through the wreckage, or travel around. The off-road did not look very appetizing, full of hills, ridges, and gates enclosing farm land. The car might not even be able to travel off-road in conditions like these; it was beat up pretty bad already. I would have chosen to go around the road anyways, as who knows what sharp metal wreckage lay in the road ahead just waiting to pop our tires. Obviously they did not come to the same decision however, and the car began to slowly move forward. Weaving in and out of the cars, back and forth across the entire road was not an easy task and the cars seemed to only get more numerous as we progressed along towards the big City I could now see off in the distance. My neck began to get sore, supporting my head looking around at all the cars around us and finally I just gave up and trusted in my friends to get us through this. I lay there flat on my back, listening to the... silence, around us. The only sound that could be heard was the low rum of the car’s engine as it pressed onwards.

Then, suddenly, I picked up a new sound, a sound of something falling and shattering. I turned my head around excitedly, wondering if there were other survivors among all the wreckage. I saw movement out of the corner of my eye lurched to see somebody slowly turning around to follow the car’s movements. I strained to sit up and get a better view when suddenly I saw its bloody stump of a hand. Although the blood should have been gushing out, it was merely coming out in a trickle, like somebody hadn’t quite closed a faucet tight enough. It snarled as it saw me, and slowly started moving towards me with a limp in its leg. Then suddenly I felt a hand on my arm, tied down to the roof and turned horrified to see an Infected that had come out of nowhere and jumped onto the car.