Stage 6 (20 page)

Emily spoke up, “Yeah Ben defended himself the same way this morning; apparently the going is pretty slow because of all the abandoned cars and stuff.”

I said, “Fine fine, I get it. Alright let’s get this show on the road, right? Onwards!”

Emily cheered, “Onwards!”

The truck started moving, and we cruised slowly into town. The Infected ignored us for the most part, although they did look rather curious about us. We passed all the way through town without an incident, and shortly after the bus followed us through.

We continued on, and Emily said, “Well that sucked.”

Kevin laughed and said, “Yeah I know right? Dumb zombies should have attacked so we could have an excuse to blow their heads off!”

Incredulous I asked, “You guys actually wanted them to do something? This isn’t a videogame guys! What if they had killed somebody?”

Emily looked back at me and said, “Yeah I guess you’re right. It still would be exciting though...”

I didn’t reply, for fear I’d start a big argument but I didn’t agree with that at all. We drove pretty fast over clear road for a while, but then quickly came to some more rough patches. A scenario we saw repeated quite often was a bunch of abandoned cars in the road leading into a city or town. Occasionally there would also be a random car in the road that had run out of gas or broke down or something. We came upon such a car, a police car in fact, and to our amazement there was somebody in the driver’s seat. As we approached he got out, and Kevin immediately stepped on the brakes.

He said, “Quickly, somebody get a gun ready. We don’t know what he wants.”

I agreed with him. The bus came to a stop behind us, and I could see Steve peering out of the window.

I said, “Hey I’ll talk to him and see what he wants ok? Just from over here, a safe distance.”

Kevin said, “Alright Jack, but don’t do anything stupid.”

I got out of the car and said loudly, “Hello! Are you ok?”

He held a hand over his head to block out the sun and then shouted back, “Yeah I’m fine, my car ran out of gas, can you spare any?”

Before committing myself one way or the other, I figured we might as well know the extent of his predicament.

I replied, “How much gas do you need? Are you a police officer?”

He laughed, and said, “I WAS an officer. I don’t know if such a thing exists anymore.”

Suddenly Emily opened her door and said, “Jack! I can see somebody else in the back seat of the police car. I just caught a glimpse, but there was definitely a person back there. Maybe a criminal he caught?”

I took a step closer to get a better look, and asked, “Is there anybody else with you?”

He glanced behind him and then said, “No, it’s just me! Look do you have any gas you can spare?”

Emily said quietly, “You saw him look back towards the car, he’s obviously lying. There’s somebody in that car he doesn’t want us to know about. Maybe he’s a murderer? Or a kidnapper?”

I replied quickly, “Are you sure that you saw somebody in the car?”

She said back, “I’m SURE of it Jack. There’s somebody in there.”

Kevin spoke up, “Yeah I think somebody’s in there to.”

I wasn’t sure if he was just agreeing with Emily to get on her good side, but I had to take his words into consideration as well.

I yelled back, “Alright, let me see if we have any gas we can give you!”

He gave me a thumbs up, and reached into his car for something. I jogged over to the bus, and after stepping in I informed everybody of the situation.

After I finished, I said, “Let’s go over there with a small amount of gas, and tell him that’s all we have to spare. We’ll get a look in the window while we’re over there, and see what he’s hiding. If its nothing big maybe we can even have him join us, and add his car to our group.”

Ben exclaimed enthusiastically, “I like this plan! However, I don’t like going over there not knowing his motives or intentions. I think we should have somebody covering us with a rifle, wait maybe even that sniper Steve seems to like so much.”

 Steve nodded, and grabbed it out from the back. He said, “Sounds good.”

He carefully hid himself from view, and exited through the back emergency exit of the bus. He lowered himself to the floor, and carefully began crawling under the bus with his sniper. I lifted the two gas cans we had left, and took the lighter one, and asked, “So who wants to come with me to check it out?”

Ben volunteered, and we exited the bus and headed towards the mysterious man and his police car.

Emily stepped out of the truck as we got closer, and said, “I’m coming too. I wouldn’t miss this for the world.”

I nodded, and quietly said, “Just stay out of the line of sight between the bus and the car. Steve is covering us with his sniper rifle.”

She looked scared for a moment, but replied “Ok,” and kept with us. I reached within about ten feet of the man and we slowly approached.

He moved forward to meet us, keeping us away from the car and said, “Thanks so much!”

He reached for the gas can when suddenly a face appeared at the window and Emily screamed! It was the face of a little girl, except it was bloody and distorted. The girl was obviously Infected. The man lunged for the gas can as I backed up, taken off guard. Ben quickly moved between us and hit him hard, putting his huge bulk behind it. The man collapsed, and Ben pinned him to the ground while Emily cautiously approached the car.

Kevin stepped out of the truck and ran over, exclaiming, “Whoa he had a zombie in the back seat of his car! That takes some guts!”

The man started crying on the ground and said, “Please don’t kill her, she’s my little girl.” Between sobs I heard, “I don’t know... One day... She just started going crazy!” He repeated, “Please don’t. Please don’t do anything to my baby girl...”

Emily stood back, shocked and even Kevin looked sobered up for once. I asked, “How are you keeping her alive?”

He tried to stand up, but Ben held him down.

He said, “I’ve been catching animals. Some are alive; some are mostly dead, but... They get the job done.”

Horrified, I asked, “How long have you been stuck here?”

He replied, “Only a day now. I’ve been getting hungry myself, but I won’t leave her... I won’t leave her.”

I looked around at the faces of Emily, Kevin, and Ben to see they were just as emotional as I was. What a horrible situation to be in.

I asked, “Why are you keeping her like this? Do you think there’s a cure?”

He replied vehemently, “There must be a cure! There IS a cure. And I’m taking her to find it, wherever it is.”

Kevin started to say, “This isn’t just another sickness man,” but I stopped him.

I said, “If we gave you enough gas to get to the next town, which is only about twenty miles away, would you wait here until we left?”

His eyes lit up and he exclaimed, “Yes, yes! I’d do anything!”

I looked at Ben, but he said nothing. I picked the gas can up, and set it on top of the car. I then said, “Alright. Let’s go.”

I turned and walked back to the truck, and a few seconds later Ben let the man up and followed me.

The man yelled after us, “God bless you!”

Ben caught up to me before I got into the truck and said, “Jack, are you sure you did the right thing there? It just seems-”

I cut him off and said, “No Ben, I’m not sure I did the right thing but when are we sure about anything? Let’s just go, and leave him here to do as he wishes. It’s still a free country. What’s left of it anyways.”

Ben let it go, and headed back to the bus to explain it to the others. I climbed into the truck, and soon the bus’s engine sputtered to life behind us. Kevin turned the car on in silence, and we soon left the man behind us, waving goodbye and smiling at his good fortune.

Emily spoke up a few minutes later, “That was terrible. That little girl was Infected, why did we leave her like that?”

I replied, “Because I don’t think it’s up to us to decide, Emily. That was his daughter, his car, and he had much more of a right to decide her fate than we did. If he wants to search for a cure, then by God I hope he finds one.”

Emily opened her mouth to speak, but then was quiet. We drove through a few more car wreckages, and a few more towns afterwards but it was always the same. They slowed us down, but the Infected mostly ignored us, and we simply went around any obstacles that came our way. It was late in the day when we were half way between towns, when the bus started flashing its brights at us.

Obediently we slowed down to a stop and I wondered aloud, “What do you think they want?”

Kevin shrugged. He said, “Who knows? Maybe they want to make a campfire and roast marshmallows?”

I looked at him sarcastically and he continued defensively, “Hey why not hope for the best?”

I was about to get out of the car when Shawn said, “Let me handle this one; I need to get out and stretch for a bit.”

I agreed, and sent Shawn to find out what they wanted. He returned a few minutes later, and muttered, “Chilly,” as he hopped into his seat and shut the door. He sat there for a few seconds while we all looked at him, and then exclaimed, “What!?”

I replied, “What did they want! We didn’t send you over there to catch butterflies; you were supposed to figure out what they wanted.”

He laughed and said, “Oooh, yeah, well they want to spend the night here. Apparently they want to fashion a wheelchair for Lucy, among some other modifications for the bus that have proven difficult to do while moving, especially through all the obstacles we’ve encountered. They’re nervous about staying in one spot though, and the plan is for one person to always be awake in both vehicles to watch out. Either one of us turning on the car is signal that we need to move. Steve particularly wanted to stress that nobody should leave the car, because he thinks the Infected will leave us alone so long as they don’t figure out we’re inside. That means don’t let them see us, smell us, or hear us. We’re supposed to back up towards the bus if we agree, and send me back over there if there’s a problem.”

I took a few seconds to let the plan sink in. I had wanted to get the Washington as fast as we could; it felt good to have a goal in mind.

I asked Kevin and Emily, “Well do you guys have a problem with this?”

Kevin said, “Nope! I’m totally fine with getting a good night’s sleep.”

Emily shrugged and said, “I don’t mind I suppose.”

I said, “Alright then, I guess you can back the car up a bit Kevin. How are we going to divide up the watch?”

Emily volunteered, “I’ve always liked the nighttime, so I’ll take the first watch. The first watch is until one am right?”

I answered, “Yeah that sounds right. And considering Shawn spent the entire last night sleeping, I think he should get the next shift, from then until ‘four. Then Kevin can take over until ‘eight or so, and he can wake me up to drive for the day. Sound good?”

Everybody agreed, and Kevin backed the truck snugly up to the bus. Their lights flashed in acknowledgement, and I curled up in my little corner of the truck. I looked out into the night, thinking about the events that had transpired that day. Had I made the right decision with that little girl and her Dad? At the very least, should we have kept our gas and ignored them? I felt there was no question about whether we should have killed the girl, or both of them and taken the car. It was right to leave them to their predicament... Or was it? My mind was so full of conflicting emotions I wasn’t able to come out with a clear answer. I just wished that we’d stop finding ourselves in these tough situations.

I was awoken in the morning by Kevin, peering over me and saying loudly, “Rise and shine sleeping beauty! You wanted to drive didn’t you?”

I rubbed my eyes slowly and asked through a yawn, “Everything go ok during the night?”

He looked thoughtful for a second and then said, “No the zombies man, they came out of nowhere. We’re all dead!”

I moved to open my door and said, “Ahh shuddup Kevin.”

Suddenly he reached out and grabbed my hand reaching for the door and said tersely, “Well one thing did happen.”

Curiously I asked, “What??”

Shawn, who was beside me, hoarsely pointed out the window and said, “That...”

I turned to look out through the back window, and recoiled in shock. There were maybe thirty or so Infected around the bus, roaming slowly around it.

Kevin said, “Yeah, we think that the repairs and stuff that Ben did last night must have attracted them. They came as a group about twenty minutes ago, from behind the grass around us. We didn’t even see them until one apparently smacked into the bus, and made somebody scream from within. That got them all riled up, and they’ve been virtually patrolling the bus non-stop. If you’ll look, you can’t actually see anybody in the bus. I think they’re all crouched on the floor, hoping that the Infected will just go away.”

I said, “But that could take hours before they lose interest.”

Kevin replied simply, “Yup.”

Emily said, “Well I think we should just go out there and shoot them all. There’s not that many of them, we could take ‘em!”

Outraged, I retorted, “And what happens when they start sprinting towards us Emily? What happens when we shoot five bullets into their chest, and they’re still crawling towards us? No, we can’t waste ammunition and risk our lives like that. We’ll either have to try and make a run for it, or just wait until they go away.”

Emily slumped back in her seat without replying.

Shawn asked, “How do we know if they’re ready to leave?”

I thought for a second, and then replied, “That’s a good point. Maybe they’re waiting for us to do something; we ARE supposed to be the more mobile scout-type vehicle.”

Kevin exclaimed, “Hey, I have an idea!”

I groaned and said, “Alright this ought to be good. Kevin, what’s your idea?”

He said, “No dude I’m serious! One of us steps out of the car, and yells or something to get their attention. Then he steps back in the car, and we make a u-turn and lead all the Infected off in the wrong direction. After a few miles, we turn around and catch back up with the bus, with the Infected successfully put behind us. And after a few more miles they’ll be far enough behind us for us just to forget all about them.”