The Infected (24 page)

When I was sure that everything was done – and I had double checked, triple checked and whatever the hell the word for checking four times is, I went for a nap. Well I tried at least. What I ended up doing was laying down for an hour and a half, as the sun went down, and compiling a road trip themed playlist on my iPod. So without much further ado, this is what I came up with:

1: Night Drive – The All American Rejects – Yip, that’s the way this trip will be starting.

2: Drive My Car – The Beatles

3: The Long and Winding Road – The Beatles – A back to back Beatles medley – both quite appropriate.

4: Dead Trees and Traffic Islands – The Manic Street Preachers – Well I could have chosen anything by them really, and I do have each and every one of their albums, but the title of this B-side of theirs grabbed me.

5: Long Road to Ruin – The Foo Fighters – Hopefully note a self fulfilling prophecy this one…

6: Geezers Need Excitement – The Streets – Yes, geezers certainly do need excitement – driving alone in and Audi R8 with hungry zombies all around excitement enough for you Mike Skinner?

7: Take the Long Road and Walk It – The Music – Yes, I am doing the first thing, but no, definitely not the second. (I used to be able to play the intro to this song on the guitar. Yes, I know that I am awesome).

8: Street Fighting Man – Oasis – Well, the version I have on my iPod is done by the brothers Gallagher, but I think that the original was actually done by the Rolling Stones. I can only hope that I don’t have to do any fighting in the streets to survive.

9: Road Trippin’ – Red Hot Chilli Peppers – Pretty self explanatory I would assume.

10: Drive – R.E.M./The Gaslight Anthem – Two great rock songs by two great American rock bands. I like them both so I put them both in.

11: Trippin’ Down the Freeway – Weezer – What a great, rollicking, arm pumping rock song. Oh, and definitely apt for this scenario.

12: Go Outside and Drive – Blues Traveller – Okay, if you insist, I will.

13: Street Spirit (Fade Out) – Radiohead – Beautiful song – quite fitting and will make for great listening on an open road in the dark.

14: Road Rage – Catatonia – A pure gem of Welsh pop. I laughed when I came across this one – sounds quite appropriate given the fact that the infected will be trying anything to get to me while I am out there.

15: City Rain, City Streets – Ryan Adams – Well it’s all due to the rain that I will be able to go out on the streets, but I seriously hope that the rain is not just confined to the city – a countrywide thundershower would suite me just fine, thank you.

16: Road To Nowhere – The Talking Heads – Oh, it better not be!

17: Suicide Drive – The Seahorses – What my mother thinks this little adventure of mine will be…

So I have some interesting listening for that first spell of my trip! I think I eventually did fall asleep, but for twenty minutes, if that. I have just been too full of nerves, excitement, apprehension, tears – too many of them – anticipation… it’s been like going on your first date, having your first ever day of school, waiting for your final matric results, having that moment just prior to and just post losing your virginity and bungee jumping all at the same time. For a whole day.

But I have still managed to periodically check the street outside my kitchen window and I have not seen any more of the infected from that vantage point. I even took a walk around the complex earlier – with my guns – and had a look from other angles into the street – still, I saw nothing. I took a chance and went up to the gate of the complex and had a look around – I still couldn’t see any of the infected and the rain was still falling. This is it.

Oh crap, almost forgot to let you know what Lil had to say earlier. Here are our mails:

From:
Sam Ward
Sent:
13 September 2011 12:03pm
To:
Lourens Stadler
Subject:
Its time!

Hi gorgeous – it’s me. And I have some good news (scary but good!) I’ll be leaving for Bloem today/tonight!!! I’ll be heading closer to you, isn’t that cool? I can’t wait to see you my girl! Soon, soon, soon!

From:
Lourens Stadler
Sent:
13 September 2011 1:43pm
To:
Sam Ward
Subject:
Re: Its time!

YAY!!!!!!!! I CANNOT WAIT TO PUT MY ARMS AROUND YOU SAMMIE!!!!! Oops, sorry about the caps – I can’t help myself! But… that’s also frightening baby – you’ll be all alone with… them. Please promise me that you will be careful Sammie? I know you will be, but hey, please, just for me, humour me and be super vigilant and super careful? Oh, and with that fancy new car that you ‘inherited’, make sure that you get here super fast! And I say ‘here’ because we are, according to Derek’s GPS, just fifty kilometres away (well fifty three to be exact, but who’s counting?) As we have got closer things have got easier, the roads clearer and less scattered with cars, so I am sure that we’ll be there tomorrow – I can’t wait (well, I have to – everyone else is sleeping now and we want to make our ‘grand entrance’ early in the morning!)

Okay baby, I better go and get some sleep – tomorrow should, if things go to plan for us, be a big, BIG day! Again honey – I beseech you with all my heart (whatever that means, but I do remember hearing it in a movie so I hope I have the context right…) to be safe. I will see you soon my love.

Adore you.

Lil

From:
Sam Ward
Sent:
13 September 2011 2:22pm
To:
Lourens Stadler
Subject:
Re: Re: Its time!

Believe me my love, I am not taking this lightly – I will ‘seech’ you (if that makes any sense) and ‘seech’ your heart and be very, very, very, very, VERY careful. I promise.

I can’t believe that you are so close to getting there – please let me know when you actually arrive and… I hope that I am not being pessimistic here, please let me know if it is really there. I won’t change my plans – there is not a chance of that because you will be there! But it would be nice to know that it’s all not in vain.

Be safe on the last bit of your journey babe and I will see you there!

Can’t wait to… you know what!

Love you - Sam

So there you have it – they are basically there in Bloemfontein. And I am basically on my way out of here. People, please wish me luck and please have me in your thoughts and prayers. I will keep you updated as often as possible, and hopefully I will be able to confirm this whole Bloemfontein ‘safe house’ thing for all of you out there.

Man, I am shaking like a leaf. A leaf with flippin’ Parkinsons. On a vibrating chair. Okay, enough, I need to poo. Sorry for the over share, but, you know, I feel pretty close to you after all of this. Be safe, take care of yourself and we’ll catch up while I am on the road.

Shalom, totsiens, adios, bye.

Sam

11:57pm, September 13

Oh. P.S. Lil, I absolutely adore you my love! I will, yes, I WILL definitely, without a shadow of a doubt see you soon.

Oh, and this is probably not the most romantic place and time to do this, but when I see you next, will you please do me the utmost pleasure of marrying me? Being apart from you for so long has just confirmed to me how much I love you and need you. Please be mine.

Sam

6:31am, September 17

Hi. I am okay. In actual fact, I am really good. I have been on the road now for about three and a half days, and although it has been pretty tough going, it’s an adventure of note and one that I am relishing.

There is plenty to tell you of my first few days out on the road (I am just outside of Vereeniging by the way, the Bloem side, that is) but before I get to that, here’s some exciting news from Lil – very interesting too as it was the last email that I got from her…

From:
Lourens Stadler
Sent:
14 September 2011 8:21am
To:
Sam Ward
Subject:
OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YES, YES, YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Of course I will marry you Sam Ward, a million times over!!! WOW – I was seriously not expecting that – it will make seeing you again so much sweeter!

I’ve had to take a breather and a quick walk out in the fresh air just to get over all the excitement! Thank you my baby – I will remember this day forever!

Well Sammie, that last statement of mine is for two reasons (but mostly because of you, I promise!), because we are here! Well, we are almost there. We drove into the deserted streets of Bloemfontein about two hours ago and decided to stop for a cold beer (Derek’s last couple) and a final breakfast out here in the ‘dangerous’ world! But my Sammie, we know that the place exists, well, at least we think that the place is real… from about five kilometres outside of the city there were crude signs which make us think that we are on the right track – arrows in rocks alongside the road, spray painted messages on the street – “only 2 more km”, “safety & food”, “come”, then a hastily painted one on a stained bed sheet draped between a stop sign and a street light which read “sirvivors – this way” (that’s their spelling, not mine, by the way). Now this whole ‘episode’ has seen the pessimist drowning the optimist in all of us, but we cannot see these unhumans, who fight at each other just to get a sniff of us, planning some elaborate hoax like this. They just aren’t capable of it baby.

So we are tying up whatever loose ends need tying up and getting ready to put this whole long, elongated and exhausting road trip behind us and a) have a good bath/shower (I really do not care which, I just need to seriously clean myself with good water pressure and some decent soap and shampoo) b) have a good sleep without worrying about who or what is maybe creeping up on us and c) get out of this bloody bus and not travel for a day!

But I better go Sammie – sorry to cut this short – but everybody is pretty excited to get going. Derek actually did a quick scout ahead half an hour or so ago and just came to tell me now that it looks like the whole ‘down town’ area of the city is walled off. Its deserted he says, but he thought that he could see a gate or an entrance through his binoculars – this seems to be the cause for all the excitement around our ‘camp.’

Okay. They are getting agitated now! I better go my future hubbie! Love you so deeply it hurts – keep me updated and I’ll email you once we’re inside.

Love you Sammie!

Lil

So that’s the last time I heard from her… and when I try email her it bounces back… but I am not too worried though as they hadn’t seen any of the infected for a while and were so close to safety. I just cannot wait to get there and see for myself. And see her, my new fiancé! I can’t even imagine what that first meeting after so long is going to be like. I may even shed a tear (hehehe – actually, I know that I will be crying like a big baby!)

Okay, before this lump in my throat gets too big, let me update you on what has been happening since I last wrote. And be warned – I have a fully charged battery so this may take a while…

I left just after 12:15am on Monday morning. I locked my door and said a quick goodbye to my townhouse – she had served me well over the years and I wanted to thank her as I had a feeling that I may never see her again, even if I wasn’t killed by one of the infected. I went down the stairs towards my glistening car with a funny feeling of nauseating excitement and profound sadness. But I’d left the keys inside. So I went back up, did a final check (very thorough this time), and went back down to the car. There was no turning back now, unless if I wanted to turn back and go up the stairs again. But I didn’t.

I started the car and drove to the exit of the complex, this time knowing what to expect from the beast under the bonnet. I paused again at the gate, trying not to think of what may have been waiting for me outside, and pressed the gate remote. The gate slid open slowly as the rain continued and drops of water raced down the windscreen between the intermittent swipes of the wipers. This was, seriously, going to be an adventure.