The Plague Unto The End (25 page)

I stepped to the side and Rev wrapped his arm around Curtis as they walked back toward the room where Frannie slept.

I had just about enough of Curtis for one evening and was really beginning to wonder where Matt had gotten off to.  I walked around the halls of the church and listened for Beth or Matt talking and didn’t hear them at all anywhere.  I found Deandre sitting at one of the windows facing the fenced-in playground at the back of the church.  He looked like he was miles away from the building, probably imagining playing on the swings or slide.  I didn’t want to bother Deandre, considering that the last time I tried to talk to him I made him cry.  But he was the only other person in the church who might know where Matt went.

“Hey, Deandre.  Sorry about what I said earlier.  Sometimes I forget that you are still just a kid.  I don’t know how I would have dealt with all of this at your age either,” I said.  Deandre continued to stare out the window.  “Well, anyway, have you seen Matt?” I asked, trying to free myself from the awkward, one-sided conversation.

Deandre again didn’t look at me but he raised his right hand and pointed up to the ceiling.  I looked up at what he pointed at and when I saw nothing where he pointed, I thought maybe that was Deandre’s way of telling me to get lost.  I turned and started to walk away when I noticed a roof-access ladder and the hatch was open.  I looked back at Deandre to ask him if he meant Matt was on the roof, but Deandre seemed to be trying to imagine himself somewhere else.  If he was able to escape through that window, I didn’t want to drag him back to reality.

I walked over to the ladder and looked up toward the hatch.  I could see the sky, blue and cool.  I stood watching for a moment as the clouds inched their way across the opening.  I snapped myself out of the daydream and started to climb the ladder.  When I made it onto the roof I looked around and spotted Matt sitting with Beth over near the front edge of the building.  They were sitting close together, side by side.  I could hear Matt talking and occasionally I would hear Beth giggle.  Somehow, Matt was managing to put the moves on her in the middle of all this insanity.  Again it seemed like everywhere I looked, the others were all busy.  I did tell Curtis that I would ask Matt though.

“Hey, Matt.  Can I talk to you for a second?” I said, feeling like the biggest jerk in the world.

Matt lowered his head and Beth looked slightly embarrassed.  “Sure, what’s up...what’s going on?  Is the world coming to an end?” said Matt.

“No, it already ended.  You guys were up here and missed it,” I said.

“Alright, ha, ha.  What do you need?” said Matt as Beth stood up and walked toward the ladder.

“I just wanted to know if you could help me with a run tomorrow,” I asked.

Matt quickly turned his head toward me, looking confused.  “What?  Why?  Did you watch the tape and find out where your parents are?”

“No, the battery is dead.  I actually was going to help Curtis get some antibiotics for Frannie tomorrow morning.”

“What?  We just got back here though,” said Matt.

“I know, but she’s not doing too good.  I told Curtis I would try to get you to go with me,” I said.

“Is he going?” said Matt, raising his eyebrows.

I let out a breath because Matt had asked me the question I knew he would ask, but I didn’t want to hear.  “No, he said he needs to stay with Frannie.”

“I’ve kept my mouth shut for the most part, but that’s it.  If he wants to waste his time getting medicine for her, then let him.  I’m not going to risk myself or anyone else for his little sister.  She isn’t going to make it.  She might not have been bitten, but she is going to die.  Then she will come back just like everyone else that’s been hurt by those things,” said Matt.

“I thought that’s what you’d say.  I’m going to help him in the morning if you don’t want to come, that’s fine.  I just told Curtis that I would ask you,” I said.

“Well, you should have gone with your gut.  If you ask me I think we should take her outside right now,” said Matt.

“And do what?  Just leave her out there?” I asked.

“No...I think we should put a bullet in her head.  That would be the best way to save his sister.  She is spending the last days of her life suffering,” said Matt.

“These might not be the last days of her life.  What about that?  What if we get these pills and she pulls through it?”

“Oh, now we’re into the what-ifs.  What if you get bitten and give her the meds and she doesn’t pull through?  Is being Frannie’s hero worth dying for nothing?” asked Matt.

“You know what...you really have given up already.  You probably would have done nothing to help your sister if you had the chance,” I said, staring Matt in the eyes.

Matt jumped up and quickly walked over to me.  “She is gone and there is no use bringing her up.  I couldn’t do anything to save her.  She was gone before I even realized it.”

“Or you didn’t care enough to keep her close—” Matt punched me in the face before I could even get the words out.

“You shut your mouth about her.  Go die for nothing with Curtis.  Be a hero.  That’s all heroes do is die,” said Matt as he walked back over to the front of the church.

I wiped off my bloodied lip and walked back over to the ladder and looked back at Matt, trying to think of something to say.  I had nothing else to say to him.  I climbed down the ladder.

“Curtis,” I said, walking toward the room where Frannie was sleeping.

Curtis came out of the room trying to tell me to be quiet, “She’s still sleeping.  What happened to your lip?”

“Matt’s not going to do it.  He’s got...other plans,” I said.

“Maybe I should talk to him...” Curtis started to say.

“No, you’re going to come with me tomorrow morning.  You’re going to have to do it,” I said.

“But, I...” Curtis again tried to speak.

“I’ve got something you’ll probably need, but you’re going to have to find some ammo,” I said.

I walked to the kitchen where my backpack sat and picked up the double-barreled shotgun I had found.  I had only shot a double-barreled shotgun one time before, with my dad.  I was pretty young and I wasn’t fond of the experience.  I did still remember how to reload it and fire it though, but I wanted to stick with my Glock. 

As I thought about the experience with my dad, I remembered his cellphone in my book bag.  I rummaged around inside the bag until I found it.  The phone was dead just like the camera.  I threw it back into the bag and let out a sigh.

I gave the shotgun to Curtis and showed him how to open the chamber and removed the shells.  One of the two rounds in the shotgun was already spent, but I knew someone else in the group that had shotgun shells.  I looked around for Matt’s stuff and found his bag tucked into the corner of a room no one else was using.  I gave Curtis about twelve shells and he loaded up his pockets.  I told Curtis we would still have to wait for the next morning.  We needed all the sleep we could get to prepare for the run.

CHAPTER 16 - Successful failure...

I woke up the next morning feeling very strange.  For the first time since the outbreak, I didn’t dream.  I never really remembered the entire dream the next morning, but this time I was sure that I had not dreamt at all.  I tried to remember the night before, but I couldn’t even remember how I fell asleep at the table in the kitchen.  I had pulled the video camera out again and it was lying on the table in front of me.  I must have been so exhausted that I just wasn’t aware of what was going on around me.

I found a few things in the kitchen to eat and gathered all of my things together.  I went to Curtis’ room and knocked on the door.  Curtis opened the door and stepped out.  He was holding the shotgun and looked like he hadn’t slept at all that night.  Curtis looked like he was mentally ready to take on every single one of the carriers, but I wasn’t sure if he could take even one of them on physically.

“Are you ready to do this?” I asked him.

“What, yeah.  Of course I’m ready,” said Curtis.

“Is she still just as...” I tried to ask.

“No, I mean, yeah.  She’s fine.  She’s still sick, but...let’s go get the medicine,” said Curtis.

After speaking with Curtis I was anxious to get the whole thing over with.  I decided not to tell Sid or Jim about the run.  They had both gone through a lot the last couple of days and I expected to be in and out.  They’d never even know we were gone.  I really did not want to take the junky sedan again.  I told Curtis we would take his mother’s van.  Curtis didn’t have a problem with using the van.  We started to head out the door when Rev spotted us.

“Whatever you boys are doing, I can see you are in a hurry.  So I won’t weight down your departure with a speech or a long-winded prayer, but I will say, I don’t think the rest of this group can take any more loss of life.  I heard you talking.  You go, and save that little girl’s life.  We all need a little hope and a miracle,” said Rev as he nodded and turned to walk away.

Curtis looked at me, but quickly averted his eyes and walked toward the door.  I stepped up behind him and gave him a tap on the shoulder to let him know I was ready.  He shoved the door open and I could see that it was raining again outside.  As we stepped outside, the usual stench from the rotting corpses seemed to be subdued by the rain.  But there seemed to be more of them outside the church than usual.  I was surprised to see so many of them.  We had been quiet since the previous night.  Curtis paused for a moment and leveled his shotgun at one of them.  I stopped next to him and pushed away the barrel.

“Don’t, we just need to get to the van.  We don’t want to get them all running at us,” I said.

Curtis looked at me, surprised.  I could see that same anger in his eyes from the day before, but he still lowered the shotgun and we both walked quickly toward the van.  Curtis went to the driver’s seat and I grabbed the passenger’s-side door handle.  He had locked it from the day before.  I guess he was still worried about someone stealing it.  When Curtis stepped around the side of the van I saw him just step back and raise the shotgun again.  A half-rotten woman lunged at him.  There was nothing I could do or say fast enough to stop him. 
BOOM
, he shot her through the chest.  I could see that the blast must have severed her spine and caused her to nearly fold in half.  Curtis stood staring at the corpse on the ground.  The houses and yards surrounding the church started to sway with movement.  I turned and looked behind me in time to see a small group coming at me.  I readied my sword.

“Unlock the doors!” I yelled to Curtis.

He was still standing focused on the remains of the woman he and just shot.  I could hear her head on the ground snapping at him.  Curtis pointed his shotgun at the ground again,
BOOM
.  If there were any carriers in the area that had not heard the first shot, they definitely heard the second shot.  The corpses moving toward me became even more excited and were stumbling at me as fast as they could.  When they came into range I shoved the first one back into two other ones.  They all fell to the ground, but the three behind them seemed not to notice what had happened at all.  They stepped on the fallen corpses and continued coming at me.  I instinctively tried to open the door to the van again, but it was still locked.  I slashed my sword into the neck of a man missing most of the meat on his left leg.  He almost instantly fell to the ground.  I ran to the other side of the car to see Curtis trying to reload his shotgun.

“Give me the keys!” I yelled at him.

“But I need to reload...” Curtis said, half in a daze.

I reached my hand into his pocket and pulled out the keys.  I shoved him away from the door and unlocked it.  I climbed into the driver’s seat and climbed across to the passenger’s seat.

“Get in or I’m going to leave without you!” I yelled at Curtis.

He snapped out of his daze and jumped into the driver’s seat, but when he tried to pull the door shut I saw a decaying pair of hands reach in through the opening in the door.  They grabbed onto him and started to pull him out of the van.  I pulled out my Glock and tried to get a shot.  Curtis started to flail his arms and scream.  I saw a head pop up and I took the shot.  I saw a splatter of blood on the driver’s door and Curtis fell the rest of the way out of the seat.  I pushed the key into the ignition and started the van.  I was about to slide into the driver’s seat when I saw a form stand up outside of the van door.  It was Curtis, beginning to stomp the head of the corpse violently.

“Get in the van now!” I yelled at him.

He finally got into the driver’s seat and threw the gearshift into reverse.  I looked behind the van and realized that there was an enormous crowd starting to form near the church.  Curtis navigated the best he could through the sea of bodies, but we found ourselves inching our way through.  I thought the van was going to get stuck at one point, but we slowly made our way out.  When we finally made it past the edge of the large crowd I could hear that we were dragging something under the van.  Curtis wanted to get the body out from under the van, but I told him to just keep driving.  We could hear the grinding, thumping noise for several blocks until finally there was one last big thump.  I looked in the rearview mirror to see what came out from under the van, but I really could not recognize it as anything.  We both sat silent for a few minutes, just driving.  But I couldn’t keep my mouth shut any longer.

“What the crap was that back there?” I said.

“What?  It came at me and I...” Curtis started to say.

“You can’t do that.  You could have handled that one without the gun.  We just needed to unlock the van.  That was it,” I said.

“Okay, how about you shooting at my head?  What was with that?” Curtis said.

“Are you serious?  I saved your life,” I said, glaring at Curtis.

“I had it under control,” said Curtis.

“Yeah, I could tell by the screaming,” I said.

Curtis sat quiet for a second.  “I would have had it.”

“Look, just stay off the trigger for as long as you can.  They are not difficult to shove away or to the ground.  You just have to be quick,” I explained.

“Alright...I think we’re getting close to the drug store,” said Curtis.

The drug store looked like it had been turned into a spur-of-the-moment triage location.  There were military vehicles around the building and civilian vehicles parked everywhere around.  Both of us became very excited at the sight of government intervention.  We saw a soldier in National Guard fatigues stumbling around the corner of the building as we parked the vehicle as close as we could with the cluster of abandoned vehicles.  I could see that Curtis was anxious to see if the military had found a cure for the infection.  I was more hesitant to approach the building.  I had a concern for what the military personnel might do to defend their camp.  Getting shot wasn’t part of the plan.  Curtis started to get out of the van, but I grabbed his arm and pointed at his shotgun, with my eyebrows raised.  He looked at me, confused for a moment, but eventually patted his pocket and pulled out two shells.  He loaded his shotgun and I topped off my Glock magazine.

“Okay, remember, we are here to get the medicine.  That’s all.  We are not here to go shopping or to try to find out anything.  This needs to be quick,” I said quietly.

“But they might have a cure or know what happened,” Curtis said.

We walked cautiously toward the camp.  The military had put up some temporary chain link fences around the area.  I could see the main gate to the enclosed area and an SUV had been rammed through the gate.

“We don’t even know if there are any people still alive here.  I doubt there are.  There would be more activity.  There would be military personnel guarding the place.  There would be...people...not empty cars,” I said.

“
Psst
, no shooting,” I whispered as I put my Glock away and pulled out my sword.  “Use the butt of the shotgun.”

We quickly and quietly navigated our way through the discarded vehicles, watchful as we passed each one.  Curtis glanced inside some of them when he walked past, but he was not very thorough.  I slowed as we approached the military vehicles.  There was a large amount of dried blood on the ground around the Hummers.  I looked inside of one when we walked past and could see the body of a service member still strapped into the seat.  Someone had put a bullet through his head.  I could also see that he had been bitten on the neck at some point.  I guess the military did have a plan for dealing with bites.

I continued past the Hummer and could finally see the front of the store.  We squeezed through the gate between the SUV and the mangled fence.  The front of the SUV was ripped to shreds by gunfire.  The driver was still in the seat or at least what was left.

Most of the glass on the front of the store had been shattered.  Curtis started walking past the front of the store to where the soldier had been walking when we pulled up.  I kept my eyes on the store and followed after him.  The camouflaged man was easy to spot, stumbling along in the distance.  His clothing fit loosely, and he walked with almost no coordination.  He was a carrier.  The sight of him brought several different thoughts.  By the look of the camp, I was doubtful that the government had found an effective cure.  I also doubted that there were living people inside of the drug store.  I put my hand on Curtis’ shoulder.

“C’mon, let’s get that medicine,” I said quietly.

“Yeah, let’s go,” said Curtis.

I watched the parking lot while Curtis tried to find a good placed to get inside.  We didn’t want to walk across the broken glass, because any of them inside the store would hear us coming.  After circling the building, we found a door on the back of the building that appeared to lead into a storage area.  There was a huge pile of burned bodies behind the store.  The fire looked like it had gone out a long time ago.  Nothing was left but bones.

The back door had been breached at some point and it was impossible to shut it.  Curtis stood on the side of the door and pulled it open while I stood ready with my sword for anything standing inside.  The door squeaked slightly, but there was nothing waiting for us on the other side.  While we were moving into the camp, we hadn’t noticed the rain clouds starting to blanket the sky.  The rain started coming down and increased the urgency of making our way inside.  We quickly went inside and out of the rain.

We pulled the door closed again as much as we could and made our way into the store.  I could see the light coming from another door leading to the main sales floor.  We made our way there and it didn’t seem that any corpses had made their way inside through the back door.  The door to the sales floor was locked, but it looked like the doors opened inward to the store.  Curtis and I looked at the lock and tried to think of some way to unlock the doors quietly, but we both decided that we were going about getting into the store all wrong.  We went back out the rear door to the store and decided to carefully go in through the broken front windows.

Neither of us was happy about standing in the rain and really just wanted to get the medicine and get back to the church.  The noise from the rain muffled the sound from our feet on the shards of glass as we crept into the store.  I could see where they had moved most of the shelving out of the sales floor area and had crammed as many cots inside as they could comfortably fit.  Most of the cots still had bodies lying in them.  Each one had been shot in the head.  A few of them had IV bags hooked up to them.  The bags were partially filled with a greenish-brown material.  I thought it was most likely just rotten from being connected to the dead bodies.  But I looked closely at the corpses on the cots and noticed that the same color sludge had been draining out of their mouths.