The Reaper Virus (Novella): Sarcophagus (4 page)

Chapter Seven

The
expressway continued onward with the all the pomp and circumstance of a death
march. Any justifiable urge to drive recklessly, to weave and swerve or
maneuver further was quelled by the sheer volume of cars. A gap was cut in
traffic when the doomed bus careened across the lanes. The space filled with
cars barely a quarter of a mile beyond the crash scene. Tension amongst the
remaining retreat members was paralyzing.

Jessica started
to notice that their average speed had reduced with every passing minute. The
backup was absurd even by the worst rush hour standards. In the time it had
taken them to go three miles, they should have already crossed the river and
passed city limits into Chesterfield County. She tried to go back to reading to
keep busy, but after what they had just seen it was difficult to reenter the
fantasy world offered by Ava’s book. Most of the passengers seemed to be in a
similarly shell shocked state.

The man
that had previously challenged the bus driver stood to speak with him again. A
few whispers in the rows behind them reacted to the anticipation of conflict.
Sensing the approaching passenger, the driver shot a glare back. “Sir, I’m
not
going to allow you to rile people up
again,” asserted the white-haired man.

However,
the previously aggressive man showed no sign of challenging. His shoulders
drooped like a child emerging from time out. The harsh tone he’d used minutes
before had withered into a timid plea. “No trouble here. Just seeing how things
are going. Do you see any break in the traffic coming up?”

A
collective sigh of relief could be heard. This was yet another twist in the
roller coaster of adrenaline that they’d all been put through. Fear polarizes
all that it touches. A reasonable man can turn into a maniac when properly
motivated by fear. The passenger couldn’t accept that he was powerless to
affect their situation; it maddened him before. It would seem that now, after having
learned the fate of the first
bus,
fear extinguished
his anger leaving a fragile husk behind.

Recognizing
that his position wasn’t being threatened, the driver also seemed to calm. He
let out a heavy breath and said, “it’s not moving much but we
ain’t
stopped, so there’s that. Everyone’s running from the
city... same as us.”

Outside a
horn blared from one of the lanes to their right. None of the retreat members
seemed to pay it any mind. Jessica heard the angry trumpeting through the bus’s
muting exterior. Although the source of this noise wasn’t within her view, it
didn’t take much imagination to picture what caused it. Its source was a
frantic woman in a car so filled with belongings that she had the seat pushed
forward to its limit. She hugged the wheel with one arm while reserving the
other for throwing obscene gestures. Her hostility was entirely misdirected; so
many cars filled the road that no one could have been blamed for the traffic.
This fact didn’t stop the crazed woman from using the full power of her horn.

“Have you
seen any more of those…
things
? You
know…” the man futilely attempted to speak quieter, “the ones that already
turned?”

“Except
for the one that dropped from that overpass, none have made it onto the lanes
on this side of the expressway. The tracks seem to keep most of ‘
em
on the side
facin
’ downtown.
Good thing, too.” The driver finished his sentence then pointlessly flipped a
few switches on his console to make it seem like he had to get back to work.
Behind him the man stayed, not taking the hint. Hardly masking his impatience,
the driver added, “you
gonna
be alright, sir?”

“Paul, my
name’s Paul,” he said back.

“Nice to
make your acquaintance, Paul. My name’s Frank.” Jessica spied the exchange from
her third row seat. She saw Frank, the driver, scratch his head impatiently
then ask, “you going to be alright, Paul?”

Jessica
wasn’t the only one spying the exchange. The forward rows all had heads peeking
above the tall seats. Paul leaned against the metal divider that separated
kicking feet from the recessed driver’s area. His voice grew so distant that
she could barely make what he said from a couple rows back, “you have any
family back in the city, Frank?”

“No. No,
I don’t
got
any family. But I’m sure if I did that
they would want me to carry on and get myself somewhere safe. They’d want me to
be exactly where I am now.” Paul hadn’t moved and Frank was clearly not in the
mood to play counselor. After a second Frank asked, “
you
want to help our situation, Paul?”

“Of
course. I’m not used to staying still... it’s making me go a little crazy,” the
anxious man answered.

“Good,”
Jessica saw Frank’s eyes in the mirror as he said it. He looked in his mirror
realizing that nearly everyone was listening in. “All of the church leadership
was on that bus. You’re a big guy with a loud voice; why don’t you fill in and
use that voice to calm people down.” He didn’t give the man standing behind him
a moment to think it over before announcing, “
alrighty
folks, Paul here is going to act as our leader for a little while. He’s
gonna
see to it that you all are
comfortable. I need to focus on the road to keep us on target so if there’s a
problem or anything take it to him first. When we get to the retreat we’ll all
reconvene to see who is going to head things
up.
Until
then, I’m sure he won’t let us down.”

A variety
of chatter answered the announcement. One woman was still sobbing so deeply
that she was practically catatonic. Ava looked up at Jessica with a sweetly
raised eyebrow. She was blissfully lost by what the adults were making a fuss
about. Jess smiled back, placing a comforting hand on her leg to reassure her.
Since no one challenged the order, Frank gave Paul thumbs up then returned his
full attention to the sea of cars.

 
Centering himself in the aisle, Paul
cleared his throat loudly. At first his voice was shaky, “listen up! Nothing
about this morning has gone as planned, so I’m not
gonna
lie to you and say that everything is alright…. because we’re all scared.” He
paused, panning his eyes over the rows starting on the left then following back
up on the right. When he reached Ava he stopped; she was the youngest on the
trip by at least a decade.

 
Directing a forced smile towards Jessica,
he continued to speak with a little more volume, “we’ve all got people we’re
worried about and we all want to get to the retreat site in a hurry. The good
news is that we’re almost to the bridge across the James. After that it should
be smooth sailing, right Frank?” Frank shook his head up and down saying
nothing. Now he felt validated and even authoritative.
He
closed his speech
,
“See?
The worst part is
over. If you all need to talk I’ll come to your row. Otherwise try to stay in
your seat in case we have any more unexpected bumps.”

Chapter Eight

Creeping
through expressway traffic was soon reduced to inching towards the river. The
final quarter of a mile leading up to the bridge took them twenty minutes to
pass in what should have taken a minute or two. When the area scenery opened
preceding the bridge the retreat members rejoiced.

“What did
I tell you?” Paul happily said standing from his front row seat, “the rest of
the trip will be a breeze!” He fed off the reactions of the group; they looked
happy so he sat down feeling content in the accomplishment.

“Praise
Jesus!” yelled a woman from somewhere in the back.

Then a
man loudly added, “Salvation is right on the other side of this bridge!”

A few
clapped. Others maintained a more realistic outlook that kept them quietly
subdued. Their pessimism was certainly justified; it isn’t easy to let go of
your worry when all that could be seen ahead was an unending parking lot.
Jessica looked down at Ava, showing her a smile. In return Ava looked
perplexed.

“What’s
the matter honey?” She asked.

Ava
hesitated, struggling to properly form the thoughts storming within her busy
little mind into words. Then she asked, “Is the retreat on the other side of
the river?”

“Yes,”
Jessica replied not expecting to be questioned.

However,
her confusion didn’t waiver. “Is it, like,
right
on the other side of the river? Because I can’t see it.”

Jessica
caught on to the source of confusion, “no angel; it isn’t
right
on the other side of the river. We’re still a ways away from
it but the river is sort of a marker for us as we get closer.”

She
thought for a moment, unconsciously raising an eyebrow the way her mother does
when she’s deeply pondering something. “I get that, Mommy. But why is everyone
so excited if we’re not close yet?”

Truthfully,
they had another hour and half in normal traffic before the bus should reach
its destination. In the absurdity that was today’s traffic, they would be lucky
to reach the retreat before sundown. An hour into the bus trip and they’d
experienced enough fear and loss to make the time feel longer than any person
should have to endure. The shell-shocked group welcomed an end to this city and
all of the horrors it has shown them. Existing as a natural boundary to
Richmond city limits, crossing the James River was a logical point to imagine
the worst might be over. None of them fully realized that logic has no place in
a world shaken by a pandemic, a world where the dead walk.

Jessica
wanted to be out of the city as much as the other passengers did. She knew that
it was one step closer to getting somewhere safe. The notion of escaping with
her precious daughter took over her thoughts from the moment she first saw the
news reports. She was willing to spend all that money on their retreat slots if
it meant they had a way to wait for this to blow over. Petting the little
girl’s head she answered, “
because
it’s good to be
happy about the little things when a lot of bad things are going on.
There’s
more people in the city so that means there’s more
people to get sick. We’re trying to get away from that while all the people get
better.”

Digesting
the simplified reasoning, she was quiet for a second or two. “Are the sick
people
only
in the city?”

The
little one was smart. Her five-year-old logic was enough to recognize that
their grand plan for safety had some flaws. Jessica knew the questions would
continue if she didn’t nip the topic, “remember when you were sick right after
school started and we had to keep you home for a few days so your classmates
wouldn’t catch your flu bug?” Waves of brown hair danced atop the purple of
Ava’s jacket as she nodded. “Image you weren’t sick but instead all of your
classmates were… what do you think we would do then?”

“Umm…”
Ava thought aloud, “I’d probably want to stay home so I wouldn’t get sick. I’d
be sad all my friends were sick, though.”

Half of
her friends probably
were
sick and
Jessica knew it. A class of twenty-three kindergarteners was down to eleven,
twelve if their teacher was counted. Not all of the missing kids were sick.
Some had sick family members or forward-thinking parents that decided to limit
their contact with notoriously contagious environments. The school shut down a
few days before, stating a nationwide effort to stem the spread of the R32PR
Virus. It was late in the evening of Ava’s first day out of school that the
C.D.C. confirmed the thirty-third mutation.

Obviously
thinking about her friends, the little girl’s head dipped and her eyes drifted
towards her feet. Jessica gently took her by the chin to lift her frown. “Don’t
you worry about
them.
They are with their families
just like you’re with me. And you’re right, the best thing to do would be to
keep away from people who are sick; that’s exactly what we’re doing.”

They both
stopped talking; exchanging a quizzical look knowing something had changed. The
rhythmic rocking from stop and go traffic had gone on for so long that they had
become accustomed to the motion like cruise passengers out at sea. Now the
pattern had ceased entirely. Jessica looked out the window seeing cars parked
over every square foot of the bridge. Traffic had finally come to a complete
halt.

“Mommy
look!” Ava gleefully pointed out their window, “it’s the pretty train bridge!”
The ominous construction stood above the obscuring cement walls beyond the
rivers of automobiles and water. They sat aside an enormous painted still frame
of a sight that should have been blurred by movement.

Jessica
acknowledged her daughter’s excitement with a smile then held
herself
still trying to detect any motion in the giant
wheels below them. Agonizing minutes passed; the only movement came from nervous
tapping in her foot. Others began to talk amongst themselves about stopping so
she stood up, “excuse me, Paul….”

Eager to
please, Paul shot up from his seat, “yes ma’am?”

She
paused. The whispers behind her settled
,
waiting to
see if Jessica was going to address what clearly worried them as well. Never a
fan of speaking in front of groups, she cleared her throat and started slowly,
“we, uh….” Quiet words coarsely escaped her dry lips. Clearing her throat
again, she found the proper volume, “we’re not moving anymore, like, not even a
little.”

His face
didn’t hide any of the confusion he was feeling. Minutes before, when he made
the announcement that they’d reached the bridge, he was lost in his own
contentment because it was a far better feeling to embrace than the sadness
felt earlier in the morning. The calculated distraction Frank provided by
giving Paul some authority also made him oblivious to a critical detail of
their speed. Trying to save face, he reasoned, “well you know that traffic has
been bad the whole time. Please just sit down. We’ll be moving again in no
time.”

There was
something in his tone that reminded her of Ava’s father; it was a quality that
never failed to irritate her. Hardly withholding her frustration, Jessica shot
back, “this isn’t one of those times where the leader gets to play dumb and
everyone is happy. We’re sitting in park not even halfway over the bridge.
You’ve been labeled as our leader, and that’s fine, but don’t patronize us.”

Muttering
behind them made Jessica roll her eyes. The other retreat members were like a
stereotypical angry mob following the lead of whoever currently voices their
opinion the loudest. Thoughts surged within her, “
we should have taken the car. We should have stayed home. If the world
is fucking ending, what was I thinking when I paid to trap us in a bus with
these people?
” Panic manifested into short breaths; she was working herself
into a place they couldn’t afford to be.

She
rubbed her temples while forcing a few deep breaths. Ava sat on the inside
seat, Jessica had been essentially talking over the confused little girl.
Leaning down she instructed, “earmuff time, baby girl. Let the grownups talk
for a second.” Ava did as she was
told,
covering her
ears like her life depended on it.

Paul was
about to speak when Jessica cut him off, “save it, okay? Don’t bullshit us
anymore.” A prudishly predictable gasp answered her foul terminology from a few
rows back. In an ordinary setting she would have relished the prodding of the
church crowd’s flagrantly old-fashioned sensibilities. “Are you going to tell
us what’s the situation up there or do I need to come on up?”

He leaned
over to confer with Frank, who contributed little to the whispered
conversation. Facing the rest of the group again, he signed. “Frank can see all
the way up to the overpass with Staples Mill Road just past the bridge… and,
it’s not great out there. No accidents in sight; so that’s good news. But
there’s
a whole lot of cars. And no sign of what’s holding
traffic up. I think
there’s
just too many cars with
not enough road to hold them all.

Uproar of
voices answered his announcement. Waiving his arms to regain order, Paul
shouted, “hold on! Ease up, my friends! We’re still okay.
There’s
only cars
. I don’t see any of… well, you know….
them
. And we have a couple coolers of food packed in the overhead.
This seems like a great time to have lunch!”