Trying to Survive (Part 3) (2 page)

   Allen went back to the kitchen and flung open the drawers until he found a large serrated knife. The blaring car alarms convinced him that he could start cutting out a large square of drywall without alerting the shredders.

   Just as he’d hoped, removing the square of drywall and the thick insulation revealed the backside of his living-room wall. He knocked a few times and said “Move back” before he put the tip of the blade to the backside of the drywall. A single strike with his open palm sent it through and he began cutting.

   The moment he sawed out the next square, Veronica appeared in front of the hole – wide eyed and pale. “Allen, we made a big mistake… We drew in hundreds more… hundreds.”

   “It doesn’t matter, we had to do something.”

   “What did you find?”

   He shook his head. “Enough food to not go hungry tomorrow, and a bottle of water. A small bottle.”

   “Of course.”

   “I should have known… The guy was young and he lived alone – I didn’t think.”

   Allen left the hole for a few moments and came back holding the bag of Doritos and a box of macaroni and cheese. He passed them through to her and said “I know this is going to sound gross, but it’s really not… If it comes down to it… I just realized the toilet tanks probably have at least a gallon of water in them.”

   Veronica scoffed “Fucking toilet water, Allen?”

   He sighed and replied “Think about it. It’s the same water that comes from a faucet, and it just sits in the tank. It doesn’t actually become toilet water until you flush it.”

   Her face softened as she looked off to the side and thought about what he said. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. Still freaks me out though… I’ll get over it. I’m just glad you’re okay.”

   “Yeah… Well, I’m going to start cutting through into the next apartment so I can look for more food. Then I’ll open this wall up the rest of the way and squeeze through... If I keep going we could end up with a month’s supply of food. Maybe even some guns.”

   Allen turned around and began walking away, Veronica said. “Please be careful.”

Chapter 3

   The sky grew darker as Lee struggled to decide whether he should just stay put or risk looking for a better place to hide before it was too late. His hope rested on a patch of woods behind the store that could allow him to safely reach some taller buildings he could see in the distance.

   Every time he looked at all the glass at the front of the store, he could picture droves of them crashing through and chasing him down before he got to the back door – which wouldn’t buy him more than a few seconds, even if he did make it and shut it behind him.

   At the same time, Lee worried that leaving could result in running into several packs of them and losing the ability to get somewhere safe without being seen. He’d already discovered it was still extremely difficult to outrun them during the day after his car sputtered to a stop just outside of town.

   They may not be as fast when the sun is out, but they don’t get tired and begin to slow down like a normal person. They just keep coming, and once night falls and their full strength returns – no door will stop them if they know someone is behind it.

   When Lee heard the sound of a store window shattering nearby, he practically sprinted for the back door. Feeling any questions he had were just answered, he headed for the trees and went in as deeply as he could without getting too close to the street and buildings on the other side.

   The trees were short, thinner than his body and mainly spread far apart, so Lee had to stay low and constantly check to ensure the shredders weren’t looking in his direction. He only had an idea of where he should be heading. The rooftops of a large collection of two story buildings were visible beyond the end of the trees – no more than a hundred yards away.

   Lee came to a stop when he thought he heard the sounds of multiple police sirens. The possibility of other survivors caused him to start sprinting as he tilted his head and tried to focus on the sounds.

   When he finally realized they were car alarms, his heart sank and he slowed his pace…
Probably just those things starting to become more active and fighting each other… I guess it could be a good thing – it’ll draw them all in and clear out other areas.

   As the end of the trees and the start of the collection of two story buildings came into sight, a new thought entered Lee’s mind –
There are at least four different alarms going off. What are the chances those things would set off that many car alarms in one place?

   He sped up again when he decided it had to be other survivors setting them off to use as distractions. Even though he hadn’t actually seen anyone yet, he felt the fear of being completely alone start to dissolve…
I knew I couldn’t be the only one…

   When Lee reached the edge of the wooded area, he could see at least six apartment buildings and the five cars in the parking-lot making all the noise.

   He wasn’t sure if he had ever seen so many shredders gathered together in one place. There was no way for him to know how long the alarms had been going off. He feared that if other survivors did indeed do it on purpose, they could already be long gone.

   The alarms had drawn almost every shredder in sight to the front of one apartment building, so he began to head toward the furthest one on his right. Lee’s only wish at the moment was to have the company of other survivors, but he also knew he had to make it up to one of the second floor apartments before it was dark.

   He had no choice but to retreat and plan on continuing his search in the morning.

Chapter 4

   Allen’s adrenaline and anger allowed him to quickly cut his way through into the next apartment and begin searching for more food. Veronica could see that his luck had been slightly better when he passed her three cans of food, a box of cereal, some crackers and a near-full gallon of water through the hole in the wall.

   “Stand back, I’m going to cut my way through.”

   As Allen tirelessly sawed away at the drywall, Veronica walked over by the window and looked down at the flashing cars. She thought about how annoying the combination of the five different car alarms was starting to become…
Please don’t let this shit last all night…

   The sun was minutes away from beginning to disappear on the horizon. It was turning the sky to different shades of red, pink and purple, and the clouds had taken on a golden glow.
The beauty of it held onto her gaze and even blocked out the blaring alarms for quite some time. It was the first time she felt at peace since the night it all started.

   The growing activity of the shredders below eventually drew her attention. They were already starting to wander away from the carports in search of people.

   She grimaced, knowing that the starving ones would soon start attacking their own kind for food once it was completely dark and they began to rage. It would be just like the other nights, except the monstrous screams and roars would be accompanied by car alarms…
Definitely not getting any sleep tonight…
 

   Veronica was so busy studying them that she almost didn’t pick up the figure moving through the trees. At first she just assumed it was another shredder, but soon realized it had to be a regular man. He was crouched down, and seemed to be observing the pack as well. When she saw the shotgun, she rushed over to the hole in the wall.

   Allen had just finished cutting out a body sized section on the other side, and was about to start cutting again when Veronica’s frantic voice stopped him. “There’s someone outside! They came to check out the car alarms.”

   Allen paused for a moment and said “Take a few steps back. Fuck this, I’m just gonna kick through – they won’t hear it. Go try and get his attention!”

   “He’s got a shotgun. He can help us.” Veronica said before she ran back to the window.

   As Allen began kicking his way through the wall, Veronica stood at the window and waited for an opportunity to wave her arms without being seen by any of the shredders, but it never came. By the time Allen joined her, the man was already out of sight.

   Just as Veronica said “Shit! I couldn’t do anything. If I started flailing my arms around they would have spotted me” one of the car alarms cut off.

   Allen sarcastically remarked “Only four more to go.”

   “Ugh… How long will they last? The one that just stopped was an older car, so the battery was probably near dead anyway.”

   Allen shrugged and crinkled his forehead. He wondered what would make her think he could possibly know something like that. “I have no idea. I’d assume if the battery is somewhat new it’ll take hours. Some of them might even still be going off by morning… But I do think some companies make them so they shut off automatically after a set amount of time.” He turned to her. “Don’t expect to get any sleep tonight.”

   Veronica scoffed “Yeah… Well, a least it might help drown out those horrible screams we’ve been having to hear every night for the last week.”

   “That’s a good thing, Veronica. They’ll eventually kill themselves off. There aren’t any people around for them to eat, so it’s just going to get worse and worse as the days pass.”

   “It looks like some of them are actually starving away.” She pointed at an especially thin female with short blonde hair. “Look how skinny that one is – and there’s no blood on her… It actually looks like she’s dying.”

   Allen began shaking his head. “I don’t think they’ll starve to death in a couple of weeks like we would. Like you pointed out earlier – they aren’t human anymore.”

   Another car alarm stopped sounding – this time, on one of the newer models. An idea came to Allen, and the slightest bit of excitement broke through, momentarily softening his stone-like expression. “I think you were right. He was probably here to see if some other survivors set them off on purpose.”

   “Yeah.”

   “Well, it’s almost dark, so I doubt he’ll stay out there for long. He’ll probably hide out in one of the apartments close by.”

   Veronica turned to him, frowned and brought her hand to her hip in a displeased fashion. “You’re not about to suggest going out to look for him tomorrow, are you?”

   “No, of course not. But once a few more of those alarms stop – if we start setting off more he should get the message and come back around.”

   Veronica fell back onto the couch and folded her arms. “Now that I think about it… Do we really want to try and make contact with this guy? We have no idea who he is. He might use that gun to rob us.”

   “Yeah, I guess there’s a decent chance he could be a piece of shit.” Allen grasped his broad jaw. “But I’m telling you Veronica – larger numbers and weapons are exactly what we need. He might even have more guns, or be able to get to a car and help us escape. He isn’t trapped like we are.”

   “I’m not saying we shouldn’t try. I’m just saying if we do actually get together with this guy, you need to watch him closely. Hang on to that knife and don’t hesitate if he does anything weird. If he tries anything – we kill him and gain a shotgun.”

   “Jesus, Veronica…” Allen said when he noticed an unfamiliar, cold tone of voice.

   Veronica leaned forward in her seat and looked up to Allen. “We have to think about things differently now… Hunger and desperation can turn almost anyone into a monster. People might be even more dangerous than those goddamn things.” She said with the utmost seriousness.

   “I know.” Allen said through a long sigh.

Chapter 5

   Brian switched the knob for the AC from low to medium, then turned to Jenny and said “We’ve been on this road for a while now. What am I looking for again?”

   Jenny quickly finished off a small bag of chips and wiped her mouth clean. Once she had the map folded out, she inspected it for a few moments and replied “We’re on highway-57 at the moment, but I don’t know where. We’re looking for 84, which should take us to Hinesville where we can get on to 119.”

   Brian put his hand up, chuckled and said “That’s enough for now – just keep watch for 84 in case I zone out or something.”

   Jenny slightly jerked her head back and frowned. “Zone out?”

   “I’m just tired.”

   Walt said “I can’t believe we still haven’t seen any decent SUVs. If we run into anyone else before we find one we’re gonna need a second car.”

   It took Brian and Jenny almost an hour of arguing to finally decide on a car while we scoured that neighborhood the day before we left. Jenny wanted reliability and good gas mileage so we wouldn’t have to stop as often, but Brian kept insisting we needed power, weight and brute force.

   He eventually brought up the point that we might even need to outrun other people who are trying to hurt us. What we all just went through caused Jenny to take his point very seriously. Instead of acquiring a powerful SUV like Brian had hoped for, we ended up settling on a Cadillac CTS, which provided us with plenty of room, weight and power for the time being.

   When Brian found the keys in the driveway next to some dried up puddles of blood, the first thing he did was go in the glove-box and check the driver’s manual. To our surprise, it boasted 300 horse-power and claimed to get over thirty miles per gallon when just cruising.

   We all agreed it was the perfect stand-in until we found a decent SUV. Vans were out of the question – we needed something that can be driven hard and doesn’t require a snail’s pace to get around a corner without flipping. Basically, we needed a brand new SUV with all the latest technology to get everything we wanted.

   It wasn’t long before Brian remarked “Just saw a sign for highway-84. It said two miles.”

   Jenny folded up the map and rolled down her window halfway to let in some fresh air. “By the time we get to Hinesville it should almost be dark. We’ll find a place to stay and then go out early to search for more supplies. I think we should consider taking the time to locate a gun store too.”

   “This is Georgia – we’ll find a gun shop.” Brian got out through a chuckle.

   Walt scoffed “We’ve wasted so many bullets keeping those damn things away while we siphon gas… There has to be a better way.”

   Clara also used up a few dozen rounds since Jenny started teaching her to shoot, but that was a necessity, and Jenny had her use one of the AK47’s we stole from those men instead of an M4.

   “If you think of one – let us know.” Jenny remarked with a touch of sarcasm as she turned back.

   My worry for Clara was growing by the day. She’d changed drastically over the past week. It was inarguably for the better, but I also suspected that it was just a psychological “cover” for her immense pain, depression and never-ending fear.

   I tried to have more than a few conversations with her, and even discuss Anthony and Melanie so it would allow her to vent, but she wanted nothing to do with it. If Clara wasn’t outside taking shooting or self-defense lessons from Jenny, she was glued to the spot where Anthony died – reading a book or staring out of the window.

   With Melanie gone, Jenny has slowly but surely taken her place as Clara’s new parental figure. Just as I’d hoped, Jenny seemed perfectly happy to take on the extra responsibility and guide her through the nightmare that is our new existence.

   I missed Melanie. We’d all been through so much together in such a short amount of time… After she’d already lost everyone who mattered to her, she only survived long enough to lose yet another child she grew to love before she was killed in her sleep by someone we all foolishly trusted.

   The guilt I felt for not being able to foresee Anthony’s actions was still burning away at me…
The horrible way he died. Clara losing her brother… It’s partly my fault…
My only hope for atonement was to ensure that nothing ever happens to Clara, or die trying.

   As Brian merged right onto highway-84, Jenny halfheartedly laughed and said “Did you just use the turn signal?”

   Brian shrugged. “So, we still have a little over a quarter-tank, but I think we should stop and fill up again before we get too close to that city. That way we won’t have to do it again until we’re back on the road and away from all the shredders.”

   “Good idea.” Jenny pointed to a massive pileup in the distance on the other side of the small highway. “That looks like a good spot.”

   When Brian began to slow down and make his way onto the grass median, Clara noticed the handful of shredders wandering around near all the cars and got Jenny’s attention. Jenny turned back and she said. “I’m ready to try shooting one of them.”

   She and Brian glanced over at each other – portraying uncertainty. I didn’t like the idea either, but she needed to learn how to protect herself…
Childhood is nothing more than a luxury from our old world – something that can no longer exist…

   “Let her do it.” I said commandingly.

   Jenny chewed her bottom lip and counted the shredders as she continued to think about Clara’s request. She glanced at Brian again, then looked back to Walt and said “I count seven. Kill all but one.” She pointed to her left. “Leave that one alive for Clara – it’s the farthest away and it looks injured.”

   My leg was finally starting to feel useful again, but the last thing I wanted to do was set it back even more than I already have. I had no choice but to sit there and watch as everyone else got out and did their part.

   Clara stood by the car and waited while the three of them casually approached the shredders and began firing.

   Being stuck out in the middle of the lone highway without anyone to eat and no way to avoid the direct sunlight had them starving away and severely weakened. Walt and the others had plenty of time to line up their shots and ensure that each shredder would only cost us a single bullet.

   When only one remained, Brian jogged back to the car and grabbed the bucket and the hose so he could get to work. Walt stood by, ready to fire if need be as Jenny motioned for Clara to join her.

   I watched through the open car door as Clara tightened her grip on the rifle and briskly walked over to Jenny. If she was scared – I couldn’t tell. Her face was relaxed, her eyes were void of worry and there wasn’t even the slightest hesitation in any of her movements.

   Jenny took the AK47 away from her and placed the M4 in her hands. “From now on, you use one of these. They’re a little lighter and easier to keep on target.”

   Clara nodded and brought the scope up to her eye. The rifle seemed gigantic next to her small stature and thin build. She slid her left foot forward to help steady herself, but didn’t pull the trigger. The shredder was now less than twenty yards away.

   Jenny said “What are you waiting for?”

   Clara snapped “I’m fine.”

   Jenny and Walt exchanged questioning expressions, and he shrugged. Clara just stood there and watched through the scope as it limped toward her and showed what was left of its teeth.

   It was badly injured, appearing as though it crawled out from one of the wrecked cars in the pileup. Its leg was barely usable, broken at the knee and ankle. Its face was bloody and disfigured (seemingly from smashing into the steering-wheel) and there was a large gash running across its chest.

   When Clara still didn’t fire, Jenny brought up the AK47. Clara yelled out “No!” and a few moments later, she finally pulled the trigger.

   The shredder was so close that the bullet went clean through its head and barely even jolted it. After several adrenaline and rage fueled steps it collapsed.

   Jenny turned to Clara, frowning heavily as she said “Why did you wait so long? I can tell you aren’t scared.”

   Clara handed her the M4, and softly replied “I wanted to see it up close before I killed it.”

   What?..

   Jenny leaned down so they were face to face. “Clara, I think I understand what you’re doing… but you can’t ever hesitate again. You need to train yourself to react immediately without having to think about it. You won’t have anywhere near as much time if it’s dark out, and if you miss or only wound it, you need the time to fire again.”

   While still lacking any visible emotions, Clara let the AK47 fall to her side and robotically replied “I only needed to do it once. I’m sorry, I won’t ever hesitate again.”

   Jenny’s mouth began to open, but she struggled to find something to say. Clara looked right at her and saw that she was about to speak, but instead of waiting she simply walked back to the car and took her place in the middle seat next to me.

   Jenny’s expression turned despondent and pained as she rubbed her forehead out of frustration. Walt came up next to her and softly spoke into her ear, as if he said something he didn’t want Clara to hear.

   She shook her head, let a long breath out through her nose and replied “I hope you’re right.”