“There’s no way in hell that I’m getting in the van with Richard,” Dax ranted.
“Okay. Okay,” Chase tried to calm everyone down. “We are all worried. I can see that. Most of all Richard, I’m sure. But we can’t just leave him. I just don’t understand how he hasn’t turned yet. I’m assuming you got bit or scratched or both in the house where we went to get medical supplies. When I took Jayda into the bathroom was the only time I’ve not seen you.”
“You’re brilliant, Chase,” Richard said with sarcasm dripping from his angry, bitten off words. “Bet you want to experiment on me next. Once I die, you can have a go at my wife again.”
Chases ignored Richard’s cruelty. He saw every eye on him, awaiting a response, but didn’t want to fight with a sick man. What he said was only half true. Okay, maybe three fourths true.
“I think we should tie Richard up and put him in the far back with the supplies. We can move some weapons and ammo up to the seat next to Dax to make some room,” Chase offered.
“No! No,” Dax shouted emphatically. “I’ll still be his first choice of dinner once he changes. I don’t even want him breathing on me. None of us should be sharing his air.”
“Let’s not get crazy,” Chase argued. “We’ve been sharing the guy’s air for hours now. His disease is progressing slowly. Once we get to the military base, there could be a cure for him.”
“NO!” Dax yelled.
“There’s no cure,” Richard said, his words slow and soft now. “We will all die of this eventually. Why fight the inevitable. You don’t have to try to be my hero for Jayda. You can’t save me. You can’t make up for what you did to her. Let it go, Chase.”
Richard moved toward Jayda, but she leaned back into the van and sat back in her seat.
“Baby, listen. You know I love you. Let Chase get you to safety. Let me at least die knowing that you are safe,” Richard said.
Jayda turned away from him to Sherri. Chase remained where he was, inches from protecting Jayda from Richard if need be. He felt for the man. He knew what it was like to lose her.
“Please, let me tie you up and at least try to save you. You haven’t turned yet,” Chase offered.
Richard only nodded.
So, Chase nodded to Dax. “Get the rope we have in the back.”
“Fine,” Dax spat and turned on his heel. “But I’m wearing a mask over my mouth. And I’m arranging the back where he sits. I’ll sit with a gun in my hands, ready to blow his head off if need be.”
Dax disappeared and Chase stood sentinel over Jayda. Once Dax returned with the rope, Chase apologized and moved in to tie up Richard. Meeting the guy in the back of the van, he stepped toward him with another round of sorry. He looped the ropes around his arms and legs, pulling as snuggly as he could without hurting the man. He talked himself through special knots he’d learned in his military training.
As Chase worked, Lucas, under Dax’s direction, rearranged the van. Dax seemed pissed, but at least he’d conceded. He couldn’t just leave Richard. He knew that later, what happened to him would have to be Jayda’s decision.
As he laid the guy down in the back of the van, Richard gave him an unreadable look.
“You comfortable?” Chase asked, but continued without waiting for an answer. “If we stop suddenly or turn suddenly, use your feet to brace yourself against the door so you don’t hit your head. I’m going to put a bag here at your head to protect it just in case.”
“Sure. Listen, if need be, you shoot to kill. Head shot man,” Richard whispered to Chase. “And you get her to safety. Don’t screw up this time.”
Chase just nodded, his lips pursed not to say something mean back. The guy had a fever. And the guy had the right to hate him. He hated himself. He hated this situation. With his hands clenched, he shut the door and walked back to the driver’s seat.
No one spoke on the way to the grocery store. Once they got there, under Chase’s orders, they each took weapons. The women had small, easy to use pistols. Chase felt confident putting one in Jayda’s hand, but not into Sherri’s.
“Listen, Sherri, stay close to Jayda. Unless the need arises, let her do the shooting, until we can get you properly trained on that thing,” Chase stated.
“We had a gun in the house. I know basically how to use one, but you’ll get no argument from me,” she answered.
“Good. Now we get in and get out. Follow me so I can scope it out first. Hopefully the scavengers have left us something,” Chase sighed.
Once he’d done a quick sweep of the store and heard no movement, he motioned for the others to follow him. He handed them shopping bags, the ones that people bought to use again and again, which hung with a sad amount of hope on a hook by the registers. They scattered to cover as much ground as possible.
Lucas went right to the candy that people must have dropped onto the floor in their haste. As Chase moved to the refrigerated section, he heard Sherri and Lucas debating what the best candy was. He passed Dax in the junk food isle. A few boxes of snack cakes and cookies remained at the back of the nearly empty shelves.
“We’d be better off with healthy foods,” Chase said.
“We need whatever we can get,” Dax countered. “Besides, if Richard attacks me here soon, I want to die with donuts on my breath and not spinach.”
“Sure,” Chase agreed and moved on.
Of course, little was left anywhere, but a few remnants remained. Probably what they couldn’t carry. The state of the store looked like at some time a horde of walking dead had chased out the living. He stayed clear of blood on the floors or anywhere else for that matter. Some food had been splattered and thus wasted.
As he walked toward the end of the isle, two bags filled, Jayda brought him to a halt coming around from the other isle.
“Where’s Sherri?” he asked.
“I left her with Lucas debating candy, even as they’d moved on into another isle,” she answered. “Listen. We need to talk. And I need you to stay calm.”
“Okay,” he gulped.
“I’m pregnant. I just found out before we left. And with Richard in the state that he’s in, I want to at least tell him before he dies.”
“Do you think that’s a good idea,” Chase got out, despite the thoughts flitting through his head. His heart beat hard in his chest and butterflies did a war dance in his stomach. “He’s not in the right state of mind for any news. And as a guy, I’d think learning I was going to be a father as I was dying might make it worse.”
“I want him to know,” she said.
“For the record, I don’t agree. Why did you ask me if you’d already made up your mind?” Chase asked, his forehead wrinkled over the throb that started there.
“I didn’t ask. I was telling you how it was going to go down,” she countered.
He nodded once and then shook his head. He turned to walk out of the store with his goods. Chase checked the parking lot, and then gathered everyone together. They all got in putting their bags between their legs for lack of a better spot.
As everyone adjusted, Jayda started, “I have an announcement to make.”
She turned to the back where Richard lay. Climbing over the seats, she moved in on Dax, and leaned over his seat. Dax raised his gun more toward Richard.
“Listen, babe. I have news. I’m pregnant. I took a test right before we left the house. I know the timing sucks, but I wanted you to know,” Jayda said loud enough for everyone to hear.
All Chase heard was the wrestling of Richard’s body as he fought with his bounds. Dax stood, ready to shoot.
“I knew you were fooling around with Chase!” Richard screamed from the back over the ramble of the van engine and tires as they moved at a fast clip down the road. “I knew it couldn’t just be out of the kindness of his heart that he called you and came to save you.”
Chase kept his eyes on the road. He wouldn’t even venture a look at Lucas, who obviously would know that he and Jayda having an affair was an impossibility unless he never slept, because sleeping had been the only time he and Lucas had been apart in recent months.
“You betrayed me!” he continued on in a hysterical rant. “How could you go back to a guy who couldn’t even be bothered to save your leg? What crap! You’re more fucked than me. I’ll die, but you’ll end up with that loser.”
He didn’t see any point in screaming back at the guy to defend himself. Dax would be the only one that might wonder if what Richard said was true, but he was too focused on being poised in a shoot to kill stance to care. Richard shut up only long enough to start puking.
“Damn it, all over my bag!” Dax yelled. “I’m not touching it to even throw it away. Everything back there should be tossed. Shit. That stinks!”
Chase looked at his watch and just kept driving.
“We have to keep going,” he said to Lucas. “We will be ditching the van, and all the contents in the back with it, once we get to the checkpoint. At least the guns and food are safe.”
He followed Lucas’ gaze, and found him holding Sherri’s hand. He shrugged a shoulder at Chase, then nodded and looked away out the front window. Reminded of where his eyes should be, he looked out as well. Then, he leaned over to click back on the radio lest anyone else try to talk or scream or puke. He rolled down his window for some much needed fresh air as the radio crackled to life. Before, he’d kept them closed as a precaution, but now they were going over one hundred miles per hour, and he couldn’t drive and wretch himself.
Lucas followed suit with his window as the women cracked the big side windows.
This time, a woman’s voice reported the latest. “Many cities are reporting that they will be turning off their water. Gather some before that happens. They want to preserve their current housed supplies. Fear of contamination of some water sources have put fear into those whose job it is to run the water supply companies. Gas is going to be turned off as well, but the reason hasn’t been given, nor has the time. Our sources of news are dwindling, as you can imagine. Please stay calm. The government is promising help to those who need it. Sit tight.”
Chase looked down at his own gas gauge.
“Shit!” he growled.
“What?” Lucas asked. “What part of that news got to you?”
“No, she just made me remember to check the gas gauge. We’re out. I don’t even know how we are still moving,” he adds.
Almost as if the van had heard him and understood, it started to choke and coast. Chase brought it to a safe stop, scanning the surrounding area.
“Out of gas,” he said to those staring at him from the back. “Looks like the coast is clear.”
Doors opened quickly and they all jumped out. He was sure the vomit smell was worse back there. He hadn’t heard movement from Richard since, and he feared the worst. That vomit didn’t even smell human.
He stood beside the van, putting off the inevitability of checking on Richard. Dax said nothing with his gun at his side, his face up toward the sky.
White fluffy clouds floated through the clear blue sky as if nothing bad had happened.
“Does anyone know where a gas station is around here?” Chase asked.
“I know of a gas station less than a mile away,” Dax offered. “You could cut through the trees over there and get there faster.”
Chase walked around and opened up the back of the van. Richard lay there, quiet for the moment, but still alive. His eyes zeroed in on Jayda. She squirmed beside Chase. Tears misted her eyes as she rang her hands. A tough broad, when she got sad or upset, it had always unwound something in Chase.
“Okay. I’ll grab the gas can and go,” Chase said. Turning to Jayda, he proposed, “Maybe you should come with me. It’s not that far, and I’m just not sure about Richard. I’m afraid to leave you here. Probably selfish, but I am.”
“No, I’d rather go with you,” she sniffed.
When they started to walk away together, Richard started yelling again, only at about half the volume he’d had earlier. “See! I knew it. You two can’t even wait until I’m dead to show off.”
“Shut up, man,” Lucas said. “I know it’s not even possible.”
“Don’t bother yourself,” Chase said to Lucas.
“No, don’t bother,” Richard said as if it had made sense to him. “Leave with my wife!”
“Get over it man,” Chase said as he turned again to walk away.
“So, I’ll just stay here and watch over the crazy guy,” Dax stated loudly. “Maybe I can flag down a car for some gas while I’m at it.”
“Yeah, sure. Good luck with all of that,” Chase laughed.
* * * * *
“I have a surprise for you,” Dax heard Lucas say to Sherri.
Dax watched as Lucas pulled a theater-sized box out of his pocket. The kid presented it to an all-smiles Sherri.
“I found it on the back of a shelf. You said it was your favorite,” the kid continued.
“It is. Thank you. Not going to save it either. I’m eating it right now. Want some?” she offered.
“Well, it’s not my favorite, but I wouldn’t mind sharing some if you’re willing?” Lucas replied.
“Oh, shit,” Dax said as he turned back to look down the highway.
“What?” Lucas grunted his way.
“Nothing,” Dax said. “Life is just shit right now.”
“Life is shit,” Richard parroted.
Dax shook his head at the insanity around him. Ex-husband’s and wives, babies, a supposedly grieving widow with a boy at least a decade younger than her, and him with the crazy sick sap in the back covered in puke. Life just didn’t get much better than this.
A noise down the road caught his ear. The sound of an engine shocked the hell out of him.
“Listen! A car,” Dax yelled with some excitement. “I mean it can’t be driven by a zombie, right? Maybe they can offer us some help.”
“We have to wait for Chase. And, I can’t imagine they’ll stop for us,” Lucas said.
“Maybe it’s military and they can get us to the checkpoint, get us out of this stinking van,” Dax spat.
He moved to the side of the road to see one of those little earth-friendly excuses for a car speeding down the road.
“So, not military,” Lucas laughed.
“Shut the hell up and eat your candy, kid,” he hissed.
Dax waved his arms frantically as the car approached them. A man and a woman barely glanced his way as they swerved to avoid him and continue on their way.
He turned back to Lucas with a half-smirk on his face.
“Isn’t that the damn candy you two were arguing about in the store?” he asked.
Lucas shrugged and popped another piece in his mouth. His smile widened for Sherri. Dax’s stomach turned. Acid seemed to boil inside him. Heartburn, sure, empty stomach and all, but more a distaste for life in general including those around him at the moment. Chase seemed cool. And he was thankful to be on his way to safety, even if the ass in the back had probably infected everyone with his little deadly secret.
“Let me out of these,” Richard yelled as if on cue.
“No way in hell, buddy,” Dax shouted.
“Everything is going to end anyway. We are all going to die soon. This is all pointless,” Richard ranted. “Chase claims he can save the world, but his track record sucks.”
“Shut up,” Lucas warned. “He’s a great man even if your jealous eyes can’t see it.”
“Jealous? Jealous of what? She’s married to me,” he shot back.
“Lot of good that’s doing you now tied in the back of a van dying,” Lucas said.
But Dax watched the kid’s face fall right after. He just didn’t have it in him. He’d only survived this far because of Chase. He’d turned back to Sherri and started talking to her again. He could hear her comfort him. Poor cougar had it bad for the kid. He guessed that’s what happened when you felt like the last people on earth, you paired up with whoever was left. So where the hell was his chick?
“Stupid women!” Richard yelled.
Dax swore the loon could read his thoughts.
“You just lost your husband, bitch. Seems you’re just like my wife though, quick to move on,” Richard hissed. “Go ahead. Live out your last days however you want to. Isn’t going to matter soon.”
Sherri burst into tears and Lucas comforted her as he glared at Richard.
“Shut the fuck up, man,” Dax said for the kid. “Nothing wrong with being kind to a perfect stranger. You should try it some time. In fact, you should try being kind to your own wife, maybe a tad grateful to the guy who has risked so much to save your sorry ass.”
* * * * *
Chase glanced behind him at Jayda. His stomach dropped to find her not there. He turned in a circle quickly, scanning for movement, but biting his lip not to yell and alert any possible zombies lurking nearby. Spanning out a ways, he looked frantically for her. Hearing a limb crack, he turned with relief. Only, he found himself face to face with one of them.