-13-
After rinsing off in the decontamination shower, I hung my suit and went to check the radio. Jared and Danni joined me soon after.
“Is your arm okay?” Danni asked. A large purple bruise in the shape of Ian’s mouth blossomed on my forearm.
“It hurts,” I said, “but he didn’t break the skin.”
“What was wrong with him?” Danni asked. “He looked sick.”
“Sick?” Jared laughed. “He wasn’t sick, mom, he was a fucking zombie.”
“Don’t curse,” Danni said.
“Sorry,” Jared shrugged, “but that doesn’t change the fact that Ian was a zombie. What else would you call him? Lucas said he was dead and then Ian shows up and tries to bite a chunk out of his arm. Sure sounds like a zombie to me.”
“You’ve been playing too many video games,” Danni said. She turned towards me. “What do you think Lucas?”
“No idea,” I said honestly. “Ian was dead. I’m sure of that. But that thing outside
was
Ian or at least had been.”
“But do you really think he was a zombie?” Danni asked.
“Shit,” I said. “I hope not.” I looked at my arm, remembering all of the zombie movies I had seen.
“You’re fine,” Jared said, examining my arm. “He didn’t break the skin, so you’re cool.”
“Thanks,” I said and turned back to the radio.
-14-
Static popped and crackled on most channels. I had written down the channel we heard talking on the previous night. Now it was only white noise.
“Keep looking,” Jared said. “Someone is out there. They have to be.” I scrolled through a few more channels. I still couldn’t make sense out of what Ian had become. He looked dried out and hardened, almost mummified. He most definitely looked dead, but could he really have been a zombie? I thought shit like that only existed in movies and videogames, but I couldn’t argue with Jared’s rationale. For lack of a better definition, Ian was a zombie.
“…little more than husks of who they were…entire East and West Coasts...”
The voice rattled through the radio. Everyone inside the bunker held their breath. My hand trembled, as if moving it might lose the voice. We were desperate for information.
“Can you talk to them?” Danni said. Her voice was barely above a whisper. I nodded.
“Please repeat,” I said.
“Who is this? What’s your location?”
the voice asked.
“My name is Lucas,” I said. “I’m on the East Coast. Where are you?” I wasn’t going to tell them too much too soon. Disasters made people dangerous.
“We’re in Buffalo. Wait, did you say East Coast? Holy shit, Lucas,”
the voice said.
“How are you still alive?”
“What do you mean?” I asked. “I’ve been holed up for over a day in my basement.”
“The entire East Coast is gone, so is the West,”
the voice said.
“Some kind of coordinated terrorist attack. They set off multiple dirty bombs around major cities. You’ve seen the ash falling, right?”
“Yeah,” I said. “But I didn’t think dirty bombs would be capable of everything that I’ve seen outside. I’d expect some fallout and radiation poisoning, but nothing like what we’ve seen.”
“You’ve seen the husks, haven’t you?”
the voice said.
“A handful of survivors are out there and they’re all reporting husks in their towns and cities.”
“What the hell is a husk?” I asked. I was pretty sure that I already knew the answer.
“The dead,”
the voice said.
“Those bombs weren’t just radioactive. They loaded them up with a myriad of viruses. Something happened when the bombs exploded, some kind of radioactive virus or something. Anyone who breathes in too much of the ash dies, but they don’t stay that way. The radiation kills them and dries them out, but the virus brings them back. They come back as withered human husks. Then they eat. Have you or anyone you’re with been bit?”
I looked at the bruise on my arm. It had spread and yellowed on the edges, but it didn’t look like anything more than a bruise.
“No,” I said. “No one has been bit by one of those things. One tried, but didn’t break the skin.”
“That’s good, that’s very good, Lucas,”
the voice said.
“That’s how the virus spreads.”
“He’s talking about zombies,” Jared said. “See I told you Ian was a fucking zombie.”
“Jared!” Danni snapped.
I shrugged. The kid sounded pretty spot on.
“Are you saying people are coming back as zombies?” I asked into the radio. “That seems a little crazy.”
“You must have seen one or two by now, Lucas,”
the voice said.
“People have been calling them ‘husks’ because I guess that’s easier to wrap your head around. But, call them whatever you want, you’re dealing with zombies.”
“So how are you in Buffalo?” I asked. “You said the East Coast was gone. Is that part of New York safe?”
“New York?”
the voice said. I heard a garbbled laugh under the static.
“New York is a wasteland. I’m in Buffalo, South Dakota. There’s a group of us that have joined up. The ash clouds haven’t gotten this far. We’re hoping that the Rocky Mountains will keep it on the West Coast and that everything in the East won’t make it this far. Look, Lucas, I have no idea how you’re still alive, but you need to get as far away from the East Coast as fast as possible. Maybe try and head this way. You’re obviously a resourceful man. The world is going to need people like you.”
Whoever was on the other end of this radio spoke like it was his job. The words came too easy. In prison, I learned not to trust someone who always knew the right thing to say. There were only two types of people that spoke with that level of confidence – con men and politicians. Not that there was much of a difference between the two. I hated them both.
“We should go,” Danni said. She stood up and paced the length of the bunker.
“Leave?” I asked. “We don’t know who is on the other end of this transmission. Could be a bunch of psychos, or worse, liars. They might be worse off than we are.”
Danni looked upset, but didn’t argue.
I turned back to the radio. “How do we know we can trust you?”
“Lucas, I know you have no reason to trust or believe what I’m telling you, but there’s going to be more husks with each day that passes,”
the voice said.
“Come here or don’t, it’s your call, but you need to get away from the East Coast.”
“I don’t even know your name,” I said. “Why am I going to suddenly pack up and leave?”
“My name is Senator James Heathway. I think I’m all that’s left of the US Government,”
Heathway paused.
“You need to leave soon, Lucas. I hope you make the right choice.”
“Senator Heathway?” Jared asked. “I did a report about him for my social studies class, some kind of current events thing about Second Amendment rights or something like that. I remember that he was from South Dakota. Maybe it really is him?”
“Yeah,” I said. “Maybe it is, but that doesn’t mean much.”
“Doesn’t mean much?” Danni asked. “He said he’s what’s left of the government. If we have any chance of surviving this, I’d say it’s in South Dakota. I vote we leave.”
“Me too,” Jared said.
I hesitated. “I’m not making any snap decisions just because someone who may or may not be a US Senator told me to. Besides, I’m not going anywhere until I see my family.”
“Your family?” Danni asked. I could see that she was conflicted. She would never tell me to give up on seeing my family, but she couldn’t pass up the only chance that she might have to save hers.
“Okay,” I sighed. “But you can’t leave yet.”
“Don’t you mean
we
?” Jared asked.
“No,” I said. “Look, I’ll give you supplies, guns, and a map. I’ll even help you find a better car than that pile of crap I saw in your driveway, but I’m not going with you. I’m sorry, but I just can’t.”
“Yes, you can,” Danni said. She knelt down and looked into my eyes. “You don’t even know where they are. Lucas, you can’t pass up your only chance to go chase some memories. And even if you do find them, it might be worse than not knowing.”
“Mom, that’s not cool,” Jared said. “Chill out about Lucas’ family. I’m sure they’re fine. I’m sure he had them just as prepared.”
“I know where Lisa and Kara are,” I said. I stood up and walked to the other end of the bunker. “I’m staying. You’re going. That’s the deal.”
“What’s first?” Danni asked.
“First?” I repeated. “First we get something to eat and then we get some rest. We’ll start in the morning.”
“Should we wait that long?” Danni asked. “Senator Heathway said we should leave as soon as possible.”
“He also said that there were going to be more of those things like Ian, more husks,” I said. “Do you want to go outside in the dark to find out if he’s right? I don’t.” I grabbed a can from the shelf without looking at its label and began opening it. I wanted to do anything other than continue this conversation.
Danni shook her head. She was upset, but being impulsive would get someone killed. I would help her and Jared, make sure they were safe, but I wasn’t going with them. I was going to see my family.
-15-
I listened to the sound of Danni and Jared snoring softly. Once I was sure they were asleep, I fished my cell phone out of my front pocket.
Kara: I miss you, Daddy. I love you.
I thumbed the keys on my cell phone, but nothing happened. The keys must have been broken as I was thrown to the ground and arrested. I wanted to write something back to Kara. I wanted to tell her that I loved her too, to tell her that I even still loved her mom. I wanted to be where they were, to make sure that they were safe.
Tears stung my eyes as I read Kara’s text message for a second and then a third time. She was my little girl and I wanted to tell her that I loved her, but my shitty phone was broken. Lisa thought it was funny to tease me about still having a flip phone. She and Kara had smart phones. I resisted, claiming that those phones gave away too much personal information, but I would have traded anything for a phone that could reach Kara. But who knows? Even if I had been able to send it, it wouldn’t have made the situation any better. She was still there and I was still here.
Kara: I miss you, Daddy. I love you.
I read the words again.
“I love you too, baby girl,” I said. I knew she couldn’t hear me, but prayed that she knew, that no matter where Lisa and Kara were, that they both knew that I loved them.
I would hug them and tell them that I loved them. I would do whatever I needed to do to see them again.
-16-
My old 1988 blue and white Ford Bronco II sat in the garage behind my house. Like most other things, I made sure to prepare it for the years I would be away. I drained the fluids and covered the truck. Still, I worried a squirrel or rat could have made a nest in the engine. It wouldn’t be the first time I had seen one of the little bastards strip wires and stuff an engine with leaves and garbage.
I opened the door and popped the hood. Jared lifted it up. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw no signs of rodents.
“We need to refill all the fluids,” I said and pointed to varying cans and drums in the corner of the garage. “Drag those over here while I switch out the spark plugs and check a few other things.”
Jared stopped near the open driver’s side door.
“What is it?” I asked.
“No offense man, but this truck kind of sucks,” Jared said. “I would have guessed that you had some bad ass Road Warrior thing in here.”
“That Mad Max shit will get you killed,” I said. “You don’t want metal plates and saw blades. What you want is something with four-wheel drive that’s easy to maintain and has a lot of parts available. And that’s this ugly beast right here.”
“Still, man, it looks like it handles like a fat kid on roller skates,” Jared said.
“It does,” I said. “But I know how to make it run and keep it running, so that’s good enough for me.” Jared smirked and walked towards the back of the garage.
Danni was inside collecting supplies for their trip. I didn’t feel like I needed to watch her. There was more than enough stuff in my basement and I wasn’t planning on going far, so whatever they needed to get to South Dakota was fine with me.
Jared struggled with the drum of gas. “Move it like this,” I said and showed him how to tip it onto its edge and roll it. Once the barrel was in place, I grabbed the hand crank pump from the bench. Jared held the gas line in place while I cranked the pump. With the tank topped off, we began dealing with the oil and other fluids.
After a few turns of my ratchet, we had changed out the last of the spark plugs. A new battery was next. The Bronco II looked like it might actually run.
“Come on, kid, I’ll show you how to start this up. I’m guessing you’ve never driven a car before,” I said. I climbed into the driver’s side.
Jared opened the passenger door and climbed in. “I’ve driven a car before, but never one with a stick shift.”
“You’re not old enough to have a license,” I said as I pumped the pedal to prime the engine. The truck sputtered a few times and then kicked over. An acrid cloud of exhaust belched from the tail pipe and filled the garage with a hazy fog.
“I don’t have a license,” Jared said. “Believe it or not, the guy my mom was dating before Ian was worse. He beat her up so bad one night that I had to drive her to the hospital. I hit a few things, like some trash cans and a mailbox, but I got her there.”
“Gotcha,” I nodded. Jared had lived a short life, but a hard one. He might actually have a chance of surviving this insanity. He deserved it.
The Bronco II rumbled out of the garage and into the yard. Ian’s headless corpse was somewhere beneath the mounds of ash that dotted my yard. I hoped we wouldn’t run him over, but figured it didn’t really matter.
Static roared from the radio. I must have forgotten to turn it off. Jared reached over and twisted the knob to silence the noise.
Danni shrieked from inside the house.