In the Lone and Level Sands (34 page)

“We could get a few cars and use them to get
to Washington,” Garrett said. “We can head for the Astoria-Megler
bridge, it crosses right into it.”

“We’re going to Washington?” Ralph asked. “I
never agreed to go to Washington.”

“You’re welcome to go back to the church,”
Kyle said. He stopped walking to shoot an approaching zombie.

“Okay, get us there,” Layne said.

“Make a right on Duane,” Ralph said.

The group reached the car dealership. There
didn’t seem to be anyone around.

“So we just break in, find the keys, and
take a couple of cars?” Garrett suggested.

“Sounds like a simple enough plan,” Layne
replied. The doors were unlocked, and there was no one inside.

“We need enough to seat ten people,” Katie
said.

“Two cars, five people each,” Layne said.
“I’ll drive one.”

“I’ll drive the other,” Garrett said.

“Where do you think they keep the keys?” Dex
asked.

“Hopefully not in a vault,” Layne said.

The keys were kept in a desk, filed very
neatly. The group got two keys and found the corresponding
cars.

“All right, I guess it’s time to divvy up,”
Layne said.

“I’m going with Dad,” Dex said. Layne looked
at him.

“Me too,” Lacie said.

“I’d like to go with you, too,” Jessi said.
“And Kara, of course.”

“Then that means I’m taking Ralph, Kyle,
Warren, and Katie,” Garrett said, partially to clear things up, but
also to make sure he had their names right.

“Okay,” Layne said. “Try to stay close
behind, so we don’t lose you.”

“Man, you’re going to be the one eating my
dust,” Garrett said. Layne smiled. Everyone got into their cars,
and they were off.

Layne followed Garrett, since he didn’t know
the way to the bridge. The roads had quite a few cars on them, and
even more zombies. Most of them were unable to keep up with the
survivors and gave up, and the few more daring zombies were no
match for the cars or their armed occupants.

Soon the top of the bridge loomed into view:
A green, steel spider web that arced up and down like a
rollercoaster. They hit a highway on-ramp, and Layne saw the car
before him slow down. Then he saw why.

The bridge was almost completely blocked.
The stopped cars on the highway grew more and more numerous,
culminating in a near-solid wall of vehicles at the mouth of the
bridge.

Both cars stopped. Garrett got out, and so
did Layne.

“I guess we’re hoofing it, then?” Layne
said.

“We’ll see if we can find some more cars
once we get across the bridge,” Garrett said. “Someone had to have
left their keys in their car, right?”

“All right.” Layne turned to the group in
the car. “We’re going to have to cross the bridge on foot.”

The survivors gathered outside of the
vehicles. A fog was rolling in from the ocean and beginning to
cover the bridge.

“How long is the bridge?” Jessi asked.

“About four miles,” Ralph said.

“We can make this, easily,” Layne said. They
headed off.

Getting across the bridge was not an easy
task. There were parked cars everywhere; a lot of people had
attempted to leave the city when the incident first occurred. There
was the occasional body in or outside of a car, which Layne was
trying hard to not pay attention to.

Fortunately, there were few zombies. It
seemed most had made their way off of the bridge, probably due to
lack of food. They saw a zombie from time to time, but the
survivors dispatched them with ease.

The fog set in, making vision difficult. The
group was able to go around most of the cars, but occasionally had
to climb over them.

The four miles Ralph mentioned had not
included walking around and over vehicles. At this rate, Layne
figured they’d be across the bridge by mid-afternoon at the
earliest.

“I’m tired,” Kara said. It was the first
thing Layne had heard her say in a long time.

“Honey, I can’t carry you right now,” Jessi
said. “There are too many things in the way. I’m just gonna need
you to stay strong for a while, okay?”

“Okay,” Kara said. Layne wanted to offer to
carry her, but it simply wouldn’t work, since they had to climb
over the hoods (and sometimes tops) of cars. When this happened,
someone would have to lift Kara over the car and hand her to
someone on the other side. They all took turns, and it was quickly
wearing them out.

“So where are we going to go?” Ralph asked,
breaking a long silence. “After we cross this bridge, what happens
next?”

“We try to find our loved ones, I suppose,”
Layne said. “Or maybe just a safe place to stay.” The thought made
him uncomfortable. How long would they wander around, looking for a
place to stay? How many “safe places” would they find, only to have
it torn away from them, and how many more people would they lose
along the way?

Layne kept hoping he would see the end of
the bridge through the fog, or at least the end of the traffic jam.
He hoped he would see solid land, but the rows of stopped cars kept
coming, and the bridge was endless.

“Hey man, can I talk to you for a sec?” Dex
asked Layne. “It’s kind of private.”

“Sure,” Layne said. The two of them walked
ahead of the others so no one else would hear. “What’s up?”

“I don’t know if you could tell or not, but
I kind of like Lacie.”

“I had no idea,” Layne said. He rolled his
eyes.

“Shut your face. But seriously, I just found
out she’s only seventeen.”

“And?”

“That’s illegal, man,” Dex said. Layne
started laughing. Dex looked around to see if the others could
hear.

“Dex, no one cares,” Layne said.

“Really though, I’m concerned. Like, what if
everything ends up getting back to normal? I could get in some
serious shit.”

“Dex, for every one normal person we see, we
see a few hundred of your ‘zombies’. If things ever get back to
normal, no one would care. We’re trying to survive, after all.”

“Yeah,” Garrett said, startling them both.
“It’s what we, as people, do.”

“How long have you been there?” Dex
said.

“Longer than you. You guys caught up with
me
. Hope you don’t mind.”

“It’s fine, I don’t care anymore,” Dex said.
He looked embarrassed, but relieved. The three fell back with the
others.

They made minimal conversation, but Layne
mostly tuned it out. He was going over the words he had just
said.

If things ever get back to normal.

Layne was bothered, but not by the prospect
that things might never get back to normal. What bothered him was
how easily it had come to him. Like it was something he had
accepted long before.

“Did you guys hear something?” Ralph asked.
Layne stopped walking and listened. The others did the same.

“I don’t hear anything,” Dex said.

“No, wait,” Katie said. She raised a hand
for silence. “Yeah, I hear it too.”

The group fell silent. No one moved. To
Layne, they looked like ghosts, they may as well have been part of
the fog.

Then, he heard it. There was a very faint
sound, the sound of moaning.

“It’s… it’s just the wind,” Warren said.

“No,” Garrett said. “It’s not the wind.”

“Okay,” Layne said. “I want everyone to stay
right here. Garrett and I are going to go up ahead and check things
out.”

“Be careful,” Jessi said.

Layne and Garrett made their way ahead,
trying to be as quiet as possible. They reached a blockade of
cars.

“We’ll have to go over,” Layne said.

“No,” Garrett replied. “Under.”

They crawled under the car and onto the
other side. Layne couldn’t be sure how far they trudged along. The
moaning grew louder, and soon it was accompanied by the sound of
shuffling feet.

“Land ho,” Garrett said. Layne could see it
too: A long line of dark green, a hilly forest. But he was paying
more attention to the bridge up ahead, just before landfall.

It was difficult to see through the fog, but
Layne could see enough. There were still a good hundred yards of
blocked bridge, but the field of vehicles was thinning out.
Unfortunately, the gaps between the cars were littered with
zombies. Layne couldn’t tell how far back they went, but he
imagined it continued past the bridge.

Layne and Garrett ducked behind a large fuel
tanker and peeked out from the back of it.

“So,” Layne said. “What now?”

“Most of these cars still have the keys in
them,” Garrett said.

“We’ll never make it. There are too many
cars in the way. We’ll have to grab cars farther on, past the
bridge.”

“Let’s head back. We can figure out what to
do when we regroup.”

They cautiously made their way back to the
others.

“So, what’s the news?” Dex said.

“There’s a ton of them,” Layne replied.
“Zombies, I mean. They’re blocking the exit to the bridge.”

“Big fucking surprise,” Kyle said.

“There are children present,” Ralph said.
Kyle shot him a look.

“Think we can we take them?” Katie
asked.

“I don’t know,” Layne said. “I can’t tell
how many there are through this damn fog.”

“I’m tired,” Kara said. Jessi picked her
up.

“So what do we do?” Dex said. “If we wait
for the fog to lift, they’re just as likely to see us as we are
them.”

“Right,” Layne said. “I’d prefer to use the
fog to our advantage. But we just can’t take the risk of going at
them head-on.”

“I have an idea,” Warren said. The rest
turned to him. “I hate to take a page from the folks we just left
behind, but we can blow them all away.”

“What do you mean?” Garrett asked.

“We’ll have someone get close. Very close.
And we’ll blow up one of the closest cars to them. It’ll clear us a
path, hopefully one big enough to get us off the bridge. Preferably
in a car.”

The group exchanged glances.

“It’s crazy,” Dex said. “I like it.”

“It may not work,” Layne said. “What if we
aren’t able to clear a path big enough to escape through?”

“We’d be sitting ducks,” Katie said.

“We probably have enough ammunition to fend
off whatever’s left until we can get to safety,” Garrett said.

“Besides,” Warren said, “did you see the way
they ran into the fire? Maybe it’ll happen again.”

“It’s the best plan we have so far,” Layne
said. “We can’t get through on foot, that’s for sure.”

“Okay, okay,” Lacie said. “How do we blow up
a car?” The group looked around.

“How hard can it be to blow up a car?” Dex
said. “People do it all the time, right?”

“Yeah,” Garrett said. “People with
explosives.”

“Back in Astoria,” Ralph said. “There had to
be something explosive there, right? I mean, the guys at the church
were able to do it.”

Everyone fell silent.

“Then we can’t waste any time,” Layne said.
“Someone will have to get to Astoria and back before the fog
lifts.”

“That’s crazy!” Katie said. She winced,
listened for a moment, and continued much more quietly. “We have no
idea how much time we have, or if we’ll even be able to find
anything.”

“We have to try,” Layne said. “I’ll go
alone. It’ll be faster that way.” The thought of crossing the
bridge once more, let alone twice, made Layne’s feet hurt.

“Wait,” Garrett said. “I think there’s an
easier way. That tanker, up the bridge, you remember? Maybe we can
use it. It looked like a gas tank, right?”

Layne thought for a moment. “Yeah, it did
look like a gas tank. But how do we set it off?”

Garrett cocked his shotgun.

“Okay then, here’s the plan,” Layne said.
“The tanker is close to the zombies. And we can probably get it
just a little bit closer. Then we set it off, preferably from as
far back as we can.”

“I can hit it with this,” Katie said. She
held up a rifle.

“Okay. Garrett and I will set the tanker up
and get it moving. Then we’ll get the hell out of there. You set it
off. That should give us an opening.”

“We’ll all have to be nearby when it goes
off,” Garrett said. “To save time, and to get out smoothly. We’ll
have to be close, and we’ll have to be quiet.”

****

The group moved in. It was a meticulous
process; Layne would move ahead, make sure there were no zombies,
and mark a car by hanging his tie on the mirror. Then he’d go back
to the group, they would quietly make their way to the marked car,
and then start the process over again. It was time consuming, but
it was safe.

As they went, the moans of the zombies were
getting louder. Finally, the gas truck loomed into view, and Layne
stopped.

“You guys wait here,” he said. “As soon as
the tanker goes off, run and catch up with the three of us.” He
motioned to himself, Garrett, and Katie. “We’ll make an opening,
get into some cars, and get out of here, okay?”

“Sure thing, Dad,” Dex said.

“Try to be serious, okay?” Katie said.

“All right, Mom.” Layne stifled a laugh.

“Let’s get moving,” Garrett said.

The three moved ahead. Katie crouched next
to a car, propped her rifle on its hood, and aimed dead ahead. “I
can’t see shit,” she said.

“We’ll try to get it going in a straight
line,” Layne replied. “If you can’t hit it, one of us will.”

“But that will probably kill us both,”
Garrett said. “So do me a favor, and don’t miss.” He was somehow
able to say this without a hint of malice.

“I’ll try,” Katie said.

Layne climbed onto the tanker, which was
stopped behind some cars and pointing slightly to the right, and
opened the door. It creaked loudly. Everything stopped. Layne
closed his eyes, listened. He thought he heard a shuffle come to a
stop, but after a few minutes, nothing happened. He slowly opened
the door the rest of the way. It went with a series of much
smaller, quieter creaks, but drew no attention.