I hit send and watched
as the battery percentage dropped down to two percent. That was it
until I found a charger.
Radiator steam seeped
from under the bus hood while the diesel engine ticked as it cooled.
Smoke lingered in the air inside of the bus as a groan came from one
of the unconscious survivors. A repetitive humming vibrated against
the shattered glass and steel walls. The sound helped pull Daniels
from his stupor. He forced his eyes open. An upside down advertising
poster of a Victoria’s Secret model came into focus. He was no
longer in the driver’s seat, but rather found himself lying in the
middle of the bus with his feet in the air, resting on the seat above
his head. Zombie carcasses were strewn across his legs. Panic began
to set in until he realized they were the zombies he had dispatched
earlier when he commandeered the bus.
It took a minute for
Daniels to get his bearings. He looked down at his chest and saw he
was covered with glass. Most of the windows on the bus had smashed
out when the bus flipped onto its side. Daniels pulled his legs out
from under the zombies and gave himself a quick once-over. He wasn’t
bleeding, and it didn’t feel like he had broken anything. The rest
of his friends were still out cold.
He heard the buzzing
again. The sound of a hard molded plastic phone case was vibrating
against the metal shell of the bus. This time, Daniels recognized the
sound. He brushed away broken glass and found his phone lying next to
him.
He looked at the
screen.
“New Text Message.”
Daniels swiped the
screen, “Oh, thank God. It’s Ty,” he said aloud.
After reading the
message, he felt a sense of relief. He tapped the reply bar and
started to type. Daniels, not having the speed and agility of his
son, tapped out his message one touch at a time,
“That’s
great news, Ty. I’m okay. Zombies have taken over the city. I’m
with a group of good people. We are trying to make it to the Lincoln
tunnel. Be careful. Tell your mom I love her. Oh, the only way to
kill these things is to shoot them in the head. I’m sure you know
that by now. BE STRONG! I love you. Dad.”
Daniels hit send. He
watched as the delivery indicator moved across the top of the screen
and paused, “Come on. Send you son of a bitch.”
And with that, it sent.
Daniels placed the cell
phone back in his pocket, this time fastening the button. He couldn’t
take a chance of losing the only connection to his family.
“Did you get ahold of
someone?”
Surprised by the voice,
Daniels glanced over at Bunker. He was gaining consciousness and
trying to sit up.
“The phone. Did you
get ahold of someone?” he asked.
“I got a text message
from my son, Ty. I told him we were okay and headed for the tunnel.”
Daniels put his hand
over his pocket and felt the smooth outline of the phone through his
shirt, “Do you want to try to call someone, Bunker?”
Bunker laughed, “Who,
my Parole Officer? If it’s all the same to you, I prefer to let him
think I’m dead.”
Daniels laughed, “What
about your daughter?” The smile vanished from Bunker’s face as a
shade of melancholy replaced it, “If it’s all the same to you,
Daniels, I think I would rather make my way down there and find out
if she’s okay for myself.”
Daniels pulled his hand
away from his shirt pocket, “If you change your mind, you let me
know, and the phone is yours.”
“I appreciate that,”
Bunker said with a nod.
The conversation
brought the other three back to a conscious state.
Daniels heard the
complaints coming from the others.
“Is everyone okay
back there?” Daniels asked.
Kaden sat up, still
drowsy from the knock to his head, “What happened?” he asked,
while blinking to rid the blurriness.
“We had a little
accident, pal. Are you okay? It looks like you’ve got a little
blood dripping from your forehead.” Daniels asked, pointing at
Kaden’s head.
“Yeah, I must have
cut it on all this glass. Where did it all come from?”
“Now, where do you
think it come from boy? Mr. Knievel almost killed us all jumping this
bus. This ain’t no action movie, ya know.” Destiny sat up and
adjusted one of her breasts, “Oh great, I think you broke my tit.”
“Sounds like
Destiny’s up.” Bunker joked.
Daniels chuckled, “I’m
sorry, Destiny. I don’t have a response to that. Will you be a dear
and check on Cecilia? It looks like she’s still out.”
Destiny sat up and
crawled over to Cecilia giving her a few pats on the cheek, “Hey
girly, girl. Wake up. Sugar Bear wants me to make sure you’re
alright.”
With a little coaxing,
Cecilia opened her eyes and reached for her forehead.
“I’m okay, my head
hurts, I think it bounced off the roof. I’ll be fine, I just need a
second to catch my breath.”
While Ceci was
regaining full consciousness, Destiny used the metal seat legs to
pull herself up, and continued to climb up to the window. She knocked
away some of the remaining glass and poked her head out of the bus.
Anyone who would have been watching from the outside would have
thought she resembled a turtle poking its head out from the shell.
She searched the area for a few seconds and dropped back into the
bus.
“What’s out there?”
Bunker asked.
“Honey, I didn’t
see nothin’ but a lot of smoke. It’s blockin’ everything.”
Daniels climbed up on
the seat, “Let me take a look,” he said as his head rose out of
the window. He spun around taking in the full 360 degrees. Destiny
was right. An immense cloud of blue smoke surrounded them. When the
bus flipped on its side, the oil must have spilled onto the hot
engine block, clouding the entire area.
Daniels dropped back
into the bus, “If everyone can walk, we need to get out of here,
while we still have cover. This may be our best opportunity. Bunker,
can you get the back emergency door open?”
Bunker pushed against
the red locking safety bar and forced the door open, “The hinges
are on the top. I’m gonna have to hold it. Let’s go. Everyone
out.”
Daniels left the bus
first with his M4 raised. Ten feet outside the bus, he took a knee
and scanned the area with the EOTech scope, “It’s all clear.
Let’s move.”
With everyone out,
Bunker exited the bus. He wrestled with the heavy steel bus door to
prevent it from slamming closed. The last thing they needed was
another loud noise attracting zombies. The bus wreck already put the
dead on alert. A door slamming would help them pinpoint their
location in the haze.
Bunker met up with the
waiting group, “Which way?” he asked.
Destiny raised a
gold-ringed finger, “If we go that way, it will take us to Bryant
Park.”
“Is it safe there?”
Bunker asked.
“I don’t know if
it’s safe, but that’s the way we need to go if we want to get out
of the city.”
“Bryant Park it is,”
Daniels said taking point, “Follow me.”
Bunker caught up to him
and gave him a light tug on the arm, “I don’t think Ceci and
Kaden are doing so well.”
“What do you mean?”
Daniels asked.
“I mean they seem out
of it.”
Daniels glanced back,
“I can understand Kaden. He lost the only family he had. I don’t
know what’s going on with Ceci. Maybe the bus wreck hurt her worse
than we thought. I’ll talk to her when we get to the park.”
“Yeah, she hit her
head hard,” Bunker agreed, “But that’s not what I’m talking
about.”
“What do you mean
then?”
Bunker snuck a look
back at her for a brief second, “I don’t remember her being that
pail. It’s like she’s been…bitten.”
I tucked the phone back
in my pocket wondering if dad would get my message. A cool October
breeze swept off Lake Champlain, turning her sapphire blue water into
cresting whitecaps. Each one bigger than the next, slamming against
the jagged slate rock beach. Red and yellow leaves blew from the
trees and landed at my feet. People travel from hundreds of miles
away to see the Adirondack foliage. A luxury I took for granted my
entire life, associating this time of year with raking and extra
chores. I’d give anything now, to have my dad here bitching at me.
Listening to him complain about my half-ass raking job.
As I stared off into
the lake, my mom saw the concerned look on my face and came over.
“What’s wrong,
honey?” she asked.
Again, like all the
other times of need in my life, my mom was there when I needed her
the most.
“I sent Dad a text.”
“Did you get a
message back?” she asked.
“No, nothing. I can’t
even check my phone now. It’s almost dead.”
I turned from the lake,
concerned, “Do you think he’s okay, Mom?”
She returned a
reassuring smile, “I think he’s just fine, Ty. You know your
father. He is very resourceful, and he’s trained for this.”
“He’s trained for a
zombie apocalypse?” I snickered.
“You know what I
mean, smartass. He can take care of himself, and he’s taught us to
do the same. I’m sure it’s driving him crazy that he’s not here
to protect us.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re
right, Mom, but I just want this thing to be over.”
I watched as Charger
chased Herman around the parking lot. She was biting at his cape as
he sang the Batman theme.
“He makes me smile,”
I said.
“Ty, the only way
this thing will be over is if we help Sophie get the cure to
Atlanta.”
My smile disappeared as
I thought about the dangers we had encountered.
“I know, Mom.”
“If you know, then
maybe you better quit screwing around. You need to get this group
moving. The longer it takes to get to Atlanta, the more people are
going to die.”
“Point taken, Mom.”
“Then let’s get
everyone moving,” she said, with a firm pat on my back. Sometimes
she was too much like dad, as usual, she was right. But like any
stubborn kid, I’d never admit it.
It was time to get
these troops moving.
Herman was still
running around the parking lot with his arms straight out like he was
flying. He had worn Charger out, and she was now napping against the
Humvee tire.
Thurman was yelling for
him to help to wedge a frame pack into the passenger seat of the
Ferrari.
I went over to help so
that we could get moving, “Not a lot of room in there, huh? Why
don’t you find some rope and strap it to the top of the Humvee with
our gear? It will give Batman a little more leg room.”
Thurman pulled the pack
out and dropped it on the ground, “Thanks, that will help a lot. I
know the car’s not practical, but Herman had to have it, and I feel
bad about not telling him mom is dead. We’ll keep it until we can
find something a little bigger. We can’t travel south, down the
east coast in this thing.”
“That’s a good
idea,” I said, “how are you guys doing with weapons and ammo?”
“We don’t have
anything quite as good as you,” he said, motioning to my slung M4,
“ but we’ve got a couple hunting rifles. One’s a 308, and the
other is a .30-.30 Winchester. It’s lever action like cowboys used
to carry.”
I chuckled, “I bet
our Cowboy would get a kick out of it.”
“He’s more than
welcome to try it anytime he wants, as long as he lets me take a few
shots with that sniper rifle.” Thurman offered.
“I’m sure that can
be arranged, but for now, get your pack loaded on the Humvee. As soon
as you’re done, we’re heading out of here.”
“Sounds good, Ty.
Herman and I will be ready in five minutes.”
Thurman grabbed the
pack and walked away heading toward the Humvee.
Mom must have let
everyone know we were leaving. They were already circling the
vehicles except Chevy. He sat on the ferry railing staring at Thurman
as he tied his pack to the top of the Humvee.
I wandered over out of
curiosity, “Hey, what’s up brother?”
“I don’t like
them,” Chevy said.
“You don’t like
whom?”
“Dumb and Dumber.”
“Whom are you taking
about?” I asked.
“Whom do you think?
The new guys, there’s something about them. I just can’t put my
finger on it.”
“I think you’re
just being paranoid, Chevy. The one guy got creamed with a car when
he was a kid, and his brother is just trying to take care of him.”
“I don’t care about
the Batman kid. It’s the other one, what’s his name? Thurman.
Don’t you find it strange that everyone in Port Kent is dead except
for Batman and his brother?”
“Chevy, what the hell
are you talking about? They’re stuck in the middle of this thing,
just like we are. There’s no one left in Port Kent because they all
turned into zombies or got eaten by them. Just like in Plattsburgh. I
think you need some sleep.”
“Damn it, Ty. I don’t
need any sleep. Trust me on this one.”
“Okay, Chev. I’ll
keep a close eye on them, but you can’t treat everyone we meet like
they’re the enemy.”
“What about, Kane?”
What about him?”
“How many other
crazies do you think there are out here? I know he’s not Kane. But
there is something about him. I can’t put my finger on it. All I’m
asking is you is just to keep an eye on him.”
I threw my arm around
Chevy’s neck, “You got it, brother. You know I’d do anything
for you. If you think there’s something up with him, then I will
watch him like a hawk. Now come on, let’s get the fuck out of
here.”
Herman and Thurman got
into the Ferrari and took the lead. I hopped in the driver’s seat
of the Humvee so Chevy could navigate and get a little shuteye. He
was on edge about the new guys. Mom, Sage, Sidara, Luther, and
Charger squeezed into the back of the Humvee while Cowboy and Sophie
took up the rear of the convoy in the jeep.