J. G. Andrews Read online

“Well, you’re sure as hell making me not hungry,” Natalie said, looking away in disgust.

  “We’re getting close to Los Banos,” Hiroshi cut in. “I would suggest we go around it.” They were the first words John had heard him say since they escaped the gas station.

  Amy shifted in her seat, turning to address John. “I have to agree with him. Even though Los Banos is a small place, there’s no telling how many people are still there. We should stay away from any major population areas for the time being. Does that sound good to you?”

  “Darian and I already talked about that. We figure a farm somewhere in the middle of nowhere will be a good place to stay until this blows over or we figure out what to do. We’d have food and shelter, beds to sleep in, and most of all, an unpopulated surrounding. So I say we head north right before hitting Banos and see what we can find.” John brushed some crumbs from his lap. “You’re gonna have to take the lead, Hiroshi.”

  The old man hmm’d a sound of disapproval and said nothing to John’s suggestion.

  Rolling his eyes and shaking his head, John corrected, “Mr. Yamate.”

  At John’s words, Hiroshi started flashing the SUV’s lights at the rear of Darian’s truck which immediately slowed. The two cars moved side-by-side, keeping a leisurely pace. The windows rolled down and Darian stuck his head out, Amy doing the same.

  “What’s going on?” Darian’ asked over the rush of rolling tires and sweeping air.

  “We’re taking the lead. Just follow us for now,” Amy replied, her grey streaked hair catching in the wind.

  “Whatever you say, boss!” Darian’s head disappeared back into his truck and he slowed it so the SUV could pass. He looked over at Karen. “God, I hope they know where they’re going.”

  *****

  John felt the SUV slow to a stop and tipped forward from his relaxed position. “Why’re we stopping?”

  “There are two cars in the way, but we’re on a bridge so we can’t just drive around them. We’re going to have to get out and push them,” Amy explained with a frustrated sigh.

  “And by ‘we’re’, you mean me and Darian.”

  “And Karen and Natalie if needed,” Amy added with a sweet smile. “We older folks wouldn’t be too useful for this type of task.”

  “Of course,” John replied with a sarcastic grin before grumbling, “What about us injured folk?” Ignoring his own complaint, he popped open his door and stepped out before glancing back at Natalie. “Grab a bat and follow me.”

  The blonde grumbled but did as she was told, hopping out the other side. The two walked around the front, into the high beams. The light washed over their backs, shading their fronts as they approached the two cars.

  Darian stepped into the light, bat resting on his shoulder. “I gotta say, this is so far the worst road trip I’ve ever been on.” He stopped, looking over the accident.

  The car in the right lane was stuck half in the left, its front buried in the passenger side of the other car. The driver’s body was halfway out the windshield, numerous deep lacerations across his face and chest. His arms lie motionless on the crumpled hood.

  John grimaced at the sight and bent over, resting his free hand on his side. As he stood again, he looked around, as if hoping for an explanation from someone.

  Moving to stand next to his friend, Darian frowned as well. “Well, we’ll just push the car with him in it, I guess.”

  “Ugh.” Natalie covered her mouth and turned away. “I did not need to see this.”

  “You should probably get used to it though,” Darian replied bluntly. “You wanna pop it into neutral so we can push this thing?”

  “You’re asking me if I want to stick my hand into the car with the dead body in it?” Natalie stated dumbly.

  “It’s only the lower half of a dead body.”

  “Jesus, I’ll do it,” John said and reached through the open window. His shoulders were passing the frame when the man’s legs twitched strongly, knees slamming into the steering wheel. The horn sounded weakly, damaged from the crash. John fell back, surprised, landing hard on his ass. “Shit! Is he alive?”

  The other half of the man’s body was clawing at the hood of his car, nails screeching over the metal. He groaned as he tried to pull himself from his windshield, but it only caused the glass to cut deeper inside his stomach. They could see the skin around his face had partially torn off, revealing the bloody tissue.

  Hunk, hunk the horn sounded low in the quiet night.

  Natalie stepped back, raising the bat above her head with both hands, an awkward stance. Darian’s hand rose, blocking her from striking the man. She regarded his hand with irritation but lowered the bat.

  Darian stepped up to the car and bent in to take a closer look. He tapped his bat on the crushed hood, trying to catch the struggling man’s attention and succeeding as the man’s head twisted and a hollow hiss of breath crawled out from the bottom of his throat.

  “I think you woke him up,” Darian said, leaning away as the man started reaching for him.

  John was pushing himself to his feet, a hand guarding his side carefully. “You think he was sleeping like that?”

  “Maybe not sleeping, but like, in sleep mode or something. Like a computer, when it’s in sleep mode, all you have to do is touch the mouse and it turns back on,” Darian explained and again moved in to better study the man. “The moment you got close to him he seemed to snap to life. Maybe it’s because no one’s been around for a while so he just shut down.”

  “Don’t get too close to him, Darian,” John warned.

  Darian glanced over his shoulder at his friend as the man’s hands strained for his head. “I think it’s safe to say I was right.”

  “About what?” Natalie asked. She held the bat with both hands but let it rest against the ground.

  Darian’s eyes smiled in the night and he turned to face them both. “We’re dealing with the undead. The living dead, the walking dead, zombies, whatever you wanna call ‘em, that’s what this guy right here is.”

  “What’s the hold up?” Amy shouted from the safety of her SUV.

  “Don’t worry about it!” John called back in frustration and turned on Darian, pointing strongly at the man still stuck in his car’s windshield. “This man is not a zombie! He’s not undead—”

  “Then what would you call him? That man should be dead! He’s sticking halfway out of his windshield and has been for who knows how long!” Darian interrupted, anger seeping into his voice.

  “Look, I know you’re trying to justify the things—”

  “I’m not trying to justify shit! Just because you’ve been too much of a chicken to do anything—”

  John had stepped up to Darian, though his friend towered over him. “I’ve been doing what I’ve had to do!”

  “You haven’t done shit, but try to boss everyone around,” Darian countered.

  “Stop!” Natalie’s bat jabbed between the two, forcing them to step back from one another. “Just stop it. You’re both acting like idiots,” she muttered, grey-green eyes glaring tiredly.

  Sighing, John bowed his head as the man groaned in frustration, arms flailing drunkenly. “Alright,” he said and stuck out his hand to Natalie. “Give me the bat.”

  “Wha – why?” she asked warily.

  Darian eyed John cautiously as well, his fingers tightening around the handle of his bat.

  “Just give me the bat, Natalie.”

  Glancing quickly at Darian, Natalie slowly extended the bat in her hand for John to take. It was torn from her grasp and she pulled back her arm in surprise. Her fingers ached slightly from the sudden attack.

  “Is this what you want, Darian?” John asked, lifting the bat with both hands. Darian tensed but John walked past him, right to the car. “This man is a zombie. He’s already dead,” he stated and pulled the bat back.

  The man snapped his teeth as John strode closer, fingers stretching to grab him. His right eye popped and his cheek bone crack
ed as the aluminum club struck. It did nothing to stop his reaching hands. Blood and teeth sprayed over the damaged hood as his jaw smashed into itself, ceasing his eager moans. Once more the bat fell, slamming into the man’s forehead, denting his skull inward. The man slumped, ending his struggles for good.

  “I’m God damn justified! He was already dead!” John shouted and swung again, striking the back of the dead man’s neck, snapping it loudly. The next blow hit the skull again, smashing the man’s shattered face into the hood of his own car.

  Natalie stared, horrified, as John continued to brutally assault the dead man’s head. It was quickly turning to a bloody paste.

  “You can stop, John,” Darian said softly.

  John did and he turned to his friend, bat still raised. His eyes were manic, arms shaking from the physical toll he’d put them through. “Happy?” he asked and brought the bat down one last time, scattering blood, bone, and flesh across the windshield.

  “I hope that’s not how you treat everyone you meet,” a distinctly male voice said from the other side of the two cars.

  Everything seemed to stop, as the new voice was one that no recognized. John spotted the speaker, a man in his early twenties, taller than both he and Darian, though it was hard to tell from where he stood. His hair was dirty blonde and cut short. Holding his hand was a boy, a good foot shorter and no older than ten. Shaggy brown hair hung right above his wide, terrified eyes.

  John’s fingers uncurled around the bat’s handle, letting it fall to the ground, its aluminum clanking noisily over the silent bridge.

  Chapter 8

  AN uncomfortable hush fell over the five as they all tried comprehending what had happened and what they should do. The light of the high beams washed over them, revealing the strangers while shading John, Natalie, and Darian. The boy seemed horrified by their appearance, as if finding monsters in the dark.

  “You sick?” Darian asked bluntly. “Clearly you’re not one of them, but that doesn’t mean you’re not infected.”

  The younger man raised his free hand to show his honesty. “We’re not, I swear,” he said. Both he and the younger boy were wearing shorts, neither reaching past their knees. It wasn’t hard to tell they were cold. “Our car ran out of gas about a mile ahead, but we didn’t want to go back to Los Banos.”

  “Back to?” Natalie asked and the young man seemed to notice her for the first time, his eyes narrowing to try to get a better look at her face.

  “Yeah, we just drove through there. The place is a mess,” he replied. “We were walking down the highway, looking for a car to use when we saw your lights in the distance.”

  “People?” John bowed his head, his voice soft.

  “All over the place, every street we took to get through.” The dirty blonde had lowered his arm, now speaking with all seriousness. “You’re the first people we’ve seen all day that aren’t like them. Do you have any idea what’s happening? How far this has spread?”

  John shook his head. “No clue. We’re just getting the hell away from anywhere people may be.”

  “Think we could get a ride?” the younger man asked, the little boy clutching his hand tight.

  Darian leaned over to John, his voice quiet. “We don’t have that much space in the cars, but we can’t just leave them here.”

  “We can’t, so we’ll squeeze them in,” John replied and turned to Natalie. “Go tell Amy and Karen what’s going on while we sort this out.” He ran a hand over his face as she left and looked at the two. “Okay, we need to move these cars before we can even go anywhere. Can you help?”

  “Yeah, I’ll lend a hand.” The younger man bent to the boy’s level. “I need to let go of your hand for a bit, okay? We need to move these cars so these people can help us. Is that alright?”

  Nodding slowly, the boy released the hand that gripped his. “Are you sure they’re safe?” he whispered.

  “They seem safe and they’re going to give us a ride, that way we don’t have to walk and we won’t be alone.”

  “Any time now,” Darian announced, resting an elbow on top of the crumpled car, ignoring the human paste on its hood.

  The dirty blonde stood and moved next to the driver side door. “Right, I guess I’ll be steering?” Darian’s smile was large and all the answer the other man needed. “My name’s Mark Hauser.”

  John and Darian introduced themselves.

  “This time, you put it in neutral,” John said to Darian and moved around to push the car from the front.

  “I don’t think he’ll be waking up this time,” Darian retorted and reached through the window, grabbing the gear shift and tugging it into neutral.

  *****

  “This is Mark and Alex,” John said, introducing the newcomers to the rest of the group. With the help of Mark, John and Darian had been able to easily roll the two cars apart, creating a wide lane in-between. “They’re gonna be coming with us.”

  “So we heard,” Amy replied and stepped out of her SUV, smiling warmly. “I’m Amy Yamate and that’s my husband behind the wheel, Hiroshi. It’s nice to have you with us, Alex, Mark.”

  The sight of the older, short woman seemed to calm Alex, and the little boy smiled tentatively in return. “Nice to meet you,” he mumbled and looked to the space between his feet.

  “Where’d you boys come from?” she asked, rotating to face Mark, whose tall, lanky body towered over her. His arms seemed to stretch forever down his sides.

  “I came from Fresno. It’s not pretty there,” Mark replied.

  “It never was,” Darian muttered and nudged John in the ribs.

  “Well you and your brother will be safe with us.” Amy reached out to place a hand on Alex’s shoulder, but he swatted it away and stepped back.

  “He’s not my brother!” the boy snapped, but moved to hide behind Mark’s leg nonetheless.

  “Sorry,” Mark said, a hand dropping down to rest on Alex’s head. “He’s really messed up right now. And we’re not brothers, I found him on my way out of town hiding in a tree. It wasn’t easy getting him out, that’s for sure.” He ran his free hand across his forehead, wiping away sweat he hadn’t known was there.

  “I think we should start getting on our way,” Darian stated. “We’ve been standing around here for a good half hour, wasting time.” He rested his bat on his shoulder and glanced at his truck.

  “Are you two hungry? We have snacks in the car,” Amy said and John started to think her face would permanently stick with a smile plastered on it.

  “Yes!” Alex chirped. He covered his mouth in embarrassment and dipped his head to hide it.

  “It’s gonna be cramped, but we can all fit.” John opened the door to the back seats and gestured for the two to climb in.

  Alex tensed and stayed behind Mark’s leg, eyeing John nervously. “You’re gonna be in the car too?” he asked in a hushed voice.

  John frowned but understood why the boy was not excited about getting in the car with him. Alex had seen him destroy another man’s head with a bat, only minutes before, without remorse. He had crushed the skull, and brains in front of the child. To Alex, John was a murderer, a monster in the dark, and though he hated agree, John had felt pure exhilaration and freedom in what he had done.

  And that scared him.

  “I’ll ride with Darian,” he said and started for the truck, hand covering his side. “He and I need to talk anyway.”

  “Oh, goody,” Darian uttered and followed John to his truck.

  “Get out,” John ordered, opening the passenger side door to the surprise of Karen. “You’re in the other car.”

  Confused and annoyed by John’s attitude, she looked to Darian for a reason but received none as the latter silently took his place in the driver’s seat. He had dumped his bat in the bed of the truck carelessly and appeared as unhappy as John. A sigh left her lips and she slid from her seat, creeping past John, who didn’t move to accommodate her exit.

  Climbing into the vacated seat
, John slammed the door after him. They sat quietly, waiting for the other car to pack in. “Let them lead,” he said, staring out the front with low eyelids.

  Darian did as told and stepped on the gas when Amy’s black SUV pulled in front. His foot pushed on the pedal, putting the truck in motion and he deftly maneuvered it between the two cars they had pushed aside.

  John stole a glance at the cars as they passed, spying the mutilated head that was of his doing. A minute the length of an hour passed before he could no longer see the head he had demolished.

  “So how you feeling?” Darian asked.

  “That kid is scared shitless of me now and I can’t really blame him.”

  “Well, you did look a little psycho back there.” A long pause followed. “But how do you feel? It was something else, wasn’t it, the feeling of crushing that man’s face in like that.”

  “I don’t know. It was. . .” John’s voice trailed off. He knew exactly how it felt.

  “You’re not a monster for doing that. That man was already dead. Just see it as setting him free.”

  “These people aren’t dead.”

  “They are, John, and the sooner you realize that, the longer you’ll survive. If you keep thinking that everyone can be saved, and refuse to do what I’ve already done, you’re only dooming yourself and the rest of us and I’m not going to be a part of that when it happens. We will die; we will ALL die, if you can’t get that through your head.” Darian watched as John’s eyes flicked from side to side, trying to think up an adequate response. “You did what you had to do. Right now, it’s them or us, John. You want to live, you better get your shit together.”

  “And what if you’re wrong?” John snapped. “What if they can be saved, Darian? What if that happens? Will you be able to live with yourself after all the people you killed? How many is it now? Ten? Twenty? Does it even bother you anymore?”

  “No,” Darian stated calmly, though his hands gripped the steering wheel so tight that his knuckles turned a pasty white. “Right now it doesn’t. I’m doing what everyone else has been too afraid to do. You may be the one ‘leading’ us” – the emphasis was clear to hear – “but I’m the one keeping us alive. If these people can be saved and are, I won’t regret doing what I’ve done knowing it kept us from being eaten.”