Stage 6 (Book 1) Read online

  Kevin whispered back, “Before the world went to hell, I was a lawyer. I’d probably be good in there. Let’s take Sarah too.”

  Agreed, I asked the rest of them to wait outside for us and Alex parted to let Kevin, Sarah, and I into the house. It was a small rickety old house, with one center room making up most of the space. I found a small folding chair near the sliding glass door to the backyard, which was peculiarly fenced off although there was nobody else living anywhere around him. Kevin and Sarah sat on the small old couch by an old chimney, and Alex slumped into a brown rocking chair.

  He leaned forward and asked, “So what can I do for you folks?”

  I opened my mouth to speak when Kevin cut me off and said, “Let us just be honest here. We need gas, badly. We heard you’re the only one around here with extra gas so we came to see if we could work out a deal.”

  Alex shook his head before Kevin even stopped talking, “I’m afraid I can’t give out any gas guys. You see my son is going to be visiting soon from my ex-wife and I promised him we’d go on a road trip.”

  Kevin replied with something I couldn’t hear, as I was tuning out the conversation to listen to the feelings in the words rather than the actual words. When Alex talked about his son “visiting soon” a hint of doubt was in his words. Possibly, his son was supposed to visit before now and he is beginning to wonder if his son was coming after all.

  I spoke up interrupting Kevin, “Alex, was your son supposed to visit a while ago, and is running late now?”

  Alex looked at me bewildered, “Yeah he was originally going to come three days ago. How did you know?”

  I replied, “Just a thought I had. Where was he coming from?” If his son came from out of Texas, he’s not going to be able to get past the quarantine.

  Alex replied, “Austin, Texas.”

  A collective startled gasp came from all three of us, and Alex looked from one of us the next confused, “What’s wrong?”

  I looked at Kevin and Sarah, who wouldn’t meet my gaze. I figured Alex had a right to know, so I said, “Alex. Have you noticed anything unusual around here? The weird behavior of the animals, the delivery trucks being delayed, your kid not contacting you?”

  He replied slowly, “Yeah, what’s your point?”

  I continued, “Well frankly Alex when we arrived in this town last night we were shocked to discover that none of you has even heard of the virus that has plagued our entire state.”

  Alex cut in, “Well I have heard of a little virus going around but what’s this got to do with me and my boy?”

  I thought about my reply for a second, and then said, “Well Alex there’s no easy way to put this, but that ‘little virus’ is known as The Infection. Its effects are similar to fast acting rabies, and it has spread throughout the entire state of Texas. We just came from the suburbs near Austin, and I can personally tell you there’s almost nothing left.”

  Alex stopped me, “What are you saying?”

  I continued slowly, “I’m saying that the entire city of Austin is now overrun by the Infected. When we left they were attempting to set up a civilian base at Camp Mabry, but it looked like it would only last another few days at best.”

  Alex thought about this for a second, obviously trying to decide if we were crazy or not.

  He asked, “So you’re telling me that somehow I haven’t heard of this new virus that is transforming normal people across the state in to killer rabies victims?”

  Kevin suggested helpfully, “Think of them like zombies.”

  Alex laughed and sat back, “This is too much. I have no idea why you’re trying to convince me of this, but rest assured I’m not buying it.”

  I said, “Alex, your boy is probably at Mabry. He’s safe, but he’s not going to come here. You don’t need your gas.”

  He stood up abruptly and demanded, “Is that what all this is about? You just come into my house and make up a story about zombies to try and convince me my son isn’t coming back so you can take my gas?”

  I stood up also and protested, “No we just want you to understand that they could be coming this way, we need to get out of here soon!”

  Alex walked to the door and threw it open. He said calmly, “Get out of my house.”

  I looked at him and tried to argue when he cut me off and repeated, “Get out. Now.”

  Resigned to my failure, I beckoned Kevin and Sarah to follow me and we left. The door closed and locked firmly behind us.

  I said, “Well, that went well.”

  Kevin filled the group in on what happened while I thought of our next move. It was obvious that Alex was not in the mood for sharing, and equally obvious that any more attempts at story-telling were going to end in similar disaster. It was already a little past noon, and we needed to find people with extra food before darkness fell. I wanted to be safely in doors way before the sun went down, I just didn’t feel comfortable out at night any more.

  I said loudly, “Ok, let’s go see if anybody’s willing to give us some food.”

  I nodded at George to lead the way and he happily started walking towards another house. I got the feeling he was hoping that by being cooperative we would take him with us when we left. We followed him all in bad spirits not getting the gas we so desperately needed. Kevin muttered something about going in there and getting the gas ourselves but we quickly silenced him. It was becoming a habit for Kevin to suggest a bad idea and we all quickly shoot it down before he gets us into trouble.

  It was a small town, so there were only six places George led us to that he claimed might be willing to give or sell food to us. The first two apologetically turned us down, the third didn’t answer, and by the fourth we were all in a remarkably bad mood. We walked up to the door and knocked, waiting for a reply. The door opened suddenly and a cheery woman greeted us and invited us in. Her name was Sally. I found it comforting that she could invite total strangers into her home like this, and hoped her politeness was a good sign.

  Trying to keep the desperation out of my voice, I asked, “I’m sorry to bother you ma’am, but would you happen to have any extra food laying around that we could buy or trade for? We’re passing through the town and with the supplies the way they are we don’t feel comfortable moving on without a few day’s worth of food stored up.”

  She grinned broadly and said, “Well how’s about that I was just complaining to Fred this morning about how we need some trucks to come through to sell our wares! My husband, that’s Fred, owns the farm down the ways’ and we have a bunch of vegetables and fruit we’ve just been dying to get rid of. What do you have to barter with?”

  I said slowly, “We have about four hundred dollars. We also have a truck we can take some parts off of, and if absolutely necessary we have a few guns we could part with.”

  She replied, “Oh the money’s fine dear, come into the back and I’ll show you what we have.”

  We followed her into the back yard to see a wide assortment of things such as watermelon, cantaloupe, peaches, blackberries, tomatoes, corn, bell peppers, and a large bowl of eggs sitting in a cooler. We all broke out in laughter and joy, to see such wonderful food after going a week on canned beans and such. I motioned for Kevin to take out his wallet and he handed his two hundred bucks to me.

  I asked Sally, “What can we buy with two hundred dollars?”

  She whistled and replied, “Well that’s a tough question really because all these things sell for very different amounts. Tell you what, why don’t you all pick out what you want, and then I’ll let you know how much it’s gonna be and we’ll work our way from there. How’s that?”

  I thanked her, and said, “Alright gang, get gathering. What do we want? Keep in mind some of this stuff will not stay good for long, so we are going to want the vegetables mainly. Get some fruit if you want, but mainly vegetables. And some eggs maybe.”

  Almost giddy with excitement, they set to work getting what they wanted. Everybody had some favorite food they had to get; Ke
vin was excited about the peppers; my mom was excited about the tomatoes, and so on. Personally I just wanted to raise the moral, and was fine spending a few extra bucks on fruit to do that especially considering to us money really wasn’t worth that much anymore.

  I drew Sally aside and asked her, “Sally, you said your husband owned a farm. Would he by any chance happen to have cows on the farm?”

  She was about to answer when a voice answered for her from the back door, “I do have cows on my farm, why do you ask?” He stepped forward to shake my hand and introduced himself as Fred.

  I said, “Well Fred we would really appreciate getting some milk. We have a little baby who really needs it, and we haven’t been able to find anyone around here who will give us any. Is there any chance we could we buy it from you?”

  Fred sighed and looked at the sky for a bit, obviously pained by what he had to say. He then replied, “I’m really sorry young man, but my cows don’t give much milk they’re getting to be pretty old now. I only have about a gallon left as it is, and it’s pretty precious stuff around here...”

  Sally turned to her husband and whispered loudly, “Fred! They have a baby! Surely they need it more than we do?”

  When it looked like Fred wasn’t going to budge, she asked us, “Didn’t you fellows mention having guns to trade?” Fred’s interest was immediately piqued, and he looked up at me cautiously.

  I replied, “Yes we have some guns we could be willing to trade.” I called Ian and pulled him to the side, and then quickly asked him, “Ian! What do you think our least valuable gun is?”

  He thought for a second, then replied, “Well definitely not Steve’s guns, they’re high grade stuff. Not the hunting rifles, because they can be used at long range and short range. I’d have to say Lucy’s revolver is the least-valuable to us.”

  I nodded, and called Lucy over. I asked her, “Hey, we’ve decided your gun is the one we have to trade, but don’t worry we can just give Kevin’s gun to you. Think of it like an upgrade. Do you have your revolver with you?”

  She sheepishly nodded, and reached inside her jacket to pull it out. Ian immediately took it from her, pointed it at the ground, did some strange stuff, and then looked at Lucy with a horrified expression on his face.

  He asked her, “You do know you were carrying a loaded and cocked revolver inside your jacket, don’t you? At any time that could have blown a hole in your side, before you’d even know what happened.”

  She looked just as horrified as Ian, and replied, “No I had no idea!”

  Ian shook his head and said, “Ok its official, this is too dangerous. We can’t have the entire group running around with guns without even knowing basic gun instructions. We have to try and teach them, or take away their guns as they’re probably more of a danger to us then the Infected.” I took the now unloaded revolver from Ian, and turned to hand it to Fred. He looked it over, and seemed satisfied; as well he should have been for only trading some milk for a gun.

  He asked, “Do you have any bullets for it?”

  I turned to Lucy, and she emptied her pockets of what must have been over thirty assorted bullets. Ian made a motion to slam his face into the wall, while I took them from her and offered them to Fred.

  He then said simply, “Ok.” He went inside for a moment, and then reappeared with a jug of milk. He handed it to me, and I set it on the ground and then pretty much dumped a gun and a bunch of bullets into his hands. He disappeared again, no doubt to find a more suitable place for it.

  Sally smiled at me and I smiled and then took a look around, and said, “Well I think we’re all about set here. So Sally, just how much is this going to cost us?”

  She took a look around, and then shrugged and said, “Eh let’s call it two hundred dollars.”

  I counted out the money and handed it to her, thanking her. She called after us as we walked through the house to come back any time. Ian picked up the jug of milk, and we set off feeling very accomplished. Every one of us was carrying a box of some type of food. We walked through the doors of Steve’s motel room with the air of hero’s, and victoriously set our food down on the beds.

  My mom immediately set about dividing it into what we would eat tonight and save for later, and Ian brought the jug of milk over to Steve. Steve thanked him very heartedly with a handshake and I thought from the expression on Ian’s face his hand was being broken even as he stood there forcing a smile.

  I gathered all of us besides my mom and Steve’s baby outside, and said, “Ian has brought it to my attention,” with a look at Lucy I continued, “that many of us are carrying guns, when in fact we have never received even basic training with them. Steve, you have the most experience with guns of all of us, can you give us a quick class just to make sure we don’t accidentally kill ourselves?”

  He grinned and agreed quickly. Ian spoke up, “I’ve been shooting guns since I was eight years old, so how bout I help Steve?”

  I agreed that was probably the best way to work this.

  Steve took a look around, and then said, “Alright people, since ammunition is low we’re not actually going to shoot the guns, so accuracy class will have to wait until another time. However, I will teach you the basics about guns, which includes some simple tips to shoot straighter.”

  He set us up in a line, and we all un-loaded our guns and aimed at a fence nearby, separating the motel from what looked to be a garbage dump. Honestly I didn’t think I had much training to do, considering all I had was a shotgun. But nevertheless eventually Steve made his way through the line over to me. He asked me to shoot, and I pulled it up to my eye, took aim, and yelled BANG! Steve started laughing uncontrollably, and confused I asked him what was so funny.

  He replied, “You! If you ever really shot the gun like that you’d blow your eye out of your head! Here’s the best piece of advice I can give someone of your limited experience, don’t aim a shotgun Jack, just point it.”

  A bit peeved, while Steve was still chuckling, I held it to my shoulder and simply pointed it at the fence.

  Steve nodded, “There you go. Now do you know how to take care of re-loading and all that?”

  I replied, “Yep, I remember learning about that stuff a long time ago.”

  Satisfied, after an hour of sitting around cleaning and preparing our guns with our newfound skills, my mom called from the motel room saying, “Dinner’s ready!”

  Hunter jumped up and barked, and we all whooped and sprinted to the room to see a glorious feast set out in front of us. The fruit had been washed and mixed together in one large box, for a grand fruit salad of sorts. Set around the side were slices of cantaloupe and watermelon, and peach shavings. Then the peppers were all sliced and put out around on a flattened cardboard box, along with the rest of the vegetables. Then for the grand finale, my Mom had cooked all our eggs with a little gas stove Steve had in his pack. We crowded around the bed and laughed and joked, as we ate our eggs and fruit happily. Steve grinned broadly as he fed Victoria some milk he had put in a little sippy cup that had magically appeared out of his never-ending backpack. It was a very happy dinner, and it seemed to me like a glorious sign of peace to come.

  Then I looked over at the door and saw George standing there looking a little awkward. I said, “George, how are you buddy? Come on in!”

  He smiled and came inside, shutting the door behind him. He joined us around the bed and my mom put together a little cardboard plate for him to make him feel more welcome. After all, without George we probably never would have found any of the food. Soon the feast ended, and we sat back, full and satisfied in silence for a few minutes.

  Karen spoke up, “I kind of like it here.”

  We burst out laughing, in a contagious fit of enjoyment at our recent good fortune. Then the girls went to their room, and George stood awkwardly not sure where to go.

  I took him aside, and asked him, “George, where do you normally sleep since your Dad is away?”

  He looked down at his
feet and shuffled around, before mumbling, “In my dad’s house, all alone.”

  I felt sorry for him, obviously the rest of the town was not treating his predicament with the appropriate amount of stress.

  I said, “Well George you aren’t alone anymore, would you like to spend the night with us tonight?” His eyes lit up and he began to speak but I quickly said, “Now, before you just blindly say yes, know that we are out of space as it is. You will have to sleep on the couch over there.”

  He shrugged happily and said, “I’m fine with that, thanks! Just let me go get some stuff!”

  He disappeared out the door and I had a frantic moment of worry, knowing that somewhere out there in the darkness, however many miles away there were Infected hunting for kids like George. He came back a few minutes later with a blanket and a pillow. I resisted the urge to laugh. I loved this kid, because he was still just that, a kid. Karen was about his age, but she had aged so much these past few days she didn’t seem like one anymore. George was still just a normal little kid at heart, and hadn’t been changed by the horrors of the Infection yet. I would do everything I could to make sure it stayed that way. George jumped on the couch, pulled the blanket over him and seemed to fall asleep almost instantly. I walked around Kevin, who was sleeping on the floor, and shut and bolted the door. Then I closed the window screens. I reached for my shot gun, to habitually make sure it was loaded and ready right by my bedside, but then thought otherwise. After all, this town is great, why would I need it?

  Day 8

  “SCREEROWWW” I woke up with a start, and quickly checked the clock. 4:00 AM, very dark and very cold outside.

  Ian and Steve were getting up as well and I hissed, “What was that?”

  They shook their heads in bewilderment, and I crept to the window and pulled back the blinds a little bit. Suddenly a shape smashed into the window cracking it and leaving blood everywhere, and I shouted and jumped back.

  In a span of three seconds Steve had his pistol drawn, loaded, and aimed straight at the window. I just got out of the way, and crouched still, shocked.