Burning Eden (4 page)

Chapter 9

             
The electricity went out and stayed out around four in the morning. We all slept in the living room close together although I highly doubt if any of us actually slept. At sunrise we gathered our things and quietly made our way to the mini-van. All seemed very quiet in the neighborhood, perhaps a little too quiet. As we started backing out of the drive-way I soon understood why, the end of the street that was the only road in and out of the neighborhood had been barricaded by the police.

             
“They’re not going to let us out of the neighborhood,” I said and instantly regretting it knowing it would probably freak out the kids.

             
“They hell they’re not, diseased zombie people or whatever, the last I checked this was still America and we still have rights as citizens. We haven’t done anything wrong, we haven’t been bitten, we should be able to drive wherever we want,” Cain said seriously.

             
“Ok,” I said knowing now was not the time to have a disagreement with him but deep down in the pit of my stomach I knew we were going to be sent back home to wait to die. I fought back tears as we slowly drove away from the house we had called home for so long and drove up the once beautiful road trying not to notice the smashed windows and dead bodies lying on the perfectly maintained yards. We drove around several car crashes and I even saw a whole family of burnt skeletons that must have been stuck in the car as it burst into flames.

             
“Oh my God, dad. We have to get out of here,” Maddie said in a small voice.

             
“Don’t you worry, honey,” Cain said glancing back at her and smiling slightly. She sat back in her seat calming down a bit. As we finally pulled up to the barricade a cop put his hand up to signify for us to stop. Cain slowed but didn’t stop completely until he was right up to the barricade. He rolled his window down as the cop walked up to speak with him.

             
“I’m going to have to ask you to turn around and go back to your home and wait for help,” the cop said firmly.

             
“Wait for help? Aren’t you guys supposed to be our help?” Cain asked sarcastically.

             
“We are waiting for back-up sir. Now if you would simply go back to your house and wait”-

             
“Wait for what? Until one of those things gets in my house and kills us all or wait until we run out of food and starve to death? I’m not going back there to wait for help that isn’t coming. Just let us pass. We are headed to a family member’s farm in Geneva. Don’t hand us a death sentence sir, let us at least try and survive,” Cain pleaded. The cop looked over at me and I gave him a hopeful grin. Then he looked back at the kids and my mother and I could see him wrestling with his conscious.

             
“Have any of you been bitten?” he asked.

             
“No,” Cain answered. The cop looked around the neighborhood and then sighed heavily.

             
“All right, I’ll let you pass but you are on your own out there. I hope you guys make it to Geneva. If I were you I’d take as many back roads as I could many of the main roads have barricades just like this one and no one else is going to let you through,” he said.

             
“Thank you, officer. I appreciate it,” Cain said as the officer made several hand signals to the other officers to move the barricade so we could pass.

             
“Good luck,” the officer said as he took off his sunglasses and looked Cain dead in his eyes, “you’re going to need it.”

Chapter 10

             
“Do you know how to get there by the back roads?” I asked Cain. I wasn’t real sure if he did but I was hoping he would. I usually took the highway and I knew there would be no way we would ever make it on the main roads, let alone to the highway.

             
“I think I might, Edie. I was only a delivery driver around this area for a couple years,” he answered sarcastically.

             
“Right,” I said softly and sat back a bit relieved. In lieu of all the jobs he had ran through over the years I had forgotten about his delivery driver position. I looked back at the kids and my mother to see they had all fallen asleep. I couldn’t really blame them; we didn’t really get any sleep last night and thought it best to let them get some rest while they could. Wiley came and sat in between Cain and I on the floor. He looked up at me with sad eyes as if he knew something bad was happening. I suppose he could smell the death and destruction around us as well as feel our fear and anxiety, poor dog. I reached down and began scratching him behind his ears; he soon went the same route as the others and fell asleep.

             
I stared out the window at the blur of passing fields of crops wishing my aunt lived closer. I wondered if there were people out there surviving. I hoped my aunt and my family were ok. I secretly wished I had a way to check up on Jesse praying he and his family were making it and that he would make it safely to me. I had no way of knowing where he was or if he was even still alive. Cell phones had quickly stopped working after the electricity had finally stayed off. So all I could do was hope and pray.

             
“We are going to have to find gas soon,” Cain said pulling me from my thoughts about Jesse.

             
“What? What do you mean?” I asked in alarm.

             
“We are getting low on gas, Edie. How else would you like me to explain it to you?”

             
“But I thought you filled it up on the way back from your interview,” I said starting to get panicky.

             
“Well I didn’t. I was tired and wanted to come home, it’s not like I knew this shit was going to happen I’m not psychic, you know?”

             
“Yes, I know. But Cain where the fuck do you think we are going to get gas from? We are out in the country and I haven’t seen a house for miles, let alone a gas station, and even if we do find one do you really think they will be open for business?” I asked him looking at him like he was crazy.

             
“Well, I guess we are about to find out,” he said smirking at me and pointing his finger at the windshield. I followed the direction his finger was pointing and saw a small gas station up the road a little. I suddenly got a very bad feeling but didn’t say anything. “See, Edie. I told you, you worry too much,” he said with a wink. I simply sat back in my seat and sighed.

Chapter 11

             
We pulled up to one of the two pumps of the small gas station. The kids and my mother all awakened with the stop of the car probably hoping we had reached our final destination. The hope quickly dissolved from their faces as soon as they realized we weren’t at Aunt Peggy’s but at some lonely gas station in the middle of nowhere.

             
“Why have we stopped?” my mother asked.

             
“Well Lucy, since we are at a gas station why do you think we’ve stopped? For a few snacks? Cain answered in his smart ass fashion.

             
“Shut up, Cain. Just get the damn gas and let’s get the hell out of here,” I said and my mom gave me a small grin silently thanking me for taking up for her.

             
“I’ve got to take a piss,” Kairo said stretching in the backseat.

             
“What did I tell you about your mouth in front of your mom, kid?” Cain said.

             
“Sorry,” Kairo said sheepishly. I was slowly losing my patience with Cain and how he spoke to people but I knew this was not the time or place to start arguing.

             
“Can everyone just do what they need to do so we can get back on the road, please? And honestly I think at this point cursing in front of me isn’t an issue of great importance,” I said eyeing Cain from the corner of my eye.

             
“Whatever,” Cain said under his breath opening his car door.

             
“I think we should all go to the same bathroom,” I said looking back at my kids and my mom.

             
“What about Wiley?” Maddie asked.

             
“Let’s take him with us,” I said and Kairo picked up his leash.

             
“Let’s go!” he exclaimed.

             
“All right, let’s make this as quick as possible guys,” I said opening my own car door. I looked around hoping this place really was deserted but unable to shake off my uneasiness. The kids and my mom climbed out of the back seat and before Maddie could slide the door closed I caught it in my hand. “Leave it open.”

             
We all walked around the front of the car and made our way toward the small gas station cautiously leaving Cain to figure out a way to get gas; if anyone could figure it out I knew Cain could.

             
“Hurry up you guys,” Cain called out causing me to jump and making us all pick up our pace.

             
“Let me go in first mom,” Kairo spoke up. I simply nodded my head because not only did he have Wiley he also had a gun. He pushed open the door slowly and called out “Hello” but no one answered as we all walked in. The fact that the door was unlocked made me even more nervous. We went directly to the women’s restroom and thankfully there were three stalls. We decided to use the first two since with the door held open they were bathed in the most light. Mom and I went first and then Maddie and Kai went as I held on to Wiley’s leash.

             
Just as Kai had flushed his toilet Wiley started to growl facing the third stall that was completely in the dark. There was no way in hell I was going to check that out. As soon as Kairo opened his bathroom stall door Maddie began to scream.

             
“It’s got my leg! It’s got my leg!”

             
“Oh my God, Kai! Kill it!” I yelled out.

             
“Unlock the damn door, Maddie!”  He screamed as he pounded on the door.

             
“I can’t,” she cried out and my heart sped up. We had to do something or whatever it was that had her leg would soon have more than that. I did what any mother would do in this situation; I took actions into my own hands. I pulled the gun from the back of Kairo’s pants, walked down to the third stall, kicked open the door, and before the disgusting smelling naked thing could even turn its head to look at me I shot that bitch in the back of the skull. Watching its brains explode brought me great satisfaction. I then let the bathroom stall door close and walked back to Kairo handing him his gun back as Maddie slowly opened up her stall door.

             
“Thanks,” she said to Kairo.

             
“Don’t thank me, thank mom,” he said grinning widely.

             
“No way,” she gasped.

             
“Oh, yes way!”

             
“You’re welcome,” I said as I put my arm around her and looked her over making sure she hadn’t been bitten.

             
“Why are they always coming after me?” she whined as we walked out of the bathroom.

Chapter 12

              “How much further?” I asked Cain. We had been on the road for over an hour and I was starting to worry that Cain had gotten us lost. As far as the eye could see was nothing but corn fields. I hadn’t seen a house since right before the gas station. I knew my aunt lived out in the middle of nowhere but none of this landscape looked familiar to me. I knew she lived right up the street from a fairly large lake and I had yet to see a glimpse of any body of water.

             
“Bout five more minutes,” he said.

             
“Thank God! I’m sick of being cramped up in this back seat with Grams and Maddie,” Kairo busted out.

             
“Well if you weren’t so tall you wouldn’t be so cramped up,” my mom said jokingly. It was nice to see her smile again. Honestly I was pretty impressed with the way everyone was dealing with what was happening to our world. Mom had lost Phil, we had lost our home, and the kids had lost their innocence. Something told me it was good that we all were coping so well because I knew we had only begun to see what this new fucked up world had to offer. I could only imagine what was going on in the more populated areas of the world, the chaos, the fighting amongst the living and the diseased, the fighting amongst the living themselves to survive. I looked back out the window and saw a huge plumb of smoke rising in the air and I prayed that wasn’t coming from my aunt’s house. What if we showed up and they had already been attacked by the diseased. What if they were all dead? What if we were headed right to our deaths or worse?

             
To my relief Cain turned onto another road heading away from the smoke. As soon as he did I saw the lake and the familiar woods I played in as a child surrounding it. I smiled to myself, Cain had known the way thankfully. I glanced over at him and he looked back at me.

             
“See, Edie. Sometimes I do know what I’m doing, you just gotta give me a little credit,” he said with a wink. I simply nodded. Perhaps he was right, maybe I should have a little more faith in him. He had gotten us out here safely. I had to give him that.

             
We drove past the lake and turned down the dirt road my aunt consider a drive-way and I said a small prayer hoping that they were all alive and well. As soon as we got halfway up the drive-way I saw her two small dogs take off down the porch stairs to come running towards our van. Wiley began to whine then, he loved playing with my aunt’s dogs, Tom and Jerry. It brought me hope that my family might still be alive.

             
“Watch the dogs,” I said to Cain.

             
“I got this, Edie. Like I said give me some credit here,” he answered back playfully.

             
“Right,” I said as I looked back up at the porch to see the screen door open and my heart almost burst with joy as my Aunt Peggy, Uncle Dave, and my younger cousin Hannah stepped out on the porch. They were all holding shot guns which I found very fitting. I saw the look of concern on their faces until they realized it was us, then I saw their faces light up as they lowered their shot guns and began to wave at us happily.