Into the Badlands (9 page)

“Who’s we?” Tammy asked.

Dave turned to look at her. “My wife, Sandy, and our friend. His name is Jim. I don’t know where they are. I lost them. I was supposed to protect them, but I lost them.” Dave returned his gaze to the ground, then began rocking back and forth.

Tammy turned to Brenda. “This guy is fucked,” she said. “For all we know he killed and ate the last person he met,” Tammy offered.

“Maybe,” Brenda replied.

Tammy thought for a moment. “We should leave him here.”

“You might be right.”

“What do you mean, I might be right? Are you fuckin' nuts?”

Brenda took a deep breath, then exhaled. “I don’t know. For now, sure, leave him here. I'm not sure what to do with him just yet”

Tammy raised her eyebrows. “That doesn’t make me feel any better.”

Brenda looked back at her friend. “Me neither.”

“Leave him for now then,” Tammy said. “Let’s go check out some of these houses. If he’s still here when we get back, we’ll figure out what we wanna do.”

“Deal,” Brenda replied.

The two women made their way into four houses after leaving the stranger. They found some additional canned food, some matches, and a few other items they thought might be useful. Brenda also found a pair of insulated gloves and a school backpack. On a whim she kept them for the stranger, just in case.

Each time they walked out of a house they peered down the street to see if the stranger was sitting where they'd left him. Each time he was. They spent almost an hour pilfering through the houses they thought might prove fruitful. When they were finished the stranger still sat in the street, rocking back and forth.

Tammy and Brenda walked back down to where the stranger sat, keeping their guns trained on him in case he made an aggressive move. He didn't. He remained seated on the street, rocking back and forth. Brenda looked at Tammy, raising her eyebrows.

Tammy shook her head. “Leave him,” she said. “Maybe this guy’s crazy, or maybe he’s crazy like a fox. Either way, it’s a bad idea.”

Brenda considered Tammy’s comments. It
was
dangerous to bring him along. They didn’t know anything about this guy, save for his name. Keeping the gun pointed at him, she tossed the backpack and the gloves down on the ground beside him. Maybe he was dangerous, but that dazed look he had...she’d seen it before. She opened her mouth to speak, but never made it that far.

“Oh shit,” Tammy said. “Here comes trouble.”

Brenda looked up. Coming from the end of the the subdivision street were three carriers, moving slowly and aimlessly. Brenda's skin crawled at the sight of them. Based on their level of disinterest she was reasonably certain hadn’t been spotted yet.

“We gotta get out of here,” Tammy said in a low voice.

“But our friend here...” Brenda began.

“We have to leave him.” Tammy was visibly impatient.

Brenda glanced from Dave back to the three carriers. “They'll tear him to fuckin' pieces.”

That’s his problem, sister, not ours.”

“Yeah,” Brenda replied. She looked down at the stranger. “You said you’re name is Dave, right?”

He looked up at her.

“Listen to me. You need to run. Deadwalkers are heading this way.”

He nodded at her.

“I mean it,” Brenda told him, then both women turned to walk away. She glanced down the street at the carriers; they were still well into the distance and still meandering. It wouldn’t take long though before they were spotted.

She then looked back at the stranger. He was still sitting where they’d left him.

“He’s not moving,” she said to Tammy.

“That’s not our problem, Brenda.”

They continued walking. Brenda glanced back at the stranger. She watched as he looked directly at the carriers, then returned his gaze back down to the ground. He continued rocking as if they weren't even there.

Brenda stopped walking. “Wait,” she said to Tammy.

Tammy stopped and turned around, looking at Dave. “Fucking leave him Brenda!” Her voice was filled with nervous frustration.

Just then the carriers spotted the girls and began running toward then. Two of them were slow, injured or weakened, but one was much faster than the others. It bore down on Dave with frightening aggression and speed.

“I have to do something,” Brenda said. “We can’t just leave him here.”

“Yes we can. The only thing we
have
to do is run.”

“But they’ll kill him, and that'll be on our conscience,” Brenda countered.

“That’s not our problem anymore. We can’t save the fuckin’ world, Brenda. If we stay here they’ll kill us too.”

Brenda watched the carrier in the lead; he was closing the gap quickly.

“C’mon!” Tammy pleaded. “Move your ass!”

Brenda stood, motionless, contemplating. If she left this stranger here she was complicit in his death. Could she live with that? She wasn’t sure she could trust him, but she felt confident that he wasn’t himself. He was still a human being, after all.

And hadn't she been left behind when the virus hit?

“I’m going back for him,” she said. She ran toward the stranger.

“Shit!” Tammy yelled. She knew once Brenda had made up her mind it was virtually impossible to change. She raised the rifle, sighting it in on the carrier in the lead. It was moving fast.

Brenda continued running toward the stranger. When she reached him she grabbed his arm, just under the armpit, then yanked him upward. “Get up!” she yelled.

He just sat there.

“Get up!” she yelled again, hitting him twice in the side of the head as hard as she could. That seemed to snap him out of his fog. He stood up. She looked up to find the two slower carriers still in the distance while the faster one bore down upon her. It was less than forty yards away.

“Run, you idiot!” she yelled.

Then Brenda heard the report of the rifle shot. Tammy fired at the running carrier, but missed. It was moving quickly, closing the forty, third, and twenty-yard gap with ease.

Brenda saw this and reached for her pistol. Just then another crack sounded and the deadwalker in the lead dropped in its tracks like a stone. It lay on the ground, blood running out onto the street from an exit wound in the thing’s back.

Brenda yanked on Dave’s arm again. He resisted her efforts. “Do you want me to hit you again?” she yelled at him. She yanked harder, feeling him budge a little.

She yanked one more time, harder than ever, and then he began to run. They quickly caught up to Tammy.

“You know you're batshit crazy, right?” Tammy said.

“Yeah,” she said, breaking a slight smile. “I do.”

She looked toward the two remaining carriers in the distance. They were slow, but were still closing in. Then, from behind one of the houses a hundred yards or so away, another carrier appeared. It was then followed by another.

“They heard the shots...I didn’t want to have to use it,” Tammy said. “You didn’t leave me much choice.”

“I know,” Brenda replied. “Just run.”

CHAPTER 9

Ed remembered a time before cellular phones. At one point in his past he could have simply walked to a random phone booth and looked up the address of a Walgreens. Cell phones had rendered these paper books useless relics. It wasn’t without irony that he noticed the Walking Death had rendered cell phones useless relics now too.

Being that as it was, he still needed to find a pharmacy. They had exactly one day’s worth of daylight to find one and hopefully get the antibiotics to the young girl they’d found. If they failed then they’d have to hole up somewhere during the night and wait it out until dawn. Ed wasn't sure if the girl would make it through the night without care and water.

He and boys set out at the break of dawn, right on schedule. They were able to get some water down the girl, but she didn't regain consciousness before they left. They left a full jug of water by her bedside, along with a glass in case she awoke while they were gone and was too weak to pick up the pitcher.

Without a phone book, or a map more detailed than the one they carried, they were on their own searching for a drugstore. Ed figured the place to start would be the exit where they'd found the girl. He didn't remember a drugstore there, but he figured he could at least get his hands on a phone book he could use to track one down.

They walked the mile or so it took to get back to the exit, covering the distance with little difficulty. The empty road bore no ill-mannered travelers, nor did it host any rabid carriers. Aside from a few squirrels and some birds they saw no movement.

They arrived at the exit, then made their way down the ramp in the same fashion as they'd done the first time through. Ed felt the familiar sense of trepidation return. This time, however, they passed up the Target and walked to the center of the parking lot. They looked around for a drugstore; a Walgreens, a CVS, or anything else. They saw nothing.

It looked as if they were going to need a phone book after all, but procuring one in the aftermath of the cell phone might be difficult. Like many other exits along this area of the highway, the residential zones butted up against the commercial zones; there were plenty of houses to search just on the other side of the shopping center. Ed figured there had to be at least one phone book amongst them. At least he hoped there was.

“Let’s go, guys,” Ed said. The boys followed.

It took a little less than ten minutes to make it over the parking lots of the defunct stores and into the adjoining residential area. They walked through an old subdivision, keeping their eyes open for any infected. The bodies of the dead littered the streets here, just as they did every else they’d been. Ed found that he never really got totally used to it; rather, the just accepted it as a commonplace horror.

They searched six houses before they found their first phone book. Luckily folks were fairly predictable, and the phone book had been right beside the telephone. On the wall just above the telephone was a framed photograph of a couple well into their seventh or eighth decade; Ed was doubtful they'd ever owned a cellphone between them.

While the boys acted as lookouts Ed scanned the yellow pages for pharmacies. He found a CVS and a Walgreens, both appeared to be within walking distance from where they were. The Walgreens was closest, about a mile and a half away, as near as he could figure. He ripped out the page from the phone book, stuffed it into his front pants pocket, and then exited the house with the boys.

They traveled quietly and carefully through the side streets. It was their modus operandi. The streets remained eerily silent as they walked. Around them trees grew unabated over sidewalks and weeds grew through cracks in the street. The grass was mostly brown, but had gone to seed since the outbreak. Broken glass lay all around, glinting in the sunlight. Bodies in varying states of decay lay all around them.

It took less than an hour for them to make it to the pharmacy. It sat on the corner of the street, looking familiar yet out of place within all the neglected homes and streets. Ed noted wryly that even at the end of all humanity, he could still count on Walgreens to be there on virtually every street corner.

They approached the front doors to the building slowly. The locks appeared to be broken, otherwise the door was mostly intact. Two bodies lay outside the front doors, almost in the parking lot. They suited up, then Ed drew his gun and brought the boys into a single file line behind him.

“We’re gonna do this just like the others,” he whispered to the boys through his face mask. “Jeremy, you watch our back. Zach, you watch our sides. I’ll watch our front. In and out.” He looked at both boys. “Ready?” he asked. They nodded to indicate they were.

“Then let's go.”

The sun shone brightly from directly above them, and once inside the store they could see reasonably well. They walked cautiously through the aisles making their way toward the pharmacy. They stepped over or went around the larger debris, but they couldn't avoid stepping on smaller pieces littering the floor. Luckily for Ed all Walgreens stores were pretty much the same, so he knew exactly how to get right to the pharmacy.

The inside of the store was wrecked. Shelves were overturned, cash registers broken, and all the food that had been on the shelves appeared to have been raided. Glass, leaves, and other garbage littered the floor. Seeing all that looting didn’t bode well for the pharmacy supplies, but Ed tried not to get discouraged.

They made a beeline to pharmacy counter; one glance told them it had been wrecked along with the rest of the store. It wasn’t completely empty though, so there was still some hope. If they could find some form of antibiotic then he would grab it and run. There were almost definitely more, but these were the only antibiotics he was familiar with.

When they arrived at the pharmacy counter they hopped over it, their feet landing in plastic pill bottles, scattered paper, leaves, sticks, and rat droppings. To their left they saw the broken drive-through window; a chilly breeze blew unimpeded through the window. Rain and snow had entered the building through it just as well, damaging the woodwork and staining the floor.

They removed their backpacks so they could move more easily, placing them on the counter. The baseball bat stuck out of Ed's pack like the mast of a ship. Ed had Zach search through all cabinets and drawers for any kind of kind of drug reference guide. He wasn't even sure if one existed, but if it did then it could prove helpful.

While Zach was searching the drawers and cabinets, Ed and Jeremy were searching the shelves and the floor for the drugs they needed. Since the incident back at the sporting good store Ed was feeling more nervous than usual. It was still fresh in his mind how close he had come to losing Zach. And here they were again, inside another store. It was too similar; warning bells were going off in his mind. He told himself it was probably nerves, but it was still disconcerting.

After searching all the drawers and the shelves Zach could find no drug reference guide of any kind. They couldn't afford to waste any more time on it, so Ed had Zach help Jeremy search for the drugs they needed. Without a reference guide they were on their own. He was familiar with the penicillin, amoxicillin, Cipro, and Zithromax, as he had been prescribed those in the past. His knowledge went no further than this. It wasn't much, but it was all they had. Under Ed's direction Zach and Jeremy searched for medications beginning with “A”, “C”, or “Z”, then piled the boxes or bottle in front of Ed. He then sifted through what they found.

They searched this way for around twenty minutes with no results. Ed almost began to give up hope until he noticed a small, white box given to him by one of the boys. He flipped it over, almost ready to throw it to the side, then saw what he’d been looking for: Zithromax. Another box accompanied it in the pile; he grabbed them both. He called the boys over and hugged them, telling them what a great job they’d done. They beamed with pride.

Ed's nerves were still buzzing. They had been in the store for a while, and they'd been making a lot of noise as they sifted through the debris. They needed to get moving; the longer they stayed put the more exposed they were. They also needed to get back to the girl, provided she was still alive.

Ed put the Zithromax box in his backpack, then helped Jeremy and Zach get theirs backpacks back on again. As he picked up his own Jeremy reached out a hand and grabbed his shoulder, stopping him abruptly.

His youngest son's eyes were wide as he spoke. “Dad, I just saw something move at the front of the store,” he whispered.

Ed’s blood ran cold and all the color dropped out of this face. The warning bells that had been sounding were now a full-blown alarm. His hands were sweating and his body was adjusting to the onslaught of adrenaline as he looked around the store for movement. They had the pills they needed, but now they needed to get out somehow.

He suddenly noticed movement reflected in one of the cracked surveillance mirrors. Something was in there; what it was he didn't know. Exiting through the front of the store was likely impossible; whatever was in the store blocked the way.

He turned to inspect the broken drive-through window. Jagged shards of glass surrounded the edges of the window frame, but Ed thought he could lift the boys through without cutting them. Once they and their gear were clear he’d break the shards and climb out as quickly as possible. That was the noisy part. It was also the dangerous part.

They heard a loud crash as the intruder knocked something off a shelf at the front of the store. The boys jumped but didn’t make a sound. They knew the rules; it's why they were still alive. It was definitely a carrier; a thief wouldn't announce his presence so flippantly.

Ed whispered to the boys. “Take off your backpacks.” They did as instructed. Once the backpacks were off he glanced back toward the front of the store again. He saw no movement, but could hear some scraping sounds.

“Follow me to the window. Backpacks go first, then I'll lift both of you out. Once you're out put your packs back on; I'll be coming through next.”

“Then what?” Zach whispered.

“Then we run,” he answered.

The three of them walked carefully toward the broken window. They were quiet, but inevitably some noise was made. Ed wasn't sure if the carrier couldn't hear them, or if it possibly mistook the sounds for rats. Either way all the better; it bought them time.

Once they made it to the window Ed gently lowered their backpacks to the asphalt outside the window. He then motioned for the boys to approach him slowly. Another loud crash sounded from the front of the store. There was no telling how long they had left before they were spotted.

Ed lifted Zach first through the window, being careful of the jagged shards of glass that surrounded the edge like a deadly picture frame. The boy was heavier than he'd expected, or maybe Ed was weaker than he thought, but Zach's feet touched the ground gently and safely on the other side.

Ed then lifted Jeremy through. Another loud sound erupted from the front of the store. It took all of his effort to not jump through the window right then, along with Jeremy, broken glass or not.

Once Jeremy’s feet touched the ground he joined his brother on the other side. They began to put their backpacks on immediately, as they had been instructed to.

Ed realized couldn’t make it through the window without breaking the shards around the bottom edge. He asked Zach to hand him the baseball bat from his backpack on the ground outside the building. He quietly did.

“I’m going to break this glass here at the bottom,” he whispered to the boys. “When I do that thing is going to come running. Once I'm through the window we run together.”

The boys nodded.

“Look at me,” he said to the boys, his face becoming alarmingly serious. “If I don't make it out then you run and you don't look back.”

“Don't say that Daddy,” Jeremy pleaded. His eyes were beginning to tear.

“You run, and you don't look back. Understood?”

Both boys nodded again.

“Stand back.”

Ed took a deep breath. It was now or never. He swung the baseball bat. It hit the glass with a dull thud, not the sharp sound of a window breaking. He struck again, working to clear a small area he could step over. He heard the carrier scream, and felt goosebumps break out all over his body. The sound was horrific.

A commotion erupted near the front of the store as the carrier clamored toward where Ed and the boys were making their escape. Ed broke off two more large chunks of glass before attempting to step over the window sill. He swung one leg over the edge, then handed the baseball bat to Zach.

The thing screamed again from the front of the store and then came into view from behind one of the shelving units. It was female; still wearing the tattered remnants of a dress. The front and the back of the dress were stained various shades of brown or black from untended urination and defecation. He could smell it as it approached. It’s eyes were wild; mad with rage and delirium. It was so emaciated that it looked like a walking skeleton.

Ed swung his other leg over then tried to jump. He couldn’t. He looked down to see that his coat was caught on a shard of glass. He began to panic, pulling hard to dislodge himself. The thing charged, gaining distance, its right arm hanging uselessly beside its body. The left arm swung wildly in the air, looking for something to kill.