It All Comes Down To Zombies: Sarah (2 page)

“Okay, if you’re not gonna drive, where are we stopping for the night? We can’t sleep in the truck. It’s not safe.”

“We’ve got about an hour left of sunlight. We’re just about twenty minutes from my sister’s place. Her husband’s a Marine Corps vet. I bet they survived this craziness. We’ll stop there.”

Jimmy chewed the inside of his cheek. He only did that when he was trying not to say something.

“What?” Sarah snapped.

“It’s just…your sister doesn’t like me much, and I’m pretty sure…in fact, I’m certain that the last time I spoke to Khalid, he told me that if he ever even so much as smelled me thinking about coming near his family, he’d hunt me down and put a bullet between my eyes.”

“Khalid’s just protective of his little sister-in-law. He wouldn’t actually kill you. Anyway, suck it up, buttercup. Unless you’ve got a better idea.”

“Let’s find a hotel.”

“Are you kidding? Do you know how many people are in a hotel at any given time? The monsters wouldn’t have to kill us. The smell alone would be enough.”

“Maybe there’s one that was evacuated before zombies took over the US.”

“Oh, right. You didn’t hear.” Sarah’s voice took on a gentler tone. “It’s not just the US anymore.”

“Huh?”

“When you were in the bathroom a few stops back, the radio said London, Dubai, and Tokyo are overrun. There have been sightings in Marrakech and Sydney. It’ll only be a matter of time before the whole world looks like the US. One more thing to blame us for.”

“Who even knows how this started, huh?” Jimmy spouted, sounding defensive. “Maybe it was a terrorist attack, like 9-11. Maybe it’s ISIS.”

Sarah stared at Jimmy as if he’d sprouted a third head.

“Hey, it could happen!”

“I guess. Anyway, my sister’s house is the best option. They’ll have food, and solar energy, and at the very least, bottled water. Though knowing Khalid, they’ll have safe running water, too.”

“Yeah, he always was a bit of a Boy Scout, huh?”

“Actually, I’m pretty sure he
was
a Boy Scout. But in his more recent past, he was a Marine in Iraq. Right about now, I’m more interested in the experience he gained on that adventure.”

Jimmy grunted.

“You’re really scared, huh?”

Always the man’s man, Jimmy pretended he didn’t hear Sarah’s question.

“Tell ya what. If Khalid’s a dick, we’ll leave.”

“What if he shoots on sight? Aren’t those crazy motherfuckers trained to shoot to kill?”

“Their enemies, not their sister-in-law,” Sarah retorted, too tired to scold Jimmy for categorizing her brother-in-law as a ‘crazy motherfucker.’

“I’m not his sister-in-law.”

The sun was just barely visible over the horizon as they pulled into the driveway. Sarah cursed under her breath when she saw that the garage door was open and both cars were gone. The windows were boarded up, and one of the solar panels on the roof was smashed, but otherwise, the house looked in good condition.

“Damn it. Damn it, damn it, damn it. Where the fuck could they have gone? And why’d they leave the garage open?”

Sarah flung open the truck door and hopped out, pulling the pistol from her waistband. “I’m gonna have a look around.”

“What’s the point? They’re gone!”

“I don’t know, Jimmy. You’re the one who called Khalid a boy scout. Maybe they left some supplies behind.”

“Maybe they’re all zombies and somebody stole their cars.”

Sarah kicked the door shut and started up the drive toward the garage. She didn’t bother responding. Jimmy sighed and hurried after her.

The garage was mostly empty. Khalid was adamant about garages being for cars, so very little was stored there. They’d left behind a car battery charger, a giant box of tools reserved for the cars, and…

“Hey, they still have the Ferrari I bought for Maddy! What’s she, sixteen, now?”

“Yeah. It’s a collector’s edition. Plus, it’s really a kid-sized Ferrari. They’d be crazy to sell it. It’s worth a ton of money. It’ll be worth even more some day, if we come back from all this. I’m surprised it’s still here. Where the hell did you get that kind of money?”

“You know.”

“Yeah. I just want to hear you say it.”

“Running errands.”

“What kind of ‘errands,’ Jimmy?”

Jimmy shot Sarah a look that could have cut glass.

“You want upstairs or down?” he asked, ignoring her question.

“This place doesn’t exactly work like that. It’s kind of a maze. We should probably stick together. And we should definitely start in the basement. That’s where Khalid keeps the things he stockpiles for emergencies.”

“Emergencies. You mean like the zombie apocalypse?”

“Yeah, Jimmy,” Sarah rolled her eyes. “Like the zombie apocalypse.” 

Sarah jiggled the knob on the door leading into the home. It was locked.

“I don’t have a key. But I know where there is one. Come on.”

“Why don’t we just kick in the door?”

“Because if we’re going to stay here for the night, we need a fully functional door?”

“Oh…right.”

Sarah led Jimmy through the garage and into the backyard. She headed for the pool shed, as she fumbled with her own key ring. Her fingers settled on the right key, and she slipped it into the doorknob.

“You have a key to your sister’s pool shed, but not her house?”

“Pretty slick, right? This way, if anything happens, and someone tries to get into their house through me, I can honestly say I don’t have a key to their house. They can try all my keys and none of them will work. And who gives their sister a key to their pool shed? Why would you even need to?”

What she didn’t say was that the house key was hidden behind another lock and a false wall that was unseeable to the naked eye. You had to know it was there to find it.

“Why would anyone try to get into their house through you?”

“If I told you, I’d have to kill you.”

Jimmy shook his head. “Whatever, Sarah.”

Sarah smirked and let herself in the shed. “Wait here. Keep watch. Let me know if you see anything.”

Once inside, Sarah found the reason for the open garage door. Khalid and Sophia had unplugged the solar panels before they left. They hadn’t wanted to go back to the pool shed to plug them in again once everyone was safe in their vehicles, and closing the door manually would have taken too long.

Sarah made her way to her brother-in-law’s secret gun cabinet, to which she also had a key. She was the only one besides Khalid with a key to the gun cabinets. Sarah’s sister, Sophia, never wanted one. She said she’d rather die than shoot someone.

Sophia had never been with someone like Jimmy.

Sarah flipped open the door, hoping to add a couple of Khalid’s more powerful, more automatic guns to their arsenal. She groaned when she saw all the weapons were gone. But there, tacked up inside, was a piece of paper with her name on it.

“Jackpot,” she said under her breath.

She opened the note. It read:

“Fyzn migynbcha zil sio vybchx nby bin xia. Sio ehiq nby wigvi.

1mn mnij: jcwe oj Gig.

2hx mnij: jcwe oj siol julyhnm.

3lx mnij: pcmcn Ohwfy.

Zchuf mnij: ai meccha qcnb Gur.

Myy su nbyly. Xi nls ni wunwb oj. Mijbcu’m fimcha byl gchx. Mylciomfs. Fipy.”

When Sarah was little, Khalid was so patient with her admiration for her big sister. Sarah would whine to be included, and against Sophia’s wishes, he’d sit down with her and teach her the things he’d learned in training. Sarah’s favorite part was the ciphers.

It only took a glance to figure out that Khalid had written the letter in his favorite cipher. Wanting to impress her soon-to-be ‘big brother’ with how clever she was, Sarah had worked hardest on memorizing that one until it had become second nature. She’d kept in practice over the years by sending letters to her nieces and nephews using the cipher their father had taught her. It was the only one she could still figure out without sitting down and writing it out.

“Left something for you behind the hot dog. You know the combo.

1st stop: pick up Mom.

2nd stop: pick up your parents.

3rd stop: visit Uncle.

Final stop: go skiing with Max.

See ya there. Do try to catch up. Sophia’s losing her mind. Seriously. Love.”

And that explained why both cars were gone. Khalid and Sophia had four kids. Even in the minivan, they wouldn’t all fit once they grabbed Mom and Dad, who had both stopped driving after an accident ten years prior.

Sarah breathed a sigh of relief. She had no idea how much of a head start Khalid and Sophia had on them. Khalid still had military connections, and New York City and its surrounding areas were the first places in New England to go bad. The phone lines and cell services had been cut shortly before the virus made national news, so Sarah wasn’t able to get in touch with any of her family before the first case appeared in Schenectady. They could have left days before Sarah even knew the virus was a thing.

At least now she knew they’d gotten out alive.

The house was like a fortress. Khalid had hired an architect who was a former Marine with a passion for doomsday shelters reminiscent of the house in Stephen King’s
Rose Red
. It was easy to get lost if you didn’t know where you were going. With the windows all boarded up, and the house’s insane layout, Sarah and Jimmy would be safe here for the night. They might even be able to get a couple of good meals in them. But then it was off again in the morning.

Sarah folded the note and tucked it in her pocket. Then she reached behind the false back in the gun cabinet and pulled out the little magnetic key holder waiting there.

“Got it,” she told Jimmy as she locked the shed door. “They’re stopping in Philly first to pick up Khalid’s mom, then Aberdeen to grab my folks, then Quantico for some reason. I’ll plug in the solar, and we’ll be in business.”

Sarah intentionally held back Khalid’s mention of Max.

“I don’t think you should.”

“Don’t think I should what? Plug in the solar?”

“Those things seem to be attracted to heat. Lights, cars, animals, people…,” Jimmy looked back at the house. “Looks like they’ve got a fireplace. If we have to, we can start a small fire and cook on that. We’ve got flashlights. Leave the solar panels.”