Red Death: A Post Apocalyptic Thriller (5 page)

Tara stared back and forth between them. “Are you kidding me? Are you sure that will work?” She stared at her husband. Do you really want to do that? Do you believe the hospital isn’t safe?” Tara still somehow wanted Lee to quiet her fears.

Mary agreed with Lee. “If it’s not broken, the treatment is about the same. The recovery time is just longer with a break. He’ll know which it is soon enough anyway. I don’t think it’s safe at the hospital anymore either, Tara. God knows what they’re not telling us. From what my daughter is saying, there are cases there they are hiding from us.”

That was good enough for Tara.

“Okay, I’m going to run home and get my SUV. I can leave the lights off so they don’t see us. Mary, can you stay with him?” But Lee didn’t want her to, and told Tara they’d be safer as a pair. She reluctantly agreed.

“Don’t you move, Lee. Don’t do anything to draw attention to yourself.” Lee looked at her as if to say DUH! It broke the tension and they all laughed a little. Tara bent down to him. “I love you. I’m so sorry this happened, but we’ll be right back and get you home.” Lee nodded, obviously in pain.

Tara grabbed Mary’s arm as they hurried away down the road. “Do you have any pain pills, Mary? I’ve got some old ones from my last dental appointment.”

“I do. We can treat him at home and get him good as new. Don’t you worry. We’ll know soon enough if it really is broken. It will swell up and he’ll have trouble walking on it at all.”

The women moved fast down the long country road to the edge of town, then as quietly as they could through the dark neighborhood, until they reached the backyard of Tara’s house.

“Doesn’t it seem awfully dark around us lately? And have you noticed the traffic out front has slowed to a handful of cars?”

Mary nodded, eyes huge. “I have. I don’t take it as a good sign. And I’m afraid to go back out to the store to see what’s going on.”

Tara’s SUV was parked in her little pull in space behind their garage and she dug out her keys and started it up. Mary climbed in the passenger side. The mile long stretch of road on the way back seemed so much shorter when you were driving.

“What do you say to taking a little trip tomorrow, Tara, sort of a reconnaissance mission?” The thought of it scared Tara, but she felt braver with the idea of Mary’s company.

“That’s a great idea. I’ve been afraid to venture out too, but we need to see for ourselves,” Tara told her.

Tara shut off her headlights as soon as she got to the far edge of town. They inched slowly along on the secluded road, watching all sides for any danger. But a field of corn on their right and the fenced in lake section of the gravel pit on their left didn’t leave a lot of room for hidden threats. She pulled the car off to the side in the grass, very near the bushes. She left it running while she and Mary jumped out.

“We’re back,” she whispered softly,” and Lee appeared very relieved.

The women helped him up, one on each side, grabbing his underarms. Lee hopped one-legged to the car, supported by the women. He had to stop a couple times, groaning, and Tara knew it must hurt badly, because Lee just wasn’t the type to complain over pain.

They settled him into the passenger seat and Mary crawled in the back. Again, with no headlights, Tara moved slowly down the country road, turning them on as soon as they reentered the street at the edge of town. Just at the edge of the cornfield, Mary pointed. “Look!” Then glowing eyes of a white tailed deer stared back at them frozen in the headlights. It turned and bounded away, tail flashing as it ran. Deer were very plentiful in their rural area, but Tara’s family were not hunters, and the thought of killing them had always turned her stomach. Now her usual appreciation of their beauty turned in a different direction.
Another possible food source…

Tara pulled into the back alley and on into her driveway behind the garage. Carefully, the women helped Lee out and up onto the back porch. Mary supported him while she unlocked the boarded over door, which Mary commented upon as they ushered Lee inside. “You did a good job on the door, Lee.” Tara closed it behind them in relief.

“Thank God, we made it home!” They installed Lee on the couch, and Tara ran to get practically all the pillows in the house to prop his leg up high enough. Then she went in search of her old pain pills and gave Lee two of them. Next, she brought a blanket and Lee pulled off his jeans under it so Mary could see his leg. She gave Tara a knowing look as soon as she saw the swelling and bruising down his leg and behind his knee, making his skin tight and shiny.

“Have you got enough pills for tonight?” Mary asked. “I’ll bring more over tomorrow.” Tara did and she and Lee both thanked her. She walked Mary to the front door to let her out.

“I can’t believe this just happened.”

Mary just shook her head. “I know, “she said. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Call me if anything goes wrong or if you need me.”

Tara nodded, and hugged her. “Thank you so much, Mary, for everything.” Mary pulled back a little, as though maybe they shouldn’t get that close, but Tara didn’t care at the moment.

“Ebola be damned” she answered Mary’s reticence.

Mary smiled and nodded, crossing the wide street to her little bungalow on the corner. Tara watched to make sure she got in safely, and Mary turned and waved. Tara closed and locked the door, leaning against it for a minute to think.
How am I going to manage without Lee?

Chapter 5

Tara turned and stared at Mary’s closed door for a moment. She heard Lee stirring and rejoined him in the living room. His long, lanky frame barely fit on the sofa. She fluffed his pillows, gathered ice packs and more bedding, and then turned on the TV to distract him, her mind elsewhere. “How are you feeling, honey?” His face looked pale and he grimaced in pain occasionally.

“It hurts like hell,” he answered stoically. “I can’t believe I was so clumsy.”

Tara squeezed in, sitting down beside him but careful not to jar his leg. She leaned over to give him a hug, then smoothed his hair back and kissed his head.

“We’ve all had those klutzy moments. Mary says the swelling will go down within a few days. Then the real healing will begin. You’ll be back to normal soon, I hope.”

“Me too,” he grinned at her, “I’m not a very good patient.”

“You’re MY patient, so you’d better be good! I don’t know if I’ve ever had this much control over you. I think I like it!” They laughed together companionably.

“Do you want to try to go upstairs to bed tonight or would you rather stay here? If so, I’m going to bring the air mattress down and sleep here on the floor next to you.”

“Down here,” he said, “I don’t want to move, but you don’t have to stay with me. You can go on up.”

“I’d rather be here, Lee.”

He understood and Tara spent the next half hour finding the air mattress and sheets she would need. She finally got her own bed set up and Lee all taken care of. She kissed him goodnight, turned off the light and crawled into her new bed. It was surprisingly comfortable. She suddenly realized they hadn’t even had time to mention what they’d seen at the old Kmart.

“I love you, Lee, she whispered, “Tomorrow, maybe you’ll feel better and we can go over all we saw tonight.”

But Lee didn’t answer, and Tara heard the slight snore coming from the couch where he had fallen into a deep, Percocet-induced sleep.
Let him sleep, he’ll heal faster.

But Tara couldn’t sleep at all. She kept seeing the camp, hospital, or whatever it was that had risen seemingly overnight less than a mile away. She hadn’t wanted to say anything. In fact, she hadn’t even wanted to admit it to herself at first, but she wondered if the others had seen what looked like the thousands of hermetically sealed coffins, stacked at least ten deep on the far left side of the building, spilling over into the parking lot.
If those are what I think they are, they are obviously expecting fatalities. And a lot of them.
A mental picture formed in her head as she imagined the hundreds of other rumored camps going up all over the country, each of them with those same coffins stacked ominously at the ready.
Is it everywhere or just here? Are we ground zero?

There was just too much she didn’t know. Tara sat up and grabbed her laptop from the coffee table beside her to try to get some local news stories, but news was still suspiciously absent. Plus the internet was acting funny. It would stop working, and then come back on all at once a few minutes later.

She tried Facebook and very few people had posted recently.
Now that’s odd
. A strange fear struck Tara.
I think this is the most alone I’ve ever felt.
Her Facebook acquaintances from California were always online three hours after her Ohio friends went to bed. Then her Australian and UK friends came on if she stayed up late enough, but tonight, only one or two people were on. Older posts from the past two days mentioned sick households, doctor visits and pending ER trips. Tara scrolled uneasily through old posts until she found a frantic one from that morning in all caps: THEY TOOK MY SON! HE CALLED FROM THE STORE—THEY SAID HE HAD A FEVER—HE RAN INSIDE AND HID BEHIND A CLOTHES RACK AND CALLED ME! THEY FOUND HIM—I HEARD HIM SCREAMING AND NOW HE WON’T ANSWER HIS CELL! SOMEONE HELP!

Tara’s heart froze. She closed the laptop, sick at her stomach, and crawled into bed, pulling the covers up to her chin. Lee’s gentle snores filled the room. Tara felt very afraid and very alone. She jumped up suddenly and ran upstairs to get the gun on her nightstand. As she lay down again, the gun beside her, she stared into the dark with visions of the end of the world dancing before her eyes.

~

Tara woke with sun streaming through the gaps in the boarded up windows. She felt like crap, but at least she’d finally fallen asleep. Lee was still sleeping, so she got up and made coffee, trying not to think too much.

The doorbell rang. Mary was on her porch with a nearly full bottle of Percocet.

“I had this left over from my foot surgery. I hate the way it makes me feel, so I used another painkiller. I thought it might come in handy someday.”

“Oh, Mary, thank you! He spent a restless night and his leg is so swollen! I’ve kept ice packs on it, but it’s not helping much.”

Mary grimaced and shook her head. “Yeah, these breaks are painful. The swelling should go down eventually. I didn’t find the air cast, but I did find a large brace—they actually use them now on the fibula breaks. It’s a lot less restricting than a cast. You can take it off to sleep.”

Mary searched Tara’s face. “It looks like your night was more restless than his! What’s wrong? You seem really upset.”

Tara told her about the Facebook post she’d read, and asked her if she’d noticed the coffins the night before. They spoke in harsh whispers, both for Lee’s sake and because somehow, they each felt unsafe now. They admitted this to one another, laughed a little halfheartedly, and once they had, both relaxed. Somehow confessing their worst fears bonded them even more.

“I’m very worried about my daughter and grandson. They just live across town but I’m afraid for them. I’d like them here with me. I know she doesn’t have Ebola, because she’d have shown symptoms by now.” Mary’s daughter still had a head cold and slight fever, but nothing more.

They discussed her daughter’s self-quarantine and her grandson’s cold virus, and about what it might mean to events unfolding around them. Neither one knew how to proceed. There was just too much they didn’t know.

“While we’re out for our reconnaissance, could we swing by? I’ll keep my distance. I just need to see their faces.” Mary sounded so pathetic Tara instantly agreed. Besides, this woman had become her only friend and she wasn’t about to lose her, or God forbid, offend her.

“Mary, while you’re here, would you help me drag down Mom’s old wheelchair from the attic? Just in case Lee might need it.”

Tara led the way, and three flights of stairs later, she pushed aside the stacked items and located it in the back corner of the attic. There was also a pair of crutches and Tara tossed them down onto the landing. The wheelchair was still in pretty good shape and it folded for storage, thank goodness. Mary took one side and Tara the other and they wrestled it down the narrow stairs. Once in the foyer, Mary deftly popped it open and rolled it back and forth.

“This is the Cadillac of wheelchairs!” she joked.

“Yeah, we wanted Mom to be comfortable at the end, so we bought her a nice one.”

Tara maneuvered it through the front room and into the attached fireplace and TV room where Lee had taken up residence. He was fully awake now. Tara had even brought her mom’s potty chair from the attic for him the night before. She was very glad she’d kept all this stuff after her mom died nine years earlier.

“Let me see that leg, Lee,” Mary asked him. Lee groaned and tried to sit up a little.

“I need some more pain pills, Tara.” Tara shook two out of the pill bottle while Mary pushed the blankets back and lifted off the ice packs. Tara handed the pills and Lee’s water to him, and then took away a couple ice packs to rotate and refreeze them, bringing two fresh ones back.

Tara and Mary moved in close to look at Lee’s broken leg. It had swollen behind his knee and on down the side of his calf, and it was black and blue. Tara flinched at the sight of it and groaned in commiseration. She leaned in to kiss the top of her husband’s head. Lee settled back into his makeshift bed and sighed.

Mary felt for any hotspots on the leg, which she explained could mean a clot had formed, but there were none. Satisfied Lee was doing as well as could be expected, she re-covered him. Tara told Lee that she and Mary were going on a road trip to see what they could. Lee nodded absently and closed his eyes, still out of it from the Percocet.

“I’m afraid he’s going to sleep through most of the next few days,” Mary whispered to her. Tara watched Lee for a minute, concerned, but he closed his eyes and began his soft little snore, so she turned and motioned Mary to follow her.

“He’ll be okay for a few minutes,” Tara told the older woman, relocking the front door. She grabbed her coat and led them out the back.

“I feel like a secret agent or something,” Tara joked, but it wasn’t far from the truth. Fear had always caused her to bluff her way through things, acting brave. But she wasn’t feeling very brave at the moment. Mary got in the passenger side of Tara’s old Honda CRV and she slowly backed out into the alley.

“Where should we go first?” Tara asked her friend.

“Let’s head downtown and see what’s going on.”

Tara turned left at the next alley, and then rolled to a stop, waiting to exit onto the main street.

“Look at the traffic,” she pointed out. There wasn’t any. Only a handful of cars in either direction made it seem more like three a.m. rather than nearly noon. It would usually be nonstop about now on their normally bustling street. Tara pulled out, driving slowly toward their destination.

Their street was a long one; one of the main thoroughfares bordering the western edge of town. Almost immediately, they noticed a white van suspiciously backed up to a house about a block down. “Don’t stare, Mary. Don’t let them see you looking!”

The two men in hazmat suits carried a plastic-covered stretcher, just like the ones they’d seen at the Kmart. It looked like a giant oblong bubble. Mary glanced away quickly. “Oh, my God!” she breathed.

Within another block, they saw two more white vans backed into driveways or up into small front yards. Tara followed her own advice and looked away. “What are they going to do when they run out of space for them? Or out of vans?”  Mary met her gaze, eyes wide with fright.

“Then the jig is up, I’d say.” 
Yes, she’s right. They are on top of it so far, at least they think so.
Tara arrived at the cross street that took them to the abandoned Kmart.

“Turn here, Tara, let’s try to see what they’re doing back there,” Mary told her. Tara continued down the next street, and they counted two more vans retrieving sick people from their homes.

“The white vans are acting as ambulances, I guess.”

Mary nodded, biting a fingernail.

At the access road leading to the Kmart and Dollar stores, a roadblock was set up. Sheriff’s cruisers sat crossways in front of barricades. “Don’t look at them, Mary, let’s keep going and swing back around the other direction.”

Tara was in full panic now. Something big was obviously happening. There could no longer be any doubt. Mary leaned forward anxiously. “I want you to go by my daughter’s house now, okay?” Tara nodded and told her she would.

“It’s on Fourth Street, just head back this way and turn left at the deli.” As they passed the Subway and the McDonald’s, there were no cars at either. This was as shocking as anything else they’d seen. It really drove home the scale of the epidemic.

“Mary, they’re all closed!” Fear coursed through Tara. She wanted to get back home, wanted to run, to hide.

Just then, Mary’s cell rang and she looked at it. “Thank God, it’s my daughter.” She pressed the call button and answered. All Tara could hear was Mary’s daughter screaming. Her voice carried loudly in the enclosed vehicle. She sounded stuffed up with a head cold.

“Mom, they took us! They stopped to refuel the van. They’re inside paying. I told them I didn’t have a cell phone!”

“What? What happened!” cried Mary.

“We went to the drugstore for cold medicine, and Ben and I both still have fevers. They took us! I don’t know where we’re going.” Tara heard the young woman sob, and then the faint crying of a little boy.
Oh, dear God!

“Where are you? Julie, where are you, can you see?” Mary nearly shouted.

“They’re coming, Mom! They said we’d be kept here local. We’re just past the Mall at the gas station, headed toward the old Kmart.” Tara’s heart sank and Mary glanced at her.

“Can you get out?”

“They’re coming! I love you. No matter what happens, I love you!”

“Julie, wait, try to run, take Ben and run!” Mary sat forward on the edge of her seat, frantic, but there was no answer. Her daughter Julie had hung up. Mary was beside herself, and burst into tears.

“Turn around, Tara, go down there, maybe we can get them!” Tara looked at her doubtfully, and Mary came to her senses.

“What am I saying? We
can’t
get them, not with the National Guard or the Marines or whoever the hell those soldiers are.” She put her head in her hands and sobbed. “They only have colds, for God’s sake. Now they’ll get Ebola.”

Tara did her best to reassure Mary, but she was inconsolable. Tara understood.