The Last Days (24 page)

“What if they look OK?” She asked.

“If they look like they aren’t infected, I’ll stop and try to back over the dead. We can’t chance hitting them with the front of the car.” Mike said. “That’s all we would need is to bust another radiator.”

Kelly stared. The bloody gray creatures gave her the creeps as they edged closer.

As he got close to the car, Mike hit the gas enough to kick the Prius into regular engine mode.

The dead still didn’t seem to notice.

Mike drove at the back of the car then swerved to the left trying to hit the dead with the passenger side of his car.

As he swung by the stopped car, the dead on the left side of the stalled car bounced off of the side of Mike’s car and into the car they were attacking.

The creatures fell to the ground. The dead flailed around on the ground, looking like wild animals that had been hit by a passing car, not dead but in agony.

Kelly stared at the windows of the car as they drove by. Two faces from inside the car pushed against the cracked windows. The look in their frightened eyes pleaded for help.

“Mike there are two people inside that car. It looks like a young couple.” Kelly screamed. “They look OK to me.”

“Are you sure they are OK?” Mike yelled.

“I can’t say for sure, but they look scared to death.” Kelly answered.

“Where any of the windows broken? Did they look like they were bleeding?” He said loudly as he stopped the car twenty feet in front of the motionless vehicle.

“The windows are cracked. There is all kind of blood and stuff on the windows.” Kelly said as she swung around in her seat to look out the back window. “I can’t say for sure, but they didn’t look like they were hurt. We have to help them!”

Kelly looked at Mike pleading.

“OK, I’ll see what I can do. Hold tight.” Mike said warily. “I’m going to back up and see if I can disable those other three.”

Mike threw the car into reverse and started back at the car. He swung the Prius to the right and rammed the dead that were hammering on the passenger’s side of the stalled car.

The little Prius bounced up and down as it made contact with the dead and then ran over them.

They could hear the bones breaking over the sound of the small engine as it strained to drive over the bodies.

Mike stopped the Prius next to the stalled car and looked in through the blood and guts that covered most of the window’s surface.

The face of a man, about eighteen years old look out at him.

“Daddy!” Kimmy screamed.

Mike looked at Kimmy and saw her terrified face staring out through the windshield.

Mike quickly turned to see what she was looking at.

Kelly screamed as she saw it.

An ugly gray toothless face began to crawl up over the hood of the Prius. The arms flailed against the hood of the car as it moved closer to the windshield.

Mike threw the car into drive and hit the gas.

The dead body began to slide down off the hood as the car jostled them around in their seats as Mike crushed the creature with the front tires before it could get at the windshield.

Mike saw the creature, mangled on the road behind the car in the rearview mirror.

Mike stopped the Prius and turned facing the front and began to swear as he saw the small spray of steam shoot into the air at the end of the hood.

“Damn it!” He yelled, slamming his fists against the steering wheel. “We knocked a hole in our radiator.”

Mike was fuming as he thought about what had happened to the RV earlier today. They were screwed.

He looked in the rearview mirror. The boy in the car behind him had jumped out and was hitting the still agitated bodies around the car with a hammer.

Kimmy was terrified, not only with what had happened but also by Mike’s outburst.

Mike turned. “I’m sorry Kimmy. You’re fine. Daddy isn’t mad at you. I just lost my temper because I broke the car again.”

Kimmy jumped up and hugged Mike as she sobbed. Mike could feel her tears falling on his bare arms.

Mike hugged her. “Here you keep Mommy company for a few minutes while I go back and make sure those people are OK.”

Kimmy nodded and quickly moved over and began to hug Kelly.

“Stay in the car and lock the doors.” Mike instructed. “I’m going to go back and see if all of this was worth it!”

He shot Kelly a frustrated look then turned and got out of the car.

As Mike walked to the stalled vehicle, he saw the boy helping a young girl get out of the car. She couldn’t have been older than twelve. She looked horrified as she looked at the bloody scene around their car. Tears ran down her face and her entire body appeared to shake.

The boy led her around the dead on the ground. He tossed his bloody hammer to the ground as they walked towards Mike.

The young man lowered his head as he approached Mike.

“Thank you Mister.” He said humbly. “You saved me and my sister’s life. Another few minutes and they would have got in through the window. It was cracked and was bending into the car.”

Mike looked them over. He was looking for bites or scratches but they didn’t look like they had been injured.

“Are you two OK?” Mike asked. “They didn’t bite you or anything?”

“No Sir!” The boy replied. “That old Dodge kept them out just long enough.”

“What happened to your car?” Mike asked.

“My Pa sent us out to pick some berries.” The boy said. “There is a patch of black berries down the road a ways. But the old Dodge just died. We’ve been trying to keep it running as long as we could. Pa said we can’t afford a new one since he got laid off from the mines. I guess the timing chain finally just broke.”

“I’m glad you two are OK.” Mike said. He felt calmer as he looked at the two kids in front of him. The girl wasn’t much older than a child. He felt some sense of relief that he had been able to save them from a horrible fate.

Mike had started to become cynical after the last few days of surviving among the dead, but he hadn’t lost all of his compassion for his fellow human beings yet. Especially ones so young and innocent as these two. Their lives would be a total hell soon enough. He was happy that because of him, maybe they would still have a few more days of hope before their lives turned to shit.

“Mister?” The boy asked as he hugged his sobbing younger sister.

“Yes?” Mike replied.

“Could I ask you for a ride home?” The boy asked looking at the ground and not meeting Mike’s eyes. “I don’t want to impose or take advantage of your kindness.  It’s OK if you don’t want to. After all you just saved our lives. You have already done more than we can ever repay you for. We don’t live far away. Just a few miles down the road. If you don’t have room for us both, could you at least take Liz?”

The boy’s humility and unselfishness was touching. Young people today usually weren’t so humble.

“I would be happy to take you home but I have a little problem.” Mike replied. “It looks like one of the dead damaged my car when I ran it over.”

The boy looked at the car. “I don’t know much about them foreign cars, but I help my Pa work on cars all the time. If you pop the hood and let me take a look, maybe I can help. I can’t promise anything. I know a little, hopefully it will be enough.”

“OK Son.” Mike answered. Mike didn’t know shit about this hybrid car. It couldn’t hurt. He would be happy for any help he could get right now before anymore of the dead showed up. “Let’s go take a look.”

“My name is Billy and this is my sister Liz.” The boy said holding out his hand.

Mike shook his hand. “I’m Mike.”

“Thank You kindly again Sir.” Billy said.

“You’re welcome Billy.” Mike said. “Nice to meet you Liz.” Mike tried to smile.

Liz was too shook up to return the smile.

“She usually has better manners than this.” Billy said. “You’ll have to excuse her. I’m afraid she is still too scared to be polite.”

“I understand.” Mike said. “No offense taken. You have much trouble like this around here lately?”

“Yes Sir!” Billy replied as they walked towards the Prius. “A few days ago people started to go crazy. I don’t know what it is, but it’s like everybody is crazy and something has taken over their minds. They started to attack people. Pa had to get out his gun to protect us. He said it don’t do no good to shoot them anywhere but in the head. He told me if any of them came around me and I didn’t have my gun, that I should hit them in the head with something or they won’t stop. He said he hated to do that, half of the crazy people are our neighbors, but he said we don’t have a choice. They just won’t stop. It’s getting creepy as hell.”

“Tell me about it.” Mike said.

“Pa went to find the doc to see if he knew what was going on.” Billy said. “But when he got to the doc’s office he found he was dead. It looked like he had been mauled by a mountain lion.”

“Did you see anything on the TV about this?” Mike asked.

“We ain’t got no TV.” Billy said. “Pa said it was a waste of money. They don’t work up here in the mountains. Besides Pa said it would just keep us from doing our chores.”

Mike nodded, then tapped on the driver’s window.

Kelly unlocked the door.

Mike opened the door and pulled the hood release as he smiled at Kelly. “They are OK. Billy here says he might know how to fix the car.”

Kelly hugged Kimmy. “I hope so. It’s scary around here. I don’t want to stay here any longer than we have to.”

Mike felt around the partially opened hood and found the final release lever and opened the hood.

He propped the hood open and stepped aside so Billy could look under the hood.

“Wow look at all that stuff!” Billy said astonished about all the strange looking gizmos under the hood. “I don’t have any idea what all that stuff is.”

Mike nodded. He didn’t think the kid had seen anything newer than the old Dodge. But he thought it was worth a try. He didn’t know what else to do.

“But I can see you have a hole in your radiator!” Billy said. “If that is what’s wrong, it won’t be any problem to fix that.”

“Is there a radiator shop around here?” Mike aske hopefully.

“Nothing like that around here.” Billy replied. “But my Pa could put some gunk in the radiator, gunk will fix that.”

“Put what in the radiator?” Mike asked.

“Gunk!” Billy said. “Radiator sealant. It will block that hole right up.”

“It will plug up this hole?” Mike asked.

“Sure.” Billy answered. “That old Dodge there has half dozen holes five times that big. That Gunk sealed them right up. If it wasn’t for that darn timing chain it would still be running fine.”

“How long will it take?” Mike asked.

“Only a few minutes.” Billy replied. “Once Pa puts that gunk in, you should be fine to go in a few minutes.”

“OK.” Mike smiled. “Let’s go.”

Mike walked back to the car and opened the door.

“Kelly, Billy says they have some stuff they can put in the radiator that will plug the hole so we can keep going.” Mike said. “So we are going to give them a ride home. If you could hold Kimmy on your lap, Liz can sit on Billy’s lap in the back.”

Kelly pulled Kimmy into the front and onto her lap.

Mike opened the back door for Billy and Liz to get in the small space on the back seat where Kimmy had been sitting.

Once they were all in the car, Mike hit the EV button and pushed the accelerator. The car began to move quietly.

“This engine is sure quiet!” Billy said.

“The car is running on batteries right now.” Mike replied. “It will run on battery power for a few miles if I drive slow. This way the car won’t overheat and cause any more damage until we put that stuff in to plug the hole in the radiator.”

“I never heard of a car like this!” Billy replied. “What will they ever think of next?”

Mike smiled. “Where do you live Billy? How far away is it?”

“I live just down the road about two miles in Webville.” Billy answered.

“How many people live in Webville?” Kelly asked.

“About ten people.” Billy said.

“Only ten people.” Mike said. “That’s not a very big town.”

“It’s not really a town.” Billy said. “Just a few houses along the road. It is so far out that it was too far for the mailman from Huntington to drive that far to deliver our mail every day. So they made old man’s Jones house a post office. Well, not really his house. They put some trays on his porch and bring the mail out once a week. Old man Jones puts the mail in the trays on his porch and we have to go there to get our mail. They said they had to call us something since we had a post office, so they called us Webville.”

“How did they come up with the name Webville?” Mike asked.