The Last Infection: A Post Apocalyptic Thriller (5 page)

Jenn
turned away from him and faced the parking lot. The lights from the lot silhouetted her on the edge of the roof. “I know that as much as anyone.”

Chris instantly felt
badly about what he’d said. He wasn’t sure, but he thought he had a good idea of what her response meant. He walked away from the group and Jenn turned her attention to the kids. He could hear them as she tried to settle them down for the night.

“It’s going
to get cold up here,” she said, sliding off a small backpack. She sat it down and removed a pair of towels, then offered them up to the kids as pillows or blankets.

“Are we going to leave in the morning?”
Alicen asked.

“I hope so,”
Jenn replied.

“…for Catalina?”

Chris rolled his eyes, but didn’t look over at them. Jenn got to her feet and headed in his direction as she answered the little girl.

“We’ll see.”

Typical parental response
, Chris thought. Grownups never offered much commitment unless they were dead set on something. Kid’s minds didn’t seem to work that way. To them, everything was more black or white. Jake urged his sister to be quiet before she could get out a follow up question. The two laid down, choosing to use the towels as pillows. Their jackets appeared warm enough for the weather, but even so, it would be a long, cold night. Jenn came to a stop a few feet from Chris and the two stood side by side looking out over the city in silence. She finally ended the standoff several minutes later.

“I didn’t
mean to yell at you.”

Chris shook his head.

“Don’t worry about it.”

“No,” she said. “You came to help us and you didn’t have to do that
. A lot of people wouldn’t have done it. It’s not your responsibility to help everyone you come across.”

The silence returned and Chris fought off the a
wkwardness as long as he could.

“You from Denver?”

She shook her head.

“Kansas City.”

“Boy, you’re a long way from home.”

“Hasn’t been my home
since all this started.” She wiped her hand across her face and her shoulders relaxed. “…hung on as long as I could and finally realized help wasn’t coming. I felt like I had to get out of there.”

“What brought you to our fine city?” Chris flashed an uneasy smile. “Skiing?”

“Just passing through,” she said. “My parents were living in Vegas when the infection spread. Last time I got them on the phone, they were held up on the tenth floor of the Harrah’s casino.” She pushed her hair back behind her head and tied it up with something she pulled from her pocket. “What about you?’

“Me? I’m
a Denver boy, born and bred.” Chris slipped his hands in his pockets as the loss of adrenalin gave way to the cold. “Actually, I was born a few miles south of here, but spent most of my life in and around the city.”

“You alone?” she asked sheepishly.
It was a hard question to ask these days.

“Have been for a while,” he offered.

“Then why stay?”

Chris shrugged
, then tried to rub the tired from his eyes. He pushed his hair up over his ears. It was longer than he cared for and he swore he was going to shave it off, if he got the chance. He found himself struggling to find a good answer to her question.

“Go where?”

Jenn looked back at the kids and lowered her voice.

“How about Catalina?”

Chris shook his head again.

“Don’t tell me
they pulled you into that safe zone crap?”

“You don’t know
if it’s true or not,” she said sharply.

“
Don’t you think everyone would be searching for a place like that?” He didn’t bother to let her answer. “It’s been nearly a year and I haven’t heard of any safe place and I’ll bet a good night’s rest that neither have you.”

Jenn turned to face him.

“That still doesn’t mean it isn’t true.”

Chris frowned.

“And you’re going get them there? Or cut them loose when you reach Vegas?”

Jenn
stood firm as her eyes narrowed. “I’m going to make sure they get there.” She said it as if she came to the decision at that precise moment.

“You don
’t stand a chance,” Chris said.

“How do you know that?”

“The highways are the worst place to get caught on.” He took his hands out of his pockets and crossed his arms. “There's no food out there, there’s droves of the dead and infected everywhere, and that doesn’t even account for all the crazies out there setting up their own version of the new world.” His glare met hers. “And you want to go out in that with a couple of needy kids?”

“Those needy kids…” she started dangerously loud
, and then caught herself. She stopped, took a deep breath, and lowered her voice. “Those needy kids made it here from Cheyenne on their own.”

Chris didn’t have a response for that. He looked over at the now sleeping
children with a renewed respect. “You’re going to get yourself killed…” he managed, “…and them with you.”

Jenn
gave up, turning her back on him. She walked away, leaving Chris with one final thought. “Staying here with no reason to live is like being dead already.”

Chris wouldn’t let it go, trying to convince himself that he was right to stay put. “W
hat if you do make it,” he said, “you get there and discover the coast is covered with as much infected and undead as it is everywhere else, what then?”

Jenn
laid down next to Alicen and settled in, placing her hands behind her head. “Then I’m no worse off than I would have been had I stayed at home and waited for them to come and get me. But at least I can say I tried and at least I won’t be alone.” She closed her eyes.

Chris was left in the silence. His mind had long blocked out the constant moan of the dead and the ebb and flow of the guttural howls of the infected. His only positive thought came from the knowledge that the infected would have to hide before the sun rose
, but he still wasn’t sure how they were going to get down. Jenn’s questions stuck in his mind. He’d avoided asking himself similar questions many times before. The truth was that he didn’t have any good answers and he knew it. He didn’t want to think about it now, but something told him, he would need an answer very soon.

6.

The morning sun brought with it much needed warmth. Chris slept near his new companions
, but not close enough to share in the body heat. He wasn’t sure they would have offered. His dirty, military fatigue jacket worked well against the wind, but spending all night outside was too much to ask of it. He’d spent most of the night struggling with his and Jenn’s final conversation. The answers he was searching for eluded him in his nightmare-filled slumber. He knew what his answers should be, but he hadn’t brought himself along far enough to go through with it.

He cracked an eyelid and discovered both girls up and moving around. Jake didn’t appear to be particularly interested in
waking for the long day ahead. Chris sat up and focused in on Jenn and Alicen working on two cans. One was a pried open can of beans and the other ones missing label offered a surprise breakfast.

Chris cracked his neck
, and then rubbed at the pain in his lower back. He dared to dream of a day when he would sleep on a pillow top mattress again. The moans of the dead from somewhere off the side of the building brought him back to his harsh reality. He stood up and approached the edge of the roof, giving Jake a shove with his boot as he passed. The parking lot looked like a war zone. There was no sign of the infected mob, although he guessed a majority of them were lying in wait underneath him in the dark recesses of the store. A few zombies walked between the abandoned cars in the lot, but there were not enough to be concerned about. Chris tried to determine how they might get down off the roof, when Jake cut through his concentration.

“Breakfast time.”

A quick look revealed the mystery can was filled with mixed fruit. The thought of combining fruit with beans didn’t sound appealing, but the growl from Chris’ stomach said it was worth a try. He stretched his hands over his head and listened to the joints in his shoulders pop. He took one last look at the lot and decided to save the dilemma of how to get down until after breakfast. He joined in a small circle with the others around the cans to which Jake had added two candy bars, both of which he assured everyone were not Chris’. Each of them held still waiting for the others to dig in. Chris had to be a gentleman to get the meal moving along.

“Ladies first,” he said with a grand bow.

Alicen and Jenn started and it wasn’t long before everyone had their portion of the carb and sugar fusion. Chris blurted out the only question he could think of to get a much needed conversation going.

“What’s your plan?”

Jenn looked up at him, her mouth half full. She glanced at the kids, then swallowed hard and reached for her bag. A few seconds of fumbling through the contents produced a badly worn map. The foldout resembled a roadside gas station purchase. It took her a few tries before she got it laid out flat, holding down the edges with a few rocks and the empty can of beans.

“We’re about her
e.” She pointed at the edge of highway 391. “…and I-70 runs west, a clear shot across Colorado until it hits the 15 south midway through Utah.” She slid her finger along the blue highway line until it ran into an orange line. “The 15 runs straight through Vegas and continues into Los Angeles.” She looked from Jake to Alicen with a smile. “This is Catalina.” She motioned to an island close to the coast. “We’ll probably have better luck setting out for it from Long Beach.”

Chris cleared his throat and tried to think of a way to be polite. “How are you going to get there in one piece?” He knew the moment he said it that it
wasn’t as cordial as he was hoping for. All three faces looked at him puzzled.

“We need to get a car
, of course,” Jenn said.

Chris knew that wasn’t as easy as it
sounded, but he pushed on. “My question still stands.”

Jake’s brow furrowed and
Alicen’s soon followed. The two identical reactions were comical. Chris couldn’t figure out if they were doing it on purpose or if it was a side effect of being together for so long.

“We made it a long way by ourselve
s,” Jake said.

Jenn
’s look hardened as if to say,
yeah
. Chris ran his hand through his hair as he tried to think of the best way to relay bad news. He moved around the map and settled on a direct approach. He ran his finger along the I-70 away from Denver.

“None of you are from here so I don’t expect you to know this.” He inspected the map closer to be sure about what he was going to say. “Taking this road is suicide.”
Jenn tried to interrupt him, but he continued before she could get anything out. “This is mostly country with a few small towns here and there. Word was, when we still got word anyway, that people rushed out in this direction by the droves. They were trying to get away from the city when the infection started. The problem was that the first wave of the infection had a longer incubation period which meant all those people carried it out into the country with them.”

“
Not sure if it was reported everywhere, but the first cases came out of Kansas, some small town. From what I remember, it was only zombies then. It hadn’t mutated to what we now know as the infected.” He made a wide circle with his hand along the map over the entire eastern half of Colorado. “Anyway, that first wave of exodus from Denver brought it out in to the country, infecting people along the way.”

Jake’s shoulders slouched showing his mental defeat. Chris felt obligated to finish and tell the whole truth.

“And that was just the beginning of the infection. The last I heard anything was several months ago,” he looked up at Jenn, “…and it got much worse. It’s not like the people who lived out there ever took kindly to strangers. I don’t even want to think about what it’s like now.”

“So that’s it?”
Alicen asked, looking to her brother for a rebuttal of encouragement.

T
he boy shrugged his shoulders, refusing to look at her as he spoke. “We’ll go alone if we have to.”

Alicen
smiled, but her eyes showed the fear gripping her heart.

“Then you’ll both die,” Chris said solemnly, “
…or worse.”

“What are we supposed to do then?” Jake asked. He stood up and stomped his foot reminding everyone of his age. “Stay here and rot away like you?”
Alicen got up and wrapped her arms around his waist.

Chris glared at
Jenn. “How did I become the bad guy?” He took a deep breath and counted in his head as he let it out. It was a nearly forgotten skill from the life he lost. “I’m only trying to tell you what’s out there. I’m not saying it’s impossible.”

Jake peered back at him. “It sure sounds like it.”

Alicen peeled herself off her brother. “Jake did a lot to get us here,” she said, now sounding older than her baby face appeared. “We saw so many terrible things. There’s a lot of bad people out there, but we have to try.”

Jake took her hand and the two stood
motionless. Jenn walked around behind them and Chris found three sets of determined eyes looking squarely back at him. He shrugged his shoulders and gave up on any idea of talking them out of going.

“
You can’t go anywhere if you can’t get off the damn building first.”

#

They wasted an hour walking around the edge of the roof looking for any obvious solutions to their predicament. There wasn’t enough usable material between the four of them to construct a makeshift rope without accepting that they might not get their clothes back once they got down. Chris’ lone remaining idea didn’t get a lot of support even after all other avenues were exhausted.

“We’re going to get killed,”
Jenn said, looking over the side of the building at a pair of dumpsters.

Jake relayed
the story about him and Alicen’s experience with a similar fall. He wasn’t sure their jump was anywhere near as high as their current dilemma.

Chris was already slipping his backpack in place.
“I’ll go first,” he said. “Once I’m down, I’ll go through the other dumpster and pull over some more bags to help break your fall.”

Alicen
’s face scrunched up until she found the question she was searching for. “But what if you go splat?” She flattened one palm against the other for a visual.

Chris considered the
matter before as he readied himself at the edge. “Then it won’t be my problem anymore.” Without another word, he jumped.

The fall wasn’t as far as it looked in his mind, but the impact was much worse. A shot of pain raced up his spine the moment he made contact
with the bags and something more solid hidden underneath. To make matters worse, one of his boots clipped the edge of the dumpster and at the moment, his foot was on fire. “Oww,” was all he could muster. He took a mental check of his pain before he tried to move. Apparently, he waited too long, and a call came down from the roof.

“Are you dead?”

Chris thought Alicen’s voice was too innocent to ask such an awful thing. He shifted his weight and found that the pain in his back relaxed. However, the burning in his foot did not. He made it to his knees and pushed the trash bags aside to find a stack of metal chairs underneath. “These clearly belong with the recyclables,” he said as he began lifting them out onto the alleyway.

The smell hit him all at once and there was a real threat of his stomach purging his breakfast. He gathered himself and stood up gingerly
, trying to put weight on his foot. Pain rose up his thigh and into his back the second his heel touched the ground. He balanced himself on one leg, braced his hands on the edge of the dumpster, and then hopped over. He took most of the impact on his good foot. He was wobbly, but standing. He hobbled between the dumpsters and found several bags he figured would help his cause. Most important, he found an arm length metal pole that looked to be a suitable replacement for his lost bat.

“That’s as good as it’s going to get,” he said, calling up to the three heads looking out over the
lip of the building. They pulled back and started a heated, but quiet conversation. “Sure,” Chris said more to himself as he checked one side of the alley then down the other, “…talk amongst yourselves, I’ll hang out down here and wait until you’re ready.”

It was a faint yelp that pulled his attention back to the roof.
Alicen shot down in a blur, her arms and her legs crossed as if she was on a ride at an amusement park. Chris leaned over the side of the dumpster to help her out and found a look of amazement on her face.

“I want to do that again,” she said.

Chris pulled her out with one good yank.

“Not if I can help it.
”

Jake followed his sister with
Jenn bringing up the rear, each with less amusement than the little girl had. They were moving soon after with Chris carrying a slight limp for his effort. Jenn had her pistol drawn and Jake had hold of an inherited broom handle from the dumpster. Alicen followed along in the rear, sometimes skipping as she went and Chris thought what an odd sight they must be. They crossed the street in front of the store and headed toward the interstate with the onramp looming in the distance. They’d managed to avoid the undead milling around the parking lot, but the main goal of the day was still ahead of them.

“Why is this always so hard?” Jake asked as he leaned in to check for keys in an old Buick.

“We learned in the beginning,” Jenn said, “that most people kept their keys in their pockets, so if the car is empty, there’s little chance of finding a set.”

Chris smiled. “Do you know how many dead people’s pockets I’ve searched through? The real problem is
that even if you do find a set, you have no idea where the hell they left their car.” He laughed at himself. “I spent a month walking around parking lots with a garbage bag full of keys clicking away on those damn unlock buttons.”

Jenn
laughed. “Guilty. My car took some damage getting out of Kansas City. I didn’t make it more than fifty miles, but luckily, I was close to Topeka.” Her smile faded. “I spent nearly a month there just trying to get out, considered walking at one point.” Her voice trailed off and she went silent.

The onramp was a stone’s throw away when
Chris decided to change tactics. “Maybe we should focus on supplies first?”

“We?”
Alicen asked, flashing a sly grin at him. “Are you coming with us?”

Chris gazed at
Jenn then back at the little girl and shrugged. “What am I going to do around here anyway,” he eyed Jake, “sit and rot?”

Jake smiled as
he approached another vehicle.

“Don’t
waste your time,” Chris said. “It’s too hard to find one with keys in…”

“Got one
,” Jake announced. He had the driver’s door open of a beat up minivan. He leaned in and pulled out a ring of keys.

C
hris put his hands on his hips.

“Figures.”