The Seventh Day (16 page)

“There’s an exit!”
Miles points,
almost grabbing the wheel.
I turn quickly, running a man over as he runs
directly into us. The way the Hummer jostles us as we drive over his body makes
my mouth sour. The SUV teeters and bumps as I skid my way back up onto the
freeway. I crash into the side of a truck, pushing it out of our way. As we
leave the city limits, the cars thin out and I’m able to swerve around them
easily again.

My head is pounding, my knuckles are completely
white, and my mouth feels like a thousand cotton balls have sucked the moisture
from it, but I drive on. When I finally don't see a car for a couple minutes I
pull over, skidding to a halt and leaping from the car. I bend at the waist, losing
my Red Bull all over the concrete. It splashes, leaving damp spots on the brown
boots. Hands rub my back, making warm chills play air hockey on my spine.

“You did good, Lou. Real good,” Kyle speaks
soothingly but it doesn't help. Tears from the dry heaving slip down my cheeks
and splash on the ground next to my vomit. The only thing I’m grateful for is
that we left the little girls at the cabin with Mr. Milson. I might die from
stress if they were here.

Finally done, I stand up and walk around to the
passenger side of the Hummer, assuming Miles will take the lead now. I wipe my
mouth and rinse out with a bottle of water.

“That was intense.” Erin pats me on the shoulder.
“Reminds me of the trip through Quebec we had. That was insane.”

Kyle scoffs. “You went through Canada?”

She drinks from her water bottle and nods as we all
get back in and Miles puts it into drive. “We stopped at the airport in Bangor
and that was friggin’ scary.
People attacking each other
everywhere.
So we drove and stopped at a gas station,
but no one knew much for certain.
A news
broadcast had hit about an hour before we arrived. They had said something
about some swine flu or some shit.
People acting crazy and
attacking other people.
Everyone was thinking chemical warfare. New York,
Chicago, and New Orleans all had news coming out of them. Detroit was its usual
hot mess and everyone was saying the sickness was everywhere.”

“So you chose Canada?” Miles asks, also sounding
like he was mocking her.

She nods. “First place I looked on the map was
Canada. We were lucky—there was a road that took us to Montreal.”

“It was so much worse there.” Lee sighs. “We
thought we could cross up there and get away from it all.”

Kyle scowls. “Why would Canada be exempt from the
zombie apocalypse?”

Erin sticks her tongue out at him. “Everyone likes
Canada. If this was some kind of chemical attack on us, Canada would for sure
be our best bet.”

Miles nods. “She has a point. If it
was
chemical, Canada would be smart. Hell, they’re probably
doing better than we are on account of their colder weather.”

Lee sighs again. “Are any of you freaking out?
Obviously, besides Lou.”

“Go easy on Lou.” Kyle laughs. “She’s been in
Laurel this whole time, skiing and shit.”

I look back at them both. “Nice.” They all laugh,
even Miles.

Kyle slaps me on the shoulder. “I’m just messing
with ya.” He turns to Lee and nods. “The moment this fiasco hit campus—yes.
I was freaking out. This chick I had
kinda
been seeing
tried to bite me when I was walking back to my house. She was hot so I thought
maybe she was playing. Then she lunged at me, growling like a dog. I ran.” He
chuckles like he’s telling us a funny story. “I’m pretty sure I screamed like a
girl. She was frothing like she had rabies. It was bad. Then my chemistry prof
attacked a guy on the front lawn. Bit him right in the shoulder and ate a chunk
of his stringy flesh.”

Miles laughs. “Man, when you got back to the house
I thought for sure you had pissed your pants.”

Kyle nods his dark head. “I did. I pissed my
pants.”

I smile, hating that I’m about to admit it. “I did
too.”

“Hell ya, you did.” He lifts his hand for me to
pound his knuckles. “If people weren’t pissing their pants, they weren’t scared
enough. And in a situation like this one, if you
ain’t
scared enough, you are getting bit. I ran like it was a race for survival.” He
nods at Miles who is still laughing. “When we got into the car and decided we
would head to
Laurel
because he needed his family to
be safe, I don't think I slept for two days. Getting out of New York, Michigan,
and Illinois was bad. By the time we got to Minnesota, we started to relax,
taking shifts sleeping.” He sighs and I suddenly see he’s not such a jackass
after all. “My family is in Europe again, so I know they’re gone. They went
home to Norway to visit family. Shit got bad there first.”

Miles glances in the rearview mirror. “To answer
your question, yes. We have all been freaking out for six straight days. When I
got to my mom and dad’s and found them both in the yard, I freaked. I couldn't
find Jamie, Lou, or Sasha anywhere.” The way he says it so casually makes Lee
and I burst out laughing instantly.

Lee slaps him on the shoulder too. “You could have
played Bella Swan with that level of emotion. I think you beat Kristen Stewart
hands down.”

The SUV fills with laughter. It's weird the things
you laugh about when the world ends.

I give Lee a look. “Don't act like you didn't love
that movie.”

She sighs. “Girl, I loved that movie. The books
were so much better though. Bella in the books was my girl.” I notice her eyes
tearing up a bit. “I read them with my mom, buddy read.”
Erin hugs her sister. “What I would give to be able to make fun of you two
reading those books again. Maybe when we find Dad, you can let us both laugh at
you again.”

Lee sniffles a little with her laugh. “Deal. I
totally just wanna talk to Dad again.”

I nod. “I just wanna talk to my dad too. It's
making me super nervous he hasn't reached home or found us yet. I’m a little
scared that he’s in Russia still.” I give Kyle a soft look. “I guess we’re all
in the same boat.”

“Yup.” Erin sighs and glances out the window. “If
we find my dad alive I might die of happiness.”

I turn around in my seat and close my eyes. I don't
know if I sleep or if horrific images just take turns pulsing behind my closed
eyes, like a drive-in movie made specifically for me. But when I open my eyes
it’s dark again and Miles lifts his finger to his lips. We’re parked, and when
he gets out of the vehicle, I realize I’m alone in here. I click the lock
instantly, trying to figure out where we are.

We’re parked in a dark vacant parking lot. I can
see a LOWES sign and a Starbucks drive-thru but that's it. No cars, no people.
Miles dashes across the parking lot, running in what appears to be silent
footsteps away from me. But I can’t see anyone else.

Do I join him?

I don't want to get out of the car but decide I
should follow. I grab the handle on the door, pausing when I notice something to
the right—movement. I can’t tell what. The moon makes shadows but not
enough light to see what casts that shadow. I move my seat back a bit so my
head isn’t directly in the window and grip to my handgun. My sweaty palms and
shaking grasp don't give me much confidence.

On the far side of the parking lot, near a building
I can’t see the name of, someone walks, staying in the shadows. As they near
the SUV, I lower my head even more but I can’t fight my eyes staring at the
shadow they cast with the moon behind them. The person appears to be a man with
a slight limp. It makes me instantly assume he’s a biter, but he isn’t frozen
so that tosses that theory out the window. He’s probably a looter.

I close my eyes for a second, taking shallow
breaths quietly as if he can hear them and nodding my head to pump myself up.

When I open them he’s in the window, staring in at me.
I jump, and yet somehow manage to not move with the exception of my shaking
chest. Silent sobs are slipping from me as I watch the man peering harder into
the slightly tinted window. His red eyes dart back and forth, but it's the
injury on his shoulder that has me freaking out. He’s been bitten and he
doesn't appear to be better. He didn't need noise to come to our vehicle. He
didn't need movement to catch his stare from across the parking lot. He came
even though they left the vehicle so quietly they didn't even wake me.

His breath makes a steam mark on the window, which
he smudges with his pale face as he drags it along the foggy breath mark.

His eyes dart about, searching for me, as if he can
hear me whimpering softly inside of the SUV. A low growl escapes his lips. My
shaking hands grip to the hilt of the gun but I don't think I can pull the
trigger.

I look at his face and wonder if he’s somehow
different in some way. He doesn't look like a monster, not really. Just a badly
drunk man perhaps.

His eyes lift as if he sees something he doesn't
like. The low growl becomes more of a snarl. It all happens at the exact moment
a shot rings out in the night. His head snaps back but he doesn't fall. He
stands for a moment and I swear I can see the life leaving him. Blood drips
from a hole in his forehead. In the dark it appears to be black. The way it
leaves the hole seems sluggish until the blood stops right on the cheek of his
face. It sits there, pooling in a clot-like formation. I lean forward,
mesmerized by the way the blood seems to be stuck all in that one spot, but he
falls dead away to the ground.

I move closer to the window so I can watch the
blood drip down the side of his head and land on the dark concrete. I lose sight
of it there. It blends in.

I spin around to see Kyle grinning at me. He blows
on the end of the gun and nods at me like it’s a western movie and he’s just
called me little lady.

He lifts a Starbucks coffee into the air and sips
from it, making me cock an eyebrow. He sips it again, winking at me. He’s a bit
cocky for my liking, but I can’t fight the smile that crosses my lips, even if
a man just died in front of me.

He tries the driver’s door but it’s locked. He
scowls. “Let me in.”

I grin, holding my hand to my ear. “WHAT? I CAN'T
HEAR YOU?”

He looks annoyed and like he’s sighing at me but
then stops. He pauses and glances back behind himself. When he looks back at me
there’s a panicked look across his face. He screams, flicking the door handle
like a maniac, “OPEN THE DAMNED DOOR, LOU!”

I reach across, panicking with him and unlock the
door, even though there’s a lock on my door. He jumps in quickly, closing the
door. I lean across him, scanning the empty spot. “WHAT? WHAT WAS IT?”

“Me, screwing with you. Now we're gonna want to
take a left up here when those guys get back.”

“Oh my God.” I pant, holding my heart. “Oh my God.
You ass. Oh my God.
Dude, super not cool.
I
will—will get revenge,” I huff.

He laughs like he’s the bad guy in the movie, like
he’s practiced it before. “Yeah, whatever. I'm pretty sure I owed you for the
trip through the city.” He hands me his hot cup of coffee. “Enjoy it, because
we don't know where the next hot coffee is coming from.” I take it and sip,
moaning into it.

He takes it back. “Miles has yours. He says he
knows how you like it.”

I give his coffee a look. “I like that.” Movement behind
him catches my gaze. He lifts a finger and wags it at me. “Like I’d fall for
that, looking behind me crap.”

I chuckle as I glance past him at Lee coming along
with two cups. She stands at the driver window, not knocking or
moving—just staring in on him. Kyle doesn't see her, so when he turns he
jumps—spilling a little coffee on his shirt. “Assholes.”

Lee lifts the cup of coffee in the to-go cup and
grins. He lowers the window and lets her pass it across him to me. When I take
it the heat permeates to me, soothing my entire soul with a little caffeinated
hot water. “Erin and Miles are jacking around in there. They’ll be out in a
minute.”

Kyle laughs, nudging me like we both get his dirty
innuendo. Lee rolls her eyes. “Ewwwww.” She pulls her cell out and holds it in
the air, obviously checking for a signal.

I can’t help but watch her and just wish it would
work, but she sighs and shakes her head, pocketing it again. “When all this
started the circuits were busy forever. We tried calling 9-1-1 for like an
hour. Even our OnStar wasn't working.”

Kyle sips and answers smugly, “It’s why I think
this entire thing is them screwing with us on purpose. How did they get the
phone lines, the cell towers, and the TV channels all off-line at the same
time? How did they stop the flights and the Internet and everything all at
once? How did this get so bad, so fast, without anyone stopping it? Where are
the bombs? Where are the marines and the tanks?” He nods, looking into the dark
parking lot, but I would swear he sees something far more clandestine in the
lightlessness. “They did this. I don't know who they are, but I guarantee the
government is faring just fine.” He sounds like a crackpot but it makes sense. How
did it all go wrong so fast, like
whoever
they are
slipped in under the rug?