They would be past the water tower soon.
The serenity of the scene did nothing to change the look of raw fear on Megan’s face.
“Jeff, just keep driving. I don’t want to stop here. I don’t think it’s a good idea.” Her words were steady and concise, but Jeff could hear the panic beneath them. When she grabbed his arm and he looked at her, he knew she was struggling to remain calm.
He stared into her eyes and was amazed at how deeply blue they were. He knew it was a strange time to notice, but they stood out prominently against the dark circles underneath them and Megan’s olive skin tone. They were luminescent, shining like beacons in an otherwise hollowed-out and ravaged visage.
Her look of desperation passed, and so did Jeff’s feeble attempt at a smile. Suddenly he felt incredibly uncomfortable as those blazing blue eyes locked onto his and her fingers dug into his skin.
Jeff swung his head around and looked at the scene in front of them. Everything seemed quiet. The buildings looked normal, though the heavy artillery in the street was out of place.
There was a sign on the right side of the road with a bright red arrow on it, pointing at the high school. There was some sort of text below the arrow, but Jeff could not make it out. After his quick survey of the area, he turned back to Megan.
“I don’t see what’s got you all worked up. I mean…” he waved his hand in front of him, “look around us. There’s no one here. At least none of those things.”
“Jeff! We can’t stop here. Please, just keep driving. I think we’ll be in big trouble if we stop. I don’t know why, it’s just…” Megan’s voice got louder, and there was a hysterical edge to it.
“Now hold on!” Jeff shook off her death grip on his arm. “Just chill out!”
“No. No. NO. NO!” Each negation was punctuated by a violent shake of her head.
Suddenly, they were yelling at each other. Megan’s voice reached a frenzied pitch as Jeff allowed the van to coast forward. She tried sliding her foot onto the gas, but he blocked it and applied gentle pressure to the brake.
As she continued to bark and plead in his ear, Jeff looked out at the sign in front of the high school. He just wanted to read it and kept repeating that desire to Megan, but she was ignoring everything he said.
Megan suddenly stopped screaming and took a deep breath as she tried to compose herself. “Jeff, listen to me. Please.” Her volume had decreased dramatically. Jeff was still seething, still angry at her outburst, but waited to hear what she had to say. He stared at the sign:
GALLATIN EMERGENCY SHELTER.
ALL FAMILIES AND INDIVIDUALS REPORT TO THE GYM
FOR REGISTRATION.
One suitcase per family, clothing only. No pets! All food and water will be provided. All food and water brought on the premises will be confiscated.
NO FIREARMS!
Please have valid state or federal ID available for inspection.
Thank you for your cooperation.
A large arrow ran the length of the sign and pointed toward an entrance to the high school they couldn’t see from their position. The faculty parking lot was visible to their right, crammed with an assortment of cars. A few had slammed into the rest, and their doors were wide open. They had been abandoned in a hurry. The student parking lot was on the far side of the building, where the main doors probably were. The much larger lot was even more clogged than the faculty lot. A few Humvees were mixed in with the cars, strategically placed at the entrances to funnel traffic.
“There’s nobody here, Jeff. No one.” Megan began. “No one normal, at least. I think we should just go.” Her words were calm but intense. “I think we should head down the road and not look back. Please Jeff, just leave now. God, I know this is going to get bad, I just know it…please…”
She was becoming hysterical again, but Jeff paid no attention to her continued rambling. Instead, he squinted toward the glass doors of the high school. His eyes tried to focus at the shadowy darkness beyond them. He swore he could see movement.
“I think…” Jeff began, his voice distant.
Megan suddenly stopped speaking. “What?” she asked, her eyes glued to him. She had not heard his quiet words.
He shook his head in anger. “Son of a bitch,” he mumbled under his breath. “I think you’re right,” he sighed and nodded toward the doors of the school.
Megan swiveled her head to look, and saw that the doors to the high school had already been pushed open by the mass of infected bodies spilling out onto the lawn. She watched in stunned silence as more and more of them tumbled through the doors in a mad rush to get to the van.
“Fuck!”
Megan jumped as Jeff cursed. He was looking at the other side of the street. More ghouls were pouring out of each of the other school buildings. They were a flood, smashing through the doors and windows as they came.
Jeff slammed his foot on the gas, and the van shot forward. As they flew by the ongoing mess, he laughed nervously. “Jesus H. Christ! How many people lived in Gallatin? Fuck me!” He spoke with a nervous enthusiasm and a hint of stunned awe. “There are way too many people here.”
His eyes never left the growing crowds that were about to merge on the street behind them. He gunned the engine to sixty. It amazed him that bodies were still pouring out the schools.
“Jeff…JEFF! Look out!” Megan screamed in his ear. He swung his head back around and swallowed hard as he slammed on the brakes.
The military had not only built a wall back up the road, they had built one here as well, at the edge of the school campus. Neither Jeff nor Megan had seen it when they had stopped and were too busy gawking at the crowds behind them to notice until they were almost on top of it. This wall was different than the other one. There were no concrete barriers or razor wire this time, just a row of trucks stretching across the road and into the grass on both sides.
The anti-lock brakes on the van kicked in, and they ground to a halt short of the wall. Jeff quickly turned the vehicle around to face the oncoming horde.
Megan looked behind them at the assortment of big rigs and military troop transports that had been cobbled together to form the barricade. Looking closer, she could see wire peeking out from the various openings and nooks that might allow someone to sneak through. She quickly realized that much of it had already been pushed out of the way, and there was movement on the other side of the vehicles. As she looked, several hands peeked through, grabbing for purchase as they pulled and scratched their way over and under the mechanical fortification.
“We’re going to have company behind us pretty soon.”
Jeff ignored the comment and focused on what was in front of them: the schools, the jammed parking lots, and the wooded areas beyond. The van was no four-by-four and would not make it off road. Heading back the way they had come was becoming less of an option every second. A line of infected was strung from one side of the road to the other, three deep at the weakest points and thicker in most places. There were a few gaps, but nothing they could plow through.
There were hundreds of them, and more were coming. They crept over and around the trucks behind them, and the buildings ahead kept dispensing an endless supply of corpses. The infected were everywhere.
Gritting his teeth, Jeff turned to Megan. She was afraid but looked composed, surprisingly enough. Her semi-calm state helped him stay cool as he spoke.
“I think we have one chance. It’s not a good one, but…”
Megan nodded, ready for him to get on with it. She looked at the slowly advancing army and reached for her revolver. Gripping it tightly, she stared ahead.
Looking out into the crowd of rabid faces, Megan locked onto one. It stood out as different in the sea of gray, green, and black rot that covered most of them. It had been an adult, probably a man, although most of its hair had been ripped away-along with its scalp-and gave no hint as to its gender. Its clothing, a shredded t-shirt and what were probably blue jeans that had been split up the seams, also gave no clues. There were no breasts, but the stomach was swollen, filled with corrupt fluid and undigested meat. What stood out about this one, what had made her zero in on it, was the face. It was purple. It was not bloated, and the damage was minimal. Both eyes remained, set deep within a sea of violet flesh that drooped but still retained the shape of a human visage. They were pig eyes. The purple wasn’t just old dead veins showing through the skin filled with drying blood; it was as if the ghoul had been dipped in dye. Megan hadn’t seen a stiff quite that hue before. She gripped the gun tighter when she realized that it was staring back at her.