I closed the short distance to the car and flung myself through the open door as Jake hit the automatic door opener. Thanking God for the very small favor of continued electricity to power the door, we watched it ascend through the vehicle’s reverse camera. As the gap widened, the first thing I saw were feet… a lot of feet. The garage door let out a wicked squeal on its unoiled track and those feet started to turn in our direction.
Blood flowed from my nose, and I glared at Jake through gaps between my fingers where I attempted to staunch it. “Oiled it last week, my ass!”
A hand slapped Jake’s window, causing me to jump in my seat and yelp. Looking in at us was what had once been our pleasant pothead neighbor, Chet. His sandy blond curls were matted with streaks of blood, and the left side of his face was devoid of skin. Muscle and bone exposed an empty eye socket, making him look like a hideous monster. He left the window smeared with bloody fingerprints in his vain attempt to reach us.
The door had raised just enough to allow the bodies crowding our driveway to enter the garage, but not enough that our SUV could fit through the opening. The garage darkened as the stormy day from beyond was eclipsed by the rush of bodies making their way up the sides of the SUV and closer to us.
“Jake,” I coughed out. “Hit the gas. We won’t be able to get out if they keep packing in.”
Jake slammed his foot down on the accelerator and the SUV shot out of the garage. The thunk of bodies hitting the back bumper made me wince. The reverse camera looked like someone had made spin art on it, and it felt like we were in a parking lot with way too many speed bumps.
We backed out of the driveway and onto the street. Just as Jake was about to throw it into drive, I leapt from the SUV and ran to the front lawn. “What are you doing?” He shouted at me.
I gave Officer Donnelly’s dragging corpse a wide berth as I made my way to the front of the cruiser and plunged my hand into the growing puddle in search of his handgun. Eureka! I struck gold! Gun in hand, I sped back to the car and closed the door behind me. “Now, we can go.” I lifted my prize in triumph as muddy goo seeped from the muzzle and onto my already drenched clothes.
Jake put the gear in drive and we drove away from our home. The only place we had ever lived together, and where a decade’s worth of memories had been shattered in the blink of an eye. I cried softly to myself and Jake took my hand.
“It’ll be okay, baby. I won’t let anything happen to you.” He brought my hand to his mouth and was about to kiss it. On further inspection, he opted out of the kiss, considering my hand was covered in blood, mud, and who knew what else. “Yeah, let’s revisit that after we come across some hand sanitizer,” he said, and patted my knee instead. Though I suspected it was less to comfort me, and more of an attempt to wipe his hand discreetly.
I glanced through the blood-smeared back window to pay a final farewell to our home and saw a lone figure running toward us. Not shambling, not stumbling, actually running. “Jake, stop the car! Stop, Jake, STOP THE FUCKING CAR!”
“What the hell, Em? Do you have a death wish or something?”
“It’s Alicia. Look.” I pointed out the back window to a running figure. My next door neighbor’s daughter, Alicia, was flailing her arms to get our attention. She was easily outpacing what was a disturbingly large number of zombies.
“Emma, I can’t.”
“What do you mean you can’t?”
He looked at me sadly, “One bite, Emma, one bite and it’s over. What if she’s been infected? I can’t take that risk.”
“She’ll die if we don’t stop. Please, Jake, I don’t want to be the reason she dies a horrible death. I won’t be able to live with myself. Or you.”
Alicia’s pace was slowing; she was getting tired and looked to be nearly out of steam. Jake sighed and put the gearshift into reverse. What the zombies lacked in speed, they surely made up for in stamina. They didn’t show signs of slowing and trudged on like predators stalking their prey. She made it to the back door and attempted to open it. Her face shone in terror as she realized the door was locked.
Goddamn fucking automatic door locks. I fumbled with the buttons on the door and finally heard the locks pop open. Alicia yanked open the door and climbed into the backseat, sobbing as she closed the door behind her. I didn’t need to hear the story to know that she had lost her family. She was only seventeen, still a baby, and she lived with her parents and two brothers. My heart ached for her. I reached back for her hand and squeezed.
“I’m sorry, Alicia,” was all I could think of to say. Jake drove forward and exited the neighborhood we had all called home.
Without a destination, we drove slowly through the winding streets until Jake spotted a baseball field. He turned off the road and parked in the middle of the diamond. “Why are we stopping?”
“There’s nothing here, and we can see anyone coming at the car from every angle.” He turned in his seat and faced a still-crying Alicia. “Alicia, I need to ask you something. It’s important.” I stared at him quizzically. “Have you been bitten?”
Alicia’s head shot up and she stammered. “Wh-Why?”
“Whatever is happening out there is spread through bites. Just answer me. Did one of them bite you?”
“And what if they did? Would you leave me here to die? Would you watch them tear me to shreds like I had to watch them do to my parents?” She spit out the words like they were venom, and I saw Jake flinch from their impact.
“Yes, I would leave you here. If you’ve been bitten, then you’re a danger to me and my wife. I can’t have that.”
Alicia looked as if she’d been slapped in the face by Jakes words. “NO, okay? I haven’t been bitten. Happy now?”
His face scrunched up like he had to go to the bathroom. “No, I’m not. Emma, check her for bites.”
“What the fuck, Jake? Leave her alone.”
“Or what, Emma? Do you know what the consequences will be? Death! Our deaths.”
I sat there dumbly, staring at him in shock.
“If she says she wasn’t bitten, then she wasn’t. Why would she lie about it?”
“Just do it!” He bellowed.
“Whatever.” Alicia pulled her shirt over her head and turned to give me a view of her back. She unzipped her jeans and pulled them down past her knees and yanked the legs up as high as the snug denim would allow, leaving only a thin strip of fabric.
“Satisfied?” she asked, after some fancy backseat contortions. Without waiting for an answer, she turned away, leaning her head against the window and closing her eyes.
My eyes bore holes through Jake as he focused intently on the road. Daphne had finally stopped barking and had settled down on my lap snoozing fitfully. I wondered if she was having nightmares about what had happened today or if she was chasing after an elusive bone. I stroked her soft fur and leaned my head against the seat.
I withdrew inside myself. The more I thought about it, the more I realized Jake was right. We couldn’t afford to take any risks. Even the smallest mistake could mean death.
“It was so bad,” I heard Alicia whisper from the back seat after a few minutes passed. Her voice was thick with congestion, and she sniffled into the sleeve of her shirt. I pivoted in my seat to find her upturned face looking at me in abject misery. Her features wrinkled and her chin wobbled as her mouth screwed up and let out a cry of anguish. Burying her head in her hands, her body shook and convulsed as if she no longer had command of it. She struggled to breathe with each desperate gasp of air she took, only to release it again in another forceful sob.