Pathogen - Chapter 4

The four friends sprinted out of the DepartMart and into the cold November night. Together they came to a stop at the end of the sidewalk, straining themselves to pierce the impenetrable fog. They couldn’t see their car from where they were. In fact, they couldn’t see much of anything in those conditions.

Aaron was the first to break the silence, “Are there any zombies out there?” he questioned.

“Hey now,” Steve chided, “We don’t know those people were zombies.”

Aaron, Cliff and Grace turned to look at Steve in unison.

“Okay, they’re zombies,” Steve admitted, “But I have no idea how far this thing has spread. I mean, we didn’t see any on the way here, right?”

“Yeah,” Cliff agreed, “You’re totally right.”

Grace breathed a sigh of relief, “Maybe that kid in there was like the first zombie, and since we killed him he won’t be able to infect anybody. We’re like heroes or something.”

“I don’t know,” Aaron shook his head, “If there aren’t any more zombies, Cliff might be facing charges for triple murder.”

“What!?” Cliff shouted in surprise as the normally calm giant rounded on his friend, “I didn’t kill people! They were zombies!”

“Yeah, but nobody’s going to believe that,” Aaron insisted, “They’re just going to think you’re some kind of crazy unless there’s a full blown outbreak of-”

A scream pierced the still air. The cry was soon taken up by a number of voices while an eerie, low moaning reached the friends’ ears.

“Thank god,” Cliff exclaimed. It was his turn now to face the ridiculing stare of his friends. “I would not have done well in prison,” he explained.

 “Oh man,” Grace whined, rightly fearful of the shambling dead they couldn’t yet see, “Why’d we have to park at the back?”

“You didn’t want to scratch Vernon,” Aaron joked, “Suddenly that doesn’t seem so important now, huh?”

“Oh shit,” Steve suddenly realised, “Scruffy’s out there!”

Without another word, the boy ran into the fog and quickly disappeared in a few long strides. Knowing his friend was putting himself into the jaws of danger, Cliff took off after him. Grace exchanged one last look with Aaron before she too ran into the fog.

“Come on,” Aaron shouted, “It’s just a dog people! We should be running away from the zombies!”

Suddenly aware that he was all alone in the dark, Aaron became uneasy. The screams had died down as swiftly as they’d been sounded, yet still the wailing dead could be heard from where he was. He squeezed his hand around the handle of his knife until his knuckles went white before grudgingly setting off into the fog.

Steve had made it about halfway across the parking lot before he met with the first zombie. The man shambled from out of view around a corral for shopping carts. It was difficult to make out any details in the murky night, but the way he lurched and staggered was a telltale sign of zombification. Without breaking stride, Steve hefted the cast iron frying pan he’d found. Swinging it in full around his body, like he was preparing for the hammer throw, Steve brought his weapon into the dead man’s face. With a sickening crunch, his skull caved in and the zombie fell lifeless once more.

“Motherfucker,” Steve screamed at the once shambling dead guy, “Stay away from my dog!”

“Easy man,” Cliff called from a few paces behind, “Do you want every zombie in town to know we’re here?”

“I don’t care,” Steve shook his head as he started into the fog once more, “I have to save Scruffy!”

Less than a minute later, Steve was at the end of the parking lot. Yet he faced one more obstacle: he couldn’t find Grace’s car. He remembered they parked in the back, but now he thought he must have been in the wrong aisle. However, he couldn’t for the life of him remember which way the car should be.

“Grace!” he shouted into the fog, “Where’s Vernon?”

Straining his ears, he thought he could hear Grace hollering back a short distance away from his left, “Over here!”

Grace shook her head in contempt as she saw the situation Vernon was in. They had only been in the store for a few minutes before things went sideways on them, yet somehow some other shopper had managed to park just slightly in her space on her driver’s side. She squeezed between the cars to unlock her door, then with a grin of delight slammed the door open into the car beside her.

Aaron was just catching up to Grace when he saw a zombie lurch out from the cars beside them. “Grace,” he shouted a warning, “Zombie!”

Grace looked up to see a different zombie just a few paces in front of her. Cursing, she wormed her way into her car and closed the door shut behind her. Aaron was right behind her, trying to get his door open, but it was locked still. Frantically, he pounded on the window. He could see her twisting to reach the lock, but not fast enough. The snarling zombies had made an Aaron sandwich as they cut off his escape from either side of the car. Without a second to lose, Aaron dropped to the ground and tried to crawl under the car.

Cliff caught sight of Steve running between some cars, towards where Grace had shouted from. He also caught sight of a veritable horde of zombies staggering towards them from the other direction. He could only make out their outlines in the mist, but he knew it was more than they wanted to trouble themselves with. Sprinting, he caught up with Steve, yanking him back by his collar.

“What the fuck, man?” Steve snarled at his best friend.

Without a word, Cliff pointed at the zombies coming behind them.

“Okay, that looks pretty bad,” Steve admitted, the sight of the people that would rip him limb from limb sobering his temper a bit, “But it’s not going to be a problem, Grace is just over there, we’ll drive out of here in style.”

As if on cue, Vernon’s engine started but would not turn over. Again and again they heard Grace try, but she didn’t seem to be having much luck.

“Okay, Steve admitted once more, “This looks pretty bad.”

“You stupid, piece of shit car,” Grace roared as she slammed her fists into the steering wheel, “Do you have any idea how much fucking trouble we’re in? Fuck you!”

Meanwhile, Aaron was just emerging from beneath Vernon. It was a tight squeeze, and he was covered in dirt and grease, but he had made it safely to the other side. One of the zombies was practically slobbering on the windshield near Grace. He turned to find the other zombie beside him, outstretched arms inches away. Fortunately for Aaron, Steve had left the window here open for Scruffy. He dove headfirst through the ajar window before becoming stuck. In a panic, he struggled and kicked, trying to wiggle through the window.

Seeing the ridiculous display in her rear view mirror, Grace reached across the seats to unroll the window. It inched down ever so slightly and Aaron tumbled inside. Before she could roll the window back up, the zombie had already stuck his arms and face inside. Trapped, the dead man could only flail wildly as he tried to reach them.

Cliff and Steve were close enough now that they could see Vernon, and the pair of zombies in and around the vehicle. They thought they could make out some more movement in the distance too.

“Shit,” Steve summarised their situation.

“We need a distraction, or else they’re never going to make it out of there.”

Whirling around, Steve was looking for something, anything they could use to help their friends. He thought he was coming up empty until he saw a pickup truck parked nearby. It had an obnoxious, probably illegal lift kit installed and towered over the other vehicles. Red flame decals were plastered all over the blue paint job, making the whole thing look like a giant toy. A blue light flashed behind the windshield, signalling that the alarm was on.

“Up there,” Steve pointed at the truck, already running towards it, “We jump in the bed and they won’t be able to reach us.”

“Okay,” Cliff agreed, “But what about the zombies that are going to eat our friends?”

Without a word of explanation, Steve swung the frying pan into the driver’s window. The glass shattered inward and the alarm started blaring. The zombie trying to chew his way through Vernon’s windshield looked up at the disturbance before lurching towards the truck. Cliff and Steve tossed their weapons into the bed before climbing up themselves.

“Holy fuck, that was close,” Aaron exclaimed in relief, referring to the zombie that was almost the end of him but was now stuck in the window.

“Yeah, but what do we do with it now?” Grace asked.

Aaron brandished his knife at the zombie, “I guess we should just kill him.”

“Oh, hell no,” Grace disagreed, “You are absolutely not getting brain juice all over my upholstery.”

“Really?” Aaron couldn’t help asking, “What, are you worried about the resale value or something?”

“Listen punk,” Grace turned in her seat to face Aaron, “I don’t know if that shit’s contagious or what. But I do know that if you stab that motherfucker in the face, you’re going to be the one who has to sit in it until we figure out what’s going on here. Capisce?”

Aaron gulped, “Okay, we’ll think of something. Maybe we can push him out?”

Grace shook her head, “We aren’t thinking of anything until I get this car running.”

Meanwhile, Steve and Cliff were sitting safely in the bed of the pickup truck. The horde of zombies had staggered over and were trying to reach inside. However, try as they might, they could only barely reach over the high walls surrounding the boys.

“Okay,” Cliff had to admit, “That was a pretty good plan.”

“Right? It’s like a regular old hillbilly fortress in here,” Steve congratulated himself.

“So what do we do when Grace shows up? How do we get out of here?”

“Uh…” Steve faltered, “I have no idea.”

Meanwhile, back in the car Grace was giving Vernon her version of a pep talk. “Listen up,” she addressed the car, “Up until today, you’ve been a pretty good car. But now, you’re not running when I need you, and I don’t need a car that doesn’t run when I need it. You’re an old model, and there are lots of younger, prettier cars that can take your place. So if you don’t start now, you miserable bucket of bolts, I’m going to sell you for scrap and get myself a new car!”

Once more Grace tried the ignition. For a long, uncomfortable moment, Vernon threatened to be insubordinate once more. However, much to the relief of Grace and Aaron, the engine sputtered, then coughed, then finally rolled over.

“Fuck yeah!” Grace exclaimed, before looking up to see a mob of zombies surrounding a pickup. “Fuck no,” she despaired, knowing her friends must be trapped inside.

“What?” Aaron asked.

Without bothering to answer, Grace threw her car into gear. Vernon’s engine roared and they took off like a shot. Aaron wasn’t expecting to be moving so suddenly and tumbled over. Grace took a sharp turn and, sending Aaron sliding over to the zombie. The snarling dead man gnashed his teeth as he struggled to reach the boy. Grace passed near a cart corral on her right without taking into account the zombie hanging out her window. Its legs got caught between the corral and the car, which was already moving at a tremendous speed. The zombie was sucked through the window, leaving a bloody smear as it passed.

Steve craned his head as he heard Vernon driving away. “She isn’t leaving us behind is she?”

“No way, man,” Cliff shook his head, “She’s probably just coming around.”

Risking his neck, Steve stood up. Sure enough, Grace was turning around to meet them from the front of the truck. He also realised there were far more zombies than he thought. A quick count revealed there were about twenty cannibalistic monsters around. Together they tried to grab him, but were still a few inches short.

“You know what sucks?” he asked.

“I’m sure you’re about to tell me,” Cliff answered.

“If we tried to fight our way out of here, we’d die horribly. But if this was a video game, it’d be like, a hundred points, or something stupid like that.”

Grace pulled up near the truck and rolled down the window a crack. “Need a ride?” she hollered up to Steve.

“Okay, let’s go,” Steve said as he helped his friend to his feet.

“Go where?” Cliff asked, “There’s still a whole pile of zombies here.”

Steve was climbing onto the roof of the cab. “We’re going to have to jump for it.”

“What? Oh hell no, that’s a bad idea,” Cliff argued, but admitted to himself there wasn’t a better plan.

Grace watched as the two climbed onto the roof and made ready to jump to her car. “Oh fuck,” she shouted, “There is no way you two assclowns are jumping onto my car from there.”

“Let’s go on the count of three,” Steve suggested.

“Like, jump on three, or ‘one, two, three,’ wait a second, and then jump?” Cliff asked.

“Shut up, Murtaugh.”

“Oh what, because I’m black I have to be Danny Glover? You think you’re Mel Gibson or something?”

“What? No, of course not,” Steve started to backpedal, “Look, let’s jump right on three.”

“Okay,” Cliff said as he tried not to think about all the zombies below, “One.”

Steve crouched low, ready to jump. “Two,” he counted.

“You two fuckers better not fucking jump on my car!” Grace shouted at the two of them.

“Three!” Cliff and Steve shouted together as they leapt.

The pair of boys soared majestically through the air while Grace screamed obscenities at them. They landed on the roof one after another, which buckled and crumpled under their weight. Cliff and Steve’s momentum carried them somersaulting off the roof of the car and onto the ground below. They fell gracelessly, but leapt to their feet in a hurry. Cliff jumped in the front while Steve hopped in the back with Aaron. The four of them drove off, leaving the zombies lurching behind.