"How much do you think we could fit in here?" Tracy asked over the hum of the oversized tires. The jeep was pretty amazing, but the large off-road tires were loud at high speeds, making it hard to hear, especially when you added the wind and the other cars speeding past on the opposite side of the road. "As much as we can" I said. "But we need to find some place where we can hold up indefinitely, some place remote." Tracy pushed her hair out our face, but the wind blew it right back. "I thought the plan was to use those storage units as a safe house?" Tracy asked. "That's why we got more than one, to spread out our supplies and create staging points at key locations." I nodded, agreeing with her. "Yeah, that was the original plan, but if we end up the last two people on earth we don't want to be stuck in a storage park hiding from the entire population of the city." Tracy remained quiet after that comment. I wondered which was giving her more pause, the thought of the two of us being the last people on earth, or facing a mob of the undead.
The sun was getting lower in the sky, but we still had at least 5 hours of good daylight left. "My family has a cabin up in the mountains." Tracy said. "Its a bit of a drive, but it could be perfect." I looked over at her but couldn't read her expression. A beep drew my attention back to the console. The symbol of a gas can was glowing bright orange. "I say old chap..." I said, mocking a british tone. "We're almost out of petrol!" Tracy rolled her eyes. I looked around for a place to fill up. This was the industrial part of town, so many of the factories maintained their own fuel stations, closed to the public, so finding one open to the public would be rare. We passed fenced in yards loaded with shipping containers stacked as far as the eye could see, tall metallic towers whose purpose was unknown to me, and large brick buildings with smokestacks filling the air with their grey cloud. Finally, on the left I saw the rusty sign of a old gas station and pulled in.
"Is this thing even open?" Tracy asked, noticing the rust covered pump. The station hadn't updated since pumps started taking credit cards, and all the gauges were dials, not digital. "Look" I pointed to a small tin roof shack covered in advertisements. A glowing "open" sign hung in the window. I popped my seat belt off and hopped effortlessly out. "No door makes a quick escape, doesn't it?" Tracy said, standing up on her seat. "I want to stand like this while you're driving." She said, leaning against the roll bar like a railing. "I bet the wind feels amazing."
I approached the window of the small shack. Cigarette cartons and drink cans decorated the edge of the window, and inside an older woman read a tabloid in darkness. I slid a $50 bill in the slot and pointed over to our vehicle, but the old woman continued staring at her magazine and didn't even acknowledge me.
I removed the handle from the pump and flipped the bar. Squeezing the handle I could feel the steady flow of gasoline into the tank. I wondered if this newer model jeep got better gas mileage than my old one. "Gas" I told Tracy suddenly. "We haven't stored any gas." Tracy nodded in approval. "Yeah, we definitely need to figure that out. I'll google it." She pulled out her phone and was about to turn it on. "Wait!" I called out. She bit her lip and softly hit herself in the forehead. "Sorry, habit." She said. I could hear the gas nearing the top of the tank and realized I had gone over the $50 I had given the clerk. "Is there a $20 in there?" I asked Tracy as I replaced the nozzle. She reached in the bag and pulled out a $100 bill. "This is the smallest bill I can find." She handed it to me and I walked over to the window where the clerk sat, enthralled in some ridiculous article. "Hey" I called out, rapping on the glass. "I went over." I slid the $100 bill under the window and noticed that my $50 was still just sitting on the counter. "Hello?" I rapped on the window a little harder. What could be capturing this old biddies' attention? Squinting my eyes I read the cover of the tabloid. "Queen of England Turns into Zombie, Kills Prince and Two Palace guards." I would normally have made fun of such a story, but in light of recent circumstances it turned my cheerful mood somber. "Ma'am, I need my change please." I rapped on the window again with no response. I poked my fingers through the slot to try and reach one of the bills but could only touch it enough to move it further away from me. "Ma'am?" I called again. "Ma'am?" I looked back at Tracy who looked quizzical. "I have a bad feeling about this" She said, let's just go." I looked at the money behind the glass. "That's $150" I said. I only pumped $56!" I reached under the glass again, pain pinching the back of my hand as I struggled to make it fit. In frustration I banged the glass with the heel of my left hand so hard it felt like the entire shack shook. The paper dropped and I saw a gaunt face with thick, yellow eyes. Her mouth curled into a snarl and I could see her swollen gums cracking and broken, puss and blood mixing as it dripped down her chin. She lunged for the window, smacking her forehead against the glass and cracking it. It spiraled out like a spiderweb and she shook her head for a moment, disoriented. I backed up in disbelief. Were these things everywhere? Again and again she smacked herself against the glass, each strike leaving a stain of dark clotted blood on the cracking glass.
I kept my eyes to the right, watching the shack carefully as I climbed into my seat. Tracy was holding the shotgun in her hands, pointing it toward the shaking structure. Suddenly we heard a loud bang to our left, like something heavy slamming against the industrial siding of the building next door. "What was that?" Tracy said nervously as I started the car. "I don't even want to know." I replied, shifting the car into 1st gear. Another bang and we watched the siding buckle. As the jeep left the pump the glass in the cashier booth broke and we saw an arm reaching through the hole, scratched and bloody. It lacerated against the edge of the hole and thick, black blood dropped like raspberry syrup. Tracy immediately raised her shotgun but paused, ready to fire. With a giant crash the window exploded and the cashier burst from the hole with a ravenous look in her yellow eyes. I shifted into 2nd but flubbed the clutch. The car lurched and the engine stopped. Tracy looked back at me with a look of panic and we heard a crash on the opposite side. The door of the building was on the ground, two large mechanics stumbling out. They were lurched over, their backs hunched like apes. Their eyes were yellow and swollen, and one had a large gash across his forehead. They all looked, for lack of a better term... hungry.
All three tore after us, and Tracy held on to the roll cage as I reversed. "Should I shoot?" She asked. The decision gave me pause. Eliminate the threat, protecting others but risking our own lives, or leave in safety, but allow these monsters to spread the infection to others. "We can't let them hurt anyone else." I said, braking about 50 feet from them. They were gaining fast as Tracy stood up in the seat. Leaning the shotgun over the top of the windshield, she took aim. "Wait, I have an idea." I called, tugging at her pocket, urging her to sit down.
I put the jeep in first gear and accelerated. The gap between us was closing fast. I shifted into second and swerved the jeep toward the first mechanic. CRUNK the sound of his body pinning against the front bumper was sickening and we climbed over him effortlessly. I pulled to the left and hit the second mechanic dead on, his body folding in half before being pulled under. I could hear the sickening splat as the back tires devoured his limbs, and the jeep didn't even seem to lose momentum. I recalled my dream and how the flaming bodies flew like rag dolls when hit by my car. This was different. It was real, and somehow... satisfying. I realized my sorrow for these monsters ended when they were no longer human, and looking into their pale swollen eyes I knew all humanity was gone. The cashier ahead lurched and moaned, but unlike the mechanics she was too injured to run towards us. I shifted into third gear and decimated her broken body, spilling her thick, gelatinous blood across the hood of the car. Her torso flipped up onto our hood and Tracy and I watched in horror as she tried to crawl up towards us. "How is that possible?" Tracy screamed. We watched as she grabbed the arm of the wiper and pulled herself up, grasping the top of the windshield. She smelled like the dead animals I would find in the forest when I was young: rotten and putrid. Tracy stood up in her seat, smashing the butt of the shotgun against her hand. Her fingers snapped off and fell to the hood, the wind blowing them away like leaves. I swerved to the right, and with only one hand gripping the wiper her body slid across the hood. The wiper began to bend under the weight of the remaining half of her body. Tracy leaned over the edge, attempting to smack the other hand to loosen the grip. Instead, the hand missing with the fingers smacked at the shotgun, knocking it away. The force of the blow nearly pulled Tracy over the windshield onto the hood. She screamed as the monster grabbed her hair, pulling her closer. I slammed on the brakes and held the back of Tracy's jeans to keep her from flying over the edge. "Hang on!" I called out, pulling the Jeep to a full stop near an intersection. Tracy hooked her foot under the column of the steering wheel and I leapt out. Rounding the front of the Jeep, I could see smashed body parts hanging from the grill and dripping from the bumper. The air was filled with the horrific stench of death and decay. The monster snapped her teeth at me, but refused to loosen her grip on Tracy's hair or the wiper blade. Her spine and entrails were disgusting, pouring loosely across the car, wiping fresh blood as thick as tar with every movement. I covered my nose from the smell. It almost seemed like whatever was infecting her was rapidly rotting her from the inside out. Some sort of accelerated decomposition, keeping her body alive when it shouldn't be.
I heard a scream behind me. A mother holding the hand of her toddler was pointing at the scene and covering her son's eyes. A man crossing the street was on his phone, talking to someone and pointing directly at us. A car stopped to avoid hitting the man standing in the street and two teenagers in the back seat immediately pulled out their phones and began taking pictures. I heard a tearing sound and looked back to see Tracy using a pocket knife to cut her hair free. Stepping back into the safety of the Jeep's cabin, she rubbed her head and stared at the monster on the hood. "So what do we do now?" She asked, pointing first at the half dead, yet still living creature on our hood and then at the bystanders. "I say we let them come." I said as I motioned for the group to come closer. "Its about time the world knew what they were up against."
You know how it ends. Now read how it begins...
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