Chapter Nine

We cruised along quietly, maneuvering around the empty cars on the road. I had put some antibiotics on Cameron’s wound, which had brought down the swelling and dulled the pain, but left the discoloration. Her thigh was now wrapped in gauze. We didn’t speak much. There wasn’t much to say.

We all silently wondered what awaited us up north. There was no way to know if it truly was a safe zone or if just as many flesh eating creatures were there as where we had already been. We had no idea whether our family had made it there alive, or, if they had, whether we would ever see them again once inside the safe zone.

But the thought haunting me most was what would happen to Cameron. What was happening to Cameron. The area on her leg looked like the skin of the zombies; almost like dead flesh but with a slight glow about it. Was she one of them? if she was I would have to axe her. I didn’t think I could do that. I glanced over at her. I wondered what could possibly be going through her mind.

Evan cleared his throat, picking a topic to start a conversation on. “So,” he mumbled. “Only a few miles until we reach our destination.” He was right, it had been three days since the Battle of Holiday Inn. Three days straight of driving. In about twenty minutes we would meet up with mom’s contact up north. Then maybe we could meet up with what was left of our family and find Cameron a doctor.

“Where in Canada exactly is your mother?” Jesse asked. Evan shook his head to show he didn’t know. “Oh…well how are we going to find her, then?”

“From what I’ve heard,” Evan sighed. “This guy we’re meeting is one of mom’s old friends. He’s running some sort of Underground Railroad thing. There are a few villages and he’ll take us to the one mom was sent to.” Jesse nodded.

“That is if they’re still alive,” I grumbled. Evan sent me a worried look over his shoulder, but never the less said he knew they were. Suddenly I felt it crucial to voice my opinion on the subject. “How can you be so sure?” I blurted. “Look at Cameron. For all we know there are no safe zones! We could be the only people left in North America as far as we can tell!” My anger out, I slumped down in my seat and glared out the window.

The area we were passing through what I suspected was once a heavily populated town, but was now nothing more than a feeding ground for monsters. I watched as one tore into the neck of a dead old woman on the ground outside a grocery store.

Her cart was still next to her, full of cat food and soup. I couldn’t help but imagine what she would have been like had the infection not struck. I pictured her bringing the food back to a tabby cat who was probably about as old as she was. She would put a pot of water on the stove to boil. She would set a bowl of food out for the tabby, then sit and watch as it ate. The cat was probably dead now too.

I tried to be as hopeful as my brother but it was impossible. The only living person I had seen in the past five days who wasn’t in this car was dead; and I never even knew her. I missed humanity. I missed my father. I missed my few friends from school. I even missed the kids who would make fun of me from afar at lunch. They were all gone by now. I would never see them again.

This occupied my brain for almost a half hour, until; at last, it was pushed out by a wall fifty feet high. We all looked up at it in awe. It was real. The safe zone was real.

A sign hung where the wall met the road. It read “HONK THREE TIMES FOR ENTRACE”. We did so. For a moment nothing happened, then we saw a crack in the wall emerge. It widened until it was just large enough for a large car to pass through. We drove inside slowly and the door closed once we had entered.

A single large building stood before us. Where there had once been an engraving of “Town Hall” atop the doorway, was a banner on which someone had painted in large red letters: “Transit Office”. We climbed out of the van and walked inside to see a short line of people leading to a desk where a stout man sat with a map. “Next!” He bellowed as a couple walked out the side door.

A mad and who I suspected was his five-year-old daughter stepped forward. “Names here,” they each wrote their names on the piece of paper he pushed toward them. “Any residential family members?” the man at the desk asked. The father shook his head no. The man at the desk typed something on his computer, then turned back to them. “You’ll be taken to area four. Just follow the signs. The two walked out side and drove away. “Next!”

We stepped up to the desk, Evan at the head of us. “Names,” said the man, and pushed the sign in sheet at us, still looking down at the map in his hands. We each wrote our names in a slot on the paper. “Any residential family members?” He looked up at us and Evan nodded. “Their names?”

“Brenda Cartrite,” Evan said as a woman walked in behind us. The stout man’s eyes widened. He looked down quickly at the sign in sheet.

“Oh my god,” he whispered. “Evan and Emmy Cartrite?” A grin spread across his face. “I’m Charles Monroe. I’m your mother’s friend.” He stood up and hugged us. “Your mother has been so worried about the two of you. She’ll be thrilled to find out you’re okay!” He pulled away from us and looked to Jesse and Cameron. “Are these your friends?” Cameron and I smiled at eachother.

“Yeah,” I said. “Good friends.”

Charles stepped back behind his desk and typed something into his computer. “Your mother is in area two. You can follow the signs to get there. Here’s her address.” He handed Evan a folded up piece of paper and sent us on our way.

Chapter Eight

In the morning we dressed and brought our bags into the lobby to find Jesse and Evan staring wide-eyed at the glass front door. I followed their gaze and saw what looked like the army of orks from Lord of the Rings charging at us from across the highway. All of the zombies in the area had somehow sensed the only living thing within miles and had banded together to destroy them.

“Evan,” Cameron said, glancing back and forth between my brother and the mob of the undead. “We need your help. Please think as hard as you can. What do we do?” Evan shook his head in bewilderment and muttered that he didn’t know what to do.

“But…” I mumbled. “But you’re the idea guy.”

“Well the idea guy is out an idea, Emmy! Sorry to disappoint!” Evan shouted at me. Evan never shouted at me.

“My friend Sam once told me that in a situation like this you should block off all the entrances but one,” said Jesse. “I think it’s supposed to like…concentrate the flow or something.” He paused for a moment. “Of course he had no real experience with zombies and I’m sure he’s been turned into a human shish kebab by now.” He looked awkwardly at the floor.

“It’s not much,” said Cameron, doing all she could not to look back at the door. “But I suppose it’s as close to a plan as we’re going to get. Evan, you stay here while Emmy, Jesse, and I board up the other doors, okay?” He nodded and we all ran off to the entrances.

I had just locked and pushed a chair in front of the last door when I heard a shout from the lobby. The zombies had reached the front.

I sprinted back to my brother and saw the crowd of monsters slamming their fists and skulls against the glass wall and door we had barred closed. Then, suddenly, a loud bang rang through the room and a huge crack shot across the surface of the glass. One more pound and the whole wall shattered into a million pieces.

A giant crowd of zombies poured into the room. Soon all that could be heard were the thuds and swishes of our weapons tearing through dead flesh. They came in waves and we had no trouble cutting down line after line until, at last, there came a huge mob, too many zombies to count. And they were charging forward as fast as zombies can go. We all froze with fear. I shook myself and looked around, trying to find something, anything, I could use as a weapon.

Then I looked up. A huge chandelier hung in the center of the room, swinging slightly as a result of our current war on zombies. I grinned and leapt up onto a bench, then the shelf next to it holding tourist brochures. I kicked them off my platform (honestly who wanted to visit the deepest darkest caves in southern California anyway?) and stood as close to the edge as I could without the shelf toppling over.

“Guys!” I yelled just loud enough to be heard over the gurgling and moaning of the approaching mob, “When I say ‘now’ get as close to the walls as you can as fast as you can get there!” The three of them looked at me as if I had just told them not to worry because a three headed money would come down from the heavens and save us. “Just do it!” They nodded.

I stood on the platform gripping the axe in my hand so hard my knuckles turned white. The crowd reached us, but I kept still until they had all entered the room. I gulped then shouted “NOW!” My friends sprinted to the walls as I leapt into the air from my shelf and slashed the chord holding the light fixture to the ceiling. Down it fell, crushing many of the zombies and trapping the others. Jesse and Evan ran up and hugged me.

“That was incredible!” Jesse gushed. Evan said something to the same effect but I was too busy looking at the girl writing on the floor in pain to hear him. I thanked them and pushed away, then walked over to Cameron. “What’s wrong?” I asked. “You weren’t bitten again, were you?” She shook her head no and clutched her thigh. “Your wound?” She pulled back her pant leg so I could see the bite mark from the night before. It was swelling and had become discolored, but not the way a bruise would look. The skin around where the zombies teeth had pierced her skin looked gray, almost like dead flesh. “Shit,” I whispered, then turned back to the boys. “We have to go now. Get her in the car.”

We all climbed in the va n and took off for Canada.