When Meredith and John reached the edge of town, the first corners of daylight were creeping into the sky. It’d been days since they’d traveled, and the streets filled Meredith with a sense of foreboding. Even though the roads were empty, the painted white and yellow lines were like a roadmap to the death and destruction that awaited them.
As they rounded a bend, she saw a familiar building.
John’s furniture store.
She let her foot off the gas as they passed, allowing them to get a better look. The place where John had worked seemed foreign and strange, as if they’d left it behind years ago instead of days. The door hung open; the exterior was battered and stained.
Meredith glanced at her riding companion. The building had once been his dream, his livelihood. Now it was nothing more than a reminder of the horrors they’d both endured.
John stared at it in silence.
She swallowed and hit the gas, paying attention to the road. A mile down the road, the scenery gave way to buildings. Several abandoned cars lined the roadside, and she studied them for signs of life.
“I don’t remember those cars.” She pointed to the roadside.
“I don’t either. We’ll have to keep a lookout. Maybe there are other survivors in town.”
The two of them fell silent. Meredith had grown so accustomed to her small group that it almost seemed odd to think others might be occupying Settler’s Creek. It felt like the entire town had become their own personal refuge, and the rest of the world had succumbed to chaos.
Farther down the road, a group of infected congregated in the street, their bodies swaying as they walked. Meredith swerved to avoid them, as if they were nothing more than cones on an obstacle course.
“They really are getting slower,” she observed.
John shifted in his seat.
“Hopefully this’ll be over soon,” he said. “I can’t wait to get out of here for good.”
The infected moaned, answering some unspoken question. Meredith scanned the faces for people she recognized, but was relieved to find only strangers.
She knew she wouldn’t be so lucky in town.
Before long, they’d reached the town center. Commercial and residential buildings sprung up to meet them, like movie props that had been constructed for the occasion. She perused the doorways and signs, comparing her memories of the town with the ghost town before her.
Gone were the quaint activities of the townspeople—the farmers selling produce, the store owners cleaning windows, the patrons strolling the sidewalks. The streets were a mix of dead bodies and the roaming infected, and the scene made her nauseous.
Despite the chaos, there were fewer infected than Meredith remembered. Upon entering the town, she’d expected to be surrounded. But the infected were more spread out. A few of the creatures wandered into the vicinity, but most remained in place, glaring at the SUV with empty eyes, as if they knew the end was near.
After navigating a few more streets, Meredith sighted the pharmacy in the distance. The front windows had been busted; bottles and merchandise were flung on the sidewalk and street.
“I’ll pull around back,” she said.
John sat rigid in his seat, his gun raised, as if the cold reality of leaving the vehicle had just hit him. Whether the creatures were slow or not, walking among them was dangerous.
Meredith swerved down a narrow alley between two buildings. She veered around behind the pharmacy. The back door hung open, as if the employees were waiting inside, ready to assist with whatever they needed. But she knew that was far from the case. She parked so that John’s door was parallel to the entrance, about fifteen feet away—enough space to provide a buffer zone if something was lurking inside, but close enough to make a hasty retreat if needed.
She surveyed the open building. The store seemed empty. She reached for the driver’s door, but John grabbed her arm.
“If it looks bad, we leave,” he said. “Agreed?”
She nodded. As slow as the creatures seemed, she knew it was easy to be swarmed. Their eyes met for a brief second—the possibility of death passing between them unspoken—and then the two of them exited the vehicle.