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“We should head straight home,” Karly said as we crossed the parking lot to her truck.
“No. Stop for gas first. We should fill the tank.”
“Why?”
I looked sideways at her. “Just in case we need to leave the city. There’s something really wrong, Karly.”
I slid into the passenger seat, setting the bottles of water and juice on the floorboard. Karly stood outside the truck, likely thinking about what I had just said. Several yards away, a young mother carrying a toddler on her hip walked by. She was coughing into the crook of her arm and had to pause to catch her breath.
“Ma’am don’t go into the store! They had an accident in there,” Karly yelled to the woman.
“I need to get medicine for my baby,” I heard the mother yell back.
“There’s no power. And...and...someone died.”
As the woman processed what Karly had said, a small stream of blood trickled from her nose.
“Karly, get in. We need to get out of here. Now.”
She peeked down into the cab of the truck. “We can’t just leave them, Poppy.”
“Yes, we can. She’s sick and we don’t know what the hell this is.”
Karly stood again and called back to the woman. “Take your kid home. There’s something really bad going on. Two people collapsed dead in there and it might be contagious.”
My friend finally lowered herself into her seat and slammed the door as the woman called back, her words no longer intelligible from within the closed-up cab.
“Don’t open your window or turn on the fan until we get out of this busy area of town,” I said.
“Sure. What about getting gas?” Karly asked as she started the truck and put it into reverse.
“Hit the AM/PM on Oakes and Tenth. There’s usually not many people there and they take cash at the pumps. Hopefully their power’s still on so we can pump gas.”
We left the supermarket parking lot behind and merged onto the freeway at the nearest entrance.
“There’s not many cars out,” Karly observed.
“I noticed. There should be more on a holiday weekend.”
“You should put your seatbelt on.”
“Yes, Mom,” I said sarcastically as I strapped myself in.
“Look over there.”
I turned my head in the direction Karly was gazing. A fire burned in the distance.
“That’s really far away,” I said.
“I wonder what it is?”
“I don’t think I want to know, but it looks bad.”
I reached forward and turned the radio on. It was the vehicle’s original, and I hoped I could tune in the news on an AM channel. There was no need; the pop station Karly always kept it dialed to was streaming a live broadcast.
...National Security Risk has been upgraded to severe. You are urged to stay indoors and away from crowded public areas. Threats deemed credible have been verified by allied countries across Europe and Asia. The threat is believed to be biological in nature and considered imminent or already delivered. If you have any signs of fever, cough, vomiting, diarrhea, or difficulty breathing report your symptoms to your local relief unit by using any phone to dial *904. This announcement will continue to repeat...The National Security Risk has been upgraded to severe. You are urged to stay indoors and away from crowded public areas. Threats deemed credible have been verified by allied countries across Europe and Asia...
“Holy hell,” Karly mumbled. “Please say that’s a joke.”
I looked at my friend. Both of her hands clung tightly to the wheel and her knuckles were white.
“Those people back there in the store...and the Olesons...do you think they have whatever it is?”
“We have to assume that, Karly. At least for now. We need to stay aware. I think we should fill the tank and get home, and pack and leave.”
“Go where?” she asked. “And who would the fuck could have done this?”
“I’d guess ISIS, Al-Qaeda, or mother effing North Korea,” I said, lost in my own thoughts.
“You know it’s okay to just say the eff word.”
“Yeah I know.”
A car sped past us. I checked the speedometer in front of Karly. Sixty-five.
“Jesus, they must be going at least ninety-five!” Karly said.
The red two-set convertible made it about a hundred feet in front of us before swerving and crashing into the concrete median to the left. Instinctively I flinched and turned my head away as pieces of vehicle and body parts smattered the freeway in front of us. Karly swerved and hit the brakes hard, nearly rolling the truck. Eventually we stopped spinning, facing the opposite direction from which we came.
“Oh...God...” groaned my friend. “Oh God...Poppy...are you okay?”
Her voice was shaky. I forced my breathing to slow. “I...I...I think so,” I stammered.
“We have to go see if they’re hurt.”
“Kar, no. They’re not okay. There’s nothing we can do for them.”
She looked at me with confusion etched into her face and unbuckled her seatbelt. “Maybe someone needs help...”
“No,” I interrupted. “They’re dead. They’re splattered all over the fucking freeway!”
I looked away from her as something large and black crashed into the front driver’s side. The force of the collision sent us spinning again and the overwhelming sound of metal tearing and shattering glass deafened me. Everything happened so fast that it was dizzying. My vision blurred, making it difficult to see. The cab of our truck appeared to be filling with smoke and my airbag lay in my lap half-way deflated. My right temple hurt, and I put my fingers to it. They came away covered in blood. My mind wasn’t processing correctly and for a moment I wasn’t sure where I was. I blinked a few times, trying to clear my head. Blood had gotten into my eyes and with each blink things looked worse and worse. We were in the truck. Someone hit us. The scent of blood and gasoline was heavy in the air, burning my nose.
“Karly,” I said, suddenly remembering that my best friend had been driving. We were trying to get home. The warning on the radio. “Karly!” I yelled her name.
“Don’t move.” It was a deep voice I didn’t recognize.
I turned to my right, toward the voice, still confused.
“Can you move?” the man asked.
“Yeah, but my head hurts.”
“You have a pretty nasty gash on your forehead,” he said. “Can you wiggle your toes?”
I tested my toes and nodded. “Yeah.”
“Okay. Your door’s stuck and I can’t open it. I’m going to hand you my jacket and I want you to cover your head while I break the rest of the glass out. Do you understand?”
I nodded again. He handed me his lined flannel jacket and I quickly covered my head and face. The sound of glass breaking made me flinch. I could feel shards hitting the jacket and was glad he thought to protect my skin.
“Okay. Hand me the jacket.”
I suddenly found it difficult to perform such a simple task. My arms were shaking uncontrollably. I fumbled with it until he reached in and pulled the jacket off me. He draped it over the bottom edge of what had been the window and leaned in to unbuckle my seatbelt. I followed his hand with my eyes and noticed Karly slumped beside me. My breath caught in my chest as I realized her head lay on her shoulder unnaturally and one of her eyes hung loosely from its socket. Her face was slack, appearing deflated. Her beautiful mouth was now limp and contorted.
“No, no...don’t look,” ordered the man firmly.
I wanted to look away, I really did. Seeing my dearest friend in the world so broken was not on my agenda.
“Hey. Look at me,” he said sternly.
I was frozen, unable to move, and his words came from a place very far away. He put his hand on my chin and gently turned my head away from Karly’s body.
“You there?” he asked.
I looked into his deep brown eyes as I processed the question. They radiated kindness and a softness of sort even though all around us was chaos and the brutality of death.
“What happened?” I asked.
“You were in a car crash. Right now, I need to get you out of this wreck. Tell me your name.”
“Poppy.”
“Poppy? That’s your name? As in the flower?”
“Yeah, I guess so.”
“Okay Poppy...I want you to grab onto me and I’m going to pull you out.”
I wrapped my arms around him and nodded into his neck. My fingers shook too hard to hold onto him, so I did the best I could with my just my arms. “What hit us?” I managed to ask as he pulled me from the open window. I winced as my left shin slammed against the door panel.
“Easy, I’ve got you,” he said as he adjusted his right arm to cradle me. “A rather large black pickup clipped you. We need to get off the freeway before another car comes by and does the same thing.”
I turned back to assess the damage. Karly’s Truck was badly twisted. The windshield was torn backward, the crackled tempered glass hanging precariously. A mass of twisted flesh lay on the pavement several yards in front of the truck, along with what looked like hair.
“Oh my God!” I screamed. “Oh God that’s the inside of her head, that’s her brain!”
The man turned me away from the scene by holding my head to his chest.
“You have to calm down ...” he said.
“But...but...” I began to hyperventilate.
“It’s not safe here, and there’s nothing you can do for her now.”
I tried to look back, but he held my head tighter against his chest. A wave of nausea hit me, and I didn’t fight him.
“Think you can stand?” he asked.
“I feel sick to my stomach.”
“My car’s just a few yards away. If you need to throw up just let me know and I’ll pull over.”
I hadn’t even been aware we had started walking.
“We should wait here for the ambulance,” I mumbled, attempting to stop.
“There’s no ambulances coming. They’ve all been grounded because of the National Security threat.”
“We can’t just leave everyone...”
“No one else made it. I’m really sorry.”
My body shivered involuntarily. When we got to his old convertible, he set me on my feet and made sure I could stand before opening the passenger door. My legs buckled, so he kept an arm around me while I used the side of the car to support myself.
“My head hurts.”
“Looks like you hit it pretty hard. You might have a concussion.”
“I can’t just leave. The cops will want to talk to me.”
“It’s not safe here. Last I heard, martial law’s in effect and there’s an indefinite curfew. They want everyone indoors until troops arrive and figure this out.”
I slid into the front seat and let him buckle my seatbelt. My fingers were numb and even lifting my arms felt impossible. I stared straight forward as he walked to the driver’s side and got in. There was no way to not look at the fatal scene on the interstate. Karly’s truck had been pushed backward, eventually colliding with the red convertible that began the entire chain reaction. One of the bodies from the accident was twisted badly and half way under Karly’s truck. A severed arm was near the edge of the road. Having seen enough, I looked down at my lap and tried not to vomit. The black truck that delivered the fatal blow to Karly was resting on its side on the far shoulder of the interstate. Flames lapped at the twisted tailgate.
“I can drive you to your home if you want. Is anyone there to watch over you?”
I looked at him a bit confused.
“In case you do have a concussion,” he clarified.
I gently shook my head side to side. “It’s just me and Karly.”
“I can drop you at one of the Red Cross shelters.”
“I don’t want to go there,” I said quickly and without hesitation.
“Yeah, I don’t blame you.” He sighed gently. “God, the world is going to shit, and I can’t just leave you on your own. My house is just outside of town on Old Howard Road, just about ten minutes from here. You okay with going there? It’s closer and I really don’t want to be out here any longer than needed.”
“I don’t know you,” I said, a bit weary.
“Fair enough. Name’s Ellis. I’d say it’s nice to meet you, but the circumstances aren’t quite right. Anyway, my sister’s there and I don’t want to leave her alone for much longer.”
“Yeah, I guess that’d be okay.”
“I have a pretty good supply of emergency gear and food, enough to last awhile anyway. It’s probably safest to hole up at my place. You’ll like my sister.”
“Will she be okay with me showing up?”
“She’ll be fine.”
Ellis turned onto a less-crowded-but-still-residential road, leading us away from the city. A group of teenagers ran along the street in front of us, weaving back and forth in what appeared to be a game of chase.
“Damn kids need to get off the street,” he mumbled.
“It looks like they’re running after the girl in front of them. This doesn’t look right.”
“No, it doesn’t,” he agreed.
The closer we got, the more abnormal their movements looked. One of the teens in the middle of the pack collapsed onto the ground as we passed and there was no sign that the others even noticed. None of the kids turned to look at us as we passed. The girl in front looked back at her pursuers and worry wrapped her face in a veil of fear.
“We should help her,” I said quickly.
“Yeah. I’m going to pull over and see if I can grab her before they do. If you can, climb into the back when I pull over. It’s a tight spot but you’re small and should fit.”
I glanced over my shoulder to assess the space behind the only two seats. There wasn’t much room at all, just a small platform where the convertible top would be stored if folded down. Not waiting for the car to stop, I unbuckled and worked my way between the two seats. The small plastic rear window crinkled as my head came to rest on it. I suddenly felt very exposed beneath the thin canvas-and-vinyl car top. Ellis drove past the girl and braked hard; my shoulder hit the passenger seat in front of me. I watched through the plastic back window as Ellis got out of the car and ran toward the girl. She seemed to understand what Ellis was doing and ran toward him. I could hear her muffled cries for help even over the still-running car engine. She gained momentum and reached for Ellis as they threatened to collide. The teens chasing her continued in their pursuit, undaunted by our presence. My heart began pounding in my chest as a new wave of adrenaline hit. The faces of the kids were twisted into evil masks, reminding me of feral dogs. I clenched my hands into fists as I watched Ellis and the girl run toward the car, hand-in-hand. She was clearly fatigued, and Ellis pulled her onward. I held my breath when they reached the back bumper and he let go of her hand.
The girl struggled to open the passenger door, so I reached forward until I could reach the door handle. Before I could help her, she finally pulled it open and clambered inside, nearly knocking into me. Her breathing was labored, and she reeked of beer. Her long red hair was tangled badly, and her round face was streaked with mascara-laden tears. The car shook suddenly as a thump sounded to my left. To my horror, I saw one of the teens fighting with Ellis. It was a boy half his size with crooked glasses and a crazed look to his eyes.
“He’ll kill him,” our new passenger cried out.
Ellis pushed the boy off him, giving him just enough space to draw his right arm back to aim for a punch, which caught the boy in the throat. The momentum threw the boy backward just far enough to give Ellis time to quickly get in and slam his door shut.
“Lock the doors!” he yelled.
The girl who now sat beside him struggled to hold her door shut as another of her pursuers violently tried to enter. Ellis reached over her and slammed his fist down on the old-style metal lock at the top of the door panel. More wild teens and one grown man reached the back of the car and beat wildly at the trunk as Ellis engaged the clutch and put the car into gear. We sped away, all of us shaken.
“What the hell was that about?” asked Ellis.
“My dad,” said the girl with a shaky and high-pitched voice. “He came after me this morning after my mom left for work. At first, he just didn’t make sense and I thought maybe he was having a stroke, but he started groaning like he was in pain and started to come toward me. I wanted to help him, but the news said to stay away from anyone who’s sick. He was sweating and had blood running down from the corner of his mouth, so I told him to stay back but he just kept walking toward me.”
“Slow down,” said Ellis. “First, you said your mom went to work. Where at? I might be able to drop you off.”
“St. Therese, the hospital in Tallsdale.”
“Okay. Do you have her number?”
The girl shook her head side to side. “It’s in my cell phone and I dropped it while I was running.”
“Okay. Poppy, do you have yours?”
“Yeah, but there’s still no signal.”
“What’s your name?”
“Clarice.”
“Okay Clarice. Tell me what happened next. With your dad.”
“He wouldn’t stop coming down the hall, and he started coughing really bad. Blood was spraying everywhere. I ran. I ran and left him and didn’t stop until I got to our neighbor’s door. My friend Tina opened the door, but her mom slammed it shut. It’s like everyone is freaking out. I could hear her and Tina yelling about not exposing themselves or Tina’s baby brother. My dad came running out of our house and collapsed onto the walkway. He had blood all over his face and shirt. I wanted to help him, but by then people were running after me and I just kept running. Then you stopped for me.”
“Ellis, we can’t take her back to her house. It’s not gonna be safe.”
The girl turned partially around to look at me. “I can’t go back there. Please don’t take me back there.”
“It’s okay, we’ll take you with us for now. We’ll be to my house in about five minutes,” Ellis reassured her.
As Ellis drove, the residential area changed to only a handful of shops eerily lit by moonlight. Ellis took an on-ramp onto an old country road. Clouds gathered in the distance ahead of us. None of us spoke for the remainder of the drive.
