The Infected

I dragged the little one back inside, shutting the door of the restaurant, as if it could block us from the madness on display outside. I was breathing hard, my mind racing. Just what was going on?

Lily was crying again. I pulled her to my chest, her face buried in my shirt. She had lost her had somewhere. I wanted to go find it, give her something familiar to see.

“Hey.” I said, pulling her back by the shoulders and knelling so we were eye to eye. “We'll get them back.” I said with more conviction than I actually felt.

“How?” She exclaimed. “How? Look at them?” She looked over at the window where she could still see dozens of strangers walking down the street, zombie-like.

I didn't look, I focused on my baby sister. “I don't know, little animal, I don't know. But we will. We'll figure it out.”

She sniffed, her attention was back on me. “Yeah?”

I nodded. “Yeah.”

She sobered a little at that. I knew that later on she would cry again, fear would take over, for her and I both. But right now, she was safe. I'd make sure of that.

“But how could they? How could they just leave us? Why didn't it happen to us? What are we going to do?”

The questions just seemed to roll out of her, unstoppable. “I don't-”

There was a loud crash behind us. I was on my feet, pushing Lily behind me. We were by the registers up front. The sound had come from the kitchen.

“Do you think someone else is here?” Lily whispered to me.

“Dunno.” I had my eyes locked on the kitchen door. “If I tell you to run, you run, okay?” She said nothing. Silent. “Okay, Lil?”

“Okay.” She sounded scared. I didn't blame her. I was scared too.

“Hello?” I called out. “Is someone there?”

I could hear movement behind those door. There was a little window on each of the swinging doors, not very big, but big enough to see if someone was coming, unless they were crouched down.

“Don't hurt me.” A small voice said from the kitchen. Not a child's voice, but a timid one. A woman.

“No one's going to hurt you. Are you okay? Are you hurt?” I asked.

“No.” A pause. “I'm coming out, and I am armed. No funny business.” Her voice shook.

“Alright. Back up, Lil.” She did, but was still close enough to touch me. “Come out.”

One of the doors started moving, I could see the top of her head and nothing more. The tip of a butchers knife was the first thing to emerge from the door. Then the hand clutching it, white knuckle tight. A face peeked out, small, with frightened brown eyes. She wasn't that tall, but taller than me, she had short brown hair and was utterly unremarkable. She wasn't ugly, nor was she beautiful, just average. Not someone you'd remember in great detail. She had on a waitress uniform, with a name tag that read: Brittany.

Her hand shook as she stared at us. “Who else is here?” She asked.

“No one. They all left. It's just us. Me and my sister.” Lily peeked her head around me to see her better.

“What happened?”

“I have no idea. We're you hiding back there.”

She nodded fast. “Yeah. They, uh...” She swallowed hard. “They just stopped moving. Then, then they...” She was starting to get a bit hysterical.

“Okay. Calm down. Calm down.” I cooed not knowing what else to do. I didn't approach her, she still had the knife in her hands, And I made sure Lily was behind me, ready to run out the door if she needed to.

“It's going to be okay.” Lily said to her. “I'm Lily. This is Leah.” I really hadn't planned on telling the waitress with the knife our names. But I understood that Lily was only trying to help.

She seemed to come back to herself once she heard Lily's voice. She saw no threat, so she put the knife down, her hands still shaky. “I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.” She said to us.

“It's okay.” I said, still not daring to move closer.

She looked behind us to the street, her eyes filled with unshed tears. “Oh god, it's the apocalypse.”

“I wouldn't say that.” I muttered. Although the billow of smoke from the airplane crashes were darkening the skies and all the zombie-like people walking forward with dead eyes could make me understand why she might have seen it that way. Someone had once told me the zombie apocalypse was coming. This wasn't quite how I had pictured it.

“Was there anyone else back there with you?”

She shook her head, which made her tears fall. She wiped the away quickly. “They're all out there now.” She gestured to the windows. “Everyone.”

We all grew quiet for a long moment. I blew out a frustrated breath. I needed to figure out our next step, and figure out what the hell was going on. Brittany moved from behind the counter until she stood in front of us.

“I'm Brittany, by the way.”

“We know.” I pointed to her chest.

“Oh... right.” She let out a little nervous laugh. “So, what do you think is going on?”

“No clue.”

She shook her head, eyes on her feet for a second. “It was like they had all been switched on, or something.”

“Yeah.” I agreed.

Lily had come to stand beside me. “We can't stay here.” She said.

“I know.” I looked around us.

“Do you hear that?”

“Hear what?” Asked Brittany.

“A phone. Someone's cell phone.”

I strained my ears to hear, but sure enough there was a song playing low, someones ring-tone.

We all stared at one another, then Lily was off. We followed, all searching for the phone, knowing it wouldn't be ringing for too much longer.

“A phone is ringing.” Lily said, hope returning to her eyes. “Someone else is out there.”

“Of course there is.” Brittany said, rummaging in pockets and purses people left behind.

I followed her into one of the other dining areas in the restaurant. Lily found the purse where the phone was. “Hello?” She said into the phone before I could grab it.

“Put it on speaker.” I told her.

“Who's this?” The voice on the other line said. It was a young woman.

“Oh, my gosh, it's another person.” Lily squealed delightfully. “We're not alone.”

I took the phone from her. “Hey, are you-.”

“I'm trying to reach my mother. There's something strange going on.”

“Weird zombie people walking around where you are too?”

“Yeah... yes.” She sounded distracted. I could hear lots of noise in the background. “I assume if you're answering her phone then she's gone, too.” Her voice dropped low on the word “gone”. Brittany sank down onto a chair.

“Yes, I'm sorry.”

“Where are you?”

“McAdam's Diner.” Lily said quickly.

Then the line went dead. “I think she hung up on us.” I put the phone down. “Whomever she was.”

“That was rude.” Brittany stated, her voice low.

Lily sat down and looked outside again, the small glimmer of hope that lighted her eyes a moment ago had dimmed. I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket. “What are you doing?” She asked, frowning.

“I'm gonna make some calls.”

So an hour or so later I had gone through my contacts, with no luck. Phones just keep ringing and ringing. Brittany had done the same on her phone. We got voice-mails, messages telling us to try the caller again later, or some numbers just didn't work at all. I tried to call that woman back, but I only go a voice mail, with on name or information, a robotic voice said to leave a message. I didn't but called again on an off for nearly an hour before giving up.

We tried to call the emergency services, but it just rang and rang until the automated system came on, telling me to hold on, that my call was important. We did. For twenty minutes. Then the line went dead completely. When had there never been any one not there when you called 911.

We tried every place we could think of. The police, the fire department, someone needed to deal with all those fires that were ragging outside, neither answered. We tried animal control, libraries, pizza shops, schools, any place. Random numbers in the phones we found here. No one answered.

We went online, trying to see if someone, anyone, out there could clue us in on whatever was happening. But alas, nothing. No a single dammed thing. Even the television had nothing to offer us, and some of the channels were out, but most just showed their regular programming. No emergency alerts, not warnings. Nothing. No help whatsoever.

We felt defeated.

I could see it in Brittany's face, her body language. I felt it in mine. But one look at Lily told me I couldn't be defeated. Not just yet. The little animal smiled sadly back at me from where she sat by the window. The people were thinning out, but there were still a lot of them, walking to the heart of the city.

Our family had been long gone.

I paced back and forth, trying to think. We couldn't drive because the streets were full of people and cars. There were fires ragging all around. We couldn't walk home, it was miles away and once again strange zombie people outside. I had no clue what they might do. And we sure as hell couldn't stay here. We needed to get answers. Even if it meant heading out there.

I thought some more, making up my mind about something. I didn't know Brittany, but I sure as hell wasn't leaving her behind, as long I didn't feel like Lily was in any danger of her, she could stick with us. We were all in the same boat. I just wasn't sure which sea we were sailing.

“What now?” She asked.

“Come on, kid.” I walked over and grabbed her hand, “We need to stock up.”

“Stock up?”

“Yeah.” I headed towards the kitchen. Brittany behind us. “We won't find out anything waiting in here. So were leaving. Grab some food, and supplies. We'll load a car.” In case the worst came, we needed to be prepared.

“Do you think that's a good idea?” The waitress asked, her fear still present in her eyes.

“Got a better idea?”

She didn't.

So grabbed cans of food, bags of chips, vegetables, and bottles of water (and pop). We took tools, knives, anything that could be used as a weapon and anything else we thought might be useful, then loaded them into boxes and bags. We needed a car large enough to hold it all. So we found some car keys.

“Stay here.” I told Lily. Then Brittany and I headed out to see which key fit where.

It was eery out here. People still occupied the street as they always did in this city, but now they were silent, alien creatures, marching blindly. There was no traffic and the only sounds were from the fires, and thankfully none of them were too close. But you could also hear footsteps if you listened closely, and there was a rhythm to it. I tried to block it out. I'd rather hear the fire.

We both felt weird about stealing a car, but we figure whomever these belonged to wouldn't really be using them right now. And we needed it. “If we have to we can just take my parent car.” I told her when we had no luck locating a car big enough.

She nodded, then used the key ring and found an SUV. The headlights blinked and the car horn honked. We both jumped. The people around didn't seem to notice.

“That's Jacks.” Brittany said, her voice sad and low.

“Who's Jack?”

“My co-worker. Or he was my co-worker. I should have remembered it was his SUV. He loved the thing.” She walked over towards it. “I'll bring it to the back door and we can load it.”

I nodded and went back in, but not before going over to my family's car and grabbing some things. I wasn't sure if we would ever come back here. I needed them, for my own piece of mind.

I emptied the glove compartment, there was a picture of us on the dashboard, I put it in my pocket. I took things out of the trunk, Leo's hockey stick that he had stashed there a few months ago, he had given up the sport last year, a tire iron, and a tool box.

Lily was waiting by the door when I walked in. Her eyes went to the items on my hand. “Where do you think they're headed?” She asked, her eyes once again fixed on the people out there. “They're really freaky.”

My thoughts exactly. The worse part was seeing the very small children who walked by. I wanted to grab them and pull them free of whatever had a hold on them. “Come on. Brittany's waiting for us.”

We went to the back where Brittany backed the big black SUV up right by the back door which I had propped open. She hoped out of the front seat and I could tell she had been crying again. I said nothing and pretended not to notice. We loaded everything up, and we went back in to make sure we had everything we needed.

Brittany grabbed her things from her locker, and changed into a pair of jeans and a tank top. I found Lily's hat on the floor by our table and her book. Along with my families things. I grabbed them up and tossed them in the back seat with Lily. She smiled brightly at the hat, placing it onto her head with a little sigh. “Thank you.” She breathed.

“No problem, little animal.”

“Where to?” Brittany said.

“The opposite direction of where they are heading.” I hooked a thumb behind me at the zombie people.

“Okay. You mind driving?” She asked nervously. “I think I'll hit someone.”

She did look nervous and I think hitting someone might be a shock to her already frayed nerves. So I hopped in the drivers side, and pulled around to the front of the restaurant. I carefully pulled out of the parking lot, slowly, avoiding people who took no notice of us.

I had never driven anything this big and was thankful I didn't need to go any faster than 10 miles per hour or less. There were hundreds of abandoned cars that I had to find a way around. Several times I had to drive on the sidewalks to get around them and the people.

We didn't speak for a long time. Brittany tried to make more phone calls as we drove, and Lily was on one of the numerous cell phones we had put in a bag, trying to see if the internet had anything new. I told them to keep a look out for any signs of people who were normal. I figured if we were okay, then there had to be others out there who were okay too. I switched on the radio, which was mostly static. There were a few channels were still playing music, but it was the same ten or twelve songs on a loop. No luck there.

The street were a bit clearer, of people that is, the further we ventured on, which cut down on the creep factor a fraction. I was intensely focused on not hitting anyone, and navigating through the people who remained, some of which were testing my nerves. It was like they were deliberately moving in front of us.

I grew frustrated, blew the horn, as if that would help, and yelled at people. They noticed not. “Ugh.” I muttered. “It's like they want to be hit.”

“That's zombies for you.” Brittany said out of the blue, emotionless. She hadn't said anything since we got in the car.

“Oh, come on.” I exclaimed as one of the zombie-people hit the bumper. “How many more could there be?”

“We're in a city of millions. Who knows how many were affected.”

She had a point. Brushing my hair back I waited for this guy to walk around the car. I hated how close they got to us. Our windows were rolled up, but I still go a chill when he walked by my door. Then something happened that I'm not sure I actually saw or imagined.

Life in his eyes.

For only the briefest of seconds I saw his eyes moved from lifeless and dull to hazel and very much alert. He looked at me and looked like he was in pain, screaming on the inside. Then it was gone. And he was dull again, no color in his eyes, no life. Nothing at all. I shuddered and put my foot on the gas a little too hard. My hands on the steering wheel shook.

“Leah? Are you okay?” Lily asked from the backseat.

“Mm-hmm.”

I couldn't look at her even though she was trying to catch my eye in the rear view mirror. Even Brittany was looking at me strange. I refused to let my fear take over me. I couldn't, for Lily's sake. I shook myself, and told myself that I hadn't just seen that. My mind was playing on my fears, that's all.

“Shit.” Brittany hissed tossing a phone down. “How can there be no one? No one. We can't be the only people left.”

“Where do you think they're headed?” Lily asked again, as she turned around in her seat to look out the back window.

Brittany and I exchanged a look but neither of us answered. “Are you hungry?” I said instead.

“No.” She turned around to sit right again, her arms folded over her chest, sullen.

“We'll be okay.” I told her, more for myself than her.

A few minutes and a half a block later she asked, “Do you think we'll ever see them again?”
I swallowed hard. “Let's not think about things like that right now, okay?”

I looked back at her, her face was away from mine but I knew she was crying. God, I wished I knew what to say to her. “Lily, we'll find them. I promise.”

She discretely wiped her face free of those pesky tears. “Okay.”

“Brittany? Do you have any family.”

“Yeah.” She said, but wouldn't elaborate any more than that, and I decided not to press it. She was looking out the window, her eyes unfocused. This was a mess.

“We'll find them, too.” I said to her.

She didn't respond and I kept on driving.