“Before I take you home, Victor, I need to make sure you’ll be fine if we find your mom dead. I don’t want you to do anything stupid and hurt yourself. I’m telling you this as your friend,” Kyle said as he looked down at the gas gauge. “Fuck, we’re going to have to get more gas soon. I only got half a tank at the Shell station.”
Victor remained quiet. He was in a daze, thinking about all the possibilities that could occur when they reached his house.
“Hey,” Kyle said, “snap out of it.” He snapped his fingers in front of Victor’s face.
“Sorry,” Victor replied, “I’m just thinking about all the bad shit that could happen when I reach my house.”
“Don’t think so much into it. You could just be worrying for nothing. We could even die trying to get there,” Kyle teased.
“Yeah, that helps.”
“Come on, snap out of it,” Kyle said in a joyful voice. “We’re on a road trip. Haven’t you ever heard anyone say, ‘It’s not the destination, it’s the journey’?”
“No,” Victor said.
“Well I’m telling you. We’ll worry about what happens when we get there. But I think we should stop and fill up before we go any further. I’d hate for us to run out of gas in an infested town.”
“I’ve never really been this far out. I don’t know where any gas stations are. And besides, my house is in the other direction.”
“Don’t worry about it. This street does a huge U-turn and takes us out of town. It’s a longer route, but with all the Existing Dead blocking the road yesterday, I’d feel safer going this way.” Kyle turned the radio on and began flipping through the stations. White noise blared out the speakers. “Fuck, I really wanted something to be on.”
“What do you think that jet was last night?” Victor asked out of no where.
“I’m not sure, bud. It was probably the military trying to take control of the situation. They thought that the neighborhood was deserted so they tried to kill as many of them as possible.”
“But it wasn’t deserted,” Victor interrupted. “We were there.”
“Yeah but can you blame them? The street was filled with the dead. You saw it, remember? Fuck, if I saw that many in one place I wouldn’t have thought anyone would survive.”
“Where do you think it came from?” Victor asked, finishing his Snickers.
“Don’t know. It looked like the jets came from the West so I’m going to guess they are in Vegas. That’s where the safe zone is, so there’s bound to be a collection of people there.” Kyle paused for a second then continued. “Okay, that’s enough talk. Hand me some of those corn nuts and some water out of the basket.”
Victor reached into the basket and grabbed what Kyle wanted. “So where are we going?” he asked, handing the stuff to Kyle.
Kyle reached for it with one hand and sat them on the cushion next to him. “There’s a gas station a few miles up. I think it’s a Mobile. I’ve been there a shit load of times but I don’t remember exactly where it is. We’re going to see if there are any cars lying around that we can siphon gas out of.”
Victor stared at the road. “Why do we need to go to a gas station if you’re just siphoning gas? Can’t we just get it out of these cars?” Victor asked, pointing out onto the street.
“We can use those, but it’s the morning and I haven’t pooped yet. My stomach is fucking hurting. I need to relieve pressure. You see son, when you get to be my age you …”
Victor finally cut him off. “Okay, I get it. You have to crap. So I’m guessing you’re going to show me how to siphon gas so you can handle your business?”
“No, not quite,” Kyle said, “I’m going to need you to stand guard by the door, and if anything comes you warn me so I can cut it off and get out.”
“You’re gross, dude,” Victor said as Kyle laughed.
Kyle’s laughter quickly halted as he fixed his eyes back onto the road. He eased off the accelerator and pressed on the brakes.
“What are you doing?” Victor asked.
“You see that person over there?”
“Yeah, he’s walking onto the street. What about him?” Victor said, not noticing what Kyle was observing.
“Look at his skin.” Kyle brought the truck to a stop no more than twenty feet away. “He doesn’t look dead. He might be another survivor.”
Chapter Ten
Kyle and Victor stopped in front of the stranger. He made no attempt to look in the direction of the truck, but only looked forward, as though in a trance. He stared out into the distance as if there was something over there he couldn’t take his eyes off of.
“What’s he doing?” Victor asked.
“I don’t know. It looks like he’s staring at something. I’m gonna get his attention,” Kyle said as he rolled down the window. “Hey,” he said sticking his head out of the gap. The man did not turn or even acknowledge him. He only blinked and continued gazing in the same direction. “Hey are you all right?” Kyle continued. The man still didn’t respond.
Kyle put the truck in park and grabbed the shotgun. He opened the door and got out, slamming the door behind him to make as much noise as possible.
“What are you doing?” Victor whispered from inside the car. “Let’s just get the hell out of here.”
Kyle shook his head and called back, “Get your gun and follow my lead.”
Victor sighed and got out of the truck. He pointed the gun at the man then looked around for any other movement.
“Hey,” Kyle hollered. “Are you okay? What are you doing out here? Do you need help?” Kyle pumped the shotgun.
The click of the gun finally got the man’s attention. He turned to face Kyle. The man looked like a normal person. His skin was not gray and there were no physical wounds on him. His eyes were a dark brown, they didn’t have the white gloss that the dead possessed. The man was alive, yet he began walking toward them in the slow staggered walk as the Existing Dead. He even began to snap his jaw in the same way.
“Kyle,” Victor said as soon as he noticed the man walking toward Kyle.
Kyle continued staring at him. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. The man continued toward him, dragging his leg behind him with every step. The man took in a large gust of breath, then exhaled.
“Kyle!” Victor said even louder than before.
“He’s acting,” Kyle said.
“He’s acting?” Victor repeated.
“He’s acting like one of them,” Kyle said as he raised his gun to his shoulders. A thought crossed his mind; this person has done nothing to Kyle or Victor. He was just some poor soul who thought it better to act like the dead, maybe in the hope that they would leave him alone. He’s survived this long so it might not be as crazy as Kyle thought.
He brought the shotgun down. Kyle wanted to see how far this person would go to act like an Existing Dead. “Stand down,” Kyle told Victor as the man reached for him. He grabbed onto his arm and yanked it toward him. Kyle stared as he opened his jaw and quickly went down for a bite. When Kyle decided that the man was going to go all the way, he yanked his arm back and used the shotgun stock to hit him under the chin. He went staggering back but remained on his feet. Kyle raised the shotgun and brought the butt down on the guy again, then again until he fell to the ground. Blood began to spew from his nose and mouth.
Kyle walked to the back of the truck and took the decapitated head of the zombie out of the bucket. He walked back to the man and shoved it into his face. The eyes of the Existing Dead began to move. The man stared back at the head and its moving eyes. Kyle could see the fear and terror in his eyes as he looked at the head. The teeth were fully exposed. The lower half of its head was completely missing. Its gums were black and its skin was burned.
“Is this what you want to be?” Kyle asked. “This is it, right? You want to be one of these things so you can go around fucking biting and eating anyone you see?”
