Rabid

After a quick visual inventory, he closed them again.  “The shit they talk about on TV.  You see so many different doomsday shows anymore.  Volcanoes, comets and asteroids, nuclear explosions, global warming.  Probably a dozen a day.  None of them covered anything like this.”

“When they talked about the end of the world, I don’t think they had something like this in mind,” Taylor said.

“Is it just me or has tonight seemed to last forever?  It seems like I haven’t seen daylight in forever, but it’s only been a few hours.”

Taylor cracked the window another inch.  The surge of cold air helped his sudden drowsiness.

“I can take over, dude.”

“Yeah, I’m fine.  Just need a slap in the face.  If you want to do me a favor, though, see if you can find her cell phone.  We’ll see if we can get service.”

Carl sat up and twisted around until he could reach the back seat.  Tina was holding the phone in her hand.  Her grip had loosened now that she was asleep, and Carl was able to pluck it from her hand without waking her.

“She fell asleep with it.”

“Probably waiting for her dad to call.  How many bars?”

Carl flipped open the phone, the display bathing his face in blue light.  “Three and a half it looks like.”

“Not bad.  Try calling Angie.”

Carl dialed and listened.  “Nothin’.  Goes straight to her voicemail.  That’s bad.  She never goes anywhere without that thing.”

“It doesn’t mean anything.  Could mean she was in a hurry.  If it rang through to her voicemail at least we know the towers are still working.  Try Mom and Dad’s.  Maybe their landline first.”

“Says the number is no longer in service.”

“Landlines are down.  Try their cell.”

Carl dialed the number.  Waited.  “Voicemail.”

“Try somebody else.”

Carl studied the keypad on the phone.  After a moment he said, “I don’t know anybody else’s numbers.  They’re all in my phone.  I didn’t memorize any of them.”

“Nine-one-one.”

“Nothing again,” Carl said.  “Makes a guy feel pretty fucking cut off from the world.”

Taylor gripped the steering wheel more tightly.  “I’m telling you, it doesn’t make any sense.”

“You’ve got that right.”

“It’s not just about what’s happened to people.”

“Rabies,” Carl said.

“Call it what you want.  None of this started until yesterday.  It’s barely been twelve hours.  Society can’t break down that fast.”

“How do you know that?”

“All right.  Maybe a natural disaster would knock out the power, the phones, all that stuff.  But I don’t get why that’s happening now.  The people that have that disease or whatever it is…they’re crazy.  Lunatics.  They obviously don’t retain much of the intelligence they had before they changed.  Look how long it took them to get into the store.”

“But they found us there.”

“What I’m saying is there has to be an explanation why everything’s down that fast.  We know Mom and Dad’s landline is down, too.  That leads me to believe that that’s the case everywhere.”  Taylor pumped the break as they came up on a vehicle parked along the side of the road.  The driver’s side door hung open.  Clothes were strewn on the ground around the vehicle.  There were no bodies.

“Where do you think they went?  There’s nowhere within walking distance.  And all those clothes on the ground.  That can’t be good.  Creeps me the fuck out.”  Carl rolled down his window as they passed the abandoned vehicle.  “Don’t see anybody in there,” he said, spit out the window, and then rolled it back up.

“Are you listening?” Taylor asked.

“I’m listening.”

“If those things aren’t much better than cannibalistic village idiots, what’s with the other stuff?  They didn’t take down the power.  So who did?  It can’t just be coincidence.  If it was only that one town maybe I could swallow it.”

“Yeah, I get it, it’s fucking strange.  But, honestly, bro, I could give a shit less about all that.  Does it really matter?  Solving riddles like that.  I want to get home.  I want to know that Angie and Mom and Dad are okay.”

“And I don’t?”

“I’m not saying anything like that.  I’m telling you what I want.  At this point, I just don’t care about the reason why stuff is happening.  Listen, you’re the only one out of the three of us that hasn’t rested yet.  Let me drive for a while.  Quit playing hero for a little bit and pretend you’re human like the rest of us.  I’ll swap out with you and drive the rest of the way.  Rest your brain, dude.”

Taylor sighed and then stopped the car.  He opened the door and the overhead light came on.

Tina woke from her fitful sleep and said, “What’s going on?  Are we there?”

“No.  We’re switching places.  Go back to sleep.”

She’s been through a lot, Taylor thought.  I hope it hasn’t taken all the fight out of her.

Carl adjusted the driver’s seat back a few inches.  “Damn you’re short.”

“It comes with old age.”

“Sure.  Whatever you say, old lady driver.”

“Just stay on the highway.”

“I know the way.”

Taylor leaned his seat back.  He closed his eyes and listened to the wind and the strange grumbling complaint of the Ford’s engine.  The rhythm of the ride, of every bump and dip and inconsistency in the road, soothed him.

You should have done this earlier, he thought, feeling himself slip off into another world.  One that wasn’t ending.

Chapter 6 Homecoming

The high-pitched squeal of the brakes woke him.  When he opened his eyes, the headlights of the Escort were lighting up a large wooden sign that read Coldwater.  Warm people.  Population 1579.

“Why are you stopping here?” Taylor asked, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.  He couldn’t have slept for more than forty-five minutes to an hour, but he still felt a hell of a lot better.

“Just nervous I guess.  Being here means it’s time to face reality.  My stomach’s tied in knots, dude.”

Taylor leaned over and glanced at the instrument panel.  “By the skin of our teeth, huh?”  He was looking at the gas gauge; the needle hovered just below the “E.”

“Oh, yeah, that.  And I guess it’s accurate ‘cuz there were times at the end where it seemed like this baby was gonna crap out.  Probably nothing left but fumes.”

“Then don’t waste gas just sitting here.”

“Aren’t you worried at all?”

Taylor stared at him, his eyes narrowing the slightest bit.  “What kind of a question is that, little brother?  I’m as scared shitless as you, but we didn’t come all this way to chicken out.  Now put this piece of junk in drive and let’s face whatever reality there is to face.”

Carl shifted into drive.  The engine sputtered as though responding to an insult.  “Maybe you should say a