7CHAPTER THREE
RAE
Louis was here. He was alive. I was so relieved to see that he had made it here through the chaos that was in the city. It was a miracle.
"Rae, what happened here?" Louis asked.
"You don't know?" I said. How could he not?
"I was in a car wreck," he said. I looked away from his face and saw the blood all over his clothes. "I have no idea what's going on."
I sighed. Where could I start? So much had happened over the past few days. . . .
"It all started two days ago," I started, but Louis held up a hand and cut me off.
"Wait a minute, two days?" he said, bewildered. "Was I out for two days?"
"How bad was your wreck?" I asked. If he was out for two days, I imagine it must have been pretty bad. Considering all the blood all over him I knew it must have been bad.
"Well, it was all on the news," I continued. "People were getting admitted to the hospitals like crazy. All the ones in the city were filled up. And it wasn't just here either, apparently hospitals in other states getting completely full as well. People were getting really worried because doctors had never seen a disease like this before. Aunt Lisa was pretty worried too. And two days ago, the news reported that all these people died.
"The doctors weren't sure what to do. All these people died at the exact same time. Everyone was panicking and trying to figure out what was going on. And then these people. . ." I inhaled slowly. Louis raised his eyebrows, silently urging me to go on. This was the scary part. "These people woke up. They got out in the streets and started attacking people. Police set up roadblocks and were trying to control the situation. I think a S.W.A.T. team or something was called, and helicopters were flying over the city."
Louis nodded slowly. "I was at one of the roadblocks. I saw one of them attack a cop and they were eating him." Louis shuddered. "Are they cannibals?"
I shrugged. "All I know is that they're sick with something. It's been hectic since all this started. A lot of people tried leaving the city. There were reports of mass suicides. Some people in the neighborhood just packed up what they could and left. I'm not sure what's going on now, the news station has been down since yesterday."
"What do you mean?" Louis asked. "Is the power out?"
I nodded. "Now it is. But the people at the news station had to sign off because they were surrounded. They wished us all luck and then that was it. Aunt Lisa panicked when that happened. She called Mom and made plans to drive up to Shreveport today."
"So Mom's okay then?" Louis asked.
"Yep," I nodded. "She's doing fine for the most part. Just worried about us."
Louis sighed with relief. "I was worried about all of you." He looked down at Aunt Lisa's corpse, looking like he was about to be sick again. "What happened to her?"
I wrung my hands together and looked down. Tears started streaming down my face. "Aunt Lisa and I have been sleeping in the living room since all this started. She kept the news on day and night to stay posted about everything. Yesterday morning, just after the news went off, a man ran up to the window and started banging on it. He was screaming like a maniac and he was covered in blood. Aunt Lisa told me to get upstairs and the man broke in. I locked myself in the bathroom and I heard Aunt Lisa scream." I closed my eyes, my hands shaking. "I knew what happened to her, but it's worse seeing it."
Louis stood there speechless. "Things are worse than I thought," he said. He looked up from Aunt Lisa's body. "What happened to the guy?"
Louis walked slowly to the kitchen doorway. I followed. We both froze at the sight of a man with a knife jammed into his forehead lying on the floor. It was the same man who had broken in.
Louis shook his head. "This is bad." He put his hands on my shoulders and knelt down so he was eye level with me. "Listen to me, Rae. We need to get out of here. I have a car. We need to get to Shreveport and find Mom. Aunt Lisa talked to her recently, so she's okay. Is her cell phone still on her?"
I shook my head. "It's broken. I saw her drop it when the guy broke in." I pointed to the floor near her body when the iPhone lay with an immensely cracked screen.
Louis sighed. "Damn it. Well, if this thing only started two days ago, it's probably not that bad in Shreveport. We'll get her and decide what to do from there, okay?"
I nodded enthusiastically. "The news mentioned Shreveport! The reporter said something about the National Guard going there to set up some defenses and try to sort things out!"
LOUIS
I felt like dancing. Hearing that the military was setting up defenses was like Christmas coming early. Mom was definitely going to be okay. Hell, maybe they already had things under control. I had strong faith in what the National Guard could do, they could certainly take care of things until all this mess got sorted out.
I grabbed Rae's shoulder, and we hurried out of the house. Rae got in the car and I stopped to look at the house behind me. Aunt Lisa had lived in the same house for twenty years. Rae and I had come here every summer before I went off to college, and today I had to bash her head in.
I didn't know what was causing this mess. I didn't know if it was a disease or some God-given plague, but I hoped it was something that would become a thing of the past very soon.
I got in the car with Rae and turned it on. We had more than enough gas to get to Shreveport, and if not we could at least get to where we were only a few miles outside of city limits. We'd be in Shreveport before the day was over with.
I turned onto a street and saw the bridge leading to the highway. We were almost there. . . .
It was like Lady Luck decided to give us the middle finger. A swarm of the crazies ran into the street, drawn to us by the rumble of the car. They ran at us, screaming and flailing their arms around.
"I panicked. We couldn't get swarmed. We'd end up dead if we did. We can't die, not when we're so close to getting out. We're so close. . . .
I looked over at Rae. I reached over and tightened his seat belt. He looked at me, confused. "Hang on."
I stepped on the gas, speeding toward the incoming crowd. I ran over a few of them, the car jostling over the bodies. Soon, the car got stuck. I tried desperately to move, but looking through the window I could see a nice little pile of bodies under us. I slammed my foot down on the gas pedal, and I could hear the sickening sound of tires on brains. I looked forward. I could see a hole in the crowd of crazies. It was an insane idea, but it could work.
"Rae, when I count to three, get out and run for that opening. Then look around for shelter. We need to rethink this plan, okay?"
Rae nodded, trying to look determined but I could see the hint of fear in his eyes.
"One, two, THREE!" We both opened the doors and tore between the crazies for the opening. Screams erupted from all around us. My legs burned as we sprinted. I was pushing some over, trying to get them out of our way. Rae was right on my heels.
We reached the opening and sprinted down the street. The crazies turned and were chasing after us. We both desperately searched for a place to hide.
The crazies were gaining on us, we needed to be quick.
Just then, a man wearing a baseball cap and a hoodie ran out of a nearby building, hurriedly opening a gate and running at us. He was carrying a tire iron, and he swung at one of the crazies. "FOLLOW ME!" he shouted. We didn't hesitate, we followed the man to the gate and he let us through the shut it behind us. He locked it up, placing the key in the pocket of his hoodie. The crazies lined up outside the gate, banging on it and screeching.
"Come on," the man said, leading us inside in the building. A sign was posted in the yard just inside the gate that read Woodgate Apartments. Good, we had shelter. Now Rae and I could figure out a plan B.
The man led us into the apartment building and shut the door behind us. He locked it, then turned to face us and smiled warmly, his old eyes crinkling.
"It's a good thing I spotted you guys when I did," he said. "You two could have been goners."
"Yeah, no kidding," I said, trying to catch my breath. "Thank you for helping us out."
He shrugged. "No problem. It's the human thing to do. We gotta stick together in times like this, who knows how long this thing will last?"
I nodded in agreement, then held out my hand. "I'm Louis, this is my little brother Rae."
The man smiled and shook my hand. "Kendall. Nice to meet you both."
He led us further into the apartment building to a set of stairs that led to the second floor. The Woodgate Apartments logo was plastered on the wall, the red letters written in calligraphy underneath the branches of a large oak tree. Something moved at the top of the stairs. We all looked up.
"Ah, Tyrone! This here is Louis and Rae."
Tyrone's eyes moved from Kendall to Rae to me. He was a tall black man with arms the size of Rae's head. He glared down at Kendall. "You could have gotten yourself killed."
"I couldn't leave them out there to die!" Kendall protested.
"We can't help everyone!" Tyrone snarled.
Kendall snorted. "Whatever."
Tyrone shook his head and stormed off. Kendall led Rae and me up the stairs and down the hall.
"You live here?" I asked.
Kendall shook his head. "Naw, but the guy with the stick up his ass does."
"Yeah," I said, "he seems like an asshole."
"That's the understatement of the century," Kendall said. "Anyway, he lives here with his girlfriend. Well, fiance, actually. They took me and two other people in when all this started."
"Well that was nice of them," I said.
Kendall nodded. "He's still an asshole though."
Rae looked up at me. "What about-?"
I patted Rae's shoulder. "We'll talk about it later, okay? Let's just rest for a bit." Rae nodded.
Kendall led us to a paint chipped door that had a golden number 8 hanging on it. Inside was a handkerchief-sized apartment that smelled like vanilla. Tyrone was sitting on the couch next to a woman with hair that was almost the same shade of red that Rae's was. A woman with a kind, round face and dirty blonde hair was sitting in a recliner by a window. A boy who looked to be about a year or so younger than Rae was sitting at a table by the kitchenette, coloring in a coloring book.
Kendall motioned toward everyone. "Louis, Rae, welcome to our group."