. . . No matter how hard you try, you can't escape your past . . .
I woke up to hear Joel come through the door, talking to someone on the phone. The clock above us ticked really loudly.
"Tommy, I – Tommy. Tommy, listen to me. He is the contractor. He's the contractor. Okay? I can't lose this job. I understand . . . let's talk about this in the morning. Alright. Goodnight." He turned on the light and Sarah woke up. I sat up from the lounge chair.
"Hey," Sarah said.
"Scoot," he replied and I walked over to Joel and crawled onto his lap. He seemed stressed.
Sarah noticed it too. "Fun day at work, huh?"
He didn't answer the question. "What are you two still doing up? It's late." He leaned back and closed his eyes.
Sarah's eyes widened. "Oh, crud. What time is it?" She turned to the clock. I looked at it too: 11:50.
"It's way past your bedtime." Joel sighed.
I smiled. "But it's still today." I jumped off from his lap and helped Sarah look for the box.
He rubbed his eyes. "Honeys, please not right now. I do not have the energy for this." Sarah found the box and we stood up. We brought the box to Joel and handed it to him.
"Here," I said.
He took the box. "What's this?"
I smiled and sat down on Sarah's lap. "Your birthday." He opened it and looked at it, kind of shocked.
Sarah said, "You kept complaining about your broken watch . . . So I figured, you know." She trailed off. He took it out of the box and placed it around his wrist.
"You like it?" I asked. For an eight year old, I was pretty talkative.
"Honeys, this is . . . " He began to tap it.
"What?" Sarah asked, looking at his face.
He tilted his head to it. "It's nice but I – I think it's stuck. It's not – "
Sarah grabbed Joel's wrist. "What? No. No. No. No." We both looked at the watch but it seemed fine.
She pushed his wrist back. "Oh. Ha, ha." She laid back down and I got back onto Joel's lap. I leaned my head against his chest. I loved feeling him breathe and felt his warm body heat.
Joel smiled and looked at his watch. "Where did you get the money for this?"
Sarah replied sarcastically, "Drugs. I sell hardcore drugs."
He picked up the remote. "Oh, good. You can start helping out with the mortgage then."
I smiled. "Yeah. You wish." I really had not a clue what they were talking about but I knew that was how Sarah would reply. She looked at me and laughed quietly.
We watched TV for who knows how long but I closed my eyes for one second and when I opened them again, I was in Sarah's room, Sarah sleeping next to me. I sat up quietly and crawled towards Sarah. I shook her.
"Sarah," I whispered. Her eyes opened and she smiled at me.
"Hey, Maxie. Dad put you in here? Why don't I get you into bed?" She was about to sit up when the phone rang. She picked it up and I could hear our Uncle Tommy on the other side.
"Hello?" Sarah asked sleepily.
Uncle Tommy replied quickly, "Sarah, honey. I need you to get your daddy on the phone."
She asked, "Uncle Tommy. What time is it?"
"I need to talk to your dad now. There's some – " The phone went dead.
"Uncle Tommy? Hello?" She put the phone away and stood up.
"What was that all about?" Sarah asked, mostly to herself.
"We should find Daddy," I said and stood up next to her. She looked down at me and nodded. We walked out of her room.
"Dad?" Sarah called. The hallway was quiet and dark - the reason Sarah was supposed to take me to my room. I hated that kind of setting. We stopped by in my room to see if Joel was there but he wasn't. I quickly put on my fuzz boots and continued walking.
"Daddy?" I asked, looking around. Still nothing. As we got closer to Joel's room, I could hear voices inside. He left his TV on. I opened the door to hear a woman on the TV talk.
"It appears that what we initially reported as riots seem to be somehow connected to the nationwide pandemic," The woman said in front of a burning building.
"Are you in here?" Sarah asked. He wasn't in here either. "Where the heck are you?" I kept watching the TV.
The reporter continued, "We've received reports that victims afflicted with the infection shows signs of increased aggression – "
Sarah walked up next to me and watched the TV too. "That's nearby, ain't it?" I asked her. I couldn't get over how bad
She nodded. "Yeah. It is." We watched. Some commotion went about and then, we saw an explosion and the screen went fuzzy.
I took a step back. "Uh . . . what was that?"
Sarah took my hand. "Let's keep looking." We were about to walk out but then I heard two explosions. I looked at the window and saw smoke coming up.
"Oh . . . God." Sarah muttered. She led me out of the room fairly fast. I let go of her hand because she began to rub her arms. I held on to her shirt, getting really scared now.
"Dad?!" Sarah called, now a little more scared. We walked downstairs.
"What is goin' on?" I asked her.
"To be honest, I haven't had the slightest clue, Maxie." We glanced outside our window to see three police cars drive by quickly. We walked away from it, towards the back of the house. We were about to turn to Joel's office when his phone started ringing. I walked toward it.
"There's his phone," I said. Sarah walked to it and picked it up. I could hear a dog barking outside.
"Eight missed calls," She muttered, "All from Uncle Tommy." She put it down and saw a note on the fridge. She looked at it and asked, "Where is he?"
We walked away from the kitchen and towards Joel's office. Walking past the back door, I looked through because I kept hearing a dog. And then, there was no dog anymore. I could hear a lot of car horns though.
We finally made it to Joel's office. We pushed open the door and suddenly, Joel ran through the open door, panting and covered in blood. He then turned around and shut the door. I stepped closer to Sarah.
"There you are." She sighed.
He looked at us. "Sarah. Max. Are you two okay?"
I replied, "Yeah." It seemed a little uneasy.
He went to his desk and began looking through a drawer. "Has anyone come in here?"
Sarah looked at me and then at Joel. "No. Who would come in here?" I became curious and began to walk towards to the door he came through.
"Don't go near the doors!" He snapped but then said softly, "Baby girl . . . just stand back there with your sister." I almost tripped over myself trying to get back to her. Joel only called us "baby girl" if something real bad was happening.
Sarah grabbed my hand. "Dad, you're kinda freaking us out. What's goin' on?" I tried to look to see what he's doing but I couldn't get a look.
"It's the Coopers," Joel said, "Somethin' ain't with 'em. I think they're sick."
I asked, "What kinda sick?" Suddenly, something banged against our door and Sarah and I stepped back. It was our neighbor.
Joel saw him. "Jesus. Jimmy!" He yelled.
I grabbed Sarah's arm. "Daddy?"
He ran to us and stepped in front of, grabbing Sarah's shoulder while I grabbed his shirt. "Girls, c'mere. C'mere." I saw what he was holding in his other hand. It was a gun. "It's okay." Sarah got behind me and placed an arm around my chest. I grabbed it with my free arm. We both gasped as Jimmy tried to break through our glass.
"Jimmy," Joel said but then Jimmy broke through the glass. "Jimmy. Just stay back! Jimmy! I am warning you!"
I saw Jimmy. He was covered in blood. "Oh my God." Jimmy saw us and lunged for us. Joel had to do the only thing he could. He shot Jimmy. I gasped and looked down at Sarah's arm. I could feel Sarah look away too. She turned so her back was covering me.
Joel said, "Go. Go!" We walked away from the body and Joel kneeled down to look at Sarah and me.
"You shot him . . . " Sarah said quietly, her voice shaking.
"Sarah," I whispered.
"I saw him this morning."
He looked at her and then to me. "Listen to me – both of you. There is something bad going on. We have got to get outta here. Do you understand me? This is where you two gotta look out for each other."
I nodded. Sarah sniffed. "Yeah." I heard a car outside.
Joel's face lightened for a second. "Tommy. C'mon." He picked me up and we ran towards the front door. I could see some lights through the front window. Sarah opened the door and we saw Uncle Tommy getting out of his car.
"Where the hell you been?" He asked Joel, "You have any idea what's goin' on out there?"
Joel walked to the car and placed me down. "I got some notion."
Tommy's eyes widened. "Holy shit! You got blood all over you."
Joel opened the door and coaxed me inside. "C'mom, baby. Get in there. Sarah, you too, honey." I walked in and Sarah helped me buckle in though she didn't herself.
Joel muttered, "It ain't mine. Let's just get outta here." He closed the door and Sarah and I exchanged looks. Neither of us knew what the hell was going on.
Tommy said to Joel quietly, "They're saying that half the people in the city have lost their minds."
Joel got into the car. "Can we just please go?" Tommy walked quickly around to the driver side.
"Some sort of parasite or somethin'," Tommy muttered. I wished he would be quiet. This was scary enough. He got in. "You gonna tell what happened?"
He looked away. "Later."
Tommy began to back up and looked at us, specifically me. "Hey, Maxie. How you holdin' up, honey?"
I looked directly at him and said calmly, "I'm fine." I looked outside and looked at my house for the last time.
At the time, I missed it. But now, I don't even remember my address.
I then looked at Sarah. "You ok, Sarah?"
She whispered, "Yes." Then she looked at Tommy. "Can we hear what's on the radio?"
"Yeah. Sure thing." He turned it on but nothing happened. The radio was dead too. We got onto the street and Sarah watched our house get farther away. Jimmy's house was silent. But the one after had its family packing. I didn't know their name.
Tommy sighed. "No cell phone. No radio. Yeah, we're doin' great. Minute ago, newsman wouldn't shut up."
"They say where to go?" Joel asked.
"He said, ah . . . Army's puttin' up road blocks on the highway. No gettin' into Travis County."
He looked at the road. "That means we need to get the hell out. Take 71."
He nodded. "71. That's where I'm headed." We got to the end of the road and two police cars rushed past us.
Sarah asked, "Did they say how many are dead?"
Tommy answered, "Probably a lot. Found this one family all mangled inside their house."
"Tommy," Joel snapped and looked at me. I looked at him calmly, not at all affected by what Uncle Tommy was saying. In fact, I was more curious and I knew Sarah was as curious as I was.
He glanced back at us. "Right. Sorry." We contined on the road and we saw a car crashed against a pole.
Joel saw it too. "Jesus Christ. How did this happen?"
"They got no clue." He turned onto a dirt road. "But we ain't the only town. At first they were saying it was just the South. Now they're going on about the East Coast, the West Coast . . . " We drove by a farm. It was on fire!
"Holy hell. That's Louis' farm. I hope that son of a bitch made it out." I turned to look at the building. I couldn't believe all of this was happening in minutes.
Looking out the window, I muttered, "I'm sure he did."
I looked at Joel. "Are . . . we sick?"
He turned around. "No, baby. Of course not."
"How do you know?" I asked.
Tommy made a turn. "They said it's just, ah, people in the city. We're good."
Sarah sat up. "Didn't Jimmy work in the city?" I looked at her and then back at Joel. I think he wanted us to forget about that. We will never forget.
"That's right. He did." I think Sarah thought since we saw him earlier that day, we might have been infected.
Tommy noticed it too. He said reassuring, "We're fine. Trust me."
She replied, "Alright." But I don't know if she was convinced. He then noticed a family walking on the side of the road.
He slowed down. "Let's see what they need."
Joel looked at him. "What the hell do you think you're doin'? Keep drivin'."
"They gotta kid, Joel."
"Yeah, well we got two."
Sarah looked at them. "But we have room." The guy saw us and got on the street, trying to wave us down.
"Hey!" He yelled.
"Tommy, keep driving." Joel said firmly.
"Hey! Stop! Stop!" We drove right past them. I turned around and watch them become nothing.
"You ain't seen what I've seen," He told Tommy, "Someone else'll come along."
I sighed. "We shoulda helped them." No one replied. Everyone fell silent. An ambulance passed us, leaving the hospital. We passed it and all I saw ahead of us was red. Every car in the city was in front of us.
Joel leaned forward. "Oh, this is bad." I could hear a helicopter above us.
Tommy groaned. "Everyone and their mother had the same damn idea."
Joel thought about it. "Well, we could just backtrack and – " He couldn't finish. Some guy in the car in front of us got out and yelled at the cars.
"Hey, what the fuck man? Let's go!" Then we saw this thing from the hospital run to him and began attacking the man, another attacking the girl in the car.
"Holy shit," Tommy whispered.
Joel shook his arm. "Tommy! Turn around." The thing then looked at us and began running to us.
"Holy shit," He said and turned around. We were half around when the creature came to the window and banged it, scaring the hell out of me. We finally made it all the way around and we made our way into town.
Tommy got scared. "What the fuck just happened? What the fuck just happened – did you see that?" He sped along the road.
Joel replied calmly, "Yeah I saw it." I guess Uncle Tommy hadn't seen those things before. That actually surprised me. "Turn here. Turn here." We turned onto a street full of people. They were all running to where we came.
"Come on people. Move."
"What are they runnin' from?" Sarah asked, nervous.
Joel looked around. "Get us outta here."
"I'm tryin'." He was having a really hard time getting through.
"Oh no," I said and watched the people run away. They seemed real scared of something.
"We can't stop here, Tommy."
"I can't fuckin' drive through 'em, Joel!" Tensions between the two were rising. It got me a little nervous.
"Then back up then!" Joel yelled.
He yelled back, "They're behind me too!" Then we saw a gap and Joel pointed to it.
"There. There! There!" He yelled.
"Hold on!" Tommy exclaimed.
"Go!" We got around an RV but we didn't see the truck. It hit us on Sarah's side of the car. She fell back on me and I shut my eyes. When I opened them again, it was to Sarah shaking me.
I opened my eyes to find myself on top of broken glass, something from my head bleeding. Sarah looked at me. "You okay?"
I nodded. "Yeah." We looked to find Joel unconscious in front of us. I could hear screaming and yelling.
"Daddy?" I asked.
We leaned over the seat and I rubbed his arm. I said, "Hey. Hey."
He opened his eyes. "What?" He looked at something and I saw it too. A couple feet away, a thing was tearing apart a woman in a car, the car we crashed into. I didn't flinch. Maybe I wasn't thinking about it at the time.
Joel grabbed my hand. "Get back, baby. Get back." He then kicked through his window. He got out through there while Sarah and I stayed in the back.
"You sure you're okay?" She asked me, trying to wipe the blood from my face.
I nodded. "I'm fine. I just wanna get outta here."
Suddenly, a thing started to attack Joel but Tommy got there in time and hit the thing with a brick.
"Daddy?" I called.
He appeared and gave me his hand. "I'm here, babies. I'm here." Sarah helped me through the broken glass but when we got out, she almost fell over. Joel caught her in time though.
"What is it?" He asked.
She replied, "My leg hurts."
"How bad?"
"Pretty bad." I could tell she wasn't lying. I helped her put her weight on me so she didn't have to put weight on her bad foot.
Tommy took a step back. "We're gonna need to run."
Joel thought about it and then he gave Tommy his gun. "You keep us safe." He then turned to me. "Come on, baby. On my back. Honey, I'm going to carry you." Sarah and I nodded and I climbed on Joel's back.
This was where I was glad I was small. I weighed maybe 45 pounds at the most and Sarah, not even 80. Carrying the two of us wasn't easy, but Joel could keep a good pace.
He said to me, "Now hold on tight."
I said quickly, "Okay." He began running on the street. I could see light almost start to rise but I wasn't concentrated on that. I kept looking at the people dying in front of me.
For the first time, I was scared, and I was honest about it. "Daddy, I'm scared." Then someone screamed and I saw a woman being eaten right in front of me.
"Just keep your eyes closed, baby," He said to me. I didn't listen.
"Oh no," I heard Sarah say. We continued running and we were running towards a gas station. A car suddenly lost control. Her eyes widened. "Oh my – oh my God!" The car collied and the entire station exploded. Sarah and I both hid our faces when it exploded.
Tommy yelled, "Keep running!" We turned another corner and we saw another store on fire, people running out of it.
Sarah whispered, "Those people are on fire."
Joel replied, "Don't look, Sarah. Keep looking at me, honey." She did for a minute but then she looked back at where we were running. I grabbed Sarah's hand and squeezed it tight. She held it tight but I could feel her shaking.
We ran around a fire truck and Tommy yelled, "Over there!" We tried to run to one street but two cars collied and blocked the street. More yelling.
Joel yelled, "We're going to get out of this. I promise." I believed him. We started running toward a movie theater but then a flaming car exploded in front of it.
Tommy yelled, "Get back! There are too many! Into the alley!" Joel ran into the alley but there was a creature there. He attacked Joel but Joel reacted quickly. He pushed the thing back and Tommy kicked it down. He then shot it in the head.
"Goddamnit," Tommy muttered.
"He's dead," I mumbled and looked at the body, the face all covered in blood.
"We're almost there." Joel said, "We're almost there, baby." We ran through the alley and we turned to see some things trying to get through the fence. I think I screamed.
Joel yelled to Tommy, "Keep going! Find a way outta here!" They ran through the back porch of a restaurant. Joel got through and Tommy tried to close the door but the things were trying to get through.
He looked at us. "Get to the highway!"
"What?" Joel turned around.
"Go – you got the girls! I can out run 'em!"
"Uncle Tommy!" I yelled.
"I will meet you there." Joel turned his head to me. "Maxie, baby. I need you to get down and run next to me. You don't stop and you stay in front of me. Can you do it?" I nodded and climbed. We began to run out of the bar. Some things attacked people next to me but all I thought about was Uncle Tommy.
I said, "Daddy, we can't leave him."
He replied, "He's gonna be fine." We ran through a hole in the wall onto a dirt path. I kept a pretty good pace with Joel.
"We're almost there." He was right. Up ahead I could see the bridge, which was part of the highway.
As we ran, I looked at our shadows and realized there were more than two. I didn't look but I could hear the things behind us.
"They're getting closer," I warned. Joel didn't say anything. He just kept running.
"Dad?" Sarah asked. We ran by an ambulance and one of the workers inside began changing in front of our eyes. Joel began to slow down and the things almost got us but someone shot them. I buried my face in Joel's side.
Joel looked at Sarah then me. "It's ok, babies. We're safe."
"Safe," I muttered. That word felt strange to me.
We looked to see a soldier with a headlamp looking at us. "Hey! We need help."
"Stop!" The soldier yelled.
I said, "Please. My sister . . . her leg might be broken."
He pointed the gun at us. "Stop right there!"
Joel took a step back. "Okay . . . We're not sick."
He radioed someone. "Got a few of civilains in the outer perimeter. Please advice."
"Daddy," Sarah whispered, "What about Uncle Tommy?"
He looked at her. "We're gonna get you and your sister to safety and go back for him. Okay?"
The soldier got an answer because he said, "Sir, there're two little girls. But . . . Yes sir." He looked at us.
Joel sighed. "Lisen, buddy. We've just been through hell. Okay. We just need -" He couldn't finish because the soldier pointed a gun at us. I shook my head, my heart pounding and my grip with Sarah tightened.
"Oh shit," he whispered and tried to turn around as the shots fired. He dropped Sarah and fell down one direction while she and I fell another. We fell down for a couple feet until we stopped.
I sat up and tried to catch my breath. Then I saw Sarah and I crawled quickly to her. Her entire stomach was covered in blood. I placed her head on my lap and got the loose strands of hair from away her face. She gasped and tried to catch her breath. I grabbed her hand tightly and placed another over her wound. It grew red and moist very fast.
"You'll be okay," I said through my tears.
I then heard a shot and then I heard Uncle Tommy say, "Oh . . . no."
Joel looked at us. "Sarah!" He exclaimed and crawled to us. "Okay, move your hands, baby." He moved our hands and she shouted in pain.
"Squeeze my hand if it hurts," I said to her. She said that to me once when I had to get a shot. I thought it felt right.
Joel grabbed her hand for a second. "I know, baby. I know . . . " He then placed his hands over her wound, trying to stop the bleeding.
"Listen to me. I know this hurts, baby. You're going to be okay, baby. Stay with me." Sarah began to cry. So did I but I didn't make a sound. Nor did I show my sadness. I just kept my face calm and stared into her eyes. They were gray, like mine.
Joel almost cried. "Alright. I'm going to pick you up." He tried to pick her up but she winced. "I know, baby. I know it hurts."
I almost cried. "Come on, Sarah. Please." She looked at me while Joel looked at Tommy.
I looked into her eyes and they looked back at me, saying she was sorry. Sorry she was leaving.
And then, she was gone.
"Sarah . . . " I whispered, placing her limped hand against my cheek.
Joel looked her. "Sarah. Baby . . ." He looked at me. My eyes were filled with tears and I began to cry.
He brought his face closed to Sarah's. "Don't do this to me, baby. Don't do this to me, baby girl. Come on . . . " She didn't move. Joel began to cry. He brought Sarah close to him and brought me close to him. We cried together.
"No," I whispered, "No. Please." We continued crying.
That day changed my dad and me forever. And the years that followed never got any better.