Self-Preservation

Chapter 3

Maya parks the car and we all get out, today was rather chilly, the sun had barely been fully risen for an hour. We all were wearing light coats and pants. Maya led us up to the automatic opening doors of Walmart. She gave Brent half of the list they'd both compiled and sent him off. I followed Maya around like a daughter would to her Mum. We started in the produce aisle, Maya grabbed some lettuce, grapes, and apples. We continued going down the aisles.
~~~
By the time we had finished checking out of Walmart it was almost 2, Brent had decided to take a stroll around the store before he even glanced at his list. Also, Walmart was extremely packed and there were very few cashiers, Maya said it was packed more than usual for a sunday. She treated Brent and I for lunch at a nearby McDonald's. McDonalds had the radio playing out of the ceiling speakers and it buzzed then a man started talking rapidly over the speaker, his words going out every few seconds;
"Disease... Contagion... Wisconsin... Inside... Hospitals... Quarantine..." The buzzing stops and he continues talking, sounding very distressed. "All residents remain inside their homes and stay away from anyone with symptoms or looks sick. Symptoms include: ashen skin, fever, foaming of the mouth, incoherent speech, and violent acts. Anyone that is bit, scratched, or even cut by someone with said symptoms may likely also contract the disease. This disease is deadly and has no sign of a cure. This will be the one and final warning. May god help us all." Then a growl is heard over the radio and a gun goes off. The radio buzzes out and people start getting up out of their seats and hastily- if at all- cleaning up their tables.
"Come on, we need to get out 'uh here!" Brent yells to us over the sound of everyone throwing stuff in the garbage or running out the door.
Maya and I both get up out of our chairs and try not to get ran over as the people in the tables surrounding us start to stampede out the two exits. There is an exit to our left and one to our right. Most of the people are going to the exit to our right. I quickly glance over the restaurant and see some of the older couples still sitting at their tables and enjoying their meals. Brent starts to pull both us towards the left exit when Maya breaks off and runs to the older couples on the right side of the McDonald's. She screams something at them trying to sound an alarm in their brains possibly. The older couples just stare blankly at her. Brent orders me to go to the Jeep and says he will get Maya and meet me there. I start going towards the left exit when to my left I'm hit by a horde of mums and their children running out of the Play Place. I'm knocked down at first but I push myself up and go with the crowd, finding it much easier to let the people ease me through. Once I'm outside the people disperse to their according cars and I hear the roars of engines, a black Lexus hits the side of a car as they're backing out. I run across a lane in the parking lot and a car stops abruptly and honks at me. I continue running until I can see Maya's jeep, I stop in front of the back seat door and train my eyes on the exit from McDonald's. A steady stream of people, with a few pauses, continue to flood out of the door. I keep looking for Maya or Brent, after what seems like an eternity I see Maya's Brown-ish red hair hit the sun, Brent follows suit. They run towards me and Maya stops at the driver's door. She quickly tries to get her keys out of her pocket but they drop on the floor. She drops down to grab them and pushes the unlock button. I jump in the backseat and Brent was in the passenger seat and buckled before any of us could close our doors. Maya begins to close her door and Brent reaches over and turns the key to start the ignition. Maya puts the car in reverse and gets out of the parking spot without hitting any cars as her speed continually increases. The groceries in the back start moving around as Maya turns the corner sharply getting us out of the parking lot.
"We're going back to the cabin. We can lock up there and stay inside, it's the safest place I know." Maya says nervously.
Maya turns down a back alley trying to keep out of the main streets. As the downtown buildings whirr by on my left, between buildings I can see people running and even a car crash happen. We take a couple turns and eventually go down a blacktop road without a middle line, the tall pine trees towering over us and cutting out the sun.
We were driving down that road with the local radio station on, It was currently playing the report we had heard at McDonalds on a loop. We'd been on that road, alone, for about five minutes before I had seen any sign of human life. A four-doored grey Ford F150 truck is going towards town, the place we were fleeing from. The truck turns on it's hazards and start to slow down, Maya in return slows down, the truck pulls up next to us. They roll down their tinted window to show a man with a Cowboy hat on and another man in the passenger seat with a baseball cap on.
"Hey, are you guys comin' from the city?" He asks with a midwestern accent.
Maya freezes up and Brent leans over towards her and speaks to the man, "We just came from 'ere, It's a madhouse. I'd recommend staying out of 'ere and find somewhere secluded and just lock ya'selves up."
"We are about 4 hours south of where my friend's cabin is. That's where we were headin' to hunt before this disease shit came up." He says.
"Y'all got guns?" Brent asks oddly.
"Yessir." The cowboy hat man replies.
"We got a cabin 'ere about an hour an' a half away." Brent says and Maya and I both look at him like he's crazy. "We got some extra room if y'all wanna join us, it's real secluded an all."
"Le'mme talk to my son about it." The man says and rolls his window backup and we do the same.
"What the bloody hell do you think you're doing inviting a bunch of strangers to my cabin?" Maya spits out.
"Look they seem like pretty clean people, and they got guns. That could be the line between life an' death. From how that radio man made it seem, these people with the disease are deadly. Also, look at 'em they both seem handy to have 'round." Brent explains in his defense.
"How do we know they aren't a bunch of crazed lunatics!" She cries out.
"How'd y'know I wasn't a crazed lunatic?" Brent replies.
"Touche." Maya ends, "Go ahead, we'll take them."
Maya rolls the window back down and they do the same, Brent smiles his charming smile at them and the Cowboy Hat man starts;
"We'll take your offer, if you'd let us."
"Of course, just follow us the way back." Brent says. "I'm Brent by tha' way"
"Keith." The cowboy hat man replies and tilts his hat down at us. They roll their window back up and we do the same
I look out the back window to see Keith do a U-turn and stop right behind us. Maya puts the car in drive and we lurch forward.
~~~
We had been driving down these black top back roads for about an hour when we saw our next sign of human life, a man with a backpack on and a walking stick. He had clearly been through the wringer, his shirt was torn and he was missing a patch of his thick black hair. The man's shirt was torn by his abdomen and showed a nasty bite out of it, it was discolored and pussing, his skin was an ashen color. He was waving his one free hand, the other one clutching his wound, at us.
"Don't stop Maya." Brent orders his eyes locked on the man.
Maya listens to Brent and she zooms by the man, Keith doing the same. The man tries to limp after us, but eventually falls on the ground. After that, the woods turned back into a blur.
~~~
It was another half an hour when we hit Winston. It seemed like even more of a ghost town, except there were some cars littered throughout downtown. Maya's car dings, and she turns her head down to look at the dash.
"Bloody hell." She sighs and rubs her forehead like she has a headache. "I need gas."
Brent also sighs and Maya turns off into the nearest gas station, which happens to be a Krist. There is a single car parked up towards the actual store part. Maya parks next to the pump and Keith parks at the one next to us. She turns off the car and Brent unbuckles.
"I'll pump tha' gas." Brent volunteers.
He gets out and checks around for any sign of life. He puts the pump in and for a second this looks like a normal scenario, a man pumping gas for his car. Maya opens her door a couple inches and looks at Brent and says,
"Maybe I should go in and see if anyone is in there?"
"Wait for me, we can go in together?" Brent aks protectively.
"I'm sure there's nothing in there." Maya argues back.
"Please just wait for me, I don't know what the hell is goin' on here in this town." He pleads back.
"Fine." Maya ends.
While the gas is pumping Brent goes over to Keith and has him roll the window down, I faintly hear Brent ask how much gas he has. Keith says back to Brent he only has half a tank, Keith also says he should probably fill his tank up too. Brent tells him he never knows what might happen and Keith chuckles. He gets out of his truck and starts pumping the gas too. By the time Brent returned to the car, the gas was finished pumping. Maya turns on the car and says,
"We'll be right back."
She then proceeds to exit the car and I see the two of them walk into the store. I see them both walk towards the cashier's desk, through the glass doors. I jump in my seat as I hear a knock at my window, it's Keith. I roll my window down a couple inches just so I can hear him.
"Hi'ya Ma'am, I'm Keith. I didn't get to formally meet ya." He says and takes his hat off.
"I'm Anna." I say a tiny bit uncomfortable without Brent and Maya in the car with me. I mean, what if this man decided to kill me and steal our car?
"Nice to meet 'ya Anna. I want to thank 'ya and your friends for letting us come to your cabin." He says clearly grateful.
Suddenly, I hear a scream come from inside the gas station. Keith looks at the gas station and puts his hat back on quickly and starts to jog towards the door.
"Nathan, watch the cars!" Keith barks at his son.
I struggle to get out of my own car as quickly as I can, almost tripping on the lip from the floor to the door of the car. I sprint after Keith towards the front doors, he pushes the doors openly forcefully which causes the bell to ring vigorously. He steps into the open part of the store, right before the cashier's desk. I look around and see there is no cashier, I turn my head towards the drink coolers to see Maya and Brent leaning over a woman and a younger child next to the woman, holding her hand. I found the cashier in one of the aisles over, his head bashed in quite horrendously, with a can of Monster Energy Drink and an aisle shelving unit pushed on top of him. His skin is ashen like the guy we had seen in the woods. What's left of his face is covered in dark, almost purple or maroon-like, blood. I back away from the murder scene infront of me and go back to where Maya and Brent are. Maya is bent down next to the woman who has a huge bite taken out of her arm. Brent and Keith are standing in close proximity, eyeing the woman suspiciously. The little girl, who I assume is her daughter, is sitting next to her holding her hand.
The little girl turns to us and pleads, "Please help us!"
"What happened 'ere?" Brent asks a bit inconsiteratively.
The woman coughs into her other arm and pulls it away to show a tiny splatter of blood like I'd seen from the cashier. Once her coughing fit subsides the woman croaks out, "The cashier attacked my daughter so I hit him over the head with the heaviest thing I could find."
"And he bit 'ya?" Keith asks, cocking his head to the side.
"Yes." The woman replies and starts coughing again.
"Maya come over 'ere." Brent asks and Maya gets up and we all go into a huddle in the next aisle over.
"That cashier must've been sick, like the radio man said." Maya starts.
"'Ya and he bit that woman, she could be sick too." Keith argues.
"I agree wit' 'ya Keith." Brent says crossing his arms.
"We can't leave the girl here." I pipe up finally deciding to put my two sense in. I look back at the girl clutching her mum's hand. She has blonde hair, just like... Charlotte.
Oh god, Charlotte, I need to call Thomas. Thomas has to know what's going on here, he might even know how to help this woman.
In the middle of Keith's, Brent's, and Maya's debate I say, "I'm going to call Thomas he will know what to do!"
Keith looks at me confused and asks, "Who's Thomas?"
"He's her boyfriend," Maya replies for me.
"Why's she callin' him? We kinda got a situation here on our hands, and not much time." Keith says.
"He works at the CDC in London, he might know what to do." I spit back in my defense and Keith seems taken aback by my sudden defensiveness.
"Ok missy." He says and puts his hands up in surrender.
I pull my phone out of my jacket and unlock it, my wallpaper lights up to show a picture of Charlotte, Thomas, and I. I go to my contacts and click where it says Thomas. The others keep debating about what to do with the woman and child. The phone continues to ring, each ring starting to wear down my hope. Then, the final ring sounds and I hear his voicemail,
Hi, it's Thomas and this is my voicemail. Just leave me any message you might need to tell me!
"Thomas, the disease is here in Wisconsin! Call me!" I say urgently into the phone then hang up.
"No answer?" Maya asks.
"No." I reply and go back to their huddle.
Once I'm in the huddle, they end their bickering and look at me. I look back blankly at them and say;
"We can't leave the girl here."
"What do we do about the woman?" Keith asks us.
"I think that woman is the girl's mum." Maya says, "She won't want to leave her mum."
"We have to help her and her mum." I say quite authoritatively.
"We can't take that girl's Momma, she's been bit." Brent says logically.
"Annie and I will go talk to her." Maya decides for the both of us.
Maya leads me back towards the sick woman and her daughter. She leans back down to the woman and whispers to her. The mom looks pleadingly into Maya's eyes.
"We have a cabin just outside of town, if you want your daughter and you can accompany us." Maya says holding the woman's hand.
"Oh thank you ma'am, you truly are an angel." The woman says appreciatively.
Then Brent and Keith walk over with an odd look on their faces, like they'd been planning something. Keith's face softens at the sight of the woman and the daughter, I see Brent's face start too also but he forces his face back to blank look.
"Ma'am, I hate to be that person, but we wouldn't feel safe havin' 'ya in the car with us. Would you be open to sitting in the bed of my truck the way to the cabin?" Keith asks and winces as he tells her.
"As long as my daughter is in a car, I'm perfectly okay with that." The woman says and starts to cough again.
Then the daughter pipes up and seems offended, "You can't put my mom in the bed of a truck!" She cries out.
"I'm sorry lil' lady, but we all agreed on this." Keith apologizes and leans down to the girl's level.
Everyone bandaged the woman's arm up, with a mini first-aid kit we found in an aisle, and the boys lifted her up into the bed of Keith's truck. Maya and I led the daughter to the back of the Jeep, when Keith's son saw them putting her in the back he immediately voiced his disapproval. Keith looked him in the eye and gave him a nasty look and he quieted down. We then quickly got into our cars and decided not to leave any money, considering the cashier was dead. The little girl sat in her seat looking out the back window at the truck the entire 30 minute drive to the cabin. She didn't make a peep, but neither did Brent or Maya.
~~~