Dog Eat Dog, page 12
“You know, that boy really is blessed to have all of you. When my arm was taken, I had to not only divorce it from the rest of my body on my own, but I had to recover alone. As if just losing the damn thing was not scary enough, even for a grown man. I can only imagine how bad it would have been for the boy,” injected Mr. Potter.
“Well, you’re not alone anymore,” Evelyn said comfortingly, giving him a warm smile that brought one to the old man’s deeply wrinkled face as well.
“I suppose that is what changed my mind about heading to the cabin, I was tired of being alone,” Mr. Potter explained.
“I, for one, sir, am very glad that you did. And, I am sure that Darren and the rest of them are grateful as well,” Will praised.
The old man pawed at the air as if to swat away the compliment. “Ah, nah, I didn’t do anything nobody else wouldn’t have done.”
“However, that may be, I am also grateful. You did a wonderful and brave thing.” Evelyn placed a tender kiss on the old man’s cheek that nearly brought a tear to his eye.
“I hate to ruin this moment with my true intention of finding you once again,” Mr. Potter said solemnly.
“What do you mean?” Will inquired, turning to face them both.
“I know I said I lost my arm from a bite, much like the boy did, but it was not from a dog as I said before,” Mr. Potter clarified. “It was my wife who was bitten by the dog. I, of course, put him down and disposed of the body. My wife became kind of poorly thereafter, and had I have known what would happen next I would put her out of her misery far sooner than I did, and I wish I had.”
Evelyn and Will looked at each other as if to acknowledge that they still shared the grief of Will’s initiation into this fiasco.
“Now, being the old coot I am, I have seen my fair share of folks who have been taken by the madness of this disease. But this was nothing like that. She changed into something that was the like of one of these beasts you would meet out here. All twisted and mutated, thirsty for blood and flesh,” Mr. Potter continued to explain.
“What are you trying to tell us, Mr. Potter?” Will asked with a disconcerted look of growing terror.
“All I’m saying is, doctor, we can’t get to that Fort Carson a moment too soon. For soon it won’t be four-legged creatures we need fear, it will be the two-legged kind,”
Chapter 8
After a long night of fear and paranoid wondering, the sun finally crept its clear warm face over the distant mountains and trees, giving a new fresh, hopeful light to their otherwise dreary existence. But Will and Evelyn still felt raw and nervous from the new development that had been revealed to them by the faithful Mr. Potter. The very thought that this could turn into any more of a freak show than it already had filled Evelyn with even more fear than she was already bearing and she wasn’t sure if she could take much more. Hopefully, there wouldn’t be any more surprises, and perhaps he was wrong. Maybe, he just perceived the madness of his wife to be some sort of progression of the disease into humans that actually wasn’t as serious as he actually thought it was. But Evelyn knew deep down in her heart of hearts that this was wrong, and it was only a matter of time before they witnessed it for themselves. At least by that time, they would be safe behind the walls of Fort Carson before any of them could manifest into reality.
Some of her fears were allayed and hopes renewed when she finally saw the walls and the secure gates that surrounded Fort Carson a short distance away from them, and it was closing fast with the increased speed of the bus. Before she knew it, they had arrived at the first checkpoint, but there was no one standing in the guard box. There was also something else she noticed to be very wrong. Why was it so eerily quiet out here if there were so many people living within its walls? Something was very wrong, and she could see the finger in her mind’s eye getting ready to point right to the answer, but she quickly grabbed it back in fear of seeing the truth that she knew was the inevitable answer.
“Hope deferred maketh the heart sick,” she heard the voice of her father in her head. It sounded so loud with the thudding sound of her heart dropping into the pit of her stomach that it was almost as audible as if her father were standing right next to her. Evelyn got the overwhelming feeling that she was hearing him now because it was obvious to her that her parents were most likely dead by now, and the reason she was hearing was because she was close to her own impending death somehow. Perhaps, they all were. It reminded her of one of those movies where the heroes reach the point they think is the safe haven, the point in the story where everything is going to turn out to be okay. But then the rug is pulled out from under them, and they realize that it is nothing more than a trap that will ultimately lead to all of their deaths. The place where the music stops, but you don’t notice it right away. The only thing that you become painfully aware of is the overwhelming sense that there is something very wrong, but it will not reveal itself in enough time for you to do anything about it. Leaving no time for planning, just giving you enough time to regret all of the things that you left unsaid and unaccomplished. Could this be what was in store for them?
The bus doors opened with an abrupt and jarring slam against the door jams that rattled Evely n’s nerves even more than they already were. She wanted to tell Will to close the doors and high tail it for the mountains where Mr. Potter was headed. But something stopped her, like a hand resting heavily on her mouth. And, she could also feel the weight of the fear resting its arm across the tops of her shoulders as well. What was this hesitation? She figured it was the fact that she somehow still harbored the belief, or the wish rather, that everything was actually going to be alright and that there was a perfectly logical and benign explanation for why there were no signs of life from the outside of the Fort. Perhaps, it was some kind of extra security precaution. They kept the front lines of the fortress bare of any life to give the idea to the rest of the world and those that hunted them that there was no reason to search there because it was abandoned. This had to be the reason, she hoped and prayed above all else at the moment that this was why. It was the only thing keeping her from jumping from the precipice into the ocean of the mental and emotional break down that waited for her at the rock-strewn bottom. The rocks that would tear the last bits of hope and sanity that she somehow still possessed to utter shreds for sure.
Evelyn let the others in the group file down the steps and out of the bus ahead of her as she continued to remain hesitant, hanging back to see if everything was going to be alright after all. She needed some sort of sign to disprove all of the worst-case scenarios that were running around in her head just now and for the last few minutes. Something to give her the urge to let out a sigh of relief that she so desperately needed to release. The weight was sitting on her chest and causing her to feel as if she was carrying some sort of backpack that was full of bricks on her front. She was not sure if it was just her nerves or the fact that she had not taken the time to get any shut-eye in the last several hours. But whatever it was, the sensation was not a pleasant one, and she was looking for anything to allay it, and hopefully, it would do so quickly.
“It’s awfully quiet for a place that has so many people,” one of the teens said, speaking the thoughts Evelyn was still thinking out loud. She was so consumed by them; she was not completely certain which one of them had uttered the disconcerting statement.
“Well, maybe they are further back from the first checkpoint because it is just safer that way,” Will’s voice came through the haze, causing her to turn and look in his direction as he tried to explain away any reason for concern. The concern that obviously she was not alone in carrying.
“How do we get in then, if the gates are locked?” questioned Darren.
“Maybe there is some kind of communication device for people to let them know they are on the outside and to let them in,” offered Patrick, trying to be another voice of reason. But Evelyn could tell that he was just trying to reassure everyone that there was no need to start panicking just yet. Or perhaps, it was just her state of mind that caused her to perceive each explanation this way.
“Yeah, see, there it is,” Beth called out, pointing to the side of the guard shack that stood adjacent to the front entrance gate. “It looks like some kind of phone receiver.”
“Somebody should go check it out and get these folks to let us in. I think we all know it is probably not a good idea to be standing out here in the open like this for too long. And, that is for any of us… including them. Considering they seem to be so big on secrecy, safety, and all,” Mr. Potter chimed in with a motioning gesture of his head in the direction of the guard shack.
“I’ll go check it out,” volunteered Will. “Evelyn, you be on stand by to drive the bus in when they give the word, alright?”
Evelyn took a moment to come out of her own thoughts, and she found that for some reason, all she could do was nod her acquiescence, to show him that she was even paying attention. Somehow, even though, everything was still peaceful with a pleasant cooling breeze and promise of a beautiful day; she found herself still overwhelmed by the express sensation that there was something not quite right and that they should not bother trying to get in. They should leave, and they should leave now. So she remained on the last step of the entrance to the bus on stand by, just as Will had told her, but for a completely different reason than he had requested. She somehow knew that she needed to be on stand by and ready to be their getaway driver as soon as humanly possible. But perhaps human quickness would not be enough this time.
Time almost seemed to slow down to where Evelyn could nearly see everything as it was happening frame by frame. Will walking briskly towards the guard hut, his sandy brown sun-kissed locks being lightly tussled by the slight breeze that came down from the mountains; that had been made even colder by the sudden and much-needed rain they had a few days earlier. The only sign really in these parts that there was to be some sort of threshold between the change in the only two seasons they had here in Colorado, or temperatures really, freezing cold and Satan’s armpit. This reminded her a lot of her home, except for the fact that his armpit had the tendency to get a little extra sweaty where she was from in Mississippi, and it was just as unpleasant, if not more so, than it sounded. The only thing distracting her from her fears right now was the other more trivial fear about how the humidity of the coming change in atmosphere would adversely affect her hair, and she could only imagine how it would look once that took hold. Not that it really looked that under control right now, but at least it was manageable somewhat.
Evelyn then had another thought about how strange it was sometimes the things that pass through a person’s mind in times such as these when you are waiting for the coin of fate to flip in your favor, even though you feel in your heart that it inevitably won’t, and you are overwhelmed by the dread of the tragic outcome. These were the things that reminded her that she was still very much human, even after everything she and the rest of them had been through in the last several weeks. And, she knew that she would need to cling to this humanity somehow if she was going to be able to survive the next several months, possibly years if these monsters had anything to say about it. Not to mention, the new horrors that would be awaiting them in the outside world, if Mr. Potter’s story turned out to be true. She could only imagine in great trembling fear what lay in store for the rest of the world if these things were true. It was only a matter of time before they were to find out, and she got the idea that Will’s jaunt to the receiver waiting on the side of the guard post would tell them everything they needed to know.
Will finally made it to the guard shack after what seemed like an eternity. There were still no apparent signs of life as he drew nearer and nearer to the entrance gate of the Fort that had traveled so far to get to. In most circumstances it would not have taken them anywhere near this long, he was sure. But there were definitely exigent circumstances that prevented them from getting there any faster than they had arrived.
Will tried to shake off and ignore the overwhelming sense that he had there was something off about this whole situation. The feeling reminded him very much of the night when he had to put down his poor sickly Madeline. The same red flags began to pop up, the same bright strobe lights, and the loud sounding of alarm bells and fog horns were going off in his head just now as he reached out to take the receiver from the hook. But he did his best to shake all of them off and logically explain to himself that everything was probably fine and there was nothing to be unduly worried about. He just needed to hear the sound of another human voice on the other end of the communication device welcoming them all into safety, just as he was sure that they would momentarily.
Will’s now work-worn, once soft manicured, hand took hold of the sun warmed olive green receiver and removed it from the base that hung on the side of the wall right next to the window that peered into the interior of the empty guard box. Will put the phone up to his ear, but there was no sound. He pressed the button to open the channel of communication, but there was only the slight staticky sound of swooshing interference on the other side of the line. This caused him to feel a bit panicky and clammy, as he wondered what all of this could mean. So he stepped closer to the window of the guard shack to take a closer look at the insides, to see if there was anything that would give him some sort of clue to help them know that they had arrived. There must be some other way to communicate with them, surely, he thought to himself.
Upon closer observation, Will took in the fact that the windows looked very dingy and dirty. But he was sure this was a result of the fact that they had bigger priorities, like taking care of survivors and fighting rabid beasts; instead of spending their time on knit-picky details such as cleaning guardhouse windows on the outside. It did, however, somehow made him feel a little bit better about the whole situation. It would have given him some type of sign that there were still people staying there and they had not had to abandon the Fort all together, forcing him and the rest of his new family to have to go on the run yet again into the unknown.
Then, there was something else entirely that caught his view, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed something that only made his fears much worse. There was a small swipe of blood along the tile floor on the inside of the box, close to the door that led inside. He cupped his hands to shield against the glare of the growing sun and pressed his forehead even closer to the glass of the window to get a better look, hoping that it was just a trick his mind was playing on him. When suddenly he was nearly thrown back onto his ass, by the startling of a snarling slobbering dog slamming himself against the inside of the glass at Will. “Oh, my god!” he called out in his shock before he could stop himself from making any loud noises that he was sure would alert the others around. And, he knew there was sure to be others around because where there was one, there was always more to follow. Also, they were usually not too far behind. The sound of the distant crowded shuffling of feet, or paws rather, told him this was also right in this case. They were not going to get any kind of break and the loud, incessant barking of the German Shepherd on the inside of the guardhouse, he was sure was not helping the situation any. Their barking and howling only served to get them riled up and increase their numbers. He needed to silence this messenger before things got too out of hand.
Will’s ears not only became filled with the sound of distant collective and disjointed barking but also the sound of the teens and Mr. Potter’s voices calling out to him to hurry up and come back to the bus so they could go. But he felt he needed to silence this animal. Perhaps, somehow it would stem the tide of the oncoming hoard, and it would buy them some time to get away without their vehicle being trapped by the rushing hurricane of mutated muscles and fur that awaited them from the other side of the walls.
The doctor slowly pulled the handgun from his belt as he wondered how he would exactly go about shooting the dog through what was most likely bulletproof glass. He then noticed that there was a mail hatch not too far from him in the other pane. Will quickly smashed the lock, as he heard the sound of the others coming for him on the other side of the fence. Then, opening the hatch, he placed his hand inside just in enough time to fire off a round; felling the massive hairy beast before it could bite his hand.
He felt a tug on his shirt and his arm from a hand that was only slightly smaller than his own, and he realized that it was Patrick.
“Come on, doc, we have to go! We have to go now!” Just as Patrick said this, there was the sound of smashing and crashing of chain link as the overwhelming waves of dogs on the other side of the gate began to throw themselves against the gates. Their bloody spittle nearly spattered all over Will and Patrick as the shrunk back as if they were bracing themselves from impact. The sight caused them to both stand there frozen in fear and shock at the sheer number of the hoard on the other side that was only buffered by the barrier of quickly bending metal. Will didn’t understand why they had not constructed a sturdier front gate to match the formidability of the brick wall that held them.
The sound of the bus engine revving to a start came from behind them a short distance away, yet somehow it seemed too far in Will’s currently frazzled and scrambling state of mind. He felt like a deer caught in the headlights of a large oncoming truck, unable to move, or even breath.
Then, there came yet another sound that brought back terrible triggering memories from his initiation into this whole nightmare. The same wailing cries he had heard from his wife whose temple he had plunged a syringe into only a week or so ago. This confirmed his greatest fear, that everything Mr. Potter had told them was true. And, this fact was compounded by the sight of marled, gnarly blood covered fingers coming over the top of the brick wall, as twisted and mutated feverish dead-eyed bodies began to pull themselves up to reveal their faces to the even more terrified doctor and teenage boy. The first one made it over the wall and threw itself to the ground with a rustling thud and crack of bones. It quickly recovered as Will and Patrick jumped back away from it, as it came to its feet. The thing that was once human propped itself up on all fours and peered at them sideways from what looked like a broken neck, before growling and opening its mouth to reveal jagged monstrous teeth, yet another terrifying feature of the disease; that Will could have gone his entire life without seeing now or ever.
