I think.

We backed away, around the Chrysler. We were on Lyell Avenue.

The lack of people out might only be because it was so late. Still felt eerie.

“It’s not coming after us,” Allison said. “Why?”

“I don’t know.” I didn’t like that answer. Did it imply more than it should? Was there still someone inside? Had Alley and I just murdered three people? “The others attacked. We were justified.”

“We were,” she said. There was no conviction in her tone. It sounded surer than when she told me she’d bash in a zombie’s brains if it meant saving my life, and she had.

“Thank you,” I said.

“For?”

“Saving me,” I said.

“You said you’d do the same for me. Now I’m holding you to it. I do not want to get eaten by one of these things. Got me?”

We still walked slowly backward away from the lone beast. It just stood where it was, watching us.

“You kill me first. Okay? Deal?”

I nodded. I felt the same way. I did not want to get eaten by a zombie. “You think if we get bit, and don’t die, we become one? Like in all the movies?”

“I don’t want to find out.”

I shook my head. “No. Me either.”

“What now?”

I lived at one end of Greece, my kids further west at the opposite end. “We need more than tire irons. We’re going to run into more of these things. Plenty more. Way everyone was pushing the vaccination shots; I don’t know many people that didn’t get them. I mean at work, we were like it.”

“I know.”

I didn’t know much about the Avian Flu. I knew it became really popular a while back, caused a lot of deaths. I knew the government started studying each year’s flu, and providing “cures” for expected strains to hit the hardest.

From what I remember, China was a player in the mess. Their government got caught messing with crops. Spreading the flu through chemicals sprayed onto farms. Crowd control at its finest. Natural Selection and all that.

“Tire irons are not going to cut it.”

“What are you thinking?”

“Let’s try to get to the mall.” A few stores in there, the sporting goods store, and the pawnshop alone should help us stock up on useful weapons. While guns sounded good, carrying around ammo, reloading and risking gun jams didn’t sound appealing. “I want a sword. Some knives. Follow me.”

Chapter Twelve

The mall was not close at all. From Lyell Avenue, and on foot, we had a heck of a hike ahead of us. It was dark. Things were out there. We heard them. All Allison and I were armed with were tire irons. Tire irons.

I checked my phone continually. My daughter, Charlene, had not called back. Without a signal, I was unable to call her. Naturally, my brain went wild with that. Imagining the worst possible scenarios filled my thoughts. I couldn’t stop picturing my ex-wife and her husband feasting on my children. It made my stomach flip-flop, churn and grind.

Allison stuck her iron through a belt loop. The L-head held it in place. I kept mine gripped in my hand. If more of those things appeared, jumped at us from out of the shadows, I didn’t want to struggle freeing the iron from the loop. Thought about sharing that tidbit of wisdom with Allison, but she looked content. Who was I to mess up her mood?

The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. I wasn’t big on cutting through yards, or wandering behind buildings though. Seemed the safest route would still involve following roads, staying to the shoulder, taking advantage of as much of the shadows as possible.

We had started north down Lee. Industrial area mostly, once we walked the bridge over the canal. Homes to the right were at least a mile away to the east.

“It’s so quiet now.”

Allison was right. It turned out to be a good street to walk. Not sure that was what she’d implied. Still, we hadn’t passed a single car on the road, which sucked. Would prefer driving. Walking took too long. If Julie and Donald were sick, and Charlene and Cash were in trouble, the longer it took me to get to their house . . . the more I worried about their safety.

“I’ve been thinking,” she said.

“About?”

“What if we’re, like it? Like the last few survivors? You said it yourself. Everyone and their mother got that shot. They gave them to people at all the corner drug stores, even. And, you saw how it was tonight at work; whoever didn’t start turning into a zombie creature was getting attacked and eaten by their family and strangers.” Allison stopped walking.

“We need to keep walking,” I said.

“Chase, we are in some trouble here,” she said.

“We need to keep walking. I need to get to my kids.”

“I know that,” she said. She started to walk, short, slow steps. “We’re going to get them. We’re going to save them from your ex. But then what? That’s what I’m asking. Then what do we do?”

“We go to Mexico,” I said. I tried to sound confident. She seemed to need that. “We’ve talked about this.”

“No, I know. Mexico. But…look at our highways. The expressway looks like a parking lot. We can’t just keep going from one vehicle to the next blockage, and then get in another vehicle. . .”

“Why can’t we?”

“Why aren’t we now? Why are we walking? You know how far the mall is? I’m already tired. My feet hurt, and I’m already thirsty,” she said. “Do you see what I’m saying, Chase? The mall. We’re what? Like two miles from the mall? We’ve come like, what? Two miles already? Know the last time I walked four miles, Chase?”

“Allison,” I said.

“And we’re going to what? We’re going to walk from New York, from Rochester, all the way to Mexico? I’m no geography major, Chase, but I know it’s like twelve hundred miles from here to Orlando. To fucking Disney, Chase. Disney. So if we were headed to Disney, Chase – guess what? We would still have eleven hundred and ninety-eight miles to go. Eleven ninety-eight.” She screamed.

I grabbed her head, slapped my hand over her mouth. With gritted teeth I whispered, my lips pressed against her ear. “No screaming, Alley. I understand everything you just said. But keep your voice down.”

There was no threat made. It was there. Hung between us. She had done well on the expressway ramp, saved my life, even. I’d already thanked her for that. “We good?”

She nodded; eyes open wide, staring at me. I removed my hand.

“So we’re clear,” she said, voice barely above a whisper, “you ever touch me like that again and I’ll crack your skull.”

“Good. Then we both understand what’s going on here.”

She nodded again. I noticed her hand on the L-head of her iron. Didn’t bother me. She needed to toughen up. If she was mad at me, hated me, then fine. It would be good for her. Help her. She could thank me later.

Silence ensued. Between Ridgeway Avenue and Weiland Road, we were leaving the industrial part of the city, and entering the town of Greece. Residential areas. We could have cut down Weiland to Long Pond Road. Then north on Long Pond to the mall, but what made me say no, to continue toward Holmes Road was the thought of where Weiland hit Long Pond. Directly across the street from there was the hospital. Unity.

I had no reason to fear the hospital, but something just made me feel like with all the monsters on the street right now, the ones spilling out of the hospital would be worse. They might not be. It could be just irrational fears, but I couldn’t shake it. I didn’t want to go anywhere near the place. Allison didn’t argue. She didn’t ask why I wanted to keep on to Holmes, but she didn’t argue. I was good with that.

I saw the streetlight at the intersection. I also saw more cars dead in the road. Allison had been right. It would be difficult car jumping. Taking one vehicle as far as we could, and then scrounging around for another. It could be done. Might become annoying, but that was no reason not to at least try.