The Crow (Part 4)

Chapter 4

i

“My fellow Americans, we have undoubtedly entered a pandemic; but do not fear my fellow Americans. We will start administering vaccines . . .”

I turned the TV recording off. That world seemed a long way away, and the rest of the President’s speech was just a bunch of bullshit.

Everyone in town was dead.

Everyone but Kelly and myself. We were lucky to be alive, and even more lucky that we had each other.

My mom died of this . . . plague. That’s what we started calling it. The Second Black Death. She died last week. The shipment the pharmacist promised would be coming never did, and it wouldn’t have made a bit of difference anyway. There was no cure for this.

Kelly was asleep next to me on the bed, snoring softly. Her parents died, too. We were the only people left in Graine County. No one was going to help us. I got up wearing just my boxers and went to the kitchen to make some coffee. The power was still on, but it wouldn’t be for long. As the coffee started to drip into my coffee mug, I started to go through the memories that would haunt me for the rest of my life.

“Ryan?” my mom had asked.

“Yes?” I knelt beside her bed.

She turned her head to my direction, her eyes glazed with pain, her face covered with black sores. “Your father left us.”

This was news to me. “He what?”

Mom shook her head sadly. “He said he went to get some medicine, as I told you, but I got a call. He—” She choked up with emotion.

A few days later, she had died. Her chest was falling up and down with uneasy tugs, and her breath was wheezy.

“Please, ma,” I had begged her, tears streaming down my face. “Please come back to me, ma.” I put my head on her chest, sobbing.

“Leave.”

My head shot up. “What mom?” Without opening her eyes, she said in a shaky voice, “Leave. Go. Get . . . out of . . . town.” The last trailed away, and she hitched in a ragged, wheezy breath, held it, let it out, then hitched in another. Her chest didn’t fall again. She was dead.

I closed her eyes with the flat palm of my hand; then covered her with the quilt.

“Ryan?”

I jolted out of the memories. Kelly was on the other side of the counter in a bra and panties, an empty cup in her hand, and a worried look on her beautiful face. “Are you okay?” she asked.

I rubbed my face—because I hadn’t shaved in a long time, I had a stubble beard on it, which I hated!—with my hand, and replied, “I don’t know.” Kelly put an arm around me and rested her head on my shoulder.

“I’m so sorry.”

“Yeah, well I am, too.”

We were like that for a long, long time.

ii

“We need to leave,” I announced. I was determined to rest my mother’s last wishes, but there was something else, too. “Maybe we’ll find more people. They can’t all be dead.”

Kelly said, “And I suppose you have a plan?”

“Nope,” I replied sheepishly.

“Where would we go?”

“I have no clue. Wherever you want to go, babe.”

She grinned and said, “I always wanted to go to Hawaii.”

“Yeah, don’t know ‘bout that, unless we plan on swimming.” I grinned as well. It faded as I said, “We’re gonna need guns.”

She looked puzzled. “Why?”

I looked her up and down. She smiled. “You’re beautiful, and people might . . . you know, and . . .”

“I get it, I get it.”

“Also, we can’t drive.”

It hurt me to say this after everything my truck and myself have been through.

“Why not? There are plenty of gas stations.”

“There’s too many stalled cars in the middle of the road. I’ve seen ‘em, and there’s no way we’re gonna get through.” I paused. “Maybe cycles, but I don’t know how to use a clutch.”

Kelly shrugged while her breasts bobbed up and down. “Can’t we learn?”

I thought about that.

“Yeah, if we had time.” I thought some more. We could learn. It’ll be a while, but we could. We had time. The sun was going down, and shadows danced across the room. It wouldn’t be today.

“We could do it tomorrow.”

She smiled. “That’s fine with me.” She got up from her chair and sat on my lap. I could feel the heat from her pubis pulsing. “Wanna bath?” She was stroking my neck.

I smiled, too. “Yes, ma’am.”

iii

The plague doctor was looking at his vials. “Ah,” the Plague Doctor said. “We struck gold.” He plucked the vial that said #2 BP and took and took a syringe. Over half the county was dead, and he realized there would be no point in making an antidote.

There was no need.

iv

We started our journey. It sounds like one of those adventure movies, I know, but it applied to this. Once we finally got the hang of using a clutch, we went to a Honda dealership and selected two of the Harley’s that were on sale–or used to be. There was a radio, still working, and apparently so were the channels, too. The song that was playing stopped me dead in my tracks. I listened to it:

“I’ve been on the low

I’ve been takin’ my time

I feel like I’m outta my mind—”

I walked to the radio, picked it up, and threw it out the window. I sat down crying. Kelly was so stunned at how I beat up a poor little cheap Sony radio that she stumbled back a bit. After all, it was innocent.

“Ryan, what was it?”

Of course, she wouldn’t know. She wasn’t there. I answered gruffly, “A concert. There was an accident.” Not really an accident, but she got the picture. I brushed my tears away and tried to smile. “We should get back to work. She nodded, still worried but still agreed. Damned 1-800 song. I thought about that fucking crow mask.

v

When I was a little kid, my mother would tell me “Don't shoot that damn BB in the house. Your dad shouldn’t have gotten it for you. You’ll shoot your eye out.” I actually got in an accident with it, once. Remember that crucified squirrel that I was talking about? I shot one of the people that did it. Twice. Their names were John Dalton and Marlon Huey. They actually made a cross out of two two-by-fours and used one-inch nails to deliver the coup de grâce. I was pissed. So I brought my BB gun (little thing it was but still did plenty of damage) and went out to confront them.

They had already nailed its left arm to the cross. I shot the tormentor named Marlon in the chest, actually replacing his right nipple, and shot him again in his thigh. He screamed in pain. At the first shot, Dalton ran off screaming like a banshee, and when I stopped to reload my BB, they ran off, too, following in pursuit. I felt like a hero, till I saw the squirrel. I unnailed its paw from the arm of the cross, swung my BB gun around my back, and took it to dad while sobbing. It was dead halfway there. I hadn’t touched a gun since. Of course, I got jumped by those kids, and the one I shot had broken my nose and knocked a tooth out. Just one tooth. Still hurt like hell but that didn’t stop me from breaking his knee.

Huey had to go to the hospital, and they have hated me ever since. Well, I hated them, too. So when I stared at the rack of guns at Guns R Us (fucking Toys R Us wanna-be’s, I say), all these huntings came rushing back at me. I almost walked out of there, but then I heard Kelly whistling outside, and I knew I needed them; if not for me, then for her.

I chose a little .22 revolver for her and a box of bullets for it to put in her backpack (buy one get one free!), and I selected a .380 for me. I got holsters for both of us. Afterwards, I hefted a .30-.30 Winchester and got a box of bullets for it. It held twelve bullets. I walked out of the store feeling kind of guilty, as if I planned on robbing a bank or something, and handed Kelly her pistol and ammunition for it.

She hesitated when she reached out her hand to grab it then reluctantly grasped it and put the holster around her waist. Half-heartedly, I told her, “You look sexy.” I earned a little grin at that, but I could tell she wasn’t into the banter either. We mounted our trusty cycles and rode into the unknown which in our case was I-78. We were officially leaving everything we have known. “Goodbye, Mom,” I whispered.

vi

In fact, over 69% of the world was dead. Nobody knew how this came to be, but it did. What was left was post apocalyptic madness. People formed clans. People started crucifying one another. Nowhere was safe, especially with everything the military left behind. In the other countries, the same thing was happening–a world thrown into chaos. Because that’s all it really was.

Chaos.

vii

BOOM!!!

Kelly and I jolted awake. We were spending the night at a hotel (didn’t know what it was called because the sign was taken off) in Klumpton, Louisiana. “What was that?!” Kelly asked fearfully. As soon as she asked that, there was yelling and what seemed to be the sound of an automatic sub-machine gun (probably an Ic10 from the sound) roaring in the distance. More gunfire and explosions answered its call.

“Shit.” I got out of bed and started to get dressed. Kelly started to look out of the window, but I shook my head. “Don’t. They might see us, and if they do, we’ll probably be next.” She grabbed my arm and said, “Who?”

“Babe, I don’t know. All I know is that we don’t want to be a part of it.” I pulled on my holster. “You might wanna get dressed. We need to find somewhere safe.”

“Maybe there’s a basement here?”

I nodded. “Exactly what I was thinking.” Turned out that there was no basement. There wasn’t even a storm shelter. There was an explosion on the west wing of the hotel.

“We need to get out of here,” Kelly said. She opened the emergency exit that was on our left and looked out. She gently closed it back, latched it, and said, “A whole bunch of people out there. Like a fucking war.” We moved our way down the hall, and on our way there, we saw so many room doors open. The dead were inside of them. There was a naked woman laying on a queen-sized mattress, and there was a hole in her head. A man lay against a window with a gun in his hand. The window was splattered with blood and what looked like oatmeal was actually brains.

In another room, someone hung from a ceiling fan. A child lay on the floor, black sores all over its body. The hung person was also another plague victim. It reminded me of Rachel. The last room we came by had a man with cut wrists. The wall beside him was painted with the blood of the man. It read:

WASH YOUR SINS

AND DIE IN VAIN

Our soft footsteps turned to nervous stomps as we neared the end of the hall. There was another exit. We both let out a sigh of relief. We were both going to make it.

That was when something hard smashed into my head and everything turned black . . .

viii

I woke up. A light shone in my face that made me blink. I was tied down. Whafuck? my not completely woken mind said. Where my? I looked around the room. I saw that Kelly was behind me, also tied down. “Ryan?” Kelly asked, scared, “Where are we?” The room we were in was an interrogation room. I should know. I’ve been to plenty. I grasped her hand from behind and held it. “We’ll be okay.”

“Yes, you will be.” Both of us jumped and looked around. The voice chuckled. “We’re not in the room if that’s what you’re thinking.”

I asked, “Who is this?” The only answer I got was, “You’ll see.” There was a brief clicking sound, and the voice was gone. “What are we going to do?” Kelly asked while shaking with fear, but there was a determined look in her eyes. I kissed her softly on the lips and told her, “I don’t know, but we’ll make it. Don’t worry.”

ix

“Wake up.”

My eyes fluttered open to see a man in a soldier’s uniform standing in front of me. He had a scraggly beard, and the name on his name tag said, Lieutenant Randy Burns. Kelly was already awake beside me and from the stiff posture, I knew she was remembering our conversation over the guns, and why we would need them. Yet, I didn’t think this man was going to do anything to her. He didn’t have that kind of—air—around him. Groggily, I asked him, “Why in hell are we here? We did nothing to you.”

There was a woman beside him, and she leaned into the Lieutenant’s ear and whispered just loud enough for me to hear her say, “I don’t think these kids are part of the Tribe.”

“How could you know?” he whispered back.

She flashed an arrogant look and replied, “Look at them! Do they look like they are?”

I asked, “What rebellion?”

They both stopped and stared at me as if surprised after I had spoken out. The woman looked inquiringly at me. “You mean that you don’t know? You haven’t seen it?” I shook my head. “We’re just trying to leave our hometown.”

The man, Randy Burns, was looking at us thoughtfully. “Let them go,” he said at last. “We apparently have much to talk about and a discussion is best talked about over a meal.” He paused. “That is if you’ll stay.” Kelly replied, “Of course! You're the first people we’ve met in so, so long!” The lieutenant laughed. “You’ll meet more people here.”

We were unbound from our chairs, and the lieutenant held his hand out to me and then to Kelly. “Welcome to New City.”

x

“There are so many people!” Kelly exclaimed.

Indeed there were. The woman (we found out her name was Captain Leigh Le’roy) stood beside her and nodded. There were at least a hundred refugees, maybe more, and the houses looked clean of plagued victims. Even the empty ones. The lieutenant gave me a set of keys and pointed at one of the houses on the left side of the street. “You can have that one. We insist that you stay awhile, but it’s completely up to you.” I looked at the house. “It’s very pink.”

Kelly grabbed my arm like a child and smiled, “I love it! Kinda like my old van, doncha think?” The lieutenant grinned and said, “We’ll let you at it. Oh, and . . . I never caught y’all’s names.”

I gestured to myself. “I’m Ryan Wallace,” I gestured to my girlfriend, “And this beautiful woman right here is Kelly Morgan.” We shook hands again.

“Hmm . . . Ryan,” the lieutenant said. “Same name my son had.” He walked away, shoulders hunched wistfully.

The Captain stared sympathetically. “You know, he still hasn’t gotten over that,” she said half to herself.

“Gotten over what?” Kelly asked.

Captain Le’roy shook her hand sadly. “His son was killed in a car accident. The driver who ran him over was drunk.” Letting that sink in, she left.

xi

The house’s pink color was practically screaming at us as we stared at it from the lawn.

“I swear that this goddamn house is going to give me epilepsy,” I grumped.

“Come on,” Kelly said in a sing-song voice. “It’s not that bad. You’ll just have to get used to it.”

“La Casa Rosa,” I said with a grin. It was a song I used to listen to back in Spanish class. Kelly kissed me. “Sí.” She tipped her head and grinned, too. “Let’s get funky,” she said. She tugged at my belt. God, how I love her.

xii

“Ryan.”

I looked around. “The fuck?” I whispered, then out loud, “Hello?”

I was in an unfamiliar place. The wind was blowing, but I couldn’t feel a thing. It was dark. The shadows seemed to waver and then form into a person. It seemed to have a beak on its face.

“Don’t be afraid,” said the plague doctor in a silky voice. I didn’t know how I knew his name, but I also did know it. “I’m not going to hurt you.” A boot stepped out of the shadows. Then a cane. My mouth went dry. A face appeared.

It had a crow mask.

xiii

I woke up all drenched in sweat. The clock read 4:03 A.M. Kelly was sleeping beside me. So, at least I hadn’t screamed in my sleep. “What’s up with that goddamn crow mask?” I thought.

(here i come)

I sat up. Who?

(the plague doctor, of course)

Who the fuck was talking to me? There was a tap on the window. A face stared through it

(i am)

at me.

I cried out, but in a blink, it was gone.