What the Old Man Did 18

After what seemed like hours, I decided to walk on. Besides, it was getting creepy sitting in the dark. About 50 feet further on we came to a junction. Another tunnel intersected at right angles. We turned left. That, I thought, must take us nearer to the glass building that had become my home in Atlanta. As we move on, the ground shook. We didn’t get much noise but certainly this was the explosion I was counting on. We moved on.

What the Old Man Did 17

My face was stinging like hell. We headed for the basement.

“Do you have any bandages or things like that?”

She went to a closet on the left side of the room and opened it. I followed her and saw that, yes, there were medical supplies. A considerable cache of injectables, dressings, bottles of pain meds, antibiotics, and other more exotic stuff plus some kind of lab equipment. I grabbed a bottle of iodine and some scrubs and took it to one of the tables.

What the Old Man Did 16

Three buildings were up ahead. I had been running for five minutes and my pursuers had fallen behind. But I knew they would keep coming unless I could distract them somehow. I took the three story office building on the right. The front door was open but apparently intact. Running through the doorway, I realized my mistake. Stopping dead, I looked around. Nothing in sight. I let my breathing slow down. Taking the door marked stairway, I was faced with near total darkness. Given past experience, I felt that old alarm that raised the hair on the back my neck. I held the door open, looking for something to prop it open. A book was laying the floor and I shoved under the door, pulling the door over it to wedge it tight. Then I turned to the stairwell. A shadow moved on the steps above me and I saw a figure in the gloom that gave me chills. It was a young girl. Maybe seven or eight years old, coming down slowly, with the deliberate motion I knew so well. Without thinking, I brought the rifle up. But before pulling the trigger, I just had to say it:

What the Old Man Did 15

Two weeks in this building and I was starting to get stir crazy again. Also, something was bothering me. Where did the identical zombies come from? Why two of that? Both equally ugly and equally weird. Aside from that upfront puzzle, there was something else. Something I couldn’t quite put together in my head.

What the Old Man Did 14

Two days in the basement brought it home to us that confinement like this was nearly as bad as facing down the undead. We were getting on each others nerves a bit. After a week we had become quiet mostly. There wasn’t much to say it seemed. We could still hear movement outside the top door.

What the Old Man Did 13

We drove on for a few minutes, hoping to spot a decent place to wait out the storm. It was raining now and the sky had a funny cast to it, like there were green bubbly clouds.

What the Old Man Did 12

Journeying south, we found our way mostly on smaller highways that were not plugged with dead cars. I was worrying about what might happen when we had car trouble. The weather was getting cooler and nights were genuinely chilly. We debated one evening whether it would be wise to simply stop and stay in one place through the winter. Zombies had been rare. Possibly the quiet background areas didn’t attract them much. But who knew what they were capable of? I posed that question to Toni.

“Do you think maybe there are people somewhere trying to figure out what happened and stop things?”

What the Old Man Did 11

We had been rash to suppose that that building was safe. As a result, we’d lost our cooking and sleeping gear. The nights had been cooling off and one of the reasons I’d wanted to head south, along with the nasty littered roadway, was warmth. I knew enough geography to say that some place like Florida would be much more congenial for a winter season. But for now, we had to find replacement items.

In the preceding six weeks, I’d found Toni to be a capable, good companion. That’s why I avoided too much staring or laughter. I didn’t want this to become anything more than just a business arrangement. She however, had other ideas. One night, having just replenished our food supply with some reasonable looking stuff, she sat down next to me. Usually she would sit opposite. Directness was a feature with her. Not a bug. At least I didn’t think so until now.

What the Old Man Did 10

Four weeks later we were just outside Cleveland, Ohio. There was little left of the city. Toni explained that the government had tried to concentrate the infected in the city and used the National Guard to wipe them out. Simultaneously, it was tried in Atlanta and Boston. The increased incubation period made the protocol spectacularly unsuccessful. I wondered how many zombies there were.

The highway running next to Lake Erie was crowded with cars and it was difficult to drive there. We finally decided to head south at the next exit. The road was not easy on our car anyway. We had to travel slowly to avoid the large holes and cracks in the concrete. Heading south on highway 306, we entered a little historical town called Kirtland. We drove up a hill and stopped at a run down old building that must have been a church as some point. Apparently it had morphed into some kind of monument. The broken windows attested to looting. But now there was no one around.

What the Old Man Did 9

I had been afraid many times. But since that day at Oakland’s door, I had not felt deep fear until now. I realized I didn’t want this person to die. At the front of the store I heard the doors swing open. She grabbed my hand and pulled me to the pharmacy counter. She hopped over it easily. I climbed over and followed her to a door at the back. I wanted to shout for her to wait but it was too late, she was through. It was semidarkness still but I could see another door beyond that. We stood there for a moment and then opened it. There was a warehouse. Locking the door behind us, we scanned the gloom. Nothing. After a few seconds, she put her arms around me and held me for a long time. Then said, “Thanks.”

I was still hyped up. When she stepped back I started looking around. There were racks of untouched items. Food, clothes, tents and sleeping bags. It was a bonanza. Further on, I saw a very interesting sight. A car. It appeared to be untouched. There was a light on the wall next to it. A dim red light. What? I turned to Toni,