The Rabid: Fall Read Free

here?” Sonny is turning circles, his gun aimed skyward, as if he expects the Rabid to swoop down on top of us from the rooftops.
    “Shut up, Sonny!” Katia turns, her fists raised like she’s ready for a brawl.
    I put a hand on Sonny’s back. “Go wait in the Humvee, I’ll deal with her,” I speak softly, not wanting to provoke Katia any further.
    Sonny nods and retreats to the Humvee.
    Katia watches him go. “He’s such a pussy.”
    I walk over and place my hands on her shoulders. “We don’t exactly have folks lining up to watch our backs; he’ll have to do.”
    “He’d be more useful as Rabid bait.”
    “Come on now, you don’t mean that.”
    “Of course I do.” She twists away from me. She kicks at the debris pile in frustration before falling to her knees. “We can’t catch a break!”
    “The fact that we’re all still breathing is a break in and of itself.”
    “Bullshit! There are some fates worse than death. Being forced to live on in this shit while everything you love withers and dies around you is one of them.”
    “Don’t start with that. You wouldn’t let me carry on like this, you don’t get to either; we fight until we can’t. Your brother is one of the most tough-as-nails gunslingers I’ve ever met. We don’t mourn till we’ve got to. Get up and let’s go.”
    “And do what? Go where?”
    That’s a great question and I don’t have an answer. “Where would Ruiz go?”
    Katia stands and shrugs. “Why are you asking me? You act like we’re psychically connected.”
    Clouds are starting to move across the surface of the sun. Maybe my ears are playing tricks on me, but I swear I can hear the hunger pangs of the Rabid echoing up from the corpse-clogged alleyways of downtown Dallas. “Maybe we should do our thinking on the road, from the safety of the Humvee.”
    She has her hips cocked, her hands resting on the hilts of her swords, just staring at me. “Lead the way, Tim!” She flares her eyes.
    “Ladies first.”
    She huffs and stomps past me.

 
    4
     
    We’re out of the city. Driving northeast. We’re not navigating any map; Katia is just following the signs, taking us up I-30 towards Arkansas. The road has narrowed down to two lanes on either side. Instead of towering buildings, we’re surrounded by open fields, which are occasionally supplemented by patches of civilization: gas stations, Baptist churches, and roadside BBQ joints. Everything appears drawn in on itself, like it’s all been violated and cursed, dark secrets resting behind open doors and broken windows. Scenery that may have once aroused feelings of welcome and a certain childlike inquisitiveness are now wicked tableaus screaming, All is lost, turn back, ye who would enter here .
    As the minutes tick by, the sun sinks lower over the horizon. Eventually, we will have to stop, draw our weapons, and once more tempt fate in the name of refuge. The farther we get from the city, the thinner our options will become. Stores and churches and restaurants will become rest stops and forest. But we’ve got an ocean to cross and the only way to cross it is to venture out of the shallow water and hope a shark doesn’t bite our ass before we get to the other side.
    There is a silver lining.
    The Rabid population has thinned out considerably beyond the borders of Dallas. We still have to move slow and steady, navigating frequent wrecks and other obstacles, but we’re able to do so without some gray-skinned, milky-eyed monster pounding at the glass every second.
    “Okay, so you gotta think, where would Ruiz go?” I grab hold of the rubber handle above my head as Katia jumps off the shoulder to avoid an overturned four-by-four.
    “I am thinking.” She jerks hard left, putting us back on the road.
    “Think harder.”
    “I hate that phrase. It’s stupid. Makes no sense. Think harder . Like, what the hell? There’s thinking and there’s not. I don’t have some switch in my head to unlock special thinking