Mark Tufo: The End Has Come and Gone

My spirits should be much higher than they are, but I just can’t get it out of my head that this is a one way trip. We’ve been driving for four hours, and Tracy has yet to say one word. Her head has been resting against the passenger window, and she’s just been staring blindly out at the passing scenery. Leaving her mom Carol behind was actually a good thing. She wouldn’t be on the run any more, she’d be able to rest and find some semblance of normality, if possible, at the Talbot compound. Leaving Nicole behind was another matter. Our daughter is pregnant and Tracy wasn’t going to be there for it, and that above all else was weighing heavily on her. Well, that and the fact that some dumb ass named Michael Talbot was dragging her two sons back into harm’s way.

I didn’t quite see it that way. ‘Harms Way’ seemed to now be a main thoroughfare that intersected regularly with our ‘Life’s Path.’ The only noise in the truck was Gambo’s (my brother Gary) checking and rechecking of his magazine clips. I appreciated the thoroughness, and the obsessive compulsive disorder of it, I really did. But four or five times should be the max!

“You about done back there?” I asked Gary.

“With what?” he asked back.

“Admitting your problem is the first step to recovery,” I told him.

“What problem?”

“Forget it,” I said, too tired to even sound exasperated.

Gary started unloading and reloading his magazine clips again.

“I thought BT was gonna kick your ass, Dad, when you told him he had to stay behind,” Travis said from the backseat.

“Yeah, he got pretty close to your head with his crutch,” Justin said smiling in remembrance.

I absently rubbed my cheek where the rubber bottomed tip of the crutch had brushed across me. BT had been swinging for the fences, lucky for me he had foul tipped or I’d be back at my Dad’s nursing a concussion. Although how bad would that be, really?

“Yeah, that was close,” I said, forcing myself to sound cheerier than I felt. It fell flat. The interior of the truck once again slipped into silence, interrupted only by the repetitive sound of bullet scraping against bullet. How the hell that became a comforting noise was a mystery to me.

“What the hell is that smell?” Travis asked, grabbing his nose.

Justin sheepishly raised his hand. “Aunt Lyndsey made me try her breakfast burrito.”

The smell was horrific but it wasn’t this which caused my already depressed mood to implode. It was the remembrance of Henry. I had felt it best to leave him behind also. Besides not having my furry friend and companion along, I no longer had a viable alibi when my lactose intolerant bowels fired off a fiery discharge. “Oh, Henry,” I mumbled under my breath.

Gary rolled down his window, the howling wind masking his sounds of gagging.

“Wonderful,” Tracy said as she rolled down her own window. I was thankful that at least now she couldn’t rest her head in that melancholy way. It was breaking my already shattered heart.

We hadn’t seen much in the way of zombies yet. I figured there were a few mitigating factors. Maine was sparsely populated, number one, number two the area was so economically depressed that if the infected flu shot wasn’t being given for free not many people here were going to spend the twenty to twenty-five bucks to get one no matter how virulent the bug. Who cares if you’re sick if you don’t have a job to go to anyway.

“How are you planning on finding Helen?” Gary’s voice came from the back seat.

Tracy slowly turned to look at him. “Who?”

“You know, the werewolf chick,” he replied, never looking up from his magazines.

“You know you’re talking out loud right now, Uncle Gary?” Travis asked in concern.

“Dad, there aren’t any werewolves, right?” Justin asked.

“Hon, do you have on any silver jewelry?” I asked Tracy .

“You can’t be serious. And even if I did have some on, you wouldn’t be making any bullets out of it to kill a beast from faerie tales,” she said, placing her hand protectively over her obviously gold chain and crucifix.

“Was that cross blessed?” I asked her.

“How should I know, you bought it for me for our anniversary.”

“You sure?”

“No, that’s right, it must have been my other husband.” Her glare should have stopped me in my tracks, unfortunately I was paying too much attention to the roadway to heed the warning.

“Well, did he get it blessed?” I asked her.

Her hand would have connected with the side of my head if the G-forces from my hard braking hadn’t flung her forward. Thank God she was wearing her seat belt.

“What the hell Mike?” she asked hotly.

Travis nearly crawled over his seat to get a better look at what had brought us from 60 to 0 in record time. A full grown two thousand pound moose was galloping full speed towards us, and he had no clue whatsoever we were in his way. The zombie latched on its back and the one on its left rear leg had absorbed all of its attention.

I was in such a rush to throw the truck into reverse, I slammed it into park. The engine was taching at 5000 rpms and we weren’t moving.

“Mike, you’re going to want to back up,” Gary said, his eyes never straying from the charging beast.

“I think he’s right Dad!” Justin threw in for good measure.

It was taking long seconds for my racing mind to catch up to my ill-timed action.

“Mike!!” Tracy said, placing her feet on the dashboard and bracing for impact.

Travis sat back down and refastened his seatbelt. Wise move, I thought to myself.

The moose was within fifteen feet by the time I figured out how to drop the gear into reverse. That transmission got the workout of its life as I slammed the gas pedal down. We were moving but the moose was still gaining.

“Not gonna make it!” I said aloud.

The moose’s front hoof clipped the bumper, momentarily taking our rear wheels off the pavement. Between my furtive glances to the rear to make sure we weren’t going to hit a wayward semi, and back to the front and possible death by Bullwinkle, I noted that the moose’s next step was going to take him half way up our hood which would result in certain destruction with death being a possible consequence. Zombies saved our lives, yeah, write that line down, zombies saved our lives . (Sure, we would have never been in this situation if it wasn’t for them, but that’s just splitting hairs.) The one that had latched on to the rear of the moose took that opportune moment to hamstring the giant critter. The moose dropped like a brick, his head slamming into the hood and grill. So much for the resale value. Ron was going to be pissed.

I laid on the brakes again almost as hard as I had the first time. For twenty seconds I sat there, sweat accumulating on my forehead. The pops and groans of the overworked engine were drowned out by the mewling of the moose as it was being eaten alive. The sad sound pierced the air and my heart, so much so that I got out and killed the zombies as they feasted and then put one into the moose’s terror stretched eye. It was then that I noticed the torn tendon on the hind leg still hanging out of the zombie’s mouth. Tracy and Travis had come up to get a better look. Justin was rubbing Gary ’s back as he puked behind the truck.

“We should go, Mike,” Tracy said, grabbing my arm.

This opening act to our quest seemed an ominous premonition of things to come. I could not stop staring at the brain matter as it oozed from the moose’s eye wound.

“Dad, how did they catch a moose?” Travis asked.

‘By hunting it down relentlessly,’ I thought. “They must have stumbled on it while it was sleeping,” I lied.