Page 11 of Creepy
“Nothing.Did you just get out of Florida?”The last thing I knew, Florida was a wasteland.Being the state with the first and biggest outbreak, they weren’t even on the evacuation list.Residents who hadn’t left Florida right away were to quarantine in place.That was a death sentence to everyone in the state.Borders, airfields, and ports were closed and guarded by the military.
“Yeah, we were in a bubble, meaning the team quarantined together at Disney World.”
“Sounds like fun.”
“Yeah, until they all got sick, and I had to decapitate my friends.”
Taken back by his bluntness, an awful scene played before me, one of me taking an ax to my father’s neck.I changed the subject fast.I plastered on my best southern smile.“What made you leave Florida?”
“Survivors are coming back east so I was looking for my parents.Last I knew before the phones stopped working, they planned to evacuate to New York or Maine.”
Made sense.A lot of the older folk went there instead of out west.The trip was shorter.
“If folks really think it’s safe to come back, I thought they’d be coming back.”
I didn’t have the heart to tell him I didn’t think anyone was coming back here.If anyone much over thirty-five caught the virus, they were doomed.Their best chance was to ride it out in one of the cities that had kept the illness at bay.For anyone other than a survivor, someone who caught the virus and lived, coming back here would be the end of them.Because after all, not even all the zombies were dead and buried.I was no scientist, but I knew the virus probably lurked in them.
Thinking of zombies, I asked.“Did you find anything?”I motioned toward the house, so he’d get my meaning.
“Yeah...”he began.
“Oh, my gosh.I’m so sorry.”
“No, I didn’t find them dead or worse.I found evidence of suitcases packed.Valuables gone.Hey, you don’t know anything about that do you?”
“I don’t go in the houses.”
“What about your friends?”
I’d told him I wasn’t alone.“Yesterday was the first time we’d been here,” I lied about the “we” part.
“So, you think my parents got out?”
“Everyone in town evacuated Creepy.Mostly.Everyone still living, that is.”
“You’re lucky they evacuated the city.People were turning in Florida, and they locked us in.”
“The government didn’t know it, but here people were turning way before evacuation.”
“And they let y’all leave, anyway?”
“Yeah, Louisiana was probably as bad as Georgia and Florida, but we saw what happened to y’all and kept it quiet,” I told him, meaning the powers that be simply lied about how bad the infection rate was in this state.And it wasn’t only those in charge, the citizens of this state wouldn’t admit there was a problem.A family member would turn zombie, and we’d kill them ourselves, bury them in the backyard, and put on a smile like nothing was wrong.We certainly knew how to save face around here.
“Why did you and your friends stay behind?”He asked.
“For me...when the buses arrived, my dad had just started showing symptoms.There was no way he’d pass the screening, no way I could risk taking him and someone finding out how bad it actually was in Creepy.Risk the buses leaving without the entire town.”
He looked perplexed.“You do realize y’all probably let the virus into the quarantine zones.”
“What were we supposed to do, let them close our borders?If we didn’t lie, people like your parents wouldn’t have stood a chance.”
“But maybe that’s why we’ve had no communication from the government.Y’all letting sick people out of the state probably killed everyone.”
“Hey, don’t blame me.Did you hear anything after they locked you in Florida?”
“No.”
“Well, it’s not our fault then.Louisiana had lots of contact with the government after Florida shut down.”
