For the first forty minutes out of Austin, Samuel complained about the Honda.
The car rattled every time Samuel pushed it past sixty-five, the air conditioner had begun making a noise that neither of them particularly trusted, and something underneath the passenger-side dashboard vibrated against Matthias's knee whenever they hit rough pavement.
Samuel slapped the steering wheel, full of unfound confidence in his shitty vehicle.
"She's doing just fine."
Matthias slowly looked over at him. "I didn't even say anything."
"No, but you were definitely thinking it."
"You don't know what I was thinking."
"You've been staring at the dashboard like you're waiting for it to explode."
"I'm trying to figure out what that noise is."
"What noise?"
The Honda rattled again.
Matthias raised his eyebrows.
Samuel stared ahead. "That's normal."
"That is absolutely not normal."
"It's an older car."
"Sam, I can feel something vibrating against my leg."
"Then move your leg."
Matthias laughed under his breath and looked back out the window.
Smoke wafted through the air as Austin was all but fully behind them now.
As they drove, they soon came upon a rather packed area of the highway.
Families were cramming into pickups with suitcases, coolers, sleeping bags, and whatever else they had managed to throw together before leaving home.
They passed a minivan with two bicycles strapped crookedly to the roof. A little boy sat in the back seat with his face pressed against the glass.
Matthias watched him until the vehicle disappeared behind them.
Farther east, things looked almost normal again.
A landscaping crew stood beside a trailer full of mowers, three men gathered around a phone instead of working. A fast-food place had its drive-through open, though the line curled nearly into the road. Someone had placed a folding table outside a church with several orange water coolers and a cardboard sign.
WATER FREE FOR ALL
Ten minutes later they passed a wrecked sedan sitting half in a ditch.
Blood covered the driver's-side door.
Matthias shifted in his seat and unfolded the paper road atlas he'd grabbed from home.
Samuel glanced over.
"You realize your phone has maps."
"My phone also has no signal."
Samuel checked his.
One bar and then none. "Huh, fair."
Matthias traced a finger across the page.
"We keep northeast and stay away from the bigger roads wherever we can. Every major route out of Austin is going to get worse once more people decide to leave."
Samuel nodded.
"So we're taking back roads."
"Where it makes sense."
"You sound confident."
"Sam, im looking at a paper map from 2007. Don't put that much faith in me."
Samuel smiled. "See, that's why I drive."
"Because you can't read?" Matthias asked, arching a brow in question
"Because if you drive, we'll end up in Oklahoma while you explain why technically the map was misleading."
Matthias folded the atlas halfway.
"I have never gotten us lost."
"Really? What about that one time in Germany?"
"That was one time," Matthias said, pointing his finger at Samuel
"You took the wrong train."
"The platform signs were confusing."
"You speak German!" Samuel exclaimed, laughing at his friend's past blunder
Matthias then turned toward him.
"Do you want directions or not?"
Samuel laughed and lifted one hand from the wheel.
"All right, all right. Herr Navigator, lead on."
They drove another twenty miles before Matthias noticed the fuel gauge.
He then noticed a gas station nearby, a line of cars already having formed, but they needed gas despite that.
"Pull in, Sam. We need to get more gas, at this rate we'll run out before reaching Longview."
Samuel didn't listen at first, his face telling of how little he wished to join the line.
"We can go another hundred miles easy."
"And when every station between here and Longview either runs dry or looks like that, then what?"
Samuel glanced toward the station. At least twenty vehicles waited for the pumps. A county deputy stood near the entrance, waving one car forward at a time.
"We can get gas later."
"That is exactly what everyone in those twenty cars probably said an hour ago."
Samuel sighed as he flicked on the turn signal.
"Fine. But if this takes an hour, I'm blaming you personally."
"You already blame me for practically everything, you bastard."
"In all fairness, Matt, you're usually involved."
As they inched closer and closer, they could see that the gas station was still functioning, if only barely at this point.
A handwritten piece of cardboard had been taped over the price board.
10 GALLON LIMIT
CASH IF POSSIBLE
People stood beside their vehicles watching everyone else.
The deputy at the entrance looked exhausted. His uniform shirt was dark under the arms, and he had one hand resting near his holster while he directed another truck forward.
Samuel rolled down the window.
"How long's the wait looking, sir?"
The deputy looked toward the line.
"Twenty minutes if everybody acts like they've got some sense."
Samuel looked ahead at the arguing couple beside a pickup.
"So more like forty-five, got it."
The deputy actually smiled then shrugged. "Probably."
They then pulled into line, with Matthias reaching behind his seat and digging through one of the bags.
Samuel watched him from the corner of his eye.
"What do you have?"
"Food."
"What kind of food?"
Matthias opened the package as Samuel's head turned.
"Is that beef jerky?"
"Yes."
"You had beef jerky all of this time, since when?"
Matthias tore off a piece.
"Hmm, I don't know, yesterday."
"You watched me eat that shitty oatmeal granola bar this morning."
"You chose the granola bar all by yourself."
"Yeah, and during that painstaking selection, you knew this was here."
Matthias continued to chew.
"So, what's your point exactly?" a wry smile spreading
Samuel slapped the steering wheel.
"We're in a crisis, Matt. Resources should be shared."
Matthias slowly lowered the jerky.
"Did you or did you not eat six of my eggs?"
"Holy shit, dude, why are you still on that?"
"Because apparently we're discussing resource distribution."
"It was five."
"It was six."
"You didn't count."
"What do you mean I didn't count? It was my own carton of eggs dickhead."
Samuel held out his hand. "Give me the jerky, Matty-boy."
Matthias gave him a piece.
Samuel ate it and nodded.
"Filthy Communist."
"Eat shit," Samuel replied, flipping the bird as they laughed
A vehicle two spots ahead suddenly failed to start.
The driver turned the key again, but all he got was nothing.
A few horns sounded almost immediately.
Samuel leaned toward the windshield. "Oh, come on."
The driver, a man in his late thirties, jumped out and opened the hood of an old blue minivan.
A woman sat in the passenger seat. Two kids watched from the back.
Another horn soon blared, setting the man off.
"I'm fucking trying, you asshole!"
Samuel grimaced.
"People are delightful."
He opened his door.
Matthias looked over.
"Where are you going?"
"To help him."
Matthias smiled faintly and opened his own door.
"Look at you, underneath all of that idiocy there is a heart buried somewhere, how nice."
"Shut up."
The man glanced toward them as they approached.
"Battery went out?" Samuel asked.
"I don't know. It just died."
"Hmm, ok, do the lights still work?"
"Yeah."
Samuel leaned into the driver's side.
Matthias stood beside the hood.
"You know what you're doing?"
Samuel looked back at him.
"More than you."
"That's not exactly a reassuring answer."
The man introduced himself as Patrick. His wife was Laura, and the kids were Ben and Sophie.
They were heading toward family outside Tyler.
Samuel spent a few minutes checking connections while Matthias held the flashlight even though the sun was already well up.
Samuel glanced toward him.
"You know the flashlight isn't helping."
"I'm providing moral support," he said, holding a thumbs-up
"You're holding a flashlight in daylight."
"Yes, it is a well-known ancient and honorable profession."
Samuel ignored him, turning his attention back to the vehicle as he gave the battery terminal a shake.
"Seems like it was just a loose connection. Try it now."
Patrick turned the key, and within seconds, the engine sputtered and then roared to life.
Patrick leaned back against the seat.
"Oh, thank God."
Samuel stepped away with a satisfied grin.
Matthias nodded toward him.
"History degree paying off."
Samuel pointed at himself.
"The degree didn't do shit here; my experience growing up poor, rather, was what helped in this situation"
Patrick laughed a little before his expression sobered. "You boys come out of Austin?"
"Yes sir," Matthias said.
"How bad is it looking in the city? We've been hearing mixed reports all day."
Matthias and Samuel looked at each other.
Samuel answered first.
"Well, it really depends on what you mean by bad."
Patrick lowered his voice.
"My brother called from Waco last night. Said paramedics got attacked outside some apartment complex. People biting them. Then the phones cut out."
"We saw something similar on campus," Matthias said. "Several times."
Laura had gotten out of the van now.
"What was wrong with them?"
Matthias rubbed the back of his neck. "I wish I could tell you. They don't react to injuries the way people should. We saw one man take multiple gunshots and keep moving."
Patrick's eyes narrowed.
"Drugs?"
"Maybe. Or it could be some kind of disease, like a neurological problem or something. We don't know."
Samuel folded his arms.
"Whatever it is, if you see someone covered in blood walking around like they're half asleep, don't go near them."
Laura glanced toward her children.
"We heard the National Guard's setting something up near Dallas."
Patrick nodded.
"Tyler too, supposedly."
Matthias shook his head.
"Don't count on rumors. Everybody's hearing something different, right now."
A yell came from near the gas station.
People turned.
A truck driver had staggered around the side of the building.
His clothes were filthy. Blood had dried from one ear down his neck.
The deputy became alert and soon stepped toward him, hand still on his holster.
"Sir?"
The man continued forward.
Matthias's stomach tightened.
He knew that walk now; it only meant trouble.
"Deputy," Matthias called.
The officer glanced toward him.
"Stay back."
The bloodied man kept coming.
The deputy raised one hand.
"Sir, stop where you are."
Nothing.
Samuel moved closer to Matthias.
"Same thing?"
"Yeah."
The deputy drew his pistol.
"Stop, sir, I repeat, stop!"
The man then suddenly lunged, and the deputy fired.
The bullet struck somewhere in the chest, causing the man to stumble, and yet he kept moving.
People around the pumps began backing away.
Matthias's hand went toward the M4 slung against his shoulder, then stopped.
A woman stood directly behind the bloodied man, and a fuel pump sat just beside her.
'Damn it, no clean shot.'
The deputy fired again.
Still center mass, only causing the man to stumble momentarily before continuing his advance.
Matthias cupped a hand around his mouth.
"THE HEAD!"
The deputy looked toward him.
"WHAT?"
"SHOOT HIM IN THE HEAD!"
The man was only several feet away now.
The deputy raised his pistol and fired.
The round struck high in the face, and within a second, the man collapsed. His body hit the asphalt and stayed there.
Nobody moved for a few seconds.
The deputy kept his weapon raised.
Then his eyes found Matthias.
"You." he started, voice shaking, "How the hell did you know that?"
Matthias shook his head.
"I wasn't sure if it would work in truth."
"You yelled for the head like it was a guarantee, though."
"Because I've seen it work twice now. That's all."
"Seen what work?"
Matthias glanced at the body.
"Damage to the brain. My neighbor took two rounds to the chest last night and kept walking. Another man kept coming after I hit him hard enough to break bones. Serious injury to the head stopped both."
The deputy stared at him.
"What are they?"
Matthias looked right back.
"Hell if I know, man, but if you find out, please, tell me."
Someone farther down the line shouted.
Three shapes were moving along the roadside.
Slow and bloodied.
Samuel noticed them too. "Matt."
Matthias followed his gaze.
"The shots must have attracted them, like in the neighborhood."
The deputy swore under his breath.
He turned toward the station.
"Everybody, fuel up and move! Don't stand around!"
Samuel nodded toward the Honda.
"We should probably take our ten gallons and get the fuck out of here."
Matthias clapped him on the shoulder.
"Best idea you've had all morning."
"Leaving Austin was my idea."
"No, young Sammy, I distinctly remember that it was mine."
They both laughed as Samuel quickly fueled, and then they left.
For almost an hour afterward, neither spoke much.
Samuel switched through radio stations only to be met with static, followed by an emergency broadcast, then some good old country music, with more static rounding it out.
Then a preacher's voice filled the Honda.
"...and I tell you now, brothers and sisters, what we are witnessing may well be God's judgment-"
Matthias reached over and changed the station.
Samuel looked at him. "What, are you afraid he's right?"
Matthias didn't answer him, so Samuel simply shrugged and went back to flipping through stations, soon finding an old rock station that was somehow still broadcasting music.
He turned it up.
For the next several minutes they said nothing.
Matthias had now let his head rest against the seat, but he leaned forward when his phone buzzed.
It had just a single bar, but that was enough for now.
He called Germany immediately.
His mother answered on the fourth ring.
"Matthias?"
"Hey, Mama."
"Wo bist du?"
"Where are you?"
"On the road. East of Austin."
He heard a television behind her.
His father was saying something farther away.
"Sam's family is in Longview. We're heading there."
"Is it safe?" she asked, having seen the broadcasts even from Germany
Matthias watched an ambulance speed past in the opposite direction.
"I don't know, honestly."
His mother went quiet.
"You should have come back last year."
Matthias closed his eyes.
Samuel glanced at him but politely kept looking ahead.
"I know."
"Your father told you—"
"I know, Mama."
"I'm not trying to fight with you."
"I know you're not."
The connection crackled.
Her voice came back thinner.
"I'm scared, Matthias."
Matthias rubbed his thumb along the edge of his phone.
His mother was not a woman who admitted that easily.
"I'm okay. Sam's okay. We have food, water, weapons. We're staying away from cities where we can."
"Weapons?"
Matthias grimaced.
"Don't focus on that part."
"Matthias."
"Mama, please."
He heard his father take the phone. "Son?"
"Hey, Dad."
"Your mother's going to give herself a heart attack."
"Yeah, I kind of noticed."
"Germany is getting worse as time passes."
Matthias sat straighter.
"What do you mean?"
"Incidents in Frankfurt. Hamburg too. Hospitals filling. Police aren't saying much."
Matthias stared out the windshield. "Stay home," he said.
His father gave a dry laugh.
"That was my advice to you."
"Yeah, well, I'm stealing it."
"Your mother will appreciate that."
The line crackled again.
"Dad? Dad, are you still there"
"We're here," he replied after a moment of static
"I'll call again tonight."
"You'd better, son."
"I will. I love you."
A brief pause.
"We love you too."
The call soon died, his bars going back to zero as Matthias lowered the phone.
Samuel waited a few seconds.
"They all right?"
"Yeah, for now anyway, it looks like whatever's happening is starting over there too."
Matthias looked at him.
"You wanna call Claire?"
Samuel already had his phone out.
"You know me all too well."
Claire answered.
Samuel immediately put her on speaker.
"Hey, dumbass."
Samuel smiled. "Nice to hear your voice too."
"You took forever."
"It's been one day."
"Mom has been pacing around the house for six hours." A cupboard slammed somewhere on Claire's end. "She made me fill every pot with water."
"That's smart."
"She filled the Crock-Pot."
Samuel paused. "She... she what now?"
Matthias covered his mouth, stifling a laugh.
Claire continued. "She said water is water."
Samuel looked at Matthias.
"Okay. That one's... creative."
Matthias started laughing.
Claire heard him.
"Is that Matt?"
"Unfortunately."
"Hey, Matt."
"Hey, Claire. Your brother's car sounds worse than I remember."
"Oh my God, right?"
Samuel looked offended.
"You two can both go fuck yourselves."
Claire laughed.
Then another siren came through the phone.
Her laughter stopped.
Samuel heard it too.
"Claire? What's going on?"
"More cops. They've been going toward the hospital all afternoon."
"Stay inside."
"That's what Mom keeps saying."
"No, listen to me. Lock the doors. Don't go outside for anybody unless you know who it is."
Claire's voice became quieter.
"Sam..."
"We're coming to y'all, we'll be in Longview in just a short while, so stay safe and keep the doors locked, you hear me?"
"Ok."
When the call ended, Samuel put the phone down.
The Honda then quickly accelerated.
Matthias looked at the speedometer.
Seventy-two and climbing
"We'll get there, man. We are moving. We're making good time. But if you put us into a ditch because you're trying to save twenty minutes, I'm going to crawl out of the wreck and beat your ass myself."
Samuel glanced toward him.
Matthias raised his eyebrows.
Samuel finally eased off the accelerator.
"Seventy."
"Better."
"You're annoying, you know that."
"You remind me all too frequently, fucker."
It was only another hour before traffic came to a stop, a total standstill at that
Samuel groaned and dropped his forehead against the steering wheel.
"You have got to be fucking kidding me."
Five minutes passed, followed by ten and then longer, to the point that people began getting out of their vehicles.
Matthias also stepped outside.
A man walking back from farther ahead shouted that an RV had jackknifed across both lanes and taken a pickup with it.
Samuel joined Matthias with the atlas.
"Please tell me your sacred texts have something."
Matthias opened it over the hood.
"County road about four miles back."
"Where does it go?"
Matthias traced it.
"Eventually it will take us Northeast."
"You sure?"
"In all honesty, not really, dude."
"Love the confidence."
Matthias looked at the road on the map.
"It appears road-shaped."
Samuel stared at him.
"You know, sometimes I really fucking hate you."
They soon got back in the car and turned around.
The county road took them through a small town neither had ever heard of.
They passed an old diner, some miscellaneous shops, and a mechanic shop before they reached an empty intersection.
A sheriff's cruiser sat in the middle of the road with its driver's door open.
There was no sheriff to be found near it, and blood streaked across the pavement toward an alley.
Samuel slowed the car to a crawl as they looked around.
"Want to check?"
Matthias looked around.
A lone figure wandered through the diner parking lot.
A woman whose dress was torn along the back, with blood covering both arms.
Within a moment, she turned toward the Honda.
Stevens's voice came back to him. 'If something feels wrong, leave.'
"Fuck that. Let's keep driving."
Samuel looked over.
"You sure?"
"Yeah. Nothing here we need badly enough."
Samuel then accelerated and neither looked back.
By late afternoon, exhaustion was starting to settle into Matthias's shoulders.
They were still a long way from Longview after traffic, detours, and fuel stops.
Then Samuel pointed.
A white church stood beside the road.
Cars filled the gravel lot.
A hand-painted sign stood at the entrance.
TRINITY BAPTIST CHURCH
FOOD, WATER, and SHELTER
Samuel looked toward Matthias.
"We can keep going."
"You've been driving for a while, man. Plus, you nearly missed that stop sign earlier."
"There was nobody there."
Matthias leaned toward him.
"Sam. We're both tired. It's getting dark soon. Stevens was right about driving at night. We stop, eat something that didn't come out of a plastic wrapper, sleep for a few hours, and leave at first light."
Samuel's eyes stayed on the road.
Matthias added quietly:
"We're going to get to them."
Samuel finally nodded. "First light."
"First light," he agreed
The church held maybe fifty people.
Nobody welcomed them with open arms.
A man with a hunting rifle asked their names, checked whether either had been injured, then waved them inside.
A middle-aged man soon introduced himself as Pastor Daniel Mercer. "You boys eaten?"
Samuel looked toward the pot near the back.
"Not anything warm."
"Then go ahead and grab y'all selves a bowl."
Matthias went to get himself some food, and sat beside Samuel, paper bowl balanced between his hands as he ate every drop.
An older woman across from them watched Matthias for a while before finally voicing her thoughts.
"You're not from Texas, are you, hun?"
Matthias swallowed.
"I've lived here for a couple of years."
"Still not from Texas."
Samuel laughed, having made many jokes about that in the past
Matthias looked at him.
"You were born in Oklahoma, not much of a Texan yourself, Sam."
Samuel then stopped, looking back at his bowl.
The older woman laughed.
Samuel then pointed at Matthias. "That was private information."
For a few minutes, the room felt almost normal as people traded rumors and talked about everything and nothing at the same time. The rumors were mainly what interested Matthias.
Someone had heard Dallas was being evacuated.
Another person said the military had closed Dallas completely.
A trucker claimed Houston was burning.
One theme began to arise, nobody truly knew anything.
A man sitting nearby eventually asked Matthias, "So what do you do?"
Matthias opened his mouth automatically.
"I'm a graduate student."
The answer sounded strange now.
The man nodded.
"Studying what?"
"History."
Samuel looked up from his soup. "Extremely useful at the moment."
Matthias nudged his boot.
"His degree is also history."
Samuel pointed toward himself.
"I never claimed to be useful."
Later, after most of the lights had been turned down, Matthias opened his notebook.
Samuel was already stretched out beside one of the pews.
"You writing again?"
"Yeah."
"What now?"
Matthias wrote slowly.
Affected individuals observed well outside Austin. Loud noise, especially gunfire, appears to attract attention. Severe bodily trauma remains ineffective. Cranial trauma still remains as the only known way of putting down these things.
He paused for a second, thinking, before adding one last bit.
Whatever this is, it doesn't seem to be localized.
Samuel read the last line.
"Well, isn't that encouraging?"
"You know me, I aim to comfort."
"Yeah? Well, dude, you fucking suck at it."
Matthias closed the notebook.
"Go to sleep, jackass."
Samuel rolled onto his side.
And Matthias leaned back, shutting his eyes and falling into slumber.
Sometime later, Matthias woke up and heard coughing.
Across the room, a man lay beneath two blankets despite the warmth. His face was glistening with sweat, and a woman sat beside him, pressing a wet cloth against his forehead.
The man shivered hard enough that Matthias could see it from twenty feet away.
Matthias stood and crossed the room quietly.
"You need anything?"
The woman looked up.
"No, we're doing good. Thank you, though."
Matthias glanced toward the man.
"How long has he had the fever?"
"A couple of hours."
It was then he noticed the bandage wrapped around his forearm. Dark blood had already begun soaking it through.
"What happened? If you don't mind my asking"
The woman followed his eyes.
"No, it's fine. He, well, he got hurt earlier."
"Hurt how?"
She hesitated, then forced a small smile. "It's nothing, probably just the cut."
Matthias looked at the blood soaking through the bandage.
The man shivered again, and his teeth even clicked together.
Matthias stood there another second.
Something bothered him, but he couldn't say what exactly.
"Wake somebody if he gets worse."
"I will," she replied, voice shaking more than it should for a 'minor cut'
Matthias then returned to his place beside Samuel and lay back down.
Across the dark sanctuary, the man kept shaking beneath the blankets.
Matthias stared toward the ceiling, his mind now a storm of thoughts. Sleep didn't quite come for a long time that night.