The driver steered around them carefully and then decided to introduce himself. “I’m Dave, by the way.”
Mrs Curtis leapt at the side of the moving bus but rebounded futilely to the road in a crumpled heap. The people onboard whimpered with fright but seemed to realise that they were safe.
“Really good to meet you, Dave. I’m Nick, and the girl with me is named Eve. What made you pick us up?”
The bus reached the crossroad intersection and started to manoeuvre around the three wrecked cars, which included Nick’s Alfa Romeo. It felt wrong to abandon it.
I bloody loved that motor.
Dave cleared his throat. “You looked like you needed a lift, way you was running down the road like a bat out of hell. Seems quite a few people are in need at the moment. But I can only pick up so many.”
Nick glanced back at the other passengers. All of them wore their own individual expressions of fear and pain. Some were stony-faced and silent, while others wept quietly.
“You rescued all these people?”
Dave shrugged one shoulder. “Some of them, I did. I’d already picked up a few on my normal run. Things didn’t get crazy till about thirty minutes later. After all hell broke loose I managed to collect a few people, here and there – dropped ‘em off near their homes whenever I could – but most people were beyond saving. People have gone bad in the head; like wild animals.”
Nick nodded. “I know what you mean. Something is making people insane. I think it’s some kind of…sickness.”
“I was pretty much thinking the same. Seen a lot of sick people these last few days on my morning runs. Flu, colds, fevers; people sneezing and coughing from the moment I picked ‘em up till the moment I dropped ‘em off. Something bad has got itself inside people.”
“Well,” Nick said. “I’m pretty sure I owe you my life. Thank you.”
Dave huffed and put his foot down on the accelerator. “We’re not out of the woods yet, I’m afraid. I got no clear destination and only half a tank of petrol.”
“We should go the hospital. Find help.”
Dave took his eyes off the road for the moment and looked Nick in the eyes. There was something approaching regret in his expression, as if he didn’t want to say what he was about to. “Hospital was the first place I checked.”
Nick raised both eyebrows. “And?”
“No good. There were sick people everywhere; bleeding and half-naked, making those terrible screeching sounds they make. It was a blood bath. I turned around and left no more than five seconds after getting there – was a complete death trap. In fact, there’s a gal named Pauline I picked up from near the hospital just in time. She had a group of maybe a dozen crazies right on her heels. Lucky I got to her when I did. She’s still with us, couple rows from the front. She’ll tell you herself that the hospital is a no go.”
Nick felt defeated. People were sick and even the hospital couldn’t help, apparently. How was the situation ever going to get better when there was nowhere to go, no one to take control or offer assistance?
“How about a police station?” Nick asked.
Dave shook his head. “The cop shop is in the town centre and the main roads to town are all blocked up with traffic.”
“Then where?”
“Well,” Dave began. “One of the folks I picked up earlier had the idea of finding an Army base or something. They tend to be out in the countryside where things might not be so bad.”
Nick nodded. “If anyone can deal with a shit storm like this it’s the military. Where is the nearest base?”