Feeding Frenzy (Watty Award Winner)

Worst Fears: Chapter Thirty-One

It's funny. When Ducky had a steady supply of food, he seldom thought about his next meal, but now that they were quarantined by force, his stomach growled. Was it a symptom of illness, or was it psychosomatic, caused by fear that the infected would eat everything in town, leaving him to starve?

As Ducky drove Zain through the campus parking lot, this thought seemed crazy, until wild-eyed students yelled and banged on their windows, desperate for a ride out of town. It sent shivers up Ducky's spine when he noticed slower ones, shambling towards them. Surrounded by bodies, he drove at a crawl for fear of harming anyone.

When he finally reached the road, a student pelted rocks at his car from behind. "Are you scared?" he asked Zain.

"No, but what's going to happen when people sneak around the roadblocks? They wouldn't shoot civilians, would they?"

Ducky thought they might. "Let's just look for the girls." People kept running onto the road. "Could you keep watch for them?" He kept his voice steady, but Ducky didn't feel as confident as he sounded. Priya and Tonya spent hours in the cemetery on Halloween. He and Zain had too. If the infection were airborne like Tonya said, they were all getting sick, soon.

Ducky hadn't asked Zain to watch out for Tonya because students might jump in front of his car. The real reason Ducky kept his eyes on the road, was his greatest fear: that the next wandering sleepwalker he saw, would be Tonya.

Leaving campus behind, Ducky took the rural highway around the lake, which led through town. Out of habit, he slowed as they began to pass houses and businesses. He didn't see many other cars, or people, until they neared the main roadside stop, which had fast food, and a gas station.

"I'm hungry," said Zain. "Let's eat here."

Ducky slowed right down and cracked open his windows. An alarm shrilled through the air. Between the gas bar and fast food joints, stood a grocery store. Somebody had driven a car through the plate glass storefront, and it sat half-in, half-out, where it had smashed into a checkout counter. Safety glass glittered on the sidewalk, where people were running, arms full of packages.

"It's busier than Christmas Eve," he said.

"Stop the car," said Zain. He rolled down his window and leaned out to shoot video.

Unwilling to get closer, Ducky pulled onto the gravel shoulder. Across the berm, people fled the store with boxes and bags of food, but few escaped peacefully. The whole adult population of Loon Lake seemed to be tussling in that parking lot. People fought tug-of-wars over cases of canned goods. Ladies in grocery store uniforms rammed shopping carts through the crowd. A middle-aged gang, armed with golf clubs, intimidated people and commandeered their supplies. Ducky couldn't tell the infected from the healthy in the melee. Everyone looked equally desperate.

A flash of colour drew his eye away from the scene. The turquoise fringe of a leather jacket flapped by his window. It was a woman running past, cradling a turkey like a wide receiver. She was pursued by three young men.

When one of the guys attempted a flying tackle, Ducky said: "Get your head back in the car. I'm driving between them and that poor lady."

"Wait. She's getting away."

The woman dodged between parked cars, and hopped on the back of a waiting motorcycle. A fat man in leathers roared away with her.

"We should go too," said Ducky. Dull-eyed shoppers had noticed their car, and started shuffling toward them.

"If we don't stock up now, we're gonna starve when the town runs out of food," said Zain.

"If you get out, you're not coming back."

Zain looked at him with a pained expression, until a guy in a suit jumped onto the hood and started beating the windshield with his fists.

"The lineups were too gruesome anyway." Zain shrugged dramatically.

"Not funny." Ducky's stomach ached. He'd never felt so hungry before. "Know what I'm gonna do when this is over?"

"Eat ten steaks?"

"Donate to the food bank," said Ducky. "Nobody should live like that." He pointed to the guy who was still beating on the windshield. "I'm so hungry, I can't think of anything else." Ducky started the engine and took off, cranking the steering wheel hard to dislodge the man.

"First let's get out alive," said Zain

"With the girls."

# # #

They were nearing the hospital when he heard a siren, and red lights spun in his rear-view mirror. The police car flashed its high beams and Ducky pulled over.

He got out his papers and rolled down the window, but the officer was in no rush, still sitting in the cruiser and talking on his radio.

"What does he want?" Zain asked. "You were hardly speeding."

"Exactly. Shouldn't cops be stopping the riot at the grocery store?"

"Yeah."

"No matter what happens, don't get out of the car."

In the wing mirror, Ducky watched the cop amble up to the driver's side.

"Let's see your license and registration," he said, as if this were an ordinary day, when doing ten over the limit was the worst crime in town.

"Have either of you boys been eating? Uh... drinking?"

It was a small slip, but after that Ducky knew. He fought the urge to flee.

"No sir. We're perfectly sober. It's 10:00 a.m."

"Have you any food in the car?"

"No."

The cop flashed a broad smile and peered into the back seat. "Everybody has something."

"Not a crumb."

Ducky waited. The officer's eyes were glassy, and he circled the car as if in a trance. Ducky's instincts screamed at him to go, except the officer still held his licence. Instead, he started counting down from ten in his head. If he got to zero, he promised himself he would drive away, with or without papers. The cop moved like he was wading through tar.

He had counted down to 'one' by the time the officer returned and said: "I have to warn you ..."

Ducky stuck his hand out and snatched back his papers. "Sorry! Must run. It's the end of the world!" He pulled onto the highway with a screech of tires.

"What did you do that for?" Zain asked. "Now he's following us."

"Don't worry. He's too slow to catch me."

Ducky floored it and wove around a couple of cars, then passed a tractor. They had a head start. Ducky thought he'd lost him, until the cop turned on his siren and the other vehicles had to pull over. Ducky sped up again.

"What are you doing?" Zain's voice went up an octave. "He's a cop. Stop or we'll go to jail."

"Relax. I might go to jail," said Ducky, "but you're not driving. Plead ignorance." He risked a glance at Zain to see if his friend looked as panicky as he sounded.

Zain grabbed Ducky's arm. "Slow down!"

Ducky looked back at the road, which had veered left. He hit the breaks, but the car kept going straight. They crashed through a guardrail, along a strip of grass, and skimmed over a pond. For a moment Ducky thought they might make it across, but the back end caught water and dragged them down. The pond was deep and they were in the middle, sinking.

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