~ 29 ~

Sharing Spam with the Living Dead

Date: May 31st, 1999

Place: Close to New York

 + Howie +

The trip to New York has been anything but smooth, not that we really thought it was going to be an easy journey or anything. One thing we have all learned from this experience is that nothing is easy in this new world of ours. Even finding food and water is a challenge. Because of Nick’s illness, our supply of water has all but been depleted just trying to keep him hydrated. We are now down to our last bottle of water and we have very little food, maybe enough for two more very small meals.

That’s why we had to resort to robbery.

Since we had to get off the highway and travel side roads, we decided to loot a store. I have to say it was all new to me. Before today, the closest I’ve ever come to stealing was when I pocketed a pack of baseball cards from a grocery store when I was about five or six. Even then, I felt so bad about it I cried hysterically while giving them to my father. Begging for his forgiveness and hoping he wouldn’t send me away to jail.

The kicker of that story is, my dad actually kept those cards. He never brought them back to the store. My mother was so mad at him but he said, “Eh, I can always use another Tom Seaver…”

“What’s wrong, D?”

I glanced over to the worried face of Kevin. We were sitting in a parking lot as Don and Charlie tried to find a map we could use from the store we had just robbed.

“Just thinking about my dad.”

He suddenly seemed down, “Oh…”

“Thirsty…” We both turned to look at Nick who was shivering again.

“I know buddy, but we have to make this water last until we can get some more.”

“I can’t believe there was none in that store.”

I nodded at AJ, “I’m sure that was probably the first thing to go, along with all the bread, milk and eggs.”

Brian stepped out of the car as Nick continued to groan. We all felt so helpless. There was nothing we could do to make him feel better. We had run out of medicine and now we were withholding water from the poor kid. His fever kept going up and even the few aspirin he was taking weren’t doing him very good.

“Do you think we’ll actually be able to find the other him?” I whispered to Kevin who was just staring at Nick, wishing there was something more he could do.

“I hope so.”

“And what about this Matt guy?”

“At least we have an address for him.” Alan threw himself into the conversation as he handed me another washcloth he had placed down on the snow to let soak. “That might help bring the fever down.”

I placed the cold cloth on Nick’s head and he immediately took it off, “I’m too cold!”

“We need to get your fever down, buddy.”

“I am thirsty!”

“Here ya go, Frack.” Brian came back into the van with his hands full of snow, placing it in a cup he handed it to Nick who quickly started to slurp it up.

“I know it’s not ideal, but it’s all we have for now.”

I glanced back to the grocery store.

We were all so elated when we saw the Shop Rite in the distance. I don’t know why we thought it would be stocked to the brim with food. I should have realized by the Epps collective lack of excitement, that once we got inside we would be disappointed.

After we ran the shopping cart through the window, the smell of rotting food hit us with such force, AJ actually vomited so we sent him back to the car to watch Nick with Alan.

There was rotting meat, fruit and vegetables all over the floor and crawling with bugs. I closed my eyes as we passed the produce aisle hoping that as we moved along things would start looking up.

They didn’t.

The scene just grew more and more grim with every aisle we passed. Most of them were completely empty, except for a random generic brand of cereal here or a can of vegetables there. We couldn’t afford to be picky so we grabbed whatever wasn’t spoiled and moved as fast as possible.

“You know, this feels like it could be a scene from one of those zombie movies, doesn’t it?”

I nodded at Brian. He was right. In fact, at any moment I was just waiting for a zombie to come out of the shadows and eat our brains. I might have even preferred that. I guess if we ever do get out of this place, that’s one thing I can let everyone know. There are no such things as zombies in our post apocalyptic future.   

“There’s no medicine anywhere in here!” Kevin sounded frustrated as he ran up and down the aisle that was supposed to contain pain meds and cold meds. There wasn’t even a bag of cough drops to be found.

I glanced over to my right where there were about two dozen cans of Spam sitting on display as if nothing bad had ever happened here. I almost laughed…almost. I have never eaten Spam in my life. Even after all the numerous trips to Hawaii we had, whenever anything Spam related was passed my way I would graciously decline. Why? Because it’s Spam! But yet, here it was. Mocking me, saying “Now what are you going to do Howard? All you have to eat is me! Who has the last laugh now?”

Damn Spam!

“Did you just say something?”

I shook my head at Brian as I collected the cans in my shirt. “Looks like we have plenty of this.”

He seemed as excited as I was. I wondered if the can was mocking him too.

My mind jumped back to the present as we still waited for Charlie and Don. I was starting to get a little worried. What if I was wrong about the zombie thing?

“Thanks Brian.” Nick was barely able to get out as he continued to slurp at the snow and ice mixture. I tried not to think about how dirty it was or how many chemicals were mixed in with that snow. It’s not like he could get any worse than he was now.

The way his health was rapidly deteriorating scared me to death. He looked over at me and smiled, as if he knew at that moment, I was thinking about him. He had developed huge black circles under his very pale eyes. I didn’t realize that eyes could get dull, but his were. I smiled back but decided not to give any words of encouragement. Why bother? It’s not like he would believe me anyway.

Kevin opened the van door, “I think I’m going to go in and see what’s keeping them.”

“Do you want me to come with you?”

He shook his head, “I’ll be right back.”

“Hey D, do you remember that one time we were stuck in traffic in LA?”

“Who could forget that one AJ?”

He rubbed at his face as he laughed at the memory of the two of us just sitting in the back seat of our car for close to five hours in bumper to bumper not going anywhere anytime soon, traffic. It was a nightmare!

“Doesn’t this kind of remind you of that?”

“Oddly, yes it does.”

Kevin, Brian and Nick were in another car and I was grateful. The thought of being stuck for five hours in a small space with Nick wasn’t ideal. I was suddenly wracked with an enormous sense of guilt which also signaled how badly off Nicky was. Anyway…it was one of the worst driving experiences we have ever had. This one does top it though. This just about tops everything.

“Here they come, finally!”

I sighed with relief as the three guys made their way back to the van.

“We think we know where we’re going now.” Charlie said the second he got in the van. I was happy to see him carrying a map and a bag of some more groceries we must have missed. “It’ll take us a little longer than we expected but the good news is we’re actually a lot closer than we thought we were.”

A glimmer of hope, a slight one, but I’ll take what I can get at this point.

Don started up the car and happily we were once again on the way. The sky was getting darker and I was pretty sure that soon we’d end up having to stop for the night. None of us were too keen on driving in the dark because of all the unforeseen obstacles that might be in the way.

“We’ll have to eventually get on the George Washington Bridge, but we won’t worry about that until morning.”

I suddenly felt revitalized. “Anyone want Spam?”

I grabbed a can and held it in the air. I was starting to get hungry and while I was on a small high, I figured no time like the present. I flipped the can open and dug my finger into the goo surrounding the meat.

“Lesson number one…” AJ said disgusted, “If there is slime surrounding something, it’s probably not meant to be eaten by humans.”

“You should give it a try, it’s actually pretty good.” Alan was quick to chime in, taking the can out of my hands and grabbing a piece with his fingers. “It tastes like ham, kind of.”

Once Alan took a piece we all followed suit and honestly, it wasn’t that bad. A little too salty maybe, but not as gross as I thought it might be. I’ve eaten far worse. Okay we can check this off the list too. No zombies and Spam is tasty.

We were driving for about two hours as the sun slowly set behind us. Once again we didn’t encounter one person on the road but did see a few abandoned cars. We stopped briefly to siphon some gas out of those tanks before journeying on towards the bridge that would lead us home.

“GWB 2 miles…” Brian read the sign with gusto. This was the happiest we have all seemed in a long time.

“How easy do you think it will be to find your friend once we get into the city?”

“I know exactly where Matt lives. Let’s just hope he’s still there.”

“Or even alive.” Don had to add of course bringing the upbeat tempo in the van down to more of a dirge.

“Guys look, do you see that?” AJ asked, suddenly sitting upright and pointing ahead.

“Jesus, there are so many of them.”

There were people milling about on the road, out of nowhere just as we came around a bend. Don had to bring the van to a sudden stop to avoid hitting a guy who seemed to be roaming aimlessly.

“What the hell is going on?” Kevin asked, looking and sounding anxious which instantly made me feel the same way.

None of them approached the car or even acted like they cared we were there. We all sat motionless for a little while, not sure if we should get out and investigate or stay put. Eventually Kevin opened the door and most of us followed. Alan stayed in the car with Nicky who was sleeping.

The coldness in the air was sharp and crisp but it had a different feel than the air by the grocery store or in Philly. It might have been because we were so close to the water, but it almost felt refreshing.

We walked closer to the mountain of people who were camped all along the road. It felt like one of those massive rock festivals almost. There were pup tents and people lying inside cars with fires going every few feet.

We walked up to a small group who were sitting around one of those fires. They were staring at the flames as if they were under a spell; another classic movie type scene. I was almost expecting them to turn and be all bloody and gross.

“What’s going on here?” Kevin asked one of them after we were ignored.

The guy wasn’t much older than we were. He looked up, “Huh?”

“What’s going on here? Why are you all just camping out in the middle of the road?”

“What else is there to do?” He turned his head and continued to look at the flames.

“Okay…” AJ looked over at me and shrugged.

“Aren’t you afraid you’ll be caught?”

“It’s only a matter of time.” Another one answered. Maybe it was the father of the younger guy. It was hard to tell, they all kind of had the same distraught, lost look on their faces.

“What do you mean by that?” It was Don’s turn now but I had already heard enough. I wanted to go back to the van.

“This is the end of the road. No going forward, no going back. We’ll just wait here, for now.”

That‘s when it dawned on me with all the fierceness of a lion’s roar. “The bridge…” I said as I tried to look in the distance. “Shouldn’t we be able to see the bridge?”

“It’s gone. All of them are gone. There’s no way to get to over there. They blew all the tunnels and bridges a long time ago.” A woman answered in a very monotone way.

We walked past the crowds of people all sitting in a daze and made it to where the beginning of the George Washington Bridge should have been. “Are those fish?”

I heard AJ’s question but was too numb to answer. They weren’t fish; they were people trying to swim their way across. Many of them were flailing and screaming for help. Some of them were just bobbing in the water and some were floating face down, lifeless.

“Jesus…” I turned my head away and took a few deep breaths. I suddenly felt faint.

There were such things as zombies after all. Only they aren’t flesh eating monsters. No, they are people just like us that have lost all hope. These people sitting right in front of us; had no soul or drive left. They were empty shells of their former selves. Zombies, just like we were going to become.

“What the hell are we going to do now?” was the last thing I heard before my knees buckled and my face hit the ground.