Holland Tunnel

“…If you wanna be my lover, you gotta get with my friends…”

Audra and her sister, Alyssa, were sitting in bumper to bumper Holland Tunnel traffic at rush hour on a weekday so that Audra could get Alyssa back home in time for dinner — per Mommie Dearest’s request. Ever since seeing the film Mommie Dearest about Joan Crawford with the iconic “No more wire hangers!” scene, that’s how Audra had referred to her mother in her head. She got out of that house as soon as she could and moved into the city after college. Her only regret was having to leave her sixteen year old little sister behind, but Alyssa came out to stay with her as often as she could get away. In just a couple of years, she would be out and in college, and Audra could cut ties with her mother completely. She was practically marking off the days on a calendar.

The traffic that day was much heavier than usual. In her experience, it’s usually pretty smooth sailing once you get into the tunnel; it’s the massive merge of multiple lanes from several different directions beforehand that usually causes a back up. Audra figured there must have been an accident up ahead or something causing the delay, but she didn’t mind. She just got more time with her little sister, and her sister had more time away from Mommie Dearest. Besides, they were having their own Spice Girls concert while they waited, belting along to the familiar song. Alyssa was wiggling around so much to the music, that it was hard to believe she was still wearing a seat belt, and Audra smiled, dancing with her as much as she could while still keeping one hand on the wheel.

“Can we do this every night when I move to the city?” asked Alyssa, settling back into her seat at the end of the song.

“Sit in traffic? Boy, are you going to love it here.”

“Very funny,” she said, rolling her eyes. “You know what I mean. I want to hang out and be stupid together.”

Audra grinned. “You won’t want to hang out with your big sister every night once you’re here. You’re going to have your own friends.”

“Well, yes, obviously I’ll be too cool for you once I make friends here. But for like, the first week, before I know anyone.”

“I guess, if it’s just the one week, sure,” Audra teased, and Alyssa smacked her playfully on the arm.

They fell into a companionable silence, and Audra started fiddling with the radio for a new station. Most of them were static since they were underground. As she flipped through stations she heard a few snippets from different stations reporting about some new contagion. That had been the biggest story for the past week, but Audra hadn’t really had a chance to read about it yet. Finally on one station they could clearly hear the distinct opening of Halsey’s “Nightmare” through the static.

“Oh! This is my jam!” said Alyssa. “Turn it up!”

“I know teens are not still saying, ‘my jam,’” teased Audra, but she obliged. And just like that, the two were singing along again. Audra was having such a good time that she almost didn’t notice they hadn’t moved at all in the past five minutes.

“What the hell?” mumbled Audra, suddenly sitting up and turning down the radio. Ahead of them a person was running through the tunnel, right in between the cars, racing toward them. One person doing something strange was not super uncommon in New York City, but when they were followed by a small herd of others, that seemed cause for concern.

“What’s going on?” said Alyssa.

“I don’t know,” said Audra, not taking her eyes off the people running towards them. Two cars up, a man opened his door to try to talk to them, and one of the runners collided with it hard, dropping to the ground. The man reached down to help him up, and Audra rolled down her window to hear what they were saying.

“Hey, I’m sorry about that,” said the driver. “Are you okay? What’s going on?”

The man he pulled up from the ground had blood streaming down his face from a likely broken nose and looked back at him with terror in his eyes. “Run,” he said, limping away as fast as he could.

“What? Why?” the driver called after him.

“RUN!”

The injured man was overtaken by the other runners. Someone knocked into him from behind, and he fell face first on the ground again. Another person tripped over him but kept going. Before she knew it, Audra lost sight of him buried beneath their feet as they stampeded past. She rolled her window back up as fast as she could and managed to get it sealed again just as the runners reached her car. But they took no notice of her or anyone else. They just kept going — all with that same terror in their eyes.

Next came the screams. Some people had emerged from their cars as soon as the runners were passed to see where they were going, or what was coming. By the time they realized they would have been safer in their cars, it was too late. What came around the bend looked like more runners, but they weren’t normal people. They were feral. Eyes glassed over and blood dripping from their mouths. People were pulled back from their open doors or ripped through their windows and devoured. The flood of zombies, because that’s what they had to be, seemed to be constant. They descended on people in small packs, while the rest kept moving, searching for their own meal. These zombies were nothing like the movies. There was nothing slow about them. They didn’t have signs of obvious decay, and there was no stumbling around groaning. They were fast and strong. These zombies were on a mission. They were hungry.

Mere moments ago, Audra had been having a fun moment with her sister, and in the blink of an eye the entire world had changed. There was blood everywhere. They say the average person holds about five liters of blood, but you never really think about how much that is until it’s everywhere. Splashed on the walls and vehicles, running under the cars like an oil spin. Even muffled through the windows, the sound of screams was almost unbearable.

“What do we do?” Alyssa asked quietly beside her.

“I don’t know,” Audra breathed. She pulled her eyes away from the carnage and turned to see Alyssa shrinking back into her seat with eyes wider than she had ever seen them, and she tried to steady her thoughts. Her sister was scared. Her sister was scared, and it was her job to protect her. She had to think. The time to run was gone, but maybe not too far gone. Maybe if she could fight a way through, they could get ahead of the herd, especially since so many were distracted with their other kills. But she would need a weapon.

“I have a tire iron in the trunk,” she said.

“What?” said Alyssa with panic in her voice. “You can’t go out there. You can’t possibly mean to go out there. We’ll die.”

“We aren’t doing anything just yet. You need to stay here with the doors locked while I get us a weapon.”

“No, no. You can’t. Stay here with me. Maybe we can wait them out.”

Before Audra could answer, they were interrupted by the sound of shattering. Several zombies had forced their way through the driver’s side window of the car in front of them, and were now pulling out the passengers in handfuls.

“We can’t wait,” said Audra quietly. “Now, listen to me.” She turned to look squarely at Alyssa, tuning out the noise around them. “I’m going to wait until the right moment. One when they’re not right outside the door, and none are looking at us. I will pop the trunk as I’m getting out of the car. The second my door is closed, lock the doors.”

“But what about you?” cried Alyssa.

“I’m going to be okay,” Audra took her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “But I don’t want you to watch.”

“But-”

“No, listen,” said Audra. “I don’t want you to watch. I’ll be able to think more clearly out there if I’m not worrying about you, so I need you to put your jacket over yourself and just hide here. When I need to get back in, I will rap sharply on the window twice, so you can unlock the doors. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” Alyssa sniffed. “But-”

“Tell me what you’re going to do when I get out.”

“Lock the doors and hide.”

“Good. And when will you let me back in?”

“When you rap on the window?”

“How many times?” said Audra sharply.

“Twice. When you rap on the window twice.”

Audra nodded and sat back in her seat to look out the window again. “Get ready.”

She positioned her legs to be ready to climb out of the car the moment she opened the door and watched for the best moment. Her heart was pounding so loudly in her ears she almost couldn’t think, but she forced her hand to stay steady on the door handle. A few other people further behind them seemed to have had a similar idea and tried to make a break for it. They didn’t get very far. Audra watched as a teenage boy was knocked down onto his knees with one zombie latched to his leg and another quickly racing for his throat. His mother screamed and tried to run to him. She died with her hand outstretched, fingers just falling short.

Audra swallowed her horror and pulled the trunk latch, opening her door at the same moment. The smell of blood and death, amplified by the lack of ventilation in the tunnels, hit her like a tidal wave, flooding her senses. She doubled over and almost emptied her insides right then and there, but her sister needed her. She needed to stay alert. Forcing herself to take shallow breaths through her mouth, she straightened up again and closed the door as quietly as she could behind her. The sound of the lock clicking into place followed immediately, which was a relief because there just was no quiet way to close a door. Several of the nearby zombies were already headed in her direction, and she needed to run. Her trunk was only seconds away from her, and she shifted through quickly looking for the stupid tire iron amidst the random sweatshirts and boxes that she had left back there.

Turning, she saw that one of the zombies had reached her and another was close behind. Leaning back on the trunk, she kicked out with both legs and felt a satisfying thud when she connected, sending the zombie sprawling back into its friend. Thinking fast, she threw herself into the trunk and pulled it most of the way shut behind her, careful not to latch it. One hand continued to sift things around, frantically looking for the tire iron, while the other hand held the trunk closed.

She had a pretty solid grip on the inside metal latch, but her arm was already straining from the effort to hold it closed against one zombie, as he tried to wrench the lid open. The search for the tire iron felt more and more hopeless, and her arm ached. Fearful tears streamed freely down her face, and she said a silent prayer that Alyssa wasn’t watching, and that she would make it through this no matter what. Just when she thought she couldn’t hold the lid any longer, her knuckles bumped against something metallic. Relief washed through her, as she closed her fist around it. With one swift movement, she released the trunk lid and swung up with the tire iron connecting with the zombies head on the first swing. He stumbled back but didn’t fall until her second swing. When his body hit the ground and stopped moving, she scrambled out of the trunk and bashed him once more in the head just to be sure, before quickly turning to face his friend.

Before she could swing again, a scream rent the air. And not just any scream. This was Alyssa. This was Alyssa at five when her dog was hit by a car. It was Alyssa at nine trying to climb to the highest branch of their backyard oak and slipping, slipping. It was Alyssa at thirteen being jump-scared after watching a horror movie at night. It was Alyssa who was supposed to be safely locked in the car, and Audra felt her heart stop.

The zombie grabbing for her took a bite out of her jacket, and Audra ripped her arm away from him while driving the pointy end of the tire iron backwards through his ribs. It didn’t stop him, but he was forced back, and she had the room she needed to pivot and swing the iron again landing a blow to his head. Then another. There was no third this time; she was already spinning toward her sister who hadn’t made it farther than the door before a zombie had descended on her. It had her by the shoulders and had taken a large chunk out of the nape of her neck.

“No!” An animalistic shriek tore from Audra’s throat. She didn’t care how many zombies heard her. She didn’t care about anything except the monster killing her sister. The earth fell away beneath her feet, and she reached them in an instant. One hand grabbed the zombie by the collar and wrenched its head backwards, and the other hand brought the iron down on it hard. Then again. She released it, and it slumped lifeless to the floor. She hit it again and again.

“Audra,” Alyssa rasped out weakly, and she froze. Her sister had sunk back onto her seat in the car, her head lolling awkwardly to the side.

“Alyssa, hang on,” Audra cried, sinking to her knees in front of her. “I just need to stop the bleeding. Hang on.”

“Audra,” Alyssa choked out again. That was as much as she could say, but her eyes said the rest. She was dying, and she knew it.

“No, no, you can’t die. You’re the one who’s supposed to live.”

Alyssa’s eyes fluttered slightly, then drifted closed. They did not open again.

“No!” Audra screamed again. Several zombies had already reached her, and she jumped up, swinging wildly at them. They all fell swiftly, and she turned back to her sister. She could barely see through her tears, but she fumbled for her wrist to check for a pulse. It was already starting to go cold. Her head fell forward to rest in her sister’s lap, and she released a wail.

She was supposed to protect her. She was supposed to help her escape their mother and live with her in the city. She was supposed to help her with her college applications and watch her make new friends and listen to her talk about boys. She was supposed to watch her choose what sort of life she wanted for herself and help her get there. She was supposed to see the woman Alyssa would become. She wanted to know that person. She was supposed to know that person. And this… This couldn’t be real. Zombies weren’t real. But she could feel the concrete biting into her bare knees below her skirt, and she knew that it was.

She wanted to scream. To run. To rip out her own hair. Rage consumed her, and she stood. Audra stood to face the horde that was surging toward her. She had no time for grief, and that was just as well. She didn’t want to cry. She wanted to beat the life out of something. And she did.

When she finally emerged from the tunnel back in Manhattan, Audra was bruised, blood-spattered, and running. She barely had time to register the change in the city she had loved so much. It was enough to know that she wasn’t safe, and she couldn’t stop here. The ache in her muscles was just barely pushing through her adrenaline, and she forced it back while continuing to fight and looking for a quiet place to take a short break from the fray. A plan to go north had just started to form in the back of her mind, but she didn’t have time to think about it or flesh it out; she just had to keep moving. She wasn’t even sure if she wanted to survive, but her body had made the decision for her, pouring everything it had into every swing of the tire iron. She didn’t know what was ahead, only what was lost behind. And she knew this was only the beginning.