Free Vaccination by Phillip Tomasso

trouble here,” she said.
    “We need to keep walking. I need to get to my kids.”
    “I know that,” she said. She started to walk, short, slow steps. “We’re going to get them. We’re going to save them from your ex. But then what? That’s what I’m asking. Then what do we do?”
    “We go to Mexico,” I said. I tried to sound confident. She seemed to need that. “We’ve talked about this.”
    “No, I know. Mexico. But…look at our highways. The expressway looks like a parking lot. We can’t just keep going from one vehicle to the next blockage, and then get in another vehicle. . .”
    “Why can’t we?”
    “Why aren’t we now? Why are we walking? You know how far the mall is? I’m already tired. My feet hurt, and I’m already thirsty,” she said. “Do you see what I’m saying, Chase? The mall. We’re what? Like two miles from the mall? We’ve come like, what? Two miles already? Know the last time I walked four miles, Chase?”
    “Allison,” I said.
    “And we’re going to what? We’re going to walk from New York, from Rochester, all the way to Mexico? I’m no geography major, Chase, but I know it’s like twelve hundred miles from here to Orlando. To fucking Disney, Chase. Disney. So if we were headed to Disney, Chase – guess what? We would still have eleven hundred and ninety-eight miles to go. Eleven ninety-eight.” She screamed.
    I grabbed her head, slapped my hand over her mouth. With gritted teeth I whispered, my lips pressed against her ear. “No screaming, Alley. I understand everything you just said. But keep your voice down.”
    There was no threat made. It was there. Hung between us. She had done well on the expressway ramp, saved my life, even. I’d already thanked her for that. “We good?”
    She nodded; eyes open wide, staring at me. I removed my hand.
    “So we’re clear,” she said, voice barely above a whisper , “you ever touch me like that again and I’ll crack your skull.”
    “Good. Then we both understand what’s going on here.”
    She nodded again. I noticed her hand on the L-head of her iron. Didn’t bother me. She needed to toughen up. If she was mad at me, hated me, then fine. It would be good for her. Help her. She could thank me later.
    Silence ensued. Between Ridgeway Avenue and Weiland Road, we were leaving the industrial part of the city, and entering the town of Greece. Residential areas. We could have cut down Weiland to Long Pond Road. Then north on Long Pond to the mall, but what made me say no, to continue toward Holmes Road was the thought of where Weiland hit Long Pond. Directly across the street from there was the hospital. Unity.
    I had no reason to fear the hospital, but something just made me feel like with all the monsters on the street right now, the ones spilling out of the hospital would be worse. They might not be. It could be just irrational fears, but I couldn’t shake it. I didn’t want to go anywhere near the place. Allison didn’t argue. She didn’t ask why I wanted to keep on to Holmes, but she didn’t argue. I was good with that.
    I saw the streetlight at the intersection. I also saw more cars dead in the road. Allison had been right. It would be difficult car jumping. Taking one vehicle as far as we could, and then scrounging around for another. It could be done. Might become annoying, but that was no reason not to at least try.
    “We’ll check these cars up here for . . .”
    “For, what?”
    “Shhhh,” I said. The streetlights worked shining round domes of light onto the roads, but did little to battle the darkness that surrounded us. “I hear people.”
    People had to be a loose term. Sounded more like animals. Grunts and groans. Moaning and yelping. What the hell were we going to do?
    “Now what?” Allison had her Iron out. The belt loop had not infringed the weapon from coming free. Her other hand clutched at my forearm.
    “We need to hide. See what’s going on.”
    “Hide? Where?”
    We were under the