Dead State (Book 5): Evolved

by Shupert, Derek

  In a panic, I try to think of my next move. My hand grazes the Glock. I grab the grip and take aim at the infected man’s skull. I squeeze the trigger as he bends toward me.

  The brief white flash of muzzle fire lights up his bloody face. The skin on the side of his head looks like ground beef. The bullet punches through his skull and explodes out of the back of his head.

  He drops to the ground, lifeless and dead for good this time.

  Cassie scrambles out of the Jeep. “James! Are you ok?”

  More shrills taint the air. They don’t seem as far away now.

  “Yeah, I’m good. Get back in the Jeep!” I get my feet under me and trudge to the Jeep. I hop inside, and slam the door as a chaser rushes headlong into the side of the vehicle. I lean away, and stare at the rage-induced fiend as it hammers the window with bloody fists.

  “Cutting it too close, there,” Bill observes.

  I take aim at the window, ready to fire in case it breaks through. “The guy we hit wasn’t dead. He is now.”

  Bill throws the Jeep into drive and punches the gas. The tires spin out as he bears down on the car in the middle of the road. The chaser sprints after us while pounding on the side of the Jeep.

  Bill cuts the steering wheel to the right and heads for the ditch. He swerves from side to side, trying to avoid the debris from the wrecked car. “Hold on!”

  We run along the edge of the ditch as Bill maneuvers around the car. The tires dig into the dirt. Bill jerks the steering wheel to the left and sends us back to the blacktop.

  I glance into the sideview mirror, and watch as the chaser drifts farther away from us.

  “Those things are everywhere,” Bill grumbles. He looks at me and pats my chest with his large hand. “You good?”

  I nod, then knock his hand away while staring at him. “Yeah. He didn’t bite me if that’s what you’re getting at. I thought you said he was dead?”

  Bill shrugs. “He looked pretty damn dead to me. Hell, we hit him going sixty plus. You saw what he looked like when we checked him out. He should’ve been toast.”

  I sit the Glock in my lap. “From now on, we may want to stick them in the head if we’re unsure. That way, we’ll know they’re dead. I’d rather do that than have one sneak up on me, and take a bite out of my hide.”

  Bill nods in agreement.

  I feel something touch my elbow from the backseat. I flinch, and pull away.

  “Sorry,” Cassie says. “Didn’t mean to startle you.”

  “It’s ok. Just a little wound up with everything that is going on is all.” I brush it off with a wave of my hand, then sit up straight in the seat, and twist to look at Cassie. “What were you saying earlier about Hive not doing something?”

  “Yeah. Those guys in the car back there talked about how they thought the drives and Cindy could be worth a ton of money. They joked that it would be more than just a ride out of the states,” Cassie answers.

  “They didn’t say exactly what they were thinking of doing, did they?”

  Cassie bites her bottom lip and tries to break through the brick wall inside her head. Frustrated, she shakes her head no, then says, “It’s all kind of a blur. Bits and pieces are coming back slowly. I’m sorry I don’t remember more.”

  I can’t get mad at Cassie for not being able to remember. After all, she was just in a bad car wreck that could have killed her. She has given me enough to know that we need to get to that military base as fast as possible. I’m just glad she is still alive.

  Duke pushes his way through the narrow opening between her stomach and the seat. He rests his head in her lap while looking at me with those large eyes.

  Cassie continues to probe the cut on her forehead.

  I look it over. It’s a nasty gash, but it doesn’t look too deep from what I can see. “You might end up getting a good size bump there. Looks like one’s already forming. Does it hurt bad?”

  “It still hurts and throbs some, but the dizziness is waning. At least I’m not trapped upside down in that car anymore.” Cassie lowers her hand.

  Duke licks around his snout as Cassie rubs the top of his head. He groans, then sighs through his nose. He looks relaxed, more so than I have seen him be in a while.

  “I think it’s safe to say that he’s missed you,” I say.

  Cassie runs her fingers down between his eyes and over his snout while speaking softly to him.

  “Seems that way. I missed him a lot as well.” She glances up to me, then adds, “I’ve missed you both. I’m glad you two are safe.”

  A warm smile spreads across my battered face. Despite how bad I want to panic, I’m trying to hold it together the best I can. Losing it wouldn’t solve anything. Cassie takes things in stride better than I do. She has her moments, then she moves on. I need to learn to do that more.

  Cassie offers a hint of a smile which dissolves as fast as it came. Her bottom lip quivers. She diverts her gaze away from me and sniffles.

  Perhaps I spoke to soon. Even the strongest of people have moments where they can’t hold back their feelings.

  “Don’t worry about Cindy. We’re going to get her back,” I say.

  Cassie presses the top of her hand under her nose as she struggles to hold the tears at bay. “I know we are. I just feel so bad about Lucas. He risked his life for us, and now he’s dead. It hurts losing him. Hurts losing anybody else, really, since there’s so few of us left.”

  Bill peers over to me and gives me a sad look.

  I place my hand on her knee. “Lucas was a good man. I miss him terribly as well, but he’s no longer in pain, and that’s the important thing. What happened to him, to us, is not anyone’s fault except for those bastards who took all of you. If they would have left us be, then things would’ve been different.”

  Cassie gives me a reassuring nod, then sits back with Duke still resting in her lap.

  I give her some time to process everything. It kills me to think that Cassie feels responsible for what has happened. That couldn’t be further from the truth.

  “Do you know where this military base is in Eureka?” I ask.

  Bill nods while keeping his sights glued to the road ahead of us. “Yeah. We’re maybe a couple hours away. Ranger kept tabs on any military installations within the area, among other locations he felt to be of importance.”

  “Probably the best place to be with all of these chasers around,” I mention. “You think this base in Eureka is the one they’re at? Shane didn’t say that. Granted, he could’ve been trying to throw us off or something.”

  Bill taps the ends of his fingers against his chin as he ponders my question. “It’s possible, or he may not have known. Sounds like it was a last-minute decision, and well, he wasn’t there with them. In the end, it’s beside the point.”

  It’s true. The only thing that matters to me now is that we reach Eureka before the bombs drop, and before Ranger has the chance to do anything with Cindy.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  My foot raps against the floorboard without pause. The dull tapping against the dense plastic floormat fills my ears as I bite my fingernails.

  I’ve been submerged in what if’s and what needs to be done when we reach this military base. My main focus is Cindy. Once I have her, everything else is secondary. I’m not sure how we’re going to steer clear of the blast, but we’ll figure it out. We have to.

  The night wears on, long and painful.

  It’s a race against time as we slog through this dreary, dismal night.

  The highways and towns we pass through have pockets with no activity, while others find us dealing with the creatures in droves.

  The headlights bring to life the meager bodies of the damned who wander aimlessly, searching for any source of substance to quell their famished stomachs. We slip past the emaciated infected without incident.

  Some of the chasers stagger about on rail-thin legs that look as though they could break with their next step. Lost, without any sense of what to do,
they stumble through the blackness of a dying world.

  The more evolved chasers react much faster to any curious sounds. In a blink, they’re sprinting after the Jeep with their arms reaching for our tail lights. They’re fast, and manage to keep up for a short stint before they fade to black, and the night swallows them whole.

  Bill keeps his attention focused on the cluttered roads and eerie towns. When he’s not telling me to settle down and let him drive, he’s staring out of the cracked windshield at the road before us.

  I continue rapping my foot against the floormat without pause.

  Bill sighs, then reaches over and places his hand on top of my leg. “You’re killing me with that, James. It’s all I’ve heard for the past hour or more. I know you’re worried, but for all of our sakes, please, give it a rest.”

  He’s agitated. That much is certain. We’ve had a rotten few days, and the crap storm we’re trudging through doesn’t look like it’s going to let up anytime soon. Plus, I haven’t helped with my constant barrage of questioning his driving.

  I stop gnawing at the ends of my fingers, and plant my foot to the floorboard. “Yeah. Sorry. Nervous is all.”

  Bill removes his hand from my leg. “I get it, but that noise is grinding on my nerves. Kind of makes it hard for me to concentrate when that tapping is all I hear.”

  I peer at the dash, searching for a clock. I can’t find it.

  I sigh in frustration, then ask, “Does anyone know what time it is?”

  Bill glances to the dash, then shrugs. “Not sure, but we just entered Eureka.”

  He points to his right at a sign illuminated by our headlights.

  It’s about time.

  I glance to the backseat at Cassie. She’s lounged against the leather back of the bench seat with her head resting on the top. Duke is curled up into a ball with his head on her lap. He hasn’t made a peep in some time. He must be sleeping well. The subtle snoring coming from his snout indicates as much.

  “Where are we,” Cassie asks through a yawn. She leans forward and rubs her eyes. Duke wakes up and lifts his head from her lap. He sits up and shakes his head as he yawns.

  “We just entered Eureka,” I answer.

  Cassie rubs her hands over her face and brushes against the gash on her forehead. She grits her teeth and pulls away in discomfort.

  “Forgot about that cut up there,” she says. “Probably shouldn’t have gone to sleep since I banged my head pretty good.”

  It hadn’t even dawned on me to keep her awake. “How are you feeling? Better?”

  Cassie moans, but nods. “I feel a bit better. My head doesn’t feel like it’s full of loose marbles anymore. Just sore is all. Body is stiff too.”

  I reach out and knead the crown of Duke’s head. He groans, then licks my palm.

  “So, what’s our game plan here?” Cassie poses.

  “Hard to say since we don’t know what we’re walking into. Do you know how many men Ranger has with him?” I ask.

  “Maybe a dozen or so. Not sure,” Cassie responds. “He had two SUV’s filled with men, along with Cindy and Commander Reynolds. That wasn’t including the three men who were with me in that car that flipped over.”

  “Looks like they may be down a carload,” Bill mentions as he brings the Jeep to a grinding halt.

  I flinch, then face forward in my seat. I lean toward the door, and peer through the right portion of the cracked windshield.

  An SUV is parked on the side of the road with the passenger side doors wide open. The taillights and headlights are lit up, which means this just happened not too long ago.

  Mounted on the hood is a chaser who punched through the front windshield. It thrashes about, trying to break free of the jagged glass that tears into its chest.

  “Yeah. That is one of their vehicles,” Cassie says while pointing at the SUV. “They must’ve hit that chaser while going pretty fast.”

  I skim over the area, searching for Cindy or Commander Reynolds, but don’t spot them among the carnage. Thank God.

  Bill points at the chaser while looking at me. “That could’ve been us earlier. We were fortunate that thing rolled over the Jeep, and didn’t come busting through the windshield.”

  I couldn’t agree more.

  A small group of infected hovers around the vehicle like vultures, picking and feeding on the dead bodies of the men who lay on the ground.

  In the middle of the road, away from the rear of the SUV, more chasers feast on the bodies of the armed men who were pulled from the cab. Their bloody hands dig into the corpses like savage beasts and pull moist clumps of organs out. Teeth chew and grind on the meaty strands of flesh and muscle that dangle from their decaying mouths.

  Oddly enough, the gruesome sight doesn’t stir my stomach. I have witnessed such horrid things for so long now that it has become second nature.

  “Better them than us.” I have no sympathy for the vile men. They deserved it, and so much more.

  Bill and Cassie give me a peculiar stare. I guess my statement caught them by surprise. Although, considering who it was geared toward, it shouldn’t have.

  The subtle sound of the chaser’s yowls loom just outside of the Jeep. Duke growls from the backseat and stares out of the window next to Cassie. He’s up on all fours with his ears standing on end.

  “Oh, Christ!” Bill yells while pointing out my window.

  A ghastly gray figure emerges from the fading darkness and charges the Jeep in a dead sprint. I flinch and lean away from the window as the rawboned corpse smashes into the steel body of the Jeep.

  Duke barks at the enraged chaser who hammers the window with clenched fists. The noise draws the other chasers from their current meals. They stand up, and stare at us. They swallow what morsels are caught in their mouths and rush the Jeep.

  Bill punches the gas and bulldozes through the incoming infected. Their scrawny frames smash into the grill of the Jeep as we plow over the dead bodies in the road. The chasers hold on for a brief stint before disappearing under the vehicle.

  The steering wheel shifts from side to side as the Jeep rolls over the bodies. We’re tossed about in our seats from the dead under us.

  I scan the sides of the road, but don’t see the other SUV. “Looks like it was just the one SUV. I’m not seeing the other which means they kept moving.”

  That’s good for us, seeing as their numbers have been sliced in half.

  “I guess it’s every man for themselves, now,” Cassie observes.

  “That’s generally Hives M.O.,” Bill adds while skirting around the few vehicles that sit in our way. “From this point forward, we don’t stop until we get to the base. We’re running low on fuel, and I don’t think anyone here wants to walk the rest of the way on foot.”

  “Agreed.” I grab my rucksack from the floorboard.

  We enter the outskirts of the dismal city as night dissolves. I catch flashes of the buildings and other structures we pass by as I dig inside my pack.

  “Everybody, hold on,” Bill growls through clenched teeth.

  I look up from the pack and find the street ahead swarming with infected. They stagger about, blocking our way through. Several mangled bodies lie motionless on the pavement. They appear to have been crushed by something of considerable weight. The other SUV must have charged down this way.

  Bill jerks the steering wheel to the right and out of the way of the bodies that are scattered over the road. He sends the Jeep climbing over the center median. We hit the grass and race for the other side of the street.

  The infected search for the source of the sound. They lock onto the Jeep in a blink, and sprint after us. The tires bounce over the curb and hit the pavement. The backend sways back and forth as Bill fights to regain control.

  The wave of infected charge across the median in a mad dash. More emerge from the buildings to our right as Bill straightens us out.

  The skeletal frames of the chasers slam into the Jeep without care. Bill tries to swerve o
ut of the way, but tags the infected none-the-less.

  “I’m not sure how much more this thing can take,” I call out.

  Bill maneuvers around the rest of the chasers and breaks away from the advancing horde. “It just needs to hold up a bit longer until we get through them.”

  Cassie holds Duke tight in her arms as we’re thrashed from side to side. Bill skirts the scores of abandoned cars in our way. The tires screech as the tread fights for traction.

  I check the sideview mirror, and spot the chasers sprinting after us.

  “How much farther to the base?” My voice is strained and thick with worry. I know we’re close.

  Bill breathes heavily through his nose. His nostrils flare as he works through the maze of streets.

  “Not much, but we may not make it. Not in this tin can, at least,” he grumbles. “I’m getting a ton a feedback in the steering column.”

  “What does that mean, in English?” I counter.

  The engine rattles and sputters which doesn’t sound promising. Bill stares at the dash with a concerned gaze as he pumps the gas pedal.

  “It means that we’re probably going the rest of the way on foot,” he clarifies.

  The smell of asphalt funnels into the Jeep through the vents. I wave my hand in front of my face, trying to divert the terrible stench from my nose.

  “What is that smell?” Cassie grumbles from the backseat.

  “Trouble,” Bill responds.

  CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

  The Jeep sputters its last, dying breath and rolls to a stop in the middle of the street. Thin trails of smoke seep through the narrow slits of the hood and grill.

  Bill pumps the gas pedal twice, then turns the ignition over. The lights on the dash flash, but the engine refuses to engage. “Time to bail. Grab your stuff, and let’s go!”

  He slings the Jeep door open and hops out onto the street. He pulls his seat forward and tilts the backrest toward the steering wheel.