Exodus: Soulless Wanderers Book 3 (A Post-Apocalyptic Zombie Thriller)

by Drew Strickland

  "You don't mean," Jennifer began, but stopped. Not many of the people could talk about what had happened at Alan's. Everyone in his small group who had travelled up with him had a special spot for Cole inside of them, and when he was killed, people didn't know what to say, so they just didn't bring it up.

  "He does," Dan said.

  "You know the place? The farm house down the road. Was that you?" Mark asked.

  Dan didn't answer. Instead, Jennifer spoke, but to Dan. "Let's go."

  "No," Mark said. "Pax said only Daniel. If anyone else shows, he'll kill her. I'm so sorry. I didn't want any of this to happen."

  "You need to go. You need to save Courtney, do you understand me, Daniel?" Jennifer asked.

  He did. He wouldn't let anything happen to Courtney.

  35

  Eden

  Eden sat at the top of the hill, her back against the metal wall of the place she called home. She finished eating the eggs that Daniel had started making, having to take over cooking them since he didn't get a chance to finish. She wasn't a huge fan of powdered scrambled eggs, but she would rather eat than not. Besides, with enough hot sauce, anything tasted good. That was something her father had taught her.

  She watched Daniel and Jennifer at the gate. Whatever was going on, it had triggered Daniel. She watched him beat the stranger down, punch after punch, not letting up until Jennifer pulled him off. But then, he stopped. She couldn't hear what they were talking about and would have to get closer to figure it out. Part of her was too lazy to care about it, but the other part was curious. What had made Daniel go off on someone in public? She had never seen him lose his temper like that.

  She stood up and stretched, watching Daniel cross the camp. He came back up the hill and went into the cabin. She turned and followed him inside. He went down the hall, then came right back to the kitchen, holding a shotgun and a pistol. She stood in his way.

  "What's going on?" she asked.

  "Move, please, I have something I need to do. Go see if Jennifer needs your help."

  Eden didn't move. "And what are you going to be doing?"

  "Something is happening. It's Courtney, and she needs my help."

  "Cool, I wanna come."

  Daniel shook his head. "No, I need to go by myself."

  Eden folded her arms across her chest. "What? Why? You just told me you wouldn't leave. You told me you'd help me, you'd show me." She couldn't believe what she was hearing. She knew adults lied to kids, but she was thirteen. She should be kept in the loop, especially after everything that had happened. She thought Daniel understood that. It wasn't fair.

  "Eden, not now. This isn't one of those times, okay? This is real. This is dangerous."

  "Everything is dangerous now!" she screamed. "You lied to me."

  Daniel shook his head and pushed her gently to the side. He turned around. "Look, I promise when I get back, we'll talk about everything. We'll plan time for the both of us. I will be here for you, okay? It's just, right now, this one thing I have to do alone. There's nothing else I can do about it."

  He turned and left her standing alone in the kitchen. She wanted to scream. She wanted to throw something. Instead, she stepped outside and watched Daniel walk out the gate. She could see a car drive away with him at the wheel. She ran down the hill where Jennifer was helping the man. Daniel had really done a number on his face.

  "Eden," Jennifer said. "Can you get me some clean towels for Mark? We need to help get him cleaned up."

  "I wanted to go out—"

  "Dan said to me that I need you to help me, got it? There's work that needs to be done here. Dan needs to go do what he needs to do."

  Eden took a deep breath and let it out in a long sigh. "Fine." She turned around and stormed off to the shed with the supplies inside. She turned around the hill where nobody was at and looked at the fence. She hated being treated like a child that didn't know what to do. She knew how to kill soulless. Hell, she had even killed Alan. Not Courtney, not Jennifer, not Cole, not even Daniel. It was her. She killed him. But everyone wanted to keep her safe, everyone wanted to treat her like she couldn't keep herself safe.

  Fuck them, she thought. She smiled a little, knowing she wasn't supposed to talk like that. At least, that's what her parents had always told her. Being around all the different people now, she had picked up a few new words.

  Eden ran to the fence and climbed up on the beams. If Daniel wouldn't take her with him, then she would find him herself. Her feet landed on the soft soil on the other side of the fence, and she took off running before Jennifer could figure out she was missing.

  36

  Vanessa

  Vanessa had stopped crying after they left. She wanted to drive all night back to the city, back to the hospital where she would feel safe and at home again. Back to where Hector was. God, she missed him so much. She hadn't been away from him longer than an afternoon since being at the hospital until now. This was all supposed to be for the better of the community. They were supposed to find others to trade with and grow together. Instead, they were losing their community by being separated.

  The men had convinced Vanessa that driving all night back through the city was a bad idea. Instead, they pulled off the highway and to the side of the road. They had parked in the parking lot of an abandoned fast food restaurant. She couldn't make out what it was in the night, and when she woke up, she didn't recognize the logo at all. It was some generic-looking cartoon chicken, holding up a biscuit with a stupid smile on his face. Could chickens even twist their beaks like lips? She was sure they couldn't and thought about how stupid the whole idea of advertising seemed now.

  She looked over and saw Carlos snoring away in the front seat. Eduardo and Todd were in the SUV, and she assumed were a lot more comfortable than they were. She opened the door and hopped out of the truck. Her legs were stiff and ached from being in one position all night. It felt good to stretch. The parking lot was still empty. No soulless were in sight. For a moment, it actually seemed like a nice, peaceful day. But she knew the truth. She knew what was happening back at the house where she left Pax at. She couldn't face any of it. That's why she left.

  The front seat of the SUV opened up, and Eduardo stepped out. "What's the plan, boss lady?"

  She stared at him, definitely not in the mood for any questions. "Eduardo, I love you, but do not call me that."

  He shrugged. "You got it, bo—" He stopped himself before it was too late.

  "I don't know what the plan is." She could see Todd still sleeping in the back seat of the SUV. "I suppose we should wake up the two snoring assholes first. Did you get any rest?"

  Eduardo shook his head. "Nah, can't sleep out here. I took the whole night shift. Better to let Todd sleep if he can."

  Vanessa nodded. She started to worry about going back home. What was she going to tell everyone at the hospital?

  Sorry, guys. We found a community that seemed nice, but then our fearless leader went off his rocker and ruined it all. Now, we have no open lines of communication, we have no hope of food, and our leader is gone. But hey! We're back.

  She closed her eyes and shook her head. That wouldn't be good at all.

  "Don't worry about it," Eduardo said as if he could read her mind. "It's all gonna be okay. No matter what happens, we're still all here. We will figure things out. The plan wasn't bad. Maybe we just need to keep at it."

  She smiled. "Thanks Eduardo. I guess we should hit it, then."

  He nodded, and they both got into their driver’s seats. Vanessa fired up the truck and shifted into drive. Carlos still snored away. She elbowed him in the ribs, startling him awake.

  "W-what's wrong?" he asked, bolting upright.

  "Oh good, you're awake." Vanessa stretched her mouth wide in a grin. "We're leaving."

  "Fuck, I wanted to get some food," Carlos whined.

  She drove the truck down the road and to the onramp to the highway. "Guess you'll have to wait until we take a pit stop," she sa
id, still smiling at him.

  "Vanessa." Carlos pointed ahead at the highway. "Look."

  Vanessa turned her attention to the road. At the top of the onramp, a large semi stretched across the lane, blocking anything from crossing. She slowed her vehicle down to a stop. "What the fuck? Did someone drive that over here?"

  She looked in her rearview mirror at Eduardo in the SUV behind them. Before she could roll her window down to tell him to backup, she saw another semi, but without the back trailer attached, drive behind them. Three more trucks drove up the onramp and blocked them all in.

  "Fuck," Carlos said. "What do you think?"

  Vanessa shook her head. There was nothing to think. They were blocked in and there was no driving around them. Instead, she only watched the semi in front of her. The door opened and a man stepped out of the cab. He had a bandana wrapped around his face and dark sunglasses on. He didn't hold a weapon, but he didn't have to. Three men ran up from behind him and held out three very large automatic rifles, pointed directly at them.

  The man motioned for them to get out.

  "We can't go out there," Vanessa said.

  "Then what? Look behind us." Carlos' voice was panicked.

  He was right. Behind them, three men on each side of the SUV stood holding the same weapons as the men in front of Vanessa and Carlos. She turned her attention back to the man in front. He nodded his head. She imagined he was smiling underneath the bandana.

  "Come on out of there. No guns, or we'll light you up," the man called out.

  Vanessa put her pistol on the dash, hoping he could see her do it. The last thing she wanted to do was give them any reason to shoot at her. He nodded and motioned again. She opened the door.

  "We're coming out. No guns like you said. You can take the vehicles, whatever you want from them, but we aren't a threat to you, okay?" She closed her eyes and waited.

  "I know that. We all do. Can't you see that? You're not a threat to us at all." He began to walk to the door. "Now, everyone out or we will unload."

  She stepped out of the truck and nodded to the SUV behind them. There was nothing else to do but comply. She didn't want to get anyone hurt and the best she could do was hope that they only wanted to take what they had.

  "What do you want?" she asked.

  The men holding the automatic rifles ran up to Eduardo, Carlos, and Todd. They threw them against the vehicles and started to frisk them roughly.

  "Stop it, you don't need to hurt them," Vanessa pleaded.

  The man pulled his bandana down, revealing his face. It was badly disfigured. His skin was wavy, red and white, as if he had been burned. It covered most of his face as she could see when he pulled his dark sunglasses off. "They'll be fine," he said, his voice somewhat gravelly.

  Vanessa watched as he looked her up and down. She hated how his eyes felt on her, making the hair on the back of her neck stand up. "Get a good look, asshole?"

  He smiled, rubbing his rough chin. "You were headed off in quite a hurry. At least it seems like way," he finally said. "Tell me, where are you coming from?"

  "What?"

  He stepped up, putting his face against hers. She could smell the sugar on his breath from whatever he had been drinking. "I want to know where you are coming from. Where you are going. I want to know where the others are."

  "I have no idea what you are talking about. We are just looking for a place where others might be alive." She wasn't going to tell him anything about where they came from or where they were headed.

  He laughed, still close to her face. He quickly grabbed her face, squeezing her cheeks hard. "Tell me what I want to know or your man over there will be killed." He pushed her face to the side, showing her that he wasn't lying. One of the men held Todd's head down against the hood of the SUV. Another held the barrel of their gun against the side of his head.

  "No, don't do it," she managed to eke out.

  "Then tell me what—"

  "We came from up north," Carlos said. "There's a house. We were looking for others but didn't see anyone." Carlos looked scared.

  The man with the disfigured face walked over to Carlos. "I see. And what else?" He looked in the back of the SUV where all of the supplies were. "Looks like an awful lot of supplies you got there. Some medical supplies, lots of food. You're telling me that was all for what?"

  "We had others with us. That puto gringo and his friend."

  "Carlos, don't!" Vanessa screamed. The disfigured man looked at Vanessa, still smiling.

  "Why? I'm not gonna die for that asshole boyfriend of yours. Pax isn't worth it."

  The man spun his head back to Carlos. "What did you say?"

  "I said we left others. Pax and Mark. I'm not gonna die for him."

  The man nodded. "I see. So, this Pax. Where is he?"

  "Up the road. I can write it down for you."

  "And you say that she," he pointed at Vanessa, "is his girlfriend?"

  "Shut up, Carlos!" Vanessa screamed.

  The man raised a hand and snapped his fingers. The two men grabbed Vanessa. She struggled, but they were too strong. One of them clamped a hand over her mouth, keeping her from screaming anymore.

  "You were saying?" the man asked Carlos.

  "She was, I guess. I'll tell you where, and you'll let us go, right?"

  The man grinned. "How about you show me instead?" He turned around and began to walk back to the semi. "Load them up," he said.

  Suddenly, two men pulled Vanessa backward. She watched as his other men grabbed Todd, Carlos, and Eduardo. She tried to struggle again, but there was no use. Before she knew it, she was stuffed into the back of the empty semi along with her friends. Everything went dark when they closed the doors on them. She heard the engine fire up, and they began to move.

  37

  Dan

  Dan was getting closer to the road that led to what Mark had called the death house. It was a fitting name. There had been a lot of death there. Probably before Dan had even showed up on that night. The blood was soaked into more than just the carpet from what had happened there. It was funny, in a way, to think about having to go back there for some sort of showdown again. Except, he didn't even know what it was for.

  He pulled the car over to the side of the road and cut the engine off. In the distance he saw a soulless woman meandering about. She hadn't heard the car or spotted Dan. She just stepped to the side, swaying around as if she were just a woman who had a very late night, drunk and stumbling away, trying to make it home. At least, she would look like that if her skin wasn't rotting and her clothes weren't mostly torn and bloodied. He opened the door and stepped out of the car. He slammed it shut, drawing the attention of the soulless women.

  She crossed the street to meet him where Dan stood. She had what looked like a knife embedded in her chest. Probably some poor sap's attempt at taking her out gone wrong. Her face looked shredded, probably from all the tree branches.

  He imagined the soulless in the city were not so torn apart. They only had buildings to run into and not twigs and other pokey branches to rip into their flesh. But he was sure there was something else, like broken glass or jagged metal that the city offered in place of branches to tear into the dead's flesh. He smiled thinking about how he hadn't been to a city in a while. That is, other than the small towns nearby, but nothing big enough to write home about.

  He pulled his knife out from his belt and quickly shoved the blade into the side of the woman's head. Her chomping and smacking ceased immediately, and she dropped to the road. That was good. It gave him a little warm up before he had to go kill Pax, for whatever reason the man had. It didn't much matter to Dan anymore. It was all about Courtney now.

  He looked at the body by his feet. The hilt of the knife stuck from her chest. He knelt down and pulled it out of her with a sucking thwap sound. He studied it and wiped the blood on her ragged shirt. It wasn't very big, but there was no point in not keeping it. He shoved it down in his boot and stood up.

 
; He turned to the forest and began to walk. He knew he couldn't just drive up to the gates. That would be a death sentence. At the very least, he wanted to size up Pax before he went in. He had only seen the man for a brief moment and didn't really get to study him. If he could get a good look, then maybe… Maybe what? Maybe he would figure out what transgressions had occurred? It was doubtful. But maybe he could figure out how desperate, how serious, Pax was.

  First, he had to hike to the house and find him.

  38

  Pax

  "You said Dan killed your wife?" Courtney asked.

  "Daniel," Pax said, his irritation getting the better of him. He may have told others his name was Danny or Dan or the queen of England for all he cared. All he knew was he was Daniel.

  "Daniel, then. Can I ask, how?"

  Pax stared at Courtney as they sat outside. She had stopped crying sometime in the middle of the night. He hadn't slept at all, and he was sure that she hadn't either. He remembered offering her the bed, and she seemed to cringe at the idea. She laid on the floor of the bedroom instead. He sat on the bed, the whole night, eyes open, thinking about nothing other than Daniel. Courtney hadn't been a threat to him at all.

  He figured she was just as naive as he had been when he first met Daniel.

  "What do you want me to say?" he finally offered.

  The two of them sat in chairs on the front porch of the house. The bullet holes were splintered in the door frame and made deep holes in the stucco walls. The morning was chilly, but Pax didn't wear anything other than a long sleeve Henley. There was nothing he could wear that would kill the chill inside of him.