Travis screamed in pain.
I ran over to him and pulled him away from the girl. I looked at his arm and it didn't look good. No young girl that I'd ever seen before should have been able to bite such a large chunk out of someone's arm. The wound was big enough for a dog or a tiger bite, but not a girl. Not a girl who was as hurt and weak as that one.
"Oh my God," Heather said.
I turned around and the girl was trying to get back to her one good leg. She pulled herself up by the railing and echoed a hideous noise while doing so. As she got to one leg, her left leg completely unattached itself from her body and fell to the ground. She didn't seem to be bothered by that. She tried to come closer to us, but didn't even comprehend that her leg was gone. She took a step and fell to the ground but continued to crawl towards us. Dragging her body on the ground leaving behind a trail of smeared blood from her leg.
In desperate, uncontrolled movements, I looked around the building trying to grasp what had just happened and what we'd just seen. When my head turned to the area behind us, I saw another guy. Standing with his left shoulder hunched low to his side, blood on his shirt, and the same iris-less eyes that the other girl had. He stared at us and it didn't appear that the lights were on inside his head.
"Oh, fuck," Heather said when she turned around. "Shoot him, Kurt!"
"I'm not going to shoot him. He's just standing there."
"Then what do you suggest we do?" she asked.
"Run," I said.
I grabbed Travis and pulled him over to me. We ran down the stairs as fast as we could. We never looked back to the girl or the guy and had no idea if he was coming after us.
When we got to the bottom of the stairs we heard screams coming. It stopped us all in our tracks and we waited for something to appear. I think each one of us was collectively holding our breath until we saw what it was. It was the other group. All of them.
Jenny ran over to Travis, "Oh my God, what happened?"
"Some bitch fucking bit me."
"She what?"
"She bit me!"
"Are you okay?" Haylea asked as she ran up to me.
"Are you?"
"Yea, I'm fine."
"Kurt," Jack said as he looked through me.
I turned around and the guy from the upper section was making his way down the stairs. He didn't walk with a limp like the other girl, but he did walk like he had very little control over his muscles.
"Is that the guy that bit Travis?" Jack asked.
"No, it was a girl," I said.
"Too bad," Jack responded and pulled his gun out. He aimed at the guy and pulled the trigger without hesitation. The bullet flew past me, closer than I'd hoped a bullet ever would, and punctured the man right through his chest. He wobbled for a moment before falling to the ground.
"What is the matter with you?" I shouted.
"We need to go," Jack said. He still wouldn't look at me.
I turned around and the guy that he had just shot through the heart was beginning to move around on the floor. He was like a turtle stuck upside down on its shell. He rocked back and forth trying to get his weight far enough to one side so he could once again stand. Once he did, he pushed himself up to his knees, but Jack had seen enough. He walked closer this time and put a bullet in his head. That put the guy down.
"We need to go now," I said to everyone.
"What the hell are you?" was Jack's rhetorical question to the now dead guy.
"Jack come on," I yelled.
The seven of us sprinted down the halls. I left Travis with Jenny, but still would look back to make sure that they were keeping up with us.
We got to the lobby and sprinted up to the glass doors, but then stopped.
Dozens, if not hundreds, of people were walking around outside. They looked just like the guy and the girl from minutes before. Ragged. Dirty. Injured. Hurt. They were hostile and they were coming after us. For some reason, they were coming after us. We needed to get around them and get the fuck out of here, but...
"Oh, shit," I said.
"What? What's the problem?"
I looked at Jack and he finished my thought, "They're surrounding the van."
"What does that mean? What do we do?" asked a panicked Heather.
I looked at Haylea, "We'll never make it over there."
"Not alive...not all of us," Jack said softly.
LVIII
Scott Daugherty
I sometimes get lost in my own mind. I'll start thinking about something that a person said, for instance Jack or Kurt, and then imagine that I told them off. I'll imagine we get into this heated debate and everything I say puts them in their place. I have a lot of arguments in my head and I win them all. I can feel my brain bouncing back and forth inside my head as I make each person feel lower and lower as I speak my words. They have nothing on me and I have everything on them. I can accuse them of being cheaters, thieves, killers. I always win. I'm king of my own building.
I can get lost in my own mind sometimes. I run for hours chasing the colors of the spectrum and never get tired. I can run for hours. Isolation can drive a man to madness, but as long as I'm confident in my mind, they can't take me. They can't stop me.
"What are you doing?"
I can be in my mind for as long as I want, but sometimes I'm going to have to come back out and play or people are going to begin forming alliances against me and my mind...against us.
"What?" I turned to Dan.
"What are you doing?" Dan asked.
"I'm just looking out the window," I said.
"You shouldn't be so close to the open windows. You don't want to breathe too much of the air in."
I looked up and hadn't realized that I was standing there. The last place I remember being was over by the valve system in the equipment room. I took a deep breath and looked at Dan. He looked concerned about me. He should be concerned about himself, not us.
"The air is already with us."
"Are you okay?" he asked me.
"Dan... Dan, when you're trapped, there is no point in fighting. Putting up a fight just makes him angry."
"What? Makes who angry?" he looked at me with dumb eyes.
"Have a good rest of your day, Dan."
I waited for him to walk away from me. After a moment of my glaring, he finally did. He left. I turned my head on a swivel to make sure that he really was leaving us alone and that is when I saw Elyse on her way to the bathroom. Each step she took was like a kick to my heart. A passionate, fucking sexual kick that shot orgasmic chills through my body. I could feel the heat between us.
We were tired. Tired of imagining what the heat would be like if we were to be close. We were tired of hearing her screams of pleasure in my head. We needed to really hear it. We had waited long enough and we wanted her. Together. It had to be now or never. We had planned everything perfectly and our moment had finally come. She wanted it. We wanted it.
I walked over to the bathroom minutes after she had entered. I didn't bother to look around the lobby to see if anybody was watching me follow her. It wasn't creepy. She was inviting me in. She went into the bathroom and when she shut the door behind her, she didn't look back my way. That was a cue. That was a sign. An invitation to come in.
I got to the bathroom door and tried to listen to her. I wanted to hear everything from her. I wanted to hear the life of a beautiful woman coming from her flesh and blood. My fingertips felt the stiff wood of the door and as I slid my hands down I could feel my body become stiff with anticipation. I needed a taste. We needed a taste. My tongue stretched out and when I made contact with the door, it was almost too much. I closed my mouth and had to giggle from the pleasure.
Then I took in all the taste I could handle. I dragged my tongue across the wood until I reached the "woman's" sign. I put my hands on the women's sign and licked up her legs. I pressed my pelvis and stomach against the door and was finally prepared to enter a world of ecstasy.
"Elyse," I said as I
opened the door.
She was startled to see me. The cold water was pouring over her firm hands and washing away the remains of pure waste. Bent over the sink, she showed me a magnificent view of her cleavage. Her breasts shining in the mirror, welcoming me into a world of untainted fantasy. But it was their fantasy. This was our reality. I looked at her, her chest, and put my hands on myself. I wanted her to know that we could finally be together...all of us.
"Uhh, what are you doing in here Scott?"
"It's time to run away together," I said to her. Stepping closer.
"What? I told you that I'm not going anywhere."
"We're not leaving. We're running together. Sweating together. I need to run with you inside of me."
"What the hell is wrong with you, Scott? Are you sick?"
I grabbed her shoulders and pulled her into my chest and kissed her with so much bent up frustration. Everything that was inside of me came out in that kiss. She had been teasing and playing with me for so long that I needed her to feel how much damage she had done to my body.
She pushed me away and I could see blood trickle from her lower lip. It was the sign of our first perfect kiss. She pushed and tried to get around me and I loved that she wanted to keep things exciting and move around the floor.
I wrapped my arms around her and dragged her to the ground and moved on top of her. She tried to squirm her way out, but I was tired of moving around. I wanted us to be within each other now. It was time. No more waiting. I reached back and slapped her across the face. I didn't do it hard. As much as she wanted me to hurt her, I would never lay a finger on her gorgeous body.
I reached my hand up her shirt and felt her soft skin. My hands were the perfect fit. Both so soft that they glided over her young chest. She began to cry and I leaned over to get a taste of her tears. I kissed her. Licked her face and pushed my hips into her.
"I'm happy, too. We've wanted this so long."
"Get off me, you crazy fuck!" she said with love.
I slapped her again. She wanted me to be crazier. I wanted to give her crazier. I reached down and pulled off my pants and put my skin up against her body. She screamed, so because she asked, I slapped her again. The third one was probably the hardest one I gave her.
I pulled off her jeans and I was wrong before, she was wearing a sexy pair of pink panties. I shot up like a pole. I pulled those down and pushed myself into her. She let out a long lingering cry of pleasure and lust. I grabbed her hand and put it behind her head and squeezed it. Pushing into her and squeezing her hand. I wanted to be as close to her as I could be. I wanted us to become one...all of us become one.
I exited the bathroom leaving her in there to recover. She was probably going to need to splash some water on her face to wipe the sweat clean. The blood, the sweat, the tears...we had the most amazing sex that two people could have. I walked around hoping to get a glass of water, but stopped when I saw a new face in the kitchen. He looked so lost. Somebody that I had once known decades ago, but we didn't know him now. We weren't worried about others. It was just the two of us and Elyse now. Nobody else mattered. I meant that.
"Hello, Nick," I said my to returning coworker.
He turned to me and was encouraged to see a familiar face.
"Where is everyone?"
"They've all gone downtown. They left us in charge."
"Us? --What do you mean downtown?"
"Downtown. To get others."
"They're all going to die," Nick said to me.
I liked him. I smiled at his news.
LIX
Jack Scoville
H ave you ever been stuck in a situation where you know there was no escape? It may not necessarily even be a physical situation. I don't mean like being inside an eight-by-eight cell and having to escape. I don't mean looking into the eyes of the biggest linebacker on the field and knowing you only have one down, one yard, and just that linebacker between you and the end zone. I mean being in a situation where there is no escape.
For some younger people, it may be right after cheating on an exam. The teacher caught you, you were sent down to the principal's office, and he's going to say "explain yourself" but there is nothing you can say. You've been caught.
Maybe the cops just pulled you over and you've been drinking beer all night. You could have sworn that you were driving in a perfect straight line. You were making sure that your car didn't swerve one inch, but in doing that, you forgot to stay under the speed limit. Now that he's pulled you over for speeding he smells the booze. He's gonna test you. You're caught.
Have you ever been in a situation like that?
I haven't.
I can always get myself out of situations. I don't care if I'm staring into the barrel of a gun. I do not care if I am falling from an airplane with nothing but my shoes on my feet and my shirt on my back. I do not give a flying fuck if it is God himself sentencing me to an afterlife in hell. I will always get out of a situation.
Being stuck in an arena with crazed people outside ready to kill us in a heartbeat is no different.
"We're getting out of here," I said to everyone.
"How?"
"You expect us to go out there and politely ask those freaks to move out of our way because I don't think they're going to listen!" Travis' voice grew louder as his sentence wrapped up.
"Continue to put pressure on his wound," Emily told Jenny. Travis' arm was bleeding pretty badly. I was shocked someone could bite like that.
"We don't need to take the van," I started.
"You want to walk?!" Travis asked.
"Enough, Travis! Shut the fuck up," I yelled. "We don't need our van because there are cars all over the place. We take one of those. I can hot wire a car."
"How do you know how to do that?" Haylea asked me.
"I've hot-wired a car," I answered rudely because I didn't think that really mattered considering I was coming up with a plan to save her life.
"Look," Kurt began to say, "If we just wait this out, I'm sure they'll leave in a matter of hours. We'll wait until they do and then go."
"Wait? You want to sit around and wait here? We don't know what's in this building!"
"We need to get him back," Jenny said about Travis.
"It is suicide to go out there," Kurt said.
"Fuck you!" I yelled.
My outburst echoed in the halls of the arena. Everybody's eyes went to me and then Kurt. It was the first time that I had really blown my temper in front of everyone. I had disagreed with Kurt many times, but never like this. I did my best to make sure that the balance of power never shifted too drastically that this arrangement turned into a dictatorship, but enough was enough.
"I told you this was a bad idea. I told you we shouldn't come here."
"We had to," he said back.
"No, we didn't. You did! You had to come here to prove to everybody that you could lead this group and just like all the times before, you failed."
"He didn't fail," Haylea spoke up.
"He did. Your precious man failed again. Another one of our guys is hurting."
"I failed?"
"Yea, you did."
"What about you? You think you're a leader? Because you can kill three young men and not feel a thing. That makes you a leader?"
I was moved back. I didn't understand how he knew. He couldn't be making such an accusation without any proof because now wasn't the time for him to be taking such a gamble. The heat was on him so he had to have known something.
I looked around at the others in the group. Jenny, Travis, Heather, and Emily were staring at me like they just learned their favorite baseball player was taking steroids. Haylea continued to look at me the way she always does, which means Kurt already told his precious fiancé.
"What are you talking about?" Emily asked.
"The night Frank's brother, Cam, and his other friends killed Joe, Jack killed them. He followed them outside. I don't know when he did it or where he did it, but he followed t
hem out and shot all three of them."
"How do you know this?"
"Because he told Barry," Kurt said. In a flash of brilliance, he turned the heat back onto me. "You may be tough, Jack, but you're dumb. Somebody is always listening."
"I did what I had to. I did what you should have done. They killed one of ours! And you let them walk! Because of that Molly killed four kids! That was all because of you!"
"It wasn't your job to decide their fate!" Kurt yelled.
"No, it was yours! That was your job and you let everyone down. You let Joe down. Molly. You let those kids down. Kids whose names you probably don't even know."
It was like the entire room had gone pitch black and there were these two spotlights. One on me. One on Kurt. Shining down on us. Drawing us closer together until we finally could settle our differences. Everybody else in the room was in shock. They didn't add to the conversation. I could barely see them anymore. It was all a blur.
"Stephanie, Brad, Stacy, and Leigh. You son of a bitch, I know each one of their names."
"We need to leave," I said to him.
"You think you've got all the answers, Jack? You think this is all of my fault? Where were all of those people when we pulled up?"
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"The streets were cleared out when we got here. Those...people, those stragglers, killed everybody and were leaving. But you...you honked the horn, Jack. You honked the horn and brought them back."
I did it. I was so angry with Kurt, but he was right. There wasn't a single person on the streets until we pulled up. I honked the horn to make sure that nobody would jump out at us. I honked it to make sure the people that were going to save us knew we were coming.
"We can't wait this out," I said.
"You want to get us out of here," Kurt said to me. He made sure that his gun was loaded and ready to fire and then looked back up at me, "I'll follow your lead."
Dead Last (Vol. 1): Dead Last Page 29