Gar slowly eased the Mustang around the first stake.
Courtney clenched her hands tight. She glanced right, left, right, left. Whoever the people were who could do such a thing....nothing was beyond them.
They came to the second stake. Again Gar went around, barely missing a ditch.
“Keep your head down,” Sally Ann said to Sansa, who was trying to look out.
“Maybe we’re in luck,” Gar said. “Maybe no one is around.”
They came abreast of the last house and Courtney let out a breath of relief.
A curve appeared, screened by trees.
Gar gained speed. They were into the curve when once again he slammed on the brakes.
The road was blocked. A pair of telephone poles had been placed across it, the severed wires still attached. There was no way to go around because of trees.
“A trap, maybe!” Sally Ann said.
Courtney cradled her shotgun but no threats appeared.
The Mustang sat idling, Gar peering out the windshield.
“We should find another way” Sally Ann said.
Nodding, Gar shifted in his seat. “I’ll back up.” He looked out the rear window. “Oh, hell.”
Courtney turned, and thought she was seeing things. Her brain refused to accept the reality. It simply could not be.
Yet it was.
Lumbering toward them, blocking their retreat, was a mutated monster, in every sense of the word. Easily twelve feet tall, with shoulders as wide as a bull’s and an elephantine bulk, it was an abomination of Nature. Not that Nature had anything to do with its creation. Chemical and biological weapons were to blame, or more likely, a combination of the two.
Its head was misshapen, a repulsive pale moon cratered with oozing sores. The rest of its skin—it was entirely naked—was pitted and discolored. Most of its hair had fallen out. Insanity, and ferocity, gleamed in its wide eyes.
In its right hand it held a gigantic club.
Which it raised, and attacked.
“Get us out of here!” Sally Ann shouted.
Gar spun the wheel and buried the gas pedal, trying to swerve around the monster. But there wasn’t room. The rear corner of their car struck the creature’s leg. It was like striking a wall.
The club—it looked to be part of a utility pole—smashed onto the trunk with such force, it buckled the metal.
Gaga let out a howl of terror.
Courtney frantically began rolling down her window to get a clear shot.
Roaring like a beast, the mutation stooped and hooked a bulging forearm under the back of their car.
Incredulous, Courtney felt the Mustang rise. The thing was lifting the rear end into the air.
At the same time, it swung its club at the back window.
“Get down!” Sally Ann bawled, flinging herself at Sansa.
Glass burst in a shower of shards.
Gar reached for his door handle. “I’ll get out and try to stop it!”
By then Courtney had her window down. “No! Let me!” She shoved the upper half of her body out.
Like King Kong over that train, the abomination loomed over the Mustang. Its mad eyes found her.
Courtney started to bring the shotgun to bear, only to have it stop short. She glanced down to discover the sling had caught on the lock.
“Look out!” Gar bellowed.
Courtney jerked back just as the gigantic club swished past her face. Unhooking the sling, she leveled the shotgun at the thing’s broad chest.
The buckshot mangled flesh and sprayed gore. It left a hole Courtney could sink her fist into.
All the monster did was take a half-step back, grunt, and return to the attack—while still holding the Mustang off the ground.
Gar tramped on the gas but they couldn’t break free.
Courtney pumped another round into the chamber. This time she pointed the muzzle at that great moon face. At those fierce eyes. Her finger was tightening on the trigger when a tremendous blow to her shoulder slammed her against the car. Her vision swam, her awareness dimmed.
Suddenly weak, struggling to retain her grip on the shotgun, she sagged against the door.
“It hit her!” Sansa shrieked.
Courtney heard as if through a great tunnel. The world had become a confusion of colors and sounds. She couldn’t focus. Dimly, she felt a jolt to her body as the Mustang was slammed to the ground.
The creature had let go.
Sansa yelled something.
Sally Ann shouted something.
Courtney blinked, and raised her head, and the monster was right there beside her, its fingers splaying wide. Too late, she realized it was reaching for her. She tried to pull away but couldn’t. Her body wouldn’t do as she wanted.
She felt her hair gripped, felt her head wrenched up.
Her sight cleared, and her belly did flip-flops.
She was staring the thing in the face.
The creature had bent down so they were nose-to-nose. Sniffling loudly, it appeared to be studying her.
Why, Courtney couldn’t say. Why it didn’t just kill her, she would never know. She attempted to pull loose and the creature growled and shook her in annoyance. It was a wonder her spine didn’t break.
Strangely, Courtney wasn’t scared. She was mad more than anything, mad that this monstrosity had its hand on her, mad that she was helpless in its grasp, mad that it was undoubtedly going to kill her and there was absolutely nothing she could do.
Or was there? She sought to raise the shotgun but her arm was pinned.
In her anger, she snarled, “Let go of me, you bastard!”
The creature rumbled deep in its chest.
“Let go!” Courtney screamed.
New rage fueled the monster’s features. It roared, and struck her head against the car.
The pain was overwhelming.
So was the wave of blackness that descended with startling swiftness. Again Courtney struggled, desperate to stay alert, to stay alive. Sansa was screaming and Gar yelled for someone to stay down, and there was the boom of a shot, followed by several more.
The pressure in Courtney’s hair lessened. She tried to say Gar’s name as the blackness enclosed her like a shroud.
CHAPTER 26
The first thing Courtney became aware of was a strange smell. It reminded her of the times her mother made her clean the kitchen, and the spray she used on the counters. A chemical smell she never liked.
She felt sluggish and disoriented. Her brain wasn’t working right. She tried to remember where she was and suddenly a horrible image filled her head.
With a gasp, Courtney regained her senses. She opened her eyes and tried to sit up, and had to sink back back. Pain exploded, threatening to plunge her back into the darkness.
A gentle hand on her shoulder steadied her.
“Careful there, missy. You need to take it real slow.”
A woman stood over her. A stout woman in a nurse’s uniform, her smile bright against her dark skin, her eyes warm and sympathetic.
“Who....?” Courtney got out. “Where...?”
“Stay still,” the nurse said, and carefully adjusted a pillow. “You’re at the Thief River Falls Medical Center. I’m Nurse Ross.”
“I’m in a hospital?” Courtney said in confusion. She looked about her. The room was clean and neat. An I.V. was beside the bed, monitors on the other side. Everything was so perfectly ordinary that for a few moments she hoped that maybe, just maybe, she had been having a nightmare about the end of the world and none of the terrible things she imagined had really happened. World War Three never broke out. Her mother and father and sister and brother were alive and well. So was Billy.
Nurse Ross shattered her delusion with, “Your friends brought you in. You’ve been unconscious for three days.”
“Three days!” Courtney tried to sit up but the nurse restrained her.
“Cut that out. The doctor says you’re lucky to be alive. You suffere
d a concussion and a dislocated shoulder and multiple contusions.”
“Doctor?” Courtney repeated.
Nurse Ross nodded. “Doctor Parker. He and I are the only ones left. Most everyone else is either dead or fled.”
Courtney glanced at the overhead light.
The nurse followed her gaze and said, “The doctor has the generator running. So long as we can find fuel, we can keep it going.”
“My friends?” Courtney said.
“They’re in rooms on the second floor,” Nurse Ross said. “They’re worried as can be. That boyfriend of yours spends all his time in here mooning over you. I shooed him out a while ago so he could get some sleep.”
“He’s not my....,” Courtney began, and stopped.
“The little girl will be happy to hear you’ve come around,” Nurse Ross continued. “She’s cried up a storm, thinking you would die. Your friend Sally Ann has been pretty depressed, too.”
“How did they find this place?”
“Dumb luck, from what they told me,” Nurse Ross said. “They tore into town looking for medicine for you and saw a sign that pointed them here.”
“Thanks goodness,” Courtney said.
“Thank God, you mean,” Nurse Ross said, and smiled. “Someone up above has been looking after you.” She tucked the blanket and patted Courtney. “Now you just lay here, all right? You’re nowhere near to being recovered. I’ll go find the doctor so he can examine you, and I’ll let your friends know you’re back among the living.”
That reminded Courtney. “What about the zombies and things? Can they get in here?”
“No. We keep the doors locked.” Ross started out, pausing to say, “Rest, missy. You’re in good hands, and safe.”
Safe. Courtney very much doubted that was the case. She closed her eyes, and the next she knew, she was opening them again with the sense that a lot of time had passed.
A chair had been pulled next to the bed. Gar was in it, his hands clasped in his lap and his chin on his chest.
“Garland?” Courtney said, using his full first name and not sure why.
Gar shot to his feet and bent over her and smiled like she had never seen him smile before. “Sorry. Dozed off.”
“Are you keeping watch over me?” she teased.
Gar nodded. “I’m in here every minute except when they chase me out.”
Courtney slid her right arm out from under the blanket and he placed his hand on hers as if it were the most natural thing in the world to do. She stared at his hand and then at him. “What’s going on with us?”
“I don’t rightly know,” Gar said. “Or maybe I do and it spooks me a little.”
“Well,” Courtney said. She might have said more but there was a squeal of delight and Sansa ran up and practically threw herself onto the bed to hug her.
“Courtney! We were so worried!”
“Were we ever,” Sally Ann said, coming up on the other side of the bed.
Gaga was wagging her tail fit to break it off.
“Together again,” Courtney said happily.
Her good mood lasted for all of ten seconds.
That was when a loud crash resounded from somewhere not far off, and a shot boomed.
Gar was out the door in a flash, barking, “Stay with her!” to Sally Ann over his shoulder.
“You can go see what’s going on if you want,” Courtney said.
“No, he’s right,” Sally Ann said. “You’re in no shape to defend yourself. I’ll stay.”
“What can it be?” Sansa worried.
Sally Ann put an arm around the girl’s shoulders. “We’ll know soon enough.”
They waited in tense expectation, Courtney straining her ears for the slightest sounds. She heard voices in the distance but couldn’t make out what they were saying and then nothing for the longest while.
All three of them gave a mild start when the door suddenly opened.
In walked a portly man in a white smock with glasses perched on the tip of his nose. He was carrying a clipboard. Smiling, he came over to the bed. “I finally get to say hello to my patient. I’m Doctor Parker. How are you feeling today?”
Courtney was more concerned about something else. “That shot we heard?”
“Oh. That was me. I keep a shotgun in my office. One of the plague victims got in somehow, and I had to dispose of it.”
“Plague victims?”
“That’s what the doc calls the zombies,” Sally Ann enlightened her.
“Your boyfriend is off checking the doors and windows to see how it got in,” Dr. Parker said.
“He’s not my....,” Courtney began for the second time that day, and once again stopped.
The physician consulted the monitor and eyed the I.V. “You’re quite the lucky young lady. If you’re friends hadn’t found us, you would have died. As it is, in ten days to two weeks you should be good as new, as they say.”
“Two weeks!” Courtney gasped. “We have somewhere to be. I can’t stay that long.”
Parker chuckled. “Why is it patients can’t wait to get out of the hospital that saved their life?” He motioned. “You want to leave? Be my guest. But be aware that without proper bed rest and nourishment you could suffer a relapse, and the next time you might not be so lucky.”
“Don’t sugarcoat it like that, Doc,” Sally Ann joked. “Tell it to her straight.”
Parker laughed.
“Back up,” Courtney said. “What was that about a plague? I thought the zombies were caused by the chemical or biological weapons that were dropped on us?”
“Exactly so,” Dr. Parker said. “Those weapons induced a plague of necro rejuvenation.”
“Huh?”
“Making the dead come alive,” Sally Ann said. “He’s already explained it to me.”
“Quite an effective stratagem, as we’ve seen for ourselves,” Dr. Parker said. “An army of the dead to do our enemy’s work for them.”
Courtney scowled in disgust. To her, the entire idea of war, of killing other people, was flat out insane. Particularly killing people because of their politics or religion or race.
“Evil has long lurked in the hearts of humankind,” Dr. Parker said. “It comes in many forms and guises.”
The door opened again and Nurse Ross smiled at them. “Doctor, Gar found a busted window. He thinks that’s how the creature got in, and he wants to know if we have a hammer and nails so he can board it over.”
“Ah,” Parker said. He touched Courtney’s arm. “For your own sake, Ms. Hewitt, please reconsider leaving. I didn’t go to all the trouble I did to preserve your life just to have you loose it because you’re too stubborn for your own good.” Out he whisked, the nurse tagging after him.
“You should listen,” Sally Ann said. “The compound can wait.”
“But ten days to two weeks!” Courtney said. She didn’t know if she could lie still that long.
“While you’re recuperating we’ll hunt up another vehicle,” Sally Ann said. “That mutation made a mess of the Mustang.”
“Poor Gar. He liked it.”
“Yes. Poor Gar,” Sally Ann said dryly, and sighed. “Plus the nurse told us there are a couple of sporting goods stores that might not be picked over. We’ll check them out when you’re on your feet.”
“I’d like some candy bars,” Sansa said. “And doggie treats for Gaga.”
“There you go,” Sally Ann said. “Us girls will shop until we drop while you mend.” She turned. “Come on, little one. She needs her rest.”
“I’m glad you’re okay,” Sansa said. “‘We’re a family now and I would cry like crazy if we lost you.”
Courtney was about to say that they were friends, not a family, but she didn’t want to hurt Sansa’s feeling.
For the longest time she lay there thinking about everything that had happened. About the compound. About Gar.
Especially about Gar.
Life was throwing stuff at her right
and left.
Which begged the question: what next?
CHAPTER 27
It was ten days before Dr. Parker told Courtney she could get out of bed. It was another three before he said that she was fit enough to leave, but she must be careful not to overexert herself.
Courtney was practically giddy with glee. She couldn’t wait to get out of there.
Gar was with her every day. So were Sally Ann and Sansa, although they did go shopping a few times.
Courtney mentioned time and again that they didn’t need to watch over her but they were strangely reluctant to leave her alone.
Gar, Courtney could understand. He was making no secret of how he felt about her.
But Sally Ann and Sansa? Finally Courtney came right out and asked Sally why.
“Because we’ve learned the hard way not to take anything for granted. You seem safe. But there are no guarantees.”
“I don’t need a babysitter,” Courtney joked. “Besides, the doc and the nurse are here.”
“They’re not family, like us,” Sally Ann said.
That word again. Courtney would never have imagined her bestie being so sentimental, but then, times, to put it mildly, had changed.
As for Gar, Courtney learned a lot about him. For instance, his family had lived in Arkansas for generations. Poor folk, mostly, as he put it. Back in the Old West days, an ancestor of his had gained notoriety as a gunfighter.
“I’ve sometimes wished I was born back then,” Gar remarked.
“Why in the world would you?” Courtney said.
“Fewer laws. Fewer politicians. Life was simple then. More honest.”
Courtney didn’t see how. Her own life had been perfectly fine before the war broke out. Oh, there had been little things, like school, and her annoying brother, and her dad and mom getting on her case a lot. But overall, she’d had it pretty easy.
Then came the day of her release, and she was busting at the seams to go.
Dr. Parker and Nurse Ross were on hand to see her off.
Courtney gave each a hug even though she wasn’t much for hugging people she barely knew.
Sally Ann and Sansa were happy, too. “At long last we can be on our way,” her friend declared.
A Girl a Dog and Zombies on the Munch Page 14