Juggernaut (Humanity's Hope Book 2)

by Greg P. Ferrell

  Renee pointed the gun at the creature, but before she pulled the trigger, she noticed the edges of its large wound were already starting to regenerate. Not wanting to find out if it would completely heal, she aimed for the creature’s head.

  As her finger tightened on the trigger, the lights unexpectedly went off in the house. The sudden darkness startled Renee, and she fired the gun blindly towards the creature. The flash from the gun allowed her to see that her first shot had missed, but she quickly conquered her fear and continued to fire, landing several shots into the back of its head. She pulled out a small flashlight from a pocket on her vest and shined it down to inspect the body before her. There was no movement, and she noticed that the headless corpse had also stopped healing.

  Eva stood at the large power pole at the corner of the house, clutching a large group of wires she had just yanked out of the box. She was satisfied with the complete darkness that had caused throughout the camp, even though she was still having trouble keeping her eyes from watering from the garlic bomb she’d been hit with. At the very least, she felt it gave them a more even playing field, as they would be just as blind as she was in the dark. Looking over at Isac, she motioned for him to go inside the house while she moved to investigate what was behind the structure that had just killed one of her pets.

  Isac approached the front door of the house and inspected it for any trip wires or other booby traps. Finding none, he slowly turned the handle and pushed the door open while keeping himself out of the line of any surprises that might be waiting. When nothing happened, he quickly slipped into the darkened house. With his eyes still affected by the garlic bomb, he stumbled over something in the hallway, but managed to catch himself before he completely fell. He squinted down and saw the body of one of Eva’s pets and realized it was no longer living, at least not at the level it was the last time he saw it. Aware that the person responsible for its current condition could still be around, he slowly backed up and decided he would need to go outside and reformulate his plan of attack. As he turned around to leave, he caught a glimpse of a person’s outline in the dark behind him through his still watering eyes. Not wanting to give the unknown person a chance to attack, he lunged at it with no warning.

  Eva slowly came around the side of house and cautiously peeked around the corner and spotted David sitting in the plexiglas bubble atop the battle-ready bus. He was currently looking at the other corner of the house and was unaware of her approach. She decided to take advantage of his blindside and moved quickly up to the front of the bus, ducking down out of sight. Slowly, she crept down the driver’s side, catching sight of the two halves of one of her pets lying on the ground. The sight infuriated her to the point she let her anger take over; instead of continuing on with the more stealthy approach, she leaped on to the top of the bus, landing just behind the opposite side of David in his turret. She leaned down and ripped away one panel of the bubble protecting him and reached in to grab him.

  At Eva’s sudden appearance, David tried to drop down out of the bubble, but not before she managed to get a hold of one of the shoulder straps on his bullet-proof vest and stopped him in mid-air. As he was getting pulled back up by the much more petite woman, he reached down and managed to get a hold of his shotgun. As he was yanked clear through the bubble, he grinned as he leveled the shotgun into Eva’s chest and pulled the trigger. The blast managed to cause her grip to loosen as she was thrown back. He took full advantage of the moment given to dive back into the bus and scramble towards the front to get near his instrument panel.

  Eva recovered quickly, though, and almost immediately resumed pursuit of her prey. She jumped down through the opening and landed only feet behind David. Eager to repay him for his insulting greeting, she kicked him in the back, sending him flying forward, crashing into the dashboard before he stopped. Eva walked slowly towards the bigger man, taunting him as she did. “You really thought you stood a chance against me, human?”

  “I know more about you than you think, monster.” David stumbled to his feet.

  Quickly closing the distance between the two of them, Eva grabbed David and pinned him to the dashboard. She leaned in close and inspected her captured prey before breaking the silence. “You were at that camp in Tallahassee? I recognize this as the bus fleeing from there during the storm. Now tell me true, did you have anything to do with my brother’s death?” She released a little pressure from David’s neck to allow him to answer.

  “Kiss my ass, you bloodsucking bitch,” David answered before he spit into Eva’s still-watering eyes.

  “That’s fine. I’ll get the answers from your friend in the house. I do have one more question. Were either of those cows I had killed at that camp yours? We shot one, and I pinned the other one to the wall for the zombies.” Eva grinned as she leaned down, bearing her fangs to bite into David’s neck.

  As Isac dove towards the figure in the dark, he was greeted by the flash from a shotgun. The blast hit him squarely in the chest and stopped him in his tracks. He was about to say something to the effect of Is that all you have? but before he could muster the words, he felt a pain not felt in centuries. It started as a slight tingle at the point of impact where the shot had hit him, and then quickly turned into a sharp burning sensation. He started to let out a scream when the shotgun lit up the room again and he was hit in the face, keeping him from screaming. He didn’t even hear the sound of the pump action on the gun when another round was chambered. And until the room lit up from the third shot, he didn’t even know where his assailant was currently at. The pain coupled with the blurred vision from the earlier attack had rendered him helpless.

  Renee pumped the shotgun again, knowing she only had two more shells of the special ammunition left, and fired one more into the fallen vampire at her feet. That time it managed to scream, and the loud high pitch of it hurt her ears. She kicked the vampire over so she could clearly see its face for the last shot, and was startled by the grotesque appearance she saw in the night vision goggles she was wearing.

  The vampire’s face was not young and smooth as she had earlier seen from the roof, but was vastly wrinkled and distorted. Its forehead was more protruding, and the eyes were a little more angled, giving a demonic look to its face. The sight caused her to pause before she shot, and it cost her dearly.

  In his current state of pain, Isac lashed out and landed a kick into Renee’s side, where her broken ribs were, and sent her tumbling across the room, making her drop the shotgun. Isac slowly stood up and contemplated fleeing the house to allow him time to recover. But the pain caused him to forego that decision and, instead, he decided to kill the cause of his suffering.

  Eva was mere inches away from David’s throat when she heard the discharge of a shotgun several times inside the house, which caused her to momentarily stop and turn her attention to what might be happening inside. As she looked out the window, she loosened her grip on David a little, allowing him to finally reach the control panel that was until then, just out of reach. After the gunfire ceased inside the house, with her figuring Isac had eliminated the threat inside, she turned her attention back to David. “Well, it looks like your friend inside has been taken care of, so any last words before you join your fallen?” Her teeth flashed a devilish grin.

  “Yeah, thanks for giving me the chance to kick your ass.” David flipped the switch at his fingertips.

  The Devastator lit up with a blinding glow, and immediately Eva released her grip. The ultraviolet lights recently installed all along the ceiling started to burn her exposed skin, and she started to stagger backwards, trying to keep her balance. She thrashed wildly from side to side, trying to bust through the walls of the bus, but with no such luck. Shielding her eyes from the light, she couldn’t see what David was up to, but she knew she had to get away from the light. With all her thrashing and banging, she never heard the cocking of the shotgun David had picked up and now had pointed at her. She did hear David start to talk and could tell that whatev
er he was saying now meant whatever came next was going to hurt.

  Renee rolled over in the corner of the room and let out a cry as the sharp pain of her broken ribs stabbed from within. Her scream didn’t go unnoticed by Isac, who had managed to get to his feet and was starting to gain a grip on the pain he was in. Hearing the girl’s cry, he turned towards the corner of the room that it came from and started walking towards it, hoping he could zero in on his prey.

  Renee watched him turn in her direction and stagger forward. With her shotgun across the room, she just reached out for anything within her grasp and found the staff Hope had carved for her, standing up in the corner. She pulled herself over to it, trying to be quiet in the process, but the pain of her ribs prevented that. As she grabbed a hold of it, she let out another cry of pain.

  Isac heard the second outcry, and finally knew where his prey was at. Confident he would be able to finish the fight, he leapt towards Renee, clearing the last half of the room in the air.

  Renee watched from the ground as her attacker took flight. She braced for the impact and tried to get the staff to come up between them, to allow her to maybe survive for a little while longer. She felt the force of the impact against her staff, but didn’t see it, as she had her eyes closed. As she slowly opened her eyes, she found the vampire had impaled himself on the stick, with over half of it already pushed completely through his chest. Even with the night vision goggles on, she could tell something was starting to look different in the vampire’s face. It almost looked like it was petrifying right before her eyes. She pushed the staff to the side and watched as the now motionless vampire fell sideways, only to hit the ground with a thud. She stood back up, but before she could get her balance, she watched as the vampire started to crumble to dust. She looked at the end of the staff and saw something lodged onto the tip of it. She leaned down and found a rock-hard lump stuck to the end, about the shape of a human heart, and, finally, she understood what had happened.

  David slowly walked towards Eva, and with precision, he fired his shotgun into each of her major limbs, and then one into her chest. His target screamed in agony as each shot sank in, which made him grin. He noticed a black smoke starting to drift off her blackening skin, which caused an even bigger smile. He looked at the helpless immobilized attacker in front of him and started to gloat. “Hurts like hell, doesn’t it? It’s salt, you dumb cow. We know it won’t kill you, but it does hurt like a sumbitch, which will give us time to do what will kill you. Oh, yeah, we know more about you than you think. We have two choices here, remove the heart, which is instant, or remove the head, which takes a while. I’m thinking … hmm, the head!” David pulled out a small sharp-toothed saw and started to walk towards Eva.

  Through the pain, Eva struggled to understand what David was saying, but when she saw him produce the saw and start walking towards her, she knew what she had to do. With every last ounce of strength, she looked up at the open hole in the roof, and pushed as hard as she could towards it. She barely made it to the roof’s edge, but still managed to pull herself out of the hole and roll off the roof of the bus and back into the shadows, away from the lights.

  David cussed all the way to the front of the bus as he ran to get to her before she could get away. As he rounded the front of the Devastator, he found nothing there, but heard the crashing of limbs and twigs as something made a hasty exit from the area and into the woods. He felt a wave of frustration over the gloating that had given her the time to get away, but he also knew she wouldn’t be coming back, at least not this night, not after the injuries he was able to deal out. He stood there for a moment almost forgetting about Renee, and then he remembered.

  He turned and ran back into the vehicle, grabbing another salt-loaded shotgun before heading into the house, hoping Renee was okay. As he arrived, he flipped on a flashlight and started scanning the house, room by room, until he finally came across Renee sitting in a chair in the living room holding her staff. “Oh, thank God. Are you okay?” He rushed over to her side.

  She just looked at him and gave a thumbs up before she poked the end of the staff in his face, allowing him to see the petrified heart on the end of it. “Got mine. Did you get yours?”

  David shook his head and plopped down on the floor next to her chair. “Nope, the bitch got away.”

  “Loser.” Renee said as she let out a huge sigh of relief.

  As the two of them were just starting to catch their breath, the front door swung open, startling the both of them. They recognized a familiar outline in the open doorway before David had even shined his light at it. “Hey, Benjy. How ya doing, bud?”

  “Somebody want to tell me what the hell happened here?” Benjy asked but just received a blank tired stare from both David and Renee.

  Chapter 34

  Hope was standing by the side of the truck looking at a map they had picked up along the way, trying to figure out how to get to the location she saw on the computer. She easily remembered where it was, but the map was showing no roads even close to the location they needed to get to. As she studied it, she kept a careful ear out for any approaching threats. With all three of her fellow passengers currently occupying the woods on a bathroom break, there were plenty of sounds being made to keep her on her toes.

  Hunter was the first to return, and he promptly posted himself up next to her, looking over her shoulder at the map. “Well, have you figured out where we are yet?”

  “Yeah, we’re about fifteen miles from the closest spot we can get to using the roads, unless we go all the way to the Denver airport. The safe way is a couple of miles through the woods, or only a half-mile if we go to the airport. We probably want to avoid the airport because of slabs, but the woods are going to be some pretty rough terrain. What do you think?” Hope pushed him off her shoulder.

  “Well, this is your mission; I think you should make the decision.”

  “We go through the woods, then, for safety. Let’s get ready to roll out. It’s starting to get late, and I would rather not have to do this in the dark.” Hope turned and called out for Morgan and Trip to hurry up. The other two quickly returned to the truck, and they got on their way.

  It took them about twenty minutes to get to the spot Hope had picked out on the map, and after a check of all the gear and guns, they headed out into the thick Rocky Mountain forest. The first mile was fairly flat as they skirted around a valley in between two mountains along their way. The second mile turned out to be a little harder than the map showed, as they had to make their way up the side of a mountain at a slope that made every footstep treacherous. As they reached the top of a ridgeline, Hope looked down and called out to the others. “Over there, that grouping of rocks is where the doorway is at.”

  “Are you sure? You don’t even have a picture to go by,” Morgan asked as she tried to catch her breath.

  “Trust me. From this viewpoint, I recognize the area exactly.” Hope started down the rocky slope, unconcerned that her friends might need a break. Within seconds, she was too far gone to hear them call out for her to wait. Hope reached the bottom of the slope before she turned around to find she was alone. As she looked back up and spotted her friends catching their breath, she also heard a sound coming from the thick brush off to her left. She spun around and pulled out her knife, ready to defend herself. The rustling in the brush was staying confined to one spot, as if something was caught, so she decided to investigate further. As she slowly and quietly moved through the wooded area, she pinpointed where the noise was coming from and zeroed in. She posted up next to a large tree and looked down into a small gully and found a large deer stuck with its hoof wedged in between two rocks. She looked back at her still-winded friends and figured she had plenty of time to try and help the animal before they made it to her.

  She sheathed the knife and approached the scared deer, talking to it, hoping it would see she was there to help. Fortunately, the closer she got the more calm the deer became, until she finally reached its position
. The deer completely relaxed as she reached down and started to tug on its trapped hoof. She saw that the foot was wedged in between the rocks so bad that it had rubbed its leg completely raw trying to free itself. Regardless, Hope knew she had to get it loose, or it wouldn’t last long before it got attacked by another animal, or worse, a slab. She gently petted the animal on its head and whispered to it. “This might hurt, but I have to do this if you want to get out of here.”

  The deer acted as if it understood her actions, if not her words, and it completely relaxed itself in anticipation of what was coming. Hope squatted down and grabbed a hold of the deer’s leg and counted to three in her head before she yanked as hard as she could on the trapped limb. The deer let out a grunt as Hope let out a larger grunt before the leg popped free of its trap. The deer immediately took off running, albeit a little slower than normal as it limped on its injured foot.

  Hope grinned at the slight feeling she had done a good thing, at least until she heard another sound in the distance. She remained squatted, to keep herself hidden as she listened intensely. The sound of the deer still barreling away from her was loud enough that she couldn’t get a bearing on the other noise. As soon as the deer was gone, the other sound she was hearing also stopped. She stayed squatted for a while longer to see if it came back, yet she heard nothing else in the distance. It might have just been the wind, since she was still hearing something like breathing, but there were no creatures big enough there that produced that much sound when breathing. After a few more moments, hearing the sliding sounds of her friends finally coming down the steep slope she had navigated earlier, she decided to head back to meet them.