Soulless Wanderers: Soulless Wanderers Book 1

by Drew Strickland

  Cole rubbed his face, looking at his bloodshot eyes in the rearview mirror. Alan seemed to be vigilant and ready for another round of whatever the hell they were in store for. Miles sat next to Eden but tried to keep himself as close to the door as possible. Daniel thought it was funny how scared the man was of him now. He liked it that way and had no intentions of trying to make him think otherwise.

  “This may be the last stop for a while. I think we should set up camp here for the night,” Cole said.

  Daniel stepped out of the car and looked around. It was very quiet, no soulless in sight. The building looked like a piece of shit with stucco slathered on it, but it was safer than being outside, he thought. Cole was probably right. They should set up camp here. It seemed they were headed north out of town, and that suited Daniel just fine. If he could hitch a ride with them as far as possible, it might make his journey easier. Besides, if he didn’t like it, he could always kill them when he got the opportunity.

  Everyone got out of the cars and stretched their legs. Daniel stepped aside to let Cole get Eden out of the car. He lifted her gently up, making sure not to wake her up. Daniel tried to imagine himself at that age and could remember quick flashes of his childhood. Then he tried to picture going through present day at that age. It wasn’t difficult to do, but he still had a lot to learn about life. Trusting other people was a big part of that and a lesson he wondered if he would have learned an even harder way about, if the soulless were around back then.

  “Everyone okay?” Jennifer asked.

  Miles looked at Daniel, then quickly averted his eyes when he met them. “We’re good,” he said timidly.

  “Good.” She gave Miles a kiss on the lips, and it all made sense to Daniel. That’s probably how Miles had made it this far. Jennifer didn’t seem to take shit, and Miles did. “When the horde broke off, we decided to turn around. Looks like they made it back to you guys.”

  “Where’s Henry?” Courtney asked. Nobody said anything for a moment. She looked to everyone, their faces sullen and looking down. Finally, she settled onto Daniel, who met her eyes. He gave a quick head shake, not wanting to dwell on it, but hoping not to come off as insensitive. “Oh,” is all she said.

  “Are we going inside or what?” Cole asked, his arms sinking from the obvious fatigue underneath the weight of his daughter. He began to walk to the building, but Daniel put his arm on his shoulder, stopping him.

  “Let’s check it out first. It may not be safe.”

  Alan snickered as he watched them. Daniel looked at the man, who seemed like he had a permanent smirk on his face. “So, let’s do this, Mister Safety.” Alan met Daniel’s eyes when he said it.

  Alan tossed Daniel a gun from the backpack he had gathered from the store. Daniel caught the rifle and grabbed the bullets from the hood of the car after Alan slammed them down. Another rifle was tossed to Miles, who barely caught it. He stared at the gun, his face twisted in confusion. Jennifer grabbed it from his hands and slid the bolt open. She grabbed a handful of bullets and loaded the gun.

  “I’ll take this one,” she said to Miles, who seemed to look relieved and emasculated at the same time.

  “Alright then, Missy. Let’s do this,” Alan said, smiling when he called Jennifer Missy. Her face escalated to red quickly, but Alan was already at the doors to the building before she could say anything.

  Alan took the butt of his gun and slammed it into the glass door on the outside. It shattered where he hit it and webbed in cracks across the rest of the door. He reached his hand in slowly, trying not to get cut by the glass, his arm disappearing in the darkness.

  “Almost got it,” he said, fishing for the lock.

  Suddenly, he slammed forward toward the door, screaming. “Holy shit, holy shit. Help!” he yelled, and his body shook.

  Daniel watched as Jennifer got to him first. She grabbed at his free arm and began to tug on it. His body convulsed faster and sporadic. Suddenly, he burst into laughter and pulled his hand from the hole. Small streaks of blood dripped from a few scratches but, ultimately, he was fine. There was no major damage to his arm and no sense of danger coming from him.

  “You motherfucker!” Jennifer screamed at him.

  Alan continued to laugh. “Oh, come on, it was just a little joke.”

  She turned around and slapped him across the face. “I thought you were in real tro—”

  Alan stood and grabbed Jennifer’s arms firm. “If you can’t take a fucking joke, that’s fine. I’ll remember it, but do not fucking do anything like that again or you will regret it.”

  Daniel couldn’t see Alan’s eyes from where he stood, but he watched Jennifer’s. They were defiant and strong at the start, but after staring into Alan’s eyes, they went somewhere else. He had seen that look before, many times. It was when someone looked at him from beneath his knife.

  Daniel was tired, and while he didn’t think Alan was going to do anything to Jennifer in front of everyone, he didn’t want to see how it would play out any further. “Should we get checking it out? The sooner we get inside, the sooner we can eat and sleep,” Daniel said, mostly directing it toward Alan.

  Daniel watched Alan’s shoulders drop from being tense. He straightened Jennifer’s shirt, and then let out a laugh. “Let’s get to it.” He turned around, same usual smirk on his face, and put his arm right back into the hole in the glass. This time everyone heard a click, and he opened the door. He held it open and looked at Jennifer. “Ladies first?”

  Jennifer didn’t have the same reaction to the ladies comment that she did before. Daniel could see in her eyes that she was still in the moment before and probably wouldn’t let it go for some time. She wasn’t frozen, but she was distant. Her eyes stared off even though she looked at the entrance. Daniel was glad it wasn’t he that had caused her to go there. The last thing he needed was someone else questioning his motives or who he was.

  Daniel followed Alan inside, with Jennifer behind him. They quickly cleared the building. It wasn’t very large and didn’t have many places to hide. Washing machines lined all of the walls, and in the middle were some tables for folding clothes. Daniel noticed the paint in the back was peeling off and could tell that whoever owned this place hadn’t bothered to take care of it. He wondered if it was because there were no other options for people to wash their clothes, or if it was a business not worth sinking any more money into. Maybe it was a combination of both, although none of it mattered anymore. There was one locked room, which Daniel easily took care of with a firm kick next to the door handle. Inside wasn’t anything special. There was a desk, television, and safe. No soulless in sight.

  Once everyone was inside and settled, Daniel watched Courtney pulled out a camping stove. It wasn’t one that he had grabbed from the store earlier. In fact, it looked old, much older than she. He watched as she let the propane hiss out as she turned the knobs, then lit it with ease using a lighter. She modified the flame to a low setting and put a pot on top of the grill and filled it with water from a bottle. She looked up and saw Daniel watching her. She smiled, not looking away.

  “It was my dad’s,” she said. “He used to take us camping when I was little. I had a lot of memories with this stove growing up.” She looked at the stove smiling, remembering somewhere in her mind.

  Daniel stayed where he was, a little on the outside of the makeshift circle everyone had a made. Courtney was in the center with her stove, and most of the people were near her. He preferred staying in the doorway of the office. The only other person who was far away, like he was, was Alan. He had tucked himself in the back corner behind some of the larger washing machines. Seeing Alan only reminded Daniel that he didn’t want to be perceived like that right now. He needed to fit in.

  “Is that why you’re going north? To see your dad?” Daniel asked.

  “Oh, no. My dad died before all this,” she said, tucking her hair behind her ear.

  Daniel nodded, not knowing what to say in response. He figured it w
ould be best to say, “I’m sorry.”

  Courtney shrugged with a little smile out of the side of her mouth. “Actually, I was getting this stove from the attic. Came down and went outside to pack it up in the car. But when I went outside, everyone was—” a tear dropped down Courtney’s cheek. “Well, they were soulless, like you said. It was Henry who ran up and got them off me. He saved me.”

  “You didn’t know him before?”

  “Only in passing. He was a neighbor down the way. I don’t think I said more than ten words to him the entire time I lived there. He was always nice when I did, though. Then we got connected with Miles and Jennifer.”

  Daniel looked over to Miles and Jennifer, who were deciding which bag of freeze dried food they wanted to eat. They handed a package of what looked like chili mac to Courtney, who took it and started reading the back of the bag. Jennifer opened up first, taking over the story from where Courtney had left off.

  “Miles and I obviously were together when it went down, thank God. In the garage, there was something I had to get.” She laughed a little. “I don’t even remember at this point what it was, but whatever it was, I had asked Miles to get it first. He was taking too long—” she smiled at him a loving smile, but Daniel could see in Miles’s eyes that it was a regular nagging occurrence, “so I went in to help him with it. We needed more light in the garage and I went to turn the light on but hit the open button instead. Soulless everywhere. We got the hell out of the house and probably won’t see it again. At some point down the road, we picked up Henry and Courtney. They were on foot, we had a car.”

  Miles cleared his throat. “I’m sorry about earlier, uh…”

  “Danny,” Daniel said, hating himself a little for it.

  “Danny. Right. I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t sweat it. I’m still here,” Daniel said, still hating him inside. Miles had a beaten look on his face, and Daniel almost felt bad for him. Almost.

  “Thanks. So, what happened to you then?” Miles asked.

  Daniel opened his mouth and thought back to the abandoned building. Preparing the kill. The soulless change. The church. Manny, Jeff, Paxton. “Oh, you know, about the same. Getting some things, finding the soulless.”

  Cole watched Daniel as he stroked Eden’s hair. “That’s not entirely true. You did come in my house for a rest, then stole my truck.”

  Daniel could feel the heat rise in his face. He should have killed him when he had the chance. “Right, about that—”

  “I completely deserved it,” Cole said, cutting Daniel off. “I was scared and shoved a gun in this man’s face.” He was speaking to Daniel, but also to everyone else, almost asking for their forgiveness, Daniel thought. “He could have killed me, but he didn’t. He took my truck and left. Then, he saved my little girl. Thank you, Danny.”

  Danny watched everyone staring at him. He could feel all the eyes on him. It felt like they were crawling around with no legs, leaving streaks of slimy wetness, covering him all over. He squirmed a little bit as he imagined it happening, and immediately wished he could find a different subject. “So, how did you and Eden get connected with them?”

  “We needed a place to stop and just happened to find his farm house along the road, with a beat-up truck outside,” Miles said. Daniel knew what truck he was talking about. He had stolen it from Paxton, who he had left for dead on the floor in the bathroom.

  “By then, Alan had just come around, clearing a path around the house,” Cole said. “He’s been around for a while. His dad was a good man, and he seems to be no different.”

  “You know Alan?” Daniel asked.

  “His dad owned the farm a few miles down from mine,” Cole said.

  “Past tense?”

  “I suppose there’s going to be a lot of past tense when talking about people these days. Some are soulless, some didn’t make it through the soulless.”

  “After that, the six of us headed out of town, found you, and the rest is history,” Mile’s said.

  “Why are you all going north?” Daniel asked, genuinely curious.

  “Henry thought it would be a good idea to get farther from the city. And then Alan said he knew a good place to go, something about some friends or something up there. Hopefully, they’re still alright. Nobody else has anyone to check on, so it’s the least we can do for him.”

  Daniel nodded as the food started to get passed around. He looked up into the corner, wishing he didn’t just hear that going north was all on the shoulders of Alan. Alan raised his bottle of water with a smirk and that familiar glint in his eye.

  16

  Paxton wiped the sweat from his forehead as he looked at the setting sun. The day had escaped from him without him realizing. He figured he hadn’t made it very far with his pace and injuries. He was losing hope that he was even going to make it himself, let alone make it to his wife. He held back the tears and trudged on. It was no time to throw himself a pity party. However, it did keep a constant prayer running through his head, hoping God would answer it in some form.

  The fatigue and exhaustion tore through him as he limped toward a street sign along the road. He leaned his back up against it, careful not to put his sutured wound directly on it. He slid down the pole to a seated position. He definitely needed the rest, but it wasn’t safe out here. He had to make sure he didn’t fall asleep, even though he hadn’t seen any soulless for some time. Those he did, he easily evaded and just kept to the other side of the road. Even at his pace, he was slightly faster than they were and, eventually, they lost interest, meandering somewhere else to do who knows what. He closed his eyes and opened them a second later. At least, he thought it was a second later. When he opened them, it was pitch black outside. Only the moon and stars gave any sort of light. A snarl jolted him to his feet.

  This. Was. Not. Good.

  He couldn’t tell where the snarl had come from, and he looked around, not seeing anything or anyone. His eyes caught the street sign above his head. Mulberry. Thank God, it had to be a sign. Literally and figuratively. His old friend, Luke, lived off Mulberry. He hadn’t known exactly where he was, but now with the street sign, he knew that if he headed east for a bit, he would make it to his friend’s house. He had faith that Luke was alive, otherwise God wouldn’t have shown him the sign. At least, it was a sign he was supposed to go that way. He picked his feet up and headed east.

  Getting to what he hoped was closer to Luke’s neighborhood and home, he could hear a low humming. It grew louder the closer he got. He even thought he could see some light in the distance but wondered if it was just his mind playing hopeful tricks on him. He hadn’t seen any electricity since the fall had happened. That’s what he decided he was going to call it in his head. “The Event” just seemed like pretentious bullshit to him. “The Fall” at least had some sort of meaning to it. The fall of civilization, the fall of his friends and family. He hated when his mind wandered so much, it was almost like he was babbling to himself, but in thought form.

  He finally saw it when he turned the corner. There were lights. There was a loud humming, like an engine. It was probably a generator. He kept going forward, and as he got closer, he could see walls. They stretched across the street, blocking his path. He looked closer, noticing that they weren’t real walls, but that they were big rig trucks. Underneath the trucks, all sorts of things were stuffed making sure to block out any sort of way to crawl. He saw a couch and some street signs, even a pile of dirt mixed with random debris at the back side of the truck. Just as he started to make his way to the back, a spotlight lit up in his face.

  “Stop right there. You move and you get a bullet in the face!” the voice shouted.

  Paxton stopped and looked up, shielding his eyes. He couldn’t see anything, but he guessed that was the point. They could see him, and hopefully they could see he was no threat to them. “I’m just looking for a friend of mine. Maybe you know him?”

  The spotlight pulled down and away from his face, Paxton looked
up to see a man standing where the light was. “Paxton?”

  “Luke?”

  Luke hopped down from the truck and met Paxton. Paxton smiled at the familiar, but shaggier face than he was used to. “I didn’t recognize your voice from up there.” It was true. Paxton was used to hearing Luke laugh and joke around. He knew Luke wasn’t a man to be messed with, but he was never in a situation that he heard him be so commanding.

  “What the hell are you doing here?” Luke gave Paxton a huge hug, slapping his back hard.

  Paxton dropped to the ground from the pain. “Oh, fuck. You gotta be a little easier, man.”

  Luke pulled a flashlight from his belt and shone it on Luke’s back. “Holy shit, man. What the fuck happened to you? You didn’t get bit, did you?”

  Paxton shook his head. “Long story. You got space for me?”

  “Everything alright down there, Luke?” A bearded man, decked out in camouflage hunting gear stepped out onto the spot Luke had been standing on the truck.

  “Yeah, all good, Ben. Open up the gate for us, would you?” Luke shouted. He grabbed Paxton by the arm and helped him through the makeshift gate that had been crafted out of wood and cinderblocks. Paxton would have been more impressed with the quickness everything had been set up with if he weren’t in excruciating pain. He was thankful his prayers were answered, and then he switched his prayer mantra to something resembling pain killers.

  A low growl came from behind them. Luke pushed Paxton against the makeshift wall before going to the open gate. Paxton watched a pair of soulless appear from the dark. Luke quickly grabbed his pistol from his holster and raised it. He waited a few seconds before pulling the trigger. The female soulless in front dropped to the ground, and Luke was already aiming at the next one. He pulled the trigger twice and dropped the next one. Paxton’s ears rang from the gunshots, and he pulled at each of them, trying to get it to stop.