Soulless Wanderers: Soulless Wanderers Book 1

by Drew Strickland

  “Like you?”

  Daniel was ready for that. “Absolutely, like me.” He watched her face but got no reaction. For all he knew, she thought he was joking.

  She smiled and looked up at him, nodding. She got up and walked over to the women cooking, looking at the pot. He smiled to himself as he watched a small look of disgust creep onto her face. He hated to admit it, but he thought he was beginning to like Eden. His stomach rumbled, and he decided he should go check on the status of breakfast, hoping it was done and edible. The smell of the rice and egg mixture wafted to his nose and gave him a little bit of hope.

  Just as he began to stand, the front door swung open, putting everyone on alert. Daniel looked to the open door, ready to grab anything nearby and use it as a weapon. Thankfully, he didn’t have to. Alan stumbled inside the building, carrying two large red plastic containers with what Daniel could assume was gas. The containers slammed to the ground with a thud, and Alan went down to his knees.

  “He needs help!” Courtney shouted as she ran over to him.

  “I’m alright, I’m alright,” Alan said, trying to catch his breath. He sat his back against the wall and closed the door behind him. Daniel got closer and could see blood streaking down Alan’s face. It didn’t seem to be coming from him, though.

  “Where is he?” Jennifer finally said. She slowly approached where Alan and Courtney were. Daniel watched Jennifer’s face. He could already tell she knew the answer. Nobody had to say it. Alan was here, covered in blood…alone. The simple gas run hadn’t gone as well as they had planned. Still, Jennifer shouted it this time. “Where is he?” The tears started coming as she screamed. Over and over again, “Where is he? Where is he?” Her voice started to break, and Courtney ran to her, wrapping her arms around Jennifer.

  Alan finally said it. “He didn’t make it. We got overrun by the soulless. He was on the other side of the street. We got separated, and then I saw them. They were on top of him. I ran to him, but by the time I got there, it was too many. He was gone.” Daniel watched Alan tell the story. It was a good tale, and Alan told it well. Maybe it had happened, and maybe it didn’t. All Daniel knew was, they were one more person down and Alan was still alive.

  Jennifer continued to wail for Miles as Courtney tried to console her. After all, Miles was an idiot, but he was her idiot. Daniel watched Alan wipe his face free of blood, underneath, revealing the same smirk Daniel had grown to expect from Alan.

  18

  Paxton sat in the back of the truck bed along with Ben and Ryan. The road wasn’t bumpy, but the way Luke drove it was worrisome enough. Each of the men held on tight to the side of the truck to make sure they weren’t thrown from the back and onto the unforgiving asphalt. Paxton would have attempted a conversation with the other men, but the wind whipping in his ears made it almost impossible to hear anything else. Instead, they just sat, awkwardly glancing at each other while they tried to scan the environment around them.

  After a short drive, due to the speed of the vehicle and the distance from the fort, the truck stopped in the parking lot of a large hardware store. Paxton was glad to have the relief from his ears and the strain from his arm from holding on. He hopped out, following the other two men and looked up at the building. It looked deserted and untouched. He supposed it was the benefit of having the apocalypse happening overnight and not gradually. Things were still very much intact and not ransacked.

  Luke and Matt got out of the truck, slamming their doors simultaneously. Paxton had met Ben the night before, at least in passing. Ryan and Matt he got to meet this morning. It was funny in a way how much Matt and Ben looked alike, with their heft and dark hair covering their head and face. Ryan, however, was a lot thinner and had no beard. The hair on his head was still brown, but not anywhere near as dark as the other brothers. Perhaps he took after the other parent. Either way, it was apparent to anyone that the three were brothers. They seemed to get along great and kept up with the typical brotherly ribbing.

  “Luke, I think maybe Ben should drive next time, that way he and Matt can stay in the cab. I think I see some bugs stuck in that grizzly beard Ben thinks looks good. Maybe there’s a nest happening in there, too, but it’s too dense to see,” Ryan said with a chuckle.

  “Don’t get jealous because of my gorgeous facial hair,” Ben said.

  “It’s true. It’s probably the only way you’re going to pick up any ladies out here. They’ll just get caught in the thing and have no other options.”

  Ben punched Ryan on the arm hard enough to make Ryan squeal, but not intending any real damage. Paxton was happy to see the three of them in good spirits. Everyone he had met so far had lost people or were lost themselves. Paxton was somewhere in the middle but still kept his hopes high. He held onto his constant prayer of getting him to Stacey and knew it was going to happen, even if it would take longer than he wanted it to.

  “Alright, so the plan is to get in and out. It looks like nothing is around, so it shouldn’t be too difficult. Still, I vote Paxton stays outside as lookout,” Luke said with his authoritative voice.

  “I can help you guys out. It’s no problem,” Paxton said, somewhat letdown by being left out. He didn’t know why he felt that way. In fact, he could use the moment to rest, but maybe he wanted to be one of the guys. It was the locker room effect that he hadn’t felt since high school.

  “I know you can, but still, we need someone on lookout. Besides, you’ve been through the shit already, so why don’t you take a load off. Just let us know if anyone strange comes around.”

  “Yeah, or like an army of soulless,” Ryan said with a laugh. “Wouldn’t that be something.”

  “Dude, shut the fuck up. You are an idiot sometimes,” Ben said to his obviously younger brother.

  “Alright,” Luke said tossing the keys to Paxton. “Just keep an eye out. We’re going to run in and grab the lumber. Shouldn’t be too long.”

  Paxton nodded and climbed into the back of the truck. He watched as the other men headed to the doors. Ryan grabbed a large flat cart and jumped on it as Matt pushed. He pushed it harder, causing Ryan to fall off into the parking lot. Paxton laughed and looked to the road. There was nothing in sight and he was thankful for the moment to relax.

  Paxton opened his eyes and looked up at the sun. It was late in the afternoon now. Had he really drifted off to sleep that long? It was so peaceful outside he imagined it was possible, but still, where were the other guys? They hadn’t come out yet. It was supposed to be a quick job and it seemed like a few hours had past already. Paxton climbed out of the truck and froze.

  He hadn’t looked down the road in the opposite direction until now. It looked like a moving wall coming toward him. As soon as he saw it, it was like he could hear it, too. The snarls, the lips smacking, the groaning. The soulless were coming and there were a fuck ton of them. The church was nothing compared to this. That had been a large group. This was a horde. This was too many to count. He hadn’t seen so many and didn’t have time to wonder where they all had come from.

  “Guys! Everyone needs to come out!” he shouted, cupping his hands around his mouth. He ran to the driver’s side door and opened it. He laid on the horn, blasting it as long as he could. Multiple times, longs ones, short ones. Nothing changed except he figured he alerted his location to even more of the soulless. If he wasn’t sure they were coming his way before, he was now. He ran to the store, knowing he needed to get his friends out.

  Inside, it was empty up front. The checkout counters were powered off and nobody was in sight. “Hey, guys, you in here?” he said loudly. His voice echoed and made him feel alone.

  The aisles were long and the shelves were tall, stretching to the top of the large box building. He ran, looking down all of them and saw nobody. Nobody until he made it to the tools section, at least. Just as he turned the corner, he was met with a face full of teeth chomping at him. He quickly grabbed the orange vest wearing, soulless employee and pushed him hard, keeping his mouth
off his face.

  “Motherfucker!” Paxton screamed as he struggled with the thing. He stretched his left hand out and reached something heavy with a handle. He swung it, hoping whatever it was would do the trick. Just as he felt it hit the thing’s head, the body dropped to the floor. He looked at it and saw a large pipe wrench covered in blood and the half-caved-in skull it sat next to. He was incredibly grateful he wasn’t in the nuts and bolts section when it happened.

  He scooped up the wrench and ran down the aisle, hoping to find the guys in the back. The closer he got, the louder the growls got. He finally reached the back and saw the huge crowd of soulless. They were all pushing against a door in the back. He imagined it was the bathroom or an employees’ only section. If they were all concentrated back here, that meant there was something they wanted behind the door. His friends had to be back there.

  “Hey, over here!” Paxton shouted at the crowd of soulless. He got just what he wanted, and it scared him. All the faces of the soulless turned toward him. He overestimated the number of them when he started this little mission of his and stumbled backward at the sight of the…twelve. Yes, he counted them as he fell on his ass. Twelve soulless, all donning the orange vests. He scrambled to his feet just as the group of soulless reached him. He swung the pipe wrench hard and fast, knocking the front runner to the ground, motionless. At least this wrench was a beast in his hand.

  “Holy shit!” Luke exclaimed as he and Ryan came running up behind the other eleven soulless. They held pieces of two by fours and started swinging. They managed to hack the eleven down to three. The men worked fast and efficient, Paxton had to admit. How they got trapped in the back, he had no idea, but he was glad they were out now. Paxton knocked another used-to-be-employee on the ground in a splatter at his feet as the two men took out the last two. The pile of bodies blocked any chance of wheeling a cart through, which Paxton imagined they had no use for at the moment.

  “We gotta go,” Paxton said. He finally realized Matt and Ben weren’t around and began to ask, but saw Ben come out from the back.

  “All clear? Can we get a hand with Matt?” Ben asked.

  Paxton looked at Luke, twisting his face into a question. “Matt got hurt. We didn’t take into account that there would be overnight stockers working when it all went down. They came up on him and he almost got bit but sliced his leg up on a saw pretty good, instead. I guess it’s better than the alternative.”

  Paxton didn’t know what he meant by that but shrugged it off. Ryan and Ben carried Matt out, his leg wrapped in his own pant leg. Blood trickled down a little, but they had patched it up good enough to stop most of it from gushing out. Matt winced with each step, but he grinned through it as they supported his wait on their shoulders.

  “Alright, let’s get him to the truck and we’ll load it up after that.” Luke still had no idea what was going on outside. “Thanks for coming in,” he said, putting his hand on Paxton’s shoulder.

  “No, we have to leave, right now. Outside, there’s a horde. It’s huge. We need to get away.”

  Luke didn’t hesitate. He must have seen it in Paxton’s face and was known to be cautious. He whistled loud for the rest of the men to hear it. “If you didn’t hear Paxton, we’re getting the fuck outta here. Let’s go.”

  He led the group, Paxton at his side. The three brothers brought up the rear, still supporting Matt. They passed by the lumber, and a loud crash startled everyone. Luke slid to the side and looked around, Paxton jumped and looked around the store in a hurry. Then he saw it. Behind them, the lumber had slid from its shelving and crashed to the floor. The three brothers had lost their footing and were on the floor. Paxton looked up and saw the cause. Two soulless, somehow unnoticed behind the aisle, had pushed through.

  Ryan was the closest to them and didn’t see it coming. Just as he was gaining his bearings, figuring out what was happening, the two soulless were on top of him. One grabbed his arm while the other slipped on the pile of two by fours and fell on top of him. The screams are something that Paxton would remember for nights to come. It was the first time he watched someone get bit. The teeth sunk into Ryan’s arm while the other one pulled at his face. The second one brought his face down and bit Ryan on the neck. Paxton watched as a chunk of flesh was pulled from him, blood spurting all over the light-colored wood. It was everywhere. Ryan cried out, his screams reaching pitches Paxton never knew were possible. He stepped forward to go help, but Luke grabbed his arm.

  “We have to help him,” Paxton said, holding back tears as he watched the man get torn apart.

  Luke shook his head, then lowered his eyes. “He’s gone. Trust me. We need to get Matt and get out of here.” The screams stopped, and only a gurgle of Ryan, possibly choking on his blood, was heard. Then nothing.

  Ben was finally up and on top of the two soulless. It didn’t take much for Ben to take them both out, but his brother was gone. “Ryan?” He stood over his brother, crying. Matt was still on the floor, a mess of himself in multiple ways with no strength to stand.

  “Let’s get them up,” Luke said. He and Paxton grabbed Matt and headed to the door. Ben was slowly following behind, wiping his face.

  When Paxton got back outside, the sun was much lower. What he saw didn’t give him any hope. The soulless were already to the truck. There was no way they were using that to get out of here. “What do we do?”

  He looked to Luke for the answer but what he saw on his friend’s face was disheartening. There was no plan. If anything, Luke still had the determination of staying alive, but he didn’t know how. Luke’s eyes searched all over, each second the horde closing in on them. “We should go back inside!” Luke shouted over the loud groans.

  The men didn’t hesitate and turned right back around toward the glass doors. On the other side of the doors, soulless pounded on the glass. Where had they come from so fast? Paxton didn’t know, but he could guess that the few soulless they had taken out wasn’t the full staff and all the noise they had made had probably stirred up the rest of them to find out what was happening. It would be too much of a fight to get inside, and for what? To gain another couple of minutes before being eaten alive? Paxton didn’t think it was worth it.

  “Let’s start running,” Matt said, even though he was in no shape to do so. “I’ll keep up the best I can. If not, you guys get out of here.”

  “No fucking way. I’m not leaving you behind,” Ben said.

  “You may have to, Ben.”

  Luke grabbed at his hair, overwhelmed. Obviously, it wasn’t supposed to go down like this for him, but Paxton hoped he would give an answer. Whatever they were going to decide had to happen now. The soulless were closing in on the building and the only way out was getting smaller and smaller. If they ran now, they’d be able to run in the opposite direction of the soulless and, hopefully, they could stay in front of them. Matt, however, may be right. He may not make it.

  “Luke?” everyone shouted it at the same time.

  It broke his frustration and he looked up. “Let’s—”

  Suddenly, an engine roared in the distance. Paxton and the rest of the group looked down the road and saw the truck. It was going full speed, heading straight for them. Its tires screeched to a halt, just in front of them. Their window had been extended, and they piled in the truck. There was no hesitation, and they helped Matt up into the back.

  “I saw the horde and couldn’t believe it,” Shelly said from the driver’s seat.

  Luke grabbed her face and kissed her hard. “You saw them from the fort?”

  She nodded and threw the truck into drive. “Huge mob covering the road. I knew something was wrong, so I came down.”

  “Thank God you did,” Paxton said from the open back window. “We need to go, now.” He watched the small opening begin to close as the horde got closer.

  “Don’t have to tell me twice,” Shelly said and drove off.

  Paxton looked as Ben and Matt grieved in the back of the truck, the wind blow
ing in their faces, but they didn’t seem to care. They had lost their brother and that was all they could think about. Paxton saw the horde get smaller and smaller as they got further away.

  The sun was setting and they were heading back to the fort. There was no chance of getting to Stacey tonight.

  19

  The drive north had been quiet. After Alan had announced the news of Miles’s passing, and Jennifer had stopped wailing, everyone packed up their things in silence. Nobody had said much up until it was time to drive away. Daniel didn’t like driving much as it put him focusing on the road and not much on his surroundings and these people, but when Jennifer had laid down in the back of his beat-up car, Courtney had wanted to go with her, and Alan said he would drive. There would be no room for a fourth, since Jennifer had taken the entire back seat. He didn’t like the idea of Alan and Courtney together, because with Alan’s track record, someone wasn’t making it out. So, Daniel had decided to go instead, and since it was his car, he took the wheel.

  “It’s a long drive and she just needs some rest. She will be fine,” Daniel had told Courtney. “Besides, Eden wants some company, and I don’t think Alan would be good in that department.”

  The look Courtney gave Alan was filled with disdain. It made Daniel smile. At least he wasn’t the only one that didn’t trust the guy. “Alright,” she said, half-convinced.

  “She’ll be fine, you have my word,” he told her. Surprisingly, he had meant it. It wasn’t friendship or even empathy that Daniel was doing it for. He didn’t like Alan. The numbers kept cutting down when Alan was around, and he couldn’t quite figure out what the purpose was. Maybe Alan was just inept and really had no idea about being on the lookout, or even about helping anyone. But Daniel didn’t think so. He had seen his face filled with joy when he was killing the soulless. And that smirk, the one that never seemed to leave his face. If he had felt anything, he should have shown sorrow, remorse, hell, even embarrassment because he couldn’t keep someone from dying on his watch. But none of that.