Children of the Apocalypse (Mace of the Apocalypse #3)

by Daniel J. Williams

  Melissa rushed after him, running to his side as Angela grabbed Chelsea and pressed the gun against her skull. Chelsea screamed as Angela put her arm around her throat. "Make a move and I'll blow her head off!"

  Growling from the bottom of the stairs, Buster bolted towards Angela. To Angela, Buster shape-shifted into a large bison. Pulling the gun away from Chelsea's head, she pointed it at the beast and fired. Buster yelped as the bullet pierced the top of his skull. He tumbled down two stairs and lay still at the bottom.

  "No!" screamed Chelsea, squirming in Angela's grip. Angela wrapped her elbow tighter around Chelsea's throat to keep her still.

  At the sound of the gunshot, Jason started wailing in his crib. Jade and Lisa were both in shock, training their pistols on Angela.

  "Throw down your guns now, or I swear I'm going to kill her!" Angela yelled.

  Lisa was in a complete panic and furious. "Don't you hurt her!"

  Trying to remain calm, Jade said, "You're going to kill us if we throw down our weapons."

  "Maybe, but I'm going to blow this kid's brains all over the wall if you don't."

  Lisa immediately dropped her gun, holding her hands up. "Please, God, don't hurt her."

  "I don't want to hurt anyone," Angela yelled. "All I want is the infant. The savior. Give him to me and I'll spare everyone else."

  "No!" Jade screamed. "You're not taking anyone."

  Red horns started jutting out of Jade's head.

  "You know why I want him, you devil! Hand him over now or I swear..."

  With a look of desperation, Lisa turned to Jade. "What do we do? Tell me! What do we do?"

  Realizing she had no choice, Jade slowly put her gun down. She knew Angela wouldn't kill Jason right away. She couldn't live with watching Chelsea getting her brains splattered in their presence.

  Jade bit her lip before saying icily, "You be careful with him or I swear I'm going to kill you."

  From the ground, Gene apologized to Jade and Lisa. "I'm sorry. We had no choice. She killed Rachel. She was going to kill us if we didn't do as she said."

  Next to him, Melissa was curled up in a ball and sobbing.

  Turning to Angela, Gene's tone grew stronger. "If you hurt anyone else, I will not help you. You understand me?"

  Angela took a few steps back to assess the situation outside. The rain continued to fall heavily, and it tumbled like a waterfall down the stairs, pooling at the bottom of the stairs and spreading swiftly. All it took was a quick glance for Angela to see the infected were almost upon them. She could hear a spattering of shots from different areas around the compound, then heard a loud explosion. Something had tripped a booby trap.

  She looked at Melissa. "Get the baby and come here. Now!"

  Looking from Angela to Jade, Melissa didn't know what to do.

  "Go ahead," said Jade. "It's okay."

  Jade reached into the crib, lifting the wailing baby. She handed him to Melissa. "It's okay. Go on."

  Angela screamed at Melissa. "Hurry!" Melissa grabbed Jason, mouthed, Sorry, to Jade, then carried the baby to Angela.

  "Keep holding him," Angela instructed. "Can you do what Gene does?" she asked.

  "What do you mean?"

  "If I take you to the lab, you're going to help me. Understand?"

  The wind whipped down the stairs, spraying everyone with rain and tipping over one of the chairs. Angela let go of Chelsea and she ran screaming into Lisa's arms.

  "I can't!" Melissa said. "I don't know what to do."

  "Yes you do. You can't fool me." Looking at Gene, Angela's face turned hard. "You're a charlatan and a fraud!" she screamed. She raised the gun and shot him in the face. Gene's head splatted against the wall. Jason squealed in fright at the sound of the gunshot, and Angela grabbed Melissa's arm.

  "Let's go!" she said, pushing her up the stairs. Another lightning strike at the top of the stairs caused Melissa to scream. The infected were right on top of them. Angela turned before leaving. "I'm not going to kill you," she yelled to Jade and Lisa. "They will." With that, she rushed up and out of sight.

  Jade grabbed her gun off the floor and raced to the bottom of the stairs. She gasped as an infected appeared at the top. Locking eyes with Jade, it moved forward, tumbling to the bottom. More appeared at the entrance.

  "We've got to go!" yelled Jade as she popped it in the head with a direct shot.

  "No, we need to shut the door!" screamed Lisa, grabbing Chelsea and moving her behind her. Chelsea just looked past her at Buster, lying motionless at the bottom of the stairs.

  "There's no way. We have to get out of here. We'll never be able to get it shut!"

  Two more tumbled down the stairs and Jade ran past them, clearing the entrance and blasting at the next closest ones, trying to keep them from coming in. She looked back down the stairs to see Lisa shooting the other two executioner style.

  "C'mon!"

  "Look out!" screamed Lisa, as an infected appeared directly behind Jade. It grabbed onto her hair and pulled her hair back. Jade disappeared from view as she tumbled over. Lisa ran up the stairs, firing three rounds into the creature as it began to drop on top of Jade. It toppled over and Jade wrangled free, punching another infected in the face as it grabbed at her.

  "Help me close the door!" screamed Lisa. Jade fired another round at an approaching infected. "At least we can save Chelsea!"

  Jade nodded and quickly maneuvered to the other side of the door. Chelsea stood at the bottom of the stairs, tears streaming down her face as Lisa yelled, "Stay there! I'll come back for you! Lock the door once it's shut!"

  Jade dropped her side down as Lisa wrestled with an infected who had come up behind her. Chelsea saw Jade run past the entrance and then jumped as another gunshot went off. A moment later the other cellar door came crashing down. Chelsea was suddenly all alone, surrounded by corpses.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  The wind was almost too strong to move through, but the women tried desperately to keep upright as they battled the seemingly unlimited infected. Jade had pulled the dead infected off of Lisa, then had placed her gun in the mouth of one coming directly at her, pulling the trigger. "Stay with me!" she yelled over the wind and rain as she tried to run through the gauntlet of undead. Moving quickly was their only strategy as the infected grabbed for them at every turn. The wetness kept them slick and hard to grab.

  "Help!" screamed Lisa as a hole closed behind Jade and she got cut off. An infected grabbed her and she slipped on the wet pavement, falling down. Jade looked back to see more moving towards Lisa. Lisa kicked at them, unable to get to her feet, then she lifted her gun, emptying it on as many as she could take out. One fell directly on her, and she squirmed to get out from under it. More kept coming.

  Jade couldn't leave her. Screaming in fear and rage, she brought her gun up, firing rapidly. She felt a cold clammy hand on her shoulder. Turning, she fired into the head of a badly decayed woman, then screamed again as the hopelessness of the situation hit her. They were going to die here.

  ~ ~ ~

  The keys were still in the bus. Woody had sprinted from the front of the jail and slid under the bus to the passenger side where he quickly pried open the bus door. Firing it up drew the attention of the infected, but he immediately pulled the bus forward, jerking it to a stop as he fought with the gears. He didn't have his make-shift pedals and couldn't see out the windshield when trying to shift. The pounding rain made it impossible to see anything anyway, and he fumbled around, trying to find the windshield wipers.

  The infected slowly surrounded the bus, pounding on it as he tried to get it moving again. It jerked and stalled once more as their numbers increased. Their faces shrieked at him from all sides, and he did his best to ignore them, concentrating instead on the task at hand.

  Watching from the front window, Alexi turned and yelled to Hot Dog. "Stay here. I think I can help. Just get everyone ready to move!"

  She bolted out the front door, the force of the wind almost knocking
her over. She was drenched in seconds but swiftly moved down the stairs. "Hey!" she yelled, trying to get the attention of the infected. "Over here!"

  She turned to lead them in a different direction and realized the infected were everywhere. "Oh shit!" she screamed, freezing for a second as she searched for someplace to run.

  Barely seeing her through the windshield, Woody jumped out of his seat, rushing to the back of the bus. All the infected were congregating towards the front. He opened the door and screamed, "Alex! Over here!"

  She slipped in the rain, falling on her butt, then quickly dodged past a few infected before reaching the back door. Woody put out his hand and pulled her up. He closed the door seconds before the infected reached it. Their monotonous pounding started immediately.

  "What were you thinking?" he yelled.

  "I don't know," she said, panicky. "I just knew you needed help."

  "Okay, then help me to drive! C'mon!"

  Once they reached the front, Woody climbed down on all fours, positioning his hands near the pedals. "You're going to have to steer," he said. "Get in the seat."

  A huge wind gust shook the whole bus, and the steady patter of rain drops on the metal roof turned to a loud pounding as the rain turned to a downpour. Several bright lightning flashes were followed closely by thunderous booms that shook the ground. Alexi screamed at the horrid features of the infected as the lightning lit them up.

  The wind swept a few away, their toppling limbs looking for something to grab onto. The bus started shaking harder as the wind and rain increased further. Tiles started lifting off the roof of the jail.

  "It's going to tip over!" yelled Alexi.

  "It might be a tornado," said Woody, in a surprisingly relaxed tone.

  "What?"

  "We just need to concentrate on driving."

  "I don't know how to drive to begin with, and now you want me to drive in a tornado?" Alexi was beyond scared. Another lightning strike made her jump. It blinded her for a second it was so bright. The infected covered their faces, shrieking into the night. The thunder that followed was so close and loud Alexi thought the windows would break.

  "Okay, fire it up!" Woody yelled as he pushed down the clutch with his left hand.

  Alexi turned on the engine and Woody gave it some gas with his right hand. "Okay, when I say so, get ready to steer."

  "What are you going to do?"

  "Let out the clutch and give it gas. We're going to have to stay in first, so when it starts moving, get ready to turn the bus around."

  The infected had recovered from the lightning strike, and one had worked its fingers into the front bus door and was trying to force it open. Woody saw it and yelled, "Now!"

  He backed off the clutch as he fed the bus gas, and the bus lurched forward, almost stalling. He let the clutch all the way out, and the bus moved steadily forward. "Okay, now start turning!"

  "Which way?" Alexi screamed.

  From the floor, Woody tried to remember the layout ahead of them. "Just go around the big tree. Turn the wheel right until you get past it, and then turn it all the way left."

  As the bus started to move, the infected lost its grip on the door and stumbled, falling under the bus. A sudden jerk of the bus let them know they'd run over it.

  Tears were dripping down Alexi's face as she tugged on the bus wheel. Even with the windshield wipers going full speed, she could barely see out the front. She kept smacking into infected that were either in the way or coming towards her. The bus kept running over fallen infected, and she felt like throwing up.

  "Are you okay?" yelled Woody from the floor.

  Alexi swallowed down puke that was trying to come up, then made a nasty face. "I'm warning you, I might chuck all over you any moment!"

  Woody ignored the comment, instead asking, "Are you by the tree?"

  "I'm going by it now."

  "Turn the wheel left as hard as you can until the bus fully turns around and then straighten it out."

  "What are we trying to do?" Alexi asked, her hands shaking on the wheel.

  "Come up next to the jail so everyone can climb on."

  "Okay, I think I can do that."

  CHAPTER THIRTY ONE

  A large funnel cloud descended with a furious roar over the compound, racing towards the houses on Bo's street. Shingles were being ripped off of roofs, flying with deadly acceleration. An infected who fought to stay erect in the storm was swiftly decapitated as the infected around it were lifted off their feet, becoming airborne and flying end-over-end. As the funnel cloud touched down next to Bo's house, a large tree out front was pulled from the ground, flew across the street and crashed into a neighbors garage.

  Bo was in a drunken stupor, holding onto a wall for support in the living room. It sounded like a freight train was running through the house. He wasn't sober enough to correctly assess the situation, and his will was at its weakest. The large living room window crashed in as an infected was blown through it by the wind.

  As Bo stared in awe, it climbed to its feet right before the top of the roof lifted off the house, and Bo felt his feet briefly leave the ground. He grabbed for the door jam, holding on with all his strength. Rain and wind swirled through the interior, and then the front wall of the house was ripped away, taking the infected with it. A large plank of wood smacked Bo in the side, and he was dislodged from the doorway and flung across the room as small pieces of debris peppered him with small projectiles that cut and sliced as they went.

  His waist cracked against a jutting remnant of house structure before he landed hard on the front lawn outside. Completely disoriented, he watched as the funnel moved further down the street before escalating back into the dark clouds above.

  Bo couldn't feel his legs. Pain ripped through his entire upper torso, but all feeling stopped at the waist. He looked into the sky, watching as the black clouds swiftly moved on, and he could see stars breaking through. Through the fog of his pain, he could hear them coming.

  Their moans were everywhere at once. They were suddenly all around him, surrounding him. He could see the excitement in their eyes as they reached down and tore into him. It was like the blank stare of death was lifted at the grasp of human flesh.

  The agony was overwhelming. He trained his eyes on the sky, not wanting to see their faces, and he spotted the large blue butterfly slowly descending, its wings gently fluttering. It was coming back for him.

  He felt no pain as his intestines were being pulled from his torso, just a harsh tugging. The butterfly flew closer, hovering over the madness of the scene, and the wretched sounds of the infected gorging on his flesh was replaced with the sweetest silence. A small smile crossed his face as the butterfly hovered directly over his face. Bo's eyes closed.

  CHAPTER THIRTY TWO

  The infecteds' hands were everywhere, reaching for her. Jade could hear Lisa's screams in the distance as she was forced to the ground, fighting them off. She felt like she was drowning in a pool of infection. She fought like a cornered dog even though she knew the end was inevitable.

  Through the horrid faces and hands that grabbed for her, she could see a flash of light spiderweb across the sky through the rain. Her whole body tingled a split second before the light burst from the heavens, zigzagging at dizzying speed and striking the ground a few feet away with a thunderous boom. The impact was so strong she felt her body actually lift off the ground.

  Everything stopped for a second before the shrieks came. Loud and continuous, the infected clawed at their faces as they screeched in pain. Blinking a few times to convince herself that she was still alive, Jade quickly struggled to untangle herself from their grasp and get to her feet. She wasn't sure if she had been scratched or not, but she prayed her jacket and jeans had spared her.

  Standing over the infected in shock, she watch as they squirmed on the ground, blinded by the incredible flash of light. Scanning the ground for Lisa, she called out her name, her heart heavy with fear.

  "I'm here!"
Lisa yelled, struggling to get up. "I'm hurt pretty bad," she said as she stood a little unsteadily, trying to hold back her desperation. "The bastards bit me."

  Jade could see the blood through her jeans, around the ankle.

  "Looks at this," Lisa said, turning around so Jade could see the blood at the back of her neck.

  "Oh my God."

  "Fuck it. Let's get back to the cellar and pour ourselves a drink." Jade could tell she was in a state of shock.

  The rain lightened up considerably as the dark clouds began to pass over, and Jade could feel the wind die down as well. Scanning the darkness around them, Jade couldn't see or hear as many infected. The lightning strike had scared the majority away from the source. Fires burned in a few homes despite the rain. The camp had sustained major damage.

  "Go back to the cellar," Jade said, "and go quickly. I still have to find Jason."

  Lisa waved absentmindedly as she turned towards the cellar. "Be careful. I left Chelse with a bunch of dead bodies. She's gonna be pissed."

  As Lisa limped away, Jade said quietly, "I sure hope we get to have that drink."

  CHAPTER THIRTY THREE

  Angela pushed Melissa through the front door of her house. Trying not to drop Jason, Melissa held him tightly with one hand as she grabbed onto the couch with the other in order not to fall.

  "To the cellar!" Angela yelled crazily, her mind spinning further out of control. She was growing weaker from the blood loss. She pictured herself as the Red Queen from Alice in Wonderland, and in her delirium she screamed, "Off with their heads!"

  Melissa stayed silent, fearful, clutching the baby.

  From out of the shadows, Shawn appeared like a blur, slamming Angela into the front door. The gun went flying out of her hands as she crashed against it.

  "You bitch!" he yelled, his anger exaggerated by the toxin. "What have you done!"