The Survival

by Damon Hunter

  “I can’t,” he heard a young female reply. He figured it had to be Jennifer.

  Tanner moved forward to the sound of the voices and the running water.

  “I can feel the infection starting to spread, Jennifer,” the man said. “You need to do as your father says and chop off my arm.”

  Tanner looked in the bathroom and saw Jennifer bring the hatchet she was holding down on her father’s thick forearm as he held it over the tub. It looked like he did not want the blood from his severed arm making a mess of the tile.

  Tanner could see a nasty bite on the man’s hand. Tanner had a pretty good idea whose blood was on the lips of the kid tied up in his room. The brunette Tanner spent an unhealthy amount of time fantasizing about swung the small axe and put it about halfway into her dad’s arm.

  He screamed in pain, before saying, “You need to swing harder.”

  “I swung as hard as I could,” she said.

  “Well pull it out and swing again. Put your shoulder into it. I don’t want to have to do this more than twice.”

  Jennifer yanked on the hatchet, getting another scream of pain out of Mr. Rubin.

  “I think it is stuck in the bone,” she told him.

  He gripped the edge of the tub with his good arm and said, “Just get it out so you can finish.”

  “I’m hurting you…”

  “No shit, but it has to be this way.”

  Jennifer nodded and gripped the small axe handle with both hands. She was trying without success to pry the hatchet out of her dad’s arm when Tanner saw the first bubble start to rise on her father’s head. Jennifer was so busy trying to get the blade out of his arm she did not see it.

  Her dad grabbed her arm as the mouth below his bushy mustache opened to sink his teeth into her. Tanner stepped forward and brought the bat down as hard as he could on top of the man’s head.

  The blow made the rotter version of Jennifer’s dad stumble back into the tub. He kept his grip on Jennifer though. With his butt inside the tub and his legs flopped over the side he was having trouble getting out, so he started pulling her to him.

  Tanner swung the bat and put another dent in Jennifer’s infected dad’s head, but he held tight onto his daughter. Tanner let go of the bat with one hand and grabbed the back of her shirt and was able to keep her just out of the reach of the gnashing yellow teeth. Tanner looked and saw the hand he was holding onto her with now had a hatchet buried halfway through it. He stepped around her to get a good angle and pounded on the back of the small axe with the bat.

  The metal of the bat hitting the metal hatchet made a loud pinging sound which echoed throughout the small bathroom. It took Tanner three swings to pound the hatchet clear through the rotter’s arm. He pulled Jennifer out of the bathroom and shut the door as her dad continued to flail in the tub.

  “It’s stuck on me,” she said as she swung her arm in attempt to get the dead, rotten hand off of her.

  “Hold still,” Tanner said as he grabbed her arm and began prying the hand free.

  “Are you, like, in my Algebra class?” she asked as he bent the fingers back.

  “Yeah.”

  “The stoner kid who sits in the back?”

  “That’s me,” he said. Knowing his name would have been better, but he was kind of glad she knew he existed since he would not have been surprised if she didn’t.

  He pulled the arm free as she said, “Don’t take this the wrong way, but why are you in my house?”

  “Helping you.”

  “Yeah, but why?”

  He wanted to say ‘because you are the hottest girl in school and I’ve had a crush on you since eighth grade,’ but in a rare bit of wisdom, he thought a bit before he opened his mouth and said, “You sounded like you needed help,” instead.

  She thought about it for a second before saying, “I guess I was kind of loud.”

  Tanner nodded, keeping the part about coming into the house before she started screaming to himself.

  “Are you okay up there?” they heard someone say from the base of the stairs. “I heard screaming.”

  They both moved down the hall.

  “It’s our neighbor,” Jennifer said as they reached the end of the hallway and saw the old man standing at the bottom of the stairs with a shotgun in his hand.

  “Where’s your mom and dad?” He asked.

  Jennifer was not sure how to answer.

  Tanner was looking back at the bathroom door, concerned Mr. Rubin would figure out how to get out of the tub, when he heard someone say the word, “Son.”

  It sounded just like his dad sounded before he completely turned. Tanner looked down at Jennifer’s neighbor and asked, “What did you say?”

  Before the neighbor could answer, a vampire rotter jumped on his back. As he took Jennifer’s neighbor down, Tanner could see the tip of the Glenster’s gardening shears poking out the back of the vampire rotter’s neck.

  “We need to go,” Tanner told her as he grabbed her hand and led her down the hall. If this house was anything like his they might be able to get to the roof from the master bedroom.

  She pulled away, saying, “Wait,” as he opened the door.

  He was about to asked why when he saw Jennifer’s mom, covered with rapidly growing and popping sores, charge him. Unlike her brother, they had not been able to tie her up.

  Tanner swung the bat and clocked her in the face. Her jaw was hanging loosely as she kept coming. Tanner brought the bat back around and caught her on the temple. This blow made her fall backwards. Tanner jumped up and brought the bat straight down on top of her head with everything he had. Her head was not near as hard as her husband’s. Tanner got a good view of her brains as she fell to the carpet.

  He looked back to see Jennifer standing in the doorway. She said, “Dude, you just, like, killed my mom.”

  He also saw his vampire rotter dad coming up the stairs. He grabbed Jennifer and pulled her in the bedroom. Tanner slammed the door shut as his dad leaped. The door stopped him for the moment, but even as he locked it, Tanner knew it would not stop him long.

  Jennifer pointed at her mom. “What if they find a cure?”

  “What if they don’t?” Tanner said. Having already tried to kill his own dad to remain rot free, he did not have a lot of sympathy for Jennifer’s situation. He realized this was not helping her like him, but he figured if they were going to be together, the first order of business was getting out of the house rot free.

  He went to the window and found Jennifer’s house was not like his. He could not climb out and get on the roof for the front porch. They were looking at a long jump.

  This time she grabbed his arm, saying, “We can escape off the balcony.”

  She pulled him to a sliding glass door leading to a raised patio off the bedroom. After they both went outside, she shut and locked the door behind him as he moved to the railing. He figured they could hang off the rail and get a little closer to the ground, but it was still a long drop. He heard his dad pounding on the door and figured it was still the best chance. He dropped the bat to the ground below and started climbing over the rail.

  “Whoa, what are you doing?” Jennifer asked as she moved to the far side of the porch and climbed up so she was standing on top of the rail. Tanner watched her jump.

  He moved to her side of the patio and heard the splash. They had a pool and the jump into the deep end from the balcony did not look like too difficult of a jump. He climbed up and waited for her to swim clear and aimed for the center of the pool as he jumped.

  It was tough swimming with his jeans on. Especially with a heavy wrench and a metal torch in his pocket. He managed to keep from being dragged down to the bottom of the pool before he made it to the side. He climbed out and looked up to see his dad come through the glass.

  “Son,” Tanner heard the monster his dad had become say again. There was no question it was him this time. Tanner stopped at the edge of the pool. The infected did not talk. He found himself hop
ing everything that happened after his dad crashed the van was some kind of mistake based on a bizarre delusion and somehow his dad was okay.

  “Come,” Tanner thought he heard his infected father say. He almost turned and went toward the distorted sound of his father’s voice, but remembered the thing talking had the tip of a pair of gardening shears sticking out the back of its neck. Talking or not, there was no question his father was gone.

  “Come on,” he heard Jennifer say. She had his bat in one hand and her car keys in the other. “We can take my car.”

  He didn’t look back to see where his dad was as he ran after her out the side gate. He saw her red VW Bug parked on the street. She was pressing the keyless remote as they ran but was getting no results.

  “It must not work when it’s wet,” she said as she reached the car and pointed the fob at her door and pressed the button again without success.

  “Use the regular key,” Tanner said as he reached the passenger door.

  “I’ve never used it before.”

  “Doesn’t mean it won’t work.”

  She found the key and put it in the lock as Tanner looked back to see his father coming over the fence. While his vampire rotter dad jumped the fence, Jennifer’s dad and brother came through the front door. Her brother still had the rope around his waist as he stumbled into the yard. It appeared vampire rotter Doug Rutherford had taken the time to free them.

  Jennifer got in and unlocked Tanner’s door. He climbed in and shut the door as her little brother reached them. He locked the door as the kid pounded on the window. Jennifer turned the key and started up the small German automobile.

  Tanner did not need to tell her to go, but did anyway as he saw his vampire rotter dad crouch to pounce on top of the car.

  She hit the gas just before he jumped. Vampire rotter Doug Rutherford got a claw-like hand on the bumper but could not hang on as she sped away. Tanner watched in the rear view mirror as the thing his dad had become rose and ran on his hands and feet after them. Even as fast as he had become, Tanner’s dad was no match for the VW and soon he faded from their sight.

  “That one is really determined,” Jennifer said.

  “I think he will be coming after me until we get out of quarantine,” Tanner told her.

  “You say that like you know him and he knows you.”

  “That is, or was, my dad.”

  “I know how you feel. Did you see my dad and my brother?”

  “Yeah, I did. I guess you know how I feel as well as anyone.”

  “What are we going to do now?” she asked as they drove through the neighborhood.

  “Get out of the quarantine,” he told her.

  “I heard they are blowing up any cars that get near the checkpoint.”

  “Bullshit, if we are driving they have to know we are not infected,” Tanner replied.

  “True, but my dad’s friend knows people in the TMRT. I don’t think he would make that kind of thing up.”

  “I don’t know, still sounds like nonsense. You have a better idea? I don’t think we’ll make it trying to stay.”

  “I agree with you there. I guess we don’t have much choice.”

  “Nope.”

  “Should I take the Seventy-Eight?”

  “I think so, but can we stop by my house first? It’s less than five minutes away.”

  “I’d rather get out first. I’ll buy you a change of clothes.”

  “My stepmom is still there. She didn’t go to the evac point. She thought she could stay.”

  “You and your dad just left her? In this mess?”

  “Yeah. It was a dick move on both our parts. We did not know how bad it was going to get but it was still the wrong thing to do. I’m a shitty stepson and I can’t leave her in this twice.”

  “Alright, but the first sign of trouble and we bolt, stepmom or no.”

  “Deal.”

  “Tell me how to get there.”

  Chapter 8

  Caroline Rutherford’s House – Oceanside, CA

  Vance and Ana kept watch while Bo and Clay hooked the trailer with the dirt bikes up to the Urban Assault Wagon.

  They watched the other members of their group come out of the house preparing to raid the neighbors for supplies.

  “Be careful,” Vance told his wife and daughter.

  “We will be,” Donna said. “Caroline gave us the rundown on which neighbors she was sure evacuated. She also gave us a list of the ones most likely to have the supplies we need. The ones who she saw buying in bulk at Costco most often.”

  “With any luck at all we’ll be back before you guys leave,” Bar told them.

  “Knowing our luck so far, the house we pick will be full of vampire rotters having, like, a meeting or something to plan on who to bite next,” Katelin said.

  “Don’t say that,” Vance told her.

  “Like what I say has any bearing on what is going to happen,” Katelin replied. “If that was the case I’d be talking more and things would be a whole lot different, that’s for fucking sure.”

  “Language!” Donna scolded.

  “You still have your phones?” Vance asked.

  “Yeah, even though I don’t know why if we can’t use them,” Katelin told him.

  “I’m going to check mine every half hour. If something happens and you need us back, send a text. Otherwise leave them off.”

  “Won’t the TMRT who want to kill you be able to track us?” Donna said.

  “Yeah, though according to Clay, they cleared out so they probably aren’t an immediate threat. Still better to be safe than sorry. Don’t send a message unless things are looking dire or if something comes up and I really need to know.”

  “Okay,” Donna said. “You do the same. I’ll check mine every half hour as well.”

  Vance nodded added one more, “Be careful,” before they turned and headed down the block. He watched them break into the home three doors down and go inside. With them out of sight, he went back to watching the general area for any signs of the infected.

  It was Ana who spotted the red Volkswagon bug come up the road toward them.

  “They can’t be infected if they are driving can they?” she asked as it kept getting closer.

  “No,” Vance said, “but get your weapon ready anyway.”

  “But if they’re not infected…”

  “They can still be dangerous. People hurt each other all the time before the rot and they are going to do it during and after too,” Vance told her as he unslung the rifle on his back.

  “If we have to shoot, it will bring the horde,” Ana said.

  “I’m not planning to shoot anyone, but they don’t need to know that.”

  Ana drew one of her Glocks as the newer version of the VW classic pulled in front of the driveway.

  They watched a teenager somewhere in age between Ana and Katelin burst out of the car. He had a wrench in one hand and an unlit propane torch in the other.

  “What the hell are you doing with my dirt bike?” he said as he approached.

  “Stop there, kid,” Vance told him.

  Tanner saw the gun and stopped. “That is my dirt bike and my house. Who are you to tell me to stop?”

  “The man with a gun,” Vance told him.

  “Did you say this was your house?” Clay said. He finished attaching the trailer and went to see who was blocking the way out.

  “Yeah,” Tanner said as Jennifer, holding the bat, joined him. Despite all that had gone on, having her by his side ready to fight was a damn good feeling.

  “He does look like the kid in the pictures upstairs, or at least like the kid in the pictures upstairs might look after fighting for his life the last day or so,” Bo said as he joined them at the edge of the driveway.

  “That’s because I am the kid in the pictures upstairs.”

  “Whoever he is, he needs to move his car,” Clay told them. “We need to get going if we’re going to get this all done before dark.”

 
“I’m not going anywhere. Why are you stealing my dirt bike? And where is Caroline?”

  “Caroline is inside and we’re not stealing anything,” Ana said. “We’re borrowing it. Caroline said we could. She thought you and your dad were evacuated.”

  “We weren’t,” Tanner told her.

  “We kind of figured that out,” Clay said. “Can you move now?”

  “Is Caroline okay?” Tanner asked.

  “Yeah,” Bo said. “Why don’t you move the car and go see for yourself?”

  “Don’t worry kid,” Clay told him. “If we come back, the bikes are coming with us.”

  “Whatever,” Tanner said. “We’re getting out of here. We just came to get my stepmom.”

  “Where are you going?” Ana asked.

  “East. We’re going east until we get out of quarantine.”

  “They’ll kill you before you get close,” Vance said. “The whole area is patrolled by drones. They’re firing missiles at everything moving once you get within ten miles of the border to the QZ.”

  “He’s telling the truth,” Clay said. “We’re both TMRT, or we were yesterday, so we aren’t making this shit up..”

  “I’m not TMRT,” Ana said, “but they are telling the truth. I saw it for myself and almost died because of it.”

  Tanner was not sure what to say.

  “Told you,” Jennifer said to him.

  “So what am I going to do?” he asked.

  “First, move the car,” Clay told him. “Second, go talk to your stepmom. Third, get your shit together and you can come with us. Bar will just have to find a bigger boat.”

  “What was that third thing again? You said something about a boat?”

  “Do the first two and then we will talk about the third,” Vance told him.

  Tanner nodded while Jennifer moved the car so it was no longer blocking the driveway.

  “Caroline thought your dad was with you,” Ana said.

  “He was,” Tanner said as he headed for the front door.

  After the two teens were inside, Ana got behind the wheel and Bo, Clay and Vance piled into the Suburban. Vance rolled down his window and listened while he watched the house his ex-wife and daughter had gone into. He did not hear or see anything as they drove away except a dog barking in the distance. Vance was not concerned about the dog, he knew of no cases of animals catching the rot. He would have liked to see them all come out safe and sound, but since he wasn’t going to get that, quiet was the next best thing.