The RV revved its engine behind them and came in for another pass, brushing the back of the trailer. One of the trailer tires kicked up off the ground with the impact. Noah heard a thud, and pictured the couch colliding with the trailer walls.
“We’re going to pop a tire!” Kendall yelled.
Up ahead, Noah saw a tight curve approaching to their left. “Sam, do you think you can get off a shot when we round this bend?”
Sam squeezed beside him, next to the driver’s seat, and poked his head out the window.
“We’ll find out soon enough!” he yelled against the wind.
Noah let up on the gas as the van rounded the turn. The trailer pitched to the side. He heard Sam fire a shot into the night, and then the sound of glass shattering behind them.
Chapter 28
SAM HAD HIT HIS MARK. The RV’s front windshield collapsed into tiny fragments. The headlights blinded him, but he could see the silhouette of the driver hunched over in the seat. He wasn’t sure if the man was ducking, or if he had been hit.
He hoped for the latter.
Noah let off the gas and the van slowed to a crawl.
“Is he dead?”
“I’m not sure. I wouldn’t assume anything at this point,” Sam said.
“We should probably check, right? What if he’s not one of those things? What if he was just trying to defend himself?” Noah asked.
Sam nodded grimly. Even though the RV driver had been trying to kill them, the man might still be alive. He looked at the pistol. He had one bullet left.
The girl shifted in her seat, and he quickly turned his attention to her. He wasn’t sure if she could be trusted. He needed to find out what else she was hiding, but he would have to wait until the present situation was dealt with.
The van came to a stop. Its headlights lit up the side of a beautiful mountain range. Green foliage and trees peppered the landscape. Sam found himself thinking this area would remain untouched for years to come. Especially with no one left to develop it. The thought gave him little comfort.
The edge of the cliff was dangerously close. He figured the tires couldn’t be more than a foot or so from slipping into the darkness below. Although he couldn’t see off the side, he imagined the drop was several hundred feet. His stomach hitched.
“I’ll check on the driver,” he said finally. He opened the door.
The RV’s headlights blurred his vision. After a few seconds, his eyes began to adjust, and he was able to assess the damage to the vehicle behind them. Shards of glass clung to the window frame. The driver was keeled over in the front seat.
Sam shuddered. In one night, he’d been responsible for the death of two living things. He relaxed his grip on the pistol and fought the urge to be sick.
The man certainly appeared to be dead. But he needed to be sure. He needed to know.
He thought back to White Mist, to the trucker whose body probably still lay in the dirt. He wondered if the man would ever have a proper burial, if, somewhere, his family was looking for him. Certainly, the man in the RV had had loved ones as well, regardless of the circumstances he had found himself in. The door hung open, and Sam looked down to find his footing.
“Sam, wait!” Noah hissed.
The storeowner looked back again. The shadow in the RV had begun to move.
“He’s still alive!”
Had he been biding his time? Maybe he’d been waiting for them to approach so he could resume his attack at close range.
“Shit!” Sam yelled.
The RV engine roared, and Sam saw the driver grip the wheel. It would take a minute for the RV to get moving, but the man’s intentions were clear. They needed to get out of the van.
“Everybody out—now! He’s going to ram us again!”
Chapter 29
DELTA WATCHED THE RV BEHIND them with increasing nervousness, trying to calculate their next move. She stared at the man with the beard who was holding the shotgun, and wondered if it was the last face she would see.
The RV driver revved the gas. He was going to push the van off the cliff.
Her eyes felt like they were going to implode, and she felt a blinding pain from behind them. She fought to keep her anxiety from taking over. She needed to think clearly.
“Get out now!” Sam yelled again, this time in her direction.
The storeowner was motioning for her to move. She reached for the door handle, blinded by the lights of the RV behind them. The glare lit up the side of the van, casting a white glow over her companions. She raised her arm to deflect the light. Her body began to shake as she looked into the backseat.
Kendall sat next to Sam, breathing heavily. His eyes had turned black, his pale skin now a mottled gray. His lips curved upward, revealing a mouthful of crooked teeth. He had been contaminated.
“Sam, watch out!” she yelled.
Kendall lunged toward the storeowner, digging deep into the man’s arm with his fingernails. Sam shrieked in agony, and blood spurted into the air, spraying Delta’s face in the backdraft. She tasted copper in her mouth, mixed with the bitter taste of adrenaline that already resided there.
The empty rifle sat between her legs. She moved one arm, then the other, trying to break through the mental gridlock. She needed to react. If she didn’t, the storeowner would die. She could feel her heart beating furiously. The gun was in her hands now, and Delta turned it sideways.
With a scream, she leapt into the fray.
She swung the rifle, connecting with Kendall’s tattooed shoulder. At the same time, Sam threw his elbow into the kid’s stomach, propelling the attacker sideways, and then reached for the door handle. The storeowner opened the door and toppled out into the darkness.
Delta was on top of Kendall now. The kid began to claw at her, and she felt pain ripple through her forearms. A voice cried out from behind her.
“Get out the door—quick!”
It was Noah, and he was reaching towards her from the front seat. She felt his arms enter the entanglement of limbs, trying to pull her free.
Underneath her, Kendall hissed and squirmed, raking his nails across her stomach. Her tank top was drenched, and she wondered briefly if she was being disemboweled.
She heard a loud crash, and felt the van sway to the side. The RV had collided with them. Its headlights lit up the backseats, momentarily blinding her. She squinted, and her eyes refocused.
She thrust the gun barrel forward into Kendall’s teeth, and felt several of them crack against the rifle’s metal casing. Suddenly, she was free, and she rolled sideways on the seat towards the exit.
Noah leapt into the back on top of his roommate. He raised his arms high above his head, holding what looked like a razor. As Delta dove for the open door, she saw Noah plunge the weapon deep into his friend’s neck.
Chapter 30
NOAH SCREAMED IN HORROR AS he realized what he had done.
Blood sprayed onto the seats, and Kendall yelled in agony. The RV’s engine screamed from his left, and was now kicking up debris as it attempted to push the vehicle off the cliff. Noah could smell the exhaust billowing from its tailpipe, and he began to cough.
Kendall’s arms flailed uncontrollably as he tried to wrench the shiv free from his neck. His face had contorted into something less than human. If there was any trace left of the Kendall that Noah had known, it was now consumed by darkness.
Noah held his hands in front of his face, shielding his eyes from the RV’s headlights. The bearded man stared out at him with wild eyes. He was holding up his shotgun, as if to indicate there was no escape.
In the distance, Noah could make out the silhouettes of Sam and the girl. They had crawled about twenty feet away, out of the RV’s path. The girl was yelling for him to jump out. Noah braced himself between the two front seats, struggling to stand as the vehicle shook around him.
Kendall was coming towards him now. Noah looked out the open passenger side door, where only a few feet separated the van from the edge of the
cliff. He needed to move.
Noah stepped over the passenger seat. He felt his feet slide out from underneath him and he fell out of the van and into the dirt. Knees stinging, he crawled on his stomach between the van and the cliff, wondering if he would make it clear in time.
Chapter 31
SAM LAY FACEDOWN IN THE dirt, twenty feet from the van. He had crawled as far as he was able to before collapsing. His face hugged the ground, his mouth tasting a mixture of sand and stone, and pain shot through his left arm. He felt himself drifting in and out of consciousness.
The girl was trying to help him up. Her thin arms flexed as she pulled at his armpits, but Sam flopped back to the ground.
He heard her shriek towards the van, and looked up in time to see two vehicles topple over the edge of the cliff.
“No!”
She collapsed to the ground, her eyes welling up with tears.
The van descended first, followed by the trailer, and then the RV. The trailer hitch bent almost in half, threatening to snap, and then went into a free fall. The RV followed from the rear.
A pair of red brake lights flashed suddenly from the back of the RV. Perhaps the bearded man had realized his error at the last second. The red glow persisted, even as the mangled conglomeration toppled into the darkness and out of sight.
Sam felt his eyes flutter and close. He was still conscious for a few seconds, but not long enough to hear the explosion that rocked the mountains below.
+++
He awoke to the sound of birds.
He opened his eyes slowly. His arm was throbbing, but he was alive. A piece of clothing was bound taut against his forearm, and he realized someone had fashioned a makeshift sling.
“Thank God,” the girl said from beside him. “I was sure you weren’t going to wake up.”
Sam sat upright, bracing himself on the ground with his good arm. His head was spinning.
“I think it’s just a superficial wound, but we’ll need to get it tended to as soon as possible,” she said.
He gazed off in the direction of the cliff, which was now illuminated by the morning sun. Aside from tire marks in the road, there was no evidence of the two vehicles. The air still held the faint odor of rubber and metal.
“Noah, Kendall, the RV—” he started.
Delta opened her mouth, but was unable to speak. Her eyes welled up, and she looked off into the distance.
“Do we need to check?”
“I already have,” someone called out from behind them. Sam turned.
It was Noah. His face was streaked with tears, and he held his glasses in the air, inspecting one of the cracked lenses.
Sam nodded and took to his feet. He felt sick to his stomach. He had only known Kendall for a short time, but he felt awful for the kid. Nobody deserved to die like that.
“I’m sorry, Noah,” he said. He knew words wouldn’t suffice for what his companion was feeling.
Sam looked down at his arm. It appeared that the homemade wrap had stopped the bleeding. His legs felt stiff, as if atrophy had already begun to set in. He flexed his calves to renew the circulation.
The roar of motors had been replaced by the sounds of nature. Trees rustled in the breeze, and chirps and chatters sprung from unseen animals. The road ahead curved upwards, promising a difficult journey.
He wondered if they should stop and say a prayer for their fallen companion. It seemed like the right thing to do.
Sam made his way to the edge of the cliff. The others followed. He opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. They stared in silence over the horizon for several minutes. The storeowner finally turned around.
“Which way?” the girl asked.
“Well, I think we both know what’s back there.” Sam motioned back from where they had come. She nodded. The three continued into the mountains—this time on foot.
+++
They walked for several hours without seeing a hint of civilization. Despite the circumstances, the scenery was breathtaking. Mountain ranges capped the skyline, stretching as far as the eye could see. Birds soared overhead, keeping a passive watch on the travelers. The three kept to the far edge of the road, avoiding the treacherous plunge that seemed to accompany each turn.
Sam’s arm was sore, but he had been able to keep up the pace. He had lost some blood, for sure, but not enough to sap all his strength. In any case, he was grateful to have survived.
When the next sign finally appeared, it seemed out of place in the otherwise untouched landscape. Pockets of brush had grown over its face, and the print was barely legible.
St. Matthews—2 Miles.
Sam breathed a sigh of relief. He motioned toward a large, flat rock on the side of the road.
“Can we stop here for a minute?” He grimaced. He needed a rest.
“Sure,” the girl said.
She held his good arm and eased him into a sitting position, then took a spot next to him. Noah drifted to the edge of the road, staring at something in the distance. He had barely spoken a word since the accident.
The girl looked at him, her blue eyes still wet with tears. She held her knees to her chest, but didn’t speak. They sat in silence for a few minutes. Finally, the storeowner spoke.
“I know who you are,” Sam said.
She nodded, but didn’t act surprised.
Her hands went to her pocket, and she pulled out a folded envelope, handing it to him. The sealant had smeared down the side, as if she had been holding on to it for a long time. Sam slipped his fingers inside and pulled out a newspaper clipping stuck to the bottom. He unfolded it and smoothed out the creases.
It was David Monroe’s obituary.
“It’s over,” she whispered. “I’m sorry for what happened to your family.”
Sam’s pressed his face against his knees.
For the first time in two years, the storeowner wept.
+++
The road began to curve downward. Sam welcomed the change, which made it easier for him to walk in his weakened condition. Noah and the girl held him up on either side, ensuring he kept his balance.
The storeowner looked up into the sky. The sun climbed higher, breaking through the trees and enveloping his face in warmth. It was the same reception he would have received in White Mist as he set about his morning routines at the store. Like most days, he would have been alone, struggling to keep thoughts of his family at bay. Now, Sam found himself welcoming the new day with renewed vigor.
It signified he was still alive. And for the moment, that was all he could ask for.
THE END
TO BE CONTINUED IN…
CONTAMINATION 2: CROSSROADS
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About the Author
T.W. PIPERBROOK WAS BORN AND raised in Connecticut. He has been writing since childhood, but Contamination is his first published work. In addition to writing, the author has spent time as a full-time touring musician, touring across the US, Canada, and Europe.
He now lives with his wife, a son, and a Boston Terrier that hates squirrels.
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MELT DOWN
By Edward W. Robertson
Get the prequel novella Outcome free at Amazon US or Amazon UK
Get Breakers #1 free at Amazon US or Amazon UK
I:
PANHANDLER,
REDUX
1
Even after the plague hit, the worst thing in Ness Hook’s life was his brother Shawn. Shawn returned to their mother’s house without warning on a Sunday afternoon while Ness attempted, for the third time that week, to stop his fiddler crabs from escaping their tank. Shawn lugged a mattress over the threshold to Ness’ bedroom, fabric hissing over the shine-worn carpet.
Ness stared. “What are you doing?”
“Returning to the homestead. Get your shit out of the way.”
“Why do you have a mattress?”
Shawn glanced down at the stained bed clamped under his armpit, mock-surprised, as if it were a piece of gum he’d just discovered jammed in his sole. “Is that what this is? That’s handy, ‘cause I plan to sleep on it.”
“You can’t bring your bed into my room.”
“You gonna stop me?”
“What are you even doing here?” Ness said. “Did you leave your house in your other pair of pants?”
Shawn’s face went dark. He shoved his mattress against the wall and kicked the clothes massed on Ness’ floor. “Get your shit out of the way before I shovel it out the window.”
The Last Days: Six Post-Apocalyptic Thrillers Page 104