Turners | Book 1 | The Beginning

by Thomas, Ellis

  “What’s she doing?”

  “Talking a lot.”

  Lucy kept up her monologue and didn’t even seem to be aware that they were talking about her.

  “Maybe she just misses being around people. You know, the living kind.”

  “Yeah, maybe,” Sydney said dubiously. “Where are we headed?”

  “There’s another base down south of here that sounded like they had a handle on things. That was before everything went south for my squad but it’s worth checking out.”

  “How far is it?”

  “About three hundred miles. We’ll drive until we see a safe place to spend the night.”

  “Sounds like a plan. Roger.” Sydney seemed to remember reading somewhere that this was the proper way to end a radio communication.

  “What?”

  “Uh, never mind. Talk to you later.”

  Behind her, in the back seat, Mason was quietly laughing.

  “What?”

  “Oh, nothing. Except that was Jeremy, not Roger!”

  Boys, Sydney thought.

  16 A Bad End

  The group had been driving for about an hour, and Lucy had seemed to be winding down when she suddenly yelled out, “I have to pee!” Sydney jumped at the sudden outburst.

  “Let me tell Jeremy we need to pull over,” Sydney said as she picked up the radio.

  “Why? I have to go NOW!” Lucy insisted loudly.

  “Okay, okay! But Jeremy needs to know why we’re stopping.” Sydney pressed the button. “Hey, Jeremy, our guest needs to go to the bathroom.”

  “Can’t she wait? I don’t like this area. I’d feel a lot more comfortable somewhere more open.”

  “I have to go NOW!” Lucy yelled again. She was like a child who couldn’t understand that bending over with her moon shining was not a good defensive position if company arrived.

  Hearing her over the radio, Jeremy gave in. “Okay. Follow me.”

  Jeremy turned off the road in the small town they were driving through. The wind had picked up, and the place felt kind of eerie. As they made their way, Sydney spotted a Turner here and there. She knew Jeremy hadn’t missed them either. In front of them was a meadow with high grass. They drove to the middle of it, and as they slowed down, Lucy jumped out before Sydney could come to a full stop. She ran out about fifty feet from the Humvees and squatted. Everyone turned away while she busied herself.

  Then the air filled with an ear-splitting shriek.

  Always scout before you squat was the first thought that ran through Sydney’s mind.

  They all turned at once, but all they could see were Lucy’s arms and legs thrashing about. As they ran toward her, they could already see blood. Oblivious to the area around her, Lucy had squatted down within an arm’s distance of a Turner that was missing its legs. It only took a few seconds for the Turner to grab hold of her and pull her down. Squatting, she was already off balance, so it took very little effort. With Lucy on her back, the thing had quickly started feeding.

  Jeremy shot the Turner and then put Lucy out of her misery. There was nothing else they could do. Lucy had been annoying, but Sydney never would have wished this on her.

  As they turned back toward the autos, more Turners were on their way. Triple-timing it, they made it to the Humvees just as the Turners began closing in. A dozen or so that still had their agility and speed made it to within 20 feet of the group as they reached the car doors. Since each of them now had a handgun, they made short work of the Turners’ heads. Or at least the guys did. Sydney hated to admit it, but she had panicked and forgotten about the safety release, so her gun wouldn’t fire.

  On the road again, they didn’t have much to say. To have found someone and lost her so quickly made them rethink their own safety and the precautions they hadn’t taken.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~

  An hour later they drove into another small town that looked more like it had been a pit stop than a place where people had lived. With Jeremy still leading the way, they pulled into the parking lot of an abandoned fast-food place that stood alone. They stayed in the cars a few minutes to see if any company showed up. After about fifteen minutes, Jeremy got out and the rest cautiously followed, spreading out to check the sides and back of the building. There were three exit doors, including one on the side and one at the back. The front door was made of heavy glass that had not been broken.

  Jeremy went inside first, with Mason following, while Austin, Christian, and Sydney waited outside. Within a few minutes Jeremy and Mason had gone through the interior and confirmed that the place was clear.

  They climbed back into the cars and Sydney and Jeremy drove around to the back of the building to park. No need to make their transport find obvious to passersby. They all grabbed some extra ammo and a few MREs before going inside. The first order of business was to secure the building, making sure all the doors were locked. The day had been a warm one, and the windows were the kind that opened at the top, so they lowered them a bit to get some air circulating.

  When that was done, since they were in a restaurant, they went through the storage areas to see if anything edible was left so they could save the MREs for emergencies. Everything perishable had rotted, so all they could hope to find were some canned goods that hadn’t expired too long ago.

  “Oh yeah!” Austin whooped. “I hit the mother lode!” He had found a stock of canned salsa and tins of chips. The cans were still good, and the hungry crew immediately started devouring their find, grateful for preservatives.

  In the days when Sydney and her siblings had survived in part by dumpster diving, chips and salsa had been plentiful in the dumpster behind the local Mexican restaurant. They had always been one of Sydney’s favorite snacks. Although she couldn’t say the salsa they had just found was the best she’d ever eaten, as hungry as she was, it tasted particularly good.

  Then, to everyone’s amazement, they also found cans containing corned beef and tuna. They were dining right that night!

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~

  The rest of the evening was uneventful. There were Turners about, but whenever Sydney and the guys spotted them coming, they kept a low profile and the Turners went on. As darkness fell, the group started reflecting on what had gone horribly wrong that day. Sydney could see that Jeremy had been upset about Lucy, but he kept his thoughts to himself.

  Looking at the ground, he finally said, “When Lucy ran out to that field so fast and squatted, I only thought of her modesty, which was the reason I turned my back. From here on, modesty counts for nothing. That Turner must have been there for a while. I didn’t even think of one being in the grass like that, but I should have.”

  Sydney tried to ease his guilt. “No one saw that coming, Jeremy. I kept thinking she was acting kind of weird. She was rambling on about the craziest stuff, as though everything was normal. Then she went off about having to go to the toilet, and I honestly was just glad to get her out of the car. I never wanted her gone that way, though.” Sydney really did feel bad about not being more cautious. After all, being a girl, she could have gone with her.

  “Bottom line is we all let our guard down just because someone wasn’t cooperative, and that could have cost us more than one life. It was a hard lesson to learn,” Jeremy replied with conviction. “Next time, we won’t let a personality dysfunction sway our better judgment.”

  Little did he know that the next “Lucy” to come into his life would take away the greatest love of his life.

  17 The Search

  Desperate, Leesa made her way through the apartment building, carefully dodging the undead. She had to find an adult to help with her grandmother, Rosie, who was in serious need of medical attention.

  Rosie had taken Leesa in after the girl’s parents turned. The two of them had always been close but having only each other to depend on for the last couple of years had intensified the bond between them. They loved each other beyond words and would gladly have taken a bite for the other if they had to make the choic
e. Rosie was a tough old lady and could usually hold her own, but at times her illnesses got the best of her, and that’s when she depended heavily on Leesa. This was one of those times.

  When Rosie’s stomach problems riddled her with pain, Leesa couldn’t just stand by and watch. She made the decision to venture out of their little refuge, alone. She knew that other people were in the apartment building, even though everyone was transient and generally kept to themselves to be less noticeable. Her hope was that someone had medical training and could ease her grandmother’s suffering.

  Starting on her own floor, she had gone from door to door, gently knocking and whispering for someone to help her. With no success on the lower floors, she made her way up to the fourth floor. This time, her gentle, insistent knocking and whispering got a response.

  The man inside decided the young girl he saw through the peephole was no threat. Still, he held the gun in front of him as he opened the door.

  Leesa quickly explained her situation and then saw a feminine hand gently touch the man’s arm. He backed away and a young woman stepped in front and invited Leesa in. Once she was inside, the man closed the door behind her.

  “What specifically are your grandmother’s complaints?” the woman asked gently.

  Leesa began to explain her grandmother’s symptoms with as much accuracy as she could. The woman listened to the details the young girl was able to articulate.

  Turning to the man, the woman said, “Joshua, we have to help her. Her grandmother’s symptoms are classic. I can ease her pain and help her manage her illness. We need to help them.”

  “But we’re ready to leave. You know this could cause a major delay,” he replied. The woman tilted her head and looked at him until, with a sigh, he gave in. “Okay, Savannah. Let’s see what we can do.”

  Joshua grabbed a packed duffel bag and slung it over his shoulder. Savannah moved swiftly, collecting a medical bag and putting a few more things into a smaller duffel bag. Looking first at Joshua, then Leesa, she said, “I’m ready. Let’s go.”

  Leesa could have cried from sheer relief. She had found the angel she was looking for.

  Rosie was in severe abdominal pain when they reached the small apartment. Savannah quickly went to work, first giving Rosie a pain killer.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~

  After just one day in Savannah’s care, Rosie was feeling back to her old self.

  “Time to move” Joshua told Savannah.

  Leesa couldn’t help interrupting them. She had to stay with them for her grandmother’s sake.

  “Can we please go with you?” Leesa asked, trying not to sound like she was begging.

  Joshua opened his mouth to refuse, but Savannah spoke first.

  “Of course,” she jumped in, much to Joshua’s frustration. They didn’t need the extra responsibility.

  “I promise we won’t be a burden to you” Leesa said to Joshua. “Thank you, thank you” she said as she hugged Savannah so they wouldn’t see the tears of relief welling up in her eyes.

  18 The Encounter

  The next morning Sydney, Jeremy, and the boys were up early and started out again with little resistance from their neighbors, who were of the “older” generation. The town must have been attacked quite a while back—the Turners were sluggish, and many of them were missing arms and legs. There must have been some intense battles when the people here had started turning.

  Stopping at an old gas station, Sydney and Jeremy began filling up the Humvees’ tanks and making sure all their gas cans were full so they wouldn’t have to make any detours. Luckily, a lot of the older and more remote towns still had gas pumps that weren’t computerized.

  While the Humvees were being filled, Jeremy casually said, “By the way, when we were at the base armory, I just happened to get my hands on four little pieces of gold.”

  “What?” everyone asked at once.

  He reached into the back of the Humvee he’d been driving and opened a duffel bag, pulling out four pieces of metal.

  “Quiet time!” Christian shouted. “All right!”

  Jeremy laughed as he watched their faces light up. Although Mason was the only other one among the group who had ever used one, they all knew how valuable those four little pieces of metal could be in certain situations.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Most of their drive the next few hours was through desert, so they didn’t see much movement. Eventually, Jeremy hailed Sydney on the comm. “A city is coming up. I don’t know what we’re going to find there, so let’s be extra vigilant.”

  Even though information was sporadic at best in those days, they’d all heard of weird stuff like groups that lived on human blood or that used children as bait to ambush travelers.

  Mason, who was riding with Sydney, got out his handgun and rifle. After thoroughly checking his weapons and making sure everything was in working order, he started putting Sydney’s through the same routine.

  “I know you haven’t been able to practice with these yet, but if it comes down to a shootout before you get the chance to practice, remember to flip off the safety right here,” he told her. He smiled as he said this, knowing that she had been embarrassed when she forgot that little detail before. “Then just point and pull the trigger. It’s loaded and ready to fire.”

  He then went through their ammunition, and Sydney knew the same thing was going on in the other car.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~

  As they moved cautiously through the outskirts of the city, Jeremy’s voice came over the comm. “Keep alert, you two, and stay close on my tail. The base is west of the city. That means this is going to be one long ride.”

  Moving through the suburbs, Sydney remembered that people in the old times used to sit on benches or front porches and watch people. She kind of understood that fascination as she looked out the car windows and watched these reanimated things just walking and walking. Every occupation and walk of life were represented among the undead. Hookers wandered side by side with nuns. Doctors in scrubs wandered next to road workers. The Turner virus was truly the great equalizer.

  Coming into the city was like entering a war zone. Shop windows were smashed, and cars were overturned everywhere. The undead were out en masse, and the stench was horrendous.

  Fully grown Turners were bad enough but seeing what used to be small children with the decay of death all over them always hit Sydney in the gut. They’d never even had a chance at life. She couldn’t imagine a more terrifying end for a child than to be eaten while still alive!

  The radio crackled, and Jeremy’s voice came on. “Heads up. There’s a lot of commotion ahead.”

  Slowly following the flow of Turners, they discovered that the hordes were congregating around a four-story building. As they drew closer, they found out why. On the top floor were some people looking out onto the decaying crowd. Jeremy brought out his binoculars and called to Sydney. “Those are humans up there on the fourth floor. Can you see them?”

  “Yeah, but how do you know if they’re safe?” Sydney asked.

  “Grab the binoculars in your glove box and have a look.”

  Mason got the binoculars out and focused them on the top of the building.

  “They’re human, all right,” he told Sydney. “I wonder how long they’ve been holed up there?”

  “Let’s stop in front of that bank,” Jeremy said. “I’m going to change frequencies and see if maybe they have a radio.” He clicked off and Sydney followed him.

  For the most part, the Humvees insulated them from the steady stream of Turners. Before they’d reached the city limits, Jeremy had instructed Sydney to close her air vents, keeping their human scent sealed inside and the death stench on the outside. As a result, the Turners seemed to view the cars as nothing more than the inanimate objects they were, and Sydney and Jeremy slowly eased their way through the rotting crowd to the bank.

  Although it seemed like an eternity to Sydney, Jeremy’s voice came back on the radio several minutes later.
>
  “They have comms,” he told her. “They can see us, but they have no way of escaping. They need our help, but man, what a mess.”

  After going back and forth over the comms a little longer, Jeremy and Joshua Delgado, one of the trapped, had put a plan together.

  As Jeremy explained it to Sydney, she hoped with all her heart that it would work.

  19 The Rescue

  On the north side of the building was a fire escape. The trapped people could get to it, but the problem was getting them past all the Turners and into the transportation once they reached the ground. Since Christian had the materials to make Molotov cocktails, Jeremy would drive off a short distance so he could prepare a few. Once the cocktails were ready, Jeremy, Christian, and Austin would drive back to the opposite side of the building from the fire escape.

  Sydney and Mason would move to within viewing distance of the fire escape. The first blast would let the people trapped inside the building know that the performance was beginning. At that point, the theory was that the Turners would start moving toward the commotion, in hopes of a human barbecue, and the people in the building could exit the building and make a dash for Sydney’s auto.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Jeremy radioed Sydney to let her know they were ready to set off the first explosion. When she heard the cocktails go off, she slowly pulled her Humvee closer to the fire escape. She could see a man and three women stepping out of one of the top windows onto it, letting the first section of stairs down as the undead, in unison, started moving toward the percussion that had just happened.

  Mason climbed over the center console of the car to the back seat and then all the way to the very back, making room for the rescued to load quickly. The back also gave him the advantage of seeing Turners coming from behind.

  Hearing the second explosion mixed with gunshots, Sydney and Mason watched as the Turners headed in full force to where Jeremy and the other boys were. Thank goodness the living people were moving quickly. She pulled up just as the third set of stairs came down. Sydney unlocked the car doors, watching intently for any straggling Turners that might be coming their way. The new guests got in as fast as they could. The man made sure the women were safely in the back seat before he jumped in the front.