Megan watched in horror as Jason fought to get a grip on the man’s face, but his hand became slick as blood poured out of the jagged tear in Lydia’s face. Megan could see a little leg sticking out of the pile and realized Sadie was stuck somewhere in the jumble of bodies.
Taking a step back, Megan felt the weight of Nathan and Joey pressing on her back. The boy’s wailing mixed and mingled with the cries of the infected until it was impossible to tell the difference. She could see the same dark shadows Lydia had seen moments before as the cursed and condemned inched closer to her position. The rational part of her mind screamed for her to run, to just grab the boys and flee. They could find another hiding place if they left now. But Megan knew that her heart couldn’t bear the loss of another friend … not after having already lost everyone else about whom she had ever cared.
The howl of frustration that poured from her lips was raw and painful—a fair match to the cries all around her. Several cloudy eyes, which had been focused on the battle taking place nearby, rose up to look at her. For a moment, the infected thought they had heard a kindred spirit, but as they glared at Megan, they realized she was not one of them.
Staring at the bleeding pile of bodies, Megan’s mind went blank, much like it had when she picked up that broken antenna and jammed it into that biker’s eye. She moved forward, dragging the boys behind her.
As they approached the skirmish, she let Nathan and Joey go as she dug into the pile of bodies. With a strength that would have shocked her only moments before, she pushed Jason aside and snagged a handful of the ghoul’s hair. She knew she only had one chance to do this right. Tightening her grip and giving a mighty yank, Megan heard the sickening sound of flesh and muscle tearing away from bone. The ghoul had already bitten through most of the muscle on Lydia’s jaw, which made her job all the easier. Lydia tore free from her captor.
Without hesitation, Megan drove the ghoul’s head into the pavement. There was some resistance, but with a mouth full of meat, the stiff was too preoccupied to fight back. There was a satisfying clunk as bone connected with the hard surface. Megan plowed her knee into the side of the vile creature’s skull and punched at him wildly.
She could not recall how many blows she landed, but she didn’t stop until the old man’s movements ceased. As Megan relinquished her grip on the pulpy remains, she could feel an ache in her arm and a fire in her chest, but she had a clear understanding of what needed to be done.
“Grab Sadie! Move it!”
Jason looked dully at Megan as she dropped down beside Lydia and barked out the order. Lydia’s long gray mane was damp with the blood running freely from her face. She made an ineffective attempt to cover the ragged wound with one hand, her fingers camouflaged in red.
“Jason!” Megan yelled. He nodded and moved toward Sadie, who was still latched onto Lydia’s waist. Reaching down, Jason grabbed the little girl as he grimaced in pain. Despite using only his good arm to attack Lydia’s assailant, his injured elbow had been batted around as well.
Sadie resisted at first and clung fiercely to Lydia, but as Megan helped the traumatized woman to her feet, the little girl relinquished her grip. Jason reached for her tiny hand and moved toward the boys. Nathan and Joey were statues, frozen in silence, but the twelve year old barely saw them as his eyes widened.
“MEGAN!”
Megan heard Jason’s shout as she attempted to drape Lydia’s hand over her shoulder. When she looked over at him, her heart sank. They had forgotten about the three ghouls in the parking lot.
Two were already close to Jason, who had taken up a protective stance in front of the children. The third was still in the parking lot, having just climbed back to its feet after falling over earlier.
“No!” Megan screamed, running toward Jason and leaving Lydia behind. One of the two rotters, a sexless blob of rancid flesh, was taking a feeble swipe at the boy. The other, a woman in a pair of tight polyester pants and a bedazzled white blouse, heard Megan’s scream and happily shifted her attention to the emaciated woman. Megan stopped short of the extended arms, but made sure she had the creature’s undivided attention. It crept toward her as she inched back.
Jason easily dodged the other ghoul’s weak attempt to grab him. He was grateful for Megan’s quick intervention, but had no more idea of what to do than she did. He looked at the pathetic figure in front of him and gritted his teeth. It smelled ripe and gassy, the graying monster bloated to the point where its features made it look like a giant smiley face rather than an actual human being. Jason ducked another clumsy swipe and danced sideways.
Lydia, weak and fighting delirium, used her free hand to pull the children close. Her head spun as she fought to remain on her feet. She knew the youngsters were staring at the hand covering the mangled remains of her face, and she had no idea how to convince them everything would be okay. Sadie smiled at her, a gesture the mauled woman could not return. Even speaking was going to be difficult with her jaw in its current condition.
Lydia stumbled, feeling the world grow dark and cold around her. Her eyelids fluttered, but she managed to remain conscious as she saw Megan dart around some snarling woman in a tacky outfit. Jason was nearby, contending with some faceless monster taking ragged swipes at him. At the same time, a third ghoul was creeping up behind the other two, threatening to shift the odds in the infecteds’ favor.
Lydia hissed a ragged sigh. The realization that her constant battle to survive was done calmed her. As the pain buzzed in her head and threatened to consume her, she resisted the urge to fall to the ground. Darkness threatened to consume her vision. She was growing dizzy from the loss of blood, but was coherent enough to know what needed to be done.
Out of the side of her face that was still working, she tried to speak to the children. The blood sloshing around in her mouth made her gag as she moved her throat muscles. It felt like a giant bag of salt mixed with alcohol had been poured into her open wound, and she leaned over to let the blood run down her face. Spitting was impossible. Ignoring the coppery taste, Lydia sucked in another breath. Her mouth was clear for a moment. She leaned over and looked down at the children. She hoped they could understand her garbled words.
Chapter 16
Lydia was a solidly built woman. “Thick,” as her husband had once put it when he was a bit tipsy and couldn’t stop his nearly fatal slip of the tongue. So when she plowed into the brittle figure and drove it backwards, there were several sickening snaps as its weakened bones broke under the pressure of the swift assault. She had angled her attack, intentionally or not, so that she took down both Megan’s attacker and the third ghoul, spinning them sideways to the hardtop. The three crashed with a unified whump! Lydia’s shredded mouth sprayed blood and gobs of loose flesh as she howled like an enraged banshee.
Jason was still busy dodging the troglodyte-like beast he was facing when he heard the scream, as did the warped blob of flesh in front of him. It paused, halting its persistent dance, and sniffed the air, though it was hard to understand how it could do so with such a swollen and cracked nose. Then it turned, Jason apparently forgotten. The boy froze, suspecting a trick even though he was certain the infected were incapable of deceit. When the slug moved away, he could only stare at its backside in complete shock.
Jason took a tentative step forward, fearing the bloated abomination that had attacked him was going after Megan. Instead, he saw movement a few feet to her left, and his eyes were drawn to a tangle of bodies writhing on the ground. That was where his adversary was headed. Megan’s ghoul and the other that had been creeping up on her were in the pile with someone else covered in fresh blood. It hissed and howled as it dragged its nails across their putrefied flesh and attempted to bite at them despite its mangled jaw. The third ghoul fell into the pile, and the maddened creature reached out for it, excited to have another victim to obliterate.
Jason watched, motionless, as it dawned on him that it was Lydia in the pile. He went cold as he saw one of the creatures s
ink its teeth into her arm. She didn’t seem to notice as she smashed her elbow into the throat of another. Her eyes were ablaze with anger as she ripped her arm free and tore off a gob of flesh from the face of another enemy. Blood sprayed from her arm, and she howled again, but not in pain.
Without realizing it, Jason moved toward the pile. An instant later, he felt someone pulling him away. Dazed, he looked back at Megan. She shook her head, fighting back tears.
“You can’t do anything for her. We have to get out of here!”
The words didn’t register, and he looked back at Lydia. She was still moving, twisting around as she landed a solid punch to the jaw of one of the creatures beneath her. Despite the damage from the tackle, the two original ghouls looked none the worse for wear, still moving and clawing at the homicidal woman as she beat on them. She doled out an equal share of punishment to the third, shifting away from its snapping teeth as she scratched at it. Her screams sent a shiver through Jason’s heart as he saw another set of teeth sink deep into her shoulder. Another hand rose up out of the pile of loose body parts, and its fingers raked furrows across the now-exposed flesh of Lydia’s back. The hand continued to dig into her flesh, scratching, burrowing as she writhed and tried to wriggle free.
“She’s dead already, Jason. Please …”
Jason stared at Lydia for a moment longer and then turned away, his own eyes stinging with tears as he reached for Megan. They turned to the children, and twin looks of surprise crossed their faces as they saw them standing there, a few feet away, holding hands. All three looked frightened, but Sadie, standing in the middle, looked almost tranquil, as if she had undergone some type of transformation.
Relieved, Megan gestured for the children to join them as they began to run.
She wondered how much time had elapsed since they had moved onto the street. It couldn’t have been long, yet the little clump of breathers was now the center of attention for every slug within earshot. Megan knew there were hundreds more of them beyond sight range that knew exactly where they were. The cacophony, the roar of the dead, spread outward like ripples on a pond. More were coming. Many more.
Night would be upon them soon. The summer sun’s harsh rays were subsiding, weakening and dimming as they fell beyond the horizon. The moving shapes progressed ever forward, casting long shadows on the street. These darkened outlines on the ground were distant specters reaching out for the survivors, closing the distance with elongated arms and fingers wriggling in anticipation.
Megan and Jason looked for cracks or breaks in the gathering crowd and saw none. There was nowhere to run. There were ebbs and flows to the oncoming tide of death, but none promising freedom. When a gap opened for an instant, it was immediately filled with more rotting bodies. Megan took a shuddering breath and looked back at the donut shop.
There was no hesitation as she took the only option remaining: they had to backtrack. Several apish shapes, bent over and dragging defective appendages, had passed in front of the curio shop next to Tom’s and were coming for them. There wasn’t much time.
“Behind the building. We can lose them back there and find another place to hide.” The words came out breathlessly, but Jason understood.
Through the tinted windows of the donut shop, Megan could see several booths and a counter that ran half the length of the shop. A register stood to the left in front of the racks of empty donut displays. None of the windows had been shattered.
She looked back at her wards. Jason was holding Joey’s hand, and he was pulling the other two children along behind him like a little train. They were far enough away from Lydia that they could no longer hear her screams over the racket of the crowd. Shouts and cries reverberated off the windows of the donut shop, giving the unsettling impression that the ghouls were right next to them.
Megan turned back toward the donut shop and stopped dead. A keening noise spilled out of her lips as she saw that the narrow passage between the two buildings was now clogged with bodies. Several shadows moved toward them through the gap.
Jason saw them as well, and the rest of the little group skidded to a halt. The moving shadows between Tom’s Donuts and the curio shop were taking shape, and he could see faces staring out at him. He could also see the milky whites of their eyes as they reflected the last of the sun’s rays.
“Megan?”
Megan bit her lip to avoid screaming at Jason to leave her alone. Her head felt as though it was being squeezed by some massive force, and she was trembling with a terror beyond anything she had ever experienced before. They had perhaps a minute, maybe two, before the fiends inching closer tore them to pieces.
Taking a deep breath, Megan fought the faintness that threatened to overcome her and looked around once more. Each filthy and contusion-laced body she saw was worse than the last. They were everywhere. There were still pockets of open space on the street, but they were slowly being filled. She knew instinctively that even if they could manage to weave through those gaps, they wouldn’t make it more than a hundred yards before being slaughtered.
Turning back toward the donut shop, she looked through the plate glass window. That was it. It was the only option left.
Pointing frantically at the building, she looked back at Jason and shouted at him. “Come on!”
Snatching up Nathan’s hand, Megan did not wait for the kid’s response as she ran for the entrance. The splinter of hope remaining in her gut felt like a blowtorch, burning away everything else as her feet pounded on the pavement.
She focused on the door’s handle as they got close. Closing the last few feet, Megan reached out for it, her entire body quivering as she felt the cold metal beneath her fingers. Taking a deep breath, she tugged.
The door didn’t budge.
Rattling it again, Megan slammed her fist against the glass, and still it did not move. She howled in frustration, beating on the door and cursing at it.
Jason reached out to her and touched her shoulder. Megan shook him off as she continued to slam her fist ineffectively against the door.
After a few moments, the boy spoke. “Megan, please. They’re getting close. What do we do?”
Stopping the senseless pounding, Megan leaned her head against the glass and shuddered. She could hear the pleading in Jason’s voice and the sound of the children crying. The sounds felt like drips of acid in her ears.
Turning away from the door, she wiped tears from her eyes, opened her arms, and pulled Sadie and the boys toward her. She felt the little bodies tremble as the three children latched on to her like a lifeline. Putting a hand around Jason’s neck, she pulled him close as well.
Megan could see the question in his eyes and could barely stand the frantic hope remaining there. Jason was still counting on her to save them.
Her heart shattered as she shook her head and watched the boy’s face crumble, the belief that they were somehow going to make it dying inside of him. Megan guided his head to her shoulder and hushed the children.
Taking one last glance out at the parking lot, she shivered. There, out where Lydia had fallen, was a countless mass of ghouls. They surrounded whatever remained of the gentle soul who had been caretaker of the children. That she was dead and no longer in pain gave Megan no relief as she watched the teeming mass of bodies push and pull at one other in an effort to collect a scrap of meat. The rest of the monstrosities had pushed past the bloody feast and were making their way toward the front of the donut shop. Catching her breath, Megan averted her eyes and stared down at the children huddled around her.
Moments later, there was a roar behind them, and they all tensed, squeezing as close to Megan as possible. It was a brief and sudden outburst that faded into the background of gibbering howls and crazed screams.
Bending her head, Megan pressed up against the children, cherishing their warmth and life as she prayed to God that the end would be quick and, if possible, painless … at least for the children.
As she heard the steady beat of slogging f
eet and ruined bones dragging close, she whispered to the children, “Everyone, close your eyes.”
Chapter 17
“Hey, babe.”
Megan reached out to her husband with both hands, pressing against his shoulders, doing her best to push him back down. As she did, she noticed the silver revolver in her right hand.
“Don’t try to get up, honey. You need to just lie there. You’re dead.”
Dalton smiled. It was a little disconcerting with a bullet hole winking at her from his forehead.
“Babe, I’m perfectly fine.” He took her tiny hands in his much bigger ones as he got up.
“But I shot you.”
Dalton sighed. “You don’t get it, do you, Meg?”
He lifted one of his hands and rubbed at his eyes. Megan noticed how tired he looked.
God I miss him, she thought. It was a strange to think that. He was right here in front of her. So why was she missing him?
“Because I’m not actually here, Megan. I’ve been dead for a long time. You’re just imagining me.”
Megan’s eyebrow arched as she gave her husband a skeptical look.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
Dalton smiled. “I know you want to forget everything that’s gone on over the past few days, sweetie, but you can’t.”
Megan let out a hiss of angry breath. “What in the hell are you talking about?”
“You know what I’m talking about. You just don’t want to accept it.”
Megan shook her head, baffled. “No, I think you don’t know what’s going on, and you’re trying to confuse me for God knows what reason.” Megan inched backwards as Dalton moved closer to her. After a heartbeat, she stopped.
The Dark Trilogy Page 45