He closed the locket carefully and lowered it back onto the creature’s neck. As he did so, he jolted backwards like he’d just touched a live wire and received several volts through his body. He snatched in a breath and lifted his hands to his face to hide it.
‘Ethan?’ O.B. said, noticing his apparent distress.
Ethan’s eyes darted around, as he struggled to get a grip of himself.
‘What’s wrong?’ O.B. came again.
A strong gust of wind blew in from town and past over them on its way to the sea.
‘Nothing,’ Ethan said, uncovering his face. ‘It’s nothing.’
He got to his feet and walked away from O.B. and the creature wearing the locket.
Darla and Raine had been observing Ethan’s strange behaviour too and they both approached.
‘What in the hell was that about?’ Darla said.
‘It’s complicated,’ Raine replied. She quickened her pace to catch up to Ethan, who was making his way towards the outskirts of Bower.
4
They were all surprised to find the vehicles where they had left them and intact when they climbed to the top of the rocks at the end of the beach.
Salty sat in the pickup alone, keeping a close eye on the others. O.B. was a few yards away, shaking off after taking a piss in the bushes. Darla sat on the floor with one shoe off, pecking at her blistered feet again. Ethan leaned over the steering wheel of the Sedan while he warmed up the engine.
Salty averted his gaze from what was going on outside, deep in thought. He reached down to the pack between his legs and unzipped it. After fumbling around inside it for a few seconds, he pulled out what he’d been looking for. It was Emily’s stuffed bunny toy. He stared into its black, vacuous eyes and traced his thumb along the fold of its chewed ear. The fur around the chewed area felt rough where it had matted together. He kept the toy below the level of the window, so no one else could see that he had it. He continued staring intensely at it, as if he was willing it to move.
‘Hey!’ came the croak from outside. Darla pointed down the road that cut through the centre of town, to the lone figure holding a rifle walking in their direction. ‘Your girlfriend’s back.’
Salty saw Raine was returning and hastily shoved the bunny into his pack again and zipped it shut. He waited for her to reach the pickup, impatiently tapping his fingers on the inside of the door. When she got closer, he noticed she was carrying a fuel can.
‘Well?’ he said.
‘There’s no sign of them,’ Raine replied. ‘They’re obviously migrating again. The road out is clear for a good few miles. After that, we’ll just have to take our chances.’
‘Only one way to find out,’ Salty said. ‘Gas her up.’
They stuck to the backroads and headed north, the Delaware River on one side and Chesapeake Bay on the other. It felt eerie to pass by town after town and sometimes not see a soul—living or dead.
As they skirted Wilmington, they spotted another herd of about four hundred crossing fields that were adjacent to the Air National Guard post.
The creatures seemed to be circling up to alter direction. Both Salty and Ethan slowed down so they could observe their strange behaviour for a while longer. Eventually, the herd settled on southwest and began to move over to the next field.
Approaching West Chester, Raine caught a whiff of something inside the pickup. It smelled sweet and enticing at first, but then it took on a more chemical aroma.
‘What is that?’ Raine said.
‘What’s what?’ Salty said.
‘You mean you can’t smell it? I smelled it earlier, but it’s getting stronger.’
Salty inhaled deeply, snorting as he did.
‘Yeah, I smell somethin’ alright. Smells like…’ He glanced to the dashboard and then started to apply the brakes.
Ethan noticed and brought the Sedan to a halt behind them.
‘Fuck!’ Salty said, yanking the parking brake.
‘What is it?’ Raine said.
He jumped out of the vehicle like a bear with a sore head, hands on hips.
When Raine got out to join him, he pointed to the trail of gas on the previous stretch of road.
‘There’s your answer. We’ve been leakin’ fuel.’
‘A busted line?’ Raine said.
‘Or a hole in the gas tank. We went hard over some rough terrain when we got clear of the preserve. Somethin’ could’ve smashed against the underside of the engine.’
He walked around the front of the pickup and knelt down to examine beneath it. A thick pool of gasoline was already collecting on the asphalt.
‘Somethin’s definitely busted—busted all to hell.’
‘Can we still drive on it?’ Raine said.
Salty stood up.
‘Not unless you fancy burstin’ into flames and invitin’ the dead heads to a cookout.’
‘Everything OK?’ Ethan shouted from the other car.
‘Not really, Twilight,’ Salty said. ‘Looks like will be hitchin’ a ride with you.’
‘I’ll transfer the bags to the car,’ Raine said.
‘You do that. I’ll siphon off whatever fuel’s left in the tank.’
Raine did as she’d promised and grabbed the packs from the back of the pickup, as well as the assault rifle. She scanned the area for potential threats on her way to the Sedan. There were a couple of roamers in the near distance, but nothing she couldn’t handle on her own.
‘Car trouble?’ Ethan said, taking one of the bags from her.
‘Pissing gas all over the place. It’s had its day,’ Raine said.
‘Then I guess we’re going to get nice and cosy. It’s only fair to warn you about Darla’s feet in advance.’
Before she could respond, a building to the south caught her eye. She used the binoculars to take a look at it, and it was even uglier up close. A large, one floor concrete block, offset from the road and surrounded by trees. With the extra zoom capabilities, she managed to read the name on the sign.
‘Something interesting?’ Ethan said.
‘Looks like a wholesale warehouse. Could be loaded with things we need—maybe some ammunition.’
‘Worth checking out before we hit the road again?’
‘Load the bags and I’ll go talk to Jake about it,’ Raine said.
5
Ethan parked the Sedan on the empty lot surrounding the warehouse. Huge weeds sprouted through the gaps in each of the concrete slabs. The area was overrun with vegetation—far too much to have grown since the outbreak. ‘Goodgreen’s Wholesalers’, according to the sign, had obviously no interest in keeping the land maintained. It had just been used as a storage space to deliver and collect stock.
The building itself was practical, textureless and grey. The glass front was locked down by stainless steel shutters, as were the windows.
Salty adjusted his cap to block out the sun and strolled up to the warehouse.
‘You certainly know how to pick ‘em, Miller. That place is locked up tighter than a bull’s asshole in fly season.’
‘There’ll be a way in. There always is,’ Raine said. She then turned to address O.B. and Darla. ‘Why don’t you two take a look round back. See if there’s a fire exit we can pry open.’
Darla nodded, her hand sliding down to rest upon her stomach.
‘Come on, kid,’ she said, pulling O.B. with her.
They hadn’t walked more than a few yards along the side of the building before Darla doubled over in pain.
‘Why didn’t you tell her you needed to rest?’ O.B. said.
‘Like they need another excuse to cut me loose,’ Darla said, straining on her words. ‘That hillbilly is just waitin’ for me to slip up.’
‘I think you’re paranoid. He hates the smell of your feet. Not even you could blame him for that.’
The discomfort in her gut had caused her to break out in a cold sweat, but her frustration wit
h her young counterpart helped to take her mind off it.
‘One of these days you’re gonna wise up to how the world works, and you better do it fast.’
‘I’m smart enough to know you can’t go through this kind of withdrawal out on the road. You have to tell them how bad it’s getting,’ O.B. said.
‘I’m sufferin’ just fine,’ Darla said. ‘I need to find a little pick-me-up is all.’
‘A little pick-me-up? You mean another fix, right? And what about the next time, and the time after that? They’re not exactly selling it on street corners these days.’
‘Listen, I don’t need no sponsor,’ Darla said. ‘And if I did, it certainly wouldn’t be your fat, condescendin’ ass.’
O.B. shrugged and walked on ahead of her.
‘Fine. Suffer in silence then.’
Darla straightened herself, gritting what teeth she had left.
‘Finally, you’re gettin’ the message.’
Raine watched Salty patrolling the overgrown parking lot, hatchet in one hand and Beretta in the other, its single bullet chambered. She turned to face the warehouse’s front entrance and stared up at the air vent situated near the roof.
‘Climb up on my shoulders for a look-see,’ she said.
Ethan didn’t hear her, or at least he didn’t react to her request. He wasn’t even paying attention to his surroundings—lost in his own thoughts. It reminded Raine of how he’d looked within the crowd of refugees back at the camp when they were gathering at the truck to receive their fateful food packages.
‘Ethan?’
The second time she called he seemed to snap out of it.
‘Are you with us again,’ she said.
‘Yeah, of course. I’m heavier than I look,’ Ethan said.
Raine tittered.
‘I could bench press you. Now get up here.’ She stooped down and presented her muscular shoulders. In truth, she could probably take a man of his size standing on each shoulder and still not buckle under the strain.
Sure enough, once he’d climbed on, she hoisted him up like he was a child, directly level with the vent.
The vent was wide, certainly wide enough for a waif like Ethan to crawl through. He examined the vent’s cover, running his fingers over its edges.
‘The screws have already been removed,’ he said.
‘And the cover’s been reattached from the inside, I’ll bet,’ Raine said.
‘If you say so.’ Ethan paused, still staring at the four holes where the screws used to be.
‘Well? What are you waiting for?’ Raine said. ‘Get it off.’
The first thing Darla and O.B. saw as they reached the corner of the building was the back end of a small bus. It had collided with the back of the warehouse, not far from where the fire exit doors were situated, to devastating effect; devastating for the bus, that is. Its front end had been reduced to a crumpled mess of tangled metal and broken glass. Most of its side windows were smashed too. Splashes of blood mingled with the wreckage.
They traced the black tyre marks back to a path of down-trodden undergrowth and broken branches where the bus must have cut through at high speed before being brought unceremoniously to a stop by an immovable object.
Darla had recovered enough to pull her knife and approach the vehicle.
‘You’re not up to that. Let me,’ O.B. said.
‘Kid, I could be tweakin’ out and still handle this shit better than you,’ Darla scoffed. ‘Go try that fire exit and make sure no creepers come from the trees and corner us.’
The folding door of the bus stood ajar, so Darla tugged on it to create a gap wide enough for her to slip through. It was stiff, but it eventually jerked back, accompanied by a shower of broken glass, which she brushed from her arm as she stepped onboard.
Although the driver’s seat was drenched in blood and half-consumed by the imploded front end, the driver was absent.
A single crutch lay in a pool of blood in the centre of the aisle. Darla stepped over it and the shattered glass crunched underfoot.
The creature lurking on one of the back seats lifted its head to the sound and she noticed it immediately. The former elderly woman was caked head-to-toe in gore, only patches of her purple rinsed curls showing through the dark blood. As it turned to gaze at Darla, a piece of flesh slid from its mouth and landed onto half-eaten human remains. It must have been feeding on the small body for some time.
It roused itself from its gorged stupor and stumbled into the aisle.
Darla didn’t wait for it to build up a head of steam. She scampered to the end of the bus and jammed her knife deep into its left eye socket. Its face froze, mouth gaping, as its brain shut down, and Darla eased it back into its seat to rest against the window.
Outside, O.B. saw the rock of the bus’s suspension and ran towards it.
‘Darla?’ he said, catching sight of her through a broken window.
‘I’m fine. Just try those doors like I told you.’
‘I did. They’re jammed tight. Feels like they’re bolted from the inside.’
The sudden crackled interference from the walkie attached to his belt made him flinch. Salty’s gruff voice came through the speaker.
‘Hey, Ren and Stimpy—you there?’
O.B. fumbled with the radio, almost dropping it onto the asphalt and finally catching it between his fingers. On recovery, he held it up to his face and searched for the correct button to press.
‘Y-yes, this is Stimpy. I-I mean Oswald.’
‘You find anything back there?’
‘That’s affirmative.’ O.B. glanced at the side of the bus. The lettering across the bodywork had been partially obscured by a large branch caught under the top of the wheel arch. Its twigs and foliage were splayed over the first couple of words. ‘We found something.’ He grabbed the branch with his free hand and tugged downwards to get a clearer view. It read: ‘Children of the Awakened Charity.’
Ethan wriggled his slender hips through the tight opening of the vent and further into the darkness of the warehouse. He clung to the edges of the vent and lowered himself to the floor. He was surrounded by a plume of dust as he landed, the particles illuminated by the shaft of sunlight creeping through the breach. He coughed the dust from the back of his throat and reached up to the opening to accept the flashlight that Raine was passing through.
‘Got it,’ he said as he grabbed a hold. He switched on the flashlight and put his back to the wall, scanning with its beam.
He traced the light over the various shelves and down each aisle to ensure he was alone. The further he moved towards the back of the building, the blacker it became. The only other sources of light were the tiny slithers of sun rays piercing through between the slats of the shutters.
‘Is it clear?’ Raine whispered.
‘Looks that way,’ Ethan replied.
‘So, open up.’
Ethan tried to control his fear of the enclosed space and searched the base of the shutters for a handle. When he found it, he soon realised the shutter had been padlocked to the floor, along with the two front window shutters.
‘Shit!’
‘What?’ Raine said.
‘They’re all bolted down. There’s no key.’ Ethan shone the flashlight on the walls nearby to see if there were any sets of keys hanging from a hook. He found nothing.
‘Take this. I’m coming in,’ Raine said. She shoved the assault rifle through the opening first, followed by another flashlight.
Once Ethan had set the items down, she started climbing through. It was a tighter squeeze for her, particularly around her muscular hips and thighs, but she was still slim enough to manage.
Even though Ethan had made it clear there was no other way in, she insisted on checking the shutters again and examining the counter nearby for any keys.
‘We’ll just grab what we need and get out,’ she said. ‘I wouldn’t want to have to escape this place in a hurry.�
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‘That’s music to my ears, Miller. The quicker, the better,’ Ethan said.
‘Just stay behind me.’ Raine took the lead, aiming her rifle out in front, the flashlight held against the side of it to point the way.
Their hearts sank when they got close enough to see what filled the first set of shelves. Ethan picked up one of the many bottles and held it up to the light.
‘I hear it’s going to be a scorcher tomorrow. You can never have enough protection.’ He placed the bottle of suntan lotion back where he’d found it.
Further down the aisle they saw make-up, moisturisers and shampoo. In the next aisle, jeans and shirts for women in their twenties and thirties.
‘Beauty products and fashion,’ Raine said.
‘Barbie pink is so hot this season,’ Ethan said.
‘This was a mistake.’
‘You call it, Miller, and I’ll turn right back around.’
‘One second.’ Raine moved to the ‘Staff Only’ door situated to their left. ‘We’re not leaving empty-handed. There could be something we can use,’ she said.
Before she opened it, she noticed a mark on the floor outside and focussed the flashlight’s beam on it. It was a trail of blood that led to a partial footprint facing in the direction of the door. She aimed the rifle again and pushed forward.
‘Miller, don’t.’
‘Shut up,’ she whispered back. ‘Stay there.’
Raine could hear a scratching sound on the other side. She tried the handle and it turned and opened with a click. She pushed it all the way, squeezing her weapon tight to her shoulder.
When she saw what was inside the room, her eyes widened and her expression softened. The rifle went loose in her hands and she began to back away.
‘What is it?’ Ethan said. With the door now open, he could hear the child-like groans emanating from the staff quarters.
Everything Dies [Season Two] Page 2