Alvin summoned the Mustang to him, which caused a stir among people who hadn’t seen it happen before. He just smirked as he and Becky got in and started out to do more work. “Susan thinks the buildings can be finished by tonight. All the new people meant that she could assign someone to work on each of them.”
“That will be one issue down,” Becky replied. “Some of the band kids asked me about Jarvis and the store. He’s allowing them access, is that right?”
“Yes,” Alvin replied. “I get a small cut of the XP spent in the store through the hologram. Every little bit helps.”
“That means you have some of the XP I spent on the bag and my contraceptive,” Becky mused. “I’ll buy everything from Jarvis then, well aside from the upgrades which I can’t.”
“I can upgrade him so you can,” Alvin told her as he brought the car to a stop.
“That might be good, I think a lot of people might use him for that. More XP for you means more things we can do as a team.”
“I’ll look into what that Power costs tonight,” Alvin told her as they got out.
They quickly reached the bridge over the Green River. It had one lane in each direction, and was choked with vehicles across its length. Bill and Ramone backed their trucks up to the first cars and Megumin and Tadashi jumped out to start hooking them up. James, David, Alvin and Becky took up guard positions, two forward and two rear.
As Megumin and Tadashi were working on the first two, an RV came into view on the far side of the bridge. “People,” Alvin called out, stepping forward. He watched as the RV slowed as it neared the bridge. Stepping past the first set of cars, Alvin climbed up onto one of the next ones and started to wave at the RV.
“Hope they don’t think you’re a spasmodic zombie,” James said, then called back over his shoulder. “David, Becky, come up here.”
They watched as a person got out of the RV. They could barely hear the man who was yelling, “Is there a way across?”
“Stay here,” Alvin said to his group as he started moving forward.
“Like hell,” Becky scoffed, joining him as they went forward. “I will not stay behind.”
The man by the RV watched them moving forward warily, “Are you people?”
“Yes,” Alvin yelled back. “There are monsters in town. Get back in, until we can get to you.”
The man looked back the way the RV had come, before nodding and getting back inside the vehicle. Alvin led the way past the wrecks, Becky trailing him. About halfway across Alvin jumped back and fired a trio of shots in quick succession. He frowned at the terrier he had just killed.
“Mutated?” Becky asked.
“I don’t know, but it surprised the hell out of me.”
“Bad luck for it, then,” she replied as they started forward again.
Finally reaching the far side, they stopped several feet away as the RV door opened. A man with greying temples and a strong jaw stepped out to greet them. They glimpsed movement from the people still inside. “Is there a way across?”
“We’re working on one,” Alvin pointed back across the bridge. “Two tow trucks to pull with. I hear I-70 is all sorts of fucked.”
“It is on both sides of the divider,” the man agreed. “You both look well rested and clean. Is there someplace safe around here to rest?”
“We have a settlement going,” Becky replied. “Over sixty people and growing. If you want to head that way once we get the road clear, we can give you directions.”
“Is there a chance we can get some food?” The man asked, “We’ve been getting low.”
“We can probably set you up with something for tonight. Susan, the Overseer, will be able to tell you more once we get this cleared. Did you pass any zombies or other things on the way here?”
“There were a lot of them back near the off ramp. They chased us for a while, but couldn’t keep up with the RV. I’m Dale Fern. How long do you think until this is cleared?”
Alvin glanced back, “Going to be a bit. We’ll post up behind your RV to make sure you stay clear of trouble until they can make a path.”
“I can help,” the man tapped a .44 magnum on his hip.
Grinning, Alvin asked, “How many rounds you have left?”
“A few hundred,” Dale responded, his eyes narrowing slightly.
“Not enough, then. You just go ahead and stay inside. We’ll take care of any trouble.”
“You don’t seem to be carrying extra ammo,” Dale commented.
“Don’t need to, which is one of the things Susan can explain back at the compound. Until we get you there, just stay inside and be safe.” Alvin told the man as he and Becky went past him.
Dale stared at them for a second before he went back into his RV. They could hear him explaining that it would be a bit before they could move again. The RV’s engine cut off while they waited.
Becky glanced at Alvin once they got to the back of the RV. “If they made it this far, they hopefully can adapt.”
“That’s my hope, but we’ve seen others make it here and fail to adapt.”
“Like my father,” Becky replied simply.
Bill and Ramone kept steadily moving cars off the other end of the bridge, working toward them. After about an hour later Becky brought her gun up, “Movement.”
Alvin pulled his rifle up just as a mass of zombies came around a bend in the road. “Been awhile since I’ve seen this many zombies.” He sighted for the torso of one and squeezed off two quick shots. As they were a bit over a hundred yards away, he had time to empty a couple of mags. Becky was also firing steadily into the mass with her pistol. Their shots didn’t have much visible effect at that range, though Alvin was sure they’d dropped half a dozen of the horde.
As the zombies closed to about half that distance their accuracy got better and Becky switched back to her shotgun. Zombies started dropping regularly as head shots became more prevalent. “Wish I had a damn Mini-gun right now,” Alvin grumped.
“That would be nice,” Becky agreed as she put the safety on to reload her shotgun.
Alvin had gotten his rifle reloaded as the zombies closed to within ten yards. He quickly popped off the thirty rounds in his magazine before dropping the rifle and pulling his handgun. Becky emptied her shotgun, letting it fall on its sling as she also switched to her pistol, as she didn’t have time to wait for the shotgun to reload.
A score of zombies still closed the last bit of distance to them when another gun barked from just behind and to one side of Alvin. Dale stood there in a shooter’s stance, each shot taking a zombie in the head. With three guns, the last of the zombies fell quickly.
“Thanks for the assist,” Alvin grunted as he holstered the pistol and picked up his rifle.
“You didn’t need much help,” Dale commented as he watched Alvin eject and reload an empty magazine. “Where do you have your ammo? I know you both went through several magazines.”
“We don’t,” Becky said as she holstered the pistol and brought her shotgun back around on the sling. “These guns reload automatically for us.”
“But that…” Dale began as James came running up.
“You guys okay?” James asked.
“Yeah, but we made a bit of a mess,” Alvin pointed at the dead bodies carpeting the road.
“No shit,” David added as he joined them. “About four more cars should open the road up. Didn’t realize just how many zombies you had on this end. We were hanging back, figuring you had it, but when the shots kept coming we started to worry just a bit.”
“Dale, these are David and James. Dale and his people inside the RV, are going to head up to the compound. Dale, can we verify your people are okay?”
Dale nodded, “Sure thing.” He tapped shave and a haircut on the side of the RV. A moment later six people filed out. The elderly woman was Dale’s wife, along with five daughters. The oldest girl appeared to be in her early twenties, while the youngest might have been all of ten years old. “My family.”
Introductions were exchanged. Alvin noted the scared, shocky expressions on the girls, especially the youngest two. “Your daughters might benefit from a few days of safety,” he told Dale softly.
“I know,” Dale sighed. “It’s been a rough trip from Arches National Park. It was not pretty the first day.”
“Camping?”
“We were. Luckily there was only one other family near us. Mrs. Abernathy died, then stood back up and killed her husband and three kids before we knew what was happening. After I put them down we hunkered for a few days, trying to figure out what we should do. Luckily Bessy,” he tapped the RV, “here started up for us. We headed out of the park when the animals started turning strange. We decided to head for home in Sandy Valley in Nevada.”
“That’s a bit of a trip,” James added.
“Yeah. Girls, go on back inside,” Dale said, ushering the women back into the RV. “Thanks for the help.”
“Our pleasure,” David added, his eyes lingering on one of the girls who had smiled at him as she climbed back into the RV.
Bill honked, getting their attention. He and Ramone were hooked up to the last two cars blocking the bridge. Bill leaned out his window, “They heading up?”
Alvin filled Bill in then gave Dale directions. Dale shook his hand, “Thank you. We’ll see you there.”
As the RV started across the bridge, the group watched them go. Bill sidled over to them, “They okay?”
“The girls are in shock. Dale seems to be okay,” James replied.
“If they got here, then the road up to the interstate should be kind of open,” Becky added. “We need to clear the bodies though.” She wrinkled her nose.
“Grab a couple of minivans from the junkers,” Alvin said. “We can pile bodies into those and drag them back to the compound. We’ll finish the towing tomorrow.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
After they finished loading up the zombies, they all looked at each other. All six of them were covered in viscera and gore. “This gets a little tiresome,” James snorted.
“We’ll be taking some of the vehicles back with us,” Alvin added. “Maybe strip off your shirts before getting in. Turn them inside out and sit on them.”
Megumin coughed once, “I’ll just ride on the back of one of the trucks. I don’t feel like taking my shirt off.”
“No need,” Bill said, grabbing a roll of plastic garbage bags from behind the seat of his truck. “Just cover the seats.”
Megumin gave a small bow to him, “My thanks, Bill.”
“We going?” Ramone asked as he got out of the other tow truck and started towards them.
“Sorry. We were discussing how to get as many vehicles back to the compound as possible, without leaving them all covered in zombie goo,” Alvin replied.
As he finished his explanation, something lashed out from the broken window of the building they were next to. The beast sank giant teeth into Ramone before anyone could react, its speed shocking them all. The mutated snake began to pull a panicked Ramone back into the building. “What the fuck?” David screamed as he brought his gun up.
Everyone followed suit and began pumping rounds into the snake’s body, visible through the broken window. Most of the rounds that hit it left only small wounds, barely penetrating its hide. Becky’s rounds tore bloody, fist sized rents in the beast. Alvin’s rifle also did significant damage, much to the snake’s displeasure. It dropped Ramone and retreated into the building, vanishing as quickly as it had appeared.
James rushed to Ramone while the others kept their weapons trained on the window in case the snake came back. “That wasn’t a rattler,” Bill informed them as they formed a line between Ramone and the window. “Reminded me of a boa.”
“Someone’s pet grew up awful fast,” Alvin added. “James, how is he?”
“Dead,” James replied as he joined them. “One of the teeth went right through his chest, I’m pretty sure it’s a heart wound.”
“It ambushed him,” Becky added. “We need to make sure it dies.”
“Considering the size of that thing’s head, it’s easily thirty feet long or more,” David informed them.
“Wish we had a grenade right now,” Megumin said, her face white.
“The 45’s barely touched it,” Bill grunted, “a claymore would be better. I’d take some c-4 over that, though.”
“We going in after it?” David asked, his voice a touch shaky.
“Me and Gothy have the best chance at it,” Alvin told the others. “You should all stay here. Gothy, you ready?”
“At your side, Hero,” Becky replied as she flicked the safety off, having reloaded the one spent round. “You folks make sure it doesn’t escape this way.”
“Sis,” David called out, his voice catching, “be safe.”
Grinning over her shoulder Becky replied, “I have my Hero. I’ll be fine.”
The pair moved towards the window, guns up and ready to fire. “I don’t think this place is going to give me any comfort,” Alvin commented as they approached the window.
“But it’s a Comfort Inn, so I’m sure we can comfortably lay the snake to rest,” Becky replied, her gallows humor in line with his.
There was no sign of the snake in the lobby, but a bloody trail led further into the building. “It retreated inside,” Alvin called out to the others. “Stay here. If we aren’t back in ten minutes, go get some explosives then come back.”
“Alvin,” David called out, “make sure she comes back alive.”
“Gothy will be fine,” Alvin replied, stepping through the window followed by Becky.
“Side by side,” Alvin told her as they followed the blood trail. “It was about three feet or so around and your shot took it high.” He pointed out a smear of blood on the wall, “It should go to ground.” A single muffled gunshot came from outside. Alvin and Becky looked at each other but kept walking.
They walked slowly down the hall, keeping an eye on the blood. Just up ahead, where the conference room was, the blood disappeared into the doorway. Becky paused at the same time Alvin did. “I’ll go across to take the far side of the door. If it doesn’t come out for us, hopefully we can put enough firepower into it to kill it quickly,” Becky suggested. Alvin nodded his agreement to her plan.
“Glad it’s not poisonous,” Alvin added as they closed the distance to the doorway. “An additional complication we don’t need.”
Becky glanced in before darting across the doorway. She motioned for him to take a look, once she was on the other side. Alvin glanced in to see the fifty-foot snake curled up around a pile of debris. The wounds they had inflicted on it seemed to be healing up as he watched it. “I’ll turn in and go full bore, when I back out you unload your gun while mine reloads,” Alvin told her quietly.
At her nod, Alvin took a deep breath. The snake was at the back of the room, so it shouldn’t be able to strike far enough to get him before he could get out of the way. He set the gun to full-auto, took one more breath and spun into the opening. His finger depressed the trigger and the gun bucked hard. He fought the recoil to keep it down and on target as best he could. The snake let out a painful sound as rounds impacted across its face and body before the last few climbed above it.
Alvin spun out of the doorway as Becky stepped out into the open. Her gun spoke in rapid fire as she pumped rounds into the snake as quick as she could. As she fired her last round the snake started towards the door. Multiple bloody holes and giant rents marked its hide. As Becky moved out, Alvin stepped back into the doorway, his gun firing as the snake closed to point blank range. The snake died in the middle of the clip, but Alvin continued to fire until the clip was empty.
Panting, with the snake just five feet from him, Alvin looked at Becky. Her grin was manic. “How many boots do you think we can make from that?”
“Fuck that, I want snake skin pants instead,” Becky replied as she joined him in the doorway. The snake twitched, causing Alvin to curse. Be
cky brought her gun up, stepping into the room to empty all seven rounds into the snake’s head from a few inches away. What was left was a headless body, and Becky covered in blood. “And stay down,” she added before turning back to Alvin. “I think it’s dead, Jim.”
Laughing, Alvin grabbed her for a hug as well as a kiss. They separated after a long moment, both of them breathing heavily. “Danger is a great aphrodisiac it seems,” Alvin noted.
Her grin widened as she gave him another kiss, then stepped past him into the hall. “Let’s go tell the others. David is probably frantic.”
Rapture (Apocalypse Gates Author's Cut Book 1) Page 31