by Damon Hunter
Donna started to follow, but Jennifer put a hand on her shoulder. Donna paused and looked back at the gore-covered teenager.
“I’m not going to tell you not to go, but what are you going to do? Just run after her? And if you catch her, then what?”
Donna had no answer. She shut the door, watched and hoped nothing bad was going to happen.
Chapter 18
Palomar Medical Center Rooftop - Escondido, CA
“If they are only coming through the door, maybe we can hold them back,” Vance said as he limped forward. It was a long shot, but if they could keep everything in front of them and limit the horde’s point of attack to the narrow doorway, they had a chance.
Ana fired three-round bursts, taking down the first few through the door.
“Save your bullets for the vampire rotters,” Vance told her as he stepped in front of the doorway and caved in the head of the next one through with his Sick Slaying Stick. He tried to kick it back down the stairs but the stairway was so packed with infected the dead body just bounced back to him.
Ben moved to the one side of the door with Novak’s SSS and stabbed the next one through the head.
An ambler slipped through the twin Sick Slaying Stick assault and Ana chopped it down with her hatchets.
They quickly made a pile of corpses in front of the door but infected hospital staff and patients kept pushing through. The three of them, though, made sure they did not get far.
They were tiring out, but still holding the horde at bay. Vance was starting to think they had a chance. Instinct made him look behind them and he saw two vampire rotters come over the lip on the roof. The battle now had two fronts.
“Ana, six o’clock, vampire rotters,” Vance yelled as he swung his Sick Slaying Stick at the next one coming through.
Ana dropped her hatchets and unslung the AK-47 from her shoulder. She took out the lead one quickly but the other one took a serpentine route, making it difficult. She put a bullet in the vampire rotter’s foot, slowing it down enough that she could put the next round in its brain.
She was going to turn back to the doorway, but she saw another one climbing over. Ana fired and sent it tumbling back over the short wall.
“Ana, watch out,” she heard Ben yell.
She turned to see one had slipped past them and was almost on top of her. She swung the rifle and knocked it back, where it tripped on a dead body and fell to the ground. Ana crushed its skull with the butt of her rifle. Once she knew it was down for good, she glanced back to the other side of the roof to see another vampire rotter had climbed up.
She fired and dropped it before it took a step their way, but doing that, she used the last bullet in the clip. She checked her belt, hoping another magazine would be there, and was disappointed to find there was nothing there.
Chapter 19
Carter’s House – Escondido, CA
“Hannah, thank God you are alright,” Carter said as he sprinted towards his wife, mother and children. He saw Hannah raise her arms and he did the same, planning to meet and hug her in the middle of the street.
He was within a few feet of her when he saw the sore on her face right below her left eye bubble and pop, spewing green mucus all over her once pretty face. Hannah did not mind the goo on her face, it certainly was not the first sore to have grown and burst on her body and would not be the last.
Carter stopped and lowered his arms. He just stared silently at his infected wife, blinking his eyes, hoping every time he opened them again she would not be careening towards him with her mouth wide open as her yellow eyes saw him not as the man she married and had two children with, but as something she needed to bite in order to pass on her affliction.
“Hannah, no,” Carter said as she reached him. He saw her teeth, covered with blood as she grabbed for him, looking to pull him into chomping range. It occurred to him that the blood on her teeth probably came from his kids.
She got a grip on his shirt and pulled herself close. At the last second, Carter got a hand up and pushed her away. She kept coming forward, her bloody teeth clacking together as her powerful bite missed her husband’s flesh. Her grip on his shirt was incredibly strong. Carter could keep her from biting him, but could not get loose. She was relentless. The fact that he was bigger, stronger and could keep her at bay did nothing to discourage her from continuing the attack.
Out of the corner of his eye, he could his mother coming to join his wife in trying to spread the rot on his right. Carter looked to the left and could see his Amanda, all of eleven years old, with her mother’s bite marks on her arm and huge popping sores on her face, moving in to do the same.
“No,” he shouted, “Please, stop.”
None of them stopped. He backpedaled, trying to put some distance between his ravenous mother and his bloodthirsty child. Hannah held tight and Carter kicked the back of his own leg as he tried to go backwards while keeping his flesh out of range of his infected wife’s snapping jaws.
Carter fell and Hannah landed on top of him. He kept his hands on her shoulders and managed to keep out of range of her bloody teeth. He tried to throw her off, but she kept her grip on his shirt. He couldn’t move her more than arm’s length away. She was back on top of him before he could get up.
Carter saw Amanda getting close. She leaned over and reached for his leg with her own mouthful of bloody teeth wide open. Carter kicked out, and even though she was about to give him a fatal case of the rot if he didn’t do it, he felt terrible kicking his own daughter. He put his foot in her chest and knocked her down, but she did not waste any time getting back up.
Carter looked to see his mother was almost on him. She was coming around to join Hannah in trying to put a bite on his upper body. Carter couldn’t kick her away and if he let go of his wife, she would be on him.
“Mom,” Carter shouted. “No, Mom, please don’t.”
She wasn’t listening.
Carter kept asking her to stop anyway. He couldn’t think of anything else to do.
She was leaning in to bite him when Carter heard a dull thud. She stopped coming for him and then something pulled her away. Carter saw Dr. Talbot behind her. He put his foot on her back and pushed as he pulled on something Carter could not see.
Blood and brains flew from the top of Carter’s mother’s gray head as Talbot freed the baseball bat with long nails pounded through the top from her head.
Carter saw his daughter had reached his legs again. He also saw Talbot moving toward her.
Carter kicking her away again, saying, “Don’t you dare hit my daughter with that thing, you son of a bitch.”
Talbot looked down at him and shrugged. He raised the bat to the use it on Hannah.
“No, she’s my wife, don’t you…”
The sound of ten penny nails piercing his infected wife’s skull interrupted him. The nails were so deep that when Talbot pulled on the bat she came with it.
Carter looked at Talbot with murder in his eyes as Talbot freed the bat from his dead wife.
“The kid,” Talbot said, pointing behind him.
Carter turned to see Amanda reaching for him. Again he kicked his child in the chest. She tumbled backwards and fell down. If the kick and fall had hurt her, she showed no indication as she got back to her feet.
Carter turned his attention back to Talbot for a second. He saw the stowaway in his chopper take off his brother-in-law’s lower jaw off with a swing of the bat. Not having a lower jaw did not slow his wife’s brother, who showed no concern for his sister lying dead only a few feet away. Talbot put the next swing in his ear.
Carter was on his feet as Amanda came at him again. He reached out and grabbed her by the hair, holding her so she could not reach him with her teeth.
“Amanda, honey,” he said. “Please stop.”
“That’s not going to work,” Talbot told him as he pried the bat loose from the side of Amanda’s uncle’s head. “We can run back to the chopper or we can kill them. There is no
other choice.”
“Fuck you,” Carter said. “This is my family.”
“It was.”
“No, it is.”
“Look, if I could fly the chopper, I would have left you to become one happy rot-infected little family, but I’ve got things that need to be done,” Talbot said as he stepped forward and bashed in the head of the wife of Hannah’s brother.
“This is my family you’re murdering.”
“Yeah, well, you think the people you left to die who weren’t infected yet were just hatched? Do you think they don’t have families? Quit being a self-centered prick and let’s get in the chopper.”
“Don’t kill any more of them,” Carter said.
“Fine, let’s get to the chopper and I won’t.”
Carter pushed Amanda away and turned to run to the chopper.
Talbot followed, thinking he may have messed up. The faster Carter might beat him to the chopper by enough of a margin to leave him behind.
Carter stopped and Talbot caught up as vampire rotter blocked their path. Talbot drew his pistol and put four bullets into it as it got ready to leap. It was trying to rise when Talbot ran up and finished it off with the bat.
“Come on,” Talbot said to Carter, who had turned to look back at what was left of his family. Amanda’s older brother Hank had joined her, along with their uncle Tim in the single-minded pursuit of spreading the rot. “The gunshots are going to bring more.”
Carter saw he was right as his neighbors began to fill the street and head their way.
Carter climbed in and shut the door. Talbot was next to him, still holding the gun and the bat.
“We need to go back to the hospital,” Talbot told him.
“Fuck that. We need to get out of the QZ.”
Talbot raised the gun and said, “I’m not asking.”
“Didn’t we go over this before?”
“You want to die together or do you want to do something that can make a difference?”
“We can both live.”
“Only if we do things my way,” Talbot told him as what was left of Carter’s family reached the chopper and started banging on the walls and windows.
Carter was silent.
“Do I look like I’m bluffing?”
Carter thought about it for a second and decided he didn’t look like he was bluffing at all. He pulled on the stick and the chopper began to rise.
“I can’t believe you killed my family like that,” Carter said as they gained altitude.
“It wasn’t personal.”
“Would you have killed my kids? Would you really have bashed their heads in with that thing?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t see how you can live with yourself.”
“I’m doing what has to be done.”
“Still.”
“If I made a list of all the horrible, vile things I’ve done since the rot took hold, what just happened out there wouldn’t have made the first page. I haven’t lost any sleep yet and if I’m still alive and rot free at the end of the day, I won’t start tonight.”
“So, nothing bothers you?” Carter asked as he pointed the nose of the chopper in the direction of the hospital.
“No. If all I’ve done turns out to be for nothing, that will bother me. Which is why we’re going back.”
Carter nodded and pointed to the bat with blood and brain-covered nails protruding out the top third before asking, “Where did you get that thing?”
“It was in with the rest of our gear,” Talbot told him as he turned the bat in his hands. He stopped to let Carter see the letters painted on the side. “Some of the people I was with had some interesting weapons. A young man who went on without us had a medieval broadsword.”
“What’s SWARC?”
“I’m not sure. I’ll have to ask when we pick them up.”
Carter pointed as the hospital roof came into view. “I don’t know if there is anyone left to ask.”
Talbot looked and saw a rooftop overflowing with the infected.
Chapter 20
The Abandoned Border TMRT Checkpoint - Blythe, CA
Katelin realized she would not get to the infected dog in time. Running in the open with amblers all around, she didn’t want to fire a gun either. Bringing the horde down on them would not be any help in the long run.
“Bo, behind you,” she shouted as she kept running.
Bo heard her and spun to see the German Shepherd jumping towards him. He swung the sword and knocked it out of the air like it was a baseball. He hit it with the flat side more than the edge. Once it hit the ground it charged him again, going low as it aimed to sink its fangs into his ankle.
The big sword was heavy and awkward. By the time Bo brought it back around, the infected dog was biting him in the ankle. Bo brought the big sword straight down and drove the blade through the middle of the infected dog. He gave the blade a hard twist and was able to pull his foot out of the animal’s jaws.
Despite being skewered by a medieval broadsword, the canine vampire rotter was still alive and trying to bite Bo anywhere it could. Bo held it away from him using the blade stuck through its body. He felt if he pulled the sword out, the beast would be attached to his ankle once more. It stopped trying to chomp on him long enough to let out three deep, wet-sounding, guttural barks before resuming trying to get its rotten teeth into Bo’s flesh.
He saw Katelin run by, which was disappointing, since he needed her help. He almost shouted at her, but saw she had gone past him to confront a pair of amblers who were coming up on his back.
Bo turned back to the dog he was holding inches from his legs and its constantly snapping jaws. His ankle hurt like hell where he had been bit, but he still was able to stomp down on the dog’s head. With the infected German Shepherd trapped under his foot, Bo pulled the sword loose and stabbed through the dog again, this time going higher with his thrust and sticking the blade through the infected dog’s neck. When he pulled the blade free, the dog was no longer moving.
He turned to see Katelin finishing off the second ambler with a katana thrust to the infected senior citizen’s head.
“Come on,” he told her as he continued to the Humvees on the other side of the barrier. The bite on his ankle was slowing him up, but he moved as fast as he could.
They both looked around to see the ambling infected around the area, who seemed oblivious to their presence before, had turned and started heading for them.
“Stupid dog must have gotten their attention,” Bo said as they reached the cement blockade.
Katelin vaulted it and kicked an ambler out of their path as she came over the short barrier. She swung the long blade and cut its neck deep enough that its head was bouncing off the small of its back while she put the short sword through the eye of another. She kicked them both out of the way and they had a clear path to the Humvees.
Bo landed on his mangled ankle after he climbed over the barrier and it gave way, sending him falling to the pavement. He was going to tell Katelin to keep going but before he could open his mouth, she was helping him up.
Once Bo was on his feet, she drew both katanas again and slashed an ambler that had stepped in their way with both blades. As they ran to the vehicles, they could see the road in front of them was full of infected converging onto their location. Only one more stood between them and the Humvees and Katelin made quick work of him, leaving another ambler with his head split down the middle, spurting blood on the road.
Katelin grabbed the passenger door and gave it a hard yank. They were both glad to see the door was open. She climbed in and Bo got himself around to the driver’s side and did the same. He reached for the ignition and saw there was nothing to grab and turn. Through the window, he could see there were too many to fight through and return to the Jeep Wagoneer.
He turned to Katelin to say they should try the other Humvee, but instead yelled, “Look out,” as the arm of an infected TMRT soldier reached for her from the back seat.
Bo twisted and got his arms on the amblers face and pushed, keeping its teeth from Katelin’s neck by inches. Like the dog, he snapped his jaws, trying to taste the flesh so close to his jaws.
Katelin was still holding her swords. She twisted enough to shove the long one through the seat and into the amblers chest. If this bothered him, it didn’t show, as he kept pushing against Bo’s hands and snapping his jaws at her exposed throat. Katelin stabbed the wrist holding her hair with the short sword and it let go of her.
With Katelin’s neck not in immediate danger, Bo had the second he needed to move his hands so they were more on the top of the ambler’s shaved head. He pushed down instead of back and slammed the ambers head into the space between the seats.Bo held it there while Katelin stabbed him in the back of the neck. She pulled the sword out and looked out the window to the other Humvee. There were at least ten infected between them and the other vehicle. Looking back to the Jeep, she saw there were multiple infected between them and the others. The infected near the Humvee began to pound on the windows
“Damn,” Bo said. “We’re trapped.”
“Can you hot wire this thing?” Katelin asked.
“No, can you?”
“I don’t even know how to drive.”
“You should have stayed with the others. Looks like I’m going to get someone else killed today.”
“Shut up with that shit,” Katelin said. “I don’t want to fucking hear it.”
“Language.”
“Stop that shit, too. You’re not my mother.”
“She’s going to be pissed at me for getting you killed.”
“We’re not dead yet. It’s not like we weren’t stuck in the old Jeep anyway. We aren’t in any worse shape than we were before.”
“My ankle feels worse,” Bo told her. He pointed at the dead ambler still hanging on Katelin’s sword in the back seat. “Company was better in the Jeep.”