The Search - A Post Apocalyptic Thriller (ROT SERIES Book 5)

by Damon Hunter

  Katelin pulled the sword out of the ambler and the seat as she said, “I can’t argue that.”

  She looked at the ambler slumped into the back seat and an idea hit her. “You don’t think it’s possible he has the keys?”

  “The odds seem long.”

  “Long enough not to bother checking?”

  “No,” Bo said as he leaned through the space between the bucket seats in the front and started going through the dead soldier’s pockets. He didn’t have to rifle through them long before he found a single key on a ring.

  “Sure looks right,” he said.

  “It’s about time we had some luck go our way,” Katelin said. “Give it a try.”

  Bo stuck it into the ignition and gave it a turn. Nothing happened. He kept trying and getting the same results.

  Finally he looked over to Katelin and said, “Wrong key.”

  Chapter 21

  Palomar Medical Center Rooftop - Escondido, CA

  “Look out behind you,” Ben yelled.

  Vance knew if he turned, it could mean another infected would have broken through the barrier of death they were trying to establish at the entrance of the roof. If he didn’t take care of it, however, he could be brought down and then there would be no way they could hold off the horde.

  He turned and spun his Sick Slaying Stick. A second later, an ambler missing the top half of his head was lying dead at Vance’s feet. He kept the stick spinning but the obese ambler in a hospital gown was too close to him. Instead of hitting it with the heavy spiked ball, he delivered the blow with the staff itself. Someone without the rot taking the blow may have gone down, but it seemed only death kept the infected from moving forward.

  Vance’s bad leg gave way as he tried to shuffle back to deliver another blow. Vance went down and the massive ambler ended up on top of him. Vance let go of the Sick Slaying Stick since it needed some room to be effective. He found even with the infected mound of fat on top of him trying to bite into the armor around his shoulder, he could reach his knife. He plunged it into the back of the ambler’s neck. Three hundred pounds of ambler became three hundred pounds of dead weight as the knife struck a fatal blow.

  It was difficult getting the big, dead man off of him, but once Vance got the mass of infected flesh going one way, the momentum rolled the obese ambler off of him.

  Vance could see the line he wanted to hold at the doorway was broken. He reached for the Sick Slaying Stick but an ambler was standing on it. Vance drew his pistol and put a bullet in the ambler’s head. There were too many around him to take any time reaching for his SSS. He kept firing the pistol until it was empty. When the last round was fired, he felt a cold hand on his head.

  Vance was glad he kept the hair military regulation length so the ambler behind him had nothing to grab onto. It had found his ear when Vance put his knife through the thing’s arm. Having an eight-inch knife in its forearm disabled the ambler’s hand. Vance knocked its legs out from under it as he pulled the knife free. After it landed on its back, Vance finished it by putting his blade through its eye.

  He looked back to see the only reason he hadn’t been swarmed over yet was the pile of bodies he had left created a small wall around him. He yanked the Sick Slaying Stick out from under a dead ambler and used it to get to his feet.

  He was up when he saw the amblers coming at him from behind. He was still using the Sick Slaying Stick to keep upright and was not in a position to defend himself.

  Ana’s Glock barked and the five amblers coming for him fell as she delivered headshots. He saw her turn and fire her last two shots into amblers coming at her.

  She turned and ran towards Vance.Ben was right behind her, saying, “If we get to the edge of the roof maybe we can hold them off.”

  Vance nodded as he limped towards the edge. It was sound strategy. The fewer directions they had to defend the better, unless the vampire rotters were still climbing up the side of the building.

  “Anybody have any bullets left?” Ana asked.

  Vance unslung the rifle on his shoulder and handed it to her. She was nearly as good as he was with it and he was more effective with the Sick Slaying Stick than she would be.

  “I’ve only got the one magazine,” he told her as they watched the growing horde on the roof figure out they had moved. They moved their direction.

  Vance looked at Ben’s Colt 1911, which he had put back in his belt, and asked, “You out?”

  Ben brandished the Sick Slaying Stick as he said, “Yeah, you?”

  Vance shook his head as Ana methodically took down the amblers in front of them with Vance’s gun. There so many targets available, it was not long before she was out of bullets as well. She drew her hatchets as the horde began to descend on them.

  Ana looked at the infected closing in on them and then looked over the edge of the roof.

  “I think the odds might be better if we jumped,” she said.

  “Probably,” Vance said as he swung his SSS and took out a nearing ambler.

  “I think I’ll stay and fight,” Ben said.

  “Me too,” Ana told him as the horde closed in. “I’d say it has been nice knowing you guys, but I don’t want to die a liar.”

  “Wait,” Ben said after bashing in a skull with the spiked ball end of his SSS. “Does anyone else hear the chopper?”

  Ana slammed both hatchets into the face of an ambler and then kicked the dead body back into the crowd before saying, “I do.”

  “There it is,” Vance said, risking a look up to the sky and seeing the life flight helicopter come over the top of the roof.

  Before anyone else could say anything, it was over their heads and continuing out into the sky.

  “Looks like that Carter asshole screwed us again,” Ben said before going back to swinging his Sick Slaying Stick.

  Chapter 22

  The Abandoned Border TMRT Checkpoint - Blythe, CA

  “For a second there I thought we were going to get out of this,” Bo said.

  “Yeah, me too,” Katelin said as she noticed her phone was vibrating.

  She looked at the screen and saw her mom was texting her.

  “What’s going on? Why aren’t you driving yet?”

  Katelin texted back, “We’re coming.”

  “What did you tell her?” Bo asked.

  “I said we are on the way.”

  “So you lied?”

  “Yeah, I don’t want them to come charging in and get trapped too. Right now the horde is all over us so they’re reasonably safe. No reason for them die too if they don’t have to.”

  Bo nodded and said, “They’re going to figure it out eventually.”

  “Yeah, well, I’ll worry about that when it happens.”

  “I can’t tell if you have a good or bad attitude on this.”

  “Probably bad,” Katelin said. She looked at the key still stuck in the ignition and asked, “Do you think that is the key to the other Humvee?”

  “Seems unlikely.”

  “I don’t see any other Humvees around.”

  “True. If that was the case, how did he end up in this one?”

  “Who knows? Once people get the rot and the biting starts, crazy shit happens. Maybe they locked him in here when he got bit.”

  “With the keys to the other Humvee?”

  “I didn’t say it was a good idea. It would explain why they left two perfectly good vehicles behind.”

  “Yeah, it does. Or everyone got the rot before they could drive away.”

  “Could be,” Katelin said. “Do you see any reason not to try? We can wait to die just as well in the other one.”

  “No, except the small army of infected in our way.”

  Katelin thought about it for a second and looked in the back of the Humvee.

  “There is a hatch for a machine gunner,” she said. “We can climb out to the roof and jump over to the next and then climb in through the roof again.”

  “I don’t know how well with my
fucked up ankle I can walk, let alone jump,” Bo said. “You could try it. I can give you a quick driving lesson.”

  “Or I can clear you a path,” Katelin said. “The dog drew the horde already, I don’t see a reason not to bust out the firearms.”

  Bo looked out towards the other Humvee. There were so many infected around them he could hardly see it. “I don’t know if you have enough bullets,” he told her.

  “I just have to clear enough space to get you from door to door. We’re talking like five feet.”

  “Seems like a lot of risk to bet on a long shot.”

  “If we had something to lose, you’d be right.”

  Bo leaned over and took the keys out of the ignition and put them in his pocket. He picked up the broadsword he had set on the floor by his feet. “What the hell, let’s do it.”

  Katelin climbed into the back seat and found her way to the hatch leading to the roof. She hadn’t heard any footsteps over her head, so the roof should be clear. She drew a Mac-Ten and chambered a round anyway before she opened the hatch. She came up ready to fire.

  She was glad she did, as she found herself face to face with a vampire rotter who had climbed up while they were inside talking and waited patiently for someone to open the hatch. She pulled the trigger as it lunged for her and put enough rounds in its face to kill it before it could clamp down on her face with two rows of jagged teeth. Even though it seemed good and dead, she pushed it into the amblers surrounding the Humvee.

  From the roof, Katelin could see the Jeep Wagoneer. There were no infected around it. All of them were converging on the Humvees. She saw her mom with an AR-15 step out. Katelin waved for her to go back inside. Her mom stayed outside the Jeep but did not fire.

  Katelin took a deep breath as she pulled out the other machine gun. She didn’t have much ammunition left. She had to make these shots count.

  “Get ready,” she shouted to Bo. “The path I clear is going to close fast.”

  Bo responded by busting out his window and using his pistol to take out the infected leaning on his door, delivering close range head shots until he had no more bullets.

  Katelin opened fire and emptied the magazine into the amblers directly in the path to the other Humvee. Bo burst out of the Humvee holding the sword in one hand and the dead infected soldier’s handgun in the other. He aimed the gun to the right so Katelin swung her weapon to the left. She fired as he ran towards the Humvee, stepping on the bodies of dead amblers as he fired the soldier’s gun in the other side of the horde.

  Bo was to the door when her second Mac-Ten ran out of ammunition. His gun was empty as well. She drew the Glocks as he opened the door. While he swung the door open, an ambler got close enough to grab him. Katelin put a bullet in the ambler’s head before it could even get a handful of his shirt.

  Bo climbed in and shut the door. The area between the two Humvees filled back up with the infected before he had the door completely shut.

  This didn’t matter to Katelin, she was going to jump. Unlike Bo, she was confident she could make it. She was about to put her guns away when a vampire rotter in a TMRT uniform jumped up on the roof of the other Hummer. She could see it getting ready to make the leap to her and raised both guns and fired.

  She hit it with the last of her bullets and watched it tumble over the side of the Humvee. She put away her empty guns and got ready to jump again. As she was getting ready to make the leap, the wounded vampire rotter came back onto the roof. Katelin drew her swords, planning to try and cut it down as it leapt for her.

  It stayed put, as if it knew her intentions.

  “Come on, motherfucker,” Katelin said as she heard something behind her.

  She wheeled around to see an ambler had clawed over the mass of infected humanity pressed against the Humvee and made it to the roof. She swung the long katana and removed its head. She turned back to see the vampire rotter in the air, headed her way.

  She knew she couldn’t swing the swords fast enough, so she dove out of the vampire rotter’s path. It went over the top of her and went off the other side of the Humvee.

  Katelin slid along the top after she dove and found herself going over the front windshield onto the hood. She was low enough now that the infected could reach her. She swung both swords in a wide arc, clearing a little space, and scrambled to her feet. She stood and was going for the relative safety of the roof when the vampire rotter jumped back to the roof and stood in her path.

  Katelin braced herself for another attack but there was a gunshot and half the vampire rotter’s head disappeared. After it fell, Katelin looked back to see her mother holding the rifle. Some of the infected turned and started heading towards the Wagoneer. Enough stayed that Katelin still had to make the jump.

  Katelin climbed to the roof and saw another ambler had made its way up. She stabbed it in the throat and kicked it back into the horde. She put the swords away and backed to the edge of the roof, giving herself as much running room as the roof of the Humvee would allow. She only had about three steps before she had to jump.

  The span was greater than she thought. Instead of landing in the middle of the roof, her foot barely got to the edge of the next Humvee and she felt herself slipping. She pitched forward as best she could and managed to fall face first on the roof instead of back first into the awaiting hands and mouths of the infected.

  She felt hands on her legs and kicked frantically to keep any of them from getting a solid grip and pulling her down. Even if none of them managed to grab her, she could still feel herself slipping back into the horde below.

  Katelin tried to find a handhold but there were none available. She felt something get a solid grip on her foot and her descent into the horde began to speed up.

  Bo came up through the hatch and grabbed her arm. He gave her a good hard yank and she was back on the roof. The ambler that had her foot came up with her. Bo drew the long katana from the scabbard on her back and stabbed it through its yellow-tinged right eye as it opened its mouth to chomp on Katelin’s leg.

  She kicked it away and slithered through the hatch. Bo followed. He shut the hatch and locked it before climbing into the driver’s seat.

  “Does the key work?” Katelin said, seeing it in the ignition.

  “I don’t know,” Bo said, “I was getting ready to try when the vampire rotter came up onto the roof. I was looking for ammunition for the TMRT sidearm to try to help and then I thought I’d give you a hand up there.”

  “You find any bullets?”

  “Nope.”

  “My mom saved me,” Katelin said, “but she may have killed herself doing it if this doesn’t work.”

  Bo answered by turning the key. Nothing happened. He made sure it was in neutral and his foot was on the brake and gave it another try. Again, nothing happened. He repeated the process and got the same results.

  “Damn it,” Bo said. “Still the wrong key.”

  He gave it one more try, just because there was no reason not to. To his surprise, this time the engine turned over.

  “Fuck yeah,” Katelin said.

  Bo said, “Language,” as he put the Humvee into reverse and stomped on the gas.

  They plowed through and over the horde behind them and Bo swung around so they were facing the Wagoneer before putting it in drive and heading that way.

  There was a growing horde surrounding the old Jeep.

  “How are we going to get to them?” Katelin asked.

  “I’ve got a plan,” Bo said as he drove past the Wagoneer and stopped. “Get on the phone and tell them to hang on.”

  Katelin sent a text saying just that.

  Bo put the Humvee in reverse and backed up fast toward the rear of the Wagoneer. He smashed the infected gathering between his back bumper and the Jeep. He pulled forward, letting the dead infected fall before slamming it into reverse again.

  “Can you open the back?” he asked.

  Katelin answered by scrambling into the rear of the Humvee and openin
g the back door. She held on as Bo drove over the bodies.

  Donna saw what they were doing and lowered the back window. Bo got as close as he could and came to stop as Gavin climbed out of the Wagoneer and into the back of the Humvee.

  Jennifer came next. She tossed the transponder in first. They had no idea if the Humvee had one. While Katelin was securing the transponder, Jennifer climbed into the Humvee.

  Donna followed and was almost through when the hand of a vampire rotter who had jumped on top of the Wagoneer stopped her progress by reaching down and grabbing her shoulder.

  Katelin grabbed her mother with one hand and drew a sword with the other. She stabbed the rotter through the arm as she pulled her mother into the back of the Humvee.

  “Everyone is in,” Katelin yelled as she closed the back door. The vampire rotter leapt but she closed it in time. It slid down the back of the Humvee as Bo hit the gas.

  Chapter 23

  Palomar Medical Center Rooftop - Escondido, CA

  “There is no way they are alive up there,” Carter said as they got closer to the roof of the hospital. “Just about the whole roof is covered with rotters.”

  “They could be on the other side,” Talbot told him.

  “What do you think would be different? It’s just a big open space.”

  “Check anyway.”

  Carter took the chopper over the roof and in the corner he saw Talbot was right. Three of them were still there, backed up against the edge of the roof. There was a small barrier of bodies between them and the rest of the horde. Both Talbot and Carter knew it would not help them much, since the infected had no qualms about climbing over the dead.

  “We need to get them,” Talbot said.

  “There’s nowhere to land,” Carter replied as he flew past them.

  “Can you hover by the edge? Can you get close enough for them to get on the chopper?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “I know it can be done,” Talbot said.

  “Sure, but that doesn’t mean it can be done by me.”