Badlands Trilogy (Book 3): Out of the Badlands

by Brian J. Jarrett

  “We really appreciate the information,” Ed said. “And for what you did. If you hadn’t gotten that shot off so quickly…”

  “Don’t mention it,” Charlie said. “Glad we could help. Are you guys sure you want to keep heading west? You don’t have to, you know.”

  Ed glanced at his family. “We need to, all of us.”

  Ethan nodded. “Fair enough.” He looked at the sun as it began its downward arc toward the horizon. “Charlie and me better get moving then. We’re hoping to get another mile or so behind us before sundown.”

  “You’re sure you don’t want to stay with us tonight?” Trish asked. “Head out in the morning?”

  “Thanks, but it’s better if we stick to ourselves,” Ethan said. “We’ve had a good run that way. No sense it messing it up.”

  “Thanks again,” Ed said. “For everything.”

  “Don’t mention it,” Ethan said. “You folks take care. I hope you find what you’re looking for.”

  The brothers walked away, leaving Ed and the group to the rest of their journey.

  Chapter Sixty-Six

  Ed and the group drove for another two hours, being careful to avoid areas that might shelter carriers. They kept the vehicles running and weapons drawn when they did need to stop. As they drove on they began to notice bones littering the streets in various piles, remnants of the new hunters and their prey. Most appeared to be animal bones; deer, fox, even squirrels and other small animals. They ran across human bones on two occasions, grim reminders of the threat lurking for them when night fell upon the land.

  They turned in well before nightfall, locating a suitable house that had a basement and most of its windows intact. They covered as many windows as they could with large furniture found within the house, borrowing some dressers from the house next door to block the additional doors and windows. They used old boards and nails found in the garage to secure the three basement windows.

  Once secure, they set up in the basement for the night. The talked amongst themselves very little while eating a light meal of canned food. When night came they went silent, remembering the information they learned about the apex carriers’ hearing. A half moon made an appearance two hours after night arrived, producing slivers of light that found their way inside the dark basement through cracks in the boards covering the windows.

  At dusk they began to hear activity outside. Inhuman shrieks pierced the night, the shrill cries sending chills down Ed’s spine. In the dim slivers of moonlight he could see the fear on everyone’s faces. If the apex carriers found them in the basement, just how long would those boards hold out? Ed didn’t really want to know the answer to that question.

  He held Zach and Jeremy close in the darkness, Trish by his side. Jasper and Emily sat together. They’d been growing closer each day after leaving Tex’s compound and Ed had a sneaking suspicion that her interest in his young friend held more than a medical nature.

  Chloe and Sam, the least talkative of their group, lay by each other’s side, eyes open and staring at the walls. They weren’t much older than his kids. They carried with them a tremendous amount of guilt over Lester, Ed could tell. Lester had used them and they felt that wound keenly. Lester had used them all really, and the brutality of what that man had done remained hard to grasp. The terrific waste of life hounded Ed, nipping at his heels like a pursuing wolf. He’d only be able to outrun it for so long. Eventually he’d have to come to terms with it. For now he tried forcing it from his mind to focus on getting to the coast.

  At one point during the night Ed saw a dark shadow pass by the window, breaking the moonlight piercing inside. Everyone looked at each other, their eyes wide as a wild shriek pierced the air, causing them to jump. They sat silent, weapons in hand. Zach and Jeremy scooted in closer to their father.

  A moment later the shadow flashed again. The carrier released another growling scream, this one sounded farther away as its nocturnal hunt took it on its way. Ed sighed, his body relaxing. It hadn’t detected them. He considered what Ethan and Charlie had suggested about turning back, wondering just how he planned on making the trip all the way out to California. Ed knew that night after night of this would take its toll on them all.

  But staying where they were wouldn’t stop the carriers from coming. If these creatures were truly migrating from the West, as Ethan and Charlie had suggested, then it would only be a matter of time before their numbers soared everywhere. Driving right into the thick of them seemed crazy, almost suicidal, but if they could go hard and fast enough maybe they could do it.

  Sleep came slow and late to him, but eventually it overtook him. He dreamed that night, a fragmented and disjointed sequence of events that placed him on the interstate bridge over the Mississippi river outside St. Louis, hundreds of feet up with carriers closing in on either side. But in the dream the carriers were no longer the ragged remains of humanity that they’d originally been; the carriers in the dream were these entirely new animals with thick, muscled bodies and razor-sharp claws. Their fang-like teeth extended as they ran, ready to tear flesh from bone.

  But in this dream no one came to save them. In the dream the carriers descended upon them, tearing and clawing, teeth ripping flesh, blood pouring from Ed’s friends and family. A moment later he awoke in a cold sweat, his heart racing as if the events had been real.

  Eventually sleep overtook him again, but the images from his dream didn’t fade. They remained fresh in his mind, up through the following morning and well into the following day.

  * * *

  They traveled for another five days, putting as many miles behind them as they could. They drove through the day, feeding the vehicles precious gasoline that dwindled more quickly than Ed had hoped. The going went slow as they navigated around the stalled vehicles that littered the roadway. The side roads proved clearer than the interstates had. When the virus broke most people thought the main highways would be a better escape route.

  Little did they know at the time there’d be no outrunning it, no matter which route they took.

  The nights were long and they had to start their search for an adequate structure well before dusk in order to complete all the preparation needed to make it as safe as possible. Off the highway, houses were plenty. While finding the right place proved relatively easy, the work remained no less time consuming.

  They talked very little during their journey. Just nothing much to say, it seemed. By the time night fell no one made any sound for fear of drawing the new predators their way. The night belonged to the apex carrier now, a fact no one contested. With each passing mile the activity increased night after night. When darkness fell the land crawled with activity as the creatures hunted relentlessly. Screams both near and far reverberated throughout the night.

  On the sixth day the roads on which they traveled began to change. The houses and other buildings began to disappear, replaced instead by long runs of open land. The sun traveled through the sky on its normal trajectory, shining high overhead before beginning its descent toward the horizon, signaling for the group to stop and take shelter.

  They pulled off the road and into the parking lot of a long-defunct trucking company, big rigs still parked in spots like rusting relics of a time gone by. Only a single building sat in the middle of the lot, a tall chain-link fence surrounding it all. Around them a few houses lined the road, most of them charred husks, the apparent victims of a string of connected fires. These houses would provide no protection for the night.

  “Should we keep going?” Terry asked over the rumble of the jeep’s engine. “No place here fit to stay the night.”

  “Night’s coming fast,” Ed said. He looked toward the horizon. “I think we’re headed into a storm too.”

  Terry nodded. “Looks to be. We’re gonna need to hurry if we’re going to find a place to hole up in before nightfall.”

  “Agreed,” Ed replied.

  Terry returned to the car and the group pulled back onto the highway, headed tow
ard the setting sun and the worst storm they’d seen in years.

  An hour later he found himself wishing they’d stopped and stayed in one of the burnt houses. By then, however, it was too late.

  Chapter Sixty-Seven

  The storm came. And when it did it hit hard.

  As the landscape around them continued to morph into desolate stretches of open fields, the houses grew even fewer. Overgrown fields that might have once served as farms lined each side of the roadway, with the occasional burned farmhouse sitting in the midst of weeds and tall saplings.

  “All the houses we’ve passed have been burned,” Trish said, looking around. “That couldn’t happen by accident, right?”

  “Probably not,” Ed said. “Unless maybe a big fire swept through here and took out the houses.”

  “That would have been one hell of a fire. And the landscape doesn’t look like it was burnt.”

  “It is weird,” Ed said.

  Trish shivered. “It gives me the creeps.”

  As they drove deeper into the storm, the dark clouds mounted, growing thicker until they threatened to block out the sun.

  “We’re going to get stuck out here after dark if we’re not careful,” Ed said.

  “I haven’t seen anywhere to stop,” Trish said. “It’s all burned up.”

  Ed glanced in the rearview at Zach and Jeremy. He turned to Trish. “Still, we need to find a place quickly.”

  Ed drove into the storm, followed by the second car with Terry behind the wheel. The open fields streamed by, filled with overgrown grass and latent crops scattered about. They passed another house after a few miles, but it too had been burnt.

  Trish stared at the burnt husk of a house. “I don’t like this, Ed.”

  “Me neither.”

  They continued onward as large bolts of lightning arced across the sky in the distance ahead. Thunder roared seconds later, filling the air with a low grumbling like the growl of a giant. Ed began to actively worry now. They needed a place to hole up for the night and they needed it fast. They couldn’t turn back; the last intact structure they’d seen remained too far away to reach before night fell. Without a viable structure in sight they had no choice but to move forward.

  After a few more miles had been put behind them, Trish pointed into the distance. “What’s that?”

  Ed peered ahead. Off to the right, perhaps a mile away, a large building loomed. “Looks like an old sanitarium or an asylum,” he said. “Maybe a hospital.”

  Trish looked ahead into the darkness of the storm. “Then we need to get there, fast. It’s getting dark enough for those things to come out.”

  Ed reached through the window and pointed toward the building, signaling to the car behind them. Terry replied with a thumbs up.

  “I don’t like any of this, Ed,” Trish said, a worried look on her face.

  “Are we going to be okay, Dad?” Zach asked from the backseat.

  “Yeah,” he replied, but it almost felt like a lie. “Just be ready when we get to the building.”

  * * *

  A few minutes later Ed pulled the Jeep into the parking lot of the building. It sat before them, five stories high and stretched for at least three city blocks wide, a crumbling relic of a time that had long since gone by. It looked like it had been abandoned even before the virus ended the world. Virtually all the windows had been broken, most of them covered up by aging plywood. Ed couldn’t help but feel as if the building had a sinister appearance, its cracked exterior like the desiccated skin of a corpse.

  “That’s one creepy looking place,” Jasper said. He stood beside Emily, peering up at the building. “Looks like something out of a horror movie.”

  Ed glanced in the direction of the storm. Black clouds swirled in the sky, like a roiling pit of snakes. Lightning flashed, bringing with it the crash of thunder. “We don’t have much choice. It’s better than nothing.”

  “Geez. I’m not so sure about that,” Jasper replied.

  “We should get in,” Terry said. “It’s getting dark out—”

  A guttural growl sounded behind them, morphing into a high-pitched shriek. Ed turned to see two white figures racing toward them, heavily muscled legs pumping with sharp fangs bared.

  Terry fired twice, striking the carrier on the left in the chest. A small red dot appeared on the monster’s naked chest and it hit the ground hard. Ed reached for his own pistol, feeling as if he were in slow motion. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Trish grip both boys by the arm and lead them toward the building.

  Ed leveled the pistol, aimed and fired once. The carrier dropped to the ground, shrieking at it clutched its stomach. Blood poured from the wound as the thing writhed on the ground no more than thirty yards away.

  “Inside!” Ed yelled.

  More screams erupted in the distance, out of sight. The commotion had already stirred up the other carriers already out in the premature night, searching for prey. The others ran toward the building, pistols in hand, leaving the vehicles behind them.

  As they approached the main doors of the building, it occurred to Ed that they might be locked. He didn’t know what they’d do then. Even if they weren’t, how would they secure them once inside? Their situation had quickly ratcheted up in severity, progressing steadily toward dire with each passing second.

  Ed looked behind and saw more white figures moving in the dim light. When had it gotten so dark? How had it happened so quickly?

  He and the others converged upon the front doors of the building; massive oak planks with large iron knockers and thick hinges, older construction from a time when artisans designed and built buildings.

  As they approached, the doors opened and two men stepped outside, holding rifles.

  Chapter Sixty-Eight

  Everything that came next happened so quickly that Ed hardly had time to understand what was happening, much less react. The two men began yelling, telling them to drop their guns. Ed caught up with Trish and the boys before coming to an abrupt stop.

  As the men with rifles began to yell, a few more men streamed out behind them, into the front yard of the large building.

  The two men in the lead raised the rifles to their shoulders. “Drop the guns!” one of them yelled. He spoke with a southern drawl that seemed out of place for the area.

  “Carriers!” Ed yelled, out of breath.

  “Shut the fuck up,” the second man said. He stepped forward, gripping Trish by the arm.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Ed yelled. He reached for the man’s arm to pull him away, but the second man slammed the rifle’s stock against the side of Ed’s head, sending him to the ground. Stunned, Ed looked around, attempting to get his bearings. He saw one of the men pulling Trish into the building as more armed men disarmed the rest of his group and began leading them into the building.

  “Dad!” Zach yelled, reaching down to help pull Ed to his feet.

  “Get up,” the man who’d hit Ed said.

  “The carriers, you idiot,” Ed said. “Behind us.”

  One of the men from the group yelled. “Get your ass—” he began, before it turned into a strangled cry. A moment later the man lay on the ground, a carrier chewing at his throat and blood flowing. The man holding him at gunpoint dashed away, leaving Ed on the ground. More screams erupted from behind Ed as he got to his feet and took Zach and Jeremy by the hand.

  He glanced back to see the pale outlines of at least twenty carriers, all descending upon the front of the building. He looked toward the door and made the decision to enter almost effortlessly. He could only imagine what kind of threat awaited them inside, but outside was only death.

  He ran toward the door as the carriers continued to attack. He focused only on the door, only on getting Zach and Jeremy inside the building. They crossed the short distance to the doorway quickly, stepping across the threshold and into a large foyer lit with kerosene lanterns. More men stood inside. Ed counted at least four, but there could have been more he didn�
��t see. Outside the carriers shrieked as they headed toward their prey indoors.

  Yelling erupted from inside the room. Ed saw Sam and Chloe held by the unknown assailants, their arms pinned behind them. Terry struggled with one of the men, both falling to the floor as they fought for control of a rifle. Carriers growled from outside the door as shots echoed. Men screamed from the front yard as the beasts attacked.

  A lantern fell to the floor, the spilled kerosene catching fire and racing across the floor.

  Ed saw a white blur as one of the carriers entered the building. He held Zach and Jeremy’s hands while he searched for Trish. He called her name, but no reply came. Only the frantic sounds of struggling came from the dimly-lit and now burning room. Another lantern fell to the floor, the glass shattering as a fireball erupted. A pile of blankets caught fire, the dry cloth catching and holding the flame.

  More flashes of movement zipped through the room. Ed had no choice but to run. He searched frantically in the room, unable to see more than a few feet in front of him. He called out for Trish one more time, but received no reply.

  A man appeared before him, face bloody. Zach screamed. A moment later one of the carriers struck the bloody-faced man at full sprint, knocking him to the floor. It sank its fangs into the man’s throat, tearing it out and diving into the bloody hole to feed.

  Ed gripped both of his children by the hand and ran from the room into a hallway, deeper into the foreign darkness, the sound of the fighting behind him diminishing with each step.

  Chapter Sixty-Nine

  The carriers had made their way in and were slaughtering anything in their path. Things had gone wrong so quickly that Trish had no idea of how to set them right again.

  One of the men gripped her by the arm, covering her mouth as he pulled her away from the group and into the darkness of the sanitarium or hospital or whatever the building had been in its former life. The man smelled like a mixture of sweat and beef jerky, his rancid breath overpowering.