He had suggested they leave all their supplies and most of the weapons at home, only carrying two small backpacks with some water, a little food, and a change of clothing. That way they had some necessities, but they wouldn’t be losing anything important if their gear were taken from them.
The plan was to go, find his family, check the place out, get some information from the people there, and maybe come back to Jared’s house for the time being. Then they would reassess everything. It sounded like a good plan.
“Sorry about yelling earlier.”
“That’s okay. We are under a lot of stress.”
“Still not as stressful as GFI’s annual picnic lunch,” he joked.
“Heck no, nowhere near that level…”
Sweating under the hot August sun and eating store bought sandwiches at the local park with her co-workers while the flies buzzed around wasn’t her idea of fun.
“Look at the bright side. Now we don’t have to go,” he said.
Yeah, kind of hard to have a crappy company picnic when your co-workers and boss are all dead.
They sat in silence for another minute. “Maybe we should try and pick up my car afterward, that way we will have two vehicles instead of one,” she suggested.
“Yeah, that may be a good idea. Never know when something might happen.”
He didn’t elaborate on that.
“Maybe we should try and get another truck though, something with four-wheel drive. If you really want your car, we can get it, and get a truck later.”
“Okay.”
Returning to the highway in the bright sunshine was jarring. Last night had been so frightening, so surreal, and the darkness only added to that. Now, in the daylight, it was hard to imagine what they had lived through was real.
She wished to God that it wasn’t.
She had killed someone. Jared had killed several people, co-workers. They had watched people die. It was just so…improbable.
“What do you think caused all this?” she asked him.
“I don’t know. Does it matter? It’s happened and we have to deal with it,” he said.
“I just wondered what you thought.”
“I think some motherfucker was messing around with something that never should have been messed with. Maybe he left a Bunsen burner on? Maybe one government or another decided that they had done enough screwed up shit?” He shook his head. “What we need is to concentrate on what happens now, before we concentrate on what happened then.”
“Yeah, you’re right.”
“Say that again?” he said, putting a finger behind his ear.
“You’re right?”
“Once more?” he said.
“No.”
They were back to the edge of town more quickly than she wanted to be. She saw the same familiar sights that she saw last night. There were also some new, more gruesome ones. Jared stopped the truck.
So much for things being better than yesterday.
One tableau was particularly disturbing. The delivery truck blocking the entrance to the Rolling Hills neighborhood was full of holes of all sizes. She wasn’t a ballistics expert, but she watched Forensic Files. She saw at least four different size bullet holes. There had been a large-scale attack last night. She knew that neighborhood had a lot of families. She hoped they were okay.
“Guess that pretty much explains that pile of bodies around the outside of that truck,” Jared said after she mentioned it to him.
“You think they were turned?” she asked.
“Biters? Probably,” he said.
“Biters…”
“Well, I’m all ears if you have a better name for them,” he said.
“I’ll get back to you on that.”
She saw at least thirty bodies of all kinds laid out in the hot sun. It was a vulgar display that she had only ever seen in history books or on the news.
It was shocking. Limbs were flung out, some missing the bodies they were supposed to be attached to. There was blood everywhere, dried brown in the sun. Some puddles were dark red and gelatinous. She felt the hot sting of saliva flood her mouth and wrenched open her door quickly.
“Anna, what the…”
She heaved painfully out the side of the truck. Vomit splattered the hot pavement. She wished she hadn’t eaten this morning. She hadn’t thought. She felt a hand on her back.
“Here,” he said, offering her a bottle of water.
She rinsed her mouth and spit before shutting the door and sitting back. She felt better…physically at least.
“Better?”
She nodded.
“Here, take a couple of these,” he said and shook the cinnamon Altoid box at her. She took three.
“You think those people are still alive in there?” she asked.
“Yeah. They have a good chance if they keep up their ammo supply. And as long as they take out the Runners as soon as they turn.”
“Runners, Biters…How about Health Challenged?”
“Nah, too long. Imagine you come across some of them and have to warn me. Would you really have the time to say, ‘Hey J-dog, here come the Health Challenged!’? No.”
“It was a joke.”
He cocked an eyebrow at her.
“Let’s go with Biters for now.”
“You know we’re being watched, right?” he said.
“What!?” She froze and glanced around, seeking out the watcher. She didn’t see anyone.
“Second floor of that house in the neighborhood. Behind the wall. They’ve got sentries. Someone in there knows what they’re doing.”
“Think we should make contact?” she asked.
“We can try.” Jared abruptly opened his door and stood on the running board of the truck. He raised a hand and waved at the figure in the window.
“Better put up both of your hands,” she suggested.
“Good idea.”
They waited in terse silence for any sign of movement. Anna watched the woods around them. She wanted to hurry and get moving again. This sitting still was uncomfortable…when you’re still they can get you.
She also didn’t like Jared making himself a target for the same people that decimated a crowd of thirty —even if they were crazy.
“Jared! On the road!” she shouted.
She leaned forward in her seat, clutching the sweaty handle of the bat. In the shimmering heat coming from the rise in the road, she saw heads. As she watched, the heads were followed by bodies. A crowd was coming, maybe three miles away.
“We’ve got time,” Jared assured.
She estimated their speed and realized that he was right. They had a time. Her gut was telling her to leave, to go back, but Jared only waited.
“Let’s go! These people obviously don’t want to come out.”
“They might have information.”
“Screw their information! We need to go now!”
She leaned her head back against her headrest and tried to calm her breathing. She couldn’t panic.
A fist came shattering though the back window with stunning force.
She gasped and spun in her seat just as the grasping hand lunged for her hair. A huge man stood on her side of the truck, his skin was pale and sweaty, and his chest was slick with blood and…other things. Her heart thumped painfully in her chest.
He was grinning, and his snake-like eyes glinted with infernal glee. Blood had dried on his mouth and chin and flaked off as he moved his mouth. He was twitching, almost uncontrollably. He threw himself headfirst into the shattered window, crumbling the remains of the glass.
“Get down!” Jared shouted.
She ducked and he fired instantly.
She felt wetness splatter against the top of her head. She popped up and looked back. The thing’s face remained in the window and she heard a low groan from its mouth. The eyes, so inhuman and feral looking, dimmed somehow. She saw a large hole in the top of its head. She watched as whatever life was in the thing went away. It hung in the w
indow.
Jared jumped down and ran around the side of the truck and hauled the body out. He grunted as he pulled the Biter’s weight. The squishy thud and the leakage from its head were extremely unpleasant.
He must be four hundred pounds, at least.
She saw movement behind Jared and watched in horror as more Biters materialized out of the treeline. They were running fast.
“Jared!” she screamed.
She jumped out with her bat as the first ones came onto the road. They split unerringly into halves and one came to her left, the other running for Jared’s right. She heard him firing as she watched the ones coming for her.
“Shit, shit, shit!” she hissed as she pulled the bat back again. Her shoulder screamed at the movement, but she had no choice.
As the first one got within range, she swung hard and it went down, but she had no time to pull back again before the next one was on her.
She held the bat in front of her, pushing it against the woman-thing’s neck. It kept her from getting her face eaten off, but it did nothing to stop the abomination’s clawing fingers from gouging holes in her stomach.
She yelled in pain and fear. Her arms were tiring, and its face was closing in. She felt wetness on her shirt. She was shoved against the truck as more of the things piled on. She heard no more firing from Jared.
Boom!
Boom!
She registered the loud reports just as she watched the ghouls in the back falling, one after another. The weight against her lessened fractionally. It was just enough to keep her from being torn apart, though she couldn’t hold it much longer.
The heat of the truck was burning her back, but it was the burn in her arms that concerned her more. The woman inched closer with her demonic face and Anna closed her eyes and pushed her away with all her strength.
She tried to lock her elbows but failed. The sick woman’s foul breath wafted across her face, smelling strongly of decay. Her nausea returned instantly and burned up her throat.
Crack!
This time the explosion was closer, and she clenched her eyes shut at the startling sound. Spraying fluid splattered her face and she felt a sudden shifting of weight. The demented crazy woman collapsed into a pile at her feet.
She looked around, dazed and weakened. Her arms felt like noodles and sweat plastered her shirt to her skin. She looked down.
“I’m bleeding,” she muttered.
“Fuck!” she heard Jared breathe and she felt his arm around her torso.
Bodies of the sick lay twitching and writhing on the road and he walked her through them to the other side of the truck. She watched the horizon and was horrified to see the mass of creeping figures closer now. They weren’t running. Yet.
“We have to go. They’re coming.”
“I need to check you over first,” he said.
He raised the hem of her shirt to her ribs and hissed at the wounds. She didn’t look. She didn’t need to; she could feel them well enough. He reached into the truck and she heard a zipper.
“Sorry,” he said and dumped a cold liquid all over her abdomen.
She gasped at the sudden sharp sting. Tears collected in her eyes. She had a feeling that it would have been much worse if she didn’t have so much adrenaline in her system. As it was, the fire on her skin was worse than anything she had ever felt. She pushed her attention outward.
“Jared, they’re coming.”
“I know. I’m hurrying.”
“No, I mean the people in the neighborhood.”
“Hold this,” he said, placing a large gauze pad tightly against her stomach. She held it as he turned around to meet the strangers.
They seemed to have the whole A-team thing down. She saw various eras of military surplus gear and some hunting camo.
“Hello,” Jared said, warily holstering his pistol. He held out a hand.
The leader of the group stopped and took it, giving Jared a solid shake.
“Hello. You folks having some trouble?” he said and nodded to the truck.
“No, we saw the pile of Biters and stopped. I saw your sentry up in the window. We just wanted to see if you guys had any news.”
“Some of our people left yesterday afternoon. Went to a refugee camp thing in town. Damned stupid thing to do if you ask me.”
“Yeah, we heard about that. My family went. That’s where we were headed, to check it out and hopefully take them back with us.”
“I’d say that’s a wise decision. My name is Harold, Harold Anderson. Harry to my friends.”
“Harry it is, then. I’m Jared Carson. This is Anna,” he said, gesturing to her.
“Ma’am. You wounded?”
“Just scratched up a little,” she said. Hopefully, they hadn’t seen too many movies and wouldn’t shoot her on the spot.
“Cary, get over there and check her out,” he ordered.
She held up a hand, “I’m fine.”
“Cary has some medical training. You’d best let him take a look.”
She looked at Jared and he gave her a short nod. She supposed it couldn’t hurt.
“Okay.”
The man, Cary, came up to her and laid his rifle down before pulling a first aid pouch from his kit. While he studied her injuries, she listened to the others talk.
“We wish we could offer you folks a place here, but we’ve got limited resources. We can’t be taking in anyone else.”
“We understand. We’ve got a place nearby. We’ll be fine.”
“You folks better get going soon. That crowd is moving along faster now. We’ll help hold them off, but we have to conserve our ammo, you understand.”
Cary stepped back. “You’ll be okay as long as you keep the scratches clean. Keep antibiotic ointment on them and keep them wrapped for a day or two, especially if you’ll be exposed to pathogens or excess bacteria.”
“What about infection?” Jared asked.
“Antibiotics. I.V. Penicillin would be best, but we aren’t set up for that yet. See if you can find some pills. If you aren’t allergic, Penicillin V 500 milligrams every eight hours for ten days should do it. I’m not a doctor though.”
“You just play one on T.V.” Jared joked, and Anna gave him a small shake of her head. He really needed to learn.
“We’ll get those pills. Thanks.” He said and shook their hands. “Maybe we’ll see you around.”
“Sure thing. Come up for a visit sometime. Watch out for them Sprinters,” Harry warned, motioning to the advancing crowd.
They were still about three-quarters of a mile away. They would be cutting it close. Already she could see the vanguard starting to run toward them.
“We’ll take the back road into town.” Jared took her around to the other side of the truck and she watched her feet as they approached the dead. Most had stopped jerking and lay still. She got in, painfully pulling herself up. Jared trotted back around.
“Take this. It’s already on our channel. Keep in touch. It’ll need batteries eventually.” Harry handed Jared a large radio.
“Thanks. Good luck to you all,” he said.
“Same to you folks.”
They left slowly. Jared turned down a small side road that she knew led out around toward the water treatment plant before curving back toward town.
“Who were those people? Some kind of neighborhood watch?”
“The Rolling Hills Civil Defense League.”
“Seriously?” She glanced at him to see if he was joking.
“Yep. They had patches and everything.”
“That’s kind of—”
“Weird?” he supplied.
“I was going to say badass, but weird works too.”
Chapter Thirteen
Bob’s Body Shop
Anna stowed the radio in Jared’s bag, and he put it under his truck seat with the rest of the gear they were leaving behind. He seemed to be more anxious about what the authorities would do to them than the Biters.
The back road
opened up into a huge empty field that led over to the large water treatment facility in the distance. Instead of turning down the gravel drive to go there, they turned right to go back toward town. She liked the open fields around them. It gave them a clear view. She could pretend everything was normal.
“Here we go,” he said as they regained town limits. So far, it was all clear.
She heard sudden staccato booms from behind them.
“Is that a machine gun?!”
Jared grinned. “Sounds like the RHCDL is kicking ass.”
“Wow, maybe we should find some machine guns.”
“Sure, let me just stop off at the local National Guard armory and we’ll pick up a few,” he quipped.
“Seriously?”
“No. I don’t think they would take kindly to that. Besides, I’m not familiar with anything belt-fed, and the ammo is heavy as hell to carry. We’re better off sticking with the M4’s right now.”
“You are. I’ll stick with my bat.”
“As soon as we get back home, we’ll do some training. I want you to be comfortable with a pistol and a rifle. That bat won’t do much good in a crowd.”
“No! Really?” she said with false incredulity.
They passed the edge of the industrial park again, and she noted that the low rumble of machinery was absent. Smoke no longer rose from the stacks. It was eerily quiet. Even the birds were silent.
She glanced nervously at the buildings on either side of the narrow streets. They had to go around obstructions, and each time, her heart fluttered in fear that they would come up on a large group of those things. Jared could only shoot so many, and he was driving.
“Maybe I should drive,” she suggested.
“Yeah, on the way back. I’d like to have my hands free.”
They decided to go around the old court square, which was the most congested part of town. She saw it several streets over and shuddered. The windows in the old historic building were black, the glass broken out. She thought she saw movement inside but couldn’t tell for sure. She wanted to tell Jared to speed up, but they couldn’t.
The Salvation Plague | Book 1 |The Turning Page 12