The machine gun, which had been routinely firing and stopping back in the distance, had now quit for good. She hoped it was a good thing. Those people seemed nice.
“There it is.”
Jared had stopped the truck on the highest point on this side of town, which happened to be a parking lot of a Chinese restaurant. It was empty, for the moment. They were too close to other buildings for her comfort. Too many alleys and busted doorways that the Biters could lurk.
The broken back window made her uneasy. She imagined fingers grasping her, clawing her neck, and she scooted a bit closer to Jared on the bench.
The stadium was down the hill in the distance. The mile between it and them was cluttered with abandoned vehicles. She saw three school buses, a short line of police vehicles, and an ambulance. The doors on the ambulance hung open ominously. Nothing moved. It didn’t look promising.
It didn’t look right.
“Can you see the fence? Does it look intact?” he asked her.
She squinted in the sunlight. She couldn’t make out the details.
“I don’t know.”
“Guess there is only one way to find out.” He put the truck in drive and pulled out of the lot.
“I hate that phrase. It never turns out well for the person who says it.”
A hot, humid breeze blew through the back window. It brought the acrid stench of gasoline along with the more pleasant smell of sun warmed plants and cut grass. Her hair ruffled and her hand rested on her injured stomach. They would need to find a pharmacy too.
They crossed an empty intersection. The streetlight overhead was dark and swung a little in the breeze. A Styrofoam cup rolled across the road as they passed.
“Damn it!” Jared shouted as a surge of Biters rushed into the street from around the corner of a local church.
Their clumsy running and violent jolting gave them away, even if one didn’t happen to see their feral gazes and slavering mouths. They were all in various stages of dress, a few were naked and on these she saw the worst injuries.
How are they still alive?
She held on tight as Jared plowed through the thinner section of the human blockade. They didn’t even flinch or try to move as the truck smashed through their ranks. They mindlessly threw themselves into the vehicle, smacked the metal hard, then fell to the asphalt.
Some managed to grasp the truck and were pulled along. She saw swatches of skin left on the road and turned her eyes away. Some were flattened by the tires.
A body was stuck in the grill guard for a moment before it tumbled to the ground. The back wheels thumped over it and she felt a sick sense of satisfaction.
“These things are going to follow us there. What’s the plan?”
“Plan? There ain’t no plan!” he replied.
“You do realize that impersonating movie characters isn’t a survival strategy, right?”
He sped up, trying to put as much distance between them and the Biters that he could. She watched them quickly outpace the running mob. She looked back to the front as Jared cursed.
“The fucking fence is down!”
“Oh my Gosh!”
The stadium parking lot, once neatly contained within a high chain link fence was no longer protected. The gate had bowed inward, as if under a tremendous weight. Bloody bits of flesh hung from some sections and she scanned the area.
“There aren’t enough bodies!” she shouted.
“What?”
“There aren’t enough bodies for all this blood! Where are they?”
Jared slowed as they got closer, and she kept a nervous eye on the group approaching from behind. They would either have to go into the stadium parking lot or turn off onto the side road. As she was considering the best thing to do, Jared made the choice for her. He turned down a side street. They would have to find another way into the stadium.
First, they would have to lose the ones tracking them.
“There! Bob’s Body Shop!” she said, pointing to the old mechanic’s shop on the corner.
“Don’t know if I like the sound of that!” he retorted, his eyes never leaving the road.
He turned, angling the truck for the old garage. The doors were open, and anything could be in there waiting. They didn’t have a choice, not if they wanted to get to the stadium today. Jared wouldn’t consider leaving his mother and sister alone for another day, and she didn’t blame him. She hoped it wouldn’t get them killed though.
He stopped hard, making her lurch into the dash. If she hadn’t been wearing a seatbelt, she would have bashed her face. He jerked it into reverse and jammed the pedal down with a roar. As soon as the truck was in, he smashed on the brake again. The truck stopped with a screech and he jumped out.
She saw that he intended to shut the overhead door. She jumped out without thinking. They hadn’t checked the building. He could be attacked by anything in the dark.
She looked around, wide-eyed in the dim light. She didn’t see anything right off, but she edged toward Jared as he reached for the long cord. The darkness intensified as he pulled the garage door down with a loud squeal. She cringed at the noise.
“There. Let’s make sure there aren’t any other doors open.”
She followed him into the dark. He picked up a crowbar lying on a workbench.
“Pistol will draw them right to us,” he explained. She readied her bat, feeling exposed in the large dark space.
They double checked all the other roll up doors and saw they were all tightly closed. There was one lone vehicle parked in the last bay.
“Is that a—”
“A 1958 Cadillac Coupe De Ville? Yes.”
“How do you even know that?”
“I’m not just a pretty face,” he said.
They edged back to the mysterious door that she presumed led into the shop. The darkness loomed, relieved only by the high, dust shrouded windows on the very top of the overhead doors.
The humidity was extreme, and the heat suffocating, in here. Sweat poured down her body, stinging the scratches on her stomach on ribs. She shifted the bat to wipe her hands for a better grip. The odor of fuels and oil was strong, and her head began to pound uncomfortably.
Jared cracked open the door; the creak of the hinges was startling in the silence. She gritted her teeth and hoped the maniacs outside were out of hearing range.
They faced the black maw of a hallway. The thin light from the garage barely penetrated the blackness. Faint illumination from the floor ahead was the only indication of a door. She heard Jared’s steady, even breaths and matched him.
If he was calm, then she should be too.
They left the door open as they went in. Her feet scuffed the rough concrete and she winced at the sound. They crept forward. Jared held the crowbar ready with one hand and reached out for the door handle with the other. It was unlocked.
“Be ready,” he whispered.
He turned the handle slowly, and pushed in. The door swung open and revealed a well-lit room. Large plate glass windows lined the front and sides and they stepped through. Nothing moved, nothing lunged. She smelled a foul, sweet smell and covered her nose and mouth. It was unmistakably a death smell. When they came fully into the room, she saw why.
“Oh God!” she whispered.
‘Bob’ hung from the rafters in the corner.
His short sleeve work coveralls sported grease stains, blood stains, and large soiled spots that she didn’t want to guess at. Most horrifying was his darkly bruised face and bulging neck. His death would have been slow and possibly painful. His eyes sagged blankly in their sockets, and she saw the dull gleam of them in the bright room. They held no life.
“He had gangrene,” Jared said, gesturing to the blackened skin of his right arm.
She saw a large mark, a missing chunk really, taken from his right arm. The skin was bloated and black. Large black pustules had formed along the limb. He hung still and she moved closer. The stench of putrid decay was almost overwhelming,
and she breathed through her mouth.
“He was probably going to die anyway unless he found a doctor fast,” he added.
She reached out and snagged the white folded paper sticking up from his pocket.
“It’s a note,” she said.
“What’s it say?”
“It says ‘Carol got sick. Bit me. I had to put her down. Tell the kids I’m sorry. Love, Bob.’” She refolded the note and put it back into his pocket without touching his body. She almost expected him to reach out and snatch her hand. She moved back quickly, and as she did so, she saw movement outside.
“Get down!” she hissed and dropped to the floor.
Jared dove next to her and grunted at the impact. He looked at the crowd outside and she saw his sweaty jaw clench. “Crawl back to the garage. Slowly,” he whispered in her ear.
She nodded and awkwardly pulled herself along the floor, trying not to rise too much. She inched along, putting the bat ahead of her. She heard the loud high jingle of keys hitting the floor and she whirled around.
“Shit!” Jared exclaimed.
Outside, the crowd of crazies whipped their heads around to the storefront. They lunged in one seemingly collective move, throwing themselves straight through the glass and into the store. Some were cut badly, and blood gushed from their wounds. Many were not.
“Go!” Jared screamed as he clutched the keys and pushed off the floor.
She struggled up. Her feet stumbled, not able to keep up with her body’s momentum, and she slapped the floor hard. Jared raced by and she heard the loud metallic clatter of the crowbar as he dropped it to the concrete floor.
He yanked her up by the arm and propelled her back through the doorway before swooping the regain the crowbar. She felt the yank of hands in her hair and yelled at the vicious tug. Tears collected in her eyes as the clutching hand held her firmly.
Jared, still behind her, made a large sweeping motion with his arm and she felt the sudden release of the human restraint. They lunged through the door and Jared slammed it hard as the mob viciously shoved against it. Their malignant snarls and growls penetrated the thick door as they fought.
Jared fumbled with the unfamiliar keys in the darkness as they both pressed their full weight against the door. She didn’t know if they were capable of opening doors, and she hoped they never found out. She heard him curse under his breath as he tried key after key. The thumps on the door grew more fervent as if they sensed their prey escaping.
“Come on, come on!” she urged.
“Got it!” he said, and she heard the thunk of the bolt shooting home.
They seemed a bit safer now. The door was thick, and the frame was solid. She didn’t think they could get through. She started to scoot down the wall to sit and rest when she noticed an alien heaviness on her back.
“Jared, something’s on me! On my back!” she yelled.
Her skin crawled and it took every ounce of willpower not to shriek and scream and try to dislodge the unfamiliar entity. Jared ran his hand over her back with sudden swiftness and grasped the offending thing. He made a sound in his throat as he yanked it roughly free before flinging it away.
“IS IT GONE?!”
“Shhhh, it’s gone,” he said.
She jumped as he grasped her in the dark. She could barely make out his outline in the gloom. She reached for him, ignoring their stench and their sweat-soaked clothing. She pressed herself against his chest and wrapped her arms around him tightly.
Safety. He felt like safety.
“What was in my hair?” she murmured, breathing heavily.
“You don’t want to know.”
“You’re right, I don’t,” she said.
He was silent for a moment.
“It was a hand,” he said anyway.
“Damn it, I told you I didn’t want to know!”
He gave her one final squeeze and pushed her back gently. “We need to get back to the truck and make a plan. Unless…you want to take the land yacht?”
“We don’t even know if it runs.”
“Yeah. It would be cool though,” he said wistfully.
Chapter Fourteen
Thunder Kiss ‘65
“That’s the worst idea that you could have possibly come up with.”
“Why?” she asked.
“Because splitting up is always a terrible idea.”
“So, how else are we going to get them out of here so we can go to the stadium?” She raised her eyebrows and chugged down a bottle of water. It was easy to get dehydrated, not only because of the heat and humidity, but because their minds were on other things.
“We could wait and see if they leave. Or we could sneak out,” he said.
“The doors are too loud to sneak out remember?”
She watched him frown as he considered all possible alternatives. There weren’t many that she could see. They couldn’t just leave. They had to get to the stadium to find his mother and sister. They couldn’t stay here long because they didn’t have much food and water, plus the longer they waited the more danger his family might be in. The stadium didn’t exactly look like a bustling refugee shelter. They had heavy doors though, so there was hope that they were still safe inside.
“It won’t take long. I know I can do it. I’m not scared,” she insisted, staring into his eyes. It was a lie. She was freaking terrified. She could do it though. “I’ll take the Cadillac and lead them off in the opposite direction, back where we came from. When I get them moving away, I’ll ditch it and run back this way.”
“I think I should be the one to do it,” Jared finally said.
“I can’t pull down the overhead doors. You could barely do it, remember? If you go, you’ll be leaving me here with wide open doors. Plus, when is the last time you sprinted a half-mile? Trust me, I’m fast enough to outrun them.” For a short time anyway.
He blew out a breath and rested his head on the back of the truck seat. “Okay, but if anything happens to you, I swear I will never let you make the plans again!”
“Deal. Okay, so I’ll move them back to the square. You stay here until I get back. Leave the overhead door cracked enough I can slide under quickly. Then, we’ll drive over to the stadium and hide the truck there somewhere. If we’re lucky, they’ll have guards at the doors to help us out if we get in trouble. Easy peasy.”
He stared at her. “How long will you be?”
“I don’t know for sure. The driving part will be faster of course. It’s a little under a mile, I think. Give me twenty minutes. Thirty to be safe…just in case I have to wait somewhere or hide.”
He rubbed his face. “This is such a bad idea.”
She drank part of an electrolyte drink, hoping it would help her speed a little, although it was a bit too late for that now.
“Don’t worry so much,” she said with a fake smile.
The Caddy had started on the first try. It had been lovingly rebuilt and had a full tank. It would do. Maybe they could even go back for it someday. Right now, it was the key to them getting over to the stadium without being chased.
She hopped in, leaving everything she had with Jared, except the knife. She hoped like hell this thing drove well.
“If you aren’t back in twenty minutes, I’m coming. And hell’s coming with me.”
She just stared at him.
“Seriously,” he said.
◆◆◆
The overhead doors rolled up and she saw that the sun was thankfully still high in the sky. She didn’t know how long they had been at Bob’s Body Shop, but it seemed like forever. She inched the car out of the garage. The engine purred with a choppy roar. It drove like a tank. The large steering wheel was unfamiliar, and she had to crane her neck a little to see as well as she was used to.
She loved it.
She watched intently, waiting for the freaks to come running. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Jared lowering the garage door, leaving a gap on the bottom for her. She waited longer than she anticipat
ed, and her adrenaline kicked up a notch. She hadn’t expected to have to actually work to get their attention.
Someone hadn’t stuck with the vintage hardware in here and had retrofitted the car with a sound system. She punched the power button, expecting to hear some Johnny Cash, or perhaps some Elvis.
Her eardrums almost exploded as Rob Zombie blared from the speakers. The bass thumped fiercely, and she had to turn it down a bit.
Who the hell owned this car?!
In her distraction with the radio, she noticed that she finally had some fish biting. A head peered around one of the broken panes in the front of the shop like a pissed off proprietor from hell. Malicious eyes glared at her like some demon from a horror film and she steeled herself.
Fuck them.
She was the predator now.
Well okay, technically the bait. But saying predator made her feel better. Sort of.
The heavy metal music blasted through the barely cracked window and she let off the brake and turned out of the lot. She watched in the rear mirror as the mob darted along after her like a demented Rob Zombie fan club. She picked up speed as they gained on her. She followed the route that they had taken to get here, planning to turn off to the right at the intersection.
She had to slow down drastically as she came to the partially barricaded road, and she knew that this was a dangerous situation. She could be ambushed here and get stuck. This car didn’t have the capacity for making sharp turns. She edged her way around, fearing attack from the alleys at any second.
She turned down the music some, wishing she could hear over that and the loud growl and reverberation of the engine in the congested street. The malevolent snarls of the crazies would be drowned out by the grumble of the engine.
She would have no warning.
She exhaled sharply as she cleared the most difficult section of road. She checked the mirror again and her eyes widened as she saw the horde behind her. It had doubled in size, at least. She was drawing away the throng from the body shop, but she was also drawing out roamers. She was going to have to run for her life.
The Salvation Plague | Book 1 |The Turning Page 13