Literally.
She slowed down. Her fear had made her accelerate and she didn’t want any stragglers breaking off to ambush her on the way back down the other street. She didn’t know how much intelligence or foresight the things had. She didn’t want to underestimate them.
She was coming up on the last block before the turn off. She would have to time it exactly right. She needed to get around the building, put the car in park, leave the radio on, and run away before they caught up. She hoped the noise of the radio would draw them in and distract them. Hopefully, it would also cover any noise she made as she sprinted back to the garage.
Sweat stung her eyes and she slipped around on the leather seat. She chugged the last of her water and checked the rear on more time. She was really doing this. She was really going to do it. She had to do it fast too, or Jared was going to come out and ruin everything. She didn’t think he would keep to his end of the deal and wait the full twenty minutes. She was going to have to run her ass off to make it back in time.
She made the turn off and for a split second she mourned the loss of the beautiful car. Someone had spent a lot of time and money restoring it. She didn’t doubt for a moment that the fiends would tear it apart to get inside. Hell, maybe its former owner was even back there right now, grunting and sprinting along after her.
She prayed as she turned around the back of the building. She prayed that it was clear and that there wasn’t a whole new group of Biters waiting back there. She would have to come up with a whole new plan.
Luckily, there wasn’t. It was clear.
She took a deep breath, stopped the car, and slammed it into park. She turned the music up a little before she sprinted away. She heard the pack of crazies more clearly now that she wasn’t in the car. It was horrifying to hear so many snarls and growls so close, and to know that they wouldn’t stop until she was torn limb from limb. Like the corpse in the bathroom with Darla.
She pumped her legs and arms and blessed the adrenaline flowing through her veins. She needed to make the most of it, because when it wore off, she would be in big trouble.
She ran down the one-way street, a sister street to the other side. It would take her halfway back to the garage, then she would have to cross back over to the main road.
She felt her calves burn and forced herself to take in more air, to expand her lungs and oxygenate her blood. She couldn’t keep up a sprint indefinitely and she wanted to get as close as she could before she had to slow down.
The sidewalk sloped gently, and she kept pounding the pavement. Her footsteps were muffled but seemed to echo through the little street. The buildings on either side stared at her forebodingly, their windows shuttered or broken. She estimated that she had five minutes left before Jared would come looking for her. She pushed on harder.
At the mouth of the alley that would take her back to the main road, she hesitated. The narrow strip of pavement between buildings loomed and she had a split second of intuition.
The alley wasn’t going to be empty.
This hesitation caused her to stumble over a rock on the concrete and her ankle turned. Fortunately, she caught herself before she fell.
Unfortunately, the woman that came from the alley had more momentum than she had.
The woman was a mess. Her blouse was ripped down the front and hung limply. The strip of skin showing between the two halves suggested a huge blunt force trauma. Yet she still came. Anna hesitated for a moment, trying to judge the woman’s trajectory. She pulled her knife and sprinted off to the opposite side, attempting to make it around the woman and toward a clear path through the alley.
It didn’t work as well as she had hoped.
The woman moved with uncanny agility, perhaps a reflection of her former life. She lunged to the side, clutched Anna’s shirt, and pulled, bringing her gore-flecked teeth to Anna’s bare shoulder. Anna made a wild stab with the knife, aiming for its face. In her struggle, she missed her mark and hit the woman’s neck instead. The knife buried up to the hilt and came through the other side. She yanked it out hard. The woman spurted blood in a wide arc but didn’t release her hold on Anna’s shirt.
Anna ran anyway, forcing her way forward and pulling the bleeding thing with her. When she got enough momentum going, she whirled, letting the thing’s own impetus throw it off and nearly losing her shirt in the process. It worked!
It went down, sprawling face first into the concrete. Anna heard the crunch of its nose as it shattered against the ground. She considered going back and finishing it off, but she was only halfway back to Jared and needed to save her energy.
She ran to the end of the alley and peeked around. It looked clear and she sprinted out. Her legs were burning and heavy now, and she wheezed in the thick air. It was like breathing water. She wiped the sweat from her eyes, but only succeeded in smearing it in worse. She was afraid she had gotten the Biter’s blood in her eyes too.
Worry about that later!
She was suffering now. Her breathing wouldn’t regulate. Her heart pounded too fast. She felt faint and nauseous. Her stomach stung and she felt the newly formed scabs pull under the gauze.
She had to slow down.
She was closer to the body shop now. Only a quarter of a mile left. It seemed like a hundred miles. She forced her legs to move faster. The incline caused her body to burn, but if she stopped, she wouldn’t be able to get going again. She had to keep moving.
When she was one-tenth of a mile away, she spotted trouble ahead.
A man in uniform had Jared at gunpoint.
She quickly ducked behind a flowering shrub. When she saw that they hadn’t noticed her, she moved up. She made it to the corner of a brick wall across from them and her thoughts raced. She didn’t have a gun. She didn’t have her bat. She had a smallish knife and that was it. She couldn’t even sprint over and take him by surprise because she was so exhausted. Even now she couldn’t keep her gasping as quiet as she needed to. She glanced over her shoulder. Nothing coming.
She couldn’t stay here though. She was a prime target for the Biters. She was about to rush over when she saw the man abruptly lower his gun and reach over to shake Jared’s hand.
What?
She moved out of her dubious hiding place and gestured to Jared. His face immediately relaxed, and he waved her over. She realized that she probably looked a bit like a lunatic herself and made herself move carefully toward the man. The last thing she wanted was to startle him. He seemed quick with that rifle.
The man turned at Jared’s wave and she saw that he was some breed of utility worker. Utility worker? She trotted over, the fastest speed she could manage right now.
“Howdedoo ma’am,” the stranger said, kindly enough.
She nodded and walked over to Jared and stood beside him. He put his hand on her shoulder and she winced. It was the one she injured last night when she was…batting.
“Are we ready?” he asked.
“We need to hurry,” she said. “I drew out more of them from the buildings. There’s a large crowd, but I don’t know how long the music will draw their attention. They could be heading back here right now.” She looked anxiously toward the town square in the distance where the faint thump of music could still be heard. It sounded like a heavy metal concert.
“Was that you blasting that godawful noise?” the man wanted to know.
“Yes, we needed to draw them away from here. I figured that would work as well as anything.”
“Well, you sure got ‘em going, didn’t you? Where did y’all end up at?” he wanted to know.
She pointed in the general direction. “I took them up behind the old insurance office, the one they turned into a bar.”
“Well, that couldn’t have worked out any better than if we’d planned it,” he said with a big grin. “Name’s Jimmy Don Booth. Everybody calls me Jimmy Don Booth.” He held out his hand to them and they shook.
Indeed, his name tag even read ‘Jimmy Don Booth’.
“We heard about the shelter at the stadium over there. Came to find my family,” Jared explained.
“Well, y’all might want to rethink that. That place is a death trap waiting to happen…if it ain’t already.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“Well, they had it all up and running several hours after them things started running loose. Guardsmen, police, everything. Come nighttime, whole packs of them things let loose on the gates. Near about knocked down the whole damn fence —pardon my French, young lady— and took some police officers with them. Just tore them through the gate and took off with the remains.”
“Oh my God!” Anna said, giving Jared a quick frown.
“Yep, they retreated into the stadium last I heard. Left some guardsmen with them, them with families I reckon, some cops. The rest of the National Guard unit pulled out. Big old battle about an hour north, up in the city. They left and things have been quiet in there ever since,” he said, lighting a cigarette.
“Were you there?” Jared asked, and took the lid from a bottle of water and handed it to her. She drank gratefully and took a bite of a protein bar. She wanted more information from Jimmy…oops, Jimmy Don Booth.
“Nosir, I heard it on the radio. I’d like to stay here and chat a bit, but we ought to be going. There’s gonna be a mighty big explosion hereabouts and I’d rather not stay and see it firsthand.” He checked his watch. “Yep, I’d get going if I was you.”
“What do you mean explosion, Jimmy?!”
“I go by Jimmy Don Booth sir,” he reminded. “Y’all must have missed my warnin’ announcement to the others.”
“You’ve seen other people around here?” she asked him.
“Yes’m, they straggled out in groups. Prob’ly headed for the woods. There’s some crazy sumbitch —pardon my French, young lady— out on the other side of town shootin’ at anything that moves. Y’all watch yourselves.”
“Yeah, we figured that out,” Jared said.
“I went and set up an incendiary de-vice over on the gas lines that lead through that section of town,” he said and pointed over toward the general direction of the courthouse. Remarkably close to where she had drawn off the crowd of crazies. “She’s due to blow here in a minute or two. I’ll be seeing you. I’ll be staying around town after if y’all need me, hear?”
He waved over his shoulder and scooted off, squealing bald tires, in a small, old Volkswagen pickup truck parked around the side of the building.
“Let’s get going. I don’t know if Jimmy is crazy or not, but if he set a bomb on these gas lines I don’t want to be here when they go,” Jared said.
“Jimmy Don Booth,” she corrected.
They ran over to the garage and he lifted the door all the way up. She jumped in the truck and fastened her seatbelt before he took off. Sitting down, even for a moment, was heaven. It was going to be hard getting back up. She stared at the side view mirror, watching for the moment when Jimmy Don Booth’s ‘incendiary deeevice’ detonated.
She thought he might just be crazy, normal crazy, not demented crazy.
They just reached the destroyed stadium gate when the first massive blast echoed through the small town. A series of smaller blasts followed, traveling along the general direction of the street.
“Did he ever say why he set up that bomb on the lines?” Jared asked.
“Nope.”
Chapter Fifteen
Collier Stadium
The series of explosions followed the street from the town square, roughly where Anna had led the feral throng, to the natural gas system complex which sat just outside of town on a large piece of land. It was an awe-inspiring sight, especially since she knew large numbers of Biters had been destroyed. They deserved peace, and she hoped that they had that now. She liked to think they would have been grateful for their deaths. She figured that was the most likely reason Jimmy Don Booth had done it.
“I was going to kiss you when you got back, after I yelled at you for taking so long.”
Surprise crossed her face and she tried to hide it fast. Jared wasn’t particularly demonstrative. He usually hid his feelings behind humor.
“Oh? Are you still going to or is that kind of ruined now?” she asked, fighting to keep herself alert.
She had never been so exhausted, and she thought mental exhaustion was a large part of that. It takes a lot of energy to be chased by insane monsters who want to rip you up with their hands and teeth.
“Well, Jimmy Don Booth kind of stole my thunder. It just wouldn’t be the same. Plus you have all kinds of blood on your face.”
“Ah, I see. So, what’s the plan now?” she asked.
“Plan? Plan?! There ain’t—”
“You already said that one earlier. You can’t use it again.”
“Well, I’m kind of tired,” he said defensively.
They stared at the imposing brick structure in the late afternoon sunlight. It looked like a horrible place to volunteer to go into. It was at least three stories tall with no windows and only one entrance on this side. It was probably the best —if properly defended— and worst place for anyone to take shelter from hordes of crazy people that wanted to mutilate non-crazy people.
“I guess we should go in.”
She looked at Jared and was suddenly overwhelmed with it all. Not two days ago they were playing tricks on co-workers and trading candy and jokes to make their dull jobs bearable. Now they were living through the end of the world, or an awfully close approximation. It was too much to think about right now.
“We’ll probably need these,” he said, handing her a bundle.
“Headlamps?”
“Power’s off, remember? I don’t know if they have a generator running.”
Suddenly the lack of windows chilled her to the bone. It could be completely dark in there. Unrelenting blackness. It would swallow them whole.
She grabbed her bat and pushed her door open. She mustered the rest of her energy, hoping the protein bar would help a little. Jared came around to her side, and they took in the massive edifice. The outside was draped in long banners; they were the colors of a local university sports team.
Other than the blood and gore draped fence, and the crushed gate, and the brass bullet casings everywhere, it looked normal. Almost.
Jared kept his rifle ready as they moved to the glass doors of the entrance. They tried to peer in, but the glass was heavily tinted.
“Not very promising, is it?” he said.
“Should we knock?”
He raised an eyebrow and pulled on the handle. It opened easily. It didn’t bode well for being a safe place if they had left the door unlocked.
They went in.
◆◆◆
She was right. The darkness was complete. The feeble skylights overhead were so far up that they didn’t relieve the oppressiveness of the shrouded entry to the arena. The beams of their headlamps shone like beacons in the dark.
“Do you realize that we’re basically painting targets on ourselves by wearing these lights?” she murmured.
“We have no choice. We can’t see in the dark, and we don’t know if they can see in the dark.”
He had a point, and she hadn’t thought of that. She wished he hadn’t said anything.
“We should have looked for some night vision goggles or something.”
“Yeah, that’s actually on my list,” he said.
“List?”
“Yeah, my ‘In case of apocalypse go get this shit for free at the local sporting goods store’ list” he murmured.
They followed the oval shaped outer ring of concessions, small stores, closed balconies, and sales booths. All were closed tight, with steel gates barring entry. She was assuming that meant that nothing lurked inside.
Unfortunately, that meant they wou
ld have to move up to the second-floor concourse to access the inside of the arena and the VIP lounges above.
It wasn’t a very exciting prospect.
They found the stairs and followed them up. At the first turn they stopped and listened before making the one-eighty degree turn onto the mid-floor landing. She gazed up and shined her light into the darkness ahead.
“I really wish I had a gun right now,” she whispered.
“You’d probably shoot me in the back,” he murmured in reply.
“Only if you didn’t stop repeating cheesy one-liners.”
“That happened once, and I’m tired.”
They were silent, listening for anything that shouldn’t be there. She heard nothing. He started up the remaining stairs. At the top, the cavernous concourse had a sinister atmosphere. It was a waiting feeling. As if it were anticipating a meal, and they were it. Apprehension filled her. There was death here, she could feel it.
Jared would never turn back before finding his family.
So, she would have to go on. Even if it meant she would die too because she would never leave without him. Having a best friend sucked sometimes.
She swept her headlamp around the closed concessions here, and thanked God they were all locked up tight. Less places for them to have to search. Less places for them to hide.
“Let’s go check out the arena.”
She made a face at his back. She was dreading it but followed him anyway.
They found a short hallway that led out into the massive open arena. She knew this place could seat nineteen thousand people. She hoped that it wasn’t filled to capacity with maniacs.
What they saw when they got to the immense seating area filled her with dread.
“Shit!” he breathed.
Battery powered floodlights tilted crazily in the large space. Some still illuminated the arena in the bottom, where stacks of goods and supplies were piled haphazardly. Swathes of harsh white light emphasized the tragedy that must have happened here. Pools of blood and bodies and parts of bodies were grimly displayed in scenes of terror and sadness.
The Salvation Plague | Book 1 |The Turning Page 14