We had some of Trent’s alcohol left over and decided getting drunk again was a good plan. After we had all consumed enough liquor to be slap happy, we passed out. I remember thinking, “I hope we wake up if someone or something comes inside.” I didn’t fall asleep in Cage’s lap this time, but he wasn’t too far away from me.
Chapter 17
A Significant Loss
Something pulled me out of my sleep. I rubbed my eyes to try and adjust to where we were. I realized I had moved my head into Cage’s lap at some point in the night. I sat up quickly and looked around. There were people everywhere.
“Cage, wake up!”
There shouldn’t have been anyone in the barn. There were dozens of them. Some of them were covered in blood. Some of them were missing limbs.
“Trent!” I screamed for him, seeing a hoard of zombies crouched over something in the corner. Please no, please, not Trent. I was sure now that the sound that had pulled me from my slumber was Trent screaming. A blast sounded out from the direction of the hoard, blowing one of the zombie’s heads off. I cringed as the brain matter and blood flew all over me. I grabbed the pitch fork from the wall and ran at the closest walker, jabbing it as hard as I could, through the neck. As I tried to pull it back out, I successfully pulled my opponent down on top off me and had to use all my strength to push him off. Screaming at the top of my lungs, I stood up, putting my foot into the zombies’ chest to pull the pitch fork out. Blood and pieces of skin were dripping from the tines, as I swung it around to connect with another zombie’s head.
“Dad!” Cage was up and across the barn, pushing at the hoard.
I fought back the bile rising in my throat, as I saw an arm lying to the side. The number of people that were around what used to be Trent was enough to devour him, completely. They were trying and he was putting up a fight. Thankfully, the arm on the ground was one of theirs and not his. He was able to successfully cock the gun and take a few of them out. Trent wasn’t going down without a fight.
Even though Cage threw off as many as he could, the situation was becoming hopeless. Where had they all come from? I wished we wouldn’t have gotten drunk so we would have been aware that we were being surrounded. Perhaps then we could have gotten in the truck and mowed them all down.
To make matters worse, Rose was fully awake now and thrashing about, trying to break free of her chains. She looked the same except her skin was gray and her eyes were hungry. Well, really, she didn’t look the same; she looked crazy, screaming and throwing herself into the sides of the truck. The chains cut into her arms, through her shirt, and blood was soaking through. Cage’s sobs were full of despair and I cried right along with him.
Then the situation took a turn for the worse. There was a man near the bottom of where Trent’s leg would have been. Trent was still fighting with one leg, and a completely messed up face. The man turned to look at Cage. His mouth was covered in blood, and he had a huge gash across his face. He was missing one eye. Where the pupil and iris should have been, there was just a blood red mess. He was also missing half of his hair. The remaining hair looked charred, like it had been burnt. This strange man turned and bit Cage. Trent was overpowered, at this time, and I heard him cry out as a skinny blond woman latched onto his ear, pulling it off and chewing disgustingly. Another woman attacked his stomach, clawing at him and tearing his skin. I couldn’t see him anymore, and they were turning on me and Cage.
Cage screamed in pain and shock. They were not supposed to bite us. We were infected. The man didn’t let go and Cage struggled against him until I found a shovel to hit him with. When I struck him in the back of the head, he let go. Cage and I scrambled to get into the truck. I was praying Trent turned off the radio before he passed out or the battery would be dead.
Cage cranked up the truck and we drove through the closed doors. Rose was still standing in the back but she was chained pretty well so I figured she would be all right.
The tears rolled down Cage’s cheeks, but we had bigger problems. Why were they biting us? It had to be because we were not completely infected yet. We had to get out of there. He was driving angry, but I was scared to say anything to him.
“What the hell happened? Why didn’t I wake up? Why didn’t you wake up? Oh God. Cassie, why did this have to happen to Dad?”
“I don’t know how they got the jump on us. I don’t know how they could have taken your dad off guard.”
The thought crossed my mind that Trent may have wanted them just to bite him. Maybe he thought he would be like us. I didn’t voice this out loud, because it was too hard to think that he let this happen to himself. I was sad that we had lost the only man that was capable of finding the cure. His determination had been what kept us all going. My heart ached for Cage, but I had nothing to offer him in the way of comfort. We were doomed and prolonging the inevitable was all we had to live for.
“Would you like me to drive?” I was concerned with where his state of mind was.
“No!” he yelled at me.
I sank down in my seat and remained silent. This was turning into a bigger nightmare then it had been. What were we going to do?
After hours of silence, Cage finally decided he wanted to talk to me. Rose had been screaming in the truck bed for the first couple of hours, but she was now sitting down. I didn’t know if she had grown tired, or if she was plotting. I hoped she was just tired.
“He might not have made it, anyway.” I was thankful we had returned to a normal speed and he wasn’t gripping the steering wheel as tightly. “When we were getting out of town, there were people the infection just killed. They didn’t become zombified; they were just dead.”
“Really, I didn’t know that.” I was curious what it was about our DNA that allowed us to live with the virus.
“The news said it was not showing any pattern. The old and the young were dying from being bitten. There was no way to tell who would come back in the beginning. They showed a morgue that had been torn apart by the bodies that had come back to life. Some bodies were lying there that never did.”
He shuddered as he remembered the story. He looked over at me. “Dad could have died, anyway, but not like that. Torn apart and chewed on by those monsters! Cassie, we are going to be like them!”
I didn’t have any answers. I reached over and took his hand off the steering wheel. I laced our fingers together and held onto it. We rode like that for a while when we came to a roadblock. There were police in the road with full body armor on. I could see that they had hand-held scanners like the one that had identified us at the first safety camp. This was not going to be good.
Cage looked over at me, and then at Rose in the back. She must have smelled the police officers because she was raising immortal hell. She was pulling at her chains so hard they were biting into her neck and blood was beginning to seep out from beneath them.
"We won't be able to make it through them. They'll know."
I was starting to panic. What if this was the end of the road, literally?
"Do you trust me?"
Cage's question took me off guard. I didn't know what he was planning to do. "I trust you," I replied, then braced myself for what was going to happen. I jerked my seatbelt on.
Cage grinned at me as he gunned the truck towards the officers. As he neared them, they raised their guns, prepared to shoot. At the last minute, he jerked the wheel to the left and drove to the far side of the block. They were shooting at us now, and three officers were running after us. I caught a glimpse of Rose in the rearview mirror, sliding around in her chains. Her good arm had come free from the chains and was flailing about.
He was around the side of the block now and the police officers were running back to their cars. The chase was on. I was terrified, and exhilarated. If we went out like this, at least we were fighting back.
Chapter 18
Where are We Going?
We were flying around the other side of the roadblock now, with the police hot on our tra
il. There was one man hanging out the window with a gun. Rose was probably going to get hit, but she was already dead so I couldn’t worry about that.
I hoped Cage knew what he was doing in the way of a high-speed car chase or we would end up flipped over in a ditch. He seemed to be doing pretty well driving around traffic cones and keeping control of the truck. I wasn’t sure what the police were blocking us from. Cage seemed to have a destination in mind and it required losing the cop cars. His jaw was firm and his eyes were glued to the road.
I didn’t think they would just give up, so we would have to actually outdrive them. There were still two behind us at this point. I was thinking the other one went to get back-up. Cage suddenly jerked the truck off the road and we were driving through a cornfield. The green stalks were slapping the windows and Rose, from I could tell by her disgruntled yelling.
He drove in a zigzag pattern. I could hear the sirens, but I couldn’t see the cars. Maybe this crazy plan would work. I held on to the door handle as the truck violently bounced along. Cage hooked to the left and we went into the woods.
Now branches were slapping against the truck windows and a very angry Rose. I was afraid she would fall off, but the chains still did their job.
He drove through the trees the best he could. We were sliding in the mud. At one point he had to change direction when the trees got too thick to drive through. We, finally, made it back onto the road in one piece. I didn’t see any police officers behind us. I had to admit I was impressed.
He cringed as he looked in the rearview mirror and saw Rose standing in the bed of the truck. She was covered in whip marks from the branches. Some of them were bloody and one had struck her in the face. She was seething and the look on her face was terrifying.
“Sorry, Rose.” Cage opened the little window in the back of the truck so she could hear him. “At least we got away.”
After I let my heart slow down and could think again, I asked the question I had been dying to know. “Where are we going, Cage?”
“We are going to the Centera Factory. Dad would have wanted us to continue. Don’t you think? We have to keep trying to cure ourselves, don’t we?”
“Yeah, I guess. Do you know where it is?”
“I do. I just don’t know what to expect when we get there.” Our plan was careless. We didn’t know if they would have a cure at the factory, we also didn’t know if they would give it to us if they did. Desperate times called for desperate measures, and Cage told me how cliché that was when I told him.
Cage was right; there was no telling the type of security they would have on a building like that. I assumed it was our only shot, and there really wasn’t another plan.
“Alright, so, we are going to the Centera Factory place to control our disease.” I smiled even though that sounded ridiculous.
Cage reached over to take my hand again. It was comforting to hold on to him, and know he was there to protect me. He estimated that we were around four hours from our destination and told me to take a nap if I wanted. I was really tired, so I nodded off. I spent the next couple of hours nodding off.
I awoke to the sound of glass breaking and sat straight up.
Rose had busted the glass on the driver’s side of the back window and was trying to strangle Cage.
“Rose, stop it.” She was freakishly strong and prying her fingers from Cage’s neck took all that I had. I, finally, got them free. He pulled over and she grabbed my arm, pulling it through and cutting me on the glass. I screamed in pain, as a piece of the sharp edge bit through my skin.
Cage jumped in the truck bed with her, but didn’t know what to do because of the position she had me in. Finally, he decided to hit her in the head with the shovel I had tossed back there. She let go of my arm and lunged at him. I scrambled from the truck and jumped in with him. He grabbed her good arm as she gnashed her teeth at him. I pulled the chains up that were still attached to the truck and wrapped them twice around her throat. When I pulled the chains, she went down to her knees. Cage held her only arm to her side as I wrapped it to her body.
“No, Rose!” I was disappointed in her. What could she have accomplished by choking the driver? She struggled against the chains, but I had tied her down well. Cage took a cinder block from the back of the truck and put it on her chest. It looked painful, but he wasn’t taking any chances. I assumed it was a lot like the zombies in the barn; she had decided any form of food would have to do.
“You’re bleeding, Cassie!” He ripped the bottom of his shirt off and, quickly, tied it around my arm. The pain was bad, but I had gotten used to it with the way my bite wound had been stinging.
I smiled up at him. “Thanks, Cage.”
He smiled back. “Thank you for helping me wrangle rowdy Rosie.”
I laughed. “Say that three times fast.” He tried and failed miserably. We laughed again as we got back into the truck. I was glad that he was with me through this.
I was preparing to buckle my seatbelt when Cage surprised me with a kiss. He leaned over and pressed his lips to mine, putting his hands on my shoulders. It lasted for seconds, but it set my whole body on fire. It was a sweet kiss, and he smiled as he went back to his side of the truck. “In case I don’t get another chance.”
I blushed and touched my lips as he pulled off again. I really liked Cage; in another universe, we could have been something special.
Chapter 19
The Centera Factory
We arrived at the Centera Factory a little before dark. The building was lit up and there were cars in the parking lot. I took this to be a good sign. We parked the truck and decided that we would come back for Rose after we figured out what was going on. She couldn’t be trusted to act normal, anyway. I looked down at her, under the cinder block, and she growled at me. She reminded me of a scolded dog who had been chained and was mad at her owner.
“We’ll be back, Rose.”
Cage took my hand and we walked, together, across the parking lot and up to the building. I wasn’t sure what to expect and my nerves were getting the best of me. The building was lit up on the outside, and I could see what looked like a lobby through the glass. I didn’t see any people behind it. We moved slowly in case another explosion was set to go off. When we had almost reached the door without incident, I thought we were actually going to catch a break.
Just then, the red light of doom came on over the doorway and scanned us. As we prepared to run away, an alarm rang out all over the building and I could see red lights flashing inside. About ten people, in white from head to toe, came running at us.
They surrounded us before we had time to move, and asked us if we could speak.
“Yes, I can speak. We both can. We are looking for help. Please.”
They seemed to take it we were not a threat because they backed off. Some of them retreated back to where they had come from. Three stayed with us.
“Come on back; we can offer you some medical assistance.”
I looked down at the bloody rag covering my wound and thought that sounded like a great idea. They didn’t take down their masks. I assumed it was because the red light had told them we were infected. They didn’t offer their names or ask for ours. We followed them down the hallway. One of them opened a door and pointed at me.
“You go in here.”
I looked at Cage because I didn’t feel comfortable being separated from him. He nodded at me and put his arm around my waist.
“If you don’t mind, we would like to stay together. We have been through a lot already.”
The people that were leading us exchanged quick glances.
They must have decided it wasn’t worth arguing because they ushered us both in the same room.
We were in there for a while by ourselves. When two nurses entered the room, I noticed that instead of the masks, they had a full see-through helmet over their faces. The only reason I thought they might be nurses was that they had red crosses on their white clothes. This could also be a win
g of the factory where they had kept their test subjects, and decontaminated themselves after a long day of creating zombie virus cells. I try not to think about it as I look at their plastic covered faces.
Seeing their faces helped me to relax a little, and I realized that this must have been the reason for them.
“I’m Nancy, and this is Jane.” One of them gestured to the other. “We are going to treat your wounds and get you to feeling better.” She plastered a smile on her face. The nurses busied themselves cleaning our cuts and scrapes. They put wraps and bandages on us and disinfected everything. I was thinking I would kill for a shower.
I noticed that they didn’t treat our bite wounds. They stayed completely away from Cage’s shoulder and my hand. Maybe they didn’t want to be infected.
They waited then gave us both robes and left the room so we could change. I went to the back of the room and cleared my throat when Cage didn’t turn away immediately. He chuckled and turned his head back to the door. I heard him mumbling. “It was worth a shot.”
I smiled to myself as I got out of my shirt. I hadn’t really realized how dirty it was until I pulled it over my head. It was so coated with dirt and blood that it held its form after the shirt came off. I tried not to think about it as I snuggled myself into the nice robe. When I turned around, Cage had already stripped and changed into his.
I walked back over, thinking it felt good to be out of those clothes, but a shower would be the best thing ever. It was like they read my mind. The two nurses returned with some of the white clothes like they were wearing, towels, and soap. They directed us to a bathroom and pointed out the showers in the back. I was too tired or I would have sprinted to the shower.
As the water cascaded over me, I felt a hundred times better. All the cuts they had treated and the bandages were getting soaked, but I was in heaven. I found it strange they would fix us up nicely just to have us get all their first aid efforts soaking wet. I just decided that, perhaps, they didn’t think about it.
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