by C. A. Hoaks
“We can’t take the dog.” John protested. “Bastard stinks like shit.”
Randy laughed. “Yeah. You can tell the kids that.” He dropped the box in John’s arms.
“Son of a bitch,” John growled as he followed the kids, dog, Liz, and Harry into the camper.
“We can give her a bath.” Trace began.
Liz covered her face with her hand. “Not right now.”
Harry cranked the engine and called over his shoulder. “Open the windows until you get the shit cleaned off that dog.”
Liz complied with a chuckle while she directed the kids to the table to sit down. “Stay where you are until we get outta the town.”
Chapter 6
Go in Peace
Billy and Leon jogged away from the van toward the garden behind the chapel. After a brief hesitation at the corner, they disappeared behind the structure.
Juan handed a case of water and bucket of food to Brian then asked. “What about the priests who live here?”
Brian glanced at the two-story structure across the yard. “No sign of movement.” He stacked the bottled water in the back of the van. “The only person I saw was an infected man in the maintenance office. What are you suggesting?”
Juan glanced over his shoulder. “We can’t just leave them if they’re still alive. The priests here are retired and old.”
“Damn it!” Brian cursed. “Alright, when Billy and Leon finish bringing up supplies, get them in the truck, and drive over to the residence.” He tossed Juan the keys. “Keep your eyes open.”
Brian turned toward the residential building with a sigh of resignation. The rain gave new life to the moisture-starved grass turning the blades bright and vibrant green in the morning light. The flower beds around the fountain and at the edge of the adobe walls glistened with renewal where they were protected from the pelting rains. The less-sheltered garden area was beaten into the mud. He realized what remained of the beauty of the compound would soon be lost and it made him sad to think such tranquility had disappeared. For a split second, Brian wondered if everyone leaving the sanctuary was even wise with all the infected roaming the city. If the residence was well stocked, the others could stay while he headed out alone, but no matter how well stocked the building was, they would eventually run out of food. Then what, it would be more and more dangerous as time passed. He couldn’t leave these people behind, they would die. Just like he could not ignore a bunch of old men left behind. They had to stay together, and Liz’s father would offer sanctuary to them all.
Brian got to the door at the front of the building and was hesitant on how to proceed. He walked to the closest window and raised his hand to his face to look through the window. The room was a library or office. It was dark inside, but Brian could see an ornate desk and walls of books. He moved to the next window and looked through the glass. It was a dining room with a sturdy table at least ten feet long, and places for three were set on one end. Brian flicked on his LED light and looked toward a distant opened door. He could see a metal table and a counter with what looked like a sink and window at the back. A second door opened into a darkened hallway beyond. Glancing over his shoulder, Brian saw Juan still waiting for Leon and Billy. He went to the front door and crossed to the windows on the opposite side of the building. The heavy dark curtains had been pulled closed. He hurried to the second window and again looked inside. The room had been set up as a sick room. On the bed lay a withered old man and an IV bag hung from a pole. He caught a glimpse of a shrouded figure picking up bedding then disappearing from the room.
“Shit.” Brian cursed. He made his way back to the door and tapped lightly on the barrier. He waited, not sure what he would see or hear.
“Un minuto.” Called out an elderly voice from inside.
Brian waited a full thirty seconds before he heard shuffling steps approach the door. The door opened, and an old man in a pair of rumpled khakis and white shirt. He nodded at Brian. “Hola.”
“We didn’t know anyone was here.” Brian began as he noticed a terrible stench wafting from the inside of the house.
“You should not be here?” The old man stated.
“We’re trying to get out of the city.” Brian stepped away from the smell of drifting from the interior of the house. “Do you need help? Is there bodies inside?”
“I need nothing.” The old man started to close the door, but Brian pushed back. The old man frowned. “There is only two of us left. The others are all at peace.”
The pressure against the door relaxed, and Brian dropped his hand to his side. “We’ll take you with us.”
“I thank you for the offer but cannot leave Father Gabriel, he is too sick. I am at peace with my future. Take what you need and close the gate when you leave.” He pushed the door closed and latched it from the inside.
“But….” Brian protested.
“Go with God.” The old man called out from behind the door. “I will pray for your safety.”
“Señor Brian!” Juan ran to the driver’s side of the van while calling out. “We have to go. NOW!”
Brian turned to see Leon jump into the side door of the van and disappeared. Billy stepped into the truck and slapped on the roof while hanging from the door jam. All the while, Billy aimed his weapon at half a dozen infected stumbling from around the side of the chapel. The infected, with missing limbs and extensive damage, focused on the van of warm prey. They stumbled toward the sound of the van’s revving engine.
Juan threw the van into reverse and back away from the gathering of destroyed bodies while Billy shouting, “Gotta go, sir!”
Juan made a tight U-turn and headed around the circular drive toward the residence. In the process, the van clipped two infected knocking them from the front fender of the driver’s side.
Brian glanced at the closed door one last time then jogged across the drive just ahead of the van skidding to a stop. He jumped into the passenger seat while he grabbed at the door Brian pulled his handgun and yelled. “Get us outta here!”
A horribly mangled man reached out as the van passed by, but at the last minute, he slipped to the wet grass when the front bumper brushed his side. The van rolled away from the gathering.
“Open the gate!” Paula shouted. “They’re coming!”
Juan grabbed a gate opener from the dash and pressed the button. The gate began to open, then bounced back closed when an infected tripped the safety, and it closed again. “We got a problem!” he shouted. “The freaks got their arms through the fence and now it ain’t moving.”
“Fuck! Don’t we ever get a break?” Billy cursed.
Juan slowed the van to a stop at the entrance, Brian jumped out with Billy close on his heels. He turned in time to see Leon following and called over his shoulder. “Leon, cover our six. Rest of you stay in the van! Juan, be ready to roll when the gate opens.”
Leon walked to the back of the van with a machete in each hand. “Gotcha, boss.” He walked out to meet the half-dozen infected that were barely moving toward the truck and lopped off the heads one after another.
“Let’s try to do this quick, Billy.” Brian ran to the fence pulling the machete from its scabbard on his belt. He raised his arm and slammed the blade through the iron fence into the head of the first infected. When the monster fell with his shoulder against the barrier, Brian kicked his boot through the bars, and the body fell back only to be replaced by another.
Billy copied Brian’s actions and dispatched one of the infected himself. When the monster fell away, he was replaced by another, a child of ten or twelve. His arm fell to his side. “Ah, man. I can’t do this.”
Brian glanced at Billy “Damn it! Billy. It’s just rotten meat, the kid is dead. Do it!”
Billy raised his arm and swung the blade. The child fell. A bear of a man in a blood-splattered white shirt stepped on the small tattered body and reached through the bars. Billy stumbled back, tripped and landed on his butt. “Shit!” He crab-crawled away from the g
ate staring at the horror.
Brian swung out and amputated the arms holding the gate. Before the infected man could stick his stumps through the bars to stop the barrier, Brian drove his sharp blade through the left eye, and the body collapsed. The gate brushed the body but moved.
“It’s opening!” Juan screamed.
Brian grabbed the back of Billy’s vest. “Get up!” Gotta move, kid. The gate is opening, Leon. Finish up!”
Billy stumbled to his feet. “Sorry, sir.” He raised his blade and charged for the first infected tripping into the compound.
One by one, Brian and Billy dispatched seven more undead bodies. Finally, the gate opened enough for the van to drive through but was left blocked with bodies. Brian grabbed the first corpse by the legs and dragged it to the side. “Help me. We can’t leave the old man with the dead stumbling around here if we can help it.”
Leon and Billy each grabbed a body and pulled them off the track. Juan slipped the van into gear and accelerated toward the gate. With the last body cleared, he slowed enough for Leon to slide into the passenger seat with Billy close behind.
Brian jumped in the passenger door, and Juan accelerated again. Once through the gate, he called out, “Close the gate,” Brian killed two infected he deemed too close to not impair the closure. With a press of the button, the gate began its slow roll back to secure the courtyard. Brian glanced out the back window one last time. “Good luck, old man.”
“Which way Señor Brian?” Juan asked.
Chapter 7
Quiet Night
Doc and Matt spent half an hour collecting jars of home canning, half a dozen rounds of deer sausage and several packages of hard cheddar and Gouda cheese. They added canned meats, tuna, and salmon to a second box. “This is a hell of a stash,” Doc commented as he sliced off a chunk of sausage. “You gotta know country folks would have extra food around the house.”
Matt nodded. “In the morning I want to check for a garden or fruit trees.”
“Sounds like a plan. With being this far from a major highway, these folks were in pretty good shape. Too bad so much spoiled when the electricity went off.” Doc answered. “I can’t imagine being left in that position.”
“We’ll all be facing a lot more than just the dead, eventually,” After several minutes of silence, Matt continued. “Not many choices out here, so keep a bullet for you and your’s.”
Doc grunted, then fell silent.
After spending a few more minutes stacking food in two wooden boxes, Matt rigged a rope handle on each of the containers then announced. “Time to get this back down to the store. Looks like most of the folks could use a meal.”
Each man picked up a box and clutched a weapon in their free hand. They stepped out of the house and headed down the hill following the pale track that was the lane leading back to the store. The full moon provided enough light to not stumble, so Matt pocketed the small LED light. “Don’t get in a hurry. I don’t want to break any of these jars.”
“Got it,” Doc answered.
“Where did that bunch pick up your group?” Matt asked.
“My son and his family had a vacation house on Medina Lake. It was only the second day and my wife, and I lived far enough out, we didn’t see anything but what was on the television. My son was heading to his lake house and stopped long enough for Helen and me to load up the car and follow. Eight families made it up there. Some were the owners of houses there, others we settled in the empty houses. There was a cluster of six houses within sight of each other. We shared what we could. We had a couple generators, boats, and plenty of fishing gear. It wasn’t bad. We figured we were pretty safe with only one way in and that was a gravel lane. The problem was, my son and only three others had firearms with ‘em.”
“Sounds pretty sweet,” Matt commented. “Except for the weapon situation that is.”
“Would have been,” Doc answered. “but that bunch was riding the backroads looking for exactly what we had; lots of women and not enough men or arms to protect ourselves.”
“A bad bunch from the sounds of it.”
“They had to have been watching us for a couple days. They waited until three of the men were out fishing and used a deer rifle to take them out. Just like that, my son and two other men were dead. My daughter-in-law came out of their cabin with a gun, and they killed her right on the porch in front of my granddaughters. By then, the rest of the adults including Helen and me were gathered up and on our knees. They called the kids out telling them they would start killing the surviving parents if they didn’t come out quick enough. My granddaughters could barely walk they were crying so hard.”
“Poor kids,” Matt mumbled. “Makes me wish I could kill ‘em again.”
Doc stopped and traded the box from his left hand to his right. “There were nearly forty people. When everyone was present and accounted for, they ask us who we were and what our occupations. Then they executed the five remaining men and four teenage boys. When they got to the women, anyone that was beyond above thirty-five was killed too.” Doc started walking again. His voice was barely more than a whisper when he continued. “They would have killed my wife, but she’s a nurse. By then, the rest of us were in shock and so terrified we just did as we were told. They herded the surviving women and children into the cage truck. They knew I was a doctor and who my granddaughters were by then and told Helen to get what she needed for the girls while they held me at gunpoint. If we did anything to cross them, they told us they would kill the girls. We had no choice.” His voice trailed off.
“You did what you had to do to protect your granddaughters. They had just seen their parents murdered. You did what you had to do.” Matt nodded at the back door. “ Let’s get this inside.” Matt knocked.
“Well, you took your sweet time,” Tate groused. “I want to get cleaned up. The kids are at the back of the store, some are nodding off. The rest of the women are in the break room.”
“No problem, I’ll keep watch as soon as I set this stuff in there,” Matt answered.
“You two might get cleaned up when I’m done. You both smell like dead shit.” She walked away without looking back.
Doc chuckled. “She’s a little cranky.”
“You’re telling me,” Matt answered with a crooked smile. “I guess in her eyes, I deserve it.”
Doc raised a gray, bushy, eyebrow. “And how did that happen.”
“I got in trouble, and she had to come save my ass. It’s a long story, but this shit, the infected, I saw it before. I was on a team that aided the team that slipped into Iran three years ago. The Iranians had a bio-lab, and it blew up. They claimed it was a terrorist attack. We had a team slipped into the area to verify their story since it didn’t match the intel we had. The Iranian’s had bombed the place. My team was attacked at Afghanistan border when we were evacuating the survivors. One of the men slipped me a card from their phone before the spooks took over. When all the survivors died in a helicopter accident that same day, I remembered the card and got a techie friend to set me up to looked at it. It was this shit. I freaked out and flushed it down the crapper. I knew the minute it disappeared I should have done something else, told someone. I got to drinking, a lot. Now, I’m having a problem without the booze,” he studied the dark beyond the window.
“Ah, that explains some things I’ve noticed.”
“I got something that will help with the withdrawal.” Doc offered. “I have to get into my car. Can I borrow the flashlight?”
Matt handed over the small cylinder with a trembling hand.
*****
Tate walked into the storeroom where the collection of women was shuffling through the supplies sitting on the Formica table.
Red, puffing on a cigarette nodded at her arrival. “Feel better?” She asked.
“I smell better for sure. What did the boys bring in the boxes? Anything good?” Tate asked as she finger-combed her hair back from her face.
Theresa pushed a cutting boa
rd, with a round of sausage and wedge of cheese, across the table. “I cut up a bunch of cheese and sausage for the each of the kids. I put coffee cups with canned peaches on the counter too. There’s soda and Lone Star.”
Tate made a gagging noise, and everyone laughed, while Red pointed at a bench. “Have a seat. Coffee, if you’d rather. I’m not making any promises; I’ve never made coffee in anything but Mr. Coffee,” She nodded toward a hot plate with an old style percolator with steam wafting from the spout. “It’s a little strong.”
Tate shrugged and poured a cup of black sludge. “I’m good. I’m used to Starbuck’s French. That shit tastes like battery acid.”
Amid the chuckles were looks of sadness. “Guess we won’t be getting a mocha cappuccino again any time soon.” Someone whispered.
Tate settled on a stool with a loud sigh then used the knife to cut slices of cheese and sausage. She stuck the first piece in her mouth and began chewing. After she had swallowed, she asked. “So who’s who around here?”
Helen smiled. “You know Red and Theresa.” She pointed at a blonde to her left. “This is Marge, Sandy, Rebecca, Sarah, and Jackie is wearing the black shirt then glanced toward the youngest of the group and added. That’s Lori, and her sister Jennifer, my granddaughters.”
“It’s good to meet you.” Tate brought the cup to lips. “Sorry, we couldn’t have done more.”
Hellen shook her head. “You did what you could.”
“Those assholes did what they did, and we have to live with it,” Red added. “Where are we going?”
“Maybe we can take you back to where you were?” Tate said.
Theresa gasped. “There’s nothing there except the dead. Those bastards burned the houses. They wanted to make sure we’d have anything to go back to if we escaped.”
Tate nodded. “Sorry.” She busied herself cutting more cheese and sausage. Finally, she looked up. “We have a camp. We have soldiers. And kids.” Tate looked up as she realized she referred to the place as if it belonged to her. “Lots of kids. Oh, and even a pregnant woman.”