“Eddy?” I heard Bob say through the wood. He spoke in a hushed whisper, and I could sense that something was wrong due to it. I went over and opened the door, and he stood there on the other side, his shotgun in hand.
“My god!” he said, his own eyes going straight to my one missing one.
“Yeah, I know. What’s going on?”
“Sorry,” he started, “are you bleeding?”
I held up my hands, allowing him to see the cuts from the thorns.
“I also got shot yesterday, but it isn’t too bad. Why?”
“We have a problem.” Bob turned and walked away, no other words said.
I grabbed my cane, which I had sat by the toilet, and the pistol which sat at the edge of the sink. I found Bob in Carl’s old room, by the small window that faced the road. He nodded towards the window, and I saw that there was a small hole cut into the thick plastic covering it. I placed my eye to it, and a small gasp escaped me at what I saw.
Sitting in the center of the road was Cat. Even in the fading light I could see the areas where his flesh had been stripped away, and saw the black fluids dripping out of his mouth. He just sat there though, staring at the house, and didn’t move. Bob tapped my shoulder, and when I looked at him, he pointed to the left and the right. I looked back out, and glanced both up and down the street. On the edge of the property, in both directions, there were others. I could tell they were ravenous, their eyes glowing in what little light there was. All three of the creatures were just standing there, staring at the house.
I turned and looked at Bob, a questioning look in my eyes. He motioned for me to follow him, and we quietly went back to the dining room.
“They must have followed you,” he said once we were there. He spoke quietly, as if he didn’t want anything to hear him, not even me.
“I didn’t know.” I told him. “But why aren’t they coming for us? Why are they just standing there?”
“The fast ones have a really good sense of smell,” he said, “and that’s how they track us for the most part. But they were still human once. I threw a mix of ammonia and Pine-Sol along the edge of the property. It seems to fuck them up pretty good. They can't smell shit around it but the mixture of the chemicals. As long as they don’t see us or hear us, we’ll be fine.”
“We got a deal then.” I held my hand out towards him, a sign of faith. He took it gently and we shook.
“I’m going to finish up and then get some sleep, okay?” I asked him.
“That’d be fine.” He replied.
26.
I awoke because I felt something on my neck. I went to try and swat at it, figuring it to be a fly and instead only succeeded in pricking my hand once more on the point of a knife.
I had went in and had finished getting myself cleaned up, my hair now tamed at least, and was able to locate a few odds and ends around the house. My favorite picture of Crystal, one that had been taken when she was twelve, was one of the first things I grabbed. When I took it out of its frame, I found a small piece of paper inside the frame. When I unfolded it, I smiled upon seeing my beloved’s scrawling handwriting:
“Eddy,
“We went with the soldiers to Champaign. Everyone thought it would be safer. Hope you like the car. I love you.
“Crystal”
I had pondered in confusion over the car bit, but then I had remembered that she had left me a key to a Plymouth in the letter at home. I shook it off, thinking it a lost cause by now, and continued.
I had lain down shortly after that, and had fallen asleep easily. Now I was awake, and had a knife to my throat.
“Don’t move,” I heard Bob say, his face close to mine. I could smell the sickly sweet stench of his breath and feel it on my cheek. “You had me going there; trying to convince me you didn’t know anything.
“Just woke up, HA! That’s a laugh.
“I got to tell you, I’ve met more than my fair share of looters since this shit went down, and you are convincing. But it was people like you that got my boys killed, got my wife killed. But you aren’t getting me dead.
“You led them things here, and you are going to deal with them.”
I looked around the room, trying to find any way out of this. Bob had his knife pressed tight to my throat, and was kneeling beside the chair I had slept in. It was still dark, so I figured I hadn’t been asleep for very long. Bobs shotgun was resting on his lap, one hand loosely on it. I felt blood rush to my face, and was growing tired of this. All I wanted to do is find my family, see them alive and well. My vision started turning red, and I could feel my blood pressure rising. I knew what was coming next.
I reached up, with speed I had never known, and grabbed his arm. I felt warmth on my neck, but no pain. Bob’s eyes went wide, but a moment later closed tight as my other hand reached behind and snatched up his thin hair. I brought his face forward as I lashed out with mine, smiling in satisfaction when I heard bones crunch as our heads collided. He fell back on his ass, and I was on my feet in the same moment, reaching down to grab his gun. He had a better hold on it than I had given him credit for, and we struggled for control of the gun.
Then the shotgun went off in our hands.
The gun fell to the floor, it had surprised us both. Bob’s eyes finally opened, and opened wide, for a second later we both heard the howls from outside. He turned and looked at the front window, partly boarded up, and so did I. We both saw the shapes behind the glass; demonic shadows bent on our destruction, and heard the sounds of the creatures. All at once they were banging on the glass, shattering it and then beginning on the wooden wall. Their grunts and growls were clear now, as if they stood right next to us.
Then I heard a resounding thump come from the door, and instantly knew what was making that noise.
I reached down and grabbed the shotgun, and began backing up out of the room. When I reached the archway between the living room and dining room, I spun, and almost let a shot loose when I did. Another thump came from the door to my right, the door to what was, at the last time I knew, Bud’s room. Faster and faster the sounds of the creatures trying to break into the house came, and I could now hear the cracking of wood.
“You stupid FUCK,” Bob yelled at me, “look what you…”
The words were cut off, replaced by a scream that could have curdled blood. The wood on the window exploded inwards, and my once beloved pet came hurtling through it. Cat now had Bob by his throat, and his words were cut off in a gurgle of blood. I heard the bones in his neck crack as Cat twisted his head, and again as the dog started to chew, blood and black spittle flying everywhere.
I turned and ran.
I had just made it around the kitchen door, turning towards the back, when Cat ran flashing by me. I heard the sound of other wood braking back the way I came, and a howl of triumph. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Cat go sliding across the room, having turned into a zombie not helping his traction on linoleum. His loss of grip helped me out though, allowing me time to get through the back door and onto the porch there. I slammed the door behind me, and a moment later it shook on its frame with Cat’s impact.
I had no idea where to go, they were so close. I went out the back door, the cold night air washing over me. I heard one of the creatures to my left, roaring with what sounded like frustration, so I went right, towards the garage. The large door was closed, which I had seen earlier, so I made my way around the corner to the smaller door.
It was locked.
With nowhere to go, and nowhere to hide, I was literally fucked. Realization of my doom sat in, and I decided that I was not going down without a fight. I walked back around the corner, and stopped dead in my tracks.
There was Cat. He stood there, right outside the back door, something out of my darkest nightmares, eyes glowing and that black fluid flowing freely out of his jaws. He bared his teeth at me, and I could hear his guttural growl even at that distance. I could hear other banging inside, but I did not allow my eyes to leave Cat.
I knew he wouldn’t take to long to strike, and I was right.
He moved like a flash of lightning, all teeth and stripped flesh. Everything seemed to move in slow motion. He had gotten about ten feet from me when he leapt, his maw open for a killing strike. I raised the shotgun and pulled the trigger. The gun clicked in my hands, that ominous sound that told me the thing was empty.
I sighed and closed my eyes, readying myself for my end.
27.
Gunfire erupted around me, and I threw myself to the ground. I felt small shards of wood hot me, and hot liquids sprayed all over me also. Something heavy fell on top of me, and I smelled death as I felt something warm and sticky flow over me. I stayed there, flat in the gravel and dirt, hearing people yell and guns go off, for awhile. I dared not move, fearing I would be mistaken for someone, or something, else.
Finally the noise died down and I dared to get up.
Cat’s body had ended up on top of me, and I was covered with a combination of blood and that sticky black shit the ravenous seem to exude. I stood up fully, and found I could not see, lights blinding me. They were spotlights attached to some sort of large vehicle that much I could tell, but with them pointed right at me, I couldn’t see what was behind them. Suddenly a figure appeared in front of the lights, someone wearing a full biohazard suit, and carrying a very large gun. I saw the gun flash upwards, coming to bear at me, and leapt to my right. I felt the air from the bullet passing by my head, and closed my eye, resigning myself to my end.
“Stop shooting at him damn you!” I heard a voice yell, a voice that was familiar to me.
I looked over and saw another figure step into the light, a mountain of a man, and smiled when the lights went off and I saw Wall standing there. He went over to the other man, and I heard the resounding sound of Walls hand connecting with the guy’s face as Wall backhanded him. Even with the slaps force, the other soldier never dropped his gun, nor did he stop pointing the gun at me.
“He’s covered in that shit!” I heard the man say, distorted by the suits’ mask. “You know what that means Wall.”
“Idiot,” Wall spun fully on the man, and I watched as, amazingly enough to me, he seemed to get even bigger. “That’s the guy we’re looking for. Now put your gun down or, so help me God, I will shoot you myself. And would someone turn them god-damned lights off!”
I was brushing myself off when Wall walked up to me, and a second later I was once more blind as the lights went off, plunging us into darkness. He stopped a few feet from me, his giant arms crossed over his chest, reminding me of a gorilla.
“Sorry bout the idiot Eddy,” he said to me, his head dropping a little. “You all right, you didn’t get hit did you?”
“I’m fine man,” I said back. “Just glad to see that you still have such a good hold of your people.”
“Look,” he said, shaking his massive head, “we need to talk. Come inside with me?”
“I am not going to get shot am I?” I asked him, and he laughed a little and shook his head once more in the negative.
So that is how I found myself once more in my in-laws home, surrounded by the people I had met upon first waking up. When I first walked in, I was greeted by Samantha, who almost seemed like she was going to hug me until she saw what I was covered in. Her brother, Timothy, grabbed her arm at the last moment, and whispered something in her ear that I couldn’t hear. Doc Mc Layton was in the dinning room, giving soft spoken orders, people bringing boxes of what looked like paper work into it and setting them on the large dining room table. I was astonished, though. When I left the hospital, there were a few dozen people calling that place home, now I could count them all on my hands.
“Wall,” I began, “what happened?”
I watched as the big man went over and sat down at the table, the solid wood chair creaking under his weight. He pushed a small pile of papers away from in front of him and then pulled a heavy pistol out of its holster, placing it down on the table.
“They came up right in the center of the floor,” he began. “We had thought we had all the entry points covered, other than Alec’s hidden path, but we were wrong. There was a small stairwell in the central nurse’s station, one we had never been able to open, so we dismissed it.
“We were idiots.”
“They came out of nowhere,” Mc Layton began as Wall fell quiet. “It was late at night, the same that you and Alec left. They busted through, like a swarm of locusts they were.
“We never stood a chance, mate.
“They were mainly the ravenous, and they went through quickly. Once they turned a few of us, we knew the place was lost. A few of grabbed what we could, mainly my research, and were about to try and make a break for it, when Alec showed back up. He was the one got us out of there.”
“Where is Alec?” I asked, but got my answer when all in the room simply lowered their heads.
“He went out fighting.” Samantha told me.
“He showed us his way out,” Wall started, “and we managed to get there. We found the truck in the lot there, left from when the military was still in control of the area. Before we lost Alec, he had told us where you were heading, and when we made it into the lot, we ran into a friend of yours that confirmed it.”
“What friend of mine?” I asked, genuinely puzzled.
“Yeah,” I heard behind me, the voice causing the wound in my leg to ache. “Well, as much of a friend as one can be nowadays.”
I turned and saw Abigail standing there, looking no worse for wear considering the circumstances. She smiled when she saw me, but I could sense the sadness in her, see it in her eyes.
“What about your father?” I asked, letting the remainder of the question hang.
“Right after you left,” she replied. “Almost like he was just waiting to be sure I’d be okay. I didn’t know what else to do, so I went were you told me to, and found them.”
She waved her hand generally around the room, and I found that I was glad she had survived. But then a question came to my mind, one that I found I couldn’t answer myself.
“How’d you know I’d be here?”
“That’s easy,” Tim answered. “We saw the setup to distract the dead-heads near your home, so figured you were alive at least. Wall, Doc and I went inside to see if you were still there, and saw the warzone on your back porch. Figured you ran off somewhere. Doc found the note your girl left ya, and I helped put two and two together.”
“But there wasn’t any address,” I started, still a little confused. “No directions to this house. How’d you find it?”
“I know your daughter.” Tim said flatly.
I looked at him, but could find no lie in his eyes. He just stared at me, that punkish grin on his face.
“Look,” he said, “I saw a picture of you and her at the other house. I’m from Oakwood, and used to hang out a lot with Kiera. I met Jazzy through her. I knew her grandparents lived down here, so here we are.”
I didn’t know what to say next, so I sat there, mulling over all the information I had been given in the last few minutes. I looked down at my hands, covered in blood, dirt, and the black remains of Cat’s ichors. Then, slowly, a conversation me and Alec had had came to the front of my mind, and realization dawned on me.
“Doc,” I began, holding my hands up in front of me. “I got some questions for you.”
“I knew ya might.” She smiled a little. “But first you may want to get yourself cleaned up a little, don’t you think?”
I looked down, seeing that I was covered head to toe in the shit. I couldn’t help it, and started laughing hysterically, the events of the past few days finally hitting me. The people sitting around me just watched me, and looked between themselves, until my laughter subsided.
“Aw, fuck it,” I said. “I’m going to take a shower.”
28.
I let the water wash over me, taking my second shower in so little a time. I watched the drain, seeing the grime and blood go down it and disappea
r. Once again the conversation I had had with Alec came to mind, how he told me that the ravenous spread their unique brand of infection. I thought back to the two times I had come into close contact with them: The first, the man on the tracks, and just here awhile ago with Cat. I remembered Cat better, and knew that his blood had mixed with mine, both in the wounds on my hands, and the one on my legs.
Why wasn’t I changing?
I was so deep in thought that I had not heard the bathroom door open, and jumped, almost slipping in the soapy water, when I heard a voice beside me.
“Eddy?” It was Abigail, and, wondering why she was in here, I ducked my head out of the curtain. She stood in the center of the bathroom, which meant she was little more than a foot from where my head was, holding a bundle of clothes, her head lowered, looking slightly embarrassed.
“What do you need, Abigail?” I asked her.
“Wall wanted these clothes brought to you,” she started saying, “said to let you know that the shirt may be a little tight for you, but the pants ought to fit fine.”
“Thank you. You can leave them on the sink.” I pointed over to it, and she promptly sat them down. When she didn’t leave right away, I wondered at what else she needed.
“Abigail?” I asked.
“Umm…” she said, and I could see her face flushing even in the dim light. “I was just wondering if maybe you’d want me to wash your back, or anything.”
I reached over and turned the water off, then reached for the towel I had hung on one of the nearby hooks. I wrapped it around me, and stepped out of the shower. Abigail was looking at me, and I chose my next words carefully, not wanting to make the situation any worse for either of us.
My Apocalypse (Book 1): The Fall Page 9