by Maxey, Phil
Joel opened his eyes.
Did I pass out? Can’t stay here… have to get up.
Pushing his hands down into the ground, he was relieved to be able to push himself back against the wall just a few inches behind his head. The pain still flushed through his nerves, but it was at least now bearable, unlike before… He wondered when ‘before’ was.
Left the radio in the car… Flint… damn. Bet that dog’s broken out by now.
Another far more important fact then jumped into his mind.
“Claire shot me!” His words came out just as scratchy as the last time he tried to talk.
She knows. Kelly must have told her. Do they all know? Is that why no one’s come back? Would Marina leave me here to die?
He tried swallowing and quietening his mind to the fury of questions, none of which the answers to would help right now.
He let his fingers drift across his chest again, this time even slower than last time.
Scar tissue. Good. Must be healing.
“Bill’s!” he screeched into the darkness around him. The reason he stopped bringing the mast down, and what he saw in the desert came back to him with such an impact that he had to catch his breath.
“Have to get out of here…” His words came out between wheezes, but hearing his own voice helped him find some strength in his arms and legs, and he pulled his feet towards him, while pulling his head upright.
His head swam, and for a moment he wasn’t sure that his feet were below him, or if he had managed to stand or not. He reached out to the wall next to him, which was cold, but not as cold as when he first entered the confined space. With the generator being turned off in the hotel, the freezer room was soon becoming just a room.
His stomach rumbled, which made him smile.
“Least that still works.”
He staggered forward until he fell against the door, which hardly shook with the impact.
So how am I going to get out of a freezer room.
He scanned the walls, stopping when he saw a small box with a sign above it. He moved closer to it, trying to ascertain what the printed words said, but even with his improved vision, he could hardly make them out. Instead he fumbled over the box, until he found a small latch, and inside a handle, which he instinctively pulled.
A loud clunk came from a mechanism deep within the door, and it sprung open a few inches. With it came the distant sound of Flint barking.
Joel pushed the door and immediately regretted the extra effort as stabbing pains rippled across his chest and back. Ignoring it best he could, he walked forward through the kitchen, clattering into some of the left behind pots and pans, and out into the dining area.
He went to move straight for the foyer and front door, but instead something made him stop at the base of the stairs. Looking up revealed a faint glow of light on the landing above. He slowly walked up the creaking steps, then instinctively ducked as a shotgun blast disintegrated half of the wooden bannister just above his head.
“It’s me! Who’s up there?!” said Joel as loudly as his dry throat would allow.
“Joel?”
“Jim? Don’t shoot me, I’m coming up.”
Joel walked up the remaining steps, buttoning his jacket up and looked across at the body of a man he had come to admire, laying awkwardly, with his back up against the wall. Joel went to walk towards him then stopped. Jim’s heart was different. It was stronger.
It’s happened.
Joel walked forward and kneeled. “How you feel?”
Jim forced a brief smile, his top lip curling up slightly, as he opened and closed his mouth. “Hungry.”
“I know, you’ve changed.”
Jim looked up at Joel with bloodshot eyes. “How you know that?”
“Well for one thing, you wouldn’t be just laying here if you hadn’t and, secondly, because I can hear your heart beat is stronger.”
Confusion washed across Jim’s face, and then in an instant was gone. He pointed his twelve gauge squarely at Joel’s chest.
Not again.
Joel raised his hand.
“You’re one of them? I mean… you’re like me?”
“I changed, yeah, but I’m not like you… at least I don’t think I am.”
“Keep talking, son.”
“I got infected during the first few weeks of the outbreak. When I changed, it just happened, and didn’t know what it was, or why I was so damn hungry.”
“Get to the part which convinces me not to pull this trigger.”
“I don’t know why, or how, but for some reason the virus didn’t affect me like, well, everyone else, I’m still me.”
“So, you don’t kill? You don’t need blood?”
“I still need blood, but I’ve managed to get by on animals…” It was a lie, but that was preferable than trying to heal again after another blast from a shotgun.
The implications were obvious on Jim’s face. “Can I survive like that?”
Joel shook his head. “I don’t know.”
Jim smirked. “Yeah, what’s the chances of both of us being special. Not… very… likely.” He closed his eyes. “I can smell the blood on you, it… smells like candy.” He shook his head, trying to shake the urge. “What happened to you?”
“Got jumped by one of them. What happened to you?”
“I came here looking for you. Found something else instead. Funny thing was, when I changed, the thing lost interest. Guess they don’t kill their own kind.”
“Not unless there’s nothing else to feed on.” Joel looked down at Jim’s foot. “Good news is, give it an hour and you’ll be able to stand on that ankle again.”
The sentiment didn’t have the desired affect Joel wanted it to, and Jim stayed rooted to the spot. “I can’t go back, Joel. I’m not putting those people in danger.”
“Hey, we’ll find you animals to feed on, we’ll find blood.”
“And what if I lose myself in this… hunger. Jessica is in that school, would you want me there if you had a kid?”
The answer was plain on Joel’s face, despite him trying to hide it. Joel looked down. “Then what are you going to do?”
Jim smiled. “Just because those things out there have lost interest in me, doesn’t mean I’ve lost interest in them. You still got the TNT?”
*****
Marina looked down at her sleeping daughter and shook her head. She could feel tears welling in her eyes and rubbed them.
What is all of this going to do to her?
It had been a question she’d postponed asking herself since she left Denver. Just surviving was more important, but reaching Bellweather forced it back on the agenda of things that needed to be addressed. Images of Russell rolled through her mind, and the last time she saw him. They’d had an argument, worse than usual, and she had packed up some stuff, including things for Jess, and left during the early hours. She’d spent the next few days driving across the state, and the adjoining one, to her sister’s. They could have flew, but she wanted the time to think, and anyway it gave Jess a glimpse of the country. She was worried what all the glitz and glamour was doing to her young mind, and wanted her to realize there was more to the United States than LA.
She wiped away the tear that was lingering on her cheek and wondered if she would ever see her husband again. She still loved him, despite his failings.
He was a great… is a great father.
She sat on a nearby desk, and looked at the dark unknown which existed beyond the blinds that had been pulled down over the windows, and thought about her next move. It was obvious staying in the small mining town wasn’t a long-term option. Most of the population were either dead, dying, or vamps, and she had no doubt she would be next if she didn’t move on. But to where?
She picked up one of the two burning candles and walked over to the large map of the country that was pinned to one wall.
Swinging the candle near to where they were in Arizona, she moved it left and studied Californi
a and her former home. Joel had already told her of how bad things were in LA. She then moved the flame right, across the state she was in, eastward.
Russell will want me to find somewhere safe.
She held the light near New Mexico.
“Too difficult to survive.”
North of that was Colorado, and she didn’t particularly want to travel through that area again. She then looked further east to the central states. Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska.
Low populations, but still plenty of sources of fresh water and remote areas. We need to head east.
She reached up, taking the pins from the four corners of the map, and pulled it off the wall, then folded it as neatly and quietly as she could. Once it was small enough, she slid it into her back pocket. She wasn’t sure how much use it would be as it only showed the main highways, but the glossy paper felt like hope.
She looked back at Jess and nodded. She wasn’t going to find Russell, that was a dream she couldn’t afford to hang on to. She needed to get them both away from the scourge.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
A lone sedan weaved and swayed, its headlights forging a path through desolate mountain roads.
“So, your dog’s one as well then?” said Jim, glancing to the backseat where Flint’s eyes glowed slightly in the dark. His demeanor grew momentarily sad. “The scourge takes animals as well…”
“When Kelly and I were out the other night, checking on some livestock, we came across a mountain lion that had changed, and er… it didn’t really look like a cougar anymore.”
Jim took deep breaths, doing his best to control the burning inside him which was pleading for him to find sustenance. To find blood. “What do you mean?” He pushed the words out.
Joel could tell his friend was fighting the urges, and wasn’t sure how long he could hold them back. “The virus had changed it physically, its features were snakelike.”
“Right… so that’s what I’ve got to look forward to.” Jim looked across to Joel. “But not you. You’re immune or something?”
“I don’t know…”
“Joel, you could be the key to this whole mess. Did you tell the CDC?”
“That was before I changed. And by time I had, everything had already gone to hell in LA. So, I—”
“So, you just took off.”
“Yeah.”
“And now you don’t want to tell anyone, because they might put a hole in you?”
Joel’s mind returned to the freezer room a few hours earlier, and the shotgun blast. “Yup.”
“That’s what I believe they call a conundrum…” Jim’s fists clenched. “Being a vamp really… stings… who would have thought,” he said between straining.
“You going to make it to the mine entrance?”
Jim nodded. “We’re almost there, just pull up a hundred yards ahead.”
Joel brought them to a stop and was already aware of the flickers of movement in the darkness around them.
“All aboard the train to vamp central,” said Jim. His eyes flickered, and he clenched his teeth. “I… I can feel them around us.”
Something hit the car, making it sway, and Flint started to growl.
“Wait here, the TNT and wiring are in the trunk. I’m going to get it, and get back in. Then connect everything up and you should be good to go.”
Jim nodded.
Joel got out, quickly closing the door behind him, so Flint couldn’t follow, and ran around to the trunk and pulled it open. A rustling came from the bushes just a few yards behind him.
I know you’re there, dumbass.
The thing screeched and flew towards him, he picked up the M4 from the trunk, turned and tore it up. It fell to the ground in the rear lights of the car.
Joel slung the semi-automatic rifle across his back, then looked at the options in front of him.
He grabbed the plastic container, and the bag containing the wires and detonators, closed the trunk and quickly got back in.
“Should have everything we—” He realized Jim was not moving anymore and was just looking out the side window, his face shrouded in shadow.
“Jim?”
There was no response. Joel placed his hand on his shoulder. “Jim?”
Jim slowly turned. His eyes were black as the darkest night.
“Jim!” Joel shouted.
The black dissolved in Jim’s eyes and he blinked a few times. “What happened?” He looked around himself. “I felt like I was falling, like I was being swallowed by the cold…”
Joel unlatched the lid on the box that contained the TNT and started connecting the wires to make the whole thing usable. “You never told me if you were married, Jim. Or if you have children?”
Jim wiped his hand over his face. “Err… yes to both. My wife passed before any of this started, and my daughter, she’s well, she should be in NY with her husband.”
Joel feverishly twisted and connected metal contacts to the plasticine-like explosive material. “When was the last time you talked to her?”
“About a month ago, when we lost contact with everyone else.”
“And how was she.”
“Not in NY anymore… they had escaped upstate to a cabin they had. You almost done, I don’t think I’m going to be me anymore if we wait too long.”
Joel inspected the network of wiring that led back to two metal clips and a battery. “I think it’s—”
Jim grabbed Joel’s arm. “There’s no saving this town, Joel, you need to get the others and leave. I’m going to take as many of these fucks with me as I can, but you have to—” His words faded.
Joel put his hand on his friend’s. “We’ll leave. I promise.”
Jim’s eyes flickered. “And tell Anna, or any scientist you come across, about you, how you’re different…”
“I will.”
Joel shook Jim’s shoulder, then handed him the box. Jim’s eyes widened.
Joel pointed to the clips and battery. “It’s real simple, when you bring those clips together it goes boom.”
Jim nodded. “Let’s do this.”
They both pushed their doors open. Flint took the first opportunity to escape and lurched between the seats, landing on the gravel and grass, then stood his ground, growling at the shadows around them.
Jim staggered forward, the box in one hand and his shotgun in the other.
Joel stayed close, his M4 waving from side to side at any indication of movement.
They moved through the trees, each of them using their improved vision to navigate, and made their way to the entrance to the mine.
Jim looked to Joel. “You don’t have to come inside. I can take it from here.”
Joel shook his head. “Not leaving just yet.”
Flint suddenly started barking at the intense dark of the interior of the mine, and Joel sensed it before his eyes saw them coming. A group of vamps, some running, some clinging to the tunnel walls, surged towards them.
Joel and Jim moved forward, lighting the tunnel up with gun fire. Shotgun blasts and the clatter of the M4 mixed with the grunts and screeches the vamps made as they tried to get to the three intruders.
Flint ran forward and tore into one of the monsters, while Joel followed behind, firing and using the butt of the rifle to bring others to the ground. He looked back to see Jim leaning against the rock wall. “You okay?” shouted Joel.
“Yeah!” shouted Jim, pushing himself back upright, and walked forward.
Stepping over the writhing and dying creatures, they got to the cavern Jim had previously visited with his deputies.
Jim dropped to his knees, looking at the hole in the cavern floor. “I don’t know what’s down there, but I’m thinking that’s where I should go…” His words started to slur and deepen.
Flint started to growl again at both of the other tunnels.
Jim looked up at Joel and smiled. “Time for you to leave.”
Joel knew this time would come but felt rooted to the spot.
Jim bent over in pain. “It’s going to take me, Joel. I can only win this fight if you leave now!” The final word from his mouth came out more as a growl and Flint’s head whipped across to him.
Joel nodded, and he pushed his open palm out to Jim who grabbed and held it firm, then let go, getting back to his feet and looked down into the abyss.
Joel started to back up. “I’ll get them all out.” He then turned and ran, with Flint alongside. He made it almost back to the mine entrance when the ground shook and a fury of heat and flame exploded behind, flinging him through the tunnel to the outside.
CHAPTER TWENTY
The school appeared in the cruiser’s headlights, and Joel pulled up in front of the main entrance. He looked at the doors and sighed. After driving back to the hotel, he switched vehicles. He was almost sad to say bye to the green sedan, but the gold-and-gray pickup was a better choice. For most of the journey to the school, he went over how he was going to face Claire without being shot again, and tell everyone what had happened to Jim and Reg, and how Jim was a hero. When he got out, he mostly had it straight in his head, and he was happy to smell the night air after being cooped up with the odor of Flint’s burnt fur.
Kelly ran out from the entrance, then abruptly stopped.
“I know you told her, but it’s okay—”
She started to back up. “You should be dead, she told me she killed you.”
“If it helps, I think she almost—”
Kelly looked around, her fear growing. “Where’s Jim and Reg? What did you do to them?”
Joel took a step forward and Kelly turned and ran back inside, pushing the door closed and sliding the bolt across. She then turned and ran, disappearing into the gloom.
Joel sighed. “Shit.” He walked back to the pickup, leaning back on the hood. Waiting. The headlights illuminated the other vehicles in front, apart from that, he was surrounded by a complete darkness despite his ability to pick out small details. The night around him was quiet, but the explosion in the tunnel still rang in his ears. Sometimes having improved hearing was actually a drawback. He wondered how many of the vamps Jim had taken out, but the number didn’t matter, Joel knew that. For Jim, he just wanted some kind of payback for what the scourge had done to him and his town. He wondered how many other sacrifices had been made in similar places since it all started. A noise echoed out in the trees, but Joel didn’t flinch, he knew it was just a bird getting settled for the night.