by David Peters
“Henry. My name is Henry.”
“Ok Henry. We need you to help us as much as you can. We are going to carry you out of here. Can you do that?”
“I’ll try. I’m really sorry about the trouble officers.”
The two of them carried him, one on each side of Henry. He was surprisingly easy to carry. Dylan guessed his weight to be no more than one hundred and twenty pounds. When they reached the stairwell Niccole helped the man onto Dylan’s back.
At the top of the stairwell they met Daniel and Mayberry coming in for more supplies.
“Holy hell man!” Daniel nearly jumped out of his skin. “Where did you find him?”
“Holding cell downstairs. He stinks but he doesn’t have the rot. We need to get him into the bus. Niccole and I still haven’t gotten our stuff.”
Daniel and Mayberry took the famished man out to the bus while Dylan and Niccole turned and headed back downstairs.
They made a bee line for the armory and began filling every bag and back pack they could find in the heavy duty locker room. It took less than ten minutes to have more radios, weapons and ammunition than they could carry. Picking up all the bags they could manage they rushed back up to the bus.
As Dylan and Niccole struggled with their bags, Daniel and Mayberry met them as they stepped out of the stairwell in to the lobby. Daniel held his finger to his lips, “No noise.” He then motioned them to follow quietly.
Dylan was the last to tip toe up the stairs into the bus. As he reached his position he looked out the gun port. It took him a second to see it. A few blocks away stood the strip mall where they had raided the clinic. Slowly walking in the early morning shadow of the building was a Hunter. It would walk a few feet then stop and sniff the air. It would repeat this over and over as it steadily moved towards them down the street. It was readily apparent that it did not know where its prey was yet.
As it reached the shattered front door of the clinic it smelled the ground then walked into the building. As the bus team watched in silence, two more Hunters appeared further down the street.
Niccole knelt down next to Travis and spoke quietly, “We need to get out of here now. How is our patient?”
Travis was giving him some of the candies he had pilfered from the store “The dude is starving to death. I’ve given him a few of these but I think Doc should check him out before I let him have a bunch of crap. He should make it back home though, I guess.”
Dylan was watching Niccole as she spoke to Travis. She made eye contact and nodded her head, they were good to go.
Dylan had his rifle aimed out the gun port. Turning his head slightly so Julie could hear the whisper he spoke, “Start her up please.”
As the bus came to life in the silent town the Hunter that had disappeared into the clinic exploded back onto the street. It rapidly looked to its left and right then set its eyes on the sound. The Hunter tore at the pavement as it turned and started closing the distance to the bus. As the Hunter accelerated two more appeared from behind the strip mall and fell in step a short distance behind the leader.
Exhaling half a breath Dylan pulled the trigger. The large round struck the Hunter like a freight train, lifting it off the ground and sending it rolling down the street. It came to a stop in a limp, unmoving pile.
His two companions paused for a second as they watched their counterpart go down. They approached the downed Hunter and each in turn sniffed the beast. The larger of the two looked towards the bus and let out its blood curdling cry that echoed from one side of the valley to the other.
Dylan fired a second time, cutting the cry off suddenly as he nearly decapitated the second Hunter.
“All right Julie. Get us out of here.”
Dylan fired at the third Hunter but missed as the bus lurched forward.
Julie turned out of the parking lot and headed away from the Hunters. After a few intersections she turned and headed towards the waterfront. There was a street that ran parallel to the waterfront that would take them past the Hunter sighting and allow them to turn back onto the main street and head home.
They made it another three blocks before Julie slowed to a stop. A frightened sound escaped her throat as she looked out the view slit.
“Why are we stopping Julie?”
She merely pointed out the front insinuating that Dylan should take a look. The road ahead was completely packed with more Corrupted than they had ever imagined. There had to be several thousand of the things moving towards them. They covered the street from one sidewalk to the other and were moving forward at a slow pace.
“Ok, this is getting bad. Julie, back us out of here if you can. Everyone be ready, this is going to be rough.”
As Julie completed the turn around, the army broke into a run. Travis began firing from the back of the bus, sending waves of Sapper fueled fires through the crowd of Corrupted. Growling black mushroom clouds signified every round he launched into the mass.
Julie started to accelerate then screamed and locked up the breaks, sending everyone tumbling to the floor of the bus.
“What the hell Julie?” exclaimed Dylan as he picked himself up from the floor.
“They blocked the road! I can’t get through!”
Dylan looked through the driver’s window at the road ahead. The Corrupted had pushed two trucks onto the road, blocking the only way off of the street they were on. They had brick buildings on one side and raging river on the other.
Dylan pulled out his hand drawn-street map. “Ok, our only way out is through the crowd or through that trailer. Think you could push it out of the way?”
“This bus is nearly sixty years old. We could save a lot of hurt and just get out and walk instead of trying to blast through that rig.
“Fair enough, Ok, turn us around. Travis, you made a dent in them yet?” Dylan went to the back of the bus to see.
“I’m almost out of grenades, but it is a wave of flames behind us” said Travis with a maniacal grin.
“Ok, Julie, give it everything you can. Everyone grab a handle and watch for flames” said Dylan returning to his gun port as she began to roughly turn the bus around.
Julie backed to the edge of the road until she felt the bumper impact the guard rail behind them. She floored the accelerator and cranked the wheel hard left as she aimed for the center of the rolling mass of Corrupted ahead.
Dylan could hear the firing increase as they accelerated towards the line. They impacted the line of bodies and continued to accelerate through the crowd. The bus was soon wading through an ocean of exploding bodies and could feel the thumps through the sides of the bus as the things threw themselves against it.
Both sides were shooting now as they continued deeper into the mass. The sound of bodies thudding against the side of the bus was sickening. On Dylan’s side a Sapper slammed against the side of the bus and exploded sending gouts of flame through the small gun port. He pulled the fire handle and watched as gallons of water cascaded down the side of the bus, both extinguishing the fire and washing the bio-napalm off of the corrugated tin sides of the truck.
A double thump shook the bus on Daniel and Niccole’s side of the bus, Niccole reeled from the heat and pulled the fire handle as she ducked away.
The inside of the bus was well over a hundred degrees now. He silently wondered to himself how hot it was outside. “Julie, we can’t keep this up, how much more of this is ahead of us?” As if in response to Dylan the bus careened off of a parked car with the sound of twisting metal.
Julie was leaning over the wheel, “I can’t tell. It’s just waves of these damn things. I can hardly see through the flames!” She had a near panicked look on her face as she swerved to miss objects that weren’t as forgiving as a body.
With her eyes as close to the small driving window in front of her as the heat would allow, Julie fought the tide of Corrupted. She preferred to drive down the middle of the street, but on more than one occasion found the sidewalk to be more open.
&nbs
p; “Ok, I can see the edge of the crowd, almost there!” Julie yelled to the back of the bus. At the end of the rolling mass of exploding bodies was a wide open stretch of road leading down to the lumber loading yard. As she watched, a large tanker truck was being pushed to block the road. It was rolling slowly, but it was going to be close, “Hold on!”
With the bus already floored and the engine whining loudly, Julie silently willed the bus to move faster. The team was nearly thrown to the floor as she jumped the grassy median between lanes then hopped the sidewalk on the left side of the road. The bus closed the distance as she watched the gap between the tanker truck and a brick building close.
Dylan winced as the bus slammed against a building. Julie stripped the face of the building clean as she screamed down the sidewalk. As she shot through the closing gap the right side of the bus tore into the rear of the slowly moving trailer, mangling both vehicles. For a few tense seconds it seemed like they wouldn’t break free. With the sound of tearing metal, the bus’s momentum carried it forward and away from the tanker. The right side T-Cannon was violently torn off and shredded the side of the bus as the solid iron mount was ground between the two vehicles.
The bus cleared the gap and continued down the gravel road to the yard.
From back of the bus Travis yelled “Everyone down!” With a single thump he fired a grenade into the geyser of fuel spilling out of the back of the wrecked tanker. Corrupted were crashing over the trailer like water. They were coming directly through the fuel.
The thunderous explosion rocked the bus as the pressure wave moved past. Behind them an ever widening lake of fire was consuming everything in its patch. The Corrupted screamed as they attempted to get away from the wave of flame. Sappers detonated as they were burned adding to the ever growing pyre of flame.
Dylan ran from port to port looking for any sign of movement. Seeing nothing but flames he went forward to see how Julie was.
“That was awesome driving!” Dylan was nearly shouting over the sound of the fire behind them.
“We are still trailing a lot of smoke Dylan!” Travis yelled from the back of the bus.
With no mirrors left, there was no way to see what was burning on the side of the bus. Dylan tried his fire handle one last time but saw no water.
Julie got the bus another hundred feet before both front tires exploded at the same time.
“Keep going! Get us as far as you can.” Dylan coached her on. Grabbing the CB mic he called out, “Jonathan, tell me you can still hear me.”
“Been trying to get through to you guys! What the hell Dylan? Town looks like a fireworks show from up here!”
“We have a problem.” Dylan explained their current situation, “We are running on rims at this point, but we won’t be able to sit in the bus once it’s dead.” As if the bus was listening, one of the rear tires blew, grinding the bus to a halt. “Ok, bus is officially dead, we need a pick up, we can’t leave this stuff here and we have a new passenger.”
Jonathan answered back “I’m about ten minutes out from Paradise Falls. Another ten to rotate out and drop the trailer. Then thirty back. I can’t make it happen any faster Dylan. There is nowhere for me to turn around until I reach town. I’m sorry.”
“Ok. Keep working on it Jonathan.” He clipped the mic back to the CB and turned to face those in the bus, “We will need to come up with transport. We don’t have the kind of time it will take for him to get back here. I’m not sure how long that fire will burn behind us.”
Dylan ran from port to port, looking for movement and trying to get a fix on their situation. They were sitting in the main employee parking lot for the lumber mill. There was a small office building a short distance away and beyond that the main warehouse for the mill. It was a massive building that stretched several blocks.
To their right was a large open parking lot surrounded by chain link fence then a steep but short wooded hill separated the town from the mill. Ahead of them was the main gated entrance to the mill itself. That would lead through the yard of lumber and logs, past the mill, and finally meeting up with the gravel road that came out of the back side of Sumter and led back up to Paradise Falls.
Travis approached Dylan, “You see what I see dude?” Parked in front of the small office building in front of them was a large brown delivery truck.
“We need that in a bad way,” Dylan told Travis.
“Ok, Niccole and I are going to head over and see if we can start that delivery truck. Travis and Mayberry, can you take your weapons and ammo boxes onto the roof and provide some cover if we need it?”
“Will do Little Boss!” said Mayberry.
“What the hell is Little Boss?” asked Dylan surprised.
“Crap,” said Mayberry as Travis laughed behind him. “So, we have always called Daniel Boss, even before he was mayor. Once we found out you were his little brother it just kinda seemed natural. Didn’t mean to insult you, it was something we used, well, behind your back.”
Daniel laughed at him, “Careful there man, you are going to choke if you get too much more of that foot in there.”
Dylan chuckled at his discomfort, “I’ll live with it. Makes me feel skinny I guess.”
Niccole handed the last ammo can up to Mayberry and stepped off the ladder mounted on the back of the bus “we’re ready. Let’s go get us some wheels.”
Dylan and Niccole headed off to cover two hundred yards to the large brown truck.
“You concerned about the smell?” Niccole asked.
“Ya, it smells like we are in the mouth of one of those things. Been thinking that since we ground to a halt. I was hoping it was from passing through the crowd but I don’t think so.” answered Dylan
They moved quickly through the parking lot towards the truck. The further forward they went the more of the entrance to the building came into view.
“What the hell is that?” Dylan said in a harsh whisper. The two of them had ducked behind a row of empty pallet boards. Standing nearly motionless in front of the building was the largest Corrupted they had ever seen. The thing stood over eight feet tall and easily three feet wide at the shoulders. Its head was pushed forward so its muscular shoulders actually stood higher than its tiny bald head. The thing had mammoth arms that were as round as an average man’s body and its massive hands rested on the ground next to its large clawed feet.
“Erica described something similar at her hive which makes this Corrupted central for this town,” whispered Niccole back.
“Great. We broke down on the bad guys’ doorstep.” Dylan sat quietly as he stared at the Guard, “Ok, let’s head back to the bus and chat about our new found friend.”
The two turned around and jogged quietly back to the bus. Dylan held his finger to his lips and motioned silently for everyone to gather around him.
“Anyone a little tired of running all the time?” began Dylan. The group quietly nodded their agreement. “We need ideas. Some sort of parting gift as we leave here. Assuming we can start that truck.”
Daniel nodded, “We have a few grenades left. We can toss those in as we go. Might start a fire maybe?”
“Wait, wait, let me show you something,” Travis said excitedly as he jumped down from the bus. He disappeared inside and came back out a few seconds later. “This is another one of my inventions. I had seen this special about the fuel-air explosives the military used, figured I could make one on the fly. Can’t be that hard.”
Travis was holding a barbeque propane tank with what looked like large clockwork mounted on the top. “When you pull the handle here, you have about forty seconds to clear the area. I haven’t tested it; it may just make the place stink, well, stink differently.”
The group bounced several plans around, but ultimately decided that Dylan and Daniel would carry the two bombs they had as close to the warehouse as they could safely get. Julie and Niccole would get the delivery truck, and Mayberry and Travis would stay on top of the bus and provide cover for both groups.
Their main concern right now was how many of the Corrupted mob had survived and if they were being directed back to their current location.
Back at the line of empty pallets, Dylan put the crosshairs of his rifle on the Guards skull. A single loud gunshot sounded and the Guards head snapped to the side. It didn’t go down, in fact, it didn’t even stumble. It looked around like it was waking up, and then turned its tiny black eyes on their small group.
The thing shook its head and started moving in their direction. As it continued to pick up speed and close the distance between them, Dylan continued to fire round after round into the beast. As it got closer to Dylan it came into the view of Mayberry and Travis on the bus. They too began pouring bullets into the large Corrupted.
Dylan decided the head shots weren’t doing what he had intended so he started aiming for its rapidly pumping legs. One round hit dead center kneecap and sent the lower leg spinning off across the lot. The beast crashed to the ground and slowly slid to a stop as it burned off its forward momentum. With the target no longer moving rounds began making contact. Dylan held up his hand to signal a cease fire.