This Dying World (Book 2): Abandon All Hope

by James D. Dean

  “What the hell you waitin’ for, son?” Joe snapped at me. “That door ain’t going to move itself!”

  The male creature’s scream was cut short when the sharp crack of Lexi’s rifle snuffed out the inhuman sound. Footsteps upstairs raced from one side of the building to the other. The female barely had time to get out a small yelp before another crack sent her back to the grave she should have stayed in.

  “That!” I said pointing up.

  Everything suddenly went silent. The dead that were trying to tear the doors from their hinges only moments before had gone silent. From outside came the dragging shuffle of dead feet plowing through snow as they moved away. Moments later, their fierce growls returned, grunting with animalistic fervor.

  “Go!” Chris shouted as he bounded down the stairs, Lexi hot on his heels. “They’re taking the bait but those screams brought a whole lot more!”

  I took off, running full speed to the door. Joe suddenly appeared beside me, as did Chris a second later. Ripping the chain from the handles we pulled against them with everything we had in us. Matt, Anna, and Mark on one side, with me, Chris, and Joe on the other.

  That tiny spark of hope flared up inside me once again. That hope that something is finally going right for a change. The opening widened enough to peer outside into the blizzard and see most of the creatures moving away in different directions. The plan was going well.

  Then it all went wrong. Terribly, terribly wrong.

  Years of neglect and the immense buildup of rust must have taken its toll on the iron hinges. They bore the strain of opening the heavy doors once, but would not stand up to a second use.

  The snap was like a huge firecracker went off inside the wall as the top hinge broke free. As the door tilted away from the wall, the bottom hinge gave way. Matt and Anna managed to get clear before it came crashing down on its edge.

  Mark…did not.

  He screeched in pain as the full weight of the ancient wooden door came down on both feet. Only his body pressed against the door managed to keep it from falling back and crushing him. Instead, it tilted forward, falling flat on the ground outside with a deafening thud and sending plumes of snow into the air.

  We rushed to him, lifting the wood from his feet. He leaned on Joe, his screams piercing through the howling winter storm. We managed to lift the door enough to allow Mark to fall to the ground. His feet were crushed, blood seeping through the tears in the tough leather boots.

  Creatures on the periphery of the horde that had not joined the dead screamer feast were drawn to Mark’s cries of pain and our frantic attempt to save him. They massed in front of us, growing wild at the sight of his warm blood flowing from his mangled boots.

  “Joe, Matt, get to the vehicles,” Chris ordered. “Get Mark there too!”

  “No!” Mark shouted through his tears. He winced as he moved, pulling his rifle from his back. “You guys need the cover. Get the trucks out and then get me inside!”

  “Mark!” I snapped.

  “I swear I’ll shoot the first one of you assholes that touches me!” Mark screamed as he lined up the sights on his Kel-Tec and started firing. A woman in her mid twenties spun as she went down, a clean hole popped through her blood matted blonde hair.

  “Dammit! Fine! Get those vehicles moving!” Chris shouted as he unslung his own weapon. He fired into the crush of undead, sending a teenager in a t-shirt…and nothing else…back to his eternal dirt nap.

  Matt and Joe then took off, scrambling to their respective vehicles. Lexi stood in the bus door, decimating the dead with accurate shots into the crowd. But despite her precision, her need to reload after every fourth shot hampered her speed.

  Charging into the fray, I drew my dead blow hammer from my belt and brought it down on the first creature within striking distance. My palms screamed as my weapon struck the center of the old woman’s forehead. It’s body crumpled, knees buckling as its dead weight dropped into the snow. The all too familiar dark green sludge sizzled as it poured from out from its ears.

  “Draw them away!” Chris shouted. “We have to get the vehicles out!” He rushed over to Mark, taking him by the arm to try to walk him outside to clear the exit. They made it outside before Mark fell, shrieking in agony. He pushed himself backward and away from Chris until his back met the wall just to the side of the open doorway. Propping himself up, he unleashed a torrent of hollow pointed hell into the brains of the dead.

  “Come on!” he shouted, pulling the trigger. “Come get a taste! Come on you dead fucks! Fresh meat! Come get some!” Every shot hit its mark, ending the unlife of every creature he targeted with high velocity lead.

  It was a hell of a thing to watch.

  Lexi snapped off another round, sending a bullet whizzing by me. I turned around in time to get a face full of decaying brain matter. If I was not in the middle of a full on scrum, I would have been puking the second I felt the gray matter sizzle on my face.

  I tried (see tried) to push it from my mind as I pressed my attack. I could feel the strain on my stitches as I swung my hammer again, this time at a man with a huge beer belly and a thick blood soaked beard…wearing a thong. (not judging…but ew). The impact only grazed its head, throwing me and Thong Boy off our footing. I landed heavy on my right side, sending stinging pain across my chest as old injuries suddenly flared up. Thong Boy landed face first beside me.

  I shot up to my knees and brought the hammer down on the back of its head, this time rewarding me with the satisfying crunch of snapping bone. Two more closed on me before I could make my way back to my feet.

  I dropped my shoulder and launched into their knees. Hell, it works in the movies, right? Yeah, movies lie their asses off. Sure they went down, one right on top of me, and the other close enough to bite my boot. Which it did. It latched its teeth on the top of the steel toe and started to chew on the leather.

  Chris suddenly appeared, ripping the creature off of me. He brought his rifle butt down on its temple, ending its unnatural afterlife. I tore my foot away from my ankle biter with such force that one of its teeth came free, imbedding itself in the boot leather. I got to my knees once more and swung the hammer straight into the thing’s face, its nose flattening while maxilla bones shattered. The zombie shuddered as if in a seizure before going limp.

  “Stop with that Hollywood bullshit and get your head in the game!” Chris shouted before sending two more rounds downrange through a blinding gust of wind and snow. Both shots went wide, finding nothing but empty air. “Goddamn snow!”

  I turned toward the building in time to catch the truck reversing out, the trailer groaning as it tried to overcome the fallen door and the buildup of snow. The dead that could not reach the corpses of the screamers were now returning to the source of human noise. They piled up against the side of the truck as Matt continued his backward trip to the road. Matt threw the truck into drive the second he reached the highway, pulling away from the horde before the creatures overwhelmed the vehicle.

  The dead grew closer as the bus lumbered out, bouncing as it climbed up and over the fallen door. Joe swung the behemoth’s back end wide, turning in the direction that Matt had gone. As soon as the angle was right, everyone on board opened up on the dead, sending a barrage of bullets into the pack.

  I made my way to my feet, looking up at Mark. He leaned against the wall, smiling back at me. With his rifle pointing up, he pulled the trigger. There was no report. He was out. He shrugged, shaking his head with an odd smile.

  Then I saw it.

  Chris and I had been bunched together just outside the doorway. The bus had to back out, and in doing so it parted the horde and pushed Chris and I further from Mark. When Joe pulled the bus forward, he’d inadvertently herded them right to where Mark sat. Joe couldn’t see it with the passenger side cameras out, so he continued unaware that he’d sealed Mark’s fate.

  “Mark!” I screamed.

  “Goddammit!” Chris joined before emptying his magazine into the hor
de descending onto our friend.

  Mark swung his rifle like a club, cracking skulls as best he could from his seated position. He kicked out despite his crushed feet, throwing wild punches at random. Chris snapped off several shots from his sidearm, ending as many of the creatures as he could.

  There were just too many.

  Mark screamed as jagged teeth pierced the flesh on his arm, tearing into his triceps with fierce hunger. Mark drove his elbow back, slamming the monster’s head against the brick wall. He howled again as claws tore through his pant leg, ripping bright red strips of meat from his thigh.

  Bricks erupted into fine dust as gunfire suddenly poured out of the bus. Dead fell to the hail of bullets, but only enough to cut a path for Chris and I to get aboard. The press of creatures closing on Mark were too thick. He was bitten, and nothing we could do would stop the inevitable.

  “Run!” Mark cried. “Fucking run goddammit!”

  My mind couldn’t accept what I was seeing. The gunshots, the moans, the screams…all blended together in the howling winds of the Midwest blizzard. My vision tunneled as I watched the dead tear pieces from my decades long friend. Mark fought the dead with every last ounce of life left in him until he was finally lost in the pile of arms, legs, and teeth. Everything in me screamed to run to him and cut down every creature in my way.

  Chris grabbed my collar, shouting something into my ear before shoving me forward to the bus. His pistol spoke, killing one closing in on us. He forced me forward as zombies closed to within mere feet of where we fled. Broken teeth clacked as they worked their jaws, gnashing their teeth in hungry anticipation as they advanced.

  Chris powered me into the bus, popping off two more rounds before slamming the door shut. Joe accelerated the second we were inside, wiping the stream of tears from his eyes as he focused on the single monitor in front of him.

  “Lexi!” I begged wildly as uncontrollable tears fled down my cheeks. “Shoot him! Please, don’t let him suffer! Don’t make him come back! Shoot him!”

  “I can’t see him!” she sobbed as she sighted down her rifle. “I can’t–”

  “Please!” I begged.

  Lexi trembled, aiming at the writhing pile of corpses. She took a deep breath, trying to steady herself through the haze of emotional turmoil, and fired. Her breath caught, arms falling to her sides as the rifle fell from her hands, clattering on the rubber matted flooring. She turned to face me, her eyes flooding over.

  “I missed,” she gasped. “Oh my God I missed!”

  “Try again!” I screamed at her.

  “I…can’t,” she pleaded.

  “Try!”

  “He’s too far,” Lexi sobbed. “I…missed…I—” She fell to her knees, wrapping her arms around herself as she bawled uncontrollably.

  “Mark,” I exhaled as the realization hit me. We were too far, the snowfall too heavy and the dead too thick to put my friend out of his misery. His agonizing screams punched through the howling winds and frenzied growls of the undead. He was dying in terrible pain, and there was not a damn thing I could do about it.

  I shook as I felt the rage pushing its way up from deep within. The scream welled up inside me until I finally exploded.

  “Fuck!”

  Chapter 19

  The miles ticked by as Jason drove along the narrow desert road. Their progress was painfully slow. The mass exodus from all population centers had clogged many of the roads crisscrossing the country. The fleeing populace knew the best chance of survival lay in the open desert roads away from the major cities.

  But panic had taken root during the first few days of infection. Terror induced flight led to frightened people hitting the roads with little to no provisions. They found themselves stuck in the harsh desert without food or water, succumbing to exposure or the ravenous corpses of those wandering the roads.

  Jason lost count of the number of cars that had been pushed from the road, their occupants still crawling around inside. The few that had escaped wandered the vast and empty landscape, forever looking to sate their unending hunger. Dried and leathery flesh pulled taut across the bones of bodies scorched by the intense sun and unforgiving arid air.

  He breathed a sigh of relief when they passed from the rocky landscape and into the forested mountains. The dusty environment gave way to sweet smelling air, filled with the odors of fresh greenery in stark contrast to the pungent reek of death he had endured for weeks.

  He longed for home, picturing the wintery landscape of rolling fields where he’d grown up. He could almost feel the crisp air on his face, with the smell of ice and snow wafting to his nostrils. He longed for a cup of hot apple cider while sitting by an outdoor fire, listening to the crackle and pop of the flames echoing through the woods.

  Murphy snored away, his seat reclined as far back as it would go. Jason had been furious when he awoke that morning to find that Murphy had let him sleep the entire night without waking him. Murphy had simply waved off his protests, saying Jason needed the rest.

  He was right of course. Jason and sleep had become distant strangers over the previous weeks, only allowing himself an hour or two at a time. But his vigilance did him very little good. The men under his charge were gone, and the weight of the world sitting on his shoulders had grown two souls heavier.

  He glanced at the rear view mirror, barely recognizing the gaunt face staring back at him. The dark bags under his eyes carried with them many sleepless nights and waking hours of stress and despair. His normal high and tight haircut had grown out. His hair had turned almost completely gray despite the fact that he was only in his late thirties. Even the stubble on his face had streaks of gray snaking its way through it.

  Goddamn I look old, he thought, sighing deeply. Dan’s never going to let me live this down.

  Titan suddenly popped his head up between the seats, laying it on Jason’s shoulder. Jason smiled as he reached up to give the dog a scratch behind his ear. Titan responded by bathing Jason’s right cheek with his tongue.

  “Ugh! You sneak attacking bastard!” Jason laughed as Titan retreated to the comfort of the back seat. He chuckled as he wiped the slobber from his face with his sleeve.

  “He gotcha good, huh?” Murphy snickered as he stretched. “I warned you. He’s a big ole love ball.”

  “Yeah, he got me. I don’t think I need a shower anymore!”

  “I hate to say this, brother,” Murphy started as he raised his seat. “I’m sitting next to you, and you definitely need a shower. I mean, I’m sure I’m no peach, but you could knock buzzards off a shit wagon.”

  “Not a peach is right! How about next time you eat rattlesnake you point your ass away from me when you sleep! I think you seared off some of my short hairs. I had to open the windows twice to keep from choking to death in here!”

  “Fermented them just for you!” Murphy laughed.

  “Well if I were you I’d check to make sure nothing crawled up there and died.”

  “Noted,” Murphy replied as he scanned the desolate roads. “How’s our situation?”

  “Bad, worse, and shitty. Which do you want first?”

  “How about in that order.”

  “Okay. Well I’ve been pushing through vehicle clusters since the sun came up. I didn’t think there would be so many people this far out. It’s got me thinking that we may have to deal with heavier population areas whether we want to or not.”

  “That could be bad,” Murphy agreed. “But it’s possible we may find living people too. I’d be okay with that. What’s worse?”

  “We’re out of food, and almost no water. Plus our ammunition isn’t refilling itself. We’re going to have to resupply somewhere.”

  “I was thinking of that last night. We might be able to find a gas station out here that hasn’t been looted yet. Since we’re so far out in the middle of nowhere.”

  “That leads me to the shitty news,” Jason sighed. “There are enough cars out here that it makes me think others had the same idea. I
’m afraid that we may not find anything to pick over. The shitty news…we’re almost out of gas.”

  “What?!” Murphy shot up in his seat. “We topped it off yesterday!”

  “I know. But this beast of a van is a gas hog. Either that or we’ve got a leak somewhere. One way or another, we’re stopping soon.”

  “What about the gas cans? Those were full too!”

  “Already used them. You’ve been asleep for a while.”

  “No kidding! We’re not on Highway 10 anymore, are we?” Murphy asked.

  “No. I didn’t think driving through the middle of Phoenix would be a good idea.”

  “Any idea where we’re at?”

  “East of California.”

  “Thanks for narrowing it down,” Murphy said sarcastically.

  “Any time buddy.”

  “So really, where are we?”

  “Northeast of Phoenix. We’re on 87 I think.”

  “I have to say, it is nice to wake up to green grass and trees. I was getting really sick of the desert.”

  “That it is,” Jason exhaled. “The two lane road makes it a little more difficult to get around the stalls, but the air is better. Enjoy it while it lasts, we’re going to be back in the desert soon enough.”

  “Not if we don’t find some gas soon,” Murphy sighed, his attention turning to the view outside his window.

  “Yeah,” Jason sighed. “There’s that. As soon as it’s an option, I want to change vehicles.”

  “Not liking the minivan?”

  “I’d like something that can get more than five miles a gallon. Something with less than a hundred thousand miles would be good too.”

  “Think we can afford a new car?” Murphy joked.

  “I think we can splurge.”

  “Okay. I don’t want any big car payments. I mean this is only our first date and all.”

  “Gotcha,” Jason smiled. “No BMWs.”

  Jason took a deep breath, savoring the clean air as his mind wandered again back to his home.

  “Happy thoughts?” Murphy asked.

  “Yeah. The woods remind me of home.”