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Hounded | Book 3 | Hounded 3

Page 15

by Douglas, Ellie


  Oliver drove the Mazda, feeling like an octopus inside a small jar. He had to push the seat as far back as it would go. His bent knees exceeded the height of the steering wheel, and he was fed up with banging his noggin on the headliner. He was immensely uncomfortable and missed the ‘Black Widow.’

  CHAPTER 20

  KEENE, NEW HAMPSHIRE

  The smoke spewed into the day’s blue sky, rendering it gray, meek, and unpleasant. Bodies littered the roads like breadcrumbs. Crows, rats, mice, and maggots all scavenged from the bodies, which were giving off the odor of burnt flesh and decaying rot. The once-green land was now charcoal and ash draped in bones and gore spatter. The city buildings stood like skeletons, empty of life and now home to rotting, walking corpses.

  Oliver kept a sharp eye out for a weapons store and a car lot, for he could no longer tolerate the uncomfortably small car. A few dogs roamed nefariously alongside a handful of human zombies. Oliver drove past buildings seemingly painted in monochromatic colors, a canvas of death in an era of the fallen.

  Stopping outside a block of shops, they saw the broken-down sign of Butts and Barrels, which nestled between a flower shop and jewelry store, all of which were tagged with disgusting images drawn in dried blood. The brick building had one window blown out, and shell casings littered the steps around the entrance. Oliver wasn’t sure if it’d already been picked clean, but he certainly hoped it wasn’t.

  Getting out of the Mazda was proving to be difficult. His six-foot-eight frame had been crammed like a sardine for too many hours and his knees had locked up. Placing one foot on the asphalt while he grabbed hold of the top of the door, he pulled himself out. It was painful. His knees creaked and groaned like unoiled doors. Once he was out, he stretched with arms above his head, tilting to one side and then the other until every bone had cracked back into place. His body craved exercise. It’ll have to wait, he told himself as Bellamy, Calloway, and Harry exited the bus and joined him at the car.

  “Let’s see what’s left,” Bellamy said as he held his Beretta 92FS in front of him. He carefully stepped over broken glass and entered the weapons store, followed by Oliver, Calloway, and Harry.

  As they moved around, their eyes became more adjusted. The smell was ripe, infiltrating them like alien hostiles.

  “Oops,” Calloway said as he bumped into a counter. His heart was racing as the smell intensified, along with a rustling groaning that came from his left. With his Colt Python raised, he stepped back and walked directly into a zombie. Its arms grabbed at him. He swiveled around shooting. His first shot severed an arm of the zombie, disabling it from grabbing at him. He could hear its teeth biting at the air. Unable to see it clearly, he shot out again, this time getting it through the eye and out the other side. Two more were reaching for Oliver and Bellamy. Harry took them out with a knife as quickly as slicing onions.

  A fourth one was trapped behind the counter with its arms down. It continued to move into the counter, bashing its decaying body like a stamping machine. The three of them stood laughing at it, before Harry reached over and put his knife through its skull. They checked the remaining area. It was clear.

  Ransacking the remaining guns and ammunition they exited, shielding their eyes from the harsh sunlight.

  Bellamy and Harry loaded the bus with the guns. They’d managed to get nine rifles, several handguns, some knives, and one sword. Everyone stepped out of the coach to stretch their aching muscles, except for Ankti and Nakos, who stayed on board to monitor his sister. He’d called for Doc Leo to take a look.

  “What’s wrong with her?”

  “Not sure. It could be anything from the common flu to a bacterial infection. Get as much fluid in her as you can and notify me of any changes,” Doc said as he made his way out of the bus.

  “Is that it?” Nakos called after him.

  “Afraid so. There isn’t much I can do without knowing what it is. With her fever and that persistent cough, it presents as a common cold. I wish I could tell you more. When we find some antibiotics, we can try that, but without knowing what she has, that will be tricky,” he said, his face expressing sorrow, uncertainty, and defeat. He left the bus before Nakos could question him more.

  Nakos wasn’t happy about the doctor’s diagnosis. He felt that something more than the common cold was affecting his sister. He just didn’t know what. Her cough was husky like a dog’s bark, and yet it was wet-sounding, as if her lungs were filled with water. Her hair had started falling out, which Nakos hadn’t noticed since she kept it under her hoody. She kept a lot hidden from her brother. She wasn’t sure why she kept it a secret, but she felt compelled to. He helped her sip some water and then took himself outside, in need of a walk.

  The group had formed a semi-circle and appeared to be watching something. When Nakos took a look, he was taken aback. A gorilla, graying and showing signs of aging, was playing with a severed hand, tossing it up in the air and allowing it to fall before picking it up and tossing it again. His dwarfism prevented any guess as to how old he was. Though his graying hair was an indication, he could have been in his forties. He paid no attention to the crowd he’d drawn. All he cared to do was play with that severed bloody hand.

  Two blocks away, Oliver found a car lot. It was relatively clear of zombies. He used his dagger to end those that were hovering around. Inside the showroom, he sifted through the keys. He knew that finding something bigger than the Mazda wouldn’t be too difficult, but finding a fueled one with keys was proving impossible. He continued on to find another one. He passed many abandoned cars without keys. He contemplated hot-wiring one, but given the number of available cars, he figured he should be able to find one with keys.

  Calloway and Bellamy had taken it upon themselves to scout around for food and any more weapons they could round up. The city was dead and void of life, except for the creeping zombies that rambled out of buildings and alleyways. It wasn’t until they rounded the corner of one building that they grasped the true nature of the zombies.

  A collection of zombies, dogs and humans, was lumbering in the middle of the street, and all were shuffling their dark. decaying limbs along the asphalt.

  Neither man made a sound as they began to back up. Suddenly, the human zombie’s heads snapped upwards in their direction, and they started reaching out.

  “Jesus Jesse James,” Bellamy quietly said again before adding, “I thought they only found us by damn sound?” Grabbing for his guns, he backed up around the corner of the building.

  “I don’t think it’s the dogs. It’s the walkers. They can smell us, just look at their noses,” Calloway said as he pointed to the group.

  Ethan came out of nowhere, swinging his sword in great swooping reaper-like arcs.

  Harry joined in behind him, stabbing his knife into the rotters’ pumpkin-like heads. Bellamy and Calloway had started shooting, sending a shower of bullets raining down on the skulls of the undead walkers.

  A pack of zombie dogs was behind the walkers, just waiting for fresh new blood. As soon as a walker was down, a zombie dog would advance toward the living with exposed teeth trailing vile pus and their no-eyes, gunning for the warm meals awaiting them.

  It was as if the undead had an army, an army of zombie dogs that charged at some unheard command. The men backed up further, staying away from the bus, not wanting to put the community in danger.

  “In here,” Harry said as he held open the building’s door.

  As soon as they entered, they barricaded the door and stood watching the mindless walkers bash with open palms, slapping them hard up against the door, windows, and walls. With bloodied faces of gore, they repeatedly smashed unyielding surfaces in a daft attempt to gain entry.

  “Nice choice, Harry. I see you’re searching for a new home,” Calloway said mockingly, noticing the real estate agency they had just entered.

  “How’d ya know, man? I always wanted to live here in Keene,” he snickered, as he quickly stabbed his knife into the skull of one
real estate agent while Ethan took out another. After the place was cleared out, Ethan made his way to the back.

  “We got a problem back here!” Ethan called out.

  “What is it?” Bellamy asked, making his way to Ethan.

  Ethan pointed to the door and shook his head. “We can’t use guns on this. It’ll attract whatever else is out there.” He gestured with his hands in a wide circle.

  “Seems they can smell us now. Well, not the mutts, but the walkers can,” Calloway said as he tried the door. Ethan gave him a strange look.

  “You know I already tried the door, right?” Ethan said.

  “Yep, sorry, bad habit.” Calloway moved away from the door, feeling slightly embarrassed.

  “What’s the plan?” Harry said, anxious to get out of there.

  “There’s no doorknob on this side,” Bellamy said. “We’re going have to handle it from the hinge side. Hand me your sword, Ethan.”

  Ethan bent over laughing as he waved his sword at Bellamy. “This isn’t going to help you in the slightest, unless you plan on beating it down.”

  Bellamy inspected the sword. He’d had no idea it was a just a wooden stick. Given how efficiently Ethan had used it to kill the walkers, he’d just believed it to be an actual blade. He shrugged his shoulders. Taking the hunting knife from Harry, he jimmied it under the hinges, poking and twisting until they bowed far enough to snap. Repeating this all the way down, he then pushed on the door, but it didn’t even budge.

  The four of them pushed hard, and it finally fell into the road with them piling up onto one another. Quickly, they got off each other and stood, sharply turning, ensuring they were alone. Looking around, they realized they were in an alleyway.

  A tiger was nursing on a child’s decapitated head. Obviously, with the affection it was giving it, it was its owner’s. The tiger strutted away, carrying the head in its mouth, and disappeared behind three trashcans.

  “Son of a bitch!” Bellamy exclaimed between gulps of air. “I’ll never get used to seeing those damned dwarfish pets.” His hair bristled as he moved stealthily toward the end of the alley, peering left and right. There was clear passage to the right, but the left side was congested with walkers.

  “Go… Go… Go!” Bellamy said, signaling the men right. Each of them rushed to the right, facing the street from where they’d originated. The zombies were still bashing the wall and windows, unaware of their escape and too far away to smell them.

  They took off, keeping to the far side of the street. Making it to the bus, everyone but Bellamy got on. He paused briefly, then climbed the bus steps and stood in the center doing a headcount. Everyone but Oliver had returned. Bellamy got off the bus. Casting his eyes in every direction, he had no idea which way Oliver had gone.

  Shadow was sitting with Julie. They were so engrossed in conversation that they didn’t see Calloway standing and waiting for Shadow to move so he could sit with Julie. He ended up taking a seat opposite them, leaving them to chat. Timothy was asleep on Anya’s shoulder. She just peered out the window solemnly. Ankti looked sicker, thought Calloway as he observed her from where he sat.

  Jasper joined him. He began talking about his wealth, how he missed being rich, the luxury of his penthouse in Dubai, and kept babbling on about how he’d had a personal helipad so his personal chopper pilot could take him anywhere he desired.

  He wouldn’t stop reminiscing, talking about his hometown in Australia and how he’d owned this, that, and the other. It was driving Calloway crazy. Unable to engage in idle chitchat any longer, he made an excuse to leave. Getting up, he exited the bus and joined his brother Bellamy.

  “Any sign of Oliver?” Calloway asked, startling Bellamy as he put his hand on his shoulder.

  “Nope. Going to give him another half-hour, and then I’ll go searching for him.”

  Lily came outside, giving them each a bottle of water.

  “What are we waiting on, boys? The others inside are getting restless.”

  “Oliver,” Calloway said as he sipped his water.

  “Go on in, honey. Let the others know we won’t be long.” Bellamy said as he kissed her cheek. She gave him a smile and went back on the bus.

  Eighteen minutes into the wait, Oliver showed up driving a Hyundai Azera, dark blue with a massive sunken dent in the hood. A streak of blood lined the hood, and ran up the windshield and over the top of the car.

  “Did you fall on it?” Calloway asked jokingly.

  “I see my humor has passed over to you now, Mr. Calloway. No, I didn’t fall onto it. A zombie fell three stories onto it. I guess I shouldn’t have sent an arrow into its head.” Oliver burst into laughter.

  “Why this car?” Bellamy asked, confused.

  Oliver looked at himself, eyeing himself up and down. Bellamy followed his eyes, immediately understanding, with a laughing nod like Chewbacca. A few of the others were pressing their faces up against the window of the bus to have a look at the commotion. Harry and Nakos came outside.

  “Let’s move before those things come back,” Nakos said with urgency in his voice.

  “Aye, aye, Captain,” Oliver said while transferring stuff from the Mazda to the Hyundai. Calloway and Bellamy helped. When they’d finished, Oliver got back in the car and poked his head out the window.

  “So, who’s coming with me?”

  “Knowing how fast you drive, I decline,” Calloway said as he got back into the bus laughing.

  “I’ll go with you,” Harry said.

  Jasper and Tylor also went with Oliver. Once again, they were on the road. They hit Brattleboro, Greenfield, Deerfield, Northampton, and Holyoke, cleaning the cities out of as many weapons and as much, food, and water as they could carry. Their next stop was Springfield.

  CHAPTER 21

  RUNNING

  “Keep yer damn kid quiet!” snapped Rubern, as he pushed through the forest.

  “I’m doing the best I can,” wailed Milo’s mom, Karan Bates.

  They’d been wandering around the forest for several hours. Everyone was tired, hungry, and annoyed with Milo’s rantings, all of them scared he’d draw unwanted attention to them. They stopped to eat and decided to settle for the night, as they all needed rest. Sleep took over and soon all of them, including Milo, were asleep.

  A terrifying scream woke the group. A little Asian woman, Xiu Wun, was being dragged into the forest by a big black bear.

  “Help me! Help me!” Xiu screamed. Suddenly, her screaming stopped and it was deathly quiet. Rubern and twenty-four-year-old Caden rushed to where the bear had dragged Xiu. In a small clearing, all they could see was the back of the black bear. Its arms made a swimming stroke, swooshing downward in succession as it sliced Xiu into little pieces.

  Milo began rocking back and forth and dribbling excessive amounts of saliva, his fingers clicking inches from his big wide eyes. His mother, Karan, tried her best to console him. In his panic, he shoved her and she stumbled backward, but didn’t fall. Joanna had slipped away from the group during the night. In the morning’s chaos, no one had noticed her absence.

  Caden lunged at the bear. His Bowie knife penetrated the thing’s shoulders. It reached a paw around swiftly, and aggressively sliced right across Caden’s face. He fell to the ground holding his torn face and screaming like a wild animal, unable to see through the vast amount of blood. All he could do was hold his cheek in place as it flapped like a woman’s skirt in a gust of wind.

  Rubern snatched Caden to his feet and dragged him back, away from the bear. Not more than eight feet away, out stepped two large Chinooks. Behind them, the bear was mauling Xiu, and in front of them were the zombie dogs. To their sides were big maple trees that went on for miles, so close together they could have been mistaken for walls. With nowhere to run, they had a choice, dogs or bear. Apprehensively, they chose the bear.

  The rest of the group took off in different directions. Milo, Karan, Nora, Sean, Chloe, and Hailey ran right into the path of the hunters from the to
wn. Dylan, and Wyatt ran into the path of more zombie dogs. Within minutes, they were torn limb from limb, and their bodies resembled those in the aftermath of a suicide bomber.

  Joanna had been following the hunters in the hope of being taken back to Sunset Valley to rescue Keith. She remained out of sight as she crept behind bushes. Her heart stopped and her blood ran cold as she watched the hunters shoot Milo, Nora, and Sean.

  “Oy! We’re supposed to take back all the women!” yelled one of the men.

  “That one was too old, numbnuts. Grab those three women, we’re taking them back.”

  The men snatched up Chloe, Karan, and Hailey by their hair, then punched each of them in the face. “Stop yer screaming!” Dreadlocks yelled as he roughly pushed them forward. All Joanna could do was follow, hidden from sight and not knowing what she’d do when she got to the town. The hunters were murderers, cold-blooded murderers.

  For the first time in Joanna’s life, she truly didn’t know what to do. Stay with the remaining group and leave Keith, who was by all accounts dead already, or go in the hope that he wasn’t? Her brain sizzled as if it’d been dipped in a fat fryer.

  She momentarily paused, crouching by a large tree, when suddenly out of nowhere a zombie dog latched its jaws around her ankles. Fearful of screaming and alerting the hunters, she bit down hard. Slicing her bottom lip, blood trickled out as she desperately tried escaping the dog’s vise-like grip.

  She kicked out and reached forward to pull the decaying husky from her legs, but it was no use. It was as if she stood in a bear trap. She couldn’t escape its bites. Her legs began to vanish before her very eyes. So much gore, she thought as she watched in horror at her legs being gnawed on like a leg of lamb.

  Grabbing nearby bark and tossing it in the face of the dog proved useless. Unable to hold in the scream, it burst forward, traveling through the forest like a sonic boom. Over and over, she screamed as the frenzied dog gnawed up her leg, shredding her skin into strips like beef jerky.

 

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