But Garbarino didn’t hesitate. He tracked the man’s dash across the grass, held his breath and pulled the—
“Wait!” Austin shouted, pushing Garbarino’s hand to the ground.
At the sound of Austin’s voice, the running man screamed, holding his hands over his head. In his confusion, the man stumbled and fell. He flailed in the dead grass for a moment before returning to his feet. When he saw them standing there, he turned and ran back the way he’d come, but a breaking branch from the woods turned him around again.
“Friend of yours?” Garbarino asked.
Austin could have recognized his panicky run. He’d seen it twice before. “He’s not one of them.”
“It’s him?” Mia asked, watching the man.
“Him, who?” Collins asked.
“We saw him the first night,” Austin said. “They killed him.”
“They killed him?” Garbarino said, “But...” He looked at the faded, blue tarp.
One of the two bodies was sitting up beneath the tarp.
Garbarino jumped back, taking aim. “Shit!”
The group turned as one and took a collective step backwards.
“Oh my God,” Chang said.
After a moment of shock, Austin turned around, looking for the panicked man. He found him at the end of the driveway. He was out of breath, eyes wide, but no longer running. He met Austin’s eyes for just a moment and gave a slight tilt with his head that said, follow me.
“Up the driveway,” Austin said. “Follow him.”
The man ran from view.
“Go!” Austin shouted and the group listened, chasing after the man.
Austin stayed behind, listening to the woods. The approaching army was still a good distance off, but had somehow tracked them here. They followed White, he thought. He knew we were heading north through the woods.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” Vanderwarf’s voice came from the tarp, hands lifted up and searching for a way out.
The form of White rose up next to her. “I’m sorry.”
“So am I,” Austin said.
At the sound of his voice, White and Vanderwarf began violently clawing at the tarp. The sounds of anguished weeping followed.
Austin silenced them again with two bullets and then chased after the others. He hoped it would be the last he saw of White or Vanderwarf, but at his core he knew he’d see them again.
25
The driveway wound through the woods for nearly a mile. Its circuitous route slowed their actual progress, but freedom from fallen branches and dead brush allowed them to move much faster, and in near silence. Before long, the snapping branches and chorus of voices behind them faded away.
The man who’d been murdered in the suburban driveway led them to a dirt road lined with tall, dead grass. Austin eyed it, weapon in hand. It would be the perfect place for an ambush.
But none came, and five miles later, when the group had settled into a steady pace, he holstered his weapon and focused on keeping the group together. Chang and Collins often lagged behind, asking for frequent breaks, but their guide never stopped. They all ate and drank on the go. Bathroom breaks were accomplished by two people running ahead, ducking behind a tree, and then rejoining the group as they passed.
After the sixth mile, Chang caught her second wind and walked with Mia, Austin and Liz. She watched the way their panicky guide would run ahead and then stop, looking back over his shoulder to make sure they were still following. “He’s like our own personal Gollum,” she said.
“Like in the swamp,” Liz added.
“You’ve seen Lord of the Rings?” Chang asked.
“Seen it?” the girl replied. “My mother read it to me.”
“That seems a little...odd,” Chang said.
“Why?”
“You’re like, what, eight?”
“Seven.”
“Exactly.”
“So?” Liz said, her voice filled with defiance. “I’m probably smarter than you.”
Chang laughed. “You might be right about that.”
“Keep it down Frodo and Bilbo,” Mia said.
Their guide had stopped up ahead when the brown dirt road turned black.
“The road’s paved,” Austin said.
“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” Chang asked.
“No idea,” Austin said, “But the plan is to head north. And that’s north.” He took his handgun out again. “Let’s just be ready for anything.”
But no one was ready for what they saw upon reaching the blacktop. The pavement began at the crest of a hill that descended into a city surround by miles of suburban sprawl. Thick clouds, alive with heat lightning, hovered over the city, filling the air with a turbulent orange glow. The city itself was in ruins. Most of the buildings lay flattened, all leaning away from a massive impact crater created by a nuclear warhead that detonated a mile outside of town. Some of the buildings on the other side of town looked intact, but most had folded down like card houses.
Their guide shuffled away as they grew near, ever nervous, never trusting. But no one paid him any attention.
“Damn,” Garbarino said at the site. “This place got pancaked.”
“It’s not the last time we’ll see this,” Austin said. “Try not to let it get to you.”
“After the things we’ve seen already,” Paul said, “This is actually easier to swallow.”
“Wholesale destruction has nothing on the living dead,” Mark added.
“What’s wrong with the crater?” Mia asked.
“Other than the fact that the missile that created it killed all the people living in that town?” Garbarino said.
“Look at it,” she insisted. While the rest of the bleak landscape appeared a horribly clear image, the crater looked as though it had been created by a pointillist painter. Stranger than that, the whole thing seemed to be—
“Moving,” Austin said.
“The whole thing,” added Collins. “What the devil? Is the ground melting?”
“Whatever it is,” Mia said, “We’re steering clear of it.”
Austin turned toward their guide, who began heading down the hill. “Where are you taking us?”
The man stopped, looking terrified that he’d been addressed. His whole body shook with each rapid fire breath. “Go,” he said. “Go now!” His voice cracked from fright.
“Where?” Austin repeated. He didn’t know if he could trust this man anymore than the killer mob. Just because he hadn’t tried killing them yet, didn’t mean he wouldn’t later on, maybe after rejoining others like him.
“Away!”
Austin looked behind them. The dirt road stretched far into the distance, fading into thick forest. “There’s no one back there. We lost them.”
The man hobbled closer, shaking as he pointed back down the road. “They are coming. They are always coming.”
Austin turned to the road again. He saw nothing. Heard nothing. “You can see them?”
With a violent shake of his head, the man said, “I can feel them.” He pounded his chest. The impact of his own fist made him flail in anguish. He spun around, as though trying to escape himself, and fell on the ground. As quickly as he fell, the man was back to his bare feet and moving down the hill. “Down is away. Away. Always away!”
This time he didn’t look back or wait for them to catch up.
“You’re not going to the crater?” Austin shouted after him.
The man shook his head so hard and nearly fell down the hill.
“C’mon,” Mia said, and followed after the man.
“What if it’s a trap?” Garbarino asked.
“You want to go back?” Mia said.
No one did. They followed the man down the hill. Twenty minutes later, they entered the city. The clouds overhead moved slowly across the sky, pulsing with energy. Beneath them, the temperature felt ten degrees hotter.
Walking through the city streets, Chang began to cry. Businesses, homes and apa
rtment buildings alike had all fallen toward the east, shoved over by the massive explosion.
“You’re crying now?” Garbarino said.
Mia put a hand on his shoulder. “Ease up.”
“I’m not ragging on her,” he said. “I just don’t get it.”
Chang sniffed away her tears. “It’s just sad, you know? People lived here.” She pointed to the sign of a mom and pop bookstore. “Built their dreams here. Raised their children. It wasn’t just their lives that were taken, if was life in general. It’s all just gone now.”
Garbarino stopped in his tracks.
Austin stopped, on edge. “What is it?”
“The bodies,” Garbarino said. “Where are all the bodies?”
He motioned to the empty street. “No one was out walking their dog? Or riding their bike?” He approached the wreck of a car in the middle of the street. The vehicle stood empty. “Or driving to work? The bodies are all gone.”
Mia searched the city around them. He was right. They hadn’t seen a single dead body since stepping off the EEP.
“Where are all the bodies?” he asked again.
A distant roar rolled over them, like a low cord on a cello mixed with a high pitched scratch. The sound had a physical effect on their bodies. Most got goose bumps from head to toe. Liz wet herself. Collins gripped his chest and fell to one knee, breathing in gulps. Chang’s crying became a blubbering mess of tears and whimpers.
Up ahead, their guide, who had continued on without them, screamed as though pierced by a sword. He flailed on the ground, wailing and clawing at the pavement. After bloodying himself, his senses returned enough for him to crawl off the street. Once back on his feet he ran toward a convenience store that still stood.
Mia picked up Liz and instinctively chased after the man. Something else was in the city. Something that made her feel a level of dread she didn’t know was possible. The others followed in silence.
“I peed,” Liz whispered.
“It’s okay, baby,” Mia said, holding the girl tight. “It’s okay.”
Though all the windows were blown out, the metal cage that kept burglars out was down and locked in place. They entered through the broken front door and worked quickly to blockade it with a floor display, an ATM machine and a smoothie maker. After finishing, they retreated to the back of the store and sat, hidden behind an aisle of cereal, potatoes chips and beef jerky.
It wasn’t until they were all safely hidden that Austin noticed their guide was tucked in along with them. Like he was one of them.
But he wasn’t. The man shook with perpetual fear. His nearly naked body was covered in dry blood and grime. And he stunk like something dead. But he could talk, so Austin asked him the only question on his mind right now. “What’s out there?”
A shudder ran through the man’s body. “No name...no... A hunter. Delights in pain. Delights in pain.”
Delights in pain.
The words triggered a memory in Mia’s mind. She looked at the man anew, seeing past the dirt and blood, really seeing his features for the first time. She imagined a pair of round wire-rimmed glasses on his face. “Shit,” she whispered.
All eyes turned toward her. When the guide met her eyes, he looked away, cowering. She slowly raised her weapon toward him.
“What are you doing?” Austin asked.
She nodded toward the man. “Delights in pain. Two thousand eight. Boston. Ringing any bells?”
Collins was the first to place it. “Dwight Cortland.”
The name caused everyone in the room to shift away from the man. He didn’t notice. Just kept biting his nails, which had begun bleeding.
“I covered the story,” Mia said. “He killed eighteen women in five states. Said they all asked for it. Said they delighted in the pain.”
Dwight gripped his chest, digging into his own flesh. He whipped his head toward the exit, breathing rapidly.
“Gonna make a run for it?” Garbarino asked, taking aim with his weapon.
Dwight shook his head and didn’t stop. When he spoke, his voice sounded like it was being filtered through a guitar wah-wah pedal. “No, no, no. They’re coming.” He stopped suddenly and looked Mia in the eyes. “They’re here.”
26
A half hour passed in nervous silence, listening for the voices that would herald the arrival of the horde. Dwight the Delight, the serial killer from Boston, reacted first, detecting something the rest of them couldn’t. At first, he whimpered quietly with each shift of the breeze through the metal cage walling in the storefront. But his control over his emotions grew more tenuous with each passing moment. He grew agitated, shifting from one foot to the other while squatting behind the aisle. He hummed. He licked his dry lips. They could all see the tension in his body.
As panic claimed whatever self-control the man had left, he seemed about to bolt.
As the first distant call of the horde reached them, he turned toward the blocked exit.
That’s when Garbarino pistol whipped him from behind.
No one complained.
Had to be done.
They all knew it.
“Thanks,” Mia said.
Garbarino nodded.
“Here they come,” Austin whispered. “Stay down. Stay quiet.”
The voices grew louder, accompanied by the shuffling of hundreds of feet.
At first, the sound was like a choir of sobbing voices. The infinite sadness of the sound broke Mia’s heart. The people outside would kill her. She had no doubt about that. But listening to them; they were pitiful. To be pitied. Horrified. Sad. Tired.
Individual voices emerged from the din as some walked past the small convenience store.
“I can’t stop it,” a man said to himself. “Why can’t I stop it? God...”
Between sobs, a woman spoke. “The blood.” Her body shook. “All that blood.”
Several more people spoke in other languages, some easily recognizable—French, Japanese, German—but others sounded older, and some Native American, or at least what Mia thought sounded like Native American.
“I’m so sorry,” a woman said.
Everyone in the room tensed. The voice belonged to Vanderwarf. She and White had joined the mob. Two more voices, two more mournful killers in the army.
Liz covered her ears, blocking out the voices. Her elbow struck a can of soup on the bottom shelf. It only fell a few inches before striking the linoleum floor, but to the group hiding behind the food aisle, it sounded like a gun shot.
Tension knotted Austin’s back as he slowly peeked around the end of the aisle. The orange sky flickered outside the store, darker than before as night fell. But that didn’t hold his interest. Standing at the window, fingers interlocked in the metal links of the barrier, was Vanderwarf, her eyes locked on his. Those beautiful eyes. Those full lips. Both expressed immense sadness.
“I’m sorry,” she said. Slowly, she began shaking the barrier. “I’m so sorry!” The shaking became violent, attracting attention.
“No!” someone shouted.
“Run away!” said someone else.
“Make it stop!”
The shaking grew louder as more bodies joined the assault. A loud squeak of metal on linoleum shot through the store. The front door! Austin bolted out from his hiding position and threw himself at the blockade. A group on the other side was pushing it in. Garbarino joined him, wanting nothing more than to shoot a few rounds into the group outside, but worrying that would attract even more attention. Right now there were ten people outside, but in the distance he could see hundreds more shuffling through the flattened ghost town.
Paul joined them a moment later. “What’s the plan?”
Austin grunted, pushing against the heavy barricade. “Find the back door. Be ready to run.”
Paul nodded and returned to the back of the store.
“What about the roof?” Garbarino asked.
“They’d starve us out,” Austin said. “We need to move.”
“We could pick them off one at a time.”
“Not enough ammo,” Austin said. A jolt pushed them both back a few inches. They were losing the fight. “Besides, they come back to life after what, sixty seconds?”
Garbarino placed his feet against the checkout counter and shoved hard. “Good point.”
“Paul found the back door,” Mia said from behind the isle. “Didn’t hear anyone back there, but he hasn’t opened it yet, either.”
“Don’t open it!” Austin shouted. If just one person made it in the back, they’d be screwed. “Get everyone ready. When you hear the gunshots, open the door and run. We’ll be right behind you.”
“What about Dwight?” Mia asked.
“The man’s a serial killer,” Austin said.
Garbarino nodded. They were thinking the same thing. “Fuck ’im.”
Mia nodded and slid back behind the aisle, coordinating with the others and moving them toward the back of the store.
“So that’s the plan, eh?” Garbarino said. “Pop a few of them in the face and make for the hills?”
“That’s about it,” Austin said.
Garbarino offered a nervous smile. “Works for me. On three?”
Austin nodded. “One.”
“Two.”
A roar blasted through the store like a fog horn. The muscles in Austin’s and Garbarino’s arms and legs turned to Jell-O. But the door didn’t budge. The sound had effects on the mob too. For a moment. Both sides regained control of their bodies at the same time.
The people at the door pushed.
Austin and Garbarino stayed focused. “Three!”
Both men launched to their feet, took aim and just as quickly dropped back down. Not a shot fired.
“Did you see it?” Garbarino asked.
Austin nodded. They were in serious trouble.
“What the fuck is it?”
He had no reply for the question. What could he say? The thing outside was all muscle and stood several feet taller than anyone in the horde. A tattoo of an eagle, wings outstretched covered the chest. A banner, clutched in the eagle’s talons read: PEACE.
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