James had installed CD players on both bulldozers early this morning, and Josh cranked it up as AC/DC’s Hells Bells filled the air. He double-checked his sawed-off Mossberg shotgun with its five ready rounds of Double-ought buckshot, then nodded at the girls and waited until the all clear was given by the lookout so they could roll back the gate. He lifted the blades a foot off the ground and gunned the engine, roaring through the gate as fast as the Caterpillar would go, which was actually pretty damn fast. Pete was tight on his ass in the second bulldozer as they barreled through the gates, which had opened just enough to let them pass. They had earlier decided they would use Pete's cage for supplies and Josh's for survivors if they found any.
This was too much fun. With dexterity, Josh manipulated the steering levers, running over groups of the fucking zombies as they vainly tried to get out of his way. Many had no such luck as he mashed an easy thirty of the undead while clearing the outer yard while Pete was swinging wide to his right, hitting some of the ones that had scattered. Josh turned the music up all the way, grinning evilly, with James laughing beside him as they made their way into town. Fuckers could not touch them!
B & B was closed up when they got there. Josh had a sinking feeling as they drove around the largish concrete block building to stop around back. There was no movement anywhere, except for a bunch of zombies that were avoiding them. Fuckers had evidently spread the word about the bulldozers, which was totally uncool of them.
The gun shop was built with a sturdy fence around the backside to discourage break-ins, and it was easy for Pete to wedge the dozer against its gate. Quickly Josh pulled his alongside Pete's, and the three of them dispatched the half-dozen zombies that were milling around too close for comfort before he swung out onto Pete's machine, leaving his own dozer idling. The bulldozers were sandwiched together and it would be easy to clean off the limited number of zombies that might climb on.
Pete had already cut the chain locking the gate and was standing at the back doorway beckoning to him, and Josh swallowed as he saw the look on Pete's face. Hurrying over he peered in, then jerked back in shock as two people he recognized reached out grasping hands to him.
"Fuck, that's Billy and his dad Frank. What the hell?" Then he noticed their condition and grimaced. They had obviously taken the vaccine, and realizing what was happening to them had chained themselves to a metal support pole. They were still alive if that's what you wanted to call it, but this was fucked up. He nodded at them in respect, then quickly raised the shotgun and took them both out with two quick blasts, their lifeless bodies finally collapsing in a huddle.
"Smarter than most," Pete murmured.
"Yeah. Fuck it. This way." Josh led them further into the back storeroom before opening a door there and peering into the main store. It was silent and empty of anything moving, and he closed it. "The automatic weapons are here in these cabinets. Ammo should be in that room over there," he pointed. "We'll take the automatic weapons and all the ammo we can pack in your cage, Pete. Then we will come back later or tomorrow with a trailer and empty this place.”
*****
DAY 9: 0900 ET FRIDAY NOVEMBER 11TH
Samuel Thomas whispered, "Laura, keep Mo quiet, please. They're right outside the door, and they’ll hear her." Monica was two and a bit fussy at times. Right now she was cold, and was crying to herself while huddled up with her older sisters Sarah and Jeza. The two senior children had wrapped their arms and legs around Monica trying to comfort and warm her, but it wasn't working. At only four and five respectively, they were barely larger than their smaller sister. Laura had wrapped several blankets they'd found here around the girls, but it was very cold. The temperature had dropped during the night, and it was still close to freezing. Now, the sun, though up and shining through the windows of the house they were hiding in, had not had enough time to warm the room by 9:00 AM. They had been running for five days, ever since the motel they were staying at had been overrun on day three of the epidemic.
Samuel was originally from the CDC in Atlanta. When the first reports came in on day one, he had gone over the results from his tests on a few captured specimens of these creatures, and something just had not added up. He was worried about the pattern of coincidental disease wave vectors and rapid and massive physiological changes. This was not nature's work, or if so was unlike anything Earth had experienced in the written past.
That first day, the director had been out of the office. He had been for several days, and had told the staff he would be in Washington. However, Samuel had seen the plane tickets to Colorado lying on his desk when he’d dropped off the latest reports on the spreading flu virus. Something wasn’t right. Why tell everyone he would be in D.C. when in reality he was headed to Colorado? Why were there armed guards patrolling the halls and labs of the CDC? Why was the director not answering his cell phone? Samuel had tried calling him at least a dozen times that first day without success. Something was very wrong here at the CDC, and with the director. Samuel was scared but he’d had an idea…
Samuel let himself into the director’s office with another stack of reports, and, closing the door softly, he quickly slid behind the desk while turning the monitor on. He knew the director’s password, or at least he had a year ago when he’d helped him fix a small login problem; it had been his son's first name and birth date. Well, that did not work this time, but what did was his wife’s first name and birth date. Samuel had had the foresight to bring along a list of the director's family and their birth dates. The director was a predictable man, which meant his lie about his location was doubly worrisome.
Samuel knew he only had a few minutes at the most so he did not waste time. Hitting the Window's button in the lower left corner, he quickly selected ‘Last Viewed’. At the top of the short list was a folder named ‘The Project’. What was this? He clicked on it, then on the MS Word file named ‘Summary’. He started scanning the document, then froze.
Oh no, they were so dead. With shaking hands he pulled a flash drive from his pocket, quickly copying the contents of the folder. Then he sent a text to his wife telling her to fake an emergency at home and to call the switchboard for him in 10 minutes. He turned everything off in the director’s office and went back to the lab with the others, now knowing why they’d had government men with guns watching over them these last few days, and knowing also that his friends only had a few days to live—if they were lucky.
Now Samuel and his family were hiding in a home on the outskirts of some small town north and west of Ann Arbor. They were trying for the Upper Peninsula of Michigan or maybe even Canada. Before he left, the latest test results had showed that a unique viral bonding at the cellular level. Dead tissue decay appeared to be severely slowed if not stopped entirely which meant the biological's might be around for quite some time. The good news they'd learned was that cold would slow the creatures down, but it still would not stop them. They simply went dormant. There might be safety in that as winter was approaching. It was the only plan Samuel had.
Rummaging in a house they had stopped at to scrounge for food had provided him with a revolver and a partially full box of shells, but it would do little against the thirty or more creatures outside. His chest tightened as he looked over his shoulder at his daughters, then at his wife Laura, whose face was frozen with fear. Monica whimpered again a bit louder, and he swiveled back to look through the blinds. There were so many of them, and they were watching the house intently.
"We have to leave, Laura. The car is our only chance. You saw what they did at that other house we hid next to." Two days ago they had hidden in a different house in a town further south without realizing there were other survivors in the unit next door. Late that night, someone in the other residence turned a radio on briefly, but it was long enough to write their death sentence. Samuel had watched by moonlight, terrified, as dozens then hundreds of the creatures had come from the darkness surrounding the house. In almost no time, the mass of moving dead pushed in the fr
ont door, and the screams had started. Laura and he had wrapped their arms around their little girls and whispered bedtime songs to them as they vainly tried to cover their fragile ears. The loud horrific screams lasted for a very long time.
Laura nodded back at him, and leaving the girls, grabbed the two bags they had brought in with them. The rest of their things were in the car.
That car had saved their lives more times than he could count in the last few days. They had stumbled upon it three days ago outside the motel room: an old beat up Chevy Impala with a thick steel body, loaded down with rusty chrome. It was even more beat up now, but still drivable. It had a two-ton body, and its strong engine had enough power and force to push aside smaller masses of the creatures. By careful steering they avoided the smarter ones who tried to wedge themselves under the vehicle to stop it. That they were capable of such forethought scared the hell out of Samuel as a scientist. It was obvious the creatures were quickly learning how to capture prey. Adaptations were normal in the biosphere among creatures, but were usually measured in millennia, not days.
Currently the car was parked sideways right in front of the house door. Samuel had carefully picked this house as it had no porch, and they could drive right up almost against it. The plan in case of an emergency was to quickly run the three feet between house and car door and dive in, then take off and it looked like it was time to put that plan into action. There were more creatures out there now, maybe forty or forty-five. Some were clustered on the far side of the Chevy. More were moving around the front windows of the house. They had either heard or sensed something and were gathering in preparation for an attack.
"Get ready Hun. We'll have to do this quickly. They know we're in here, I think."
Laura nodded again, her terrified expression having intensified as he pulled the revolver out of his pocket and checked it for the tenth time this morning. He lifted the metal pipe he had found to be effective at bashing the changed, and prepared himself for swift action. They would have to be very quick, but they could do it. He knew they could. There actually was plenty of time even though some were only a few feet away. He would fire the gun into their heads if they got too close, use the pipe if he ran out of bullets. They had done it before.
Laura approached with the girls, their two bags slung over her shoulders. Monica's nose was obviously running from the crying, and all three of his children were clutching each other, scared but thankfully silent. He took a deep breath and nodded at his wife. She reached out and quickly opened the door as Samuel ran out, gun extended. He swiveled to the right, seeing two of the creatures in front of the picture window but already turning towards them, lunging forward. He aimed carefully and fired twice, dropping both to the ground with clean shots to the head. Turning left and shifting in that direction so the girls could move to the car, he saw another was almost upon them. God, they moved too fast. Quicker than yesterday, Samuel thought in despair. He pushed the metal pipe out, absorbing the shock of the creature's half dash, and fired again carefully at its head.
The girls were all screaming as they frantically piled into the car. Laura, with tears streaming down her face, made sure they made it into the back seat, then got in herself and left the door open for him. Already the car was shaking as a half-dozen of the insane beings hit the car from the far side. The thick body and glass held, as he knew it would. It would hold long enough to get out of here before their numbers became too great.
He dove onto the front seat across his wife's lap and quickly pulled himself up behind the steering wheel as Laura slammed her door. A quick turn of the key started the engine, and he moved forward, pushing against more of the creatures that had appeared incredibly quickly. Then they were slowly moving away, leaving behind groups of converging infected and safe again for now. He steadily drove through and around the ever greater approaching numbers, weaving back and forth. They were starting to move quite fast, but the lack of muscle coordination was still apparent. By dodging, he could throw them off. He shuddered to think of being stuck in a truly large group of them. No! He would not think those thoughts. He would keep driving and get his family to safety. Surely, someone was making a stand out there and had learned how to fight these creatures.
He turned left at the corner. His goal was to leave this small suburb and continue northward on back roads. It was impossible to go near a major city, and the same held for most of the smaller ones. The changed beings were simply too numerous. He had no idea where he was, but there were more houses to his right than his left, so left should be safer.
It was with surprise, then, that as he drove around a curve passing only a handful of the creatures, he suddenly came upon a shopping center. "NO. NO. NO. NO. NO." This could not be happening. There were hundreds of them suddenly, all around them. He slowed then sped up as he saw through the rear-view mirror a multitude converging from behind. The girls had quieted, and he could now hear gunfire up ahead over the static from the radio as Laura vainly tried to find anything broadcasting. He desperately looked for a side street but there was nothing, just store after store lining both sides of the street. He had obviously turned in the wrong direction. He just prayed they would make it through as he continued weaving in and around ever larger groups of the things. The gunfire was getting louder also. Much louder.
*****
It took longer than Josh thought it would, but they were finally ready to leave. Pete's cage was stuffed with guns in duffle bags and ammunition in military cans, all strapped to the inside of the cage so they wouldn't fall on him. Billy sure had a lot here. They must have grabbed an easy hundred thousand rounds of .223, and there was still plenty left. Josh loaded a thirty-round magazine in the full auto M16 he had taken for himself, and nestled another dozen full magazines in a bag next to his chair in the bulldozer. They had cleared out the last of the zombies that had approached during their loading minutes before. It had actually been an ongoing process of load then kill, and repeat the process. The last thing they did was refasten the chain around the gate after they’d closed it. It was better than nothing, after all. More zombies were closing in as the temperature warmed. It was almost ten in the morning, and the skies were clearing.
Josh shouted over the roar of the combined engines, "Pete, they're starting to thicken up!" He glanced down the street and saw hundreds coming out of nearby buildings. That was another thing they had learned early on, that the bastards hid until they sensed prey. In the distance, he saw something else.
"Pete!" he screamed at his buddy, and when Pete turned, Josh pointed down the road to their left. Weaving in and out of thickening swarms of zombies was an old Chevy Impala making its way towards them. Why in the fuck were they headed into town? Didn't they know by now towns were deathtraps unless you were riding an engine of destruction?
"Pass me the binoculars, Jim." Without a word, but with a worried expression, James handed Josh the powerful Zeiss binoculars. As Josh raised them to his eyes and dialed up the magnification, a sinking feeling hit the pit of his stomach. The Chevy was no more than two hundred yards away now, trying to avoid the larger groups as it continued slowly along 155. Inside he could see the driver, a middle-aged black guy, with a slender black woman beside him in the passenger seat. Within moments the car was passing the gun shop, but thick swarms of zombies were already converging on it.
*****
Suddenly the gunfire stopped. Samuel’s mind froze, and shortly after that he slammed on the brakes. The creatures were everywhere! Hundreds had converged from all directions and were slamming into the car. The girls started screaming again in the back seat, and his heart was thudding hard within his chest in panic. Remotely, he heard Laura whimper...a soft sound of despair and his hands clutched uselessly at the revolver in his lap as they were hemmed in. They had come to a complete halt and the car rocked from the creatures’ weight as they hit it.
Jeza's window cracked as the infected's combined mass became too great for even its thick glass to withstand. She s
creamed even louder as she pushed to the side, away from its splintering surface. Frantically, Samuel turned, reaching behind and trying to pull her up onto her two sisters as a shower of small pieces of glass cascaded downward onto the back seat. Bloody and mangled hands immediately reached inside, trying to grasp at his daughters.
He felt more than saw Laura climb halfway into the back, striking at the clutching hands of the creatures as Samuel leveled the gun, ready to fire. He knew the concussion of firing the weapon inside the car might burst all their eardrums, but he had no choice. They would be dead within seconds. With sinking heart and a quick prayer to God, his finger tightened on the trigger as Laura's window was next to shatter from the pressing creatures'.
With a solid crunch their car slammed ahead, throwing his body backwards and almost causing him to lose his grip on the revolver, as a very loud horn blasted from behind them. Automatic weapons fire erupted from both sides in piercing continuous blasts as once more the car lurched forward, then suddenly slid sideways as a second huge something shoved into their vehicle from that direction. The car rocked again and stopped. Dazed, Samuel looked up as glass shattered along the passenger side down the whole length of the vehicle, and Laura's door was wrenched open. Through a thick layer of shock and tears, Samuel was startled as a stocky redheaded younger man with short-cropped hair leaped halfway inside the car, grabbing Laura around the waist with one camouflage-covered arm, the other arm twisted around what appeared to be a thick canvas sling. With a scowl at Samuel, the young man jerked on the sling, propelling them both out of the front seat of the Chevy. Samuel's hands trembled on the revolver, realizing this man was not one of the creatures but knowing little else. Instinctively he knew the man was there to rescue his family and a frantic shout reached his ears.
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