The Last Bastion Box Set [Books 1-5]

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The Last Bastion Box Set [Books 1-5] Page 26

by Callahan, K. W.


  “Why do you think they bombed the bridge?” she asked as she first cleaned Chris’ wound.

  “They’re probably trying to keep the spread of the biters to a minimum…or at least contain them to certain parts of the city,” Chris said. “If they can destroy certain infrastructure, they may be able to halt or at least slow the movement of the infected.”

  “But why that bridge?” Charla said. “The biters are already here?”

  “Right,” Chris nodded. “They’re in Lyons, but they may not be in Riverside yet, or maybe they are but not in the numbers they are here.”

  “So now we’re stuck in one of the infected zones then?”

  Chris shrugged. “I mean, I don’t know for sure that’s what they’re doing, but considering they pulled those National Guard troops out of here just before they blew the bridge, it’d sure be my guess.”

  “Ahh,” Chris grimaced and sucked through his teeth as Charla struck a tender point in her work.

  “Sorry,” she pulled her hand back. “It’s hard to see in this light.”

  “It’s fine,” Chris shook his head and did his best to give her another confidence inspiring smile. Then he took a drink of vodka. “Okay…keep going,” he nodded.

  Charla got back to her work for a minute before saying, “So do you think they’ll be back?”

  “What, the jet fighter that blew the bridge?” Chris frowned.

  “No…the National Guard, or the army, or someone who will help us or at least kill the biters.”

  Chris shook his head. “Don’t know. Sure hope so, but I really have no idea. I don’t know what the government’s plans are for this thing…if they have any at all. They haven’t had much success controlling the syndrome so far. And the more things break down around large cities like Chicago, the harder it’s going to be to get a handle on the situation. I think their only hope is to find a vaccine or cure or something; otherwise, it seems to me like it’s just going to keep spreading. I mean, the power is off,” he gestured around them. “Is it going to come back on?” he shrugged at Charla after the rhetorical question. “If it doesn’t, people are going to have it doubly tough. We’ll be trying to hold out against the biters while at the same time making due without electricity…maybe without water. Pretty soon, people will be out of food and water. They’ll be forced to start scavenging for stuff…unless the government intervenes. Then they’ll be exposing themselves to the biters, who will in turn infect more of the uninfected…or eat them. And then there will be even more biters to contend with for those who remain. And I’d think it would probably just keep snowballing from there until eventually everyone is dead or infected.”

  “Boy, you sure know how to paint a rosy picture,” Wendell broke his silence from where he lay on the sofa.

  “Just being honest,” Chris said. “I think we’ll know better by tomorrow. If there’s some sort of plan to try to combat these things in any sort of organized manner, the sooner they get on it, the better. If we don’t see any military units back by then, I think we’ll have a pretty good idea of whether or not we’re going this alone.”

  Chapter 7

  Michael and the other Blender men had just made it back to their vehicles when the bridge was blasted to smithereens. And this wasn’t an explosion like on television or in the movies – a sort of magical fireworks display. This wasn’t just supremely loud decibels rumbling through the movie theater speakers in high def.

  This was REAL.

  Michael felt it in his bones. It was jarring, jolting, blinding, deafening, terrifying. It was like nothing he’d ever known.

  Michael and the others took shelter behind their vehicles as debris rained down around them. Large chunks of concrete pounded into the vehicles. The rear window of his Suburban was smashed out by a piece of bridge that was hurled through it. Many of the other vehicle hoods and roofs were pockmarked by impacts.

  As soon as the storm cloud of debris raining from the sky had settled, Michael urged the others into action. While some of the biters clustered on the road had been ripped apart by bridge shrapnel, and many of the others in the herd had fled in fear, the Blenders were far from safe. Michael counted at least a dozen or more biters still in the area. And he figured it wouldn’t be long before the ones that had fled recovered their wits and returned to finish their Mendoza meal or investigate the possibility of dessert provided by the remaining Blenders.

  “Let’s go!” he yelled. “In there!” he pointed at Hofmann Tower, looming behind where their vehicle convoy sat scattered haphazardly around the parking lot.

  The group, armed with little more than the weapons and ammunition they had on them, retreated to what they prayed would be a position they could hold until morning.

  * * *

  Across the street, the Hines family was doing their best to recover their wits and take inventory of any injuries among the six-member family.

  Poor little Rebecca had become a quivering, gelatinous-like mess who refused to be torn from her father’s arms. Seven-year-old Sarah was little better, but she was at least willing to walk on her own as long as she could hold her mother’s hand. Patricia and Anthony were better off emotionally, but Patricia was bleeding from a cut she’d received to her forehead after being hit with a piece of stone, and Anthony was limping from where a larger piece of concrete had struck him in the thigh. Victoria had also been hit by debris in the head as well as in the back, but she was able to shake off the pain due to the adrenaline coursing through her veins.

  But more than the physical injuries or the mental anguish the night had brought thus far, the Hines family was facing another dilemma. While the bridge blast had rattled them all, and though it had laid waste to a large portion of the biters around them, there was another side effect of the blast. It had driven a significant number of the remaining biters back away from the bridge and into the street the Hines family was trying to cross to reach the other Blenders. And while there were far fewer biters remaining to contend with, Monte only had a hand-loaded, five-shot handgun that took time to reload once fired.

  Therefore, the Hines family faced a tough decision. Even though they were close to the salvation of their friends across the street, there was no way they could risk getting to them with the limited firepower at their disposal. Monte had already fired three of his five shots. It would take him too much time to reload, longer than it would take the biters to recover their senses and come after him and his family. And with him carrying Rebecca, and having the other three children in tow, making a break for it across the street, with biters all over the place, presented a daunting and high-risk endeavor.

  Therefore, Monte made a call. It was a difficult decision to say the least, but it was one he had to make to ensure the continued safety of his family.

  “Come on…this way,” he hissed to Victoria, nodding toward 39th Street behind them. He quickly and quietly led them into the relative darkness of the somewhat secluded side street.

  The curvature of the river in the section of the city formed a sort of peninsula at the end of what was Lyons proper. This peninsula was sprinkled with a handful of homes, mostly in its middle section closest to 39th Street. But the majority of this area remained un-developed as it was mostly forest that became wooded wetlands when the river flooded. There was a sole walking trail snaking its way trough the western side of the area and connecting with a paved bike path through its center.

  “Daddy, I want to get back to Michael, and to Patrick, and to the others,” Sarah cried.

  Monte noticed several biters on the street starting to take notice of them. Several more were already headed their way.

  “We have to move!” Monte urged. “We’ll get back to the others, but right now we have to go this way,” he began to lead the group down the street.

  “But Daddy, it’s the wrong way!” Sarah moaned.

  “Remember in the movie Cars?” Monte asked her. “Remember when Doc tells Lightning that sometimes you have to turn left to go
right. Well, that’s what we’re doing right now. We’re going away from the others so that we can get back to them later…once things have calmed down. Okay?”

  “Okay, Daddy,” Sarah sniffled, following her father obediently, still holding her mother’s hand.

  As they moved down the darkened thoroughfare, more aircraft, flying low, screamed across the night sky. This was followed moments later by several flashes of light and the rumble of explosions to their east.

  “What in the hell was that?” Victoria cried.

  “They’re probably taking out the Ogden Avenue bridge on the other side of Lyons,” Monte breathed heavily. “Things must really be getting bad.”

  “You think?” Victoria shot him a look as Sarah stumbled, tugging her to the side as she used her mother’s arm for support. Victoria quickly righted herself and helped her second youngest back to her feet.

  “Jesus, I’m out of shape,” Monte sucked in a huge breath. “Hon’, can you walk for a bit?” he asked Rebecca.

  “Huh uh,” she shook her head and clung even tighter to Monte, something he didn’t think was possible.

  “Momma, I’m scared,” Patricia whined.

  “I know, sweetie. Just hang in there.” Victoria looked over at her husband as they hurried down the street. “Where are we going?” she asked in a hushed tone.

  “I don’t know…just…just somewhere…somewhere safe,” Monte sucked wind.

  “And exactly where would that be?” Victoria hissed.

  Monte remained silent, unsure of the answer himself.

  The street was bordered by a series of what appeared to be mostly businesses to their right and forest to their left. A few houses were occasionally intermingled on both sides of the street.

  Finally, Monte said, “I don’t want to try these buildings because the people inside them might think that we’re biters. I guess we could duck into the forest preserve and hide out for a while. But I really don’t want to sleep outside tonight. It’s cold as crap, and all our supplies are back in the car.”

  They came to a side street, the sign to which read, “Stenson Street”.

  “I remember this street,” Monte perked up, pausing in their retreat. “Don’t you, hon’?” he asked Victoria.

  “No…not really,” she shook her head.

  “It leads down that block of houses that dead-ends with the paved bike trail. The one that leads to the suspension bridge. We stumbled across it a couple years ago when we were exploring Riverside that one day, remember?”

  “Oh yeah,” Victoria nodded. “Vaguely. I definitely remember the suspension bridge…not much else.”

  “There was that one house, remember? Toward the end of the block, the one that looked like they were renovating but then ran out of money to finish.”

  “I do remember that, now that you mention it,” said Victoria.

  “I wonder if that house is still empty?” Monte breathed heavily. They slowed their pace and then stopped. The family stood in silence for a few seconds. The sound of footsteps floated down the street behind them. This was followed by the outline of an approaching person framed by a distant streetlight.

  “Come on, I have an idea,” Monte said. “Ugh,” he groaned, stooping to let Rebecca slip down from him to the ground. “You’ve got to walk, honey,” he said. “I can’t go on like this.”

  “But Daddy, I’m scaaared!” Rebecca whined.

  “You’ll be fine. I won’t let anything happen to you. You just hold Daddy’s hand,” Monte assured her as he gripped her tiny hand tightly in his. “Now come on. You have to be brave for Daddy.”

  Monte led his flock as quietly as he could down Stenson Street. Most of the homes were dark, and no streetlights were on, making it difficult to see. But Monte was thankful for the darkness. It gave him comfort knowing that they were better hidden from biters as well as those sheltering residents who might mistake his own family for a biter hoard.

  “You sure you know what you’re doing?” Victoria breathed softly in the darkness.

  “No,” Monte answered frankly. “But I’m doing my best to pretend.”

  Victoria stayed silent after that. She’d hoped that her husband had some sort of grand plan to save the day, to sweep them all to safety. But for as much as she didn’t want to, she recognized the reality of the situation. And that reality terrified her.

  To help sooth her frayed nerves, Victoria momentarily let go of Patricia’s hand and dug inside her coat pocket. She pulled out her cell phone and clicked it to illumination. It was a nervous habit. The sight of her phone and all its little app signs scattered across its screen acted to calm her. She saw its background, a shot of her beautiful smiling family on a warm beach in Florida last spring break. Even though she wasn’t getting service at the moment, just seeing the phone felt good, like home, like things were still normal.

  “Turn that off!” Monte hissed, but it was too late.

  There was a noise from one side of the street, and then that sickening sound, one that had become all too familiar. It was that clicking, chattering of biter teeth.

  A figure loomed out of the darkness from the side of the road. It approached steadily but cautiously, like an animal stalking prey.

  “Daddeeeee!” Rebecca squealed.

  Monte pushed his daughter back behind him, away from the approaching biter, unsure of how to proceed. He pulled his gun, wanting to shoot the biter. But he didn’t want the sound of his weapon being discharged to draw other biters to them. Plus, he only had two bullets remaining in his gun. With Rebecca clinging to him, and the darkness, he’d probably drop half the bullets in the process of trying to reload anyway.

  Keeping the quivering Rebecca behind him, the rest of his family behind her, Monte waited. He waited until the biter was just ready to lunge at him before he acted. It took everything in his being not to put his last two bullets into the biter as soon as it was close enough to ensure a kill shot. But Monte forced himself to wait until the last possible moment, until he could actually reach out and touch the biter. In fact, that’s exactly what he did. In an effort to muzzle some of the sound from his weapon, Monte used a well-cushioned arm from his thick coat to block the biter, holding it at bay, teeth gnashing as he jammed his gun right into its stomach and pulled the trigger.

  While the sound of the shot was still loud, it was muffled by the proximity of the gun to its target. And while it wasn’t enough to kill the biter outright, it was enough to put it down. Monte figured that given time, the biter would eventually die from its injury. But contemplating the fate of the biter wasn’t something he was going to concern himself with. He had bigger fish to fry, like getting his own family off the street and out of harm’s way.

  “Come on,” he said to his family, leading the way. “We’re almost there.”

  He guided them down the street, almost to where it dead-ended at a paved bike path. The bike path continued to the end of the peninsula where it met with the Des Plaines River.

  It was even darker at this point in the street. There were fewer homes, no streetlights, and absolutely no lights of any sort in the forest. It grew instantly darker when the lights in the homes and businesses behind them suddenly flickered and then went out.

  “Oh great,” Victoria groaned.

  “No, this could be a good thing,” Monte said as he led them to the house near the end of the street that he remembered from the last time they were in this part of Lyons. There was no “for sale” sign in the front yard. But from what Monte could glean as he peered through the darkness, grass had grown up high around the front of the house, and the lawn looked untended. “The place still looks empty,” he said. “But if there was any sort of alarm system, the power outage should have disarmed it.”

  “Not like the police would come anyway,” Victoria sighed.

  “No, I guess you’re right,” Monte agreed. “But if the alarm was one of those non-silent types, you know, with the siren or that shrill beeping sound or whatever, it could draw
biters.”

  “That’s a good point,” Victoria considered.

  “Okay,” Monte led his family up the steps to the home’s front porch, “let’s see what we got here.”

  He peered inside the front door’s glass and then through several of the front porch windows.

  “Hard to tell in the dark. But it looks empty enough,” he said. “Should provide us with some decent shelter for the night. Won’t be warm and cozy, but it’ll be a heck of a lot better than sleeping outside. Now we just need to find a way in.”

  “We could break a window,” Anthony suggested somewhat hopefully, the eleven-year-old boy in him taking over.

  “No, that’ll make a lot of noise. Plus, it’ll let more cold air in overnight,” his father explained. “That won’t make for good sleeping conditions. Let’s look for another way. Tell you what. You all stay right here,” Monte pulled the box of ammo from his coat pocket and finally took the much needed minute to properly and safely reload his handgun. “Here,” he handed the weapon to Victoria. “I’m going to circle around the house and see if there’s an open window or door or something. You stay with the kids. If you see anything, call for me. If it’s a biter, and I’m not back yet, shoot it. Don’t worry about the noise…just shoot it. Got it?”

  Victoria nodded in the blackness. “Yes,” she said.

  A couple minutes later, Monte was back. “I found a way in. There was a rear door where I could break just a small pane of glass to reach the inside lock. Come on, let’s go,” he led the group around the back of the house to a door that entered into what turned out to be the home’s kitchen. There were no appliances, and it looked like whoever had once been in the process of remodeling the home still had some cabinetry work left to do. Otherwise, the space appeared safe, clean, dry, and relatively warm, at least compared to the outside.

  Monte relocked the back door behind them and then took the gun from Victoria. I’m going to make a sweep of the house as best I can,” he told her, wondering just how effective his efforts would be in such darkness. “We still don’t know if this house is empty for sure. Stay here, and don’t move until I get back,” he urged them.

 

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