Finishing up, he poked his head through the window of the cab.
“They’re both on board, and we’re secured. Do you have anything we can give them to keep them warm? We can’t all fit in the cab, that’s for sure.”
“They can have my jacket,” Janet volunteered. “We can keep the cab warm enough until we get to your place.”
“Yeah, I can feel it,” Rob replied, a little enviously.
“Here, have mine as well,” Daniel offered, as he held the steering wheel with his knees, and carefully took his off as well.
“Great, thanks guys. I’ll stay back here with them. The bad news is that one of them has a deep cut from the zomb, the bastard got her just as she was nearly aboard. I’ve bandaged it, but I don’t know if she’s infected, or whether this shit’s only passed in a bite.”
“Be careful, Rob. We’ve come too long a way for you to get caught at the last moment.”
“Don’t worry about me, buddy, nothing’ll get between me and seeing Sandy again.” He smiled grimly, and withdrew into the rear section, closing the window up fully.
The girls were grateful for the jackets, appreciating the residual warmth still held in the cloth from the previous wearers. Rob climbed under the tarp, and they huddled together for warmth. Jackie moaned as the pain of her injury struck deep. Meanwhile, Rob made sure to keep his hand on the butt of his pistol.
“So, how long were you guys out there?” Rob asked, trying to take their minds off the cold and their crappy circumstances.
Stacey had revived a little, grateful for being able to sit down and unwind. She was chewing on an aeroplane sandwich offered by Rob. Unfortunately, Jackie appeared to be slowly falling into a state of shock, and had resisted any attempts to offer her sustenance.
Stacey shivered before answering Rob’s question. “We were on the shelf-stacking night shift; we were almost finished when our boss went mad. He’d been in his office all night, said he had a terrible headache. He was always a bit of a bastard, so we left him alone. We were just grateful for him not to be around. Then I heard his door open, and it sounded like Ron fell over as he came into the store room.”
“Who’s Ron?” Rob asked.
“Sorry, he’s the boss. Anyway, he sounded like he was tanked up. I don’t think he saw me; I’m not stupid, I stayed hidden behind a full shelving unit. It was weird, like he detected I was there, and then he started frantically pulling stuff off the shelves, I think he was trying to get at me. I was so scared, you can’t imagine. Somehow, Ron managed to pull a pallet of stuff onto himself. I heard a dreadful squashing sound as it seemed to land on top of his chest. I thought to myself he must be dead. Surely no one could survive that. He sure shoulda been dead.” She paused for a moment, the relating of the tale was exhausting to her, but clearly, it needed telling, if just to make it real in her own mind.
Stacey continued. “When I had a look to see if I could help, I was real shocked to see that he appeared to be alive, after all that.” She shuddered at the memory, but continued. “Jackie came over; she’d just come in from the shop floor. Like me, she hadn’t got a clue what the hell was going on, she said there was some strange shit goin’ on outside. Anyway, I swear he looked straight at us. His eyes were horrible, blood was oozing from the corners, and the coloured bits had gone all white. His body was flattened under the weight, and I mean flat. His arms were pinned under the pile of dry dog food that had landed on him as he fell down, but he was still tryin’ to wriggle free. Ron was squirming and struggling like mad. Crazy as I know it sounds, it seemed as if he wanted to bite us; every time we tried to comfort him, you know, like wipe his forehead, he just tried to take a chunk out of us.”
She lapsed into silence; the memory of someone who, in every sense was dead, crushed flat, but could still show that much aggression from the neck up, horrified her and would remain in nightmares forever. All in all she felt guilty that she and her friend had done nothing to get him out from under the pile; he frightened them enough to keep them away. When they eventually phoned the emergency services, there was a constant engaged tone; finally, having caught up with the third stockroom assistant, they went outside to try and find someone who could help. At that time, there were three of them. Shockingly, within minutes, it was just Stacey and Jackie.
“I don’t even know how to begin telling you this, but when we walked outside, we were attacked by what I can only describe as a gang of mad folk, like crazy animals they were. They grabbed hold of Laura, the other girl, so that stopped them from chasing us. We rushed out of the centre and hid behind a van; we were scared shitless, all we could do was just watch as they tore her apart. They just tore her apart! She screamed so loudly, and in so much terror that I almost wet myself. I did want to help her, I really did, but Jackie stopped me for both our sakes. That was the right thing that Jackie did, I think we would have died, too.”
Stacey’s voice again tailed off, she went quiet, eyes moist; the memory of what she had seen was too raw to revisit easily. It was something that would be imprinted on her brain for the rest of her days. And then some.
“How did you finally get away?” Rob pushed, trying to stop her from going back into shock. It was almost certain her core temperature was low enough to cause her problems if she went to sleep.
“What?” she asked, as if just noticing his presence. “Oh, we found that the van was unlocked, so we got in it to hide. There was a guy in the passenger seat, he seemed to be in some sort of weird trance, we couldn’t get his attention. He was wearing blue cable guy overalls. He just looked at us. Then the bastard started to climb into the back with us, and we noticed his eyes.” She shuddered, remembering his eyes. “They’d gone all milky, just like the manager’s. No kidding, we got outta the van, and tried to lock the doors on him. Then we ran away as fast as we could, and hid behind a dumpster. We watched him as he struggled to get out, and started sniffing the air, as if he could smell a barbecue or something. Totally weird. Then some poor bastard chose that moment to leave the next door shop. The guy from the van ran so fast it was frightening. He leapt, like one of those lions you see on TV, must have been twenty feet, and smashed this poor fella against the wall. He just started eating him, right there, in front of us.”
“Shit,” was all Rob could contribute.
“That’s what we thought,” Stacey said, wryly. “We stayed there for a while, but we had no coats, and we were freezing. We decided we had to get away, so we used the dumpsters as cover and moved off. Problem is, the bastard seemed to detect us. It was like he could smell us on the wind, like we was prey or something. We’ve been trying to escape him ever since. If you hadn’t been there we’d be dead by now; or something worse.”
“Worse, I think,” Rob said, She just nodded.
“I have a sister in New York, do you know about New York?” she said, a frown of worry on her face.
“I haven’t heard anything specific,” Rob answered evasively. “We’re going to Castle Rock right now. Get to my wife, she’s on her own.”
“That’s not far. Where have you travelled from?”
“London, England,” he replied, smiling.
“You’re shittin’ me!” she exclaimed. Jackie moaned at being disturbed, but seemed to settle back to sleep, her breathing shallow.
“Nope. We only just got in, some bastard has nuked the airport.”
“Jeez, Jackie and I thought we heard something weird yesterday, late morning, I think. But we was asleep, night-shift,” she said by way of explanation, “really messes with your body clock, makes you sleep real heavy. Damn, a nuke.” She shook her head in disbelief.
“Why didn’t you stay home yesterday? Surely this shit was happening then?”
“I needed the money, so does Jackie. We share a flat. We thought whatever was going down wouldn’t last, you know, probably the military assin’ around like on the TV. Anyway, like I said, we needed the rent money.”
They lapsed into silence once more; Rob appreciate
d that she needed a bit of quiet time to process the dreadful happenings of the day. He lifted the canvas flap to see where they were, and pulled it back down quickly, his eyes watering from the cold air that had blasted his face. They were just coming up to the Castle Rock Retail Outlet Centre on the right. They must have been talking longer than he’d thought, as they were nearly there. Excitedly, he poked his head through the canvas flap and window to the front cab.
“We need to get off at exit one eight one, Plum Creek Parkway. You’ll see it in about ten more minutes,” Rob announced, and then looked up. The road ahead was almost completely clear of any vehicles at all. A few scattered military vehicles, without their contingent of men, were all that could be seen, along with a few decimated corpses. He whistled, he’d never seen the road so empty.
“It’s been like this for quite a way now,” Janet said, “How are the women?”
“Stacey, the little ’un, is okay, or will be. Jackie has been sleeping all the way so far, but I can tell she is in pain. She doesn’t appear to be turning, but I can’t tell necessarily. Perhaps a scratch is a slower burn. We’ll see.”
They drove on in silence until they could see the butte rising ahead, from which the town earned its name. It was impressive, with the American flag at its peak, fluttering lightly in the breeze. The rocky outcrops made them realise just how much the countryside had changed as they had driven southwards.
“There’s the sign, stay right, old buddy.” Daniel could hear the anticipation in Rob’s voice. Another few minutes and he’d be home. As it turned out, the military had blocked the on-ramps to the Interstate, clearly intending to stop the rapid advance of the problem. At least they could now account for the absent traffic. As they turned onto Plum Creek Parkway, they saw large numbers of bodies, on whose remains birds and the Infected feasted. Quickly checking on Jackie’s state - he hated her being behind his back in her condition - Rob returned to the window to direct them to his house. There was carnage everywhere, with them occasionally seeing a normal person running between the houses. All three of them had their guns at the ready; this area was still very much a hot zone.
The neighbourhood had been pretty; well-groomed, neat verges, freshly painted houses that demonstrated the love and attention lavished onto them. Now though, that neatness had been invaded. Several cars had driven out of control across those same precise verges, leaving trails of destruction and mutilated corpses in their wake. Burning cars had scalded the immaculate paint work on several properties, a few of which had burned to the ground, nothing left but a smouldering heap of rubble where someone’s heart and soul had resided.
At seeing the destruction, Rob’s heart was racing, his impatience telling in his voice, urging them on, faster. Daniel didn’t rise to it, it would be a catastrophe if they crashed at this point, yards away after thousands of miles; the word irony simply wouldn’t cover it adequately. Turning off South Plum Creek Boulevard onto Balsa Drive, Rob let out a huge sigh of relief as he saw his house, more or less intact. Other than the automatic gunfire holes stitched across the front, it was as he remembered leaving it.
“There, number twenty three,” he exclaimed, pointing. “Go up onto the grass, park as close as you can.” Without further discussion, Rob retreated to the back once more, and unclipped the canvas flap of the truck. Making sure the girls under the tarp were still okay, he poked his head out to check all was clear.
“You two, stay here a moment. Once I’ve made sure all is well, I’ll come back for you.” Stacey nodded vigorously and Rob jumped out, landing quietly. He crouched down next to the truck’s rear wheel, rifle at the ready, and saw that there was no immediate threat. Running to the front door, he called out quietly.
“Sandy, you there?” he whispered as loudly as possible.
“Oh, Rob.” There was a scrabbling the other side of the door, as his wife unjammed the chair holding it in place. Face to face they stared for a moment in disbelief, and then fell into each other’s arms.
“Oh, God. I’ve missed you. I thought…” he began, before she planted her lips on his, silencing him.
Daniel and Janet, closely followed by the children and the dog, walked up behind them and, a little embarrassed for intruding on their first embrace, waited for the reunion to abate.
“Sorry, guys,” Daniel interrupted after a short while, “can we come in, please? We are a little exposed out here.”
Coming back to the real world once more, Sandy and Rob grudgingly let go of each other, and they all went into the house.
“Darling, I’ve got to get a couple of others from the truck, one of them is injured.” Rob began, remembering.
“I’ll get them,” Daniel interrupted, “you stay with Sandy. Hi Sandy,” he said smiling, and pecked her on the cheek. “Sandy, this is my wife, Janet, and these two are Penny and Sam.”
The women began to organise themselves, clucking around the children in the comfort, warmth, and relative safety of the house. Daniel went back to the truck, and lowered the tailgate, quietly, to make it easier to get the girls out. He climbed in, and found the two of them still huddled together for warmth.
“Come on, let’s get inside, where it’s warm.” Daniel said gently. At the word ‘warm’, Stacey rallied, and began to help her friend get up. The damaged leg had swollen since the injury, but still looked for all the world like a normal wound. Mentally crossing his fingers that a scratch, even a deep one, wasn’t contagious, Daniel helped hoist Jackie towards the edge of the flatbed. While they did this, Rob had come out to help, and between them, they lowered her to the ground. As gently as possible, they led her into the house, and laid her on the carpeted floor in the living room, placing a pillow under her head.
“Let’s secure the truck,” Daniel said, and the two men went back outside, leaving the women to tend to the cold and injured.
Locking the doors and securing the canvas flap, they surveyed the immediate area. For as far as they could see, bodies were strewn on lawns and on the road; one could even be seen in a tree in someone’s yard, although how it had landed there was anyone’s guess. There were a few slower Infected wandering around aimlessly a few houses away, prisoners within their own little worlds.
“Are the ones on the ground actually dead?” Rob wondered.
“They look it, but I’m prepared to make that assumption from right here,” Danny said, pointing at the ground he was standing on. “No more risks.”
“Yep, let’s go inside.” Together they walked back in, into the warmth. They could smell the heady aroma of frying steak, and hoped they weren’t inviting trouble by cooking. At this point, cold, frightened and desperate for a decent meal, they were more than prepared to take the risk.
Chapter 26
NORAD, the Lunatics Have Taken Over the Asylum
The sirens sounded, sending men and women, most in military uniforms, scurrying to get past the slowly closing, steel and concrete doors that would seal them into the mountain for the foreseeable future. They had all been hurriedly rushed from Peterson Air Force Base, the normal home of NORAD, or North American Aerospace Defense Command, to the hardened installation of the Cheyenne Mountain Nuclear Bunker. Its systems were twinned with the primary site, so the defence of the country would not miss a beat as the change-over took place.
Two of the men now installed in their new positions were Master Sergeants Billy and Paul Herschel. They were brothers, and each had made it their life’s ambition to join the army, and serve in the same regiment as the other. They would not be separated easily. Today it was their duty to guard the entrance to the main operations room, a huge cavern deep in the mountain, filled with the latest technology that allowed the operators to see, in real time, all activities across the US of A, both on the ground and in the air.
The sergeants were very proud of their duty and took it very seriously indeed. They were known as the terrible twins, primarily because of their infallible and indefatigable natures. Those men serving under them feared t
heir abilities, because to underperform in sight of these two usually meant cruel and unusual punishment would follow. The only reason the rank and file hadn’t quietly bumped them off for this was that the sergeants undertook the same punishment as their men. If they could deal it out, they showed they could take it as well.
Billy’s heart was racing, what was going on outside was incredible; it was pandemonium, fires raged, and explosions had rocked the town adjacent to the air force base, raising the alert level around the station. If he hadn’t seen with his own eyes, the fires and the people fleeing in terror, he would have firmly believed this move into the mountain was just another interminable exercise. Stealing a look across at his brother, he could see that beneath his cool exterior he was just as pumped; it was in the way he was standing, radiating energy.
Earlier that morning, walking through town on their way to Peterson AFB, they had been surrounded by, and had fought off, some fifteen men. The gang had chosen no easy marks in these two. Defending themselves against the onslaught had been easy, the gang members hadn’t exactly been skilled in the art of dealing it out. He took his hat off to them though; when anyone else would have been out cold from the beating they had received, these weirdoes kept coming back for more. They had a strange look about them too, something about the eyes; they looked blank, and a bit cloudy. Probably drugged up. In the end, the two of them had just run from the affray, bored with the crap by now; anyway, they would be late for duty if they persisted with the brawl. It was at that moment that all hell chose to break loose in the town and, dodging others also intent on fighting, they had run all the way to the base’s gates, before cadging a lift in a jeep to their building.
Billy reflected on the earlier incident; guard duty always allowed him some ‘me time’, at least in his mind. He decided that the fight had been not quite right. What was strange was that those guys seemed so intent on biting the two sergeants. Although it wasn’t unknown to use teeth in a fight, especially in a brawl, they were certainly more determined than the average Joe. And as for that last fella, he thought, that one had been particularly dogged; he also moved frighteningly quickly. If Billy hadn’t stuck that final haymaker directly into the guy’s face, well, who knew how long the fight would have gone on for? The bloke had fallen to the ground like he’d been pole-axed, and didn’t move. Billy hoped he hadn’t killed him with the punch; they hadn’t stayed around to find out, instead heading double-time across to the base. All the way there, it was as if people were coming out of the woodwork, trying to grab at them as they ran. He wasn’t sure if they were trying to get his help, which he doubted, or what. All had that slack-jawed appearance of civvies in need of a caffeine fix.
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