Value of Jade (Mace of the Apocalypse #2)

by Daniel J. Williams

  Jim rushed to the back of the truck and grabbed one of several axes that were stacked in the bed. The infected were so focused on the Turchett’s they never noticed the approach. Shawn held the ax like a bat and nervously prepared to swing.

  The Walkie-Talkie chatter continued. Brad Wilson, in the vehicle behind Hannah’s, said in quiet exasperation, “We’re with you, Bob. Now we’ve got four people out of the vehicles. This is not cool. I’ve said from the beginning we’d be better off traveling in smaller groups.”

  Bob answered immediately. “I was never convinced on Kansas, anyway. It’s a damn pipe dream.”

  A third vehicle joined the exit talk. “Us too. I don’t think they’re coming back. Bad things are gonna happen if we just sit here.”

  Lisa talked calmly to Chelsea as she turned down the Walkie-Talkie. She didn’t want Chelsea getting scared by the chatter. “Honey, I want you to stay in the car and keep Buster calm. Mommy is just going to make sure that everybody is safe outside. I want you to lay down on the seat until I get back. Close your eyes and cover your ears, okay?” As she reached for the Marlin, the large hunting rifle, Chelsea asked, “Are you going to shoot the bad people?”

  “Only if I have to, honey.” Lisa's hand trembled and she felt like throwing up. She was about to leave her daughter alone and face the infected. As she was about to exit the car, Chelsea stopped her. “Mommy?”

  “Yes, honey?" Lisa turned back around and looked at her daughter with fear over their welfare.

  “Could you please just hurry? I still have to pee.”

  Out in the street, Shawn let out a short yell and jumped forward as he bashed the closest infected across the side of the head with the axe, full force. The ax sliced through its head like soft wood, severing its head just above the ears, and Shawn lost his balance as the force of the blow carried him further than he intended and he hit the pavement on both knees. He righted himself quickly as those surrounding the car turned their attention towards the them.

  The air filled with outrage as they lunged towards them, delirious with rage. Jim swung his axe overhead, splitting open the head of another and dropping it instantly. In the distance a loud shriek filled the air. The fast ones were coming back. Fast.

  Mace and Jade moved swiftly to the next street, away from the Condos. Jade picked off any roaming infected as they went. They heard a high-pitched screech and knew time was running short.

  They rushed to a single story home where Mace tucked his gun in its holster, placed a foot on one of the porch rails and hoisted himself up. He placed the boom box quickly on the roof.

  As soon as he hit play the sound of Celine Dion belting out “My Heart Will Go On” emanated from its speakers. “Let’s go!” he said as he jumped back down.

  They darted off the porch and ran around the corner to find a different path out of the maze of condos. They almost instantly ran into a small pocket of slow infected. Six more shots between them cleared enough of the threat for them to move swiftly through.

  They heard a series of shrieks followed by gunshots back towards the vehicles. “Oh God,” said Jade. “Let’s go!”

  They sprinted through the side of the condo area. A tall wooden fence ran on their left all the way back to the street they came from. Tall Sequoias were planted along the fence line. The path was narrow.

  They passed an intersecting path and saw a woman bent over a man. From the back, the woman looked to be in perfect health: Pale blue sweat suit, long blonde hair, fit and toned. Her head jerked towards them as they passed. Her face was twisted and bloody and she sprang towards them. The man on the ground suddenly rose, screamed in rage, and Mace recognized him as the man they saw moments earlier.

  “I guess he found his girl,” he said as they sprinted away. “I’m down to four shots,” he said as he looked back to gauge the threat. Now both infected raced behind them.

  “I’ve only got three,” Jade said breathlessly as she tried to keep up.

  They were both carrying 9mm Kahr PM9 pistols with a K920 magazine, which held 8 rounds. They were both already on a spare magazine. In their haste they hadn’t grabbed more. Time was running out.

  A group of slow moving zombies appeared ahead from the next intersection, fifteen feet ahead. Their numbers grew until they bordered on double digits. The street where their vehicles waited was still forty feet ahead. They’d be entering the street behind the last car.

  “Shit!” Mace said as he abruptly stopped, turned, and lined up his shot. The female was within ten feet and barreling towards him. A perfect head shot dropped her. Her trailing partner closed the gap and was on Mace before he could get off a clean shot. Jade turned at the gun shot and screamed as the male collided into Mace. They both went down hard with Mace scrambling to get out of the way. The infected jumped back to its feet and made a swift move towards him as Jade fired a bullet that penetrated the back of its skull and sent it crashing forward. It slammed into Mace as he tried to get out of the way and they both slammed against the fence. Mace quickly got up and turned his attention towards the approaching slow ones.

  “We don’t have enough ammo.”

  “Maybe enough to clear a path. Let’s take out the ones closest to the fence.”

  Mace looked around for another alternative. “Shit.”

  Back at the vehicles, Jim swung at a second walking corpse, its rage at being attacked resulting in a high pitched squeal. More shrieks erupted close by as three fast infected suddenly appeared a distance down the street, running full speed towards them. Both Jim and Shawn dropped their axes and pulled out their weapons, blasting the closest slow zombies with head shots as they backpedaled swiftly to try to take cover behind the next vehicle in line. At the sound of the shrieks, Bob Pollard turned the ignition on his vehicle and pulled swiftly out, almost running over Shawn as he did so. Shawn bounced off the side of the car as Bob sped off down the street. The next two vehicles fired up their engines and did the same, leaving Jim and Shawn in a panic. They fired repeatedly at the rapidly approaching threat.

  Lisa jumped out of her vehicle with the Marlin and ran to the front of the car, where she positioned herself over the right passenger wheel and laid the gun across the hood. She lined up the scope and blew off the face of one of the speeding infected. It dropped and she yelled for Shawn and Jim to get down. They ran towards Hannah’s vehicle where they dropped to the pavement and rolled under it. A loud crackle left a splattering of blood over the last infected as the second one tumbled. The third one tripped over it, landing hard on the pavement before jumping up with a roar and racing towards Hannah’s vehicle.

  As the fleeing vehicles raced down the street, a group of fast infected suddenly appeared behind them, giving chase.

  The slow zombies stumbled towards Mace and Jade as they made their final push. “Let’s do it!” Mace yelled as he raced towards them. He emptied his gun on the first three closest the fence, while Jade blasted the next two. It was still too narrow to avoid any confrontation so Mace sped up and threw his whole body into the closest ones, knocking most of them down. “Run,” he yelled to Jade as he scrambled to his feet. Diseased and mottled flesh frantically reached for him. Jade kicked one in its mouth as it tried to clamp around his ankle. Mace pushed off the ground as an infected snapped its jaws at his forearm, missing by inches.

  “Go, go, go!” Jade yelled as more loud shrieks sounded the approach of more fast zombies.

  Mace and Jade suddenly appeared from in-between the condos as Lisa lined up and fired on the third infected, knocking it back with a shot directly between the eyes. Its brains exploded out the back of its head.

  She swung the Marlin towards Mace and Jade and screamed, “Get out of the way!” as a fast infected followed them onto the street.

  They both ducked and a perfect kill shot put it down for good.

  “Let’s go, now!” Jade yelled as she rushed towards the SUV. Mace and Jade both noticed the missing vehicles. Mace jumped into the driver’s seat as Jade h
opped in the passenger side and Lisa dove in the back. He fired up the SUV and floored it, peeling out swiftly down the street. A thick coat of sweat covered him. Jade rested her head against the backrest as she tried to gather herself and calm down her breathing. The rest of the vehicles followed suit as they rushed to escape the area. Paul knocked down two slow infected that were in his way. “Fuck you!” he yelled in outraged relief.

  After several blocks of clear driving, Mace glanced in the rear view mirror towards Lisa. “What happened to the rest of us?”

  “They almost ran Shawn over when we were attacked. They just took off.” Lisa breathed rapidly and sweat. She paused for a moment and glanced down at Chelsea, who was now, amazingly, asleep on the back seat. She blinked a few times then turned her attention towards the front of the vehicle. “Don’t you ever leave us like that again,” she whispered softly but sternly. “I left the vehicle. I left the vehicle and left Chelsea alone. Do you know what that means?” She paused again, trying to figure out how to voice her thoughts. “I made her lie down in the back seat. I made her close her eyes and cover her ears. Do you know why I did that?” Another long pause filled the vehicle with an uncomfortable silence. Her voice cracked as she said, “I did that in case I had to open the door and shoot her dead."

  No one spoke for the longest time. Lisa choked down a sob. “Don’t you ever leave us like that again.”

  Neither Jade nor Mace knew what to say. After a few long seconds Jade broke the silence, turning fully around in her seat to lock eyes with Lisa. “We’ll never leave you like that again, Lisa. I promise. Never.”

  Lisa nodded back, her eye twitching from stress as she fought to calm down.

  “Thank you for saving our asses back there,” Mace said quietly, studying her in the rear view mirror. “If it wasn’t for you we were done.”

  “You’re welcome,” she said as she pulled herself back together. “My God, of course you’re welcome. Thank you for saving us, too.”

  All of a sudden a voice crackled from the Walkie-Talkie. “Help us! Shit, we’re cornered!” It was Bob Pollard, the leader of the runaways.

  Mace picked up the radio. “Where are you? What happened?”

  “We got turned around! They’re too fast! Shit!”

  They could hear glass breaking and then several screams. The radio went silent.

  “Bob!”

  Mace punched down on the gas.

  “They can’t be far,” he said as he scanned the road ahead, picking up speed.

  “They left us,” Lisa said seriously from the back. “Why should we risk our necks for them?”

  Mace stared at her in the rear view mirror. “I know, but could you really live with it?”

  Lisa looked down at Chelsea, who still slept. “Without a doubt.” She looked back up and locked eyes with Mace. “They left us. They made their choice. We’re lucky to be alive. Let’s stay that way.”

  The radio crackled and Shawn’s voice came over in a low, hushed tone. “They almost ran me over and almost got us killed. They left. I’m not risking my life for them. This shit is way too hairy.”

  Staring morosely at the Walkie-Talkie, Mace thought for a few seconds before nodding his head once. He picked up the radio, said, “Ok, I agree,” and then clicked it off. “Shit,” he said to himself. He clicked the radio back on. “Anybody have a problem with that?” The airwaves remained silent.

  They ran into a car wreck and were forced to turn off the main street. They turned right and slowed down as they rolled down a side street. “This is where they must have got turned around,” Mace said quietly over the radio. “Keep your eyes out.”

  At the next corner, Mace stopped a few feet out in the intersection. They all looked around. A few abandoned cars were in both directions, several with their doors still left open. The streets were dirty, piled with garbage that blew and was discarded when the wind died down. Abandoned houses stared back at them with lawns high and brown. Decomposing bodies littered the street. There was no sign of their lost comrades.

  “I’m going to turn left and try to get back to the main street,” Mace said over the radio. Continuing to stare in that direction for signs of anything unusual, he said, “Let’s take it slow.”

  Mace turned the corner and drove slowly as they rolled down the windows and listened for any threats. They heard the commotion half-way down the block. Mace picked up the Walkie-Talkie. “Do you hear that? It’s around the next corner. Let’s take it even slower.”

  He rolled to a stop behind the next intersection, and then inched forward. Looking left, he immediately spotted the familiar vehicles at the end of the road, a hundred yards down. There were bodies in the street. They heard a steady banging and the high shriek of a number of infected, but couldn’t see them yet. “I see their vehicles,” Mace said quietly over the Walkie-Talkie. “The street ends in a dead end. They turned too soon and had nowhere to go.” He felt his stomach churn as he pulled out a few inches and saw a crowd of infected raging to get in the last house on the street. “Shit, I think at least one made it into the house.”

  They all jumped as an infected shrieked to the right of their car, and they jerked around just in time to watch it pass by full speed towards the house. It hadn’t noticed them. Looking down the street to the right there were seven others, spaced out and lumbering towards them.

  “It’s drawing a crowd. We got to get out of here.”

  Mace moved slowly forward, the moans of the slow approaching growing louder as they recognized life within the vehicles. The ones surrounding the house were too preoccupied to notice. All the other vehicles passed through the intersection and drove on.

  Inside the house, Brad Wilson watched through the curtains from a second floor bedroom as Mace’s SUV moved through the intersection. “We’ve got to go!” he shouted in a panic. “They’re leaving!” He tore down the stairs as Bob Pollard, who was curled up in a fetal position on the floor below, sobbed bitterly. When he turned the fateful corner he had realized immediately they were through. The infected were on them in seconds after they stopped. No one from the third vehicle even made it out of their car.

  He watched his wife’s head get separated from her body as they savagely pulled at her while still strapped to her seat. He could still hear her manic screams turn to a wet gurgling as it happened. It ended with an enormous gush of blood as slimy tendons and muscles stretched until they oozed and snapped apart. He fell backwards out of the driver side door in utter shock, and then they were on him.

  Blood soaked through his shirt from several bite wounds to the shoulder, and the bone jutted out of his leg from where they jumped on him after bringing him down. He narrowly escaped by placing the gun directly against the head of the one tearing into his shoulder. He then luckily connected with the other two point blank as they were on him.

  It was Brad that pulled him to safety. Gun blazing, he’d dragged him with one hand while slowing the infected down with precision shots. They burst through the front door of the last house on the block, which was fortunately unlocked.

  “Go without me!” he yelled at Brad. “I’m not going anywhere.”

  “Bullshit!” Brad screamed, pulling on his good arm to get him to his feet. “Let’s go!”

  Bob yanked back again. “I told you I’m not going anywhere! Get the fuck out of here! I’m done!”

  Brad stared at him for a second then said, “Screw it, man. I don’t have time to argue.”

  He rushed to the back door, threw it open and jumped the fence to the next door yard. The infected took off in hot pursuit. Bob yelled from the floor. “Come and get me, you bastards!” He could feel the toxin moving through his body, but the antidote kept him from turning. He pulled his gun out and pushed his back against the wall. “What are you waiting for? Come on!”

  Several infected rushed through the back door, shrieking loudly. Their eyes were ablaze with murderous rage. He fired and missed, the recoil sending massive pain shooting through his shou
lder and leg. He got off a second shot, plugging it into a rib cage as they were on him. They viciously ripped into his chest with their dead fingers. He screamed as they split it wide open and tugged fiercely at his flesh. They dug their teeth into his face and neck and he flopped over, still screaming as they clawed into his stomach, yanking at his intestines with furious madness.

  Brad cleared the last fence to the corner and gave chase to the caravan. He could still see the vehicles as they drove down the street. He waved his hands over his head, screaming for them to stop. They turned left at the corner three blocks down and he picked up his speed. He never saw the infected racing towards him from the side.

  It was one of those recently attacked, and was drawn to the area by the commotion. It made a beeline for him once it recognized him for what he was. Over six feet tall and close to three hundred pounds, it was no longer hampered by poor conditioning or health. It operated on pure rage. It collided into him with such force that it knocked him two feet off the ground and into the side of a parked van. He hit it so hard three ribs broke and a huge gash opened up across his forehead. He hit the ground and rolled over on his back, arched in pain. Before he could even attempt to get up the creature pounced, crushing him under its weight. His spine snapped as it clamped its teeth around his neck like a wild animal. Thrashing back and forth, it crushed his larynx and ripped out his Adam’s apple. It lifted its head and shrieked in triumph.

  Paul Turchett, the last car to turn the corner, smiled bitterly as he pictured Brad Wilson running hopelessly after them down the street. He hadn’t mentioned it to anyone else. Fuck him. He would get what he deserved.

  CHAPTER THREE

  The infected moved in unison as dawn prepared to slice through the cover of night. Travis Rogers looked cautiously around him. He crouched down and moved silently after the horde, scanning regularly to make sure there were no stragglers that could warn of his presence or attack.