Moans filled the space, and Josh shuddered. The noise made by the wounded reminded him too much of zombies.
“Do we have to crawl over the cars to get out?” Troy asked.
Josh wasn’t too sure how sturdy the piles of rubble or toppled shelves would be to scramble over, but it looked like they might be able to climb over the hood of one of the cars to get out. He was about to suggest it when Corina pointed toward the dark smoke pouring out from a corner of the car’s hood.
“That car is on fire! We need to get out of here,” she said.
A second later, flames erupted from the bent hood and set the nearby pile of cardboard cookie boxes ablaze.
Chapter 15
“Josh!”
Jamie Rondell’s voice cut through the roar of the flames, the cries of the wounded and frightened people, the growl of car engines, and guns firing.
“Dad! We’re trapped!” Josh cried out.
Through the haze of smoke and the orange flames, Jamie and a few other guards ran toward the store with their heavy weapons gripped in their hands. They stopped a few feet from the burning wreckage, unable to enter the store. Jamie paced back and forth, obviously trying to figure out how to get the survivors out of the wrecked building. The fire was swiftly spreading across the front of the store, and it was getting harder to breathe inside.
“We need to get out now!” Corina tugged on Josh’s arm, and pointed to the far side of the store. “Beaux just pried the storage room door open.”
“We’re going through the back, Dad!” Josh yelled over the noise of the building groaning and the fire snapping.
“Hurry, Josh! We’ve got to get the buses out of here now!”
“Sergeant Rondell, they’re coming!” Melissa shouted.
“Zombies,” Sam gasped.
The staggering forms of the undead nearing the buses pulled Jamie’s desperate gaze from the burning store. “Hurry, son!”
Josh headed to where the storeroom door was propped open on the other side of the crashed SUV. Chad and the kids with him started to follow them over the wreckage. It was hard to scramble over all the debris. The flames were spreading fast and the heat nipped at Josh’s skin. The survivors coughed and gagged on the smoky air, which was more of a threat with every passing second.
Josh did his best not to look at the bodies of the wounded and dead. He had to save himself and his friends. There was no time to rescue the unconscious or the severely wounded. Josh tried not to look toward the SUV and the blood splattered across the windshield. The helplessness he felt made his chest hurt.
One of the counters was pushed into the back wall by the wrecked SUV. The end had punched through the plaster, so it was tilted at an awkward angle. Several adults climbed over it and disappeared into the storeroom. No one seemed to be looking out for the kids gingerly making their way through the debris.
Finally, the children crawled over a jumble of wire racks that once held souvenirs – now scattered all over the floor – and arrived at the counter. Sweaty palms made it hard for Josh to grip the slanted edge and pull himself over. Corina was faster despite the heavy bag still hanging from her shoulder. She jumped to the other side, clasped his wrists, and dragged him over the buckled surface.
There was a loud crash, and Troy yelped as more of the ceiling caved in a few feet from where he stood. “We need to gogogogo!”
Josh hurriedly helped Sam over the slanted surface. The bigger boy’s eyes were round with fright, and he moved faster than expected. Troy followed, vaulting effortlessly over the obstacle. His football training had him in the best shape of all the kids. His parents had been diehard Dallas Cowboy fans and had dreamed of one or both of their sons playing professional football one day.
“Get out of here,” Josh ordered.
“What about you?” Corina asked.
“I’m going to help them,” Josh replied, pointing to three figures struggling over the wire racks.
It was Chad and two other kids. Josh thought there had been more children with Chad, but he couldn’t see them now in the fiery rubble.
“Okay, but don’t wait too long.” Corina pushed Sam into the storeroom, and Troy followed.
“Hurry, Chad!” Josh yelled.
The older boy’s feet tangled in the racks and he fell forward, but caught himself on the counter. The boy and girl behind him floundered on the uneven pile, but Chad didn’t pay attention. He vaulted over the counter and dashed into the storage room.
Josh hooked the neck of his t-shirt over his nose and considered climbing over to help the two kids. An older man staggered out of the smoke from behind the SUV, blood pouring from his head. Josh froze, afraid the man might be a zombie, but then the scrawny guy picked up the short Latino boy off the racks and swung him over the counter.
“Hurry, kids. Got to getcha out of here,” he said in a thick Texas twang.
“We’re going, mister,” the boy answered, dropping down beside Josh.
The bleeding man hoisted the teenage girl over the counter. She clasped hands with the younger boy and dragged him out of sight without a word.
Josh turned to follow, but a voice stopped him.
“Someone help my husband!”
Josh could barely see Clare through the smoke and fire. Her blonde hair had finally lost its puffiness and lay flat against her head. She was kneeling in the rubble.
“C’mon, ma’am! We have to go!” Josh called to her.
“Someone help him!” She was holding her dead husband’s hand that was sticking out from under the SUV.
“Go, son. I got her,” the older man said, waving a hand at Josh.
In the man’s blue eyes, Josh saw surrender to the possibility of death, but also determination to try to save Clare.
Gagging on the thick air, Josh darted into the darkened store room. It was hard to see at first, but then the door on the far end opened and sunlight spilled inside illuminating stacks of boxes. Josh wove through the long room toward the light. The walls shook and behind him came the terrifying sound of another part of the building collapsing. The shelves rattled on the walls and boxes toppled over.
“It’s falling down! Hurry!” Corina shouted from the exit.
The two kids ahead of Josh raced outside and the door started to swing shut behind them. Afraid to be trapped in the dark, Josh sprinted the last few steps even though his lungs felt raw and he was gasping for breath. He hit the closing door with so much force it swung open and slammed into the wall. He almost fell out onto the blacktop, but Corina caught his arm and he regained his balance. Together they hurried away from the burning building.
All his friends were waiting for him along with the three other kids who’d escaped.
Sam pulled him into a sweaty hug. “I thought you were dead, Josh!”
“I’m okay. Just breathed in too much smoke.” Josh pulled away from Sam, trying to stifle his rough coughing. He looked toward the storage room door and loading dock, but there wasn’t any sign of the Clare or the man who’d tried to rescue her.
“Which way do we go?” Troy asked, gesturing to either side of him.
The blacktop behind the store connected to the side road that intersected with the frontage. There was a small employee parking lot, dumpsters, and enough room for trucks to back up to the loading dock. The blacktop ended abruptly at the edge of the building even though the fence continued on to the far corner of the parking lot.
“Kids! Kids!”
Josh whipped about to see Beaux waving at them. “This way!”
The janitor was at the far end of the drive near the road.
“Okay, that way,” Josh decided.
“Hurry it up, fatty,” Chad said to Sam, poking his belly.
Clenching his hands into fists, Sam ran after him. “I’m not fat!”
It was hard to run when still gasping for air. The group of children and teens coughed violently as they fled from the burning wreckage of the building. Josh wondered if the gasoline pumps were goi
ng to explode, and the thought terrified him almost as much as the zombies. He could still hear the crack of gunfire and the sounds of the convoy escaping.
Beaux ran toward the road behind a few others. One of the men in the lead started to round the far end of the fence when he let out a startled cry. Before he could turn back, he was dragged out of sight.
The janitor slid to a stop a few feet from where the man had vanished.
“Not this way! Turn around!” Beaux shouted.
Beaux and the other adults started to run back toward the back of the store.
Around the edge of the fence came the bloodied, gnawed bodies of the undead.
Chapter 16
“Zombies! Zombies! Zombies!” Sam shouted.
“We know!” Troy shoved Sam to get him moving in the opposite direction. “Run!”
Swallowing hard, Josh felt trapped in his worst zombie nightmare where he couldn’t move or speak. He heard his friends scampering away, but his feet wouldn’t move. Staring at the creatures in deadly pursuit of the adults racing toward him, his brain registered fresh wounds on the limbs, faces, and necks of the zombies. He also calculated that there had to be at least twenty zombies closing in on his location fast.
The memory of his zombified mother lurching off the sofa toward him and Drake filled his vision. It was as if he were there again, but this time unable to move. Unable to save Drake. Unable to save himself.
“Run, kid! Run!” Beaux shouted at him, pulling his thoughts back to reality.
Heart thudding in his chest, Josh struggled to free his fear-locked limbs.
The rumble of the buses pulling away from the front of the store and the continuous pop of guns shooting overwhelmed him with despair. Was his dad leaving him behind? No, no. He’d never do that. Why was he leaving then? The answer came to him in a flash. The three cars with full fuel tanks were lodged in the building. How long would it take before the fires turned the vehicles into bombs? The convoy was getting clear. Josh and the others needed to reach the road where his father would be waiting for them in the bus.
If only he could convince his body to move...
“Josh! Josh!” Corina screamed.
Trembling with fright, he managed to move his head so he could peer over his shoulder. The other kids were far away from him, pumping their arms and legs as fast as they could. Corina hesitated, then double-backed toward him.
“Josh, c’mon! Don’t just stand there!”
The adults were closing in on his location. Terror filled their eyes and sped their pace.
The mangled bodies of the undead followed.
Lips quivering, Josh whispered, “Move, Josh, move.”
Flight, fight, freeze...
The words of his father pierced through his fear.
He’d frozen with fear.
But why now?
He wasn’t trapped in his house. Drake was safe with Savannah and on the bus.
All he had to do was save himself.
Whatever had paralyzed him dissipated just as Corina grabbed his hand.
“Run!” she ordered.
Bursting into a full sprint, Josh fled with Beaux and the other adults close behind. The zombies pursued them, grunting with hunger. It took all his willpower not to look back every second to see if the dead were closing the gap. Instead, Josh concentrated on the ground in front of him, avoiding pot holes and anything that might trip him. Smoke drifted across the asphalt and flames licked around the store’s back door. As Josh and Corina ran along the far edge of the back area, the heat emanating from the burning store washed over them in a suffocating wave. Josh pumped his legs harder, determined to put more distance between them and the store before the fuel tanks in the cars exploded.
Ahead, the other kids reached the high grasses that edged the large field behind the parking lot’s wooden fence. Skirting behind the dumpsters, Josh dared to look back. The zombies were still pursuing the adults, but had fallen behind.
“The buses left,” Corina gasped. “Where do we go?”
“The road. My dad won’t leave us,” Josh answered.
Side by side, the two kids ran toward the field.
The first explosion sent pieces of flaming debris spiraling into the air. The concussion wave caught Josh and Corina and hurled them to the ground.
Scraping the heels of his palms on the asphalt, Josh immediately pushed up to his knees. A quick look behind him revealed that the adults and front wave of the zombies had been struck by the blast and were thrown to the ground. Two people closest to the building were on fire. Rising, Beaux rushed to the nearest person to help them extinguish their clothes. Zombies staggered out of the black smoke and surrounded the other human rolling about on the ground attempting to put out the flames engulfing them.
“Beaux, they’re coming!” Corina screamed.
“We gotta go.” Josh stood and pulled Corina to her feet.
Shrieks rang out as they fled.
Josh didn’t look back.
He knew what he’d see.
The two kids plunged into the wild high grass and stumbled on the uneven ground. The painful knot in Josh’s stomach clenched even tighter than before. Worse yet, his arms and legs felt like they were made out of lead. Smoke drifted over them, making it hard for Josh to catch his breath and to see clearly.
Ahead, Troy and Chad were nearly to the end of the long fence. The two Latino kids were close on their heels with Sam coming in last. Troy arrived at the end of the fence and was wise enough to stop and sneak a look around the corner. Spinning about, he held up his hand in a stop motion. When Chad tried to dart around him, Troy toppled him over with a fierce shove.
“Don’t,” Troy ordered.
Chad climbed to his feet and pushed Troy into the fence. “Don’t touch me, you lil’–”
“What’s wrong?” Corina called out in a raspy voice.
Troy shook his head and raised a finger to his lips.
Sam wheezed as Josh closed in on him. “Josh! Josh! Are the zombies coming?”
Daring to look over his shoulder, Josh had difficulty seeing what was happening behind the store. The smoke covered the entire area. None of the adults were following now.
“We need to get to the road.” Chad sneered at Troy, pushing him again for emphasis.
“Don’t.” Corina grabbed Chad’s arm, stopping him from stepping around the fence. “We need to be careful.”
“We got those things coming from over there,” Chad said, pointing to the store. “When they get done eating those people, they’re coming for us.”
“Zombies are eating Beaux?” Sam asked, a quaver in his voice.
“I don’t know,” Josh answered. “How bad is it, Troy?”
“Bad. Real bad.” Troy’s dark eyes were large with fear.
Josh pressed close to the fence and inched along the rough wood until just one eye could see into the parking lot. Inhaling sharply, he again felt his body start to freeze. He pushed his fingernails into his palm to steady himself.
Unlike horror movies, the undead weren’t afraid of the flames. Quite a few were gathered around the crashed cars imbedded in the front of the store, clawing at the bodies inside. Even as their clothes and hair caught fire, the zombies continued to eat. More were gathered in smaller groups and crouched on the ground. It was clear they were consuming people. It appeared that the zombies had crested the overpass and swarmed the area. Some were still stumbling down the sloping side of the highway.
But what was even more terrifying was that there were more than a hundred wandering through the parking lot and trailing after the single Metro bus parked on the frontage road. There weren’t any signs of the rest of the convoy and at least seven vehicles were crashed ruins near the pumps. The leading zombies were swiftly closing in on the lone bus that Josh knew was waiting for them. His father would give him a chance to make it back safely.
“Josh, we got a butt load of zombies between us and the bus,” Troy said in a lowered voice. “A bu
tt load.”
“I can see that,” Josh whispered back. Already he was plotting a course across the parking lot utilizing the cover of a few decorative bushes and crashed cars.
“What do we do?” Troy asked.
“We run for it,” Chad answered.
Before anyone could grab him, he darted past the fence and into the parking lot.
Chapter 17
Josh made a grab for Chad as he zipped past him, but only managed to snag his shirt for a split second. The older teenage boy pounded across the parking lot toward the waiting bus.
“Do we follow?” Corina asked, uncertainty in her voice.
Josh was about to say “yes” and guide them along the path he’d plotted when the teenager did something else completely idiotic.
“Wait! Wait for us!” Chad shouted at those onboard the waiting vehicle. “We’re coming!”
Josh watched in horror as the herd of zombies redirected their focus from their fallen victims and the bus to Chad.
“Oh, man!” Troy muttered. “It’s over.”
“Josh?” Sam whimpered. “Josh, what do we do?”
The blonde boy was fast, but the undead had numbers and were closer to the frontage road. Almost immediately the front of the herd shifted direction and moved to cut Chad off.
“I... I...”Josh tried to plot a new path through the crowd of zombies, but his brain only projected the worst scenarios. Shadowy forms were moving inside the bus. He could imagine the passengers watching Chad’s race across the parking lot. Despite the zombies descending on the location of the bus, it looked like a safe haven, and he yearned to be inside with his father and younger brother. At least Drake and the smaller kids were safe.
“Josh, do we follow?” Corina pulled him around to face her.
“Can your dad come get us?” Troy asked.
The other kids were gathered in a tight group around him. He could feel their fear washing over him, making it even harder to think. Spinning about, he once again tried to plot a way through the parking lot to the bus. The frontage road curved away from the store and the kids’ location. There was no way the bus could circle around to get to them unless it drove over the thick curb, and through a bunch of bushes. The bus couldn’t risk it. It wasn’t built for speed, and Josh imagined that going over the divider and also hitting so many zombies could do some damage to the undercarriage and wheels.
The Living Dead Boy (Book 2): Lost in Texas Page 8