Blood Scourge: Project Deadrise

by Siara Brandt

  Before the guy could renew his attack, Goldilocks stomped him where it made the most impact. Grey saw the guy curl into a standing fetal position and howl like a wounded animal. He stayed doubled over, his pathetic whimpers fading as he looked up and suddenly realized that Grey was standing over him. Her well-placed foot, apparently, had effectively discouraged him from pursuing his previous inclinations. Either that or seeing six foot two of armed soldier in combat fatigues glaring down at him had convinced him that it wasn’t worth it.

  After making sure the man was no longer a threat, Grey grabbed her by the arm and led her down the alley.

  “So much for staying put,” he said when he finally let go of her.

  “You think I can’t figure out when it’s a good time not to stay put?” she threw back at him. “And anyway how did I know you were even coming back?”

  He wondered if she meant he might be stagger bait or he had just decided to abandon her. But she made a good point. Nothing was certain anymore.

  “Waiting for Mr. He Man to come and rescue me didn’t seem like such a good idea at the time,” she panted, out of breath as she tried to keep up with him.

  Mr. He Man? Grey shook his head. What was he going to do with her? he thought absently. It was like dragging an enemy combatant with him wherever he went.

  Hanna had to practically run to keep up with the man. He didn’t argue with her further. He was back to being his super alert, military self. As they approached a tall, wooden fence, he suddenly went still. Without turning, he held out his arm and gave her some kind of military hand signal. Glad for the opportunity to catch her breath, she just stared. How the heck was she supposed to know what that meant?

  Chapter 5

  The sounds were muffled at first. Thumps. Dragging noises. And then glass shattering. In the darkness the woman clutched two small children tightly against her body and listened to the shuffling overhead.

  They were not just marauders looking for food. They could clearly hear snarls and growls. They were in the house.

  The four people in the basement kept silent, but they were breathing hard. Their hearts were pounding with fear. Stark, utter fear.

  The basement had become a dark dungeon for them. A prison from which there was no escape. For weeks they had longed to see something as simple as a sunrise. Or a sunset. But this had been their only survival. The darkness.

  A single flickering candle lit up the family’s frightened faces.

  There was a whisper, low and tense, and urgent. “Put the candle out.”

  “Jake,” the woman’s voice shook. She was beyond fear. Not so much for herself, but for her children.

  “I’m right here.”

  Before the candlelight was extinguished, it gleamed off the bracelet on the woman’s arm. It was a gift from her husband on her last birthday. She hadn’t taken it off. Not even once. It was a reminder of their old life. It was a reminder of the bond between them.

  How long could they continue to live in darkness? She had asked herself that question so many times these past two months. She wanted to see the light. More than anything she wanted to feel the warmth of the sunshine and absorb it. She wanted to see her children playing in the sunlight. She had become obsessed by the idea.

  As confining as the basement had seemed, the concrete walls now seemed far away and far from comforting. She now felt exposed, vulnerable. The barricade they had put up “just in case” seemed flimsy at best. They had used what was at hand.

  As she listened to the sounds in the house above them, her worst memories flashed through her mind. She wished she could forget, but the gruesome scenes still filled her with terror. She wondered if this was the way all hunted animals felt. Was this paralyzing, crushing fear the same? Did all animals feel the same breathlessness, the same awareness of being trapped?

  No one had to be told to be quiet. No one dared to make a sound. She knew that everyone around her was frozen with fear, the same as she was.

  The sounds overhead grew louder, more menacing if that was possible. Could they smell their presence, their warm flesh, their fear? Blood lust, she was thinking. It had a deeper meaning for her now.

  In the darkness, she felt her husband silently place one of the guns in her hand. That more than anything else affected her. She felt him kiss her cheek. She closed her eyes. She could not stop shaking. She could not speak. Her throat was too tight.

  She heard a hard thump against the door at the top of the stairs. Her tense muscles jerked. She felt Jake’s arm go around her shoulder. She felt his lips again, against her forehead this time. And then then his comforting presence left her and he was easing forward in the darkness, getting himself in a better position, she knew, to protect them all.

  It seemed almost impossible for her to catch her breath. Her heart was pounding almost out of her chest. The sounds beyond the door grew louder. Growls, moans, grunts. How many were there? She could not even begin to guess.

  The sounds mingled into a frenzy. Hands pounding, demanding entry. Savage, bestial sounds from raging, raspy throats as claws continued to rake at the door.

  And then the door splintered, crashing inward. She heard moans of sheer terror and pulled her children tighter against her body.

  Had their little family survived this long only to perish now? She knew Jake would die defending his family. He had protected them this long. She would die, too, if she had to. But what if her children were left alone?

  She was shaking uncontrollably. But all her fear, all her terror became focused into one single thought. Protecting the ones she loved. Bravery had nothing to do with it. They had run out of options and she was now instinct-driven.

  She tried not to think of the things she had seen over the past few months, but they were there, like scenes of a horror movie playing over and over again. They flashed vividly before her. While she had breath in her body, she wouldn’t let those things happen to her children.

  The beam of the flashlight moved violently, erratically, like a crazy kaleidoscope over the family’s terrified faces. It shone, too, over the ghoulish faces that were coming at them out of the darkness.

  Everything had happened so fast. The last word they’d had was that no one knew for sure what was happening. The little bits of information that had filtered through told them that this was worldwide. That it was unlike anything anyone had ever seen. Anywhere.

  It seemed that just as fast as communications went completely dead, people were forced to isolate even more just to survive. Being cut off suddenly from everything, TV, cell phones, radio, the internet, made everyone that much more aware of their vulnerability. It was like groping in the dark while there were monsters lurking all around you in that darkness. It was like waiting for answers that would never come.

  Liliana nervously twisted the wedding band on her finger. Everyone had said that theirs was a fairytale romance. But even fairy tales had scary things that had to be overcome, she reminded herself. She wished Gabe was back. He had been gone longer than usual. A lot longer. She never stopped worrying, not until he crawled back through the tiny door. What if he never came back? What if-

  She cut her thoughts off abruptly. She couldn’t let herself think like that. She wouldn’t.

  They were together at least. There was the one shining light in all of this. Even the whole world falling apart hadn’t separated them. Which made her believe even more deeply that they were meant to be together. Fate had kept them together this long. She just had to keep believing that fate wanted them to be together forever.

  There was nothing to do in the darkness but wait. And think.

  “Gabe,” she whispered to the darkness. “Where are you?”

  With his back flat against a wall, Gabriel Bishop tried to quiet his heavy breathing.

  “Son of a bitch,” he cursed silently. “That had been too close.”

  Gabe could hear them feeding. The sounds of tearing flesh and frenzied gorging always sickened him. But he had never been th
is close.

  He’d had one close call already that had shaken him up badly. He had thought that things couldn’t get much worse. He had been wrong.

  The streets and the houses were crawling with the undead. They outnumbered the living. It was like a bad nightmare that had suddenly taken a turn for the worse. One he couldn’t wake up from. He had only one thought in his mind. To get back to Liliana.

  He had gone to JD’s house. He had gone before. They’d discussed leaving the city together. JD had had a small group of people in his basement.

  JD was an ex-Marine. He was a good man. Someone to rely on in a bad situation. And this definitely classified as a bad situation. One of JD’s group had hurt their leg and they were waiting for that leg to heal enough to try and make it out of Springfield.

  Other neighbors up and down the block had taken refuge in their basements. They were people they knew well. They had barbequed together. They had attended neighborhood picnics and football games together. Everyone’s kids had gone to the same schools and played on the same playgrounds together. They had watched out for each other.

  Gabe closed his eyes and clenched his teeth tightly together. He was still dealing with the things he had just seen. The broken down door, the trails of blood and body parts that told of the savagery of the attack.

  Those things told him the whole story. And if that wasn’t enough, the feral-looking snarler licking a pool of blood in the hallway filled in the details.

  The snarler was on his hands and knees, taking his time, relishing the blood.

  Gabe had seen other signs of basements broken into on the way here. And no survivors.

  Maybe the snarlers were getting smarter. Or maybe they were just getting hungrier. It had occurred to him that maybe they were learning to hunt in packs. He had no way of knowing. The only thing he did know was that JD and his group were all dead and Gabe had to get back to his wife.

  There was another snarler in the backyard. Gabe could see it on the other side of the glass. It was tearing into an unidentified hunk of flesh. Gabe turned, leaning away from the sliding glass door, keeping his body concealed behind the curtains. There were at least two snarlers in the house with him. Maybe more.

  The setting sun was red as blood. Not much daylight left. He didn’t have time to spare. Traveling at night in the darkness was even more dangerous than traveling by day. You couldn’t always see what was coming at you.

  He jumped back, startled, heart pounding, as something slammed hard against the glass. He pressed his back into the wall behind him.

  Watching him from the other side of the sliding glass door, with the lurid sunset lighting its face, was a snarler. It was the face of a nightmare. Up closer than he usually saw them. The greyish flesh was dissected by black veins. The colorless eyes looked demonic.

  The snarler had seen him. Gabe knew that without a doubt. The snarler tried to get at him through the glass. Failing that, it clawed its nails down along the door, leaving smears of blood. A gray nail detached from one of the fingers and stuck to the viscous blood clotted on the glass.

  Gabe didn’t wait any longer. He left through the front door. There was no period of frozen hesitation. No indecision. He had learned to react fast in desperate situations. It was the only way to survive. He had someone to survive for. He didn’t have the luxury of indecision. Not anymore.

  Chapter 6

  The basement was a confined space, with a low ceiling and only a single, small toy lantern holding back the darkness. They hadn’t been prepared. But who could prepare for this?

  Liliana watched as Gabe shrugged out of his backpack. He sat down and seemed to slump slightly forward as he ran a hand across his forehead. It wasn’t his usual behavior when he returned from what he called a foraging expedition. He was always excited over the food he brought back for her. He liked seeing her reaction. It was like opening Christmas presents. Maybe he hadn’t been able to find anything this time.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked, worried.

  He didn’t answer her at first. He hugged her. It was a long, tight hug. A hug of gratitude, or of relief it seemed to her.

  She had read him correctly. “I just wanted to get back to you,” he whispered against her hair.

  His eyes were closed, but she couldn’t see that. She also couldn’t see the emotion that he was struggling with.

  “I’m glad you’re back, too,” she replied slowly as she drew back. She was worried about him. She tried teasing him out of whatever was bothering him. She even managed a small laugh. “Did you get me any chocolate? I’d kill for some chocolate.”

  Slowly, methodically he began to take food out of the backpack. “Sorry. No. This is all I could find.” She frowned when she saw that his hands were shaking.

  “Did you make it to Jake and Amanda’s house?” she asked as he continued to take food from the backpack.

  There was a long pause, a noticeable one, before he said, “I didn’t get that far.”

  “Where did you go? I thought- ”

  “To the Warren’s,” he broke in with uncharacteristic harshness. He couldn’t get the picture of what he had seen out of his mind. He tried to keep his voice carefully controlled. He didn’t want to upset Ana, but he wrestled with his need to protect her and the reality that she needed to know the dangers out there. She had a right to know. What if something happened to him?

  “Did you talk to them?” she asked in a low voice.

  “They’re- gone.” He didn’t know how else to put it. But he had heard the dread in her voice. He suspected he had only confirmed her fears.

  Ana was silent, but she didn’t ask any more questions and he knew that she understood.

  “All of them?” her voice sounded fragile now, like she was on the verge of tears. “I had hoped . . . Then there’s no way of knowing if Jake and

  Amanda- ”

  He shook his head.

  “JD was an ex-marine,” Ana went on. “If he- ” She didn’t finish her thought, but they both knew what she had started to say. If JD couldn’t protect himself or his family, then what chance did they stand?

  “I’ve been thinking, Ana,” Gabe began, carefully keeping all traces of emotion out of his voice. “That it’s time we get out of here. That we leave the city.”

  Ana was silent for a few moments. “You mean leave by ourselves?” Just the thought of that frightened her.

  “By ourselves,” he said. “I think we should plan on leaving Springfield entirely. Dad always said that if anything bad happened, we could survive at his place better than anywhere else,” he went on. “He always believed in being prepared.”

  “But we talked about that. We agreed we were safest here. Until everything was ready for us to go with the Warrens. We are safe here, aren’t we? We’ve been safe so far.”

  “Yes, we’ve been safe so far. But the Warrens aren’t in the equation any more. So, really there’s nothing holding us back from doing what we were going to do anyway.”

  She looked at Gabe‘s face in the lamplight. The frown was still on his face. And he looked so- grim. So weary.

  “Our food supply is only going to last a few more days,” he said. “The water situation is even more critical.”

  He had been worried about water contamination all along. No one knew for sure how this thing was spread. There had been speculation, of course, but no real proof or answers to any of their questions. They had to get out of the city and go where the population wasn’t so dense. Where they weren’t so outnumbered. Maybe they should have done it a long time ago. He wished now that they had taken that chance, risky as it had seemed at the time.

  “Then you have given up believing that the army or the National Guard will come and rescue us?”

  He shook his head slowly. “They would have been here by now. We have to accept the fact that we’re on our own.” He continued in the same carefully controlled voice. “We’re going to have to think for ourselves and act for ourselves if we are going to survive
this.”

  “Maybe we can go with the Rogers,” Ana suggested. “They told me they were going to try to make it to her sister’s- ”

  Gabe turned slowly and gave her a horrified look. “When did you talk to the Rogers?”

  “Two days ago,” Ana confessed. “When you left to look for food, I- ”

  “You left the basement? I told you never to do that.” He was so shocked by her revelation that he grabbed her by the shoulders. “I told you not to do that.”

  Ana tried to reassure him. “They only live three doors down. I couldn’t stand being alone in the dark anymore. I never even know if it is night or day.” She felt bad for having frightened him. He had turned away from her again. He bowed his head as she laid her hand on his forearm. “I only went for a little while. I was careful. I didn’t see- anything.”

  Still visibly shaken, Gabe shook his head. “You shouldn’t have done that. You should have listened to me. I have reasons for the decisions I make.”

  “Did you see any of those- things out there?”

  “Six,” he answered shortly. “I saw six.”

  “What are they?” she asked suddenly. “Zombies? The undead? vampires? We don’t even know what we’re up against. How can we fight this?”

  “I don’t know, Ana.”

  “This is like a horror movie that won’t end,” she said, letting her own emotions show now. “We would rent those horror movies all the time and we would watch them, thinking it was fun to scare ourselves because we knew those things could never really happen. Maybe those movies were like a sign. A prediction of what was coming. Do you think that’s possible? Maybe deep down inside we understood something like this was inevitable.”

  Gabe looked at her and said wearily, “I don’t know, honey. But winter is coming on. It’s damp down here. And cold already. Lanterns and candles aren’t going to keep us warm. And- Well, we just need to move to a better place.”