President Miller was in his new home on the 25th floor when he heard the howl. It chilled him to the bone as he ran to the window to see if he could discern where it came from. The strange and horrific howling continued for several more minutes before it suddenly stopped. Miller slowly went back to his chair and sat down. He picked his book again that he had been reading and continued on with his evening unaware of what had just happened several floors above.
CHAPTER 58
The Camp
David watched the approaching slabs and prepared for his last stand; he knew he had only about 10 shots left between his shotgun and pistol, but he wasn’t going to go out without a fight. He drew up his shotgun first, and with the last three shells managed to take out four of them, as with one shot he’d gotten lucky with a double kill. He then pulled out his pistol and fired four rounds into four individual slabs’ heads. He grinned, thinking how he would’ve loved to boast to Kyle about his accuracy, since he was always busting the man’s chops about his handgun skills. He then drew the gun up to his head, having saved saved the last shot for himself to not give the slabs the satisfaction. David knelt down next to his fallen wife and prepared for the inevitable.
A loud single shot was heard throughout the house, and David opened his eyes to see where it had come from. He looked toward the entrance hallway, and found Kyle approaching from the front of the house with his pistol drawn, coming from behind the converging slabs that were unaware of his presence. Kyle methodically worked his way through the crowd of undead, popping each one in the back of the head as he cleared his way to David. Finally, he made his way to him, grabbed the pistol out of David’s hand, and quickly fired it over his head at a slab coming from behind.
“Reload,” Kyle said. “I’m kinda short-handed at the moment.” Kyle tossed thegun and a magazine over to David.
David quickly switched out the empty magazine and handed it back to Kyle, who then tossed him another, along with his gun while he turned to finish off more of the invaders.
“C’mon, we have to go,”Kyle barked. “It’s getting thick out there, and we have to get the kids out of here.”
Kyle took the lead, and David watched in awe as his one-armed friend quickly made them a hole throughwhich to escape.
Kyle pushed forward, turning back toward the front door, until he looked down the hallway and found it completely clogged with slabs. He looked at David. “This way through the garage, and please feel free to help whenever you can. I didn’t give you that ammo to save for the future.”
The two friends went through the laundry room and shut the door. As they opened the door to the closed garage, they could hear their pursuers banging on the door as they tried to get at them. Kyle dropped the spent mag out of his gun and motioned for David to get the one out of his waistband for him. David complied and once Kyle was reloaded, they leaned against the garage door and prepared to exit.
“Wait, what the hell are you doing here?” David asked.
Kyle grinned. “Other than saving your ass?”
“I mean, why’re you doing this? Look at you, one good arm, loopy as hell from your wounds. Why the hell did you risk it for me?”
“Dude, I need you. I can’t do this by myself. We have the kids to take care of, and, besides, I made a promise to your wife to keep you safe. She said you were the only one who could get Jacob to eat his veggies, and I don’t have the patience for that shit, anymore.” Kyle held up three fingers. “Now on three, we are going to swing this door up and make our way to the bus. You ready?”
David pulled out his magazine and replaced it with a full one and gave Kyle a nod.
Kyle tucked his gun under his hurt arm and reached down to pull up the garage door. With a hard tug it swung open, and he found a crowd of slabs in front of them. Until they had opened the garage door they had been methodically attempting to make their way into the clogged front door. The sound of the metal door sliding up, though, had gained their attention, and they quickly converged on the two friends.
As David and Kyle made their way toward the bus firing on anything that got close, Benjy opened fire from the doorway of the bus, trying to help them out. With each dropped slab, though, three more popped up in the darkness.
David took the lead, yet ran out of ammo before he ran out of targets. He started to kick them back and got lucky as one of them fell to the ground and started a domino effect, taking several more with it as it did. Kyle followed as close to David as he could, conserving his ammo, only firing into ones that posed an imminent danger.
Benjy stayed busy with the shotgun as he kept any advancing slab away from the bus, and, at the same time, tried to give the guys a clear path to make it to him. The horde, however, kept advancing, and he saw no end in sight as they continued to pour in, attracted to the sounds of their gunfire. Suddenly, the horde was illuminated as the headlights from an approaching vehicle lit them up before it plowed through the crowd gathered in front of the house.
Brian drove the Jeep through the advancing horde, makinga clear path for Kyle and David to get to the Devastator. “C’mon, let’s move it, guys,” Brian yelled as he backed the Jeep up to make another run through the mob of slabs.
Kyle looked at David, who still kicked and shoved at the slabs getting too close. He put his hand on David’s shoulder and almost got his head taken off as David spun around and nearly swung at him. “Whoa there, big guy,” Kyle yelled through the wind at his frantic friend. “Here comes Brian. Follow behind when he swings through again, and let’s get our asses to that bus.”
David nodded. And as Brian drove through again, they both followed behind the Jeep as close as they could until they reached the door of the bus. As David got ready to jump in, his foot was grabbed by one of the slabs Brian had run over, and he fell just short of the door. Kyle jumped to David’s aid and repeatedly stomped his foot down on the hand that held his foot until he broke free from its grasp. David took the opportunity to get himself up and lept the final few feet into the bus. He then jumped straight into the driver’s seat with his hand on the door lever, ready to go.
After a few seconds, he realized Kyle hadn’t yet made it on. He looked at Benjy, who still stood in the doorway providing cover fire, and waited for Kyle to make his entrance. With Benjy still firing into the crowd of oncoming slabs, David got up and poked his head out the door and found Kyle completely surrounded by the invaders, mere feet from the entrance. David looked for a weapon to use, but before it could be found, Benjy grabbed him and pointed outside. David looked in horror as Kyle was swarmed and dragged away by the slabs around the back of the bus and out of sight.
David screamed as he watched Kyle disappear into the darkness. He almost followed in pursuit, but just as he tried to jump out of the Devastator, Benjy slammed the door shut.
“Open it!” David screamed. “Now!”
“No!” Benjy said, motioning toward the back of the bus. “We have more important things to worry about.”
David turned toward the children, and he found Renee as she stared at him in dread as she sat and kept the four younger children from seeing what had just happened outside. Renee looked at him and clutched Patch tightly against her shoulder and then mouthed the word, “Go,” as tears streamed out of her eyes. As he came to grips , he took his seat in the bus and revved the vehicle into action and drove it toward the front gate. Brian fell in behind the bus as they made their way toward the exit of the camp. The sounds of slab after slab, either knocked out of the way or run over by the bus, didn’t make anybody feel any better after the losses they had all experienced that night.
As David arrived at the opening where the main gate used to be, he slammed on the brakes and came to a complete stop, just feet away from hitting a large telephone pole that had been blown down across the threshold of the camp’s entrance. He then slowly started to push the front plow into it and tried unsuccessfully to push it out of the way. He thought for a moment about getting out and using the winch on th
e front of the Jeep, but the steady arrival of new slabs made him think twice. As he sat there and tried to think of an idea to get out, he was startled by a scream from the rear of the bus.
Hope sat up screaming, and Benjy rushed to her side. “My legs! My legs!” she screamed over and over while she grabbed them.
Benjy got to her and tried to calm her down, but to no avail. He looked over at Renee and motioned for her to come over and see if she could do anything. While they swapped positions, he sat down with the smaller children and tried to keep them calm.
As Renee leaned down to comfort Hope, she was joined by Storm, who had also come to see what was wrong.
Hope arched her back as she collapsed and started to kick her legs as if she were trying to get something to let go of them. “It feels like something is trying to pull my legs out of their socket!”
Renee started to rub Hope’s forehead. She looked down at her legs and noticed that either her legs had gotten longer or the pants she wore had shrunk in the rain, as there was at least three inches of her shin sticking out of the bottom of her pant leg.
Hope’s pain slowly started to subside as Renee kept rubbing her head and whispering into her ear that everything was okay, even though Renee didn’t believe a word of it.
David, however, did not fair much better, as he still tried to find a way out of the camp. He had backed up and was looking around at the other areas of the wall as he thought about punching through some softer part of it, but he didn’t want to risk damaging their only evacuation vehicle. Just as he decided to try to push through one of the wooden areas of the wall, he caught a glimpse of another pair of headlights approaching from the garage. As it pulled up alongside the bus he saw Pete driving the oldest vehicle in the fleet, Ron’s old work truck. Pete rolled down the passenger window of the truck that he had situated right up alongside David’s window.
“Follow me through the fencing behind Patty’s house. It was destroyed by the twister,” Pete yelled over to David, who acknowledged with a thumbs up. “After we get through, pull up alongside me, so I can get in with you. I don’t think this thing will be in good shape after I ram through.”
David nodded again, and he fell in behind Pete as he pulled past him and headed to the wall. As they got close, David hung back as he watched Pete floor it and head straight into the wall, building momentum. Pete’s truck slammed into the wall and punched through, but in the process the truck became airborne as it leapt over the bottom of the wall’s base that was made up of an old concrete parking lot block. David watched as the truck landed on its nose and planted itself in the rain-softened ground, and the driver’s door flung open as Pete was ejected from the vehicle. He knew he couldn’t get to him in time, and watched as the headlights from the Devastator illuminated Pete’s last few seconds as a group of passing slabs descended upon him as he hit the ground. David winced at the sight, but Pete’s sacrifice had opened up the wall and, other than the hard jounce over the small concrete barrier, they were free.
David pulled the switch down on the dash to raise the front plow up, and he slowly rolled over the barrier and looked behind him to make sure Brian still followed in the Jeep. As he cleared the wall, he looked back and couldn’t see the Jeep behind him anymore. He stopped and waited, but Brian never showed up. The sight in his headlights told him he couldn’t wait long, as all he could see was a wall of slabs as they converged on the vehicle from every direction. “Just go!” he heard Benjy yell from the back of the bus. Regretfully, he did just that. He could not risk their safety any longer. “I gave him the directions to where to find us, earlier. If he’s okay, he’ll get there,” Benjy yelled out as the bus lurched forward and the last survivors of the camp headed out into the darkness.
CHAPTER 59
Hope, David, and Renee
Hope slowly opened her eyes and tried to figure out where she was. She was in a small room that looked like a mobile home or a very old house. The curtains were pulled tight over the windows, but she could see a little light as it leaked through at the edges, indicating it was daytime. She flung the blankets off and swung her feet to the floor. As her feet hit the floor, she was fully awakened by the soreness running all the way down her legs. She felt like she had been running a marathon and every muscle and joint in her body hurt. As she stood, the soreness got worse as her back and arms joined the party.
She clumsily made her way over to the mirror on the dresser in the corner of the room and wiped the sleep out of her eyes before she checked herself out in the mirror. She thought she must be in a small child’s room because of how small everything was compared to her. She was almost bent over in half as she tried to look into the mirror. Surprisingly, her hair had been brushed and tied back with a ribbon the way she liked to wear it, which confused her. As she pondered her situation, she heard a voice from outside the window and leaned over to slowly peek out. She saw Patch as he laughed and ran while being chased by Melinda and Jacob, and immediately she relaxed when she saw that they were there and safe as well. As she made her way to the door, she hit her head on the hanging ceiling fan, and she realized it wasn’t just the furniture, but that the entire room was smaller than normal.
Still rubbing her head as she came out of the room, she was startled by David as he walked down the hallway with a dish of water and some towels in his arms. David smiled as he saw her, and she rushed up to him to give him a hug. As she grabbed him she let out a sigh of relief. “Oh, man, I have no idea where I am or how we got here, but I am glad to see you here, too. Where’s my Dad?”
David’s face drooped a little at the question, and he set the bowl of water down and walked Hope to the living room. “You might want to sit down for a second.” He guided her to a chair.
Hope sensed she wasn’t going to like the answer and refused to sit down. Instead, she grabbed David by the arms and started to sob. As she did, she realized something else was wrong, too. David had always been a giant to her, standing almost 10 inches taller. But at the moment, she was standing toe to toe with him and was looking straight into his eyes, if not a little down on them. She stepped back and looked at her feet and hands, and saw that everything was bigger. Very confused, she decided to take the seat he offered her before she looked at him and asked, “What the hell is going on? Am I still dreaming?”
David took a long breath. “Girl, I wish I understood everything, but I have to admit, I’m just as confused as you are. You were bitten. We were overrun at the camp and lost a lot of people. We pulled back to where we are now, and have been waiting for five days in the hopes that a couple more would show up. Unfortunately, your dad was one of the ones we lost.” David did his best to choke back the tears.
Hope sat in complete silenceJust as she was about to say something, she stood up, instead, and ran out of the room through the front door.
As she ran, tears streamed down her face, and she heard Patch in the background call out to her. But she continued to run until the house she had just left disappeared behind her as she went into the woods that surrounded it.
Renee witnessed Hope run off and tried to chase after her, but gave up as she saw that at Hope’s current speed, she would never catch up. She turned to see David come out of the house and walked up to him. “What happened? Is she okay?”
“I told her about your dad and she bolted. I think you need to go after her and see if you can calm her down. She probably has a lot of questions right now, and you know her better than anyone. Go on, I’ll watch the kiddies. It’s about time to eat, anyway, and Benjy will be back in a couple of hours.”
Renee had five days to explore the area they hid in before Hope had woken up, and she knew that the river was in the direction she had taken off. She took a different trail in the hopes of cutting her off and hopefully catching up to her.
As Renee got to the river, she looked down the banks and found Hope as she sat on the edge of the water with her head buried in her arms. She slowly made her way down the steep slope until
she got to her sister. “Hey, snot licker, can I join you?”
Hope grinned from ear to ear at the sight of her sister. She stood up to hug her and that was when she remembered that something was terribly wrong. Hope had been the same height as her sister, but now she could rest her chin atop Renee’s head. “What the hell happened to me?”
“I don’t know how to explain it. Uncle Benjy said it has something to do with the slab that bit you. You grew almost daily while you were sleeping and would wake up screaming as your body stretched out. I stayed with you every day and would change your clothes as you outgrew them right in front of my eyes. I even had to cut your hair twice, or it would be down to your knees by now. I brushed it every day and made sure that when you woke up at least your crazy hair would be presentable.” Renee moved in to hug her suddenly much-bigger sister. “I’m glad you’re okay, though. I really needed you to be okay.”
Hope embraced her sister and leaned down to cry on her shoulder as she prepared to ask the next question. “Is it true about dad?”
“Yes,” Renee answered, choking up as she did. “He went down when we were overrun. But I’m still trying to figure out what happened before that, like when he got the broken arm.”
As Renee mentioned that, a flood of memories hit Hope as she suddenly remembered the events of that night. “Oh, crap, I forgot about that. Someone else attacked us. He was strong, but somehow I managed to stop him. He was the one that killed Uncle Ron and broke dad’s arm. I remember dust at the end before I blacked out.” Hope tried to remember more. “How did we end up here? I don’t remember anything else before waking up today. Did David say we’ve been here for five days? Where the hell is here anyway?”
“David and Benjy got us out in the Devastator. We rode out the storm underneath the interstate overpass, and then they brought us here, and, yes, it has been five days. We were the only ones to escape. No other adults have shown up since, and I don’t think they’re going to. David and Benjy went back two days later and said nobody was there, even the armory had been overrun. But all of the kids in the camp are here, though. I think David and Benjy are afraid to tell us that they all died that night.”
Humanity's Hope (Book 1): Camp H Page 27