“I wouldn’t do it if it hurt,” Lance said, getting worried about Doug.
“Can’t go to sleep,” Doug said as he turned around. “Come on,” he said, walking off.
In Lance’s left ear, he heard Ian ask over the radio, “Hey, are you inside?”
“Yes, I’m inside,” Lance said, keying his radio.
“Tell your brother you’ll be back to get them in a few minutes,” Doug said, walking into his office. Lance relayed the message as Doug walked over to three of the biggest gun safes Lance had ever seen and opened one. “Lance, close the shutters.”
Lance ran over to the windows. Below each window on the left side was a cranking wheel. Grabbing the handle of one, Lance started spinning it to the right, and the outside shutters slowly slid closed over that window with a tiny, metal clink when they met. Moving to the next, Lance cranked it closed.
When the shutters were closed, Doug said, “Come here.” Lance turned around to see Doug holding an AR with a suppressor attached. “Take your dad’s AR off, and use this one.”
Lance slid the sling over his head and laid his dad’s AR on Doug’s desk. Putting the sling over his shoulder, Lance checked the safety and press-checked it, seeing brass under the bolt. Letting the bolt close, he tapped the forward assist and looked up at Doug as he pulled another AR out.
“I’m going up stairs to cover you. Don’t run; just walk across the street so I can kill what’s around. Take the radio on my desk, and tell me when you are ready to bring the truck over here. Back it up to the closest garage door to the house. Don’t block the RV door. Understand?”
“Ah, Uncle Doug, I’ve never backed up a real vehicle before.”
“Fine, just park it at the end of the driveway, and I’ll back it to the door. Then, you kids can unload it to the trailer.”
“Can’t we just take the truck?” Lance begged. He really didn’t want to move those damn ice chests again. “We put the frozen meat in ice chests, and those damn things are heavy.”
“Did you get all of it?”
“Shit no.”
“Put it in bags, and bring it over. I have more ice chests. No, we can’t take the truck. You’ll need the Hummer. You need to hurry; we don’t have much time. Wait till I tell you on the radio to leave, and don’t let Dino out; he doesn’t like the sick people,” Doug said, walking out.
“Shit, I don’t like the sick people,” Lance called out, but he didn’t know if Doug heard him.
Lance left the office and went to the front door. Seeing the window shutters open in the living room, Lance moved over to crank them closed. Before he moved to the third window, he heard, “You can go now; just walk across the street. When you get in your house, move fast so you can get back here quickly.”
Bringing the radio to his mouth, Lance pressed the button and said, “Yes sir.” He heard a pfft upstairs, and he knew Doug was shooting something outside. That was why he loved suppressors; the world doesn’t know when you shoot. “Sit, Dino,” Lance said, unlocking the door.
He stepped out and closed the door and heard a pfft above his head and saw a figure drop in the front yard. Casually walking across the yard, Lance heard Doug continue firing and watched figures dropping around the area.
When he reached the road, he heard Doug slap a new magazine in and shoot a man who Lance didn’t know that was coming up the street. Bodies started dotting the area, dropping as their heads exploded.
When Lance reached his yard, he lifted his hand to his chest and pressed the squawk box. “I’m coming in the front door. Press the alarm, and open it please,” he called out on the radio. Before Lance was close to the door, it opened.
Ian stepped outside. “Doug is shooting the shit out of those fuckers!” he said with a grin from ear to ear. “That is subtracting!”
Lance pushed Ian inside then closed and locked the door. “We have to hurry; Doug’s been shot and looks weak.”
“Doug’s shot, and it hurt him?” Ian said in disbelief. Doug made Jason look like a little kid when they stood side by side. The fact something could hurt him shook Ian’s world.
“Ian, we have to hurry,” Lance said, moving into the house, and he gave out assignments.
Across the street, Doug slammed in his sixth magazine but didn’t see any targets. Feeling a cold nose in his neck, he turned around, rubbing Dino’s massive head. “I know, boy, but I got some time to help them,” he said. “You’re going to have to protect them for me.”
Dino gave a groan as Doug stood up, leaving his rifle propped up in the window. He walked in his room and pulled out clean shirts. He didn’t want ladybug to see all the blood on him. Pulling off his shirt as he walked into the bathroom, he looked in the mirror at his abdomen and pulled a bandage off.
Three inches from his navel was an ugly hole covered in jelled blood. He turned and checked the bigger exit wound on his back. Lifting the dressing, he saw it wasn’t bleeding and was covered in dried blood. Feeling sleepy, he balled up his fist and drove it in his stomach over the bullet wound.
Bright lights filled his vision as he staggered, reaching out and grabbing the counter so he wouldn’t fall down. “I just need a few hours,” he said, grabbing some gauze and taping it over the dressing on his belly. “I have to give those kids a chance.”
When he finished taping the new dressing, Doug looked in the mirror. On the left side of his chest was another, smaller bandage. Taking a deep breath, he lifted it off, exposing a bite complete with teeth impressions next to a hole. Around the hole, he could see where the teeth ripped the flesh out before he stopped the second bite.
He covered it and pulled on his shirt. Turning on the water, he splashed some on his face. “Need to move,” he said, walking out. Stopping in the room he was covering Lance from, Doug weaved around the shelves and grabbed the radio. Looking around on the shelves, he grabbed an armload of stuff and headed downstairs.
***
Across the street, Lance looked at his watch. “Are we ready?”
“The bed of the truck is full, and we have enough frozen meat to open our own store,” Ian said with his hand on the door to the garage.
Lance looked around. “Everyone have their go bag?” he asked, and everyone nodded. They had loaded a bag up for Carrie from the stuff his mom bought for Allie. Then, they just grabbed the rest, throwing it in bags so the girls could have more clothes. Ian and Lance emptied his room of anything they thought they might need.
Holding up the keys to the truck, Lance said, “Let’s go then,” and Ian opened the door into the garage.
“Shotgun,” he said, running for the passenger door.
Walking around to the driver’s door, Lance started feeling woozy. As he climbed in, he saw the three girls in the back. Closing his door, Lance lifted up Doug’s radio. “Doug, we’re ready.”
A few seconds went by. “Give me a minute,” Doug answered, sounding out of breath. “Okay, pull out, and drive slowly over and stop at the end of the driveway like I told you.”
Taking a deep breath, Lance turned the key and saw the dash light up. Twisting the key more, he heard the starter whine, and the engine roared to life. “We are driving your dad’s truck with his permission,” Ian laughed, drumming his fist on the dash.
“Shh,” Lance said, stretching his toes out to touch the pedals.
“Move your seat up, Lance. Your dad is like a foot taller than you are,” Jennifer said behind him.
“Hey, no backseat drivers,” Lance said, dropping his hand and moving the seat up. “Ian, hit the remote, and thank my dad for having battery backup for the garage doors.”
The door slowly rolled up as Lance pressed the brake and pulled the lever down to D like his dad had taught him. Feeling the truck pitch as it shifted, Lance’s foot came off the brake, and the truck lurched forward as the garage door was still going up.
Lance stomped on the brake, throwing everyone forward. “Hey, you said you have driven before,” Jennifer said, grabbing her seatbelt.<
br />
“No talking from the backseat,” Lance snapped as Jennifer reached over, buckling up the girls.
When the door was up, Lance took his foot off the brake and said a thank you to his dad for always backing into the garage. The truck moved out slowly without Lance even touching the gas pedal, and he was totally fine with that. “That’s a good pace, Lance,” Doug said over the radio, making Lance jump.
Reaching the road, Lance turned right but did it too sharp, making the back wheel bounce over the curb. “Man, the stinkers come out, and Doug makes them take a nap,” Ian said, watching the infected around the area as their heads exploded.
Driving over bodies that Doug had shot, Lance had both hands on the steering wheel, concentrating like he was driving in NASCAR instead of a slow, idling roll down the road. Out of the corner of his eye, Lance saw movement but didn’t turn in case the road moved. “I bet Doug’s shot like two hundred infected,” Ian said in wonder, looking around as Lance pulled into the driveway and stopped.
“We are getting closer to the house, right?” Jennifer asked, looking out her window and seeing a woman’s head explode.
“Uncle Doug said park here,” Lance said, pushing the brake and shifting up to park.
“Get inside,” Doug said over the radio.
They all jumped out and walked to the door. When they closed the doors, they heard footsteps upstairs and soon heard the footfalls on the stairs. The massive form of Doug came around the corner carrying an AR and wearing a vest with magazines stacked across his body. “Keys,” Doug said, holding out his hand.
Lance held out the keys, and Doug took them. “When I tell you, open the first garage door,” he said, walking outside.
Lance and Ian ran to the kitchen and opened the door to the garage then walked into the empty bay. In the next bay was a brand new black Corvette, and in the next bay that used to house Doug’s RV was a black H1 Alpha Hummer wagon connected to an enclosed trailer.
Outside the door, they heard the truck backing up and stop next to the door. “Open the garage door, and unload it on the floor, but make sure we can close the door,” Doug called over the radio in Lance’s hand.
Ian hit the button, and the door slowly rolled up. They both jumped upon seeing the back of the truck was less than an inch away. As soon as the door was high enough, Ian dropped the tailgate, hearing Doug shooting. “His gun doesn’t sound right,” Jennifer said, grabbing an armload.
“It has a suppressor or what some people call a silencer,” Ian said as Lance jumped up in the bed and started passing stuff back in a flurry of movement. Even Allie and Carrie carried what they could lift and stacked it in a pile. In less than ten minutes, the only thing left were the ice chests.
With a lot of cussing and effort, they got them out and just slid them across the floor. “We’re done, Uncle Doug,” Lance called out softly. Doug casually walked in the garage and hit the button, lowering the door.
“Ran out of targets ten minutes ago,” he said, waiting on the garage door to close.
“How many do you think you got out there?” Ian asked, grinning.
“Close to three hundred, I’m sure,” Doug said as the door touched down on the floor. “Ian and Lance, stay close while I talk.”
“What about me, Uncle Doug?” Allie asked, running over and grabbing his hand.
Doug looked down, smiling, as Carrie ran over and stood beside Allie. “Little ladybugs, you can come, but let me talk, okay? I’m hurt, and I don’t have long, but I got you two something,” Doug said with a wink and walked inside.
They followed him, and Lance noticed boxes stacked in the dining room that weren’t there earlier. Doug stopped at the counter in the kitchen and pulled two boxes down, handing them to the girls. “Camouflage like I wear hunting and playing paintball,” he said, grinning. The girls squealed and took the boxes, running to the living room.
Doug stepped up to the boys and became serious. “Boys, listen. I have a list here that you need to load on the trailer and in the Hummer. Be done by tonight so you can rest then go over the route I have laid out. I have the GPS unit already programmed in the Hummer, but you need to know it. Understand so far?”
Ian looked down at Doug’s pants. “You act like you aren’t coming.”
“I’m not; I’m going to be with my mother at the end,” Doug said.
“Can’t you come with us a little ways then go see your mom?” Ian asked.
“Ian, I can’t be near any of you soon. I’m going to die, and when I do, I’ll get up sick like those outside,” Doug told them, making them jump and Jennifer gasp. “I’ve seen it with my own eyes many times in the last forty-eight hours. If you’re bit, you just come back faster. If you’re around someone who’s been bit and they go to sleep, shoot them in the head. They never wake up normal; they wake up sick.”
“Zombies?” Ian moaned.
“For lack of a better word, yes. They have more reasoning power than you see in the movies and move a little faster. But it doesn’t matter how you die; you always come back like them. I’ve seen scores shot, and none of them were bitten, but they all got back up. I’ve seen a natural death, and she came back. It doesn’t matter how you go—you come back.”
“This is bullshit,” Lance snapped.
“I’m not arguing,” Doug said as his eyes started getting heavy. Knowing what was coming, Lance stepped back as Doug hit his belly several times and wobbled on his feet. “Enough on that. Listen, you will leave tomorrow night, following the route. You will stop for nobody. Is that understood? I mean it. If a woman steps out holding a baby in her arms, you run her ass over,” he snapped, and they all jumped back.
“But—” Lance started, and Doug raised his hand.
“You have mobility, safety, and a safe haven you’re going to. People will kill you now for less,” Doug said and bent over, looking at the three at eye level. “I’ve seen girls younger than Allie and Carrie in there raped in the last forty-eight hours. If you try and trust the wrong person, you two will watch them raped and beaten as you lay dying, but you’re young enough I’m sure the trash out there now will just rape you as well.”
Horrid images flooded Lance’s mind as his mouth went dry. “We kill anyone that gets in the way,” Lance said, grabbing Ian’s arm.
“We’ll run them over and back over them,” Ian said with wide eyes.
“Good,” Doug said, straightening up with a grimace. “Don’t think; just run them over. The route you’re taking shouldn’t have road blocks, but you don’t even stop for cops. The Hummer is bullet resistant but not proof. You go around the roadblock fast, holding your guns out the windows, pulling your trigger as fast as you can. You treat cops the same. They try and stop you, kill them. They will take what you have just as fast. All the real cops are dead or running with their families.”
“Okay,” Lance nodded. “Can’t you come just a little ways? We might need gas.”
Reaching back, Doug pulled out his wallet and handed it to Lance then turned around. “Follow.”
Holding the wallet out in front of him, Lance followed with Ian behind him. Getting freaked out, Jennifer went to the living room with the girls. “I can’t risk staying around you much longer, Lance. I’m sorry,” Doug said, moving behind his desk. He took a picture off the wall, exposing a safe. “The cabin is armed, so when you get there, don’t touch any part of the cabin that’s metal, or you will die. Nothing’s happened to it since my last trip up?” Doug said, twisting the dial on the safe.
“How do you know it’s okay at the cabin, and what the hell can the cabin do that has you and our dads freaking out?” Ian asked.
“Look at my laptop on the desk,” Doug said, grabbing the handle of the safe, turning it and opening the door. They looked at the laptop screen and saw it was divided in many squares, showing different images.
“Holy shit, that’s inside the cabin,” Lance said, pointing at the top frame.
“That’s the front yard,” Ian said, pointin
g at another.
Lance looked up as Doug turned around. “Is this in real time?”
“Yes. What good would pictures of the cabin do us?” Doug asked, holding out a 5x7 laminated card. “This is my passwords, pin numbers, and combinations to everything I have. You have my wallet and credit cards. The Hummer’s gas tanks are full, so it has a range of just over six hundred miles. You only have to travel two hundred and eighty, give or take.”
Looking down at the wallet in his hands, Lance mumbled, “Dad said the cabin was only a hundred and fifty miles away.”
“It is in a straight line, Lance, and the route we usually take is a hundred and ninety,” Doug said, still holding out the card. Without looking up, Lance held out his hand, and Doug put the card in it.
“Doug, I’m not questioning you or our parents, but we’ve been to the cabin many times,” Ian said, throwing his hands up. “Yes, it has some cans of food in the pantry and power, but we have more than that here now at your house.”
“Follow,” Doug said, walking around his desk. “There are hidden rooms, and if you think this house is safe, then the cabin is a vault. Your dads and I built it for a retreat if things went bad. Since none of us could actually stay there and keep it safe, we built it strong, and if someone broke in just looking to steal, we left it looking like a hunting cabin. The small gun safe, bows hanging on the walls, hunting clothes, and ATVs are just to keep a cover for the place,” he explained, leading them upstairs.
“In the basement on the west wall with the bookshelves, do you remember an electrical outlet mounted chest high?” he asked, stepping into another room. It was full of metal shelves along the wall and two in the middle of the floor, making aisles.
“Chest high to you maybe,” Lance said.
“Yeah, it’s a four-plug outlet, and a lamp is plugged in it,” Ian said.
“That’s the one,” Doug said, walking down one wall. “If you turn the screw in the middle of the plug halfway to the right, the outlet swings open, exposing a keypad. You type in 753159, and the bookshelf unlocks and swings into a room that’s bigger than the bottom floor of the cabin. In the back right corner is another bookshelf that slides down the wall, exposing storage areas.”
Forsaken World (Book 1): Innocence Lost Page 10