“On it,” Mears said as the four of them ran off.
“Mane, Wallack, Steele, Megan!” barked Butsko. “Start patrolling down here. Make sure there isn’t so much as a hairline crack these bastards could squeeze through.”
“We got it,” Mane said as he got together and ran back into the dining room with the others.
“Luckily there’s no second floor in this building,” Wilder said as he turned to Melvin and Jones.
“We need to make sure this front door stays secure,” Butsko said.
“Come with me, Melvin,” said Jones. “We can grab more heavy oak tables from the dining room.”
As Jones and Melvin ran into the dining room, Butsko and Wilder stood silently in the foyer.
“This isn’t good,” Wilder said. “Something feels off.”
“How do you mean?” asked Butsko.
“Why didn’t the infected storm the front door when it was open?” Wilder asked. “There was more than ample opportunity.”
Butsko’s gaze shot up as heavy footsteps ran across the roof.
“If I didn’t know any better,” Butsko said, “I’d swear those bastards were surrounding us.”
“I was thinking the same thing,” Wilder agreed. “Shit is getting out of control fast.”
“Wilder,” said Butsko as he turned to face the man. “The only thing that matters is that one of us has to get to Schoepke Springs.”
Wilder knew what Butsko meant. Come hell or high water, either he or Butsko would have to make it, regardless of whatever happened.
“I hear ya, Sir,” Wilder said, “but let’s make sure it’s all of us who make it there.”
Before Butsko could say anything, both he and Wilder jumped at the loud cracking noise from the front door.
“What the hell is that?” asked Wilder as he leveled his carbine toward the door. “Are they using a fucking battering ram?”
The loud noise struck again just as Jones and Melvin came back into the room carrying a heavy, oval table.
“Put that down, guys!” Butsko barked at Jones and Melvin. “They’re almost in.”
Jones motioned to Melvin to help him carry the table to the left side of the door. They set the table on its side and huddled behind it.
Wilder and Butsko overturned a large wooden coffee table on the right side of the main door and hunkered down. Their guns were cocked and ready.
*****
As Mears, Vasquez, Cain, and Fisher reached the pro-shop, the blood in their veins turned icy as they heard windows shattering, followed by the all-too-familiar sound of the infected.
The pro-shop was the size of the average gas station convenience store. There were racks of pants and collared shirts with the Lago Vista Golf Club logo on it, rows of golf clubs, and every accessory you could need out on the greens.
Mears didn’t hesitate as he ran into the pro-shop firing his carbine. He aimed for the chests of the infected with the hope of slowing them down. When he had the opportunity for a head shot, he took it.
Vasquez ran the opposite direction from Mears and fired her weapon. She gritted her teeth as she ran through the maze of clothing racks.
Vasquez was fast and a top marksman. She always had some of the top scores in her unit, and Mears was glad to have her with him.
Fisher watched as Mears and Vasquez disappeared into the pro-shop. Fisher may not have been trained for combat, but she sure as hell knew her way around a gun. Fisher had grown up on a farm in West Texas with five brothers. Hunting, fishing, and roughhousing were in her blood. She was no stranger to the feel of a rifle or pistol in her hands. Fisher’s father had even taught her how to hunt with a bow and arrow when she was young.
Fisher raced behind the embankment where the cash register was and looked into the store. She would protect Mears’ and Vasquez’s backs, and if any of those bastards got past the soldiers, she sure as hell wasn’t going to let them out of the store.
Fisher looked over and saw Cain still standing in the doorway to the pro-shop.
“Cain,” whispered Fisher as loud as she dared. “Cain, get the hell out of sight.”
Cain stood there, staring into the poorly lit pro-shop as if he had no idea what to do. He looked over towards Fisher when he finally heard her voice.
Take cover, Cain, Fisher mouthed to him as she swung her arms back and forth.
Cain just looked at her and shrugged.
A noise not far from him gave him a jolt, and as his fight or flight instinct kicked in, Cain grabbed his rifle, made sure the selector switch was on ‘semi-automatic,’ and ran to the mannequins. He made a small opening and squeezed his way into the center of them.
Fisher heard the gunshots getting closer.
“Mears and Vasquez are heading back this way,” Fisher mumbled as she checked her weapon. “It is game time.”
*****
Mane, Wallack, Steele, and Megan formed a diamond as they moved quickly from room to room and checked the windows and any doors.
Mane was proud that the civilians had kept their shit together and remembered the training they’d received back at Fort Hood. But Mane also knew Megan was a ticking time bomb. No one could watch someone close to them get torn apart by zombies and not be affected.
Mane held his hand up in a fist as they approached a large room. The three behind Mane stopped moving.
Mane peered around the corner and figured this room used to be where families and friends gathered together. There was a fully stocked bar at one end of the large room, four large sofas, a bunch of smaller end tables scattered around, three oversized chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, and a giant plasma TV hanging on the wall.
“I heard a lot of racket in this room when we were down the hall,” Mane said. “We need to check it out.”
“I bet this room is connected to the dining room somehow,” Wallack said as he looked around the corner into the room.
“So what if it does?” asked Mane.
“Well, the dining room is over that way,” Wallack said as he pointed to the far end of the room. “That means the kitchen is probably somewhere back there as well.”
“Okay,” Mane said. “Still not seeing how that could affect us.”
“That means,” explained Wallack, “this room, the dining room, and the kitchen are all connected. There’s a lot of ways the infected could flood into this room.”
“Got ya,” Mane said as he nudged Wallack with his elbow. “We’ll make a soldier out of you yet.”
“We’re going to have to close this room—” Mane said, but was cut off before he could finish his thought.
Mane’s eyes shot wide open as he saw a gang of zombies down the hallway racing toward them.
“Behind us!” Mane shouted as he started shooting into the cluster of zombies.
The others weren’t as fast to respond and were surprised by the sheer number of zombies charging after them.
Mane knew this was a battle they weren’t going to win.
“Get in the room!” Mane yelled to the others as he pushed Megan and Wallack into the huge gathering room.
Steele and Mane each grabbed one of the thick, solid oak doors and pushed them shut as quickly as they could. The doors had large iron bolts which Steele and Mane immediately pushed inwards, thereby locking the doors.
“Holy shit,” panted Steele. “I’ve never seen so many zombies attacking together.”
“Shit!” Mane yelled. “We need to warn the others.”
“Megan, darling!” Steele called over to her. “You okay?”
Megan looked at Steele but said nothing.
“Shit,” Mane said. “I think she’s going into shock.”
At that moment, the thick oak doors buckled as the zombies slammed against them.
“Those doors may be solid wood,” Steele pointed out, “but they ain’t gonna hold those things back forever.”
The group moved into the center of the room.
“I hate to say it,” Wallack said, “
but it looks like the windows are the only way out of here.”
“I don’t think we want to go out there,” Mane said. “This place is completely surrounded. Even if we did manage to break this glass, we’d be like naked babes in the woods. Those things would tear us apart.”
Two Years Ago
Babes, Megan thought as her mind drifted back to the early days of the outbreak. Innocent, helpless babes.
Megan remembered when she and Trunst had gone to the hospital to find Trunst’s father. His dad had been in the hospital for bypass surgery two years ago, but the outbreak had postponed the procedure.
The news reports hadn’t painted a good picture of what was happening in hospitals across the country. Reports had flooded in about dead bodies coming back to life and attacking the living.
When Trunst and Megan had run into his father’s hospital room, all they’d found was an empty bed and blood everywhere. When Trunst had run back out in the hallway to call for a nurse, Trunst’s father had come barging out of the bathroom.
His father’s throat had been gone, and the entire front of his hospital gown had been soaked in blood. Megan had screamed as Trunst’s father slammed into her. Trunst had run back into the room and found his girlfriend and dead father wrestling on the floor.
Trunst had grabbed the IV pole and thrust it at his father. The pole had hit his dad in the ribs, but hadn’t phased him at all.
With another thrust, Trunst had smacked his dad in the side of the head.
Trunst’s father had jolted his head to the side.
“Oh shit,” Trunst had said as his father leapt off of Megan and toward him.
Trunst had backed away as his father charged him until he’d felt the window at his back. Using his dad’s momentum, Trunst had grabbed his father and had tossed him through the window.
Glass had shattered as his father fell seven stories onto the top of a parked car.
Trunst had stared down at the corpse of his father and almost fainted when he saw his dad’s leg begin to twitch.
“Trunst!” Megan had shouted. “What the hell’s going on here?”
The hospital had been in pure chaos as the infected ran through the hallways and into patient’s rooms. Doctors, nurses, patients, and security guards had been infected at an alarming rate.
Trunst had grabbed Megan’s wrist and had run out into the hallway. They’d made their way toward the nearest stairwell and had slammed through the door.
“I just threw my dad through a window,” Trunst had said as they’d run down the stairs.
“I’m sorry,” Megan had said sincerely, “but please don’t lose it. I need you.”
“I’m good,” Trunst had replied as he’d shaken his head.
When they’d got to the fourth floor landing, they’d heard the unmistakable noise of the infected running up the stairs.
Trunst and Megan had looked at each other and reached for the door to exit the stairwell.
They’d run into the hallway and saw the signs indicating they were in the maternity ward.
The emergency lights flashed and Trunst and Megan had known the lights would take them to an alternate stairwell. They’d hugged the wall as they’d ran down the hallway.
Thirty feet in front of them had been the other stairwell. They’d started forward when Megan had grabbed Trunst’s wrist and stopped in her tracks.
Megan had been wide-eyed as she’d looked straight ahead at the hospital’s nursery. The door had been wide open and the large viewing window had been smeared with blood and flesh.
As if in a trance, Megan had walked towards the nursery. Everything around her had seemed to disappear, and she’d focused only on the room before her.
The closer Megan had gotten, the more she’d wanted to run in the opposite direction. The sounds that’d come from the room were nothing short of horrific. A mixture of baby’s cries, nurse’s screams, and creature’s growls had filled the room.
As she’d reached the entrance to the nursery, she’d jumped back as the body of a nurse had slammed against the viewing window. Blood had bubbled from the nurse’s mouth as the skinless face slid down the glass.
“I don’t think—” Trunst had started to say, but was too late. He’d watched as Megan ran into the nursery.
The scene around them had been indescribable. Everywhere they’d looked they saw sights that proved God had abandoned this hospital.
Had abandoned this world.
In the various bassinets, cribs, and incubators were the horrors the infected had left behind. Most of the newborns were motionless, as the infected had eaten too much of the tiny bodies for anything to reanimate.
Other newborns had portions of their bodies missing from the hungry infected and cried out in unnatural sounds. Many newborns were missing limbs, while others seemed to have had the flesh peeled from their little bodies. One infant’s ribs were exposed after being feasted on by a zombie.
Newborns screamed out with horrendous sounds as they’d reanimated with the urge to infect and feed, but weren’t developed enough to do either.
Trunst had scanned the room as he’d looked for any of the infected but hadn’t see any.
There was nothing left to eat in here, Trunst had thought as he’d felt the tears roll down his cheeks.
“Megan,” Trunst had softly said to Megan. “Megan!” he said louder.
Megan turned her head and had looked him straight in the eyes.
“We really need to get out of here,” Trunst had said as he’d tried to pull Megan to the door.
“We can’t,” Megan had said as she looked back at all the cribs. “We need to help them.”
“Megan,” Trunst had replied as he’d choked back a sob, “we can’t do anything for them.”
“We can end their suffering,” Megan had said flatly.
Megan had walked back to the nurse’s station and grabbed the first heavy thing her hand landed on.
She’d walked to the first bassinet and stared at the creature that laid there. The tears had rolled down her cheeks and off her chin as she’d brought the object down onto the newborns head. The little legs stop kicking instantly.
Megan had walked to the next bassinet and repeated her actions.
Trunst had watched as Megan calmly walked from one crib and incubator to the next, ending all the infants’ suffering.
Trunst had then grabbed a heavy metal ledger and joined Megan.
Thirty-seven newborns had lost their lives in that nursery, and Megan and Trunst had been the ones to provide them with a true death.
After they’d finished, they had slid to the ground and cried while they held each other. After a few moments, they’d both known that they needed to get out of there.
They’d made their way to the back stairwell and continued their exodus out of the hospital, but each knew they’d never be the same again.
Trunst and Megan had built a relationship on the foundation of the apocalypse and had cemented it in the blood of the innocent.
Present Time
“Megan!” yelled Mane, “please don’t leave us now.”
Steele had his arm gently around Megan’s shoulders as they attempted to console her.
“We need you here with us, Megan,” Mane continued.
Megan looked up and saw Mane, Steele, and Wallack staring at her. She tried to smile, but it was cut short.
“What’s that over there?” Megan asked as she pointed to a massive, five-foot tall vase full of oak and pine branches the far corner.
They turned to look and saw the vase move.
Before Mane could get a good look at the vase, four zombies ran from behind it.
The vase, which concealed the hallway that led to the kitchen, toppled over and shattered.
The zombies ran straight for them.
3
Abandoned Gas Station
Spicewood, Texas
Cheryl and Walt slowly made their way through the dense, dark woods. They were exhausted, but the f
ear of not knowing what was in the woods kept them sharp.
Walt knew the woods and landmarks around the Will to Heal property well enough, but in the middle of the night, everything looked the same.
Walt and Cheryl didn’t have flashlights, and even if they did, it wasn’t like they could have used them anyway.
That’d be like shining a spotlight on a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken in front of a bunch of hungry road crew workers, Walt had said.
Walt used the fading lights of a water tower in the distance as his guide. He knew the gas station was in that direction. He was also surprised that the water tower lights still lit up.
From the Will to Heal Center, the old gas station was only about ten miles away, but in a pitch-black woods filled with zombies, they knew they’d have to take it slow.
“How much longer do you think we have?” Cheryl asked.
“It should only be about another two to three miles,” Walt whispered. “Let’s rest for a second.”
They both sat down on the damp ground. Walt leaned against a massive cypress tree while Cheryl rested against a large boulder.
“You think the others made it?” Cheryl asked.
“I don’t know,” Walt said stoically. “They have Darren with them, so I think they’ll be all right.”
“These last twenty-four hours have been insane,” Cheryl said. “We went from a location with an endless supply of fresh water and plenty of food to being out in the middle of the woods in the dark trying to get to an abandoned gas station.”
“That’s it!” Walt almost yelled.
“What the hell are you talking about?” asked Cheryl.
“Fresh water,” answered Walt. “The one thing we need is a fresh supply of water, and we can find that at Schoepke Springs.”
“I’ve heard of that place,” Cheryl said as she perked up. “It’s a swimming hole and camping grounds, right?”
“Yes,” answered Walt as he kept his voice low, “and the swimming hole is supplied from a natural spring.”
“Who knows,” added Cheryl, “maybe we’ll find some other survivors there.”
Outbreak (Book 2): The Mutation Page 18