The Phoenix Curse (Book 2): After

by D. R. Johnson

  "You're going to need a lot of bullets for those freaks." Wade said, emphasizing the way he said freaks. He had adopted my terminology, but I was unsure if it was intended as a compliment or an insult. It felt like the latter.

  "Yes, I'll need gunmen," I answered flatly, meeting Wade's stare. "Provided I can find a safe and retractable position for them."

  "I can shoot." Joss said.

  "No. I might need you with me." I answered.

  "If we get on the roof of that old superstore out by the highway, that building is big enough we could find a safe exit if things start to get hairy. We know it's clear. We looted it clean years ago." Vanessa said. She had been quiet through most of the conversation, but I felt relieved that she had chosen this moment to speak up.

  The silence that followed seemed more promising this time. Judging by the facial expressions I could glean, Denise was the only one that still seemed totally against the idea.

  "If you think we have a clear route out of there, I'm in." Carlos was the first to volunteer.

  Vanessa was already nodding before he finished, immediately offering her services as well. "I could use the target practice."

  I couldn't stop myself from glancing at Wade, not enjoying the fact that I needed him to work with me on this. A smirk tugged at the corners of his mouth and he nodded to me once more. That was three gunmen. It was looking like we had a solid plan forming now.

  Denise wouldn't volunteer herself, and I wasn't about to let Clive go out there. Despite his attempts to hide it, I knew he was ill. How serious it was, I couldn't tell, but I knew he was in no condition to be on the front lines. He was nodding his head and about to throw his name into the hat when I stopped him.

  "Clive, I'll need you to stay here. Just in case there's any backlash."

  His grey eyes studied me while he considered what I had just said. Eventually he nodded and focused on my new direction. "You already got a plan working for that too?"

  "I do." I smiled and added. "I walked through that old strip mall you guys were working on clearing out. It's clean and there should be no trouble fitting everyone inside, although it won't be comfortable. It'll be safe at least."

  Now I waited. I had laid the safest plan out on the table I could think of. I knew it would be a waste of ammunition, but I saw no other way around it. Ammunition was a dwindling and precious commodity in most places I'd passed through. I was certain I could find a jackpot or two left in Amarillo that would make these people rich again.

  "You know this is the best thing we've heard so far." Clive said, apparently not able to keep his fingers out of his whiskers. He received several nods in answer. Denise was still pouting, but she seemed deflated now, her stubbornness finally worn thin.

  A smile broke out on Clive's face and I realized it was the first true smile I had actually seen from him since we had arrived. I understood why. Now we had a plan. Now there was hope.

  ~ ~ ~ ~

  Joss and I spent that evening giving the little strip mall another thorough examination. It was a string of five small stores that would be hard-pressed to hold one-hundred people for very long, and it reeked of rot and decay. It was also full of cobwebs and termite holes, but it was the best shelter they had available to them and offered a relative amount of safety.

  That next morning, as the children and elderly were being moved into the strip mall, Joss and I went on our first Amarillo run. I had made plenty of runs into Amarillo before, and I remembered that it wasn't like Dallas.

  Amarillo didn't fall overnight. Instead, the city had suffered a slow death. The inhabitants had time to either try to evacuate the city or hole up somewhere and pray for salvation. After some of the things I'd seen, I knew that the evacuees had chosen the better option.

  It was easy to spot where people had holed up. The boarded up windows of houses, storefronts, restaurants, or movie theaters gave it away. Those were the buildings I targeted because I could normally find a nice stash of items inside. Unfortunately, I also found the bodies of those that suffered a slow death of starvation. Other times I found where the freaks had broken through barricades and forcefully ended the standoff. Neither situation had a happy ending.

  As we drove around the city, I kept an eye out for any store that looked like it hadn't been looted. Sporting goods stores, pawn shops, and even department stores would have what I was looking for. Also, bars and gas stations would have a gun or two if you knew where to look. Since most of Amarillo had been looted by the time the plague spread here, guns and ammo were the first things that people went for back in the early days.

  I finally spotted something promising, an old tattoo parlor with a sign outside labeling it 'Freddie's Ink.' Every window was boarded up and the building looked undamaged. That meant whatever supplies that had started off in there were probably still inside. After I parked the truck out front I looked to Joss.

  "Keep an eye out. Give me time to look around first."

  He arched an eyebrow at me, but didn't argue. That was good. I had no idea what to say to him to prepare him for some of the things he might find inside these buildings. Mostly it was just dried-up bodies and skeletons, but it always told a sad story. It was the tiny bones that broke my heart. Those were the scenes I wanted to spare Joss from.

  I circled the building and was pleased to find everything still intact. After my quick inspection, I found a boarded-up window I could break through easily. The wood was thin, probably from some old piece of furniture that had been torn apart. Not uncommon.

  I climbed through the opening into a dank and dark room. Pulling the boards from a few more windows to give me some light, I stripped the barricade from the front door. Joss watched me from the Murano and gave me a goofy wave before he turned his attention back to the landscape. I rolled my eyes, turning back to scout the building.

  It seemed Freddie had been quite the collector. The man had a small stash of guns and ammo, but not much else. I found what was left of Freddie, or at least who I assumed to be Freddie, lying out on one of his tattoo tables. The gun he used to end his life was on the floor beside it. His remains were the only ones I found in the building and was one of the least gruesome scenes that I had witnessed.

  I called Joss inside, warning him about Freddie. He only gave the chair a cursory glance before going straight to the weaponry and packing the ammo and guns into a sturdy duffle bag. I was happy the day was off to a good start.

  After that, our luck ran dry. We searched through three gas stations, five various restaurants, a hair salon, and another tattoo parlor, and only managed to come up with two more handguns, a rifle, and a handful of bullets. It was well into the afternoon by then, and even though we had found plenty of other supplies, it wasn't what we had been looking for. Even Joss was getting tired of looting.

  I decided to call it a day.

  On the way back to new Sundown, a residential area caught my eye and I decided to give it a closer look. When I turned off the main street, Joss groaned. I ignored it but couldn’t blame him. It could be grueling work sometimes and we'd already seen our fair share of dusty bones today. This neighborhood looked different, though, and I couldn't pass it up. Some of the houses looked whole, no barricades and they weren't looted.

  "We'll come back here in the morning." I said. "This looks like a good place to get started."

  "I just want out of these clothes. I feel all dusty and gross."

  "Don't be such a girl." I said, grinning over at him. His brow creased as he frowned back and he huffed. He was right though. Working out in the field was just as dirty, but having the dust of the dead on you seemed to weigh a little heavier.

  As I circled the Murano out of the neighborhood, something caught my eye on the next street over. It was a mass of vehicles, and I had a clear view between the houses to see that they weren't parked in an orderly manner. Curious, I looped around at the end of the block to investigate. There, we found what had probably been this neighborhood's big standoff. A Southern B
aptist church.

  Cars and trucks circled the church, parked next to windows and doors to prevent anyone from getting to them easily. Behind the stained-glass windows, I could tell they were also barricaded from the inside. I looked to Joss, seeing if he was willing to spend just a little more time out here before heading back. He was just as curious as I was. Neither one of us could pass this up.

  Parking the Murano, I circled the building twice on foot before I found the door that had been the last point of entry. Cars and trucks blocked everything except for this one door, and it could only be pulled open wide enough to allow one body through. This was promising at first, but whatever they had used to barricade the door from the inside was immobile. Joss and I both struggled with it together for several minutes before I decided we had to find another way in.

  Circling the building again, we went in opposite directions only to meet up empty handed. Undeterred, I searched the abandoned vehicles until I found a suitable tool, feeling victorious as I pulled a crowbar from behind the seat of an old Ford.

  I climbed on top of a car that was pulled close to the building and swung at the stained glass window it had been protecting. The glass shattered and fell in colorful sheets, only to reveal a solid slab of wood behind it. I pushed against it but there was no give.

  Deciding not to waste time against the heavy wood, I instead moved on to the next vehicle to break another window. After I met the same immobile obstacle, I moved on to the next and then the next until I finally found one where the barricade gave way a little when I pushed.

  Standing on the hood of an old, rusted truck, it took both of us heaving against it before the barricade finally fell inward. As it toppled over sideways into the darkness, I realized it was a pew. It groaned and protested on the way down, only to land with a dull thud that resounded from the inside of the church.

  I started to poke my head in but fell back as if slapped. The stench that hit me had my eyes watering almost immediately and it was a wonder I didn't gag. It wasn't the death and decay of the dead, but the rancid smell of filthy, unwashed living bodies.

  An involuntary shudder ran through me that had nothing to do with the chill in the air, and Joss took a step toward the window, only to leap backwards.

  "Holy shit!" He gasped, turning wide eyes my way and one hand covering his nose. "How many are in there?"

  I took three deep breaths and held the last one before approaching the dark entryway we'd just made. There was little light inside the room, but I could see them. The fading afternoon sunlight was reflecting off their eyes as they had come to investigate the intrusion. I counted at least ten sets of eyes staring back at me before I pulled away from the window again, exhaling. There were at least double that in there.

  The devastation of what had happened here was quick to play out in my mind. These people had been so thorough with their defense that they had locked the infection inside with them. Perhaps more than just one person was infected to be able to turn the whole congregation without someone trying to escape. It had managed to decimate them completely.

  Joss frowned. As the realization of what had happened here sunk in, his expression turned angry. It took him a few minutes to shake it off. In the meantime, I was trying to figure out what I was going to do. When he finally turned to me, the question of what we were going to do was plain on his face.

  "Let me get the lamp first." I said, referring to the huge flashlight I kept stored in the Murano. Joss began to clear out the glass as I ran to fetch it. My stomach was already clenched up in knots at the thought of going in there, but I couldn't leave it unexplored. Joss had backed away from the window by the time I made it back.

  "Maybe we should just leave this one alone." He said as I drew near.

  "No." I said, shaking my head. I climbed back on top of the truck and flipped on the light. "Can't be that bad, right? No different from the nursing home, just darker."

  Shining the light in on the freaks made it seem less foreboding, but I knew it was different, despite what I'd said. For one, the nursing home had a few broken windows that allowed for some ventilation. This place was full of rancid, stagnant air. The darkness was another factor that tested my nerve.

  "Hang back here." I told Joss as I leaned into the open window frame. "Let me get a quick look around."

  "Just be careful."

  "You got it." I said under my breath as I tested my footing on the overturned pew. It rocked some, but held my weight, and I stepped down into the church.

  I lifted the lamp as high over my head as possible to get a good view of the room. The amount of freaks that stared back at me were more than I had imagined could fill the space. They were packed in close, shoulder to shoulder, and they followed my every movement. I was able to spot the double doors that opened up to the other area of the church, but I would have to navigate a small sea of freaks to get to it.

  "Now what?" Joss said from above me, seeing the same view as I was. I flipped the light off.

  "Here, take the lamp." I handed it back up to him. "Let me get away from the window before you turn it back on. It should distract them."

  "Can you see in there?" There was concern in his voice but he didn't hesitate to take the lamp from me.

  "Well enough. I saw what I needed to see." I was already moving away from the window, staying on top of the pew as it ran along the wall. The deeper into the room I got, the more my eyes adjusted to the dim lighting. Shapes began to take form and become familiar objects. There was movement at the end of the pew, but, once I got past that few freaks standing there, I would have a clear shot to the doors.

  The pew was only about ten feet long. The closer I got to the end the more it wobbled. I kept my hand on the wall for balance for as long as I could, but the fall had knocked the end out into the room a little bit. I decide to step down to the floor between the pew and the wall and keep what distance I could from the freaks.

  I stepped to the floor and my foot landed on something soft and lumpy. I jumped back, momentarily startled, and fell hard against the pew, nearly toppling backwards. The floor was too dark for me to see what I had stepped on, but I had my suspicions. A freak had broken the fall of the pew. If it wasn't dead, it likely would be soon. It definitely wasn't moving.

  I shuddered and tried to refocus. Joss turned on the lamp again, shining the light into the middle of the room. He also started thumping on the windowsill with the crowbar, trying to garner even more interest with the noise. What little attention I had picked up was quickly lost, and I watched the crowd press in against each other under the window.

  Good boy, I thought to myself. Pressing on, I shuffled my foot around against the floor until I found I clear spot to step, avoiding the body. I was close to the end of the pew and the movement I had seen before had stilled. I could see the shadows of four freaks standing there, transfixed by the light. As Joss continued his banging, it caused the light to sway through the room. For the briefest of seconds, there was just enough light shining on the four freaks for me to see the blood dripping down their chins.

  Instinctively, my hand was gripping the hilt of my knife as my mind tried to work out this new puzzle. My breath came in quick, shallow pants.

  What the hell?

  Inevitably, the light swung back again to confirm what I'd seen. As I was cast back into shadow, a fifth dark figure rose from the floor, just on the other side of the pew. It was only an arm's length away and I had somehow failed to notice it.

  A slapped a hand over my mouth to stifle a scream and pulled my knife, even as I stumbled backwards. I tripped on the body of the freak and fell between the wall and the pew, wedging myself into the tight space. A burning flared up against my ribs as the pew squeezed my lungs, but I froze, ignoring the pain.

  "Ali?" Joss nearly shouted, swinging the light in my direction. The eyes of the bloody freaks stared back at him, ignoring me completely. The last one to stand was still chewing.

  "Ali!" As Joss saw what I was seeing, th
e panic spread in his voice. Already he was stepping down onto the pew, and I knew I had to move. I pulled myself up, leaning into the light and he paused. "Holy fuck, are you okay?"

  I nodded, remaining silent so I didn't draw any more attention to myself than I already had.

  "You scared the shit out of me!" He said, taking a step away from the window.

  I frowned and waved him back with short, small movements. He stopped advancing, but didn't turn back.

  "Where's the blood coming from? What the hell are they eating?" He was horrified. I couldn't blame him. If he hadn't broken my trance, I probably would have still been frozen against the wall.

  I looked back towards the bloody freaks, already knowing the answer. I had seen it happen before in Dallas. Even as Joss spoke, one of the other nearby freaks broke their attention away from him to stumble through the crowd and kneel down at the end of the fallen pew. It made little noise. All I heard was a squishy, wet, sloppy sound, but the bile still rose in my throat.

  Using the wall to steady myself, I closed my eyes as the blood drained from my head. My body broke out into a sweat as I fought down the urge to vomit.

  "Just get out of there." Joss said, his voice pleading. When I opened my eyes, he was still standing on the pew, waiting for me. I almost gave in.

  I looked back towards the double doors. Only a few freaks stood in my path and every one of them was focused on Joss. I was so close and was sure I could find another way out once I was free of this room.

  Joss lowered the lamp, his shoulders slumping in resignation. He knew what I was thinking. Without another word, he pulled himself back up to the windowsill and took up the rhythmic banging of the crowbar again.