More were coming, Armani knew. He could hear them pounding on the pavement. The one attacking Kim had been faster than the others by a fair amount, but the rest would be there shortly.
“Get moving,” he said to Eric, but the other man jumped out of the van, not even wasting breath for words on Armani’s command. Kim was his sister, and he wasn’t leaving her to deal with the beast alone.
Eric approached the corrupted man from behind and took him around the waist. He pulled, his bicep muscles bulging like they did when he bench pressed. With some difficulty, he hauled the man away from his sister.
Turning in Eric’s arms like a bolt of lightning, the corrupted man focused on the new target. Eric couldn’t hold him still; couldn’t get out of range as the man darted his face forward and fixed his teeth on Eric’s neck. Eric screamed as teeth tore into flesh. He tried in vain to jerk away from the corrupted man he had locked in a deadly embrace.
Having left the church bus to help, Kirby decided it was too risky to try to shoot the man attacking Eric. Instead, he lifted the metal pike he’d taken as a weapon from the garage of the office building. He sent up a hasty prayer regarding his aim and shoved it as hard as he could toward the corrupted man’s head.
The pike met the nearly impassable resistance of the man’s skull, but Eric saw what Kirby intended. With a roar driven more by fury this time than pain, he shoved the man back until Kirby hit the resistance of one of the pillars that made up the canopy that covered the gas pumps. With Kirby supported by concrete and Eric pushing, the pike drove into the base of the corrupted man’s skull. He went limp in Eric’s arms and Eric let him drop.
The group of corrupted Eric’s assailant had been leading were upon them now. Eric knew he couldn’t get back to the van. They were closer to the bus, so they bolted to it and got inside. Armani was in the driver’s seat of the van, David in the driver’s seat of the car. Kim’s door was closed and locked and she looked on in panic as Eric and Kirby made it to safety.
With Armani in the lead, the group pulled out of the gas station and drove down the road one after the other. Armani, shaken after the encounter, didn’t know if he’d be able to make it back to what they’d established as their temporary stronghold without passing out from the stress. Finding even more reserves of calmness and strength, he somehow managed to continue driving, alone with his thoughts. He needed to talk to the group. They needed to get walkie talkies for car communications, he noted to himself. As soon as he thought they were clear of the immediate danger, he would stop the caravan and they would talk.
Until then, they drove on.
Chapter Twenty
In the Walker home as night approached with the speed of a runaway freight train, the mood was tense and quarrelsome. Sam and Laura fought with Melissa. The small girl had locked herself in their bedroom, refusing to leave the family home.
She’s held up so well until now, Laura thought sadly. It had only been a matter of time before what had happened broke her. The thought of leaving the only home she’d ever known had been enough to do it.
Sam stood outside the door, trying to talk Melissa down in soothing, paternal tones. So far, Melissa had not responded to anything he said.
“Come on, sweet girl,” Sam murmured through the door. He sat in the doorframe, speaking near the door handle. Trevor sat beside him, holding his hand as he had ever since the episode with the neighbors. Sam knew Melissa was sitting on the other side of the door listening, so he continued. “We have to go. We’ll come back.”
“You promise?” Melissa asked in a thick voice through the door. Sam heard the tears in it, and he hesitated before responding.
“I can’t promise that, baby doll,” he admitted reluctantly. Though he wanted to say anything to get them on the road, he couldn’t lie to her, not now when everything was going to absolute shit. The last thing his kids should have to question was the truth of their parents’ words.
“Then I’m not going!” Melissa hollered. Sam winced as he heard something break in the room. Melissa so rarely gave into temper, but when she did, the fits she threw were monumental.
“Mel,” Sam said, keeping his voice calm in an effort to calm his daughter. “I’d like to promise you, but I can’t. I don’t want to lie to you. We might not ever come back here. But we have to keep you safe. It isn’t safe here anymore.”
“Why not?” Melissa asked stubbornly.
Sam didn’t know how to answer. He didn’t want to tell the girl that her grandfather, whom she loved dearly, had become something dangerous and feral, something that would tear her heart out and eat it with little prompting. That same creature knew where they were, knew how to get to the house. If Austin’s mother was any evidence for the point, the corrupted retained at least that portion of their mind. He didn’t want to tell her any of that, so he kept it simple.
“The bad things know we’re here, and we can’t keep them out,” he said plainly. “We need to go somewhere they don’t know.”
“I don’t want to go,” Melissa sobbed from behind the door.
“I know, baby doll. I don’t want to, either.”
Sam trailed off and looked at his wife, seeking help from her. He didn’t know what else to do, but they had to go.
“Mel, open the door,” Laura ordered as she came to stand near it. Sam and Trevor got to their feet, haltingly as they had to accommodate for their clasped hands.
“No,” Melissa refused, but her resolve was less evident with her mother. Melissa knew it was Laura who was the force to be reckoned with between her parents.
“You open it or we’re coming in and dragging you out,” Laura declared matter-of-factly as she pulled her keys out of her pocket. Beside her house key was the key to the bedroom, which she always kept on her in the event of the children getting locked in her room. They weren’t allowed in there, but that was no reason not to be prepared for the eventuality.
Melissa was silent, so Laura slid the key into the lock and turned it. The girl was holding onto the doorknob with both hands, and Laura was exasperated, amused, and heartbroken all at once. It was a fruitless effort on the part of the girl and Laura wasn’t at all deterred by her efforts, despite how it made her feel.
Pushing the door open, Laura made sure not to hurt her daughter, but she forced her way into the room regardless.
Melissa tried to run away, but there was nowhere to go. Laura took her daughter in for a hug and held her tightly. She was reminded strongly of the girl in her infancy, when she refused to nap because she didn’t want to miss a thing. It had taken rocking, holding her pressed tight against Laura’s chest while she bawled until sleep was undeniable. Melissa had had a stubborn streak since she was a baby, and Laura had handled it then as she did now. She took control and did what was best for the girl, even when she fought against it with all the strength in her little body.
“We have to go, Mel,” Laura whispered against her daughter’s hair as she nodded to Sam. Her husband tightened his grip on Trevor’s hand and followed after Laura as she carried Melissa toward the door. Austin and Amy were still in the vehicles. The Walkers had gone into the house to gather up some personal items they hadn’t wanted to abandon but hadn’t taken with them on their trips out so far.
“I’m sorry, baby.”
Melissa didn’t respond and Laura realized that her daughter was asleep. Her heart hurt even more for the girl. She took the duffel bag that held all of the personal belongings they had collected and then led her husband and son out of their front door, perhaps for the last time. She locked the door with her free hand, having slung the duffel bag over that same shoulder.
“We’ll be back,” Sam assured her as he squeezed her forearm with the hand that wasn’t holding Trevor’s.
“No, we won’t.”
The pseudo-psychic ability that seemed to come and go made Laura’s words a grim prophecy that she fully believed. They would not be returning to this place, their home. Some of them, she knew, would never f
ind a home again.
“Let’s go,” she said in a dejected whisper. “It feels almost like it was never really home at all. It was just waiting to not be ours again.”
Sam wanted to tell her not to talk that way, not in front of Trevor, but he couldn’t bring himself to object to her description. Already the house felt like it belonged to someone else or, more aptly, belonged to the darkness that had overtaken the world. So he remained silent.
Laura and Sam loaded their children and belongings in the vehicles. Austin sat in the black truck, brooding and miserable. He stared out the window, as though he couldn’t bear to show his tear-stained face to Sam and Trevor as they entered the cab.
“We’re going to find someplace safer than this,” Sam told him in a gentle, quiet voice as he buckled his safety belt. Austin didn’t respond in any way. “I know somewhere, somewhere not many people know about. Actually, besides us, I don’t think there’s anyone I could name who does. I don’t want what’s in Trevor to find out where it is, so I’m not telling anyone where we’re going. Especially if we can’t get through, it we’re deterred somehow… I guess just know that there’s hope, okay? We’re going to get through this, and you’ll get through it by sticking with us.”
“There’s no hope left,” Austin said thickly. “It died with the last day.”
The brittle words spoken in the tone of a moody seer brought a tickle of goose bumps to Sam’s arms, but he ignored them and Austin’s moroseness. The fact that the kid had talked was a positive step forward in Sam’s mind, no matter that what he said hadn’t been that positive.
“It’s a long drive,” Sam continued as Laura, Amy, and Melissa in the Aveo pulled out first. Sam followed and said to Austin, “We can learn a lot about each other in that time. What do you say? Tell me some things about yourself, Austin. What are your hobbies? What are some things you like?”
Austin gave a deep sigh and finally looked at Sam, who kept his eyes on the road. He could see enough out of his peripheral vision to recognize the bleakness in Austin’s face, the coldness in his eyes. The teen had the look of an old man who had seen death in the flesh and had come to terms with the cloaked reaper. The look made Sam feel guilty, angry, uncertain, and determined all at once. It confused him that Austin, a new acquaintance, could elicit powerful emotions from him at levels he thought were reserved for his children. As it had before, the fact disconcerted him.
“I don’t want to talk to you, Sam,” Austin said quietly.
“Just don’t want to talk or you specifically don’t want to talk to me?”
Austin turned back to the window; didn’t answer.
“I asked you a question,” Sam said pointedly.
“And I’m not one of your kids so I don’t have to answer,” Austin retorted, but it was as close to disrespect as the teen allowed himself. “You tried to kill my mom, Sam. Your wife succeeded. What do you think?”
That was a sore point for the both of them, the fact that Laura had dealt the killing blow to Austin’s mom. Deciding they had nothing but time to work out their issues on the long drive, Sam said in his most sympathetic voice, “Austin, it was her or you. I know that’s no consolation to you and you wanted to hope that somehow she could be cured, but from where we stood there was no other choice.”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Austin reiterated, balling himself against the side of the truck door as though he was trying to merge himself with the vehicle.
Sam tried a different tactic. “What was her name?” he asked.
For a long time, Sam thought Austin wouldn’t answer. Then, he heard the teen mumble, “Tabitha. Tabby.”
“Not much of a great comparison, but I had a cat named Tabby when I was growing up,” Sam offered, trying to form any kind of fragile connection to the teen that he could. He knew it wasn’t his best attempt.
“Yippee for you,” Austin muttered.
“I’m trying, kid,” Sam said.
“Don’t,” Austin responded simply. Sam continued anyway.
“Dad’s name?”
“Henry.”
“Now that’s a good, solid name. Were you closer to your dad or your mom?”
“Mom.”
Sam had been fairly certain of that answer before he even asked the question. His mother’s death had shaken the kid down to the deepest part of him.
“Besides the nursing, what did you two do together?”
“This isn’t going to help, Sam,” Austin said, and his tone had a pleading quality that made Sam’s heart hurt. “Please stop talking about them.”
“I don’t want you to lock away everything you feel for them,” Sam explained, trying to sound compassionate. “I need you, Austin. I have people to take care of and you’ve already proven yourself helpful. If something happens to me, I have to entrust them to you. I need you here for that. I need you.”
“So you want me to get over my mom’s death in the span of one car ride?” Austin snapped, sitting up straight so quickly Sam thought the belt should’ve snapped against the force of the movement. Though he’d thought the boy wasn’t listening, Trevor huddled closer to his father at Austin’s sudden movement.
“No,” Sam said gently. “I want you to not hate me, not hate Laura, especially for what happened. I’m trying to explain to you that just as I need to be able to trust you to protect the people with us, the people dearest to me, that we were just trying to protect you, too. We’re heartbroken over what happened, as well, but we felt we had to protect you. Because we need you.”
Sam hoped that continuing to insist that all-important point would begin to form a balm that would help Austin through the nightmare that had befallen him since the Onset. He’d lost at least one parent, possibly both of them, and it hadn’t been to the corruption, to an alien entity that had taken over a human body. Somehow, it made it worse that one of the remaining humans had been the one to kill his mother.
“I’ll stay with you, Sam,” Austin finally said. “I’ll help you out, I’ll contribute. If something happens to you…”
“God forbid,” Sam interjected.
“God is dead,” Austin said carelessly. “If something happens, I’ll do what I can to help the group. Don’t ask me to feel what you want me to feel or heal on your timeframe. I do hate you, and I hate Laura more. And we’ll all just have to deal with that.”
‘God is dead.’ The words echoed heavily in Sam’s head. He’d seen terrible things since the Onset, things he wished he could burn from his brain with a hot poker of forgetfulness. But never once had he doubted God’s presence. Never had he felt abandoned by whomever reigned on high. Yet this kid, this poor kid had lost everything. He was absent of his family, absent of hope, absent of faith. Sam considered himself a tough man, but he suddenly wanted to cry.
Sparing him from this, something up ahead caught his attention. They’d travelled a fair distance by this point and had made it into the bustling center of the city they lived in. There was a strip mall, several sit-down and drive-through restaurants, two car dealerships, gas stations, another set of stores on the other street and, in the same parking lot as a Chinese eatery, a walk-in emergency clinic. In this parking lot, three vehicles sat idling. Sam could tell they were occupied because their taillights glowed in the thickening dark. He could even see people occupying the seats. Lots of people, it seemed like. His heart galloped.
“Hey, hey, hey. What’s this?” Sam asked as he slowed his truck to a crawl. He’d seen Laura slowing the Aveo behind them, as well, but she didn’t stop. It was likely she was waiting for his decision, and would turn easily across the four-lane road if he decided to turn into the parking lot.
“Are we going to talk to them?” Austin questioned, and curiosity pushed the edge of despair out of his voice.
Sam saw a large van; white and without character, a black car that looked to have recently been involved in a minor accident, and a bus. His heart skipped a beat in its mad race as he realized he recognized that damn bus. It
had obviously been taken from a church not far away. He’d seen it on his way to work more times than he could count. Recognizing the bus lent a very surreal quality to the whole situation, and he passed by the parking lot not quite knowing why.
“No,” Sam said, as surprised by the decision himself as Austin was. “We don’t want to add too many more people. What if they’re all the way corrupted?”
“Then they wouldn’t be driving,” Austin pointed out.
“They aren’t driving,” Sam countered with a frown. He accelerated, adding cementation to his resolution.
“You know what I mean,” Austin retorted in a surly tone.
“I do, but we don’t know exactly how the corruption works,” Sam agreed. “Maybe it can strike a whole group with shared madness at once. We don’t know enough to seek out other people yet is all I’m saying.”
“I hope you’re right,” Austin told him as they pulled onto the freeway. Sam’s mouth was set grimly as he nodded his agreement.
“So do I,” he admitted.
Chapter Twenty-One
Armani’s Journal
… I dream about them…
Armani didn’t even see the other vehicles as they drove past. He was too focused on what he was watching: the last recording on the video camera that he had rescued from the floor of the gas station. He wished he hadn’t. He didn’t need any more nightmares, but he’d inadvertently added another one, anyway.
While Dave and Gwen, two of Armani’s stealthiest movers, began to check for potential entry points into the clinic, Armani examined the recorder. A light flashed on the screen, indicating a critically low battery when he tried to turn it on. Unperturbed by this, Armani grabbed some AA batteries from his pouch, in which he had an open pack of eight that he carried for his flashlight. He put two in the camera to replace the dead ones and the device turned on with no further protest.
The most recent recording had been easy to access. The video preview was shadowed, giving Armani no hint as to what he was about to view. He pressed play, and watched.
Out of the Dark: An apocalyptic thriller Page 20