by Citroner, GW
“Thanks a lot, Ty” Lily grimaced at the thought. “I hadn’t even thought of that.”
Twenty-two
“We’ll be hitting Albuquerque in a little while, fuels getting low.” Ty looked over at his friend, head against the window, obviously asleep. He gave Dan’s leg a hard poke.
His eyes flew open “What? What happened?” Then he grumbled. “I was asleep.”
“Like I said, we’ll be in Albuquerque soon, but we’ve only got a quarter tank left. Do we head straight into town or take our chances going around and hope we can find diesel fuel somewhere?”
“I honestly don’t know. After Boise, I’m leery of large populated areas.”
“We need go juice and our best bet is following 40 straight through and finding someone to trade food or ammo for a full tank. Diesel isn’t as easy to find as gas, and we haven’t run across any truck stops that aren’t already sucked dry.”
“What do you think, Lily?”
“I don’t mind, Ty,” she pointed at the roof-mounted machine gun and added, “If anybody wants to be unfriendly, I think we’ve got it covered.” Lounging next to her, Smelly farted thunderously. “I think that counts as another vote.” She laughed.
“Alright then, but stay sharp. We don’t know what the situation is around here. Or if it’s overrun with infected. There may not be anybody left.” He looked at his watch. “It’s a little after two, so we’ll still be safe for a while – there is no way mutant skins can take this sun.”
“About that, do you think we can raid a drug store for a few gallons of sunscreen?” Lily asked.
“Oh shit! She’s right, Danny. They can’t walk around without protection.”
“No problem. Lily’s already got long pants, long sleeved shirt and a cap, all she needs is something for her face and hands.” He thought a moment. “We’ve got a rain poncho in the back we can cover Smelly in. Same as Lil, he just needs something to cover whatever skin is exposed.”
“How about zinc oxide, that white stuff the lifeguards put on their noses?”
Lily asked.
“Should be easy enough to find, but until we do, remember to stay buttoned up, and keep Smelly inside unless there’s shade available. This far south the sun will be setting around six anyway.”
“I’d rather worry about the sun than the infected.”
“Give me a map check, Dan.”
“We passed a place called Seama a while back, so maybe ten minutes before we pass exit 165 and we’re there.” They drove past a burned out Holiday Inn and then followed signs leading to Albuquerque’s Old Town. “Are you looking for souvenirs, Ty?”
“We agreed Lil and stinky need sunscreen, right? Where better to find it than a tourist trap?”
“You got a point.”
“Besides that, with a ton of restaurants, hotels, stores, and what all, there’ll be a better chance of finding the supplies we need in a reasonably small area.”
As they drove deeper into the area Lily became excited. “Look, all the buildings are old-fashioned adobe style. It must have been so pretty here!” The streets were littered with refuse and abandoned cars and many glass storefronts had been smashed, but the neighborhood still radiated an old west charm. It was a welcome change after what they’d recently survived.
“It still is – in a sad way.” The corners of Ty’s mouth turned up slightly. “And it can be again, it’ll just take a lot of work after we finally beat this thing.” He pulled up to a little shop. “Farmacia, that’s a drugstore. “Lil, stay here with sewer-butt while Dan and I go get you both a few hundred tubes of sunscreen.”
“No problem. Please be careful.”
Taking their freshly liberated weapons and an empty rucksack, the men took a long look through the cracked display window. “Looks safe.”
“Let’s go in,” Dan agreed. He tried the door. Finding it locked he broke the glass using his rifle’s butt and reached in to unlock it. “Whoa! You smell that?”
“Yeah,” Ty took another sniff. “Dead, at least a week.” Boots crunching broken glass, he walked up to the sales counter and looked behind it. “Seems it was too much for this guy and he ate a bullet.” Slumped against a back wall spattered with dried blood and bits of brain, the body was wet with decay and crawling with roaches. “Let’s get what we need and get back, even Lil’s dog doesn’t smell this bad.”
“Is he all there?” asked Dan.
“What?”
“Does he have any bites taken out of him?”
“What does that have to do with anything? Oh, I see what you mean. No, the body looks intact, no sign that he was eaten.” Turning around Ty examined the shelves. “Maybe if he’d waited it out, it would have turned out better for him. Then again, maybe not.”
Leaving with a few bottles of sunscreen, tubes of zinc oxide cream, fresh first aid supplies, one cheap pair of sunglasses, and a local roadmap, they quickly left. “Hey, Lil! We brought back goodies.” Ty tossed the bag at her. “Sunscreen, zinc face paint, glasses, good stuff.”
Dan sat behind the wheel. “I don’t want to spend another night outdoors. Let’s start looking for someplace to hide before the sun gets any lower.”
Ty took a long look at the map. “If we head straight this way, we should hit Lomas Boulevard, and that goes straight into downtown. “We’ll pass loads of restaurants, hotels, and government buildings.”
“That’s great, Ty, but any survivors are probably going to be there, too,” Lily said. “We haven’t had a lot of luck with people lately.”
“What about it, Dan?”
“Lily has a point, but we’re armed. I think folks might think twice before causing trouble.” He squinted in the late afternoon light. “Night’s coming on fast.”
“There’s a big hotel just a couple of miles away, I say we give it a look.”
Ten minutes later, it loomed above them.
“It’s a big hotel.” Lily craned her neck to see the top. Afternoon sunlight splashed against the long, narrow windows. “Let’s see if anybody’s home.”
“I think somebody might be, look there.” Dan stopped the jeep and pointed to the lowest floor. “I’ll bet that wall didn’t have barbed wire on it before.”
“I hope there’s parking available.” Lily and Dan turned their heads to look at Ty and burst out in laughter.
Driving around to the front entrance, they weren’t surprised to find a small contingent of men guarding a makeshift barricade at the entrance. It consisted of cinderblocks, barbed wire. A dump truck parked facing outward served as an easily opened and highly effective gate.
“Stop right there.” A tall, thin man with salt and pepper hair called as he cautiously approached. Rifles swiveled toward them, competently held by several men of varying ages and ethnicity.
“We’re just passing through on our way east to Abilene and are looking for a place to stay for the night.” Dan explained.
“So you say.” The older man’s face was lined and haggard. “Nice rig you got there, but in case you’re planning on some monkeyshines – know that we’ve got snipers on the roof aiming straight at you.”
“We’re just looking for a place to stay overnight before going on our way; we can trade for a place indoors,” repeated Dan.
The thin man looked up. “Sun’s going down.” He turned away from them and called toward the truck. “Open up Alvin, and radio Julie that we’ve got company for dinner.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“Don’t thank me yet, young man. You’ll be singing for your supper,” eyeing their machine gun appreciatively, he added, “that peashooter could make a big difference.”
Dan pulled in, the older man directing him to park just inside the makeshift barrier. They exited the vehicle and nervously stood next to it, waiting for further instructions. Guns were still pointed at them.
He shouted at his men. “Put your damned guns down!” Then he apologized. “Sorry, everyone’s a bit jumpy. I’m Stang, Stang Roundtree – wh
o are you and where are y’all coming from?” He held out his hand, and Dan shook it.
“I’m Dan Foster, this is Ty Brantley, and the young lady is Lily Hazelton. We’re originally from Washington State, on our way east to try and find our people there.”
“Glad to meet you, Dan, Ty, Lily,” frowning he asked, “Lily, you alright? You look pale.”
“It’s a long story Mr. Roundtree, but we have a…pet still in the jeep and he looks even more unusual than I do, but he’s completely harmless. Please warn everyone not to shoot him on sight.”
“If your ‘pet’ doesn’t do anything to warrant being shot, he won’t be.”
She opened a rear passenger door. “Come on Smelly, let’s meet some new friends.” Smooth white skin glowed in the dying sunlight, muscles bunched and swelled as the animal slid out of the vehicle. He stretched luxuriously before walking once around Lily and standing still at her side.
“I see what you mean. I thought everything infected was crazy. Are there more like that?”
“I wouldn’t think so; Smelly and I were given an experimental drug to control the infection. Like Dan said, it’s a long story.”
“Well, let’s get inside and you can tell it over something warm,” he waived them toward the entrance, “my Julie makes a mean stew, and I figure we’ve an hour or so to enjoy it before the night attacks start.”
Dan was curious. “They don’t come out during the day?”
“Not often. The sun burns them like an Irishman in the Bahamas. By nightfall they’re hungry.”
Twenty-three
“That’s what happened, then?” The three nodded assent.
The stew was good, and they sat in the warm glow of a home cooked meal. “Stan, how’s the situation here,” asked Ty.
“It’s Stang, but don’t worry; everyone gets it wrong at first. Story goes that the day I was born I got stung by a wasp and screamed so loud my dad said ‘first day here and that boy already got stang.’ I guess he couldn’t think of a better name after that.” He gave them a big grin. “As for the situation, well it’s pretty much what you see. We got thirty of us here, all families. We take turns going out scavenging and standing guard. We lucked out with the hotel – lots of dry goods, and a built-in diesel gennie to keep the freezer goods we inherited fresh.”
“How long have you been here?”
“About two months now. We’re settled and have life down to a routine. It isn’t ideal, but we make do. There is one problem though.”
“Let me guess. Running low on ammo?”
“Especially high-powered ammo; we have enough for the hunting rifles, but that M60 you’re carrying uses 7.62 Nato, something our AKs are useless without. How much you got?”
“We’ve got fifteen ammo cans of 7.62, a thousand rounds per can. That’s not counting eight belts already linked with a hundred rounds each and enough links to make at least a dozen more. How much do you need?”
Stang whistled appreciatively “We can trade you a lot of cans for some of that. And something else.”
Dan looked over at Ty for a moment, “What else?”
“Infected things swarm around the hotel every night, but without automatic weapons we’re hardly making a dent. Some of your ammo would put our AK-47s back in play, but your machine gun could really help bring them back down to manageable levels.”
Dan looked at Ty and Lily before nodding “Sure, Stang. We’d be glad to help out, but we can’t stay long.”
“Just tonight would be fine.”
“I think we can do that.”
“Just one condition,” said Ty, holding up the bottle of Mexican beer he’d been drinking with supper. “I want twelve more of these for the road when we leave.”
Stang laughed. “I think I can do that.”
The moon was rising as everyone took their positions on the wall. Ty and Dan detached the machine gun and set it up on top of the massive truck that served as the compound’s ‘door.’
“Rest the bipod there,” said Dan pointing to the forward edge of the truck’s dump box.
“Why not set up over the cab?” Ty asked, “You’d get a better view.”
“Nah, I’d be too exposed and standing in the box I can fire in a bigger circle.”
Climbing in to join them and carrying a large plastic bucket, Stang remarked “You boys are sitting pretty, got a really nice view. Wait till the spotlights turn on.”
“What should we be expecting? How have the attacks gone on previous nights?”
“Shouldn’t be too many human shaped ones; we took them out over the last couple of weeks. However, our success has created whole other problem.”
“Like?”
“Like we had to get rid of the bodies after every attack and we didn’t have any way to burn them all – so we dumped them in piles as far away as we could and let nature take care of it. I admit we didn’t think that out too well,” the older man looked embarrassed.
Ty quickly realized what he meant. All that infected meat just lying in piles would attract every mutant for miles around. “Rats! You mean there’s a horde of psycho, monster rats heading this way?”
“Rats, coyotes, raccoons, and someone blew away a two-headed armadillo the size of a Volkswagen two nights ago. So far, they attack in small waves, but as they run out of corpses to eat we expect more will come.”
“What about crows?”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Ty. Their feathers fall off and they end up sunburned to death, then something else eats them I guess.” He pointed down. “We’ve blocked up the undercarriage with cinder block and this is the cherry on the cake.” He hefted the container he held.
“What’s that?” Dan inquired.
“Five gallons of corn oil.”
“Why?”
“Damn it son, don’t you think something can climb over the hood to get you? Pour this all over the front end and that’s one less worry.”
“Shit, I didn’t think of that.”
Stang handed Ty the bucket, “You do the honors, boy. I’m a little long in the tooth for climbing.” He turned toward Dan. “Is your girl gonna be alright out there?”
“The infected tend to ignore her and she’s a lot tougher than she looks.”
“It’s good having a scout for a change – we’ll know what to expect before it gets here. I’m going to help the Lopez brothers set up now, this gun isn’t the only surprise we’ve got planned for tonight, but it’s a nice bonus!”
Lily was jogging in lazy spirals around the perimeter with her hound pacing beside her. She stopped to look down a main thoroughfare. Catching movement, she sighted in her binoculars. White patches quickly moved from moonlight to shadow. Carefully focusing she could see something moving, but not what it was. Smelly gave a low growl. Lily looked down at him curiously. “What’s the matter boy?” The white patches slid closer and she looked again. Focusing carefully and squinting hard she finally made out what it was and grabbed at her radio to call it in. “Ty, you there?”
“I’m here, Lil, what you got.”
“There’s something headed your way.”
“Yeah, we know that. What is it?”
“Everything, I think.”
“Say again, Lil. I don’t copy.”
“I said everything. There’s a swarm of infected animals heading your way. Rats, mice, snakes, cats – you name it. They’re all moving together, like army ants.”
“Head back in, Lil. I don’t think you’re safe. Sharks in a feeding frenzy sometimes eat each other.”
The pair sprinted back. They arrived as the first wave came into view, covering the ground like an infernal, writhing flood.
Stang shouted “Now!” Spotlights illuminated the ravenous horde in excruciating detail. Even as they moved toward the compound, each individual creature was eating, and being eaten by, its neighbor. A vision of charnel devastation met the gaze of everyone on the wall. It seemed endless, and approached rapidly. Gunfire exploded deafeningly into the night, air fi
lling in with the stink of cordite, infected flesh, and fear.
“I think we’re gonna need a bigger gun,” shouted Ty as he loaded another ammo belt.
“Get me a bucket of water, the barrel’s going to melt if we keep it going like this for too long,” Dan yelled back.
He reached down; grabbing a one of several buckets at their feet. He poured a slow, steady stream over the barrel, the liquid violently boiling away on contact. An ocean of death broke against the wall. Grotesque bodies piled up and descended again as the bullet-torn remains were devoured by the next wave of attackers.
Leaning out just a little too far, a man lost his balance and fell over the wall, catching the edge with a hand. He hung there, feet dangling as others rushed to his aid. The ravening creatures piled on each other, building a writhing mound to reach the tender flesh already so tantalizingly close. Before he could be pulled back – dozens of spiky, sharp-fanged bodies swarmed his legs. Both were gnawed to bloody stumps by the time he was rescued. Meat stripped away in seconds, he died even as tourniquets were set above the naked bones.
Ty shouted. “We’re down to the last two ammo belts!”
“It won’t matter in a few minutes,” Dan replied.
Then, several young men joined them on the dump truck. They were carrying a long metal pipe attached to hoses leading to a tank on the ground. One of them tapped his shoulder. “Move back. Didn’t Stang tell you we had a surprise planned for tonight?” He sparked a lighter and the night lit up in red and gold.
Twenty-four
“The Lopez brothers rigged them up using HVAC parts and other odds and ends.”
“Flamethrowers!” Lily shook her head in amazement.
“Eight of them, with enough juice for a proper fry up.”
“What did they do before the virus hit?” Dan asked.
“They ran a chop shop. Those boys could take a Mercedes down to parts in minutes.”
The odor of burnt flesh hung heavily in the air, making breathing unpleasant. A ring of fire still smoldered just outside the walls as the mounds of meat fed it a steady stream of melting fat.