They passed the next five days staying inside the building or within the compound fence, keeping an eye on the field, which was never empty of infected now. This was a worrisome development but, as they didn’t seem to be trying to get across the bridge or show interest in the island or the building, they simply tried to avoid calling any attention to themselves.
Carolyn and Vickie slept together every night but, aside from the kiss that first night, nothing else physical happened between them. On the fifth day, they both agreed Jake was well enough to start taking a more active role and later, when he went out again to check out the building with the heavy padlock, he found Carolyn lying on her back on a blanket, wearing only a pair of panties and a folded hand towel across her chest. He stopped dead, then turned to go back inside.
“I'm not embarrassed if you aren't,” she called after him.
Jake hesitated for a moment, then walked over to the building, carefully keeping his head turned away, Carolyn chuckling softly at his discomfort. With no little difficulty keeping his concentration, he examined the lock and, deciding that nothing good could come of his being out here alone with a near-naked Carolyn while Vickie was only a few steps away in the kitchen, hurried back into the house, still not looking in her direction.
“Are you okay?” Vickie asked, looking up from the pans of bread dough she was readying for the oven. “Your face is flushed and you're sweating. Let me see if you have a fever.”
“I'm fine,” he said shortly as he brushed past her and went into the office.
Puzzled, Vickie went outside, saw Carolyn and realized what was wrong with Jake.
“That's just mean,” she scolded. “Did you do that on purpose, just to tease him?”
“I didn’t know he was going to come out here just now! Besides, he's the one who said we need to get things back to normal,” she threw back. “Well, it’s a nice, sunny day and I don't have anything else that needs doing right away, so I took a few minutes out for myself.” Standing up, she let her covering fall and faced Vickie topless. She couldn’t fail to notice the way Vickie's eyes took in her body and the way she reacted when she realized Carolyn saw how much she was enjoying the view.
“You could be a little more discreet about it,” Vickie said, turning away.
“And you could be a little more honest about your feelings, for Jake as well as for me,” Carolyn answered, stepping up behind her and placing her hands on Vickie's shoulders.
“Don't,” Vickie said.
“I notice you aren't pulling away,” Carolyn said softly, rubbing her shoulders.
Vickie did pull away then. “I'm not going to have this discussion right now! Jake's been wanting to make another run to the hardware store and I think he wants to go as soon as the field starts to clear. I'm going to help him go over his list and convince him to stop at that clothing store in the mall so you don't run around bra-less and wearing clothes two sizes too small!”
“It’s just so frustrating,” Carolyn sighed. “If the two of you were actually together, it would be different. But I know you felt something that first night we spent together.”
“Don’t do this now, please,” Vickie still wouldn't look at her. “This is something I never even considered before until... until we kissed. I'm just not sure what’s going on in my head right now!”
“All right. I understand. And there won’t be a repeat of what happened out here,” Carolyn promised. “I think it would be best if I moved out to one of the other bunks tonight.”
“No,” Vickie quickly said, turning to face Carolyn. “I mean... I don't know what I mean. I just don't want to be alone.”
“I'm sorry, but I have to. Do you have any idea what it's like for me, lying there next to you all night? If there's never going to be anything between us, I really need to move out of your room.”
“I don't know what to do!”
“Well, it doesn't look like we're going anywhere for a while, so take some time and make up your mind,” Carolyn said as she picked up the blanket. “And, if it helps, I think I'd be okay with you being with both of us. Separately, of course.”
Vickie stared at her, mouth agape as she walked through the doorway, the blanket wrapped around her upper torso. Carolyn paused just inside and looked back over her shoulder at Vickie, then let the door close behind her.
Chapter 16: Overrun
“How's the list coming, Jake?” Vickie asked when she walked into the office to find him sitting at the desk.
“Uh, fine,” he said, but she noticed the paper in front of him was blank.
“Listen, do you think we could hit the mall again?” she asked as she sat across from him. “Carolyn needs clothes that actually fit her.”
“Yeah, a bathing suit for one!”
“Like you didn't enjoy the show!”
“Ah, clothing store, drug store; she can probably pick out items we overlooked the last time through; hardware store, if it's cleared out some. I need to get wire and plugs and extension cords, we can grab some more gas cans and hit that filling station again... let's see...”
“Are you going to be up to it?”
“I've got the two of you to help with the heavy lifting now, we'll do fine.”
“Okay. I'm going to put something on for lunch. Any preferences?”
“We have any pasta left?”
“Yeah, only about twenty pounds!”
“I'm in the mood for spaghetti.”
“Oh, for crying out loud! Don’t you ever get tired of that?”
“I like spaghetti. I hadn't had any for I don’t even know how long before we moved onto the island.”
“You don’t look it, but you must be part Italian.”
“I am, actually. On my mother's side.”
“Okay. We’ll have spaghetti…again.”
“Too bad we don't have any meatballs, but some of those canned sausages aren’t too bad.”
Vickie shook her head and smiled and, as she got up, impulsively leaned over and kissed him on the mouth, then walked out of the room, purposefully swaying her hips.
“Damn,” Jake thought, then forced his attention back to his list.
“Guess what he wants for lunch,” Vickie chuckled as she walked into the kitchen to find Carolyn fully dressed again and looking through the cupboards.
“What, spaghetti again?”
“Hey, it's quick and easy and filling.”
“And we only have two dozen boxes of it left,” Carolyn laughed. “Okay, I’ll make it for him, but I’m going to find something lighter.”
Vickie filled a pot with water and set it on the stove to boil while Carolyn opened a can of sauce and heated it in another.
It wasn’t too long before Jake smelled the bread baking and wandered into the dining room, to finish his list closer to the delicious aroma. Vickie and Carolyn both reached for a box of pasta at the same time and Carolyn's hand closed over Vickie's and they paused for a long moment, looking into each other’s eyes before Vickie pulled the box down from the shelf and looked away, back at the pot of boiling water. Jake couldn't help but notice their little interaction and wonder. While they ate, he paid attention to the way they looked at each other, the conversation between the two of them. He was certain there was some deeper meaning there but knew better than to make any mention of it just then.
After lunch, Jake went out into the compound, telling Vickie he wanted to take in a little sun and fresh air, but, really, he wanted to see how well his leg would hold up walking any distance. He noticed that there were a lot more infected in the field across the river, but none were congregating around the Hummer or near the gate. He made a circuit inside the fence, checking that the posts were solidly set into concrete bases, then decided to make a lap around the outside. Keeping a quick but unrushed pace, he finished one lap and, encouraged by the way his leg was able to take it, was two thirds of the way through the second when he saw the infected. It was a man in his fifties, wearing a set of bloodstained green cover
alls, hair and clothing soaking wet. He started to turn around to retrace his steps and spotted two more, both dripping wet, shambling toward him. Looking around, he saw yet another climbing onto shore on the upriver end of the island. The river current was carrying another dozen or so flailing infected past the island and upstream he could see several dozen more bobbing and struggling in the water. Jake pulled his Glock and shot the coverall guy in the forehead. The other two were only yards away, getting too close, too fast and he fired five more times, going for center mass, bringing them both down. By now there were several more emerging onto the shore, the sound of the shots centering their attention on him and they advanced toward Jake as quickly as their ungainly gait would allow.
Vickie and Carolyn started at the first shot and, before the next five rapid reports had finished, they were both armed and running out the door looking for Jake. They heard two more shots from the side of the house and then saw him, slowly backing away from a growing crowd of infected, firing as he backtracked, swapping magazines and firing again. Vickie ran to the fence, pushing the barrel of her .38 through the openings and firing, while Carolyn ran for the gate, coming up beside Jake and adding her firepower to his.
“Vickie! Go back inside and grab a couple of rifles!” Jake shouted, and she hesitated long enough to empty her gun before racing back into the house. She came out a few moments later with an AR in each hand and a 12 gauge slung over her shoulder. Jake took the shotgun and Carolyn and Vickie each wielded a rifle and began firing into the crowd. They continued to fire, emptying the magazines of both rifles, exhausting the shotgun ammo and getting down to the last few rounds for the pistols.
“They keep coming,” Vickie shouted, and there were, indeed, still more emerging from the water, some now approaching the gate from around the other side, seething masses struggling in the swift river and the three of them backed into the compound, locking the gate behind them, and took refuge in the house.
“Where the hell are they all coming from?” Jake said, having noticed the field across from the bridge was now teeming with infected.
Vickie ran up the stairs into her bedroom, went out on the balcony and looked upriver with the binoculars.
“There are hundreds of them, thousands!” she called out. “They're all trying to cross the bridge at the same time and they're so packed that dozens of them are being crowded off and falling into the water!”
More bodies than they could count were floating down the river, most being carried downstream with the current, but more than enough were washing up on the shore. On the island itself, the infected were feeding on others who had been killed or injured or were weak from exhaustion, gorging themselves on their dead and dying brethren. They paid no attention at all to the house in their rush to the macabre feast and Vickie and Carolyn stared horrified while Jake made sure the doors and windows were securely bolted. He lit a Coleman lantern against the darkness of the shuttered building and they all sat down at the table.
“I think we're going to be stuck inside for a while,” he told the others. “They're migrating, for some reason, and they all seem to be heading in the direction of the mall. There must be over a hundred of them on the island already and they're starting to press against the fence.”
“Will it hold them?” Vickie asked worriedly.
“Not for long,” Jake shook his head. “There are too many, and there are more landing all the time. It’s just too much weight for that fence to hold back. I wish I’d had time to reinforce it.”
“What do we do after the fence goes down?” Carolyn asked.
Jake chewed his lower lip before responding. “These walls are good, solid brick and the doors are heavy steel and well set. The window shutters are steel, too, so I don't see them getting inside. We'll just have to wait them out.” Seeing the despair on their faces, he added, “We've got plenty of food and water, a ton of ammunition, we'll be fine. Sooner or later, they'll pass and we can take care of the ones left on the island.”
“How do we know they'll pass,” Carolyn asked in a voice edging toward panic. “There are thousands of them out there now, tens or hundreds of thousands, maybe millions. It could be weeks or months before they all pass. Or never.”
“We wait it out. What else is there to do?” Jake asked, stepping to a window to crack open a shutter and watch as a section of fence began to lean inward against the weight of pressing bodies. “For now, we need to get these rifles and pistols cleaned, reload all the magazines and make sure we have plenty of ammo ready at hand. We need to keep clear of the windows as much as possible to try to keep them from finding out we're in here. And we need to stay calm. Like I said, they're not getting in the house. Once the herd passes and they're not dropping off the bridge and washing up on shore anymore, we have more than enough ammo to take care of the ones that are still here. And we can take most of them down from the balcony and the firing slits without exposing ourselves. We're going to be okay. We're going to survive.”
Reassured by Jake's confidence, they both nodded and Jake began tearing down his pistols, cleaning and oiling them. Vickie and Carolyn followed suit with the rifles. It was busy work, mostly, just something to keep them occupied and keep their minds off what was happening outside. When they finished with the weapons, they reloaded all the magazines and stacked ammo boxes on the table, near the stairs and by the upper floor balcony. This all done, there wasn't much more to keep them busy.
They sat at the table, trying to make small talk for a while without much success when Jake got up and went into the utility room, returning a moment later with a bottle of wine.
“I found several of these here when I first moved in and I put them aside. I'm not much of a wine drinker myself, but if you two would like to join me, I'll pop the cork on this.”
Vickie found three porcelain coffee cups and Jake filled each one with the dark, red liquid and raised his cup.
“To better times ahead,” he said as they clinked their cups together.
“That's good wine,” Carolyn said after a long sip. “That is very good wine! Someone knew just what to stock. How much of this do you have?”
“More than enough.”
Later, well into her third glass, Vickie leaned on her elbows on the table. “The first time I ever got drunk, I was fifteen. Bobby Hendry stole a bottle of homemade wine from his grandfather's basement and we went under the bleachers at the high school stadium and drank it. When I got home, way after curfew, my dad smelled it on me and, oh my God, was he mad! I got a lecture, I got grounded for two months, my mom took me to the hospital where my Aunt June worked and made me spend time in a room with an alcoholic suffering liver failure. My uncle Murray, he was a cop, took me to the police station and showed me drunks and winos with vomit all over the front of their clothes and my dad had a long talk with Bobby and his parents. Right after that, he went off to the army. He was nineteen and my dad said he was going to press charges against him for child molesting.”
“He got you drunk and fucked you?” Carolyn asked.
“He wanted to. Tried his best to talk me into it,” Vickie laughed. “I ended up giving him a hand job and he was satisfied. He didn’t much like it when I wiped my hand off on his pants, though.”
“Men can be such pigs!” Carolyn said in mock anger as they both turned to stare at Jake.
“Don't look at me! All my friends called me Saint Jacob because of my piety!”
All three laughed and drank and talked and Jake did bring out a second bottle and they passed the rest of the day telling stories and lies and laughing as if they hadn't a care in the world, trying to put aside what was going on just past the walls of the building.
Carolyn eventually gave a huge yawn and they agreed it was probably best to turn in for the night. Jake checked the doors and windows a second time before heading for his bunk and Vickie carried another lantern up the stairs, Carolyn following her.
“I've picked out a bunk, so I'll just grab a few things here bef
ore I go,” Carolyn said once they were in Vickie's bedroom.
“Carolyn. Please don't go. Stay with me tonight.”
“I told you why I can't do that, Vickie.”
“Things can change,” Vickie said, stepping close to her and touching her fingertips to Carolyn's cheek. “I want this to happen.”
“Is this just the wine talking? Are you going to feel different in the cold light of day when you sober up? Are you sure?”
Vickie put her arms around Carolyn and pressed her body to hers. She kissed her gently on the lips and gazed into her eyes.
“I'm sure about this, Carolyn.”
Chapter 17: Leaving the Island
Jake woke shortly before dawn the next morning, first up as usual since he’d started feeling better. After checking that the doors and windows were still secure he looked out of one of the firing slits to see that a thirty-foot section of fence was down and the infected were all around the house now. The smell of body odor, excrement, blood and rotting meat was strong and flies were swarming everywhere. He knew that the island would be uninhabitable very soon. Even if they managed to kill off the invaders and rebuild the fence, they couldn't do anything about the blood and gore soaked ground. The scene was the same from windows on the other three sides of the building; collapsing fence, blood pooled and coagulating, and infected by the score, still fighting and devouring each other.
The Complete Lethal Infection Trilogy Page 11