She only drank half the bottle to try and avoid the inevitable outcome. Trying to avoid that outcome meant it became the one thing she could think about. Less than an hour after drinking half the bottle of water she had to pee. She had to pee pretty bad. She didn’t have a problem just doing it in the closet. She did have a problem doing it in the closet and then someone opening the door either as she was going or right as she finished. Not knowing what else to do she knocked on the door a few times and called out softly to anyone who may be listening that she needed to use the restroom.
No one answered so she sat there a little longer before swigging down the rest of the bottle. When she’d finished all the water, she then had a place to pee. She carefully took care of that need as sanitarily as possible given the circumstances and settled back in to wait. She fiddled with the door hoping to find a way out of the closet. It was locked which wouldn’t be that big of a deal, but she could also tell they had a deadbolt across the front of it. That posed a more complicated obstacle.
She climbed to the top of the closet but there was nothing up there besides a vent too small for her to fit through. She’d been hoping to find the entry point to an attic or air duct system. As she’d pulled her way up to check the ceiling, she’d envisioned herself crawling the duct system looking for her sisters. That scene playing in her head was the same one in virtually every spy movie ever made. She figured there had to be some basis to it. There may very well be, but it wasn’t something that was going to hold true in the closet she was currently stuck in.
Eventually the door opened. A tall, stern woman in comfortable looking camouflage pants and blouse looked down her nose at Caitlyn. Caitlyn was aware she hadn’t bathed in a while and that she’d let her hair go a little wild, but she didn’t feel she warranted the look of mild disgust etched on the woman’s face. She briefly considered emptying the water bottle full of pee on the lady’s head to see if that helped with her expression. She bottled up that urge having decided she needed to start cooperating as fully as she could if she was going to get a chance to escape.
“Are you ready to act like a civilized young lady?” The woman asked. She had a southern drawl wrapped around a hard, cultured voice that spoke of higher education and tea times and charity balls. Those things were a thing of the past now which explained the hint of desperation and craziness that tinged the aura of culture and sophistication she presented.
“Yes ma’am. Can you tell me how my sisters are doing?” Caitlyn asked as respectfully as she could. She’d slid the bottle of pee into the corner out of the woman’s sight as she stood up to walk out of the closet.
“I’m sure they’re fine. Please grab your bottle of urine and come with me.” The woman answered.
Blushing despite herself, Caitlyn squatted back down and grabbed the slightly warm bottle of pee from the corner she’d shoved it into.
“Do you have some place I could throw this away?” She asked.
“There’s a trash receptacle over in the corner. You can leave it in there for now. I’m happy to see you used the bottle. Half of the girls we bring here just drink the water then go all over the closet floor. I open the door and they’re squatting in their own urine like animals. One was even napping in it. Some of the girls we’ve brought in have gone quite feral during their time out in the open. I suppose living on their own like animals in constant fear of being eaten by the infected will do that to a young person. Especially if they started life without a strong moral compass to begin with.”
Caitlyn agreed with that assessment. If her and her sisters hadn’t had their grandma and Eric to take care of them then there was no telling if they’d be alive now or not. There’d be no telling what their state of mind would be. She shuddered at the thought of trying to survive all of this on her own. She hadn’t heard any sympathy in the woman’s voice for those girls who’d gone feral though. She’d heard more derision and disgust than anything else. Caitlyn had gotten the sense this woman was important. She felt sorry for the girls the woman decided were too feral to be raised around the rest of them.
“My sisters and I’ve been pretty lucky. We’ve been on the move most of the time, but we’ve had one another to keep us sane.” Caitlyn answered. They’d reached the end of the corridor they’d been walking down. Her escort opened the door to a large room with multiple cots and footlockers set out in it. There were some shelves along the walls holding books and other gear. The whole room was illuminated by a narrow window along the top of one of the walls.
“This is where you’ll be staying for your testing and at least the first phase of the training. Your class leader is Sandra. She should be returning any time now. There are guards stationed all around the exits. Do us both a favor and don’t do anything stupid. Have a seat on one of the empty cots and wait for Sandra and the rest of your class to get back.” Without waiting for any sort of response the lady turned and exited out the door.
Caitlyn sat in the dim room staring at the door leading out of the room into the corridor. She was tempted to just open the door and take her chances with the guards. She needed to find Myriah, Ali and Doreen so they could escape this place and try to rescue Zoey. She remembered Myriah had attacked one of the guards earlier. She wondered if Myriah had been locked in one of the closets in the same room she’d just been taken out of or if she’d been punished harsher. Caitlyn sat and waited. A dark and heavy cloud of depression crushing her into the cot she sat on.
Chapter 20: Custards Last Stand
Kyler stared at the group of kids climbing into the bus with the adults hurrying them along. Where’d they come from? He respected Tom for telling them to get in the bus and they’d cover them, but he also knew they didn’t have any kind of chance of slowing down that river of insanity that was rumbling towards them. They were going to be inundated with a wall of death dealing Zombies before all those kids managed to even get on the bus. Tom, Pete and Kyler standing by the run-down storefront blazing away with the rest of their ammunition wasn’t going to accomplish a damn thing.
Tom did a quick turn in the middle of the road. He was hoping to block the road a bit better with the truck. Tom and Pete both stuck their guns out their windows and waited. Kyler sighed and jumped out of the false safety of the trucks cabin down to the road. He climbed into the back of the truck and got into position right as the first Zombies came bounding around the corner towards them. The adrenalized Zombies were leaping at least five feet into the air. They would’ve all gone in the first round of the NBA draft if they’d been able to channel their bouncing abilities that well before they got infected and their rational minds melted away.
Kyler aimed, fired and repeated. In the cab right beside him the harsh bark of Pete and Toms guns threatened Kyler’s already endangered hearing. He wondered if normal people thought about using ear protection when they were in the middle of a fire fight trying to halt a mob of blood thirsty freaks from eating them alive. He fired until the loud, dry click told him he needed to swap out magazines. He did that quickly and continued firing. There were too many Zombies now to really bother trying to pick specific ones to kill. The leading wave of the Zombies was going to crash over their truck in less than twenty seconds if they didn’t do anything. Kyler did the only thing that occurred to him in the moment. He switched his rifle to full-automatic and got set to take as many out with him as he could. His mind getting stuck on a really bad pun associated with the ice cream store in the plaza.
Tom chose that moment to whip the truck into motion. Kyler looked up from adding another fresh magazine to his rifle and saw the bus was starting to accelerate as well. Tom must’ve decided he’d been courteous and brave enough for one day as he left the bus in their dust. Kyler looked up and saw wide eyed kids staring down at them as they bounced along the side of the road passing the bus. The bus accelerated much slower than the hemi-powered truck they were driving.
Tom pulled off the side of the road in front of the much slower bus. Kyler had a clear
view of the Zombie wave crashing into the bright yellow bus. Zombies were hanging onto the back of it and attempting to climb it. One or two of them had actually managed to get on the roof of the bus. More disturbing than the ones on the roof of the bus were the ones who were getting sucked under the tires. Kyler watched, afraid to shoot since he may hit a kid, as the bus slowly began to pull ahead of the mass of Zombies. Both of the Zombies who’d been on the roof were thrown off as the bus lurched forward suddenly.
Something happened that flipped the bus over on its side in a flurry of sparks and dust. Kyler thought it may have been the Zombies who were getting sucked into the giant wheel wells and crushed by the tires. He screamed and banged on the window for Tom to stop the truck. Tom slowed to a stop a good fifty yards from the bus then began slowly reversing towards it. The bus was barely visible underneath the Zombies piling on top of it trying to get to the kids trapped inside. Kyler started shooting when they got close enough for him to pick out targets. All that accomplished was causing some of the Zombie’s on the outskirts to leave the bus alone and start charging for them.
Kyler saw when the Zombies broke through the windows and started pouring into the bus. He imagined he could hear the screams of the kids over the inhuman screeching of the Zombies. He pulled the trigger on his rifle with it pointed vaguely in the direction of the Zombies charging for them. He couldn’t even see them through the tears spilling from his eyes. All he could think of was the kids looking down at him from the bus as they’d driven past. The goofy looking smiles and curious expressions. Now those kids were trapped in an overturned bus being eaten alive. All because Kyler had the idea to get the team to lead the Zombies down this road instead of just staying on the interstate.
Tom accelerated quickly back down the road. Kyler stayed in the back of the truck. He kept his rifle loaded and methodically shot down the Zombies streaming towards them. His mind was a million miles away from their mission at this point. All he wanted to do was put as many of the Zombies permanently on the ground as possible. He’d forgotten he was supposed to be a spy. It all seemed so stupid to him now anyway. Based on everything he’d seen so far this place was basically working just like the settlements he’d been part of up north. It was just people banding together and trying to survive. Trying to stay alive and sane in a world that had gone completely to hell.
He’d imagined it more like a giant band of skinhead Nazis had taken over the southernmost part of the USA and were running around being evil. He wasn’t sure exactly what he’d expected but it wasn’t this. He felt as close to Pete and Tom as he had to his comrades in arms up north. Someone was attacking the settlements. He understood that needed to be figured out. He was thinking now the better course of action for figuring that out would be to capture one of the raiding parties and torture the info out of them. Sending him down here to pal around with a bunch of the soldiers wasn’t going to get them a ton of valuable intel unless he happened to overhear their top-secret evil plans at the proverbial water cooler.
Tom had the truck going at a speed where they were staying just in sight of the lead Zombies. In theory this would keep them screeching and following along. Hopefully the interstate was being cleared of the Zombies and they could get them turned away from Georgia. It sucked to be in South Carolina or wherever the conga line of death ended up at, but Kyler didn’t see a real way to deal with that issue at the moment. The Zombies had to go somewhere. They had boxes of ammunition and grenades back here in the truck but even if they sat here and shot with hundred percent accuracy all day long, they weren’t going to be able to make that big a dent in the massive number of Zombies trailing them.
He’d been shooting in a trance. His mind elsewhere while his body went through the robotic motions of lining up shots and pulling the trigger. He was acquiring the next target when his trance state was disrupted. It was a little boy running towards the truck. The boy was dark skinned, his face was one big rash of sores. The mouth was curled in the typical grimace of hatred as he roared out the screeching noise the Zombie’s made on seeing live prey. Kyler hesitated on pulling the trigger then let the barrel dip down as exhaustion and grief overwhelmed him. Grief for a dead world. A dead way of life. Grief for Mike and his mom and all the kids in his boy scout troop.
He’d built a wall around all those memories and emotions. For some reason the sight of this Zombie kid broke the dam and the raw pain flowed out. It hit him hard. Head bowed and tears flowing once more he sobbed openly in the back of the truck. He tried to pull himself together then remembered the faces of the kids in the school bus they’d passed. The faces of the kids he knew their mission had killed. Those kids had become collateral damage because of him. He angled himself so that Tom and Pete hopefully couldn’t see his face. He knew they’d probably be able to tell something was wrong since he’d stopped firing and his back was shaking from the massive sobs wracking his body.
He finally pulled himself back together. Wiping his face, he cleared off the snot and tears then pulled the rifle back snugly into this shoulder. He looked down the barrel through the sights at the trees zipping past them then focused in on the road trying to find the Zombie kid who’d set him off. He didn’t see the kid but did see a female Zombie streaking down the side of the road at a speed that should’ve been impossible. The woman was wearing a dress covered in dirt and weeds and the stains from her victims. Only patches of the original dark blue color were visible on the frayed dress. She had long dark hair blowing out behind her as she ran.
As close as she’d gotten to catching them it still took three shots before she lost her footing and went sliding to the ground. In this kind of chase Kyler didn’t have to make sure the Zombies stayed down as long as they went down. No need for fancy head shots or any of that. Before the lady in blue dress had even stopped tumbling to the ground Kyler was busy acquiring another target. He took out a bounder with a couple of shots then put some rounds down the road in the general direction of the main mob chasing after them. Then they came to a T-intersection and Tom turned right to get them moving northwards again.
“Hey when they come around the corner let’s makes sure the leaders see which way we went and then toss some grenades out to keep the other ones heading this way.” Pete had opened the back slider to talk to Kyler as Tom slowed down.
“Sounds good.” Kyler said back over his shoulder. He hoped Pete assumed he was focused on the rapidly approaching Zombies. In reality he didn’t want anyone to see how red his eyes were from all the tears he’d shed.
Something was nagging him about this plan, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. He was fixing to ask Pete if he knew where they were headed when the first few Zombies popped out onto the road they were now on. Kyler shot at them. They didn’t want the fastest Zombies after them. They wanted the bulk of the Zombies after them. Tom stayed parked in the spot he’d stopped them in on the trash and dirt covered asphalt of the back-country blacktop road. Kyler felt the truck shift around as Pete hopped into the back with him.
They didn’t have time to talk as more Zombies popped out on the road behind them. Pete started digging though boxes until he found the ones with the grenades. He thumped on the window separating them from the cab and Tom started driving slowly down the road. Pete pulled the pin out of a grenade and tossed it in the direction of the Zombies coming for them. He counted off two seconds then tossed another grenade in the same direction and ducked down in the back of the truck pulling Kyler with him. Muffled explosions sounded over the screeching of the Zombies moments later. The explosions were accompanied by a couple of metallic pings as shrapnel from the fragmentation grenades hit the tail gate their heads were against. One of the flying metal fragments took out a section of the trucks back window.
Kyler and Pete both popped back up. Kyler with rifle in hand and Pete with another couple of grenades to throw. The road behind them was littered with broken bits and pieces of Zombies. They were only able to see that nightmare landscape for a few second
s before the broken bodies were hidden by the next wave of Zombies. Pete tossed out three more grenades as Tom kept them moving steadily up the narrow road. Kyler shot at a couple of the Zombies who’d gotten too close before ducking down next to Pete and waiting for the grenades to do their job.
Once he’d counted off three explosions, he popped back up next to Pete again in the back. Tom was yelling at them through the broken window from the cab, so they spun around to see what he was trying to show them. Kyler was expecting to see a car blocking their path or maybe a few Zombies coming down the road towards them from the other direction. They’d been making enough noise it was inevitable there’d be some Zombies coming from the other direction at some point. He thought they were pretty much in the middle of nowhere, but you never knew where a bunch of Zombies may have ended up.
“Oh crap.” He heard Pete say beside him. It was a major understatement. Kyler felt like Pete could’ve really expanded his vocabulary on that one. There was a freaking plethora of Zombies coming from the other direction. You couldn’t see the road up ahead there were so many Zombies coming down it. Tom had stopped the truck and was getting out.
Zombies! (Book 3): Violence Solves Everything Page 19