Sanctuary

by Blake Brown

  CHAPTER 6

  ​Bryce and Lauren woke at sunrise and immediately got to work. They used two shovels and a pickaxe from the garage to dig one large grave in the backyard. It took a few hours after they had dug out the dying grass to break through the large chunks of clay. His father had a few power tools that would’ve helped, but it wasn’t worth the risk of the noise drawing out neighboring infected. They had wrapped his family in blankets and sheets the night before to prepare them for their burial. After lowering them into the hole, Bryce rummaged through the house and found two copies of a picture they had taken on Ellie’s sixth birthday, right after she had gotten her favorite present of all, Grunt. Bryce kept one picture for himself and laid the other on top of Ellie, who rested somewhat in-between and on top of their parents.

  He looked at the family portrait for a few moments before slipping it into the pocket of his jeans. Ellie had the biggest smile he’d ever seen as she held the little puppy and kissed the side of his face. His mother was kneeling with her arm wrapped around the girl, while Bryce and his father we’re standing beside each other, both with an arm wrapped around the other. They all wore genuine smiles of bliss. “That was such a good day, probably one of the happiest days of my life.” Lauren rubbed a hand against his back, and he turned to her, revealing a genuine smile even though a single tear trailed down his face.

  He brought Grunt out of the house. The dog already looked much better than he had the night before, but he could still barely walk. Grunt slowly limped to the grave and then climbed down in. He whined and scratched at the sheet wrapped around Ellie’s corpse, desperately trying to see his best friend again. Eventually he gave up, knowing she was already gone. He lied down next to her, as if he wanted to be buried with her so that they would never be apart again. “Come on buddy. We have to let them go now.” Bryce said as he reached down and hefted the dog out of the grave.

  As they showered the bodies with dirt and started to fill in the grave, Grunt lied down at Bryce’s feet and whined, swiping his paw at Bryce's leg in protest. Bryce thought for a minute on whether to make some sort of headstone or marker and decided against it. His family wasn’t religious, and he knew he wouldn’t ever be able to come back here once he had left.

  It was still early in the day when they finished burying Bryce’s family, and they decided not to stay at the house another night. Bryce told Lauren that he planned to go back to the cabin and hoped that she would come with him, but he would understand if she didn’t want to. She just smiled and grabbed his shoulder, nodding her head. They spent an hour loading up everything useful into the two vehicles; food, water, medicine, tools, spare clothes, anything they could.

  Once they were loaded up and ready to go, Bryce put Grunt into the Dodge that he would be driving, and Lauren started getting into the Toyota. Bryce froze, one foot already in the cab of the truck, hearing infected screams and shrieks near the house. The screams got closer and louder as Bryce started to hear a roaring engine, and then, the screeching of tires just before a loud crash. Bryce looked at Lauren with a face of concern, she looked back at him confused.

  Bryce grabbed his rifle and went back inside, heading for the living room window to see what was going on. He could see a few infected running down the street and some smoke in the air, but he couldn’t see the wreck. He quietly went out front and looked down the road. There was a wrecked, armored van in one of the front lawns down the street, with a large oak tree lying across it. Over a dozen infected were trying to make their way into the vehicle. The hood of the van was billowing smoke and he could see the light of a flame beginning to grow in the engine block. He rushed back inside to see Lauren staring through the window. “There are people trapped in a wrecked van down the road. Infected are surrounding it and it’s starting to catch fire. We have to help them, or they’ll die.” Lauren nodded confidently. “I’ll take the corolla out and try to pull the infected away from them. Once they’re following me, pull the truck out to the street and honk the horn. If these people have any sense, they’ll pile in. Get the fuck out of there as soon as they do, and I’ll be close behind.”

  ***

  ​“Fuck, the engines catching.” Alejandro called out between coughs, the black smoke quickly drifting into the cab of the van through the air vents. He looked back to face the others who were separated from him by a metal grate.

  ​“What are we gonna do?” The teenage girl, Sarah, said in a panic.

  ​“We have to fight our way out.” Alejandro said.

  ​“There’s fucking dozens of them out there, as soon as we open those doors they’re going to pour in here and eat our asses alive.” Randy said.

  ​“Better than being burned alive.” Alejandro shot back.

  ​“We have no choice.” Byark said.

  ​“Use those keys to unlock the shotguns from the rack.” Alejandro instructed, pointing to a black rack that held three Mossberg 12-gauge pump action shotguns. “They’re already fully loaded. Greg, Randy, and Nathan, unload them into the infected once you open the doors, hopefully that will clear a path for Byark to get out and do his thing. Fill one of those cash bags with all the spare shells and boxes of 9mm cartridges, I’m sure we’ll need them once we’re on the run.” They all followed his instructions and were ready to go in less than a minute. “Fuck, it’s getting hot up here. As soon as they’re drawn to you guys, I’ll hop out and join the fight.” Alejandro finished, watching an infected woman rub her blood drenched face against the driver’s side window.

  ​“Everyone ready?” Byark asked as he prepared to open the doors, the other three men brought up their shotguns. Just before he opened the door, a car horn started blaring down the street.

  ***

  As soon as the garage door was open enough to pull out, Bryce slammed on the gas and sped down the driveway in reverse. The corolla’s rear bumper slammed into the black top of the street, creating a shower of sparks as Bryce reversed down the road away from the van, blaring his horn.

  A few infected turned towards him, chasing after the car, and once he was far enough away, he stopped and continued to blast the horn. Only about half of the infected left the van, so Bryce got out, pulling up his rifle. He took aim and fired three, well placed shots, downing the closest three infected. More of the creatures pulled away from the van, letting out vicious shrieks for their fallen comrades as they rushed towards Bryce. Bryce didn’t have time to reload as the group drew near, so he got back in the Toyota and started reversing down the street, keeping a nice trail of the infected in front of him as he went.

  There were still about half a dozen infected on the van, and he didn’t see Lauren pull out of the garage yet. More infected ran towards him from behind and he could see more in the distance, rushing down the street from where the van had surely come from. As the creatures closed in, Bryce worried that his rescue attempt might have been pointless. Just as he started to circle around, heading back to get Lauren, the back doors of the armored vehicle shot open.

  Three men with shotguns leaned out of the van and started blasting heads and limbs off the infected creatures that surrounded them. After they made their way out, a giant man with an axe and shield leapt out and started slaughtering the infected coming from up the road. Behind him followed a few others, carrying black duffel bags as they exited the vehicle. Another man hopped out of the van’s cab, firing off shots into the nearby creatures with a pistol.

  Lauren reversed out of the driveway and laid on her horn, waving the group over. Two of them hopped into the cab while the rest jumped into the bed of the truck, and Lauren sped off down the street. Bryce floored the Corolla, slowly catching up as they made their way out of the neighborhood. The three men in the back armed with shotguns were shooting any of the creatures that got too close as they drove, and anytime one would grab on and try to climb in, the largest among them would swiftly cut them loose with his axe.

  They made their way back onto the main street and passed by the massive,
Roseville mall, avoiding infected and wrecked vehicles as they drove down the once traffic filled street. After about two miles, the road went down a steep hill and back up another. Reaching the road’s peak height, Lauren turned off onto a side street, and made her way into the parking lot of a beautiful catholic church. There were no vehicles in the lot, and no sign of infected or other humans, so they parked the vehicles, and all piled out.

  ​Bryce could see a few of the others thanking Lauren and trying to talk to her, which seemed to be a little stressful as she tried to read all their lips at once. A little girl, probably slightly older than Bryce’s sister, was slowly helping Grunt out of the cab of the Dodge, petting him excitedly. He could see a genuine look of happiness on Grunt’s face as his tail began to wag and the malnourished dog licked at her face and hands. The giant man with the axe made his way towards Bryce as Bryce walked towards the group. “You really saved our hides back there friend.” The man embraced Bryce in a huge hug as he reached him, his chainmail shirt ripping out a few hairs from Bryce’s facial stubble as he did so, causing him to wince.

  ​“No problem brother, I’m sure you would have done the same if you were in my shoes.”

  ​“I would like to think so but planning and acting are two very different things. The name’s Byark.” The man replied, holding out a meaty hand.

  ​“Bryce, good to meet you.” He replied, shaking the offered hand.

  ​Another man jogged over to them, and Byark introduced the two. “Bryce, this is Alejandro. Alejandro, Bryce.”

  ​“Good to meet you, my brown ass would have gotten a little darker if it weren’t for you and your friend getting us out of that death trap.”

  ​“Where were you all coming from when you wrecked?” Bryce asked as the three of them started towards the others.

  ​“We’ve been trapped in Byark’s shop in the mall ever since this outbreak or whatever started. He saved our asses and gave us shelter, but no help ever came, and we were about to run out of food and water, so we had to fight our way out. We lost a good chunk of our group today.” Alejandro replied.

  ​“Don’t be modest, you helped just as many people as I did.” Byark said, making sure the other man got his due.

  ​“Yeah, just not with as much flair as you. After all, I wasn’t trained to be a Viking warrior.” Alejandro said with a quick chuckle.

  ​“How long were you guys trapped in the mall?”

  ​“About three weeks.” Byark stated.

  ​They reached the rest of the group and everyone was introduced to Bryce. He then walked over to Lauren and said, “You did great.” As they locked eyes. She smiled and nodded. Grunt hobbled over to Bryce and scratched his leg with his paw. Bryce knelt and started petting the dog, happy to see him in better spirits now that he had new friends. “Look everyone, we probably shouldn’t stay here too long. This city has a pretty high population and more infected will find us soon.” Bryce called out to the new group.

  ​“Where do you expect us to go buddy?” Randy replied.

  ​“I can’t tell any of you what to do or where to go. Lauren and myself are heading to a fenced off cabin near Foresthill that I was working at before this shit started. There’s not a lot of room, but there won’t be many infected or people near the area, and I think it’s our best bet for now. If any of you want to come, you’re welcome to join us as long as you’ll pull your weight and aren’t some sort of psycho.”

  ​“I’m in.” Byark stated flatly.

  ​“Me too.” Alejandro replied, and then turned to the two, younger women. “I think you two should come with us.” The two girls nodded, and judging by their puffy, red eyes, Bryce guessed they had lost their parents or guardians since all of this began.

  ​“My boy and I are coming too if you’ll have us.” Greg said weakly, looking pale and sick as he put his arm around his son’s shoulders. Bryce could see a bloody, ripped off piece of Greg’s t-shirt wrapped around his other arm, which hung limply at his side.

  His wound must be infected, we’ll have to give him some of the antibiotics Grunt’s been taking.

  ​Randy and Nathan looked at each other for a moment. Nathan shrugged to the other man and Randy turned back to face the group. “Well shit, I guess we’re in too.” He said. Bryce could see Greg staring daggers at the other man as he spoke, which concerned him.

  ​Bryce wasn’t expecting all these strangers to just blindly follow him, but he figured they had nowhere else to go. It’d be nice to have a community watching his back and sharing the work it would take to survive in their new reality. However; a group of this size would need a lot of supplies that they didn’t have. “I’m glad you all want to stick together, but if we’re going to do that; we’ll need to gather a lot of supplies, some more vehicles, and probably a few trailers or RV’s for everyone to live in.” Bryce informed the group.

  ​“Everything’s free now, let’s just go take what we need.” Nathan replied.

  ​“Things may not cost money anymore, but we’ll be paying with bullets and by putting our lives at risk.” Alejandro said flatly, not amused by the other man’s statement. Nathan mugged him coldly.

  ​“He’s right, I don’t think we should stock up here. It’ll be too dangerous and the freeway and roads leading back to Foresthill are going to be hard enough to traverse with two vehicles, let alone trailers and RV’s. When we get off the freeway and head into Auburn, I’m sure we can get everything we need there. The roads will be easy to navigate from there on.” Bryce responded.

  ​“Let’s get moving then, there’s no time like the present.” Byark said, patting Bryce on the shoulder.

  They all reloaded their weapons and split up the ammo and supplies before loading into their respective vehicles. Bryce got back into the corolla, having Alejandro ride shotgun while the two girls sat in the back with Grunt sitting in the middle seat between them. Lauren continued to drive the pickup, having Greg and Matt inside with her while Byark, Randy, and Nathan rode in the bed of the truck.

  They made their way to the freeway, not seeing any other humans as they did so. Occasionally, they would see a few infected, some of which even ran at the vehicles in their feral rage. The creatures would be quickly shot down as they approached, either by Randy and Nathan from the bed of the truck, or by Greg and Alejandro from the passenger seats of their respective vehicles.

  After hours of making their way past infected and roadblocks of wrecked cars, they finally got off the freeway and made their way into Auburn. The small town looked like a perfect middle ground between the chaos of Roseville and the utter destruction of Forest Hill. Bryce passed the truck and took the lead in the Corolla, leading the others to one of the few, big chain stores in Auburn, the massive camping world store that was the center point of a shopping complex. As they pulled into the parking lot, he could see a black iron fence surrounding a separate parking lot filled with used and new trailers and RV’s that were ripe for the taking. The shopping center also had a liquor store, farmers market, small grocery store, and a few other more useless buildings. The parking lot contained almost a dozen vehicles that Bryce was sure they would be able to find the keys for, either on the rotting corpses that littered the black top or in the vehicles themselves.

  ​“I think we can get everything we need for now right here.” Bryce said as he turned to Alejandro.

  ​“Just need to deal with those fucks first.” Alejandro replied, pointing to the infected feasting on the fly ridden corpses in the parking lot, and the few others pounding on the closed door of the farmers market.

  ​“Agreed. You two stay in here with Grunt for now, he’ll keep you safe.” Bryce said with a smile, turning back to face the two girls. They both smiled and nodded in return.

  Bryce and Alejandro exited the car and Bryce waved the others on as he approached the infected, bringing up his rifle. He let out a sharp whistle to the closest group of three that were currently tearing away at an almost fleshless skeleton on the
ground. They all looked up and growled, irritated with the interruption to their meal, before charging them. Bryce centered his reticle on the bridge of the closest creature’s nose and fired. The shot blew a huge hole in the direct center of its face and it slammed to the ground with the force of its momentum, cracking its skull and grating off its skin as it slid across the blacktop.

  ​“Nice shot.” Alejandro called out as he fired three shots into each of the following two infected, two in the chest and one in the head, dropping them both. “Beginners luck.” Alejandro said with a sarcastic smile as Bryce looked towards him.

  Well, I’m glad he’ll be watching my back from now on. Two more infected stopped their meal and ran at the group as the others approached Bryce and Alejandro. Bryce went to aim at the closest of them, when suddenly, an arrow ripped through its chest. The arrow had to be just centimeters away from the creature’s heart, and mere moments later, a second arrow landed right next to the first, this time surely hitting the organ. The creature staggered in place for a few moments, shrieking as it looked down at the arrows and desperately tried to pull them out, only making the damage worse before it fell. The second infected passed by his dead comrade, sprinting towards them until another arrow ripped through its throat, causing blood to spurt from its mouth. A second later, another pierced its eye socket, sending it crashing down and causing the wooden arrow to snap apart as the creature’s face smacked against the blacktop. He was able to correct his shots instantly and with deadly accuracy. Who the fuck is this guy? So far Bryce was more than impressed with his new allies.