Refuge From The Dead | Book 3 | Dead Fall

by Masters, A. L.

  “Come on, we need to grab our gear in case we have to leave quickly.”

  Angie rushed back to the supply closet and grabbed a few bags. One was hers, the other was a spare. They had them packed and ready since their first day here. She had always hoped they wouldn’t need to use them.

  Jess put on a heavy winter coat. Ed and Jean came downstairs, fully dressed. “What’s going on, where did everyone go?” Ed asked.

  “I don’t know about Brad and Sasha, but Cam and the men went out the back door. They were going to try and lure the dead away through the woods. After they left, Nick and his girls went out the front to do the same. I don’t know what happened to Monica or Jonah— I need to find him!” she said in a panicked whisper.

  “Okay, here’s what we’ll do. Jean, check the entire upstairs for Monica and Jonah. Ed, check the cellar. Jess, I want you to watch for Nick’s team or the men to come back. I’m going to grab some extra rifles and ammo. We need to be ready to leave.”

  They scurried away to do their jobs, and Angie prayed that the men would come back soon. In the meantime, she loaded herself down with as much ammo as she could carry. She went back into the kitchen and found Jess staring anxiously into the darkness.

  “I don’t see anyone anywhere! Some of the dead followed them away, but there are still a lot here. What should we do?” she asked Angie.

  Angie wished she knew the right thing to do.

  “We stay here and stay quiet until they come back,” she said.

  Ed and Jean found them there and reported that there was nobody else in the cabin. Angie felt her heart drop. Jonah was out there somewhere.

  She only hoped that Monica or someone else was with him.

  “Where’s Hans?” Angie asked suddenly.

  “I don’t know, he’s gone too?” Jess asked. “Killer was outside. I hope he got away.” She frowned nervously.

  The next twenty minutes moved by slowly.

  Angie kept pacing from dark kitchen to dark living room, obsessively looking out the window for any signs of…well…anyone.

  This was bullshit.

  Could they not have one fucking week of peace?

  A smashing at the back door and a shriek made her whirl around. She saw Jess running awkwardly through the doorway, followed by Ed. Jean was coming back up from the cellar, where she said she was getting her own supplies.

  “Run!” Ed shouted at them.

  They went to the front door and Angie glanced back once before opening it. There was no other way. The dead were cramming into the kitchen now, filling the cabin with their stench.

  Angie jerked open the door and hoped the front porch was clear.

  It was not.

  “Watch out!” Jess called as Angie stepped out and stepped toward a pair of reaching dead arms.

  She had no choice but to fire her rifle. The axe was out of reach on her back. The report was deafening so close to her ears, and it left a ringing that would probably last several moments.

  The corpse trying to embrace her stepped back once, then collapsed, flooding the outside of her boots with its revolting liquid rot.

  “Come on,” she yelled, leading them to the nearest Humvee.

  She fired only when necessary, though she didn’t suppose the noise mattered anymore. She was trying to conserve ammo though.

  Jess followed her, holding her stomach as she ran. Jean came next, watching their sides. Ed brought up the rear, firing his shotgun into the crowd massing behind them. It would be close, very close.

  They threw themselves into the Humvee and Angie flipped the switch. “Come one, come on!” she said.

  The dead reached the Humvee and started pounding against the metal as she started the engine. It started roughly, but it started. She put it in gear and pulled away, attempting to avoid the dead congregating into unintentional zombie roadblocks.

  Or maybe it is intentional… That’s a scary thought.

  She reached the end of the yard and realized her mistake.

  “Shit, the gate!” she said, pounding the wheel.

  She looked around before jumping out and opening the large cattle gate. There would be no sense shutting it behind them. The dead had already gotten in somehow.

  She fired one final shot on the way back to the Humvee.

  A corpse, barely recognizable as once having been a woman, had swiped at her with its ragged fingernails, catching her coat in its grasp. As the dead woman fell, she pulled Angie off balance, and she fell heavily onto her side.

  She ignored the pain and bounded up, racing for the Humvee.

  They made it out, barely.

  She looked back and saw the receding cabin, dark and foreboding…now a refuge for the dead.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Scattered

  Angie

  “Where are we going?” Jessica asked.

  Angie looked back at her pale face. “To our primary rally point.”

  Ed was watching the dark trees on either side of the dirt road. Jean seemed to be napping. Angie had no idea how the heck she was sleeping right now.

  Must be nice, being able to shut everything off at will.

  They drove for twenty minutes before they reached their objective.

  It was an old, abandoned feed mill. The silos and machinery were rusted and falling apart. The office was still in okay shape though in case they needed to camp here for a while. It would be cold though.

  They waited an hour in the Humvee, hoping that Cam would have followed them sooner rather than later. It seemed unlikely.

  Angie shut down the engine to conserve the diesel. She didn’t want to have to find a station or tank and fill it up.

  Another thirty minutes later, and she decided to see if they couldn’t find a place to make a fire. They would need one to survive.

  She stepped out of the Humvee cautiously, looking all around for threats. Her nerves were on overdrive.

  She heard and smelled nothing out of the ordinary, so she continued. She made her way to the old office. The building was cinder block that had once been painted white but was now dirty and stained. A large window was so thickly coated with dust and dirt that she couldn’t see inside.

  She tested the door. It was locked.

  They had hadn’t chosen this place as a campsite, only as a meeting point. She didn’t want to destroy the door, so she decided to check around back before breaking in.

  As she rounded the corner of the building, she saw several dark shapes darting around in the shadows.

  She froze.

  Low growls sounded in the damp, frosty air, and she felt the hair on her arms rise. The shapes stalked nearer, and she saw the animalistic fury on the faces of the feral dogs. They were slinking around, playing with her.

  She made a split-second decision and raised her rifle, firing quickly. She took down three of the menacing animals, but there were too many left. Most of the others ran off, back to their hiding places, and she turned the sprint back to the vehicle.

  Two dogs were immediately on her heels. She could hear the gravel crunching under their lunging paws. She came within fifteen feet of the Humvee when she felt the first searing bite on the back on her leg.

  The dog’s powerful jaws clamped down and shook her leg painfully. The other was about to join in, going for her throat.

  A shot rang out, then another, and another, in rapid succession

  She cried out at the crushing, ripping pain. She turned over and pushed the body of the collapsed canine to the gravel and grasped her leg in both hands. She felt blood trickling down her calf and into her boot.

  “Shit!” she yelled out loud.

  What if they had rabies?!

  “Angie, get in!” Ed yelled, coming around to help her up.

  She gained her feet and managed to put a little weight on her injured leg. Ed helped her into the back, and he got behind the wheel.

  “What should we do?” he asked her.

  “I don’t know. Let’s wait here a w
hile longer. I don’t want to miss Cam and the others when they come here.”

  Her teeth chattered with cold and fear.

  “We can’t stay too long, we’ll freeze. And we can’t run the Humvee without using up diesel,” he reminded.

  “I know, I know. Just one more hour, then we’ll go.”

  “Angie? Are you all right?! Let me see your leg!” Jess said.

  “Jean, put something on her leg,” Ed ordered.

  “Where’s the first aid kit?” she asked.

  “Here, let me get it,” Jess said.

  She climbed up on her knees and reached into the back. She finally came back with a kit Cam had packed many weeks ago. Seeing it made Angie’s eyes water a bit, and she tried desperately not to cry. If she started, she may not stop.

  Jean pulled her pant leg up and caught sight of the wound, sucking in her breath at the sight. “Oh, this looks terrible!” she cried.

  “Jean!” Ed shouted. “You aren’t supposed to say that!”

  “Well, it’s the truth!” she defended. She turned back to Angie. “But don’t worry, dear. I’ve taken care of worse. Once, back when Virg and I were younger, he fell out of the back of a truck and took a whole flap of skin off. He wouldn’t hear of me taking him to a doctor, so I dumped a bottle of iodine on there and sewed that thing right back on,” she said proudly.

  “Who was driving the truck?” Ed asked.

  “Well, I was. I told him to hold on,” she defended.

  “That’s what I thought,” Ed replied.

  They were silent as Jean and Jess administered first aid as best they could. They cleaned the wound and bandaged it up. She took some Advil at Jean’s insistence.

  They waited, Angie trying to ignore the burning, throbbing pain in her leg.

  She was sure that Cam and the others would be here any minute now.

  ◆◆◆

  An hour and a half later, Ed started the engine. They had to go.

  The dogs were back, it was cold, and their earlier noise could be bringing down a herd of Zs onto their location. They headed to their backup location.

  One that Angie wasn’t excited about, at all.

  Cam

  Cam ran through the woods, hearing the others just behind him. His breath was harsh and loud in the night.

  Further back, a mob of hungry rotting corpses was pursuing them deeper into the woods.

  When will this end?

  They needed to find a way to double back, while the herd kept going. The shots they had heard back at the cabin concerned the hell out of him. It meant they hadn’t been successful in drawing them all away.

  The fact that they were fired at all also meant that they were too overwhelmed to use blades to take down the dead.

  He looked back over his shoulder.

  They had been running for about thirty minutes now, and Mac and Tanaka were lagging a little. They were in great shape, but they just hadn’t been at it as long as Jack, Jim, and Cam. They were gaining some distance from their attackers though.

  They didn’t have the advantage of forethought, and they often stumbled and knocked each other over.

  Up ahead, he finally spotted their best chance.

  A steep ditch, about eight feet down, cut through the woods. After a good rain, this thing would be full of water, but for now there was only a foot or so at the bottom. He slowed as they reached it.

  They would slide down and follow it to the right. Then, they would resurface further away and make their way back to the cabin.

  The mud was frozen solid, but unfortunately the water wasn’t. It was only a thin layer of ice, and a little deeper than he first thought. Icy water lapped at his upper calves as he reached the bottom and broke through.

  He heard the others reach the bottom behind him.

  “This way,” he said quietly.

  Mac was sucking air pretty badly and Cam knew he would probably throw up soon. They needed to stop somewhere and let him catch his breath and get a drink. They were all probably a little dehydrated from the alcohol.

  Three-quarters of a mile further through the cold water, they finally climbed out and rested.

  “We need to dry our feet before we get frostbite. Let’s get back to the cabin and reassess. We’ll have the others gather up supplies and maybe we’ll leave for a few days, let the rest of the crowd wander off. I just wish we could have kept the animals alive.”

  “Maybe they’re still okay,” Mac said, leaning over with his hands on his knees.

  “Maybe,” Cam said noncommittally.

  “I can’t feel my feet at all,” Jim said. “They’re like two blocks of ice.”

  “I know. We need to get going now.”

  ◆◆◆

  It was another fifty minutes before they got back to the clearing where their home was.

  Jack gasped in shock as they saw the dark cabin, its doors wide open with the dead spilling out onto the porch. He made as if to run up there and Cam held him back.

  “Jess and Jonah!” he said, terrified.

  “Look! A Humvee is missing. They probably left,” Cam said, hoping to reassure him.

  “But where are the others? The rest of the vehicles are still here! Fuck, man!” he said.

  “Here’s what we’ll do. We are going to sneak up to the Humvee and I’m going to get on the fifty. You two will cover me one the sides and Mac will watch the rear. We’ll clear out as many as we can then check the cabin.”

  They all agreed.

  They made their way to the Humvee as planned and Cam loaded up the fifty-caliber machine gun. He was spotted by then and the dead started advancing, groaning and snarling at their prey.

  Cam opened fire, punching holes through faces and into the cabin beyond. There was no help for it, he couldn’t exactly spare the walls.

  Jim and Jack fired as well, quickly using up their spare mags.

  Tanaka roved around, taking down stragglers away from the main body of the undead.

  After fifteen minutes of sustained rifle fire and sporadic bursts from the fifty-cal, the dead were cut down into a more manageable group. Cam jumped down and grabbed an axe from the woodpile close by.

  It wasn’t his, but it would do.

  He stalked to the doorway of the cabin, taking down several decaying monsters on the way. Once again, he was splattered with parts of the dead. He was starting to think it was his lot in life.

  He was uneasy about what he would find inside and attempted to push those feelings down. They wouldn’t do him any good in the next few minutes to come.

  He pushed open the door and was surprised to find only a lone straggler lingering in the dining area. He walked toward it, staying alert for any that could be hiding.

  After dispatching the decomposing intruder, he went to the kitchen.

  It was empty except for the blood and liquifying flesh and other gore that covered the surfaces. Remnants of their Thanksgiving meal were still lying on the countertop, near an open bottle of wine.

  He saw Angie’s wineglass and an invisible fist clenched his heart.

  “Check upstairs and the cellar. I’m getting my gear and we are out of here,” Cam said. “Change your socks and boots quickly.”

  “I’m going to check on the livestock,” Mac said, grabbing his ruck and going out the back. Cam saw him hobbling toward the barn, killing two of the Zs that had been partially trampled under their buddies.

  He was relieved to see that the animals were still alive.

  Cam got their gear ready and loaded up the Humvee. They would leave the last two behind in case anyone came back. When he was finished, and the men reported back that they had found no bodies, Cam wrote a note and left it on the door.

  If they came back, they would know where to go.

  Mac stopped him at the porch step.

  “Cam, wait. I’m going to stay behind. I can take care of the animals and wait for the others. Maybe I can load up the livestock and follow you in a week or so.”

  Cam
frowned at him. He didn’t like it. There were too many things that could go wrong. Another herd could come through, Mac could get sick, another group could find him…it just wasn’t a good idea.

  However, they did need the animals. It was imperative to keep them alive. Who knew how much livestock was left? They were rare, almost priceless. He had been prepared to find them already slaughtered by the dead, but finding them alive?

  “Okay,” he said, relenting. “One week, but you can’t stay alone.” He looked at Jack, Jim, and Tanaka. There was no way he could ask any of them to stay behind.

  Tanaka solved the problem himself.

  “I will stay with Mac. We will follow in one or two weeks, whichever we think is best. Don’t worry,” he said with a small smile.

  “Thanks. Stay alert, stay safe. Take precautions if you go in the cabin. It’s covered with disease and body fluids.”

  “We will. Go find the others,” Mac said, shaking his hand.

  They stood on the porch and watched as Cam, Jim, and Jack left the clearing. It would be daylight in a couple of hours.

  Cam had a good idea of where their group members went. He only hoped for his sake, and Jack’s, that Angie, Jess, and Jonah were among the survivors.

  ◆◆◆

  They reached the old grain depot in good time.

  The looming hulks of rusty metal gave him the creeps and he wondered again why they had chosen this place. Probably because it was close and easy to find. They should have designated a place with a good shelter, at least.

  However, they hadn’t expected to ever have to spend any long period of time here.

  Gravel crunched under the Humvee tires as they pulled up to the building. They got out warily, searching for danger in the shadows. It was hard to see and there were a lot of possible hiding places.

  Yeah, this place sucked.

  “So, where are they?” Jack asked. They continued looking around and Jim switched on his light.

  “Look!” he said, pointing at the ground.