They all hurried over and crouched down. An ominous dark spot marred the otherwise light-colored gravel. It was a rusty brown color, obviously blood. It could have been from anything— except for the boot print marking the surface.
Jack looked at the bottom of his foot and glanced uneasily at the others. “It’s one of ours.”
Jim measured it with his hand.
“It seems smaller, though I can’t tell for sure. It could be a woman’s boot…maybe a kid’s.”
He glanced up at Jack then stood up, and they looked through the gravel for any indication of what had happened.
“Here!” Cam said, crouch again, further away.
Jim’s light revealed two shadowy shapes near one corner of the building.
Dogs.
“Damn it!” Cam said. “I knew there would be more dogs around. I fucking knew it! I saw one myself back near the prison!”
He ripped a hand through his hair in disgust, and then readied his weapon. There were probably more.
“They wouldn’t stay here. They would move on to the secondary location,” he said, dreading going back there.
“What if they aren’t there?” Jack asked.
Cam looked over at him. “Then I assume they’ll go to the prison, or back to the cabin. Let’s move.”
They drove in anxious silence for the next hour.
They were constantly scanning all around for signs of the missing group members. Cam wished like hell they knew who it was they were tracking. Hopefully, it was Angie, Jess, and the kid. The others could take care of themselves for a bit, they were well trained.
Angie
Angie was in pain, though she didn’t show it.
The bite wound felt like it was on fire, and she wondered if that was normal, or if infection was starting, or if the rabies virus was even now slipping insidiously through her bloodstream. How would she even know?
She didn’t know the symptoms of rabies. The only thing she knew was what she had seen on movies and read in books. She was pretty sure some of that was exaggerated.
Hopefully
A pervasive feeling of fear and disquiet overwhelmed her. She felt off-kilter, and she didn’t think it was just the dog bite. What was it? Was it being separated from Cam and Jim? She didn’t think so, she knew they would eventually find each other.
So, what was this nagging sense of dread that plagued her?
Plague
Did the dogs carry the plague virus? Was it transmittable to humans?
Damn it! Not only that, now they needed to not only watch out for the dead, but they also needed to watch out for the plague wherever they went.
She wondered how long it could live on surfaces…or in animals.
“We’re here,” Ed said dejectedly from the driver’s seat.
Angie looked out the window and faced their backup location. The only one that was easier to access than the island and still had supplies.
The place where it had all started…and nearly all ended.
SuperMart.
The gloomy exterior of the store was shadowy in the darkness. No lights remained on in town, and so the storefront was eerier and more unsettling than when they had stayed here before. Weeds choked the small green spaces that held trees.
Angie saw their makeshift explosives still parked in the lot. This time when they left, they would take them. They could be used for something, even if it was just to grill some food or provide heat.
She felt another stab of pain.
Crap, that hurt!
“Let’s pull around back. No need to advertise to the world that we’re here. Cam and the guys will know where to look,” she said.
Ed did as she suggested.
She saw him carefully avoid looking at the building as they drove past the corner and around. She saw the place where the semi had been parked that first day, and she briefly wondered what had happened to the guy. Probably became Z lunch that first day.
Maybe he was the lucky one…
No.
She had her life, her health, her men, her family. She was the lucky one. She had to remember that.
She kept her mind from wandering to the events that had happened here before. She thought only about the present, and about how to fix this situation.
“Let’s get one of those doors up and get inside,” Ed said.
He got out and helped her and Jess out. Jean kept watch while he and Angie heaved up the door enough so they could squeeze through. Angie went first, rolling up the door and switching on her flashlight, rifle ready to fire.
It was dark and the air was dank and rotten. Something had gone bad in here a long time ago…a lot of somethings.
She hoped it was just food and nothing of the mobile variety.
She looked around, then helped Jess up and under. It was a tight squeeze.
Jean came next, then Ed. Once they were all in, they shut the door and looked around.
The back room had changed a bit since the last time she had been here. At least, from what she remembered. She had been completely out of it when they had left.
Someone had been scavenging supplies. A lot were missing. She thought that there would still be plenty for them though.
They walked toward the large storage area where the overstocked merchandise was kept. It looked the same.
“This is really weird,” Jess said in a whisper.
It was like traveling back in time.
This time, the store was opposite the way she remembered it. It was cold, dark, forbidding, dirty…decaying. Definitely not a safe haven. It was more like returning to the scene of a gruesome crime than a comforting, familiar hiding place.
In a way, she supposed it was a crime scene.
There were going to be some serious changes made once they all met up again. For starters, they would find a new backup location…like the Bahamas.
When they reached the back hallway leading to their old sleeping quarters and breakroom, Angie shivered with pain and fear and memories. A flash of Dale in the cage. A split second visual of being dragged back here to the sleeping quarters and chained to the bed. Peggy. Oh God, Peggy!
This is where Peggy’s spirit had really died.
And indeed, it felt like a shrine and a graveyard. A place of death and torment. Yet, they had to stay to rejoin the others.
She drew the line at sleeping in that room though, no freaking way. Ed opened the door and she found herself traveling through it, almost in a dream.
“Let me tell you what we did to the old woman. I think I’ll enjoy having you know what’s coming to you next, then to your man out in the shop….”
“Angie! Oh, fuck no!”
“Those men who did this will pay, and I’ll be the one to do it…”
“We’re not spending another night in here…”
“Angie.”
“Angie.”
“Angie!” a voice by her ear said, putting a hand on her arm.
Angie jumped a mile high and gasped.
Her heart pounded and sweat dampened her shirt. She tried to control her breathing and thought she was doing a pretty good job, until she felt someone pushing her head down toward the floor.
“Take a deep breath and let it out,” Jean’s voice said seriously.
Angie did.
“Again.”
She did again.
When did she sit down?
“Ed, we need to go to the other room. We can’t stay in here. For one, it stinks of mice and two, it’s not a good place to be,” Jess said.
Jean agreed and ceased patting Angie’s back in order to help her up. She stood, hyperaware that she did feel a little woozy, though she didn’t know if it was shock or from all the deep breathing.
They left the room of nightmares and went to the breakroom instead. She looked around and teared up when she saw some of Cam’s handwriting left on the whiteboard.
She sat down on one of the sofas, though there were some dubious looking stains and evidenc
e of mice having been there at one time.
“Let me go and get you some water and a clean blanket to lay down on that sofa,” Ed said.
“I’ll go with you. It may not be safe,” said Jean with authority.
Ed sighed heavily but let it go. Jess sat beside Angie on the sofa and dug her hands into her lower back.
“My back is killing me!” she said. “How are you feeling?” she asked Angie.
Angie just shook her head. “I don’t know.”
She felt tired, and her thinking felt muddled. She just wanted to go home. Being here was like being in purgatory.
Ed and Jean came back a very short time later pushing a cart with several cans of food, some bottled drinks, eating utensils, and several blankets and pillows.
Jean prepared the two sofas with fresh blankets and pillows. Jess lay down gratefully with a groan. Angie sank back and laid her head along the back of the couch.
She closed her eyes and was instantly asleep.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
A Fever
Jim
Jim watched Cam’s face during the drive to the store.
He was reverting to the cold, unforgiving man he used to be. The man who felt no remorse, had no weakness. The man that experience had made him had never really left, but the time on the island and at the cabin had helped soften him a little. Jim was worried going to the store would cause him to become that way again.
That’s not even considering the possibility that Angie might not even be there.
God, please let her be there. Please!
It was dawn when they reached the outskirts of town, and the day promised to be overcast. They may even get some rain.
It was a fitting day to be returning to this hellhole.
Jack shifted uneasily in the back, and Jim knew he was worried about Jess and Jonah. He couldn’t imagine the amount of fear and stress the man was experiencing right now.
They reached the store and Cam turned into the lot. Jim saw the spray-painted message on the side of the building and shuddered. He saw Cam clenching his teeth and gripping the steering wheel.
“It’s empty,” Jack said, aghast. “The fucking lot is empty!” he said, banging a fist on his thigh.
“Hold on there,” Jim said. “They wouldn’t park out in front, you know that. Just hold on. I’ll bet they are sitting in back right now, waiting for our slow asses to get in gear.”
Jack flashed a smile, but Jim could tell it didn’t reach his eyes. He didn’t blame him.
Cam pulled slowly around the corner of the building, and Jim felt the anticipation building. This was it. They had to be here.
They had to.
Around the corner they spotted a Humvee, and everyone released a sigh of relief. It was empty, but they knew they would be inside waiting.
Jim wanted to jump out right now, but he waited until Cam parked. He got out and grabbed his gear. Someone was hurt and he had a good IFAK in his bag.
Too bad they didn’t have Bradley or a doctor to use it.
Cam opened the roll up door and jumped up onto the loading dock. He cleared the backroom, then Jim and Jack joined him.
Jim and Cam stared at each other wordlessly. They knew where to go.
Cam led the team through the familiar, yet strange, darkened hallways. It hadn’t changed since they had been here last, except maybe more rodents and spiders.
Upon reaching the back hallway, they detected a faint glow coming from the breakroom. The overhead skylights gave the ceiling a faint aura of white, but it failed to illuminate the lower reaches of the store. The glow— that was from a flashlight or lantern.
They crept forward. It didn’t seem right to make noise. Maybe it was the lingering memories from their assault on the thugs that had taken the store back in the late spring, or maybe it was the funereal atmosphere.
Whatever it was, they were in unspoken agreement.
The closer they got, the more Jim wanted to rush ahead and to linger behind.
What if Angie was in there? What if she was hurt? What if she wasn’t in there? What if she was dead in the woods somewhere?
Fuck this!
Jim walked ahead more rapidly, outpacing the others. He steeled himself for disappointment and peered through the doorway.
Four figures. Three sleeping, one awake.
“Jim!” Ed said, rising from his chair and lowering his shotgun.
“Ed, how are you?” he asked, while perusing the sleeping figures.
“Fine, just tired. We were hoping you’d come soon. It’s Angie…she got bit.”
Jim’s heart stopped and he turned slowly back to Ed, feeling nausea permeate his body.
“Bit?!” he choked out.
“No…I mean yes, but by a dog! A wild dog!” Ed clarified quickly.
Jim let his breath out with a whoosh and went to the sleeping figures. Cam and Jack came rushing behind him.
Jean sat up quickly and Jim was oddly disappointed that she was here. Not that she was okay, never that, but for what it meant for Jack.
One of Jack’s people wasn’t here, and it was either Jess or Jonah. He was going to be hurting either way.
“Jack!” he heard a woman next to Jean say.
Jess. He was glad she was safe. That meant Jonah wasn’t here though.
That means that the woman on this sofa was Angie. He walked to her and knelt on the hard floor. Cam came up to the arm of the sofa and brushed her hair from her face.
“Shit! She’s hot, Jim,” Cam said.
Jim quickly turned her over to face the room. She was hot. Not scorching, not yet, but hot enough.
“Did she have any meds?” he yelled back to Ed.
“Uh yeah, Jean gave her something several hours ago…Jean?”
“Yes, she took an Advil, though she didn’t want to,” Jean said.
“She needs acetaminophen right now. Bring my ruck,” he ordered, gesturing to where he dropped it.
Jack untangled himself from a weeping Jess and brought the rucksack over.
“What do you need?” he asked.
“I need the large first aid kit, side pocket,” Jim said.
Jim had pulled the blanket off her completely and found the wound on her leg. He saw the crusted blood through the pant leg, but he would need to cut it to get a better look. Cam knelt beside him with a knife.
Jim held the material and Cam sliced it all the way up to her knee.
“Jim? Cam?” she said sleepily.
“We’re here, babe. We’re going to fix up your leg, okay? Just be still,” Cam said.
Jim hissed air through his teeth when he saw the ragged wound. This was a vicious bite. There was going to be some muscle damage for sure, maybe even worse.
Not only that, but the bone could also be fractured.
“Could the dog have had rabies?” Cam asked Ed.
“Maybe,” he said with a sad shake of his head.
“Shit, I hadn’t even thought of that!” Jim said.
He rifled through the medical kit and found the bottle of antiseptic and some antibiotic ointment. It was going to hurt, but it had to be done. It had to be cleaned.
“Cam?” he said, glancing to make sure he was ready.
Cam leaned his weight over onto Angie and he nodded.
“This will be over in just a minute, okay?” he reassured, then dumped the liquid over her leg.
Angie shrieked, her cries of pain once again echoing through this same, damned space.
This fucking building is fucking sadistic!
She finally quieted down, but they couldn’t fix this. They needed a real doctor…a surgeon.
“We need to take her to the prison right now,” Jim said.
“Yes. Everyone load up. We’re moving out right now. Jim, you get her. I’ll take your gear,” Cam said.
Jack helped Jess up and wrapped his arm around her middle. He looked both elated and devastated. Jim thought he knew a little about how he felt.
He had his Angel
back…for now.
The drive to the prison took over three hours.
They had to stop and find diesel. The first place they checked seemed to have a plague victim lying in the lot, and they didn’t want to risk it. So, they traveled further afield before finding another option. They didn’t find a station, but they did find a farm. Jim knew that farms usually had tanks of diesel for the machinery, and he was right.
They got back on the road. Jim had given Angie a painkiller earlier and she was sleeping. Her fever had gone down a little, but it was nowhere near being over.
With the rabies scare, there was going to be weeks of hell ahead.
He would be there though, through every single moment. Cam caught his gaze in the rearview mirror and nodded a silent understanding.
They had no need for words.
Epilogue One
Nick and the Valkyries
Nick
Nick caressed the two heads lying in his lap, remembering the mad dash through the woods.
After Cam, Jim, Jack, Tanaka, and Mac had run through the back door to draw away the Zs, Nick had seen that the ones in the front weren’t going to be taking the bait. These were here to stay…unless…
“I’m going to draw them away. Stay here. I’ll be back,” he told his girls.
“No!” Cara, Lily, and Natasha had yelled in unison.
He looked at them with impatience and affection. “I have to go!” He left, dashing through the door before they could protest further.
He never expected them to follow…
◆◆◆
Now, they were sitting in the cold, only thirty minutes or so ahead of the herd they had turned away from the cabin. They would have to get up and leave soon. He could feel them approaching…a relentless, lurching mass of hungry corpses.
He doubted the dead would stop and turn away.
He didn’t really even know where they were anymore. They had never travelled this far from the cabin on foot. The woods had been deep the more they ran. Trees were older, brush was thicker, and the streams got bigger.
Refuge From The Dead | Book 3 | Dead Fall Page 31