“Hurry down. I got your back.” He kept the quiver out of his voice.
She shook her head furiously, fear leaching from her aura.
“Mindy,” he continued in the tone of a well-rehearsed preschool teacher, “in about thirty seconds the rest of the horde will make it up the stairs.” Maybe less. X-strains were unpredictable. “All we have to do is get to the ladder three rooms down the hall. The truck’s right outside. Just take my hand.” He reached for her, eyeing the horde wrangling the stairs to the second floor from his narrow view from the ladder.
Too late. The horde reached the landing. He bolted up the attic ladder. He slammed shut the attic door. By the light flooding through the gabled windows, he studied the attic for options. A series of thuds followed. He knew what it was. The horde jumping for the ceiling. If they thought to pull the cord dangling from the attic’s door . . .
Mindy crouched against a wooden chest. He was trying to think of something encouraging to say when the attic door snapped open. He forced it shut. He thundered, “I’m getting you out of here.” But he had no idea how.
The backpack next to her suddenly fell over. He cocked the 9mm without missing a beat. She thrust the backpack to her chest.
A muffled baby’s cry seemed to linger in the back of his mind. “Starla!” Luther finally realized in heart-stopping recognition. He had assumed the baby had died.
Mindy barely nodded, apparently in a state of petrified shock.
He had to get them out of there. Before the horde got to them, before Enforcers showed up, before the lockdown, and before Dean and the gang left him for dead and took off for Tent City. It was a cosmic smackdown, demanding he get his head back in the game. And save Mindy and her baby.
The attic door lurched open again, requiring a babbling bout of profanity. A stinking nimrod hung from the cord with the others latching onto his legs. A battle even a burly man like him couldn’t win for long.
Aunt Mattie, you better not be shittin’ me. Voodoo spell or a natural immunity? Hell, it didn’t matter—as long as he believed in himself. There was only one way out of the attic. And it was going to get ugly.
Struggling to keep the door shut, Luther shouted, “See that tarp?” He head-jerked toward the tarp partially covering the mirror to an antique dressing table. “Tie the ends around your neck like a cape.” It was a heavy-duty tarp, not one of those plastic cheapies. Possibly capable of warding off Z-bites, he convinced himself.
She quickly tied it around her neck like a cape.
“Now strap the pack—to your front. Not your back,” he clarified.
“Okay.”
“Good,” he husked. “Now wrap your arms around my neck. And hug your legs around my waist.”
She looked up at him with unsure eyes.
“It’s the only way—” The door snapped open three more inches. She scampered to him, still hesitant.
Could he pull this off? “Whatever happens, don’t let go of me!” Unexplainable rage overtook him. He let the attic door crash open. The Zs crumpled to the floor.
Time to get his A-game on. Methodically, he assessed the offensive lineup. Lost in a bout of bickering, the horde fought each other over ownership of the cord, which gave him an advantage. Until . . . they realized supper was getting away.
With Mindy hanging onto him, he jumped into the swarming horde, protecting her body as best as he could. The flak jacket would help him. A little.
He dreaded the assault of piercing bites puncturing his skin. But pain, he could tolerate. He pummeled through the horde like a quarterback on his career-making running play.
“The Hail Mary for Hu-manity,” an unknown voice crooned in his ear.
The peculiar voice seemed to kickstart him into The Zone. Feeling like a Marvel Superhero linebacker, he lowered his head and hit a hole straight through the offensive line, shirking off his snarling opponents with brute force and sheer willpower. Don’t be that jerk who fumbles at the one-yard line. No getting sacked. Not today! He was getting to the end zone. With Mindy and Starla. Alive.
A quick look down the Z-infested hallway told him to avoid the blitz and blast down the stairs instead of the window. He sprinted down three steps at a time.
Luther flew out the lodge’s front door, driving all two hundred pounds of mean-muscle harder than ever. When the truck came into view, he did not ease up. A quick look behind him warned he had a twenty-second lead.
He opened the passenger door for her. “Get in!” Damn! The window had busted during Dean’s narrow escape at the Stanwycks. He rushed the driver’s side. The clunker better not crap out on me.
He turned the ignition’s key, mentally refusing the fear trying to incapacitate him. “Come on, baby!” It started as the first X-strains reached the truck. He punched the gas pedal. “Touchdown!” Luther laughed wildly.
Mindy shrank in her seat and hugged her backpack, eyeing him like he’d gone mad. That’s when he happened to catch his reflection in the rearview mirror. Bloody bite marks!
He handed her the 9mm by the butt. “If I turn—shoot. Shoot ’til you run out of ammo. Then, you take this truck. And—” He grabbed the notebook from the dashboard and wrote directions to the Frito-Lay warehouse. “Look for the Austin Powers bus. Scarlett and the gang should still be there.”
Luther was about to find out if Aunt Mattie was a charlatan as he labored to hold on to his waning consciousness.
Chapter 18
Scarlett Lewis lay on top of the bus, hidden under a tarp. Dean had parked it on the most secluded side of the warehouse where she surveilled for drones. But mainly, for Luther. The lack of drone activity patrolling the Forbidden Zone’s border wall offered a much-needed respite with everything else going on.
According to Justin’s source, Last State would go into lockdown soon due to the unprecedented horde outbreak. Naturally, Last State’s first priority was protecting their precious Elites in the ABC Zones. It gave her friends a bit of breathing room.
“Luther, where are you?” She vexed as the sun dipped below the horizon. Strange, she no longer sensed his energy—as if he had vanished. Why had he risked going to the lodge, now of all times? His conscience must have intervened. A common side effect once one’s kundalini awakened.
Last night’s vision of ancient scrolls foretold the eerie collapse of Last State. Propelled by the hatred of their lost humanity, X-strains desired to devour every beating heart on the planet. And then what?
“Their un-dying hunger won’t subside until they cannibalize one another,” a faint voice answered.
Interesting. It wasn’t the Silver Lady. A watery image of a robed-creeper blurred into view. Suppressed memories of those lost days imprisoned by the King of the Undead and his faithful followers flooded to the surface. Panic took hold until the robed-creeper assured her the king had died his second death.
“Fear not, blue-eyed one. ’Tis I, the Queen of the Undead,” the robed-creeper proclaimed. “Our clan strives for peace as do your kind. For no beings, living or undead, shall co-exist with X-strains.”
Was it the same robed-creeper who had officiated the bizarre cave ceremony? It pressed a lapis lazuli pendant to its forehead. That’s Shari’s pendant! Shari had lent it to Scarlett to stimulate her third eye and ward off psychic attacks. At some point, the king had stolen it. Apparently, the new queen had claimed it. Did this creeper have access to its innate metaphysical abilities? Perhaps these creepers weren’t as dead as she had presumed.
Dean popped open the roof’s emergency hatch. “I’m done topping off the fluids. The tires have a decent amount of tread and air pressure. The bus is warmed up. We’re good to go . . . eh, any sign of good ol’ Luther?”
The curious vision evaporated. “No,” she forced herself to say.
“Alrighty then. My alarm went off thirty-five minutes ago,” Dean said with remorse, not his usual impatience. “We’ve got the little ones to consider—”
Was he asking her consent to leave? Without Luthe
r? Scarlett bit her lip. “I’ll meet you inside.”
“Use the front exit. The freeze-dried foods block the rear exit,” Dean said.
Begrudgingly, she climbed down the ladder attached to the rear of the bus. The renovated bus was actually the perfect solution for their plight. It provided comfortable transport, keeping the children out of sight until they secured passage across Zoat. And, the windows were high enough to prevent the creeper’s favorite pastime, window bashing. It even had storage space on the roof rack. Regrettably, they hadn’t escaped their last safehouse with their hard-earned scavenged items. Still, they had their go-bags and the food Justin and Luther had purchased.
Justin opened the bus door from the driver’s seat. “Luther?” he mouthed.
Scarlett just shook her head.
“He’s coming,” Twila argued.
A lucid image of hordes tunneling under the Zones took over. “X-strains are invading the Capitol!” From what the Silver Lady had told her, X-strains had been genetically modified, no doubt spliced with a dash of fury in their DNA.
“Austin is a ways from here—” Dean started.
“No,” Justin cut in. “Last State’s Capitol is in the heart of what used to be the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.”
Dean scratched his bearded chin. “That should keep the Enforcers busy.”
“Scarlett, I don’t understand.” Ella’s eyes went glassy. “Last State was supposed to be our safe haven. Why did we have this undeniable calling to come here?”
Risking everything to get there only to leave, plagued Scarlett constantly. “The Silver Lady explained it this way: The Ancient Ones have or had limited access to the future—the Akashic Records. They knew we were coming here before we did. But the outcome constantly changes with our every action.” She thought about it. “We simply need to project a collective false future to outwit them.” Easier said than done.
“It’s like this sci-fi flick I saw when I was a kid,” Justin said, surprisingly serious. “They knew the world was ending, so they sent a time traveler back in time to change key events. But every time the good guys changed something, the bad guys did something to negate it.”
“Enough of that. I’m more worried ’bout the present,” Dean said with his eyes glued to the Rand McNally map. “Luther should have been here by now.”
“The lodge is so big. It’ll take a while to search every room on every floor,” Ella chirruped optimistically. Since Mateo’s instant recovery, she was back to her sweet self. Did Ella know something they didn’t? According to Shari, Ella had sporadic flashes of insight as well. However, she often forsook her psychic abilities due to her devout Catholic upbringing.
“Scarlett, you mind checking on Luther one last time before we head off?” Dean asked.
Scarlett concentrated on her third eye. A blurry image appeared and then vanished.
“Nothing. Scarlett turned to Twila. “What do you see?” Twila had the strongest Gift of Sight of them all, if only she interpreted it correctly. Still, Mindy had learned to harness the power of her internal Merkaba better than any of them: she would be difficult to detect.
Twila cocked her head as if listening intently. “Ooh, I see a truck. But the truck is disappearing—”
“Guys, I don’t wanna be the jerk here. I mean”—Justin recoiled—“Luther’s like my brother. But—we gotta get to Tent City. Or at least Zhetto. Before the power grid goes down. ’Cause once the lockdown goes into effect, there’s no Zone-hopping.”
Justin had been the only one with the nerve to say what needed to be said. A crash from outside sent everyone to the windows. Scarlett stepped onto the stepladder to pop up through the hatch Dean had left open for fresh air. She clicked on the flashlight and pointed it toward the ruckus. Speechless, Scarlett stepped down back into the bus.
“Luther?” Ella questioned with her lovely eyes.
Scarlett shook her head slowly. “They found us! There’s a rather large horde gathering at the border wall.” It won’t take them long to bust through, electrified fence or not.
“Katy with a Y tricked them as long as she could,” Twila said. “They don’t believe her anymore.”
“Guess that settles it.” Dean hurried to the driver’s seat. “Good thing I warmed up the bus. The air brakes are primed.”
“Everyone, take a seat,” Scarlett said, grabbing Twila’s hand.
“I wanna sit with Ella,” Twila whined.
“Sure.” Scarlett didn’t have the patience to deal with a tantrum.
“Scarlett, you and Justin sit in the bench seat behind me,” Dean said. “Reckon I’ll need all the help I can get.”
“I can drive,” Justin offered.
“Naw, I used to drive ol’ Frank’s skoolie. I need the two of you to use your abilities in case we run into a—situation.” Dean pulled onto the empty street with ease. “This gal’s got pep.”
Zac, my love, wherever you are. Meet us in Tent City. Would he hear her plea? Could he feel her heart breaking just a little bit more than it already had?
“Turn left on—holy shit!” The panic in Justin’s voice snapped her out of self-pity.
A vehicle blinding her with its high-beams approached, weaving across the four-lane road into their lane.
“Hell’s bells! The fella must be drunk. Or on pot. He’s gunning straight for us!” Dean shouted, “Hang on!” He swerved into the oncoming lane. “Fool! Turn off your blasted high beams—can’t see a bloomin’ thing!”
Scarlett cringed and held onto her seat, bracing for impact. But there was none.
“Dude, ultimate near miss,” Justin babbled. “Did you used to play Forza?”
“Haha!” Dean whooped.
A vivid image of Luther suddenly popped into her head. “Stop the bus!” Scarlett shouted. “That’s Luther.”
“For real?” Justin ran to the kitchenette’s window. “I can’t tell. The crash took out the streetlight.”
“If that’s Luther, he’s in trouble.” Dean grabbed his gun. “Any traffic back there?”
“O-M-G, I hope Luther’s okay!” Ella screeched.
“It’s clear,” Justin shouted back.
“Folks, let’s make this quick.” Dean was the first one off the bus.
“Twila, stay with Ella,” was all Scarlett said as she followed Dean with Justin on her heels.
They sprinted to the truck several meters away. She made out the old camper shell in the shadows; it was definitely Zac and Shari’s old truck.
Justin ran past them. “It’s Mindy!” Justin pantomimed like a crazed court jester.
Dean’s jaw dropped. “Naw—”
Jeez Louise! “If Mindy’s driving, where’s Luther?” Scarlett ran faster.
She made it to Mindy. Relief set in when she saw Luther in the passenger’s seat—until she realized he didn’t look all that coherent.
“Good God!” Dean gasped. “Is he all right?”
As usual, Mindy responded with a blank stare. She had never been one to talk. Scarlett supposed the tactic helped with her Merkaba invisibility.
“Dude, you okay?” Justin joggled open Luther’s door. He toppled out on top of Justin. “Hey, uh, help,” he squeaked out.
She and Dean rushed to their aid. As her night vision adjusted to the dark, she noticed Luther’s ripped, bloodstained clothing. “Bite marks!” Dozens of them.
Dean yanked her away from Luther by the back of her shirt. The clicking of his Glock paralyzed the moment. Time faltered, as if she witnessed the scene unfold from another dimension. No, not Luther! Scarlett darted in front of the gun. “Wait!”
Dean looked around uneasily, blinking at the stream of headlights speeding down the highway a block away. Their street remained devoid of traffic.
“Thanks a lot.” Justin finally squirmed from under Luther’s deadweight.
Luther hadn’t turned as if stuck in limbo. She sent him frantic waves of healing energy. Not that she was a proficient healer. She sensed Luther’s strong heartbea
t—fading. A millisecond after its last beat, he—it would enter the void state of the undead.
With unspoken horror, they waited. Waited for their dear friend to turn on them. So, they could do the only decent thing. Release him from eternal misery.
“What happened?” Dean finally asked.
Mindy scooted to the passenger’s seat and just sat there shivering, obviously in shock. Scarlett pressed anyway. “Was Luther attacked by creepers?” It was a stupid question.
Mindy nodded so slowly it gave her the chills. The next thing Scarlett knew, a rash of bites pierced her skin. Without realizing it, her empathic ability had taken over. She absorbed his intense pain, staving it off, allowing it to funnel through her. Bit by bit, she whisked the toxic energy to the cosmos to cleanse.
The edge of the Y-zone bustled with heavier traffic. “We’re sitting ducks out here,” Dean muttered. “Justin, get Mindy on the bus. And bring me the tarp I left on the table. That’ll be the easiest way to move Luther.”
“Sure, come on, Mindy.” Justin grabbed her hand.
Mindy shook her hand free and just stood there clutching her pack.
“Whatev.” Justin took off for the bus without her.
Scarlett checked Luther’s pulse. “It’s too slow.” Wasn’t he immune? But with so many bites . . . she didn’t see how he could fight off the toxic energy.
Dean’s hand trembled, fingering the trigger. “The least we can do is give him a fighting chance.” Dean uncocked the gun.
Justin returned with the tarp. They rolled Luther’s unconscious body onto it, tying off the ends. Justin and Dean pulled the tarp by his feet while she walked backward, watching for traffic. If just one of the many vehicles got off on the exit . . . Stop thinking about it, she demanded.
Luther moaned. Justin and Dean dropped the tarp. They aimed their guns at Luther’s head. Mindy cowered behind Scarlett.
“Holy shit!” Justin gestured frantically to the city transit bus turning onto their street.
“Justin, help me move ol’ Luther to the other side of the bus,” Dean whisper-shouted.
Only The Dead Don't Die | Book 4 | Finding Home Page 17