Before he could react to the fact that Chris' wife was back on her feet, something hit Gabe across the chest and sent him flailing across the room, landing on his back by the bedroom door. Looking up he saw Chris standing over him.
"Don't touch my wife, man!" Chris growled and then turned his attention toward his wife. "Get out of the room, I'll handle this."
Gabe scrambled backward as Brad helped him regain his feet.
Across the room Chris met his wife's charge head-on. "Babe, you have to calm down, let us help." After struggling with her for a moment he tossed her on the bed to avoid getting bitten. With a guttural scream of fury, she hit the bead and bounced off onto the floor on the other side. Chris backed up toward the bedroom door, not sure what to expect.
When she finally got up from the other side of the bed it was easy to miss, but as she turned to come around the bed, all three men could see the metal spindle from the record player sticking out of the middle of her heart.
"Ow!” Seeing it, Chris let out a sob. In shock, he just stared at her chest as she continued to come around the bed toward him.
Brad grabbed him by the shirt and dragged him back toward the door. Gabe allowed them to pass before pulling the door shut leaving them in the hallway outside the bedroom. Gabe quickly changed his grip to include both hands a split second before Chris' wife slammed into the other side of the door. Holding the door tightly as she began to pull from the other side, Gabe could hear Chris sobbing behind him, "I killed her...". After the second time hearing this, Brad spun Chris to face him.
"We found your wife's medicine in the floor downstairs," Brad emphasizes the point by pulling the bottle out of his pocket, "The last call your wife made was to 9-1-1... I'm sorry man, she was dead before we got here."
"How is that possible? I mean for her to get up? How could it have spread this far that fast?"
Before Brad could respond to Chris' question, Gabe interjected, "Can we debate this later guys?" He grunted as the door pulled open an inch for just a second. "I could use a little help..."
"Let’s just get out of here and go somewhere else," offered Brad.
"No, not yet. There is stuff I need in that room." Chris replied with a sudden cool steeliness. "I have a feeling my hunting rifles are going to be very handy in the near future."
"Well," Gabe grunted, still hanging onto the doorknob, "Whatever the plan, let’s do it soon, she isn't that strong, but man she doesn't quit!"
"Here, let me have the door and you two stay out of sight in that room." Chris said nodding towards the bedroom behind them as he and Gabe switched off on the doorknob one hand at a time. Brad and Gabe didn't argue and went around the corner as Chris held the door. Hiding in a small bedroom they kept the door cracked just a hair so they could peek out. They watched with breath held as Chris let go of the knob and the door flew open. His wife stumbled back and looked confused for a second, but as she locked her eyes on Chris her expression changed to one of anger and determination. Chris backed down the hall away from Brad and Gabe’s hiding place. His wife came out of the room and began to follow.
Gabe and Brad quietly came out of the room as she went out of sight. They entered the hall just in time to see her go into another bedroom at the end of the hallway. After just a few seconds of loud clattering Chris came out of the room and slammed the door behind him, keeping both hands on the door.
Looking up and Gabe and Brad, Chris let go of the doorknob, "Let’s see if this works."
They could hear the noises caused by her tugging on the door handle, but the door stayed closed. "What did you do?" asked Gabe.
Motioning them to be quiet, Chris headed back to the original bedroom where he had initially found his wife. Once they got in the room Chris closed the door and locked it.
"That," Chris said pointing to the knob, "I locked the door to the room she is in from the inside."
"What?" Brad asked incredulously, "Won't she just unlock it?"
"I'm not sure what is going on, but it is clear that the people infected are not themselves. From the way she was trying to get the door open the first time, I don't think she will think to try the lock, at least not for a while." Chris was talking as he slid open the closet door, reached into his pocket, and brought out a set of keys. He quickly threw an armload of clothes that had been hanging in the closet across his bed revealing a simple tall green metal gun cabinet in the back corner of the closet. Inserting his key he opened the door to reveal several long guns and on a top-shelf some small boxes. Grabbing them one at a time he handed them to Brad who in turn laid them on the bed. When the cabinet was empty he grabbed some boxes and bags from next to the safe on the closet floor and brought those to the bed as well.
Opening the boxes that had come out of the safe he revealed two semiautomatic pistols. Picking up the larger one he put it in a holster and attached it to his belt.
"This Glock 21 is mine, but that 9 mm High Point is accurate and rugged. It is no-frills and cheap but it won't let you down if one of you wants to borrow it." Waving at the long rifle he continued, "...an old pump 12 gauge my dad gave me, a 308-hunting rifle, a .22 rifle, and a .22 pistol."
"I know it might sound strange from a pastor, but I'm actually a pretty good pistol shot." Gabe picked up the 9mm pistol and noticed both of them staring at him. "Oh yeah... I'm a pastor." He smiled broadly, finding the whole situation suddenly amusing for some reason that made no sense considering everything that had happened.
"Well, that is fine," Brad said. "I'm actually a terrible shot, so I'll take the shotgun." Brad picked up the shotgun and racked the action and looked it over. “What kind is it, I don’t see a name?”
“My dad got it from Sears, I did some looking on the internet some years ago and found some info about it, some gun company that went out of business years ago. Don’t even remember their name, and it wasn’t any kind of collector’s item, but it shoots good.”
After nodding approval Brad reached down and picked up the .22 pistol. It was a little snub nose revolver and opening the cylinder he saw that it held eight rounds. Seeing the Smith and Wesson name on the little gun, he nodded his head and stuck it in the pocket of his khakis.
"Hey," Chris got both of their attention. "These are just loaners until we get somewhere... safe."
They nodded and then silently put the remaining two rifles in cases and gathered up the ammo. They had several boxes of each kind of ammo, having more 22 ammo than anything since it came in boxes of five hundred, and Chris had two partially used boxes that probably added up to six or seven hundred rounds. "Here, I've got a range bag we can put this all in," Chris offered as he went back into the closet. Coming out he tossed a generic all-purpose holster to Gabe. Gabe put the gun in the holster but didn't put it on his belt. As they gathered the ammo Gabe spoke up.
"I don't have anyone waiting for me at my house, but I'm concerned some people might come to my house for... assurance or whatever." Gabe looked down and the other two, even having just met him, couldn't miss the sad look on his face. "I would like to go there if we can. It's not far, just cut across Cody Road and we're there."
Both Gabe and Chris looked at Brad expectantly. "No, that is fine with me. I have been divorced for a while and just have a little apartment."
"Okay," Chris began as he passed out the ammo and gun bags. "Let's, be quiet and slip out of here. This is probably a pretty safe place to stay," he paused and glanced in the direction of the other bedroom where his wife was still tugging on the door. "But I don’t' think I can stay here."
Chapter 4
"Here." Gabe pointed at a small house on the right side of the road, "That driveway."
As they pulled in the headlights revealed that the driveway went down a hill to the back of the house, Chris and Brad didn't have a chance to notice much more in the headlights other than it was a simple brick and board house with neat and tidy landscaping. Not too much, but enough to show an effort had been made.
Gabe pointed to h
is back door. “Get as close as you can.”
They came to a stop and looked around before opening the door. As Gabe stepped out he saw them coming at him in the headlights before he could react.
“Pastor Gabe”.
“Oh Geez, You scared the heck out of me kids!”
“You almost got shot.” Chris added as he got out of the driver’s side.
Now that they were in the light, Brad recognized Jack and Jill. Both of them were seniors in the local high school named for a locally famous pioneer and horse thief. Gabe could never remember the old fashioned name and just called it the high school.
Gabe let Brad out of the back seat. “Why aren’t you all home with your families?”
‘My parents are out of town with my little brother,” Jill stated. “They said they trusted me to stay home alone since I’m almost eighteen, but I got scared watching the news.”
“My mom’s not home,” Jack mumbled.
“Alright, let’s all get inside,” Gabe said, looking around nervously as he went to unlock the door.
Jill's family went to Gabe's Church and Jack, a good looking second-string quarterback on the high school football team, had met her over a year ago when he had come to the Bible study Gabe and his wife had for teens in their basement every week. The two had been together every sense. The fact that their names were Jack and Jill helped make them one of the favorite couples in Bible study and at their school.
Gabe opened the door and ushered everyone into the basement. The basement was taken up mostly by one large room with a doors leading off separately to a small bathroom and a laundry room. The large room they stepped into had a low drop ceiling, wood panel walls, with a pool table, and several couches.
“Let’s go upstairs so we can get some food and check the news,” Gabe said as he locked the door behind him and led the rest of the group upstairs.
#
"There are a bunch of them out by the streetlight. I've noticed the same ones will leave, but come back to the light. It's like moths or something." Gabe slowly let the single blind slat sit back down on the one below it.
"Geez Gabe, you been there all night, why don't you get some sleep?" Chris commented.
"It'll be light soon, might as well stay up at this point," Gabe replied nonchalantly. "Besides, if we are going to move out, we should do it at first light; I think the longer we wait the more of these there will be." Gabe looked at Chris knowingly and Chris nodded back.
"I know it sounds childish," Jill looked up sheepishly as everyone gave her their attention. "But I want to go to my mom and dad's house."
"I know I don't want to stay near this big city, but I hate to just up and leave when there might be others that come by the Church or my house," Gabe said.
"You could leave a note on the door and another on the Church's door," Brad suggested.
Gabe shook his head in agreement as he thought about it.
"Well I like what she said about the houses being on stilts and having storm shutters so you could sleep at night without worrying, but I think we should stick it out here." No one argued with Chris so he continued, "The police might not be able to handle this, but I'm sure the National Guard and military are on alert by now. And those things only seem to go after people that come outside or turn on their living room lights."
Gabe wondered what Chris had seen out the window, but decided for the sake of the others it was probably best not to ask.
Everyone was quiet, waiting for someone else to speak when Jack finally broke the silence. "Maybe we should try the TV again, we have the blinds down and we can turn the volume low. Maybe there is something on the news." Jack pulled out his phone to illustrate and waved it around. "And I am still just getting ‘all circuits are busy' messages from the phone, but for some reason I can't get the internet on it either."
When no one said no, Jack picked up the remote and turned on the TV. As it came to life, everyone flinched at how bright it seemed compared to the semi-darkness they had been sitting in for the past several hours. Jack immediately turned the volume down to where it was barely audible and turned on the closed captions to fill in any missed information.
The news revealed nothing new compared to when they had turned it on earlier. The news anchors and reporters went on about a plague, probably a virus, that seemed to be causing people to become homicidal and showing grainy clips shot from a distance of groups of people chasing other people or even attacking them. The news showed a local police chief who cautioned everyone to stay inside unless absolutely necessary and a ticker appeared across the bottom of the TV announcing school closings like a snow day. The one thing that was discernible was that whatever it was, it was, dangerous, widespread, and it was escalating rapidly.
While the others watched the news, Jack came over and set down next to Gabe and pulled a map and a flashlight out of his backpack.
"Anything else in that backpack Jack?" Gabe teased, getting a smile from Jack at the lame rhyme.
"Look, this is a map of the Florida Keys I picked up last time we were down there," Jack said, as he spread it out on the coffee table. "And on this side," he flipped it over, "Is a basic map of the country. We can take I-75 straight down to Key Largo, and just hit the bypasses when we get to a big city." Jack used his flashlight to indicate the circles around the big cities."
Gabe studied the map with interest and the others came away from the TV to look too.
"We've made it in 16 hours nonstop," Jack explained. "Didn't we Jill?"
Jill smiled anxiously and took Jacks arm. "Yeah, if we can cruise down the highway, it is a quick and easy trip, just a straight shot."
"I think it is definitely plan B in my book," Gabe said, standing up and stretching. “And of course I would want to run across town and check on Gina… take her along."
"Where is Gina?" Jill asked, as if she was noticing for the first time that Gabe's wife wasn't at home.
Before Gabe could answer, Brad jumped into the conversation. "Well I think it is a little silly to be talking about running halfway across the country. It will be kind of embarrassing when everyone else is back at their place of employment in a few days and we are calling our bosses from Key Largo, Florida.” Brad commented with a friendly smile, as if everyone would understand that the whole thing was silly.
The loud and violent slamming noise against the window scared everyone in the room, with Brad's yelp of fright second only to Jill's in volume. Jack instantly pointed the flashlight at the window and they immediately heard another loud slam against the glass. With the light on the window, the full violence of whatever was hitting the window could be seen as well as heard, as the curtains shuttered from the force of the impact.
"Crap!" Brad let out with a hiss. "Turn the light out!" He reached towards Jack's flashlight but Jack understood and flipped it off.
The next impact from outside shattered the glass, and in the low light of the TV they could see hands pushing through the curtains, blindly grasping and tugging. There was a moment where they stood in frozen silence, but their paralysis was broke as a second set of arms shoved through the window, breaking more glass. Jill screamed at the top of her lungs, but was cut short by the crack of a rifle. Chris worked the bolt action of his 30-06 and took a second shot at the person or thing at the window. His first shot had been through the blinds and he couldn't see where he had hit his target, but he was sure at this short-range, and with two targets in such a small area, he had hit one of them, but neither seemed to have slowed down. His second bullet leaped forward and hit the now visible head of a gray-haired man. As the man fell backward out of the window, apparently dead, the blinds and curtain went with him. Through the now gaping hole of the window, the street light outside revealed five more people in varying levels of disarray, most covered in blood with visible injuries and bite marks, were already in the front yard coming towards the house. Beyond them several more of the infected people in the road suddenly jerked toward the house, rambling in tha
t direction, having clearly zeroed in on the source of the noise after the second shot.
"Basement, everyone follow me!" Gabe called out, waving his pistol and leading everyone to a door off the kitchen. Chris started to argue with the whole idea of running but realized he couldn't even see most of the yard from the one window and he didn't know how many more dead people were outside. As Gabe headed down the stairs he flipped on the stairwell light and before anyone could argue he yelled over his shoulder, "Doesn't matter at this point!"
Jill noticed something on the island in the middle of the kitchen, as she hurtled toward the door.
"What are you doing? Come on!" Jack exclaimed, before heading down the stairs.
Jill grabbed the stack of papers from the island and slid them into the large manila envelope they had been sitting on.
Gabe had always liked houses that were built into the side of hills and they were fairly common in the rolling landscape of Northern Kentucky. It had been one of the things that had attracted him to this house when he bought it. At this moment it gave him some comfort to know that the basement door let out far down a hill away from the front door and those... those things. He was glad he’d had Chris park the truck at the bottom of the driveway, almost right next to the back door. As Gabe reached the bottom steps he called out, "Looks like we're taking Plan B, but we need to go get Gina first!"
Chapter 5
Gabe, what are you doing here?" Gina glanced at the two guys behind Gabe who seemed to be staring around suspiciously. "And what's with your friends?"
"Look honey," Gabe started, "I mean Gina," he corrected himself. "There is something going on, some kind of disease or something, I've seen it happen several times, and we saw a lot of chaos coming over here."
Dead Faith (Book 1): Dead Faith Page 3
